Watch, Watched, Watching: November Rain

[Heartofice]

So I liked Banshees of Inishirin well enough but i spent too long trying to work out if it’s a Father Ted prequel

’The origins of Craggy island’

First hint is I think the barman is Tom from father Ted, the monobrowed lunatic’s grandfather 

it’s all adding up.

[williamjm]

I just watched the first couple of episodes of His Dark Materials season 3. It's off to a good start so far, I think James MacAvoy in particular seems to be relishing his role.

On 12/20/2022 at 12:38 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

I enjoyed the first episode of S3 of HDM. Something is very wrong with me though because all I kept thinking was that I'd like to engage in some preemptive absolution with Father Gomez 

Were you hoping he would do things that 'weren't officially sanctioned'?

7 hours ago, Spockydog said:

And it was nine seasons. As well as saying she wanted the third book to be spread over two seasons, Jane Tranter said:

"Honestly, I would have told it across nine seasons if I could have done. There are so many stories that we weren’t able to do."

It would seem excessive for just the original trilogy, possibly it could be justified if doing the Book of Dust as well, although only if they had waited for Pullman to finish the final book.

[hauberk]

The most recent episode of MythicQuest was another exceptional episode.  I think that their flashback episodes, along with last season's pandemic lockdown episode were some exceptionally well done TV.  

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, hauberk said:

The most recent episode of MythicQuest was another exceptional episode.  I think that their flashback episodes, along with last season's pandemic lockdown episode were some exceptionally well done TV.  

That pandemic special really was something else. Of all the shows I've seen try to address it nothing else comes close.

[Zorral]

This year's fantasy tv, one critic's pov.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/12/fantasy-tv-humorless-house-of-the-dragon-andor/672552/

 

[IFR]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

This year's fantasy tv, one critic's pov.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/12/fantasy-tv-humorless-house-of-the-dragon-andor/672552/

 

That is a lot of words to write for someone to say they can't enjoy fantasy without colorful characters cracking jokes.

Most amusing is this quote:

"Andor did end up with a few such characters, which helps explain why it has been praised as one of the best shows of the year. Yet all the deserved acclaim for the Star Wars spin-off’s 12-episode run shouldn’t downplay the fact that the early part of the series had a big problem: saminess."

Riiiight, it was the comedic moments that elevated Andor.

I wonder if this critic would be happy to know that the comedy they feel is absent in these shows is amply supplied by their article.

But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[Mindwalker]

What @IFR said!

Also, I enjoyed the first, "slow" paced episodes.

And while it can be argued that general SW is "fantasy," Andor, thus far, has not displayed even an inkling of this genre. Seriously, did the writer even watch the show?

[HexMachina]

On 12/20/2022 at 12:28 AM, Spockydog said:

His Dark Materials. Just watched the episode where Lyra (spoiler for EP4)

  Reveal hidden contents

abandons Pan to almost certain death in order to go in search of dead Roger.

It was a terrible thing to do. Is she this awful and selfish in the books?

Wow this scene was tough to watch but very well done. I don't read it quite so black and white as you but yes it has consequences/repercussions 

[Teng Ai Hui]

Thank you to everyone who mentioned Dirty Jobs upthread.  It's one of my favorites, and I didn't realize that a new season had started.  I watched the second episode about the peppers but haven't seen the soap recycling episode yet.

Also, I binge-watched season 1a of the new Quantum Leap.  I'm enjoying it so far.  The next episode is out on Jan 2.

[Zorral]

Watched the first 2 1/2 episodes of Jack Ryan, season 3.  My goodness, they think JR is James Bond now, destroying one country's cities after another, as chasing and being chased all around Europe.

It's kinda a mess -- though we'll see if it is as much of a mess as the previous season in which they destroyed Venezuela.  Very choppy, cutting from one international city to another, over and over again: Moscow, Prague, Athens, Vienna, D.C. da da da daH, each one identified each time by scrolling titles over the iconic monuments.

Just about finished with the first season re-watch of Turn.  It's even better than I remembered it being.

Finished the first episode of Kindred.  I hate the back in time plantation stuff; it's just too painful.  However, the back-and-forth of courting couple Dana and Kevin may be the best writing in ages for that kind of thing I've seen on screen.  It's cute, it's funny, it's sharp, it's plausible, and reveals so much about each character, and why they connect.  That stuff is just the best. O ya, it's also very sexy and not the least cringy.  Real flirtation in the time of Now.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

This year's fantasy tv, one critic's pov.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/12/fantasy-tv-humorless-house-of-the-dragon-andor/672552/

 

If there's one thing I remember about reading "The Princess and the Queen" or "The Rogue Prince", it's thinking, "This shit is hilarious!"

If I was somewhat more cynical and less charitable, I'd respond to this article with, "Not everything needs to be a goddamn marvel movie." 

[JGP]

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

Watched the first 2 1/2 episodes of Jack Ryan, season 3.  My goodness, they think JR is James Bond now, destroying one country's cities after another, as chasing and being chased all around Europe.

It's kinda a mess -- though we'll see if it is as much of a mess as the previous season in which they destroyed Venezuela.  Very choppy, cutting from one international city to another, over and over again: Moscow, Prague, Athens, Vienna, D.C. da da da daH, each one identified each time by scrolling titles over the iconic monuments.

 

I started this yesterday. Finished episode 5 earlier. 

I've only read maybe five Clancy books, seen most of the movies, but Jack's always been a Tom's lowercase superman. Seeing Jack, a spook now, rolling with a Team on that first op was hard to credit. But, yanno, Jack needs physical cred and people need their bang bangs.

I should add, however, that the action sequences [so far] are more infrequent than I'd anticipated. Which is good, but it's not, grabbing me grabbing me. There was one hide-escape in Athens that was so funny I had to give my head a shake and do some other stuff for a while.

Bit of The Sum of All Fears, some different twists. 

Great time to have brought Clark in, imo, but suppose they would've had to get Jordan to commit.    

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, JGP said:

the action sequences [so far] are more infrequent than I'd anticipated.

There were TWO prolonged car chases in the first episode as well as the prolonged chase to the Russian ship, where astoundingly, there was nobody at all to intercept or even notice pirates had boarded in the middle of the Black Sea, until after they got the 'cargo' out of the cage, then loads of bang bang during which only Russians died.  Now that was, well, maybe not hilarious as I was intending to say, but, more accurately, preposterous. As preposterous as nobody noticing the father of the President of the Czech Republic, who once was president himself, if I got that right, was a Russian.  This one may roll up as even more stupid than the Venezuelan debacle.

[Iskaral Pust]

I switched back on our Hulu subscription to catch a few shows that had been highly rated:

What We Do In The Shadows would have been hilarious when I was 14 and immersed in alternative British comedy on Channel 4, but that era has unfortunately passed.  Now it seems so forced and lame, relying mostly on awkwardness (cringe is the heart of British comedy, which says a lot about their culture).  I guess I’ve been converted to the American style of sitcom with a torrent of clever quips rushing past so fast that you can hardly catch them all.  I always love absurdism and dark humor but WWDITS didn’t deliver enough in the first couple of episodes.

OTOH Letterkenny definitely delivers a torrent of quips.  Lots of chuckles in the first couple of episodes but I’m concerned the characters and situation have too little scope and this will run out of steam quickly.

Only Murders In The Building was initially good but then took a turn into generic blah.  Martin Short is very good, Steve Martin is crushingly boring as usual, and Selena Gomez is surprisingly good with her impatient put-downs.  But the plot looks cookie cutter all the way.

I’ve watched more of Welcome To Wrexham than everything else combined, even though it’s just a dumbed-down remake of Sunderland ‘Til I Die with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhanney.

[briantw]

12 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

If there's one thing I remember about reading "The Princess and the Queen" or "The Rogue Prince", it's thinking, "This shit is hilarious!"

If I was somewhat more cynical and less charitable, I'd respond to this article with, "Not everything needs to be a goddamn marvel movie." 

Yeah, I truly don't get the complaining about the lack of comedy in a drama.  Not every drama has to have constant levity.  It often got distracting on Game of Thrones, especially toward the end when the humor started to get a little lacking in quality.

And House of the Dragon did have some amusing moments.  They just tended more toward subtlety and weren't forced in there for the sole purpose of adding a joke.

[Zorral]

12 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

"Not everything needs to be a goddamn marvel movie." 

Preach it, Brother!  Gods I am so sick of those things I haven't watched one in years, and have no plans to ever watch another one ever.  Inelegant thudding forever and ever, amen.

[Zorral]

Emily and Her Preposterous Clothes, Which Are Only Equally-Preposterousized by the sartorial choices of her ensemble of Parisian friends and colleagues. Emily in Paris is colorful and entirely without content.  It's a fluff and poof of clothes and shallow minds.  And occasionally postcard shots of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. On other hand, like Emily, if my choice of cities in which to live were Chicago and Paris, I'd pick Paris in a hot second too.

It's just what I want this week of cold, wet, dark and the wildfires of illness all around.  

[Spockydog]

19 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Wow this scene was tough to watch but very well done. I don't read it quite so black and white as you but yes it has consequences/repercussions 

I hated her at that point. But the ends justified the means, and what Lyra went on to do was pretty awesome. 

I suspect I'm going to relate easier to book Lyra. 

[Mindwalker]

Oh, Zorral's post reminded me that my little guilty pleasure, All Creatures Great And Small, will air its Christmas Special tonight. While I wouldn't call the show shallow, it's a bit on the nostalgic side, but... yay.

[Zorral]

45 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

, All Creatures Great And Small, will air its Christmas Special tonight. While I wouldn't call the show shallow, it's a bit on the nostalgic side, but... yay.

Yay indeed! In both versions too, somehow Tristan ends up my favorite, like he is with his brother's housekeeper!  Though really, it's the animals and the landscapes that are the best.