WWWatching

[Nictarion]

3 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

I just watched the sci-fi thriller Possessor and thought it was really good. An assassin possesses stranger’s  bodies through an agency to do hit jobs and one particular job goes awry. It’s dark and gritty, and has some ultra-violent, bloody scenes with some intriguing world building by Cronenberg. 

Christopher Abbott is great in everything I’ve ever seen him in. He has a certain realistic presence to him, or something. Very underrated. 

This reminds me, I still need to see Infinity Pool.

[TheLastWolf]

Finished Better Call Saul

How can I watch anything else for the next decade?

[Mindwalker]

I think I'll give Silo a try.

And I might cave in and finally watch Yellowjackets.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Mindwalker said:

And I might cave in and finally watch Yellowjackets.

You will cave in and watch Yellowjackets.

Renfield is so funny. They made this movie as goofy as possible. Hoult and Awakafina were great in it. Could have used more Nic Cage. And please, more Shohreh Aghdasloo in any film that needs a mean older woman (despite the fact she looks insanely young for someone who is 71). 

[Argonath Diver]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Renfield is so funny. They made this movie as goofy as possible. Hoult and Awakafina were great in it. Could have used more Nic Cage. And please, more Shohreh Aghdasloo in any film that needs a mean older woman (despite the fact she looks insanely young for someone who is 71). 

I am absolutely cracking up at every scene. Even better than I thought it would be from the trailer. Hoult is in my favorite movie (Fury Road), a top-ten ever show for me (The Great), and now this delight of a film. He and Awkwafina are both terrific. They have to be, really, as two modest actors here would have been overwhelmed by Nic Cage barely managing to get his lines out without saying "IM NIC CAGE AS DRACULA MOTHER FUCKERS!". 

Edit: I am amazed at Cage's use of a completely different accent literally line-to-line throughout. He just doesn't give a shit.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Argonath Diver

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Argonath Diver said:

I am absolutely cracking up at every scene. Even better than I thought it would be from the trailer. Hoult is in my favorite movie (Fury Road), a top-ten ever show for me (The Great), and now this delight of a film. He and Awkwafina are both terrific. They have to be, really, as two modest actors here would have been overwhelmed by Nic Cage barely managing to get his lines out without saying "IM NIC CAGE AS DRACULA MOTHER FUCKERS!". 

Edit: I am amazed at Cage's use of a completely different accent literally line-to-line throughout. He just doesn't give a shit.

Isn't that half the fun? He's just doing whatever he wants.

I've never seen The Great, but Hoult had to be casted for this from some combination of Fury Road, Warm Bodies and The Menu. He's perfect. This dude will win an Oscar at some point. And Awkafina, who I was kind of meh on the first few times I saw her, is really finding her lane as an actress. Honestly all the main actors did a good job and the writing, while weird at points, was great. It's a B horror/black comedy, but if you go into it with that expectation you'll have a blast. 

[Veltigar]

Have spent the weekend catching up on Ted Lasso. The latest episode was somewhat of a return to form, but the one before that was not very compelling. I hope they'll be able to trend upwards as they did near the end of season two, as so far I find it quite a weak season.

All in all, I do have conflicting emotions about the show. For me, the first season was a perfect balancing act and its relentless optimism coming out during CoVID lockdown is one of the best example of serendipitous timing I can think off. It just never reached those highs again, but I hope it can limp over the finish line with a worthy conclusion at the very least.

On 5/13/2023 at 4:21 PM, Heartofice said:

I always found that TWD was a show that deliberately punished you for ever getting it into your head that it was a good show and worth watching. Every single time there were a string of episodes that you enjoyed, where characters acted in natural ways, or there was some sort of compelling plot, someone somewhere decided that was too much good stuff, and threw in hours of tedium and soul grinding despair to balance things out.

There were points in the show where I genuinely liked it. Half of season one is good, the first episode is great. Second season is a total disaster, after some missteps I think the prison stuff and the governor was actually really good. Season 4, or 5. (I forget) I think was maybe actually my favourite as it just made wandering in a zombie wilderness a thing, rather than boringly sitting in a town and waiting for stuff to happen.

Of course after that it just became so unbearably unpleasant to watch that I gave up. There is nothing that would make me want to finish it. 

The thing is, it felt pretty accurate to the comics in some ways, which also feel like mostly filler and tedium. 

The first episode is rather good because it is pretty much a straight rip-off of the opening of 28 Days Later.

In general, I would say that The Walking Dead has been one of the most instrumental shows in my development as a TV-junkie. Back in the day, I had a lot more time, so I had a habit of finishing pretty much every show I started and especially the so-called watercooler conversation shows. Even if I didn't like it, the reasoning was that I could at least follow in on the conversation.

The Walking Dead is the show that broke that habit for me. The first season was mediocre, the second season on the farm was hellish and then I made it through the Governor and prison seasons which felt marginally better mostly due to the fact that they were positively Shakespearean in comparison to the farm season.

I quit that show knowing it would probably go on for another couple of seasons (definitely did not expect them to last to 11 and have spin-off shows though) and it was one of the best decisions I ever made in terms of entertainment. After that I walked away from GoT, The Shanara Chronicles, Vikings and countless other pieces of trash that just weren't worth my time (or were not worth my time anymore. A small number of these series like Vikings started out great and lost their purpose along the way). 

So yeah, totally agree that - barring perhaps an apocalypse - nothing would ever really compel me to go back again and watch the remaining seasons of TWD.

On 5/13/2023 at 4:03 PM, Isis said:

As I said, I think it is quite a difficult thing to compare a show that's only had one season with a show that had 10 (?11 -I still haven't finished watching it but I am going to do it) seasons. I'm not going to argue that TWD was full of incredible acting performances, but I disagree that they were uniformly terrible. Some of the cast did phone it in but I think you'll find that in most apocalyptic horror shows. The villians were some of the better actors, in fact. I would argue that Negan was a well-rounded character, probably as much as any of the main cast. The Govenor and whatshername (from the Whisperers) were both played by great actors that most TV shows would be happy to have in their cast. Those three were interesting villians and were enjoyable to watch.  

For me, the best thing TWD did was to do a solid job with the main theme of the books - it showed us over and over again that people are fucking awful and no matter how bad things are, there will ALWAYS be some awful people who are ready to take advantage of the suffering of other people. Deep down it was a show that made you hate humanity most of the time.

I have always enjoyed slow zombies. I don't object to fast zombies if done well (28 Days Later) or other variants, like in The Last of Us. The horror is less about the 'monsters' than it is about the people (the real monsters) anyway.

Overall TWD had more filler and weak/annoying storylines than good ones and it went on for way too long. You won't find me arguing about that. But it wasn't all bad. 

Notwithstanding the crappy execution (TWD cratered in quality as soon as they got rid of Frank Darabont), the misanthropic nature of The Walking Dead is probably  the lamest things about the IP (and that's saying something, since there is so much competition). The grimdark/goth kid approach to storytelling is such a lazy approach to take.

I hope The Last of Us doesn't slip into that type of storytelling.

10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Isn't that half the fun? He's just doing whatever he wants.

I've never seen The Great, but Hoult had to be casted for this from some combination of Fury Road, Warm Bodies and The Menu. He's perfect. This dude will win an Oscar at some point. And Awkafina, who I was kind of meh on the first few times I saw her, is really finding her lane as an actress. Honestly all the main actors did a good job and the writing, while weird at points, was great. It's a B horror/black comedy, but if you go into it with that expectation you'll have a blast. 

You will cave in and watch The Great 

No really, the show is bonkers and should be seen by more people. Treat yourself!

Edited May 14, 2023 by Veltigar

[Veltigar]

Double post. Please ignore.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Veltigar

[RumHam]

10 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

(TWD cratered in quality as soon as they got rid of Frank Darabont),

Really it cratered because AMC didn't want to spend money on it, so Darabont left. It's crazy, for a bit it seemed like AMC might become one of the prestiege tv networks. But they were so damn cheap. It's a minor miricle Mad Men didn't have to continue on shittily without its creator.

The Great is great, looking forward to season three.

[DMC]

Yeah Darabont clearly had his moments in the first season - which was only six episodes.  After that, sure, it was "meh" at best.  I do wanna finish it one day, stopped watching around covid so I think I've missed the last..season and a half, but it is what it is.  Guilty pleasure/trash TV, like Law & Order or Charmed.

[Heartofice]

I think what will stop me ever finishing TWD is the knowledge that this isn’t one long story that needs to get to the end.

Things happen either to pad the story out or create moments shocking enough that it creates internet buzz. Once you get burnt by this so many times you know to never go back.

[RumHam]

12 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

I've never seen The Great, but Hoult had to be casted for this from some combination of Fury Road, Warm Bodies and The Menu. He's perfect. This dude will win an Oscar at some point. And Awkafina, who I was kind of meh on the first few times I saw her, is really finding her lane as an actress. Honestly all the main actors did a good job and the writing, while weird at points, was great. It's a B horror/black comedy, but if you go into it with that expectation you'll have a blast. 

apparently he could be the new superman.

edit: Luthor, not superman. he would be a good clark though.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by RumHam

[RumHam]

Just now, Heartofice said:

I think what will stop me ever finishing TWD is the knowledge that this isn’t one long story that needs to get to the end.

Things happen either to pad the story out or create moments shocking enough that it creates internet buzz. Once you get burnt by this so many times you know to never go back.

Doesn't help that the story, such as it is, is not over. Like five main characters are continuing on in three other projects.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Heartofice said:

I think what will stop me ever finishing TWD is the knowledge that this isn’t one long story that needs to get to the end.

Things happen either to pad the story out or create moments shocking enough that it creates internet buzz. Once you get burnt by this so many times you know to never go back.

I mean, even Kirkman with the comic ended it very abruptly.  I don't think there was ever any grand design - just a way to tell stories in a way that could be lucrative.  And, ya know, good for them.

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, DMC said:

I mean, even Kirkman with the comic ended it very abruptly.  I don't think there was ever any grand design - just a way to tell stories in a way that could be lucrative.  And, ya know, good for them.

I realised far too late that Kirman wasn’t going anywhere with his story, what a lot of wasted money 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I think what will stop me ever finishing TWD is the knowledge that this isn’t one long story that needs to get to the end.

Things happen either to pad the story out or create moments shocking enough that it creates internet buzz. Once you get burnt by this so many times you know to never go back.

It's just the same story over and over. Maybe I'm wrong, but it peaked with The Governor. And then it was just to cringe when the little girl killed her sister and had to be shot. I checked out after that.

20 minutes ago, RumHam said:

apparently he could be the new superman.

edit: Luthor, not superman. he would be a good clark though.

 

I think he'd be a better Luthor. Superman is always going to have to be kind of a wooden character. Hoult is best when he can be a bit odd. Like Nicholson's Joker. I hope we get an older, haggard Superman if we're doing this again... 

[Heartofice]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's just the same story over and over. Maybe I'm wrong, but it peaked with The Governor. And then it was just to cringe when the little girl killed her sister and had to be shot. I checked out after that.

30 minutes ago, RumHam said:

The pattern of TWD is:

Writers: yeah but people are the danger!!

Audience: oh ok, that’s cool

Writers: yeah but people are  REALLY the danger!!

Audience: ok yeah I know

Writers: yeah but people are REALLY REALLY REALLY the danger!!

Audience: yeah we get it

Writers: yeah but people..

Audience: goodbye

[TheLastWolf]

Um Is Ozark worth a watch?

[DMC]

17 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's just the same story over and over. Maybe I'm wrong, but it peaked with The Governor. And then it was just to cringe when the little girl killed her sister and had to be shot. I checked out after that.

Whoops, nevermind.  Read this wrong, sorry.

Edited May 14, 2023 by DMC

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, DMC said:

Whoops, nevermind.  Read this wrong, sorry.