Watch, Watched, Watching: Start another thread already

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Say It Isn't So is an underrated romcom, a total disaster of a story for the leads and the surprise ending is too funny. 

[Heartofice]

Poker Face, the Rhian Johnson show with Natasha Lyonne really does seem to capture that 70s/80s episodic murder of the week vibe, and I really appreciate it. The fact that it’s something you can watch without feeling you are heavily invested or need to grind through another episode really recalls how tv used to be!

Lyonne is someone who’s voice and personality are nails down a chalkboard for me, I had to give up on Russian Doll season 2 because she was just too much, and she is basically playing the same character here ( can she do anything else??) but somehow because she seems to flit around the edges of stories it becomes less painful to watch her, and I even enjoy her performance.

Im hoping for more shows like this.

[Ran]

9 hours ago, RumHam said:

Started The Great's third season. Can someone remind me

Spoiler

In S2, Marial tells Grigor that she told Catherine of her mother's death, Peter then learns of it from Grigor, so basically she blames Marial for having tipped her hand again. That's my recollection, in any case.

 

[Teng Ai Hui]

I binge-watched The Lazarus Project.  I enjoyed the first 4 or 5 episodes.  Then, the last 3 were just a comedy of errors.  At the end, it was just tedious to watch.  I have no interest in watching season 2 when it comes out later this year sometime.  

Also, I watched a mini-marathon of the Alone franchise -- the newest episode of Alone: The Skills Challenge, a special episode called Before the Drop about “launch camp” before the start of season 10, and then the first episode of season 10.  Season 9 was interesting for how some of the contestants prepared before the competition began.  This season was interesting for how successful some of the contestants were during the first couple of days; in contrast, one player was extremely unlucky.
 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Teng Ai Hui

[Zorral]

On 6/11/2023 at 6:04 PM, Zorral said:

This doesn't surprise, considering the years it was made.  Britbox has put up the 5 seasons here all at once, which is a treasure, you know, for the Best Watching.   

So far I'm particularly appreciating the female characters. Or the actors, which is both then, right?

I am in the middle of the second season by now.  Watching Aiden Gillen's coke addicted, smirking, malicious glee at corrupting (if you can actually think of corruption in terms of people who all already do bad things), pushing further into the abyss, everyone around him.  This is 2010-11, recall.  He hadn't started GOT yet.  But he continues with this series while doing GOT, was in other good shows while doing GOT as well (as well as before and after).  This guy is one hell of a hard working actor.  

Added:  The scene of Nidge in the doctor's office

Spoiler

getting checked out for the progress of his genital warts and unable to pick up John Boy's fone call, jumping to John Boy in his car throwing his fone on the seat yelling "fuck that prick" was another example of that very brief, dark comic moment the show's started to develop.

That was more than worthy of The Wire.

Edited to ad, after finishing season 2,

Spoiler

Perhaps the reason Gillen's John Boy seemed too accelerated in his descent is that now he had to leave and join the grueling, endless, painful and hard production that was GOT.  That wouldn't leave time or energy for much of anything else.  It was that way for the actors, and even more so for all the others that made possible a show with Great Big Stuff to show on screen at least once or twice, or more often, in each episode.  One must think everyone involved in the series must have bonded as deeply as groups who fought in the field in a bitter war.  As well as, I suppose, generating life-long hatreds, which also happens in a bitter war, even if on the same side.

Anyway, he joined Peaky when Sansa condemned him and sister Arya cut his throat, it seems.  But Gillen did work on other projects too during the GOT time.

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by Zorral

[DireWolfSpirit]

The Ghost of Beirut-

A mini series about the CIA and Mossads 20 year search for a Middle Eastern operative who was the first and for subsequent attacks used suicide bombing as a tactic against the occupiers and their allies.

Its semi historical with real figures, although i believe they take some creative license with dialogue and such.

[ljkeane]

11 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Lyonne is someone who’s voice and personality are nails down a chalkboard for me, I had to give up on Russian Doll season 2 because she was just too much, and she is basically playing the same character here ( can she do anything else??) but somehow because she seems to flit around the edges of stories it becomes less painful to watch her, and I even enjoy her performance.

I’m the same with Natasha Lyonne but that character she always plays works quite well in Poker Face so she’s ok in it. I’m enjoying the show so far anyway.

[Mindwalker]

I love Poker Face but then I've always liked Lyonne. (Can't comment on Russian Doll though.) Her character in Orange Is The New Black didn't feel the same as the one in Poker Face.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Mindwalker

[WarGalley]

Plodding along with Rings of Power. I still don't care for any of the characters including Galadriel but HOLY COW, the first eruption / birth of Mt. Doom was absolutely spectacular. That scene alone made the journey this far worth it. Even on my crappy 13" Windows laptop, that scene looked like a 4K masterpiece. I wish I could have seen that on the big screen or in IMAX.

[TheLastWolf]

Sopranos S1 done

Spoiler

Isabella was a fed plant, to convince T to push off to old land Italy or whatever

Crazy ik

[RumHam]

14 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

Sopranos S1 done

  Hide contents

Isabella was a fed plant, to convince T to push off to old land Italy or whatever

Crazy ik

Spoiler

? She wasn't real. The conversation with the doctor neighbor confirms this. 

 

[Ran]

Watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It was ... okay, I guess? Stretches of it were genuinely and obviously just mediocre in terms of writing, but there were flashes here and there of something interesting -- Hugh Grant stood out for me, actually, he was always fun when on screen -- and Linda and I liked that it had a serious budget and looked pretty good (and not super-dark and unsaturated) while also trying to be fun without either over-seriousness or too much goofiness. 

The Tiefling Druid, Doric, allowed for some nice CG, but they were entirely uninteresting as a character, and honestly it would have worked better if it was just Edgin, Holga, and Simon. Having the self-serious paladin Xenk appear as a side-character was actually quite fun, though, and his ridiculous earnestness playing up all the tropes of paladin type characters was good fun. Never watched Bridgerton, but I can see why René-Jean Page blew up from that.

Cute nod to the old cartoon, though I wonder what happened to the gang when the Red Death was unleashed? They must have gotten away, I guess.

[TheLastWolf]

58 minutes ago, RumHam said:

  Reveal hidden contents

? She wasn't real. The conversation with the doctor neighbor confirms this. 

 

Spoiler

If I was a fed I wouldn't be telling a known associate of my mark that I'm going to use his house thus. Plus her knowledge of his ancestry...Not the first Italian they've used against him. His following hallucinations were real. Like the wife fight and baby

 

[RumHam]

3 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

  Hide contents

If I was a fed I wouldn't be telling a known associate of my mark that I'm going to use his house thus. Plus her knowledge of his ancestry...Not the first Italian they've used against him. His following hallucinations were real. Like the wife fight and baby

 

Spoiler

I don't have the best memory, but I thought his fight with Carmela was part of the hallucination? Doesn't he ask her about it and she's like wtf tony? 

Anyway that's just not how the feds work. Legality aside it's just not practical for them to use someone's house without their permission and hope they don't find out and blow the whole thing. All in the hope that Tony would wander over develop a relationship with an attractive woman. I'm not sure what their endgame would be either. 

It's not that sort of show, like it's not trying to trick you. Or at least, when the "twist" is revealed you shouldn't be expecting a second, bigger twist.  

 

[TheLastWolf]

7 hours ago, RumHam said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I don't have the best memory, but I thought his fight with Carmela was part of the hallucination? Doesn't he ask her about it and she's like wtf tony? 

Anyway that's just not how the feds work. Legality aside it's just not practical for them to use someone's house without their permission and hope they don't find out and blow the whole thing. All in the hope that Tony would wander over develop a relationship with an attractive woman. I'm not sure what their endgame would be either. 

It's not that sort of show, like it's not trying to trick you. Or at least, when the "twist" is revealed you shouldn't be expecting a second, bigger twist.  

 

Ok I agree but it was fun speculating 

[SpaceChampion]

Is The Idol this generation's Showgirls?

[IlyaP]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Is The Idol this generation's Showgirls?

*sits down*

Showgirls. Now there's a nightmare I've not heard of in a long time. A long time indeed.

[Ran]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Is The Idol this generation's Showgirls?

The Weeknd is being pretty explicit that they're taking a page from the Verhoven camp, satire, and sleaze playbook:

Quote

"No. There’s nothing sexy about it. When we use Basic Instinct as a reference, we’re using Verhoeven. Verhoeven is the king of ‘90s satire thriller—yes, there’s moments of “sexy” in his films but there are other moments that are very cheesy and hilarious. How ever you’re feeling watching that scene, whether it’s discomfort, or you feel gross, or you feel embarrassed for the characters. It’s all those emotions adding up to: This guy is in way over his head, this situation is one where he is not supposed to be here."

I admit, the weirdness of the first episode was largely based on the fact that it seemed like The Weekend's character was just a complete tryhard jerk, and I thought, no way would this guy make his first acting role a shitty guy. But it seems that he's game to play the douchebag, and knows the character is a douchebag and reads that way to everyone. So, props to him.

Haven't seen the second episode yet, will get around to it today maybe.

 

[Isis]

On 6/10/2023 at 5:44 PM, Padraig said:

I continued with movies into the 1960s.  I did watch Psycho, which still holds up very well (except for the odd thing).

 

I keep meaning to watch ALL of the Hitchcock films. This morning I was wondering whether I should just buy a DVD boxset or something. What do you recommend in terms of where to watch/how to watch? I feel like you can't really trust Netflix/Prime as stuff drops off there all the time (especially if you are as rubbish as I am when it comes to watching stuff that's already on your watchlist).

Last weekend we watched this mini-series called Swarm, which I think was maybe on Sky? One of the main Sky channels? I can't remember, sorry. It's basically about these weird events that start happening at sea, e.g. whales, odd seafood (whoops I mean crustaceans) stuff. Random people come together to be like WHAT IS HAPPENING. There is some semi-bad microscopy and lab science in it for me to get cross about. It was good enough to while away a disgustingly hot humid Sunday. I was inspired to watch it by the recent vigilante orca activity. I expected it to be one of those hilarious super bad syfy type series, but it was actually semi-alright. I'd give it a 7/10 overall.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 hours ago, IlyaP said:

*sits down*

Showgirls. Now there's a nightmare I've not heard of in a long time. A long time indeed.

I remember seeing that as a kid. What an experience. Poor Berkley barely got paid for that and it didn't help her career like she thought it would. 

Nomi dancing and having sex is comedy gold though. And the movie has some amazingly bad quotes. Thins is my fav:

Spoiler

I have a problem with pussy. I always have, and I'm always gonna.