Watched, Watch, Watching: Pink Bombs

[TheLastWolf]

3 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Personally I think season 6 part 1 is the “weakest.” 

So i hear, 1 ep in, ok ig 

[Mindwalker]

My new mystery show looks promising after episode 1. Some people would probably find it to slow. Sherwood - a murder apparently connected to the miners' strikes 30 years ago, and apparently lots of buried secrets involving scabs and alleged arsonists having been let go by the police.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Mindwalker

[Annara Snow]

First time I've heard of From and the show already has had two seasons? The premise sounds interesting. Another one to add to my huge watchlist.

Is the problem lack of promo or the fact there are just too many shows around these days? (And the terrible title is probably not helping)

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

That season was good. 

ETA: sopranos when the guys get out of prison.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Deadlines? What Deadlines?

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

My new mystery show looks promising after episode 1.

I liked it.  It's not in the top tier of that sort of thing that BBC can do so well, but it was good.  

[Veltigar]

I had the opportunity to watch Brick yesterday. It's the debut feature of Rian Johnson, and I do seem to feel a morbid curiosity towards his films (even the bad ones like The Last Jedi or Knives Out are at least interesting failures). So, I therefore felt it was high time to finally cross Brick of my list.

I mostly enjoyed it. It has a pretty good cast given that he Johnson was an absolute unknown director at the time. The best thing about the film by far is the dialogue. I have a particular love for the old Humphrey Bogart films and I think the film does a tremendous job in emulating the sort of dialogue that a classic Bogart character would utter.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that it is billed as a neo-noir high-school film, I feel like it's a far better noir film than it's a high-school film. Perhaps it's because I come from a different system, but there was nothing that really struck a chord with what I imagine high-school to be or what I remember my version of it to be.

Its biggest flaw however, is similar to what plagued Villeneuve's Prisoners:

Spoiler

There is an absolutely superfluous character in the form of Karen (I think that was her name). Her presence in the film is so useless that she isn't even mentioned in the Wikipedia summary, which I checked to see whether I had missed something about her character. Turned out I didn't, she was just a waste of time and space to deliberately mislead us.

For the rest, I think it's a worthy effort for a first-time director with a limited budget. I think it was shot on a cheaper digital camera, because it is kind of displeasing to the eyes, but it makes up for that with some great cheapo effects. The best one was apparently accidental:

Spoiler

When the murder occurs, the smoke that shoots out after the squib was accidental, but it gives a great visual flair to that scene. 

 

All in all, it's not something you absolutely have to see, but it's a nice experiment.

[Ran]

I thought Brick was very good, and yeah, it's a better noir than it is a high school film -- it stretches suspension of disbelief pretty hard on the high school side. It's because of Brick and some of his other work that made me hopeful for The Last Jedi.

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

I watched Black Swan (2010) starring Natalie Portman which is about a ballerina who happens to be really obsessive and a perfectionist who lands the lead in Swan Lake and it goes about that she totally has a Schizophrenic episode. I thought this movie was oddly breathtaking and so strange. It was not refreshing and it was not feel good but I still enjoyed the flick. The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Natalie Portman won best actress during the ceremony and I believe she really out-did herself on this one. 

[Zorral]

Last night it It wasn't that I couldn't hear the dialog well enough of the movie I was watching that I turned on subtitles, but the English dubbed to the Yoruba language the actors spoke frequently wasn't comprehensible due to how Nigerians inflect and tone Nigerian English.  But because I had done that, this article caught my notice this morning as the issue of sound comes up often here for both streaming and theaters.

Can’t Hear the Dialogue in Your Streaming Show? You’re Not Alone.
Many of us stream shows and movies with the subtitles on all the time — and not because it’s cool.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/technology/personaltech/subtitles-streaming-shows-speech-enhancers.html

Quote

 

.... The issue is complex because of myriad factors at play. In big movie productions, professional sound mixers calibrate audio levels for traditional theaters with robust speaker systems capable of delivering a wide range of sound, from spoken words to loud gunshots. But when you stream that content through an app on a TV, smartphone or tablet, the audio has been “down mixed,” or compressed, to carry the sounds through tiny, relatively weak speakers, said Marina Killion, an audio engineer at the media production company Optimus.

It doesn’t help that TVs keep getting thinner and more minimal in design. To emphasize the picture, many modern flat-screen TVs hide their speakers, blasting sound away from the viewer’s ears, Mr. Lewis said.

There are also issues specific to streaming. Unlike broadcast TV programs, which must adhere to regulations that forbid them from exceeding specific loudness levels, there are no such rules for streaming apps, Ms. Killion said. That means sound may be wildly inconsistent from app to app and program to program — so if you watch a show on Amazon Prime Video and then switch to a movie on Netflix, you probably have to repeatedly adjust your volume settings to hear what people are saying.

“Online is kind of the wild, wild west,” Ms. Killion said.

Subtitles are far from an ideal solution to all of this, so here are some remedies — including add-ons for your home entertainment setup and speech enhancers — to try. ....

 

Some of us will get a laff from this bit further down in the article re The Witcher -- Jack Ryan also gets lumps:

.... But the Sonos soundbar’s speech enhancer ran into its limits with the jarring colloquialisms of the Netflix show “The Witcher.” It couldn’t make more fathomable lines like “We’re seeking a girl and a witcher — her with ashen hair and patrician countenance, him a mannerless, blanched brute.”

Then again, I’m not sure any speaker could help with that. I left the subtitles on for that one. ....

Edited August 17, 2023 by Zorral

[dbunting]

I remember a little discussion in here about Suits, how it keeps coming up as recommended in Netflix, the statement was something like "why are they pushing this since no one watches it"??? Well, I read an article yesterday that it's #1 on Netflix and I think Peacock.  12.8 billion minutes streamed in June and July!   Based on 45 min viewing time that is roughly 284 million episodes watched in a two month span. If you figure 9 weeks in the two months that would be like 32 million viewers a week for a weekly broadcast. For reference, NCIS is #1 at 9.9 million weekly 2023. 

 

[Rippounet]

Finished Jury duty tonight. 'tis an odd show, the premise itself being kinda unique (one guy thinking he's participating in a documentary on jury duty, but the whole case is fake, and everyone but him is an actor - in order to fool him).

I found it enterntaining enough to finish it, but I dunno if I would recommend it. Let's be honest, the main reason for watching this is to feel complicit in the deception, and/or feel sympathy for Ronald. There's also the continuous question "would I figure it out?" and the eventual discussion on the logistics and ethics of the whole thing. It's basically The Truman show IRL, except the main character knows there are cameras most of the time.

As far as the show itself goes, it starts rather slowly imho. Of course, one needs time to empathize with Ronald and discover the various jurors, and I reckon the producers progressively adapted to him by writing situations emphasizing his good-naturedness. There are a few truly funny moments. Where they fucked up is that the case itself could have been far more interesting: the show could have doubled as a kind of dectective story for both Ronald and the viewer, but apparently they hadn't anticipated his interest (?!?).

It's certainly a feel-good show, but to be pedantic it's close to experiments done in game theory, which have proved conclusively that most of us will in fact do good when we know our reputation is at stake. It may be moving to see how decent a guy Ronald is, but the truth is that very few people will be assholes with strangers when there are cameras around.
The one little comedy detail that is truly fantastic is the one that wasn't made up: that the guy was summoned for actual jury duty just a few weeks after the show was filmed.

[Underfoot]

3 hours ago, Rippounet said:

It may be moving to see how decent a guy Ronald is, but the truth is that very few people will be assholes with strangers when there are cameras around.

dunno, big brother (the show) seems to indicate otherwise. people are constantly assholes, racists, etc on that show, where they are filmed 24/7. 

[Scott_N]

I know it's been said but City Primeval really is hugely disappointing. Has anyone read the novel? I.e. is it the story that is the problem? Or is the problem the cast or the characters? The dude who plays the villain is just awful and seems terribly miscast. A pretty boy who smirks a lot.

To be sure, watching it, it does feel like all of the above contributes to the mess. I'm three episodes in and if no 4 is not an obvious improvement I'm out. And Justfied is an all-time favorite!

[Argonath Diver]

Yep I'll fully jump on that hate-brigade. I figured maybe I was in a bad mood or something the first two episodes I didn't enjoy, so I re-watched into the 3rd ep. The show is just terrible, despite a great lead and strong actors around him. The story sucks. The bad guy and his girlfriend are atrocious. Unlike Bosch, his tween daughter is a papercut on screen. I'm just upset that I stopped my binge of the original, terrific Justified - I'm only 4 eps in - to retry City Primeval, and damn it was a thorough waste. Back to the OG for me.

[Rippounet]

7 hours ago, Underfoot said:

dunno, big brother (the show) seems to indicate otherwise. people are constantly assholes, racists, etc on that show, where they are filmed 24/7. 

Because that show's purpose is drama. 

[hauberk]

9 hours ago, Scott_N said:

I know it's been said but City Primeval really is hugely disappointing. Has anyone read the novel? I.e. is it the story that is the problem? Or is the problem the cast or the characters? The dude who plays the villain is just awful and seems terribly miscast. A pretty boy who smirks a lot.

To be sure, watching it, it does feel like all of the above contributes to the mess. I'm three episodes in and if no 4 is not an obvious improvement I'm out. And Justfied is an all-time favorite!

I’m not significantly impressed with the overall show but there are some fantastic interactions between Raylan and one of the detectives where they are talking around each other but clearly having a conversation at the same time. 
 

I cannot agree with regard to Boyd Holbrook - he was great in Sandman and I think he brings a mania to Mansell that, to me, promises danger. I think there is also a little deft writing around him where they shockingly subtly show that he has a deeper understanding of art and music than he lets on. 

[Isis]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:39 PM, Werthead said:

Overall, I wouldn't rush to watch it, but if you want an effective horror show with some good worldbuilding, it's fine, once it gets going.

Where are you watching it? I'm not paying £2.50 an episode on Prime when we already pay for a Prime membership. I can't remember if our Sky package covers this but I strongly feel that it doesn't.

[dbunting]

Primeval for me is ok, it got better once the daughter was put in timeout.  It's no where near the original, I am currently rewatching and will be starting S6 tomorrow.

This show is missing the Kentucky charm that Raylans' character benefits from. In this setting he is just out of place. Not to mention we get Mansell instead of Boyd Crowder and no Dewey Crow Jr!

[Veltigar]

Watched the latest episode of City Primeval. I thought it was the best episode so far, but it is still not terribly engaging. Like I stated earlier, it misses a lot of the charm that made Jusitified so unique.

The trickier part is where that lack of charm comes from. In part it is because of the Detroit setting, which is quite generic. Harlan County was a character in its own right and there is nothing here that ever gets to that level. You could easily swap Detroit for any other big U.S. city and it wouldn't fundamentally alter the show.

it's more than that though. I think there are several characters that fundamentally do not work

Spoiler

I hate whenever the lawyer comes on screen. Her scenes with Raylan are pretty cringe and I feel like the story just grinds to a halt whenever she rears her head.

I'm also not a big fan of Mansell's girlfriend. I have seen the actress do great work in Parade's End where she held her own against Benedict Cumberbatch, so I am sure she can do better. The character is just so superbly uninteresting that it's difficult to feel something for her.

and the side characters miss the rustier charm that even the bit players in Justified somehow managed to deliver. The only characters who I think feel like genuine Justified to me are

Spoiler

Sweety and his boyfriend. They are played well and the writing for them is such that you sort of see the caricatures that another weaker police series would base on their archetypes. Justified always managed to convince you of the authenticity of its characters, which I don't feel with anyone outside Sweety. 

I'm on the fence when it comes to Mansell. I'm a big fan of Holbrook as an actor and I'm rooting for him to land meatier roles, so that might bias me a little. The character is a bit all over the place and it feels as if the writers do not really have a clear idea what they want that character to be (looney killer or criminal mastermind with a sadistic streak).

In the latest episode, I really liked 

Spoiler

How he basically tortured Sweety with that terrible Seven Nations Army rendition. The way he had Sweety go from "I'm going to die' to "Guess, I'll live to breathe another day" and then back again before he pulled the trigger was probably the best use of the Mansell character so far.

I also hope @hauberk and Mansell turns out to be a lot less superficial than he appeared to be at first glance, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

But all in all he's definitely one of the less engaging opponents Raylan has gone up against. I hope the show will built on its success this episode to become even more engaging.

8 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Primeval for me is ok, it got better once the daughter was put in timeout.  It's no where near the original, I am currently rewatching and will be starting S6 tomorrow.

Now that we are six episodes in, I think we can safely say that I don't even understand why she was included in the first place. She didn't add a thing to the storyline and only worked to establish Raylan as a bit of a douche given the ease with which he dumped her.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I rewatched Cocaine Bear to see if I didn't give it a fair shake the first time. Nope, it's bad. I guess fun bad is the best thing I can say about it. I've got two Steve Martin movies I'm going to watch over the weekend hopefully they're better.