Watched, Watch, Watching: Pink Bombs

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, hauberk said:

how that he has a deeper understanding of art and music than he lets on. 

You jest surely.

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, Isis said:

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.

It's on NowTV.

[hauberk]

@Veltigar @Zorral

Spoiler

It was his recognition of the painting as something special in an earlier episode and his reference to Mingus in this episode that made me feel like he’s got a little more depth. 
 

I like some Jazz but I don’t think that Mingus would be in the first five I’d come up with when asked to come up with a list  

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by hauberk

[Ran]

Warrior ended its third season. It ends pretty strongly, even if it meandered a bit, and it's never going to be more than a popcorn show. If it's done there -- there's uncertainty if it'll get a fourth, given that the third season getting greenlit was a surprise in itself (IMO, I'm think WB realized that it'd be something they could run when the strikes happened, and it was not too expensive). Some great action set pieces. Ends with some loose strings and some strings decidedly settled.

Finished this first volume of Outlander's 7th season, and have to say the ending was pretty good -- especially successful was a surprisingly emotion-stirring scene involving two kinsmen and their final parting, which is all the more amazing because

Spoiler

General Simon Fraser was never shown on the show prior to this season, and the fact that he and Jaime were supposed to have played games together as children is just something you learn here... but Angus Macfadyen and Sam Heughan sell it and knock it out of the park. Got rather misty-eyed, but that's the sort of thing that gets me.

What We Do in the Shadows is consistently funny as hell. The latest episode has a hilarious cameo from John Slattery.

HBO has premiered Telemarketers, a three part docu series (executive produced by the Safdie Brothers, to give a sense of the kind of energy it gives) about an infamous telemarketing firm known as CDG that basically launched a wave of abusive telemarketing schemes in the late 1990s, filmed from the inside by a couple of  enterprising guys who worked there. They are, as the Rolling Stone put it, a couple of "jabronis", and one of them -- Patrick -- is rather magnetic in how off-the-wall he appears on camera (doubtless due to the fact that he's openly taking drugs half the time) while just dropping constant dirt on the operation because he was one of their top "consultants". Really curious to see where it goes.

When I was in high school, it was common for some of my friends to take summer jobs working telemarketing jobs, which seemed to be plentiful and seemed to require no qualification. I passed on the oportunity when it was presented, but now I wonder if they were actually working at one of CDGs Florida offices... I know some said they were actually working for Sprint, but at least once talked about doing charity calls, and that was what CDG was all about. Sam, the other focal figure (and the filmographer of a lot of the source material), started working at CDG when he dropped out of high school at 14.

 

 

 

[Isis]

17 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's on NowTV.

Well, well, well, it turns out that we do have the Sky Scifi channel or whatever it's called after all (that's the channel that used to be Sy Fy, right?) so we started watching From on there. Two episodes in. Liking it so far but it can easily go in the damp squib direction. I don't get my hopes up these days.

I don't have NowTV and I'll never have NowTV if it requires me to pay anything as we don't watch enough TV to pay for yet another subscription. That's how I feel about it today anyway.

[Veltigar]

19 hours ago, hauberk said:

@Veltigar @Zorral

  Hide contents

It was his recognition of the painting as something special in an earlier episode and his reference to Mingus in this episode that made me feel like he’s got a little more depth. 
 

I like some Jazz but I don’t think that Mingus would be in the first five I’d come up with when asked to come up with a list  

 

I also think that his appreciation for 

Spoiler

Sweety's career and his ability to torture him in the end with his lacklustre Seven nations Army cover demonstrates that he's more in on the joke than you would think.

I do however feel like these are at best minor details to add some meat to the bones (a bit like with Holbrook's character in the latest Indiana Jones film, who (spoilers for Dial of Destiny:)

Spoiler

was at first written as a generic German henchman and fellow Nazi to support Mads Mikkelsen's Werner Von Braun knock-off. On Holbrook's request, the character was changed into an American who is seen studying German. According to an interview Holbrook gave in the Guardian, he requested this to give that character a more personal reason to stick with Mads, as he was a loner on the look out for a family, which the Nazi's gave him.

At this point, I have no faith that the writing team of City Primeval is sprinkling these little glimpses in there for any structural story reason or reveal  

 

[hauberk]

1 minute ago, Veltigar said:

I also think that his appreciation for 

  Reveal hidden contents

Sweety's career and his ability to torture him in the end with his lacklustre Seven nations Army cover demonstrates that he's more in on the joke than you would think.

I do however feel like these are at best minor details to add some meat to the bones (a bit like with Holbrook's character in the latest Indiana Jones film, who (spoilers for Dial of Destiny:)

  Reveal hidden contents

was at first written as a generic German henchman and fellow Nazi to support Mads Mikkelsen's Werner Von Braun knock-off. On Holbrook's request, the character was changed into an American who is seen studying German. According to an interview Holbrook gave in the Guardian, he requested this to give that character a more personal reason to stick with Mads, as he was a loner on the look out for a family, which the Nazi's gave him.

At this point, I have no faith that the writing team of City Primeval is sprinkling these little glimpses in there for any structural story reason or reveal  

 

You may be right and I completely agree that it’s a bit late for much of a turn but I’m in it for Raylan and will appreciate the moments of presumed depth where I can find them. 

[Heartofice]

So the slow drip feed of The Great season 3 is quite frustrating but episode 6 was beautiful and reminded me just how much I love this show. It’s incredibly unique and almost every note of it is pitch perfect. It should be very difficult to do these historical dramas, but adding a voice that makes you stand out, but The Great does it so well. All the performances are spot on and it’s so often laugh out loud funny. 
 

Spoiler

I knew Peters death was coming but it’s also going to be a massive loss for the show 

 

[Rippounet]

Finished season 5 of The dragon prince.

Still good, though only 9 episodes a year makes me feel like the story is stagnating a bit - even though it isn't. I find myself eager to see the conclusion. Perhaps because this season in particular felt like a transition to something else - setting things up for the final confrontations.
On the plus side, they've done a great job of muddying the waters. Whenever the show becomes a bit too predictable, they sidestep and move in a slightly different direction. Imho they did that several times in this season, to the point where they have me guessing a bit for the ending. The one thing I'm relatively certain of is

Spoiler

We now have Rayla's perfect antagonist. I would expect them to cross paths in season 6, with Kim'dael defeating Rayla, in order to have Rayla come back on top at the end of season 7.

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Anyone watch the first episode of The Winter King in the US where it aired last night? 

Your thoughts?

[Which Tyler]

6 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Anyone watch the first episode of The Winter King in the US where it aired last night? 

Your thoughts?

I second this question, even though I dread the answer

[Spockydog]

I was so excited for this show until I saw the trailer.

Just read this line in a review. "Magic is real in this world."

Ah, shit.

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Spockydog

[dog-days]

13 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Finished season 5 of The dragon prince.

Still good, though only 9 episodes a year makes me feel like the story is stagnating a bit - even though it isn't. I find myself eager to see the conclusion. Perhaps because this season in particular felt like a transition to something else - setting things up for the final confrontations.
On the plus side, they've done a great job of muddying the waters. Whenever the show becomes a bit too predictable, they sidestep and move in a slightly different direction. Imho they did that several times in this season, to the point where they have me guessing a bit for the ending. The one thing I'm relatively certain of is

  Reveal hidden contents

We now have Rayla's perfect antagonist. I would expect them to cross paths in season 6, with Kim'dael defeating Rayla, in order to have Rayla come back on top at the end of season 7.

 

Yes, I did find the season quite slow-paced. Plus, the characters still seemed to be treading water in terms of development, except maybe for Callum edging more towards dark magic and Soren becoming more competent. Hoping things pick up with the next one. I'll keep watching even if they don't since the show is likeable enough that even when it's boring, at least it's boring in a nicely animated way. 

[dbunting]

On 8/19/2023 at 10:12 AM, Veltigar said:

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

  Reveal hidden contents

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

  Reveal hidden contents

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 

  Reveal hidden contents

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.

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.

The strange thing is that the only time they tried to include anything about Detroit was when his daughter went on her very ill advised walk. She went through a generic abandoned factory and picked up what looked like an Oldsmobile or Buick hood emblem. That and the bridge where the gun was supposed to be disposed of. The other problem is this was filmed in Chicago so they can't even show what's going on in Detroit. Over the last 10 years or so there has been a big rebuild, new hotels, old buildings totally remodeled, new condo high rises, tons of new restaurants downtown, new bridge to Canada etc.  So instead we get generic city shots. 

On a Justified note, also Walking Dead spoiler I guess

Spoiler

I just watched the episode where Dewey Crowe Jr. died.  For some reason this time I got a Walking Dead vibe from when Carol tells Lizzie to look at the flowers...  Look in their eyes Dewey...  Deweys' death is broadcast 8 months after Lizzie.

 

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

Just read this line in a review. "Magic is real in this world."

Ah, shit.

 

I'm not a fan of Cornwell's writing and have no interest in the adaptations, but even I have to wonder why on Earth, if you want to do an Arthur story with magic in, would you adapt the one version of it that doesn't have any? 

 

Shoulda gone with By Force Alone. Could sell that one to the Boys fandom.

[Spockydog]

Just now, polishgenius said:

 

I'm not a fan of Cornwell's writing and have no interest in the adaptations, but even I have to wonder why on Earth, if you want to do an Arthur story with magic in, would you adapt the one version of it that doesn't have any? 

 

Shoulda gone with By Force Alone. Could sell that one to the Boys fandom.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this trilogy was the ambiguity around the magic. I seem to remember Merlin coming across as a bit of a charlatan, but there were one or two moments where you were left wondering (some weather manipulation by Merlin during an escape from Anglesey, and Derfel's wife's illness was perhaps a curse by Nimue). 

Reviews seem okay. Will give it a whirl, but my hopes are not high. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Just finished my Expanse binge. 

Season 4 was the weakest IMO, mostly because it drags a bit in the early episodes. Still really good, but not as strong as what came before. Season 5 and 6 are amazing. Goddamn does this show have great villains.

I think this show will be a little like The Wire; A small-ish but dedicated following that grows over time as more and more people discover it. It would be nice if it didn’t take a decade for that to happen. 

I really hope we get more seasons. Amazing show. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Deadlines? What Deadlines?

[Argonath Diver]

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Just finished my Expanse binge. 

Season 4 was the weakest IMO, mostly because it drags a bit in the early episodes. Still really good, but not as strong as what came before. Season 5 and 6 are amazing. Goddamn does this show have great villains . 

I think this show will be a little like The Wire; A small-ish but dedicated following that grows over time as more and more people discover this show. It would be nice if it didn’t take a decade for that to happen. 

I really hope we get more seasons. Amazing show. 

I'm torn - I want to binge it again as well, then I pivoted to re-reading the novels instead. Both media versions were a delight, but I feel like I have read several orders of magnitude less in 2023 than in years. Perhaps I owe it to the author twosome. I wonder if I'll "see" the actors, or my original ideas of how everyone looked. But argh the show was so engaging as well and somewhat more suitable to my often late-night post-shift time, when a book or kindle might give me more eye strain than the show on my big projector screen.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Argonath Diver

[Spockydog]

ZOMFG, despite my trepidations, episode one of The Winter King is fucking brilliant.

Bad Wolf have done a fantastic job. Locations, sets, production design, script, casting, direction. All first class.

10/10.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Spockydog

[Rippounet]

Watched Painkiller, the Netflix mini-series about the opioid "epidemic" in the US and the role of Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers.

I found it really really good, with really great acting by Uzo Aduba, Taylor Kitsch and West Duchovny (hey, she is the daughter of David, I suspected it since it's not a common name, but I only just checked).
Aduba plays an assistant DA from Virginia investigating Oxycontin over-prescriptions, Kitsch a mechanic who's badly injured and needs painkillers, and Duchovny a sales rep' from Purdue. You follow all their stories in parallel, which makes for a great narrative.

I understand Hulu's Dopesick is pretty much the exact same story, so I assume one doesn't "need" to watch both. OTOH, if you haven't seen Dopesick, I'd very strongly recommend Painkiller.

 

5 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Season 4 was the weakest IMO, mostly because it drags a bit in the early episodes. Still really good, but not as strong as what came before. Season 5 and 6 are amazing. Goddamn does this show have great villains.

I agree with you but still love season 4, because it's an amazing almost entirely self-contained sci-fi story.