Watch, Watched, Watching: Watching Severance and working for Lumon

[Ran]

Randomly decided to watch Yellowstone's first season. It was ... uh ... something. Dallas for the 21st century, but with added Sopranos/Sons of Anarchy-like crime shenanigans that just completely go into wild fantasy rather than something grounded. The first episode was interesting enough, but as things went on it just got more and more wild and melodramatic and head-scratching. Sheridan's written some pretty excellent films, and I don't mind his casting himself in a small role as a horse trader, but he really just dug deep into soap opera twists and Mexican telenovela nonsense. And characters talk in cliches, with tired "down-home" aphorisms, that I'm pretty sure Chat-GPT4 is at the point where it could easily turn out scripts for this show with no one being the wiser.

It was a bit like a car crash, I just had to press on. When an episode opens on one of the fanatic "branded" men coming up across a grizzly that's trapped two random Chinese tourists on a cliffside, I just had to laugh.

But you want to know what the craziest thing in the whole first season was?

Spoiler

Kayce Dutton, a war hero ex-Navy SEAL, lets his son repeatedly ask him about "the Army" and doesn't try and correct him once.

I decided to read the Wikipedia summaries for the following seasons. Don't seem to be missing anything by not going further with it.

I do notice that the reviews for 1883 and 1923 are both much more positive than they were for the first season of Yellowstone, so maybe I'll give those a try when they're available out here.

Edited February 18 by Ran

[Isis]

4 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

It is from their perspective and that's kind of the problem with biopics when family members control the narrative. They had a lot of influence on the film and totally white washed their father's history. Richard Williams is not a good person. He did a great job creating two star athletes, but he's also a problematic figure. It would be like if Tiger Woods made a biopic about his dad and left out that he would make Tiger sit outside of rooms while he was constantly cheating on his mom and forced him to break up with his first love. And I'm sure said film wouldn't include that she got her revenge by burying him in an unmarked grave only she knows about.

I think this is going to become more of a problem going forward. Creative control in exchange for the story allows for a lot of misrepresentations, if not flat out lies. 

I think that he absolutely did come across like a problematic figure throughout the film. Although the film did have a sort of fairy tale happy ending because lots of things worked out (his plan!) and it also looked as if he underwent some (brief/initial) personal growth in relation to his children/his perception of what his family need towards the end. So it did feel like there was balance there. Whilst his story was interesting, as it was told. I would also be interested in the story from the perspective of Venus and Serena as well.

I definitely was put in mind of Tiger Woods as I was watching.

We just did a rewatch of The Talented Mr Ripley. It must be 20 years since I last saw it, and although I read the book maybe five years back, I didn't have a photographic recollection of all of the events, especially in the latter half of the film. HOW YOUNG THEY ALL LOOKED THOUGH OMG. Baby Cate, Gwyneth, Matt, Jude (kinda), and Phillip. Adorable! Definitely worth a rewatch.

[polishgenius]

I haven't seen King Richard and probably never will tbh, but Will Smith playing a weirdo obsessive dad who's too intent on his kids being famous is way too on the nose. 

[Heartofice]

5 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I haven't seen King Richard and probably never will tbh, but Will Smith playing a weirdo obsessive dad who's too intent on his kids being famous is way too on the nose. 

Think that is the point of the movie, that Richard / Will was correct in his methods and shouldn’t be seen as that bad. I haven’t looked into the real Richard Williams but I did definitely get the sense the movie version was positively cuddly in comparison. The worst you could say about the movie version was he was a bit stubborn.

Otherwise it ticked all the boxes Smith likes to tell people about himself: Hard work through adversity, you know better than other people, rags to riches etc

I enjoyed it, but Smith is prone to spurting out self help style nonsense and this very much felt like an extension of that.

Edited February 18 by Heartofice

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

43 minutes ago, Isis said:

I think that he absolutely did come across like a problematic figure throughout the film. Although the film did have a sort of fairy tale happy ending because lots of things worked out (his plan!) and it also looked as if he underwent some (brief/initial) personal growth in relation to his children/his perception of what his family need towards the end. So it did feel like there was balance there. Whilst his story was interesting, as it was told. I would also be interested in the story from the perspective of Venus and Serena as well.

I definitely was put in mind of Tiger Woods as I was watching.

Again, they were producers and influenced it. The more accurate telling of his life comes off worse than what I've heard the movie shows. Here's a pretty fair summary of what it got right and wrong:

https://slate.com/culture/2021/11/king-richard-movie-accuracy-will-smith-richard-williams.html

But my larger point is they softened his story and tried to make him look better than he was. This is a trend in a lot of recent biopics. I prefer something like The Dirt which makes Motley Creu look totally insane. 

Was pretty funny when they were even freaked out given what they've seen watching Ozzy snort a line of ants. 

[Nictarion]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

Randomly decided to watch Yellowstone's first season. It was ... uh ... something. Dallas for the 21st century, but with added Sopranos/Sons of Anarchy-like crime shenanigans that just completely go into wild fantasy rather than something grounded. The first episode was interesting enough, but as things went on it just got more and more wild and melodramatic and head-scratching. Sheridan's written some pretty excellent films, and I don't mind his casting himself in a small role as a horse trader, but he really just dug deep into soap opera twists and Mexican telenovela nonsense. And characters talk in cliches, with tired "down-home" aphorisms, that I'm pretty sure Chat-GPT4 is at the point where it could easily turn out scripts for this show with no one being the wiser.

It was a bit like a car crash, I just had to press on. When an episode opens on one of the fanatic "branded" men coming up across a grizzly that's trapped two random Chinese tourists on a cliffside, I just had to laugh.

But you want to know what the craziest thing in the whole first season was?

  Reveal hidden contents

Kayce Dutton, a war hero ex-Navy SEAL, lets his son repeatedly ask him about "the Army" and doesn't try and correct him once.

I decided to read the Wikipedia summaries for the following seasons. Don't seem to be missing anything by not going further with it.

I do notice that the reviews for 1883 and 1923 are both much more positive than they were for the first season of Yellowstone, so maybe I'll give those a try when they're available out here.

You definitely don’t watch Yellowstone for good writing. That’s for sure. It’s fun though. And the locations are gorgeous (think it’s mostly filmed in Utah). Costner and Kelly Reilly are both pretty good in it, too. 

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

You definitely don’t watch Yellowstone for good writing. That’s for sure. It’s fun though. And the locations are gorgeous (think it’s mostly filmed in Utah). Costner and Kelly Reilly are both pretty good in it, too. 

Yeah, the landscapes are lovely. Kelly Reilly definitely seems to have the meatiest role in the first season, playing a very damaged person, but her nastiness started to get tiresome as the season went on. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

If Yellowstone is Dallas for the 21st century then 1883 and 1923 are more "Legends of the Fall-ish"

I migh've caught a waft of onion peels with the 1883 ending. 

[polishgenius]

Watched Sisu. It's a silly, violent movie made with a surprising amount of... polish is the wrong word, but craft. A dumb movie smartly made (though not particularly smartly written). Particularly impressed by the sound design for some reason. 

As other said in previous threads, it also bears no relation to John Wick despite using its name in the trailers- way more inspired by old-school, pulpy schlocky, action movies. Though I do think that him being nicknamed after a Russian folkloric figure is not a coincidence (and at least in this film they understood what the name meant). 

[Relic]

5 hours ago, Ran said:

 

I do notice that the reviews for 1883 and 1923 are both much more positive than they were for the first season of Yellowstone, so maybe I'll give those a try when they're available out here.

Can recommend. The Africa bits of 1923 are ridiculous, but funny. Rest of it is pretty good. 1883 might be a tad better, overall. Both are miles ahead of Yellowstone proper. 

[Rippounet]

Watched the British show Bodies.

I'd say it was surprisingly good. Don't know anything about the graphic novel it is based on, but the story felt relatively original and interesting for a time-travel story. There's some plotholes, but they felt minor enough to overlook imho, the ending was satisfying (and rather original I'd say), the characters were well fleshed-out and credible... etc. A very decent little show for anyone who wants a mix of crime and science-fiction.
I'll give extra credit to the story for its symbolism. The moment you start seeing the message you can't help smiling. Though I kinda assume that the original work had an even more subversive message, the show feels like some elements must have been watered down a little.

About the plot:

Spoiler

Of course, it's a variation of the story of the movie Predestination. But with enough of its own elements to be its own thing.

I liked the fact that the story ended up being about how to break the time loop, which avoids some classic problems/paradoxes of time travel stories.

 

[Darryk]

Saltburn is pretty good. Reminds me a lot of The Talented Mr. Ripley.

[Veltigar]

On 2/12/2024 at 9:59 PM, Ran said:

That said, the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander are actually quite wonderful YA, steeped in Welsh myth and folklore with Alexander's particular style. The Black Cauldron was a Newbery Honor book, and the last in the series (The High King) actually won the Newbery Medal. For whatever reason, of the books I rememberTaran Wanderer best.

They didn't miss, the Newberys, back in the day -- it's how I was also introduced to Robin McKinley and The Blue Sword.

On 2/12/2024 at 10:18 PM, williamjm said:

They were some of my favourite books as a child. I remember the Cauldron Born being terrifying. Taran Wanderer was definitely different to any of the other fantasy books I read as a child, it definitely didn't follow the standard epic fantasy template.

I never watched the film. I wonder if someone might try a new adaptation of the series at some point, given all the other fantasy series being made.

You know, based on your commentaries, I actually looked up the books and found them for a pretty cheap price online. I bought them and read them last week. They were really good, especially the later ones. Taran Wanderer and The High King were just beautiful and the series as a whole had some pretty good life lessons for kids. So thank you to the both of you for inspiring me to check them out!

The first two were also good, but I think a turn off for me was the outdated

Spoiler

interactions between Eilonwy and Taran. It improves over time, but it's a bit 1960s, which is okay, since that's when they were written of course.

  I was particularly impressed by the following aspect

Spoiler

I was sure that Taran would turn out to be the son of Achren and Arawn Death-Lord. It seemed a convenient way to explain the rift between Achren and Arawn and her feelings of hatred, plus it would fit the conventional Hidden Prince trope. 

The fact that he turned out to be the son of no one in particular and would never know his parents was a big deviation from the standard, but I liked the philosophical implications. In general, I thought its process of turning Taran away from his dreams of glory towards understanding his people, their plight and their needs was different from what you usually see in fantasy.

One thing I didn't understand

Spoiler

The fact that the Sons of Don just all of a sudden had to go back to the Lands of Eternal Summer. That was a bit abrupt.

 

On 2/13/2024 at 2:10 AM, dbunting said:

No, not so much. I'm current on it and it still doesn't feel like I want to watch it. It's almost like I am watching because BOB was so good and I am just hoping they can capture some of that. The Pacific was way better than this has been so far.

The air scenes aren't even very good IMO, because it's just fighters flying past and bullet tracers. I believe they are going to introduce American fighter planes at some point and that will help it out, for me anyway. I need the air to air chasing I guess. 

  Hide contents

There was one air battle so far that was pretty good, kept the tension up and showed the chaos in the planes. Ep2-3 can't remember which.

There was also some promise

  Hide contents

With the Belgian resistance.  I think the one guy was given away as German because of how he wrote the date. When I saw it I was like, yeah, we don't do that but the Germans and Brazillians I know do. Kind of like  Inglorious Basterds with the 3 fingers.

 

Based on what you @hauberk and you wrote, I'm not sure whether I'll go back to it. Depends on how my calendar clears up. I did find that the fights in the Catch 22 adaptation from George Clooney a while back had more captivating air scenes.

[Ran]

9 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

One thing I didn't understand

  Hide contents

The fact that the Sons of Don just all of a sudden had to go back to the Lands of Eternal Summer. That was a bit abrupt.

Spoiler

My recollection is that by defeating Arawn, the age of magic had come to an end, and everyone with magical blood in their veins would need to depart back to the Summer Country where the Sons of Don originated from.

It's probably true that some hints of this could have been dropped earlier, but maybe there were and I don't recall it. Obviously, he took inspiration from Tolkien here, with the end of the Third Age and the departure of the Elves to the West.

You might also try Alexander's Westmark trilogy if you are checking out more of his work. It's more mature and darker in a lot of ways, and there's some philosophical matter too. It's not really a fantasy, but it uses a made-up world and history, and features the kingdom of Westmark which is sort of an analog to late-17th/early-18th century France, with muskets and pistols and all. Machinations, printing presses, revolt, intrigue, etc.

Edited February 19 by Ran

[SpaceChampion]

On 2/12/2024 at 3:44 PM, Veltigar said:

I watched The Black Cauldron, Disney's fabulously expensive "1985 animated dark fantasy adventure film." This bombed like crazy at the box office and it's not hard to see why. Probably one of the worst Disney films I have seen.

I read that the books this is based on are a lot different, but I'm not sure whether I'd even want to try and read them after this.

The movie is a mishmash of the first two books, The Book of Three, and The Black Cauldron.   But you would know that by now.  There is a book of short stories set in Prydain too, The Foundling and Other Tales, but I wouldn't say it's a must-read.

Loved the Prydain Chronicles as a kid and reread multiple times.  I would take breaks from Lord of the Rings to reread.  I understand there was development on a movie or tv series about 5 years ago but no news on that since.

Westmark is excellent.  I'd call it a secondary world with alternate history like G G Kay's post-Fionavar novels, except aimed at teens.

 

Edited February 19 by SpaceChampion

[hauberk]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

You know, based on your commentaries, I actually looked up the books and found them for a pretty cheap price online. I bought them and read them last week. They were really good, especially the later ones. Taran Wanderer and The High King were just beautiful and the series as a whole had some pretty good life lessons for kids. So thank you to the both of you for inspiring me to check them out!

The first two were also good, but I think a turn off for me was the outdated

  Hide contents

interactions between Eilonwy and Taran. It improves over time, but it's a bit 1960s, which is okay, since that's when they were written of course.

  I was particularly impressed by the following aspect

  Reveal hidden contents

I was sure that Taran would turn out to be the son of Achren and Arawn Death-Lord. It seemed a convenient way to explain the rift between Achren and Arawn and her feelings of hatred, plus it would fit the conventional Hidden Prince trope. 

The fact that he turned out to be the son of no one in particular and would never know his parents was a big deviation from the standard, but I liked the philosophical implications. In general, I thought its process of turning Taran away from his dreams of glory towards understanding his people, their plight and their needs was different from what you usually see in fantasy.

One thing I didn't understand

  Reveal hidden contents

The fact that the Sons of Don just all of a sudden had to go back to the Lands of Eternal Summer. That was a bit abrupt.

 

Based on what you @hauberk and you wrote, I'm not sure whether I'll go back to it. Depends on how my calendar clears up. I did find that the fights in the Catch 22 adaptation from George Clooney a while back had more captivating air scenes.

I think it’s been brought back around pretty effectively. 

[kissdbyfire]

I started watching Fortitude. I have no idea why I hadn’t yet, but I’m enjoying it so far and I hope it doesn’t abruptly jump the shark halfway through.

[l2 0 5 5]

Making my way through The Shield again. For some reason I stopped watching it like ten years ago when I first started it. Made it through like five seasons. In season 3 now. It's hold up pretty well. 

[Mexal]

9 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Making my way through The Shield again. For some reason I stopped watching it like ten years ago when I first started it. Made it through like five seasons. In season 3 now. It's hold up pretty well. 

One of my all time favorite shows. Quality level is even from season 1 to the end and that's an impressive thing to nail. Enjoy the journey mate.

[dbunting]

21 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Based on what you @hauberk and you wrote, I'm not sure whether I'll go back to it. Depends on how my calendar clears up. I did find that the fights in the Catch 22 adaptation from George Clooney a while back had more captivating air scenes.

I am current on Masters of the Air now. The most recent episode finally had me feeling something, caring a little about the characters.

Spoiler

Hate to say it but now that they killed off every pilot and crew member maybe I will enjoy watching the next ones. I think my biggest issue w the show was the actors, just couldn't stand them. They all felt like they were pretending to be 1940's humans and good acting shouldn't feel like that.