For the eleventieth month in a row, I enter this post wishing I had more to talk about. Maybe in the next life I'll see movies again.
I did attend This is the End. There were some true, huge laugh-out-loud moments. There were also clearly ad-libbed bits that fell flat and brought the crowd to dead silence. All in all, I'm glad I saw it and it was actually the first movie I saw with the Milkmaid in the theater (without our kids) since The Rundown. Remember that? I might not, but for the fact that we found Skim's real name in it.
I've also found time to watch a few episodes of House of Cards, which remains incredible, with superb acting and writing to match. Let me make this clear to those on the fence: I didn't think I liked political shows either, but dude...this show. I also decided what the hell...I'll pick up where I left off in The Office (season eight, about a quarter of the way through). Maybe it's an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" sort of thing, but they were still telling some pretty good stories in a post-Michael Schur world there.
And, as always, I can name everypony on a certain kids' show and have about fifteen songs from Jem and the Holograms burning holes through my brain. The kids don't even watch all that much TV. It just sticks in there.
Now that I've gotten into reading a little bit more (and I'm running a writing season of Survivor again, so it's more than just the books) again, I'm not sure where that leaves me on my quest to see the hundreds of movies in my queue. I have Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs at my house right now, and I believe that was the disc at my house during last month's post. It's pretty ridiculous that I can't set aside two hours to watch a movie from one of my five favorite directors, but there it is. Kids really suck up one's time when they become interesting, you know?
What have you seen? I'll live vicariously through y'all.
The kids are going to watch kids' shows anyway -- steer them towards Adventure Time! They're only 15 min long, and you'll enjoy them as well.
Late last night, I wanted to watch something short, because I needed to get some sleep. Adventure Time scratched that itch nicely. Now that I've gotten past the initial "wtf??" phase, it's quite a bit of fun.
Of course, then I watched five episodes and got to bed way too late, but whatever.
About every fourth episode you'll find you can't entirely get past the "wtf?" stage. "The Other Tarts" is the zenith of wtfness.
We've seen them all.
My kids have started watching Adventure Time, but I've only caught small bits every now and then as I wander past the TV. I laugh at the absurdity of the parts I see, but I haven't been impelled to start watching it myself- yet.
A lot of my favorite characters are only in one episode. In some cases, only one scene. There's a peanut man who works the door at a gala for a first birthday, and I can't even think of some of the peanut man's lines without bursting into laughter.
The guest voices they have are classic, and for example the lines that Treetrunks throws out makes me wonder if they didn't actually have a sweet, old southern woman ad libbing the scene.
The payoff to that episode is hilarious.
Star Trek -- Meh, the 17 year old boy loved it.
World War Z -- Liked it better than Star Trek, had some tense moments.
Way Way Back -- Nice little movie, the sound was a little muddled where we saw it and I missed some lines. Would recommend as a nice date movie.
Searching for Sugarman -- Great documentary. Definitely well worth the rental.
Sharknado -- Awesome!
WWB: Is that about Chris Berman and the Home Run Derby?
Wow, you managed to mention my two least favorite comic actors in the same movie day post. In other words, I don't intend to see This is the End.
I've been trying to watch House of Cards (about 3 episodes in right now) and the new Arrested Development (seen the first only so far), but man its hard to do with the Trinket nearing 2 years old. I can't stay up late enough to watch them after she goes to bed, so its been slow going. (but don't get me wrong, House of Cards is great and I will get there.)
Anyway, I don't think I've really watched anything new. We started watching My Name is Earl because, for some reason, I never watched it while it was on. (my favorite line so far, discussing a coockoo clock: "You shouldn't have been standing so close, you knew what time it was.)
I've got Rifftrax (from the MST3K guys) and Harikari sitting at home with no good time to watch them yet, since my wife will hate both.
I very much enjoyed My Name Is Earl. Make yourself get into Arrested, even if it's just one episode a night. It's not that many episodes, and they definitely build steam.
I am trying, I promise. It'll probably happen more like two episodes per week because I'm able to stay up later on Fridays and Saturdays. I just don't want to miss jokes because of a loud kid.
Fair enough.
I couldn't watch My Name is Earl, owing to Ethan Suplee. I think without him I probably would have liked it. Jason Lee probably qualifies as my favorite actor without much range.
Yeah, he was pretty painful most of the time. There were select episodes where he worked though.
Oh no you ditn't!
Yeah, you've pointed out your terrible taste in comedic actors before. When I made this post, I actually made a bet with myself whether you'd be forced to lodge your hatred. I was right!
I haven't heard many Rifftrax...uh...tracks. I've seen every MST3K movie about 15 times at the very least (I watch one nearly every night as I wind down) and I've seen the ones they did as The Film Crew, but Rifftrax are harder to get a hold of. Still, I'm not sure why I haven't.
Something I find amusing is that their riffs work as well on a good movie as on a terrible movie. Poor guys...they didn't have to watch all those terrible films after all.
I should have added the spooky-bait after my comment, but figured it wasn't necessary since you didn't add cheaptoy-bait to yours.
Well, if I ever do get the time to watch the Rifftrax, I'll let you know how they are. I wonder if there riffs would have worked best on a movie that was obviously dumb/terrible but really popular. I imageine something like Independance Day would have worked beautifully (or maybe even better, I, Robot, which is how we watched it at the cheap theater in college.)
At the MST3K convention I went to (that's right...I went, and I'm proud) they had a thing where Mike and the Bots riffed on trailers for all the upcoming summer movies. They then did that on TV for the next couple of years. Whether the movies ended up being good or bad, they nailed the jokes. They probably could have done whole episodes on trailers.
My favorite was one for Ever After. Drew Barrymore is in her dress and her face is covered in glitter. She looks up slowly to her prince and Mike says in her voice, "I sneezed in my cocaine."
Where can one find these movies, the more modern ones? I've only ever seen the MST3K movie. I loved it, but it was a long long time ago, and I haven't searched out more.
Hulu has a bunch of The Film Crew, or at least they did. I haven't looked in a while. MST3K proper is right here in all its glory. The creators have always been in favor of fans finding them however they can, so I don't suspect the site will have many problems, besides when streams go down because the directors of certain films they did are still fighting their inclusion in the series.
Rowsdower needs to weigh in on Rifftrax.
Huh, it appears that I only watched one movie this past month.
Chasing Amy
First off, Joey Lauren Adams has a very "distinctive" voice. When she went ballistic (and she seemed to do nothing but alternate between that and cooing softly), I wanted to gouge out my eardrums. The movie had massive flaws - for one it was the most extreme example of Kevin Smith's tendency to whiplash wildly between the scatalogical and the "no. wait, dudes, serious time" and did so less effectively than any movie of his that I can recall. For some reason, I had to alternate the volume in that movie like a million times, too. During the louder scenes, it was blaring to the point where it actually hurt my ears, during the quiet (usually post-coital) cooing, I couldn't understand a damn thing (and had to rewind more than once - a pet peeve of mine).
So, yeah. Not a huge fan, but I didn't hate as quite as completely as the above paragraphs might lead you to believe.
Not a huge fan, but I didn’t hate as quite as completely as the above paragraphs might lead you to believe.
No worries, I got that hate covered for you. I watched this way back in college when it was on the campus movie channel. I think it was when I first decided Kevin Smith is a hack who got lucky a couple of times.
and Chasing Amy is generally his most critically acclaimed movie.
Agreed on Joey Lauren Adams. Her voice is...not pleasant. I love Jason Lee, though. He pretty much kills every scene he's in, figuratively, while Ben Affleck pretty much kills every scene he's in, literally.
I don't think I would've liked the movie much at all, had Jason Lee not been in it.
I don't have hate for Ben Affleck as an actor, but he has that thing where he hangs his mouth open. I don't know if he does it to sell emotion (since I generally notice it in emotionally intense scenes), but it drives me nuts. He does it somewhere in the range of one to two million times in that movie.
I don't mind him if the director can keep him in his range (which isn't much). But his monologue in the car...I think it could have been great. I liked it when I saw it at 18, but I've seen it a couple of times since and I just don't buy it anymore.
I've got a thing for women with raspy voices like Joey Lauren Adams, but I totally understand why other people do not.
As far as Jason Lee goes, this pretty much sums it up:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVbn5YsbMqw
I liked Kevin Smith when I was in college, but still didn't really enjoy this one.
I've gotten over my Kevin Smith love because I've gotten more sensitive to the gross stuff, and it doesn't work for me in the same way that it did when I was 18.
I think that's a good way of putting it. A lot of his jokes only work the first time you see them, which means they're not that good in the first place. There's still quite a bit I still laugh at, but the bad acting and directing sticks out more.
I found this to be even more profound for the American Pie series. I pretty much can't stand those movies anymore, but I was a teenager and would go see them with sheltered people, so they seemed way better than they were.
I was pretty broken hearted on how flat Mallrats fell for me the last time I watched it. Jeremy London's acting was as bad as ever, though.
Me too.
So should I avoid watching it again to hold on to my enjoyment of it?
That would be my recommendation.
It's really terrible. I had to watch it because a guy I know was a featured extra in it and he insisted on showing a bunch of us. I guess I saw it too late in life (about age 21), because I laughed at nothing in that movie.
Hitchcock - lots of great actors and an interesting story. They blew the bookends though: AH only said "Good evening." at the beginning, it was always "Good night." at the end.
I wonder if it was in there, and got edited out. That would have been a nice touch.
No, they had "Good evening." again at the end.
Oh, wow. Strange mistake.
Just saw two movies
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid: Obviously meant to be stupid, but it's not as funny as it needs to be. However, I did laugh out loud once. After Tiffany and Debbie Gibson have the mother of all half-naked catfights in the swamp, they get up and there's an eerie silence. Debbie Gibson says, "I think....we're alone now."
Sharknado: Practically non-stop laughter the whole way through. This movie gets how stupid it is and turns up the stupid to 11. Probably my favorite "bad on purpose" horror/disaster movie.
Otherwise, we've been watching a lot of TV.
Newsroom: Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer are both fantastic, and Aaron Sorkin's writing is solid. The interoffice relationship stuff can get a bit too much at times, and Aaron's political opinions are a bit too obvious, but it's a joy to watch.
Black Books: Irreverent British comedy that lasted just 18 episodes. We just finished season one. It's hit and miss, but the hits are really funny. The first episode is brilliant.
Just 18 episodes...that's not bad for a British series. I'm betting it isn't much less than average.
I watched the first episode this month and have totally forgotten to continue, actually. It's funny so far.
Cabin In The Woods
I don't watch horror films very often, but I'd heard so many good things... I was glad I did. Very enjoyable, a great twist on things. But...
Megashark vs. Crocosaurus
Or something like that. I was going for the "so bad it's funny" thing, obviously. It delivered at times, but there were definitely stretches that were far too long without the humor.
Ballplayer: Pelotero
I'd been meaning to watch this one for a while. Fascinating topic, especially for a baseball fan, and fairly well paced. The "story" didn't really start until the second half of the film, so in some ways it felt like two different movies. As a Twins fan, I think I like Sano just a little bit less, but he was just a kid, and it was largely his childishness that was bothering me. I'd love to see an update of his personality now, if that's possible. I am more excited by his game play though.
Malcom In The Middle
I've been watching this show again (I saw most of it in original run, and much of it in reruns too). It is easily one of my favorite shows of all time.
Parks and Rec
And we've also been slowly working our way through this one again. Class work has slowed my wife down here.
Breaking Bad
So I've been making up for it with Breaking Bad when she's working and I'm in the mood. I'm only 2 or 3 episodes into Season 3, but it really feels like we've laid all the groundwork we need to, and Season 3 is sort of starting back where Walt was at the beginning of Season 1, in some key ways. Almost like there's a cycle here, but that this time through is going to be bigger and quicker than the last time. That excites me.
Breaking Bad - We just started Season 1, three episodes in. Enjoying it immensely so far.
It's been a while since I've seen Cabin in the Woods, but...
Re: Cabin
Also, I'm always worried about logic.
But yeah, Cabin in the Woods pretty much instantly became my favorite horror movie right after watching it.
I'm with you on it being my favorite still. Just... that one problem. Remove it, and you're basically got a flawless plot.
Nope.
Oh, well in that case, I'm with Rhu's interpretation of it, then.
I’d love to see an update of his personality now, if that’s possible.
I've heard a few reports from my trainer friend, and... they weren't exactly glowing. But he's still super young, and for a guy who got paid millions of dollars to stop going to school at age 16 I think immaturity issues are unavoidable.
Yeah. That's kind of what I was thinking. I'm looking forward to the amazing baseball abilities, not to the eventual arrest for DUI.
I do appreciate the inside info. Thanks!
I mean what I heard certainly wasn't anything horrible, and I don't think off-field issues are a given. Just the sort of mild hijinks you get when you combine youth + money + ego. I don't think he's any different from any other baseball player in that regard.
I'm just building off of the Miggy parallels.
Ahh gotcha. And keep in mind that I'm just repeating second-hand scuttlebutt, so it's not exactly gospel. I'm sure he's gonna be just fine.
Did Breaking Bad fans happen to catch this Simpsons opening?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKePrVPGK3g
You said this about Ballplayer: The “story” didn’t really start until the second half of the film, so in some ways it felt like two different movies.
I think that can apply to Cabin in the Woods, too. While I enjoyed the first half just fine, it took a really long time before I thought, what's the hype, here? The second half justifies it, though I wondered if it could have gotten cooking a little earlier. Still, it's a horror movie that's different in some way, and that would have been enough even if it hadn't been as good as it is.
I'll agree with that assessment of Cabin. Also, I don't think I'll ever see Whitford as anyone but Josh.
Whitford's always Eric from Billy Madison for me.
Can't shake it.
Ouch.
When I watched the West Wing (ages ago), I kept expecting Josh to be this secret asshole, and it colored the way I read his actions.
In Cabin, Whitfield pretty much was Josh.
I watched all of Orange is the New Black over the weekend. It's the new Netflix show by the creator of Weeds. I only had a passing tolerance for Weeds, but I thought Orange was fantastic. Highly recommended A+++++ would watch again.
I might add that one to my queue once I get caught up on Breaking Bad. I never watched Weeds and was pretty sure I wouldn't like it, but Orange looks fascinating.
I agree totally on orange. I went on an orange bender after the running of the bulls bender Saturday. I'm 6 episodes in and totally hooked.
I never quite finished the first season of Weeds. I have a feeling most of the fans see the subject matter and assume a ballsy show must be good, or something. I've heard the writing got better, but it would have had to jump leaps and bounds to be watchable after that first season.
I generally enjoyed the first season but I gave the hell up after season two.
Ditto.
I actually kinda liked the first two seasons of Weeds, but after that I thought it took a major nosedive. I've never tried re-watching the first season, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it at all the second time.
It gets worse? Oy.
Broken City - I liked this fine. I enjoy Wahlberg and think Crowe is okay most of the time, but this movie just sort of moved along with "gotcha" moments that didn't really grab me and big reveals that weren't all that revealing. Good casting though.
Breaking Bad - Been hearing good things about this for nearly 5 years. Finally getting the chance to watch it. As I said above, enjoying it immensely so far.
It only gets better.
I've had a pretty absurd schedule for a month so my viewing time has been limited.
The Garden of Words: The new film by Makoto Shinkai who I absolutely adore. The film didn't reduce me to sobbing so that's good. It was absolutely beautiful and I loved it. I was able to get an advance copy of the Blu-Ray at Anime Expo and got it signed by him (along with our import 5 Centimeters Per Second Blu-Ray). He was very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in shaking everyone's hand and saying hello, not just signing and pushing us along. Anyway, this actually comes out next month so go buy it when it does. It's great.
Wolf Children: I've wanted to see this for a really long time. Funimation licensed it and honestly I have no idea when they will be releasing it on disc here. They were showing it at AX, so J & I went to watch it. It was really, really good. It's veeeeery reminiscent of Miyazaki's works (AMR Bait) and I really look forward to watching it again. The director's other films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars were also very enjoyable, but this was probably the best of his films.
Spring Breakers: Finally at home. I've watched it another couple times now that I have it at home, and I think I love it more every time I watch it. Franco's performance is amazing. The cinematography and editing is perfect. It's a beautiful film and I adore how open to interpretation the whole thing is. Admittedly, I'm pretty sure Korine climbed into my brain and made a movie that lines up almost exactly with everything I like so it wasn't even fair. But seriously, it's really great. Watch it. Then talk to me about it.
It’s veeeeery reminiscent of Miyazaki’s works
But does it have a Hisaishi soundtrack?
I saw a boatload of movies this month, mostly due to dr chop being out of the country.
Pacific Rim: the plot gets a meh, the action gets a holy cows, and the resolution gets another meh. Totally worth the air conditioning and pop corn.
The Bling Ring: I'm not sure why the critics hate this movie for being vapid because that's what the movie is about. Duh. I really didn't enjoy watching it per say, but I'm fascinated by it be subject matter and I feel like Coppola got great performances from her cast.
White House Down: seriously!?!? Yes, seriously. I love it when a movie knows what it is, and delivers. Channing seems really gifted at identifying a way to overplay a role without wandering into cliche.
World War Z: mostly a meh from me. 8.75 on nbb's 14 point scale.
I started back into the wire because will posted the clip of Omar on the stand. Just as good the 4th time through. Watched a bit of Downton series 2, and started both Orange Is The New Black and Enlightenment. So far Orange has been fantastic, but Enlightenment suffers from the same problem as girls - lack of any redeeming quality from the protagonists.
Ah, Downton. I've been stalled for a while there, for some reason.
I also watched gasland, and 3/4 of holy rollers. The former gets way forbidden zone-y pretty quickly, but there are some pretty disturbing images of flaming water. The latter is a documentary on a team of blackjack players who are devote Christians. I wasn't captivated, but it was an interesting watch for sure.
I didn't know Channing was in this.
Unaware of how close movie day was, I mentioned yesterday in the CoC that I had been loading up the DVR for the All-Star break. In the meantime, I've been watching a lot of older movies, especially any film noir that I find while surfing the programming guide.
Key Largo - John Huston directing Bogie and Bacall, Edward G. Robinson and Lionel Barrymore. This one is just about as classic as a movie can get, no matter the genre.
The Big Heat - Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin star in this film noir that pits Ford against the mob as a cop out for revenge. Not the best example of the genre, but still plenty good.
Double Indemnity - Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyk and Edward G. Robinson star. Director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler penned the screenplay based on a James Cain novel. This one is at or near the top of every critic's list of great films noir.
The Man Who Knew Too Much - Just watched this one last night. Hitchcock at the helm, Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day in the leads, and all in glorious Technicolor. I've seen this one about a dozen times now and never tire of it. Hitchcock made an earlier version of it in Britain back in the 30's, I'm going to have to hunt down that version to see how they compare.
In Bruges - I started watching this one a year or two ago and only got to see the first 20 minutes or so. I'd been wanting to see the whole thing ever since, and finally got the chance Friday night when the wife went to bed early (she's got a bad chest cold). I really loved this movie about two hit men hiding out in a little Belgian village.
Sin City - One of those movies where I can't take my eyes off the screen. Never mind the lurid and gratuitously violent story, this one's worth watching just for the visual translation of the graphic novel to cinema.
Ted - Hey, sometimes you have to lighten things up. I honestly didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. I thought the premise sounded stupid, but it turned out to be pretty damn funny, despite the obligatory Hollywood mawkishness of the ending.
Sin City is probably my least favorite movie of the past ten years or so. It was really pretty to look at, but the writing just slayed me. "She twisted in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree" is the first line of the movie. I really wish someone else wrote Frank Miller's ideas into something coherent, because the stories are there, but the dialogue...oy.
Yeah, the narration and dialogue were admittedly bad, I just really love the look of it.
I often wish I could love a movie with spectacle but a bad script. After all, I can get into a movie with a script but nothing to look at (though I prefer to have it all).
So, not a big fan of Transformers then, eh?
Definitely not. I don't think the action is good in those movies either, though. Peter Travers basically said what I wanted to after I saw the first one: "grab a bunch of pots and pans and toss them around together. Now you've seen the action scenes in Transformers."
Sin City is the only movie I've seen where I found myself thinking "this is way too violent." Usually with violent movies I can just shrug and say "that's Hollywood for ya," but something about the violence in that one just made me nauseous.
I felt that way during Eastern Promises.
For me, the violence was driven home because it seemed like it was there to cover up the problems. Throw enough shock at the wall and hopefully nobody will notice how dumb it is. I doubt I'd remember how brutal the violence was if the writing had been better. Granted, I'm extremely desensitized to violence.
Twayn, you have to check out the original Man Who Knew Too Much for one scene only: Best. Chair. Fight. In. Movie. History. Ever!
I'm with Twayn.
The first time I saw the original (Peter Lorre! yea!) was at the Alma Mater as an undergrad. The folks showing the film got the reels mixed up. I, as a first-time watcher, sadly knew too little. It was very, very confusing.
Interesting factoid: Lorre learned his lines phonetically, as he did not yet speak English (or speak fluently, at least).
Of course, this earlier film lacks Doris Day's lovely performance of Que Sera, Sera.
I wonder when the phonetic lines thing started. It's funny when a director gets so obsessed with a certain actor's look that he has to pick someone who doesn't speak the language. Ron Perlman is one of the main characters in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's City of Lost Children. Granted, for as much screen time as he gets, he doesn't speak very much.
Bonus!
In Bruges was really enjoyable for me too. I don't really have the best perspective on the quality of actors or movies (for instance, despite the
conventionalWGOM wisdom - I like Costner) but I though Farrell and Gleeson were pitch perfect.That's pretty conventional wisdom, too. Costner is a running gag among actors from professional down to community.
I guess I'm aware of that...I just have a hard time with that assessment because of how many of his movies I've really liked. I'm not very good at separating the actor and their performance from the overall movie experience or my impression of it. Also, I like cowboy movies and baseball movies and he's done more than a few of them.
Edited to add I also like Clint Eastwood (go figure) - what's the conventional wisdom on him as an actor?
Quite positive, though even better is his reputation as one of America's best directors.
It's pretty easy for me, unfortunately, to rip any segment out of a movie and analyze it. It's useful to me as an artist, but makes enjoyment that much more difficult. I once said to Beau on IM, "It was only through years of careful study that I was finally able to stop enjoying movies."
Too bad for you, though it probably makes those that you recommend that much more compelling for us.
You need to rectify this.
I know. I've thought about instituting a "thirty movies for thirty days" self-mandate to see what happens, just so I can have a crazy list for the next one.
We could all do it together!
You've Got Mail?
I find myself liking fewer and fewer movies and more television programs.
I have recently started Friday Night Lights and Deadwood. I started recording The Bridge. I just finished season 1 of Orphan Black.
I think a few people around here would like Orphan Black. Unfortunately, I can't say much without spoilers.
I've seen some of the teasers for Orphan Black over at io9.com- looks interesting, but I think I'd rather wait until it's on Netflix or Hulu so I could stream it.
TV writers have a lot more freedom (not on the networks, but elsewhere) so a lot of the best writers are bolting film to work in TV or on video games. TV's more of a sure thing, too, if you get involved in something good.
I saw This is the End in the theater. I'll second spoons's review. It had some hilarious moments (the last scene was so out of the blue great), but also needed to have some jokes trimmed.
Sheenie and I are just at the end of season 5 of The Shield.
I also watched Ballplayer: Pelotero. Sano did have some maturity issues, but I was completely disgusted by the Pirates. I also appreciated them showing exactly why Sano had to jump through all those hurdles as all the other player they focused on had forged his age.
I found myself more disgusted by MLB generally than the Pirates specifically, as MLB didn't seem to really care about the problem.
You wouldn't be suggesting that the MLB is a cash grab, would you?!
I think it is frequently much more than that - or at least has the potential to be so - which is precisely why it is so maddening when $$$ > integrity. Other sports... meh. I expect it from them. Probably just silly of me to have that kind of double standard, but I believe in baseball and won't let it off easy.
One can "believe in baseball" and still think that the owners are, on balance, @sshats.
What's the quote? Baseball has to be a great game because the owners haven't been able to ruin it, or something like that.
John Thorn, official historian for MLB:
searching for that quote led me to this gem:
Yeah, that's pretty much where I am. But I get angry about it in baseball in a way I don't for other sports.
RE: The Shield
Next week's episode of Venture Bros. is already the season finale?!
Ah, right, I watched season four a few weeks ago. The show's always had a good cleverness/shock ratio, but in season four it tilted a little far on the wrong end and started to lose some punch. Still better than most shows, but seemingly down from the season before.