L+?=J confirmed in the finale. The season teased an answer earlier and thankfully delivered by season's end. The father wasn't revealed but there is only one option.
I'm feeling a bit annoyed now about all the High Sparrow stuff. That entire plotline has resulted ultimately in everyone dying and Cersei on the throne. I guess we got further confirmation that Cersei is a cold, cold person.
Varys = Tom Bombadil. Dude just teleports around like nothing.
I didn't think they would be able to "outdo" last week's episode. I was wrong - I thought the finale was bonkers-awesomesauce.
I could not believe how many named characters they rivals Cersei managed to wipe out in the Sept of Baelor, though I don't know how she'll maintain her sanity knowing Tommen killed himself because he couldn't live with her slaughter. I did not see it coming, but when they cut back to him in his room, my wife says, "He's gonna kill himself."
I don't know what to think about what Littlefinger's got planned; I still haven't developed a lot of faith in Sansa's ability to manage things.
Everything else felt well-timed and perfectly executed...no pun intended.
also, I'm with Rhu-Ru - that was sweet (not 'cute' sweet either)
Legend - Starring Tom Hardy in the role(s) of twin brothers: gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray. I was impressed with Director Brian Helgeland & Hardy's ability to pull the dual-role off, but the story never really went anywhere.
Carol - I came away thinking that 10 or 15 years ago, this love story complicated by the social mores of the era it was set in would have been a riskier play for those involved (probably cliché to cite Brokeback Mountain, but that's what came to mind). As it stands, it felt like a love story, complicated by the unacceptability of same-sex relationships in the 1950's, but somehow, not as challenging as I'd expected. It was beautiful and heartbreaking, but I felt like the ending was almost too neat.
The Hateful Eight - Tarantino's work is par for the course, i.e., pretty great, but when you get to work with basically anyone you'd like, and get the kind of performance out of unexpected participants like Jennifer Jason Leigh ... man, how much credit goes to him and how much to his actors? Paging spooky, because I don't know. Between his 19th Century period pieces, I liked Django a bit better than this, but only by the slimmest of margins.
Trumbo - Holy Cow! Bryan Cranston (maybe even more deserving of the little golden man than Leo, and I was rooting hard for his work in The Revenant) doing some of his finest work. Great work out of Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Alan Tudyk, Michael Stuhlbarg, John Goodman ... even Louis C.K. was a great fit. Entertaining, thought-provoking (it even feels "timely" somehow), well written and acted ... I would highly recommend this movie.
Oh, Cranston -- forgot to mention HBO's All the Way; although a few minor points were altered, Cranston's LBJ and Whitmore's Humphrey were very well done.
I maintain Cranston deserved several more awards than he ever got for his role on Malcolm In The Middle. He made that show.
I feel like Littlefinger's best possible outcome is that eventually Sansa's claim to the throne is the strongest (after dealing with the White Walkers and Daenerys, etc., you know, minor details) and he somehow both wins her heart and dispatches Jon Snow and then Sansa decides she's not interested in ruling and appoints him to the throne. Seems like an awful longshot, but I don't think he's lying when he says he wants to sit on the iron throne and at the moment, I don't see a better path forward for him.
That said, the show seems to reward people for single-mindedly looking out for themselves, and he's made it this far, so who knows.
I haven't yet seen The Hateful Eight despite owning it for a month or so now (I actually can't find it).
I can answer the question, though; if an "unlikely" actor turns in a great performance, I typically assume the director knew how to find a great performance in them - particularly if the actor in question becomes just okay again afterward. A film director has much more control over an actor's performance than a stage director does. If you cast a bad actor or an okay actor in a stage play, people will know.
That makes a lot of sense - thanks!
I'm assuming the opposite is true as well, considering how bad Chris Evans was in F4 and how good he's been in his other flics
Yeah. Michael Chiklis was pretty bad in (what I could stand to watch of) F4 as well, so I'd say all director there.
I felt like the way they treated the High Sparrow storyline was consistent with the themes in the rest of the show. In particular, the way that the High Sparrow got taken out reminded me of how the Mountain killed Oberyn--Oberyn got cocky thinking he'd won and started grandstanding. Here the High Sparrow screwed up by thinking he had won his fight against Cersei and didn't keep calculating all the way through the end of the game (unlike Margaery, who was nearly a worthy adversary for Cersei.)
You could even draw a parallel with Loras getting killed after finally "finding religion" and agreeing to do what the High Sparrow asked and Stannis' downfall--Stannis buying into Melisandre so fully that he was willing to burn his daughter at the stake and then basically immediately getting killed. In the show, boldly forging your own path tends to be rewarded more than blindly following someone else, even in some non-religious examples like Ned agreeing to be Hand to Robert because he's asked and because they are friends.
I'm also a sucker for big wildfire explosions, so I liked that, too.
I'm also a sucker for big wildfire explosions, so I liked that, too.
Ditto to that; Blackwater Bay episode is criminally low on the Top 10 episodes list
To me it seemed like this season killed off a slew of the baddies, maybe because they had the liberty with not following Martin storyline that closely. Seriously, Ramsey Bolton, Balon Greyjoy, Bowen Marsh, High Sparrow, Walder Frey...although of course several of the good folk as well.
To me it seemed like this season killed off a slew of the baddies
This was one of the things I was most happy with in the season finale, and the season as a whole as well. I enjoyed all those storylines, and the show works well when there are some purely evil people around to hate, but if tying up some of those loose ends means more time to focus on the showdown between the big three candidates for the throne (Jon Snow, Cersei, and Dany). Plus, it's not like there aren't any other compelling characters left behind: Arya, the Clegane boys, Bronn, Bran and his new Three-eyed Raven powers, Littlefinger, Sansa, Lyanna Mormont, Tyrion, etc.
This felt like a perfect finale for where the show is now: plenty of big reveals, a big explosion and lots of big characters dying, but more importantly setting everything up for the next seasons. I haven't been this excited for the next season to come after any of the the previous finales.
Oh, there are certainly a crapton of interesting characters, but there are very few evil ones left: the Sand Snakes, Cercei, White Walker king, ...? Littlefinger is self-serving, but not really evil, same goes for The Hound or Melisandre
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved the series as a kid, and don't remember it enough to compare well to the movie, but the soundtrack and the interplay between Hammer and Superman makes the show very entertaining to me.
If you have HBO, you'll have seen Matt Damon stranded on Mars innumerable times now.
The latest X-Men was okay. They're starting to blur together.
No movies. Linds and I were going to have a date night to see Xmen, but it just never happened.
TV:
Started the second season of Gravity Falls. Fun show.
Started the newest season of GoT. I need to remember that I really like this show.
Started the newest season of Orange is the New Black. So far, it's better than season 3, which underwhelmed me. I'm irritated about a couple of things, but overall, I like where things are going.
They've taken one of my favorite characters (Poussey) and dead-ended all of her storylines in favor of only the ones that involve her being Soso's girlfriend. Since Soso is an utterly insufferable character, this is not a positive development.
Pixels - okay, I get that this is an Adam Sandler flick and all, and it's not the greatest movie out there, but I enjoyed it. Several great 80's nostalgia moments (similar to what made Wedding Singer so great). Alice Through the Looking Glass - not sure if I reported this one yet. I feared the worst. It wasn't terrible, but I don't like how Depp gets so much time and billing in a movie that's not supposed to be about him. I asked my daughter how much of this was in the book (no, I haven't read the book, sue me), and she said "not much at all." About what I expected. All the time stuff kept my interest. X-Men: Days of Future Past - I decided I needed to see this before I saw the new one. Was okay. Not as good as I had hoped, but still full of mutant goodness. The breakout of Magneto was awesome though. Kudos Quicksilver.
Regarding Game of Thrones. Ugh.... I really wanted to experience the events in the book, but Martin's slow-ass writing kept me from that. I've been reading the synopses, which sound amazing. I may have to watch this season, but I know they changed a lot in Season 5, so I feel like I should go back and watch that. And if I go back and watch that... should I start the whole series... Gah... curse you Martin!
I heard about the television series before reading any of the books and my strategy in general when there is a TV option and a book option and I haven't done either is to go the TV route first and do the book second. For me, it's basically inevitable that a TV series won't quite live up to the images I've created in my head, but I can usually appreciate a novel after I've seen it's on-screen adaptation. But probably if I got hooked on the books first, I'd want to go all the way through before getting on the TV bandwagon.
I went about it exactly the opposite (though your reasoning makes more sense than my irrational, GOML-esque, "a book came first and should be consumed as the author intended before seeing a director's take on it..."). I heard there was going to be a series and avoided it altogether until I'd finally read all the books. Now, I can barely remember how the various themes, storylines, characters, etc., interacted in the books as the show has superimposed itself on my brain. I will definitely be rereading the books before picking up Winds ... whenever he finishes it.
I got a Amazon gift card from the in-laws for my birthday. I spent part of it on getting the 40th anniversary edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I spent Sunday afternoon giving Junior an education.
well done.
My friends and I finished Person of Interest this weekend. Excellent finale to a very, very good show.
A couple of us went to Midnight Special, which I liked quite a bit. It had a much stronger sci-fi bent than I was anticipating, but I have no issues with that. It wasn't as good as Mud, but it's still well worth watching.
I also did a re-watch of Magic Mike which I still absolutely adore.
J & I are planning on going to see The Lobster tomorrow, and we're definitely going to see Makoto Shinkai's new film (your name.) while we're at AX which has me too excited for words.
I really want to see Lobster.
I also want to see Everbody Wants Some.
I found out Everybody Wants Some! was here at 2 am, the day before its last showing at 2pm. Ugh. It's out on Blu-ray soon, at least! I am very excited to watch it.
The digital version is available now.
A friend that loves Dazed & Confused gave EWS a 3 out of 10. Hope it exceeds that!
Ooooh. That's good to know!
Fellas, thanks for the heads-up - I really enjoyed Mud but hadn't heard of Midnight Special and forgot about Everybody Wants Some (no idea how, I've probably watched Dazed like 2-dozen times).
The lobster is one of the best movies I've seen in years.
I've actually been pretty busy movie wise recently.
I have up on any hope of the Song of Ice and Fire books moving forward, so I'm catching up on the series. I'm about half way through season 5. Seeing some of the big moments in screen was pretty cool.
Watched Deadpool last month. I loved it and thought it was hilarious. As crude as it is, I was concerned if was going to fall off the bro-deep end with the humor, but it didn't.
I've also been catching up with marvel movies. I watched all three Captain America's as well as Age of Ultron. I really loved all the Cap clicks, easily the best in the MU. Ultron was.... Not as good. But it was probably a necessary evil to set up the motivations for Civil War.
Took the kids to see Finding Dory last weekend. Really solid. The humor was good and the story was different enough to make it worth it.
Totally agree on the Cappy films, they all have been pretty solid.
Hey! I can play this month.
Batman v. Superman. Stoopid.
Cap vs Ironman: Cool stuff. Very enjoyable. The Mrs. liked it but thought that too much of the fight scene stuff was too "obviously" CGI'd (a technical criticism, which I accept).
Age of Apocalypse: I enjoyed it, despite stoopid. The Boy hated it.
Off the DVR: Lucy. Oh, god, so stoopid. Had a vaguely interesting premise, but terrible script and plotting. Still, some good moments. And Scarlett. Luc Besson is much better off knowingly making kitsch (The Fifth Element) instead of pretentious crap like this. My description of it immediately afterwards was that it reminded me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture for its ponderous, pointless and pretentious visuals.
Off the DVR: Vantage Point. This is one the Boy picked. I was skeptical, but it managed to hook me in despite the fairly ridiculous plot twists in the second half of the film. The multiple-points-of-view storytelling worked pretty well until it didn't.
the Morgan Freeman character with a "theory" that predicted it? Oy.
I made J watch this and it was so stupid it literally made her cry.
Went and saw Keanu in the theater. Dumb fun. I miss Key & Peele.
Yeah, I had the same reaction.
Saw Civil War. Enjoyed, but not as much as Winter Soldier. Needed more Cap. A solid monologue from him might have perfected the flick. They were too worried about humanizing Stark's side that they left out some of the protagonist being all heroic.
Been rewatching The West Wing, jumping around a little in the first few seasons. Dang that was a good show.
Also a little of The Twilight Zone. Makes me think of Spookymilk Survivor writing, but on tv. Very enjoyable.
In the last month, we finished up on Netflix...
Terriers. Man, this was a great show.
House of Cards. Each season gets progressively more ridiculous and stupid, but Sheenie wants to keep watching so I usually just putz around while it's on.
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Both seasons get much worse towards the end when Tina Fey decides to introduce herself as a recurring character. Still, the one-liners coming from Titus are absolutely amazing and the joke about how the internet talks still cracks me up.
Also watched What We Do in the Shadows. That might be the most hilariously stupid thing I've seen in a long, long time. It was very, very creative and very, very, very silly.
I loved Shadows. Taika Waititi is an absolute gem.
It's the funniest comedy I've seen in years. I'm so excited for the follow-up, We're Wolves.
vote Zack
Both seasons get much worse towards the end
The absolute cratering in quality toward the end of the first season (Jon Hamm's brilliance aside) mean that getting Linds (or myself, if I'm honest) to watch the second season will be an uphill battle.
In regards to House of Cards, we're about halfway through the third season. I'm pretty sure that neither of us really care about the story, and half the time, the crazy schemes he comes up with are so convoluted and arcane and unrealistic that we just sort of tune out and at the end of the episode say "oh, Frank wins again? okay." I don't know if either of us still even want to watch it.
I disagree re: quality. I thought they maintained quality, but sort of switched to storylines I was less interested in generally. Execution remained high, and I concede the "necessity" of those particular storylines. And I liked Fey's character in season 2. I guess I'm a defender of the series.
Don't get me wrong, I like the series. Still, her ridiculously pointless Marcia Clark impression detracted from the brilliance of Jon Hamm. I thought Titus's journey at the end of season 2 was way more interesting and effective than Kimmy's.
I agree with both of those points, but maintain my assertions.
I didn't realize Terriers was on Netflix. Started it last night.
Thanks for the tip!
I think Paul Giamatti's an amazing actor (loved him in Sideways, Love & Mercy, John Adams ... I could go on, but I can't recall a "bad" performance). I did not know that his pops was President of the NL for 2 years and (briefly) MLB Commissioner until his untimely death in Sept. 1989. Sounds like Paul was never a huge fan of baseball, but I'm excited to check out The Phenom.
I wonder ... do more people associate Knoblauch with the Twins or the Yankees?
I wonder ... do more people associate Knoblauch with the Twins or the Yankees?
Compare the populations of NY and MN, then get back to me.
So Rod Carew is an Angel and Johan is a Met? 😉
Though I suppose being on a run of three consecutive WS-winning Yankees teams doesn't hurt either (while only winning one - as a rookie - in MN).
Thank God the HOF don't think this way, though.
But his best years by far were in MN, and he spent far longer with the Twins than with the Yankees. I'd bet on the Twins in this one.
In this case he was talking about Knoblauch's throwing issue that happened when he was with the Yankees, so seems reasonable to all him a Yankee 2nd baseman, but it did give me a pause seeing it written that way.
Things I've been watching (Maybe I'll comment later):
Royal Pains, Hinterland, Miss Dynamite
What else?
All on Netflix:
Hinterland (Y Gwyll): a S4C (Welsh BBC?) detective series that's apparently shot bilingually (Welsh and English). Not exactly sure how that works: back-to-back takes in different languages? The English is not dubbed. 90 minute episodes. Imagine Luther without any action or exposition of backstory. All the characters are horribly hurt and damaged people and we don't know much about them. Very slow-moving, low amounts of dialogue (to prevent having to shoot so many scenes twice?), everyone is brooding and just thinking and looking and feeling bad, depressed, and probably sleep-deprived and that's how they solve murder cases.
Wales is presented as a horrible desolate backwoods place, equal parts Australian outback and Scottish highlands, but with Seattle weather and locals who side with the country-folk when they watch Deliverance. And it's always winter (but never snows). It's fast rising on my list of dream international travel destinations,
The show is 90% mood and I fall asleep a lot while watching it (EAR doesn't like it so I have to wait until she's gone to bed), which makes me miss parts and re-watch other parts trying to piece the whole story together, which just adds to it. I really like it, but I feel it may not be for everyone. Oh, and I swear the opening titles were done by someone who did some Autechre sleeves for the Designers Republic back in the 90s.
Woochi: Korean comedic martial arts epic. I liked it a lot more than the other Korean martial arts film I watched a few months ago (name forgotten, tea featured prominently), and more than some Chinese ones, too. I think this gave me a better sense of Korea, and also a more continuous story. Not quite up there with Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", but way better than Donnie Yen's "Iceman".
Miss Dynamite: half-hour Netflix-only autobiographical (mostly?) comedy series starring the Minnesotan comedienne Maria Bamford as herself. I'm enjoying it a lot, and I find resonance with some of the weird things that go on in my head.
This is here.
Lyanna Mormont FTW.
Legend - Starring Tom Hardy in the role(s) of twin brothers: gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray. I was impressed with Director Brian Helgeland & Hardy's ability to pull the dual-role off, but the story never really went anywhere.
Carol - I came away thinking that 10 or 15 years ago, this love story complicated by the social mores of the era it was set in would have been a riskier play for those involved (probably cliché to cite Brokeback Mountain, but that's what came to mind). As it stands, it felt like a love story, complicated by the unacceptability of same-sex relationships in the 1950's, but somehow, not as challenging as I'd expected. It was beautiful and heartbreaking, but I felt like the ending was almost too neat.
The Hateful Eight - Tarantino's work is par for the course, i.e., pretty great, but when you get to work with basically anyone you'd like, and get the kind of performance out of unexpected participants like Jennifer Jason Leigh ... man, how much credit goes to him and how much to his actors? Paging spooky, because I don't know. Between his 19th Century period pieces, I liked Django a bit better than this, but only by the slimmest of margins.
Trumbo - Holy Cow! Bryan Cranston (maybe even more deserving of the little golden man than Leo, and I was rooting hard for his work in The Revenant) doing some of his finest work. Great work out of Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Alan Tudyk, Michael Stuhlbarg, John Goodman ... even Louis C.K. was a great fit. Entertaining, thought-provoking (it even feels "timely" somehow), well written and acted ... I would highly recommend this movie.
Oh, Cranston -- forgot to mention HBO's All the Way; although a few minor points were altered, Cranston's LBJ and Whitmore's Humphrey were very well done.
I maintain Cranston deserved several more awards than he ever got for his role on Malcolm In The Middle. He made that show.
I haven't yet seen The Hateful Eight despite owning it for a month or so now (I actually can't find it).
I can answer the question, though; if an "unlikely" actor turns in a great performance, I typically assume the director knew how to find a great performance in them - particularly if the actor in question becomes just okay again afterward. A film director has much more control over an actor's performance than a stage director does. If you cast a bad actor or an okay actor in a stage play, people will know.
That makes a lot of sense - thanks!
I'm assuming the opposite is true as well, considering how bad Chris Evans was in F4 and how good he's been in his other flics
Yeah. Michael Chiklis was pretty bad in (what I could stand to watch of) F4 as well, so I'd say all director there.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved the series as a kid, and don't remember it enough to compare well to the movie, but the soundtrack and the interplay between Hammer and Superman makes the show very entertaining to me.
If you have HBO, you'll have seen Matt Damon stranded on Mars innumerable times now.
The latest X-Men was okay. They're starting to blur together.
No movies. Linds and I were going to have a date night to see Xmen, but it just never happened.
TV:
Started the second season of Gravity Falls. Fun show.
Started the newest season of GoT. I need to remember that I really like this show.
Started the newest season of Orange is the New Black. So far, it's better than season 3, which underwhelmed me. I'm irritated about a couple of things, but overall, I like where things are going.
Pixels - okay, I get that this is an Adam Sandler flick and all, and it's not the greatest movie out there, but I enjoyed it. Several great 80's nostalgia moments (similar to what made Wedding Singer so great).
Alice Through the Looking Glass - not sure if I reported this one yet. I feared the worst. It wasn't terrible, but I don't like how Depp gets so much time and billing in a movie that's not supposed to be about him. I asked my daughter how much of this was in the book (no, I haven't read the book, sue me), and she said "not much at all." About what I expected. All the time stuff kept my interest.
X-Men: Days of Future Past - I decided I needed to see this before I saw the new one. Was okay. Not as good as I had hoped, but still full of mutant goodness. The breakout of Magneto was awesome though. Kudos Quicksilver.
Regarding Game of Thrones. Ugh.... I really wanted to experience the events in the book, but Martin's slow-ass writing kept me from that. I've been reading the synopses, which sound amazing. I may have to watch this season, but I know they changed a lot in Season 5, so I feel like I should go back and watch that. And if I go back and watch that... should I start the whole series... Gah... curse you Martin!
I heard about the television series before reading any of the books and my strategy in general when there is a TV option and a book option and I haven't done either is to go the TV route first and do the book second. For me, it's basically inevitable that a TV series won't quite live up to the images I've created in my head, but I can usually appreciate a novel after I've seen it's on-screen adaptation. But probably if I got hooked on the books first, I'd want to go all the way through before getting on the TV bandwagon.
I went about it exactly the opposite (though your reasoning makes more sense than my irrational, GOML-esque, "a book came first and should be consumed as the author intended before seeing a director's take on it..."). I heard there was going to be a series and avoided it altogether until I'd finally read all the books. Now, I can barely remember how the various themes, storylines, characters, etc., interacted in the books as the show has superimposed itself on my brain. I will definitely be rereading the books before picking up Winds ... whenever he finishes it.
I got a Amazon gift card from the in-laws for my birthday. I spent part of it on getting the 40th anniversary edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I spent Sunday afternoon giving Junior an education.
well done.
My friends and I finished Person of Interest this weekend. Excellent finale to a very, very good show.
A couple of us went to Midnight Special, which I liked quite a bit. It had a much stronger sci-fi bent than I was anticipating, but I have no issues with that. It wasn't as good as Mud, but it's still well worth watching.
I also did a re-watch of Magic Mike which I still absolutely adore.
J & I are planning on going to see The Lobster tomorrow, and we're definitely going to see Makoto Shinkai's new film (your name.) while we're at AX which has me too excited for words.
I really want to see Lobster.
I also want to see Everbody Wants Some.
I found out Everybody Wants Some! was here at 2 am, the day before its last showing at 2pm. Ugh. It's out on Blu-ray soon, at least! I am very excited to watch it.
The digital version is available now.
A friend that loves Dazed & Confused gave EWS a 3 out of 10. Hope it exceeds that!
Ooooh. That's good to know!
Fellas, thanks for the heads-up - I really enjoyed Mud but hadn't heard of Midnight Special and forgot about Everybody Wants Some (no idea how, I've probably watched Dazed like 2-dozen times).
The lobster is one of the best movies I've seen in years.
I've actually been pretty busy movie wise recently.
I have up on any hope of the Song of Ice and Fire books moving forward, so I'm catching up on the series. I'm about half way through season 5. Seeing some of the big moments in screen was pretty cool.
Watched Deadpool last month. I loved it and thought it was hilarious. As crude as it is, I was concerned if was going to fall off the bro-deep end with the humor, but it didn't.
I've also been catching up with marvel movies. I watched all three Captain America's as well as Age of Ultron. I really loved all the Cap clicks, easily the best in the MU. Ultron was.... Not as good. But it was probably a necessary evil to set up the motivations for Civil War.
Took the kids to see Finding Dory last weekend. Really solid. The humor was good and the story was different enough to make it worth it.
Totally agree on the Cappy films, they all have been pretty solid.
Hey! I can play this month.
Batman v. Superman. Stoopid.
Cap vs Ironman: Cool stuff. Very enjoyable. The Mrs. liked it but thought that too much of the fight scene stuff was too "obviously" CGI'd (a technical criticism, which I accept).
Age of Apocalypse: I enjoyed it, despite stoopid. The Boy hated it.
Off the DVR: Lucy. Oh, god, so stoopid. Had a vaguely interesting premise, but terrible script and plotting. Still, some good moments. And Scarlett. Luc Besson is much better off knowingly making kitsch (The Fifth Element) instead of pretentious crap like this. My description of it immediately afterwards was that it reminded me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture for its ponderous, pointless and pretentious visuals.
Off the DVR: Vantage Point. This is one the Boy picked. I was skeptical, but it managed to hook me in despite the fairly ridiculous plot twists in the second half of the film. The multiple-points-of-view storytelling worked pretty well until it didn't.
Of course it is. Isn't that the point?
Even dumber,
I made J watch this and it was so stupid it literally made her cry.
Went and saw Keanu in the theater. Dumb fun. I miss Key & Peele.
Yeah, I had the same reaction.
Saw Civil War. Enjoyed, but not as much as Winter Soldier. Needed more Cap. A solid monologue from him might have perfected the flick. They were too worried about humanizing Stark's side that they left out some of the protagonist being all heroic.
Been rewatching The West Wing, jumping around a little in the first few seasons. Dang that was a good show.
Also a little of The Twilight Zone. Makes me think of Spookymilk Survivor writing, but on tv. Very enjoyable.
In the last month, we finished up on Netflix...
Terriers. Man, this was a great show.
House of Cards. Each season gets progressively more ridiculous and stupid, but Sheenie wants to keep watching so I usually just putz around while it's on.
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Both seasons get much worse towards the end when Tina Fey decides to introduce herself as a recurring character. Still, the one-liners coming from Titus are absolutely amazing and the joke about how the internet talks still cracks me up.
Also watched What We Do in the Shadows. That might be the most hilariously stupid thing I've seen in a long, long time. It was very, very creative and very, very, very silly.
I loved Shadows. Taika Waititi is an absolute gem.
It's the funniest comedy I've seen in years. I'm so excited for the follow-up, We're Wolves.
vote Zack
The absolute cratering in quality toward the end of the first season (Jon Hamm's brilliance aside) mean that getting Linds (or myself, if I'm honest) to watch the second season will be an uphill battle.
In regards to House of Cards, we're about halfway through the third season. I'm pretty sure that neither of us really care about the story, and half the time, the crazy schemes he comes up with are so convoluted and arcane and unrealistic that we just sort of tune out and at the end of the episode say "oh, Frank wins again? okay." I don't know if either of us still even want to watch it.
I disagree re: quality. I thought they maintained quality, but sort of switched to storylines I was less interested in generally. Execution remained high, and I concede the "necessity" of those particular storylines. And I liked Fey's character in season 2. I guess I'm a defender of the series.
Don't get me wrong, I like the series. Still, her ridiculously pointless Marcia Clark impression detracted from the brilliance of Jon Hamm. I thought Titus's journey at the end of season 2 was way more interesting and effective than Kimmy's.
I agree with both of those points, but maintain my assertions.
I didn't realize Terriers was on Netflix. Started it last night.
Thanks for the tip!
I think Paul Giamatti's an amazing actor (loved him in Sideways, Love & Mercy, John Adams ... I could go on, but I can't recall a "bad" performance). I did not know that his pops was President of the NL for 2 years and (briefly) MLB Commissioner until his untimely death in Sept. 1989. Sounds like Paul was never a huge fan of baseball, but I'm excited to check out The Phenom.
I wonder ... do more people associate Knoblauch with the Twins or the Yankees?
I wonder ... do more people associate Knoblauch with the Twins or the Yankees?
Compare the populations of NY and MN, then get back to me.
So Rod Carew is an Angel and Johan is a Met? 😉
Though I suppose being on a run of three consecutive WS-winning Yankees teams doesn't hurt either (while only winning one - as a rookie - in MN).
Thank God the HOF don't think this way, though.
But his best years by far were in MN, and he spent far longer with the Twins than with the Yankees. I'd bet on the Twins in this one.
In this case he was talking about Knoblauch's throwing issue that happened when he was with the Yankees, so seems reasonable to all him a Yankee 2nd baseman, but it did give me a pause seeing it written that way.
Things I've been watching (Maybe I'll comment later):
Royal Pains, Hinterland, Miss Dynamite
What else?
All on Netflix:
Hinterland (Y Gwyll): a S4C (Welsh BBC?) detective series that's apparently shot bilingually (Welsh and English). Not exactly sure how that works: back-to-back takes in different languages? The English is not dubbed. 90 minute episodes. Imagine Luther without any action or exposition of backstory. All the characters are horribly hurt and damaged people and we don't know much about them. Very slow-moving, low amounts of dialogue (to prevent having to shoot so many scenes twice?), everyone is brooding and just thinking and looking and feeling bad, depressed, and probably sleep-deprived and that's how they solve murder cases.
Wales is presented as a horrible desolate backwoods place, equal parts Australian outback and Scottish highlands, but with Seattle weather and locals who side with the country-folk when they watch Deliverance. And it's always winter (but never snows). It's fast rising on my list of dream international travel destinations,
The show is 90% mood and I fall asleep a lot while watching it (EAR doesn't like it so I have to wait until she's gone to bed), which makes me miss parts and re-watch other parts trying to piece the whole story together, which just adds to it. I really like it, but I feel it may not be for everyone. Oh, and I swear the opening titles were done by someone who did some Autechre sleeves for the Designers Republic back in the 90s.
Woochi: Korean comedic martial arts epic. I liked it a lot more than the other Korean martial arts film I watched a few months ago (name forgotten, tea featured prominently), and more than some Chinese ones, too. I think this gave me a better sense of Korea, and also a more continuous story. Not quite up there with Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", but way better than Donnie Yen's "Iceman".
Miss Dynamite: half-hour Netflix-only autobiographical (mostly?) comedy series starring the Minnesotan comedienne Maria Bamford as herself. I'm enjoying it a lot, and I find resonance with some of the weird things that go on in my head.