Looks like we missed this for March. I watched some stuff. Did you too? Tell us more!
70 thoughts on “#ST/ND/RD/TH ______DAY MOVIE DAY”
The Americans is still great.
I have two episodes left of The Office. I actually didn't feel the huge dropoff after Carell left that most people talk about. I loved James Spader, and I felt the actors enjoying themselves more as each season hit on. Surely there are some issues in the later seasons (Gabe, for instance), but I find the show much more comfortable now. I actually felt seasons 4 and 5 were the toughest to slog through (with the exception of season 1 of course, which was horrible).
Beauty and the Beast: Solid. Enjoyed it way more than the cartoon. Every time Gaston was on screen I thought of Captain Hammer.
Lion: I talked about this after I saw it, but I wanted to add that tear-jerking biopics like this I tend to strongly love while I'm watching it, but then have little desire to ever see again. Same goes with The King's Speech.
Regarding The Office after Carell left: It was just different. Much like when we are young and a real cool girlfriend is no longer by your side. Your next girlfriend may be just as smart, witty, beautiful, loving and funny as the previous girlfriend, yet, you don't have the same comfort level as the previous one (at least not for a while). I thought it devastating at the time when Carell left. However, looking back, the post-Carell seasons were still funny, still great TV and I still enjoy them.
I wanted to quit the show during the second to last season when whatever-her-name-is was in charge. Count me in camp "cliffdiving". Spader was fine, but the whole show was missing something (and I don't think it was all Carell).
It was missing Michael Schur. It often seemed to me less like The Office and more like a show doing an impression of The Office. I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't nearly as strong.
I am with you, though I'd say the thing it felt like it was missing was Jim and Pam. Their story, with only a few small exceptions, lacked the spark it had had. I mean, that's easily one of the great TV romances, if not the great TV romance. And then it was just sort of done.
Yep. The relationship had pretty much zero conflict from seasons 4 through 8. Which yeah, you would expect a honeymoon period. But realistically they should have had at least one disagreement after the first child. I mostly liked what they did in season 9 with them; it felt like a real couple's problem and a real couple's resolution.
Between this and Spooky's comment, I find myself wondering how much responsibility Schur had for the Jim/Pam stuff. When I think of Parks & Rec I think of it as a genuinely uplifting, loving show, but it never lacked for conflict. Kind of like the whole show was Jim & Pam when they were compelling.
Pro-tip I learned on my flight yesterday:
Don't choose Lion as your inflight movie during your first long trip away from your son.
I have two episodes left of Westworld. My biggest issue
has been everything having to do with Maeve in the "facility" or whatever it is. How are those 2 idiots (the "blackmail" angle is pretty weak) doing everything in secret when EVERY WALL IS MADE OF GLASS AND THERE ARE LIKELY CAMERAS EVERYWHERE!? How is she able to slice homeboy's throat in the middle of all this and no one saw it?
Other issues too, but that's my most annoying one lately.
the walking around with her and doing computer stuff with her wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
On the throat slashing, you have a point. I wouldn't be surprised if the were a lot more hosts that are part of the staff than we've been lead to believe.
Even sitting in the room though. All of the worker/host dynamics are the hosts sitting upright in that little stool. Instead, she's kicking it with them at the table playing around on a tablet? No one bats an eye at that?
I mean, yeah I know, it's just a TV show, but the whole park is predicated on them knowing exactly what's going on in all corners of it. It's a little annoying that people are committing shocking deeds all over the place but no one seems to see it.
people are committing shocking deeds all over the place but no one seems to see it.
What door?
eh.
My wife and I went through the full season of This Is Us. I thought it was surprisingly good. I was afraid all the characters would be perfect but that isn't the case.
I'm 7 episodes in on Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime. I love it. From the creator of Justified and many of the same actors.
Linds and I have almost caught up to The 100. It starts as a sort of cheesy dystopian CW-ish show and morphs into something pretty interesting. There are infuriating missteps throughout, and it never completely escapes the fact that it's a show on broadcast TV that wants to be on cable (though my goodness are there some scenes in season 3 that I'm surprised they were able to get away with). It's fun and it scratches the sci-fi itch right now.
Logan was good. If you've seen it, then you know that.
King Kong was fine. It's missing something that I can't put my finger on, but it does have a decent number of the scenes you go to a monster movie for. I enjoyed that it had stabs at humor here and there.
what they gotta do is get Pacific Rim 2 finished and released.
Still can't rave enough about Legion. Great cast, and great directing -- like Wes Anderson having a hand in Twin Peaks, with the soap opera replaced by action.
Still plugging away with The Expanse, but I don't feel bad about doing work on my laptop while watching.
I'm two episodes into Legion and really love it so far. It's tough for me to find the time to watch it, though, which is why I haven't gotten much further. Can't watch when the kids are around and I've been playing too many video games outside of that.
Wife and I have watched the whole season of Legion thus far. We enjoy it a lot, but man ... some of the expositions/episodes are so far off the beaten path of how you do television/what a television show might be expected to be, that we generally finish the episodes with an amazed-exasperated, "What the hell was that!?!"
Looking forward to binging on Legion soonish.
I would not say it moves linearly ... perhaps that'd be a better way to consume it.
Let's see:
Watched Spectral on Netflix and it was surprisingly entertaining. Decently acted and the special effects were well done. It's a pretty cool premise for an action flick.
Watched Moana with the kids. It was decent, but I'm not sure if really lived up to the hype. The kids loved it, though.
My wife is finally watching Parks and Rec (finally!) and my opinion hasn't changed: seasons 3 through 5 is the funniest run a TV show has ever had. Half way through season 3 she was like "I can't believe I didn't watch this earlier." and I was like, "I told you that five years ago!"
That's pretty much it. I want to watch John Wick 2, but I'll probably have to wait until it comes out on "dvd" at this point.
My wife brought Moana home and I've now seen various pieces of it multiple times, but not all the way through, all at once. I've really enjoyed it and "You're Welcome" is a damn catchy tune.
Saw John Wick 2 in the theatre last month ... if you can get to it in that format, I'd highly recommend it. Keanu should never play any other type of role.
"Shiny" from the crab may be the best animated movie song I have ever heard. Classic Bowie/T Rex feel.
I haven't even seen the movie and that shit has gotten stuck in my head.
My son is putting that on all his Spotify mixtapes for other kindergartens.
"Kindergartner with Spotify mix tapes" is an awesome thing. My kindergartener just asks for the Disney Princess mix on Pandora.
Well, until cheaps makes his Toxic Metal Apocalyptic Death Station public
I have a coworker who's having trouble getting through season 2 of Parks and Rec. I convinced her to at least watch through season 3 and gave her permission to give up if she doesn't like it then.
Even season two was decent. Maybe if you skipped the first season then it's possible to miss the clear upward trajectory of the show.
3 through 5? No love for 6?
Get Out is super, duper great. I highly recommend it.
Kong Skull Island featured a large primate punching many things and it was very fun.
The final season of Review is fantastic. I'm sad it's leaving.
A couple weeks ago my wife told me she was going to go to a movie with her friend. I figured it would just be done crappy romcom or some such nonsense.
Then she got home and told me how great Get Out was. I was not super pleased with her.
Buddy and I went to Get Out on Tuesday - Holy Moses was it well done. We keep talking about things we noticed or realized that we didn't catch at first.
I spent the rest of the night rethinking about scenes knowing what was really going on and it makes that party soooo, sooooo creepy.
Absolutely
"Iron Fist" is the first Marvel series I've gotten past episode 2 on.
Maybe I'll go back and watch some others.
"Better Off Ted" showed up on Netflix and it's light and funny and only two seasons.
I've got today and tomorrow to finish season one of "Ted", but I might have only one episode left in it.
I haven't watched any Marvel series yet either, but I heard specifically to stay away from that one.
On the other hand, Legion isn't entirely a Marvel series... *hint*
I heard specifically to stay away from that one.
Why?
I've found it the least bleak (at least in the beginning).
Well, I'm not sure why I didn't watch episode 2 of "Luke Cage", but "Daredevil" and "Jessica Jones" were just horrible-looking worlds to inhabit.
Plus, Iron Fist is a Kung Fu* master, so it fits more into the Jackie Chan and other Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, etc martial arts movies that I'll watch.
*sensu lato: I couldn't tell you much of the taxonomy of the Chinese martial arts and those of nearby countries.
Annoying lead, bad fight scenes, and a whole lot of whitewashing and white savior tropes.
whitewashing and white savior tropes
Hmm, in the first half of the episodes at least, he's more saved and redeemed by the Chinese monks who raise him and what he's learned from them.
I thought more of anything it reminds me more of some of the cultural propaganda* I saw in Chan's Chinese Zodiac.
*I don't remember the specifics but I realized that I would have been really turned off by some parts of it had it been based on a European culture.
And given that the Chinese have historically been the cultural hegemon in east Asia... I imagine some Koreans would take it badly.
I think there was also some big skipping of the last 70 years of Chinese history, particularly considering that Chan's from Hong Kong.
It also made me ponder whether Chinese ownership of some media companies and the size of the state-controlled market there would lead to a general softening of depictions of China towards building a wider acceptance of ... [whatever, I don't have to spell this out. You get the drift of the paranoid/conspiratorial mindset and Sino-Illuminati Axis I'm imagining here, right?]
(Is it just me or are they're rarely depicted as clear monolithic villainous enemies like North Korea, Russia, and Muslims/Arabs are?)
But it was late at night, and maybe my tinfoil hat was slipping, allowing the Norks to get me to think that way.
Better Off Ted is fantastic and should have lasted longer than 30ish episodes.
Must have been a slow start, then. The Milkmaid and I were going to watch it together, but I had to bail after two excruciatingly ordinary episodes.
I don't think so. You probably just won't like any of it.
I think it's 26 episodes.
I recommend the others. The first-half of Luke Cage is the best Marvel show. The second-half is the worst (even worse than Iron Fist probably). The others are all fantastic, but yeah, there's some bleakness.
Let's see ... other than those I've commented on above....
Taboo - Off the top of my head, it feels sort-of like a combination of Peaky Blinders and The Revenant*. Tom Hardy inhabits his character ... just unreal, and the development/reveal of the premise and storyline from week-to-week is top-notch.
Captain America: Civil War - Yeah. Pretty fun actually.
The Walking Dead: Season 7 - Some of the characters are still so foolish that I can't believe they've managed to stay alive in that world for so long. However, I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than I thought I would following teh stupid that was the final episode of Season 6.
*if it took place in London instead of the wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase.
RE: TWD, it's moving slowly enough that I have no idea how they'll pull enough storylines together to even have a successful cliffhanger. The show has a serious Rick problem. It's a bad thing when your primary protagonist is constantly both the least interesting and least compelling thing on the screen. Even so, I am enjoying the back half of the season more than I thought I might.
Any more, I take the Walking Dead on an episode by episode basis, rather than an arc by arc one. There have been a few episodes where I've just sort of shrugged afterward and thought "well, nothing happened there" and a few where I've enjoyed what was happening on the screen. Any time they can get Carol involved, it's a win in my book.
Besides Rick, the other Walking Dead problem:
"Hey, I've got to go do this."
"I'm going with you."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"Okay."
Haha, that's a problem in tons of fiction (The 100 gets bad about that too, at times). I don't really know why it's such a pervasive trope.
Linds and I used to call it "Stay in the car, Chuck" after the title character in Chuck who, in the first couple of seasons was always told to stay in the car (practically every single episode) and absolutely never would.
"Stay in the car, Chuck"
That is perfect. So. Much. This. (Particularly with that show!)
There are also several episodes that can literally be summed up by saying "Someone asks someone else to do something, and they say no."
Also slowly going through IASIP. Very glad they shortened the opening theme in the 7th season.
I'm finally getting to Deadwood. About halfway through. It's kind of up and down for me. The good episodes are outstanding, and then some of them are meh.
Reminds me: EAR got an old BBC "Wuthering Heights" from the Library with Ian McShane as Heathcliff.
She watched a few minutes and gave up. She had just finished the book and requested like 6 different adaptations on DVD. 4 came immediately and she sampled all and found all lacking.
Dr. Strange - Overall, I was disappointed. I thought they handled the super power/magic stuff very well, and the visuals were amazing. But the character was largely insufferable (though might be over that given the end?) and the bad guy was "here, have a villain" without it being real organic, and the set up for the next villain was weak beyond compare in the MCU, and the plot... well, I've already seen Kung Fu Panda a number of times. So... meh.
Mike Birbiglia: Thank God For Jokes - I haven't seen a stand-up performance this complete in ages. My first exposure to Birbiglia. Fantastic.
The Call Up - Random Netflix sci-fi. Avoid. Some awful acting, but ultimately the plot made no sense, and it was like the characters just traded scripts randomly throughout the flick.
Iron Fist - Easily the worst of the 4 Marvel Netflix shows, but not horrible overall. I appreciate the depth and genuine conflict some of the supporting characters have. Those arcs are compelling. Well, some of them are. I'm sorry, but Colleen Wing is no Misty Knight. Danny Rand is annoying, but he's supposed to be. He's super naive and impulsive, and to the extent that those things (especially the impulsiveness) start actually generating their own effects in the plot, it improves. I see the groundwork for very good future seasons here, but that is not what this season is.
I'm not woke enough to know what constitutes whitewashing vs. honoring other cultures. Have we reached a point where no white characters can ever use martial arts? Etc. I can see why people would care deeply about this topic in the abstract - we absolutely need more diversity in our media portrayals. That said, in this particular case, I think the outrage was misplaced. The plot (eventually) works precisely because the protagonist is a rich white kid. The white savior tropes are somewhat turned on their head, though not entirely, and I can understand some criticism of the source material for that.
I was able to go to Thank God For Jokes at Pantages a couple years ago. I love standup comedy in intimate settings. I would say this is one of his weaker standups. So if you want to continue you're in for a treat. Unfortunately, his best one is Sleepwalk With Me and it's only available in video form as a weird independent movie; if you want to hear the much superior audio of the standup, let me know.
I was a bit unimpressed with Thank God for Jokes as well.
I randomly tried one of his other specials a few months ago and after I was 20-30 minutes in, I thought, "I should save this for EAR". (Is there one called "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" or something like that?)
But that was during the Parks & Rec times, so I didn't get back to it.. Then, in a post-P&R hole, TGfJ showed up and I tried watching it with her and... meh.
I found My Girlfriend's Boyfriend funnier than TGfJ. And also more poignant.
I started What I Should Have Said Was Nothing (I think that was the name) a few days after watching TGFJ but it didn't seem nearly so good. I figured I'd save it to watch with Philosofette, since she enjoyed TGFJ and maybe watching together was a critical element.
It's the one that got me hooked 7 years ago, but I agree it's not as solid, as it's just a bunch of vignettes that aren't really tied together. The last 10 minutes, though, are dynamite.
I was hoping for more comments on your spoiler, where I generally agree. (Though I know nothing of the source material.)
It's tough to comment on, particularly as regards a specific individual property, given that the real problem is collective. Can you blame Iron Fist specifically for the failure of our storytelling more generally?
not from you, but from others maybe.
Or maybe you and I are the only ones who have watched (most of) it.
EAR and I are almost done with Hotel Beau Séjour.
I started it and the first scene has lots of blood and EAR asked me to turn it off.
Another night, I started it again and EAR came in 10 minutes later and somehow really enjoyed it.
She's not much for subtitles or ghost stories or violence or cursing, but somehow this fits her tastes anyways.
Belgian series in Dutch (I presume: it's not French, but EAR notices some similarities with German).
A 18-20 year-old woman wakes up in the Hotel and sees her dead body. She tries to figure out what happened.
I didn't know there was a "sticks" in Belgium, but apparently there is. Top two activities are motorcross and shooting. (Both in clubs.)
I think we finished the penultimate episode and I hope it's all explained in the final. I'm dreading it's leading to a second season, like Bloodlines and How To Get Away With Murder, the mystery introduced at the start of the series is resolved, but the story goes on.
Phew. It's a good ending and not a setup for more.
I recommend the show.
The Americans is still great.
I have two episodes left of The Office. I actually didn't feel the huge dropoff after Carell left that most people talk about. I loved James Spader, and I felt the actors enjoying themselves more as each season hit on. Surely there are some issues in the later seasons (Gabe, for instance), but I find the show much more comfortable now. I actually felt seasons 4 and 5 were the toughest to slog through (with the exception of season 1 of course, which was horrible).
Beauty and the Beast: Solid. Enjoyed it way more than the cartoon. Every time Gaston was on screen I thought of Captain Hammer.
Lion: I talked about this after I saw it, but I wanted to add that tear-jerking biopics like this I tend to strongly love while I'm watching it, but then have little desire to ever see again. Same goes with The King's Speech.
Regarding The Office after Carell left: It was just different. Much like when we are young and a real cool girlfriend is no longer by your side. Your next girlfriend may be just as smart, witty, beautiful, loving and funny as the previous girlfriend, yet, you don't have the same comfort level as the previous one (at least not for a while). I thought it devastating at the time when Carell left. However, looking back, the post-Carell seasons were still funny, still great TV and I still enjoy them.
I wanted to quit the show during the second to last season when whatever-her-name-is was in charge. Count me in camp "cliffdiving". Spader was fine, but the whole show was missing something (and I don't think it was all Carell).
It was missing Michael Schur. It often seemed to me less like The Office and more like a show doing an impression of The Office. I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't nearly as strong.
I am with you, though I'd say the thing it felt like it was missing was Jim and Pam. Their story, with only a few small exceptions, lacked the spark it had had. I mean, that's easily one of the great TV romances, if not the great TV romance. And then it was just sort of done.
Yep. The relationship had pretty much zero conflict from seasons 4 through 8. Which yeah, you would expect a honeymoon period. But realistically they should have had at least one disagreement after the first child. I mostly liked what they did in season 9 with them; it felt like a real couple's problem and a real couple's resolution.
Between this and Spooky's comment, I find myself wondering how much responsibility Schur had for the Jim/Pam stuff. When I think of Parks & Rec I think of it as a genuinely uplifting, loving show, but it never lacked for conflict. Kind of like the whole show was Jim & Pam when they were compelling.
Pro-tip I learned on my flight yesterday:
Don't choose Lion as your inflight movie during your first long trip away from your son.
I have two episodes left of Westworld. My biggest issue
My guess?
Issues aside, I loved the hell out of the show.
eh.
My wife and I went through the full season of This Is Us. I thought it was surprisingly good. I was afraid all the characters would be perfect but that isn't the case.
I'm 7 episodes in on Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime. I love it. From the creator of Justified and many of the same actors.
Linds and I have almost caught up to The 100. It starts as a sort of cheesy dystopian CW-ish show and morphs into something pretty interesting. There are infuriating missteps throughout, and it never completely escapes the fact that it's a show on broadcast TV that wants to be on cable (though my goodness are there some scenes in season 3 that I'm surprised they were able to get away with). It's fun and it scratches the sci-fi itch right now.
Logan was good. If you've seen it, then you know that.
King Kong was fine. It's missing something that I can't put my finger on, but it does have a decent number of the scenes you go to a monster movie for. I enjoyed that it had stabs at humor here and there.
Still can't rave enough about Legion. Great cast, and great directing -- like Wes Anderson having a hand in Twin Peaks, with the soap opera replaced by action.
Still plugging away with The Expanse, but I don't feel bad about doing work on my laptop while watching.
I'm two episodes into Legion and really love it so far. It's tough for me to find the time to watch it, though, which is why I haven't gotten much further. Can't watch when the kids are around and I've been playing too many video games outside of that.
Wife and I have watched the whole season of Legion thus far. We enjoy it a lot, but man ... some of the expositions/episodes are so far off the beaten path of how you do television/what a television show might be expected to be, that we generally finish the episodes with an amazed-exasperated, "What the hell was that!?!"
Looking forward to binging on Legion soonish.
I would not say it moves linearly ... perhaps that'd be a better way to consume it.
Let's see:
Watched Spectral on Netflix and it was surprisingly entertaining. Decently acted and the special effects were well done. It's a pretty cool premise for an action flick.
Watched Moana with the kids. It was decent, but I'm not sure if really lived up to the hype. The kids loved it, though.
My wife is finally watching Parks and Rec (finally!) and my opinion hasn't changed: seasons 3 through 5 is the funniest run a TV show has ever had. Half way through season 3 she was like "I can't believe I didn't watch this earlier." and I was like, "I told you that five years ago!"
That's pretty much it. I want to watch John Wick 2, but I'll probably have to wait until it comes out on "dvd" at this point.
My wife brought Moana home and I've now seen various pieces of it multiple times, but not all the way through, all at once. I've really enjoyed it and "You're Welcome" is a damn catchy tune.
Saw John Wick 2 in the theatre last month ... if you can get to it in that format, I'd highly recommend it. Keanu should never play any other type of role.
"Shiny" from the crab may be the best animated movie song I have ever heard. Classic Bowie/T Rex feel.
I haven't even seen the movie and that shit has gotten stuck in my head.
My son is putting that on all his Spotify mixtapes for other kindergartens.
"Kindergartner with Spotify mix tapes" is an awesome thing. My kindergartener just asks for the Disney Princess mix on Pandora.
Well, until cheaps makes his Toxic Metal Apocalyptic Death Station public
I have a coworker who's having trouble getting through season 2 of Parks and Rec. I convinced her to at least watch through season 3 and gave her permission to give up if she doesn't like it then.
Even season two was decent. Maybe if you skipped the first season then it's possible to miss the clear upward trajectory of the show.
3 through 5? No love for 6?
Get Out is super, duper great. I highly recommend it.
Kong Skull Island featured a large primate punching many things and it was very fun.
The final season of Review is fantastic. I'm sad it's leaving.
A couple weeks ago my wife told me she was going to go to a movie with her friend. I figured it would just be done crappy romcom or some such nonsense.
Then she got home and told me how great Get Out was. I was not super pleased with her.
Buddy and I went to Get Out on Tuesday - Holy Moses was it well done. We keep talking about things we noticed or realized that we didn't catch at first.
I was able to go see it last night. Damn if it wasn't great.
Absolutely
"Iron Fist" is the first Marvel series I've gotten past episode 2 on.
Maybe I'll go back and watch some others.
"Better Off Ted" showed up on Netflix and it's light and funny and only two seasons.
I've got today and tomorrow to finish season one of "Ted", but I might have only one episode left in it.
I haven't watched any Marvel series yet either, but I heard specifically to stay away from that one.
On the other hand, Legion isn't entirely a Marvel series... *hint*
I heard specifically to stay away from that one.
Why?
I've found it the least bleak (at least in the beginning).
Well, I'm not sure why I didn't watch episode 2 of "Luke Cage", but "Daredevil" and "Jessica Jones" were just horrible-looking worlds to inhabit.
Plus, Iron Fist is a Kung Fu* master, so it fits more into the Jackie Chan and other Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, etc martial arts movies that I'll watch.
*sensu lato: I couldn't tell you much of the taxonomy of the Chinese martial arts and those of nearby countries.
Annoying lead, bad fight scenes, and a whole lot of whitewashing and white savior tropes.
whitewashing and white savior tropes
Hmm, in the first half of the episodes at least, he's more saved and redeemed by the Chinese monks who raise him and what he's learned from them.
I thought more of anything it reminds me more of some of the cultural propaganda* I saw in Chan's Chinese Zodiac.
*I don't remember the specifics but I realized that I would have been really turned off by some parts of it had it been based on a European culture.
And given that the Chinese have historically been the cultural hegemon in east Asia... I imagine some Koreans would take it badly.
I think there was also some big skipping of the last 70 years of Chinese history, particularly considering that Chan's from Hong Kong.
Better Off Ted is fantastic and should have lasted longer than 30ish episodes.
Must have been a slow start, then. The Milkmaid and I were going to watch it together, but I had to bail after two excruciatingly ordinary episodes.
I don't think so. You probably just won't like any of it.
I think it's 26 episodes.
I recommend the others. The first-half of Luke Cage is the best Marvel show. The second-half is the worst (even worse than Iron Fist probably). The others are all fantastic, but yeah, there's some bleakness.
Let's see ... other than those I've commented on above....
Taboo - Off the top of my head, it feels sort-of like a combination of Peaky Blinders and The Revenant*. Tom Hardy inhabits his character ... just unreal, and the development/reveal of the premise and storyline from week-to-week is top-notch.
Captain America: Civil War - Yeah. Pretty fun actually.
The Walking Dead: Season 7 - Some of the characters are still so foolish that I can't believe they've managed to stay alive in that world for so long. However, I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than I thought I would following teh stupid that was the final episode of Season 6.
*if it took place in London instead of the wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase.
RE: TWD, it's moving slowly enough that I have no idea how they'll pull enough storylines together to even have a successful cliffhanger. The show has a serious Rick problem. It's a bad thing when your primary protagonist is constantly both the least interesting and least compelling thing on the screen. Even so, I am enjoying the back half of the season more than I thought I might.
Any more, I take the Walking Dead on an episode by episode basis, rather than an arc by arc one. There have been a few episodes where I've just sort of shrugged afterward and thought "well, nothing happened there" and a few where I've enjoyed what was happening on the screen. Any time they can get Carol involved, it's a win in my book.
Besides Rick, the other Walking Dead problem:
"Hey, I've got to go do this."
"I'm going with you."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"Okay."
Haha, that's a problem in tons of fiction (The 100 gets bad about that too, at times). I don't really know why it's such a pervasive trope.
Linds and I used to call it "Stay in the car, Chuck" after the title character in Chuck who, in the first couple of seasons was always told to stay in the car (practically every single episode) and absolutely never would.
"Stay in the car, Chuck"
That is perfect. So. Much. This. (Particularly with that show!)
There are also several episodes that can literally be summed up by saying "Someone asks someone else to do something, and they say no."
Also slowly going through IASIP. Very glad they shortened the opening theme in the 7th season.
I'm finally getting to Deadwood. About halfway through. It's kind of up and down for me. The good episodes are outstanding, and then some of them are meh.
Reminds me: EAR got an old BBC "Wuthering Heights" from the Library with Ian McShane as Heathcliff.
She watched a few minutes and gave up. She had just finished the book and requested like 6 different adaptations on DVD. 4 came immediately and she sampled all and found all lacking.
Dr. Strange - Overall, I was disappointed. I thought they handled the super power/magic stuff very well, and the visuals were amazing. But the character was largely insufferable (though might be over that given the end?) and the bad guy was "here, have a villain" without it being real organic, and the set up for the next villain was weak beyond compare in the MCU, and the plot... well, I've already seen Kung Fu Panda a number of times. So... meh.
Mike Birbiglia: Thank God For Jokes - I haven't seen a stand-up performance this complete in ages. My first exposure to Birbiglia. Fantastic.
The Call Up - Random Netflix sci-fi. Avoid. Some awful acting, but ultimately the plot made no sense, and it was like the characters just traded scripts randomly throughout the flick.
Iron Fist - Easily the worst of the 4 Marvel Netflix shows, but not horrible overall. I appreciate the depth and genuine conflict some of the supporting characters have. Those arcs are compelling. Well, some of them are. I'm sorry, but Colleen Wing is no Misty Knight. Danny Rand is annoying, but he's supposed to be. He's super naive and impulsive, and to the extent that those things (especially the impulsiveness) start actually generating their own effects in the plot, it improves. I see the groundwork for very good future seasons here, but that is not what this season is.
I was able to go to Thank God For Jokes at Pantages a couple years ago. I love standup comedy in intimate settings. I would say this is one of his weaker standups. So if you want to continue you're in for a treat. Unfortunately, his best one is Sleepwalk With Me and it's only available in video form as a weird independent movie; if you want to hear the much superior audio of the standup, let me know.
I was a bit unimpressed with Thank God for Jokes as well.
I randomly tried one of his other specials a few months ago and after I was 20-30 minutes in, I thought, "I should save this for EAR". (Is there one called "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" or something like that?)
But that was during the Parks & Rec times, so I didn't get back to it.. Then, in a post-P&R hole, TGfJ showed up and I tried watching it with her and... meh.
I found My Girlfriend's Boyfriend funnier than TGfJ. And also more poignant.
I started What I Should Have Said Was Nothing (I think that was the name) a few days after watching TGFJ but it didn't seem nearly so good. I figured I'd save it to watch with Philosofette, since she enjoyed TGFJ and maybe watching together was a critical element.
It's the one that got me hooked 7 years ago, but I agree it's not as solid, as it's just a bunch of vignettes that aren't really tied together. The last 10 minutes, though, are dynamite.
I was hoping for more comments on your spoiler, where I generally agree. (Though I know nothing of the source material.)
It's tough to comment on, particularly as regards a specific individual property, given that the real problem is collective. Can you blame Iron Fist specifically for the failure of our storytelling more generally?
not from you, but from others maybe.
Or maybe you and I are the only ones who have watched (most of) it.
EAR and I are almost done with Hotel Beau Séjour.
I started it and the first scene has lots of blood and EAR asked me to turn it off.
Another night, I started it again and EAR came in 10 minutes later and somehow really enjoyed it.
She's not much for subtitles or ghost stories or violence or cursing, but somehow this fits her tastes anyways.
Belgian series in Dutch (I presume: it's not French, but EAR notices some similarities with German).
A 18-20 year-old woman wakes up in the Hotel and sees her dead body. She tries to figure out what happened.
I didn't know there was a "sticks" in Belgium, but apparently there is. Top two activities are motorcross and shooting. (Both in clubs.)
I think we finished the penultimate episode and I hope it's all explained in the final. I'm dreading it's leading to a second season, like Bloodlines and How To Get Away With Murder, the mystery introduced at the start of the series is resolved, but the story goes on.
Phew. It's a good ending and not a setup for more.
I recommend the show.
New season of Archer starts tonight.