What are we watching now?

[JiveTurkey]

Watched a couple of comedy specials.

Chris Rock (NF). Hit upon the topics you expect to hit upon. I've always liked him; but he is not as much of a GOAT in my mind. Good watch if you dig his overall vibe.


Marlon Wayans. He is VERY hit or miss. Sometimes too concerned with pursuing dumb humor at the cost of other approaches that might work for him. This latest special is pretty much mostly centered on one of the topics Rock hits upon. And Wayans is actually hilarious in tackling it as there is a super personal connection to the situation at hand. If you enjoy his humor; give it a chance. It's a one note subject matter but damned if I didn't enjoy that single note

 

[Cirrus]

Goosebumps man…

If I remember (hard to remember those days… maybe because of that show…) I was equally hooked as my children was. I could just sit and watch that… stuff… for a hour not knowing that the calculated (probably by mad scientists) time per episode was tailored for small children brains.

Actually think I may have been a little damaged after that… my kids are ok though.

Yeah I won't lie, if wife isn't in the room I'll make sure she knows by shouting "Oh GOD it's a Ninky-Nonk episode again..." or "HANNAH! Come quick! It's a PINKY PONK episode!"
We're going to see the live show in a couple of months.

 

[Orvillain]

Just introduced the daughter to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

I lol'd a lot. She lol'd at a few bits.

 

[the swede]

We're going to see the live show in a couple of months.

Man… you just took things to another level

Soon you’re ordering costumes…

 

[laxu]

Went to see the new Ant-Man movie recently. I like a good Marvel romp every now and then, enjoyed the previous films with the character but Quantumania was just a turd really.

Its jokes don't land, it has some pretty fantastic visuals and creatures that then go entirely unused and the big villain is defeated all too easily. It has all the usual tropes that are getting way too old at this point, like a horde of faceless henchmen and everyone taking their helmets off all the damn time because "Ya gotta see the actors!" It even retcons some of the things from the past movies and there's even a "no time to explain" scene where the characters had all the time to explain.

It lacks heart, it's poorly written, almost like something created by a committee based on projected quarterly financials rather than moviemakers trying to make a good film.

 

[fretworn]

Marvel lost me at endgame… All these characters are now all WoC? Ha ha ha

Same for Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation series… WTF?

 

[the swede]

Same for Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation series… WTF?

Im afraid to watch that… tempted, but at the same time not. The trilogy book is a favorite of mine.

 

[fretworn]

Im afraid to watch that… tempted, but at the same time not. The trilogy book is a favorite of mine.

I watched it twice… the corruption is heartbreaking.

 

[DrewJD82]

After finding out Kevin Can F Himself was filmed in Brockton, MA, I had to watch it. Such a trip seeing streets and buildings I drove by for years being framed as something different. There was one shot of a police station, about 15 years ago it was a sh*tty bar with bullet holes in the windows.

The show itself is really interesting; it’s, literally, half-sitcom and half-drama. In sitcom mode there’s canned audience laughter, the coloring is bright and looks like a sitcom and really stupid dialogue, intentionally. Then it cuts to a serious scene and the coloring changes to a more realistic/dreary color and it’s now a serious scene. The gist of it is a woman who is sick of her d******d husband and starts plotting how to get away from him.

It takes about 2 episodes to get into and the sitcom stuff almost got me to stop watching until the flip happened. The husband is basically a live action Peter Griffin and the dialogue in the sitcom scenes is over the top stupid. Some stuff they NAILED for being a South of Boston city; people drinking Dunkin ice coffees in the middle of winter is pretty much a Massachusetts staple, the way people dress and look is fairly spot on. Accents are a bit over the top and most are closer to a Rhode Island accent than Mass.
The random “Yankees Suck” chants that pop up is like riding the T in Boston.

Really cool take on how to drop serious content into a sitcom and as stupid as the sitcom scenes are, it works out well as the show moves along. Only 2 seasons.

 

[la szum]

Watched 6 episodes of Daisy Jones And The Six last night. I never do that!

Sucker for anything music related when it comes to a movie or series. It
definitely has that 1970's Laurel Canyon vibe. Blake Mills, et al did a great
job of capturing that vibe with the original music. Well done!

Yes, there are ton of music tropes and stereotypes in it that get played out
to the Nines. It also feels produced/written by a woman. I love women, but
it has this Hallmark sheen/vibe to the writing.

I'll watch the other 2 episodes tonight and then give it a score then.

 

[la szum]

A fun and easy to digest series that is music related is the
Hulu remake of High Fidelity. It has Zoe Kravitz in it as Jon Cusack.

Lots of great dialogue. Very funny. Anyone who has struggled with the
trajectory of making a living in music (in any way) will relate to that
series. 30 minute episodes make it a breeze to get through, too.
Oh, and Zoe f'ing Kravitz!

 

[JiveTurkey]

Finished up S1 of Perry Mason last night. Other than the religious sect subplot; it was actually pretty darn good. S2 should be interesting I hope.

 

[la szum]

OMFG! Give me something to throw at the TV. This episode 7 of Daisy (off to Greece to meet a
Prince!) is so Hallmark Channel.

What a random departure from the previous 6 episodes. How come you
didn't warn me @DrewJD82 ??

 

[DrewJD82]

OMFG! Give me something to throw at the TV. This episode 7 of Daisy (off to Greece to meet a
Prince!) is so Hallmark Channel.

What a random departure from the previous 6 episodes. How come you
didn't warn me @DrewJD82 ??

Yeah, they could have done without that episode and the show wouldn’t have been hurt. It gets back on track immediately after, though! I forgot about it until you said something and I think I just watched it less than a week ago.

 

[mbenigni]

I’m loving The Last Of Us. I don’t think it was until Ep 3 that I realized the dude is from the Mandolorian.

Pedro Pascal puts in an amazing performance in TLOU. What an actor. He was also great in (what little screen time he had in) Game of Thrones.

I barely noticed him (despite his starring role) in Mandalorian. Helmet + deadpan delivery were kind of a waste of his talent and charisma. I actually thought he was Timothy Oliphant until the beginning of the second season, when Timothy Oliphant shows up in a different role. (Disclaimer: I didn't make it past the beginning of S2.)

P.S. I was constantly distracted by the fact that TLOU cast didn't look like the character models in the video game. At the beginning of TLOU my brain saw this, and I couldn't unsee it afterward: Pedro Pascal looks like a squished Burt Reynolds LOL.

 

[mbenigni]

That was one thing I noticed in my 20s and 30s when I was visiting a few spiritual/intentional communities. The
creeptastic nature of a lot of those places. A few I visited have had actual crises and outed the offending "leaders"
since then. Shocking.

It's kind of crazy, to think that people have the highest of ideals, and yet it amounts to just another power trip
surrounding sex, money, and authourity. I ended up joking later in life that I would trust a Rock Star more than
a Guru, because one is authentic and the other isn't.

You know the Rock Star wants to f**k you, and he isn't going to give you no BS about his semen being enlightened
or healing your sexual trauma.

This presupposes that "rock star" and "guru" are mutually exclusive...

 

[DrewJD82]

Pedro Pascal puts in an amazing performance in TLOU. What an actor. He was also great in (what little screen time he had in) Game of Thrones.

I barely noticed him (despite his starring role) in Mandalorian. Helmet + deadpan delivery were kind of a waste of his talent and charisma. I actually thought he was Timothy Oliphant until the beginning of the second season, when Timothy Oliphant shows up in a different role. (Disclaimer I didn't make it past the beginning of S2.)

P.S. I was constantly distracted by the fact that TLOU cast didn't look like the character models in the video game. At the beginning of TLOU my brain saw this, and I couldn't unsee it afterward: Pedro Pascal looks like a squished Burt Reynolds LOL.

Yeah, his role in Mando is definitely a waste of his talents. I still have the 3rd episode to watch but from what I‘ve heard it hasn’t made this season any better. Had I not watched Andor right before S3 kicked off I’d probably have no interest at all but Andor was the show that tied all the SW shows/movies together for me. Not sure why/how as I’ve known the timelines of everything for a while, but after watching that series it made me far more interested in the SW universe.

I didn’t even know he was in GoT!

Hahaha I had enough of a gap from playing the game that I couldn’t remember exactly what the characters looked like. I never finished it because the mechanics kept pissing me off (I’m a little b*tch about wanting 1st/3rd person only in games) but I started it again after I started watching the show…..and stopped again just because I tend to drop everything around me when I get into a video game and need to be cognizant of how I spend my free time so I don’t piss myself off by not getting other sh*t done!

 

[mbenigni]

Yeah, his role in Mando is definitely a waste of his talents. I still have the 3rd episode to watch but from what I‘ve heard it hasn’t made this season any better. Had I not watched Andor right before S3 kicked off I’d probably have no interest at all but Andor was the show that tied all the SW shows/movies together for me. Not sure why/how as I’ve known the timelines of everything for a while, but after watching that series it made me far more interested in the SW universe.

I'll have to check out Andor... and see whether it pulls me back to Mandalorian. We dug S1 of Mandalorian well enough (liked, didn't love) but S2 just started to feel really predictable: land somewhere, identify monster/ bad guy, kill it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I didn’t even know he was in GoT!

Yes, he was Oberyn Martell of Dorne (says Google - I'm not that big of a nerd), the bad ass on the right. Obviously LOL:

Hahaha I had enough of a gap from playing the game that I couldn’t remember exactly what the characters looked like. I never finished it because the mechanics kept pissing me off (I’m a little b*tch about wanting 1st/3rd person only in games) but I started it again after I started watching the show…..and stopped again just because I tend to drop everything around me when I get into a video game and need to be cognizant of how I spend my free time so I don’t piss myself off by not getting other sh*t done!

I hear ya. I'm not really into any video games at the moment, and that's probably for the best. :)

I played both TLOU games - Naughty Dog does beautiful work - but they did stress me out a lot. Stealth sections with overpowered enemies and insta-death tend to grind me down. TLOU mixed things up well enough that I could tolerate it, though.

 

[mbenigni]

Stolen Youth: Inside The Cult At Sarah Lawrence

HOLY F*CKING SH*T.

I’ve read a lot of books about all the big cults, watched all the YouTube vids, I’m fascinated by cult leaders, or more the psychological aspects of one person who is ALWAYS the complete opposite of what they’re selling managing to sway people’s minds so heavily they will put their life on the line for them, or end it. I devour that stuff whenever it‘s in front of me, so I figured I’d heard it all at this point.

Nope.

It all starts with a raised eyebrow, like “Really? That’s kinda odd….” then within about 20 minutes you’re just on this elevator in a building where every floor is a different scenario of WTF*ckingF?!?!? and it doesn’t end. My brain actually feels tired after watching all 3 episodes. The dude documented all the sh*t he was doing, so you’re seeing it actually happen. It gets gut wrenching at some points, like I’m seeing a best friend or loved one in that situation and I want to help, but fortunately has a mostly good ending. Kinda. There is no real “ending” for those people, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives unf*cking theirselves.

You said you'd watched The Vow as well, right? I started it thinking it was like a 6-episode Limited Series, and then we got to the end of S1 and saw there were 2 more seasons. I was like, "What the hell did I sign up for??" Within a couple of episodes of S2 it had devolved into real-time footage of people driving around in their cars talking to each other on their cellphones, and I said, "OK I'm out." Does it get any better? The completist in me hates dropping things cold, but damn. Leave a few frames on the floor, guys.

Meta: When deciding to watch a random Netflix series feels like you've committed to a lifetime in a cult LOL.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

As a Star Trek nerd, I've been actually enjoying Picard season 3. It's not great, and as expected with the modern Trek formula with retro chatacters is relying heavily on easter eggs and nostalgia. But compared to season 1 and 2 (which were s**t) it's pretty decent.