What are we watching now?

[Jynx]

No Other Land. Really good documentary, though might be hard to watch in the US as no distributor over there seems to want to touch it.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Been staying up on MobLand. Pretty straightforward but good nonetheless.

 

[sleewell]

this is us is really good


except throughout the entire show show where lots of parts occurred during the 90s not one single person was like of course our mom is good at singing she's on total request live like every day ahahahahahahaha

 

[JiveTurkey]

Watched 'Novacaine' last night. Jack Quaid (ehhhhh) looking slightly less-Beavis-ish plays a guy who can't feel pain going after his new girlfriend's kidnappers. Expected to hate it but it was a solid watch. C++?

 

[Baba]

We finished Andor on Tuesday, those 12 episodes when QUICKLY.

I thought it was excellent. Only ONE mention of "The Force" in the whole show, and no light sabers, so it's as far away from typical Star Wars as you can get, while still being a Star Wars story.

Rogue One is at the top of my list of Star Wars movies, and by extension, this was my favorites of the "non-movie" shows, (admittedly, I don't/can't watch the animated jawns).

And of course, just like Rogue One did, when the end of that seamlessly weaved into ANH, they tied up the end of Andor and weaved it RIGHT into the beginning of Rogue One, seamlessly.

Honestly, Andor seemed more like a good story, with lots of character development, great acting, and story arcs, that just happened to be set in the Star Wars universe, than it did "a Star Wars" movie.

Definitely going to re-watch this one someday.

 

[Chocol8]

I liked the first season of Andor and right now it is the only thing that might get me to subscribe to Disney again.

 

[Aelred]

Andor cost $650 million to make. It was so slow and had so much filler that it could have lost 6 episodes without much consequence. I doubt they'll be doing anything like that again.

The Star Wars brand isn't a money magnet anymore. See Acolyte, Obi Wan ... I expect they'll go back to Baby Yoda and CGI and as many light sabres as possible as fast as possible.

 

[State of Epicicity]

My wife took me today in Green Bay to a display of James Bond cars used in the movies, and it made me want to watch my favorite of them, The World Is Not Enough, from 1999. It's got just enough double entendres to keep it from being a real film, but it's so fun, with such a convoluted plot, but one of the greatest villains of all time.

 

[Aelred]

That reminds me - I haven't re-watched The Manchurian Candidate for many years.

I have been re-watching some of Juliette Binoche's work, so must find my copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

 

[laxu]

Andor cost $650 million to make. It was so slow and had so much filler that it could have lost 6 episodes without much consequence. I doubt they'll be doing anything like that again.

The Star Wars brand isn't a money magnet anymore. See Acolyte, Obi Wan ... I expect they'll go back to Baby Yoda and CGI and as many light sabres as possible as fast as possible.

Their problem is entirely with scripts. Andor excluded, all the other Star Wars shows tend to be painfully mediocre. It's like they are designed by committee and focus groups, then become entirely forgettable.

There's also too much of them so people get fatigued and don't have the will to watch them all, same issue Marvel has.

I do feel Andor S2 seems like it just gets going at the end of the season. If it cost that much to make you have to question if it was worth it. It looks gorgeous but I think that story could be told with 10x smaller budget without losing anything.

 

[Chocol8]

Their problem is entirely with scripts. Andor excluded, all the other Star Wars shows tend to be painfully mediocre. It's like they are designed by committee and focus groups, then become entirely forgettable.

That was our issue with the entire Disney plus service, not just the Star Wars series. We found a lot of mediocrity so I figured I would cancel the subscription for a while. After doing that, only Andor season 2 has anyone in the family talking about resubscribing.

 

[Jazz Padd]

We watched both versions of "The Four Seasons," first the recent Netflix remake and then the 1981 original directed by Alan Alda. The Mrs. is a fan of Alan Alda and noticed his small role in the new NF version, which led us to watch the original (done while he was still working on the M.A.S.H. TV series, which we had binged several times). While both movies were a worthwhile watch and tell more or less the same story, we both generally preferred the original version. According to Alda, the 1981 film was inspired by his rush to judgement of a friend, and that played an important part of the film he wrote and directed. The NF version downplayed the rush to judgement theme of the original, which made it "wishy-washy," as the Mrs. put it. Another noticeable difference is that the NF version updated the story to include the now hot topic DEI characters. The music, from Vivaldi, was more prominent in the 1981 film and better integrated. The location shooting for both versions was nice.

 

[Jynx]

Captain America: Brave New World.

I thought this movie was trying to do too much, introducing future projects while making deep-cut call backs.

And the whole depiction of the US as a respectable World leader under competent leadership with noble ideals just seems a little antiquated.

 

[Jazz Padd]

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) is entertaining if you like that kinda thing. Beside the famed comedic duo, in their prime at the time, the cast also includes a number of Miss Universe beauty pageant winners. And some elements, as might be expected from the time period, could be considered a bit "cringe" by today's standards but overall it was good for a few laughs.

Spoiler: They don't get to Mars but swing by New York, New Orleans and Venus!

 

[Aelred]

The FX for Obi Wan, Ahsoka, Acolyte and Boba Fett were atrocious, and Boba Fett had 2 Mando episodes that undercut the fan-pleasing “Return of Luke” moment that Mando had.

Which created the real problem for Andor and Skeleton Crew: no one is watching it.

$650 million for 2 seasons of a poorly rated TV show, however good it may be, is ridiculous. See also Rings of Power.

Hollywood – especially Disney? – insists upon Writers Rooms and all sorts of things that ensure artistic failure – and increasingly commercial failure to boot. They also insist upon re-using (or mis-using) old IP they paid big $$$ for or already own.

See Snowy White, Indiana Dial and the Jones, Captain Falcon, Mud Max…

 

[Chocol8]

See also Rings of Power.

There was very little good about Rings of Power, especially the second season.

 

[Aelred]

There was very little good about Rings of Power, especially the second season.

Yeah, I was really thinking about the cost: all that money and it looked so cheap. The parts I bothered with, of course. I needed a heavy hand on the fast-forward to get through the Harfoot stuff.

I expect season 3 to be hilariously awful. Hate-watching has become it's own thing since Game of Thrones seasons 7 & 8. Once the GRRM material was exhausted, they had nothing but nonsnense.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

The problem is that people can't book finishes, tell decent stories, write heels appropriately, or tell stories that are worth sitting through. This is true regardless of the medium; wrestling, television shows, movies, etc. Lazy booking/writing, lack of creativity, a complete disconnect in terms of psychology, and characters so flat and two dimensional you'd think their fucking name was Stanley and you were supposed to mail it to some random person 4 states away.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Tom Segura's Bad Thoughts on netflix was pretty entertaining/out there

Watched the whole series over the weekend

 

[JiveTurkey]

Tom Segura's Bad Thoughts on netflix was pretty entertaining/out there

Watched the whole series over the weekend

I'm terminally online and wayyyyy too deep into a YT spiral of hate watch "content" on the group of turd comics he falls into (Burt, Tom, Schulz and that other not-Rogan "MMA" dude). There's a vast pile of videos on how they all suck. Whether they do or not. I specifically avoided this show, for better or worse; because of that

Should I give it a go?