|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Mar 19, 2020 5:17:06 GMT -5
I felt the same way after Richard Price's last HBO series, The Night of..., which was written (adapted from a British series) to be a one-off, but then they were talking about doing a second. I felt the one ended so perfectly that any more would have been extraneous.
However...had they made a second, I would have watched it no question, because Price (who I worked for, mostly indirectly, for a number of years) is such a great writer (there's a reason why he's part of the David Simon stable) that even if it wasn't as good, it would still probably be better than most stuff. I have no doubt that he and King will only do it if they can come up with a really good story.
Speaking of Simon, his and fellow Wire creator Ed Burns' new miniseries The Plot Against America just started on Monday, based on the Phillip Roth novel. It posits an alternate past in which Charles Lindbergh ran against FDR and won, largely through the eyes of a Jewish family who see anti-Semitism billowing up around them. Part one suggested a work that's less sprawling than most of Simon's work, but just as intensely involved. Dreading the actual scenes of people hearing about the results of the election. That wound is still raw, and may always be.
Edited to add: That last episode of The Outsider was a punch to the gut. So much horror in one little space after a story that had been remarkably quiet, all things considered |
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Apr 19, 2020 5:25:00 GMT -5
1. Revisiting Newsradio, and it's just as fun as the first time, but a note of unease has set in as Phil Hartman's murder looms. Great cast overall, but I especially like that you have at least three comedy touch-points coming together on one show, with Hartman representing SNL, Dave Foley out of the next wave of sketch with KitH, and Andy Dick coming from the wave after that as represented by the like of The Ben Stiller Show.
2. I have recommended, and must now recommend again, Brockmire, which, to reiterate, is about a disgraced baseball announcer with maaaaaaaaany vices (Hank Azaria) who tries to make a comeback. That very basic description in no way does the series justice. Comedy's ability to dispense with the idea of sacred cows is a beautiful thing, although I do think that only some really earn it by doing the real work. To challenge the audience instead of just pandering to their love of shock. Brockmire earns it in spades. It is simultaneously one of the most depraved and most intelligent shows I've ever seen. You should really start at the beginning to get the full effect, especially since, be forewarned, the current final season jumps a decade into the future when the world is...not in great shape. Not like dystopian sci-fi novel stuff, worse, actually, 'cause it's all too believable. Actually, one of the things they mention in describing the current state of the world does involve a viral spread, proving once again that the most important part of comedy is great timing. *wah-wah-waaaaaaah*
3. The finale to Schitt's Creek was just....beautiful. |
|
|
|
Post by Deeky on May 9, 2020 23:53:15 GMT -5
I'm about halfway through Ryan Murphy's what-if fan fiction miniseries on the golden age of film, Netflix's Hollywood. The sets are beautiful.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Jul 10, 2020 4:57:40 GMT -5
Really liking the TV adaptation of Snowpiercer. Anyone else here watching, or see the movie version?
It's a kind of genre that I've been fascinated by since I was a kid. After a nuclear exchange that greatly warmed the planet, scientists tried to cool it, but ended up freezing it, so now the last survivors live on this gigantic 1001-car-long train that roars forever forward, divided into classes, first, second, third and the tail, which is where the people who managed to get onto the train without a ticket are forced to live. I've always loved the idea of a "city" or "town" that exists within its own unconventional space. |
|
|
|
Post by Deeky on Jul 10, 2020 8:00:15 GMT -5
Really liking the TV adaptation of Snowpiercer. Anyone else here watching, or see the movie version? I saw the movie at the local art house when it came out. |
|
|
|
Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 18, 2020 11:32:53 GMT -5
Anybody else loving Larva on Netflix? It's the perfect TV for 2020.
|
|
Mayzshon
Bell Beefer Supreme
Posts: 644
Likes: 604
Role: Bottom
|
Post by Mayzshon on Aug 14, 2020 16:53:32 GMT -5
Watched Muppets Now on Disney+. It has a few kinks to work out before it's as good as the classic show, but it's still pretty good.
The Swedish Chef and Danny Trejo almost come to blows over who has the better mustache.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Aug 16, 2020 5:10:26 GMT -5
I love the Muppets unconditionally, which doesn't mean I visit them all the time. I haven't seen much of their most recent output, not because I wasn't interested, but I just never got around to it. (Although I have seen a clip from the previous attempt at a new series because it features Christina Applegate taking a big cake to the face.) I'd give this one a look, but I don't have any streaming subscriptions. Maybe down the line.
In other news, for some reason, I hadn't had any inclination to re-watch Mad Men since it went off the air, despite loving it the first time around. Well, I finally dug in to the first season, and it's actually fascinating in a different way. This is a series that debuted near the beginning of the era of prestige TV - when television began to supplant film as the best source for visualized literature - and, as such, given what has come along since, as good as it still is, a few of the threads are visible. However, given what I, as an ostensible male, have learned in recent times about how pervasive the rape-iness of our culture was and continues to be, the behavior of many of the characters in this show is ten times as repugnant now as it was when I first saw it. What might have come off as almost cartoonish before (even given the period setting) now seems horrifyingly realistic. |
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Jan 12, 2021 2:03:09 GMT -5
New season of Snowpiercer starts on January 25th, so everyone has plenty of time to catch up on Season 1. (And you should, it's really cool.)
|
|
Mayzshon
Bell Beefer Supreme
Posts: 644
Likes: 604
Role: Bottom
|
Post by Mayzshon on Jan 21, 2021 8:57:33 GMT -5
Wandavision I'm coming at this with a bit of a handicap, since I haven't seen any of the MCU movies except the first Iron Man, and the two Guardians of the Galaxy films. But so far that hasn't been a problem. You have to admire the a superhero show that forgoes superhero stuff and instead makes the first two episode look like a 1950's sitcom, with an underlying air of creepiness.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deeky on Mar 14, 2021 16:37:35 GMT -5
Wrapped up season 4 of Big Mouth. Good stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Mar 28, 2021 5:02:25 GMT -5
I have a decades long habit of having Nick at Nite on in the background while I work on stuff, and they've been playing ads for a new show called The Barbarian and the Troll, a puppet fantasy/comedy. Appears to have a very muppety vibe, although I'm pretty sure it's not them. Looks like it could be a hoot.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marxo Grouch on Jul 5, 2021 4:58:25 GMT -5
Follow-up to previous post, The Barbarian and the Troll was great. Amazing craftsmanship and really funny scripts. And not to suggest that it's not its own animal, but I have to believe that some of the people involved have been mainlining The Muppets for many years.
Mayz, I think you particularly would like it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 5, 2021 21:51:29 GMT -5
Anybody ever seen the TV show Nothing but Trailers? It's literally that. A half hour of the long-form trailers* for movies coming to theaters (and streaming nowadays). They usually do a nice job of arranging them along age and theme lines, too. So there might be a few action/crime/adventure trailers, then a few horror/thriller ones, then maybe an actual commercial break, then on to some family/comedy ones, then maybe rounding it all out with some trailers for some kids/animated movies. If trailers are one of your favorite things about movies (like me!) it's a lot of fun.
* By "long-form trailers", I mean that one you might see three weeks out from a movie premier that run for a couple of minutes. It seems like they pare down previews from a couple of minutes to fifteen seconds by the time you reach opening week.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 9, 2021 20:02:11 GMT -5
A solid 48 hour block of Fox News.  |
|
|
|
Post by Lemmy Caution on Jul 9, 2021 20:55:18 GMT -5
A solid 48 hour block of Fox News. |
|
|
|
Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 9, 2021 21:49:57 GMT -5
A solid 48 hour block of Fox News. Yeah. Off-the-charts levels of hypocrisy. The entire daytime format is opinion/editorial-style content. Even on ones like The Five where they're attempting a comedy approach, they just come off as shrill, deceitful performers. If Russia were to create a sham news network to wreck havoc in our country, it'd look something like Fox News. |
|
Mayzshon
Bell Beefer Supreme
Posts: 644
Likes: 604
Role: Bottom
|
Post by Mayzshon on Jul 15, 2021 14:58:17 GMT -5
They report...we throw bricks at the TV to make them please, for the love of Bob, SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! Yeah. Off-the-charts levels of hypocrisy. The entire daytime format is opinion/editorial-style content. Even on ones like The Five where they're attempting a comedy approach, they just come off as shrill, deceitful performers. If Russia were to create a sham news network to wreck havoc in our country, it'd look something like Fox News. Oh the five, the fucking five. I flip flop on who I would rather see take a punch in the face: Greg Gutfeld or Jesse Waters. |
|
Mayzshon
Bell Beefer Supreme
Posts: 644
Likes: 604
Role: Bottom
|
Post by Mayzshon on Jul 15, 2021 15:12:19 GMT -5
Considering that the only MCU films I've seen are the first Iron Man, an both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, I'm surprised at how much I've enjoyed the Disney+ series.
Loki has been my favorite so far. What's not to love about a villain turned anti-hero falling in love with a female version of himself from another timeline, while trying to bring down a massive bureaucracy that controls time?
Plus, honestly, don't we all secretly suspect that at least one alternate version of ourselves is an alligator?
|
|
|
|
Post by Lemmy Caution on Jul 15, 2021 16:45:12 GMT -5
Plus, honestly, don't we all secretly suspect that at least one alternate version of ourselves is an alligator? I'm often worried by the idea that at least one alternate version of myself is a primate. |
|
