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Post by Dr. Kobb on Feb 15, 2022 23:03:54 GMT -5
Three episodes of Netflix's true crime docu-series "Catching Killers". I like what they're doing here. The stories focus on the people tasked with catching massive fuck-ups like "The Happy Face Killer" and "The Green River Killer", rather than the perps themselves (for a change).
I rarely visit Netflix anymore, but popped in last night and was happy to see a second season of "Catching Killers" is up.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Mar 4, 2022 13:06:06 GMT -5
Watched several episodes of "Secrets in the Ice" on Discovery Science yesterday. Good stuff.
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El Santo
Cock Goddess
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Post by El Santo on Jun 2, 2022 13:10:14 GMT -5
Three episodes of Netflix's true crime docu-series "Catching Killers". I like what they're doing here. The stories focus on the people tasked with catching massive fuck-ups like "The Happy Face Killer" and "The Green River Killer", rather than the perps themselves (for a change).
I rarely visit Netflix anymore, but popped in last night and was happy to see a second season of "Catching Killers" is up.
Speaking of Netflix, I arrived late to the party as usual, and decided to give "The Witcher" a try. This show feels like somebody fed all the script pages into a wood chipper, and then entrusted the task of taping them back together to an unpaid intern who spoke only Basque. There's no discernable reason why it should be jumping back and forth among three parallel timelines, nor is there ever any apparent narrative or thematic connection between the scenes on which it makes its jumps through time. The individual episodes are completely without structure, and make no effort of any kind to tell even a satisfying chunk of a story, let alone the kind of fully separable mini-story that even heavily serialized television shows used to tell as recently as the late 2000's. There's no momentum from episode to episode, from scene to scene, or even from line to line of dialogue half the time. None of the characters have anything obvious to do with each other, or seem to be acting out of any cognizable motivation or desire. And finally, I consider it a perfectly reasonable storytelling expectation that, three hours deep into a show called "The Witcher," I should have some kind of fucking idea what a Witcher is. I will not be watching any more of this bullshit, however amusing it might be to see Henry "Objectivist Superman" Cavil play a character whose catchphrase is an exasperatedly snarled "Fuck..." |
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Post by Deeky on Jun 2, 2022 17:07:32 GMT -5
I was annoyed by the lack of resolution to the latest season of Stranger Things.
Turns out Netflix is sitting on two additional episodes until July. 🤷♂️
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 2, 2022 20:33:43 GMT -5
I guess it has been a couple of decades now, but it's interesting to me to watch how things went from VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray, with rentals changing from tape to disc, and then being mostly killed off by Netflix, who started mailing discs, then became the first major streaming service. Now it appears Netflix itself is imploding as everybody and their mother starts up their own streaming service. Of course, Redbox is still out there somehow. I pay for a web-based newsgroup viewer and download what I want to watch. I'm perfectly fine with this system and have more crap than I will ever possibly get around to seeing. The guru just purchased some gizmo called a "superbox" that allows movie channels, all the streaming services, local channels, sports channels, the list goes on and on. All for a one-time $300 purchase. Not sure, but I think that even included pay-per-view movies and in some cases ones that are currently in theaters. I may have to look into one of those down the road. One time $300 payment for pretty much every channel sounds like a bargain.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 4, 2022 11:32:40 GMT -5
I guess Ma could tell I wasn't interested in watching Fox News all day Thursday, so she let me pick. We ended up watching several episodes of a program called Mysteries of the Abandoned which it turns out has nine seasons under its belt.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 4, 2022 11:38:56 GMT -5
I was annoyed by the lack of resolution to the latest season of Stranger Things. Turns out Netflix is sitting on two additional episodes until July. 🤷♂️ And they wonder why everybody is fed up with their shit. |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 4, 2022 11:44:11 GMT -5
Oh, I wanted to add this interesting observation about Fox News. So, sometimes they have little choice but to agree with the current administration on a topic. When that occurs, they are left with no choice but to nitpick HOW the administration handles something. i.e. - The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Right now, they're being totally hawkish, saying Biden should put troops on the ground and even more support. However, I guarantee you, if he did indeed do that, they'd be railing about the Dems getting us directly involved in another war. They pulled the same bait-&-switch routine with Obama's policies in Syria. Loyal opposition, I guess?
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Post by Lemmy Caution on Jun 4, 2022 16:42:06 GMT -5
Oh, I wanted to add this interesting observation about Fox News. So, sometimes they have little choice but to agree with the current administration on a topic. When that occurs, they are left with no choice but to nitpick HOW the administration handles something. i.e. - The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Right now, they're being totally hawkish, saying Biden should put troops on the ground and even more support. However, I guarantee you, if he did indeed do that, they'd be railing about the Dems getting us directly involved in another war. They pulled the same bait-&-switch routine with Obama's policies in Syria. Loyal opposition, I guess? Loyal to the almighty advertising dollar and opposed to anything that gets in-between them and it. |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 4, 2022 20:31:01 GMT -5
I'm not usually there on Saturdays, but was filling-in for one of my sisters for a few hours with Ma today. I can usually get her to change it over to local news from Fox News on Thursdays, but being a Saturday, there was a women's championship softball game on instead.
So, we stayed on FNC and had the pleasure of tuning into "Guttfeld" around 6pm. Apparently, it's a highly rated late night show, so I don't know if this was a repeat from the previous night or what. It doesn't amaze me that someone could build their whole media career on being a cunt (there's personalities both left and right who are wildly successful at it), But to be so painfully, glaringly unfunny at it? That takes sheer lack of talent and inflated self-importance. That, ladies and gentlemen of ZAQB - takes Greg Gutfeld. |
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Jun 8, 2022 5:20:36 GMT -5
Abbott Elementary may be the first ABC show I've watched since they closed out Boston Legal. Not sure about that. Anyway, it deserves much of the praise it's gotten, and I certainly think that it's sincere in its depiction of a public school in Philly, but, frankly, the writing could be sharper. Star/creator/co-writer Quinta Brunson, who was so great in the first season of Black Lady Sketch Show, certainly makes for a likeable central.
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Post by Deeky on Jun 9, 2022 15:43:04 GMT -5
Abbott Elementary is great. As is American Auto.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jun 9, 2022 20:30:55 GMT -5
I was annoyed by the lack of resolution to the latest season of Stranger Things. Turns out Netflix is sitting on two additional episodes until July. 🤷♂️ And they wonder why everybody is fed up with their shit. Nonetheless, I'm hearing really good things about this latest season. As in, "It's even better than the first season." Problem for me is, I feel like I'd need to re-watch seasons 1 and 2 just to refresh, and I never even got around to season 3! |
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Jul 28, 2022 5:23:41 GMT -5
I'm currently rewatching season 2 of Barry in anticipation of watching long-awaited season 3. I just got through the infamous 'ronny/lily' episode, and I don't usually do this, but I would recommend that even those who aren't interested in seeing the rest of the series should watch this one episode. It's completely whacked out, and you don't really need to know the circumstances surrounding what happens to appreciate it. It may even make you want to watch the series in earnest, which you completely should, it's fucking great. Funny as shit, really intelligent, some great scenes of mayhem. Not as much mayhem as happens in 'ronny/lily', mind you. It truly is exceptional.
All you need to know for this episode is that Barry (Bill Hader) is an ex-Marine hitman who wants to stop what he's doing and who's just been blackmailed into killing someone. Also, he and his "handler" Fuchs (the ever-amazing Stephen Root) are in the midst of a serious schism.
Kobb, you in particular, I think, would enjoy this episode. If you have access, that is (it's an HBO production).
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 28, 2022 11:32:20 GMT -5
I'm currently rewatching season 2 of Barry in anticipation of watching long-awaited season 3. I just got through the infamous 'ronny/lily' episode, and I don't usually do this, but I would recommend that even those who aren't interested in seeing the rest of the series should watch this one episode. It's completely whacked out, and you don't really need to know the circumstances surrounding what happens to appreciate it. It may even make you want to watch the series in earnest, which you completely should, it's fucking great. Funny as shit, really intelligent, some great scenes of mayhem. Not as much mayhem as happens in 'ronny/lily', mind you. It truly is exceptional. All you need to know for this episode is that Barry (Bill Hader) is an ex-Marine hitman who wants to stop what he's doing and who's just been blackmailed into killing someone. Also, he and his "handler" Fuchs (the ever-amazing Stephen Root) are in the midst of a serious schism. Kobb, you in particular, I think, would enjoy this episode. If you have access, that is (it's an HBO production). Thanks for the tip! I don't have direct access to HBO, but I may be able to locate the episode through my usual sources. Just checked, and there's 63 pages of items with "Barry" somewhere in their names. Don't have the time this AM to scrounge around, but will peek into things after I return from Mom's later this evening. |
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Aug 25, 2022 5:10:06 GMT -5
Have now watched season 3 of Barry. Really took a dark turn, and that's with a show that was already pretty dark to begin with.
In other HBO news, having watched the entirety of Veep late last and early this year, and liking it quite a bit, I finally checked out Armando Iannucci's post-Veep series Avenue 5, a futuristic comedy with Hugh Laurie as the captain of a huge luxury spaceship on a cruise that gets knocked off course, leading to all kinds of problems. While equally as deeply cynical (and filthy) as Veep, this is a lot more absurdist (although Veep was essentially robbed of some of its absurdity when the DFiT-era ushered in some of the dumbest fucking shit we've ever seen on the national scene), and thus more purely enjoyable, for me anyway. It seems that they've already decided that the second season is going to be the last, which sucks, because I think they could have squeezed at least three out of the concept, but they pack a lot into it, so if all we end up getting in total is a roughly 18-episode miniseries, that's not too bad.
And since I've finally installed wifi, that means I can access HBO Max (part of my existing subscription), which meant I could watch Hacks, a comedy in which the amazing Jean Smart plays a Vegas comedian who hires a disgraced young writer (played by Hannah Einbender, also very good) to modernize (and personalize) her act. Really great stuff.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Aug 29, 2022 23:34:07 GMT -5
Discovered a Weather Channel documentary series called Weather Super/Natural. The episode I watched was about a small farming town in the Louisiana Delta region that got wiped off the map by a big storm in 1915. The supernatural element comes in with a voodoo priestess who used to sit on her porch and sing a disturbing song about "taking the town with her" when she goes. Sure enough, while they were mourning her passing in their little church, the storm came and just pummeled the place for 12 hours, wiping it completely off the map and killing half the townspeople. It was a really interesting view from an American folklore aspect.
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Sept 7, 2022 5:11:41 GMT -5
About two thirds of the way through Season 2 of Weeds. Took me a long time to finally give this one a shot (not sure why, given my adoration of the subject matter), and while I liked the first season, there felt like something was missing from it (can't put my finger on what it was), but I've really started to like it at this point. Some great lines, and Justin Kirk's masturbation pedagogy was one the funniest things I've seen recently.
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El Santo
Cock Goddess
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Post by El Santo on Sept 12, 2022 10:15:20 GMT -5
Last night, Juniper and I watched the 1954 episode of "Climax!" adapting Ian Fleming's Casino Royale. For those not acquainted with it, this was the first-ever adaptation of a James Bond story to the screen, big or small, and it's fascinating for all the ways it doesn't quite work. For starters, it's surprising how badly it hurts the entire premise to make Bond-- Jimmy Bond-- an American CIA agent. It's less surprising, however, that limpdick TV guest-spot rando Barry Nelson (who, as Juniper aptly observed, looks like a 30-something teenager from a Bowery Boys movie) makes an exceedingly unfavorable impression as Bond even with one's expectations diminished accordingly. "Climax!" at least occasionally taped its episodes ahead of time, rather than broadcasting them live, and that helps a little, insofar as it permits a degree of openness and compositional variety that was very difficult to manage with the "two cameras on a single set" approach. Still, you can plainly see how cheap this production was, and how stagey each individual scene has to be as a consequence. Kudos, too, to the writers and director for making the rules of baccarat clear enough that even someone who finds card games as impenetrable as I do could follow the action during the para-climactic gambling session between Bond and the KGB agent known as Le Chiffre. And speaking of Le Chiffre, that's Peter Lorre! Naturally he's far and away the best thing about the episode, even if his villainy is stifled a bit by the restrictive rules of engagement on 1950's television. And to be fair, the show pushed those rules pretty hard during the torture scene in Bond's hotel room; we get a nice, clear look at the multipurpose hand tool (sort of a combination of pliers, wire strippers, and tin snips) that Le Chiffre's minion uses on Bond's feet, although writers and director alike scrupulously refrain from revealing exactly what he's doing with it. (Nevertheless, I still haven't been able to shake the mental image of Lorre whaling on Nelson's balls with a knotted rope that formed the instant Juniper sold me on watching by telling me who the villain was...)
We also watched the "Climax!" version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-- from a script by Gore Vidal, of all people! This one lands closer to the mark, although I'd still put it in "near miss" territory. Michael Rennie is terrific as Jekyll, but his Hyde is never a sufficiently distinct characterization to be believable as an entire separate personality, even leaving aside a makeup design that achieves the worst of both worlds by rendering Rennie's face nearly immobile without altering his appearance in any obvious way. The most unexpected thing about this version is that Vidal tried really hard to be faithful to the narrative construction of the source novel-- although he ultimately shied away from attempting to treat the relationship between the two title characters as a mystery. For instance, he preserved Robert Louis Stevenson's in media res opening, in which Utterson and Poole run Hyde to ground in Jekyll's lab and kill him, only then going back to reconstruct what the hell actually happened. And although there's a character broadly analogous to the 1931 film's Champagne Ivy, there's no sign of the familiar pattern whereby Jekyll and Hyde have parallel love interests revealing the doctor's conflicted taste in women.
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Sept 15, 2022 6:12:23 GMT -5
Excellent use of Ween's 'You Fucked Up' at the end of the season 3 premiere of Weeds.
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