What Are You Watching?

Topic

Discuss your current viewing here.

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paul f wrote:

Never heard of Forces TV, looks like another UK station that got kicked off Sky Ireland post-Brexit.

I didn’t realise you guys lost channels after that. What was the reason given for it?

Forces TV is one of my favourite examples of remit drift. It’s ostensibly aimed at serving and former military, so has its own news programming with a services focus and, originally at least, had a lot of war and military documentaries. Then they started straying into military themed TV series like Sgt Bilko and Gomer Pyle (which was a handy way to get to see Bilko). That led to pseudo-military stuff like Airwolf and Buck Rogers and now it just shows any old crap from the 70s-90s: Never The Twain, Return of the Saint, CHiPS, Midnight Caller. Can’t complain though – there’s some interesting stuff in there and I managed to spot in time that they’ve started Blake’s 7 from the beginning tonight.

Martin Smith wrote:

I didn’t realise you guys lost channels after that. What was the reason given for it?

Yeah, mostly a load of the music channels but a bunch of other small stations too. We also didn’t get BBC Three back when it relaunched this year. I assume if they paid Sky more money they could get back on, but some of them didn’t bother. The channels can still be viewed using the manual tuning function, but you can’t record/rewind anything through that.

The only thing I use the manual tuning for is to watch Taskmaster live in HD, as Channel 4 is SD-only on Sky Ireland.

The music channels might have just gone generally. There’s a lot fewer of them now than say 10 years ago.

Damn you, Better Call Saul season 6 episode 3. Damn you.

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Dave, Sean Robinson

What an episode! Just, wow.

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Dave

Yeah it was excellent. There’s a real sense of momentum to this show now as it approaches the end. Looking forward to seeing how everything comes together.

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Sean Robinson

Yes, all the episodes so far this season have been really amazing!

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Sean Robinson

That they went where they did in only the third episode frankly makes me petrified about the rest of the season.

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Sean Robinson

saga wrote:

That they went where they did in only the third episode frankly makes me petrified about the rest of the season.

Given that we know Walt and Jesse will have cameos and we didn’t get a Gene scene at the start of the season, I wouldn’t be surprised if the back half of the season has at least one major time jump and the Mike, Gus, etc stuff is wrapped up before the break.

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Sean Robinson

Personally I’m hoping that any jump to the BB/post-BB era will be minimal, a coda at most.

This show has now established itself as something that stands alone and apart from BB, and while I’m fine with some connective tissue as we catch up with the BB timeline, it’d be a shame to make this final season end up feeling like it was as much about the BB characters as the BCS ones.

Of all the characters I care about in the BB universe, Kim and Jimmy are the ones that I want to see well-served by this finale. I wouldn’t be unhappy with just a couple of minutes to wrap up the Gene stuff at the very end.

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Sean Robinson

The Gene stuff is possibly the biggest mystery the show has left to resolve, so I wouldn’t mind them taking an episode or two to do so. I suspect it will also tie into revealing Kim’s fate, although who the heck knows at this point.

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Dave, Sean Robinson

[Sean Robinson]

Bob Odenkirk promises we’ll see Gene Takovic again

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/better-call-saul-season-6-bob-odenkirk-gene-takovic.html/

This was the first season to start without a Black & White Gene scene.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Sean Robinson.

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Dave

In other news, I finally saw Joker (so I could rate it)… it was okay… a movie that’s basically carried by an amazing performance, because the rest is rather bleh… or I should say the story, because in terms of production it’s pretty good (photography, music and all that). I’m still not sure why they had to jam the Batman elements into it though, kind of diminishes the story.

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Andrew, Arjan Dirkse

I watched Salt last night. The action sequences are good, but the story is pretty mince. By the end of it it seemed like even I was going to turn out to be a Russian sleeper agent.

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JRCarter, Uncle Retrospective, Bruce

Jon wrote:

In other news, I finally saw Joker (so I could rate it)… it was okay… a movie that’s basically carried by an amazing performance, because the rest is rather bleh… or I should say the story, because in terms of production it’s pretty good (photography, music and all that). I’m still not sure why they had to jam the Batman elements into it though, kind of diminishes the story.

Once everyone found out where that long staircase was in New York, people started going there with cell phones etc. to mimic the walk down the stairs. It became its own tourist site.

I had a go with that Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles earlier. I was pretty dubious when it was announced and it did nothing to win me over. Pretty bland animation and annoying characters. Still baffled why as to why they went with this rather than a straight adaptation of the comic, but some kids might enjoy it enough to check those out and Sakai got a payday (presumably) so I guess there’s that.

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Ben

This came up in my Recommendations on YouTube:

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DavidM

Almost finished with Pam & Tommy.

It’s a very well-made show, and it’s fun a lot of fun to watch. Pam and Tommy are depicted as actually kind of sweet, really. Tommy is a dick to the guy who ends up stealing his tapes, but he’s very sweet to Pam, and they’re portrayed as being deeply and wholly in love with each other.

It’s still very problematic that the show was made without Anderson’s co-operation – in a way, it is repeating what it is condemning – but at least they’re very much taking her side in all of it.

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Dave

Just watched the latest BCS. Kind of nice to have a slightly more “downtime” episode after the last couple, and I was impressed to find out after watching it that Rhea Seehorn directed it. She did a great job.

Yeah, she did a great job. Some terrific shots, like putting the camera on the car door as it opened and shut during the Jimmy Hamlin scene – not to mention the court attorney literally talking down to Saul in the staircase, or the reveal of her unexpected visitor at the diner (total comic book crossover moment).  She also had to direct herself for most of the episode. Kudos.

Also noted that Saul has to set aside all his electronics when trying to enter the court, just like when he entered Chuck’s house. The entire court now treats him as Chuck did. Great touch.

This was the first time we heard any details about Howard’s home life, I think. Can’t imagine it ending well when it inevitably clashes  with Kim’s newfound paranoia.

The Gus revelation here make the Breaking Bad scene with Walter trying to just turn up at Gus’ house with a gun seem absurdly inadequate in retrospect.

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Dave

TCM have started showing the original Maverick TV series, which I’ve only seen a few of before. I’ve been under the weather the past few days and have ended up watching about 10 episodes across three days.

It’s a fun show. Slow by modern standards, as you’d expect, but more varied than I expected. Both Mavericks (it alternates between James Garner’s Bret and Jack Kelly’s Bart) are gamblers, but the stories range wider than just card game related shenanigans. Some of them owe quite a lot to other Westerns and other contemporary movies (one episode clearly rips off 12 Angry Men only a few months after that was released).

Bart is a pleasant surprise. For those that don’t know, the show was created for James Garner’s character, but a few episodes into production WB realised it was taking too long to make each episode. So they set up a second production unit, changed the name Bret to Bart on half the scripts and hired Kelly to star in them. The characters are written pretty much identically, so it would be easy for Kelly to feel like a poor substitute for Garner. But while he doesn’t have the immediate suave charm of Garner, he’s a solid lead and his episodes are as engaging as the others.

I hope TCM carry on through to Roger Moore’s short run as cousin Beau.

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DavidM

Sonic 2 is a lot of fun. Possibly a tad to long at 2 hours. There’s a whole Hawaii section that drags quite a bit. But Tails and Knuckles are great additions and Carrey is dialled up to 11.

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Dave

Trying to rewatch the Donner movies… kill me please… u_u

Also: rewatched a ton of movies for my rating thing… not gonna comment on all, but I gotta say, I was absolutely amazed at the Phantom, I remember it being pretty bad, but hell not it ain’t, it’s rather spectacular what they did in that movie, at least in terms of stunts and animal work… its only flaws are a weak-ish plot and rather weak fight scenes, but man, there’s really a lot to appreciate in it.

Same goes for the first TMNT, it’s crazy how well it’s aged, all things considered… wish I could say the same for the sequels, but hey at least the 1st one is still good. Those Henson folks did some incredibly amazing job with the turtles’ suits and the splinter animatronic… funny, they designed the Phantom’s costume as well, didn’t know that =P

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Todd

JRCarter wrote:

This came up in my Recommendations on YouTube:

I’ve only skimmed a few minutes, but I think I’m going to watch this. It could be dreadful but it looks worth a shot.

I assume it’s an unofficial “fan” production? Youtube only?

For a while I thought the actor playing (I assume) Fred was Chris Evans :D

 

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JRCarter

DavidM wrote:

I’ve only skimmed a few minutes, but I think I’m going to watch this. It could be dreadful but it looks worth a shot.

I assume it’s an unofficial “fan” production? Youtube only?

Yeah, it is. As a matter of fact, there’s an IndieGoGo link in the description to fund episode 2.

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DavidM

I wonder how they got round the obvious legal obstacles. I can’t see anything on their crowdfunding page that says “Paying a humongous sun to Time Warner”.

 

I know in the recent past there has been tolerance of fan made stuff as long as they don’t monetise it. Paramount allowed quite a lot of Star Trek fan shows and there was a bit of a fuss when they decided one was too pro and tried to shut it down. Trek fans will know better than me how that eventually resolved.

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lorcan_nagle

garjones wrote:

I know in the recent past there has been tolerance of fan made stuff as long as they don’t monetise it. Paramount allowed quite a lot of Star Trek fan shows and there was a bit of a fuss when they decided one was too pro and tried to shut it down. Trek fans will know better than me how that eventually resolved.

Yeah, the guy basically went way too far and started selling merchandise and talking about turning the studio space for the film into a permanent facility he was gonna rent out to other productions. That went from fans doing something they loved and asking for funding from the community to directly profiting off Paramount’s IP. End result was very stringent rules for fan films – they can’t crowd fund, can’t be more than 2 episodes of like 10 minutes each, can’t have any actors who worked on official Trek productions in them, can’t use third party props or costumes – only officially licensed stuff…

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DavidM, garjones

Yeah that was the one, thanks Lorcan. I’m assuming for the moment Warners are ok with crowdfunding the Scooby Doo thing if it is just covering costs. As long as they don’t start taking the piss like that Star Trek guy.

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lorcan_nagle

The funny thing is, he’d actually done a bunch of work for Paramount, he managed prop inventory, ran some auctions of same, even produced and was interviewed for special features on the home video releases of the shows and movies. You’d think he’d have known better

lorcan_nagle wrote:

The funny thing is, he’d actually done a bunch of work for Paramount, he managed prop inventory, ran some auctions of same, even produced and was interviewed for special features on the home video releases of the shows and movies. You’d think he’d have known better

I think sometimes people like that let it go to their head and think it means the usual rules don’t apply to them.

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lorcan_nagle

This week’s BCS was a great example of how the show often doesn’t do what you’d expect, but yet still manages to make events feel perfectly logical and natural in the way they play out.

It also did quite a lot of work in moving a few pieces around, presumably in anticipation for some fireworks in the coming weeks.

It’s just a consistently engaging, well-written and well-made show, full of great performances and really strong visual storytelling. They make it look easy.

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Sean Robinson

Dave wrote:

This week’s BCS was a great example of how the show often doesn’t do what you’d expect, but yet still manages to make events feel perfectly logical and natural in the way they play out.

It also did quite a lot of work in moving a few pieces around, presumably in anticipation for some fireworks in the coming weeks.

It’s just a consistently engaging, well-written and well-made show, full of great performances and really strong visual storytelling. They make it look easy.

Quoted for truth.

I am so down for a Lalo prequel show if they want to keep this thing going. Let’s Go Lalo?

Random connection to note, trying to be as vague as possible – the woman referred to her dog as “little bear”, which is also the name of Ursa Minor. Her husband had memorably taken an interest in getting a good look at the stars.

Giancarlo Esposito directs the next episode. I kinda want it to just be an hour of Gus meticulously cleaning his bathroom.

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Dave

saga wrote:

Giancarlo Esposito directs the next episode. I kinda want it to just be an hour of Gus meticulously cleaning his bathroom.

You know it would be gripping when they can even wring great drama out of him walking through the kitchen of a chicken restaurant.

Lalo Salamanca feels like a villain who should fight Batman or Daredevil.

Not only that but he would charm their women and think about killing them only to not do so, for he is a gentleman.

The new Kids in the Hall season is out. Only watched the first episode, but I loved it.

I’m glad they’re not just relying on old characters. Even in the original series, they’d cycle characters out fairly quickly; a lot of the classics were only ever in a handful of sketches, like Mr. Head Crusher and Gavin.

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Todd

Watched Uncharted. It’s fine🤷‍♂️. It’s totally average across the board. Wahlberg seems kind of disinterested through the whole thing, and Tom Holland is basically just doing Peter Parker again.

Also finished Severance on AppleTV. It’s a bit slow to get going, but when it gets there it really draws you in. It’s definitely one of my favourite shows of the years so far. Really interesting premise, well acted and looks great.

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Andrew

Taxi Driver Series 1

I really enjoyed this.

A Korean series that sees a group who have all lost loved ones to crime, they decide to go after criminals who cheat the system.

What follows is a tale with some epic fight sequences, car chases, a killer soundtrack and an excellent sense of balance.

It also is a 16-episode complete tale.  There’s no final few minutes cliffhanger that blights so many series now.  This is a story that knows how to develop and then conclude, albeit with a good few twists along the way.

Going to be looking out for the next series.

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njerry, Todd

Ian Smith wrote:

Also finished Severance on AppleTV. It’s a bit slow to get going, but when it gets there it really draws you in. It’s definitely one of my favourite shows of the years so far. Really interesting premise, well acted and looks great.

Yeah, it’s a great show… but a bit on the too slow side for me to recomend… but if anyone has the time to waste, def. a good one to watch.

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Ian Smith

This week on Better Call Saul, the return of Mike’s erratically aging granddaughter! It’s the one bit of Breaking Bad continuity that got away from them and oddly irritating as a result.

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Dave

saga wrote:

This week on Better Call Saul, the return of Mike’s erratically aging granddaughter! It’s the one bit of Breaking Bad continuity that got away from them and oddly irritating as a result.

I mean, I don’t think it’s the only thing. I’m pretty sure Jesse often had product-placement video games, etc that wouldn’t come out until years after the episodes were set.

Sooo I watched Morbius… and damn, maybe it’s because my expectations were Let there be Garbage levels of low, but I really enjoyed it… I don’t get why people shat on it so much… I swear it’s better than Cpt Marvel, Shang Chi, the Eternals, Black Widow and plenty of others… it’s a pretty good flick, imo… I’m a bit puzzled by the reactions to it =/

Was it because of the Spiderman connection lies? Because it’s a Sony movie? Because of Jared Leto? Speaking of which, while the movie was pretty good, the end credits scene was fuckin’ awful and obviously tacked-on… makes NO fuckin sense whatsoever.

Oh and minus points for doing the whole “hero vs dark reflection of the hero” goddamned trope AGAIN, but to be honest, it’s not like Morbius has a good gallery of rogues or anything, and at least they set it up and paid it off well enough for it to make sense… but yeah other than that, I didn’t see any major problems with the movie.

Well… I guess I’ll put this one into the “who the fuck knows” category

I watched end credit scenes of Morbius and they were even worse that expected. I mean who signed that off? Did someone get paid to write it?

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Todd

I watched that new Rescue Rangers movie this evening.

It’s pretty enjoyable. It’s definitely a 21st century consumer culture spiritual sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for better and worse. The fact it’s a reboot of an old IP, rather than a new concept like RR was, is both indicative of the state of the modern entertainment industry but also really kind of central to its point.

It doesn’t have the class of Roger Rabbit, but it’s still very well put together. The way it replicates and blends together different animation styles – especially a claymation cop – is technically impressive.

It’s funny enough with some good laughs and a lot of digs at the movie and animation industry.

And then there’s the cameos/fan-service, of which there is loads. Some real deep-cuts, some definite crowd-pleasers and some stuff that I’m surprised they got permission for. It feels a bit shallow to be flagging that up over, say, plot and acting, but it’s clearly a big element and it’s not like Roger Rabbit didn’t have them either.

I can definitely see why someone wouldn’t like it, but it’s worth giving a go.

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paul f

Martin Smith wrote:

I watched that new Rescue Rangers movie this evening.

It’s pretty enjoyable. It’s definitely a 21st century consumer culture spiritual sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for better and worse. The fact it’s a reboot of an old IP, rather than a new concept like RR was, is both indicative of the state of the modern entertainment industry but also really kind of central to its point.

It doesn’t have the class of Roger Rabbit, but it’s still very well put together. The way it replicates and blends together different animation styles – especially a claymation cop – is technically impressive.

It’s funny enough with some good laughs and a lot of digs at the movie and animation industry.

And then there’s the cameos/fan-service, of which there is loads. Some real deep-cuts, some definite crowd-pleasers and some stuff that I’m surprised they got permission for. It feels a bit shallow to be flagging that up over, say, plot and acting, but it’s clearly a big element and it’s not like Roger Rabbit didn’t have them either.

I can definitely see why someone wouldn’t like it, but it’s worth giving a go.

I have few memories of the original series (I think I was slightly too young), but I had a lot of fun with it just as a Samberg/Mulaney buddy comedy.

I probably could have done with a few more non-animated characters; it being just KiKi Layne for the most part didn’t really work for me, especially when she doesn’t have much to do as they want her to be a red herring.

Ugly Sonic was great though, as was Rogen’s Beowulf knock-off. Also, Tigra, from that awful 90s Avengers cartoon!

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Martin Smith

They even got David Tennant to reprise Scroog McDuck, just for a single line of laughter (or just reused it from DuckTales, I guess). And a Blacksad cameo!

Martin Smith wrote:

I watched that new Rescue Rangers movie this evening.

I started watching it with my son last night, but after about 15 minutes he said he was bored and wanted to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit again instead because it was better. So we did that.

I still want to finish it at some point though!

But from what I saw there was more in it to appeal to adults than kids, and quite a lot of the references and cameos were completely lost on him. And in the short stretch I saw, there was a lot of that.

paul f wrote:

I have few memories of the original series (I think I was slightly too young),

I must be just the right age as I remember it well. It was never a great show but I remember enough of it that everything they showed at the start of the movie was pretty familiar.

Christian wrote:

Speaking of which, I am currently watching Fargo season 4. It’s not as strong as the other seasons, but still very good.

One thing that puzzles me is the casting/acting on the Italian side. I am not sure whether I am supposed to take Jason Schwartzman seriously as a somewhat-in-over-his-head mafia don or whether his performance is supposed to be a bit ridiculous, which is kind of hardwired into Schwartzman’s acting. Also, his opposite number, the cousin fresh off the boat from Italy, also irritates me because his bug-eyed intensity is also confusing me as to whether it’s supposed to be scary or ridiculous.

Finished Fargo. Still think it’s the weakest season of Fargo, but it’s Fargo, so that still means it’s a head above most other TV out there. They do draw it all together very nicely in the last few episodes and there is one stand-alone episode towards the end that focuses on two characters that is just amazing. It’d be worth watching the entire season just for that episode really.

I have now finally started on the new season of BCS. Watched the last season of Rick and Morty in between, which was as fun as always.

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Todd

This afternoon I went to see The Bad Guys with the kids. It was better than I expected – a fun kid-friendly heist movie with plenty of action, some good gags and setpieces and a nice mix of 3D and 2D animation styles. Plus a decent voice cast.

It feels like it’s been a bit overlooked (I think it came out the same time as Sonic 2) but I liked it quite a bit.

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Ben, Martin Smith

I was watching some of the mob documentaries and Henry Hill interviews on YouTube.  There are pictures of the actual people and the movie cast and there are differences like the real Tommy was actually tall and not like Joe Pesci.

Of course there are differences between the actual events and the movie. But Scorcese did excellent in adapting it to some of the scenes. The actual incident of Billy Batts poking fun at Tommy didn’t actually go like that, but the scene in the movie gave you the gist of what happened and that was enough. Some other things were Scorcese left out, but the movie covered the essentials. Great movie and should have swept the Oscars.

 

Al-x wrote:

I was watching some of the mob documentaries and Henry Hill interviews on YouTube. There are pictures of the actual people and the movie cast and there are differences like the real Tommy was actually tall and not like Joe Pesci.

Pesci’s almost 50, playing a guy in his 20s, where the main point of the character is that he’s a young inexperienced hothead. He’s great in the role, but it’s objectively very silly casting.

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Al-x

I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once… it’s a good movie, but I kinda didn’t like it… it’s too messy and confused and in the end it’s “all about love”, so I was left feeling quite underwhelmed by the end of it, but hey, I can see it’s a good movie… just not for me I guess (despite it being the kind of crazy I tend to like)

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Christian

BCS. Just wow.

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Sean Robinson

I’m caught up with BCS now, too, just haven’t seen the latest ep yet.

The last two episodes before this one were amazing. And I loved how German the bits taking place in Germany felt. They had native speakers for the young couple playing on that machine, too. Also, that situation in the house was just incredibly tense.

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Dave

Dave wrote:

BCS. Just wow.

Yes! Wow!

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Sean Robinson, Dave

Since the No Way Home won’t be streaming on Disney+ anytime soon (some legal stuff involving Sony’s rights), I got the movie from ITunes.

 

Everyone was into canon, continuity and the ending for Peter, but I liked rewatching the scenes of Octopus on the bridge, discovering it is not his Peter, him in the dungeon, and asking Strange “Where am I?”, “How did you do that?” Then all the other villains ended up there and were talking to each other, the other two Peters, etc.

I still hold on to my prediction about Ned but I digress…

Those character interactions…. and Zendaya is so talented. She is also great in “Euphoria” which I also recommend,. ( Be warned though… The drug use scenes can be triggering.)

I caught up with the season finale of SNL tonight. It was a decent episode (I really liked the prom segment) and gave nice send-offs to three of its departing cast. And then didn’t really acknowledge that Kyle Mooney was leaving beyond just giving him more roles than he usually gets.

It’s weird; despite having seen a metric tonne of SNL over many years, this is my first experience of a big cast exodus in real time. I’d say most of these exits are over-due, probably delayed by Covid. It’s kind of crazy the leeway cast members get for other projects now. Bryant has had a sitcom for three seasons, Strong did a sitcom (admittedly only a short run one), Kenan has/had a sitcom. I still can’t quite believe that Michael Che – who doesn’t do sketches on SNL, just Update – has his own sketch show on HBO.

Hopefully Sarah Sherman will be upgraded to rep next season. She’s been pretty good and will have more of a niche without McKinnon there. I assume James Austin Johnson will be upgraded too, given he’s been Trump and Biden all season already. I’m half-expecting Aristotle Athari to be dropped, maybe Punkie Johnson too.

Martin Smith wrote:

I caught up with the season finale of SNL tonight. It was a decent episode (I really liked the prom segment) and gave nice send-offs to three of its departing cast. And then didn’t really acknowledge that Kyle Mooney was leaving beyond just giving him more roles than he usually gets.

It’s weird; despite having seen a metric tonne of SNL over many years, this is my first experience of a big cast exodus in real time. I’d say most of these exits are over-due, probably delayed by Covid. It’s kind of crazy the leeway cast members get for other projects now. Bryant has had a sitcom for three seasons, Strong did a sitcom (admittedly only a short run one), Kenan has/had a sitcom. I still can’t quite believe that Michael Che – who doesn’t do sketches on SNL, just Update – has his own sketch show on HBO.

Hopefully Sarah Sherman will be upgraded to rep next season. She’s been pretty good and will have more of a niche without McKinnon there. I assume James Austin Johnson will be upgraded too, given he’s been Trump and Biden all season already. I’m half-expecting Aristotle Athari to be dropped, maybe Punkie Johnson too.

My main reaction when I heard about the four leaving was that they probably could get rid of a few more.

All Mikey Day does in any sketch is to point out that the other characters aren’t acting normally. I’ve never seen him do anything actually funny, and I have no idea why he’s still on the show.

Cecily Strong is great, but it’s time for her to do something else. She’s been on the show for a decade, and barely gets anything to do anymore.

Che and Jost are still awful. Not as bad as when they started, but it’s ridiculous they’ve hosted Update for longer than anyone else. I’ve heard Che’s sketch show isn’t bad, he can just do that instead.

I like Kyle Mooney’s Netflix show, Saturday Morning All Star Hits, a lot. I hope he does more stuff like that now that he’s gone.

They are going to miss Kate McKinnon big time.

Al-x wrote:

They are going to miss Kate McKinnon big time.

Sure, but she was already barely on the show, she missed almost the entire first half of this season (Pete Davidson missed almost the entire back half).

I hope McKinnon finds something that suits her; the Carole Baskin show she did seems like a complete flop. She was supposed to be the lead in The Dropout, but it’s hard to imagine her being close to as good as Amanda Seyfried was in the role.

paul f wrote:

I like Kyle Mooney’s Netflix show, Saturday Morning All Star Hits, a lot. I hope he does more stuff like that now that he’s gone.

Oo, I’ll have to check that out.

Jost and Che have kind of grown on me on Update – I don’t know if that’s just my expectations having lowered to them or having seen some of the supposed golden era of Fey/Fallon recently and finding it just as bad, if not worse.

I agree about Day actually. I saw an episode of that Is It Cake? show he dis on Netflix, which really feels like an SNL sketch that’s gone rogue. He’s the same in that as he is in most SNL sketches, which doesn’t say much for his range (or Is It Cake? Or both, I guess).

It really felt like Strong was leaving at the end of last season, so it’s surprising she’s not now. Melissa Villasenor never seems to get much to do either and I’m still not sure if that’s because she’s criminally over-looked or just not that interesting.

Including the cast that are leaving, they have 21 members. Throw in the three from Please Don’t Destroy, that brings it up to 24. They really need to drop the cast count down. It is way too big. With so many, it makes it hard for anyone to stand out. If there are breakouts, it makes it harder for the rest to shine.

I would go with 10 or less. It would give everyone more opportunities to be spotlighted. They may even be able to develop some recurring characters that aren’t tied to Weekend Update. The show has a lot of bloat right now.

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Al-x

paul f wrote:

Al-x wrote: They are going to miss Kate McKinnon big time. Sure, but she was already barely on the show, she missed almost the entire first half of this season (Pete Davidson missed almost the entire back half).

I say that because McKinnon has been there 10 years and she was most likely underrated as a cast member. Lorne Michaels has his plans to replace them, but he knows the void of the 4 leaving. All the attention might be on Pete Davidson and his name because of Kim K.

I feel for Pete because he lost his father (a firefighter) on 9/11 and Pete is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.

 

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

Dave wrote:

BCS. Just wow.

Yes! Wow!

I concur with those wows and may I also add HOLY SHIT.

I suspect that Clifford Main may have an important role in the last half of the season. He seems inclined to believe the ludicrous theories he’s been told about by Howard.

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Todd wrote:

Including the cast that are leaving, they have 21 members. Throw in the three from Please Don’t Destroy, that brings it up to 24. They really need to drop the cast count down. It is way too big. With so many, it makes it hard for anyone to stand out. If there are breakouts, it makes it harder for the rest to shine.

I would go with 10 or less. It would give everyone more opportunities to be spotlighted. They may even be able to develop some recurring characters that aren’t tied to Weekend Update. The show has a lot of bloat right now.

I think part of the bloat has been a Covid strategy, to be able to carry on if some of the cast test positive through sheer force of numbers. But then, the cast was about the same size before covid too.

I agree with cutting it down. As much as I love Kenan, he’s been there too long. He’s in the same position Phil Hartman was, where he’s one of, if not the best and most reliable member of the cast, but by being there so long and relied on so much he’s stopping the show being able to develop. I’d cut it down to:

Chloe Fineman
Heidi Gardner
Alex Moffat
Ego Nwodim
Chris Redd
Melissa Villaseñor
Bowen Yang
Aristotle Athari
James Austin Johnson
Punkie Johnson
Sarah Sherman

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Todd

Martin Smith wrote:

Todd wrote:

Including the cast that are leaving, they have 21 members. Throw in the three from Please Don’t Destroy, that brings it up to 24. They really need to drop the cast count down. It is way too big. With so many, it makes it hard for anyone to stand out. If there are breakouts, it makes it harder for the rest to shine.

I would go with 10 or less. It would give everyone more opportunities to be spotlighted. They may even be able to develop some recurring characters that aren’t tied to Weekend Update. The show has a lot of bloat right now.

I think part of the bloat has been a Covid strategy, to be able to carry on if some of the cast test positive through sheer force of numbers. But then, the cast was about the same size before covid too.

I agree with cutting it down. As much as I love Kenan, he’s been there too long. He’s in the same position Phil Hartman was, where he’s one of, if not the best and most reliable member of the cast, but by being there so long and relied on so much he’s stopping the show being able to develop. I’d cut it down to:

Chloe Fineman
Heidi Gardner
Alex Moffat
Ego Nwodim
Chris Redd
Melissa Villaseñor
Bowen Yang
Aristotle Athari
James Austin Johnson
Punkie Johnson
Sarah Sherman

A few weeks ago, Cracked had an article where they said who they would keep and cut: Cutting The SNL Cast In Half – Who’s In? Who’s Out?

Their final roster was Aristotle Athari, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Punkie Johnson, Chris Redd, Ego Nwodim, Kyle Mooney, Sarah Sherman, and Bowen Yang.

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Martin Smith

I watched the last few episodes of Better Call Saul, I quit watching it a few seasons ago as I thought it started to get boring, but this was good stuff. Lalo is a damn good villain.

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Sean Robinson

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Lalo is a damn good villain.

He needs his own spinoff show after this.

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Sean Robinson

I could go for a show about Lalo traveling around Europe, charming widowers and then deciding whether or not he can be bothered killing them.

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Sean Robinson, Dave, Christian

Yeah, Lalo is fantastic. Villigan really excels in creating villains.

And yup, I’ll echo the HOLY SHIT!. That was really… it was quite something.

I really feel so bad for Howard. It’s one of the strengths of the show that I always felt sympathy for him. He really didn’t deserve to go out that way, the poor bastard.

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Sean Robinson, Dave

saga wrote:

I could go for a show about Lalo traveling around Europe, charming widowers and then deciding whether or not he can be bothered killing them.

Lethal Lalo Loves Ladies sounds like a hit in the making.

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Christian

Christian wrote:

Yeah, Lalo is fantastic. Villigan really excels in creating villains.

And yup, I’ll echo the HOLY SHIT!. That was really… it was quite something.

I really feel so bad for Howard. It’s one of the strengths of the show that I always felt sympathy for him. He really didn’t deserve to go out that way, the poor bastard.

I love the way that last scene really confronted the viewer with everything they’ve been watching in the season so far, and why they’ve been enjoying it.

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Sean Robinson, Christian

2nd season of Russian Doll was a lot of fun.

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Todd

Martin Smith wrote:

I’d cut it down to:

Chloe Fineman
Heidi Gardner
Alex Moffat
Ego Nwodim
Chris Redd
Melissa Villaseñor
Bowen Yang
Aristotle Athari
James Austin Johnson
Punkie Johnson
Sarah Sherman

Who does Weekend Update?

Oh, and I watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard (the first one). Absolutely ludicrous premise (they NEED Samuel Jackson as an eyewitness against an evil dictator because an, uh, a first-hand eye-witness report by a well-recognised professor whose family the dictator personally murdered in front of his eyes is dismissed as hearsay, because apparently you can only trust the witness accounts of well-known criminals), but that obviously doesn’t matter one bit. The banter between Reynolds and Jackson works well, whoever choreographed and shot the fights are well worth their money, there’s some neat chases through Amsterdam and the movie nicely walks the line between hilarity and still being serious enough for an action movie. It’s an old-fashioned fun action movie, and fun enough.

JRCarter wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

I’d cut it down to:

Chloe Fineman
Heidi Gardner
Alex Moffat
Ego Nwodim
Chris Redd
Melissa Villaseñor
Bowen Yang
Aristotle Athari
James Austin Johnson
Punkie Johnson
Sarah Sherman

Who does Weekend Update?

Ego Nwodim and Chloe Fineman.

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Todd

JRCarter wrote:

This came up in my Recommendations on YouTube:

I finally watched this and it was … ok.

For a crowd-funded, amateur, straight-to-youtube production, it didn’t look cheap. The sets were extravagant (pretty much all shot on location I assume), the camerawork and directing was fine, the costumes were fine, the special effects were good enough for a TV show. The actors were good look-alikes for their cartoon counterparts.

Where the gloss slipped and it showed its amateur roots was in some of the acting (definitely not A-list standard) and the script was … competent rather than sparkling. Apparently the actor who plays Fred also wrote the script and effectively the whole project is his vision, and maybe it could have benefitted from bringing in another writer to polish it.

And it took itself far too seriously. I appreciate that they are re-imagining the cartoon for a modern angsty teen audience (and I recognise that I am not in that audience) but … jinkies, guys, lighten up! I do like the way they have given all the characters actual backstories that make them feel like real people (with built-in issues and melodrama, obviously), and generally updated the characters and mood for a new generation, but I think it’s lacking some spark that stops it short of being compelling viewing.

Perhaps my favourite part was actually the interview segment at the end of the video, where the cast and director answer fans’ questions (including a hilarious answer to “Will Scooby talk in this series?”). It shows you how much the cast care about this project, and makes me hopeful that they will learn as they go and hopefully find that spark that’s missing now, if they can continue to find the funding.

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JRCarter

Went to see Top Gun Maverick and really enjoyed it. Lots of callbacks to the original. The opening is pretty much the exact same, including the absolute banger that is Danger Zone.

But the whole thing thing didn’t feel like just shallow nostalgia porn. We really get into Maverick’s character and how events from the first film stuck with him. There’s a scene that had me weeping like an idiot. And it really shows that Yeah, Cruise can do the action scenes, but he’s also a bloody good actor.

The actual plot is a bit thin and the romantic story feels a bit thrown together at times, but the scenes in the jets are so bloody good that they paper over the cracks. It’s just a real spectacle to see, especially since most of the flying looks to be in camera.

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Martin Smith

Ian Smith wrote:

The actual plot is a bit thin and the romantic story feels a bit thrown together at times, but the scenes in the jets are so bloody good that they paper over the cracks.

I rewatched the first one on Saturday night and this describes the original movie exactly too.

The third season of Love, Death and Robots was mostly nice. The animation was amazing as always. Some parts are so realistic that you could almost think that it was live action and not computer animations.

The episode with the fishing crew and the giant crab was the best one.

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Todd

Ian Smith wrote:

Went to see Top Gun Maverick and really enjoyed it. Lots of callbacks to the original. The opening is pretty much the exact same, including the absolute banger that is Danger Zone.

But the whole thing thing didn’t feel like just shallow nostalgia porn. We really get into Maverick’s character and how events from the first film stuck with him. There’s a scene that had me weeping like an idiot. And it really shows that Yeah, Cruise can do the action scenes, but he’s also a bloody good actor.

The actual plot is a bit thin and the romantic story feels a bit thrown together at times, but the scenes in the jets are so bloody good that they paper over the cracks. It’s just a real spectacle to see, especially since most of the flying looks to be in camera.

I thought it was much better than the original, especially the action scenes. Not as good as the M:I movies, but it’ll do just fine filling that hole until next year.

Of the new cast, Glen Powell was the standout, and I hope this leads to bigger things for him. IIRC, it was down to him and Teller for the “Goose’s Son” role, and Cruise and the producers liked Powell so much they gave his character a much bigger role than he was supposed to have.

Honestly, I’m mostly glad I won’t have to see the trailer anymore. Since August 2019, almost every movie I’ve seen has had the same trailer for this movie in front of it. They only updated the “In 2020” a few months ago.

A new Top Gun? Huh. I guess we need to have a new Hot Shots too then.

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Dave

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

A new Top Gun? Huh. I guess we need to have a new Hot Shots too then.

I still confuse bits of Hot Shots with Top Gun in my mind. Every so often I have to remind myself that the eggs and bacon scene wasn’t in the Tom Cruise movie.

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Christian, Todd, Arjan Dirkse

DavidM wrote:

Apparently the actor who plays Fred also wrote the script and effectively the whole project is his vision

Him and the actress playing Daphne.

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DavidM

Started Season 4 of Stranger Things. Still good, though setting so much of it outside of the town seems like a mistake. All of the Hopper in Russian prison stuff is awful, and the Eleven/Will in California stuff just has me wanting them to get back to the group, which doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.

The show is best when the main group is together, and I wish they knew that.

It also seems like a mistake to have only a few months passed since the last season, when it’s been three years IRL. Most of the kid characters all look much older, and it’s getting harder to pretend they’re still in their early teens.

Watching this E True Hollywood episode on the price of fame.

The things people will do to get in the public eye (ie something dangerous and stupid to go viral) and once their time is over, what they will do to get back in. Before, a person would be a celeb on their actual talent, but now since reality TV, it is being known as for just being you. Segments on social media people, the Kardashians, examples of  people who finished The Real World/Big Brother/Survivor  shows and immediately move on to another like a dating show, or whatever. Psychologists talk about the dopamine rush and addiction to be in the public eye. Britney, Shia, and so many.

Very informative.

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

This was basically an extended episode with better production values. And that is not a bad thing at all. I had so much fun and laughed a lot. A lot of fun musical numbers and great dialogue. If you love the show, you’ll love the movie.

I enjoyed it a lot.

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Andrew, paul f, Sean Robinson

Todd wrote:

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

This was basically an extended episode with better production values. And that is not a bad thing at all. I had so much fun and laughed a lot. A lot of fun musical numbers and great dialogue. If you love the show, you’ll love the movie.

I enjoyed it a lot.

Glad to hear it!

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Todd wrote:

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

This was basically an extended episode with better production values. And that is not a bad thing at all. I had so much fun and laughed a lot. A lot of fun musical numbers and great dialogue. If you love the show, you’ll love the movie.

I enjoyed it a lot.

Glad to hear it!

It really stayed true to the ethos of the series. They had every opportunity to go “adult” and “edgy”, but they didn’t. There were some very mild “dirty jokes” (typical of what you would get on the television series), but no profanity. I appreciated that they stayed true and pure to the series.

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The Bob’s Burgers Movie was great. Nothing revolutionary, animation-wise, but they make good use of the bigger budget.

I’m surprised it got a cinema release over here, when it was cancelled several times before Comedy Central picked it up, and I know almost nobody who watches it. Which might be why I was the only person in my screening.

Also, I stayed through the credits, and it’s one of those movies that has a surprise “Supported by the Government of Ireland” stamps at the very end. That often pops up in movies I didn’t expect. One of the animation studios that worked on the movie is in Kilkenny, but I don’t know if there’s more than that.

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njerry, Todd

Clearly, established actors get to the point where they go “fuck it, I’m taking any role I’m interested in”.

Thus Kristin Scott Thomas and Sir Derek Jacobi turning up in Tomb Raider.

paul f wrote:

The Bob’s Burgers Movie was great. Nothing revolutionary, animation-wise, but they make good use of the bigger budget.

I’m surprised it got a cinema release over here, when it was cancelled several times before Comedy Central picked it up, and I know almost nobody who watches it. Which might be why I was the only person in my screening.

Also, I stayed through the credits, and it’s one of those movies that has a surprise “Supported by the Government of Ireland” stamps at the very end. That often pops up in movies I didn’t expect. One of the animation studios that worked on the movie is in Kilkenny, but I don’t know if there’s more than that.

I have noticed an increasing number of those ‘stamps’ from many countries where IMDB says they never filmed. Almost every film I see recently has the UK and Australia there. Clearly it’s tax benefits from any small part of the process.

I know that every single Marvel and Star Wars trailer is edited in the UK, as I know one of the team that does them. That’s probably enough to get the ‘thanks’ stamp in the credits.

 

[Martin Smith]

On Paul’s recommendation, I’ve been watching Saturday Morning All Star Hits. It’s a bit of a slow burn to start – initially I thought there wasn’t much to it beyond very faithful recreations of the weird cartoon magazines of the late 80s/early 90s – but it builds some interesting ongoing plot threads, like the rivalry between the twin hosts Skip and Treybor. I really liked the horribly awkward cartoon based on the childhood of pseudo-Andrew Dice Clay, whose “crazy” escapist imagination doesn’t stretch beyond Old West jails.

If there’s one criticism I have it’s that none of the cartoons visually look right for the period. They’ve all got the soft shapes, airbrushed colours and palettes of 70s cartoons rather than late 80s/early 90s ones, which undermines the entire point somewhat.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Martin Smith.

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Todd

Caught TOP GUN – MAVERICK in the theater, and it is a very polished, predictable by-the-numbers movie about throwing out the book and being an original. It is exactly the movie it wants to be which is kind of a disappointment in that it is such a toxic piece of professional, safe and pandering filmmaking. I actually feel bad for the actors that they had to perform in this gaudy piece of nostalgia bait. Especially the actors that are not Tom Cruise. It seems like very few actors that choose to co-star in a Tom Cruise vehicle really get much of a boost from it. Hopefully the paycheck is worth it, though I can see some people taking less money for the privilege of working with Criuse on a movie this big.

Though the production value is pretty high in this, but not really all that thrilling. Just loud and fast.

 

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

It is exactly the movie it wants to be which is kind of a disappointment in that it is such a toxic piece of professional, safe and pandering filmmaking.

How is a film succeeding at doing what it’s trying to do toxic? I’m legit curious as to what you mean here.

Toxic in the sense of draining or tiring – deadening or poisoning the appeal of the movie theater. They didn’t do a toxic job, they did an excellent job of making a tiresome movie.

Still, I was worn out by the end and my wife fell asleep a couple times, but I expect it will do fairly well. It’s not for me, essentially, but I expect it will appeal to the movie-going audience for a lot of the same reasons the original TOP GUN did. However, it discourages me from seeing movies in theaters.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

It is exactly the movie it wants to be

Anonymous wrote:

they did an excellent job of making a tiresome movie

I seriously doubt they wanted it to be a tiresome movie.

I’m not out to “prove you wrong” or anything here, I just don’t understand what you mean by it being toxic.

Oh wait, I think I get it now. I misunderstood your first post. It’s the deadening that is toxic, and the movie has succeeded in being the movie it wants to be (which isn’t in itself toxic, it’s just a byproduct of the equation).

I wish I was stoned, then I could have blamed that.

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