Discuss your current viewing here.
What Are You Watching?
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Note that Highlander II has twice as many reviews as Highlander
I did take note of that, and I was leaving it out of my original analysis because I felt like calling for genocide for comedic effect.
You and your film critic blood lust. It’ll be your downfall yet.
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I think the important question is why did twice as many people watch Highlander II, and are they ok now?
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Nah, that’s proof that review aggregator sites are dogshit.
I wouldn’t go that far but the historical stuff really is a waste of time. They don’t have web reviews to scrape to get a big enough sample.
Similarly when you go back to check a 1980s movie on Box Office Mojo the data is very sketchy. No global numbers, no budget numbers, incorrect release dates etc.
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Everything Everywhere All At Once
This definitely had its moments. There are some very neat sequences and I don’t think anyone other than Michelle Yeoh could have pulled it off. I also liked the Raccoon chef mick take.
Despite this though, it didn’t quite land for me.
Still, with Amazon nabbing it for Prime, lots of people will be able to give it a go.
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I saw Three Thousand Years Of Longing tonight. I liked it quite a bit as a modern fairy tale with a slightly more adult flavour.
While the story is pretty thin and there isn’t a huge point to be made, I enjoyed the fairytale quality and the lush visuals and I thought the slightly more adult touches gave it an interesting flavour that made it feel a bit more distinctive than it might have with the edges knocked off.
I also thought the two leads (Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba) were good.
Also, maybe it’s because I’ve watched Sandman recently but it reminded me a little of that (and Gaiman in general) in terms of it being about stories within stories about stories.
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The Cry of Granuaile is about Maire, an American filmmaker of Irish descent travelling over to Ireland to research a new movie she’s planning to make about Graunaile/Grainne Mhaol/Grainne O’Malley, legendary 16th century Irish pirate queen. She travels to Clare Island, where Grainne’s castle was located in the company of Cait, a young academic who’s essay on the factual evidence about this historical figure inspired Maire following her mother’s death. After they arrive at the island, having clashed over Maire’s free-spirited nature and desire to just do things while Cait is more rigid, Maire decides to just jump into making the film, recruiting a number of locals to act out scenes often in the contemporary Irish setting. The actors, Maire and Cait all begin to take on traits of the historical figures, quoting them at length as the boundaries between their lives and the people they’re representing begin to blur.
So right off the bat, I’ll disclose I’m predicated to like this because it’s my cousin Dónal’s third feature film, but like it’s gotten good reviews and won a few awards on the festival circuit so I’m not being totally biased. And it’s really good. Dónal’s a dab hand at setting a camera into a static position and letting it capture what’s happening in that frame, leaving the focus static as things happen around it – his short films about Occupy Wall Street are a fantastic example of these, and it works incredibly well here as you can easily point a camera in almost any direction in the Irish countryside and get some amazing views regardless of what else is happening in frame. But he’s experimenting more with moving shots as well, often with a similar documentarian eye (ironic as his only feature-length documentary is almost all archival footage), slowly panning and tilting around a graveyard, or taking in the movements of a sean-nós dancer in a pub, and most extravagantly an aerial shot of Maire and Cait’s car as it drives down a country road.
The film is very much a mood piece, spending a lot of its run-time on long, candid shots of the characters walking and talking, having discussions about their lives and inspirations, and then later as the film moves towards its conclusion the cast of the movie inside the movie quoting historical records and fictional accounts in-character, even as the fictional camera isn’t on them. The soundtrack, by Olesya Zdorovetska and Nick Roth is more traditional than Dónal’s prior movies but it works impressively here to bring out the mood, especially adding a sense of dread to otherwise innocuous moments. There’s some fantastic sound editing on the go as well, including an amazing joke as Cait reads a lengthy self-pitying text from the guy she’s just broken up with, narrated by the actor playing the ex-boyfriend only for him to be cut off mid-sentence as she stuffs her phone back in her pocket.
I think as well it’s a good introduction to experimental and arthouse film – it’s quite accessible while still weird and abstract at times, has a sense of humour about itself and the genre – the clips we see of Maire’s most accomplished movie are spliced together footage of a woman in New York (taken from our family archives, the woman is one of my grand-aunts) intercut with a roadside fire and abrasive music and barely comprehensible voice over – almost a parody of itself. In a meta moment, the scene where Maire introduces a screening of her movie and has a Q&A after was shot in the same cinema screen I saw the movie in – complete with introduction and Q&A after (and for further meta my mum is an extra in the scene, prominently shown a few times, she’d never go to an experimental movie like that of her own free will!)
At present it’s showing in Dublin and Cork, and opening in Galway on Friday. It’s also in the Irish-Australian film festival, screening in I think Sydney, Perth and Canberra later this month.
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The Cry of Granuaile is about Maire, an American filmmaker of Irish descent travelling over to Ireland to research a new movie she’s planning to make about Graunaile/Grainne Mhaol/Grainne O’Malley, legendary 16th century Irish pirate queen.
Thanks for sharing this, Lorcan. My dad was born in Louisburgh, Mayo, on Clew Bay where Clare Island sits. His dad’s (my grandfather’s) first wife was an O’Malley of that lineage (reportedly), so Granuaile is my relation through marriage. If I can find this film on one of the streaming services, I’ll definitely share it with my father.
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If I can find this film on one of the streaming services, I’ll definitely share it with my father.
His films often show up on Mubi or Criterion, and a couple of other arthouse streaming services so there’s definintely a chance here too.
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Hello,
Took me a while to get here from being lost after Millarworld forum ended a few years ago. But here I am.
Watching a few things. Just finished the new season of Westworld, saw Top Gun Maverick and loved it, saw the Reacher series and enjoyed it. It’s been good. Watched the new season of Stranger things as well.
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Hey Christian,
I didn’t expect them to have a shorter episode count this season. Though if 8 episodes was all that was needed for them to tell the story, then I’m all for it. I planning to re-watch the last episode. I feel like I might’ve missed a couple of things.
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It’s also interesting that they’ve already set up the next season in this one, that’s quite unusual for WestWorld – I think most of the seasons could also have been the ending to the story. This time, there really has to be another final season to end the whole of the story.
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Agreed. Excited to see where they go from here.
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Given that most HBO dramas have AT MOST a 13-episode season, and most of the recent ones have 10 or fewer eps per season, it wouldn’t make sense for the network to put all their hopes on one successful show. They need at least four Sunday night shows every year, or more when you consider that many series cannot guarantee a fresh season every year. So, yeah, even with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, HBO needs to be looking ahead to what happens when Season 1 ends and there are still 42 weeks left that require programming…
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I think Warrior could’ve had a chance but it was on Cinemax, or whatever channel it was, first… it was never a proper HBO show, even though it should’ve been, so it never got the exposure it needed
Warrior was a great show. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s sad that not a lot of people talk about it. Hopefully it gets another season.
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Warrior was a great show. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s sad that not a lot of people talk about it. Hopefully it gets another season.
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL for a third season
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Warrior was a great show. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s sad that not a lot of people talk about it. Hopefully it gets another season.
Yeah no shit… specially considering that the show was choke full of diversity and female empowerment… plus a healthy dose of sex and violence… you’d think twitter would’ve been all over it. But sadly, it’s been cancelled for a while, so the chances of it being ressurrected are probably close to zero… hell I’m not sure the actors are even free to do it anymore at this point… so yeah, we were robbed of a great show
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it’s been cancelled for a while, so the chances of it being ressurrected are probably close to zero
Did you read Jerry’s link?
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Did you read Jerry’s link?
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But that brings happiness! Not on our watch!
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I’ve caught up with Welcome to Wrexham. The latest episode goes into detail of what a mess the club were in over the last few years, which I knew very roughly but not how close they were to being ended by an asset stripper.
I now think they have nothing to worry about with the Rob and Ryan takeover, even if they get bored and walk away there’s only upside from having a slowly decaying ground they didn’t own. Theoretically they could sell it for housing like the previous guy planned but that’s never happening, after all their heartfelt talk of community and history it’d be worse PR than Ezra Miller on a 3 day bender.
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Watching season 2 of Raised by Wolves. It’s still a fantastically weird show. I think in a lot of ways, this is Prometheus (or Alien Covenant) done right. It’s got a lot of similar themes, the same style and atmosphere, but it’s actually very good and involving.
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Day Shift
This was a good, dumb fun movie. It also had a few excellent action sequences. The plot is conventional but it’s well executed.
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Gennedy Tartakovsky’s Primal is a fucking masterpiece. It is the best fantasy show on television period. It blows LotR and HotD out of the water. The action is fantastically choreographed and emotionally gripping character.
What makes this even wilder is it’s cartoon with hardly any dialogue.
Next week is the season finale and I can’t wait for it.
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I just finished my weekend binge of the latest Cobra Kai season.
Most of the eps are a half hour, 10 in all, and can be seen in about
6 hours.——————————–
I saw the trailer for the new Quantum Leap.
Interesting take. The lead is an Asian man and his
holographic guide is his ex girlfriend.In the age bracket, I am Generation X. It still
gets to a LOT of Gen X (with these online memes) that they are getting up there.
30 years ago was Nirvana and so on…Hard to wrap your head around those things.The original show had Sam leaping through the Baby Boomer years and events.
Now it is Gen X’s turn….
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Can’t wait for Sam to leap into an A&R guy at Sub Pop and sign Nirvana
(OK, I know the main character in the new Quantum Leap isn’t named Sam, but would the joke have landed if I went and looked up Wiki to get his name and put it in?)
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Leaps into the body of one of Gordon Brown’s aides in April 2010, switches off the radio mic immediately after the meeting with Gillian Duffy, UK history transforms.
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They could do some juicy stories if they want to, like having him leap into the body of Virginia Giuffre in March 2001 on her way to meet Prince Andrew…
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They could do some juicy stories if they want to, like having him leap into the body of Virginia Giuffre in March 2001 on her way to meet Prince Andrew…
I think Prince Andrew already leapt into that body.
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They could do some juicy stories if they want to, like having him leap into the body of Virginia Giuffre in March 2001 on her way to meet Prince Andrew…
I think Prince Andrew already leapt into that body.
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I’m four episodes in and it’s ok but feels like a big step down from season 1 for me. Whereas that first season was quite focused and enigmatic and intriguing, this feels more jumbled and messy without the same strong core story to get invested in.
Interesting. I am kind of on the opposite side of this – after three or four episodes of season 1 I almost quit because nothing was happening and the show only really got my interest back when the Mithraic ship appeared. So it was nice for me that there was a lot going on from the get-go, with season 2.
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All these nostalgic reboots: Cobra Kai, Quantum Leap. Star Trek, Star Wars
and the list goes on.It may be nostalgia for the viewers, but for the producers it’s a safer alternative than actually having to take a chance on a new property.
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Can’t wait for Sam to leap into an A&R guy at Sub Pop and sign Nirvana
(OK, I know the main character in the new Quantum Leap isn’t named Sam, but would the joke have landed if I went and looked up Wiki to get his name and put it in?)
IMDB tells me the new lead actor was born in 95. So if they keep the original rule of only leaping in the span of your own lifetime…
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It’s almost as if that Moore guy was on
tosomething. -
IMDB tells me the new lead actor was born in 95.
aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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For the last few weeks I’ve been watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Despite (or I might say because of) its age, it’s really good television. A masterclass in how to tell a short, suspenseful story in under 30 minutes. There have been a couple of duds, but the vast majority are perfect.
And the casting is eye-popping from today’s perspective. I’ve seen two that feature a young Charles Bronson, one has a young (actually not that young) Lorne Green.
I would really recommend these.
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A lot of those early anthology shows (AHP, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits) contain guest appearances by then-up-and-coming actors, and it’s always fun discovering just where these future stars got their start. Just a sample, from the Wikipedia page for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (granted, some of these were already stars before their appearances here, but you can figure out the young stars):
Many notable film actors, such as Robert Redford, Inger Stevens, Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Newton, Steve McQueen, Bruce Dern, Robert Duvall, Walter Matthau, Robert Loggia, George Segal, Laurence Harvey, Claude Rains, Joan Fontaine, Thelma Ritter, Dennis Morgan, Joseph Cotten, Burt Reynolds, Vera Miles, Tom Ewell, Peter Lorre, Bette Davis, Dean Stockwell, Jessica Tandy, John Gavin, Charles Bronson, Michael Rennie, Phyllis Thaxter, Roger Moore, John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Teresa Wright, Míriam Colón, Leslie Nielsen, Murray Hamilton, Ricardo Montalbán, Harry Dean Stanton, and Barbara Bel Geddes, among others, also appeared on the series.
A similar list of Twilight Zone performers shows numerous overlapping actors:
Being an anthology series with no recurring characters, The Twilight Zone features a wide array of guest stars for each episode, some of whom appeared in multiple episodes. Many episodes feature early performances from actors who later became famous, such as Theodore Bikel, Bill Bixby, Lloyd Bochner, Morgan Brittany, Charles Bronson, Carol Burnett, Donna Douglas, Robert Duvall, Peter Falk, Constance Ford, Joan Hackett, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard, Jim Hutton, Jack Klugman, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Jean Marsh, Elizabeth Montgomery, Billy Mumy, Julie Newmar, Barbara Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Janice Rule, William Shatner, Dean Stockwell, George Takei, Joyce Van Patten, Jack Warden, Jonathan Winters, and Dick York. Other episodes feature performances by actors later in their careers, such as Dana Andrews, Joan Blondell, Ann Blyth, Art Carney, Jack Carson, Gladys Cooper, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Cedric Hardwicke, Josephine Hutchinson, Buster Keaton, Ida Lupino, Kevin McCarthy, Burgess Meredith, Agnes Moorehead, Alan Napier, Franchot Tone, Mickey Rooney, and Ed Wynn. Klugman and Meredith are tied for the most starring roles with a record of four episodes.
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Avenue 5
After reading the good comments in the TV News thread I thought I’d give this a shot. 4 episodes in and I’m hooked. Genuine laugh out loud funny moments.Why did I not give this a chance the first time around? If you’ve not seen it, give it a try. I’m definitely in and will catch up soon. Good stuff!
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Avenue 5
After reading the good comments in the TV News thread I thought I’d give this a shot. 4 episodes in and I’m hooked. Genuine laugh out loud funny moments.Why did I not give this a chance the first time around? If you’ve not seen it, give it a try. I’m definitely in and will catch up soon. Good stuff!
Lotta people dismissed it for basically not being as funny as Veep right out of the bag, while forgetting that Veep took a few episodes to get going as well. And also, you know, Armando Iannucci wanting to not just do The Thick of It for a third go around…
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Started watching the new Philomena Cunk series. It’s very funny and makes me laugh more than most other stuff on TV.
Diane Morgan is great at walking that fine line between stupid and clever.
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I actually heard some behind the scenes stuff on how it’s made earlier this week from Pilot TV. According to them they don’t tip off any of the interview subjects but some know who she is already because they’ve seen the character as she’s been around a few years now (or know Diane Morgan in other things, After Life was a big hit), some quickly cotton on to what she’s doing and play along and very occasionally a few take it as real.
They approach it the same way whichever and leave in whatever is funny.
I agree it’s a lot less based on the stitch up than Ali G (which is why Baron-Cohen kept having to change his characters as they got known). The joke is really Cunk’s ignorance juxtaposed with these learned experts so it’s not hugely important whether they believe she’s genuine or not.
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Whichever way they’re doing it, I’m pretty sure they’re cutting in some of those blank reaction shots from other moments.
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I saw the trailer for Reboot not too long ago, the premise and cast appealed to me, so when it showed up I decided to give it a chance – especially handy as three episodes dropped together. It’s nothing to do with the old CGI cartoon, rather it’s a metacomedy about a reboot of a corny early 2000s sitcom. Rachel Bloom plays the writer who pitched it to Hulu, and while her idea for the show is a gritty, modern show that’s less about laugh out loud jokes and more of a wry character analysis, the show’s original creator (played by Paul Reiser) gets brought back and tries to make it closer to the broad comedy it used to be. And it transpires that they’re father and daughter and the original show’s concept – the male lead (played by Keegan-Michael Key’s character) married the female lead (played by Judy Greer’s character), and adopted her son – is based loosely on him leaving Bloom’s character’s mother for another woman. for sitcom flair Johnny Knoxville’s character plays Greer’s character’s ex who lives in the house with them because of course.
And the show itself is actually the wry, character-driven comedy, being about the production of the show rather than than portraying the corny sitcom and/or the new version of it. There’s of course a lot of tension between Bloom and Reiser’s characters as they actively clash, while the cast of the show are dealing with their own baggage – Key and Greer’s characters had an on and off relationship during the show’s run until he left to become a serious actor, so they’re moving between hostility and the sort of easy ribbing that people who were close can have. The show’s big problem right now is that there’s really a few separate plot threads that don’t intersect but they kinda overlap – as well as the Bloom/Reiser and Key/Greer stuff, the main thing is Johnny Knoxville’s character sleeping with the mum of the guy who played the kid on the original show, who’s now 28 (and a half) but his mum still comes to set with him and he’s obviously grown up weird as a result and it makes their three-way interactions awkward and funny. Plus the mum is played by Kerri Kenney-Silver, who’s always a delight and she clearly relishes playing a woman who says things like “I really like to fuuuuuck, and rough trade boys like you are my thing” to Johnny Knoxville.
Overall it was a fun time and I’m going to continue with the rest of the first series. The writing is razor-sharp, the cast are very enjoyable, with a lot of guest spots that cracked me up, like the Hulu executive who bravely green-lit series 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale, or the writers Bloom and Reiser’s characters hired – on her side they’re all young, people of colour, LBGT and Neurodivergent (OK, that last one was from the Disney Diversity Program), while his are old Jewish punmeisters who pitch hackneyed setups for plotlines, and their interactions are hilarious.
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Saw the pilot of the new Quantum Leap show and… well, I’ll be charitable and say that I’ve seen worse shows. I’ll give it a bit more time and see if it improves or not. Little things like the hologram girl’s hair blowing in the wind that she’s not actually standing in are unnecessarily irritating.
The show would be instantly improved by ditching hologram girl and the leaper guy and replacing them with Ernie Hudson and the Warhol-haired scientician person, respectively.
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It’s nothing to do with the old CGI cartoon,
Booooooo.
Sounds pretty good though. I’ll have to check it out.
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Merely available on the high seas at the moment.
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It’ll be on peacock over here, so that’s Sky/Now. I just downloaded the pilot out of curiosity mostly.
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Sounds good! This is on Sky or something, right? I’ll have to see if it’s available on my current Sky subscription over here…
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Anyone here watching Gangs of London? It’s a really good, action-packed, gangster series from the director of the raid movies. The story is good and the action is top-notch. You guys should check it out. Season two is coming soon.
Only the first episode so far, and it was pretty great. Not another Guy Ritchie rip-off.
Watched THE NICE GUYS again – maybe HULU…?
It is just a terrific movie – the plot makes sense and the action and comedy is great. It’s perfect.
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Put on First Blood (and noticed Netflix puts the word Rambo in front).
Might not watch, just checking on the quality.
It does look very good.For this area, any proper British Columbian should watch it next weekend.
Seriously, Hope (where it was filmed entirely) is having a huge party next weekend for its 40th anniversary.Hope is like the last stop if you go East, then split off to oblivion.
I can there in an hour and a half right now, (2 to 3 times worse at rush hour)And thats Caruso in police station, and twin peaks guy, and another deputy ive seen multiple places.
And Bruce Greenwood supposed to be somewhere.Fuck, it doesn’t waste time and is drawing me in right now
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Put on First Blood (and noticed Netflix puts the word Rambo in front). Might not watch, just checking on the quality. It does look very good.
If First Blood had have had someone like James Cann as Rambo it would be regarded as classic film, rather than being eclipsed by dumb 80’s action movies. It’s an incredible film.
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If First Blood had have had someone like James Cann as Rambo it would be regarded as classic film, rather than being eclipsed by dumb 80’s action movies. It’s an incredible film.
Yeah, the original novel was heavily influenced by Rogue Male (1939) which was adapted into a movie with Peter O’Toole in ’73 or ’74. FIRST BLOOD came out in ’82 and it is interesting to look at the difference between FIRST BLOOD and RAMBO (’85) as the split between the 70’s action aesthetic and the full-blown 80’s action here.
A year later, BLUE THUNDER came out and the original script by Dan O’Bannon was essentially First Blood in a helicopter over Los Angeles instead of the woods outside some Kentucky or other midwestern town. It did have some political commentary, but essentially it was the same idea. The LAPD increases the offensive and surveillance capabilities of their choppers, but then they hand the damn thing over to a former Cobra pilot suffering PTSD from Vietnam who basically goes nuts and attacks the city with a flying weapon designed to be unstoppable.
Like First Blood, though, eventually they rewrote and revised the script until the vet is actually a hero rather than a rampaging maniac. However, BLUE THUNDER certainly is worth rewatching just for the performances and strong script.
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Like First Blood, though, eventually they rewrote and revised the script until the vet is actually a hero rather than a rampaging maniac. However, BLUE THUNDER certainly is worth rewatching just for the performances and strong script.
Well, where First Blood is concerned, it was a clever move. Rambo is still an ambiguous figure, but one the audience (of young men) could identify with, which probably makes the movie have more of an impact. It’d have been better if John had died in the end, but I suppose Stallone was doing this with an eye towards a franchise already.
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Shortly after Blu Thunder the movie, they did a television series that was pretty standard network fair for the time. Airwolf, while still network product, was better. Jan Michael Vincent had the roughness that worked for the character.
They’ve been repeating the whole of that on TV recently and I’ve caught a few. It’s actually… not very good.
I mean, it’s on a par with Knight Rider, and we all know in our hearts, even if we don’t admit it out loud, that Knight Rider wasn’t very good, right?
No, it wasn’t. It was standard network fare. At the time, it was fun but getting older and having watched quite a bit of high quality television, it doesn’t age well. It might work today for preteens.
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Yeah, I can’t imagine Knight Rider aging well, a lot of other stuff too.
I wonder if I can make through an episode of Fall Guy today.
Who am I kidding? Heather Thomas would make that easy…5 users thanked author for this post.
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We may forget now but it is why TV was looked down upon by cinema in the US for so long, why actors kept away. Nearly all of it was shit.
Entertaining on a surface level a lot of the time but if you took the example of mid 80s sci-fi you are pitting Blade Runner and Aliens against stuff like Knight Rider and Automan.
It was a little different in the UK. Things like ‘Cathy Come Home’, ‘Abigail’s Party’ , ‘Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy’, ‘Boys From The Blackstuff’ back in the 60s-80s are regarded as screen classics but it was a different scenario where the BBC is a non-profit entity and UK cinema has always been a poorer relation. Alec Guinness took the money for Star Wars, felt his TV job as Smiley was the higher artform.
A lot of people credit The Sopranos as changing US TV to higher artistic levels but for me it’s Twin Peaks. That was the game changer that said you don’t have to just chase the lowest common denominator for ratings.
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You know, I do kind of envy the kids today for the amount of quality TV shows they can watch on streaming anytime they want to.
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We may forget now but it is why TV was looked down upon by cinema in the US for so long, why actors kept away. Nearly all of it was shit.
I’m not sure it’s just this, although I think the quality/prestige aspect is part of it.
While at any point in time I think you can probably say that a vast majority of TV stuff is not high-quality – and by definition only half of it is ever going to be above average – I think there have always been well-made, ground-breaking, good quality shows to be found in the TV landscape.
(And let’s not forget, on the flipside there’s also a fair amount of dross always being churned out by Hollywood too.)
Stuff like Sopranos or Twin Peaks definitely showed what TV was capable of, but I think the bigger change in recent years is probably the amounts of money involved, rather than necessarily perceived quality alone.
A few decades ago, it would be rare for TV show budgets to be able to offer the kind of pay scales that would tempt away movie actors doing far more lucrative film work.
But now that TV budgets have in some cases skyrocketed (thanks in part to chasing that prestige status and sense of quality/high production values) and the streaming services have blurred the lines between TV and movies, actors who might previously have been film-only can expect to be able to find decent paydays from TV work as well as movie roles.
I remember when 24 launched in the very early 2000s and it was seen as a big deal that a movie actor like Kiefer Sutherland was appearing in a small-screen show. Nowadays that crossover is far more commonplace, and more than anything I think it’s because the money is there to entice movie stars to TV.
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A lot of people credit The Sopranos as changing US TV to higher artistic levels but for me it’s Twin Peaks. That was the game changer that said you don’t have to just chase the lowest common denominator for ratings.
I would go further back to Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere. Characters on them were fleshed out and the stories were a lot deeper.
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While at any point in time I think you can probably say that a vast majority of TV stuff is not high-quality – and by definition only half of it is ever going to be above average – I think there have always been well-made, ground-breaking, good quality shows to be found in the TV landscape.
On US TV I don’t actually agree.
There is nothing much ground-breaking or with much artistic value there until the shows I mentioned. I’ll concede a bit on the shows Todd raises as raising the bar but generally it was just formulaic nonsense. I can say I enjoyed a lot of it but in the way you enjoy a Big Mac and fries, it isn’t good quality but gives a brief dopamine hit. Film was lightyears ahead.
It isn’t just money, syndicated TV shows in that system made loads of it, they paid salaries in the millions.
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Only the first episode so far, and it was pretty great. Not another Guy Ritchie rip-off.
Yup. Speaking of Guy Ritchie, The Gentlemen is currently on Netflix. I’m going to check it out again. I really enjoyed that movie. Probably one of his best yet.
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I really liked The Gentlemen, especially Colin Farrel’s and Hugh Grant’s characters. Pure fun, that movie.
I watched the third episode of Barry, which was fun, too. Also tried a bit of that new Dexter thing, but honestly, I think Dexter’s time is over for me. It’s better than the last seasons of the original show were, but it still all feels like retreading familiar ground and I am struggling to keep up interest in it.
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The Equalizer 2
Freed from having to do the set-up work of its predecessor, this excellent sequel is free to concentrate on:
– Setting up its gang of villains
– Establishing them to be total bastards
– Having them all meet grisly and thoroughly deserved ends at the hands of McCall
And so it goes, with some very satisfying villain exits, great action sequences and a very good cast. Be interesting to see what the third film does next year.
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HELLRAISER on HULU is a considerable improvement on all the sequels except probably Hellraiser 2. In fact, this movie seems to be more a remake or follow up to Hellbound Heart than to the original film. The world is much more like the second film than the first. It’s not exactly scary or disturbing but is still fairly entertaining – The Night House was a better horror movie, but this is a nice revival of a franchise.
