You Have Been Watching

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Share your latest viewing here.

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paul f wrote:

Yeah, I didn’t like the second season much, and the reaction to the third season was so negative that I’ve never bothered.

Season 3 is better than season 2, a lot better but it’s still a long way behind season 1.

Shrinking season 2 has been pure gold though. Such a great show.

Hero is such a brilliantly esthetic movie but it is pure CCP propaganda.

We saw Sonic 3 today. It’s ok, a pretty uninspired kids film that’s elevated by a bit of fanservice and by Jim Carrey doing weird late-stage Jim Carrey stuff every 10 minutes. Pretty much what I expected but I won’t be too unhappy if they don’t make any more of these movies.

Squid Game 2

Overall, it was just okay. SG2 and SG3 are going to tell one continuous story, and SG2 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. You can tell Netflix wanted to milk this to the last drop. Otherwise, I think the story could have been wrapped up in a single 10-episode season. SG2 has seven episodes and I assume SG3 will have a comparable number. (SG1 had 9 episodes.) There’s a lot of fluff, but there are some great character moments and performances. Despite being only 7 episodes, it takes its time to get where it needs to be.

SG1 was a great story that really didn’t need a sequel. It could have ended with 456 in the airport getting the call then fading to black, leaving the veiewer to decide if he went to his daughter or stayed to fight the game.

It’s not horrible by any means and can be compelling, but it does feel a bit “been there, done that”.

The Equalizer 3

This is a great sequel with a cast of utter irredeemables that it is immensely satisfying to see get very creatively offed.

The final act demonstrates this in spectacular fashion with a deliciously fitting end for Vincent, the head honcho villain. He’s gone on this villain monologue of what he is going to do tomorrow, oblivious that he won’t have that long.

So, I watched the Simpsons’ Disney+ exclusive Christmas special “O C’Mon All Ye Faithful”.

It was double length and basically told two separate stories. Each half of the special told a different story, connected with a framing device. The first half had Homer thinking he was Santa, and the second half had Ned having a crisis of faith.

The whole really wasn’t good. While the show has been flying on vapors for decades, this special actually felt like it was below the currently established par. The Homer story was tolerable, but the Ned story was just plain terrible. Everything felt forced, and a bit too preachy. The story just did not work.

FYI, Derren Brown appeared in the framing device that sets the stories in motion. I had never heard of him before. I had to look him up on Wikipedia. I think my not knowing him also took a bit away from the show.

I really can’t recommend the special, unless you are an absolute completist.

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Uncle Retrospective, Dave

I haven’t seen a Simpsons episodes in like a decade, I expect there’ll be a few good ones if I ever decide to catch up. But it’s just crazy how long they’ve kept this going.

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Sean Robinson

I’ve not watched regularly in decades either. I’m tempted to pick a season or two at random and watch them on D+ and see how they stack up. But as I understand it, Al Jean’s been showrunner since after Mike Scully left, so there’s not even variation like the Golden Years had (which shook things up slightly every few seasons).

Super Eyepatch Wolf did a pretty interesting video about the purported return to quality for the Simpsons last year

(tl dw? It’s not as good as the golden age, but better than it’s been for a long time)

I still watch it regularly out of habit. I will say the best they’ve put forth in recent times is the two-part “A Serious Flanders” (Season 33, episodes 6 and 7). It’s parody of prestige TV shows and the Coen Brothers. I actually laughed out loud with these episodes.

If you want to dip back in, I’d recommend these two episodes.

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njerry

lorcan_nagle wrote:

(tl dw? It’s not as good as the golden age, but better than it’s been for a long time)

I really can’t say that, overall, S33, S34, and beyond were better. Outside of the “A Serious Flanders” episodes, I genuinely don’t remember any of the episodes. That includes the one that aired last week! I had to look it up to jog my memory.

It’s been almost three years, so I rewatched all of Severance ahead of the second season finally starting.

It’s a great show, but I’m less than confident in their ability to pay everything off properly, especially they’ve been fairly public that a big reason for the delay is that they couldn’t decide on what should happen in the second season.

I watched Love Lies Bleeding. I thought it was good, the two leads were solid and Ed Harris is always great. Nice to see a good straightforward crime/romance thriller with a fair amount of sex and violence and very little flab.

It made me think that the TV adaptation of Brubaker/Phillips’ Criminal could actually be pretty good if they treat it the same way, character-oriented crime stories that don’t shy away from the more brutal aspects.

It kind of reminded me of Tarantino in some ways, and Bound too (in terms of being a gay female romance mixed in with a constantly tense and escalating crime plot). Good company to be in

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Christian, Uncle Retrospective

Also finished Black Doves on Netflix today. It’s the best thing I’ve seen on there in a while, a Christmastime spy thriller with Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw that’s slick and funny and violent and doesn’t outstay its welcome at six episodes. Some of the twists and coincidences reminded me a bit of 24 in that they make for good cliffhangers without bearing close scrutiny, but it all moves fast enough that you don’t have time to think about it for long.

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Martin Smith, Uncle Retrospective

And, you’ll be glad to know, darling, there’ll be a second series.

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Dave

Ben wrote:

And, you’ll be glad to know, darling, there’ll be a second series.

Ah, I didn’t know that – but I suspected due to the ending. It sets up a situation that’s potentially even more interesting than the first.

I watched Calamity Jane last night, the 50s musical Western, which, frankly, I didn’t think was particularly good. Doris Day’s performance is dreadful, like something out of the Beano, though possibly she’s just doing what was written.

Weirder though is all the reviews on Letterboxd by people who watched it and then unfavourably compared it to Deadwood, which also had Calamity Jane in it. And yeah, they’re both (very loosely!) based on the same person, but who the hell goes into a 50s musical expecting a similar depiction of a character to a 00s HBO drama?

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Uncle Retrospective

Martin Smith wrote:

I watched Calamity Jane last night, the 50s musical Western, which, frankly, I didn’t think was particularly good. Doris Day’s performance is dreadful, like something out of the Beano, though possibly she’s just doing what was written.

Weirder though is all the reviews on Letterboxd by people who watched it and then unfavourably compared it to Deadwood, which also had Calamity Jane in it. And yeah, they’re both (very loosely!) based on the same person, but who the hell goes into a 50s musical expecting a similar depiction of a character to a 00s HBO drama?

It’s just a good job they never read the Beano.

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njerry, Uncle Retrospective

Creature Commandos

I watched the last episode last night and I have to say, this series was not very good at all.

If you are a die-hard James Gunn fan, you will absolutely love it. Otherwise, it’s very James Gunn and that gets old real quick.

Almost all its characters are unlikable, but SURPRISE!!! they have tragic origins that instantly makes them sympathetic. Not.

The inclusion of the Frankenstein monster, supposedly as comic relief, was a waste of space. He did nothing to really move the plot forward. He was also pervy creepy, which made his inclusion even more unnecessary.

Of course, each episode has very deep cut music that 99% of the population has never heard before. While there are interesting songs, but it does get old fast and a lot of the songs really don’t work for the set pieces.

The story was okay. Each episode feels like it follows the same pattern, so it gets repetitive and predictable. Like I said, the Frankenstein monster subplot could have been dropped completely and it wouldn’t have affected the main plot.

For me, the Gunn era of the new DC cinemaverse is not off to a good start.

Hasbro Pulse has been livestreaming Season 3 and 4 of The Transformers:

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Todd

The wife and I saw The Last Showgirl today. It wasn’t good.

It wanted to have an indie, art house feel, but it all came off as incredibly pretentious. It was like the director, Gia Coppola, saw ten minutes of a Terrence Malick film and said, “Yeah, I’ll do something like that!” Direction and cinematography were way overdone. There were a few times I had close my eyes because the “style” was so annoying and irritating.

As to the performances, everyone seemed to be holding back. The performers, who actually are a talented lot, seemed to be restrained. They weren’t phoning it in, they just weren’t giving it their all. I think that is due to Pamela Anderson. She is really not a good actor at all. I think if the rest of the cast performed at full power, she would have been overshadowed completely and her performance would have looked even worse. I salute her for trying to do something serious and with depth, but she just doesn’t have the talent to pull it off.

I know the film is getting raves, Christel and I thought it was adequate at best.