What are you watching?

[EmperorNorton]

Watched the last episode of Moon Knight last night and then passed out. Highly recommend the entire series. They actually closed it out well, and from the midcredits scene in the final episode, looks like it will be getting a second season.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm watching NOS4A2, an adaptation of a novel by Joel Joe Hill. It's pretty good. Hill does creepy really well, and I feel silly for having ignored him as a author for so long because of who his dad is.

 

[Godfather Punk]

So a mix of 'Upstairs, Downstairs' and 'You Rang M'Lord' with the cast from 'Evil Under the Sun'.

Well, that was entertaining. I had read a synopsis and feared it would be like 'Are you being served?' or 'Sex and the City 2', where you take the characters out of their usual surroundings (sets) and drop them in some foreign locale (bigger sets or on location). The whole French part was well done. The 'movie in our house' was not bad, a bit predictable, and the end where everyone got to play an extra felt a bit fan-servicy. But overall I did not regret seeing it.
I did probably miss a gazillion references or in-jokes about the series, but that was fine
I mean, there is probably a story about Henry Talbot but all I know is he's doing some Monte Carlo type rally in Istanbul.

Next week : The Northman

 

[BedrockBrendan]

Saw the Devil and Father Amorth, a documentary about the Vatican exorcist, by the director of the Exorcist, William Friedkin. It is very ground level type film making (he was only allowed to use a hand held video camera to film the exorcism). Interesting as well because people always talk about how he brought documentary style film making to the exorcist. So to see him make a documentary on the topic was pretty fascinating. It is obviously the kind of film where the viewer's personal beliefs might shape their reaction. But I think it can be enjoyed from different points of view. I won't spoil the exorcism scene itself. I will say I liked how much he just let the camera sit and watch. With the handheld camera it was a good technique for conveying the situation (the camera pretty much keeps the subject of the exorcism in frame the entire time without cutting to anything else; and it only really moves to keep her in frame or to give a sense of the environment). Pretty short movie too so it is an easy watch.

 

[BMD]

Just binged the whole new season of Law and Order.

 

[Lofgeornost]

I caught most of a new Nova episode on the Hindenburg disaster. This featured some previously-unseen footage of the explosion taken by an amateur photographer, who was shooting the airship from a different angle than the newsreel footage that is famous. It also included engineering experiments and analysis to try to determine the source of the spark that set off the explosion. It has long been held that this was the result of the airship's electrical grounding once the mooring ropes reached the surface, but there is a 4-minute gap between this event and the actual explosion. The show's answer, which I'd say is a bit more tentative than they let on, is that the situation turned the Hindenburg into a giant capacitor. Charge had built up on the fabric coating the airship and the aluminum frame was grounded by the ropes, but since the frame was insulated from the fabric by wood and an air-gap, the current couldn't flow. But as the drizzle fell, the fabric surface became more conductive, allowing charge to move to areas above the aluminum frame, and the ropes became more conductive as well. After a bit of this, sparks jumped from the fabric to the frame, which set off the leaky gasbags in the ship's rear.

 

[JAMUMU]

Last episode of Moon Knight drops at 3am tonight for me... yeaaaah I'm just staying up to watch it live. It's honestly so good.

Straight up my favourite MCU entry so far, by at least 500 yards.

 

[Gabriel]

Watched the last episode of Picard Season 2. It was kinda meh, but still on the relatively OK side. I can't say I'm super satisfied, but I'm not really disappointed either. I've seen a lot better, and I've seen a lot worse. It did manage to cash in a bit on memories of TNG and provoke the feels that way, so I'll chalk it up as a win.

Watched the first episode of Strange New Worlds. I generally liked it. It had some rough spots, but overall it felt like TOS. I liked the episode long Kirk trolling and just started laughing when it paid off at the end. I like the sets. I like the new ship. I like the look. None of the cast immediately made me hate them. Actually, everyone came across fairly well and the story was classic Trek. It had promise. I'll be back next week.

As I was scrolling through the awful Paramount + app (wow, and I thought HBOMax was bad), I accidentally ran across Moonbeam City and watched and episode just for the visual style. Throughout the episode there were sections where dialogue which had just played would repeat, usually syncing up quite well with the mouth flaps of a different character than the one originally saying it. Was Paramount + glitching on me? Or does anyone know if this was just part of this show's particular gag? Anyway, it looks like there's only 10 episodes, so even though I didn't find the humor all that great, it was enjoyable enough and I dig the visuals, so I'll probably watch through it.

 

[Dammit Viktor]

As I was scrolling through the awful Paramount + app (wow, and I thought HBOMax was bad), I accidentally ran across Moonbeam City and watched and episode just for the visual style.

If you've got Amazon Prime, you can subscribe to the Paramount channel for the same price, to get all of the same content without Paramount's technical... whimsy.

Related note, I just went on a spree of signing up for channels through Amazon Prime Video. Shout Factory paid for itself with the first movie I watched-- Wizards of the Lost Kingdom-- and Viewster Anime seems to have a pretty good selection, and paying the subscription fee for the Great Courses Channel lets me pretend that I'm going to watch them sometime and be a better person.

Currently watching the first season of Starhunter Redux, which appears to be some magical 90s skiffy TV jank.

edit: I was mistaken about Viewster's selection. I know there are huge fights between anime fans who prefer dubbing and those who prefer subtitles; I, frankly, require both. And, somehow, the majority of Viewster's selection has neither.

 

[urbwar]

I mostly watch Paramount Plus on my Roku, but I've never had any issues with the app on my phone when I've used it.

Speaking of Paramount Plus, I'm still making my way through NCIS. I'm now into episodes they filmed where the pandemic is taking place, and one character loses a loved one due to Covid. Given there was a time jump from the episodes filmed before the pandemic shut down production, the loss had taken place a few weeks before the episode, it felt like it came out of nowhere. Other than that, I'm still enjoying the show after all these years.

 

[Mankcam]

Watched the last episode of Moon Knight last night and then passed out. Highly recommend the entire series. They actually closed it out well, and from the midcredits scene in the final episode, looks like it will be getting a second season.

cool, I'll be watching this final epsiode of Moon Knight tonight

 

[Brock Savage]

Been watching a lot of the Townsends youtube channel recently, which covers life during American colonial times.

I love Townsends. It is wholesome, soothing, and educational like a beloved PBS show.

The showrunner also did the Brit TV series In the Loop which is supposed to be great and similar to Veep (political satire) and directed the absolutely brilliant Death of Stalin, easily my favourite comedy feature of the last decade at least.

It does a great job of blackly satirizing and ripping into its subject matter while also acknowledging just how horrible and terrifying it all really was. And as a fan of Russian history although it obviously isn't a documentary I was impressed how close it stuck to the historical facts.

Even though it plays fast and loose with Russian history I enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended for anyone who likes their humor black as the sky on a moonless night.

 

[Dammit Viktor]

I mostly watch Paramount Plus on my Roku, but I've never had any issues with the app on my phone when I've used it.

It's practically unwatchable if I have any other pressure on my bandwidth, which is most of the time. And the subtitles are fucking backwards: each line of dialog appears above the previous line, rendering them incomprehensible.

 

[jonny0]

currently watching Black Lightning Season 2

 

[Lofgeornost]

Paying the subscription fee for the Great Courses Channel lets me pretend that I'm going to watch them sometime and be a better person.

If you want to save some buck, you might check if your local public library gives you access to the Great Courses for free. Mine does, through an online service called Hoopla. And it's a fairly small library, so it doesn't have a lot of resources others might lack.

Courtesy of DVDs at said library, my wife and I recently started watching season 1 of Joss Whedon's new HBO series, The Nevers. In some ways it seems like a mashup of Buffy with Wild Cards. A spaceship? magical faerie flying craft? buzzes London in 1896 and gives off sparks which gift some of their recipients with street-level supers kinds of powers, here called 'turns.' Three years later, which is when the series is set, our heroine Amalia True (precog and face-puncher) and her sidekick Penance Adair (steampunk inventress who can see flows of energy) head an 'orphanage' that tries to collect and protect the 'touched' as they are known. Meanwhile a decadent young aristocrat exploits the 'touched' in a sex club and a cabal in parliament has decided that they are a threat. Oh, and there is another organization dedicated to collecting and experimenting on the 'touched' to learn their secrets (and to do other things, as we soon learn), and a 'touched' psycho-killer, of course a woman, named Maladie.

The series has some Whedon trademarks, though I guess he departed it before the first half of the first season was done. There's wisecracking dialogue, a fair amount of action, and themes of alienation and female empowerment galore. But, since the show is on HBO, it's an R-rated Whedon, with full-frontal nudity, sex onscreen, and lots of f-bombs. Also some graphic violence and torture.

Which is the problem. I watch TV almost exclusively with my wife. Her tastes have always run to the PG at most, and I think over the years have tended more and more in that direction. In the middle of episode 3 last night, she announced that she didn't want to see any more. Frankly, I'm not invested enough or impressed enough with the series that I'm willing to watch it on my own. So I suspect I'm done with it.

 

[chuckdee]

currently watching Black Lightning Season 2

Its uneven and hits you over the head sometimes but I really loved that show and what they were trying to do

 

[Godfather Punk]

I'm on episode 2 of Krypton (s1). It's a short season so I will finish it, but this far I dislike both the main -El and Adam their acting; I prefer the unranked friend and the -Zod girl*. And the story is a bit meh, because we already know Krypton is doomed. But I see there's a second season so maybe it will pick up.

*) Yeah, I will learn their names before episode 10.

 

[soltakss]

I love that show. I mean, I know it's not great or anything, but I love it anyway.

I hadn't heard of it before, and i I agree, it is pretty good. However, for some reason, my BT Box won't show Amazon Video, so I am stuck halfway through the second season.

In the meantime, I am watching Monsters of Cracow, a Polish Urban Horror thingy with a lot of Slavic deities and monsters, pretty good.

 

[3rik]

Watched S2 of Russian Doll. I liked S1 but S2 was a bit of a mixed bag.

 

[chuckdee]

Finally getting around to Peacemaker... it's great!

 

[Brock Savage]

Two of my favorites.

Speaking of The Good Place, I just watched the first few episodes of Greg Daniels' newest show Upload. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It's a comedy about a world where dead people can be uploaded, and like The Good Place, it is clever for the most part. I'm just finding one huge flaw in the show's set up that is eating at me.

However, I had the same feeling after the first few episodes of The Good Place, and it turned out what I noticed was deliberate, and the first season finale revealed that what I thought was a flaw was intentional.

Without getting spoilery, there is a big company that runs the uploaded world and it costs money to exist in it. The show gives us characters that are protesting the company charging for it, and another character is working on open-source upload software that will let anyone upload themselves to their own afterlife.

That's cute and all, but I don't think owning the software is the issue. It's a question of who is going to maintain the server you are on? "Uploading is a human right" makes a cute bumper sticker, but ethically, should all future humans be born with the obligation to support my eternal retirement? It's not like The Good Place where the afterlife runs on divine magic.

My favorite sci fi author, Neal Stephenson, explored some of those ideas in Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. I may have to check this out.

 

[Mankcam]

I binged the first season of Russian Doll over this past week, and just starting the current season tonight on Netflix

 

[urbwar]

I took a break from NCIS to go through some episodes of S2 of Equalizer. There's a nice sub plot involving the lead's daughter that I'm glad they are exploring.

Also, my friend treated me to a 3D showing of the new Doctor Strange movie. I enjoyed it. Quite a few scenes felt like they could have been in an Evil Dead film. Lots of nice cameos as well. Won't say anything else due to spoilers and the like.

When I got home, I checked out Constantine in the House of Mystery, the new DC Animated film. I had seen the shorts connected to it as well (Blue Beetle, Kammandi and The Losers). Constantine follows the titular character following the events of Justice League Dark: Apocalypse (which I haven't seen yet). Not bad, and a very dark ending to it.

 

[3rik]

I watched In A Valley of Violence yesterday, a western that will be taken off Netflix soon. It was enjoyable enough.

 

[Voros]

Watched an unusual B film, a paranoid noirsh crime melodrama on TCM, Violence.



From the description I thought it was going to be an anti-communist film but it surprised me by being more about a neo-fascist conspiracy. I suspect this was because it came out shortly after the war, in 47'.

It also uses the classic noir/melodrama trope of amnesia but in a surprising manner.

No hidden masterpiece but anyone interested in the genre or period should find it fun and interesting.

 

[urbwar]

I've finally gone back to finishing up Orphan Black. I had a few episodes left for season 4, and am now into Season 5.

 

[The Butcher]

Finally got around to watching Spider-Man: No Way Home and Christ, what a disappointment. A little ball of fan service held together by spit and hope — specifically, the hope that MCU fans don’t care about such trifles as logic and common sense.

Bad movie all around. Not even the all-star cast could save it. (Much as I still appreciate Willem Dafoe’s manic grins.)

 

[E-Rocker]

Watched two movies with single-digit Rotten Tomatoes scores, Texas Rangers from 2001 and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li from 2009. I found both films adequately entertaining. Maybe I just have low standards.

I love Neal McDonough as Robert Quarles on Justified and as Damien Darhk on Legends of Tomorrow, but I was laughing out loud at how, in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, his "Irish" accent not only comes and goes from scene, it sometimes comes and goes within the same scene. Regardless, I had fun with the movie.

 

[PolarBlues]

Watched two movies with single-digit Rotten Tomatoes scores, Texas Rangers from 2001 and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li from 2009. I found both films adequately entertaining. Maybe I just have low standards.

I vaguely remember watching that Texas Rangers movie and enjoying it more than I expected.

 

[Brock Savage]

 

[urbwar]

Finished up Orphan Black, and I'm glad I randomly decided to go back to it, as the show is leaving Prime Video in less than a week!

I'm now getting back into Bosch, which I also kind of just left hanging. I've got over 2 seasons to catch up on before I can watch the new show Bosch: Legends.

I also took the time to finish up season 1 of the US version of The Bridge.

 

[Godfather Punk]

I just saw the new Avatar - Way of Water teaser (now with extra geese)


Is it me, my monitor, or are the Fx less impressive than 12 years ago? Less polished, and weird physics.
Or maybe only the full Digital Laser 4D 5K whatever $$$ projection will give the total immersion.

 

[E-Rocker]

Derry Girls has become my go-to show to have a laugh before I go to bed.

 

[Lofgeornost]

Years ago, a Canadian sitcom advised old folks like me that, when you start going on about how Jeopardy is way better than Wheel of Fortune, you have nothing to say. Blithely ignoring that, I'll mention that last Friday I caught Mattea Roach's final game on Jeopardy. If you don't follow the show, she had won 22 games in a row up to that point and racked up about $500,000 in winnings.

Here's the part that marks me as an old fogey; I miss the days when Jeopardy champions got 5 victories in a row and then had to retire. In part this is because I get bored watching the same person win day after day, but it's also because when long-running champions emerge, the main reason seems to be their speed on the buzzer. They have to be very knowledgeable, of course, but they aren't necessarily more so than the people they defeat--they just ring in most effectively.

 

[Voros]

Slow Horses on Apple+ is a fine, low-key spy thriller in the le Carre mode but with a lot more black humour.

 

[BedrockBrendan]

I saw Don't Look Up. Like a lot of films, waited on this one so the cultural conversation around it wasn't affecting my impression. I have to say, I enjoyed it. I found it funny. I had heard people complain that it was a little heavy handed, and a little too preachy at times. I think there were definitely moments like this. It was satire and over the top. So I expect a certain level of heavy handedness. Some of the satire might have been more effective if I hadn't sensed the writer's political voice through the character. This isn't really my political issue though so I was pretty neutral and found it quite funny overall. Really enjoyed some of the performances (Cate Blanchett was outstanding, the leads were great, and Meryl Streep was awesome). Good casting choices overall I think.

 

[urbwar]

Finished up Bosch through Season 6. Holding off on 7 until season 1 of Bosch: Legacy is available. Went back to NCIS, and caught up through last season. Catching up a bit on NCIS: Hawaii. Not sure what I will watch after that just yet

 

[chuckdee]

Finishing up Lucifer. Watched Arcane before that... it was excellent!

 

[E-Rocker]

I loved Lucifer for the first four seasons. Didn't really care for the last two.

 

[chuckdee]

I loved Lucifer for the first four seasons. Didn't really care for the last two.

The last two so far haven't been as good, but I still like it