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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 12, 2024 10:26:07 GMT -5
Holy moly, the pacing on "Rings of Power" is insane. This one episode this week tried to cram so much story movement into it, while last week, the show just sat around doing nothing. This episode this week finally moved the actual Tolkien stories to the places they should be. But.... wow. This all kinda just happened. Like, "Oops, we forgot we needed to be *here* with all these stories. Let's just move everyone there now." The writers spent Season 1 making up a bunch of nonsense and playing "Where's Waldo?" with Sauron. Let's say this story they are now telling in Season 2 had instead been where they started in Season 1. If that had been the case, then this episode, S2E5, would have been fine placed where it is. But, wow, I feel like this put all the plots on turbo speed. Meanwhile, last week they spent an episode just hanging around, going, "Here's all that crazy Middle Earth stuff from LOTR that never made it into the films". I just do not understand the storytelling structure here.
Edited: Let me rephrase, I do understand the errors at play. The writers thought they needed to put Hobbits and Wizards into a Tolkien adaptation. But because Hobbits and Wizards aren't in any of the these major Second Age stories, the writers have to make up a bunch of stuff for them to do. This takes away screen time from the actual Second Age stories which matter. So the Hobbits and Wizards stuff is filled with a bunch of fantasy action scenes which go nowhere. While the Eregion/Númenor stories have to cover immense amounts of plot in very little screentime.
What I don't understand is why the writers/showrunners think this is okay.
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Sept 12, 2024 16:10:24 GMT -5
FringeSo, I finally finished this up. I'd watched it back when it originally aired but sometime around the start of season 4 I fell off and never got back on track. It was early streaming days, what are you gonna do. I loved it back then, how did it hold up? Well, overall it remains a pretty good show. Once it starts to find it's groove in season 1 we're really off to the races. Weird cases of the week. Flip phones. Trying to figure out if janky CGI or practical effects work better on a TV budget. Fun characters and great performances. Pacey from Dawson's Creek. Sure, does a sci-fi show about alternate dimensions end up up it's own ass after a few seasons? Sure, but it all mostly makes sense unless you think about it for 5 seconds but then John Noble does something great or Anna Torv looks sad and then smiles and then it doesn't really matter. I guess, my main complaints are this: The "monster of the week" format is fun but having the answer almost always be "Someone has twisted some dubious research Walter Bishop did in the 70s and 80s into something nefarious" got old pretty quick. Like, it thematically made sense, but it would have been fun to change it up a bit. It probably worked better as a weekly viewing. Also, and this is the one that's just stuck in my craw the most, the slow shift from Olivia Dunham being the main character to Peter Bishop being the main character around season 3 bothered me. Besides the obvious sexism of a bunch of white dude show runners pushing the focus to Peter, but also, he gets to constantly be the most specialist, smartest boy alive, there is just the fact that Anna Torv is giving a much better performance than Joshua Jackson. She gets to do 3 different performances in fact and does a great job of it. I always wondered why she didn't end up getting bigger, but I guess bigger for someone who starts on a sci-fi TV series is to probably just get to be the wife who gets murdered in a sci-fi movie. I guess to close up this paragraph I should say, if it hadn't become obvious, this re-watch reminded me of my crush on Anna Torv. Stray bits: - Holy shit the product placement was obscene. Just shoe horned in ads for janky early smart phones and cars with bluetooth. I don't really re-watch a lot of 2010s shows outside of say, 30 Rock, where they just lace the ads with irony so these were off putting. Maybe 5 more years away from being quaint and charming though.
- John Nobel honestly makes this whole thing run. I think with a lesser actor it never would have clicked into place.
- Aw, Lance Reddick.
- Aw, baby Chadwick Boseman in one episode.
- I'm going to say this and it's really a hot take in today's political climate, but multiverses don't make any goddamn sense. So, you're telling me in an alternate world where zeppelins are a main source of air travel, all of our main characters' parents managed to have sex at the exact same time where the exact same sperm fertilized the exact same egg as in the prime universe and those kids grew up and found careers doing nearly the exact same thing, except in this universe massive holes have been appearing in the fabric of reality for the last 20 years. Sigh, yeah, stop thinking, look at the smile. We're all having fun.
Okay, we'll through season 5 spoilers here because this season didn't really hold together for me: Alright, where to start. I guess, by season 4, things had started to border on overly complicated. Not crazy bad, but also, we had a prime universe, an alternate universe, and now an alternate timeline to a prime universe that no one remembers except Peter who is now the main character. That is until Olivia remembers for I think Cortexifan reasons, but I'm not sure if that was every super explicit other than it felt like the writers had written themselves into a corner. So then we get a flash forward episode near the end. Oliva dies to save the universes. She doesn't get to do a heroic sacrifice like Peter got to do, she got to be executed by Walter and then brought back to life by Cortexifan reasons. Cool. But now, season 5 we're 23 years in the future and we're dealing with time travel and invading future humans. Sure, it's a stolen Southpark plot. Sure, the whole thing is aggressively aping The Matrix and Dark City but, you know, I guess they had to do something with The Observers after 4 seasons of just letting them pop in and out mysteriously. But now your dealing with time travel paradoxes and alternate realities and alternate timelines and like, clearly the goal of the writers was just to blow past any semblance of logic as fast as possible so people wouldn't realize that the overall plan doesn't make any goddamned sense. Why would the timeline reset to the moment the Observers arrived? Wouldn't the lack of Observers in the future coming back in time for the previous 4 seasons change the course of our protagonists' lives? Especially Peter who was only alive because an Observer saved him. Although I guess that was in an alternate timeline that no longer exists so he shouldn't exist anyway but he does for reasons that never made any sense. Sigh, maybe the problem with season 5 is that is was so dour that we didn't get to see much of Anna Torv smiling so I could just let it all go.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 12, 2024 19:13:49 GMT -5
^^^ The product placement on "Fringe" was so bad that even though I haven't rewatched it, I still remember how absurd it was. I remember joking about how ridiculous it was with other fans on various internet sites. I remember how we all just accepted it, seeing it as the tradeoff for getting to keep the show on the air.
I also think the show started to get way too complicated in Season 4 and I remember complaining at the time about how it all turned into "Peter is the most important person and he has to be the center of every story". In fact, I remember this being a pretty common fan complaint at the time.
And I hugely disliked Season 5. Disliked the entire concept. I checked out sometime during that season and only came back for the finale, which was good, at least.
The MVP is clearly John Noble. That is a stellar performance. Even before the alternate universe really kicked in! Still wish he'd been Emmy nominated for S2's episode "Peter". That was a "holy shit, this is awesome" level of performance.
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ABz B👹anaz
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This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on Sept 12, 2024 22:49:41 GMT -5
^^^ The product placement on "Fringe" was so bad that even though I haven't rewatched it, I still remember how absurd it was. I remember joking about how ridiculous it was with other fans on various internet sites. I remember how we all just accepted it, seeing it as the tradeoff for getting to keep the show on the air. I also think the show started to get way too complicated in Season 4 and I remember complaining at the time about how it all turned into "Peter is the most important person and he has to be the center of every story". In fact, I remember this being a pretty common fan complaint at the time. And I hugely disliked Season 5. Disliked the entire concept. I checked out sometime during that season and only came back for the finale, which was good, at least. The MVP is clearly John Noble. That is a stellar performance. Even before the alternate universe really kicked in! Still wish he'd been Emmy nominated for S2's episode "Peter". That was a "holy shit, this is awesome" level of performance. Pretty much by comparison to Hiro in Heroes and his "NISSAN VERSA!" shouted approximately 25 times, no other product placement seemed over the top to me. I don't even remember noticing it in Fringe. John Noble was absolutely the best part of the show, but Anna Torv was phenomenal too. Mrs B stopped watching at the start of season five, so I ended up having to find it on DVD and watched it on my own. Season five spoilers also: Look, the general idea wasn't great, but I kinda loved the whole "We'll end up using everything left over from the early episodes in callbacks to fight the Observers" bit, and the finale itself? Pretty much goddamn perfect. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Sept 13, 2024 3:20:44 GMT -5
^^^ The product placement on "Fringe" was so bad that even though I haven't rewatched it, I still remember how absurd it was. I remember joking about how ridiculous it was with other fans on various internet sites. I remember how we all just accepted it, seeing it as the tradeoff for getting to keep the show on the air. I also think the show started to get way too complicated in Season 4 and I remember complaining at the time about how it all turned into "Peter is the most important person and he has to be the center of every story". In fact, I remember this being a pretty common fan complaint at the time. And I hugely disliked Season 5. Disliked the entire concept. I checked out sometime during that season and only came back for the finale, which was good, at least. The MVP is clearly John Noble. That is a stellar performance. Even before the alternate universe really kicked in! Still wish he'd been Emmy nominated for S2's episode "Peter". That was a "holy shit, this is awesome" level of performance. Pretty much by comparison to Hiro in Heroes and his "NISSAN VERSA!" shouted approximately 25 times, no other product placement seemed over the top to me. I don't even remember noticing it in Fringe. John Noble was absolutely the best part of the show, but Anna Torv was phenomenal too. Mrs B stopped watching at the start of season five, so I ended up having to find it on DVD and watched it on my own. Season five spoilers also: Look, the general idea wasn't great, but I kinda loved the whole "We'll end up using everything left over from the early episodes in callbacks to fight the Observers" bit, and the finale itself? Pretty much goddamn perfect. I haven't watched Fringe for a long time but I do seem to remember Anna Torv being... steady but unspectacular?... in Season One and it was only in Season Two that she really started to show off her chops. I may be wrong though, it's been a while and Joshua Jackson, fine though he is, just isn't in the same league. John Noble is beyond everyone else and is effortlessly the best thing about this (sorry, Spock). Indeed, I'd say it's the best thing Noble has ever done though I've mostly seen him in this, LotR, and... I want to say Sleepy Hollow? Maybe he's been awesome in other things. He reminds me a lot of Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad - a performance that's so far ahead of anything else he's done it kind of obliterates the rest of his work. Not that he isn't great in Malcolm In The Middle (and That One X-Files Episode) but the BB performance is clearly his pinnacle as a performer (even when the show wobbled), as Fringe is for Noble. I am trying to persuade my fella to make it our next show to watch. He's traditionally not much of a sci-fi fan (though that excuse is now so thin it's practically transparent) and what we have watched together has been mostly different iterations of Star Trek. And endless amounts of Doctor Who. So this will be something of a different flavour if I manage it (I'm also trying to get BSG in the mix but since we're watching DS9 at the moment, along with Voyager, it might be a good idea to get that out of the way first, given the obvious similarities, RDM, and the fact that BSG is better). |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Sept 13, 2024 15:28:36 GMT -5
- Holy shit the product placement was obscene. Just shoe horned in ads for janky early smart phones and cars with bluetooth. I don't really re-watch a lot of 2010s shows outside of say, 30 Rock, where they just lace the ads with irony so these were off putting. Maybe 5 more years away from being quaint and charming though.
Here's my embarrassing TV confession: in spite of knowing about the product placement in 30 Rock in an intellectual sense as someone who watched the show when it was first airing, it took me until this year's rewatch (probably my sixth?) to actually notice all of it.
(I do promise I got the joke in Wayne's World right away, though.)
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Post by rjamielanga on Sept 14, 2024 0:23:35 GMT -5
KaosWe watched the whole thing over the long weekend and really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, great representation, really compelling plot with a lot of humor. Highly recommended. I embraced Kaos as well and enjoyed it. Someone remind me this show existed 2 years from now if this thing ever gets a second season. Also, this had a good performance from Leila Farzad, who I also just saw give a good performance in The Decameron. I'd never seen her in anything before but now, 2 good turns in a row. I am in episode 3, and I am looking forward to the following 5. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Sept 15, 2024 10:13:18 GMT -5
Donald Glover's Mr. & Mrs. Smith show on Prime is actually pretty good. He and Maya Erskine have good chemistry. The tone is great, kind of a more accessible Atlanta. I like that they took more of a The Americans set up and used that to explore the nature of a strained relationship. I would say the lacking bit is the fight choreography. It's pretty lack luster at times. I think maybe they didn't use a lot of stunt people and it shows. Glover and Erskine are not quite up to snuff on punching or gun handling. That's not really the point of it though. I've only finished the first episode, which didn't have much fighting, but it seems that not being up to snuff is part of the point, with both of them total amateurs in way over their heads. They get through the episode almost entirely through luck, plus a bit of quick thinking. I'm now three episodes into this, thanks to a work-related train journey and not much else tickling my fancy. I'm... enjoying it... er... not more than I thought but certainly in a different way than I thought. I assumed it would be a light, goofy bit of spy-fi with plenty of action and hijinks and stuff. And while there a little of that, the tone of the show isn't quite what I was expecting. I like, and I appreciate it, and I'll definitely be burning through the rest of the episodes but yeah. Definitely not what I was expecting. Great guest cast though. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Sept 15, 2024 10:14:06 GMT -5
Oh and also, Slow Horse is back! What a fucking great show. Two episodes into this season and I love it more and more with each passing moment. Nice to see a bit of an expanded role for Jonathan Pryce too, that's never a bad thing.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 15, 2024 22:38:58 GMT -5
Airing Season 3 of "The Bear" during Emmy voting probably worked against the show, by reminding all the voters that it is definitely NOT a Comedy Series. But also, Liza Colon-Zayas clearly won for her Season 3 performance, so that Season 3 scheduling actually helped her.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Sept 16, 2024 8:19:42 GMT -5
The final episode of The Grand Tour, "One for the Road", debuted last week, bringing to an end a 22-year institution and, in my humble opinion, the most entertaining television series of all time. How did it go out? Well, fine. It was fine.
Our intrepid presenters, now cantankerous old men, eschew their producer's plan to test electric cars and instead head to Africa one last time with a simple challenge: drive across the whole of Zimbabwe in three cars they've always wanted to own. It had some good bits, some soppy bits, and a pretty stellar ending, but it was one of those episodes where breakdowns gobbled up a good half of the run time, leading one to wonder: if the cars had worked well, what would this episode have been about? How much, really, was left?
If I'm sad it's over, I'm also happy to see it done before the quality degrades below good. The last batch of specials trailed the earlier specials by some margin, which themselves trailed the fun of the show proper, with the audience and in-studio banter and multiple segments. The entirety of The Grand Tour, and the many seasons of Top Gear before them, remain imminently watchable, and I will likely continue to do so for years to come.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Sept 19, 2024 8:03:08 GMT -5
We're all caught up on Only Murders in the Building (so far the Sazz-related stuff is my favorite part), so we watched the first two episodes of English Teacher on Hulu last night. It's good! Funny, snappy, I haven't been in a high school in a hot minute but feels realistic. Definitely NOT the same as Abbott Elementary; more sarcastic and cynical and suburban. Recommended.
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Sept 19, 2024 11:38:35 GMT -5
Evil
Whelp, we finally finished the last season of Evil. There was a brief hiatus as a couple of the mid-season episodes had their closed captions out of sync and it took Paramount a while to fix it and my wife's hearing is not great, especially since she still insists on keeping the volume super low when the kid is in bed. Anyway, the season was pretty great until it wasn't. I got the sense from watching one of the behind the scenes videos after the last episode that the show runners only found out it would be the last season toward the end of making it. Which makes sense because the ending felt super rushed. Some plot points hand waved away. Some plot points just fully dropped. And an overall ending that wasn't super satisfying. Not terrible, just not great. Still, overall, an awesome show and totally worth watching. Great leads. Great supporting actors. A darkly comic tone. Practical effects with dudes in fun demon costumes. The shift in the show from airing on CBS to Paramount+ only after the second season really gave them more freedom that I think helped the show greatly. I did see the first 2 seasons on Netflix and wonder if it will ever get seasons 3-5 since there is probably some stupid rights thing after moving it entirely to streaming in the first place. I hate having to know so much shit about IP, branding, licensing, and corporate mergers to figure out where and how to watch something. And I vaguely follow this stuff.
Overall, Evil is the best thing I've found to watch on Paramount+ since I don't particularly care about Star Trek.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Sept 19, 2024 12:24:52 GMT -5
EvilWhelp, we finally finished the last season of Evil. There was a brief hiatus as a couple of the mid-season episodes had their closed captions out of sync and it took Paramount a while to fix it and my wife's hearing is not great, especially since she still insists on keeping the volume super low when the kid is in bed. Anyway, the season was pretty great until it wasn't. I got the sense from watching one of the behind the scenes videos after the last episode that the show runners only found out it would be the last season toward the end of making it. Which makes sense because the ending felt super rushed. Some plot points hand waved away. Some plot points just fully dropped. And an overall ending that wasn't super satisfying. Not terrible, just not great. Still, overall, an awesome show and totally worth watching. Great leads. Great supporting actors. A darkly comic tone. Practical effects with dudes in fun demon costumes. The shift in the show from airing on CBS to Paramount+ only after the second season really gave them more freedom that I think helped the show greatly. I did see the first 2 seasons on Netflix and wonder if it will ever get seasons 3-5 since there is probably some stupid rights thing after moving it entirely to streaming in the first place. I hate having to know so much shit about IP, branding, licensing, and corporate mergers to figure out where and how to watch something. And I vaguely follow this stuff. Overall, Evil is the best thing I've found to watch on Paramount+ since I don't particularly care about Star Trek. Season 2 aired on Paramount Plus, so if it's on Netflix, the rest probably will eventually. The cancellation happened when they had filmed all of season 4 proper except for a handful of scenes, if I recall correctly. So the last four episodes were essentially intended as a wrap-up, under the assumption that was it. It's apparently done well enough on Netflix a continuation is starting to look plausible. |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 19, 2024 17:37:13 GMT -5
Rings of Power is so much better in Season 2. Big improvement. Ditching (most of) the Mystery Box structure has greatly helped. Letting the audience in on Sauron's manipulation and deception makes it much more fun to watch.
The Sauron/Celebrimbor story is incredibly fun, by far the best part of the season. Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards are crushing their roles. I'm actually going to be sad when this ends in a couple episodes.
The Dwarf/Khazad-Dum story is still great. There are some lore changes here, but they are doing a better job this season justifying the lore changes with the narrative focus.
The Númenor story has greatly improved because it is now actually about those characters instead of Galadriel. They have increased Elendil's importance, which is helping give it dramatic heft. And they are now actually telling the real Númenor story with Pharazôn/Miriel/Elendil.
The story is seriously dragging with the Hobbits & Wizards stuff. It has become acutely apparent that this stuff is isolated and totally disconnected from the major stories. It feels meandering and plodding. The momentum grinds to a halt. The show would be so much better if the writers just excised all of this stuff.
What I'm saying here is that the stories that are working are the ones based on Tolkien's actual stories. While the characters/stories Amazon's showrunners/writers made up are increasingly boring and feeling more and more pointless.
MVP for Season 2: Sauron, definitely. I'm low-key rooting for Sauron now, because this is very, very fun to watch.
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on Sept 20, 2024 21:21:24 GMT -5
Ha I’d forgotten how Spartacus just slices that dude’s whole face off.
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Post by songstarliner on Sept 21, 2024 11:39:57 GMT -5
Ha I’d forgotten how Spartacus just slices that dude’s whole face off. Kill them all. |
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Sept 22, 2024 15:17:18 GMT -5
Taskmaster (S18:E1)
Trued and tried formula with new tests from Taskmaster. Rosie's a laff. Zaltzman and Dee I know from my UK TV time in the 90s. Emma is hawt fun (that wink!). Babtunde is clearly having a laugh doing his thing.
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Post by Prole Hole on Sept 23, 2024 4:33:36 GMT -5
Taskmaster (S18:E1) Trued and tried formula with new tests from Taskmaster. Rosie's a laff. Zaltzman and Dee I know from my UK TV time in the 90s. Emma is hawt fun (that wink!). Babtunde is clearly having a laugh doing his thing. First episode was much better than I expected. I'm glad they're not treating Rosie with special kid gloves (not that I thought they would, but you never know). I've been a fan of Jack Dee since the late 80s and have seen him do stand-up a couple of times so I'm very pleased to see him on the show and he's a good fit and contrast with Greg. The rest are all fine but, crucially, they all seem really comfortable with studio banter, which really lifts things. It's what made the last season such a drag - everyone was a bit nice, a bit quiet, a bit... well, dull, for the most part. S17 is the only season I've never actually finished. |
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Post by William T. Goat, Esq. on Sept 23, 2024 6:14:00 GMT -5
Last night's episode of Bob's Burgers really felt like an episode of Fawlty Towers.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Sept 24, 2024 8:05:00 GMT -5
This is a perfect sketch.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Sept 24, 2024 8:36:30 GMT -5
Taskmaster (S18:E1) Trued and tried formula with new tests from Taskmaster. Rosie's a laff. Zaltzman and Dee I know from my UK TV time in the 90s. Emma is hawt fun (that wink!). Babtunde is clearly having a laugh doing his thing. First episode was much better than I expected. I'm glad they're not treating Rosie with special kid gloves (not that I thought they would, but you never know). I've been a fan of Jack Dee since the late 80s and have seen him do stand-up a couple of times so I'm very pleased to see him on the show and he's a good fit and contrast with Greg. The rest are all fine but, crucially, they all seem really comfortable with studio banter, which really lifts things. It's what made the last season such a drag - everyone was a bit nice, a bit quiet, a bit... well, dull, for the most part. S17 is the only season I've never actually finished. I loved it when Rosie said something like "I didn't want to bring it up this early...but I have cerebral palsy," followed by Emma's callback ("I don't have cerebral palsy!") on the next task. A couple of tasks seemed particularly unfair for someone with Rosie's disability, but the unfairness has always been the point, so why change anything? Agreed on season 17. Lack of chemistry in the studio was a huge factor, but also...the key to being a successful Taskmaster contestant is to either A) be a brilliant lateral thinker, or B) find the funniest possible way to fail. The S17 group were, for the most part, well-intentioned people just trying their best, which made for some less than compelling TV. You can afford to have one, e.g., Katherine Parkinson on the cast, but it doesn't work when you have 4-5. |
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Sept 24, 2024 21:55:52 GMT -5
Getting this from the library soon.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 26, 2024 14:25:17 GMT -5
Truly, the Rings of Power actors playing Sauron and Celebrimbor are excellent. I was skeptical of this casting in season 1, but wow, I was wrong. This really paid off in Season 2. Kudos to Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards. They are absolutely carrying this season.
Charles Edwards was sensational in the episode this week. Yikes, what a performance! To make me deeply care about this character, feel strong sympathy for him and truly regret that he's about to die, even though I know he's been doomed from the start, and I've watched him make really dumb decisions re: Sauron. This particular episode, S2E7, he has to show this extreme level of physical and mental deterioration, but also portray the strength needed to at least attempt to fight back against Sauron. Wow, this was good.
Edited to add: This is a damn good attempt by Celebrimbor to fight back considering how weak he is, how powerful Sauron is, and the fact that I know Sauron is going to murder him within the next, say, 5 minutes. Charles Edwards excellently pulled off the "I know my effort is doomed to fail and I'm about to die, but I'm doing it anyway!" performance. Damn, I'm going to be genuinely sad next week when Sauron kills him.
Charlie Vickers is giving a totally different performance in Season 2 than he did in Season 1. His entire persona has changed to fit this. His accent, body language, everything. He is genuinely creepy, and somehow looks physically imposing, which is a neat trick by this actor. He is also incredibly great at playing a cold, heartless bastard.
Charles Edwards and Charlie Vickers = Season 2 MVPs by a large margin
This show is almost the antithesis of the LOTR book/films, because there you see the good guys win every time. But in the Second Age everyone is taking a lot of losses to Sauron.
I don't want to make a long nerdy post about this, but this season is doing a way better job than Season 1 in showing the power and allure of Sauron, how he manipulates people, and why his temptation of having access to his power is so hard to resist.
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on Sept 27, 2024 14:08:10 GMT -5
I wasn’t going to watch Shogun; I was pretty convinced it was going to be too samurai worship-y for me, and I got enough of that from male classmates in high school.
But my god. The intricacy. The costumes.The …everything. I did watch the dub - I have a lot of trouble paying attention to just the TV- but I plan to go back & watch the sub sometime when I can focus myself. But it was no less enthralling for that.
Obviously the performances were amazing, and I’m always happy to see Hiroyuki Sanada get a major role, but I gotta say, Cosmo Jarvis is a dude who knows how to use physicality. Blackthorne looms & lumbers along, and in general is incredibly boorish in every single movement, especially when compared to the absolute control and grace of the Japanese cast. Even the other non-Japanese actors aren’t so flat-out awkward; it’s a fantastically effective way to emphasize his foreignness in both country, mindset, & attitude.
I also found it interesting that five of the eight listed writers (not including Clavell) are women. I can’t articulate any thoughts on it at the moment, but for such male-oriented narrative, it’s unusual.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Sept 27, 2024 22:07:32 GMT -5
Taskmaster(S18:E2)
Deelightful wiener point. Rosie cheeks.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Oct 1, 2024 16:32:53 GMT -5
I watched some shit. It bored me. I turned it off and went outside.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Oct 4, 2024 19:13:59 GMT -5
I have watched the first five episodes of this season of Only Murders in the Building. I am loving Steve Martin's performance in this season. They've made the death of Jane Lynch's character Sazz turn out to be very sad.
I like that Selena Gomez is being given a greater range of acting notes to play. Martin Short continues to be absurdly funny. I love that he's being given such a 21st C plot of Instagram stalking his girlfriend. I love seeing Richard Kind on this show, he is the perfect Guest Star for it. I thought the premise for the season was fun, but they aren't doing as much with it as I'd thought they would.
Everyone seems way underconcerned that Charles might be the target of an assassin. And for the first time, it drove me crazy that they were trampling through a crime scene and evidence before calling the cops.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Oct 5, 2024 3:04:48 GMT -5
I watched Season 4 episode 6 of Only Murders in the Building. I'm not sure I liked this one. It was done almost like a "found footage" film, or documentary style, with all the visuals coming from various cameras placed around the sets, or hand held by other characters.
There's kind of a lot of absurd plotting in this season. I am tolerating it so far because the show already has a comedic tone that veers between satire and farce. But, I'm going to be annoyed if the mystery solution is revealed and it doesn't explain some of this plotting weirdness.
Like, so far, I am not even tempted to theorize about this mystery because I can't decide if the writers are throwing weird stuff in just to be weird or if this means something.
Anyway, at least episode 6 finally solved my problem of Mabel's and Olivier's seeming lack of concern that Charles might be the target of an assassin. Honestly, it seems like Charles himself was lacking in concern about that.
Though, at this point, my quibbles with them not calling the police return. In other seasons they seemed to be working *around* a police investigation. But here they seem to be actively avoiding providing police info when THEY are the targets. The show being a comedy at some point doesn't override this lack of common sense. Especially when Da'Vine Joy Randolph's character is trying to HELP them.
That said, I continue to love the performers, and I do like the zany characters this season. There are some really fun guest performances. Richard Kind, in particular is wonderful in every scene, and I almost hope they make his character the killer, just because he would crush some big confession scene. Molly Shannon has been pretty good, but feels underused. I am disappointed with the lack of use of Eugene Levy. Zach Galifianakis has been pretty funny, though. I wasn't feeling Eva Longoria too much, but she had a killer line in Episode 5. Paul Rudd is giving a truly insane performance this season, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
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repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,674
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Post by repulsionist on Oct 6, 2024 15:19:14 GMT -5
Taskmaster (S18:E3)
The anti-nice frigidity between Greg and Jack was great live audience television. The invitation to fisticuffs by Baba also exciting television. Emma and Rosie did some stuff. They won some tasks. Zaltzman's wizardry and semantic arguments also appreciated. I've read about last Friday's episode (S18:E4), passingly. Looking forward to it.
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