Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Thaluikhain]

If youtube series count, then someone's portrayal of War of the Worlds set in 1934.

Another one of those random hobbyists putting big budget movies to shame. Though not updated for a while.

@WarOfTheWorlds1934

88 circles around the Sun 88 Years since the war begun Then is now, and now is then As once before, it shall be again. For entertainment purposes.

www.youtube.com

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Heated Rivalry, the riveting story of two hawt, young, filthy rich, extremely popular and incredibly famous athletes who have the hots for each other and, other than their own insecurity, never meet a single obstacle in 6 hours of sucking and fucking. Truly a romance for the ages.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, season 1

Slow going, but at least going somewhere. Pretty par for the course in these GRRM adaptions. Last couple episodes were especially good, and it will be interesting to see how far they take this small beginnings narrative within the grandeur backdrop of such a storied landscape.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Heated Rivalry

Originally a Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes fanfic on AO3 before being glorified by the female smut division of HarperCollins with a book release, the show chronicles the steamy hotel encounters of rival hockey players Shane and Ilya as they go from talking trash on the ice to scarfing shlong in the sheets. Despite streaming on HBO this is a Crave From Canada production and there's definitely a cheapness to it - everything from press conferences to award celebrations and cocktail parties are shot in quick, tight closeups with sound design and some sneaky b-roll doing 98% of the work, and you don't catch so much as a glimpse of actual sport in this sport romance. But if you're hankering for some legally distinct Stucky sloppy toppies, look no further.

I can't for the life of me imagine how you go from comic book super soldiers to hockey players without losing something essential to the story but I feel like that, more than anything, goes to show that I am, indeed, a man.

 

[Gordon_4]

I can't for the life of me imagine how you go from comic book super soldiers to hockey players without losing something essential to the story but I feel like that, more than anything, goes to show that I am, indeed, a man.

I agree; transposing the story on to (I assume) reasonably modern hockey players loses the potential spice you get over the idea of two very masculine men who were born in the early 1900s being potentially closeted - for good reason - and then suddenly thanks to various degrees of Mad Science are still alive and at their peak in the late 2010s (I’m assuming the story is set after CA: Civil War) and faced with the joy and terror of being able to act on emotions and desires buried for the better part of seventy years while confronting all the internalised prejudice against gay people they’d likely be saddled with even if they don’t subscribe personally to, with no one to blame but themselves if it doesn’t work. That sounds like a recipe for all sorts of juicy melodrama.

External factors won’t be an issue for them; I figure even the most dyed in the wool gay bashing Nazi is probably gonna think twice about trying to jump Captain America and the Winter Soldier.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I can't for the life of me imagine how you go from comic book super soldiers to hockey players without losing something essential to the story but I feel like that, more than anything, goes to show that I am, indeed, a man.

Because fanfiction - the smutty, hegemonic kind - doesn't concern itself with "the story". It's about vibes and dynamics. The three single most popular tags on AO3, racking up over 3M hits each, are "Fluff", "Angst" and "Alternate Universe". Take two characters with an "X on the outside, Y on the inside" dynamic (Y often being an imaginary fanon standard), move them literally anywhere to do literally anything and so long as there's a hint of pathos you're good for publication.

The next big thing is going to be Alchemised, a 370k word fic (Crime and Punishment is 208k) originally called 'Manacled' that has Voldemort win at the end of Harry Potter and Draco takes Hermione as his sex slave. Movie in the works.

 

[McElroy]

The Pitt
Up to ep 9 of season 2. For the most part it's still good entertainment. Lots of characters so it's easy to find a favorite. Mohan, McKay, Robbie, of course, all are solid. Langdon is on his redemption arc. Mel would be having a really interesting day even without the extra drama the circumstances are bringing about. Louie is still hanging around. The medical side is intriguing, but I am biased.

This season has too many know-it-alls. New characters Ogilvy and Al-Hashimi are both nerds who don't shut up. Joy is interesting at first but we get a stupid reason for it several hours in. Victoria is now a know-it-all too.

It's also annoyingly woke even by HBO standards and what the subject matter brings. HBO's preference for lesbians is getting weird, but that's minor as far as annoyances get. Small spoiler: there is a deaf patient who has 4 different people talking to her in ASL during the ER visit. Irl you'd need zero, but of course one would be optimal.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Search Party - Season 1 - 8/10

It's a 20 minute per episode show where Maeby (Arrested Development), I mean Dory, is looking for a missing woman, Chantal, that she went to college with and only had a single interaction with her. The show isn't about the mystery or anything like that (the show even makes fun of Dory making up some elaborate explanation), the show is essentially a critique of millennials (as the link below talks about). It is very apparent in the very 1st episode what this show is really about as Dory's friend Portia makes a social media post about Chantal being missing, then later at a party another character asks about the post and how she is doing, Portia is totally oblivious as to what she's talking about because she only posted it to virtue signal she cares (about some missing woman she doesn't know), and when Portia is reminded she goes "Oh! It's so hard, your support means so much!" Dory's reason for wanting to find Chantal is also very self-absorbed and essentially playing the victim card. Search Party also has some super awkward moments akin to a Nathan Fielder show like The Curse.

The one odd thing in the season is they quickly changed Drew's character (Dory's boyfriend) after the 1st/pilot episode, he's still the same character for the most part but just not nearly as exaggerated as he was in the 1st episode.

Is 'Search Party' the Harshest Critique of Millennial Culture Yet?

No one could hate millennials more than millennials, and 'Search Party' is proof.

collider.com

The point of the show totally went over this person's head, probably a millennial themselves, "if people weren't so mean to Dory..."

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished season 2 of Cross and it might be one of the worst drops in quality I've seen from a show going sophomore. If you didn't like season 1, you're not going to like 2, but if you liked the first season, then you're going to freaking hate this one. They turned a mediocre cop into a dumb one, had him chasing a killer for whose victims we feel nothing (eat the rich! They're dumb too) and then wasted two thirds of the show anyway on two other characters going on unrelated side quests that never tie back to the central story, if you can call it that. Just a bad case of not knowing where to go and going everywhere as a result.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

Finished Gundam: Witch of Mercury;

I definitely felt disappointed after watching Witch of Mercury. Felt that it could have used another season. A lot of character motivations end up being half-baked, especially relationships between characters.

Felt that the companies who produced this just didn't bother or care to give this series more breathing room with another 12 episodes for long-form storytelling. Which is strange, because Gundam has also had great short-form storytelling in OVAs like Stardust Memory and 08th MS Team.

So you could say it's either a lack of competence in handling a shorter formed narrative or higher-ups just not giving a damn about quality results and instead wanting to cut their losses over handling the production of the show. Either or, I wasn't a fan of this one. I genuinely felt like I wasted my time watching it.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Comeback, HBO, 10/10

Ok this isn't the last thing I watched, just one of the greatest thing I've watched.

The Comeback's first season was 2005, second season was 2014, and third season just started now. Hahah.

For those who don't know, it's an HBO mockumentary- sortof?- cringe-comedy about a past-her-prime TV actress making a comeback to sitcoms while also making a documentary about that. Its the best The Office (American). It's Bojack Horseman before Bojack Horseman. It stars Lisa Kudrow and as someone who never really liked Friends much and found her annoying I was absolutely blown away by her here.

So I just wanted to let everyone know it was a thing, it's back, and to go back and watch the first two "seasons" if you haven't as it earns my personal highest recommendation. I'll be rewatching it from the beginning with my wife who has never seen it.

 

[thebobmaster]

Watched Daredevil Born Again Season 2, Episode 1. Solid start to the season. A lot of set-up, but that's kind of what you expect from the first episode of a season. Matthew Lillard is always a lot of fun, looking forward to seeing more of him.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Inside The Manosphere: WTF / Great

A documentary about popular, misogynistic social media influencers and their deranged points of view on gender relations and gender roles in a "successful" life as a man.

Hosted by Louis Theroux, a man whose patience befits a saint, it was absolutely disgusting to watch. I (call me naive) had no idea there were people creating this kind of content (in clearly deceptive earnest) let alone there was anyone stupid enough to be ingesting it and taking it as fact or even a guideline for life. Imagine a guy espousing that a woman's place is in the kitchen, a tired and antiquated trope that most rational people would laugh at for the absurdity, but then we show, in reality, a man tell his supposed S/O to go clean his room, and she willingly does it. Oh, and then they back-pedal when asked if they'd prescribe to this sort of behavior were it were their mother or daughter. What society are we living in? Fuck the government shutdown; let's shut down the Internet for a month or two and let these mouth-breathers live in the reality we all share that isn't tailored to their preconceived ideals for a while.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't think I've posted about it but I'm watching DTF St. Louis and it's my favorite thing this year. It has a very peculiar - wry, dark, melancholy, absurd - tone and is probably best described as "from the dude that wrote The Weatherman, yes the Nic Cage movie". He also worked on a show called Patriot, which I haven't seen but seems well liked.

It's about a bizarre love triangle between Jason Bateman (local weatherman), David Harbour (his coworker) and Linda Cardellini (coworker's wife). One of them is dead by the end of the first episode and the rest of the show shuttles back and forth in time as the police investigates. Richard Jenkins is on the case and the dude knocks it out of the park with every line, every pause, every stare.

So it's a whodunit (and a whydunit, and a howdunit) that gets a lot of mileage out of baiting the viewer, but really even without the mystery element the writing is so specific and grounded yet with these oddball flights of absurdity (and freaking surreal choices for set design - they really don't phone anything in) that I'm just happy to be a fly on the wall around the characters.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Burbs- 7/10

TV show on Paramount+ this is like a modern remake of the 80s movie.
That movie starred Tom Hanks and it was this awkward attempt to mix horror/suspense, social critique, and slapstick comedy. It basically didn't work but apparently gaine a kind of cult following. I think people like the idea of it more than the actual movie.
Either way, this new show is 8 episodes though it certainly ends in a way that wants more and the second season hasn't been announced so if not having an ending bothers you, skip or wait.

It stars Keke Palmer and a British dude as a couple that move back to his superficially idyllic suburban neighborhood. They have a creepy house across the street with mysterious maybe murders and a caste of kooky neighbors. Enjoyment of the show will be based purely on how much you enjoy these wackadoodles and my wife and I did enjoy them well enough. It certainly helped a lot that one of these is the guy that played Colin Robinson in What We Do In the Shadows doing his patented dry delivery to top comedic effect.

One thing I like about Paramount and Peacock is they are quaintly old-school in their TV presentation- episodes are consistently ~45 minutes long. It's basically network TV but streaming. I find that kind of dependability comforting.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

The Burbs- 7/10

TV show on Paramount+ this is like a modern remake of the 80s movie.
That movie starred Tom Hanks and it was this awkward attempt to mix horror/suspense, social critique, and slapstick comedy. It basically didn't work but apparently gaine a kind of cult following. I think people like the idea of it more than the actual movie.
Either way, this new show is 8 episodes though it certainly ends in a way that wants more and the second season hasn't been announced so if not having an ending bothers you, skip or wait.

It stars Keke Palmer and a British dude as a couple that move back to his superficially idyllic suburban neighborhood. They have a creepy house across the street with mysterious maybe murders and a caste of kooky neighbors. Enjoyment of the show will be based purely on how much you enjoy these wackadoodles and my wife and I did enjoy them well enough. It certainly helped a lot that one of these is the guy that played Colin Robinson in What We Do In the Shadows doing his patented dry delivery to top comedic effect.

One thing I like about Paramount and Peacock is they are quaintly old-school in their TV presentation- episodes are consistently ~45 minutes long. It's basically network TV but streaming. I find that kind of dependability comforting.

The Burbs is a cinematic masterpiece and the finest film Tom Hanks has ever been in!!! It's like the ultimate hangout movie where you feel you're hanging out with all the characters. And it's nothing fantastical or anything, like say robbing a Las Vegas casino with the Ocean's Eleven crew. It's like a lazy weekend where you just hang out with friends essentially doing nothing. The characters are essentially like kids spying on a weird neighbor and getting up to MOSTLY non-malicious high jinks, at one point they ask Tom Hanks' wife if he could come out and play. It nails all the little things like the one guy asking Tom Hanks about his new tools just as small talk, not actually interested, it's nails that mundanity of life. That whole dinner scene is hilarious and awkward. The cinematography is fun with dramatic spaghetti western, Sergio Leone style zooms when everyone in the neighborhood is just watching to see if 2 characters will ring a door bell. And, I just love the Corey Feldman character has a date where they are just sitting on the porch watching the neighbor high jinks. Whenever I'm sick, I always throw on The Burbs and it brings me back to the times when I was a kid and you'd just get up, ring the doorbells of kids on the block, and then go out and do whatever for the day (playing baseball or basketball, exploring the forest, or investigate that weird neighbor that we actually did do at one point).

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Burbs is a cinematic masterpiece and the finest film Tom Hanks has ever been in!!! It's like the ultimate hangout movie where you feel you're hanging out with all the characters. And it's nothing fantastical or anything, like say robbing a Las Vegas casino with the Ocean's Eleven crew. It's like a lazy weekend where you just hang out with friends essentially doing nothing. The characters are essentially like kids spying on a weird neighbor and getting up to MOSTLY non-malicious high jinks, at one point they ask Tom Hanks' wife if he could come out and play. It nails all the little things like the one guy asking Tom Hanks about his new tools just as small talk, not actually interested, it's nails that mundanity of life. That whole dinner scene is hilarious and awkward. The cinematography is fun with dramatic spaghetti western, Sergio Leone style zooms when everyone in the neighborhood is just watching to see if 2 characters will ring a door bell. And, I just love the Corey Feldman character has a date where they are just sitting on the porch watching the neighbor high jinks. Whenever I'm sick, I always throw on The Burbs and it brings me back to the times when I was a kid and you'd just get up, ring the doorbells of kids on the block, and then go out and do whatever for the day (playing baseball or basketball, exploring the forest, or investigate that weird neighbor that we actually did do at one point).

Nostalgia's a hell of a drug lol

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

We also watched Love & Death, yet another murder in the burbs melodrama. This one is based on a true story too. The story: a woman cucked her friend, then axe murdered her. It somehow necessitates 7 hour long episodes to poke around this bit of true crime trivia. The Chernobyl meltdown, from disaster to cleanup to sociopolitical ramifications, took 5 hours. Just saying.

Elizabeth Olsen is very good as Candy Montgomery, and that's about it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

View attachment 14436

The Burbs is a cinematic masterpiece and the finest film Tom Hanks has ever been in!!! It's like the ultimate hangout movie where you feel you're hanging out with all the characters. And it's nothing fantastical or anything, like say robbing a Las Vegas casino with the Ocean's Eleven crew. It's like a lazy weekend where you just hang out with friends essentially doing nothing. The characters are essentially like kids spying on a weird neighbor and getting up to MOSTLY non-malicious high jinks, at one point they ask Tom Hanks' wife if he could come out and play. It nails all the little things like the one guy asking Tom Hanks about his new tools just as small talk, not actually interested, it's nails that mundanity of life. That whole dinner scene is hilarious and awkward. The cinematography is fun with dramatic spaghetti western, Sergio Leone style zooms when everyone in the neighborhood is just watching to see if 2 characters will ring a door bell. And, I just love the Corey Feldman character has a date where they are just sitting on the porch watching the neighbor high jinks. Whenever I'm sick, I always throw on The Burbs and it brings me back to the times when I was a kid and you'd just get up, ring the doorbells of kids on the block, and then go out and do whatever for the day (playing baseball or basketball, exploring the forest, or investigate that weird neighbor that we actually did do at one point).

This was clearly never meant to be thought provoking or much of anything beyond 80’s comedy. The movie’s greatest accomplishment was the neighbors’ ultimate vindication after making them look like a bunch of bumbling paranoid idiots throughout. The *chef’s kiss* is that it came right after arguably the best thing Hanks has ever done.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

This was clearly never meant to be thought provoking or much of anything beyond 80’s comedy. The movie’s greatest accomplishment was the neighbors’ ultimate vindication after making them look like a bunch of bumbling paranoid idiots throughout. The *chef’s kiss* is that it came right after arguably the best thing Hanks has ever done.

Yeah, there's a bit of commentary but it's pretty light. Some say the movie essentially has its cake and eats it too because of this scene and then immediately followed by the vindication. But, it's really the more interesting and fun way to end the movie overall. Funnily, the movie Bugonia is a very same-y situation where the movie can only go 1 of 2 ways and does something similar to The Burbs.

Tom Hanks' best line ever, "I've been blown up! Take me to the hospital!" Then, his wife, Carrie Fisher, also makes the scene by being so mundane about it all.