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

[Xprimentyl]

Whatever it was, it made him come across less genuine (the acting not the character) than he would've if he just spoke regularly. This is Vincent D'Onofrio, the guy has a naturally imposing voice, there's no need for this Shatner-izing. Doesn't ruin the character or anything, but it never really blended into the character either.

Also, regarding the end credits... does this show only exist to set up Fisk becoming mayor of New York? *sigh* Marvel's gonna Marvel, right?

D'Onofrio's Fisk is probably one of the more sympathetic villains I've seen in a long time. And I've not watched Echo, didn't plan on it it, but seeing the Fisk from the Daredevil series again might pique my interest.

As to the "accent" you're disliking, I dunno; I feel it fit the character, at least from what I remember from Daredevil. He was a no-nonsense crime boss who always felt like he had the edge in the room, but softened when love in his life filed his edges. He comes across as someone who is putting on airs despite being more than capable of being the person he projects, i.e.: overcompensating, a tacit inferiority complex from someone convincingly in a seat of superiority. That said, yes, D'Onofrio is a brilliant actor that wouldn't need to vocally act much beyond his natural speaking voice, but I think Kingpin character does.

He's literally the only reason I have any interest in Echo at all. From the ads, the line he delivers, a very forceful "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?", completely out of context, but in such that "Kingpin I remember" way, makes me want to see him again. I'd actually like to watch the original series again with my gf who hasn't seen it, but it appears along with cancellation, they removed it from viewing as well. Maybe Echo will bring it out of the vault?

 

[thebobmaster]

D'Onofrio's Fisk is probably one of the more sympathetic villains I've seen in a long time. And I've not watched Echo, didn't plan on it it, but seeing the Fisk from the Daredevil series again might pique my interest.

As to the "accent" you're disliking, I dunno; I feel it fit the character, at least from what I remember from Daredevil. He was a no-nonsense crime boss who always felt like he had the edge in the room, but softened when love in his life filed his edges. He comes across as someone who is putting on airs despite being more than capable of being the person he projects, i.e.: overcompensating, a tacit inferiority complex from someone convincingly in a seat of superiority. That said, yes, D'Onofrio is a brilliant actor that wouldn't need to vocally act much beyond his natural speaking voice, but I think Kingpin character does.

He's literally the only reason I have any interest in Echo at all. From the ads, the line he delivers, a very forceful "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?", completely out of context, but in such that "Kingpin I remember" way, makes me want to see him again. I'd actually like to watch the original series again with my gf who hasn't seen it, but it appears along with cancellation, they removed it from viewing as well. Maybe Echo will bring it out of the vault?

The original Daredevil series is on Disney+.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The original Daredevil series is on Disney+.

Oh, sweet! Thanks!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished the second season of Reacher. I remember thinking the first season was dumb fun. This was just dumb.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Brothers Sun

This is a Netflix original about two Tawainese brothers, one who grew up in the US as a likable dork and the other as mob enforcer tough guy. Their mother is played by Michelle Yeoh. It's basically an action comedy.
Given the cast and premise I was expecting a more enthusiastic reception but reviews, while positive, are mixed. I think the reason is that this is the kind of show that is perfectly pleasant while watching it but easily forgettable. Cast is superb, some of the setpieces and gags are charming, but the story kind of doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about for 5 minutes and there is very little unexpected, or particularly interesting, or resonant.
It's 8 episodes and ends in a way where I could see there being a season 2 if they want but also is a decent ending if not.

We enjoyed it but didn't love it so if you have a Netflix subscription, are down for something light in tone (though there is a lot of violence, and that clash not always going down well is one of the show's weaknesses), and dig the premise, then for sure give it a whirl, it's solid entertainment. But it's not worth going out of your way for.

 

[BrawlMan]

Oh, sweet! Thanks!

Also Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and The Defenders.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Marvel's The Runaways

(Own copy bought off Google Play)
Rating: 5/10

Tagline /hook to get you to read my thoughts in depth: The opposite of Marvel's present issues in a show that feels like a whole series shot on the budget of 1 episode of a CW show.


Thoughts: I would do a brief synopsis but the trailer does it pretty well. Basically kids find out their parents aren't good people and their charity work is a front for something more sinister. So I think it's important to give an account of why I'm suddenly getting into a series that Disney kicked from Disney Plus. I started playing Marvel's Midnight Suns and there character Nico is in there who is from the Runaways and the person voicing her is Lyrica Okano who actually played Nico in the show. In Midnight Suns I found the character really nice and enjoyable and not being that familiar with the Runaways I set out to find out more, add to this Marvel Snap actually adding Nico and stuff added to Marvel Snap is a good indication of Disney Marvel floating the idea to test how popular a character is or get people to know who they are be it for comics or for future movies / shows. With Disney pulling the show from Disney Plus I had to buy my own copy of this shows and I strongly predict a mid t budget-ish reboot film for The Runaways is coming at some point or some new version of it with the old version being dropped to make people less aware of it, because it's not that good.

The Runaways TV show desperately wants to be The OC or 90210 or One Tree Hill, you know one of those somewhat affluent teen soaps but also has the issue of you know the fact it's based on a Superhero comic with dark magicians and time travellers. It's solution? Axe most of that stuff, distil it down a bit and then do one that modern Marvel has done and likely will annoy most people, try to make the villain society parents sympathetic and misguided and not absolute evil monster despite the fact for years they've been sacrificing young girls. In this version instead of sacrificing girls to some dark gods they're sacrificing them to keep a powerful ancient being called Jonah alive and basically feeding him life every which revitalises him.

What the show does well (and the reason it gets most of the 5 points it did get) is characterisation, it makes the characters 3 dimensional people, each likable in their own way (possibly modifying them a bit from the comics to sand off some of their more off putting qualities). It makes you care for the characters and this is something modern Marvel seems to struggle with as this show is about personal stakes and while there a whole "World ending catastrophe" idea looming it makes the stakes more about the characters personal stakes of realising "Oh shit my parents are evil and I'm basically going to have to choose between my family and doing the right thing". This also very much isn't The Avengers, people aren't always on the same page an there's conflict between them that doesn't then escalate into a massive country wide civil war. The show knows how to make big stakes overall but also keep the stakes seeming personal too because it is portrayed as something secret going on that while it threatens the world only a few people know and can stop it.

What the show does badly is forgetting it's identity. While Marvel films have been doing almost annoying winks to the audience about the ridiculousness of some of the events they did keep a lot of the events or were will to do the absurd stuff. In the Runaways in an attempt to ground everything it feels very stripped of it's uniqueness to become another teen soap like show. The issue is this is Marvel and in a world of CW DC shows it feels ashamed of it's identity and unwilling to just accept it's source material was good and people would enjoy it to begin with.

This lack of being uniquely interest is compounded by a glacial pace, It's first season is 10 episodes long, each nearly 1 hour, in that time there are 2 actual fight scenes, and these are short too. In a world of CW DC shows I struggle to think why most teens (who I presume were the target audience) would watch this and not some other show. Sure a slower pace can be good, I praised Stargirl for breaking the formula and often having 1-2 full episodes with no fights only to use that saved budget to have nearly full episode long fights later on. There is however a limit and The Runaways glacial pace sees the major plot developments come out feeling show and padded out by other filler, I'm pretty sure 1 episode the only major plot point of matter was some-one finding a hair clip at one point.

I actually feel bad for the actors in this because the performances are excellent across the board but they're stuck in very poor superhero show masquerading as a mediocre teen drama.

The Bit where I get a bit socio-political

The show has so many interesting ideas from a Scientology like Church organisation to big tech used for evil and exploring the ideas of identity etc. It's kind of funny / surprising to me that there hasn't been more of an outcry online about the shows removal from Disney Plus from the normal crowd who call people racists / homophobes online and who were very angry people didn't like the Willow TV series enough. The Runaways features a diverse cast and have two characters who are Bi-sexual (though one leans heavily lesbian while the other doesn't lean either way really). Then again the show does have Gert who is a nice character but basically a giant joke about SJWs / woke idiots being somewhat spiteful hypocrites whose actions an campaigns are more to cover up their own issues and insecurities. I mean Gert's story is of a dyed haired teen girl rallying for justice against exploitative practices who starts a "Down with the Patriarchy" club in episode 1 while all the time being revealed to secretly have been lusting after male Jock character Chase and most of her down with heteronormative ideas and down with societal expectations were born of jealously because Chase is or was dating one of the head cheerleaders and is then implied to be interested in Karolina, the blonde haired blue eyed girl church girl. So maybe that has something to do with it. Either way I suspect this isn't the last we shall see of The Runaways in adaptations.

 

[gorfias]

Ted on Peacock S1E1

Cute enough. Funny in parts. But this sitcom is 50 min. It should have been more like 20. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I get it.

I may try S1E2 but that length hurts it. C+

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Fargo season 4

Generally considered the least of the season and after watching it I would agree so far.
This one is different from the others in that it's set furthest in the past- ~1950- and furthest from the titular place- as in, it's in Kansas City, MO not Fargo ND. So it's trying to keep some of that black comedy with matter-of-fact violence tone that fans of the movie and first two season appreciate, but now apply it to like a Godfather 2 story and situation, but also finally be the one that includes black people.
So it's basically a gang war between the Italian and black mafias and they really try to use that as a metaphor for race relations and the immigrant/minority American experience, and that's ultimately what kills a lot of the momentum because you have characters explaining this to you all the time. Especially Chris Rock, the biggest headline casting, who does Chris Rock style lectures as if you're watching a comedy special of his but not one of the old good comedy specials when he was a brilliant comedian.

The other difference between other Fargos is that your Minnesota nice lady character with the accent isn't the cop trying to figure stuff out through her veneer of firm pleasantness but rather one of the villains too. So like everybody is bad and that's supposed to be the fun. And it is actually- I mean if you like crime shows it's a pretty good one for spectacle and kooky characters. Jason Schwartzman for example is an interesting casting for the head of the Italian mobs, coming off as an extremely "Americanized" waspy version in contrast from his brother who grew up in Italy and is a big violent goomba bruiser.

The audience stand-in character is a precocious teenage black girl who is of course brilliant and brave and plucky and all that spoiler alert saves her family with research and smarts. Precocious teens/kids are often an annoying trope for me so that's why I'm dismissive about that.
The season is a collection of moments and images but not much of a story. If like me you like the style of Fargo then it's still worth watching because it is great eye candy. The most fun scenes are the ones with the two women outlaws- I am a sucker for petty criminals and hucksters using big words and clever dialogue.

Ben Wishaw is also in it and he's one of my favorite actors ever since I saw him play Henry II in a public TV series of Shakespeare's "Henriad." He manages to succeed in a very tough role, the one the show puts all its thin themes on. I mean his name is "Rabbi Mulligan" and he's motivated to protect an innocent black boy so it's like, hey, look at all the immigrant/minorities in this country, ain't America something?

Ultimately a set of clashing tones and themes, dangling threads and plot holes put in the specific Fargo packaging and stylized lovingly.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

True Detective S4E3

The proverbial shark has been jumped, jumped, jumped. I'm out!

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

True Detective S4E3

The proverbial shark has been jumped, jumped, jumped. I'm out!

From what I’ve heard/read, they used a rocket fart suit to do so too.


OT, the new Netflix mystery thriller miniseries, Fool Me Once

G. Dubbya gaffe aside, this one goes into familiar territory involving rich and evil families, but a few twists and turns along the way to a satisfying climax made it fairly enjoyable. If it weren’t for at least two of the main characters being frustratingly idiotic and stubborn along the way, I’d have given it higher than 6/10 IMDb shinies, but its drama leaves the ground a bit too much. Really, how many times must detectives break protocol in these things?


Also, Griselda

Sofía Vergara plays the titular drug queenpin, and by titular I mean *yes*. Even when they put uglyfying makeup and prosthetics on her she’s a stone cold knockout who can act to boot. And she’s 51!. Hollywood ladies, this is how you age gracefully.

But I digress. After three episodes I’m both loving and hating it. The former for reasons aforementioned as well as some fairly gritty and grimy coke fueled drama, and the latter with the understanding that, as is often the case with these, it was based on actual events. It’s why some of the shit she does (or so far mostly has done for her) can be more infuriating than entertaining. This whole era and setting really makes one question humanity, and that even when those who feel bad about what they’re doing choose to go along with it for lack of a better choice…ehh. We’ve been failing as a greater society.

Fifteen million. She had fifteen million reasons to be free. If I had that case in front of me I’d be like, *YOINK* “Gracias y adiós!”. She could’ve been very comfortably set for life, along with all her kids, and their kids. But no. Pride will be the Black Widow’s downfall. I’ll enjoy it but not without a few bouts of exasperation.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Ghosts: S1: Delightful / Great

A young woman inherits a +300 year old estate, and she and her husband (the latter begrudgingly) move from the hustle and bustle of city life to take over the lavish house and turn it into a bed & breakfast. Following an argument, the woman suffers a near-death experience after which she's able to see ghosts which have been living in their home, some for centuries. The whimsical premise then becomes their co-existing.

As poorly acted and contrived as it tends to be, it is extremely charming, warm and fuzzy, sweet, lighthearted, touching, pretty much all the adjectives that normally make me squirm, the seething cynic that I am. I'm loving it. It's so silly and stupid, but it's also self-aware, and it's intentions are so genuinely pure and fun, I can't help but appreciate it. It just makes me smile and lose track of time (in a good way.) If you're having a bad day, put some Ghosts in your life; it's the kind-hearted elbow to the ribs that turns your frown upside down.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

> And she’s 51!. Hollywood ladies, this is how you age gracefully.
lol 51 isn't old especially these days with trainers, skin care, and even tasteful surgery.

Let's see what I been watching...

The Curse
I talked about this one already but the last episode was a freaking doozy, oh man, what a show, 10/10.

Scavenger's Reign
The latest in one of my favorite entertainment trends- the mainstreaming of anime. This 12 episode moody sci-fi thriller is on Max. It is basically three parallel stories of stranded people on a alien planet teaming with strange life. Really the point of the show is to watch weird creatures that still sort of behave like things we recognize but different. So it's the kind of story telling that can only really be effective animated, which is cool. Vibes are like Solaris. Really lovely series, highly recommended.

True Detective new season
Only watched the first 2 episodes. The Alaskan setting and Jody Foster hooked me in because I tried to watch the acclaimed first season of the show and gave up halfway, I couldn't tolerate the oppressive nihilistic attidue coupled with Machoughney's and Harrelson's endless grimdark prattling. So far the show is... I dunno? Again, so try-hard grimdark to the point of absurdity, but that is the show's aesthetic so I'm not complaining it's just kind a boring? But we are a bit invested in the mystery so we'll keep going for now.

Fargo season 5
This season got a lot of praise I think because it's lot more action and mood heavy than the previous one, and we did enjoy it. However, it uses current political tropes as a narrative drive and at times it felt unintentionally self-parody. The domestic abuse themes and portrayals coupled with the political cartoon version of right-wing evil, supernatural elements and general Fargo wackiness whipped the tone all over the place at times. You do get to see John Hamm put aside his always likable charm thing to play an absolute monster.


Shogun (original mini-series)
I been reading James Clavell's novels in release order, and yes that is partly inspired by the upcoming series. Also watching the original mini-series and almost done with both. The novel is great, certainly understand why it's so beloved, and the series does a decent job of putting on the small screen. Certainly having Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune (guy in all the Kurusawa films) helps, but equally important is the actress and role of Mariko, Clavell's first successful female character (IMO natch).
What will interest me for the new show is how they're going to deal with how much of the story has elements that are of its time and are more problematic now: orientalism, exoticizing foreign women, all sorts of sexist tropes, etc. The book was written in the 1960's by a British man about Japan... there's... a lot lol. So I was really surprised someone decided to tackle this story today. Either they're going to make it faithful, which means here come all the finger-wagging thinkpieces- and it will be deserved- or they're going to make radical changes to modernize it, and it will be slammed for that, and it will be deserved. Should be fun!

Murder She Wrote
For some reason this has come up in conversation with my wife, probably because I was on a Columbo kick. So we been watching these and it's delightful. I mean- good? I dunno, it's VERY 1980s, and it's shocking how cheap and poor a lot of the production was. I mean Columbo episodes often just look like slightly lower budget but decent mini-movies and MSW is harsh edits and exaggerated acting and cheep props and visible boom mics.
But the thing that I love about JB Fletcher is also what I love about Columbo- they are willing to eat s*** in order to focus on the real problem. As they investigate the situation, people dismiss them and insult them and they're like ok whatever sure I'm sorry blah blah and then BAM here's how you killed someone.
Also honestly I'm just loving a TV show where each episode is its own story and it ends in 45 minutes. Old man nostalgia maybe but in the good old days you could watch some TV and go to bed not have to remember a bunch of stuff.

 

[gorfias]

> And she’s 51!. Hollywood ladies, this is how you age gracefully.
lol 51 isn't old especially these days with trainers, skin care, and even tasteful surgery.
Fargo season 5
This season got a lot of praise I think because it's lot more action and mood heavy than the previous one, and we did enjoy it. However, it uses current political tropes as a narrative drive and at times it felt unintentionally self-parody. The domestic abuse themes and portrayals coupled with the political cartoon version of right-wing evil, supernatural elements and general Fargo wackiness whipped the tone all over the place at times. You do get to see John Hamm put aside his always likable charm thing to play an absolute monster.

I think it was actor/stand up comic Alan King that said of people calling him middle aged when he's in his 50s silly as he had no thought he'd live to be 100 (Made it to 76!).
The wife did not want to watch Fargo Season 5 till I told her Hamm was in it. But by the end she was loving it. It does wear its politics on its sleeve but it was interesting to me that they humanized a hard a$$ billionaire in a way that was pretty moving.
Low point

Spoiler

a lawyer willingly walks unarmed and alone into the armed compound of a bunch of kidnapping loons? Least surprising death scene of all time.

 

[BrawlMan]

This is a pretty good fan project!

​

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Ghosts: S1: Delightful / Great

A young woman inherits a +300 year old estate, and she and her husband (the latter begrudgingly) move from the hustle and bustle of city life to take over the lavish house and turn it into a bed & breakfast. Following an argument, the woman suffers a near-death experience after which she's able to see ghosts which have been living in their home, some for centuries. The whimsical premise then becomes their co-existing.

As poorly acted and contrived as it tends to be, it is extremely charming, warm and fuzzy, sweet, lighthearted, touching, pretty much all the adjectives that normally make me squirm, the seething cynic that I am. I'm loving it. It's so silly and stupid, but it's also self-aware, and it's intentions are so genuinely pure and fun, I can't help but appreciate it. It just makes me smile and lose track of time (in a good way.) If you're having a bad day, put some Ghosts in your life; it's the kind-hearted elbow to the ribs that turns your frown upside down.

Is that the BBC one? I saw a few episodes of that a couple of years ago and it was certainly one of those old school entertainingly silly but quite charming comedies, like watching a panto put on by the local village amateur dramatics society and they are all clearly having a whale of a time doing it.

I should probably watch the rest of it. Everything else* on TV is such a load of depressing miserable shit that I don't really watch TV anymore.

*Ok, not everything, but it feels pretty heavily weighted in that direction.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Is that the BBC one? I saw a few episodes of that a couple of years ago and it was certainly one of those old school entertainingly silly but quite charming comedies, like watching a panto put on by the local village amateur dramatics society and they are all clearly having a whale of a time doing it.

I should probably watch the rest of it. Everything else* on TV is such a load of depressing miserable shit that I don't really watch TV anymore.

*Ok, not everything, but it feels pretty heavily weighted in that direction.

It's the American version, but all sentiments the same. It's genuinely feel-good, dumb fun TV.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Watching Good Omens season two. I keep expecting Graham Chapman to walk in dressed in military clothes and go "Right, that's enough of that, this has gotten too silly".

The first season was based on the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett book; season two may or may not be based on their ideas for a sequel that never happened but it's definitely inspired by the fact Michael Sheen and David Tennant are so delightfully chummy together (which also earned their characters an upgrade into sort-of-protagonists in season one). Same with Jon Hamm, who appeared in season one playing a character that what was essentially a footnote in the book and now is back as a doubly crucial character simply because we all like Jon Hamm.

So if you're invested at all in their bromance, here's some more.

I also watched, or rather was in the room while my girlfriend watched it, Hazbin Hotel. I will describe it as Hot Topic meets DeviantArt in a hipster's idea of hell, complete with insufferable musical numbers and edgelord profanity. According to my girlfriend they butchered the characters by recasting the voices from the pilot. This is terrible news. But now she has #appleradio to ship so that's cool.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Is that the BBC one? I saw a few episodes of that a couple of years ago and it was certainly one of those old school entertainingly silly but quite charming comedies, like watching a panto put on by the local village amateur dramatics society and they are all clearly having a whale of a time doing it.

I should probably watch the rest of it. Everything else* on TV is such a load of depressing miserable shit that I don't really watch TV anymore.

*Ok, not everything, but it feels pretty heavily weighted in that direction.

Ran out of the US Ghosts, so started the [original] UK version. Loving it too. Sorta like The Office, it appears the US version is all but a point-for-point remake tailored to US viewers, but different ghosts from different periods in history, so kinda like watching a completely different show. Still the same feel-good, "just go with it" vibes. Recommended if you've not picked it up yet.

 

[Ag3ma]

Mr. & Mrs. Smith S01 (Amazon Prime)

Chances are you've heard of the film from back in the day (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), so know that this is about two assassins married to each other. The TV series differs from the film a little in set-up. Donald Glover plays "John" and Maya Erskine "Jane", two aspiring agents who are hired and paired up for cohabitation and missions. One might therefore their slightly unusual interview, which appears to be one part recruitment tool and one part romantic matchmaker.

The season therefore plays out essentially through the extended story of a relationship, the interplay of the couple and their development. Form getting to know each other and the early passion, into the arguments and long-term issues and how to deal with differences phase, ending in either reaffirmation, reconciliation or break-up (I'm not telling you which). This is really the core that holds everything together. It is also in part a comedy, so in a way it's sort of an action romcom. Or maybe action romdramedy, who knows. So, for instance, you could imagine it as a season of Aziz Ansari's "Master of None"... except with plentiful amounts of action and violence. I think if you try to watch it as an action TV show, you might not quite be disappointed as such, but you might find it's not quite aiming at what you're looking for either.

So, quick summary, it works, and really well. Everything about this has been done to a high standard (script, performances, direction, etc.) and Glover and Erskine as the core of the show work absolutely superbly together. Excellent.