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

Old_Hunter_77

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Lady in the Lake episodes 1 & 2, AppleTV+: 4/10, stopped watching

The limited series stars Natalie Portman as a disaffected Jewish housewife in 1966 Baltimore who is triggered to change her life by the disappearance of a little girl and eventually will come across another horrific death of a black woman played by Moses Ingram (who played the main characters' childhood best friend in Queen's Gambit and was in the Obi Wan tv show which I did not watch).

It's inspired by two real life murders but the story is fiction. The trailer had a lot of stuff that both got me hooked and turned me off:
- I like the cast. Not just the lead but there's quite a few faces I recognized and I like all these actors.
- The trailers had a lot of weird arty stuff like fantasy sequences and musical numbers and CLOSEUPS and I can dig that.
- On the other hand, it seemed like another story of a white lady who becomes spiritually self-actualized by involving herself in the misery of black folks. I already saw the Help... eh...

Well we gave it two episodes and aren't going to finish it. My wife's main problem is that the story of Cleo, the black lady who gets killed, seemed a lot more interesting than Portman's character yet after two episodes the focus seemed primarily with the latter. I sort of agree with that because Portman's character's whole thing is basically the "quite desperation" poor caged housewife trope that we've seen done a thousand times. You know the drill- she always wanted to be an artist but SOCIETY forced her into a boring housewife life. In and of itself there's nothing wrong with that but her husband and teenage son are like cartoonish simpleton caricatures.
I was hoping with the 2nd episode we'd get more life out of Cleo and her story but the show's main problem- where people just bluntly say themes and are ridiculous- harms her story, too. She's interesting because while she's juggling raising kids, and unreliable husband, balancing her principles and survival, she's getting involved with politics and activism and it could be a cool way to hook personal themes into social ones.

Problem is the style- this whole show is extremely up its own asshole. There are all kinds of cuts and edits and angles but it's just show-offy, it's delivering a story. There's a scene early in the first episode that intercuts two events that the leads are separately attending that is supposed to show us their parallel lives, but it's just pointlessly confusing and annoying. There are fantasy sequences but they're static and uninteresting.

On a personal pet peeve- the soundtrack is a mess. 1966 show with black folks- you know there's going to be soul/R&B, but they're using songs that came out a couple years later which is annoying because either go with something contemporary or, if you want to go stylized, interpose something different. There were a couple of scenes where I didn't know if the music was diegetic or not.

It's all, like- let's do art stuff! And none of it comes together in any entertaining or meaningful way.

I also don't know if Portman and her friends' 1966 Baltimore Jewish accent was realistic but either way it was so distracting.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Rings of Power, Season 2, Episode 5

Plot, I found plot! Numenor goes to shit as the bad guys come to power and strip the good guys of theirs before persecuting them and eventually jailing them (a name character even dies, weee!). Meanwhile Sauron manipulates Celebrimbor into furthering his cause, which in turns sends Khazad-dum too to shit. Apparently Durin's ring works like a map reveal for the whole mountain (we're thankfully spared the videogame visual), and so he starts Minecrafting at precise spots for sunlight and jewels, at the risk of compromising the integrity of the kingdom and drawing the Balrog.

The episode crucially benefits from focusing on just the two storylines and linking them thematically. For once every action has a palpable reaction that complicates things, and we cross points of (at least seemingly) no return, which is what I want from TV. More of this, less of characters who're technically allies bickering over shit and getting offended at each other, as if we're back in the farm of Walking Dead's protracted season 2.

It also helps that the episode's mostly about the dwarves, who I think are the better part of the show in terms of characters, casting and overall production.
 
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gorfias

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Watched Netflix's "The Perfect Couple

Great cast. Pretty couple, young lady, rich young man about to get married on an island resort town when a friend dies suspiciously.

This seems to be a popular genre with some.

You've got these mystery mini-series with terrific production values but when they get to the "who-dunit" there were never any real clues as to who did it. You get reasons why each person in the story would have done so and when they are shown to be innocent, you move on to the next. This isn't good mystery story telling. Just, good enough time filler.

Pretty much everyone in the show is despicable in their own way.

70 ish old Isabelle Adjani is in it can still pull of the fem fatale stuff pretty well! Fun seeing her for the 1st time in ages.

C-

 

Old_Hunter_77

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Watched Netflix's "The Perfect Couple

Great cast. Pretty couple, young lady, rich young man about to get married on an island resort town when a friend dies suspiciously.

This seems to be a popular genre with some.

You've got these mystery mini-series with terrific production values but when they get to the "who-dunit" there were never any real clues as to who did it. You get reasons why each person in the story would have done so and when they are shown to be innocent, you move on to the next. This isn't good mystery story telling. Just, good enough time filler.
I have no interest in this show/genre but I find your observation in the spoiler part really interesting. I read two classic Agatha Christie novels over the weekend, inspired by my wife and I'd viewing of Murder, She Wrote, and have come to an appreciation of the murder-mystery crafting.
 
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Terminator: Zero.

If the rest of the show is as good as the intro first episode, then color me impressed! The animation is sublime, like Castlevania but with the dystopian sci fi future, with some really neat effects peppered in. The music is kickin too, with that old school feel of the movies but amped up a bit. Just had to say this right off the bat. Going back to watch more in a bit.
 
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gorfias

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I have no interest in this show/genre but I find your observation in the spoiler part really interesting. I read two classic Agatha Christie novels over the weekend, inspired by my wife and I'd viewing of Murder, She Wrote, and have come to an appreciation of the murder-mystery crafting.
It's almost the difference between playing a video game vs. watching someone else play it on youtube. You are participating in solving the mystery vs., say, The Mare of Easttown (2021) MAX, where she
literally solves the mystery by watching some video cam footage that reveals the killer! That's a mystery?
 

Old_Hunter_77

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It's almost the difference between playing a video game vs. watching someone else play it on youtube. You are participating in solving the mystery vs., say, The Mare of Easttown (2021) MAX, where she
literally solves the mystery by watching some video cam footage that reveals the killer! That's a mystery?
Yeah.

I really want to recommend everyone read The Murder on the Orient Express, it's like 200 pages, I literally read it one day. The whole time I'm like "no this only makes sense if this completely bonkers thing would be true" and then it's true but by then it's not bonkers at all and then at the end I was like "oh this is why she was the GOAT."
 
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Phoenixmgs

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Terminator: Zero.

If the rest of the show is as good as the intro first episode, then color me impressed! The animation is sublime, like Castlevania but with the dystopian sci fi future, with some really neat effects peppered in. The music is kickin too, with that old school feel of the movies but amped up a bit. Just had to say this right off the bat. Going back to watch more in a bit.
I just finished the season last night and it was pretty bad overall. They change how time travel works and it's completely at odds with the basic Terminator plot. The one chick even asks another character the main question I had with plot and that character "answers" the question with some super vague nonsense. Then, they kept adding twists onto the plot that make even less sense. Towards the very end, there's like a whole episode (I think 2nd to the last episode) that kills any and all pacing that's just all talky and bad philosophical bullshit, similar to Ghost in the Shell's Chat! Chat! Chat! but Ghost in the Shell was good. The show doesn't understand Terminators much either, in the first episode, the terminator is holding on to a human that's hanging themselves and the human is able to keep hanging on... what... do you not know how much terminators weigh?
 

Gordon_4

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I just finished the season last night and it was pretty bad overall. They change how time travel works and it's completely at odds with the basic Terminator plot. The one chick even asks another character the main question I had with plot and that character "answers" the question with some super vague nonsense. Then, they kept adding twists onto the plot that make even less sense. Towards the very end, there's like a whole episode (I think 2nd to the last episode) that kills any and all pacing that's just all talky and bad philosophical bullshit, similar to Ghost in the Shell's Chat! Chat! Chat! but Ghost in the Shell was good. The show doesn't understand Terminators much either, in the first episode, the terminator is holding on to a human that's hanging themselves and the human is able to keep hanging on... what... do you not know how much terminators weigh?
Well, it can’t be that much more than a really big person. Otherwise they’d kill the suspension of any vehicle they used in the past.

I get why it bugs you since I still imagine they’d weigh more than a malnourished guerilla fighter should be able to hold as dead weight.
 
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Phoenixmgs

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Well, it can’t be that much more than a really big person. Otherwise they’d kill the suspension of any vehicle they used in the past.

I get why it bugs you since I still imagine they’d weigh more than a malnourished guerilla fighter should be able to hold as dead weight.
Seems like they can weigh between 400 to 800 pounds according to a quick search.
 

gorfias

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The Penguin on Max
S1 E1

Dunno why we got episode 1 tonight. Next episodes come out Sundays.

I liked it a lot. Great tone. Great performances. Genuinely terrific setup so far. Very comprehensible.

B+

 

Johnny Novgorod

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Watched The Penguin and I liked it. To compare it to the movie would be a disservice - Gotham simply doesn't come together in the show, as the city doesn't have a bespoke atmosphere - and the TV budget means every exterior shot is a soft-focus closeup with a blurry Zoom call background. But get over its cheap cinematic makeup and the Penguin himself is a lot of fun to follow around. Colin Farrell is fantastic in this, making someone so pathetic such a compelling presence. Cristin Milioti is great in it too, and I like her own brand of psycho. Apparently we're getting a Fistful of Dollars/Red Harvest plot, which are always fun.
 

Bob_McMillan

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I have to agree that Terminator Zero isn't great. It indeed had a great first episode, but halfway through the season, my girlfriend and I are rather bored. Characters are annoyingly stupid and the Terminator just isn't very scary.

Also, the English subtitles are so wrong that it's distracting.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Rings of Power, S2 E6

Bob Tombadil, characteristically joyless and deeply concerned for the state of the world, abandons Gandalf at the second biggest piles of dead branches in Middle-earth and orders him take as long as necessary to find a goddamn magic staff in there. "But my friends!". Bob doesn't give a fuck and Batmans away. Gandalf's friends are fine by the way, hidden in Tatooine's version of The Shire. They don't get to do much.

Meanwhile in Numenor, Elendil refuses to bow before Ar-Pharazon ever since an eagle landed in front of him, confirming his presidency. Elendil's sentenced to get Andromeda'd by a neighboring kraken, but Miriel steps in and takes his place at the last minute, getting pulled underwater. As the crowd cheers and gets ready to booze it up Miriel is spit out and faceplants back on surface, making her the rightful queen. All is well. The lesson here is a kraken always knows better than an eagle.

Disa momentarily stops some dwarf miners en route to awaken the Balrog by howling the opening notes from Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. Aah aaah aaaaaaaaaaah ah! Bats swoop in.

All the way back in Mordor, Galadriel and Adar commiserate over their mutual ex boyfriend Sauron. "He promised me an army", "He promised me children". Sauron is currently gaslighting boyfriend Celebrimbor into crafting the nine rings for the mortal men doomed to die. He's a bit like Wanda from WandaVision, enslaving people within illusions and making apple orchards where there aren't apple orchards. Orcs launch an assault on the city and just as the catapults are about to hit we cut to credits, which still technically makes for more action than the finale of House of the Dragon S2.

You did it Jeff!

 
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BrawlMan

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Penguin, Episode 1 - Holy shit; I'm in! See this show! Only the first episode available. So it's the one episode per week thing they're doing.
 
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Gordon_4

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Ahsoka - 8/10

Ahsoka the character is one the nicest surprises that came out of The Clone Wars for me. Season 1 I was like "Who the fuck is this and why are they here?" and by Season 5 I was incensed at the completion of her arc: if you know, you know.

This show however, is more tightly connected to Star Wars Rebels - which I didn't really gel with in the same way - but its easy enough to follow even if you didn't watch it since most of the backstory can be inferred from dialogue. Rosario Dawson is great as the title character, and her droid companion played by David Tennant gets some good zingers with her.

The story starts with a jailbreak of Morgan Elspeth - who was also the villain in Ahsoka's intro episode of The Mandalorian - by a pair of force users: Lord Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. Baylan is played by the sadly deceased Ray Stevenson, and he's really good. Baylan has the same sort of gravitas about him as characters like Dooku and his fight scenes look good; make him look like a very competent swordsman. Shin - Skoll's apprentice - is played by Ukranian actress Ivanna Sahkno and while she does the eager and younger fightier thing, its a very good version thereof but she could have used some more dramatic meat.

The purpose of this jailbreak is to retrieve Grand Admiral Thrawn (a character I would Thanos snap in half a hummingbird's heartbeat) and bring about the rise of a new Empire. Credit where its due, Lars Mikkelson (Mads Mikkelson's brother) does give the character the composed, urbane and cool under pressure pressence he requires. The only issue is that without his beard and the makeup evening out his face, it makes Thrawn look like Elon Musk. Which feelings about the man aside, is just distracting.

And honestly its the main reason I'm not totally in love with the show. Thrawn - and yes, I did try reading Timothy Zhan's books. They weren't for me - is a character who lots of fans lionise as a strategic genius in a way that to me makes him come dangerously close to the whole Mary Sue thing. He is competent certainly, but for someone who's rank is Grand Admiral all the stuff he does seems like very basic experienced officer strategy. Like if this guy is meant to be a once in a lifetime military genius that all the Republic shakes in terror of.....just how stupid is everyone else in each side's respective military commands?

The show's other overall weak point is Natasha Liu Bordizzo who plays Sabine Wren. Sabine is a Mandalorian and what I remember of her from the parts of Rebels I did watch, was that she was a little bit of a punk and a rebel but Bordizzo plays her being very dour and merely reckless. Her mood does have a good explanation, but her delivery is flat compared to everyone else. Luckily her fight scenes are good - helped in no small way by Bordizzo being a martial artist in real life.

Also, episode 7 has something in it I've kind of been wanting to see for ages. Ezra Bridger - the central character from Rebels - fights Stomrtroopers with Force empowered martial arts and some wicked gun play. In fact I'd argue everything he's doing with it is what they should have done with Finn in the sequel trilogy. It looks kind of like Airbending without any actual wind, if that makes sense.

But these didn't detract from the show enough to not really enjoy everything else. And the episodes where Ahsoka gets some closure on things left unsaid from the Clone Wars are really lovely.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

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Rings of Powers S2 E7

A lot of 'huh?' this episode. Lots of manufactured dilemmas. It befalls Durin to either assist the Elves and lead the Dwarven army into a crucial battle... or stop his doddering old dad from awaking the Balrog? He can't do both? He's clearly commanding all of Khazad-dum by the end. Then there's Galadriel telling Flim Flam not to risk his life by taking the easiest sniping shot in the history of bows and arrows, but giving a weakened, crippled Celebrimbor - who's just barely escaped captivity - the go-ahead to turn around and confront a clearly unstoppable Sauron rather than doing it herself (or better yet, fucking off together).

(Galadriel cucks Celeborn with Elrond but it's ok, he still doesn't exist in the show, and really the point is that Elrond is handing her a +1 lockpick so she can later break free. Missed opportunity - he should've tongued the lockpick into her mouth)

I'm supposed to think Flim Flam dies later, and maybe he does, if that's how the polls go. This is like when Lost was killing off freshly cast characters based off mean IMDB comments. They already sent Binky back to her home planet in between seasons, and she was healing alright by the S1 finale! Also dead are Deidre, who hilariously shoots a single arrow in between tanking a dozen (I never realized what a wuss Boromir was), and Rabble Rhonda gets yeeted off the parapets via Force Push (Sauron can Force Push). I will always treasure her line, "They're damming the river!", as the orcs are damming the river.

Alright, I'll give it to the show - we get more action this episode than in all of season 2 of House of the Dragon. But I posit that A- TV action is barely worthy of a C+ on film. The show's biggest disadvantage is that I know what a Middle-earth city getting sieged by orcs and trolls with catapults looks like on the big screen, and Jeffrey's Game of Rings ain't it. The battle appears to stop and start constantly, actions and reactions are always singled and isolated but never the two seem to meet, and the big cavalry moment peters out into something straight out of Monty Python's Holy Grail.

And then we end with Swedish death metal band Meshuggah playing over the credits, as if the masked killer sprung back to life for one last scare.
 
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I have to agree that Terminator Zero isn't great. It indeed had a great first episode, but halfway through the season, my girlfriend and I are rather bored. Characters are annoyingly stupid and the Terminator just isn't very scary.

Also, the English subtitles are so wrong that it's distracting.
I’m pretty convinced this franchise is cursed unless Cameron is overseeing everything. He’s supposed to return to it at some point after the Avatar stuff (given the recent AI surge IRL), so we’ll see.
 
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