2.cris
I'm watching The Boys Series 2. I had to rewatch S01 again to fill in the spaces in my brain. Vigilantes with a reason to hate Superheroes, play cat and mouse with a massive conglomerate who "own" the corrupt "Supes". Very violent, and I'm not sure when the "c" word came into everyday use, but I'm lovin' it!
3.cris
I'm also watching Raised by Wolves. Dystopian series where two AIs are trying to raise children on a desolate planet. I'm not sure why I'm watching it, but I'm past the halfway stage now. What can you do?
4Carol420
>I've heard of The Boys but never watched it. I don't watch much TV...usually only use it to watch DVD's. I can watch those and not be bugged by those pesky commercials. I don't know about British TV but here it seems there is 5 minutes of program and 15 minutes or more of commercials. Now we get to be flooded with Presidential ads. Aren't we lucky???
5ScoLgo
>2 .cris: Welcome back .cris!
>4 Carol420: The Boys is on Amazon Prime so no commercials, (besides other Amazon Prime content being hawked at the beginning of each episode). I haven't gotten to season 2 yet but I really liked season 1. I have also been borrowing the graphic novels via Hoopla. The story really turns the super-hero trope on its ear. I daresay it's a more realistic scenario than the rose-colored view from DC or Marvel.
We are currently watching Lucifer on Netflix. It's entertaining but does stretch credulity on a fairly regular basis. I'm enjoying most of the characters though and much of Tom Ellis' dialog is witty and irreverent. I am a fan of puns and pop-culture references. This show has plenty of both.
>4 Carol420: The Boys is on Amazon Prime so no commercials, (besides other Amazon Prime content being hawked at the beginning of each episode). I haven't gotten to season 2 yet but I really liked season 1. I have also been borrowing the graphic novels via Hoopla. The story really turns the super-hero trope on its ear. I daresay it's a more realistic scenario than the rose-colored view from DC or Marvel.
We are currently watching Lucifer on Netflix. It's entertaining but does stretch credulity on a fairly regular basis. I'm enjoying most of the characters though and much of Tom Ellis' dialog is witty and irreverent. I am a fan of puns and pop-culture references. This show has plenty of both.
7featherbear
I'm about half way through Season 1, Episode 2 of The Boys. Hasn't really got a grip on me so far.
I'm using my BritBox subscription via Amazon Prime to work my way through the old BBC Shakespeare series. Good thing Prime has closed captioning; be pretty hard to follow some of the rapid dialog otherwise. I've seen Twelfth Night and am starting Two Gentlemen of Verona.
On cable FX, I've seen the first 2 episodes of Fargo Season 4, featuring Chris Rock. He's the leader of a black gang trying to get into the rackets of Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 50's but meeting resistance from the Italian crime syndicate. I understand Timothy Olyphant will turn up as a lawman in later episodes.
On the FX sister station, FXX, just caught Episode 4 of Archer Season 11. Archer has come out of a coma after three years and needs a cane to get around; his personality (petulant, narcissistic man-child) remains unchanged. Have to say I saw some parallels in the recent presidential debate in the U.S. The original writer, Andy Reed, has left; since Reed played the gay operative Gillette, G. hasn't appeared save in the first episode. However, Archer's nemesis Barry (the cyborg) has now joined the former ISIS. Did I mention that Lana has married a billionaire?
Looking forward to the The Good Lord Bird premiering on Showtime on Sunday. The book was pretty good. It's about abolitionist John Brown and his raid on Harper's Ferry, told by an escaped slave who becomes his protégé. Ethan Hawke plays John Brown.
Lovecraft Country on HBO will have the last couple of episodes of the season pretty soon; it certainly isn't Watchmen, but I'm still hooked on "what happens next."
I'm using my BritBox subscription via Amazon Prime to work my way through the old BBC Shakespeare series. Good thing Prime has closed captioning; be pretty hard to follow some of the rapid dialog otherwise. I've seen Twelfth Night and am starting Two Gentlemen of Verona.
On cable FX, I've seen the first 2 episodes of Fargo Season 4, featuring Chris Rock. He's the leader of a black gang trying to get into the rackets of Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 50's but meeting resistance from the Italian crime syndicate. I understand Timothy Olyphant will turn up as a lawman in later episodes.
On the FX sister station, FXX, just caught Episode 4 of Archer Season 11. Archer has come out of a coma after three years and needs a cane to get around; his personality (petulant, narcissistic man-child) remains unchanged. Have to say I saw some parallels in the recent presidential debate in the U.S. The original writer, Andy Reed, has left; since Reed played the gay operative Gillette, G. hasn't appeared save in the first episode. However, Archer's nemesis Barry (the cyborg) has now joined the former ISIS. Did I mention that Lana has married a billionaire?
Looking forward to the The Good Lord Bird premiering on Showtime on Sunday. The book was pretty good. It's about abolitionist John Brown and his raid on Harper's Ferry, told by an escaped slave who becomes his protégé. Ethan Hawke plays John Brown.
Lovecraft Country on HBO will have the last couple of episodes of the season pretty soon; it certainly isn't Watchmen, but I'm still hooked on "what happens next."
8aussieh
New Series of "The Good Fight", Diane seems to be playing the leading roll. A lot of catching up to be done, so far a bit disjointed, however very entertaining.
9Carol420
>5 ScoLgo: I see the graphic novels on Hoopla. I lived on Hoopla when my library was closed. I still use them and Libby all the time since I can sometimes get books there that the library doesn't have. So many books and movies...so little time.
>2 .cris: You know I welcome you back with open arms. I hope that you are not just a figment of my overactive imagination:))
>2 .cris: You know I welcome you back with open arms. I hope that you are not just a figment of my overactive imagination:))
10.cris
>9 Carol420: You've been an excellent driver. I think I prefer to sit at the back of the bus for now.💓
11Carol420
>10 .cris: That is just fine. I'm just glad to have you ON the bus:)
12.cris
>7 featherbear: I just noticed Fargo S04 has started. I didn't enjoy the last series very much, but I'm going to try to wait for the whole series before I jump in. Failure is a possibility!
13featherbear
Finished binging Utopia on Prime Video. Not reviewed well, and comments from the UK originals fanboys were savage. Still, the idea of a series about a vaccine conspiracy I found interesting, and, after a slow start, I was swept up beginning in episode 2. American story and script by Gillian Flynn, best known for Gone Girl (the book and movie); David Fincher was there at the beginning, but left due to pandemic throwing everything off schedule.
Young marrieds moving into grandfather’s house find manuscript of a comic, Utopia, the sequel to an earlier graphic novel, Dystopia, with a big cult following. Couple decide to auction it off at a comic-con, where they rent a hotel suite and entertain bids, a bid allowing a quick look at a manuscript page. The couple are astounded by the size of the bids. They decide to get a quick buck by selling the whole thing for six thousand. But soon after the buyer leaves, a pair of young men who weren’t invited enter the suite and threaten to kill people unless the buyer is disclosed, with name and room number soon forthcoming. Under threat of being shot, all members of the party agree to be sedated (though the 2 men are assassins, and they all receive fatal heroin overdoses).
Using the list of bidders, the killers go from hotel room to hotel room murdering every person who has seen even a page of the comic. They break into the successful bidder’s suite, kill his girl, and torture him to disclose the location of the manuscript. But Grant, who appears to be about 12 (played by the memorably nicknamed Javon “Wanna” Walton), has already stolen it. Four young people who met at the comic-con to bid have seen the pages (one of them took a picture surreptitiously). They manage to survive the killers and go on the run. Thought initially this was a black humor look at comic book obsessives, but WAIT!
In the background, a virus sickens children (no survivors) in cities scattered throughout the U.S. The head of a pharma corporation pushing a meat substitute is blamed (Dr. Kevin Christie, played by John Cusack). A scientist (Michael Stearn, played by Rainn Wilson) starts to suspect the virus resembles one he discovered in Peru, for which he discovered a vaccine. The comic con survivors escape the killers due to the protection of a character from Dystopia, Jessica Hyde (played by Sasha Lane). Is Utopia the key to a vast conspiracy? It seems to be based, possibly coincidentally, on QAnon child abduction anti-vax conspiracies masterminded by Bill Gates – some viewers have been concerned the series is just going to reinforce the madness of the real life true believers. Fascinating for me in that it puts one in the mind of a QAnon believer which can be pretty damn disconcerting.
Young marrieds moving into grandfather’s house find manuscript of a comic, Utopia, the sequel to an earlier graphic novel, Dystopia, with a big cult following. Couple decide to auction it off at a comic-con, where they rent a hotel suite and entertain bids, a bid allowing a quick look at a manuscript page. The couple are astounded by the size of the bids. They decide to get a quick buck by selling the whole thing for six thousand. But soon after the buyer leaves, a pair of young men who weren’t invited enter the suite and threaten to kill people unless the buyer is disclosed, with name and room number soon forthcoming. Under threat of being shot, all members of the party agree to be sedated (though the 2 men are assassins, and they all receive fatal heroin overdoses).
Using the list of bidders, the killers go from hotel room to hotel room murdering every person who has seen even a page of the comic. They break into the successful bidder’s suite, kill his girl, and torture him to disclose the location of the manuscript. But Grant, who appears to be about 12 (played by the memorably nicknamed Javon “Wanna” Walton), has already stolen it. Four young people who met at the comic-con to bid have seen the pages (one of them took a picture surreptitiously). They manage to survive the killers and go on the run. Thought initially this was a black humor look at comic book obsessives, but WAIT!
In the background, a virus sickens children (no survivors) in cities scattered throughout the U.S. The head of a pharma corporation pushing a meat substitute is blamed (Dr. Kevin Christie, played by John Cusack). A scientist (Michael Stearn, played by Rainn Wilson) starts to suspect the virus resembles one he discovered in Peru, for which he discovered a vaccine. The comic con survivors escape the killers due to the protection of a character from Dystopia, Jessica Hyde (played by Sasha Lane). Is Utopia the key to a vast conspiracy? It seems to be based, possibly coincidentally, on QAnon child abduction anti-vax conspiracies masterminded by Bill Gates – some viewers have been concerned the series is just going to reinforce the madness of the real life true believers. Fascinating for me in that it puts one in the mind of a QAnon believer which can be pretty damn disconcerting.
14aussieh
Not impressed so far with the new series of Fargo. Enjoying The Good Fight . A new series of Cardinal seems promising. Another new series DNA. All screening on SBS TV..
SBS also screen some great foreign movies.
SBS also screen some great foreign movies.
15JulieLill
The Poison Squad
This is an American Experience/PBS documentary about early food preparation and how food companies would add dangerous chemicals into the food supply to make more money. Dr. Harvey Wiley took up the cause to test these substances/food products to see if they were dangerous by using 12 men that agreed to consume the products and see how they reacted to them. Fascinating documentary!
This is an American Experience/PBS documentary about early food preparation and how food companies would add dangerous chemicals into the food supply to make more money. Dr. Harvey Wiley took up the cause to test these substances/food products to see if they were dangerous by using 12 men that agreed to consume the products and see how they reacted to them. Fascinating documentary!
16featherbear
Lovecraft Country. I’ve been following it on HBO, & viewed the 8th and final episode on Sunday. For me, the most disappointing HBO series when I stuck with an entire season. Seemed to be a collection of horror set pieces, with no underlying logic to tie it all together, or the logic was so complex the average person would need a commentary to tie it all together, and/or the story was told ineptly. It may be that it is all worked out in the death-visions, but you can’t show backstory in speeded up editing flashing by almost as rapidly as strobe lighting at a concert . What was the purpose of the Korean episode in relation to the whole series? The Korean fox spirit in episode 8 seemed to me not much more than a deus ex machina. What was the point of reviving the native retrieved from the bowels of the museum only to cut his/her throat at the end of the episode. By the way, similar explanatory confusion at the end of Us, and Jordan Peele was a co-producer of Lovecraft. If HBO thinks viewers will watch season 2 (if there is one) hoping for more clarity I will not be one of them. Waste of good actors, e.g. Jurnee Smollett (Leti), Aunjanue Ellis (Hippolyta), Wunmi Mosaku (Ruby), and Abbey Lee (Christina) – strong female cast.
The Good Lord Bird. This is definitely a limited series, on Showtime. I just watched episode 3, where John Brown (Ethan Hawke) and Onion (aka Henry Shackleford, played by newcomer Joshua Caleb Johnson) leave the Bloody Kansas of episodes 1-2, and hang out with Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs) in upstate New York (close enough to the Canadian border to warrant a tunnel thereto behind one of Douglass’s bookcases). Douglass, a historical figure, of course, is portrayed warts and all (by James McBride, author of the eponymous novel that is the basis for the series, and amplified a bit more by the showrunners). I’ve just started Steven Hahn’s A Nation Without Borders, and Brown and Douglass could represent two contending factions within (white) abolitionism described by Hahn: gradualism (ending slavery in 85 years, at which point the freedmen get deported to Liberia) and Raising A Ruckus. Brown wants to go full-on terror, Raising a Ruckus to the tenth power, while the Douglass of the series tries to be “reasonable,” though I doubt he would have supported 85 years and deportation. Some historical events suggest the slaves would be more sympathetic to Brown’s point of view, just asking, reasonably, not to get murdered or burned alive with their families in the process. This is already prefigured in episode 2, where Sibonia (Crystal Lee Brown – no relation I assume) is interrogated after conspiring to free her fellow slaves in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s a riveting scene, especially the second part of the interrogation where the (white) minister who taught her to read the Bible pleads with her. The historical events and the historical novel follow a path that makes a lot more sense, and is more thought-provoking, than Lovecraft, so I’ll stick with Bird.
The Good Lord Bird. This is definitely a limited series, on Showtime. I just watched episode 3, where John Brown (Ethan Hawke) and Onion (aka Henry Shackleford, played by newcomer Joshua Caleb Johnson) leave the Bloody Kansas of episodes 1-2, and hang out with Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs) in upstate New York (close enough to the Canadian border to warrant a tunnel thereto behind one of Douglass’s bookcases). Douglass, a historical figure, of course, is portrayed warts and all (by James McBride, author of the eponymous novel that is the basis for the series, and amplified a bit more by the showrunners). I’ve just started Steven Hahn’s A Nation Without Borders, and Brown and Douglass could represent two contending factions within (white) abolitionism described by Hahn: gradualism (ending slavery in 85 years, at which point the freedmen get deported to Liberia) and Raising A Ruckus. Brown wants to go full-on terror, Raising a Ruckus to the tenth power, while the Douglass of the series tries to be “reasonable,” though I doubt he would have supported 85 years and deportation. Some historical events suggest the slaves would be more sympathetic to Brown’s point of view, just asking, reasonably, not to get murdered or burned alive with their families in the process. This is already prefigured in episode 2, where Sibonia (Crystal Lee Brown – no relation I assume) is interrogated after conspiring to free her fellow slaves in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s a riveting scene, especially the second part of the interrogation where the (white) minister who taught her to read the Bible pleads with her. The historical events and the historical novel follow a path that makes a lot more sense, and is more thought-provoking, than Lovecraft, so I’ll stick with Bird.
17featherbear
Stumbled on a partial free week from AMC+, which, besides AMC re-runs (not free) includes some other subscription channels, including Sundance Channel. I started a Norwegian police procedural series, Wisting. Ten episodes, with two story arcs, one ending with Episode 5, the other on 10. The first 5 episodes have Carrie Ann Moss as guest star. Per IMDB, also available with a subscription to Acorn TV.
This is a law & order type story, with the police as overworked heroes, coping with a serial killer, an illegal immigrant of Norwegian heritage from Minnesota. The state has a large population of Norwegian descent, whose accents in the movie Fargo I assume were exaggerated for comic effect, since the Fargo sound was not forthcoming when the cops spoke English. But there's an underlying Dirty Harry vibe rather than lowkey Marge Gunderson.
The killer has been at large for 12 years, getting his start in the U.S. The Norwegian police determine that a body found on a Christmas tree farm belongs to an American searching for the killer in their rural town of Larvik. The hunt becomes international when the FBI sends 2 agents (one of them is Moss) to serve as “liaisons,” an assignment they largely ignore.
William (Willem?) Wisting (Sven Nordin, who resembles Liam Neeson without the special set of skills) is chief inspector, with an irritable lieutenant appropriately named (Nils) Hammer (Mads Ousdal) who doesn’t get along with women (especially FBI agent Moss) and keeps his wife locked in a basement, and a reporter daughter (Line, played by Thea Green Lundberg) for a major magazine or newspaper. She fancies herself a detective, and this Nancy Drew wannabe is constantly getting in the way of the investigation and her dad. The Norwegian reporters in general are constant antagonists of the police, practically accomplices of the killer.
The second arc (Episodes 5-10) has Wisting under investigation for a botched murder investigation early in his career with possible evidence tampering. How someone got 17 years based on the very flimsy evidence presented is rather hard to believe, and the role of the prosecution seems to have played no part in the conviction, so it all falls on the police (who seem to have no union), and results in Wisting’s suspension for most of the series remaining, where he continues to do illegal things with the evidence which rightly get Norwegian Internal Affairs on his tail. I ended up binging all 10 episodes, even knowing that I was probably watching nonsensical cop propaganda, Norwegian-style.
This is a law & order type story, with the police as overworked heroes, coping with a serial killer, an illegal immigrant of Norwegian heritage from Minnesota. The state has a large population of Norwegian descent, whose accents in the movie Fargo I assume were exaggerated for comic effect, since the Fargo sound was not forthcoming when the cops spoke English. But there's an underlying Dirty Harry vibe rather than lowkey Marge Gunderson.
The killer has been at large for 12 years, getting his start in the U.S. The Norwegian police determine that a body found on a Christmas tree farm belongs to an American searching for the killer in their rural town of Larvik. The hunt becomes international when the FBI sends 2 agents (one of them is Moss) to serve as “liaisons,” an assignment they largely ignore.
William (Willem?) Wisting (Sven Nordin, who resembles Liam Neeson without the special set of skills) is chief inspector, with an irritable lieutenant appropriately named (Nils) Hammer (Mads Ousdal) who doesn’t get along with women (especially FBI agent Moss) and keeps his wife locked in a basement, and a reporter daughter (Line, played by Thea Green Lundberg) for a major magazine or newspaper. She fancies herself a detective, and this Nancy Drew wannabe is constantly getting in the way of the investigation and her dad. The Norwegian reporters in general are constant antagonists of the police, practically accomplices of the killer.
The second arc (Episodes 5-10) has Wisting under investigation for a botched murder investigation early in his career with possible evidence tampering. How someone got 17 years based on the very flimsy evidence presented is rather hard to believe, and the role of the prosecution seems to have played no part in the conviction, so it all falls on the police (who seem to have no union), and results in Wisting’s suspension for most of the series remaining, where he continues to do illegal things with the evidence which rightly get Norwegian Internal Affairs on his tail. I ended up binging all 10 episodes, even knowing that I was probably watching nonsensical cop propaganda, Norwegian-style.
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