What Are You Watching

[Scott Dolan]

Haven't seen it yet, hopefully tonight. Last week's reveal was excellent! Pretty much threw the entire series, and the theories surrounding it, into a blender. 

[A Lark Ascending]

NW (BBC1) - 90 minute drama set in modern London based on a Zadie Smith novel. Never read any Smith but I enjoyed this story of interlocking lives in north London, even if my brain could not make it all add up at the end. 

"Paul Nash: The Ghosts of War" - nice little documentary about the painter. My knowledge of painting is limited and rather scattergun but Nash is someone I've always been taken by. 

Missed this in the cinema. Really enjoyed it on a rented DVD. It doesn't just capture Jane Austen's wry irony but has an extra layer of gentle mockery that seems to be directed at the genre of TV/film 18th/19thC drama in general. Almost a pastiche...but not quite. Nice soundtrack even if it was mainly anachronistic (my 'Irritated' of Tonbridge complaining about the wrong type of steam train moment)  .  

[JohnS]

Small jazz interest in the sound track - brief spot for Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille.

[A Lark Ascending]

A couple of mainstream movies I enjoyed that I had stacked on the recorder. First was a sort of compressed Mad Men. Second was a bit airbrushed with stock characters and problems all sorted, villains punished by they end but heart-warming. 

[A Lark Ascending]

Scandi-noir returns to its rightful Saturday night slot. Fairly standard death-in-the-snow-with-troubled-detectives based on the first couple of episodes but these things normally only catch fire a few episodes in. Nice pictures of snowy woods and Stockholm roof tops.  

Edited November 27, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[kinuta]

Rewatched Bosch season two.

BBC Rillington Place episode one.

Genuinely dark, grim and unsettling.

I didn't think anyone could match Attenborough's original performance but Tim Roth is in sterling form.

Samantha Morton equally good as his wife. Impressive and very chilling.

[alankin]

On 11/12/2016 at 0:43 AM, A Lark Ascending said:

The John Lewis Xmas add:

Typical sentimental extended Xmas add that the big companies in the UK make at this time of year. 

But I had to laugh at this wonderful Guardian write-up:

John Lewis Christmas advert: Buster the boxer is a sledgehammer to 2016

I found this rather confusing.  The music sounds nothing like the Modern Jazz Quartet.  

 

 

[JSngry]

 

[jazzbo]

Some of my very favorite television.

[JSngry]

Binge-watched Westworld over the weekend, caught the finale in real time last night....quite a bit to chew on!

[jazzbo]

Agreed, nice finale, nice season.

[Scott Dolan]

If the two previous episodes are any indication, the finale has GOT to be unbelievable. I agree with Lon, great season. By far the best show I've seen in a really long time. When I first saw the original movie I thought the concept was awesome, but could just imagine how much better it would have been in the right hands. 

This first season proved my assumptions correct. It's in the right hands. 

Hopefully my wife and I will get a chance to sit down and watch the finale this evening. 

Worst part? Season 2 isn't set to hit the airwaves (can we still call them that?!) until some time in 2018. Gonna be a long, slow, painful wait...

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Binge-watched Westworld over the weekend, caught the finale in real time last night....quite a bit to chew on!

I have to admit, having soaked in the season piece by piece, I can't imagine the Herculean mental task of trying to decode that story in a binge! 

[JSngry]

Some things, like the parallel timelines, I didn't even try to figure out logically, figured it would all be revealed in the end. And it mostly was.

Also, hey, motifs, themes and variations, recaps of themes, modulations, orchestrations, all that...script and editing as score/composition...I can do that if I feel it, and this I was feeling!

The hardest part was emotional...watching the unfettered/unleashed predatory nature of too many humans acting without fear of consequence just seemed more real than I wish it did

Other things turned into hunches that either did or didn't pan out as the episodes progressed.

Have spent a large part of my free time today ready/catching up on all the "fan theories". What surprised me was that there was/is a Delos "company website" that sounds like fun if you have time for that type of thing (which I really don't), and how, like Mr. Robot, there are scenes where freezing the scene on a screen with coding can actually yield easter eggs. I'm not really all that into participating in that type of thing, but certainly think it's a nifty way to engage viewers past the traditional passive reception paradigm.

One theory I formed which I haven't yet seen discussed - was Arnold EVER real, or did Ford create him Arnold as some kind of alter-ego who he then got frustrated with and termed out, only to rethink and rebuild into Bernard? And for that matter - was Ford himself ever purely human? The latter is a bit of a stretch, but consider the whole Delos thing, look at the real Delos, the Greek isle, see what's up there? And consider how William, the owner of Delos, is coming back for the next season, both gratified by Dolores/Wyatt and "lucky" to have survived it. Ford says that they - Delos - were the ones playing god, that it started when they came into the picture. It's easy to think that Delos came into the park once it was underway, but isn't it mentioned earlier on that the purpose of the visit with young William and...what's his name? was to consider an expansion of "the company's" ownership? Perhaps the whole thing was actually begun by Delos as R&D and that visit was to assess whether or not the project was a go?

Throw this into the mix - the photo of Ford & "Arnold" that Bernard first saw as two people was, as it turns out, a picture of Ford and the being that is his "father" from the hidden host house that Bernard discovered. Maybe it's more than Arnold never being real, maybe this is a Cain & Able thing where the slain brother is given a chance at redemption...and maybe both brothers came from Delos?

Or....maybe ford is actually still evil, tempting the innocent hosts into consciousness...consider his statement that the decision was made that consciousness evolves from suffering, consider the meaning of the name "Dolores", and then consider that the first thing Dolores does when gaining full consciousness is to start behaving like a human and just laying waste to shit all around her. Paradise Lost or Found? Ford/Arnold liberator or trickster?

Of course, the whole thing will ultimately "mean" whatever the writers decide for it to mean (and that's something I LOL-ed at, the irony of a story about a storyteller in complete control of his characters he creates actually being told by storytellers who by necessity have to be in control of the characters they create, and what better way to end it than just blowing everything up, the story-equivalent of taking the last page out of the typewriter, wadding it up, throwing it away, and going on to the next one?).

The whole Ford/Arnold/Delos thing, though...the immediate references for me as I watched it unfold were the various version of the Jacob/Esau tale, the "stealing of the blessing", in particular the NOI variation involving Yakub, and this significantly more pop-culture theme.

Again, it's just a tv show, and a big part of the fun of stuff like this is that it allows you to project all sorts of things onto it. If it's where the writers decide to go, you're right, and if not, you're not. But I do enjoy finding something like this, a vehicle which allows for projection of some pretty basic existential quandaries. I allow my enthusiasm because I know that none of it is real, it's just other people projecting their shit onto a dramatic production.

But they do it so damn well, eh?

[kinuta]

An amazing finale to a first season that was so good it eclipses anything else on the tube.

I'm ready to rewatch the whole thing.

 

[jazzbo]

I liked it mostly because it was so Phil K. Dickian.

I think it was awesome, but I still think Better Call Saul bests it a bit. That's the pinnacle of the year for me.

[A Lark Ascending]

Never seen this before - good, old fashioned war film but despite the usual hero-portrayal it doesn't try to hide has arrogance and tactlessness. Didn't they make long films in them days?

Been watching this over the last week. Standard cop thing with young policewoman somewhat compromised (a bit like 'Marcella' last spring). Enjoyable (with a nice Brighton setting) but a very messy ending - too obviously left hanging for a sequel.  

Edited December 6, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[jlhoots]

Designated Survivor

[kinuta]

Game Of Thrones season one

I'd never felt any inclination to watch this but felt I might be doing the show an injustice.

I'm up to episode six and firmly engrossed. The production values and plotline are excellent and it's nice to hear so many of the cast being allowed to speak in their natural dialect. Sean Bean sounds like my old mates in Sheffield.

I'll continue watching one episode a day.

[kh1958]

It's a great show--but not really a show, at this point a 60 hour epic film (sadly with only 12 or 13
 hours  remaining to be made).

2 hours ago, kinuta said:

Game Of Thrones season one

I'd never felt any inclination to watch this but felt I might be doing the show an injustice.

I'm up to episode six and firmly engrossed. The production values and plotline are excellent and it's nice to hear so many of the cast being allowed to speak in their natural dialect. Sean Bean sounds like my old mates in Sheffield.

I'll continue watching one episode a day.

 

[Scott Dolan]

We only saw the first two episodes, but it struck me as little more than medieval soft porn. 

Will have to give it another try when we've got time to really delve into it. 

[JSngry]

16 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Designated Survivor

Watched the first 3 episodes, was teetering on intirigued, but then a stretch of real life intruded and I got distracted and never got back. How's it playing out?

[page]

I've just found out a couple of days ago, my provider offers me:



Borgen season 1 (not sure how many seasons there are already).
I quite like it. Political drama.

In my own language

De zaak Menten (The case Menten) about a journalist revealing the actions of war criminal Pieter Menten during WOII.
True story.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5749974/?ref_=nv_sr_1

 

Edited December 7, 2016 by page

[jlhoots]

17 hours ago, JSngry said:

Watched the first 3 episodes, was teetering on intirigued, but then a stretch of real life intruded and I got distracted and never got back. How's it playing out?

Getting better IMHO.

 

[jazzbo]

I held off watching Game of Thrones for a long time and gave in finally a few years ago when I found Blu-ray sets cheap. I confess it was not grabbing me at first but then I got into it about halfway Season 1 and kept watching. It's not all to my fancy but the production values are awesome and stay awesome year after year, and some of the characters sort of get under my skin. 

[jlhoots]

3 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I held off watching Game of Thrones for a long time and gave in finally a few years ago when I found Blu-ray sets cheap. I confess it was not grabbing me at first but then I got into it about halfway Season 1 and kept watching. It's not all to my fancy but the production values are awesome and stay awesome year after year, and some of the characters sort of get under my skin. 

FWIW, I see George R. R. Martin riding around town in his Tesla.