What Are You Watching

[A Lark Ascending]

Series 2 finally out over here. Watched episodes 1-3 over consecutive nights. Once again, brilliant.

Have to wait a few days for disc 2 to be sent by the hire company.

Edited November 6, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[Shawn]

Series 2 finally out over here. Watched episodes 1-3 over consecutive nights. Once again, brilliant.

Have to wait a few days for disc 2 to be sent by the hire company.

It's amazing how many people hate this show, at least in the US. Of course the political views have something to do with that, but there seems to be a good deal of ire thrown Sorkin's way whenever possible.

In reality, I think a lot of the people that don't like it aren't intelligent enough to follow it. I think it's an incredibly intelligent and well-made series that holds up to repeated viewings.

[A Lark Ascending]

You can't let your attention drop for a second or you lose a great chunk of the dialogue - it moves so fast.

It can get a bit drippy at times - any mention of 9/11, for example. I can see why it would not go down well with the right.

I'll happily just watch it for Emily Mortimer! Will McAvoy needs his head examined!

Edited November 6, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[Shawn]

Emily Mortimer is always worth watching. I also became a big fan of Olivia Munn due to this show, she is so much fun to watch.

[JSngry]

I like the show precisely because of it politics, but Sorkin...he's a really smart guy and yes, his dialog is quite tight, but if people start talking like that to me in real life, like everything they say is supposed to elict a hug, a tear, a BRAVO, or a knowing wry chuckle and/or wink, I get the hell away from them ASAP. It's just too cute for me, like, how can you disagree with anything said that well? Not necessarily style triumphing over substance, but style offered to disguise substance, or at least distract from it, not trusting the meat, so putting sauce all on it. And this coming from somebody who damn near always agrees with the substance. But I just as damn near often get the willies whenever "cute" comes into it. Good meat don't need no sauce.

Still, the show has dealt with some pretty real stuff in a very intelligent manner, so if they use often insufferably cute writing (and acting) to do that, well, hey, it's TV. I don't have to watch it, but I do, so that's on me.

[JSngry]

Same thing happening on so many commercials these days, happyearnestsmug people saying all this intelligent/witty banter with diatonic sunshine perking about relentlessly but quietly in the background, gee, how could you not but into that lifestyle, eh? Oh, I'll tell you how...

Show me some sober-ish wino with only partially healed scabs stumble-talking about how, I'm barely makin' it, but thanks to XYZ, I almost think I am, probably, at least for now, hopefully. Convince me about that product, ok, because I don't vomit on that like I do on cute, you might have a chance of gettin' me onboard here, with that.

[Shawn]

Sorkin's dialogue isn't that far removed from screwball comedy writing, His Girl Friday style mile-a-minute banter. He does it exceptionally well. And I absolutely LOVE that style. The characters may be smarter than most actual people you'll meet, but life would be a lot more entertaining if the average joe did speak that way.

P.S. - Fuck reality. I watch TV and movies to escape it, not be reminded of it.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Shawn

[JSngry]

I dig smart, it's cute I can't stand, especially when it's used as a debating tactic, which anytime you're advocating for a certain "rightness of purpose" is what you're doing.

As far reality goes, I use TV to engage it. Otherwise, all I'm left with is this weird shit I see in my mind, out my window, and on my streets. Ain't no way THAT'S real!

Honey Boo Boo's mom putting her in the hands of a known sex offender, now THAT'S reality - and it's all over TV (Q.E.D.!!!)...but they're all cute by the minute, but not smart, so I remain indifferent, extremely, although the cute thing has me leaning towards fuquitousness about the whole thing.

Nevertheless, although Sorkin makes me cringe far more often than I'm slippers-and-pipe-and-Astroglide comfortable with, I'm eagerly awaiting the new season of The Newsroom. Go figure.

[Shawn]

Anyone that actually watched Honey Boo Boo isn't smart enough to know better.

[JSngry]

Case in point - love The Blacklist. Hooked on that shit waaay against my better judgement, becuase it seems like if there is any such thing as "reality", then this is most likely it. So, ok, good. I'm set.

But now they come along with this new show that's "from the producers of the Blacklist", and UH-oh, it looks to be a LOT like The Blacklist, and then I have to consider, is The Blacklist REALLY reality, or is it just a cleverly done combinations of plausible constructs manufactured in such a way to get me to watch both this and that? Because I'm not watching this new thing, why bother, I'm already watching The Blacklist, and that's reality, correct? So why bother duplicating reality, that's not even mathematically possible, is it?

But The Blacklist, Reddington (or as his character is called, James Spader), him with the nearly always-tilted head, that's about as close to cute as that shit gets. Well, that and Megan Boone running around in her drawers, but that's done to make a point. Sorkin could take a lesson about how one nearly always-tilted head renders cuteness unnecessary when demonstrating rightness of purpose.

Anyone that actually watched Honey Boo Boo isn't smart enough to know better.

Dude, that's the beauty of it - I don't have to watch that shit at all! I just get a 5-10 second portion of a Newsy clip on Roku news and BAM, that's all I need to know. In, out, instant expert, dick still dry. Reality, uncomplicated, Mostly Other People Do The Caring.

And it's free. What is reality if not free? You gotta pay to keep reality from hitting you!

[Shawn]

I think The Blacklist is mildly entertaining garbage. I like Spader (sometimes) and it kept me interested enough for 1 season, but I tuned in for the first episode this year and asked myself "why I'm I watching this crap?" and turned it off.

I would rather watch a show completely based in fantasy, something like Sleepy Hollow (which deals with demons, witches, curses, pacts with Satan, etc), than to watch a "pretending to be reality show" like The Blacklist or Criminal Minds or any of the terrible shows based around letters; CSI, NCIS, etc.

Sleepy Hollow is a silly show, but it's an intentionally silly show, a knowing nudge-nudge-wink-wink kind of affair. That I'm fine with. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was probably the perfect version of that, a show about vampires/witches/demons that wasn't really about those things at all, just metaphors for the hell that was high school. In the series the writer literally put the entrance to hell underneath the high school.

When I'm in the mood for an intelligent, realistic series I'll watch something British. If I want fast-food entertainment I'll watch American TV.

[JSngry]

Well see, that's the difference between us. I had a spell put on me once that I had to go to a chango to get lifted. And I spent the night once debating with Satan after oversmoking some really good hash.

But I've never seen Megan Boone run around in her drawers, except on TV.

So I think my choices speak for themselves - pretend versions of real-life experiences, or cute booty in panties. Real booty, real panties.

With those as the options, my mind 's made up before I even think about it!

[Shawn]

Megan Boone is just "average hot" for television, you can find much hotter out there.

[JSngry]

But not in a documentary like The Blacklist!

Currently midway through Season 5 of Mission Impossible, the one where Lesley Warren plays Dana, It's either Doug or Willy and the battle for world domination continues to be waged with parts from Radio Shack.

[jazzbo]

Hannibal, Season 2, season finale.

[JSngry]

Getting through Season 4 of the Dick Van Dyke Show, fixing to watch the episode where Laura gets her toe stuck in the tub. So ready to see Laura in the tub, SO ready.

Once Carl Reiner turned over the writing reigns to other people, it changed. Still funny, still great, but just not...Reineresque.

However, Laura in the tub in a few minutes, and, pretty soon, Buddy's Bar Mitzvah. And I think in Season 5, Laura gets a new do. That's what always distracted me about her in years past, that helmet head of hair. In a way, I regret the distraction, but in another way, I feel justified. So many beautiful women of that time got time-shafted by their hairspray, and Laura was one of them.

I'm a hair guy, for one thing. I notice.

[duaneiac]

I found this at the library and got a kick from revisiting some long lost friends.

This particular cartoon was not included on the DVD, but it's a good example of the humor of the show. There were enough gags aimed at adult viewers to hold their interest (how many 4 year-olds would appreciate a pun like "Mort Soil"?), but there was plenty of slapstick to appeal to kiddies like me back in those day. And dig the music, daddy-o!

[/medi

[A Lark Ascending]

Thrilling last episode of Series 2 of Peaky Blinders.

Nicely set up for a third series sometime in the future.

[Shawn]

The Affair. Excellent series, Ruth Wilson is mesmerizing to watch, she's a TALENT.

[JSngry]

Ok, Newsroom premier tonight - loved/hated it.

Loved - serious, relevant subject matter, impact of commerce on news media, impact of social media on news media, impact of pre-cyber thinking on progress of news reporting in general (pro and con), abilities to gain multitudinous amounts of relevant information at once by any means, etc. These are things that I like to see brought to the floor and not just glossed over or stipulated to in sound bites. More of this, please, and I know there will be.

Hated - heroic camera angles b/w complimentary uplifting super-hero move underscoring (was not Jeff Beal at one time some sort of "jazz musician" sorta/kinda?), overtly choreographed dialogue, "snappy" repartee that further nothing but its own snappiness. Playing to the balcony, if you will, albeit a very smart balcony. I just do not like that kind of thing. It might be brilliant, but many things are. Can't like all of 'em. Less of this, please, but I know there will be...or won't be...whichever is not the other. Sorkin could no doubt phrase it right, but the odds are that I would be equal parts grateful and irritated for/with the result are 50/50...seems fitting, somehow.

In that regard, manipulation failing on at least one intended target, I'm reminded of the story where the aspirational pimp says to the unattainable woman he was trying to turn out, "Damn woman, I try everything on you and none of it works. I never had none of it not work on at least ONE bitch. What's your problem?"

To which the lady coolly replies, "Could be that I'm not a bitch."

Anyway, the show is a rare, unlikely, and quite possibly unintentional triumph of substance over style, so what am I complaining about?

Also, The Comeback immediately following...missed the original run, and not sure if this new one will sustain interest, but I kept waiting for the point where I could walk away and just say ehhhh with real certainty, but that point didn't really come, so we shall see. One real LOL line for me, though, was, "That happened 10 years ago...well, not really 10 years ago...technology moves so fast these days..."

Hello, chronohumor, HELLO!

[jazzbo]

"The Affair" is pretty good, mainly for Ms. Wilson, who is so sexy.

Watched "Homeland" from last night. Poor Carrie.

Starting to watch last night's "Good Wife."

[A Lark Ascending]

Watched episode 4 last night (Maggie in Uganda) One of the most compelling pieces of TV I've seen in years. The slow drip tension as her tale was unpacked was brilliantly done.

[JSngry]

Watched episode 4 last night (Maggie in Uganda) One of the most compelling pieces of TV I've seen in years. The slow drip tension as her tale was unpacked was brilliantly done.

Yeah, that one was major. Up until then, the Alison Pill character epitomized in the extreme everything about this series that I disliked. Then in this episode, it epitomized everything I applauded about it.

No spoilers, but what happens to her afterwards is pretty much minus the pre-trauma cuteness, although in last night's season opener, there are signs that she might be getting it back. It involves serious-looking glasses, and music and camera angles and....that's too bad. But in real life, it would be ok.

[Shawn]

The witty dialogue is one of the primary reasons I watch The Newsroom...or any Sorkin-penned movie or TV series for that matter. That's also the reason I watch Preston Sturges movies and Joss Whedon TV shows. To me, "quotable dialogue" is one of the highest compliments.

[Buddha the Magnificent]

Found this lirttle jewel on Netflix streaming

MI-5 from BBC (aka, for some reason, Spooks). Pass the popcorn, pliz.