What Are You Watching

[kinuta]

Ray Donovan 

A powerful episode.

[A Lark Ascending]

Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed The World - BBC Four

Nice 90 minute survey for someone like me who knows very little about the subject. Probably a bit glib for those who know this area well. 

[duaneiac]

I like this very funny series, but watching it  several episodes at a time kind of diminishes the humor a bit.  There are no bonus features on the DVD set.

[A Lark Ascending]

Napoleon - a BBC4 3 parter that went out around the time of the Waterloo anniversary.

This one really wound me up. Andrew Roberts, an historian I don't seem to have come across apart from as a name, seems to be the epitome of the brash, over-confident, privately educated toff. Arrogantly presents the series as a debunking of myths, scathingly rubbishing interpretations he disapproves of. Yet the whole thing seems to be based around his adolescent hero worship of Napoleon (something he highlights regularly). Roberts seems quite keen on dictatorship in the 'right' hands! 

Reading about him on the web my antipathy was quickly backed up - inherited wealth, extremely right wing, apologist for things like Amritsar.

Imagine he's in line for a peerage.

Will watch part 2 and 3 if only to be further outraged.     

[Good lord, even the Daily Telegraph was unimpressed!: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11681648/Napoleon-episode-2-review.html] 

Edited August 30, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[jlhoots]

Just finished Show Me A Hero.

Now watching Public Morals.

[A Lark Ascending]

Finished the two Roberts programmes. He's at his best when describing the military tactics. But his assessment of Napoleon throughout is very poor history. He starts with a thesis - Napoleon was a great man, misunderstood by posterity - and then collects his evidence to support it.

If he ever gets bored with history he has a great future as a jazz critic!  

Edited September 1, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[jazzbo]

Hannibal finale (they should have left off the last scene,) and I've been re-watching Heroes, went through the first two seasons.

[erwbol]

Hannibal finale (they should have left off the last scene).

A continuation is still a possibility, just not on NBC. A movie in a few years time perhaps. Bryan Fuller has been talking openly about the meaning of that final scene, his ideas for a continuation and what would have happened in a fourth season.

---

Quote:"Martha De Laurentiis is investigating financing for a feature film and there’s any of a number of scenarios."

On that final scene:"Speaking of Bedelia, the series' final image isn't them going off the cliff, but Bedelia waiting to serve a guest who is never going to come. How did you decide that was the image you wanted to end it on.  

Bryan Fuller: Well, that's a really interesting interpretation of the scene. You think she cut off her own leg and is going to serve it to somebody?

She seems as if she is throwing a dinner party. 

Bryan Fuller: (laughs) No, that's our little nod to the audience that perhaps Hanibal could have survived that cliff dive. She's sitting at the table with her leg on the table and she's looking absolutely terrified, and she grabs the fork and hides it under her napkin and waits for whoever's going to return. This woman still has some fight in her. We don't know if Hannibal is indeed serving her her leg, or is it Hannibal's uncle Robertus, or Lady Murasaki, or is it Will Graham?

So it was just your tease for the possibility of more?

Bryan Fuller: Yes. But I love your interpretation! (laughs) I love the thought that she's thinking, "Fuck! I cut off my leg for no reason!"
 

 

[jazzbo]

I took you off ignore to read this comment. I just think it was unneccessary and would have preferred the final scene to be Will and Hannibal's. On top of that it seemed uncharacteristic of Hannibal and his culinary habits to me.  If there's something else to come that would be great. But I doubt it.

 

Edited September 1, 2015 by jazzbo

[erwbol]

I took you off ignore to read this comment. I just think it was unneccessary and would have preferred the final scene to be Will and Hannibal's. On top of that it seemed uncharacteristic of Hannibal and his culinary habits to me.  If there's something else to come that would be great. But I doubt it.

 

That's OK. I took you off ignore to see if anyone had commented on the Hannibal finale yet. 

[Shawn]

I'll have to wait until Amazon Prime adds season 3 of Hannibal before I finish it.  I watched about 4 episodes of the season but then realized I just wasn't in the mood for the series right now, by the time it comes out for streaming I'm hoping I'll be in a more receptive frame of mind.  

[erwbol]

The second half is very different from the first, more like two seasons in one. The Red Dragon storyline was done very well in the last six episodes.

[Shawn]

I didn't have a problem with the quality of the episodes or anything like that, I just realized that I would appreciate it more in a different headspace.  I did that with Breaking Bad as well, started watching it and realized it wasn't going to click...I waited 2 years and then revisited and that's when I got hooked.  

[jazzbo]

Started on Heroes Season 3, I like this show more than some I guess, and I'm glad it's coming back "Reborn."

Also got caught up on "Hell on Wheels" and watched some episodes of "Car Matchmaker," which is a fun show.

[kinuta]

Show Me A Hero    Mediocre

Public Morals         Unwatchable, pulled the plug.

[jlhoots]

Show Me A Hero    Mediocre

Public Morals         Unwatchable, pulled the plug.

Ouch!!

Apparently we don't agree on these. I thought Show Me A Hero was very good. Not The Wire, but still well done.

I've only seen one episode of Public Morals. Will watch the 2nd episode tonight.

 

[JSngry]

An ok movie, I could have done without all the "action" sequences and the effects therein, more or less fluffyfiller in between real story, but here's a question, Dustin Hoffman might have made a great Holmes, just probably with no accent, please.

[A Lark Ascending]

"Danny and the Human Zoo"

A BBC film loosely based around Lenny Henry's entry into show business. Enjoyable but not as gripping as I'd hoped. Sort of fizzled out at the end. Though it did get a good feel for life outside London in the early to mid-70s. 

Edited September 2, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[kinuta]

Show Me A Hero    Mediocre

Public Morals         Unwatchable, pulled the plug.

Ouch!!

Apparently we don't agree on these. I thought Show Me A Hero was very good. Not The Wire, but still well done.

I've only seen one episode of Public Morals. Will watch the 2nd episode tonight.

 

The cast were good in SMAH and it was competently made. The thing that sank it for me was simply the story.

As a non American, the story of local politics and public housing in Yonkers was just not interesting.

If a similar film had been made about public housing related political shenanigans in Tokyo, I doubt it would have seen the light of day.

The thing that made The Wire work was the interaction between the cops, the dopers, the politicians and, in season two, the unions. It gave it a wide canvas to paint on.

Public Morals was just plain awful, I can't really add more than that.

[erwbol]

Better Call Saul, Season 1, BluRay sourced 1080p mkv files.

[A Lark Ascending]

Found this a bit dull to be honest. Some lovely photography but there didn't seem to be much substance to the story. 

[kinuta]

Found a copy of the 1983 tv production of The Sign Of Four. Creaky and flawed but Ian Richardson is brilliant as Holmes, choosing to make him a slightly warmer, less self centered and sardonic character. It's a shame he only appeared as Holmes in this and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, his might just be my favourite interpretation.

The Sign Of Four - Desmond Davis (1983) TV

[JSngry]

Narcos, a Netflix original "based on" Pablo Escobar and the US/Columbian govt interactions in and around all that. 10 episodes, Brenda started watching early this AM, by the time I woke up she was on, like Episode3 and we both decided to ride it all the way to the end in one sitting. Probably not a "great" show, but really well executed, imo. Plus, I tend to always get into those things where the gangster starts out doing bad for good reasons and then inevitably pivots into just doing bad, period, but still having that Righteous Indignation Card to play when it fits. The ongoing practical uses of a finer-tuned sense of what is what when it is are obvious.

This is definitely one of those things, and oh, yeah, at one point, the Columbian president does chide the US's pique at them refusing the US's offer for "resources" to combat Escobar by pointing out that perhaps the US's resources might be better targeted domestically, since it is the exploding demand that is driving the exploding supply. Touche, check, and mate, although, you can't much make a series out of just that, can you.

[kinuta]

Narcos, a Netflix original "based on" Pablo Escobar and the US/Columbian govt interactions in and around all that. 10 episodes, Brenda started watching early this AM, by the time I woke up she was on, like Episode3 and we both decided to ride it all the way to the end in one sitting. Probably not a "great" show, but really well executed, imo. Plus, I tend to always get into those things where the gangster starts out doing bad for good reasons and then inevitably pivots into just doing bad, period, but still having that Righteous Indignation Card to play when it fits. The ongoing practical uses of a finer-tuned sense of what is what when it is are obvious.

This is definitely one of those things, and oh, yeah, at one point, the Columbian president does chide the US's pique at them refusing the US's offer for "resources" to combat Escobar by pointing out that perhaps the US's resources might be better targeted domestically, since it is the exploding demand that is driving the exploding supply. Touche, check, and mate, although, you can't much make a series out of just that, can you.

It was all right but ended just dangling in the air, which leads one to conclude that a second season is coming.

Methinks that might be a outstaying its welcome.

[Shawn]

Narcos has already been renewed for season 2.