What Are You Watching

[jazzbo]

The rather strange reboot of Perry Mason.

[jlhoots]

Signed up for Disney+ so we can watch Hamilton.

[JSngry]

8 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

The rather strange reboot of Perry Mason.

Are you going past episode 1? If so, please report, becusae we had a hard time getting through that much. A lot of Boardwalk Empire/Etc rehashed, and not at all relvent to any iteration of "Perry Mason" I know of. Seems gratuitous, perhaps even cynical, to use that name and those characters for this story, maybe?

I think I've lost my appetite for all this Live Is Violent And Controlled By Violent People ethos of entertainment for a while...I'm gonna be more violent than any of them and kill their access into my senses, destroy them at their source.

Put THAT on HBO!

[jazzbo]

Yeah, I've kept up with it. It's a sever re-imagining and not as smoothly executed as it could be. I like that they made Drake a cop and a Black cop at that--I love that actor that's one reason I'm still watching, there are a few actors here that I really like.

I'm not a big Perry Mason fan, but I'm a big fan of another series of Gardner's, the B. Cool and Lam Detective agency series of the cases of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Those are funny and for their time a bit edgy. Nothing like these HBO episodes. I'm guessing that this series COULD be viewed as a precursor to the Mason mythos we have officially. Mason could have been in WWI, he could have been a PI working for a lawyer before he became a lawyer and Drake could have been a cop before he became Mason's PI. 

It's nothing like Gardner's conception, but I do like its attempt at gritty realism and its spin on hard-boiled reality of the past, which reminds me of Hammett more than other crime fiction. And I'm a Hammett fan. So. . . I'm watching. I think it's one of those you have to watch several times and I think I'll rewatch these three before going further.

And I like Mason's girlfriend, she seems like someone real I know.

[JSngry]

I've seen it described as a "prequel", but I don't think there's any real basis for saying that except as a defense mechanism against what appears to have been a lot of viewer backlash after the first episode.

[jazzbo]

Well, if I recall correctly there's no reason it COUDLN'T be a prequel--I don't think in the novels Mason's history is spelled out in ways that would preclude this being a back story. I have tended to just think of this as something else. Another character, not the Mason we know (which could be like "Better Call Saul" in reverse--this is a Saul Goodman who later becomes more of a Jimmy McGill). That's easy enough to do as the three main Gardner characters, Perry Mason, Paul Drake and Della Street, don't really resemble the Gardner delineated personalities, and one could imagine they haven't morphed into those yet, or simply these are not those characters.

Then again, Mason in the books (my only real source, I never watched the TV series nor did I listen to the radio shows or watch any movies) is described by the most prominent DA thus: ""You're a better detective than you are a lawyer. When you turn your mind to the solution of a crime, you ferret out the truth." So. . . it's neither implausible nor out of character entirely for Maso to have BEEN a detective previously, that would explain his traits as a lawyer with his clients. His past is really never precisely addressed in the novels.

It's sort of my cup of tea and I'm sipping it with some pleasure. 

Edited July 8, 2020 by jazzbo

[catesta]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Are you going past episode 1? If so, please report, becusae we had a hard time getting through that much. A lot of Boardwalk Empire/Etc rehashed, and not at all relvent to any iteration of "Perry Mason" I know of. Seems gratuitous, perhaps even cynical, to use that name and those characters for this story, maybe?

I think I've lost my appetite for all this Live Is Violent And Controlled By Violent People ethos of entertainment for a while...I'm gonna be more violent than any of them and kill their access into my senses, destroy them at their source.

Put THAT on HBO!

Yeah, the wife and I were looking for a new series to follow and gave it a shot. A friend of mine recommended it along with the Netflix series White Lines which I also only got through one episode of. The search continues...

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by catesta

[JSngry]

Brenda watches damn near anything, I mean, she likes this "hard-bolied" stuff and doesn't seem to have too many standards about it, and she was like, "this is not good", which sort of surprised me.

Part of it is that we were both all-in on Boardwalk empire and this one was simply too much like that one, so...apart from the disconnect of the character names, there was that, too, just not any reason to keep watching, seen it all before.

Maybe it gets better, but we're not going to stick around to find out. Which is too bad, because I like TV shows with cows in them. Eleanor is one of my favorite TV cows ever. But she's dead now, no doubt, so...you know...time to move on. It behooves us.

[Chuck Nessa]

Just starting season 2 of Marcella. I think I am in love.

[medjuck]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Are you going past episode 1? If so, please report, becusae we had a hard time getting through that much. A lot of Boardwalk Empire/Etc rehashed, and not at all relvent to any iteration of "Perry Mason" I know of. Seems gratuitous, perhaps even cynical, to use that name and those characters for this story, maybe? 

I hated episode 1 but got turned around with episode 2 mainly because of Tatiana Maslany.   She's got more charisma than any actress I've seen in years. I guess I should watch Orphan Black. I think the story got better with 2  and 3 but though it's now obvious how and why Mason will become a lawyer I'm not buying that this is the Perry Mason from the books, movies or tv show.   (Not that I've read or seen a lot of them.). Has anyone read that  they set out to do a Mason origin story? Or did they have  an idea for a plot that the grafted Perry onto? 

BTW Good music in it. 

[jazzbo]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Part of it is that we were both all-in on Boardwalk empire and this one was simply too much like that one, so...apart from the disconnect of the character names, there was that, too, just not any reason to keep watching, seen it all before.

I just don't see a huge lot of Boardwalk Empire connections. This is California, this is roughly the same time period but the coastal differences were huge then. Neither the writing, the production nor the storyline seem similar to me. Whatevs!

[JSngry]

Yeah, it's still tough guys being tough, mean people being mean, sadism comes natural, there will be gratuitous nude servile females, hell, it's HBO & crime.Same as it ever was. Change all the superficial and keep the basic behaviors.

Right now, Brenda's watching something called Hanna, and I'm, like, geez, woman, have you no end to your appetite for mean people tv shows? Every time I go into the room it's either guns or fists or screaming in pain or some shit. Where does it all come from, it seems that there's an endless supply.

[Dan Gould]

Probably 12 or 14 years ago I came across a super cheap "complete" DVD box of this show at a Sam's Club. Hadn't cracked it open until now, it holds up pretty well as entertainment, and just as I recall, got funnier when Tony Schalhoub joined the cast as Antonio. I remember the NYT did a write-up at the end of the show's run which surprised me, but they described it pretty well, basically as "not everything is at Cheers' level but this was an enjoyable 30 minutes for 8 seasons, so ..."

BTW no one noticed David Schramm's passing a few months back. He was a pro's pro and excellent as Roy Biggins.

 

 

 

[jazzbo]

59 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, it's still tough guys being tough, mean people being mean, sadism comes natural, there will be gratuitous nude servile females, hell, it's HBO & crime.Same as it ever was. Change all the superficial and keep the basic behaviors.

Right now, Brenda's watching something called Hanna, and I'm, like, geez, woman, have you no end to your appetite for mean people tv shows? Every time I go into the room it's either guns or fists or screaming in pain or some shit. Where does it all come from, it seems that there's an endless supply.

I'm not that dismissive and enjoy different ways of storytelling. This is a very different way than Boardwalk Empire, and different subject matter as well. and not quite as you describe and dismiss.

Edited July 9, 2020 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

How are Perry's cows doing? Are they still in the show?

[jazzbo]

I'm not taking the bait.

Now watching "I'll be Gone in the Dark" episode 2.

[Dub Modal]

6 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Now watching "I'll be Gone in the Dark" episode 2.

This is a good series so far in that it mixes in the author's story along with the victims involved and the GSK.

The showcasing of how rapes were classified as minor crimes back then, with what was likely a reluctance to pursue a suspect with ties to law enforcement and lack of communication between agencies allowed that spree (and others) to go on far longer than they should have. Just devastating for those victims and their families, not to mention society at large. 

[jazzbo]

Yes. . . eye-opening material here. 

[Brad]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

I'm not taking the bait.

Oh, take the bait  You’re ruining the Forum’s fun 

Watching Grantchester on PBS. 

[jazzbo]

Nah, I'm not a fish. And though I live a half a mile from a lake I don't even fish.

I'm going to start rewatching the latest season of "Better Call Saul"--AMC is rerunning all nine episodes today and my DVR is at work.

[JSngry]

Do cows eat fish? Probably not? Of course, fish don't eat cows, unless they fall in and sink, in which case, hey, shit happens, and those bigass catfish weren't born that way, right?

Just feed the cows, ok? A skinny cow is a REAL downer.

And keep the water clean for the fish. Fish are delightful, alive OR fried!

[jlhoots]

Hannah & Her Sisters on TCM.

[jlhoots]

new Tom Hanks movie on Apple +.

[Brad]

Game 7 of the 86 World Series on SNY!

[Brad]

Babylon Berlin.  Can’t wait for season 4.