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What Have You Watched Recently?


Susano

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Just started watching Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, it having been in my queue a loooong time. I've only watched the first two episodes so far, but it's great stuff! It's an intrigueing historical drama about a couple of unlikely fellows bringing magic back to Great Britain during the Napoleanic Wars. 

 

We've also started on season 4 of Orphan Black, which is also very good so far.

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Gettysburg (1993). This I think is I believe the Director's Cut as it lasted on TV for 6 hours. It is shot on the same battlefield as the actual battle which gives you a unique perspective. It left me with a greater appreciation for the Confederate side. Also for what was achieved at Little Round Top. I'll put it on my list to buy.

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Gettysburg is basically the film version of the book The Killer Angels, and really does it justice. One of the best and certainly one of the most historically-accurate war movies ever made. (A story I heard was they hired a bunch of Civil War reenactors as extras and wound up with a small army of historical advisors who were only too happy to make sure everything was done right, even down to correcting the buttons on some of the uniforms.)

 

Need to watch that one again!

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A personal favorite. Three men (Buford, Chamberlain, and Longstreet) face supreme crises with their lives and those of many others (not to mention the causes for which they fight) at stake. Two succeed, and one fails. Why? What is it about these men and their situations that led them to their different outcomes? How would any of us fare in their shoes?

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The end of the film lists the re-enactor groups involved and there were a lot of them. I would like to have seen more of the fight around the wheat field and the peach orchid but the film has to concentrate on notable events in the battle like Little Round Top. Pickett's charge makes more sense as well despite the fact it was doomed.

 

I have the book The Killer Angels and have read it plus the prequel and sequel books written by Michael Shaara's son.

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Spotlight, the 2015 film about the Boston Globe's investigation into the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal. Very well done and well acted. Surprisingly slow-paced, I like how they let the story build slowly from a story about 1 or 2 priests, to over a dozen, to nearly 100, to more than twice that. As for the subject, there just aren't words....

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Lots of sports lately

 

College fencing a few days ago. Some equestrian today.

 

America's Cup in Bermuda and French Open in Paris have begun. NBC's coverage of the latter sucks, with only 3 hours a day today and tomorrow. Then nothing until the weekend. ESPN isn't airing the tournament, and I don't have Tennis Channel.

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The first six episodes of Arrow on Netflix. The show was still raw. It hadn't developed and fallen into familiar patterns. Oliver narrated the first few episodes, almost like Dexter from the series of the same name. Somewhere they dropped the narration aspect and I think the show suffered for its lack. The rest I will save for the Arrow thread. I'm not going to keep going with it. I just wanted to re-watch and see if nostalgia had colored my perceptions of the first season. I can answer with some surety that the answer is "just the tiniest bit." Mostly, they were just better shows.

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The TV series "Bones" (most of it). I hadn't seen it in first run, and decided to try it when Netflix recommended it. Alas, I wasn't fast enough, and I ended up jumping from halfway in season 2 to season 5 because those seasons expired on Netflix. The character interactions were generally fun, and the episodes tended to flow pretty well.

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Lady P has recently been watching a show called "Imaginary Mary". It's a fairly standard romantic comedy where a 30-something woman deals with her myriad anxieties in the form of a small furry invisible friend that (of course) only she can see. Makes for interesting interactions with her boyfriend and his three teenage children. It's okay.

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We were house sitting for my sister-in-law last weekend while they were on vacation. I got to see Moana for the first time (and the second, and the third). Good, good show.

 

Of course the kids loved it. I expect it will probably displace Frozen as the animated movie of choice for both kids. Which is fine. Frozen has had a good long run, but I'm okay to Let It Go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't go to a lot of movies in the theater.   Mostly because of asshats in the audience who tend to try their best to ruin a showing ;)

 

But this weekend went to see Wonder Woman.  With WW being an iconic hero dating back to the golden age I was pretty sure that they would destroy the movie "fixing" it to be more in line of what the blood splatter crowd that the comic book fans have evolved into expect. 

 

But to my surprise they actually stayed with Wonder Woman.  Even did it in period rather than rewriting it to happen in 2017.

 

Did they change some things to better fit the medium?  Sure.  But that is going to happen.

 

I also think they did a better job than I expected with the whole "innocent fish out of water" concept for Diana's initial introduction to 1900's Europe.  They didn't completely avoid the usual moronic quasi-humor "lets make it comedy" that Hollywood seems to prefer, but they did leave it behind without dwelling on it. 

 

All in all a very good on screen interpretation of Wonder Woman. 

 

 

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Cool! Ice Warriors should have appeared in the new series already, IMO.

The episode Cold War had had an Ice Warrior named Grand Marshal Skaldak.  That episode had the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Claria land on a Soviet submarine in 1983 during the Cold War where they meet the Ice Warrior Grand Marshal Skaldak.

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Several different promotional event videos from the E3 2017 convention. I have to actually say that I was underwhelmed for the most part. Usually I look forward to E3 so that I can see what exciting entertainment options are coming down the line. This time, there were only three games that I have any interest in at all. Even those are not much. I'll probably wait for a sale at some later date. One I will need really, really positive reviews for.

 

By contrast, I watched all of the development video blogs for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and I have to say that I am excited to see how that turns out. I know I'll be dumping $30 on it come August, which is more than I can say for anything I saw promoted at E3.

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I've started watching Jane The Virgin on Netflix. I really like it. It's funny, and it's a master class (especially the first episode) in how to info-dump a LOT of information while remaining witty and entertaining. And, as the series goes on, it's a great example of how to slowly, gradually, build up a huge, twisting, intertwined set of characters and relationships. I recommend it.

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