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Adventure Time aired its final episode last night. I didn't come in until way too late, so I missed about three-quarters of the innumerable Easter Eggs sprinkled throughout the running time. Good episode, suitably apocalyptic, that gave the fans three of their dearest wishes. And I don't remember how to do a spoiler tag, so I'll have to let you find out for yourselves if you're at all interested.

 

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First few episodes of the new Jack Ryan series on Prime, starring John Krasinski. 

 

I feel sorry for John. It is like Amazon got a bunch of out work network television writers on the cheap to create this show. It is plodding and flat and clichéd and aside from the occasional f-bomb being dropped, this could have followed Walker Texas Ranger on any CBS affiliate and been considered "good TV".... 25 YEARS AGO!

 

This show is also another example of our thread on action movie clichés you hate to see... because in the first couple episodes two action set-pieces are not only just badly filmed, they require US Marines and J-SOC types, then the French Anti-Terrorist police to be idiots... just so the villains can get away/succeed. (Not to mention that bad guys are so stereotypical as to not be even remotely interesting.) There is a STOOPID stand-off scene with a grenade that should have resulted in Jack Ryan being dead by the end of the first episode if the villains weren't requisite idiots in turn.

 

I give Amazon credit for trying different types of shows that it can produce, but this show falls into "boring to badly done" which is too bad.

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10 minutes ago, RDU Neil said:

First few episodes of the new Jack Ryan series on Prime, starring John Krasinski. 

 

I feel sorry for John. It is like Amazon got a bunch of out work network television writers on the cheap to create this show. It is plodding and flat and clichéd and aside from the occasional f-bomb being dropped, this could have followed Walker Texas Ranger on any CBS affiliate and been considered "good TV".... 25 YEARS AGO!

 

This show is also another example of our thread on action movie clichés you hate to see... because in the first couple episodes two action set-pieces are not only just badly filmed, they require US Marines and J-SOC types, then the French Anti-Terrorist police to be idiots... just so the villains can get away/succeed. (Not to mention that bad guys are so stereotypical as to not be even remotely interesting.) There is a STOOPID stand-off scene with a grenade that should have resulted in Jack Ryan being dead by the end of the first episode if the villains weren't requisite idiots in turn.

 

I give Amazon credit for trying different types of shows that it can produce, but this show falls into "boring to badly done" which is too bad.

 

I like Jack Ryan as Clancy wrote him: a mildly competent normal who got involved in some extraordinary situations.

 

The movies, and now apparently the TV show, try to make him into some kind of action hero.

 

As for the good guys having to act like idiots so the bad guys can succeed in the first act, that's covered in Basic TV Writing 101: How to Have the Good Guys Act Like Idiots So the Bad Buys Can Succeed in the First Act.

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I never found Jack Ryan a very interesting character, especially after Tom Clancy started using him as a propaganda machine (Clancy had pronounced political view that he expressed through Ryan, especially in those novels where, through circumstances that do not pass any sort of reality filter, Ryan became President of the United States). And from what I could tell the stench of wartime propaganda clouds Ryan's most recent cinematic and now TV escapades.

 

Terrorism is a theme that has to be handled more carefully than most writers appear to be capable of handling it. The Iranians of Argo are partly a counterpoint ot how they are usually handled: they did very bad things, but they also had legitimate grievances that the film did not ignore. (The storming of the embassy was clearly excessive and not at all a good thing, but American hubris helped lead to it through the Cold War idea that we could -- and should -- support governments with no local credibility if it meant keeping the Soviets at bay.) But then Argo was an especially nuanced film about terrorism, and that is increasingly rare.

 

That doesn't mean terrorists must be sympathetic -- far from it! Evil must be recognized as evil. But many action movies (if not most that deal with the topic) have a tendency to throw morality out the window when it comes to fighting it. The frequent use of torture by Jack Bauer of 24 is a prime example -- the people Bauer fights are almost cartoonishly evil, so nothing is out of bounds when it comes to fighting them. And there are a lot of torture scenes in movies like this.

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Versailles Season 3. It starts with the enforced visit of the Holy Roman Emperor to Versailles as Louis wants to take over Spain and Portugal and the Ho;y Roman Emperor does not want him to have it. We also have the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask. Which the Pope knows about and sends his agent Cardinal Leto to Versailles. Phillippe, Louis's brother, returns from the wars but becomes obsessed with the case of the Man in the Iron Mask. This leaves the Chevalier Lorraine to his own devices and leads him into the orbit of the Protestants. The Marquise de Maintenon starts out as a sympathetic figure but ends up as one of the prosecutors of the Protestants. louis's queen takes ill and dies during the series.

If you liked the previous two seasons you'll like this the final season of the show. We see the return of Sophie, Duchesse de Cassel, and major happenings for Marchel and Bontemps. 

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On 9/4/2018 at 12:25 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

Clancy had pronounced political view that he expressed through Ryan, especially in those novels where, through circumstances that do not pass any sort of reality filter, Ryan became President of the United States

 

Funny,  I thought that was one of the better sections of the book.

 

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Grimm Season 4. Adalind has a baby loses a baby and becomes pregnant again. Then we have a new Grimm and another Grimm dies. Rosalee and Monroe's wedding is objected to with prejudice and Nick and Juliette draw apart. Nick loses and regains his powers and the Captain loses his life but his mother saves him. And Wu finally comes into the fold.

I did not think much of Adalind's plot during the season and the objectors to the wedding. Its good but beginning to fade.

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Twelve O'Clock High. I had seen the start and end of the film before but not the middle. Well now I have. You only see one raid and that is into Germany which has combat footage from US and German pilots during World War 2.

Dean Jagger looked old then and this was 1949. It's a good film worth a look if you have not see it.

 

Ancient Invisible Cities presented by Dr Michael Scott. This set up 3D scans of various structures in Cairo. We get one of the Great Pyramid and of a step pyramid built 80 years before that is thought of as a prototype for the Great Pyramid. It also postulated that the Sphinx is based on Khafre, the son of Khufu who the Great Pyramid was built for. The smaller pyramid beside the Great Pyramid is Khafre's. There was also scans of a Roman fortress which a Greek Orthodox church is now built over. Fascinating for those of us who love their history.

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

 

Visually spectacular. Luc Besson knows how to make a pretty picture, and CGI has advanced enough to portray darn near anything.

 

The acting is second-rate, but fully adequate for the hackneyed plot and characters. I am glad I didn't pay money to see this.

 

Dean Shomshak

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3 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

My favorite review:

 

Valerian is most commonly used for sleep disorders, especially the inability to sleep (insomnia). Valerian is also used orally for anxiety and psychological stress, but there is limited scientific research to support these uses.

 

 

 

Oh, wait, that's the WebMD page.

 

More research needed...for science. 

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8 hours ago, death tribble said:

Twelve O'Clock High. I had seen the start and end of the film before but not the middle. Well now I have. You only see one raid and that is into Germany which has combat footage from US and German pilots during World War 2.

Dean Jagger looked old then and this was 1949. It's a good film worth a look if you have not see it.

 

Ancient Invisible Cities presented by Dr Michael Scott. This set up 3D scans of various structures in Cairo. We get one of the Great Pyramid and of a step pyramid built 80 years before that is thought of as a prototype for the Great Pyramid. It also postulated that the Sphinx is based on Khafre, the son of Khufu who the Great Pyramid was built for. The smaller pyramid beside the Great Pyramid is Khafre's. There was also scans of a Roman fortress which a Greek Orthodox church is now built over. Fascinating for those of us who love their history.

 

As a fan of Dr Scott's, cheers for the info. 

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Ruff Ruff, Tweet and Dave... lol watching it with my little guy.  Great Characters, compelling stories and always keeps ya guessing on what the damn Hamster is gonna pull out from under his hat. lol. The 'grown-ups', we just finished season 2 of Iron Fist. Muuuuch better than Season 1. They found a balance in story between Danny as the Immortal Iron Fist and Danny the person.

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