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What Have You Watched Recently?


Susano

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The first two episodes of the new Night Court have dropped on Peacock (Tuesdays on NBC, for those still using linear TV). The only returning character is former prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), who is convinced by the new judge Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) to come back as the public defender. So far, the tone is spot-on in comparison with the original, and my only disappointment is that I need to wait a week for the next episode.

 

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I noticed on one of our channels that there is a sequel to Undercover Brother - A movie I enjoyed and thought had some great stuff in it. So I recorded it, despite misgivings over the fact no one from the original seemed to be involved. This one has UB being frozen and it features his brother. Unlike the original, his brother is an idiot. I watched about 45 minutes and kept hoping it would show at least some of the originals humor/intelligence, then I deleted it. So, based on what I saw, if you liked the original, I can't recommend it. I could be wrong, as I said, since I didnt make it through, so if anyone else did watch and made it through and it got better, let me know and perhaps I will try again.

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Superman and Lois, seasons 1 and 2: Lois and Clark move to Smallville with their twin teen-age boys. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the next season. (HBOmax)

 

Velma, episode 1: An edgy reimagining of the Scooby Gang before they were a team. It isn't very good. (HBOmax)

 

 

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Finally got around to watching the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. As a new fan of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I wanted to go back and see the series it sprang from. Wow, those first two episodes of Discovery were something else! I hope the series continues to be as good.

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First episode of The Last of Us.  It was surprisingly long, covering both the initial outbreak and the postapocalyptic dystopia.  But I was expecting a show starring the Red Viper of Dorne and the Queen of Bear Island to be awesome, and it did not disappoint.

 

Interestingly, I've read some scientific discussion that the pathogen involved--a fungus--is a relatively plausible mechanism for causing a zombie outbreak IRL.

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1 hour ago, Old Man said:

First episode of The Last of Us.  It was surprisingly long, covering both the initial outbreak and the postapocalyptic dystopia.  But I was expecting a show starring the Red Viper of Dorne and the Queen of Bear Island to be awesome, and it did not disappoint.

 

Interestingly, I've read some scientific discussion that the pathogen involved--a fungus--is a relatively plausible mechanism for causing a zombie outbreak IRL.

 

 

Note: Some may find this disturbing. But if you played or watched The Last of Us you've seen worse.

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I'm about 45 minutes in to The Last of Us, but it wasn't really what I wanted to watch at the time. So, I switched over to

 

Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons: Animated movie about Clark's son, Jonathan, getting powers, and having to team up with Batman's son to save the world from invasion from space. A good watch. (HBOmax)

 

Violent Night: A good re-watch, now available on streaming. (HBOmax)

 

 

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HBOMax

South Side (S1): A pretty funny look at life in Chicago's South Side, partly inspired by The Simpsons and with much love for the city.

Oh Hell (S1): This is a sitcom from Germany that's centered on a woman who is a walking talking natural disaster. They don't go so far as to make her unlikable, keeping this funny and engaging.

Avenue 5 (S1): A cruise ship in space, complete with a fraud of a captain and an owner who is probably closer to the reality of most billionaires than they'd care to admit. Funny as hell at times, it functions pretty well as a parody of modern life.

Pennyworth (S3): This dramatic action series keeps being really fun and compelling to watch. This season needs more Paloma Faith, but otherwise it's great stuff.

 

Paramount+

Cinema Toast (S1): This series of half-hour episodes uses footage from old public domain films and gives them new dialogue. The first episode was brilliant. The second was just OK. We'll see.

Twilight Zone (S1): This one continues to be the rare successor to The Twilight Zone to be worthy of the name. Really good stuff.

The Good Fight (S1): This courtroom drama spinoff series (of The Good Wife) is so far juuuust barely good enough to keep us going, like much of The Good Wife's run was for us.

 

Hulu

Fleishman is in Trouble (S1): Like The Good Fight, each of the episodes of this dramatic series we've watched so far has just barely given us enough to make it worthwhile to keep going. The setup is that a self-centered social climber leaves her husband in the dust when she realizes he doesn't at all share her ambitions. She then disappears, leaving him with the kids -- and a mystery to solve. Meh.

 

 

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I'd recently seen a positive review of the new Blu-ray set of The Six Million Dollar Man, looked up the price on Amazon, and then tried to figure out if I would really watch the set to justify the cost. Turns out that Peacock has put the five seasons on their service, and I've started watching it (probably for the first time since syndication in the 80s). I'm about three double-episodes in, which were all originally released as TV movie pilots for the series.

 

The first one explains Steve Austin's background as an astronaut and covers the aftermath of the accident from the title sequence. Its plotting is slow, with a voice-over by Martin Balsam as Dr Rudy Wells.

The second is set as more of a James Bond-styled story, complete with a villain who has stolen several nuclear missiles for sale on the black market. The third has an unnamed worldwide criminal organization that is kidnapping people for ransom. The third movie was the one that I enjoyed the best.

 

There's a lot of stock footage in use to bring down costs, with some odd results, like a commercial airplane changing its livery in mid-air, or an establishing shot not matching the actual shooting location. Lots of voice-overs to place the actors in generic action shots, and even some scenes recycled between movies with different dialogue badly applied on top. Some details were probably not visible on the television sets of the era, like the American power sockets in the Parisian hospital room. 

 

I'll probably start the regular series episodes tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

Watching Ghosts on Paramount+. Good dumb fun. I laugh more than I'm comfortable admitting. 

 

It sure is fun!

 

I like it about as well as the British original, and I like it a lot that the American version does its own thing with the premise.

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I saw The Fablemans tonight with my mother, about a Jewish youth who learns to make home movies and throws himself into making movies with and for his friends -- until he films something he shouldn't, and his world starts crashing around his ears.  Sounds like normal family drama stuff, until I tell you it was inspired by the life of his director -- one Steven Spielberg.

 

Some of the things that happen to Sam Fableman and his family are things that happened to a lot of people in that generation and the generation that followed, and that makes the film relatable in a way that few coming-of-age pictures about art and artists manage to do. Sam Fableman's journey takes many turns as events outside his control influence his life.  His family moves from Jersey to Arizona to California with the work of his engineer father, while his glides through life as it becomes clearer and clearer that she has issues. In California, Sam encounters Anti-Semitism on a personal level for the first time as the new kid in school. The film ends with Sam encountering an aged, irascible John Ford (played by auteur director David Lynch) and learning an important lesson from a two-minute visit. (There is a similar scene with Judd Hirsch as an elderly relative).

 

Since this is, with the serial numbers filed off, Steven Spielberg's own story -- showcasing in a fictionalized setting some of the things that got him started and went into making him the giant he is -- there was absolutely one question I need to find an answer for -- what directors from the current generation will become the sort of towering figure Spielberg is?

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We decided to watch an 80s movie neither of us had seen before: Broadcast News. It's got a great cast: William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter, Joan Cusack...and Jack Nicholson (just before his turn as The Joker). And it was written, directed, and produced by James L. Brooks (of Simpsons fame).

 

Broadcast News has a similar theme to the previous decade's Network, but dives into the deliberate corporate crapification of the news from a traditional workplace comedy perspective. And it is funny. James L. Brooks knows comedy. The material he gave the actors is great, and they do such a good job with it! Right down to subtle reaction expressions that are just perfect and hilarious.

 

The movie didn't seem as dated as I expected. It's true that sometimes it feels like I remember the 80s better than I do the 2000s, but even so. Sure, the fashion is very late 80s and some of the workplace attitudes are of that time, but for the most part the movie held up just fine to me.

 

Hurt plays the new pretty boy anchor who is honest about how unqualified he is for the job beyond his looks and his way with people. Brooks and Hunter respectively play the veteran reporter and producer who understand the geopolitical world and the media business at an intuitive level - but who have so far been unable to advance in their professions. And they are dedicated to their professions. To them, people like Hurt's character are a symptom of what's wrong with the business. Meanwhile, Hurt wants to befriend them so he can succeed as an anchor.

 

There are some unexpected moments that are just beautiful.

 

Highly recommended.

 

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