Joe Walsh

We finally got around to watching The Menu. It's very good, with plenty of tension from the menacing atmosphere that builds throughout the first and second acts. Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult do a great job, while the set design, props, and cinematography are all excellent. But it's not perfect. There are a couple of story bobbles, and the ending is a little hard to swallow (heh), but it's still well worth watching.

6 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Has Strange New Worlds been renewed?

Thankfully, yes! Paramount+ ordered a second season on January 18th. No release date yet, but I'm guessing it takes a while to make a season of a show like this?

On 1/31/2023 at 6:24 PM, Pattern Ghost said:

I don't remember any bait and switch. The season follows a consistent story line.

Maybe I'm using the wrong term. The first two episodes looked and felt like a prestige streaming production of one of America's media mega-corps. But the subsequent episodes looked and felt like a cheap production created to fill a hole in SyFy's lineup.

Quote

Is it a great story line? Eh. It gets us to Season 3, explains some things about Burnham and Spock (quite a bit, really), and isn't terrible. It's worth watching, IMO, to see how the spin off is set up, but not strictly necessary.

In that case, maybe we'll watch it some day. But for now it just doesn't seem to be worth the time for us.

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

My nine-year-old and I are really enjoying Prodigy, too.

That's good to hear! It's in our queue, as is the Short Treks series. I was worried they'd be disappointing.

Glad to see we're not the only ones who think the Picard series wasn't worth watching.

If it weren't for Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, we'd be avoiding Star Trek entirely at this point.

Ah, OK. Sounds like I'll want to "proceed with caution." Thank you!

1 hour ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

Sadly, the last season of Doom Patrol. Not getting renewed. 

Yeah, it's a shame. They had so much great stuff, but the new owners seem determined to turn it into another forgettable streaming service. Too bad.

Four episodes in, we're on the verge of dropping Star Trek: Discovery from our lineup. The two-episode series opener was good, but the next two episodes revealed those episodes to be the bait for a switch to something else entirely.

As a recent fan of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, my only remaining question is whether the inclusion of Christopher Pike makes Discovery S2 worth watching.

If you're a fan of SNW, what's your opinion? Is Discovery S2 worth watching for Pike even if we don't care about the other Discovery characters or their storylines?

We started watching the latest season of Doom Patrol, and so far it's pretty good. Fingers crossed!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain - I'd never heard of Louis Wain, but apparently about 100 years ago he was a quite popular artist who specialized in drawing cats. This movie "based on a true story" keeps it pretty entertaining, but I'd say the first half is better than the second.

Weathering with You - I enjoyed this Japanese animated romantic fantasy movie about a runaway high school boy who befriends a "sunshine girl" who can, at a cost, control the weather.

On 12/16/2022 at 6:00 PM, death tribble said:

The Howling III

 

Werewolves in Australia. It is cheap and it is fun. See once and then decide if you like.

I've always loved that entry in the series.

I thought that was James Woods as GM for a minute there.

Yep. After NFTs ran their course from hype to flop, Trump announces $99 NFT "trading cards".

Amsterdam (HBOMax): An enjoyable retelling of the attempted fascist coup during FDR's administration. The movie could have been done better if they'd spent more time editing the script, but it was enjoyable enough to watch.

My condolences. What a terrible tragedy.

GotG Holiday Special (D+): Not as good as I'd hoped, not as bad as I'd feared. Worth watching.

Invincible (Amazon Prime):  This animated supers series was sort of worth watching, and sort of interesting in terms of the various characters and their interplay, but the repeated and extreme violence makes it really not all that interesting to me. I've seen enough violence, and don't need it pushed in my face like that in order to understand the horror of it.

With Chapek out as the head of Disney and Iger back in, I wonder what changes will be made to the Marvel movie and TV show lineup.

On 11/6/2022 at 8:22 AM, Cygnia said:

And if you want sheer silliness -- It Came From the Late Late Late Show

That's what I was coming here to say.

I also agree with the OP about Prince Valiant. It's a solid, ground-breaking game.

TWERPS and Toon are also gems, but I wouldn't necessarily call them hidden.

I should also mention Zorro, developed by Gallant Knight Games (the folks who publish the TinyD6 games) and published by the current owners of the West End Games IP. It's uses a new version of the D6 System that works pretty well. If you're a fan of Zorro (especially the classic TV show), I highly recommend it.

Kari Lake will be fine, doing the right-wing grievance tour grift forever.