Author Topic: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.  (Read 2046494 times)

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Bebpo

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18180 on: February 14, 2021, 05:20:24 PM »
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who isn't watching all these murder documentaries. I find it kinda of that Natural Born Killers/Roman Gladiators thing of people are fascinated/entertained by the worst of our society. It sorta bugs me how popular this stuff is and how much of it constantly gets made. Netflix's top10 are always like 50% serial killer docs.

Bebpo

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18181 on: February 14, 2021, 05:42:54 PM »
Also I'm gonna add that I find it funny that in my friend circles the people watching all these murder docs or stalker shows are always, without question, the girls and not the guys.

It's like in the past the trope was that women would get together and drink tea and talk about pulp romance novels and now they get together and drink tea and talk about all these men who would want to stalk and/or murder them.

Humans are weird.

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18182 on: February 14, 2021, 06:12:33 PM »
Horror is a popular genre for a reason.

Quaker

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18183 on: February 14, 2021, 06:25:55 PM »
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who isn't watching all these murder documentaries. I find it kinda of that Natural Born Killers/Roman Gladiators thing of people are fascinated/entertained by the worst of our society. It sorta bugs me how popular this stuff is and how much of it constantly gets made. Netflix's top10 are always like 50% serial killer docs.
It's nothing new. Before Netflix it was A&E, Dateline and Unsolved Mysteries.

I work in a cubicle farm and in the before times the only thing people would want to talk about after Game of Thrones would be true crime(TV shows or podcasts were huge with largely normie women from 20-50+)  or superheroes/Star Wars(mostly with whitebread dudes.)

:shaking

Actually, the ones that are transparently trashy don't bother me, it's the ones that try to go at it from a superficial journalistic or artistic angle like Wild Wild Country or the Serial podcast that annoy me because they would get a lot of good word of mouth but it was pretty clear they were just exploitative trash after sitting through the 10 hours or whatever.

(I say this realizing I'm a giant hypocrite because Zodiac and Memories of a Murder are two of my favorite movies of the last 20 years and Manhunter and True Detective(ignoring S2) were some of my favorite shows.)

In the end I just shut the fuck up smile and nod whenever they come up and quietly watch my weirdo Criterion movies and European tv shows in the corner. 

:insane

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18184 on: February 14, 2021, 06:50:56 PM »
Memories shits on TD from great heights... Hell even Zodiac does.
I only watched S1 and found the clichès and comically corny machismo almost parodistic.  :dayum
Never got what people were raving about.

At least MoM is more than its thriller aspect.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18185 on: February 14, 2021, 06:52:03 PM »
WandaVision apparently the most watched show right now.

Disney investors be like :money

Transhuman

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18186 on: February 14, 2021, 08:20:38 PM »
(I say this realizing I'm a giant hypocrite because Zodiac and Memories of a Murder are two of my favorite movies of the last 20 years and Manhunter and True Detective(ignoring S2) were some of my favorite shows.)

You mean Hannibal? Manhunter was the movie (good movie).

They caught the Memories of Murder guy irl fairly recently too.

WandaVision apparently the most watched show right now.

Disney investors be like :money

Sometimes I feel like the only one with standards.

Quaker

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18187 on: February 14, 2021, 08:22:44 PM »
My bad, I meant Mindhunter.  :lol (RIP)

Transhuman

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18188 on: February 14, 2021, 08:23:59 PM »
First season of Hannibal was quite good, season 2 pretty good but you notice it slipping, seems a little too fast. S3 sucks.

Bebpo

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18189 on: February 15, 2021, 01:13:52 AM »
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who isn't watching all these murder documentaries. I find it kinda of that Natural Born Killers/Roman Gladiators thing of people are fascinated/entertained by the worst of our society. It sorta bugs me how popular this stuff is and how much of it constantly gets made. Netflix's top10 are always like 50% serial killer docs.
It's nothing new. Before Netflix it was A&E, Dateline and Unsolved Mysteries.

I work in a cubicle farm and in the before times the only thing people would want to talk about after Game of Thrones would be true crime(TV shows or podcasts were huge with largely normie women from 20-50+)  or superheroes/Star Wars(mostly with whitebread dudes.)

:shaking

Actually, the ones that are transparently trashy don't bother me, it's the ones that try to go at it from a superficial journalistic or artistic angle like Wild Wild Country or the Serial podcast that annoy me because they would get a lot of good word of mouth but it was pretty clear they were just exploitative trash after sitting through the 10 hours or whatever.

(I say this realizing I'm a giant hypocrite because Zodiac and Memories of a Murder are two of my favorite movies of the last 20 years and Manhunter and True Detective(ignoring S2) were some of my favorite shows.)

In the end I just shut the fuck up smile and nod whenever they come up and quietly watch my weirdo Criterion movies and European tv shows in the corner. 

:insane

Haha, yeah I mean I really like Zodiac so I do watch some of these.

I wouldn't count True Detective since it's fiction. I think fiction procedural's are fine, I just find getting off on real world events of real life people who were murdered kind of oddly disturbing of humanity.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18190 on: February 15, 2021, 01:17:46 AM »
I'm with ya bebps.

I enjoyed The Jynx I think mostly because of the zeitgeist around it, but stuff like that really isn't my thing normally.

Tiger King also felt gross and exploitative even if no one technically died. I guess that's just what a lot of people like to lap up.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18191 on: February 15, 2021, 01:22:22 AM »
In fact just tonight I was looking up Capote info (starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and reading about the 1950s farm murders which were the inspiration for the apparently famous "In Cold Blood" true crime novel Capote wrote just seriously bummed me out. Both the murders and how popular the book about the murders were.


But I am a pansy liberal who thought people cheering over Osama Bin Laden's death was inappropriate, so...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Transhuman

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18192 on: February 15, 2021, 03:16:37 AM »
Tiger King also felt gross and exploitative even if no one technically died.

:ufup

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18193 on: February 15, 2021, 04:55:34 AM »
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who isn't watching all these murder documentaries. I find it kinda of that Natural Born Killers/Roman Gladiators thing of people are fascinated/entertained by the worst of our society. It sorta bugs me how popular this stuff is and how much of it constantly gets made. Netflix's top10 are always like 50% serial killer docs.
It's nothing new. Before Netflix it was A&E, Dateline and Unsolved Mysteries.

I work in a cubicle farm and in the before times the only thing people would want to talk about after Game of Thrones would be true crime(TV shows or podcasts were huge with largely normie women from 20-50+)  or superheroes/Star Wars(mostly with whitebread dudes.)

:shaking

Actually, the ones that are transparently trashy don't bother me, it's the ones that try to go at it from a superficial journalistic or artistic angle like Wild Wild Country or the Serial podcast that annoy me because they would get a lot of good word of mouth but it was pretty clear they were just exploitative trash after sitting through the 10 hours or whatever.

(I say this realizing I'm a giant hypocrite because Zodiac and Memories of a Murder are two of my favorite movies of the last 20 years and Manhunter and True Detective(ignoring S2) were some of my favorite shows.)

In the end I just shut the fuck up smile and nod whenever they come up and quietly watch my weirdo Criterion movies and European tv shows in the corner. 

:insane

Haha, yeah I mean I really like Zodiac so I do watch some of these.

I wouldn't count True Detective since it's fiction. I think fiction procedural's are fine, I just find getting off on real world events of real life people who were murdered kind of oddly disturbing of humanity.
What do you think of war movies? For example those with spectacle (Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, etc)  :thinking
And more importantly, when fiction is an obvious conduit for real events, is there really a difference?

I think to a degree all art is voyeuristic and perverse, but that's a byproduct of how empathy functions, maybe.
And i find something false and hypocritical in the idea of something being "tasteful".

Also i'll repost the Haneke classic:

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18194 on: February 15, 2021, 07:23:52 AM »
Also Herzog on Cinema Verité and related topic:


Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18195 on: February 15, 2021, 08:04:03 AM »
Tiger King also felt gross and exploitative even if no one technically died.

:ufup

I didn't watch much of it, but I'm aware of an employee who lost their arm and an attempt to pay a hitman off to perform a murder. Wasn't aware there were also actual deaths being exploited for profit on Tiger King, but I suppose that's good to know too.

chronovore

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18196 on: February 15, 2021, 08:08:58 AM »
Tiger King also felt gross and exploitative even if no one technically died.

:ufup

I didn't watch much of it, but I'm aware of an employee who lost their arm and an attempt to pay a hitman off to perform a murder. Wasn't aware there were also actual deaths being exploited for profit on Tiger King, but I suppose that's good to know too.

There’s a suicide. There’s security footage which shows an immediate reaction to it happening.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18197 on: February 15, 2021, 08:29:59 AM »
:yikes

zomgee

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18198 on: February 15, 2021, 08:53:07 AM »
Also I'm gonna add that I find it funny that in my friend circles the people watching all these murder docs or stalker shows are always, without question, the girls and not the guys.

It's like in the past the trope was that women would get together and drink tea and talk about pulp romance novels and now they get together and drink tea and talk about all these men who would want to stalk and/or murder them.

Humans are weird.


Bela Lugosi:
And you know what else? The women... the women preferred the traditional monsters.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.:
The women? Huh?

Bela:
The pure horror, it both repels, and attracts them, because in their collective unconsciousness, they have the agony of childbirth. The blood. The blood is horror.

Ed:
You know, I never thought of that.

Bela:
Take my word for it. If you want to make out with a young lady, take her to see "Dracula".
« Last Edit: February 15, 2021, 11:39:02 AM by zomgee »
rub

Transhuman

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18199 on: February 15, 2021, 12:36:35 PM »
Tiger King also felt gross and exploitative even if no one technically died.

:ufup

I didn't watch much of it, but I'm aware of an employee who lost their arm and an attempt to pay a hitman off to perform a murder. Wasn't aware there were also actual deaths being exploited for profit on Tiger King, but I suppose that's good to know too.

I didn't think it was possible not to be aware that Carole Baskins husband is dead. I've never even seen the show and I knew that.

Quaker

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18200 on: February 15, 2021, 02:40:03 PM »
What do you think of war movies? For example those with spectacle (Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, etc)  :thinking
And more importantly, when fiction is an obvious conduit for real events, is there really a difference?

I think to a degree all art is voyeuristic and perverse, but that's a byproduct of how empathy functions, maybe.
And i find something false and hypocritical in the idea of something being "tasteful".

Also i'll repost the Haneke classic:

:lol @ the absurdity of Jim from The Office having to follow up that Haneke mic drop.

Yeah, "tastefulness" is definitely something completely subjective and personal and contradictory.

I feel the average American doesn't particularly take to nuance(see: the reaction to the ending of No Country for Old Men amongst normies) so I can justify the showerhead scene in Schindler's List because IMO Americans could benefit from having their noses rubbed into it and getting some perspective and empathy.

At the same time, I can totally understand Godard and Haneke taking offense to it and finding it tactless, especially as they are from an older, European generation with a more direct connection to it.

Munich is another that had been one of my favorite modern movies, but I've found it more uncomfortable to watch as time goes by. As a thriller/action movie it's still impeccable(awful sex scene aside) so I still enjoy revisiting it every couple of years but afterwards I do feel a bit gross and complicit and wonder to what degree it's just very well made person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation propaganda.






As far as war films go, it's a cliche by now but there's a lot of truth to it being difficult to make a truly 'anti-war' war film due to the inherent glamorization of the spectacle and brotherhood of war when the audience is composed mostly by people who haven't experienced it and live very ordinary, lonely, mundane lives. It's not impossible though. I think Jarhead is the best example I can think of, off the top of my head. There's almost no action, the characters are portrayed as normal-ass, not particularly smart or heroic bros, "nothing happens" and there's no real nobility portrayed in their cause. Of course, that's not what people want to pay to see so it's largely forgotten and afterwards we get Lone Survivor and American Sniper instead.
Quote
The film became a major success, with a worldwide gross of over $547 million, making it the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States ($350 million), the highest-grossing war film of all time unadjusted for inflation, and Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date.
The next time Sam Mendes makes a war film he ends up with 1917, which is meant as a tribute, but doesn't really land for me emotionally and feels more like a technically well done roller coaster ride. I don't feel it's offensive or exploitative but the one-shot gimmick takes me out of the film due to the obvious artificiality. Paths of Glory or that Peter Jackson colorized documentary are more effective for me as far as WWI movies go.

"Son of Saul" is a holocaust movie from a few years back that leans heavily into the long take gimmick with a 4:3 aspect ratio and super close-up shots for added claustrophobia that I thought really worked but apparently some people have the same criticisms with it that Godard and Haneke had with Spielberg. And apparently before this and before Schindler's List, the director of The Battle of Algiers made a black and white holocaust movie with an infamous tracking shot too.
Quote
Pontecorvo earned "the deepest contempt" of French director Jacques Rivette in an article in Cahiers du cinéma nearly 50 years ago for a scarcely more insistent shot in the 1959 film "Kapo." The shot was of the raised hand of actress Emmanuelle Riva, her character Terese electrocuted on the barbed wire of the concentration camp from which she was trying to escape. The criticism hung over Pontecorvo until his dying day. He was ostracized, almost cursed, for a shot, just one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo_(1960_film)

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/rivette/OK/abjection.html

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18201 on: February 15, 2021, 04:18:05 PM »
Yeah there are many degrees and a lot of nuance to the subject, you could apply Haneke's reasoning to many other atrocities that don't get the scrutiny of the Holocaust (some because further back in time, i don't think anybody would give a shit about a crass action movie about the punic wars, despite it being essentially a genocide) or even more intimate small scale human tragedies, be it an abuse or an illness.

Nevertheless, between a movie that is essentially Call of Duty (Private Ryan, haven't watched 1917, but i read similar comments on that) and something like Shepitko The Ascent, Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood or even Bergman's Shame, there's a large difference in maturity when approaching a subject.
Something like Come and See for me falls in between, straddling the line between representing horror for what it is, and wanting to amaze.

Nevertheless, i enjoy Private Ryan, mostly because fo the spectacle in the opening sequence, and like it Thin Red Line, Apocalypse Now, and many other war movies that can't but see an element of awe and grandeur in the machine of war.
And maybe it wouldn't even be fair to aprioristically avoid that element entirely, as it is something we as humans, have a fascination for.

As i said, the voyeurism is integral part of art, and didn't Haneke base Funny Games entirely on it (twice)?  :doge

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18202 on: February 15, 2021, 04:27:37 PM »
Calling Private Ryan essentially Call of Duty is very strange. 

jorma

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18203 on: February 15, 2021, 05:18:51 PM »
Calling Private Ryan essentially Call of Duty is very strange.

a bit like calling Once upon a time in the west "essentially red dead redemption"  :P

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18204 on: February 15, 2021, 05:51:43 PM »
Scarface is essentially Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. 

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18205 on: February 15, 2021, 07:11:40 PM »
Calling Private Ryan essentially Call of Duty is very strange.
In the sense that the shocking cinematic spectacle is the draw and the driving force.
But yeah CoD is the WWE version of that, the comparison was a bit cheeky.  :-*

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18206 on: February 16, 2021, 11:37:25 AM »
Ash vs Evil Dead was a lot of fun.  Can't say any season plot was better than a B- or C-tier Supernatural season but the characters, comedy, and gore were great.  The morgue scene might be the best scene in any Evil Dead.

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18207 on: February 16, 2021, 12:01:02 PM »
Season 2 was the peak for me.

GreatSageEqualOfHeaven

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18208 on: February 16, 2021, 02:05:25 PM »
I liked the various different directors riffing on the Evil Dead motifs - its kind of like watching different comedians tell The Aristocrats; you basically know where its headed from the start, but its watching their own flourishes that add to it.

I think I posted in this thread before about Ash vs Evil Dead that my favorite bit was the Asylum pay off for Ashy Slashy where the team are genuinely worried Ash has flipped, and he's all "What? I told you all my plan!", and he actually did a few episodes earlier, but it was so stupid nobody realised it was an actual plan he was following :rofl

james

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18209 on: February 16, 2021, 03:12:53 PM »
My review of Wandavision

Ep1: 7/10. They nailed the sitcom stuff, except for the writing, which was weak
Ep2: 8/10. A little more entertaining, but problems with the laugh track distracted from the fun.
Ep3: 4/10 Weak episode.
Ep4: 2/10. Oh this is some generic Marvel crap. Yawn. And we dont need a movie theater aspect ratio you fucks we're at home. Also, if youre going to cast the chick from two broke girls, DON'T HIDE HER BEST ASSETS.
Ep5: 6/10. It was fine.
Ep6:  Havent seen yet.
:O

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18210 on: February 16, 2021, 03:22:42 PM »
I disliked the first Asylum episode because the convince-you-that-you-are-crazy trope is overdone but the second episode was a good payoff.  At the start of the first episode, the gang found ash using the tracker and Kelly was like 'If we find him, don't tell him we used the pet tracker'

Snoopycat_

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18211 on: February 16, 2021, 08:41:29 PM »
Watched that thing about the Cecil Hotel and Elisa Lam. I'm kind of amazed that they managed to drag that bollocks out over 4 episodes. The stuff about the history of the hotel and skid row was interesting. Maybe they should've made a series about that instead.

GreatSageEqualOfHeaven

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18212 on: February 19, 2021, 11:26:52 AM »
Really solid use of the sitcom format / tropes in this weeks wandavision as a payoff

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18213 on: February 19, 2021, 12:21:35 PM »
Ya I actually laughed a lot in this episode

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18214 on: February 19, 2021, 12:24:23 PM »
Watched 2 episodes (so far) of that new Curtis doc.
It's alright so far, pretty catchy and engagingly put together, but his logical leaps sometimes are annoying to the point of being distracting.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18215 on: February 19, 2021, 03:01:24 PM »
JJ Abrams shooting his jizz everywhere I guess.

Full series order for an HBO Max show.

Limited series order for an Apple+ collab with Stephen King.

Man to have that cache and be able to pursue any creative project you'd like... I'm not jelly

Quaker

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18216 on: February 19, 2021, 06:52:42 PM »
Watched 2 episodes (so far) of that new Curtis doc.
It's alright so far, pretty catchy and engagingly put together, but his logical leaps sometimes are annoying to the point of being distracting.
I watched all of HyperNormalisation as well as his new show recently since I ran out of TV shows and found the subject matter and file footage pretty entertaining but some of the leaps and connections seem questionable.

It's minor, but he matter-of-fact claims that Kissinger was the basis for Dr. Strangelove 10 minutes into HyperNormalisation when that's been widely debunked? Reminds me of feeling like there's a lot of shortcuts being taken when I would watch a Michael Moore movie.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2021, 07:02:35 PM by Quaker »

Don Rumata

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« Reply #18217 on: February 19, 2021, 07:53:46 PM »
I also watched HyperNormies before this, since i had never watched Curtis before and wanted a bit of a "short" primer, before spending 9 hours on him.

And yeah that's more or less what i'm talking about, i think it's his style since Can't Get You Out Of My Head is exactly the same, but it can leave you saying "wait back up, what?!", while he's already 7 syllogistic steps ahead. That can give an aura of farce to even the stuff you can't really question yourself, but will have doubts about.
Nevertheless, i find it still compelling (and agree with) the larger picture, but i do have a bit of a doomer personality.

I think if you're going to go with the emotional, gut reaction, i'd prefer a more abstract approach though, like Koyaanisqatsi.
Which still retained a socio-political message, while being almost entirely (almost, because of the title itself) wordless.

The fusion of documentaristic narration, with the machine gun fire pace, can be a jarring contradiction.
Also a bit ironic, since he denounces a tendency for oversimplification in HyperNormalisation.

But again, still very fascinating and engaging, so i'll finish it for sure.

Potato

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18218 on: February 20, 2021, 05:40:12 AM »
Kinda disappointed with WandaVision ep7.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's just going down the predictable path of having a super powered bad guy being responsible for everything. I liked the idea that Wanda was responsible and was essentially the antagonist to vision's protagonist. I shouldn't be surprised, but it's putting me back to just not being that interested in this phase of the MCU
[close]
« Last Edit: February 20, 2021, 05:44:55 AM by Potato »
Spud

Nintex

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18219 on: February 20, 2021, 06:20:11 AM »
This is coming together as some of Curtis' finest work.

It combines elements of Century of the Self, The Mayfair Affair and Hypernormalisation and fills in the gaps left in those documentaries either because events hadn't happened yet or it was a side story.
Still as always you need to know a thing or two about the historical events he's talking about. He's not going to explain exactly what the Watergate scandal is or what happened in depth during the Cultural revolution (that would take up an entire documentary).
But he is going to use those events to tell his story and perspective. Now I wonder if he does this on purpose (so you look up these not all so well known events yourself) and people get a better understanding of how history has shaped the world.

As far as this one goes, he has hit the nail on the head of how the system runs the west after politicians gave up their power to bureaucrats, bankers and technocrats because collective force could no longer compete with power in the age of individualism.
I wonder when he himself realized this is what was happening as most people weren't aware of this until it was right in their faces during the pandemic.
🤴

GreatSageEqualOfHeaven

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18220 on: February 20, 2021, 08:11:06 AM »
Kinda disappointed with WandaVision ep7.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's just going down the predictable path of having a super powered bad guy being responsible for everything. I liked the idea that Wanda was responsible and was essentially the antagonist to vision's protagonist. I shouldn't be surprised, but it's putting me back to just not being that interested in this phase of the MCU
[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was never going to set wanda up as a villain.
I posted earlier that I thought it was going to be riffing on pleasant hill - that it was a holodeck style detention facility they were keeping wanda under arrest in, except she'd subverted it and taken control, but it being her own reality bubble that someone else hijacked for their own purposes works too.
The only really lame thing is how they rushed through monica rambeau captain marvels origin story and are going to have her blasting shit up with her new powers with zero training or explanation next episode, but at least we can reference nextwave

[close]

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18221 on: February 20, 2021, 08:41:47 AM »
This is coming together as some of Curtis' finest work.

It combines elements of Century of the Self, The Mayfair Affair and Hypernormalisation and fills in the gaps left in those documentaries either because events hadn't happened yet or it was a side story.
Still as always you need to know a thing or two about the historical events he's talking about. He's not going to explain exactly what the Watergate scandal is or what happened in depth during the Cultural revolution (that would take up an entire documentary).
But he is going to use those events to tell his story and perspective. Now I wonder if he does this on purpose (so you look up these not all so well known events yourself) and people get a better understanding of how history has shaped the world.

As far as this one goes, he has hit the nail on the head of how the system runs the west after politicians gave up their power to bureaucrats, bankers and technocrats because collective force could no longer compete with power in the age of individualism.
I wonder when he himself realized this is what was happening as most people weren't aware of this until it was right in their faces during the pandemic.
The criticism (which i noticed it quite common of his work, so i'm not really the only one who noticed this) isn't that he doesn't explain what major events are, infact, that's about 50% of what he does in the run time.
The criticism moved is how he sometimes uses intriguing thematic connections, as questionable connections of (often direct) cause and effect, zooming past as to how that would be, and taking it for granted, when it really isn't.

I understand he can't stop building up every strand of the web in complete detail, as this is a movie, not a 3000 pages research paper, but it does sometimes leave you with a raised eyebrow.

On the one hand it's a stylistic choice that gives the work its compelling pace and energy, on the other hand, it's something that when abused can get you in dumbass Zeitgeist territory.

Doesn't help that he can get a bit lurid with his material (this more in HyperN than CGYOOMH so far), which further declares a will to manipulate.
Now don't get me wrong, every documentary is this essentially (every piece of art, too, i would argue), but i feel it's a play that breaks its spell when it cease being invisible, and i think he sometimes overplays his hand, in this aspect.

But again i don't want to sound too critical, since i usually agree with the general points made, more or less, especially about the big picture, and am enjoying the ride there.

zomgee

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18222 on: February 20, 2021, 11:27:21 AM »
WandaVision episode 7 seems like it tripped over itself to push things forward but left a lot of the characters stuck. Like literally stuck at a stop sign or in the throes of exhaustion. Meanwhile it reveals two characters who are a little too inside baseball for me to care about.
rub

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18223 on: February 20, 2021, 11:36:25 AM »
Yeah didn't care for ep7 as much as 5 and 6.

Really cool seeing Wiccan in the MCU though. :) 🏳️‍🌈

Nintex

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18224 on: February 20, 2021, 07:18:52 PM »
Finished the last 2 episodes of Curtis' doc  :whew

spoiler (click to show/hide)
In short

- By replacing human consciousness, ideology and stories with algorithms, data and science because the world was deemed to be too complicated for people to understand, It has no meaning. The machines can only learn from patterns not create a vision for the future and in the age of the individual there is no longer collective power to change society. The world is in a frozen state. Nothing changes.

- Putin believes in nothing and has no plan or vision, as a hail mary he turned to the nationalism he once rejected not because he believes in it but because it protects him. While his power at home fades, he has managed to keep that power because of western conspiracies that put him at the center of world events. But now that myth is starting to fade so he's facing protests again.

- Trump's election shocked the liberals. They couldn't believe that he won and turned to conspiracy theories about manipulation and Russia so it made sense to them. The same intelligence people that they once hated for lying about WMD's are now heroes, the same institutions they regarded as corrupt were now their allies in the fight against Trump. Trump did little to stop the corruption and to explain that his fans came up with their own conspiracy, that Trump is held back and stopped by the deep state and other forces.

- China has resorted to a controlled society because they don't want to live up to how and why they build their new power and wealth. At the essence of the new China is no ideology. China may in fact be a decaying power. Growth is less than what the official figures show, there is deep rooted corruption and the population is rapidly aging.

The pandemic hit right at the moment the systems and societies are exhausted and comes from outside the power structure (military/financial or otherwise). It has laid bare the inequalities in society but because it is not part of that system the system can't do anything about it or predict it.

Curtis predicts three possible outcomes:
1. The world becomes like China, individualism vanishes and is replaced by a society controlled by systems of social credit, if people do not fit into this system they are to be reprogrammed as is also happening in China in the concentration camps.
2. The benign liberalism of the past returns with politicians like Joe Biden once again ruling over the masses on behalf of the elites
3. A new future emerges because the underlying science about how people can be manipulated by social media or otherwise is false and human beings are far stronger than previously thought. People will once again take their destiny into their own hands and shape the world.

[close]
🤴

Bebpo

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18225 on: February 22, 2021, 03:11:15 AM »
Wandavision ep7 was alright. I think all the easter eggs and teasing and fan theories are gonna make it a letdown in the end if MCU doesn't do at least one crazy big deal thing from the comics. Ie.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Something like
-Quicksilver is revealed as actually Fox Quicksilver, mention mutants/x-men,
-Mephisto/Nightmare appearance
-kids DED
-Shattering the multiverse
[close]

If at least one of those don't happen, gonna be disappointed for sure. I feel it's like 50/50 chance of one of those happening. MCU generally plays it pretty safe, but sometimes they do comic-book like things, so who knows.

Also I didn't realize it was 9eps and thought next week was the finale. 9 is kinda a weird number for a show. Normally they're even number of eps.

GreatSageEqualOfHeaven

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18226 on: February 22, 2021, 06:40:49 AM »
Wandavision ep7 was alright. I think all the easter eggs and teasing and fan theories are gonna make it a letdown in the end if MCU doesn't do at least one crazy big deal thing from the comics. Ie.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Something like
-Quicksilver is revealed as actually Fox Quicksilver, mention mutants/x-men,
-Mephisto/Nightmare appearance
-kids DED
-Shattering the multiverse
[close]

If at least one of those don't happen, gonna be disappointed for sure. I feel it's like 50/50 chance of one of those happening. MCU generally plays it pretty safe, but sometimes they do comic-book like things, so who knows.

Also I didn't realize it was 9eps and thought next week was the finale. 9 is kinda a weird number for a show. Normally they're even number of eps.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Those kids are 'dead' for sure at the end of this, even if only to leave those roles open for recasting a CW type show with 20 somethings playing high school aged students.

Its also pretty likely I'd say that next episode is going to have a big bond villain style plan reveal by agnes about what exactly she's been doing and why, and the why I'd also say is pretty likely involving at least mentioning a marvel supernatural being she owes her powers to or is trying to summon or whatever. Whatever her plan actually is, it seems likely she's pretty much successfully achieved it, because why else do the reveal?

Of those, Nightmare fits the theme of the show better in subverting wandas perfect dream life into ending up widowed and childless when reality is reasserted, so if it actually is going to try to introduce a bigger bad the audience at large have never heard of, I'd lean that way. Especially given his name and shtick is pretty easy to exposit, and someone bringing dream logic to the waking world would be an obvious thing they'd want.

The multiverse shit I'm pretty sure already happened in Endgame when they fucked around with time travel and made multiple changes that should affect the future as a result, there just hasn't been any fallout from that yet because theres been no MCU since then.
[close]

bork

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18227 on: February 22, 2021, 07:30:01 AM »
Kinda disappointed with WandaVision ep7.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's just going down the predictable path of having a super powered bad guy being responsible for everything. I liked the idea that Wanda was responsible and was essentially the antagonist to vision's protagonist. I shouldn't be surprised, but it's putting me back to just not being that interested in this phase of the MCU
[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's hard to tell if they're going this route now, but in the comics, Wanda has snapped before and has been the villain, so it's still possible.
[close]


Wandavision ep7 was alright. I think all the easter eggs and teasing and fan theories are gonna make it a letdown in the end if MCU doesn't do at least one crazy big deal thing from the comics. Ie.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Something like
-Quicksilver is revealed as actually Fox Quicksilver, mention mutants/x-men,
-Mephisto/Nightmare appearance
-kids DED
-Shattering the multiverse
[close]


spoiler (click to show/hide)
One thing I was thinking up until the end of the last episode is that "Quicksilver" was actually Mephisto and the whole multiverse thing with this character was just a red herring.  It's still possible that this is the case and that they're fucking with people in regards to Evan Peters' character, but Evans Peters can't be playing Mephisto if Agnes was controlling him. 
[close]
ど助平

tiesto

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18228 on: February 22, 2021, 03:48:06 PM »
My review of Wandavision

Ep1: 7/10. They nailed the sitcom stuff, except for the writing, which was weak
Ep2: 8/10. A little more entertaining, but problems with the laugh track distracted from the fun.
Ep3: 4/10 Weak episode.
Ep4: 2/10. Oh this is some generic Marvel crap. Yawn. And we dont need a movie theater aspect ratio you fucks we're at home. Also, if youre going to cast the chick from two broke girls, DON'T HIDE HER BEST ASSETS.
Ep5: 6/10. It was fine.
Ep6:  Havent seen yet.

Kat Dennings <3

My fiancee's celeb look a like.
^_^

Snoopycat_

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18229 on: February 23, 2021, 09:38:30 PM »
The folk behind Gomorrah have a new mob series out - ZeroZeroZero. Somehow they've managed to come up with a bunch of characters who are even more unlikable than the ones in Gomorrah which is quite an achievement. It's a slow burn but once it gets going it's very good.

benjipwns

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Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18231 on: February 24, 2021, 06:47:06 PM »
The folk behind Gomorrah have a new mob series out - ZeroZeroZero. Somehow they've managed to come up with a bunch of characters who are even more unlikable than the ones in Gomorrah which is quite an achievement. It's a slow burn but once it gets going it's very good.
A trailer was enough to put me off of Gomorrah (the TV show).

To take something like Saviano's book and Garrone's film, and turn it into another "cool gangster flick" shit was really dumb.
Literally that Wow Cool Robot meme.
--

Finished Curtis' Can't Get You Out Of My Head.
Ultimately i enjoyed it quite a bit, despite my criticism (which i still strand by), possibly more than HyperNormalisation.
I wish it spent a bit more time on the contemporary subjects of big tech companies controlling people's destiny, and i was surprised by the complete (unless i missed it?) absence of Snowden's NSA whistle blowing (and Assange's wikileaks to a much lesser degree), i feel like that was also a big moment for conspiracy theories taking hold of normal people's imaginations.

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18232 on: February 24, 2021, 08:29:30 PM »
Frasier reboot would def have him as an Alex Jones type or at least Hannity/Tucker type and it would get cancelled due to backlash within 4-5 eps.
Roseanne was doing mad numbers before she went off on social media no?

benjipwns

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18233 on: February 24, 2021, 08:43:45 PM »
You really think they're going to change Frasier Crane after roughly 35 years from a high class liberal snob into a Trumptard?

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18234 on: February 24, 2021, 08:49:59 PM »
Cheers reboot where they are all in a care home, please.  Have a very special COVID episode. 

Madrun Badrun

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18235 on: February 24, 2021, 09:15:20 PM »
I wish

Snoopycat_

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18236 on: February 24, 2021, 09:35:18 PM »

A trailer was enough to put me off of Gomorrah (the TV show).

To take something like Saviano's book and Garrone's film, and turn it into another "cool gangster flick" shit was really dumb.


I don't know what trailer you saw but they definitely didn't turn it into another "cool gangster flick."

Don Rumata

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18237 on: February 24, 2021, 10:23:30 PM »

A trailer was enough to put me off of Gomorrah (the TV show).

To take something like Saviano's book and Garrone's film, and turn it into another "cool gangster flick" shit was really dumb.


I don't know what trailer you saw but they definitely didn't turn it into another "cool gangster flick."
A couple of them back when they announced it.
It seemed to have lost the dry detachment the movie maintained, which intentionally deprived the gangster world in it of any excitement.
Seemed more like your standard crime melodramatic struggles for power (which is not inherently bad, but i don't care for another show trying to be Sopranos or whatever).  :yeshrug

Quaker

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18238 on: February 25, 2021, 01:11:27 AM »
From the seven or eight episodes I've seen, Gomorrah does come across as Italian premium TV doing a Sopranos/Breaking Bad crime saga without any of the humor or levity. Which is definitely the antithesis of the movie but it's a very good "one of those" which isn't necessarily that easy to pull off(see: Sons of Anarchy).

Zero Zero Zero was probably my favorite show from last year(Better Call Saul was the only one I can think of that I liked as much) but I went into that without any expectations. It's basically like a Sicario/Traffic series with a really well done flashback gimmick in every episode and with Mogwai going all in on the soundtrack(similar to what Explosions in the Sky did on Friday Night Lights.) Plus you don't feel the characters really have plot armor like in a lot of big TV shows.

Tasty

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Re: The TV shows you've seen recently thread.
« Reply #18239 on: February 25, 2021, 09:57:30 AM »
Deadline: ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Franchise To Expand With Launch Of Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios, Animated Theatrical Film In The Works.
https://deadline.com/2021/02/avatar-the-last-airbender-franchise-expansion-launch-nickelodeons-avatar-studios-animated-theatrical-film-1234699594/

After getting booted off the Netflix show, because the streamer apparently wanted, among other things, an older Katara and younger Sokka, I'm really happy Mike and Brian now have their own goddamn studio with assumedly full creative control over the franchise. :hyper