What are you watching at the moment? (possible spoilers)

[gak]

I Dream of Wires
Modular Synthesizer Documentary
Netflix

Ah, will watch in the next couple!

[gak]

Oh, so just got through with "birdman/or the unbelievable whitewash of ignorance"

Let's start there, "what is a critic?" I'd define it as someone who watched this movie objectively w/o falling for the overbearing self importance of a good film that isn't as great as film as it's touted.

W/o being vulgar (like parts of the movie) it's insane self repetition of pleasing itself is the main premise. Actors (good ones) "acting" w/o anything to actually act and forsaking a story for rather good cinematography, how shitty people are (now who would have thought of that? ) and the overwhelming need to make anyone and everyone around you miserable for egos that are unimportant or worse, unnecessary.

Mixed in is this interesting notion that our lead character has super powers, is psychotic, or both. I'm pretty sure this is what got the oscar committee to see put that it was this years "best" imHo. Frankly, if the end would have been him falling to his death it would have made more sense though.

It wasn't a bad film, in fact I recommend it. But the self pleasuring aspect had me rolling my eyes constantly and realizing that it's yet another one of shmollywoods attempt to fool people into thinking that that is what is important in life. The unabashed forgiveness for people that are assholes and self important because they are so good at something as meaningless as being an "actor" and then making ridiculous comments about.....oh, I'll stop there

[JiggeryPokery]

I've just started watching "Mr Robot" after seeing some positive reviews.

So far, I've been fairly impressed. There's a lot of Fight Club in its DNA, which is no bad thing. Eps 2-4 haven't been quite as strong as the pilot, perhaps, but hopefully it's just putting pieces into place for later in the season.

Framing is deliberately bizarre, with people almost barely in the frame much of the time, creating a very strange atmosphere.

The "CD" storyline feels off, and Christian Slater's character even by ep 4 is still too thinly drawn to be engaging. However, a lot of its issues may be down to an issue typical of US TV - that season 1 tends to be the show finding its feet in the early episodes.


_________

Orphan Black s3 was very good (Maslany outstanding as before), but story-wise it feels like they're starting to just pile up layer of conspiracy upon layer of conspiracy just for the sake of extending the show and pretending to make it feel like a complex universe. I can't say I particularly liked the Mark clones. Unlike some I loved the "Breaking Bad" storyline with Alison/Donnie, (er, Alison/Donnie/Helena, um Alison/Donnie/Cosima) storyline, though.

________

House of Cards s3 I found dull. It's often noted how it took Netflix 22 hours just to get to where the BBC got to in 4 brilliant, tightly written ones. And it's true that the next two series (To Play the King and The Final Cut) weren't as impressive. But at least Richardson's FU remained a complete bastard and in total charge, and that was the joy of the show. Spacey's FU, so good in seasons 1 and 2, is revealed as rather petty and extremely weak, with langours lasting multiple episodes and flabby writing, and repetitive nonsense about filibusters, that no-one outside of the US is ever going to understand .

That other US remake of British political classic, Veep, is far superior, dramatically and comedically.


________

OITNB s3 was excellent, but perhaps lacked some of the character-based narrative thrust of s1 and s2, with the narrative drive purely dictated by the needs of the corporation.

[gak]

Agree with the pile on pile of conspiracy about ob.

Since ancient aliens started back up it's clear that "you guys are retarded but funny" is gone and it's time to just stop. Serial killers and aa?

There that is enough posting from the iPad.

[decibel]

watched the japanese film "confessions" last night after ignoring it for a long time , i wish i had jumped in sooner, mind blowing film, highly recommended

[EnochLight]

I gave Fear the Walking Dead a spin. It was... ok. It'll do until the proper show resumes in 6 weeks. Lately I've been watching Hell on Wheels, though it's sort of meandered since Common's character was killed off.

My wife just started binge watching Lost Girl. I'm considering it but I'm not completely sold yet.

[gak]

"lost girl" used to be a guilty pleasure of mine. The last season (which was supposed to be the LAST season) was awful. I mean, absolute nothing good. No fun, no crazy intrigue, boring. It was like it tried to tie up all the loose ends in a really bad way and then "oh btw, we've renewed it"

[gak]

My tastes have changed dramatically.

Watched 15 minutes of "dominion" (a show I liked last year) and did a beavis/butthead disgusted face, ditched it. Wondering why I ever liked it.

Extant was pretty good for a few episodes (I was really surprised) then it turned into retardo the wonder soap again, ditched it, won't watch it again.

Defiance was mostly better this year, but towards the end it went all silly-soap in space. The turning point for the worse was when they sent the purple batch back up to the ship (which everyone cheered with delight) and then INSTANTLY brought her back. That was the death of that show. Hopefully it won't be back. I'll have to be pretty pretty bored if it does to watch it again.

Back to Doctor Who. The final two episodes were finally brilliant. Capaldi finally "lived" the doctor part (took him long enough) and Missy/Master was the best bad gal ever! Then of course there was the xmas special and we're back to MEH. I'll watch this season at first, have very low hopes.

Can't get into daredevil so far. Boring me to tears. I'll give it a couple more tries before giving up

Way more into concerts and music shows than anything else (thought using the ipad for youtube isn't much fun considering the non-stop ads and pop ups. Netfilx is really confusing. Though you can find some stuff, it's very hard to find things. For example, you cannot simply do "music" as a search. So it's break out the ipad, search for "best music docs" and then keying in THOSE names to find. Horrible. DTV isn't much better.

Isn't this 2015? Man, this tech lags HARD for the times.

[EnochLight]

Speaking of Netflix' Daredevil (I thought it was... eh), Marvel's Agents of Shield resumes soon. I'll watch the shit out of that.

[Tincture]

Oh, so just got through with "birdman/or the unbelievable whitewash of ignorance"

Let's start there, "what is a critic?" I'd define it as someone who watched this movie objectively w/o falling for the overbearing self importance of a good film that isn't as great as film as it's touted.

W/o being vulgar (like parts of the movie) it's insane self repetition of pleasing itself is the main premise. Actors (good ones) "acting" w/o anything to actually act and forsaking a story for rather good cinematography, how shitty people are (now who would have thought of that? ) and the overwhelming need to make anyone and everyone around you miserable for egos that are unimportant or worse, unnecessary.

Mixed in is this interesting notion that our lead character has super powers, is psychotic, or both. I'm pretty sure this is what got the oscar committee to see put that it was this years "best" imHo. Frankly, if the end would have been him falling to his death it would have made more sense though.

It wasn't a bad film, in fact I recommend it. But the self pleasuring aspect had me rolling my eyes constantly and realizing that it's yet another one of shmollywoods attempt to fool people into thinking that that is what is important in life. The unabashed forgiveness for people that are assholes and self important because they are so good at something as meaningless as being an "actor" and then making ridiculous comments about.....oh, I'll stop there

I did see him flying off as his suicide. No one can fly. No matter what, your ego always stays with you. He thinks he's free but then sees birdman sitting there and so commits suicide and for the film makers pov is finally free. From my pov, death can't bring anything but death.

[Tincture]

Apologies if I'm just stating what you saw as being obvious.

[EnochLight]

I did see him flying off as his suicide. No one can fly. No matter what, your ego always stays with you. He thinks he's free but then sees birdman sitting there and so commits suicide and for the film makers pov is finally free. From my pov, death can't bring anything but death.

Apologies if I'm just stating what you saw as being obvious.

That's what I got out of Birdman as well. Fantastic performance from Michael Keaton, though. Was great to see him flex his chops again.

[decibel]

about 4 episodes into "narcos", its pretty watchable so far, had a few friends who had families in that area when i was growing up, seeing the local images on screen is helping me visualize the stories they used to tell me all these years later etc

[pLansford]

I'm watching yo' mama right now (possible spoilers). Haha! Sorry couldn't resist. So the last show I watched was the X Files and I don't think anything is going to top that. I tried to follow David Duchovny to Californication but I was really turned off by all of the superficiality and the sex. I browse Netflix and nothing really grabs me. Just seems like a big waste of time. I like to watch Pokemon after I get really drunk so I can have something to fall asleep to without my head spinning so much. Besides X Files, only shows I watched thoroughly were The Sopranos and Lost. I only watched the Sopranos because there was a time when I had a girlfriend and we picked that show to watch together.

[gak]

@birdman: Well, I just like to batch about "self pleasuring" shlockeywood movies. As I said though, it's original and does have great acting. Though I have reservations, it's definitely on my "yeah, go watch it" list

Watching two of "those" movies right now (off and on with each because one will freeze up and then I have to switch to the other until it freezes up/etc)

Hangar 10/Area 51. Both are in the "blair witch" style. Not horrible at all so far. Usually when something is boring or overly cheesy I stop but for some reason they are keeping my interest. Not terribly exciting, but entertaining.....going back to finish them momentarily (need a post fix )

Thanks to Syfy for renewing "dark matter" and especially "killjoys" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope they don't fuck it up like some other shows they renewed in recent years.

[gak]

Oh, and I forgot. For at least the 3rd time "styx grand illusion/pieces of eight" from Memphis. Even if you hate styx, you'll like this. Great playing, excellent renditions of the songs, and though they have jordan rudess jr (with hair) on key ( ) they are fantastic. Lot's of fun, really forgot what excellent messages those two records had for people. Heady comes to mind (jeeez gak, what the fuck have you been smoking!)

[freeQlow]

Mad Max was awesome, that is all for now.

[gak]

I Dream of Wires
Modular Synthesizer Documentary
Netflix

Ah, will watch in the next couple!

I still haven't finished this. Started out really interesting (where it came from, the NY scene that started). Then when they started to add in (pretty early on) all the "hippy/counter-culture" interviews I got really turned off.

[gak]

Mad Max was awesome, that is all for now.

Everyone keeps saying that. I watch the trailers though and no impressed even a little bit.

When it comes out on show/hbo/etc I'll give it a shot maybe.

[gak]

Hangar 10/Area 51. Both are in the "blair witch" style. Not horrible at all so far. Usually when something is boring or overly cheesy I stop but for some reason they are keeping my interest. Not terribly exciting, but entertaining.....going back to finish them momentarily

Meh, like BWP, cloverfield, and every single other one of "those" films they both ended lame. If you put that much time into trying to trick someone into believing into thinking it's "real" then you should at least not try and compete for "top 10 lamest endings"

[freeQlow]

Husband's and boyfriends beware.
If your woman can't stand Strippers, don't watch area 51 with her.
Crappy scene and fucking pointless to the plot, just a heads up!

[gak]

It was harmless vs most things these days. They show some boobies. Cheerleaders at high school games come close

[freeQlow]

It was harmless vs most things these days. They show some boobies. Cheerleaders at high school games come close :lol:

A waste of a scene and a rental, never finished it.

The signal however was Good IMO.


Mad Max was a surprise, loved the new spin on the Max Universe

[decibel]

watched a musician themed film called "rudderless" last night, it was ok

[decibel]

never knew much about brian wilson and the beach boys, but just finished watching the film "love and mercy" about brians life, not a bad film at all, had no idea how difficult things were for him, good to see there was a happy ending etc, worth a watch if your into the beach boys or popular music in general.. also stars john cussack as brian