The Glass Teat, or 'Television'

Too easy?

Textbook.

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Old, but not, I think, on balance, taking all views into consideration, prima facie entirely irrelevant

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In my defense, Iā€™m very lazy.

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Colony. The third season started recently and I managed to miss it as I was preoccupied with Westworld, Legion, The Expanse, and so on and so forth. Itā€™s still quite good. Doesnā€™t have a massive budget, but it also knows its strengths, with no-nonsense action choreography and cinematography. Keeps the cast small, to characters we know well. No big additions to the plot or sudden subplots, staying focused.

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I love Colony, and weā€™ve watched it since the beginning.

Theyā€™ve really made the most of their move from LA to Vancouver for filming. Lots of great Canadian scenery.

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I canā€™t handle how good Killing Eve is.

Dammit. Okay, Iā€™m downloading it nowā€¦this might be how I fill my time on the plane tomorrow.

I refuse to be intrigued.

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The Expanse was picked up by Amazon.

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Four episodes into season 1 of Santa Clarita Diet. I was doubtful after episode 1, but won over by the brilliant tightrope walk between light-hearted comedy and the very blackest of humour. Plus lots of swearing, which is something Iā€™ve also noticed on The Good Fight. People get to say ā€œfuckā€ a lot, like normal humans, rather than ā€œfā€”-ā€œ or ā€œgoddamnā€. (Suits in particular makes more sense if you mentally map ā€œgoddamnā€ to ā€œfuck(ing)ā€ every time someone says it).

ETA: subsequently laughed a lot through eps 5-8, although Mrs StCā€™s excellent margaritas may have been partly to blame.

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(^.^)/

ā€¦thanks for the info.
I really was bummed out about the cancellationā€¦even if I still like the books more the world needs more sci-fi and less other crap on TV in my not so humble opinion.

Okay, finished season 1 of Killing Eve. Thought it was okay but nothing special. The last couple episodes in Russia raised it up a bit, but before that it was fairly meh.

Apparently Iā€™m the only person in the world who didnā€™t think it was the beeā€™s knees, so what did I miss?

I really liked the performances of the two leads, the soundtrack, and the editing. Itā€™s pretty standard thriller fare thatā€™s executed very well. Funnily enough, the last few episodes are where it started to lose me a little.

Oh, and the obsessive relationship between Eve and Villanelle reminded me of Hannibal, which I miss dearly.

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Iā€™m really enjoying Killing Eve. Perhaps slightly too comedic in places, but really well constructed. Sandra Oh is just perfect. Jodie Comer is perfecter, sheā€™s like my Agent 47 in Hitman if he was good at his job and had a sense of humour. Even some of the supporting cast are excellent (David Haig).

I have been devouring Penn And Teller: Fool Us on YouTube (I believe is airs on the CW in America).

Many, many years ago I was tasked with learning some basic magic tricks (the kind that more or less work themselves) to help drum up attention for a community event. Yeah, it sounds really nerdy. Anyways, there is a thrill associated with leaving your audience wondering how you did what you did and I quickly adopted magic as a small hobby. Iā€™m digging myself deeper here, arenā€™t I? I read books and I watched instructional videos and I learned that I will never have the dexterity to do what I wish I could do. This is all a preface to say that I quite enjoy the mechanics and the artistry behind magic, though many of the theatrics are not for me.

Penn and Teller are excellent magicians - some of the best of the modern era - but more so than that they are students of the art. You will not find anyone who knows more about the history of illusions and how the craft has evolved through the years. No matter what you think of their personalities, they clearly have a deep love and respect for the craft and donā€™t suffer some of the buffoonery that is often associated with it.

The hook of the show is that magicians are given a chance to perform a trick in front of the duo and a live audience in the hopes that P&T canā€™t figure out how they do it. Occasionally they are fooled and I take great pleasure in seeing master craftsmen astonished by what someone in their own field has accomplished. Whether they are fooled or not, though, the show is a highlight of some of the greatest practicing magicians and there are some truly astonishing acts.

On the plus side, there arenā€™t many of those lame Chris Angel street performers or the overly-dramatic Copperfoeld types. There is also a lot more slight of hand magic, so donā€™t expect to see many of the giant Copperfield-style stage performances.

It is a fun show, but I really, really, really wish they would tell us the trick when they arenā€™t fooled. I get that no magician would go on the show if their secrets were revealed, but I love learning how magicians do their stuff.

Sometimes it doesnā€™t matter if the trick is revealed, it is still fun to see the execution.

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I saw them in Vegas a few years ago, and my favorite bits were the ones where they did a trick on someone, and showed you, the audience, how they were doing it, and it was a cool trick, but then they simultaneously used that as cover to pull an even more elaborate and astounding trick. It was pretty amazing.

Sharp Objects. This is off to a promising start. Bleak small town murders and an investigating reporter with some scars. Amy Adams bossing another role. A firm grasp on the small grim details.