Mindhunter. A David Fincher job, it follows FBI agents as they make their baby steps into the profiling and study of serial killers. Masterfully directed with proper montages and everything, complete with pipsqueak upstart and old hand partners, young Cate Blanchett as on-hand academic assistance, and a great cast of serial killers, especially the role-within-a-role of Cameron Britton as Ed Kemper.
Saw that in Netflix the other day and added it to my list, glad to hear itâs good. Finishing up Gomorrah now, mob family in Italy, in Italian. Very good if you donât mind subtitles or speak Italian.
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Is anyone having better luck with Star Trek Discovery than me? I feel like the Klingons are the greatest warrior race to ever fatally stab themselves in their first fight on screen. Iâm just not buying it.
I have yet to see it, but Iâve read that the show has turned the dial up on violence and profanity over traditional Trek. Iâm not opposed to that style of dark Sci-Fi, but it sounds like they are trying to shoehorn a different style of show into the Star Trek line, which is a bit of a letdown for me, personally. Any thoughts on this?
They kind of are, butâŚitâs Star Trek. Perhaps I havenât reached the point where it really kicks in, but itâs cringe-inducing yet endearing in itâs attempts to be âdarkâ. Proper âedgy teenâ levels of effort. And the rest of the show is intact, e.g. big starships lining up opposite each other a few hundred metres away and swapping shots on a 2D plane.
Just discovered Last Man on Earth. Been a fan of Will Forte since MacGruber, so on board. Some excellent cringe.
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I can verify solid cringes through the entire run of the series. I quite enjoyed it.
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Strangerer Things. Better than the first series so far. Although itâs something of a retread of the first series, I think the rapport between the kids especially has improved, and a lot of the acting is better even if the writing is nicht sehr gut.
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My wife and I are 4 episodes in and enjoying it quite a bit.
No idea what this means lol⌠but Iâm looking forward to starting Season 2!
The great yet inexplicable Knight Rider rewatch continues, to the extent that weâve made a start on season 2. That of course means weâre in inferior-not-Bonnie time, but in the words of TV Tropes, the bus came back, so thereâs that to look forward to.
The gender politics is in a weird transition zone, where the damsel-in-distress-of-the-week is, nevertheless a capable strong independent and conveniently single woman, but also is rendered helpless or incompetent because plot. Hence, the rancher who was born on a ranch, raised and worked among cattle her whole life, and is keeping the ranch going after the death of her husband, is unable to handle the worldâs most docile bull and has to be amusingly rescued by KITT. Or, where the damsel actually turns out to be a ruthless international assassin, but still manages to look like sheâs borrowed her husbandâs car without permission and isnât sure if this is the right way to the shops. Hey ho.
The most.jarring tonal shift of season 1 was where a journalist was taken from his cell and disappeared by the compliant sheriffâs department on the orders of a corrupt judge. His otherwise unresolved murder is given a one-liner of oh well, he got a Pulitzer and the story he always wanted. Ok then. In that episode, thereâs a scene where Michael Knight and the journalistâs ex-wife are trying to track him down through the stonewalling justice system, clearly concerned for his well-being, but still find time for a cozy supper Ă deux back at her place.
Maybe Iâm overthinking this.
Oh, a favourite trope; Michael has a perfectly civil chat with someone. As Michael leaves, the camera zooms on the someone as they adopt a shifty expression and make a phone call, preferably while looking tense into the middle distance. Hm, wonder if thatâs a villain.
Maybe itâs because the art of story-telling has evolved in oh god three decades, but KR really doesnât trust the viewers to understand whatâs going on. Apart from the afore-griped-about clumsy zooms, not to mention dramatic zooms-plus-freeze-frames, and the look! a bad guy! signalling, and helpful exposition from Devon to keep everyone on track, everywhere needs a sign. A character canât just walk into a bank, or a shop, or an armoury, and expect the viewer to infer from the cashiers, shelves or racks of sinister artillery shells where they are. (Oh, excellent ordnance/ordinance typo on one sign).
Definitely overthinking this.
One interesting touch is the occasional use of odd camera viewpoints, like between the horns of a bull or from the bucket of an attacking backhoe, something Iâve seen most recently in Breaking Bad.
Anyway, the Hoffâs acting skills are noticeably better in season 2, to the detriment of the supporting actors around him. KITT also gets some character development, and weâll gloss over the gadget of the week trope. Star Trek was far worse after all.
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The Punisher. Regardless of how it turns out, I think Bernthal is perfect for the role. I donât think the series needs this kind of set up, I thought I read Marvel was skipping origin stories, but apparently we need several episodes of Freddy Fuckaround before getting to him realising his career is killing criminals oh no wait he already did that oh no turns out he didnât do the job right.
So, after joining the story halfway through the epilogue to his initial spree of vigilantism or whatever the fuck theyâve done, theyâre spending episodes explaining it all. Itâs just not very compelling. I think what I wanted from the series was what I got from Ennisâ Punisher Max run; extreme violence, killing criminals, and Marvel was just never going to do that in a million years. A character that just isnât in the same frame as questions about legality, morality, revenge, and justice, was never going to get a series.
Just finished Twin Peaks last night, actually. Thought it was much lighter on humor than the original run, not necessarily a bad thing. I have always appreciated Lynchâs ability to evoke unease and the alien without resorting to an outlandish visual language, although he did do some more in the effects department this time around. In retrospect Iâm not sure how I expected it to end, given how it ended the first time, but the way it did seems entirely fitting. Itâs like reading a particularly obtuse Gene Wolfe book; you just have to be ok with being in the charactersâ shoes and not knowing what the fuck is going on. Although I do think Lynch has a tendency to let a shot go on long past the point of maximum impact, the occasional moments when those long shots go on exactly as much as they need to probably make the rest of it worthwhile. Some interesting reflections on Lynch in various places over at thenightshirt.com.
I do 40 minutes a day on my Elliptical and so stream a series every day when I do. Recently I decided to do the Arrowverse shows in airdate order, since I never watched them. Arrow Season 1 and 2 were fine, not great, but just fine elliptical watching. I just started season 3, and season 1 of The Flash, and I am about 8 episodes in, and damn do I like The Flash. Itâs much better than Arrow so far.
Oh, and I have to register my deep displeasure with the casting of Chrysta Bell as Tamara Preston. The whole time I was reading (and listening) to the Secret History of Twin Peaks I was picturing someone like Linda Fiorentino, but instead we get someone who acts like a softcore porn actress. I understand Lynch is one of those guys who pretty much works with people heâs worked with before, but she did not fit in with the rest of the cast, and pretty much every scene she was in I found myself rolling my eyes.
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I watch the Arrowverse shows while running on my treadmill. They are perfect for that as I need to be distracted by corny superhero stories. I donât know that Iâd be engrossed if I were looking for a weekend binge watch, but they fit the bill perfectly for the workout.
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Are you questioning Lynchâs decision to film a guy sweeping the floor for over two minutes???
While I enjoyed the third season, I did find myself asking whether Lynch was just trolling the audience several times during its runâŚ
That was for sure one of the shots that tried my patience. The 8th episode, for all its brilliance, was also probably about 15 minutes too long. I enjoyed the shots he used, just didnât necessarily need them in my eyeballs for that long. I actually loved the long shots in the first couple episodes of the glass tank and the dark road (and didnât mind similar shots at the end), because they really ratcheted up the tension. Unfortunately, he just kept going.
Also, man, I donât care what music you listen to. If I want a 5+ minute live performance Iâll go to YouTube, not watch Twin Peaks.
Also in retrospect I think we have to assume that shot takes place after the rest of the season. I wonder if there are others that that can be said about. Hmm.