Wow, the Matt Frewer as a series regular on a genre show with a middling budget? That's only happened 174 cancelled-after-six-episodes-aired times since Paranoimia! To be fair, The Knick ruled. And Cinemax actually put up with it for 2 years. And he was barely in it. BUT... The Knick ruled!
Devs has shitloads of potential & looks and sounds (Salisbury & Barrow!) amazing. Unfortunately, it also has the mandatory redundant flashback stalling episode - and I can't get over the fact that Spoiler the clue to the deep fake suicide was a bit of extremely lazily c&p'ed fire. I mean, why the fuck would Amaya over-fake (again, BADLY) the part that actually happened..?? I keep hoping there'll be a pay-off to that (like the shit fake being intentional to lure in Lily & Kenton ridiculing Asian puppy boy for falling for something that obvious before snapping his neck), but I kinda doubt it. "You are a dissident, I am a tank. Do you believe me?" was a grand moment though.
Some rude individual just uploaded the entirely of Horace and Pete to YouTube. I, of course, immediately popped all of the episodes into a playlist. You might consider making a day of it.
I can't really go into much detail because it couldn't hold my attention well enough for me to pinpoint what about the story was bad. In general though, it gave me the feeling of re-watching old 80s cartoons as an adult - lots of pointless exposition that just seemed like words and jargon to flimsily support whatever the characters were suppose to do next. The characters were wooden, which was an issue I had with s1 but it was way worse in s2. I really liked Poe in s1, which was pretty much the only reason I gave s2 a try. Didn't care about Poe in s2. I can see Altered Carbon being good in book format, and possibly as a TV show - the broad strokes make for an interesting story. But whether it's the writing, directing, acting, or some combination, this TV production just didn't work for me.
I really wanted to like this one, and I watched every episode because it was certainly different and striving for a new style of drama/comedy. But, a combination of the way it was directed, with such unsympathetic characters - it was a bit harsh. I just felt CK was going out of his way to make the show as depressing as possible.
I can see that, all of what you said, but I walked away from spending ten weeks with the thing - a week between each installment, not even knowing if more were actually on the way or when they might drop - highly impressed and deeply moved. I understood it to be CK going out his way to capture an older style of drama/comedy, with models from both sides of the pond - Norman Lear's humanist sit-coms and Mike Leigh's filmed plays - informing his approach. What he was avoiding, I think, was forcing himself to soften the people that he was presenting - the sentimental bit at the end that brings you back to watch more detergent commercials, or the shoehorning in of a quip that would never come out of that orphan's mouth, etc - and providing the polish that pervades the other nearly 100% of what gets produced for the masses eyes these past 40 years. I think he succeeded, it was a time machine without saccharine tugs at the nostalgia strings, and I'm thankful they made the effort; cast and crew, front to back. I'd never say it wasn't harsh - it was absolutely gutting at times, and getting used to the anachronistic style of it certainly took a minute - but I found it to be a profoundly rewarding viewing experience. Also, on occasion, an extremely funny one. EDIT: Left an 'ed' off a word. Fixed!
High Score Girl Season 2 was fantastic. If enjoyed the first season, you’ll surely get your fix out of this one!
Agreed, I've been watching a subtitled version of s02 and dug it very much. I haven't enjoyed Anime this much in quite a while.
Delightfully surprised by just how much I've liked this one. I was on a streak of finding something to hate about every new serial we would take up (and which I would quickly abandon, my wife sometimes continuing on). Most everything about Devs was enjoyable. We have two eps left...
Stop what yr doing IMMEDIATELY! The new Woodring doc is streaming FOR FREE over at CBR! The Dude abides: PS - You can donate some scratch if you like: There's a link to the filmmaker's PP after the post-credits sequence. I kicked him a fiver.
You guys mess with Pluto TV? It's a free streaming app and website that has a ton of stuff. It's like free cable. It feels good to just scroll through channels now and see what's out there. They have a Tokusatsu channel as well.
Am I the only one who has benchmark shows? I will assess a new show and have to compare it to another and then decide if I will commit. This has proved problematic with sci fi as my benchmark is Fringe, which is obviously one of the greatest shows ever.
Yeah, only a couple weeks ago Maron mentioned she was sick but had tested negative for Covid. They were in lockdown together ...
A little bit of shameless self promotion but, the show I've been working on for over a year just premiered on Friday. It called 'Central Park' and it's an animated show from Loren Bouchard, the creator of Bob's Burgers, and Josh Gad. Its really good (.. if I do say so myself..), and a good pick me up if you need a break from the awful place the world is right now. It's on AppleTv, which I know is a drag but if you're an apple device user you can watch the first two episodes free, and theres some offer that if you've recently bought a new apple device you get a year of apple tv free or something. If you're like me and don't have any apple devices you use you can still do a free trial and watch on a browser. I know maybe some of you think I'm a dick promoting this here, but I can't even begin to tell you the hard work that has gone into this show, by myself and an amazing crew of artists. Here is the trailer:
Ju - On: Origins recently dropped on Netflix. It’s a six part first season with 28 minute episodes. Just finished it up today. Pretty disturbing at certain points, and relatively unsettling, as per the recipe for much of Japanese horror. Highly recommended.
The Last Dance hit Netflix, I think, on July 19th? Follows the 97 - 98 Chicago Bulls, mainly focusing on Jordan and Pippen, but the overall team as a whole. I don’t really know shit about basketball or the NBA, aside from general rules and when I played basketball as a kid. But the dynamic and the drama of the sports world is super interesting. I’m only about to start the third episode.
Started watching it the other night. I definitely remember the first 3-peat as that's when the Bulls (and Pistons) were the team that stood between my team (Blazers) and a championship. But I was in HS and college for the second one so I had better things to do that pay attention to sports at that point. One thing I've heard about The Last Dance is that it's NOT a documentary - it's MJ's story as told by MJ. So take it with a grain of salt. Still, first episode was fun, but I'm sure it's gonna get a bit painful watching him destroy my team again.
Anybody watch A Taxi Driver yet? I think it's on Hulu. We watched it a few weeks ago, not really knowing anything about it. It looked like a fun, beautifully shot S.Korean movie. It was those things, but it was much more intense than we thought going into it. And very appropriate for this specific point in time...especially being in Portland.
As a non sport loving Brit (unless it has a combustion engine), I have zero interest in Basketball or the MJ phenomenon, but found the series interesting and insightful. Still none the wiser as the game strategy or tournament format and the jumping between years kinda lost me on occasions, but the narrative that was woven in and the characters involved kept things entertaining.