FUBAR - new arnold series on netflix. if you read the synopsis, you realize that on paper this sounds an awfully lot in the vein of true lies. you'd be right. it's a ridiculously over the top, tongue in cheek, self-referential, high action/family drama show. the thing is, it kind of works. similar to La Brea, which i've sang about here before, it knows exactly what it is and leans into it. it's silly, it's crazy, not at all realistic, but played entirely straight, and it just kind of works. starts slow and feels sort of stilted/tedious. your eyes will be sore from rolling them during the first episode. but either it settles in an gets better, or i surrendered to the rhythm of what the show was, but it started working for me almost immediately after that. again, it's goofy as fuck, but the humor fits and saves the show. i'd much rather see old arnie try stuff like this than try to pull off more "tough guy" stuff at his age (with the exception of King Conan, which should still absolutely be done so he can pass the mantle). it's trash TV and knows it. check it out.

TC wrote: 06/08/21, 07:34:24

TC wrote: this got less funny pretty quickly. not not funny, just, now that all the characters were introduced, it was time for some drama. it picked up toward the end of the 10-episode run, and ended setting up s2. i read some interviews, it's already been renewed for two more seasons, and the creators say it's a finite three-season series. said the only way it would have more is if they filmed jason coaching a soccer team that plays a block from his house. he's got two little kids and wants to stay home more i guess, not spend months in london every year. sounds like s2 is scheduled to start production next month.

first two episodes of s2 were fantastic. it's such a great show. ted might be the best character in a series in a very long time, outside of Barry. love it.

And yet another 3-and-done series, just wrapped season 3, which is likely the series finale (although I'm sure there will be spinoffs). It is such a great, fun show. There were some low points this season but overall stuck true to the Ted formula. It was great fun, and just such a positive vibe, which is not usually something I'm into, but it works so well for this show that it's must-see for me. If you have somehow avoided this show, now that it's wrapped, do yourself a favor and dig in.

oh yeah, forgot to mention - watched Quasi last weekend, the straight-to-Hulu new film from the Broken Lizard crew. it's basically a retelling of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, but in their style. there were some jokes that definitely made me laugh, but few & far between. wasn't even as funny as Tacoma FD. i mean, they probably had fun filming it, which is the only reason this was even done as far as i can tell. it's just overall not good.

watched lots of stuff recently...

Fletch - after watching the recent remake, i rewatched the original. it absolutely still holds up. all the quotable lines and humor still work. one thing i noticed when comparing the Hamm version and this - really, they are extremely similar in writing. the character of Fletch is essentially the same. i think the main reason the original feels more "funny" is the soundtrack. the iconic, playful, and memorable harold faltermeyer work on this gives an entirely different feeling when watching. i think if you put the remake score under this film, or lifted this score under the remake, the feeling of the films would flip-flop. so really, watching this made me appreciate how good the remake actually is, while still being able to love this as i always have.

Nocturnal Animals - rewatched this accidentally. meaning, i didn't remember from the title that i had watched this before, but shortly into it realized i had. man is this a dark, depressing film. really well done, and i do like it, but man it's dark. i think if you do a trilogy of this, The Pledge, and Melancholia, you'd probably die from sad.

Drops Of God - went into this knowing nothing about it. apparently it's based on a hit manga? regardless, a fabulous story set in the fascinating world of elite wines and wine tasters. that's extremely reductive of what this really is, but that's the draw. the drama of this is extremely well done. multi-lingual (french, japanese, english), excellent cast, beautiful writing are all highlights of this 8-episode limited series. while i found the ending to be sort of at odds with the feeling of the rest of the show and kind of silly, as i understand it it's inline with the source material. highly recommend watching this. i haven't seen much talk about it, so it's flying under the radar at the moment, but deserves any view and praise it will undoubtedly get.

White House Plumbers - 5-episode docudrama about Liddy, Hunt, and the Watergate saga. wasn't expecting there to be so much humor in this, but man it's fully of bungling hijinks. Harrelson and Theroux are fantasticly cast, as is Lena Heady, and really everyone else. very entertaining and well-done show. the facts of this thing are truly humorous, as is the motive and how things really unfolded. absolutely worth the watch. again, Theroux's Liddy is a massive highlight. he's so great.

Prehistoric Planet - first season was excellent, so expected nothing less from s2, and was so rewarded. if you're remotely interested in dinosaurs and the reality of life back then, this effects-driven show is an great watch. the one negative i'll say is that they make a lot of statements about how things were, how species behaved, etc., without really explaining how they made those determinations. they pick one thing to explain after each episode, but i had several questions in each that don't get addressed. so i guess it's more of a prompt to do your own research, if you care enough to do so.

Chimp Empire - unbelievable show documenting groups of chimps in the Ngogo forest. the back story is insane - it took these people 30 years to build the trust with the chimps to enable the filming of this 5-episode show to happen. extremely intimate look at chimp society, rules, behaviors, wars, survival, etc. highly recommended.

Jared From Subway - yet another documentary that could have been one hour rather than three. not news to anyone that yes, the guys is fucked up and depraved. it features a narcissistic DJ who manages to make the whole thing about her, even trying to go around the FBI because she knows better. she also compares what she went through to PTSD and blames her health issues and lack of relationship with her kids on being an FBI informant. the most surprising part of this doc is that everyone around him got way longer sentences than he did. when he gets out, he'll still have a long life ahead of him in which to continue to groom and victimize children, so we have that to look forward to. this is a shit documentary, though.

TC wrote: 10/10/21, 06:38:53 Young Frankenstein - still fantastic. Really an amazing film on several levels. Was kind of a bummer pointing out all the people now dead, but man what a piece of work. Has to be near the top of a list of best comedies pretty universally.

watched again last night. it really is an incredible film, delivered almost completely on gene wilder's 100% over-the-top take on and performance of the character. while the rest of the case delivers, their lines and jokes would not have been so perfect without gene's scene-setting and gobbling.

TC wrote: 22/06/23, 10:05:13 watched again last night. it really is an incredible film, delivered almost completely on gene wilder's 100% over-the-top take on and performance of the character. while the rest of the case delivers, their lines and jokes would not have been so perfect without gene's scene-setting and gobbling.

Easily one of my top five comedies of all time. Wilder makes the film for sure.

The Wire - it was talked about here way back on page 35, and i've heard so much about how great it is, with people comparing it to the sopranos, but somehow i still have never watched it. started to remedy this last week and just wrapped season 1 last night. it is very good, but i don't think it's remotely on the level of the sopranos. it's a police procedural ("Hey, what if L&O were uncuffed on cable?"), and after watching things like City On A Hill, it feels very familiar. yes, of course, the cast is fantastic. real bummer to know that michael k. williams and lance reddick are now both dead. they were so great. wild to see some of the other actors here that were so much younger than i've seen them in things recently, like peter gerety. hard to believe this season was 21 years ago. anyway, it was enjoyable, looking forward to seeing where this goes. i've finally started on the journey. wish me luck.

The Wire is so good! I wish I had time to go back and watch it all over again. If I remember right, Season 2 shifts to the dock workers and changes tone a bit and throws in a batch of new characters. I liked the focus of each season on different aspects of Baltimore. I've never watched the Sopranos, so I can't compare it to that one.

Yes, s2 is at the docks. And man, if you haven’t seen the sopranos, you have fucked up the last 24 years of TV watching. You need to remedy that ASAP. It’s quite possibly the greatest TV show ever made. I am now halfway through The Wire s2 and really don’t get the sopranos comparisons. I guess just in that they were both very early in the prestige TV era for HBO? But thematically, story-wise, character-wise, etc - in every other way - I don’t see it. Completely different shows. The Wire is good, but it’s another police procedural, ultimately. Maybe it becomes something else? Guess I’ll find out.

Silo - wasn’t sure about this show when it first started, but holy shit did it end up being a great show. It kind of slogs through early on but stick with it. It does live up to the heavy sci-fi premise. That ending of s1 is such a massive cliff hanger! Going to be a long wait for s2 unfortunately. Man. The show is apparently based on a series of books that I haven’t read, so I have no idea where this is going. If you are into sci-fi and have AppleTV+, you should be watching this show while we wait for The Foundation s2, Invasion s2, For All Mankind s4, etc. Yes, Common is annoying, in that he looks like that cheap game where you have a magnet and have to make a face on the guy with the metal shavings because his beard is so perfect and so black, but he does end up being an ok actor by the end of this. Tim Robbins plays what ends up being a fantastic character and huge scene/story stealer. It’s a pretty great cast all around, and that ending makes me say that I don’t think it’s going where they make you think it’s going for almost the entire season. Massive twist, very well done.

Never seen The Wire, but didn't get far with some other Simon shows. In fact, I'd class Treme next to John from Cincinnati as the worst HBO show I've ever seen.

Run Rabbit Run - pretty good psychological horror starring shiv from Succession (Sarah Snook). she's great in it, but the story is kind of lacking, and that ending tells me they really didn't have any great plan for this. still, it was ok. not great, not terrible.

Reality - extremely odd film based on the play based on the transcription of the real interrogation of Reality Winner (yes, this is apparently a real name) who leaked an NSA write-up regarding the idea of Russian interference in the 2016 election (which was ultimately baseless). i mean, sydney sweeney is fine in it, it's just such an odd contrivance of a setup. lots of assumptions being made about what's happening simply based on audio. shrug. i don't see any reason anyone should watch this.

TC wrote: 27/06/23, 09:16:27 The Wire - it was talked about here way back on page 35, and i've heard so much about how great it is, with people comparing it to the sopranos, but somehow i still have never watched it. started to remedy this last week and just wrapped season 1 last night. it is very good, but i don't think it's remotely on the level of the sopranos. it's a police procedural ("Hey, what if L&O were uncuffed on cable?"), and after watching things like City On A Hill, it feels very familiar. yes, of course, the cast is fantastic. real bummer to know that michael k. williams and lance reddick are now both dead. they were so great. wild to see some of the other actors here that were so much younger than i've seen them in things recently, like peter gerety. hard to believe this season was 21 years ago. anyway, it was enjoyable, looking forward to seeing where this goes. i've finally started on the journey. wish me luck.

wrapped s2 over the weekend, taking a break from it before starting s3. it was again, fine? just like s1. some good drama surrounding a police procedural. michael k. williams is fucking fantastic in this (and really, his role is comic relief somehow, even though he's a mass murderer), but is very under-used. idris elba is also really good, and is heavily featured this season as someone trying to game the game. the dockworkers union and working-class folks struggling when a dock is losing work is really the centerpiece here, and what they do to try to make ends meet. funniest part of this season is the idea that GPS/software is new (it was 2003). cops are blown away when someone "knows computers" and seeing GPS work is magic to them. there are still guys using palm pilots in this season. that's pretty amusing. i think every major problem faced in this season could have been handled from a desk today. anyway, like i said, it's fine. good cop drama. nothing special. if they used williams' Omar more, might be better, but i could also see his shtick getting worn out. three more seasons to go.

Speaking of next Friday... It might be all about MI7 here, but in one major territory they've had no choice but to push the release back by a week. Another film is landing you see, albeit without publicity of any kind. No trailers, no ads, no reviews, no interviews, no press, not one still image. Not even a cast list! Just an enigmatic poster, released online. Star power Cruise and Nolan can only dream of...

TC wrote: 29/06/22, 10:51:46 The Bear - fantastic show starring Lip from Shameless. eps are only 30 min, quick watch. cameos from Bernthal, Ringwold, Oliver Platt. highly recommended. quite enjoyed it, hope it gets S2.

wrapped season 2 over the weekend. man is this a great show. feels like it's really underrated. you should be watching this. so well written and well done all around. killer cast. even the mighty Pequod's Pizza gets a shout in this season. that ending was such a cliff hanger too! like fuck, we have to wait to see what happens now?? damn. love this show.

Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story Of American Gladiators - not sure what makes this "unauthorized", since the EPs, the gladiators, the trainer, etc., all appear on here telling their stories. i guess maybe the absence of Samuel Goldwyn? pretty crazy story of what was really happening back then. although, i guess it's kind of not crazy, as it's pretty much as i suspected. the company completely took advantage of these young kids, had them sign "in perpetuity" contracts with no merchandising, then merchandised the fuck out of them. the company didn't give a shit about any of them, viewed them as disposable, so when the inevitable injuries happened, they'd just be fired and drop someone else into the suit. then the company was surprised when ratings tanked. ridiculous. most of the gladiators seem like good folks, some of them even seem like awesome folks that somehow have it together. some, not so much. but yeah, lots of sex and drugs on the ill-advised tour, etc. pretty amusing seeing footage of the initial pilot, which was shot in a horse barn essentially, with cardboard attendees. anyway, good throw-away TV if you cared about the show back then.

Platonic - pretty amusing show. the finale was underwhelming. felt like yet another show that didn't have any kind of ending in mind. but hey, maybe they get a second season. anyway, it was amusing and worth the watch if you are in the mood for a comedy.

Beastie Boys Story - somehow missed this in 2020 when it came out, but Spike Jonze did this "live documentary", where the two remaining members of the BB go onstage and give an oral history of the band, along with some photos and brief videos. it was educational for someone that doesn't go deep on them, but not exactly engaging in presentation. i think i would have preferred a studio doc to this stage play. still, again, if you were remotely interested in the history of the band, it's good. not great.

65 - aka, "65 Million Years Ago", new adam driver vehicle. adam's great in this, but the film is not good, sadly. it's enjoyable enough to watch with some high tension scenes but ultimately nothing new here. not sure how this got made, really. it's got good effects and dinosaurs i guess?

TC wrote: 05/07/23, 09:35:18

TC wrote: 27/06/23, 09:16:27 The Wire - it was talked about here way back on page 35, and i've heard so much about how great it is, with people comparing it to the sopranos, but somehow i still have never watched it. started to remedy this last week and just wrapped season 1 last night. it is very good, but i don't think it's remotely on the level of the sopranos. it's a police procedural ("Hey, what if L&O were uncuffed on cable?"), and after watching things like City On A Hill, it feels very familiar. yes, of course, the cast is fantastic. real bummer to know that michael k. williams and lance reddick are now both dead. they were so great. wild to see some of the other actors here that were so much younger than i've seen them in things recently, like peter gerety. hard to believe this season was 21 years ago. anyway, it was enjoyable, looking forward to seeing where this goes. i've finally started on the journey. wish me luck.

wrapped s2 over the weekend, taking a break from it before starting s3. it was again, fine? just like s1. some good drama surrounding a police procedural. michael k. williams is fucking fantastic in this (and really, his role is comic relief somehow, even though he's a mass murderer), but is very under-used. idris elba is also really good, and is heavily featured this season as someone trying to game the game. the dockworkers union and working-class folks struggling when a dock is losing work is really the centerpiece here, and what they do to try to make ends meet. funniest part of this season is the idea that GPS/software is new (it was 2003). cops are blown away when someone "knows computers" and seeing GPS work is magic to them. there are still guys using palm pilots in this season. that's pretty amusing. i think every major problem faced in this season could have been handled from a desk today. anyway, like i said, it's fine. good cop drama. nothing special. if they used williams' Omar more, might be better, but i could also see his shtick getting worn out. three more seasons to go.

finished s3. damn omar is awesome. after building the conflict between avon and stringer all season, that was a pretty climactic ending. damn. and amazing to see littlefinger star in this season. i assume he'll also be in next season, based on the storyline. if i had seen this prior to game of thrones, i probably would have freaked out to see him appear as littlefinger. that dude is such a good actor. he was great as alan hynek too. anyway, great season. the ideas colvin had for a "drug safe zone" were ahead of their time, as many cities now actually do that. and tyrese from walking dead featured heavily in this season as well, who's also great. so far this was peak series for me, curious to see where it goes next.