Picard season 2.
If the first episode is anything to go this season could be a big improvement on the first,

Discovery season 4. Has been pretty solid really, the show has been steadily improving each year. It still suffers the “end of the universe” block buster style threat over something more dramatic but it's decent enough.

@Usedbooks - those sound good!

————–
I've been slowly making my way through Futurama… I rewatched early episodes I'd already seen and now I'm up to the movies after Fox cancelled them. I think I'm still only on the first film now? It's broken up into episodes so it's hard to tell for sure. It's really excellent.
I love how they use the future time travel stuff so cleverly and wrap up all the threads, with call backs to previous episodes- Knowing the Futurama writers there are probably few plot holes or mistakes with the future stuff.

They gave fry a life with his family, his brother and nephew, a resolution with his faithless GF, a life for that poor waiting dog… perfect.

I just saw Turning Red

It's a 3D animated Pixar movie about a young Chinese Canadian girl in Canada and her family and friends… Her family has a blessing/curse where the women turn into giant red pandas around puberty.

It's a fun and very beautifully coloured movie. The faces and movements were animated exceptionally well and the people were very well characterised. Pixer is a lot better than they used to be!

The theme of the film is an over controlling parent and a child that wants to go their own way… So the same as Luca and Encanto. Pixar is really going for this children going through puberty and finding their identity thing lately…
To a lessor extent that was in Ron's Gone Wrong, Onward. Incredibles 2, and maybe even Inside out?

Those are all good films but they're running this idea into the ground. Seriously.

I just saw Straight Outta Compton on Netflix. The big two lessons I learned from that movie was “don't let money and fame ruin friendship” and “always use a condom”.

I would recommend “You're The Worst” starring Aya Cash and Chris Geere, and available on Hulu.

It's sort of an anti-romantic comedy. The main couple, who are in bed together within the first 5 minutes of the show, are trying their hardest to hang on to their independent, self-serving youth, and not give a damn about anybody but themselves. Except that they really care about each other.

sleeping_gorilla wrote:
I would recommend “You're The Worst” starring Aya Cash and Chris Geere, and available on Hulu.

It's sort of an anti-romantic comedy. The main couple, who are in bed together within the first 5 minutes of the show, are trying their hardest to hang on to their independent, self-serving youth, and not give a damn about anybody but themselves. Except that they really care about each other.

Sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out.

———–

I'm going through old episodes of South Park.
Wow… I missed out on a lot of cultural references when I stopped watching that show!
It's often very funny, but some of it really crosses the line, I'm surprised that got away with that. Sometimes I find it pretty hard to watch…
I'm glad they did though.

Futureman was expiring from the service I was watching it on so I desperately tried to see all the episodes… I only made it to the last few of the second season.

It's such a great series- it starts off about a guy beating a videogame about saving the world from ruthless “biotics” with the help of two super skilled hardcore fighters.
On completion of the game those two fighters come to him in the flesh and tell him the game was designed to find the “chosen one” who'd help them for real. They come from the future and need his help to prevent the disaster that's about to happen.
(slightly inspired by The Last Starfighter).

These “biotics” are people who've had a special vaccine which made them immune to all diseases. The people who fight against it are the antivaxers… This was made in 2017, so before CoVid-19

It's a hilarious comedy that goes in very unexpected directions constantly. It's very anti-convention so it's a bit awkward to get into but it's worth it to stick with it. It's very violent and a little saucy at times.

Watched the 24 episode run of the non-Gerry Anderson puppet TV show Star Fleet. It was originally Japanese X-Bomber and in fact created by Go Nagai who also created Cutey Honey among other manga/anime. In Japan it was billed as “Supra-marina-ation” .

Gerry Anderson would try to return the favor because Terrahawks was originally supposed to be an anime!

X-bomber was brought to the UK, translated and given a new soundtrack and renamed Star Fleet Paramount hadn't trademarked Star Fleet and Star Fleet Command for Star Trek yet. The end credit song would later be covered by Brian May of Queen.

It's stick puppets rather than true marrionation so there's no strings. The puppets are much more lively than in Gerry Anderson and they're even shown running or at least bouncing up and down coming down corridors and it actually is convincing.

It has staples of 1980 Japanese stories like lonely battleships going to a distant planet to find out about a cosmic chick, mysterious ships, evil space lord and main characters die. The main bad female space commander even has a bare midriff, which ain't bad for puppets. Gerry Anderson never did that. And the puppets are sculpted with anime features so you finally get to see what it looks like in 3 dimensions.

The story line is very similar to Space Cruiser Yamato which did precede it by a few years, but I love my puppets. It has lots of practical special effects and explosions and it's a lot of fun for a 1980 kid's show but like anime of the time has some mature themes. You see people die. And it's all on YouTube. Only the first episode is on there in the original Japanese version and it is a bit different but not totally rewritten like some imports of the time. There's also a French version which I might watch to see if the script more closely matches the English or Japanese versions.

Some of the British folks here might remember it from their younger years and even though Wikipedia says it was in the US, I'd never seen it before and first encountered it when searching for gifs under “Star Fleet” expecting Star Trek and instead finding puppets with classic anime features.

I just binged through “The Secret of Sulphur Springs” on Disney+. I'm a big fan of the “Twin Peaks”/“Silent Hill”/“Small town with a spooky secret” trope and this was a breezy young-teen take on it. Obviously nothing too challenging since it's a show for kids, but it still managed to surprise me here and there and I enjoyed the setting.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Futureman was expiring from the service I was watching it on so I desperately tried to see all the episodes… I only made it to the last few of the second season.

FutureMan is also on Hulu+. I binged Happy Everything and Eliza “Tiger” Coupe was a stand-out on that show, so I happen to be watching FutureMan recently as well.

theRedDeath wrote:
I just binged through “The Secret of Sulphur Springs” on Disney+. I'm a big fan of the “Twin Peaks”/“Silent Hill”/“Small town with a spooky secret” trope and this was a breezy young-teen take on it. Obviously nothing too challenging since it's a show for kids, but it still managed to surprise me here and there and I enjoyed the setting.

Sounds creepy XD

sleeping_gorilla wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:
Futureman was expiring from the service I was watching it on so I desperately tried to see all the episodes… I only made it to the last few of the second season.

FutureMan is also on Hulu+. I binged Happy Everything and Eliza “Tiger” Coupe was a stand-out on that show, so I happen to be watching FutureMan recently as well.

Eliza is pretty cool in that! She looks like my ex (same hair even, except my ex has white blonde rather than purple).

I can't get Hulu here… :(

I just re-watched Spiderman 2 (2004), for the first time in like over a decade or so, on Netflix while getting drunk. And I started to become overly aware of certain things throughout the movie. First off, Joe's Pizza, the pizza place Peter Parker runs delivery for. Mr. Aziz tells him that if he doesn't make the next delievery not only will the customers not pay for the pizza, but he will lose those customers to Pizza Yurt.

It made me wonder if that is a real pizza franchise in New York or if it's just one in the Marvel Universe's New York. Next, Mr. Ditkovich, Peter's Landlord. What baltic or east european country did he and his daughter Ursula originate from? Hungary, Poland, Ukraine?

Pete's apartment. Pretty small. Mine is like 31 square meters. His gotta be like 20 or something. One bed, one sink and mirror and some shelves. A shared restroom outside the flat. Dr. Otto Octavious sustained fusion experiment to create a renewable energy source. Has that ever been attempted before? Pete's selection of poem books following Otto's advice about impressing girls with poetry.

He has Romeo and Juliette, Henry Longfellows complete works and W.B. Yeat's collected works stacked beside him as he is washing his suit and clothes at the Laundry-o-Mat. And he still hasn't learned that you don't mix colored clothes with white clothes in the washer:P The broadway theatre that MJ is doing her acting gig. Says Lyric Theatre on Pete's ticket. And the play she acts in is “The Importance of being Earnest” which is a play by Irish play wright Oscar Wilde. Made me hope to visit broadway someday.

Pete buys Carnation flowers for MJ after the play, 3 USD per bunch, takes twelve but has it reduced to three. Don't know what counts as a bunch. The street violin player. Got curious what violin she's playing and after some google search I think it's a four stringed Antique Europe. The elevator Peter takes to get down from the roof when his powers are malfunctioning. It has muzak on it. Is that a real thing in NY tenament buildings?

Pete's call to MJ on the payphone. Costs 50 cents for a five minute call. Doc Ock's tentacle murder scene at the hospital. Still horror film worthy til' this very day in my eyes8( Noticed when Doc Ock rips open the vault at the bank robbery scene that the digital special effects haven't aged well, but I still like em'^^ Also he escapes with only two sacks filled with coins. The commitee for science library in NY is celebrating a man who played football on the moon. I suppose that is experimenting with astral dynamics or whatever somewhat, but doesn't sound too sciency.

Also, the announcer described John Jameson, JJ's son, as handsome, heroic and…delicious?8/ I suspect that she's a groupie of his:P As hors dóeuvres at the commitee they were serving what looks like salad cheese on tooth picks and tiny raspberry pastries. Also, I love what a cheapskate JJ is. No caviar for MJ and John's wedding, give em' cheese and crackers. No real flowers, buy plastic.

Even as his son has just been rejected at his wedding day JJ's like “ tell the caterer not to open the caviar.” Oh, JJ, you have no heart^^ The dagger that Harry is wielding attempting to kill Spiderman brought to him by Ock, it's a medieval knight's dagger. Finally, Spiderman/Peter Parker inspires everyone to be heroic. Aunt May, the little girl in the burning building, the people on the train, MJ and even the villain, Doc Ock, himself. It is honestly kind of eye tearing to think about^^ Cheers^^

bravo1102 wrote:

Some of the British folks here might remember it from their younger years and even though Wikipedia says it was in the US, I'd never seen it before and first encountered it when searching for gifs under “Star Fleet” expecting Star Trek and instead finding puppets with classic anime features.

Me and my nieces and nephew watched on Saturday mornings, it was a tour de force, a refreshing change from… everything else. The theme was very sing-able. Action scenes were great. I learned never to spin in slow motion when doing a quick-draw, hoping my cloak would cover my gun hand movement.

bravo1102 wrote:

Some of the British folks here might remember it from their younger years

Not one I'm familiar with but having googled it, Barry Hercules chin deserves a show of it's own. I actually found him on twitter posting about Arsenal football club.

Adnan7 wrote:
This message is good enough to make someone understand my impressive thing. I make certain everyone will like my world-class appendage.

The lasses love a bit of confidence Adnan, even a modicum of self assurance, but it's possible to have too much of a good thing if you don't mind me saying so.

—

I'm watching Gotham at the moment. It's a bit bonkers and all over the shop but there's lots of it. Hopefully enough to keep us going until the next season of Stargirl.

dpat57 wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:

Some of the British folks here might remember it from their younger years and even though Wikipedia says it was in the US, I'd never seen it before and first encountered it when searching for gifs under “Star Fleet” expecting Star Trek and instead finding puppets with classic anime features.

Me and my nieces and nephew watched on Saturday mornings, it was a tour de force, a refreshing change from… everything else. The theme was very sing-able. Action scenes were great. I learned never to spin in slow motion when doing a quick-draw, hoping my cloak would cover my gun hand movement.

I remember watching it, loved it as a kid. What I remember the most was when if finished they said it would be back later in the year or something, I waited and waited and it never came back. instead we got some animated show I refused to like.

Mannix - watch late nite to help me go to sleep, first season, wow does he get bonked on head alot, but his enemies couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with their shots, opening credits…always try to read that sign on bridge all I can make out is Slippery When Wet, can't wait for season 2 when gorgeous Gail Fisher appears as Joe's secretary Peg.

I listened to an interview with Mathew Modine the other day on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. He defended Cutthroat Island that he made with Gina Davis in the 90s.

I like Pirate films so I thought I'd revisit it. Back in the 90s it looked ok but got bad reviews so I never saw it.

The plot of the film is that there are 3 pieces of a treasure map to Cutthroat Island that are each held by different pirate brothers. Gina's dad is one of them. One of the brothers kills the rest to try and get the maps, Gina is in a race against him to get the treasure.

All in all it's a second rate pirate film. It's NOT bad but it's not up there with the best. It's uneven and Gina's acting is wooden, though she's a good action star.

The costumes were pretty bad. They had some good ones early on in the film at the ball and the town but after that the quality drops massively and they become cheap, generic and basically costume shop level.
The sets drop in quality too. Initially at the town it's top level stuff but later in the film it cheapens off. Must have spent too much on the ships and explosives.

It's a good addition to the pirate movie lexicon, but the genre didn't get a worthy revival till the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie (the first wasn't any better than Cutthroat Island)

THE THING (2011) - Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and a cast of mostly unknowns. Same old story of an alien spaceship found buried below ice in Antarctica. Then a living alien creature frozen in ice suddenly breaks out alive and starts replicating and killing the crew. Mary figures out how to spot the infected. Comes down to her and Joel and she spots a giveaway on him so guess what? Watch and see. Turns out this is a prequel to the 1982 version with Kurt Russell as this ends the way the 82 film started. A 1 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

I am on a 90s nostalgia kick and rewatching Stargate SG-1.

hpkomic wrote:
I am on a 90s nostalgia kick and rewatching Stargate SG-1.

I really appreciate 90s stuff.
I've been watching that and 80s stuff too.

There are different story structures, character types, types of framing, different pacing, tropes, and event the technology and conventions. I love seeing that in older shows.
It's obvious in movies from the 1920s and 30s but it's really quite evident in all things from any time- It's most interesting though when it's from a period you lived through.

I'm trying to watch 50 Shades of Grey. I'm halfway through but it's SO boring! 😭
A podcast I like reviewed it and it sounded interesting but it's just sooooo dull

Some impressions so far:
- Anastasia is niave but reacts pretty much like a real person would in this situation.
- Grey does not behave like a real person at all, he's a poorly written, bland fantasy domme with no personality or taste or individuality.

So far the story doesn't seem at all like people describe it- i.e a sexuality manipulative man seeking to dominate and abuse… It's more like a woman's dream domme has come to life and Anistasia has magically lucked into a relationship with him. He's a human blowup doll 😅

My daughter got me watching Bridgerton over Easter and it's a lot of fun. I love the diverse cast transported to a Regency setting and the use of contemporary tunes with period arrangements is also a nice touch.

Ironscarf wrote:
My daughter got me watching Bridgerton over Easter and it's a lot of fun. I love the diverse cast transported to a Regency setting and the use of contemporary tunes with period arrangements is also a nice touch.

My dad was going on about that the other day… XD
I'm not too much into anachronistic historical fantasy right now but I might get into it again at some stage.



Recently I watched 2 Amy Schumer films: Snatched and Trainwreck.

Obviously they're both Amy Schumer vehicles, with Amy just playing a cartoon exaggeration of herself, or the persona she created, rather than acting unique characters made for these films. Much like Adam Sandler does now.

They were both very entertaining films. Trainwreck has a great little cameo by Colin Quinn playing her dad and many other people like Bill Hader, John Cenna, Tilda Swinton and more who really dive into their characters and play quite silly and well! Bill Hader is the straight man actually, but it's a decent performance.
The story is about a woman who loves her life of one night stands and shallow emotional connection with her lovers, as she matures itno a deeper connection with a man she really loves.



Snatched has Goldie Hawn playing Amy's mum. Both women are kidnapped while on a holiday in Ecuador and have to fight their way to freedom. It's a heavy premise but it's done totally for laughs and it works. Goldie is great in a co-staring role again.

The thing I actually liked best was how indifferent the US consular officials were over the plight of the kidnapped citizens. I thought this was a pretty true portrayal of consular officials all over the world! Movies like to show them doing daring rescues, but he truth is they only do that if it's a political VIP or there's huge pressure or lots of money involved. If there's none of that you're just an annoyance to them and can rot for all they care. XD

—Spoiler—-

BTW, the government rescue team DO come in the end but the women rescue themselves.

Maniac - Oddly captivating. The plot is ridiculous and hard to follow/believe at times, but the setting is campy, and the acting is excellent. A fun ride. It's about a drug study that hopes to replace therapy using dreams somehow? The setting is… It's like if someone in the 80s imagined the future – sort of. Big boxy computers with laughable graphics but also AI and people can rent themselves out as walking advertisements. ?

Typewriter - Short horror miniseries. Indian (dubbed). Very well done acting, cinematography, and score. Very much my type of horror with a focus on the characters. Backstory is told well, and the pacing is perfect. It never drags. It has the sort of horror imagery that is conceptually horrifying and gives a good chill without gore, body horror, or jump scares (no offense to people who like gore and jump scares, just not my cup of tea). The story is basically about a typewriter that belonged to a ghost story author who got caught up with some weird supernatural stuff for inspiration.

Holey Moley Season 3 - I'm kinda embarrassed to enjoy this. It's extreme mini-golf with obstacle courses and a mood like MSC. Competitors have silly one-note personas and tongue-in-cheek interviews. Ridiculous. Over-the-top.

Currently checking out season 2 of Russian Doll.

Russian Doll Season 2 is okay. It doesn't have the stakes and tight writing of season one. It involves time travel but in a different way. Same characters but the stories aren't so well woven together. The climax is nice and trippy, but it's a bit luke warm until then.

Ozoneocean wrote:

So far the story doesn't seem at all like people describe it- i.e a sexuality manipulative man seeking to dominate and abuse… It's more like a woman's dream domme has come to life and Anistasia has magically lucked into a relationship with him. He's a human blowup doll 😅

If you want an entertaining view. Get some popcorn and watch Twilight with the commentary on. Robert Pattinson thought his character was a complete A-hole and he spends the whole time roasting himself. 50 Shades was a BDSM fan fiction of Twilight.

I've been watching the recent true crime shows. The Thing About Pam, The Dropout, The Girl from Plainville, and WeCrash.

They are good if are want to see famous actors with their collars off and really get into the role. You can tell Renee Zellewager, Amanda Seigfried, Elle Fanning, and Jared Leto are having the best time of their careers playing these horrible people. I stopped watching WeCrashed because Leto's character was just too much.

The shows are good, but the podcasts they are based on are better.

Late to the party with this one, the latest Bond movie (Good Day To Die? no wait, No Time To Die oops) is free to view on Prime now, so I'm watching it… until I just can't, and have to take a break. Then back to it for some more. SPOILERS BABY. I'm not liking the tone, or the ludicrous way some people die, or how the bad guys explode out of the woodwork everywhere he goes, it's almost comic. MORE BLACK SUVs? MORE GUNMEN ON MOTORCYCLES? I shall persevere! Because I am tough as old boots, like Bond.

Watching Shang Chi, the legend of the ten rings.
It's a great Marvel movie so far. Lots of fan, looks excellent.

Two big notes-
Disney obviously made this especially for the Chinese market because they want that money sooo bad… There's nothing wrong with crafting a film for a specific market but China is a little different because it's not just the market they're making it for but the government there as well. That leaves a bad taste in the mouth

They've included the classic cheap shitty wire effects that all kungfu movies have to have. I can see why they became a thing in the cheaply made Hong Kong movies from the 1970s, it created a cool effect for a very cheap cost…
But it has NO place in a 100 million plus modern effects driven film. It looks fake and shit. It's not even a fun trope, get rid of obvious wire effects. It's lame.
The audieces that grew up loving that stuff are not the prime audience for these modern films anymore.
Gravity is a thing. People aren't made of helium.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Watching Shang Chi, the legend of the ten rings.
It's a great Marvel movie so far. Lots of fan, looks excellent.

Two big notes-
Disney obviously made this especially for the Chinese market because they want that money sooo bad… There's nothing wrong with crafting a film for a specific market but China is a little different because it's not just the market they're making it for but the government there as well. That leaves a bad taste in the mouth

They've included the classic cheap shitty wire effects that all kungfu movies have to have. I can see why they became a thing in the cheaply made Hong Kong movies from the 1970s, it created a cool effect for a very cheap cost…
But it has NO place in a 100 million plus modern effects driven film. It looks fake and shit. It's not even a fun trope, get rid of obvious wire effects. It's lame.
The audieces that grew up loving that stuff are not the prime audience for these modern films anymore.
Gravity is a thing. People aren't made of helium.

Yeah I saw that movie. I give it a C+. I really hate when Marvel or Disney make a movie on the corniest comics that got cancelled. At first I really didn’t want to like Guardians of the galaxy because I hated the comic. It was boring. I dropped it after buying two issues. Marvel Movie Studios did it justice. Saw the Eternals. Couldn’t finish it. Again, boring comic and boring movie. Shan Chi? Also a boring comic. Marvel is terrible at making martial arts comics. The art wasn’t right, the costume wasn’t right and the story to me was off. (Maybe that’s why I didn’t really like Iron Fist the comic or the Netflix series. Luke Cage was sooo much better.) Stick to making superhero movies.

Now that Disney got back the X-men universe, maybe they can do it better than Fox. No reboot, just continue with new stuff. Like right now I’m dying for Marvel to do StarJammers of the X-men plot line. Just hope they don’t mess it up.

Last up, The New Mutants… how on earth did they mess that up? One answer… Fox. They total bash-up a good comic series. How can you have New Mutants without Boom Boom and Warlock? I know, I know they were trying to do the Origin but without Professor X and the X-men? If I’m being honest, they also did it in both Deadpool movies when it came to hero’s like ShatterStar from X-Force and the “missing” X-Men. Don’t get me wrong, love Deadpool franchise. Old man Logan the movie is nowhere near Old Man Logan the comic. Again, Fox had to Fox’ed it up. I mean, look at what they did to Fantastic Four.

So yeah, that Shan Chi… I thought I could have been done better with no stings attached.