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TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Just finished watching Presumed Innocent. Pretty solid mystery drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal. 7/10
Remake of a 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford, which was based on a novel by Scott Turow. Attorney in the Chicago DA office is accused of the murder of one of his colleagues with who he was having an affair. It was a breath of fresh air where the tension comes from the actual trial and investigation rather than mysterious people/groups threatening witnesses to hide some greater mystery. Well acted by Gyllenhaal, Bill Camp and Ruth Negga.
I watched that a couple weeks back - it was lovely. Also enjoyed Black Bird (on appletv too) - Taron Egerton plays a guy who gets caught running guns then gets offered commutation if he can jail house snitch on a serial killer. It's way better/crazier than I'm making it out to be...
After Eddie the Eagle and Kingsman then Rocketman, I figured that Taron Egerton was a decent actor who needed a schtick to hide behind... but with Black Bird, something about it totally won me over. He's so talented.
Oh yeah. We watched that a while back too. That one is phenomenal. Egerton did great in it.
Sold! In the mood for some real courtroom drama. The closest I've come to that level in recent memory was the Chernobyl finale. Maybe bits of the Perry Mason remake.
Loved Ruth Negga in Preacher, and even more so in Loving, so always look forward to seeing her on-screen, too.
Slow Horses is back at midnight tonight! If you've slept on this series, definitely get into it and also the books. Its really faithful.
Cool I'll have to get Apple again for a month to watch this and finish Masters of the Air.
Nerdy comment: I didn't notice until after I watched the whole 3rd season that the actress playing Shirley is the voice actor of Ranni from Elden Ring. But I probably also wouldn't have noticed that Jackson Lamb is Sirius Black and Dracula except I'm used to Gary Oldman disappearing into characters.
When they announced the series, I was really concerned that they'd dial back Lamb from the books -- and they have a little, but not much. Oldman is the only person who could capture that character.
Just binged both seasons of Interview with the Vampire and it was surprisingly phenomenal. I almost never feel like watching a show straight through and tend to pace myself to an episiode a day and this one just kept sucking me back in.
The quality was through the roof, both in the production details and in the overall structure and performances. A thing worth calling out in particular is that I think this was one of the best cases I can recall where changing the race and sexuality (though the latter had a whole lot of subtext in previous versions) of some of the characters added immensely to the story possibilities (the best other example that comes to mind for me recently was making the antagonist of Lovecraft Country a women instead of a man as in the original material) and I think they did a lot of really interesting and engaging stuff with the interview format to play with how we remember things ourselves or present them to others to shape a narrative.
Really great stuff, I can't recommend it enough. The first season was just added on netflix and the first episode is available for free on youtube.
Just got done re-watching season 1 of Rings of Power and while I already liked it, it was so much better than I remembered! I'd rated it 6/10 back when it came out but I'm taking it all the way to a 8/10 now, maybe because I knew what to expect? Take it for what it is and it's really perfectly enjoyable! Morfydd Clark is a great Galadriel and some of the other casting, like Disa, is on point as well, and there are some truly heartfelt moments and just everything is jaw dropping beautiful. I started season 2 too and it feels a little different in ways I can't quite put my finger on. My only real problem with it so far though is the recasting of Adar. The guy in season 1 was amazing, so I'm not sure why they got someone else for the role. Can't wait to see where it's going!
I also watched Feel Good a couple of weeks ago - 8/10. A really nice little show. Super funny! Some moments were overly sitcom-y but that's okay because other parts made up for it. Very relatable too and I hope the creator
The Power was pretty bad - 4/10. I read the book a couple of years ago and I wish I hadn't bothered with this show. I stuck with it through the end but it deviated so much from the book. I am as left-wing and feminist and queer as can be, to the point that I sometimes catch myself being insufferable among family etc.. and even to me, this show was way too in your face. There was no subtlety, like it may as well have been recordings of Captain America telling me why it's bad to get detention (or rather, why equality is good, actually). It was also just plain boring - I highly recommend the book though!! An excellent, exciting read.
Re: The Power
I think the book does a lot more to highlight that it's an imbalance in power, not anything inherent to men or women specifically, that leads to conflict between the sexes, while the show makes it seem like women having power over men might end up just being a Good Thing because women are Good and men are Bad. To be totally fair to the show, the book also seemed like that early on, and the show hasn't gone very far into the book's storyline. It's possible that the show will (would have? I don't know if it's been renewed) more of that nuance as it goes forward.
The show lacking the framing device of the book is a major downside, though. So much more about the story shines when you have the ability to question what parts are based on historical data, and what only exists to explain and justify the in-universe status quo, as we do with so much of history?
I do think there is some ambiguity about the main characters - almost none of them are portrayed as being fully good people. They all do bad things and so there is some nuance, however other aspects truly are black/white good/evil. The show misses what I felt made the book great and to be honest I would be surprised if it gets renewed, not because of its quality (or lack thereof) but because it made zero splash and went totally went under the radar when it came out
Just finished the K-drama "My Mister" (나의 아저씨) and man, what a masterpiece. I'm usually not a fan of heavy dramas and tend to watch comedies instead so I put off watching this for ages. A friend recently called me out on this and told me I needed some balance in the types of shows I watched and insisted I watch My Mister. Having enjoyed other dramas and movies the lead actors, IU and Lee Sun-kyun (RIP), have been in, I decided to watch it. Usually when I watch dramas, it'll take me an episode or two to decide if I want to continue watching but with this I was hooked almost immediately. I lost track of time while watching this sometimes and even stayed up late by accident. I think the show really lives up to all the hype people give it online.
The creators of the show do a great job immersing you in the struggles of the characters and the facades they have to maintain to get through their day to day lives. There are so many moments in the show where the characters are going about their daily lives and struggles with no dialogue, just the sound of their environments. The show is a slow burn, which I normally dislike, but this show wouldn't be the same without it. I also love how much depth they gave to the other characters along with the interactions they had with the main characters. They're a small tight-knit community who have known each other for pretty much their whole lives. The show is definitely dark and somber but ultimately is one that is very warm and uplifting. Definitely recommend watching this!
Every Doctor Who Episode (since 2005) in Dropout/College Humor clips
I cannot express how good these are.