Shows / movies that I dropped halfway:

• Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves
  • somehow it didn't grab me, dropped it halfway thru. Many people said it's good, but the jokes are okay, nothing interesting
• Onihei S01
  • Somehow it just doesn't manage to grab me, dropped it after second episode, especially when I read that there's not really an ending by the end of the show.

I've finished watching

• Record of Ragnarok S01
  • really loving the over-the-top fights between gods and humans. I'm excited for the next season
• Fringe S05
  • Man, Fringe is now probably my most favorite show. S05 might not hit as hard as S03 or S04, but it ties up everything nicely. The show wouldn't leave such a lasting impression on me if not for the character Walter Bishop, and of course John Noble did a great job portraying him
• Killing It S02
  • It's not as good as the first season. They focused too much on side characters that are not funny at all.
• The X-Files S02
  • X-Files gets really good on season two. The stories involving Mulder's family is really intriguing. I'm excited to watch the next season now.
• Look Around You S01
  • I've watched bits and pieces of this on YouTube. OMG, the whole season is just amazing. Every single detail is fucking hilarious.

Started / still watching

• The Simpsons S04
  • This season definitely feels better than previous ones. There's absurd humor that hits hard, e.g. rent a big brother, etc.
• Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still S01
  • Dunno how I feel about it yet. It feels too old-ish, and each episode lasts for an hour. If it doesn't pick up, I might drop it.
• Snuff Box S01
  • So far, this is another good Matt Berry show. The humor is closer to Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, and probably better than first season of Toast of London
• The Outer Limits (1995) S01
  • I've only watched the first episode, I guess it sets the tone of sci-fi twilight zone, but with bummer ending. Also the first episode is like 90 mins, bit too long
• Person of Interest S01
  • I've just watched 2 episodes, and I know that this is going to be good. I am having a crime drama fatigue, but POI is different.

So, what have you been watching last week?

Kris Kristofferson, a truly legendary singer-songwriter as well as actor, has died at the age of 88. The news of his passing at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, September 28, 2024, was announced by his family.

[...]

Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in the border town of Brownsville, Tex., on June 22, 1936. Among his many unique accomplishments, Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a college football player, a bartender, a Golden Gloves boxer, a forest fighter and an Army Ranger who flew helicopters.

Kristofferson achieved remarkable success as a country songwriter at the start of the 1970s. His songs “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “For the Good Times” were all chart-topping hits. By 1987, it was estimated that more than 450 artists had recorded Kristofferson’s compositions.

This series started last week, but it continues tonight Friday the 13th through November 1st.

> The films are drawn from a list compiled by The New Republic last year of the 100 most impactful political movies. > >The films encompass both documentaries and dramatized works; most are American, while a few are from other countries. Their release dates range from 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) to 2016 (I Am Not Your Negro). Many will have celebrity presenters introducing them, along with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

From Hollywood Reporter: > The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

More from the Advocate: >LGBTQ+ issues won’t be neglected. I Am Not Your Negro, for instance, is a documentary based onan unfinished manuscript by Black gay writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, reflecting on the lives of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Baldwin himself. The Times of Harvey Milk(1984) will be featured, presented by Sally Field, the proud mother of a gay son. Also scheduled are 1964’s The Best Man, scripted by gay writer Gore Vidal, in which a same-sex liaison threatens to derail a politician’s career, and Born in Flames, director Lizzie Borden’s 1983 vision of a dystopian future in which women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color are oppressed. > >Borden will be among the celebrity presenters, introducing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feminist feature about a widow engaged in sex work. Melissa Etheridge will be a presenter as well, discussing the 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Times listed are for Eastern Time. I've skipped last week and bolded titles ranked in the top 20.

Friday, September 13 - Night Two

• 8:00 PM Reds (1981) (Bill Maher - #41)
• 11:30 PM The Parallax View (1974) (Kyle Smith - #47)
• 1:30 AM Germany, Year Zero (1948) (Alexander Payne - #97)
• 3:00 AM Gabriel Over the White House (1933) (#30)
• 4:30 AM The Battleship Potemkin (1925) (#7)
• 6:00 AM The Fog of War (2003) (#56)

Friday, September 20 - Night Three

• 8:00 PM Dr. Strangelove (1964) (Spike Lee - #3)
• 9:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (Stacey Abrams - #11)
• 12:15 AM Hearts and Minds (1974) (Phil Mattingly - #39)
• 2:15 AM The Lives of Others (2006) (#19)
• 4:45 AM Born in Flames (1983) (#43)
• 6:15 AM Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#52)

Friday, September 27 - Night Four

• 8:00 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975) (Maureen Dowd - #72)
• 10:15 PM I Am Not Your Negro (2016) (Sara Sidner - #58)
• 12:00 AM The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Melissa Etheridge - #88)
• 1:30 AM The Last Hurrah (1958) (#57)
• 3:45 AM Night of the Living Dead (1968) (#35)
• 5:15 AM The Tin Drum (1979) (#92)

Friday, October 4 - Night Five

• 8:00 PM The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Sally Field - #81)
• 10:00 PM The Best Man (1964) (Josh Mankiewicz - #69)
• 12:00 AM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (Sec. Lonnie Bunch III - #95)
• 1:45 AM City Hall (1996) (#80)
• 3:45 AM Strike (1924) (#25)
• 5:15 AM High and Low (1963) (#84)

Friday, October 11 - Night Six

• 8:00 PM A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Barry Levinson - #10)
• 10:15 PM Wag the Dog (1997) (Diane Lane - #54)
• 12:00 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) (Abby Phillip - #37)
• 1:45 AM JFK (1991) (#34)
• 5:00 AM Z (1969) (#15)
• 7:15 AM Night and Fog (1956) (#21)

Friday, October 18 - Night Seven

• 8:00 PM The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Jamelle Bouie - #5)
• 11:30 PM Lincoln (2012) (Hon. Robert M. Gates - #24)
• 2:15 AM Malcolm X (1992) (#22)
• 6:00 AM Primary (1960) (#38)

Friday, October 25 - Night Eight

• 8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976) (Steven Spielberg - #4)
• 10:30 PM Citizen Kane (1941) (Frank Luntz - #33)
• 12:45 AM Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Lizzie Borden - #36)
• 4:15 AM Olympia Part One: Festival of Nations (1938) (#86)
• 6:15 AM Olympia Part Two: Beauty of the Festival (1938) (#86)

Friday, November 1 - Night Nine

• 8:00 PM Being There (1979) (Andy Garcia - #71)
• 10:30 PM The Candidate (1972) (Kaitlan Collins - #20)
• 12:30 AM Harlan County USA (1976) (Lee Grant - #12)
• 2:15 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (#2)
• 4:00 AM Weekend (1967) (#94)

I haven't written a movie review in ages! I am currently watching a bunch of film noir, finally filling that gap. These are my impressions of Touch of Evil, a highly regarded film noir by the director of Citizen Kane. I am ambivalent about it, as will become clear in the article.

archive.is link

> This is the Ent-like pace at which TV moves these days. The “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” took nearly as long to come back for its second outing. “Severance,” likewise a member of the debut class of ’22, will return in January, almost three years since we last saw it. The teen drama “Euphoria,” whose second season began in January 2022, will start shooting a third season … sometime in 2025. By the time it airs, one assumes its characters will be eligible for Social Security. > > More and more, rejoining a favorite series is like trying to remember the details of high school trigonometry. Which hobbit did what to whom? What did they do all day in that “Severance” office again? Was “Stranger Things” set in the 1980s, or was it actually made then?

The news he has Emphysema and is house-bound came out about two days earlier. It was accompanied by rumors that he's retired. He's since said that last part is incorrect ... though perhaps his retirement denial is more for his own sense of self than about the probability of any future work as a director.

>Emphysema is a form of COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

> “I have to say I enjoyed smoking very much” he wrote “but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment”. > >Emphysema is a condition which causes shortness of breath and a persistent cough. > >But despite living with it he says he is “filled with happiness” and has thanked fans for their concern.

spoiler

to me, it felt like a great second-to-last episode of the season. but of course, this was a the finale. There is no more this year, or next year. I get that it takes a while to make those dragon-centric battles (Rook's Rest was a great teaser of that, at least), but COME ON! Did I like Daemon finally coming around to Rhaenyra? YES! Did I like Aemond squirming once he realized that his one beeg dragon wasn't going to be enough to get it done anymore? YES! Did I like Alyn finally telling off Corlys? Ehhhhh...sure.

But what was the big finale moment? I'm not asking for another epic skybound dragon battle setpiece, but the people need SOMETHING. Even something like the fight between Brienne and the Hound in GOT: a fight that did not involve armies or fantasy creatures, but which was still narratively juicy.

So what do you think?

> Several contestants said that when they had sought out production staff members for assistance with medical care, food and hygiene issues, the staff members were often not helpful and appeared disorganized. Some staff members yelled and cursed at contestants, one participant said. > > Despite reassurance that contestants’ medications would be distributed to them when needed, several contestants said they had not received their medication on time — including one contestant who needed insulin — instead receiving it hours, or even days, after their scheduled dosing times. One contestant said she had initially been denied the food she required to take her medication and had been told by staff members that she didn’t actually need to eat. After asking repeatedly, she was given half a banana.

archive | I'm NOT interested in the review, but in the complaint about a generalized movie trend. The author, Louis Chilton, goes on a rant using about what he sees as having gone to far in and overly exemplified by the latest Marvel release:

> If we are watching, as some critics have suggested, the death of cinema happen before our eyes, then it’s taken the form of a public execution.

> It is a film that is about absolutely nothing – a film with no discernable purpose or artistic ambitions, beyond the perpetuation of its own corporate myth.

He explains a little:

> Audiences didn’t love Blade because Snipes just showed up, stood there and barked catchphrases – he was part of a story, with a proper character, and stakes, and intentionality. That Marvel cannot see the difference – or, even worse, if it can see the difference but chooses to ignore it – is surely damning.

> We call Deadpool & Wolverine a movie because it is released in cinemas, and is two hours long, but other than these technicalities, it shares almost nothing with a traditional blockbuster, when it comes to intent.

And finally concedes with admonishment: > And of course, people are allowed to enjoy what they like. But freebasing cocaine is surely enjoyable to many people; that doesn’t mean we should all get on board with its production and distribution.

>The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is finally streaming, but is it really Armie Hammer time again?

> Reservation Dogs, The Gilded Age and The Traitors finally made the cut for the top categories, while Shōgun, The Bear and Abbott Elementary lived up to expectations that they would earn nominations for the 76th annual Emmy Awards, which were unveiled Wednesday morning.

> Late Night with Seth Meyers also earned a what-took-you-so-long nomination in Talk Series, while Amazon’s Fallout earned attaboys in Drama Series and Best Actor for Walton Goggins. And straight from the Better Late Than Never department, FX’s now-canceled Reservation Dogs earned its first nomination for Best Drama, as did star D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai for playing Bear Smallhill.