Weekly “What are you watching” Thread || Week of January 7th

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?

8 comments

Movies:

Rebel Moon. If you gave an AI the prompt: "A Star Wars movie written and directed by Zack Snyder but with all Star Wars copyrighted material disguised" this is what you'd get. I know that's exactly what the movie was, minus the written by AI bit (though I wonder), but it felt almost like a parody of itself.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Mediocre, except for Patrick Wilson who elevated every soggy line he was given to read. They desperately wanted to recreate the Thor/Loki dynamic to the point where I thought in one scene I actually heard Aquaman call his brother "Loki".

One Life. Schindler's List if Schindler's List focused more on the red tape needed to rescue people from the Nazis, and Oskar's twilight years. Kidding aside, a decent movie, but more on the "worthy" end of the spectrum than the entertaining.

Poor Things. The best movie I've seen this year. May still be true 51 weeks from now.

TV:

For All Mankind. I enjoyed the "retro" early seasons more, but it's still a very watchable show, and one I still consider to be a Star Trek prequel if I squint and look at it slightly sideways. They certainly seem to be heading towards a Fundamental Declarations of the Martian colonies scenario this season. One of the few shows I'm watching week-by-week instead of saving up and bingeing.

A Murder at the End of the World. Well acted, somewhat slow moving murder mystery. Unfortunately I guessed the identity of the killer after two episodes, and thought both that, and a certain revelation about one of the characters, were overused tropes in the early 2020s.

Bodies. Decent crime mini series set across four time periods. I thought the more modern settings and characters were more interesting than the oldey timey (wimey) ones, but the show managed to bring all four storylines together in a pretty satisfying way.

Silo. Halfway through. Pretty good, but maybe not as good as I heard it was.
- I tried few episodes of For All Mankind, but dropped it because it's very very slow.
  
  I think I'm going to give it another try, since I heard that it's really good afterwards.
Definitely a week full of movies for me!

I was fully in a sad mood for the first few days, and those who follow me probably know that means I dive into Felicity Jones movies, by far my favorite actress and her movies work well when I feel sad.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - A decent enough story focused around the events of a wedding in 1930's England following a bride and her family following through the "what ifs" in their lives. The overall theme is around how society pushes us into decisions that we may not have normally made for ourselves, even when we could be much happier if we went against society. Not an amazing movie, but I enjoyed it.

On the Basis of Sex - A more uplifting story, a biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, following her story of becoming a female lawyer in a male dominated world. A must watch for any American, the story of RBG is one that should be known for any true patriot of our country. Felicity Jones does a phenomenal job as her, and Armie Hammer should be the husband that all men strive to be.

Last Letter from your Lover - rounding out my Felicity kick, this one follows the story of 2 lovers in the 30s who had reasons to keep their love secret that I won't go too far into. I'm annoyed at this one because of mostly Joe Alwyn's character, who spent the entire movie being the "bad guy" from any rom com. The movie pushed too hard that we were not supposed to like him until a penultimate scene involving him, and it soured the rest of the movie. The modern day counterpart to it was good, but the romance in the 60s era just caused too many eyerolls for me.

Moving in a different direction then

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Switching it up, I've never seen a Wes Anderson film and damn, did it make an impact on me. Very good story, great visuals, and some good laughs in there. Will definitely have a rewatch in the future

...and then 21 jump street because my wife and I got drunk and I'd actually never seen it
- If you enjoyed On the Basis of Sex you should check out RBG, the 2018 documentary about Ginsburg. Ginsburg also appears as a character in a couple of episodes of the fifth season of The Good Fight, played wonderfully by Elaine May.
  
  I think I preferred the early Wes Anderson, before he went full Anderson. Check out Rushmore and (what I think is his best movie) The Royal Tenenbaums.
  
  Thanks! I'll add all of these to my lists! I'm years behind on movies so I'm trying to catch up. Not sure how I feel about Anderson, but it was definitely a different style that I need to try more
- Armie Hammer should be the husband that all men strive to be.
  
  😳
  
  Should have said "Plays the sort of husband"
We watched Pokemon Concierge, which was fun and cute.

Then we started Gen V which is the total opposite but damn it’s good, we watched the first 5 episodes and will probably finish it this week.

I should watch X-Files!

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