Posted by: nacho
« on: December 12, 2020, 05:19:26 PM »If you can't find Wellington Paranormal, email me and I'll hook you up. It's life-changing comedy.
Posted by: Nubbins
« on: December 12, 2020, 03:36:54 PM »Hulu is miles better, yes. (We've kept Netflix, though.)
Letterkenney is what brought us into Hulu.
What We Do in the Shadows is amazing. The movie is slightly too long, but you need to watch it so that you can also watch What We Do's sister show Wellington Paranormal, which follows the two idiot cops from the movie as they hunt down X-File-type events in Wellington. It makes What We Do look dull and unfunny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM8q9VOIiS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzX2HbaW-A
Ahh, very cool! The WWD movie is next on our list. We just finished season 2 last night and are jonesing for more. I do hope there will be a 3rd season.
2020 has been such a clusterfuck, it’s nice to find some comedy to take our minds off it. Serious stuff, documentaries, dramas... it’s just all been too much. I have literally been watching comedy and YouTube cooking shows the back half of this year just to decompress.
Posted by: nacho
« on: December 12, 2020, 09:46:26 AM »Hulu is miles better, yes. (We've kept Netflix, though.)
Letterkenney is what brought us into Hulu.
What We Do in the Shadows is amazing. The movie is slightly too long, but you need to watch it so that you can also watch What We Do's sister show Wellington Paranormal, which follows the two idiot cops from the movie as they hunt down X-File-type events in Wellington. It makes What We Do look dull and unfunny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM8q9VOIiS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzX2HbaW-A
Letterkenney is what brought us into Hulu.
What We Do in the Shadows is amazing. The movie is slightly too long, but you need to watch it so that you can also watch What We Do's sister show Wellington Paranormal, which follows the two idiot cops from the movie as they hunt down X-File-type events in Wellington. It makes What We Do look dull and unfunny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM8q9VOIiS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzX2HbaW-A
Posted by: Nubbins
« on: December 11, 2020, 12:56:11 PM »Hulu is where it's at for us. If you don't have it, cancel your Netflix for a month and pick up Hulu to binge these shows. You'll thank me.
ATLANTA: This show is just incredible, start to finish. While it does have a solid plot arch, it's also got an edgy sketch comedy feel that pulls you in as well. We've actually watched this all the way through multiple times, it's that good.
https://youtu.be/EMSrjJngnkY
DAVE: Another really great show about a rising hip hop star. It's definitely a comedy with some serious undertones and it crosses the barrier between fiction and reality very well... kind of like Larry Sanders. Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS71zL6Zn1s
RAMY: Millennial dramady about a guy struggling with his own identity as an American from an orthodox Muslim family. We ripped through this show very quickly too... I can't figure out why more people aren't talking about this and how phenomenal it is. Extremely well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeyZQwlI-4
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: I haven't seen the movie this is based on, but holy shit is this show funny. I will watch anything with Matt Berry, but couple it with Jemaine Clement writing and Taika Waititi directing and I'm in 100%. Filmed in the vein of The Office / Parks and Rec, it follows the adventures of a bunch of vampire roommates and their familiars. The Baron's Night Out episode absolutely slayed me.
https://youtu.be/d47zpGcp2nA
ATLANTA: This show is just incredible, start to finish. While it does have a solid plot arch, it's also got an edgy sketch comedy feel that pulls you in as well. We've actually watched this all the way through multiple times, it's that good.
https://youtu.be/EMSrjJngnkY
DAVE: Another really great show about a rising hip hop star. It's definitely a comedy with some serious undertones and it crosses the barrier between fiction and reality very well... kind of like Larry Sanders. Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS71zL6Zn1s
RAMY: Millennial dramady about a guy struggling with his own identity as an American from an orthodox Muslim family. We ripped through this show very quickly too... I can't figure out why more people aren't talking about this and how phenomenal it is. Extremely well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeyZQwlI-4
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: I haven't seen the movie this is based on, but holy shit is this show funny. I will watch anything with Matt Berry, but couple it with Jemaine Clement writing and Taika Waititi directing and I'm in 100%. Filmed in the vein of The Office / Parks and Rec, it follows the adventures of a bunch of vampire roommates and their familiars. The Baron's Night Out episode absolutely slayed me.
https://youtu.be/d47zpGcp2nA
Posted by: nacho
« on: July 19, 2020, 09:02:07 AM »I’m tempted to give Netflix das boot.
They are beginning to get outpaced a bit.
That said, we're loving Cursed. It's about a young Lady of the Lake and her rise to power, with all the usual Arthurian characters hanging around. It's kind of what Tom Cruise wanted Legend to be, I think.
It's a little gay, but people's heads get chopped off and Merlin's a funny drunk guy.
Posted by: monkey!
« on: July 19, 2020, 08:05:32 AM »I’m tempted to give Netflix das boot.
Posted by: nacho
« on: May 31, 2020, 10:02:38 AM »COVID Binge roundup!
THE GREAT: A baby Fanning plays Catherine the Great. Luckily, I read about this before I watched it so I went into it without expecting any history and instead settled in for the tragicomic fantasy that this show really is. And it was great. It's very chick-flicky at times, but it also made me think of season 3 of Blackadder. In fact, some things seemed directly lifted from that show.
HIGH FIDELITY: The gender swap with Zoe Kravitz isn't a problem here since Rob's character -- a misguided, underachieving Gen Xer -- is fairly interchangeable. Switching that out for a misguided, female Millennial is very interesting from the social studies side of things. The problem here, though, is the show's obsession with the movie. They play the same songs, they're lockstep with the script (sometimes scene for scene). All that does is make you want to stop watching the show and put the movie on instead. This obsession with the movie extends to setting, place, and sense of time. Our new Rob is walking so strictly within John Cusack's footsteps that this almost feels like a high school play based on the movie and set during the same time as the movie, which is the sort of thing that could work except that we are being asked to believe that this is 2019. I can't help but think that the character of Rob would be different today than (s)he was 20 years ago. I don't demand that everyone in a fantasy be in touch with our world, but I do think 1999 and 2019 are very different. The real problem here is that they do this gender swap, okay, fine, but then they make her beholden to every single man she meets. She's weak and, at times, subservient to them. This is the sort of gender swap that is keenly aware of gender, which defeats the purpose of a gender swap. Worse, that gender awareness clearly comes from a #writersroom full of men.
DEVS: There's something afoot at the off-brand Google campus! Devs is fascinating, and good. I helps if you have a working knowledge of the "technology" behind Quantum Leap, which is fun. But Devs isn't really straight up sci-fi. It's murder mystery, intrigue, action, fantasy, and everything in between.
CATCH-22: The remake is beautifully shot, well acted, and has great potential...which is wasted on weird gimmicks and attempts to simplify and play up the humor. Instead of a very black social satire, we just get straight up zanyness. All in all, the show feels like the showrunners are so taken with their clever idea to redo Catch-22 that they just couldn't get enough of themselves, you know?
DAS BOOT: This is how you do reboots. Though, it's not really a reboot. Different sub, different crew, and a different mission. The story is told in two sections: First, we have the sub crew trying to survive at the turning of the tide for the Wolf Packs. So we know that they're doomed. On the sub is a green captain and a seasoned first mate who don't get along, and that fractured relationship sort of infects the entire crew and the mission. Also on board is a radio operator who is working for OSS, trying to get them the codes to Enigma which.... Back on land, in occupied France, that radio operator's sister is thrust into the machinations of the resistance and the OSS because she's the one who has the Enigma plans. So the second section of Das Boot is a straight up spy thriller. Heavy stuff, but enjoyable.
THE LOOMING TOWER: An in-depth and beautifully acted story about how the intelligence servies fucked up in the years leading up to 9/11, from the boots on the ground all the way up to the cabinet level. This is a fascinating study that's very much in line with the book (and intercuts occasionally with actual footage showing scenes that were just acted out). Loved everything about this, but it's not for you if you're moody.
THE GREAT: A baby Fanning plays Catherine the Great. Luckily, I read about this before I watched it so I went into it without expecting any history and instead settled in for the tragicomic fantasy that this show really is. And it was great. It's very chick-flicky at times, but it also made me think of season 3 of Blackadder. In fact, some things seemed directly lifted from that show.
HIGH FIDELITY: The gender swap with Zoe Kravitz isn't a problem here since Rob's character -- a misguided, underachieving Gen Xer -- is fairly interchangeable. Switching that out for a misguided, female Millennial is very interesting from the social studies side of things. The problem here, though, is the show's obsession with the movie. They play the same songs, they're lockstep with the script (sometimes scene for scene). All that does is make you want to stop watching the show and put the movie on instead. This obsession with the movie extends to setting, place, and sense of time. Our new Rob is walking so strictly within John Cusack's footsteps that this almost feels like a high school play based on the movie and set during the same time as the movie, which is the sort of thing that could work except that we are being asked to believe that this is 2019. I can't help but think that the character of Rob would be different today than (s)he was 20 years ago. I don't demand that everyone in a fantasy be in touch with our world, but I do think 1999 and 2019 are very different. The real problem here is that they do this gender swap, okay, fine, but then they make her beholden to every single man she meets. She's weak and, at times, subservient to them. This is the sort of gender swap that is keenly aware of gender, which defeats the purpose of a gender swap. Worse, that gender awareness clearly comes from a #writersroom full of men.
DEVS: There's something afoot at the off-brand Google campus! Devs is fascinating, and good. I helps if you have a working knowledge of the "technology" behind Quantum Leap, which is fun. But Devs isn't really straight up sci-fi. It's murder mystery, intrigue, action, fantasy, and everything in between.
CATCH-22: The remake is beautifully shot, well acted, and has great potential...which is wasted on weird gimmicks and attempts to simplify and play up the humor. Instead of a very black social satire, we just get straight up zanyness. All in all, the show feels like the showrunners are so taken with their clever idea to redo Catch-22 that they just couldn't get enough of themselves, you know?
DAS BOOT: This is how you do reboots. Though, it's not really a reboot. Different sub, different crew, and a different mission. The story is told in two sections: First, we have the sub crew trying to survive at the turning of the tide for the Wolf Packs. So we know that they're doomed. On the sub is a green captain and a seasoned first mate who don't get along, and that fractured relationship sort of infects the entire crew and the mission. Also on board is a radio operator who is working for OSS, trying to get them the codes to Enigma which.... Back on land, in occupied France, that radio operator's sister is thrust into the machinations of the resistance and the OSS because she's the one who has the Enigma plans. So the second section of Das Boot is a straight up spy thriller. Heavy stuff, but enjoyable.
THE LOOMING TOWER: An in-depth and beautifully acted story about how the intelligence servies fucked up in the years leading up to 9/11, from the boots on the ground all the way up to the cabinet level. This is a fascinating study that's very much in line with the book (and intercuts occasionally with actual footage showing scenes that were just acted out). Loved everything about this, but it's not for you if you're moody.
Posted by: nacho
« on: March 25, 2020, 04:22:37 PM »No! Will give it a try. We're looking for a new marathon.
Posted by: RottingCorpse
« on: March 25, 2020, 03:43:38 PM »We're all watching Letterkenny, right? I've watched all eight seasons and as far as I'm concerned, it's hands down the funniest thing going.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XN0B16CbAA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XN0B16CbAA
Posted by: nacho
« on: February 11, 2020, 04:38:49 PM »The Witcher was great... and boobies.
Oh, my, yes!
Posted by: monkey!
« on: February 10, 2020, 12:01:16 PM »The Witcher was great... and boobies.
Posted by: nacho
« on: February 10, 2020, 12:00:11 PM »My students are al raving over The Witcher. I realize I'm quickly becoming that guy in 1929 who got confused by talkies because they didn't have title cards anymore.
Well, The Witcher is properly confusing. Not just for old people. The secret: Everything with Princess Ciri on the run is the "present" and everything else is the past until the penultimate episode when the two timelines connect.
That's really all you need. It also helps if you played the games or read the first two books, but that's not really a requirement.
What's kind of awesome about this timeline fuckery is that all the stuff in the "past" is just The Witcher's amusing monster-of-the-week battles while the ancillary characters build this insane amount of background that you don't always realize you're being fed. Very well done, from a writers room POV. By the time the past storyline catches up with the present storyline you are 100% informed and immersed in the background.
Structurally, I'm very impressed with the Witcher. It's timeline fuckery done right (as opposed to Westworld).
Posted by: RottingCorpse
« on: February 10, 2020, 11:46:13 AM »My students are al raving over The Witcher. I realize I'm quickly becoming that guy in 1929 who got confused by talkies because they didn't have title cards anymore.
Posted by: nacho
« on: February 10, 2020, 09:52:56 AM »So, I watched three episodes of The Witcher and was lost and confused. Then Netflix posted their timeline and guide and everything snapped into place. I started again and plowed through it and it was amazing. But, Jesus, you can't just sit down and watch this show without any of the background knowledge.
Posted by: nacho
« on: December 04, 2019, 12:54:06 PM »I found the reunion uplifting!
They do the same editing style with movies That Made Us and it's great. I love them trying to get everyone to say "motherfucker" in the Die Hard one.
I skipped Power Rangers too. It wasn't a toy that made me!
They do the same editing style with movies That Made Us and it's great. I love them trying to get everyone to say "motherfucker" in the Die Hard one.
I skipped Power Rangers too. It wasn't a toy that made me!