I quite enjoyed Blue Eyed Samurai.
Is there still only one season?
2 Likes
Finished Witch Hat Atelier. Masterpiece.
2 Likes
Lets hope so. CJ too. (Every time I watch WW, I fall in love with her again - Alison Janney is pretty awesome too)
1 Like
Supposedly S2 comes out some time this year.
3 Likes
Very fun seeing Alison Janney in season 2+3 of The Diplomat.
3 Likes
Another brilliant programmes. Although perhaps not as spirit lifting as West Wing!
1 Like
The Blue Angel (1930), which stars Emil Jannings in the main role, but is far more renowned as the film which introduced Marlene Dietrich to a wide/international audience. It was the first of her collaborations with director Josef von Sternberg, and I would call it a sensational film by every meaning. (I learned that it wasnât screened in New Zealand until 1953, and only then by a special dispensation of the Censor to allow screenings by film societies, while still refusing a certificate for general release.)
When I mentioned to my parents that I was seeing this, mum told me that sheâd once seen Dietrich perform in Edinburgh and that sheâd been extraordinary. Mum started to add something else, and then stopped herself and laughed. She said sheâd been about to comment that âof course Dietrich was quite old at the timeâ, before realising that what she meant by âquite oldâ was about 25 years younger than she is now :).
7 Likes
Some mild spoilers
Okay I will start by saying that I quite enjoyed it but there were some issues. Kara loses her powers so many times.
Red Sun (voluntary)
Poison (really? poison? Not Kryptonite that comes later.)
Green Sun (Iâve read comics for nearly 60 years and that was new to me. Or perhaps I just donât remember that one.)
Kryptonite (fair enough)
I think if you canât write a character as they are then maybe you shouldnât write that character.
I could also have done without Lobo. A mildly interesting character when he first appeared in the Omega Men way back in 1983 but pretty dull after that.
Still Milly Alcock was good as Kara and bits of the film related to the comic series on which it was based,
5 Likes
Just watched the final episode of S1 - really not how I expected it to end (no spoilers) and gives some really interesting directions for S2, which makes it much more likely Iâll watch it when it does come out.
Definitely not a meh ending. I remember on the old rec.arts.sf.written they had the adage of the 8 deadly words that will kill interest in a story.
I donât care what happens to these people.
Doesnât matter if you love them or hate them, you want to find out. Blue Eyed Samurai definitely delivers that for me.
3 Likes
I feel that. It barely matters how good the performances are if I donât care about any of the characters, and I will happily abandon a TV series on this account. You have to give me something, people.
3 Likes
This is why I never took to House of the Dragon, as an example of many popular shows.
3 Likes
I just watched all of Adolescence, and itâs 1:30 in the morning and I feel like Iâve been put through a wringer and I canât sleep.
4 Likes
I can certainly see why itâs won so many awards
2 Likes
âHow are we gonna deal with Haalandâ
Someone has to float under the bridge and poke him through the gaps with a spear
2 Likes
So 21 days later and I am almost done Season 7 of The Rookie.
Some interesting casting changes.
The loss of West after season 3 was unfortunate. There are no gay characters on the show any more (background, yes, but none of the main cast). The loss of Bishop after 1 season wasnât as a big of a deal, although the actor is great, and the loss of Aaron (from S5 to the end of S6) was tragic. Good character, shame he was written out. The âWill They Wonât Theyâ with Tim and Lucy is 95% of the show at this point, and the other 5% is all Harper. Such a good actor, damn fine character. Nolan is almost tertiary at this point, but that makes sense⌠after 4 diagetic years on the force, he isnât special any more. Just a âgood copâ insomuch as fictionalized versions of cops can be good.
A couple of the Big Bads were pretty good⌠Monica was a good villain, Oscar is fantastic, even Elias Stone was solid.
But yeah, as characters go, Harper > Tim > Lucy > Nolan.
1 Like
Just watching a classic TV advert from 2011âŚ
3 Likes
Just started watching Ikoku Nikki, aka Journal with Witch, on someoneâs recommendation, and the first two episodes indicate that it might be something the anime fans here could be interested in. It has nothing to do with witches, btw, the Japanese title is more like âdiary of different countriesâ, where âdifferent countriesâ seems to be a metaphor for the imaginative mapping a teenager applies to the unusual situation she finds herself in, rather than actual countries. But I have no idea where the series is headed, it just seems unusually well-written.
5 Likes
I only watched the first reason of The Rookie, in part because my tolerance for copaganda was going down even with good actors, in part because ho hum yet another man having a romance with a woman 17 years younger, but mostly because the character I liked best was Talia Bishop, whose actor I knew left after season 1.
3 Likes
Thankfully they got rid of that fast, and heâs with someone his age doing middle-aged people things.
He said on his podcast that if he gets too old to keep doing it, heâd like Lucyâs actor to take over as the main role of the series.
Iâm split on how I feel about it these days (Iâm up to the start of S7 or so). Itâs had periods of strong copoganda but now seems to want to be primarily a total nonsense soap opera. They got a load of young (anti-cop) fans since lockdown and are leaning hard into being a not even slightly believable comedy.
Itâs still very watchable because to the top 4-6 actors are really great.
4 Likes
Fair enough, might give it another go then.
1 Like