Just watched Day of the Doctor which I borrowed… three? No, four years ago.
Lovely to see my favourite Doctor again (Tennant). It was nice. Not great, but if it were great it wouldn’t really be Doctor Who. Fun, though.
I finally get to return it to the nice man who lent it to me tomorrow.
Really love Day if the Doctor.
Originally it was supposed to contain Christopher Eccleston, but he declined. (Based on old BBC behaviour. Not the script which he thought was great.)
So John Hurt’s character was created, and in 90 minutes he effortlessly convinced me he is the Doctor. Brilliant acting.
Plus, as a man of a certain age Matt Smith’s “I could retire and be curator of this place” scene was a joy.
There’s a prequel short, called Night of The Doctor.
I admit that I only watched a few episodes of the pre-Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who, and they never made any sense to me.
Tennant was the only Doctor I watched consistently. I wasn’t sure if Hurt was a Doctor previously that they brought back, which I guess speaks to your point that he “fits” very well.
The curator scene was neat, even not knowing specifically which Doctor that was (the one that wore a scarf? Or the one that had the hat?).
My partner listens to a podcast called “the Doctor’s Watcher” which is two guys: one watches old episodes of Doctor Who and tries to explain it to the other. It’s a neat listen. But she listens because she has watched for years and years before I became aware of the show as having actual legit sci-fi chops.
Spoilers
He had a scarf AND a hat.
I loved the show, but Desire knocks it out of the park. He/she comes along a little later in the first season.
Agreed, though I don’t know the motivation behind Desire’s machinations besides, “My brother is a smug prick who needs to be brought down a peg.” Maybe that’s enough. (And I’m only evaluating what is down on screen without referencing the original works which I have not read (though I did reach much of the tangential series back in the day).)
The last episodes were better than the first and it ended on a very strong note.
I really loved the show and the casting was sooo good.
I can barely remember if desire has any justification beyond being fickle and enjoying torturing others.
I’m very excited to see delirium.
So far I have watched about half the way,
(Just finished the episode where “Lupin” has a field day removing lying from the staff and customers in the diner with the ruby)
and I am really enjoying the show.
The next episode after the diner (6) is just extraordinary. Awards season for sure.
… and, more importantly, jelly babies.
Older Who and newer Who both have their stinkers and delights in terms of Doctors, companions, villains, storylines, visual effects etc but the thing for me that the new Who format rarely matches that the old Who had were the cliffhanger endings. Having a story run over four to six weeks with a shorter episode - with no bulk releases and pre-internet - added to the tension and suspense between each week’s release, at least for me.
29 films. Should have been 30, but a train broke down yesterday.
Things I thought were very good:
Things I thought were excellent:
(Most of the other films were “Good” – I’m quite happy to have seen them, but not ones to rave about. Claire Denis continues to be a very mixed bag for me… her Stars at Noon was one of my favourites, while her Both Sides of the Blade was one of the very few films that I wished I’d missed.)
Things I’m gutted I wasn’t able to see – a whole bunch, because I was so very late in booking things, and also missed the first three days entirely…
Having skipped this annual film festival the past two years on account of Covid, it was an experience to spend a bunch of time at the cinema again!
I have also been watching Sandman, slowly, with my husband. I own all the comics in original floppy single issues and have read them numerous times. My husband has no prior Sandman experience and is one of the two reasons we have been going slowly.* He needs time to process. We last watched episode 6, Sound of Her Wings and have both been enjoying the show, though he did say he hated me through his tears somewhere in the first half of that last episode. I had warned him it would make him cry.
For the others watching Sandman who may have finished already, note that a bonus new episode just dropped. This one covers two “standalone” stories from the original comics - Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope.
*The other reason is we bought a house a few weeks ago and a lot of our “free” time is going to painting right now.
Sound of Her Wings is such a great episode!
I just watched the Cats/Calliope, and I’m really impressed with 1) how close to the comics they are (word perfect in many places) and 2) how the small changes they’ve made ALL improve it for 2022. Really cleverly done.
Thanks for that.
After The Sandman, we jumped into Kevin Can F**k Himself. Tonally, it is very odd, shifting between sitcom shenanigans (complete with laugh track) to dark personal drama (including a change in lighting). That is the hook of the show and its oddly compelling (if you can survive the sitcom bits).
Double-feature at home. My partner picked “The Silence of the Lambs”, and I added “Don’t Look Now” (which I’d been wanting to screen as part of our occasional horror film nights since ages ago, but it had never seemed like the right occasion until tonight).
Watched Episode 6 of Sandman last night. It was beautiful, and sad, and fun. Loved Dream sister, she did a great work in “Behind her eyes”, great choice for the role.
A compilation of 13 short films by Alice Guy, which was both enlightening and lots of fun.
Watched the first episode of House of the Dragon. Enjoyable, and quite convinced with the cast so far, I knew the choice for Daemon Targaryen will be on point. I just cringed a little bit with the open helmet jousting; first Matt Damon, now Matt Smith, what’s going on, Matts of the acting world? Don’t you see all the splinters that can come out of that lance? What’s wrong with visors?
Anyway, interesting first episode, but I have the book too fresh on my mind, and I already wonder why some changes are happening, GRR Martin only just published this what, 3 years ago…?
I read an article that the producers through discussions with GRRM were treating the tv and book differently. They apparently wanted the book to be the historical account (prone to inaccuracy and bias) and the tv show to be the actual account.
IMHO it may be bullshit but I liked this idea of giving the book the untrustworthy narrator angle.
On the book he always uses three sources, and sometimes the accounts are contradictory, that is true. There is a jester’s version that very often is exaggerated. But I don’t recall these changes from any of them. I could be wrong, though.