Friday, we went and got some culture…by going to Helium Comedy Club and seeing Christopher Titus live. It was amazing!
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Watched Power of the Doctor last night, it made me laugh, it made me cry. Loved it.
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I got to see Enola Holmes and School of Good and Evil over the week-end. Both were fine entertainment without too much drama. There is enough drama going on, no need for dramatic entertainment 
We got started on Andor. But to tell the truth: right now I’d rather rewatch Clone Wars. Even that first episode was a bit too much for me. Probably good–but see my first paragraph on drama.
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Really enjoyed it, even though it was overstuffed, especially the beginning.
Vague spoiler
He really doesn’t want to go, does he?
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I wish that more of Chibnail’s stories had been as overstuffed as The Power of the Doctor, because the bottom line is this: the story made me feel something, which was the main failure (arguably a failure of modern media) that makes the importance of message more important than the story.
I’d rather a story fails from being overstuffed with stuff that makes me emotional than with message; it’s all about sugar making the medicine go down easier.
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Heartbreak High. Episode 2 has a good sequence based around the autistic character.
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Oh, the sequel isn’t out until November, you mean the first Enola Holmes! Yes, loved it.
(Not least because I’ve literally written about the Suffragettes learning jujutsu, which happens in the movie, as well as Sherlock’s “Baritsu”, and interviewed folks about it: Revolting Women: The Ju-Jutsuffragettes | Bad Reputation ).
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Oh I had no idea, thanks for posting the link that was an enlightening read! That makes the movie even better
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Still need to get to Enola Holmes ourselves. Maybe we can manage before the sequel hits.
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I went on Saturday to watch Black Adam. Not very pretentious, and enjoyable enough. I must admit I haven’t got the patience to keep up with 3-4 Marvel movies a year (I am still to catch up from Avengers: Civil War onwards, and I admit I don’t feel very much like doing it) so movies that start a new hero line I can put up with. I think the links between DC movies are more relaxed, anyway… at least they feel that way to me.
Finished House of the Dragon last night. I have really enjoyed it. Besides that episode the dark one, and a few changes of actors that felt a bit awkward Laenor Valerion, Rhaenyra’s husband, they changed the actor for his mid thirties I think they could have aged the initial actor and avoid confusion, he only lasted two episodes; the series has been very solid. I must admit that I was surprised by the events in the last episode, especially the Daemon vs Lucerys showdown. I thought they were going to leave that stuff for next season, but it was a good place to leave the series at.
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I watched Thor: Love and Thunder and… meh. It’s my least favourite Taika Waititi film by a mile, and one of my least favourite Marvel. It was okay, but overtly comic and silly to the point where it undercut the more emotional sequences. I’ve always thought Waititi was great at mixing comedy and emotion (particularly in the spectacular JoJo Rabbit) but it didn’t work for me here. I’ve been tired of superhero films for a while now, but I have enjoyed the ones I watched recently. Not this one I’m afraid, a bit boring for me.
On the other hand, I also watched Prey, which is really jolly good. Not sure it has more interesting things to say than any other Predator film, but it does what it does really well. Definitely the best Predator film since, well, Predator. Recommended if you’re in the mood for the sort of things that Predator films do (gritty survival and melee fighting, with rabbits).
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Always late to the party, nearly a decade late in this case, I watched the first episode of Da Vinci’s Demons as a bit of atmospheric background viewing to put me in the right frame of mind for Mark Galeotti’s Gran Meccanismo RPG, which I bought earlier this week.
It starts boldly with an aerial shot of Hugh Bonneville’s bare backside, then launches into murder, machinations, debauchery, politics, art, fantasy and whimsy, handling them all well enough to hold my attention. The CGI does the job in a sort of theatrical scenery way—it won’t convince you it’s real but it locates the action and helps you to get a sense of place—and the actors do pretty solid work. Apparently the show ran for three series without me even being aware of it. Recommended if you’re into boobs, bums, blades and brushstrokes.
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Are you certain you weren’t watching Watership Down?
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As a big Taika fan, I was similarly disappointed. Probably not that far down my ranking of MCU films, as there are a fair few I really dislike and L&T at least has its moments. I think it suffers a lot for trying to outdo Ragnarok. It tries to have more of everything and ruins the balance.
In other news, I watched The Princess with my partner last night (it’s on Disney+ over here, but Hulu in the US, I think). Just a really enjoyable film. Not super smart or nuanced or anything, but it’s really not trying to be. There’s only enough plot to justify hanging the action off it.
Basically like if you tried to do a live action adaptation of Brave, but replaced the stuff about magic and bears with the plot of Dredd.
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He’s been doing an awful lot of projects recently. Stretched too thinly, I think.
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I can’t disagree. I enjoyed L&T, it was fun, but I did have a sense of disappointment in it which I think you’ve nailed: the balance of comedy and emotion did not work here.
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Finished watching the first season of the bear loved it. For a kitchen based show the sense of growing tension in some of the episodes is intense.
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My partner is watching Big Little Lies in the lounge, which is in earshot of me, and I’ve noticed that the show has excellent taste in music; so I’ve been enjoying the occasional bits of that. Especially when they play something longer during the credits… until my partner skips the credits in order to start the next episode without letting the song play out, like a barbarian!
(The last episode ended with Janis Joplin and a killer performance of Ball & Chain – which suddenly got cut off. I am still horrified.)
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I always cut the credits and the intro…
A Nightmare On Elm Street. My partner hadn’t seen it. Planning to also screen #3 (which I gather is good, but can’t actually remember) and “New Nightmare” (which I recall liking a lot). The remainder I’m expecting to be rubbish, so those will just be for me :)
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