Me neither.
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I just saw that tonight 
Took 'em long enough!
I like how they spun the new season from the finale of the old season.
Thanks. Will watch.
This weirdnessâŚI happen to think Ms. Sheridan was one of the greats, but DAMMIT WHYâD SHE HAVE TO SMOKE SO MUCH? Fifty-one years oldâŚand you can see it, in her face here.
ButâŚtheyâre like superheroes, arenât they, the family in this show? And its corniness is quaint, in its way, even with the inevitable cringes.
I just watched In Sanity, Florida. It has a lot of bad reviews, so Iâd like to share what I like about it.
The premise is a town wherein all whistling, humming, singing, and music has been outlawed for almost 100 years, but the lead character secretly wants to become a singer. She did incredible in school, became valedictorian, and everyone in town has expectations about her, but their expectations do not align with what she wants.
Itâs a feel-good, warm, comforting, relaxing show (like Andy Griffith), which there are very very few of these days. We need more shows like that. It is set in a small town with a variety of oddball characters, in some ways reminiscent of Gilmore Girls. Thereâs a lot of potential in those characters and how they interact. A couple of unusual positives, they actually cast teenagers (instead of 30-somethings) in the teenage roles. They also appear to be aiming for roughly parity in male-female ratios.
The show does have a few negatives, though. The entire âseasonâ is basically one long pilot episode split into 8 pieces (from 12 to 19 minutes long, including theme and credits). This was apparently done to be able to claim a season had been made and appeal to on-demand viewers, but a more cohesively edited hour and a half version would be nice. Since itâs a slow-paced show, they could possibly even edit it down to an hour.
Itâs slow-paced, which I like (relaxing and comforting), however many people now are used to commercial ad-speed delivery and youtube videos that are edited to cut out every breath and pause and jump spastically from one thing to another. So some people might find it too slow.
It is labeled as a comedy, and does have some funny bits, but the timing or delivery is sometimes a bit off, particularly in the earlier parts. Later on it gets better, but still could use some professional help.
Which leads me to mention that this is really a crowd-funded pilot for a show. Theyâre hoping to sell it to actually get backing and funding and such to make it what they want it to be. I hope they succeed. Itâs not great yet, but has potential.
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I just finished Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle. It seemed topical, both the Nazi part and the nuclear war part. But it was very slow and depressing. Canât really recommend it, except as homework.
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did anyone catch the last two episodes of âtwin peaks: the returnâ last night?
so how do the episodes play for you if there works out to be another season?
and how do they play for you if thatâs it?
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The first half was goodâŚ
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Just finishing:
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Just saw the first season of âHap and Leonardâ on Netflix. Kind of reminds me of Justified but about half-way through the action becomes Quentin Tarantino.
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The second season is better.
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This was a really interesting documentary, generally devoid of any commentary from the director, except for a few times when you get an onscreen comment (maybe 4 times), but still very powerful in understanding the lives of average N. Koreans in Pyongyang. It follows one girl (and to a lesser extent, her parents) as she joins the Childrenâs Unit. It was written by the North Koreans and literally every aspect of it was subject to their discretion, which oddly makes it probably the most revealing glimpse into the country Iâve seen. Worth the time to watch.
[ETA] Hereâs a review, which notes that he did sneak out some footage that NK government didnât know about and were pissed and complained to the Russian government about it:
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I jumped on Netflix and found this. Heartbreaking. Even with the smuggled footage, this is the stuff they wanted the rest of the world to see â the good bits. What else is happening there?
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There is probably a good reason why tourists are restricted to the Pyongyang, more often than not⌠and arenât allowed to just wander around.
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They gotta kill that history. 
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Indeed. History is a major propaganda tool of any state, but especially authoritarian ones.
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That was one of the things I noticed â history seems to start (and basically stop) just before and just after the war. I didnât see any monuments from before the 50s, and everything else (like the childrenâs mural with the computers in it) stop seemed very stuck in the 50s, even with modern bits.
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I saw the first episode of the Orville tonightâŚ
Itâs very, very pretty. The makeup and visual effects are on a par with any other sci-fi show to date. But the characters donât have any real depth to them. On one hand, youâve got your basic Trekian stereotypes, like the gruff-no-nonsense-alien and the emotionless-science-officer. On the other, youâve got generic snarky goofball types who wouldnât be out of place on Family Guy, like the captain who canât deal with his ex-wife/first officerâs infidelity or the irreverent helmsmen. And the plot line was paper-thin⌠though it may be unfair to judge too harshly based on one episode. The most troubling thing, for me, is that the show canât seem to decide if itâs a comedic parody of the genre (which could be fun if done well) or a more serious Trekkish clone with occasional ham-handed attempts at crude jokes. Again, if the jokes were better I might not mind⌠but too many of them fall flat, IMHO.
One interesting thing is the casting of Penny Johnson Jerald as the shipâs Chief Medical Officer, who some will recognize as Captain âIronâ Gates from Castle⌠or as Kasidy Yates from Deep Space Nine.
Iâll probably watch next week to see how it plays out⌠but Iâm not expecting too much. It has definite potential, but this first episode doesnât really prove whether or not the show will live up to any of it.
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Just watched the biopic movie, âJackie,â on HBO the other night. it was so fascinating. iâm not sure how much was fiction (but clearly some had to be), but nevertheless it was an interesting portrayal of one of our countryâs indelible moments. Jackie Kennedy was simultaneously so focused and aware, and so heartbreakingly shell-shocked and out of it on pills and vodka⌠it was just mesmerizing to watch a portrayal of this small painful window of time. i wasnât even born when Kennedy was killed, and i still find it a tender wound to poke around. i really donât think weâve quite recovered from it, which is why we continue to talk about it and obsess over it.
it made me want to watch Lincoln again, actually. Daniel Day Lewis really just disappeared into that role. such a good movie.
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