What Did You Watch? 2021-04-19 (Monday)

[Ian J. Ball]

I just watched soaps, as I had several meetings yesterday, and then
spent the evening grading...:

soaps: GH - Fri's ep. A mostly boring episode. Sasha and Brando decide
to try to "make a go" of if after they boffed, despite his mother's
obvious disapproval. Meanwhile, no Chase or Peter August. Just a bunch
of crap with Cyrus Renault. Also, Alexis is now in jail (and regretting
it!!) as she's being threatened (prob. by a Cyrus goon). And "Mike" is
still warning NuNina off the obviously mob guy.
DOOL (I had to pull this off Peacock, as the episode was mostly
preempted by B.S. on reg. TV) - Well, that was *extremely
disappointing*. I had a sinking feeling early on in this episode that
they were going to go with the nonsensical "Jan killed Charlie"
(despite being in a coma at the time!!). And sure enough... >:/ They
really blew this - I was hoping that it would turn out that Crazy
(Nu)Claire had done it, and then blocked out the memory - that would
have been a heck of a lot more interesting. Now, all we're going to get
out of this stupid storyline is them writing Jan Spears out again...
Meanwhile, Trask forces Rafe to arrest Belle for Charlie's murder (and
John is convinced that he witnessed Belle murder him!). NuClaire
figures out that Allie is into Tripp. And Tripp tells Kayla & Steve
(Patch!!) that he's legally changed his name to "Tripp Johnson".

Recorded for later: Black Lightning, and Debris.


What did you watch?

[anim8rfsk]

Post by Ian J. Ball
I just watched soaps, as I had several meetings yesterday, and then
soaps: GH - Fri's ep. A mostly boring episode. Sasha and Brando decide
to try to "make a go" of if after they boffed, despite his mother's
obvious disapproval. Meanwhile, no Chase or Peter August. Just a bunch
of crap with Cyrus Renault. Also, Alexis is now in jail (and regretting
it!!) as she's being threatened (prob. by a Cyrus goon). And "Mike" is
still warning NuNina off the obviously mob guy.
DOOL (I had to pull this off Peacock, as the episode was mostly
preempted by B.S. on reg. TV) - Well, that was *extremely
disappointing*. I had a sinking feeling early on in this episode that
they were going to go with the nonsensical "Jan killed Charlie"
(despite being in a coma at the time!!). And sure enough... >:/ They
really blew this - I was hoping that it would turn out that Crazy
(Nu)Claire had done it, and then blocked out the memory - that would
have been a heck of a lot more interesting. Now, all we're going to get
out of this stupid storyline is them writing Jan Spears out again...
Meanwhile, Trask forces Rafe to arrest Belle for Charlie's murder (and
John is convinced that he witnessed Belle murder him!). NuClaire
figures out that Allie is into Tripp. And Tripp tells Kayla & Steve
(Patch!!) that he's legally changed his name to "Tripp Johnson".
Recorded for later: Black Lightning, and Debris.
What did you watch?

I watched debris. It’s still boring and stupid but they ramped it up some
and our team is either killing other members of our team or killing members
of the other team. It’s hard to tell because everybody was dressed alike.

—
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.”

[BTR1701]

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Post by BTR1701
HIGH SPEED CAR CHASE (KTLA News) - Cops tried to pull a guy over for
warrants out in West Covina and a typical SoCal high-speed car chase
ensued. It had my minimal interest at first until they started getting
closer and closer to my part of town. When they entered my city it got
real interesting and when they got to the outskirts of my neighborhood
and I could hear the sirens outside, I went out onto my balcony and
watched the lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly they rounded the
corner of the main street that goes through my neighborhood and the
shitbag accelerated to insane speed on the straightaway. He didn't know
about the major drainage dip at our intersection and hit it at around
90mph, which both crunched the frame of his car into a V-shape and
launched it into the air and straight into the trunk of a palm tree in
the median.
Pretty spectacular stuff. Cops and ambulances and fire trucks were out
there for hours. They took him away on a stretcher but the news reports
say he died before he got to the hospital. I hope it was worth it for
him.
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

Great story! Were you actually an on-screen extra?

I hope the innocent tree wasn't seriously injured.

[BTR1701]

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by BTR1701
HIGH SPEED CAR CHASE (KTLA News) - Cops tried to pull a guy over for
warrants out in West Covina and a typical SoCal high-speed car chase
ensued. It had my minimal interest at first until they started getting
closer and closer to my part of town. When they entered my city it got
real interesting and when they got to the outskirts of my neighborhood
and I could hear the sirens outside, I went out onto my balcony and
watched the lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly they rounded the
corner of the main street that goes through my neighborhood and the
shitbag accelerated to insane speed on the straightaway. He didn't know
about the major drainage dip at our intersection and hit it at around
90mph, which both crunched the frame of his car into a V-shape and
launched it into the air and straight into the trunk of a palm tree in
the median.
Pretty spectacular stuff. Cops and ambulances and fire trucks were out
there for hours. They took him away on a stretcher but the news reports
say he died before he got to the hospital. I hope it was worth it for
him.
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

Great story! Were you actually an on-screen extra?
I hope the innocent tree wasn't seriously injured.

It's got some scarring, but chicks dig scars.

[Rhino]

Post by BTR1701

S.W.A.T. (blu-ray) 2003 action movie written by David Ayer and starring
Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and hey
it's Jeremy Renner, as members of a L.A. S.W.A.T. team. Their lives get
slightly complicated after a criminal worth billions of dolars promises
on live TV $100 million to whoever breaks him out of jail. It holds up
well enough. But the thing that always confused me about this movie is
it is set in a universe where the 1975 TV series exists. They watch the
series and sing the theme song in the movie, yet the characters in the
movie are the same characters from the TV show. The TV series and theme
song existing within the world of the movie isn't a problem. But the
characters having the same names makes *no* kind of sense!
Street Kings (blu-ray) 2008 action movie directed by David Ayer. It has
the usual all-star case including Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh
Laurie, and Chris Evans. Reeves plays an alcoholic LAPD detective who
straight up murders some crooks at the start of the movie. Hugh Laurie
is basically "House" with a badge who is looking at Reeves for the
murders with Forest Whitaker playing Reeve's shady boss running
interference. But this movie is notable for having Captain America team
up with John Wick to fight crime.
Captain America: Are we going to go in there and kill them?
John Wick: No. I'm going to ask them some questions. Then we're going
to kill them.

EVERLY (theatrical on SyFy) - A shoot-em-up with Salma Hayek as the
action hero. Hayek is a sex trafficked prisoner of a Japanese OC crime
lord who has taken a special liking to her and treats her like a queen
in between the regular rapings. She's been held prisoner in her luxury
apartment for half a decade and finally has enough. Thanks to a hidden
phone and gun left behind by a UC cop disguised as plumber, she kills
all the henchmen guarding her but she can't get out of the building.
The rest of the movie is the mob boss sending various people after her
and her dispatching them in spectacularly violent ways.
I'd never seen or heard of this movie before but I found it enjoyable
and a couple of hours of watching Salma Hayek leap around in tight
fitting clothes is never a waste of time.
HIGH SPEED CAR CHASE (KTLA News) - Cops tried to pull a guy over for
warrants out in West Covina and a typical SoCal high-speed car chase
ensued. It had my minimal interest at first until they started getting
closer and closer to my part of town. When they entered my city it got
real interesting and when they got to the outskirts of my neighborhood
and I could hear the sirens outside, I went out onto my balcony and
watched the lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly they rounded the
corner of the main street that goes through my neighborhood and the
shitbag accelerated to insane speed on the straightaway. He didn't know
about the major drainage dip at our intersection and hit it at around
90mph, which both crunched the frame of his car into a V-shape and
launched it into the air and straight into the trunk of a palm tree in
the median.
Pretty spectacular stuff. Cops and ambulances and fire trucks were out
there for hours. They took him away on a stretcher but the news reports
say he died before he got to the hospital. I hope it was worth it for
him.
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

I experienced something a little bit like your live action chase once. I
had gone to Mosport (a car and motorcycle racetrack east of Toronto)
with a bunch of friends and two of us were up on the first or second
major branch of a tree just a foot or two into the infield; the
guardrail was immediately below us. During the race, one car tried to
overtake another a short distance from us but side-swiped it and one of
the cars hit the guardrail and started rolling along on top of it. There
were marshals very close by and some ran deeper into the infield but one
marshal kept running along the infield beside the guardrail. She
stumbled and just about had the car roll over her but, luckily, it came
to a stop. They were just a few feet from our tree. My friend and I
looked at each other and realized that if the car had rolled over just
another time or two, it probably would have mangled the marshal AND
knocked the tree over which might have gotten us both injured or killed.

Of course there was no fleeing desperado or police chase in our case but
it WAS a moment where things got very real right there in front of us.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Rhino

Post by BTR1701

S.W.A.T. (blu-ray) 2003 action movie written by David Ayer and starring
Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and hey
it's Jeremy Renner, as members of a L.A. S.W.A.T. team. Their lives get
slightly complicated after a criminal worth billions of dolars promises
on live TV $100 million to whoever breaks him out of jail. It holds up
well enough. But the thing that always confused me about this movie is
it is set in a universe where the 1975 TV series exists. They watch the
series and sing the theme song in the movie, yet the characters in the
movie are the same characters from the TV show. The TV series and theme
song existing within the world of the movie isn't a problem. But the
characters having the same names makes *no* kind of sense!
Street Kings (blu-ray) 2008 action movie directed by David Ayer. It has
the usual all-star case including Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh
Laurie, and Chris Evans. Reeves plays an alcoholic LAPD detective who
straight up murders some crooks at the start of the movie. Hugh Laurie
is basically "House" with a badge who is looking at Reeves for the
murders with Forest Whitaker playing Reeve's shady boss running
interference. But this movie is notable for having Captain America team
up with John Wick to fight crime.
Captain America: Are we going to go in there and kill them?
John Wick: No. I'm going to ask them some questions. Then we're going
to kill them.

EVERLY (theatrical on SyFy) - A shoot-em-up with Salma Hayek as the
action hero. Hayek is a sex trafficked prisoner of a Japanese OC crime
lord who has taken a special liking to her and treats her like a queen
in between the regular rapings. She's been held prisoner in her luxury
apartment for half a decade and finally has enough. Thanks to a hidden
phone and gun left behind by a UC cop disguised as plumber, she kills
all the henchmen guarding her but she can't get out of the building.
The rest of the movie is the mob boss sending various people after her
and her dispatching them in spectacularly violent ways.
I'd never seen or heard of this movie before but I found it enjoyable
and a couple of hours of watching Salma Hayek leap around in tight
fitting clothes is never a waste of time.
HIGH SPEED CAR CHASE (KTLA News) - Cops tried to pull a guy over for
warrants out in West Covina and a typical SoCal high-speed car chase
ensued. It had my minimal interest at first until they started getting
closer and closer to my part of town. When they entered my city it got
real interesting and when they got to the outskirts of my neighborhood
and I could hear the sirens outside, I went out onto my balcony and
watched the lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly they rounded the
corner of the main street that goes through my neighborhood and the
shitbag accelerated to insane speed on the straightaway. He didn't know
about the major drainage dip at our intersection and hit it at around
90mph, which both crunched the frame of his car into a V-shape and
launched it into the air and straight into the trunk of a palm tree in
the median.
Pretty spectacular stuff. Cops and ambulances and fire trucks were out
there for hours. They took him away on a stretcher but the news reports
say he died before he got to the hospital. I hope it was worth it for
him.
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

I experienced something a little bit like your live action chase once. I
had gone to Mosport (a car and motorcycle racetrack east of Toronto)
with a bunch of friends and two of us were up on the first or second
major branch of a tree just a foot or two into the infield; the
guardrail was immediately below us. During the race, one car tried to
overtake another a short distance from us but side-swiped it and one of
the cars hit the guardrail and started rolling along on top of it. There
were marshals very close by and some ran deeper into the infield but one
marshal kept running along the infield beside the guardrail. She
stumbled and just about had the car roll over her but, luckily, it came
to a stop. They were just a few feet from our tree. My friend and I
looked at each other and realized that if the car had rolled over just
another time or two, it probably would have mangled the marshal AND
knocked the tree over which might have gotten us both injured or killed.
Of course there was no fleeing desperado or police chase in our case but
it WAS a moment where things got very real right there in front of us.

Back when I worked as a programmer on 911 Computer-Aided Dispatch
systems I worked out of a San Francisco office. San Francisco's
dispatch center was a client. One day someone was monitoring SF's
system and noticed an incident had become a vehicle pursuit. A minute
or two later the suspect went screaming past our building going the
wrong way on a one-way street. Just as they did so SFPD called off the
pursuit as having become too dangerous. Literally just a moment later
on the sixth floor we _heard_ the crash as the suspect plowed into a
parked car on the next block.

I don't remember if we in the office ever knew if the driver survived
that or not.

[Arthur Lipscomb]

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by Rhino

Post by BTR1701

S.W.A.T. (blu-ray) 2003 action movie written by David Ayer and starring
Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and hey
it's Jeremy Renner, as members of a L.A. S.W.A.T. team. Their lives get
slightly complicated after a criminal worth billions of dolars promises
on live TV $100 million to whoever breaks him out of jail. It holds up
well enough. But the thing that always confused me about this movie is
it is set in a universe where the 1975 TV series exists. They watch the
series and sing the theme song in the movie, yet the characters in the
movie are the same characters from the TV show. The TV series and theme
song existing within the world of the movie isn't a problem. But the
characters having the same names makes *no* kind of sense!
Street Kings (blu-ray) 2008 action movie directed by David Ayer. It has
the usual all-star case including Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh
Laurie, and Chris Evans. Reeves plays an alcoholic LAPD detective who
straight up murders some crooks at the start of the movie. Hugh Laurie
is basically "House" with a badge who is looking at Reeves for the
murders with Forest Whitaker playing Reeve's shady boss running
interference. But this movie is notable for having Captain America team
up with John Wick to fight crime.
Captain America: Are we going to go in there and kill them?
John Wick: No. I'm going to ask them some questions. Then we're going
to kill them.

EVERLY (theatrical on SyFy) - A shoot-em-up with Salma Hayek as the
action hero. Hayek is a sex trafficked prisoner of a Japanese OC crime
lord who has taken a special liking to her and treats her like a queen
in between the regular rapings. She's been held prisoner in her luxury
apartment for half a decade and finally has enough. Thanks to a hidden
phone and gun left behind by a UC cop disguised as plumber, she kills
all the henchmen guarding her but she can't get out of the building.
The rest of the movie is the mob boss sending various people after her
and her dispatching them in spectacularly violent ways.
I'd never seen or heard of this movie before but I found it enjoyable
and a couple of hours of watching Salma Hayek leap around in tight
fitting clothes is never a waste of time.
HIGH SPEED CAR CHASE (KTLA News) - Cops tried to pull a guy over for
warrants out in West Covina and a typical SoCal high-speed car chase
ensued. It had my minimal interest at first until they started getting
closer and closer to my part of town. When they entered my city it got
real interesting and when they got to the outskirts of my neighborhood
and I could hear the sirens outside, I went out onto my balcony and
watched the lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly they rounded the
corner of the main street that goes through my neighborhood and the
shitbag accelerated to insane speed on the straightaway. He didn't know
about the major drainage dip at our intersection and hit it at around
90mph, which both crunched the frame of his car into a V-shape and
launched it into the air and straight into the trunk of a palm tree in
the median.
Pretty spectacular stuff. Cops and ambulances and fire trucks were out
there for hours. They took him away on a stretcher but the news reports
say he died before he got to the hospital. I hope it was worth it for
him.
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

I experienced something a little bit like your live action chase once.
I had gone to Mosport (a car and motorcycle racetrack east of Toronto)
with a bunch of friends and two of us were up on the first or second
major branch of a tree just a foot or two into the infield; the
guardrail was immediately below us. During the race, one car tried to
overtake another a short distance from us but side-swiped it and one
of the cars hit the guardrail and started rolling along on top of it.
There were marshals very close by and some ran deeper into the infield
but one marshal kept running along the infield beside the guardrail.
She stumbled and just about had the car roll over her but, luckily, it
came to a stop. They were just a few feet from our tree. My friend and
I looked at each other and realized that if the car had rolled over
just another time or two, it probably would have mangled the marshal
AND knocked the tree over which might have gotten us both injured or
killed.
Of course there was no fleeing desperado or police chase in our case
but it WAS a moment where things got very real right there in front of
us.

Back when I worked as a programmer on 911 Computer-Aided Dispatch
systems I worked out of a San Francisco office.  San Francisco's
dispatch center was a client.  One day someone was monitoring SF's
system and noticed an incident had become a vehicle pursuit.  A minute
or two later the suspect went screaming past our building going the
wrong way on a one-way street.  Just as they did so SFPD called off the
pursuit as having become too dangerous.  Literally just a moment later
on the sixth floor we _heard_ the crash as the suspect plowed into a
parked car on the next block.
I don't remember if we in the office ever knew if the driver survived
that or not.

The plot of last night's 9-1-1 involved someone going the wrong way on
the highway. When they showed the collision it was clear everyone in
the car couldn't possibly have survived. Then after the commercial they
were rescued having miraculously survived.

[Ubiquitous]

Post by BTR1701
What are the odds that a car chase that originates 40 miles away finds
its end right in front of your house?
I wish more TV and movies would end like this. Start on the screen, but
transition to real life for the grand finale.

Wait, that sounds familiar...

--
Trump won.

[Rhino]

Post by anim8rfsk

Post by Ian J. Ball
I just watched soaps, as I had several meetings yesterday, and then
soaps: GH - Fri's ep. A mostly boring episode. Sasha and Brando decide
to try to "make a go" of if after they boffed, despite his mother's
obvious disapproval. Meanwhile, no Chase or Peter August. Just a bunch
of crap with Cyrus Renault. Also, Alexis is now in jail (and regretting
it!!) as she's being threatened (prob. by a Cyrus goon). And "Mike" is
still warning NuNina off the obviously mob guy.
   DOOL (I had to pull this off Peacock, as the episode was

mostly

Post by anim8rfsk

Post by Ian J. Ball
preempted by B.S. on reg. TV) - Well, that was *extremely
disappointing*. I had a sinking feeling early on in this episode that
they were going to go with the nonsensical "Jan killed Charlie"
(despite being in a coma at the time!!). And sure enough...  >:/  They
really blew this - I was hoping that it would turn out that Crazy
(Nu)Claire had done it, and then blocked out the memory - that would
have been a heck of a lot more interesting. Now, all we're going to get
out of this stupid storyline is them writing Jan Spears out again...
Meanwhile, Trask forces Rafe to arrest Belle for Charlie's murder (and
John is convinced that he witnessed Belle murder him!). NuClaire
figures out that Allie is into Tripp. And Tripp tells Kayla & Steve
(Patch!!) that he's legally changed his name to "Tripp Johnson".
Recorded for later: Black Lightning, and Debris.
What did you watch?

I watched debris. It’s still boring and stupid but they ramped it up some
and our team is either killing other members of our team or killing members
of the other team. It’s hard to tell because everybody was dressed alike.

I'm wondering if one or both of the bosses are either working together
in manipulating the duo with lies they know the two won't believe or act
on.  Perhaps they want the end results they are getting and in order to
get those results they have to say things like kill your partner's
father.  Anyway, I thought it was an OK episode and next week's episode
looks good.

Post by anim8rfsk
—
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.”

S.W.A.T. (blu-ray) 2003 action movie written by David Ayer and starring
Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and hey
it's Jeremy Renner, as members of a L.A. S.W.A.T. team.  Their lives get
slightly complicated after a criminal worth billions of dollars promises
on live TV $100 million to whoever breaks him out of jail.  It holds up
well enough.  But the thing that always confused me about this movie is
it is set in a universe where the 1975 TV series exists.  They watch the
series and sing the theme song in the movie, yet the characters in the
movie are the same characters from the TV show.  The TV series and

theme

song existing within the world of the movie isn't a problem.  But the
characters having the same names makes *no* kind of sense!

Maybe they meant to infer that the TV show was essentially a
re-enactment of the "real" adventures of the "real" SWAT team, as
portrayed by Jackson, Farrell, et. al.?

The Wire sometimes used the real names of real people in some roles. For
example, the supervising sergeant in The Wire's Homicide unit was named
Jay Landsman. That was a real life sergeant from the actual Baltimore
Homicide unit and was presumably meant as an homage to him. (Strangely
enough though, when it came to casting the role, they initially wanted
the real Jay Landsman to play himself. I guess his screen test didn't go
that well though because they went with a different actor to play Jay
Landsman. However, the real Jay Landsman got a smallish role as a major
in a patrol unit. I still chortle to myself at an imagined conversation
where David Simon or whoever has to tell Jay Landsman that he isn't
going to get the part of Jay Landsman because he's not as good at
playing himself as the actor they hired in his place.)

Street Kings (blu-ray) 2008 action movie directed by David Ayer.  It has
the usual all-star case including Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh
Laurie, and Chris Evans.  Reeves plays an alcoholic LAPD detective

who

straight up murders some crooks at the start of the movie. Hugh Laurie
is basically "House" with a badge who is looking at Reeves for the
murders with Forest Whitaker playing Reeve's shady boss running
interference.  But this movie is notable for having Captain America team
up with John Wick to fight crime.
Captain America: Are we going to go in there and kill them?
John Wick: No.  I'm going to ask them some questions.  Then we're going
to kill them.
End of Watch (blu-ray) 2012 action movie written and directed by David
Ayer.  It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as to LA cops who keep
running into and messing up a big time cartel's operation.  The two cops
have no idea what they've stumbled into, but the cartel quickly catches
onto the two cops and puts a hit on them.  I didn't realize it until I
opened the shrink wrap that I haven't watched this since it was in the
theaters.  I guess it holds up well enough.
Sabotage (blu-ray) 2014 action movie written and directed by David Ayer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the leader of a DEA team under
investigation for stealing drug money during a raid.  This was my first
time watching this since it was in the theaters.  I thought it held up
well enough as a turn your brain off action movie.
The weird thing is when I was originally trying to decide on a group of
movies to marathon, I paired all of these movies together and had *no*
idea they were all written/directed by David Ayer until after I paired
them up.
The Nevers - "Exposure" - I was half asleep when I watched the first
half of the episode on Sunday and was only half paying attention when I
finished it on Monday.  So overall, I really didn't follow much of

what

happened.  Although I did catch the twist at the end of the episode
which I absolutely didn't see coming.
9-1-1 - "Blindsided" - Team 9-1-1 have to deal with a pile up on the
freeway due to a drunk driver going the wrong way.  I kind of took

issue

with the depiction of the drunk driver who didn't seem to be acting
drunk.  She seemed more like she had a stroke or something else that put
her in an altered state.  Drunk people can hear and talk, this woman
seemed incapable of either.  I also wonder why the 9-1-1 dispatcher
didn't instruct the boy who called in to try to slow/stop the car. 

I

know there's a risk to that, but doing nothing was so much worse.
Black Lightning - "The Book of Ruin:Chapter Three" - Tobias flexes his
muscle and uses the FBI to harass the Lightning family.  Meanwhile

the

meta hitman catches up to Thunder.  I guess it was an OK episode.

[BTR1701]

Post by Rhino
The Wire sometimes used the real names of real people in some roles. For
example, the supervising sergeant in The Wire's Homicide unit was named
Jay Landsman. That was a real life sergeant from the actual Baltimore
Homicide unit and was presumably meant as an homage to him. (Strangely
enough though, when it came to casting the role, they initially wanted
the real Jay Landsman to play himself. I guess his screen test didn't go
that well though because they went with a different actor to play Jay
Landsman. However, the real Jay Landsman got a smallish role as a major
in a patrol unit. I still chortle to myself at an imagined conversation
where David Simon or whoever has to tell Jay Landsman that he isn't
going to get the part of Jay Landsman because he's not as good at
playing himself as the actor they hired in his place.)

He probably wasn't good at playing anyone. Some people just turn into
monotone zombies when they try to act. He could have been one of those.

[Micky DuPree]

The Nevers

I keep meaning to sample this, but I fell behind on my regular TV
watching during the free Watchathon week.

Black Lightning - "The Book of Ruin:Chapter Three" - Tobias flexes his
muscle and uses the FBI to harass the Lightning family. Meanwhile the
meta hitman catches up to Thunder. I guess it was an OK episode.

I realize that the title warns us, but the ruination of the Lightning
family is hard for me to watch. I've been wondering if that's where the
series is pushing Jeff: to the point where he agrees with the rest of
his family that they need to kill Tobias. Since this is broadcast, the
script will protect him from actually succeeding, but it would force a
reckoning.

-Micky

[shawn]

On Wed, 5 May 2021 00:45:47 +0000 (UTC),

Post by Micky DuPree

The Nevers

I keep meaning to sample this, but I fell behind on my regular TV
watching during the free Watchathon week.

It's well worth watching. I'm particularly impressed with the
performance of Laura Donelly. The only show that I might have seen her
in is HEX but there's not much left in my memory of that show so I
have no idea how good she was back then (2005). I do wonder where the
show is going but there does seem to be an underlying plan. Though it
feels like something that should be resolved this season (even if they
are going for a short season) so I wonder what plans if any they have
for subsequent seasons.


I also finished up LONGMIRE with the series finale. They did a good
job of tying up everything in the final couple of episodes and gave
everyone their just due. Ferg made his grand gesture to try and win
back his love, Cady found love and potentially a new job as sheriff,
Walt Longmire retired and potentially found love with Vick, Malachi
came to his just end and Henry got himself a brand new job. A finale
that I came away from satisfied.

Which is frankly quite outside the norm as most shows seem to either
fail to have a proper ending or do a poor job of it. I get that
happening when there's an abrupt cancellation but many shows know they
are ending months in advance so there's time to bring the show to a
proper conclusion and even leave room for a continuation of the story
if they want and manage to pull off a revival.

[Micky DuPree]

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

[shawn]

On Sat, 15 May 2021 15:40:05 +0000 (UTC),

Post by Micky DuPree

Post by shawn
On Wed, 5 May 2021 00:45:47 +0000 (UTC),

Post by Micky DuPree

The Nevers

I keep meaning to sample this, but I fell behind on my regular TV
watching during the free Watchathon week.

It's well worth watching. I'm particularly impressed with the
performance of Laura Donelly. The only show that I might have seen her
in is HEX but there's not much left in my memory of that show so I
have no idea how good she was back then (2005). I do wonder where the
show is going but there does seem to be an underlying plan. Though it
feels like something that should be resolved this season (even if they
are going for a short season) so I wonder what plans if any they have
for subsequent seasons.

I've watched the first three episodes. It's ... busy. There's a lot of
movement, a lot of superpowers, a lot of visual effects, a lot of
characters, but it doesn't grab me. The most interesting interaction
was what looked like the blackmail/extortion of cooperation from a
detective by that smarmy upperclass asshole over a prior same-sex
relationship, none of which had anything to do with the fantasy
elements. If anything, it just reinforces my belief that Joss Whedon
only had one really good, sustained, original story in him, and that was
_Buffy_ seasons 1-3. There have been good individual episodes here and
there since then, and he remains a good script doctor for other people's
characters, but I don't share, for example, the general internet love of
_Firefly_, and the good two seasons of _Angel_ I tend to chalk up to Tim
Minear (who also only had that one good story in him).

Post by shawn
I also finished up LONGMIRE with the series finale. They did a good
job of tying up everything in the final couple of episodes and gave
everyone their just due. Ferg made his grand gesture to try and win
back his love, Cady found love and potentially a new job as sheriff,
Walt Longmire retired and potentially found love with Vick, Malachi
came to his just end and Henry got himself a brand new job. A finale
that I came away from satisfied.

The particulars are growing dim for me, but I recall being very
dissatisfied with the way the series closed down, echoing a line of
Henry's, "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Walt
Longmire?" I have a vague recollection that Walt did a 180 from prior
characterization and prioritized an inappropriate love over duty. It
made no sense to me that Cady, who had no prior experience in law
enforcement, should become the sheriff rather than Vic or Ferg, and it
made no sense that Walt thought this was a good idea either for Cady or
the town.

I get that. I agree that Walt getting into a relationship with Vic
seems out of character but if the show was going to end I'm okay with
the writers giving the two characters a happy ending. As much as I
like Vic and Ferg I couldn't see either one being a good choice as
sheriff. I'll agree that Cady being sheriff is going to be one heck of
a learning curve but it's isn't that unusual for someone without a law
enforcement background to end up as sheriff, especially in smaller
population areas.

Post by Micky DuPree
I guess I'm the Grinch today. The only shows I'm currently enthused
about are _Condor_, which I thought finished its first season fairly
well if a little messily (but in a good way), and _City on a Hill_,
which I think finishes its second season tomorrow.

I really liked Condor and while season 2 has some rough patches I felt
they still did an interesting job at story telling and spinning off
from the first season's plot. I do hope we get a third season and at
least the speculation is it may happen in August of this year. Though
the demise of Audience Network may impact that future.
https://releasedate.me/condor/

Post by Micky DuPree
I wish _Rebel_, based loosely on Erin Brockovich, had been reimagined
for an edgier outlet like FX or AMC. It's got a lot of potential story
lines it can draw on, but the broadcast network treatment is just too
pat and upbeat for the premise. It should be at least marginally
darker. What the title character does should be harder to do than they
were making out in the first few eps. I keep saying I should get caught
up on it, but I'm just not feeling it.

[Micky DuPree]

Post by shawn
On Sat, 15 May 2021 15:40:05 +0000 (UTC),

Post by Micky DuPree

Post by shawn
I also finished up LONGMIRE with the series finale. They did a good
job of tying up everything in the final couple of episodes and gave
everyone their just due. Ferg made his grand gesture to try and win
back his love, Cady found love and potentially a new job as sheriff,
Walt Longmire retired and potentially found love with Vick, Malachi
came to his just end and Henry got himself a brand new job. A finale
that I came away from satisfied.

The particulars are growing dim for me, but I recall being very
dissatisfied with the way the series closed down, echoing a line of
Henry's, "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Walt
Longmire?" I have a vague recollection that Walt did a 180 from
prior characterization and prioritized an inappropriate love over
duty. It made no sense to me that Cady, who had no prior experience
in law enforcement, should become the sheriff rather than Vic or
Ferg, and it made no sense that Walt thought this was a good idea
either for Cady or the town.

I get that. I agree that Walt getting into a relationship with Vic
seems out of character but if the show was going to end I'm okay with
the writers giving the two characters a happy ending.

"Happy" to me would have been Walt finishing up his duty first, and only
when he finally resigned from the job would he turn to his former
subordinate now that they were both free to pursue an affair.

Post by shawn
As much as I like Vic and Ferg I couldn't see either one being a good
choice as sheriff. I'll agree that Cady being sheriff is going to be
one heck of a learning curve but it's isn't that unusual for someone
without a law enforcement background to end up as sheriff, especially
in smaller population areas.

It just comes off as shoehorning a square peg into a round hole to me
because they want all the spare parts accounted for at the end. It
didn't have to be any of the existing characters.

Post by shawn

Post by Micky DuPree
I guess I'm the Grinch today. The only shows I'm currently enthused
about are _Condor_, which I thought finished its first season fairly
well if a little messily (but in a good way), and _City on a Hill_,
which I think finishes its second season tomorrow.

I really liked Condor and while season 2 has some rough patches I felt
they still did an interesting job at story telling and spinning off
from the first season's plot.

I haven't seen season two yet. I assume Epix will show it at some
point. I liked that they made Joe compromise his code at the end of
season one for the greater good, and then it turned out he didn't have
to do it. That's just the right amount of angsty and messy.

Post by shawn
I do hope we get a third season and at least the speculation is it may
happen in August of this year. Though the demise of Audience Network
may impact that future.
https://releasedate.me/condor/

Above my pay grade, but if it was already on the drawing board, and if
season one did well for Epix, maybe they'll see an advantage in bulking
up the total number of episodes.

-Micky

[Ubiquitous]

Post by Ian J. Ball
What did you watch?

SHAHS OF SUNSET:
Several eps of the last season, before the new one begins. I am surprised
there's going to be another season, TBH.

BELOW DECK SAILING YACHT:
Several eps, leading to the season finally. There was this one guest, a
gay prima donna named Barrie, who was so obnoxious that I hoped the crew
would do terrible things to him. This guy took his bf who was easily 20
years younger than him with his previous husband(s?) and their children on
a chartered tour in the Baltics to propose to him on his ex's birthday.

SATAN ANDY COHEN'S SHOW:
Andy had a couple cast members from Below Deck on as guests. I got tired
of it and switched to...

INGRAHAM ANGLE:
Apparently, NBC (and I assume the other networks owned by them) had an
hourlong infomercial on the vaccine, including an obviously rehearsed Q&A
session between Matthew McConaughey and Fauchi the Fraud and some race
baiting from Obama and Al Sharpton. Just how stupid do they think people
are?

--
Trump won.