Tag: television

Neat Watch: Brave New World @peacockTV #GoodWatch

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NBC Peacock offered their original series, Brave New World, free of charge last weekend. I liked it a lot. The episodes are between 40-50 minutes long, and there are nine of them. From the Peacock website:

In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution.

In a sense, it was a horror movie for me, but I don’t expect everyone to feel that way. This is probably best described as science-fiction, though it’s also referred to as Utopian or Dystopian. I think of it as trying to achieve the same sort of vibe as Westworld. It’s a different story, and they carve their own path, so I’m not accusing them of doing anything wrong. Among the show’s stars are three actors with whom I’m familiar: Alden Ehrenreich, Hannah John-Kamen, and Demi Moore.

There’s a scene near the end of episode 4 that really hits me. I’m not sure if this is the intention, but it basically says (to me) that you don’t need soma (their mood-improving drug) because there’s music in the world. I doubt that was the precise intent, especially in light of a scene in episode 5, but that’s at least close (or part of) what they’re trying to say.

Is it good? Yes. I liked it a lot and will watch subsequent seasons. However, there’s too much good stuff on Peacock, as well as the other streaming services for which I’m already paying, for me to add another bill. I’ll probably join for a month and spend a weekend watching season 2 and a couple of other shows.

Unfortunately, if you want to watch it now, you’ll have to subscribe to Peacock’s pay service. As always, YMMV.

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Neat Watch: High Score @netflix #VideoGame #GoodWatch

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Netflix has a new limited series called High Score. It’s the story of video games, and it’s fascinating. It’s 6, 40-minute (or so) episodes, and it gives you a great sense of how much video games have evolved. For example, I played the stand-up games in the arcade. Almost 20 years later, I was working on the patents that made Final Fantasy possible. Only 2-1/2 episodes in, and they’ve already covered all that ground. I constantly asked, “Where do they have to go from here?” Every episode, they showed an innovation that changed everything. As a result, you see just how far along video game technology and culture have come in about 40 years.

Even for someone who doesn’t play video games anymore, this was a neat show. As always, YMMV.

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[Yawn] Watch: The Business of Drugs @netflix #Netflix #GoodWatch

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This seems like my kind of show. Inexplicably, it isn’t. The show carves out the path that raw and refined materials take to bring illegal drugs from the fields to your dining room table. I don’t think I’m in a depressive state, but for some reason, the Business of Drugs just couldn’t keep my attention. I made it through two out of six, 40-minute episodes, and then I tapped out.

As always, YMMV.

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Good, Not Great, Watch: Devs @Nick_Offerman @fxnetworks @Hulu #FXonHulu

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To start, I want to say that I liked Devs, which is basically a Black Mirror episode spread out over a season. This post isn’t meant to slam it. The cast is a good mix of established actors and new (to me) ones, and I liked the writing and overall story line. There are however, two reasons I suspect are reasons why I didn’t have the same reaction as others.

First, it was built up. It’s difficult for any show to live up to the kind of hype this one was given. It almost always results in disappointment, which in turn taints your view of an otherwise good (or even great) show. I should probably tell you that it sucks, but that would turn you off to watching it. Instead, I’ll (honestly) say it was good.

Second (bear with and pardon my arrogance), I have an undergraduate degree in physics and often do some reading to keep some things sharp. While I’m far from qualified to work professionally in a lab, the issues raised in this show don’t wow me like they may wow others. They’re obviously interesting to me, which is why I can say I enjoyed the show, but I’m not learning about the concepts for the first time, and at one point knew a lot about it. My lack of amazement perhaps places a limit on my enjoyment that others may not have. Moreover, these ideas are the new thing among movies and TV shows. Been there; done that. That may apply for those without any science background at all.

Obviously, my perspective says nothing as to how much you’ll like it. I was certainly wowed by these ideas when they were first taught to me.

The season is 8 episodes, each of which is between 42 and 56 minutes long. As you know from past posts, I prefer shows with 20-25 minute episodes even if the total amount of content is the same, but I can certainly find time for longer episodes. I watched this season over the course of three days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday).

I suspect that the average person would at least like this show but maybe love it. As always, YMMV.

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Surprisingly Good Watch: Umbrella Academy, Season 2 @AidanRGallagher @DavidCastanedaJ @ellenpage @emmyraver @justinhmin @katewalsh @Ritu_Arya_ @RobertSheehan @Tomhopperhops @SteveBlackmanTV @UmbrellaAcad @netflix #UmbrellaAcademy

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I wasn’t a fan of season 1 of the Umbrella Academy but found myself watching season 2 anyway. I’m delighted I did. There was something about this season that was completely different for me. I had much more sympathy for the characters (which snowballed as it went on) and was fascinated by the story. Unlike Agent Carter, I had an immediate, positive reaction to the heavy-handed political history that was on display (i.e., African Americans dealing with open, systemic bigotry; and women brushed aside as unimportant and non-threatening). Colm Feore was brilliant as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, but smartly wasn’t given a big enough role to overshadow the main players (who were also pretty damn good).

I also have a thing for alternate history. This season picks up from the cliffhanger from season 1, with the adoptive siblings being teleported back in time to the early 60s. I don’t want to spoil the story, but they get involved with a major historic event that they didn’t realize was part of their own history, while trying to stop yet another apocalypse that never happened in their timeline.

There were two things I didn’t like. First, the soundtrack. The music should have been appropriate for the period (1963). Second, episode 7 requires the characters behave quite stupidly in order to keep the season from ending after 7 episodes. I hate that kind of writing.

Don’t care. Great ending. Great season.

If, like me, you weren’t impressed with season 1, give this series another shot. They really got it right this time. As always, YMMV.

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Favorite Watch: The Finale of Aqua Teen Hunger Force @DanaSnyder @DaveWillis2 @hbomax #ATHF #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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I finished re-watching the entire series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, on Monday. This is one of my favorite shows, but I saw only a couple of episodes of the last three seasons. In 2015, Adult Swim president Mike Lazzo made the decision to end ATHF, stating he “was ready to move on from it.” I completely understand why. They were weak seasons. I didn’t like the final final ending, but that’s no surprise. It’s hard for me not to laugh at the characters; with 11- to 12-minute episodes, story could never be the focus of the show. Nevertheless, I found myself watching it for the sake of watching it.

There’s no way those last couple of seasons could spoil one of my favorite shows, but the show had clearly run its course.

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Favorite Watch: Aqua Teen Hunger Force @DanaSnyder @DaveWillis2 @hbomax #ATHF #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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With HBO Max going live, you must have known it was only a matter of time before I started re-watching this series. My license plate tag is Frylock. After a 24-year absence from Dungeons and Dragons, the first character I created was Frylock, the half-elf warmage/rogue. I’ve recreated Frylock in 4th and 5th Edition. My blog is … well, you knew that. Too bad Carey Means isn’t on Twitter.

And as much as I like series with 30-minute episodes, one with 12- to 13-minute episodes is even easier to watch. I can watch one or two before I leave for work in the morning.

As always, YMMV, but if you don’t like this show, you’re objectively wrong. You might as well say you hate Star Trek, you dipshit.

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Good Watch: #Hush @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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The premise: A deaf and mute writer (played by Kate Siegel) lives in a home in the woods. She enjoys the isolation over her former life in the city. A man in a mask arrives threatening to kill her. Hush is less than 90 minutes long, so it’s no surprise that on 25 minutes in, you see the killer’s face. There’s no time to spare. 93/73

Her disability didn’t seem to play an important role in the movie other than to add a bit of color to the story. This had me thinking: What it would be like if the movie had absolutely no audio? The protagonist is deaf, and we’re supposed to step inside her shoes and feel her fear. What better way to relate to her than to experience the events from her true perspective?

Overall, the cast is good, but the writing fell flat, and I felt like they ran out of things to say, which would explain its 82-minute runtime (includes credits). We’re never given the killer’s motivation, but he’s so incompetent it appears he doesn’t want to win. Fortunately for him, everyone was incompetent, making all the wrong moves at almost every step. Perhaps that was necessary, as the slightest bit of competence would have cut the movie length to 15 minutes. The killer is played by John Gallagher, Jr., who I’ve always liked, but he’s never played an intimidating character as far as I know. There’s good reason for that. I wasn’t at all intimidated despite the neck tattoo, which was obviously a cheap attempt to buff him. At least the character he played was self-aware in this regard.

I don’t understand why it received such good scores on Rotten Tomatoes (93 from the critics and 73 from the audience), but I seem to be alone on this one. What do I know?

It wasn’t clever, original, or scary, which is all it tried to be, but in the time it took you to read this post, you could have watched the movie. As always, YMMV, and cats don’t give a shit.

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Good Watch: #Fractured @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Sam Worthington has done a few movies for Netflix. I haven’t enjoyed any of them until now. This one I did. Worthington plays a man on a Thanksgiving road trip with his wife and daughter. There’s an incident, and he has to rush his daughter to the hospital. He’s told only one of them may go back with the daughter during treatment, and he defers to his wife. After a brief nap, he wakes up and asks for a status report. The doctors and staff say that his wife and daughter were never there. Then the real story begins.

This didn’t end the way I was expecting, and while a bit of a strain on logic, it was a refreshing change of pace. As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: Circle @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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It’s hard to discuss this movie without engaging in spoilers. It’s a cast of mostly unknown actors (I vaguely recognized a couple of them) who are standing in a room. They realize that every minute or so, they must vote on which one of them is to be killed. There’s no way of knowing how many will have to die for the sick game to end, nor is there anything more than conjecture as to how they got there and who put them there.

I shouldn’t have liked this movie because it requires far too great a leap in logic. But I did. I certainly didn’t like the ending. It was trite and answered no question. Everything is left to interpretation.

But for some reason, I liked it. As always, YMMV.

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