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Post by bethhigdon on Aug 2, 2024 15:52:24 GMT
You know, I was a bit worried I might have cause to eat my words about Columbo jumping the shark in episode 6 (season 3), but man, if I didn't think it'd jumped the shark then I sure would've by episode seven. Seriously, y'all: this one is wild.I thought Leonard Nimoy and Stephen Spielberg were both surprisingly big names to see attached to this show, nevermind the original alcoholic robot, but this time, for some reason, it's Johnny Cash?!?Imma hafta put the rest in spoiler tags, because, again, wild. (CW: SA){Spoiler}A quick summary of my initial thoughts while watching through the first ten minutes or so of the episode: - They got Johnny Cash for this?
- They got Johnny Cash to play the murderer?
- They got Johnny Cash to play the murderer who is also a pedophile?
Like I said: wild.
And the murder plot itself is just ridiculous: it involves Cash parachuting out of an aircraft after drugging the passengers, and then cartwheeling down a small hill so he can pretend to have been on-board during the crash. Oh, and this passengers? Cash's wife, who's been blackmailing him in order to fund the construction of a megachurch (my fondest regards to any of you blessed enough not to be familiar with such things) and is implied to be an evangelical Christian (likewise) -- so, you know, real sympathetic. And, naturally, the blackmail material is Cash's (character's) rape of a teenager... who is still in the employ of the couple, and working with them?!? The young girl, of course, is also murdered, as collateral damage. But the really nutty thing is how the scenes try to frame Cash's character as sympathetic: he's effectively a rock star, but because of the wife, is unable to enjoy the usual accoutrements of that fame -- like, Aw, shucks, poor Johnny Cash: his mean old lady ain't letting him rape teenagers any more! Only... he still manages to be raping some, just... not enough? And that's... bad? He's not allowed to own a car, either, because... he'd rape teenagers in it. That's not a joke, by the way -- that's in the script. My friends, I am only 28 minutes into this episode. I dunno much about Johnny Cash beyond a sort of general knowledge and an awareness of those prison shows, despite tending to like really old music of that general era (more into, say, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, etc.) so I don't really have any idea what the man was like, or what his public persona was... but it's hard to imagine any celebrity agreeing to be in a show with this script. Wild. Hog wild.Trust me, Cash was playing against type with that role. Cash has always been critical of social constructs and has the reputation of being a rebel. He was like a punk country singer, when punk was still in it's infancy. He probably agreed to it just because it was shocking. Well that and the money.
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Post by fitzoliverj on Aug 2, 2024 17:58:31 GMT
Repeat of "Campion" on BBC4, with intro from Peter Davison.
Really, really, really good.
Knocks the cotton socks off everything else on tv.
I really wish they could sort the rights out and let Davison do the Mike Ripley novels; if it could be this good again.
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Aug 6, 2024 12:08:16 GMT
Ahsoka Still have two episodes left. It's good, and mostly accessible despite not having seen any of Clone Wars or Rebels. Just a passing knowledge. And it's a lot of fun having David Tennant in this as a stoic sassy droid. The episode set in the force was awesome.
The biggest problem is that a lot of the emotional core hinges on a character we barely know. Including some very annoying descisions that the side-kick Sabine makes. And some scenes could have been a lot tighter.
I'll probably finish the last two at the weekend.
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Kestrel
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 6, 2024 13:04:23 GMT
Soldiering on with Columbo. Dick van Dyke is in one! I don't think I've ever seen him in anything as an older dude; he looks pretty good with a beard! Also in a bit of a bad spot health-wise, not much sleep or capacity to really focus on much (so my main thing, reading, sadly, is out); I've been catching up on some classic anime. Namely Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon! And I'm actually enjoying both a lot more than I thought I'd be -- though, it must be said, both have some problematic elements (weird sexual humor in the former; bizarre fanservice -- which starts rather suddenly after the first season or so -- in the latter). Dragon Ball, especially, is really wowing me with some fantastic humor that is genuinely some of the funniest stuff I've seen. The gag where Roshi/Jackie Chun and Krillin do the play-by-play recap of their "too-fast-for-human-eyes-to-see" battle is absolutely inspired, and Goku himself gets so many fantastic little scenes (his mimicking Roshi/Chun's silly dance in that same arc had me giggling like crazy). Sailor Moon, on the other hand... I think maybe I'm watching wrong? Like, the elements of the show that, as I understand it, are more faithful to the manga? Uh... I don't like 'em. I think they're pretty bad, actually. Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru comes across like a 30 or 40 year-old creeper, and the "romance" with Usagi is so undercooked it'd feel like an exaggeration to even call it half-baked. But the rest? The "filler" stuff and exaggerated character personalities? I love it. Usagi is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Idiot Protagonists -- she's just so endearingly dumb. Hell, practically all the girls are -- who'd've thunk it, teenagers in an anime series that actually act like teenagers! And the whole cast is like that -- heroes and villains alike. It's deeply silly and I love it. The OP also has some crooning which is *incredible* and paired with the animation perfectly. Makes me excited every time I hear it. It's also got a lot of really great character designs -- some of the faces are just incredible. Not to mention, not unlike Dragon Ball, some pretty goofy visual gags: And it's a lot of fun having David Tennant in this as a stoic sassy droid. I spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking, "Gee, that droid sure does sound familiar, I wonder whose voice that is?" while watching. I was definitely past the halfway point in the series before it finally clicked. >_> Trust me, Cash was playing against type with that role. Cash has always been critical of social constructs and has the reputation of being a rebel. He was like a punk country singer, when punk was still in it's infancy. He probably agreed to it just because it was shocking. Well that and the money. That's good to know. Especially when my kind of... I dunno, I guess the word is "touchstone" for singers of that general era, with that general sort of accent, is Elvis. Who was... very much *not* such a stand-out fella. But man, that Cash episode was weird. The ending really doubles-down on framing his character as sympathetic, despite that practically the first thing we see him do after killing his wife is to start creeping on another (presumably also teenage) girl. It's hard to tell if folks were just, in general, more tolerant of, well, predatory behavior back then, or if it's just Columbo being weird again, like the stuff in the preceding episode with the boy genius and the space robot. Like, it's really cool seeing the general... "world" of the 60s and 70s depicted on-screen -- the fashion, the architecture, the vehicles, the surrounding culture, all of it -- but it's hard to tell just how reflective of the times the actual content of the stories are.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2024 13:07:19 GMT
AhsokaStill have two episodes left. It's good, and mostly accessible despite not having seen any of Clone Wars or Rebels. Just a passing knowledge. And it's a lot of fun having David Tennant in this as a stoic sassy droid. The episode set in the force was awesome. The biggest problem is that a lot of the emotional core hinges on a character we barely know. Including some very annoying descisions that the side-kick Sabine makes. And some scenes could have been a lot tighter. I'll probably finish the last two at the weekend. I know quite a few who stopped with it when it became clear it was Rebels S5 more than a new story. Right down to the choice of villain - all Rebels.
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Post by eric009 on Aug 6, 2024 16:45:33 GMT
watching babylon 5 on blueray there no extra at all btw and case in came in sucks
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Kestrel
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 6, 2024 17:06:05 GMT
watching babylon 5 on blueray there no extra at all btw and case in came in sucks I've seen much worse cases, sadly. Imagine a boxset that's just thin cardboard that folds out w/ plastic disc, erm... holders? Not sure what the word is there -- glued on. Lack of extras definitely sucks, but you ~can~ still find the old DVD extras out there, without too much difficulty. Though I don't know if anyone's been kind enough to upload edited versions of the relevant remastered episodes with the DVD's commentary tracks included.
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Post by eric009 on Aug 6, 2024 18:25:08 GMT
watching babylon 5 on blueray there no extra at all btw and case in came in sucks I've seen much worse cases, sadly. Imagine a boxset that's just thin cardboard that folds out w/ plastic disc, erm... holders? Not sure what the word is there -- glued on. Lack of extras definitely sucks, but you ~can~ still find the old DVD extras out there, without too much difficulty. Though I don't know if anyone's been kind enough to upload edited versions of the relevant remastered episodes with the DVD's commentary tracks included. i got old babylon 5 dvd so i bonus on dvd
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2024 20:14:32 GMT
watching babylon 5 on blueray there no extra at all btw and case in came in sucks Not having all the standalone films was a red flag for me. Would be like Battlestar not having the mini-series.
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Kestrel
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 7, 2024 21:05:50 GMT
Yeah, that was a bit of a weird omission. Not that the movies are all that good, on balance, but ITB and ACTA are pretty good -- hell, the former's *fantastic.* Maybe they'll do another BD release later? There's a fair few movies and the much-maligned Crusade.Anyway, just started a new Columbo, and... is "celebrity guest star" a deliberate thing on this show, or are there just a bunch of actors that became famous, or at least more famous, later? Not sure how much he qualifies as "celebrity," but this one's got Robert Vaughn in it, an old American actor whom I recognize mostly (okay, fine, exclusively) from a certain British TV show that happens to be one of my all-time favorites.
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Post by bethhigdon on Aug 7, 2024 22:42:07 GMT
Yeah, that was a bit of a weird omission. Not that the movies are all that good, on balance, but ITB and ACTA are pretty good -- hell, the former's *fantastic.* Maybe they'll do another BD release later? There's a fair few movies and the much-maligned Crusade.Anyway, just started a new Columbo, and... is "celebrity guest star" a deliberate thing on this show, or are there just a bunch of actors that became famous, or at least more famous, later? Not sure how much he qualifies as "celebrity," but this one's got Robert Vaughn in it, an old American actor whom I recognize mostly (okay, fine, exclusively) from a certain British TV show that happens to be one of my all-time favorites. All detective/mystery shows in the US have celebrity guest stars. Especially aging celebrity guest stars who are no longer headliners.
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Kestrel
Chancellery Guard
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 8, 2024 3:40:39 GMT
Guess I don't watch enough of those to pick up on that pattern -- or I'm just not sufficiently familiar with a lot of celebrities.
I'd say the detective/mystery shows I'm most familiar with are David Suchet's Poirot and Psych. Though I've been meaning to give that Sherlock Holmes show a proper shake soon -- the one people say is the best adaptation, from the... 80s or 90s I think?
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Post by relativetime on Aug 8, 2024 4:30:06 GMT
I've been needing some hopeful science fiction to help get me through the stresses of the past few weeks, so I'm finally getting around to watching Star Trek Enterprise. Five episodes in so far and I'm absolutely loving it!
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Aug 8, 2024 5:49:41 GMT
For the past 2-3 months I have been binge re-watching "House" on Netflix.. wife and I watched it on 1st run viewing normal tv back in the day..
I am up to the last episode-I have stopped it for a bit .. It's a beautifally br00tal bittersweet episode. Wife and I have lost a handful of family members since this aired so I am reluctant to watch this today.
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Kestrel
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 8, 2024 21:59:10 GMT
I've been needing some hopeful science fiction to help get me through the stresses of the past few weeks, so I'm finally getting around to watching Star Trek Enterprise. Five episodes in so far and I'm absolutely loving it! Maybe do yourself a favor and skip the series finale -- and jump straight into the Rise of the Federation books by Chris Bennet. Trust me, that's an episode you're vastly better off not seeing. Also, do yourself another favor, and check out the design for the NX-01 refit that we would've gotten had Enterprise been renewed for a 5th season. It's one of my absolute favorite Trek ships.
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Post by fitzoliverj on Aug 9, 2024 9:58:54 GMT
I've been needing some hopeful science fiction to help get me through the stresses of the past few weeks, so I'm finally getting around to watching Star Trek Enterprise. Five episodes in so far and I'm absolutely loving it! Maybe do yourself a favor and skip the series finale -- and jump straight into the Rise of the Federation books by Chris Bennet. Trust me, that's an episode you're vastly better off not seeing.
SPOILERS! No, if you read "Rise of the Federation" you *do* need to see the Enterprise finale, Godawful though it is, becuause... well, spoilers.
relativetime, I strongly advise that you watch that final episode when you come to it and then read "The Good that Men Do", the novel which turns it on its head and turns a pile of cack into something good. Then carry on with "Kobyashi Maru" and the two Romulan War novels (which aren't as good as they ought to be as they were truncated from a trilogy) before finally reaching the RotF series. It's all really one story, and going straight to RotF is just jumping ahead and skipping a lot of important chapters.
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Post by bethhigdon on Aug 9, 2024 15:32:27 GMT
Not a 'tv show' per-say, but this weekend, after the closing ceremony I'm going to marathon the Olympics on Sunday. Watching the highlights of what I missed.
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Aug 9, 2024 16:50:57 GMT
Ahsoka It was OK. I think I'd be a bit more favourable to it if it was a one and done. But the place things ended felt pretty frustrating, and it annoyed me how it refused to interogate the choice Sabine made.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Aug 10, 2024 9:05:57 GMT
The new Batman animated series- Have just smashed through the 1st 5 of 10 episodes- some serious "world building" happening every episode. Thoroughly enjoying it, the race and gender swaps doesn't affect my viewing pleasure at all, the characterisation is spot on. I am pretty sure we will get a season 2.
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Post by timleschild on Aug 10, 2024 9:11:09 GMT
The new Batman animated series- Have just smashed through the 1st 5 of 10 episodes- some serious "world building" happening every episode. Thoroughly enjoying it, the race and gender swaps doesn't affect my viewing pleasure at all, the characterisation is spot on. I am pretty sure we will get a season 2. Oh I have heard about this. Might give it a go, looks like the old batman cartoon from years ago.
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