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What was the last TV show you watched?

HanauMan

Practically Family
Messages
809
Location
Inverness, Scotland
Yes, you're right about Sinatra. I read about him some time back and he was a complex guy with some rough patches in his life. He did many good films, such as Suddenly and On The Town. And, of course, he had a fine singing voice. However, even as a kid I found a hardness in his manner and speech which I guess only those who have suffered being bullied as kids would note. Maybe that is why I never liked him that much.

Thanks for the heads up - really looking forwards to the rest of the show.
 
Messages
17,198
Location
New York City
Yes, you're right about Sinatra. I read about him some time back and he was a complex guy with some rough patches in his life. He did many good films, such as Suddenly and On The Town. And, of course, he had a fine singing voice. However, even as a kid I found a hardness in his manner and speech which I guess only those who have suffered being bullied as kids would note. Maybe that is why I never liked him that much.

Thanks for the heads up - really looking forwards to the rest of the show.

If you get a chance, check out "Some Came Running," which, IMHO, is one of Sinatra's best movies (that rarely gets a mention). Both he and Dean Martin brought their serious actor A-game to a movie with a strong script and solid acting all around.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,206
Location
Troy, New York, USA
"Dark" - A Netflix entry from Germany. Think of it as an extended treatise on Time Travel. Children are disappearing from the small German town of Winstad or something like that every 33 years starting in 1953. Caves beneath the local Nuke Plant seem to allow one to travel between 53, 86 and 2019. Someone is killing children from '86 and dropping them in 2019 and taking kids from that time and depositing them in 1953. One great scene is where the local cops in '53 are puzzled by two dead boys clothed in garments made in China. They're so confused they call them "costumes". Convoluted, difficult to follow and sometimes outright confusing... but if you're still with it by the second episode you'll have to see it through to the end. Hard to get used to seeing the some characters played by 3 different people from 3 different time periods. I half expected to see cats from the Federation Office of Temporal Affairs show up. Watch it in the Original German with subtitles as the dubbing in English is more frightful than the story.

Worf
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
Then you might want to check out "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" streaming on Amazon as it has the same writer / producer, Amy Sherman-Palladino, behind it and - after the first few bumpy episodes - the series hits a good stride with machine-gun-fire dialogue.

I've never watch GG, so I can't compare, but my girlfriend and I have been amazed at the quality of the dialogue on TMMM (again, get through the first few episodes - although, even by the second episode it's improving).
We started this on Sunday. After the first episode my wife said "this isn't very good."
I told her "Be patient, Fading Fast says it gets better."
Wife: "Who?" :D
By the end of episode 3 last night I think she was hooked.
 
Messages
17,198
Location
New York City
We started this on Sunday. After the first episode my wife said "this isn't very good."
I told her "Be patient, Fading Fast says it gets better."
Wife: "Who?" :D
By the end of episode 3 last night I think she was hooked.

That’s funny. My girlfriend is now used to hearing “3 Fingers,” “Dr Strange” etc. recommends this or that. Glad she (and you) are now, hopefully, enjoying TMMM.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,246
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
I'm working my way through the second season of Stranger Things.

I didn't like the first season, and I don't like this one. I'm immune to the eighties nostalgia (I was already in my 30s then), I find a lot of the dialog cringeworthy, the plot's half-baked retreads of ideas from better films/shows, and I'm still mystified why the show is such a phenomenon. But hey, I'm a tough critic and an incipient geezer... the alleged genius of lots of popular mainstream stuff eludes me.

I guess I will have to try Mrs. Maisel again at some point, since everyone says it gets better. I started watching, but was immediately turned off by the strident Jewish stereotypes and overwrought fifties stylization in just the first scene...
 
Messages
17,198
Location
New York City
...I guess I will have to try Mrs. Maisel again at some point, since everyone says it gets better. I started watching, but was immediately turned off by the strident Jewish stereotypes and overwrought fifties stylization in just the first scene...

Maybe it won't work for you as it does stay with outsized Jewish stereotypes and and an over-stylized '50s visual. IMHO, both are done tongue-in-cheek or with a wink as if to say, this isn't how it really was, but is an intentionally exaggerated style. Even as the story and characters grow in depth and nuance - and, IMHO, become interesting and engaging - the over stylizing and over stereotyping doesn't go away. It helps that, for me, the dialogue is well written and, as the story progresses, the more serious side of the '60s is beginning to be brought out.

In an imperfect analogy, I though "Boardwalk Empire" did a similar thing in its over-stylized view of the '20s and - from what I know of history and from comments here at FL - its exaggerated stereotyping of Italians, Jewish people, the Irish and the Blacks. Since, IMHO, it was obviously structured that way, I found it worked and - since the writing, stories and characters were strong - I enjoyed the show despite the exaggeration.
 

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
I'm back! Off from work this week, and writing this on a laptop at the public library.

Most recent TV show was the Gilmore Girls Netflix series, "A Year in the Life." Written by the series creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her husband Daniel, it captures the machine-gun dialog of the original series and brings back 99% of the original cast (including Melissa McCarthy -- I'd thought at first she thought she was too big a star now to reappear in a TV show, but she's there in Ep. 4). There are 4 episodes, each about 90 min. long, so a total of 6 hours. Ep. 3, "Summer," written by Daniel P., is especially good work, as Lorelai (Lauren Graham, the lead) undergoes a crisis of confidence from several directions at once.

" 'Oy with the poodles already.' As a catchphrase it's set to dethrone 'Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?' "
( -- a sample of the dialog from the original series. This new one manages to mention the disease scabies right in the first few minutes of Ep. 1 -- a neat trick for a non-medical show.)
 
Messages
12,009
Location
East of Los Angeles
I'm working my way through the second season of Stranger Things.

I didn't like the first season, and I don't like this one. I'm immune to the eighties nostalgia (I was already in my 30s then), I find a lot of the dialog cringeworthy, the plot's half-baked retreads of ideas from better films/shows, and I'm still mystified why the show is such a phenomenon. But hey, I'm a tough critic and an incipient geezer... the alleged genius of lots of popular mainstream stuff eludes me...
I haven't attempted the second season yet because I struggled to get through the first season. I think it was the fifth or sixth episode before I finally began to see why so many people liked it, I just wasn't one of them. I thought they captured "The 80s" fairly well but, like you, I'm not nostalgic about that decade. I might try season 2 if/when I find myself desperate for something to watch, but I'm not sure I want to waste nine hours watching a show I really don't care about.
 

MondoFW

Practically Family
Messages
852
Recently finished all 11 seasons of Cheers on Netflix, and it's probably my favorite sitcom of all time. I've tried to enjoy its critically acclaimed spinoff Frasier, but it didn't have that wonderful homespun charm its predecessor held. Currently looking for other sitcoms to jump into. MASH and Gilligan's Island appear to be two likely candidates.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,206
Location
Troy, New York, USA
Two episodes of "Ash vs. The Evil Dead". Not quite sure where it's heading but I'm laughing my head off at it right now. I didn't know there was that much fake blood in the world.

Worf
 

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