What was the last TV show you watched?

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Patrick Melrose. Showtime series. This one is really impressing me. Good characters. Funny situations. Good dialogue. Dark and disturbing. I see audiences are giving it low reviews. I don't get it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Good to hear. I'm DVRing it and will get to it soon. I'll probably watch in a two-session binge like I did for Howards End.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Good to hear. I'm DVRing it and will get to it soon. I'll probably watch in a two-session binge like I did for Howards End.

I would recommend not judging it by the first episode.

The Split. BBC One/Sundance. I have to think they pitched this to PBS. I'm not sure I'm up for how ugly this seems it will get. For someone from the US, it was nice to see a cast I didn't recognize. Sometimes, it feels like there are only fifty actors in the UK.

 

[3fingers]

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel -" a new series from Amazon Prime

• Set in early '60s NYC, it's the story (so far) of a young, upper-class, Jewish stay-at-home mom whose "perfect" marriage stumbles just as she discovers a talent for stand-up comedy (it works better than it sounds - although, the pilot episode is the weakest of the four we've seen so far)

• This variation on the fish-out-of-water tale has the title character - a refined, Upper West side, college-educated mother - swimming in the counter-cultural world of stand-up comedy / underground clubs / jazz musicians and courthouses trying obscenity cases
  • While she's out of water, her confidence and firmly set moral compass have her hilariously powering through smoked-filled clubs and demimonde record stores - everyone (Mrs. Maisel and all those she encounter) are pushed out of their comfort zone by her energetic vibe and babe-in-the-woods innocence that creates wonderful scenes of misunderstanding and confusion (it's why you take a fish out of water)

• The other part of this fish-out-of-water tale has Mrs. Maisel (who's young, cute, running at full speed and acting up a storm in the best way possible) trying to manage and maintain her place in the Upper West side world of money and Jewish cultural conformity
  • Here, the why-would-you-leave-our-perfect-and-safe-world-for-that-dangerous-world attitude creates the tension and humor

• The story, oddly (as it's not really new), feels fresh owing to outstanding dialogue - delivered in '60s NYC rapid-fire argot - and an over-stylized '60s NYC visual done in a "'Mad Men' already did detail perfect, so we'll do it in a more aesthetically idealized" way

• And that visual is great Fedora Lounge fun, but this one, so far, really shines on its smart, machine-gun bursts of dialogue and wonderfully flawed characters

I saw they started filming season 2. It's supposed to be 10 episodes. Who knows when they will start showing them again.
I have no idea why we enjoyed this show so much, but it's one of the few that I really hoped would come back.

 

[Fading Fast]

I saw they started filming season 2. It's supposed to be 10 episodes. Who knows when they will start showing them again.
I have no idea why we enjoyed this show so much, but it's one of the few that I really hoped would come back.

Could not agree more with both points: not really sure why we enjoy this show so much, but really hope it comes back.

One reason we like it is because our current "Golden Age" of TV does angst, apocalypse, depression, period drama and prime-time soap operas very well, but good, solid, lighter and funny shows seem a challenge. TMMM does light comedy well which is a relief from all the other smart brutal, angry, depressing, dystopian shows that dominate modern TV.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story" 2017

Modern documentary making has become very good when done right, this one was okay and enjoyable but missed the target as it jumped around too much, raised questions and then left them unanswered and, based on books and articles I've read about Hedy Lamarr, was inaccurate or, at minimum, leaned heavily on the scale in her favor.

The good was the extensive amount of film from her personal life - this is not just a bunch of movie clips strung together - which has an incredible way of bringing you closer to the person and seeing and feeling their life in a way movie clips never do. But as noted, the story jumps around a lot - from where she lived, to her career, to her many husbands (six, sometimes I've read seven)*. It pinged around and went back and forth so much that you had no clear overall feel for her life's arc.

You saw her career go up and down, but only had some of the why addressed; only some of the marriages come and go and most with almost no discussion; and big things - like the adopted son she "gave up -" was dropped in at one point and quickly dispensed with. Also, her (no other word for it) crazy obsession with plastic surgery was sloppily handled.

From what I've read, she was a brilliant woman with a passion and talent for technology and invention, but did not invent frequency hopping on her own. The documentary does mention that she had a partner in her "early form" frequency hopping patent (from what I've read, he was a big contributor to the patent), but later made it sound as if she invented modern cellphone technology and was cheated out of billions of dollars. The story, at minimum, is much more complex than that.

All that said, for her fans or just fans of old Hollywood, it's still an enjoyable documentary to watch, flaws and all.


* I am very open minded and not judgemental about marriages and divorces as life is long and hard and there are many reasons marriages fail. That said, and I don't know what the trigger number is, but when a person has had six or seven failed ones, a little judgement has to fall back on that person. As with most things in this very pro-Lamarr biography, you'd almost believe she was not responsible at all for her many marital woes.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I saw most of this when it ran on PBS American Masters a couple of weeks ago. I came away from it much less impressed with Lamarr's scientific abilities than I expected to be, but more impressed with her as a tough-broad iconoclast who didn't give a fig about, well, much of anything. I don't think she was ever much of actress either (she definitely coasted on her spellbinding glamour), but geez, what a character!

Anyway, I agree that this doc missed the mark in a lot of ways. Her story is messy and mixed, and not the heroic battle against the patriarchy that it's often reduced to these days. I expected to think more of her after seeing it, but ended up thinking less.

 

[3fingers]

the adopted son she "gave up -"

I have read that it has since been proven that he was not adopted but was her child by a future husband while she was married to another husband.
She strikes me as someone who had no tolerance for things not going her way and when they didn't or there was the least bit of difficulty she was done.
A beautiful spoiled brat.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Watched the latest episode of Westworld. As ever with this series, there are sequences here and there that I find interesting, but every "revelation" and "surprise" elicits another yawn. (Non-spoiler alert: like there was any way that Anthony Hopkins wasn't going to show up again eventually in a show where "death" is always in quotation marks!)

I know there are folks who think this show is brilliant, but I keep watching in hopes of being engaged and excited... and it just never happens.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Her story is messy and mixed, and not the heroic battle against the patriarchy that it's often reduced to these days....

Very good point.

I have read that it has since been proven that he was not adopted but was her child by a future husband while she was married to another husband.
She strikes me as someone who had no tolerance for things not going her way and when they didn't or there was the least bit of difficulty she was done.
A beautiful spoiled brat.

Interesting on the "adopted" son as that seemed very odd, but being her child that she had to somehow "explain" makes sense.

Also interesting pont of view on the spoiled brat angle - that would explain the insane plastic surgery as it must have been hard to see that beauty slip away and lose the adoration that goes with it if she wasn't a full, confident adult.

 

[3fingers]

One of the reasons why I admire Audrey Hepburn and Helen Mirren is that they both have/had the attitude that it is crazy to think that we can remain young and beautiful forever and because of that attitude remained beautiful in a different way.

 

[Fading Fast]

One of the reasons why I admire Audrey Hepburn and Helen Mirren is that they both have/had the attitude that it is crazy to think that we can remain young and beautiful forever and because of that attitude remained beautiful in a different way.

I live in one of the few regular-people-still-live-here neighborhoods left in NYC, but am two blocks (cities are crazy, two blocks can cause a massive change in wealth, culture, environment) from the uber-rich part of the Upper East Side.

There you will see a group of seventy year old women, say, having lunch together, and they all have the same face - their skin is, I guess, smooth but in an odd looking leathery way and their overall faces are pulled back in a shape that causes their cheeks to suck in, their eyes to get catlike and their mouths to form a kinda Joker-from-Batman look and, of course, their faces don't really move when they talk or laugh.

It's very creepy to see as they all truly have the same face. Conversely, my girlfriend's mother is 85, all natural, wrinkled and with a sparkle in her eyes and movement in her face (she lights up when she laughs) that is very young an alive.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

As I said earlier, I knew nothing of Hedy Lamarr before watching the doc. I realize that might seem unlikely, but I really didn't. Old movies and old Hollywood culture aren't my interests. She struck me as: 1) cold, or rather detached, which allowed for relationships that were always one foot out the door and the other foot ready to follow (understandably from her experiences, but the case nevertheless) 2) blessed, because her looks and the way she likely carried herself, she walked into one good fortune after another; some people just happen to be kissed with good fortune like this 3) she was obviously smart, but she was smart in almost a quasi-grifter/street sort of way where she saw connections with things and was a huckster. Because of 2), she could get people to listen to her rough ideas, which is more than half the battle for most other people (to get an audience to listen).

I don't think enough credence is given to that kind of brightness. The type of people who can connect things that 99.99% of the rest of us can't see. They might not be able to do a lot of the work and fine tuning, but that recognition of A with Q is a unique, sharp perspective. Just another type of intelligence. I suppose I'm saying the sky is blue, but I think this is written off in a lot of ways, most of which are derogatory and with nastiness.

 

[Zombie_61]

I live in one of the few regular-people-still-live-here neighborhoods left in NYC, but am two blocks (cities are crazy, two blocks can cause a massive change in wealth, culture, environment) from the uber-rich part of the Upper East Side.

There you will see a group of seventy year old women, say, having lunch together, and they all have the same face - their skin is, I guess, smooth but in an odd looking leathery way and their overall faces are pulled back in a shape that causes their cheeks to suck in, their eyes to get catlike and their mouths to form a kinda Joker-from-Batman look and, of course, their faces don't really move when they talk or laugh.

It's very creepy to see as they all truly have the same face...

I don't remember the circumstances, but I recall having a conversation with someone years ago about plastic surgery. She was in the medical field, and her "advice" to anyone considering plastic surgery was to look at a number of surgeons' portfolios before choosing one to perform whichever procedure was being considered. The reason for this was quite simple--except for things learned on-the-job, every surgeon learns one way to do things and the end result is that all of their patients end up looking alike. So when one person recommends their plastic surgeon to a friend and that friend goes to that surgeon...well, you get the idea; best friends end up looking more like sisters or brothers.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Vida. new series on Starz. I hope Mexican-America isn't too proud of this show being one of their shows. I only say this because the reviews seem to allude to Mexican-Americans and the Latina LGBT community being grateful for the representation on US TV. I guess I understand if you'll take anything to be represented on TV at this point. The core premise of this series is rather non-existent, and so far, it pretty much only exists to get to the sex scenes. Maybe this is a matter of growing pains (I hope so), but so far, this show is anything but interesting or impressive.

Sweetbitter. another new mini-series on Starz. The acting continues to be clumsy and horrible. Who's to blame? The directing? The writing? Set environment? I suppose you could go right to the actors, but Caitlin FitzGerald didn't fumble around when she was in Masters of Sex. Also, scene after scene is cliche and vapid. Maybe because I read one of Anthony Bourdain's books, this is striking me as especially ridiculous and ultimately stupid.

Billions. I don't really know why I like this show. But, I do.

 

[Edward]

Working my way through Altered Carbon on Netflix. Elements of Blade Runner, that film Bruce Willis was in where people used avatars (NOT Avatar), and a touch of the surrealism of Oliver Stone's Wild Palms, but while I can spot various influences, I wouldn't call it derivative. It seems to be developing quite well as I zone in on the final episodes. Worth a look if you like your future dystopic.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Fourth Estate. new Showtime docu-series. About the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Something of that order anyway. I thought this would be really interesting. To see inside the New York Times and media chaos of this nightmare. I don't know how they did it, but the first episode was as boring as I've watched in years. B-O-R-I-N-G. If you follow politics, you know all the outcomes of each situation, so they had to focus on the relationships, process, and even the human interests of the reporters themselves. That's the stuff behind the articles we don't already know. They didn't really do any of that, and what they did do, they failed at doing well. For instance, Maggie Haberman is an interesting person and quality reporter and analyst with an interesting position with Trump himself. They do nothing with her and her role in the news organization or her direct relationship with Trump. It doesn't help matters that this is two years later. Something like this series needs to hit the airwaves a month or two, or even weeks, after real time.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I had the EXACT same response.

I enthusiastically watched about 40 minutes of the first ep, and as impressed as I was with how hard these folks work (they basically have no time for a personal life), and as intense as the news cycle is in this chaotic administration, and as much as I appreciate the need for real, fact-checking news organizations with integrity at a time when any clown can monopolize the internet... I found it boring. And yeah, part of my problem is that it's literally old news, whereas I really enjoy the weekly Sunday night premiere of The Circus, since it covers what went on the previous week.

Anyway, I was disappointed too. And I don't expect to go back and try more later, not when there are so many shows and films fighting for my attention.

But I did watch a doc last night I really liked: Wasted on Starz, about the horrendous amount of wasted food around the world and some things being tried to improve the situation.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Cool. I'll check out Wasted. I hadn't noticed that one. Though, do I really need to be exposed to more ugly? No, but I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Don't worry, it focuses much more on what can be done (and is being done) about the situation than a doomsday scenario.

Re The Americans series finale... No spoilers here... I am still processing it, but it was a staggeringly brilliant end to a remarkable series. And its dramatic climax - that incredible 11-minute sequence in the middle of the episode - was magnificently written, acted, and most significantly, earned. The storytelling complexity and finesse of this series was unique to the end, and I think it's as close to perfect an ending as possible.

Thus passes one of the greatest TV dramas ever!