What was the last TV show you watched?

[Ernest P Shackleton]

A spin off prequel?!?
Lord, no! They've squandered my goodwill, they won't get a second chance.

What's with Podderick? Still following Brianne around, even into the guard?

Sam Tarly (who killed a white walker!) gives away his father's valerian steel sword on the eve of the battle with the night king!

I believe the prequel is about the Children of the Forest, but I could be imagining that. I believe I read that at some point a year or two ago. It's been in the works for a while.

Podderick was knighted. I believe he donned King's Guard armor at the end.

Made perfect sense [to me] that Sam gave Heartsbane to Jorah. Sam had a good history with the Mormonts, and a Valyrian steel sword is too hot of a commodity in a White Walker war to let sit under a bed or on a wall. And there's the story of the Mormont family's Valyrian sword to Jon. Etc. And let's face it, these swords never disappear. Jon's Longclaw was somewhere on a battlefield, under a pile of death or two, and always found its way back to him. If Jorah would have lived, it would have remained with him. Since he died, I'm willing to bet it ends up back with Sam. Practically speaking, I bet after a Medieval battle, the field is combed over well for useful weapons and whatnot. I believe there are only five known Valyrian swords and one Valyrian dagger known in the Seven Kingdoms. Someone isn't going to just walk off with Valyrian steel.

*I mean, Sam risked his life to treat Jorah's greyscale. Out of duty, gratefulness, or whatever to Jeor and the Mormont name. Handing over a useful, magical sword that Sam likely took for this war in the first place --and out of spite for his own father, because Sam is human-- is on the lesser end of things.

Sansa's Stark blood, but beyond that, she earned the North's respect. All those northern leaders watched her time and time again stand up for the North, and I would imagine it became known that she was outsmarting the smart at every turn. Her actions and game play wouldn't have gone unnoticed in such a time.

Gendry's bloodline would have found its way into that book (can't remember the name right now). A lot of people traced him back to being Robert's ba***rd, from Melisandre to Cersei's team to Lord Varys to Eddard. It was no secret by the end.

I think a lot of your posed questions can be reasonably answered.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

Acorn TV, the streaming service that offers BBC and other shows, made their own called Queens of Mystery. 6 episodes, each story complete in back-to-back show. However, the look and feel and writing reminds one of watching those Hallmark Mystery Channel mysteries (which is not bad, don't get me wrong).
Now, in reading up on the show, there were numerous comments on the similarities of QoM with Pushing Daisies. So we looked that up and lo and behold, yep. What a wacky show. We'll reserve judgment until we're further along. Lotsa laughs-

I *loved* Pushing Daisies! Will have to give QoM a try once I get my Acorn. Haven't had time to watch much of anything, so haven't subscribed yet.

 

[Big J]

@Ernest P Shackleton,

With respect, you've only addressed one of the questions I asked; on what basis did Sansa become a queen? Answer; she made some speeches. Wow. What a sacrifice for someone who was essentially a spoilt child who willingly met her abusers half-way until the end of season 6.

As for your other comments; they are valid points, but don't answer the questions I asked.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Here's a quote from a Rolling Stone interview with Timothy Olyphant.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Deadwood the movie will be a hit for all the reasons and to the same fan base as Game of Turds. I watched the entire original TV series and started out enjoying it but by the end I had soured on it and now despise it. Like GofT, it slowly slid into wallowing the violence and evil characters at the expense of good storytelling. Like GofT, it's been justified or promoted as depicting that "we all have good and evil in us"... which is total b.s. since most of us are dominated by one or the other, not 50/50 or anywhere close. I see both as nihilistic or post-moral nonsense, only one step away from porn... and I say this as a religious agnostic and porn-watcher, lol

I disagree with most of this, but i really enjoyed your argument and liked the idea of bringing morality into the discussion.

I've said before I looked upon GoT as largely a gross-out, high-camp comedy, a little like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Got to season 3 and found I'd had enough of it. Deadwood used the English language better than any show I've seen and I thought it got less nasty as it went along. I struggle with long form TV series - they are generally interminable and drag out narratives like soap operas. I really can't withstand all that bloody storytelling.

 

[Doctor Damage]

I've said before I looked upon GoT as largely a gross-out, high-camp comedy, a little like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Got to season 3 and found I'd had enough of it.

I've never seen that suggested before, the bit about GofT being an over-budgeted, campy version of Holy Grail. That's perfect!!

Deadwood used the English language better than any show I've seen and I thought it got less nasty as it went along. I struggle with long form TV series - they are generally interminable and drag out narratives like soap operas. I really can't withstand all that bloody storytelling.

As to your last point about dragging out storylines, one thing that bugged me about Deadwood was how in the second season the story seemd to be "marking time" or something, it didn't seem to advance, especially so when Rick Simon came to town with his Pinkertons and basically acted like a big wet blanket over the whole town. Lovejoy was basically neutered from there onwards and Olyphant kept walking up and down the main street apparently perpetually confused. Maybe in the third season a bunch of stuff was going to happen but it was cancelled of course. Even if that was the plan, it still makes no sense to spend most of the second season just static, it was like a partially wasted season to my mind.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Here's a thoughful article about GofT's story arc and a broader discussion of sociological vs psychological storytelling. FWIW I don't really agree with the author on a lot of this article, although I think she's worth following for her other discussions of technology, privacy, etc.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...he-last-season-of-game-of-thrones/?redirect=1

 

[Doctor Damage]

Here's a good article on GofT which talks about the relative merits and demerits of monarchy, nobility, etc.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/26/18637091/game-of-thrones-targaryen-restoration-daenerys

 

[MisterCairo]

Spoiler alert if anyone still cares:




The next Song of Ice and Fire book, if it ever comes out, better not end like GoT the show did.

The next king is chosen by... an ELECTION?

 

[Edward]

Spoiler alert if anyone still cares:




The next Song of Ice and Fire book, if it ever comes out, better not end like GoT the show did.

I do wonder. I'm still behind on the TV show, so I'll see what I make of the last series in a year or two in all likelihood. I refuse to read the books unless he cna be bothered to finish them. I'm not setting myself up to get into something that doesn't have a conclusion.

 

[MisterCairo]

I do wonder. I'm still behind on the TV show, so I'll see what I make of the last series in a year or two in all likelihood. I refuse to read the books unless he cna be bothered to finish them. I'm not setting myself up to get into something that doesn't have a conclusion.

If and when it does come out (and I recall he was planning on TWO additional books, highly unlikely at this point) I will borrow it from the library. That way I won't be putting out $30 CAD for something that may stink.

I bought the most "recent" book in 2012. It had been published the year prior. It came with a teaser chapter. Again, in 2011.

If you watch the "Honest Trailer" for the first season of GoT on youtube, you'll see a reference to GRRM hoping to finish the series before he eats himself to death...

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Game of Thrones: The Last Watch. HBO. I thought this was going to be just about the cast and a way for HBO to hold attention (subscriptions) for another week. It was likely the latter, but it wasn't much about the cast. It was interesting because of that, too. To get an idea of how many people were involved in this show. To get an idea of their lives. To realize there were a lot of people who weren't likely Hollywood or part of the TV/movie industry, thrown into blue collar jobs, who then took A LOT of pride in their work and the show. Sadly, HBO couldn't even spring to give them recognition and inclusion with a piece of paper when winning Emmys. Making them pay for a symbol of the awards. Every organization I've ever been involved with hands out those boilerplate pieces of parchment with embossed medals, as an example, so people can frame them and hang them on their walls. They can't cost more than a buck or so. And to also find out craft services aren't open to everyone on set. That all those people making basic wages are then buying their own food, coffee, etc from food carts for monopoly prices. They probably spent more on junk food than they made on set. When you hear numbers like $15M/episode, I assumed that includes basic things like feeding people on set. Or that $1 piece of paper to show appreciation for everyone involved. The little things included in that huge expenditure. Wrong.

Fosse/Verdon. FX. This mini-series could have been cut in half. The middle episodes dragged. The final couple of episodes pulled it back together. What a couple of jerks.

 

[Touchofevil]

Other than finishing off Game of Thrones, not much.

 

[Edward]

Been binge-watching Mrs Maisel, now into Season two.

SPOILERZ:

Delighted she didn't get back together with that drip of a husband (so far).

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Ozark. Netflix. season 2. I like this show. Laura Linney. Other good actors. Decent enough story and dialog. Not particularly special, but I like the feel of this show and the chemistry. I wouldn't at all be surprised if someday Julia Garner does something that wins her an Oscar.

 

[Fading Fast]

On mute, on TCM in the background is The Vampire Bat from '33 which is a B&W movie except for this - the flaming torches have orange-colored flames.

@LizzieMaine - what's going on with this? IMBD just says the movie is B&W, but I did find this when I Googled it:

https://scarletthefilmmagazine.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/the-vampire-batrestored/​

Most interesting is seeing a sequence with the villagers carrying torches ,the flames of which have been hand tinted red yellow and orange. It is quite eye catching and I was unaware that it had ever been done to this film. Hand tinting had been used in other films to give them a bit of punch . Bela Lugosi’s THE DEATH KISS(K.B.S.,1932)hand tinted a few frames of a gun firing for a shock effect . Other films were often tinted for effect, but not so easy was the hand tinting used in these films.​

It's a terrible effect today - very forced and silly, but if original to '33, it might have been cool/dramatic back then. (Oh, Fay Wray looks gorgeous and Melvyn Douglas is wearing an incredible - what I think is - three-piece Donegal Tweed suit.)

Yes, time again for the Lizzie Bat Signal:

Edit - sorry, meant to post in Movie thread, but since Lizzie already responded (thank you Lizzie), I'll leave it here

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the Handschleigl process -- a color technique that used a gelatin dye system to add color to selected parts of an image for emotional effect. It was a very popular technique in the silent era, and was sometimes used in connection with other color processes -- in the Lon Chaney "Phantom Of The Opera," the Bal Masque scene in Technicolor ends with the Phantom, dressed as the Red Death, going up on the opera house roof to brood. The Technicolor footage ends there, but the next scene, in black and white, shows the Phantom so brooding, with his cape whipping in the wind -- and said cape is tinted red using the Handschleigl process.

Handscheigl scenes weren't as common in the talkie era, but were occasionally used thru the thirties. Stephen Spielberg used the same basic idea in "Schindler's List," in the scene with the girl in the red coat, although the actual Handscheigl process wasn't used.

 

[Fading Fast]

That's the Handschleigl process -- a color technique that used a gelatin dye system to add color to selected parts of an image for emotional effect. It was a very popular technique in the silent era, and was sometimes used in connection with other color processes -- in the Lon Chaney "Phantom Of The Opera," the Bal Masque scene in Technicolor ends with the Phantom, dressed as the Red Death, going up on the opera house roof to brood. The Technicolor footage ends there, but the next scene, in black and white, shows the Phantom so brooding, with his cape whipping in the wind -- and said cape is tinted red using the Handschleigl process.

Handscheigl scenes weren't as common in the talkie era, but were occasionally used thru the thirties. Stephen Spielberg used the same basic idea in "Schindler's List," in the scene with the girl in the red coat, although the actual Handscheigl process wasn't used.

Awesome - thank you.

 

[3fingers]

Crime Story. A Michael Mann product from the late '80s set in 1963 starring Dennis Farina as a Chicago cop chasing the mob. I watched it when it originally aired and enjoyed it despite its flaws. Not much has changed. Enjoy it for what it is and suspend your tendency to notice details that don't smell quite right.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The premiere of Deadwood: The Movie on HBO.

As a capper to the brilliant killed-to-soon series, it works pretty well, bringing back nearly the entire cast, though many characters have little more than cameos. It includes quite a few pleasurable sequences that are definitely of a piece with the series. How great to spend more time with these awesome characters! But I have two complaints:

The ending comes too soon. It just stops, leaving you wondering about a bunch of plot points. It needed another few minutes for a proper denouement. It's not even a full two hours, it would have been easy to do a better ending.

It's got a rather spectacular anachronism (perhaps several - besides its famous use of modern profanity - but this one hit me instantly). A couple of characters sing "Waltzing Matilda", which seemed to me a very odd choice for the time/place. Sure enough, the song wasn't even published in Australia until 1903... and this film takes place in 1889!

Anyone who enjoyed the series will definitely dig it. Not perfect, but it's a solid B+.