Watching Our Planet. Equal parts sad and amazing, like any good nature documentary.
Just saw ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’, a Netflix original film. It’s a Western anthology by the Coen brothers. Some vignettes are absurdly hilarious and others are heartbreaking. Watch it.
2 Likes
Beyonce on Netflix at Coachella.
It is really quite impressive.
“When he f8ck me good I take him to Red Lobster.”
Who knew? 
Oy… the McDonalds of seafood. No thanks. 
At the very least, splurge for Legal Sea Foods.
1 Like
Traitors on Netflix is off to a good start
Line of Duty. Just watched all the first four series on Netflix. Brilliant loved all of it. Different kind of cop drama examining the role of ’ bent coppers’…
Do not spoil series 5 on me!
Seems like it’s the top show in the UK right now.
Ac-12 always gets their man or woman.
1 Like
Thanks will have to get season 5 somehow I’m not waiting too long…
looks good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCWevZV945M
Very excited for season 2, but it’s probably too feminist for ppl here.
Probably the only reason I, for one would sign up again for HBO. First series was among the very best; a great show that, if it had anything to do with feminism it was completely understandable (to me anyway).
Among all HBO series, BLL ranks right up there with The Sopranos and Deadwood in tv valhalla. First season was dynamite tv imo.
My only concern - and let me be clear I didn’t know HBO was cooking up S2 - is where they’ll go with it. The OG came to a natural and very satisfying end, after all.
Still, for this series HBO deserves my eyeball. Or ten.
1 Like
Jayziz… I watched Michael Ware’s ‘Only the Dead’ on Netflix last night. He was an embedded journalist in Iraq during the height of the insurgency in the mid 2000s. And it’s harrowing. Better than ‘Restreppo.’ It is extremely NSFW though. I think trigger warnings are generally stupid, but this is the rare case that warrants one. At one point you see a decapitated head. If you can get through stuff like that, it’s very good though. “Only the dead see the end of war…”
Guys there is going to be a Watchmen tv series on HBO.
I finished The Night Manager which was really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq9gX6RSPcM
And this looks really good but also really terrifying.
Watched Godless over the weekend. It’s from 2017. Written and directed by the guy who wrote the screenplay for Logan, Scott Frank.
Timeline is hazy (roughly 1870-1885). Set in New Mexico and shot around Santa Fe (cinematography is gorgeous). A frontier town called La Belle loses nearly all its men to a mining accident. Surviving women unsure what to do next. Bisexual widow with strong personality (played by Merritt Wever) emerges as leader, but loses vote when the remaining women vote to sell what’s left of their town to a bunch of crooked men, bad decision. Meanwhile a young man leaves his adoptive father, a vicious outlaw (played by Jeff Daniels) after stealing his pa’s treasure and shooting his arm off. Arcs tied together when young man is arrested by La Belle sheriff (played by Scoot McNairy). Ruthless pa out for revenge. Showdown takes place in 7th and final episode.
Typical Netflix original production, takes a promising story and waters it down until almost all tension is rinsed out. A vanilla-ish version of Deadwood with elements of The Hateful Eight thrown in (replete with a bloody shootout inside a kitchen). The series does work, though, and it’s only afterward that buyer’s remorse set in because bad logic.
Netflix’s Godless is to Deadwood as Netflix’s The Silence is to A Quiet Place. Has its moments, though. Lots to look at. Lots of Brit actors. Jeff Daniels is very good, as is Kim Coates. I gave it 5 stars, but only to game the recommendation algorithm (the one that doesn’t work anyway). Probably a 4 at best. High binge factor.
Watching Lonely Island’s ‘Unauthorized Bash Brothers’ Experience’ about ball-playing roid monsters Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire’s juiced up adventures in the 80s. If you want to laugh your ass off for 30 minutes, I recommend it. On Netflix.
DEADWOOD: THE MOVIE! It’s really good. Makes you wanna go back and rewatch the show. That dialogue is such poetry.
Let me rephrase.
That dialogue is such fuckin’ poetry.
Glad you dug it. I was just chatting with Charlie (Alan) last night and he was like, that was the best experience he’s had thus far to work those acting muscles.
Must be somewhat a bit trippy for an actor to do the same scenes over, and over, and over again, not just for different takes, but because that’s literally what the script calls for. It’s a rare challenge few actors get to take in their careers. Groundhog day was another incredible script that instantly came to mind.
2 Likes
Aren’t you describing Theatre?
Agree that it is a rare treat to do it on film, but it’s all in an 8 shows in 6 days contract for the stage. As well, most rehearsals will play around with scenes in different ways, so we do get to try on the suits and sitches thus.
Talk to any Hollywood actor who later tries their hand at Broadway and you’ll hear the shock in their voices when they describe the weird marathon that is theater. It’s very irregular for us in film to do a full 10 minute scene from beginning to end with no cuts. That’s why Cuaron and Inarritu’s long takes (or Hitchcock’s Rope, if we’re going way back), are so novelty and an actual selling point.
Directors love rehearsals. It not only helps us get to know the actors, it also informs our blocking and other creative choices. Sadly in recent years, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to get rehearsal time with actors. This is most notable with TV, where as directors we are sort of expected to just jump in and steer the ship for a week and then peace out. Most of the time, the main cast on episodics know their roles better than whichever director that happens to be available during photography.
Pilots are a (slightly) different story though. But even then you also hear a lot of anecdotes where actors get swapped out last minute or become unavailable for one reason or another.