What's good on Amazon Prime Video

The Netflix thread is like 10k deep and amazon has enough original content now to warrant its own thread. Use this to recommend or speak on anything Amazon Prime Video streaming related.

i just started Patriot and it seems really fun and weird, I'm three eps in. has anyone stuck with it for all three seasons? should i continue on?

Homecoming!

i need to try that. is it a one season thing?

I thought the Patriot was a lot of fun. Stick with it.

i actually kind of like how i have no idea what's going on. find myself laughing at quite a bit of it too

Fleabag appear yet?

I really need to finish Homecoming. I think I have had 3 episodes left for forever. I figure my imagination might be better than the end.

same here, stalled after 6 episodes of season 1

Tokyo Girl 東京女子医大 is a better than average Japanese drama tracking the life of a girl from Akita who comes to work in Tokyo. It’s a pretty realistic portrayal of how shittily Japan treats career oriented women and it’s well worth as watch.

big night and bully, 2 of my fav movies, are on there iirc

The Terror

Fleabag s2 is great, go watch that

I like The Tick and Man In The High Castle — way behind on both but I am enjoying them

I’ll tell you what ISNT good on amazon prime video, it’s when you watch an old movie on there only to find that they’ve uploaded some kind of “tv cut” that’s been cut to shit instead of the full movie

Happened to me more than once and it’s v annoying

yes i hate that!

also they aren’t adding as many recent movie releases any more. :(

but they still have a reliably good library of Masterpiece Theater stuff & English detective/police procedurals

i really liked the patriot as well. it's not a prime original but recently, i've been watching baywatch with some friends. it's fascinating.

I absolutely love Red Oaks

Let The Corpses Tan, the latest film from Bruno & Helene (best known for The Strange Colour of your Body's Tears), is somewhat inexplicably free. There's also a giant trove of music docs, some of which (like the Pentagram or Stooges or Mudhoney ones) had actual proper releases and some of us (well, me) paid hard cash for.

I've found the way to discover the stuff you want to watch is to use the store and not the app.

all 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows are free

https://darkshadowseveryday.com/episode-guide/

Thanks for the tip - I was thinking about buying Let The Corpses Tan on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber, but I doubt I'd watch it twice, so I'll just check it out on Prime.

Oh yeah Red Oaks was really good. I stopped High Man at the end of the first season because it just made me mad.

Gortimer Gibbons is excellent if you're looking for something to watch with your kids.

Vikings and Black Sails are both trashy but fun.

And Halt & Catch Fire is superb.

I watched all of Fleabag this week and it was excellent!

fleabag is good.

i have a bunch of music docs bookmarked. there’s one on freestyle i’m saving for a rainy day. also chappelle’s block party is on there

The two seasons of Fleabag are perfect, one of my favorite of all time.

oh yes Red Oaks is great

Bosch is their comfort food show and it’s a pretty basic program but it’s pretty dope as an L.A. cop show with a veneer of The Wire-style politicking and careerism. Superb cast, Welliver owns but really good work from Jamie Hector, Paul Calderón, Lance Reddick, etc. there are some not-good guest turns but it’s a cop show, there’s always gonna be some corniness. S1 is mostly just “pretty good” but it really gets going from there.

Yah Bosch is great (also has its own thread)

Gotta check out red oaks

I can't get into Bosch, but I've always enjoyed the books

Sneaky Pete is far from perfect but a lot of fun, and has a bunch of great performances. There's a third season just out with a new showrunner instead of Graham Yost, which is a bummer, as the Justified-y vibe was part of the appeal.

HACF is an all-time great show, loved it so much, would watch again.

I only made it 2 1/2 episodes into Sneaky Pete season 3, and I didn't realize they'd changed showrunners, but that may explain why I hated it. And it bums me out not to watch this one, given that it includes Ricky Jay's final performance, but it was really bad when I bailed out. They introduced a new character that's clearly intended to be a sexy and charming femme fatale, and I just wanted Pete to shove her into traffic.

I love watching Jamie Hector in Bosch -- he must like golf in real life

oh and the most recent season has Opie from Sons of Anarchy in it ... and his character dresses like Bobby from Sons of Anarchy ...

Ha yeah pretty cool character

i see "Bobby" at my local TJ's all the damn time. he dresses like...himself on Sons of Anarchy.

Jamie Hector is great on Bosch, and so likable. basically the anti-Marlo Stanfield.

They cancelled the Tick. :(

Vikings is great

Didn’t even realize the tick returned til I saw the cancellation news—love that dam show and looking forward to whenever they inevitably give it another go

they cancelled it? it just got a ton of press about returning. too bad, never actually watched it

thanks for the music docs tip - had never struck me to look before, but I am now spending a pleasant Sunday evening with TAD.

All of Joanna Hogg's films are available.

I can't get into Bosch, but I've always enjoyed the books

I've read the first handful of books (reaction: these are not great but they are v efficient & I will probably read most of them) and watched the first episode, was underwhelmed

ppl said it got really good later so I watched the last few of S3

was underwhelmed

tbf you are not easily whelmed

The efficiency is kind of the key to their greatness, plus the way the books are stacked with these little procedural mini-mysteries that get described and then solved every few pages. The series’ lack of mystery focus - it seems more like an ensemble cop show from the few episodes I’ve seen - probably contributes to my lack of whelm (plus I don’t like the lead, in this role anyway).

Gonna try again for the angels flight series though, as that’s my favourite of the books.

Sneaky Pete season 3 is pretty skipable, unfortunately

Bosch is usually best mid-season? I may be off in my remembering but the general formula is that each season has a more action-based plot in parallel with a slow-burn or multi-season plot element and the more active case gets the majority of the time mid-season followed by a wrap-up and return to the slow-burn element to tie up both threads in the last few.

i've only watched the first 3 seasons but i thought it was pretty interesting insofar as the mysteries weren't explained very easily and there were at least four of them happening at once (with a couple converging into one). And I always like a good Arnold Vosloo role.

It's not clear whether this thread is for movies or just original series/TV. There really needs to be a place to share movie discoveries, because Prime has so damn many (something like 5x Netflix), with so much variety, yet the browsing interface is terrible. If Amazon had applied the same techniques to enabling people to find products they could order online, Bezos would still be aspiring to put boutique bookstores out of business.

Anyhow, thanks for 'Let The Corpses Tan'. A little gorier than I usually like, but all the more riveting for it. Startled to recognize a no longer alabaster Elina Lowensohn, 25 years after 'Amateur'.

Some 2018 movies I've recently come across. Haven't watched them all yet:

Ghostbox Cowboy
Wobble Palace
Milford Graves Full Mantis
Never Goin' Back
Guys Reading Poems

Films of note from 18/19 on US Prime; sorry if some of these are repeats:

Hereditary
Zama
The Road Movie
Eighth Grade
Leave No Trace
The Death of Stalin
Border
A Quiet Place
First Reformed
You Were Never Really Here
Generation Wealth
Unsane
The Great Buddha+
A Prayer Before Dawn
Lots of Kids, A Monkey and A Castle
Western
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
Let the Corpses Tan
Madeline’s Madeline
Cold War
Loveless
A Fantastic Woman
Suspiria

^Good list. Also of note, Lean on Pete. However, it looks like Border, Death of Stalin and Loveless are only viewable on Prime for an extra charge.

"Ghostbox Cowboy"

this was made by friends of mine! well written and directed by my friend's husband who I don't know as well as her (she is a producer on it). .... still haven't watched it shamefully

Anyone seen 'Leave No Trace'? As someone who lived off the grid for a while and found it immensely satisfying if terrifyingly difficult, I'm wondering whether I'll like it or want to kill it.

it’s really really good. *highly* recommend.

it is very judgement-free imo.

yes agree

For a PG movie it's beautiful and very very subtle and sophisticated for a film you can watch with your (slightly older) kid.

Border, Death of Stalin and Loveless WERE on there! Go figure.

Leave No Trace is excellent; one of the best films of last year imo.

I really loved the way Madeline’s Madeline was filmed, with all of the subjective points of view and blurred displaced images, and the ending was so unexpectedly strange and euphoric

it looks like Loveless is also available on Hulu. It is a great film

Am I actually the only person that watched the Terror cuz if so waht

"I really loved the way Madeline’s Madeline was filmed"

I couldn't make it more than 10 minutes into this movie; one of the rare things I absolutely had to turn off.

xpost I am in the process of watching it, only a couple of eps to go. I love everything about it.

Leave No Trace is in my top handful of 2018.

Leave No Trace is a good recent example (along with The Rider) of a satisfying film that could have easily become an award season sensation with the right push and no one would have batted an eye.

God I wish The Rider were available anywhere except on the Starz streaming network; that film was a stunner.

xpost It's kind of amazing that it didn't, given it was the director's first fiction film since Winter's Bone, which got nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, and that Leave No Trace was (like Paddington 2?) one of the few films to have 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, fwiw. It's really perplexing, honestly, that Leave No Trace got literally no nominations (esp. considering what was nominated, let alone won best picture), or even much traction in small awards circles.

Having no box office, a smaller distributor, and I assume little or no industry campaigning behind it was the more important factor.

Glad to see all the love for Leave No Trace. Also one of my favorites from last year. I'm with Josh; shockingly overlooked considering it was the same team that did Winter's Bone and having a similar feel and level of filmmaking. Again, the young actress is a real discovery and standout!

All of Dark Shadows is on Prime! I'm about 450 eps in.

Have you got to the Meghan Draper eps yet?

Did you start at the beginning or with Barnabas?

I started at the beginning, so 120 or so before barnabus.

I watched episodes 210 to 370 and need to get back to it

watched a few episodes of baywatch and i've gotta be honest the remaster is great - the show looks exceptionally crisp

it's otherwise terrible obv

Am I actually the only person that watched the Terror cuz if so waht

― Οὖτις, Monday, May 27, 2019 6:54 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its not on amazon prime nor was it created by amazon. but i am currently watching it by other means and it's great.

It's not clear whether this thread is for movies or just original series/TV. There really needs to be a place to share movie discoveries, because Prime has so damn many (something like 5x Netflix), with so much variety, yet the browsing interface is terrible. If Amazon had applied the same techniques to enabling people to find products they could order online, Bezos would still be aspiring to put boutique bookstores out of business.

My initial idea for this thread was mostly for recommendations of content created by Amazon (Amazon Originals) but it's fine to recommend other movies/shows available within the platform.

an older show, but my wife and i kind of love scott & bailey — manchester murder investigation stuff, but really well acted / written (it's a sally wainwright show).

I did a deep dive down the "viewers who liked x may like y" hole and discovered Amazon has a zillion B-westerns, I assume in public domain and usually in terrible condition -- Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Tex Ritter, that crowd. I watched a couple and they're in the "so bad they're kind of entertaining" category.

its not on amazon prime nor was it created by amazon. but i am currently watching it by other means and it's great.

huh weird right I guess it was AMC? For some reason Amazon was where I got it. my bad.

In regards to this and the Netflix thread, I would absolutely like to know about good films or TV shows that are on the platform regardless of whether they are original content or not. There are lots of great movies on both that you'll only ever find if you do a lot of digging.

If you put any stock in IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes ratings, one of the tools at justwatch.com lets you only show films with at least ___ IMDB score or ___% on RT. It's a starting point anyway.

xp it's compounded by the fact we're an international community, or at least continually remind each other of that fact, and the licensing across services means it's total guesswork as to what is available on each service unless it's content that service originated

I'd be good with a general purpose "now streaming" movies thread with the caveat that streaming might just mean "available for home release"

Has this been posted yet? It allows you to search Prime Movies & TV by new or popular or random etc.

https://instantwatcher.com/a

its not on amazon prime nor was it created by amazon. but i am currently watching it by other means and it's great.

huh weird right I guess it was AMC? For some reason Amazon was where I got it. my bad.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 28, 2019 10:24 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no prob. it may have been available at some point on there. which is kinda the problem with talking itt about content merely hosted by amazon, it may come and go.

I love the idea of a general 'movies/tv now streaming on...' recommendations thread.

Terror is on Hulu i believe.

I do this for my "now available" hunting; allows you to sort by service which is a great help:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/new

Brownie, I first learned about instantwatcher several years ago somewhere on ilx. I use both it and justwatch, which covers virtually all streaming services. IW to keep up with newly added titles and JW to find out what service, if any, carries a particular movie. They're both great for filtered searches.

It really is a problem keeping track of what comes and goes from Prime and Netflix. Especially on Prime, movies can disappear for a few weeks then come back again. And often a bunch of movies will leave one service and immediately show up on the other, or on Hulu, Starz, etc. Apparently, due to licensing deals changing hands.

I will now be watching The Terror, having learned Jared Harris is in it. Still one of the 4 shows available on Amazon Prime in Australia.

Four more 2018 films of note on Prime not mentioned above:

Thunder Road
Colette
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
Beautiful Boy

I watched the first two last night. Thunder Road is not to be missed. Feels at times like humiliating comedy monologues stitched onto a melodrama, but there's more to it. Colette was a lot better than I expected. Keira Knightley is fantastic, and the story never hardly lapses into self-congratulatory plays for relevance. It probably helps that I didn't know anything about Colette's early life.

I'm hesitant to get to the other two yet.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot isn't spectacular, but it's a nice story and jonah hill is excellent, like truly really great.

yea i really enjoyed that 1 also, to my surprise

beautiful boy is watchable but not v good imo

I made it about 5 minutes into Historical Roasts or whatever before I cringed out.

Agree that Colette was pretty good. None of the others really interest me.

Terror has indeed just shown up on US Hulu. I watched the first episode last night but may wait a couple of weeks to resume - I can only take about one hour a week of Jared Harris, and Chernobyl's still going.

I made it about 5 minutes into Historical Roasts or whatever before I cringed out.

― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Friday, May 31, 2019 12:00 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for the netflix thread?

Oh, sorry! Got mixed up.

Yes, I already own the DVD, but I'm still excited to see Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise on here.

Just added: Connie Plank – The Potential of Noise. Documentary about the krautrock producer made by his son. It's good, for the most part.

I noticed there's a load of the usually pretty good Classic Albums documentaries on Prime. Not sure if they're all there but there's lots

i watched a documentary the other night about the banana and American imperialism in Latin America. Pretty decent intro, though I'd really like to see something more in depth that isn't some smug Michael Moore or whoever-type expose.

Watched the first episode of GOOD OMENS tonight and holy fuck was it bad. My tolerance for whimsy is low at the best of times, and this was about as Not For Me as it's possible for a thing to be, and that was before Queen showed up on the soundtrack. I don't really blame Neil Gaiman, though, 'cause I liked American Gods (book, not show), and while I've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, the Wikipedia plot summary of one of his novels (the first in a 40-book series, for fuck's sake) made me want to tear my eyes out.

The trailer and even just the thumbnail looked so bad I couldn’t even bother giving the pilot a few minutes

i quite like it

but the special effects are so unforgivably terrible ... ie vfx in s1 eccelstone new-Who level crappy — and whatever the fuck they did to Tennant’s lizardy demon eyes (contacts or digital i cant quite tell ) looks hideous.

It's contacts in every shot, even when he's wearing sunglasses, but enhanced with cgi in the scenes where it looks aggressively stupid

that was before Queen showed up on the soundtrack

This is a reference to a very good running joke in the book, that has been left out of the series altogether.

oh man this is making me sad as I was super looking forward to this, although i think the book is way overrated.

sic what did you think of it? overall?

Watched the first episode of GOOD OMENS tonight and holy fuck was it bad. My tolerance for whimsy is low at the best of times, and this was about as Not For Me as it's possible for a thing to be, and that was before Queen showed up on the soundtrack. I don't really blame Neil Gaiman, though, 'cause I liked American Gods (book, not show), and while I've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, the Wikipedia plot summary of one of his novels (the first in a 40-book series, for fuck's sake) made me want to tear my eyes out.

Your objections make sense in that, as I understand it, due to Pratchett's passing they wanted to incorporate as many of the elements that he brought to the novel as possible.

(I haven't watched it and probably won't tbh)

A someone who read the book as a teenager I didn’t dislike it but it wasn’t great either. It’s a bit heavy handed and too faithful as the book to the extent that Frances McDermont/God is explaining jokes that only really work written down. They also don’t really do much to build the characters of the ‘Them’. The book portrays them as a sort of a just William/Famous Five gang of kids living in an sentimental old world England that was already long gone in 1990, but conjoined up by Damian’s imagination field by these books . They almost seem incidental to the story. By contrast a lot of the rest of the series could do with some heavy editing. Too faithful to the book.

I don’t think we’ve talked about the Marvelous Mrs Maisel which is good fun.

(This Sunday in Melbourne was great weather for binge watching TV)

Maisel talk moved to the Maisel thread in January 2018

sic what did you think of it? overall?

it's not good but it's watchable. definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the book. I liked the 3rd episode best, which was almost entirely new material, and with Sheen and Tennant throughout.

Adam and his pals (who are 100% William and the Outlaws, with the serial numbers faintly liquid-papered over, in the book) are so minimal a presence in the series that I wondered if they got cut down drastically because the boys or just Adam turned out to be such bad / not grasping the (very had to grasp) tone of the production. Weren't they basically the second group of protagonists in the prose version?

Everyone who isn't Crowley and Aziraphale gets short shrift tbf - not only have Newt and Anathema only met each other about 40 seconds before they bone, we've not had much longer to get to know either of them. McKean has lost his ability at British accents since Spinal Tap, even with a Scottish director, and is startlingly uncompelling as the second-most-seen character so soon after he pinned your eyes and emotions in Better Call Saul. Miranda Richardson is kinda wasted, but also doesn't have any of the earthiness of the book's character: it feels like she is very relievedly slipping into chastity at the end, rather than diverting Shadwell into appreciating pleasures of the flesh.

Frances McDormand's narration is so flat that one imagines they'd proudly announced the casting before she recorded, and couldn't go back. It's not just that she's reading or elucidating stuff from the book, it's that either she doesn't seem to get the jokes enough to play them deadpan, or the visuals are so frenetically busy underneath her that it undermines her casual delivery from what might otherwise play as deadpan.

Similar objections to sic esp re: Frances McDormand's narration. Pacing was all over the place - it felt like they were just rushing through the plot points of the book.

I did like the kids though - thought the parts where Adam comes into his powers were better here than they were in the book. It's been a while since I read it but iirc Adam just weirds his friends out a bit before he comes round. Here he actually gets to be a bit more terrifying.

Sheen and Tennant were great, everyone else was underutilised/miscast. And as with all things Gaiman, the whole thing was all just entirely too pleased with itself.

Young teen me is surprised no one has green-lit that Piers Anthony immortality series yet.

I watched the first ep, and it was much better than I expected. Will watch the rest.

while I've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, the Wikipedia plot summary of one of his novels (the first in a 40-book series, for fuck's sake) made me want to tear my eyes out.

lol this is pretty much my experience except swap out Wikipedia summary for having someone describe the novel to me at length while I nod politely and desperately look for an exit (this has happened to me multiple times in my life with different people, so apparently pratchett fans are the type of people who do this) (I did try to read something by him once, it was bad)

Yeah the trailer is terrible and it definitely looks awful and cheap !

It was okay. Tennant was great, Sheen was good (I probably would have thought he was great if his portrayal had matched the mental image I had from the book, which was a significantly older character), I kind of liked the Horsemen.

Jon Hamm was also pretty funny but that's not a surprise.

Yeah I thought it was ok. Tennant, Sheen and Hamm were all good. Whitehall ok. Any others with big parts pretty poor esp McKean who was dreadful.

The first episode, or even just the opening sequences were nearly enough to put me off totally - the stench of cod Douglas Adams was overwhelming and threatened to come back every time the Frances McDormand v/o struck up.

Has anyone watched "Higher Power"? Looks like a b-grade alt-superhuman movie, very vaguely like "Rupture", in that putting someone through stress unlocks latent ability. Not having Amazon Prime, if someone rates it average or better, I'd track it down elsewhere. Am thinking Google Play for "Forest of Lost Souls", so would look for "Higher Power" there, also.

^"Forest of Lost Souls" is great. It's on both Prime and Hulu.

Searching at justwatch.com, I see that "Higher Power" is on Hulu but would cost $4.99 for members to watch on Prime. Not my thing anyway.

Hulu would be your best deal to see both films. The $5.99/month plan works great for watching just movies. That's less than Google Play for just the two, and Hulu's ads only interrupt their TV shows/series.

Thanks for the input! Been planning on dropping HBO, which - aside from GoT, John Oliver, and the periodic special or movie - hasn't been an excellent value for the money.

So could replace it with Hulu, meant to say.

I've been watching Long Strange Trip, the Amazon original Dead documentary. It's definitely a cut above the standard issue streaming doc-in-a-box and is done in a style that suits is subject matter very well.

Any others with big parts pretty poor esp McKean who was dreadful.

About a minute into his first appearance, I said to myself "McKean was cast and directed to give this ridiculous performance because Shadwell is not supposed to come across as a credible human being" and then he stopped bothering me.

xp to alpaca: the main story element of 'this week tonight' is on their youtube channel every week fwiw

Good Omens is not as bad as I expected but I feel like actors other than Sheen and Tennant would have made it better.

It just occurred to me that the Queen gag was the one thing from the book that they DIDN'T signpost and repeat three times to make sure everyone watching got it

thanks for the post about the 'classic albums' series being on here. got those queued up for background viewing during work .

Here are links to specific threads for some Amazon Originals shows:

— Bosch: "If you can smoke and drink while doing it, it's not a sport" - a thread for BOSCH
— Sneaky Pete: Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime
— Homecoming: Homecoming, a good show on Amazon Prime
— The Man in the High Castle: Search is Broken so I Don't Know if there's already a Man in the High Castle TV show thread
— The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
— Transparent: Transparent - Jill Solloway television series on Amazon
— The Expanse: (Amazon picked this up for season 4 and beyond): Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

One of the episodes of Good Omens has the intro 25 minutes in. That's just not on.

Watched The Posse yesterday. It's a western from 1975 starring and directed by Kirk Douglas. Bruce Dern is in it as well. Not a typical western - kind of weird little film tbh.

I guess it's just called Posse.

thanks, Spottie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXyXyJtbhg

Watched this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannie_Caulder cuz the cast is amazeballs (well, except for Culp). Unfortunately it sucked.

An area that I don't think has been mentioned where Amazon Prime is pretty strong is Italian genre films of the 60s, 70s & 80s. Spaghetti Westerns, Euro-crime, Giallo, etc. Unless you go searching for it and follow links to related titles, directors or actors, you might never know it's there. Amazon's website is the best way to explore, as opposed to the Prime Video app. A few examples:

Search for Spaghetti Western. Just a fraction of what Amazon suggests:

Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!
Django, Prepare A Coffin
Django Meets Sartana!
(The original Django film is no longer available for some reason. None of the sequels come close, but these three are the best of the 10 or so on Prime.)
I am Sartana...Your Angel Of Death
If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death
Sartana's Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin
$100,000 For A Killing
A Fistful of Dollars
God Made Them, I Kill Them
God Said to Cain
A Man Called Blade
Day of Anger
Companeros
Dead Men Don't Count
Man, Pride & Vengeance

Sure, they ain't all classics. Many don't belong in a discussion of "what's good", but just seeing the lurid cover art by the dozen should make your pulse race. A search for Euro Crime leads to, for starters:

The Italian Connection
Caliber 9
The Boss
Blood & Diamonds
Execution Squad
Hired Gun
Killer Cop
How to Kill a Judge
Property Is No Longer a Theft
Shoot First, Die Later

Search for Giallo. Some of what shows up:

Seven Deaths In The Cat's Eye
Eye In The Labyrinth
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
Weekend Murders
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
The Bloodstained Butterfly
The Blood Spattered Bride
Blood and Black Lace
Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Don't Torture a Duckling
The Black Cat
City of the Living Dead
Short Night of Glass Dolls
Death Laid an Egg
The Cat O' Nine Tails
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Killer Is On The Phone
Opera
Deep Red
Phenomena

Beware that many versions have terrible dubbed English and no option for Italian with subtitles. I'm no expert, but I think that's what comes with the territory. It's more tolerable with the better movies. With the crappier ones, it can add to the charm. Or not.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers. As a rule, when the cover thumbnail is a generic dark box the video quality is shit.

oh damn, i didn't realize so much of that giallo put out in recent times by Arrow was on Prime in the US. Awesome! i wanna watch all of that.

yes! i have been filling my watchlist with all this stuff and absolutely going to town.

it is also a goldmine for the works of folks like joseph merhi, richard pepin, and the like.

the church is missing from that giallo list, it's on prime and it's spectacular

Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.

A bunch of the movies being listed lately (like Hannie Caulder) are available on Prime and Hulu both, for people without one or the other.

thank you, punning display! I have several of those giallo already in my watchlist but had no clue about how to search for them

I haven't had Prime very long, but my impression is that stuff like this cycles in and out of free status without much predictability

Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 5, 2019 12:36 PM

Or it's still there but now it's $3.99 to watch, not free with Prime anymore. Hate that.

The easiest way I've found to keep tabs on that is to periodically open my watchlist on my computer and scroll down, looking for videos where the diagonal Prime stripe on the upper left corner is gone. Then as you click 'Remove', loudly curse "Fuck Amazon!" or your swear word of choice. When you mouse over, it will sometimes give the date when a title will be leaving Prime soon, but this is completely unreliable.

It sucks that Amazon doesn't support multiple watchlists, or changing the order of videos in your watchlist, or even viewing it as text only. One method I've tried for keeping a list of movies I don't want to forget about but I don't want bloating my watchlist: I save a browser bookmark of the video's Prime page (first deleting the "Amazon.com: Watch" text before each title). Then, I can freely organize the bookmarks into folders as I please. However, there are no thumbnails and no indication whether a title has been dropped, so it's usefulness is limited.

I'd watch more movies if it didn't cut into the time I could spend farting around with lists.

Good Omens is outrageously clumsy but I’m enjoying watching it. The voiceover is the pits though, yes.

I wish Tennant had waited a decade to do Who. He’s a lot more interesting to watch now.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers.

Yeah, Prime has some really terrible transfers, particularly of horror movies. Shudder is really good for that stuff though, and is pretty cheap for a year's sub. They don't seem to be trawling the transfer bargain bin (can such a thing exist? It seems like it does) like Amazon is.

I think that was where I saw a version of "City Lights" that didn't even have Chaplin's score

I wish Tennant had waited a decade to do Who. He’s a lot more interesting to watch now.

He's in my bottom three Doctors, but I don't think there would have been a show a decade later if he hadn't done it.

If you have a watchlist on IMDb, you can drill down to see a list of those that are streaming on Amazon Prime. Only problem is: the title matching is rudimentary, so quite often you're disappointed to find it's actually another film with the same name. It's a nice feature though: shame they don't do it with Netflix.

They do it with Prime because they're owned by Amazon

There's a streaming service they've crammed into a weird niche called "Freedive" that I believe is US-only with television shows and movies interrupted by commercials. It's accessible in a not-clear way through most of the Amazon streaming apps, sometimes via a separate row of content. I think I've only watched episodes of Fringe that way, but it's not easy to search for content on it unless you come from the website.

Patriot's really good! Surprised that I hadn't heard anything about it. Maybe the title puts people off?? Riyl barry

yeah the name doesnt really work at all.

Fleabag has a thread too!
Fleabag

There's a separate thread for it but is anyone else watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young?

I'm five (very long) episodes in now and whilst it looks beautiful, the incredibly drawn out scenes are getting all a bit tedious now in a way that those of Twin Peaks didn't. They all just feel a bit too much deliberately stylized in this, so much so that it often breaks your suspension of disbelief.

ozploitation options are strong. have so far enjoyed: wake in fright, long weekend, turkey shoot, and frog dreaming.

will say that rarely has a movie made me as queasy and uneasy as wake in fright. and if i ever watch it again i will be ffw-ing through the infamous roo hunt.

have a few more lined up in the queue: night of fear, mad dog morgan, patrick, nightmares.

have read that dead end drive-in and razorback are worthy. not on prime atm though.

oh, and body melt is in the queue as well.

Body Melt is wild

The Man From Hong Kong is a $2 rental & well worth it

There's a separate thread for it but is anyone else watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young?

I'm five (very long) episodes in now and whilst it looks beautiful, the incredibly drawn out scenes are getting all a bit tedious now in a way that those of Twin Peaks didn't. They all just feel a bit too much deliberately stylized in this, so much so that it often breaks your suspension of disbelief.

― groovypanda, Friday, June 21, 2019 2:13 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm five episodes in now and I think it's really strong. the manner in which the five leads are all operating in vv different ways on paths of revenge for those who have been wronged is pretty interesting and the whole series being specifically from the very first scene about the violent effects of broken and/or evil men is pretty timely to say the least.

I saw someone online refer to episode 2 as basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos" and that seems pretty otm, i mean obv not Tarkovsky-level but miles better than any of the bullshit in Narcos. Points to the show for clearly being super contemptuous of the police dept -- i love the Wolf of Wall Street style of Hart Bochner's homicide squad.

William Baldwin is insane in this. and James Urbaniak's villain in episode 5 was one of the most despicable creations I've seen in a long time. Miles Teller makes for a better blank slate than Ryan Gosling.

basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos"

Wake In Fright is SO good, one of my faves; but the roo hunt def makes it a tough watch, no question.

belladonna of sadness added

Another thumbs-up for Wake in Fright, which perfectly balances between terrifying and hilarious, capturing that queasy fear you get when you're just waiting for the goons you've been partying with to decide you think you're better than them and kick the shit out of you, but it also perfectly captures the kind of asshole behavior of someone who thinks he's smarter than his goon friends. It's one of the most lacerating movies I've ever seen.

wake in fright is genuinely one of the most unsettling, nightmarish movies i've ever seen

sweaty, threatening Donald Pleasance is so great in that film

otm

I'd somehow never seen Wake in Fright before. I think I always confused it with something else, a movie about someone hallucinating in the outback or being hunted in the outback? (Both descriptions not entirely off!) Anyway, what a nuts movie this is. It would make a great sweaty triple bill with, I dunno, Straw Dogs and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Saw it at the cinema a few years ago and loved it, it has that wicker man feel where you’re simultaneously against the uptight prick who won’t go with the flow, revelling in his downfall, and yet totally with him in his descent to hell surrounded by these grotesques

The scariest thing was that ruined steak and egg and the piss that Australians call beer tho

Yeah, I don't know if it's scary so much as unsettling.

call

It’s not 1971 anymore

also some grotesque real-life animal cruelty captured on film, lovely

then ted kotcheff went off to make first blood and weekend at bernie’s

what a career

Good stuff in this interview:

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/38309/exclusive-ted-kotcheff-looks-back-at-forty-years-with-wake-in-fright/

Dread Central: One of the more unsettling moments of Wake in Fright had to be the kangaroo hunting sequence; it’s a tough watch. Was that one of the bigger challenges you faced when you made this movie- pulling off that scene?

Ted Kotcheff: You know, at the beginning I really didn’t know how I was going to do that sequence; I wasn’t sure how to make it look real because I would never condone killing animals just for a movie. That’s immoral. But then one night, one of the Australians on the film crew said, “You know, they kill hundreds of kangaroos every night in the outback professionally? “They have these refrigerated trucks where hunters go out in pairs on them. They shoot the kangaroos and they bring them back, put them in a refrigerator, go out and then kill some more of them. So why don’t you put your camera in the back and go out with these hunters; they’re killing hundreds anyway and sending the meat out for pet food.”

So, it was kind of gross, knowing that pet food back then was made out of kangaroos too but I was not going to kill one kangaroo for my film either. So I went out with the hunters and shot some footage which was quite an experience. It was so incredibly grueling to watch them shooting the animals but I just photographed exactly what they did and made no judgments on their actions.

There was this spotlight at the top of their truck and a reversible windshield so when they lifted their guns on the dashboard, the light would hypnotize the kangaroos so they were able to shoot them without any problem. To me, I think the most horrific thing in the film was the way the kangaroos’ eyes were red as they stood there waiting for death. It haunted me. But I know we had that warning at the end of the movie about the animals but that’s something I wished we had put in at the beginning, just so audiences would know that we wouldn’t mercilessly kill animals just to make a movie.

yeah i may never be able to watch wake in fright

the roo scene can probably be skipped past without harm to the vibe or the story but yeah if you’re in any doubt i’d probably give it a miss tbh

I think the kangaroo stuff is essential, actually. Or at least, it's essential to the uncomfortable anything-goes violent psychopath general batshit vibe of the whole thing.

It’s not 1971 anymore

Brad you can cover your eyes or go and make a cup of tea during that bit, so you get the vibe without fully watching

it was kind of gross, knowing that pet food back then was made out of kangaroos too

Now it's in midscale restaurants and supermarkets for humans

There was kangaroo on the menu the first time I was ever in Sydney. It was at an upscale Indian place.

i had a couple of cans of beer while i watched, as i often do, and watching them sweatily, very sweatily, guzzle so much beer and liquor day and night was ... something. definitely affected my enjoyment of my two cans and ramps of the quease factor.

I think the kangaroo stuff is essential, actually. Or at least, it's essential to the uncomfortable anything-goes violent psychopath general batshit vibe of the whole thing.

I agree. It's deeply disturbing to watch, but so is everything else in the movie.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution.

re: shoddy transfers, was stoked to watch china 9, liberty 37, and i did, but it was really rough going. def the worst i've come across of all the old crazy genre stuff i've watched thus far. like, handycam set on a table with a book under it aimed at a goldstar vhs/tv combo bad.

^^Isn't that one kinda-sorta Public Domain? Always tread w/caution regarding those unless you can tell it's provided to the service by a reputable distributor.

just started on Red Oaks, really like it in a flashback, John Hughes way. THis is a convincingly 80's looking cast too. Seems like this show didn't get very much attention while it was running; I don't know a single person who watched it or ever talked about it.

provided to the service by a reputable distributor

sometimes they'll have two different free versions of the same movie, and a third one that costs $3.99 to rent, and the thumbnail on the third one will be a cropped b&w screencap with the title overlaid in blue Times New Roman

https://nonfics.com/best-documentaries-streaming-amazon-prime-july-2019/

just started on Red Oaks, really like it in a flashback, John Hughes way. THis is a convincingly 80's looking cast too. Seems like this show didn't get very much attention while it was running; I don't know a single person who watched it or ever talked about it.

You know, I watched one episode of this, liked it, then forgot about it. I think the current information economy makes it really hard to keep watching a show nobody else cares about, it's like swimming against a slow but consistent current

Not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere but Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard's Forever is great if you looove Maya Rudolph and, er, don't mind Fred Armisen. Hoping to see Noah Robbins go on to bigger things off the back of it also.

Red Oaks is absolutely wonderful, love that show and those characters so much

i've been watching bosch, it's so stupid and hackneyed and i love it

currently on season four, i.e. the season where the most conservative show ever regarding giving police the freedom to do whatever they need to do to solve cases tries to reckon with police brutality/torture. it's a trip and someone should write a doctoral thesis on it.

I oddly enough watched Red Oaks because John Podhoretz loved it so much.

I watched the first season of Red Oaks because my friend's son played one of the supporting car-parking nitwits. It was fine, especially Paul Reiser playing a shit.

the most conservative show ever regarding giving police the freedom to do whatever they need to do to solve cases

uh, have you ever seen Blue Bloods? ... like calling Bosch a conservative cop show compared to that ... impressive collection of Republican Americana ... idk

Bosch is like Hunter crossed with The Wire and it largely owns.

i have very conflicting feelings about it

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that most cop shows are "pro-cop, anti-bureaucracy" ... Bosch isn't all that extreme an example imo

i've only seen the first 3 seasons, they've become progressively better. It's this combination of old-school TV corn (including some of the acting and plotting) and nu-school atmospheric realism and some much better acting by a few of the key players. only thru S3, but 3>2>>1.

worst thing i've seen on this show was the disgusting PDA displays by one of the S3 military bad guys and his gf.

an interesting essay topic would be the portrayal of Irving in the tv series vs. the books -- the series has changed the character significantly and Reddick makes him much more sympathetic than the way that character is written in Connelly's books

i was being hyperbolic about "most conservative ever..." etc. i guess i just meant compared to the wire, which is clearly what bosch is aspiring to.

the seasons do gradually get better, i agree. the action scenes are usually exciting which makes it weird they only have like two-three action scenes per season.

i also like the weird choice to set up the koreatown killer plot in season three, continue it into season four, and then have it end completely anticlimactically as a C-plot (though i haven't finished s4 yet so maybe there's more to come).

haven't read the books but assume Irving is more a gray area type character? it probably is a good essay topic for a lot of TV/film portrayals of book characters, where they take a more nuanced and complex part and push it either towards more of a "good guy" or more of a villain. i feel like i was thinking of a different character in regards to this kind of recently, now i'm blanking.

this show and the Refn series make extremely good use of Los Angeles, w/Bosch being primarily Hollywood and the surrounding area and TOTDY being heavily in the San Fernando Valley.

all cop shows are reactionary and conservative by nature; the cop as protagonist means every other character falls into one of two categories: victim or criminal (bcz this is how cops see the world, naturally)

i guess i just meant compared to the wire, which is clearly what bosch is aspiring to.

I don't see that aspiration at all, unless you are thinking that by casting Reddick and Marlo the show is signalling that? Bosch strikes me as a more "personal narrative" centered show, whereas the Wire was about oppressive and/or dysfunctional systems and how it is near impossible through human agency to dismantle or change those systems.

haven't read the books but assume Irving is more a gray area type character? it probably is a good essay topic for a lot of TV/film portrayals of book characters, where they take a more nuanced and complex part and push it either towards more of a "good guy" or more of a villain.

Actually, in the books he is more of a villain and the show makes him more of a gray area type character.

casting Reddick probably makes the character even more likable i guess, plus he's got an underrated gift for comic underplaying. some of the better moments involve his side eyes at Bosch.

I've watched the first episode of the Refn show and need to keep rolling

after finishing the first, I was thinking that his style really made the episode seem longer than it was, but it really was 90 minutes! it's not necessarily intimidating, but I had to acknowledge it's a series where I'm going to have to actually make a commitment to one episode at a time. episode length seems to taper off after the first few

last episode is 30 min. i haven't gotten there yet, just finished up episode 7.

I'm not sure they do taper off. Last one is 30 minutes yeah, but four clock in at 90 minutes and another four around the 75 minute mark.

I've finished it now - was generally very good but I've no idea how many people are going to stay the whole course.

Anyone watch The Boys yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrNsIaQkb4

i sorta read the first thirty issues of the comic it's based on and I can tell you that it's based on vile subject matter

Based on the trailers and the Wikipedia page for the original series it looks like real chud bait.

the comic redeems itself a bit by the midpoint but anyone who claims to be a big fan is probably a sociopath

it’s Garth Ennis going into the red on cynicism about superheroes and any show is going to either cut things back entirely, or cut back in ways that obscure the obvious vileness of the enterprise, making it apologetic imo

Under the Silver Lake (by dude who did It Follows) got panned and sunk into oblivion, but... I kinda liked it? It’s messy and shaggy dog, not sure what it all amounts to, but it sinks you into its world. Surreal LA noir thing, easy to see the Lynch fiber, but kinda brought to mind Inherent Vice (the book) maybe moreso than the PTA movie.

It got planned at Cannes but it's already got quite a cult following. I saw it on the big screen and had so much fun with it.

I was not aware! Yeah, I had kinda forgotten about it until I saw it on Prime. Intended to just check out the first 15 minutes or so before bed to see what kinda vibe it had and ended up watching the whole thing.

Halfway through The Boys and it might actually be... ok?

It's dialled down in the same way as the Preacher TV series was, probably even more so and has simplified the plot hugely so it can largely avoid the Ennis-isms.

Ready to have to reverse this opinion after the second half.

I watched the first episode and enjoyed it. mh's point is a good one, but I never read the comics, so... *shrug*

From a writeup:

Like Starlight, Quaid’s Hughie finds himself entering into a new reality where he learns the truth about the Seven. His journey starts with an awful loss when speedster A-Train runs through his girlfriend Robin and liquefies her right in front of his eyes. Kripke says he always viewed that scene as vital to the Boys’ ethos, something he doubled down on after talking to Darick Roberston. “When we were having really early conversations, I asked, ‘What’s important to you?’ And he said ‘Please, the most important thing is that A-Train runs through Robin.’ And I was like, ‘Well, that’s really important to me, too, and we’re definitely going to do it.’ Just because, to me, that really sets the tone of what this show is going to be.”

I guess the tone is “me never, ever watching this”

this (nsfw) image from the first issue is on page 8 if it gives you some idea on "tone"

I think that’s indicative of the comic

‘Main character has spiteful sexual encounters” is kind of a different realm in the story from “central main character has his life ruined by unthinking superhero who doesn’t care about normal people”

xp - good god

Ennis had a short series called Rover Red Charlie about dogs after the end of the world that was great until a scene where a giant pitbull keeps a human slave and there's a half page drawing of the human being forced to eat doggy butt.

*good not great, overstating because the initial premise was right up my alley until it got all Ennis-y

I regret to mention The Boys also includes dog-on-human sexual acts

christ. Ennis is truly the pits and always has been since his early days of ruining Hellblazer. I'll give this "edgy" shit a pass.

Ive been watching the show and its had nothing that bad thus far, aside from one rather rapey scene where a woman sits on a poor shmucks face and basically grinds on him til his head gets pulverised.

The main thing weirding me out is what the hell accent is Carl Urban doing? Sometimes it sounds like spot on australian then it veers into comedy cockney.

a woman sits on a poor shmucks face and basically grinds on him til his head gets pulverised.

so, suicide by....

oh god, never mind

Dark edgy parodies of superheroes are somehow even worse than actual superheroes

Forever isn't getting a S2. That's fine. I think they told enough of the story and maybe this will free Rudolph up to do something where I don't have to temper my pure enjoyment of her with tolerating Fred Armisen.

I've liked the first couple of episodes of The Boys ok so far. Don't know anything about the comic, if that's the source, but it's very Watchmen meets RoboCop (the movie) meets ... that James Gunn movie Super? So far said edgy superheroes seem to be in service of a broader satire of corporations and marketing/branding.

can't believe they went disney with a live action megamind

Amazon seem to be promoting the shit out of The Boys (similar to Good Omens) whereas Too Old To Die Young got absolutely zero coverage

Forever isn't getting a S2. That's fine. I think they told enough of the story

Yeah I'm OK with that - unless maybe they wanted to do something in the same universe and same rules with different characters that'd work for me.

the best episode of forever was the standalone one imo. i don't think it "works' as a piece of television without a second season, though on the other hand i don't think a second season would have necessarily have been great. i also dislike fred armisen

I'm on episode 4 or 5 of "The Boys," and man, it gets pretty dark. Sometimes funny, often OTT, sometimes smart. I also think the soundtrack so far (everything from the Damned to Bill Withers) is pretty sharp, and the cast is strong across the board, Urban's accent aside. fwiw, the most "all-American" of the characters is played by another Kiwi.

having read an issue of the comic - which was just absolutely hateful - i can never watch that.

i see that's been covered numerous times

Yeah, I haven't read the cover, but I don't feel I've come across anything hateful yet. Ugly, yeah, but the scenario it introduces seems relatively plausible to me.

Read the comic, I meant.

I get the impression in that case the show is nothing like the comic if that helps because ILX is the only place canning it (and most people doing so haven't seen the show just read the books), it is getting good reviews everywhere I've read and I really quite enjoyed it. Aside from the bit I mentioned earlier there is nothing else really disgusting. Theyre all horrible awful people sure but thats the point of the story. I suspect it was verrrrrry Ennis-sanitised if that alleviates anyone's wary disgust on it.

do they keep the bit where hughie beats the fuck out of one of the heroes and then finds a gerbil wrapped in duct tape shoved up his ass and then befriends it as a mascot?
i'm just wondering what horrible shit they kept and what horrible shit they tossed and "woman grinds man's head to pulp between her legs" as a warning label sounds like it's got the level of fidelity i expected.

...that is getting both versions of the homophobic gerbil meme wrong at the same damn time

SFW, so for reference:
http://i.imgur.com/ULe8xcP.png

guilty lol at “the poor wee man”

There's some dark, gruesome stuff in it, but it handles it pretty well, in that it rarely seems ... I dunno, mean-spirited, if that makes any sense. The tone of the violence is very RoboCop, and the targets of the satire so far seem to be primarily celebrity worship, corporations and religious fundamentalists. If it takes an infant chopping a person in two with laser eyes to get there ... Anyway, again, I think the cast and acting are pretty solid, which is key to its success.

maybe I'm just noticing this more because I've been writing more actively than usual but holy cow is the Boys pilot just stunningly lazy and lame throughout, like Hughie and Annie having a meet-cute because....they share a bench? that was the best they could come up with?

Forever didn't seem like it could even have a second season, I'd assumed it was a one and done thing. I really liked it.

a lot of things were left unexplained which i don't think the show would have ultimately done. there would have been some justification for why the afterlife was like it was, and why the two of them ended up together while everyone else was there alone etc.

I didn't want that kind of resolution from it myself, thought it was great overall. I don't really like Armisen but it made the best use of his limited range. I do love Maya Rudolph tho.

eh, sometimes it's good to have mystery and not beat shit into the ground

urrrrgh.

ilxors in being obtuse shocker.

alan yang wanted a second season/wasn't done with the show. i don't need to google "alan yang forever season 2" to find that out but now having done that it's corroborated.

this wasn't a show being mysterious for no reason, it was not an oblique show, it was a show that hadn't gotten to the stage of explaining things.

huh, weird! cuz it worked p well as the latter imo

er as an oblique show

I finished Too Old To Die Young, which for all its promotion may as well have not even existed. I’m still marinating a bit on its themes but as a show that is at least partially devoted to the fascism of the police and features one character whose purpose seems to be visiting unholy vengeance upon men who hurt women, i appreciated it. It was extremely slow in a way that might try the patience of some (I do think the pace was a legitimate artistic choice and it didn’t bother me) and it almost literally lost the plot at the end but it had some incredible moments and I’m amazed that Amazon went anywhere near it. It was very on the nose but also just refreshing in that sense, and another legitimate choice.

I watched the first 4 eps of that on the train and I do actually want to finish it if only to see how often it does things like having a roomful of detectives chant "f-a-s-c-ism!"

SFW, so for reference:

ugh, how on earth did a comic with such disgusting gradients and hideous lettering/balloons manage to run for 80 issues or w/e

i found the boys entertaining but trashy - it barely resembles the storyline from the comic (tho shares similar characters and the general idea of an anti-superhero group disciplining poorly behaved superheroes is shared) and i think in plotting department it is significantly better. still gratuitously titillating tho.

xps I wonder if there's a story that will come to light in future about TOTDY as Amazon's zero promotion stance seems odd seeing as how it reviewed well at Cannes and was like, 13 hours long and looked stunning so must have cost a fair whack. When it was released it didn't show up anywhere on the numerous categories they have on the home page and you had to manually search for it. Think the only trailer for it was self released by NWR too.

you'd imagine it would work well as a bit of prestige for Amazon, too. I recognize that any show being touted as "groundbreaking" needs to prove it, and yet i think it really did some interesting shit. i'm not really a Refn apologist per se but this was the type of programming i would like to see more of on streaming, which should have more room for such experimentation.

I suspect the content was too much for the corporate suits. I mean the extreme anti-cop stuff and the sexual content, i can see some cowards in the board room insisting that they completely ignore its existence. I'm sure they were perfectly cool w/the violence.

The Chuck Schuldiner bio Death By Metal is on Amazon and it's excellent.

Punk documentary DOA is on Prime

I wonder if there's a story that will come to light in future about TOTDY as Amazon's zero promotion stance seems odd seeing as how it reviewed well at Cannes and was like, 13 hours long and looked stunning so must have cost a fair whack.

this is Amazon we're talking about. for them, 50 million dollars or whatever is a drop in the ocean.

They have a seven billion dollar production budget.

The Chuck Schuldiner bio Death By Metal is on Amazon and it's excellent.

― BlackIronPrison, Friday, August 2, 2019 3:43 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

goddammit i meant to watch this before i canceled prime

fuck amazon btw

Read that as Chuck Schumer at first, really need to detoxify my politics brain

Just finished The Boys last night, really enjoyed it, read the Wikipedia summaries to see how far it deviated from the comic book, reaffirmed that I will never, ever, ever, EVER read a Garth Ennis book

I was just reading some of the plot threads and going "... but WHY"

The show at least attempted to use most of the hideous violence to support the story rather than to just be gross. Robin's death is legitimately shocking and horrifying but felt arbitrary due to the callousness of the world rather than the callousness of the storytelling, if that makes sense. The cast is also fantastic.

The bit with them cutting up people with baby eye-lasers was hilarious. Very Lazer-Cats.

this is Amazon we're talking about. for them, 50 million dollars or whatever is a drop in the ocean.

― Simon H., 3. august 2019 06:42 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

If it cost this much it would be a lot more per hour than Refns latest films. He gets a lot out of a little. Which just underlines your point :)

i think episodes 5 & 8 were very much peak Refn. i *almost* want to call 5 a masterpiece. it really goes some places.

Just finished "The Boys," and again, just to get it out of the way, don't know anything about the comic or Garth Ennis or whatever. But I thought the show was excellent and full of good ideas and performances, wouldn't change a thing. Glad it's getting a second season. And honestly think (name excised just in case) is one of the scarier crazy TV villains I've seen in a while, someone regular folks and other superheroes might legit fear.

If it cost this much it would be a lot more per hour than Refns latest films. He gets a lot out of a little.

Yeah, the budget for the whole thing was probably closer to 10-15 or less I suppose. Not too many actors and only a couple of recognizable ones, no huge setpieces, etc

I took the particular song playing during the final scene in The Boys as a bit of a spoiler of the "cliffhanger."

I didn't even notice, but I loved most of the song choices.

Oh, "Sleepwalk"? I dunno. I do love that they used iirc the Rachid Taha version of Rock the Casbah.

i've been binging Patriot, and i can see why other people might find it annoying or shallow, but simultaneously i love it so much. i think it made me laugh harder than anything else i've watched this past year. i'm early in season 2 now and i can't tell if it's not quite as good or maybe i just overdid it with the pace i watched s1.

i finished the 2nd season a couple weeks back. it's hilarious but oh so weird. "cool"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPf_T7OYdo

"it IS cool"

basically i lose it anytime anyone on the show spouts a long stream of technical gibberish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwTGl9fqvP0

if that were the content of the whole show for like an hour, i would reup that amazon prime now

I was just reading an AVClub feature Jimmi Simpson couldn't stop talking about The Patriot (which he's on?).

9. Who is the most underrated person in your industry right now?

JS: Underrated is a little too specific. I would say underexposed is Steven Conrad. He’s a writer-director-creator. He’s been writing for years and years very successfully—Pursuit Of Happyness was him—a bunch of cool movies. He did Walter Mitty. But he started creating television recently, and he created a show for Amazon called Patriot, which I’d literally never heard of until I read the script for Perpetual Grace, which is his show that I’m on now. So I read the script for Perpetual Grace—was floored. One of the best scripts I’ve ever read. And I couldn’t wait to meet the man, the men: Bruce Terris and Steve Conrad both wrote Perpetual Grace. They said to watch Patriot first. I’m like, “The Mel Gibson movie?” And then I find out, no, it’s a series on Amazon.

And I watch it, and I’m just floored. It’s visionary. Not just the writing, the execution. It’s like your favorite directors of all time, like Kubrick, and Paul Thomas Anderson, and Michel Gondry, who have these innate abilities to communicate their style so completely, but somehow it feels effortless. You don’t feel like you’re being pushed to just absorb something. It feels like you’re watching a piece of art. And it connects to each person differently.

And so you can’t ask a critic about him who’s not over the moon about Steve Conrad, calling him the next phase in television creators. But, in general, most folks—the public—don’t know about him as much as they should. Luckily, I’ve become very close friends with him, and creative partners to a degree, and so I’m going to keep doing whatever I can to keep showing people how amazing Steven Conrad is. He’s more amazing than I’ll ever be, so just being next to a genius like that is good for me. And I feel lucky. And I think other people should feel as lucky as I do, just by getting to see his stuff.

Oh, wait, the show was just canceled?

he's on a new show from the creator of Patriot

oh damn that sucks it got cancelled.

the technical talk in patriot is amazing. that scene where he has to bluff his way through that speech? and i didnt like season 2 as much as season 1, but still, it was good.

yeah s2 of prime is a downer after s1. still pretty good but doesn't hit the highs of the first season. and they clearly were expecting to have another season based on how s2 ended.

There's a new stand-up special by Jim Gaffigan that's pretty funny if you like him (I do). Somewhere in the middle he does 10 straight minutes of jokes about horses, and by the end of it he's actively ridiculing the audience for being annoyed by all the horse jokes.

it's a soap but I really love Made In Heaven

vegemitegrrl recs have *never* let me down. just finished red oaks and jfc that show. the writing in general overall, but the way Nash puts his part over was SO effing wonderful. and Paul Reiser as asshole with a heart was really well played

isn’t it great!?

yay! another Red Oaks fan! wonderful from beginning to end and love how they let characters develop

Josh Meyers is a great example he could have just stayed a douche but he really loved her and was sweet in his way

Red Oaks is one of my favorite shows ever. The character arcs are beautiful. And some really great endings to episodes - the series ending in particular.

look at this unbelievable horseshit

New trailer for Jon Krasinski in Amazon’s ‘Jack Ryan’ series. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/r5lvmHjLXW

— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) September 5, 2019

Tom Clancy's ghost is smiling.

Ugh. I actually liked the first season in a mindless sort of way, but that's bad news.

"I can't go to Yemen - I'm an analyst!"

lolll thats really bad.

Jim Goes to Yemen
Jim Goes to Venezuela

this show is suuuuuuuper dumb but I will prob still watch it

Same.

nuclear... venezuela

jim has really been carrying the can for some vile politics over the last few years, huh

Jon Chudinski

but man, Patriot! was bored working from home last week and watched the entire first season bc of this thread. loved it. sad to hear it was cancelled.

this show is suuuuuuuper dumb but I will prob still watch it
otm.

Is anyone else watching Carnival Row? For a show about faeries, it is relentlessly gray and grim. I think Ornaldo Bloomps was badly miscast. The scene where the wizened store owner jerks him off was pretty good though. Is it worth watch the last few eps?

Saw one ep. Felt like Peaky Blinders with fary wings/steampunk, does it get beyond that?

Not really

Undone from BoJack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg debuts today and looks great

The Jawbreaker doc isn't what I expected, feels more like an overview for people who haven't heard of them.

been watching good omens and halfway-enjoying it out of residual affection for the book--but it's bad. i can't imagine watching this show without having read the book. the kids can't act, neither can the witch. tennant looks bored (by design, but still) and it manages to waste jon hamm, of all people. but michael sheen is delightful, makes the whole thing almost worth it.

the visuals are so frenetically busy underneath her that it undermines her casual delivery from what might otherwise play as deadpan.

this is it. i understand the need for a narrator in adapting this book (it always reminded me of hitchhiker's guide in that regard), but they shoulda just gotten jim dale!

watched the first 10 mins of a Charlie Chaplin documentary on there just now. it was not good.

went back up to check the Good Omens talk and

One of the episodes of Good Omens has the intro 25 minutes in. That's just not on.

― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Wednesday, June 5, 2019 3:47 AM (three months ago)

nobody tell dowd about Monty Python ok

Undone from BoJack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg debuts today and looks great

― groovypanda, Friday, September 13, 2019 12:43 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i unsubscribed from amazon bc fuck em (no judgment) but i desperately need people to tell me if this show is good

yeah it's pretty good.

Carnival Row looks abominable.

Haha, I forgot I still had a few episodes left of that. It's not very good.

xps Finished Undone and thought it was excellent. It's only eight 22 minute episodes so not a huge commitment and well worth tracking down

it's cool to see/hear Odenkirk insomething again given the interminable delay before the next Better Call Saul season

Agreed, but he’s stayed busy - was in Long Shot, is in the Alexander / Karazewski Dolemite biopic that’s out in two weeks, and though I haven’t seen it & probably never will, is on the US remake of No Activity.

Undone from BoJack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg debuts today and looks great

― groovypanda, Friday, September 13, 2019 12:43 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i unsubscribed from amazon bc fuck em (no judgment) but i desperately need people to tell me if this show is good

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, September 18, 2019 6:03 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i have only watched one episode and its v good and also it takes place in my city and thats kinda cool 4 me

I watched Serenity last night to see if it was really as bad and batshit as the reviews I read said it was and it was actually worse if you can imagine. In a just world it would end the careers of everyone involved.

Saw the Death doc. Was pretty generic, but a good overview of death metal's origins and evolution.

xpost I heard the How Did This Get Made ep, and ... woof.

I’m kind of enjoying Swamp Thing - though the ‘baddie’ is boring.

(And the baddie is one of those old people who look like a young person in ‘old’ makeup)

Goliath s3 is out, I guess? Will check it out

Hope it doesn't go off the rails like season 2 did.

Goliath is easily the worst show I enjoy

...and yet the s3 premiere is so dumb already I might have to jump ship right here and now

Yeah, that was baaaaad.

I'm so in the tank for that show, i can't imagine not seeing this

I'm not quite sure what they're trying to go for vibe-wise, but we've got some Blue Velvet homage scenes, magical attack crows, and weird appropriative shamanic trances facilitated by drugs. Also, a water crisis exacerbated by almond farmers for the A-plot

I'm not quite sure these episodes are written as much as generated by a plot generation program that was fed a handful of other scripts

I want to support it cause Billy Bob is one of the few remaining genuine Hollywood eccentrics, and Nina Arianda is awesome, but my God I couldn't even finish that episode

still glad I watched it and hate that it didn’t get renewed but the drop off in quality between the first and second season of Patriot is kind of a bummer

I'm enjoying S3 of Goliath more than I thought I would, but I'm only halfway through, so they still have a chance to mess it up. The episode-long flashback (E4) is...not funny-funny, but uncomfortable-funny.

Oh nice, they've added Claire Denis' High Life.

I've been watching educational videos lately, making up for gaps in my college education. I watched this great series on Amazon, "Physics of Light" which had stuff like this Asian dude shooting off guns and stuff. Really good physical illustrations of scientific concepts. Struck a chord with me as I've been spending too much time spying on 4Chan types with their stupid sterotypes of Asians.

just finished undone...the metaphysical stuff was hit or miss for me, but as a family dramedy, it really worked. rosa salazar is excellent and the rest of the cast was really charming and believable.

Modern Love is kind of cute if you like rom coms and relationship shit, but the music on it is fucking godawful, and episode with John Slattery and Tina Fey is horrible.

I was just reading an AVClub feature Jimmi Simpson couldn't stop talking about The Patriot (which he's on?).

9. Who is the most underrated person in your industry right now?

JS: Underrated is a little too specific. I would say underexposed is Steven Conrad. He’s a writer-director-creator. He’s been writing for years and years very successfully—Pursuit Of Happyness was him—a bunch of cool movies. He did Walter Mitty. But he started creating television recently, and he created a show for Amazon called Patriot, which I’d literally never heard of until I read the script for Perpetual Grace, which is his show that I’m on now. So I read the script for Perpetual Grace—was floored. One of the best scripts I’ve ever read. And I couldn’t wait to meet the man, the men: Bruce Terris and Steve Conrad both wrote Perpetual Grace. They said to watch Patriot first. I’m like, “The Mel Gibson movie?” And then I find out, no, it’s a series on Amazon.

And I watch it, and I’m just floored. It’s visionary. Not just the writing, the execution. It’s like your favorite directors of all time, like Kubrick, and Paul Thomas Anderson, and Michel Gondry, who have these innate abilities to communicate their style so completely, but somehow it feels effortless. You don’t feel like you’re being pushed to just absorb something. It feels like you’re watching a piece of art. And it connects to each person differently.

And so you can’t ask a critic about him who’s not over the moon about Steve Conrad, calling him the next phase in television creators. But, in general, most folks—the public—don’t know about him as much as they should. Luckily, I’ve become very close friends with him, and creative partners to a degree, and so I’m going to keep doing whatever I can to keep showing people how amazing Steven Conrad is. He’s more amazing than I’ll ever be, so just being next to a genius like that is good for me. And I feel lucky. And I think other people should feel as lucky as I do, just by getting to see his stuff.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, August 12, 2019 10:42 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Perpetual Grace LTD is the most outright fun I've had watching a tv show in forever. Brilliant, twisted stuff. I'm halfway and it's such a joy to watch.

yeesh this is an add'l subscription it looks like? To something called Epix?

can't keep up w/ all these services

i got a free month sub to prime video and wow this interface is a mess. why do they think i want to watch addams family 1991 and alf?

I honestly don't think Netflix's is any better. There's so much stuff on both I'll never discover because they keep recommending the same old shit over and over.

I suppose it improves over time? With Netflix it's been a while since I got The Office pushed on me.

I wonder if interfaces are different, because netflix is so much better to me. Search works, and I can see a list of all films available to browse. Amazon is just weird, and if I try to find something specific they'll have a shitty documentary on the same subject instead.

The best system I've found for Amazon (which I think I've shared before) is to use the store to navigate and put things you want to see on your (video) wishlist which is easy to find. Also the 'you might also like' algorithms work much better that way.

otm about amazon prime video being a huge mess in design. I don't miss it at all.

I find that's the same with Netflix. It's much easier to navigate & find things on a web browser than it is on your actual tv xp

yeesh this is an add'l subscription it looks like? To something called Epix?

can't keep up w/ all these services

― Suggest Banshee (Hadrian VIII), Sunday, November 17, 2019 3:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Sorry, had no idea. The series currently being broadcast on public Belgian tv, didn't know they were hiding behind a monstrous construct.

How could you know, how can anybody keep track?

they offer a free trial but it's just a week long, I'm pretty good at watching tv but not that good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA8W7dkkE9o

I don't know when it happened, but Banshee seasons 3 and 4 are now free on Prime. I watched seasons 1 and 2 a long time ago and was unwilling to pay to see the rest, but now I know what I'll be watching the rest of this month.

Best show

i've ben talking a little about Goliath on the 10 best tv shows thread but man is it great.

Whit Stillman's pilot for The Cosmopolitans has disappeared from Prime. It was never issued on physical media, meaning it no longer exists anywhere except on the hard drives of those who managed to rip it. This makes me sad.

this is the case for 98% of all tv ever made tbf

hes redoing it or something - https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/whit-stillman-the-cosmopolitans.html

got the months free deal when i ordered xmas crap last week.
i have fucking loved the OTT insanity of "American Gods" season 1 this week.
so, yeah, anything else i should dive into while i have the option ?

fleabag?

man in the high castle
expanse
marvellous mrs maisel
red oaks

Fleabag is made by and on the BBC, forks!

Don’t know how much it applies in the UK mark, but the film library in the US is pretty remarkable - recent indie & arthouse, classics, 80s, b-movies & grindhouse.

(be warned that S2 of American Gods is made by different ppl and nobody likes it)

didn't know Mark e was britisher; in US as I'm sure you know, fleabag is amazon only

New season of The Expanse next Friday

Undone
Too Old To Die Young
Halt & Catch Fire
Lodge 49

Undone is good, though be warned that it's about processing grief and trauma from the loss of a family member; but if you like the ostentatious style of American Gods, Undone's use of rotoscoping (animating over the filmed actors) enables it to depict the lead's emotional state in visually dazzling, emotionally-affecting magic realism-ish ways

maybe fun to watch with the boys: Amazon made two series of the superhero comedy / not-quite-parody The Tick, of which you don't need to know anything about previous TV or comics iterations to watch from scratch. (The showrunner is the cartoonist who wrote and drew the original run of comics, though, if you do happen to know of it.)

The Tick is great!

yes cosine H&CF and Lodge 49. If you haven't seen The Americans it's there. The Bureau is ridiculous but fun. Mr Robot?

yeah the Tick is gr8

Mr Robot has a pretty great first few episodes then tanks incredibly quickly

it had so much potential

The Expanse is phenomenally good (trying to get through S3 before S4 drops) and Too Old To Die Young is really quite something, I admire it a lot.

I am on board with Mr Robot until the very end (easy to say at this point I guess, I think there are three episodes left) but yeah nobody else I know irl made it through Season 2.

I did cause I heard s3 was better; it was, but not by a big enough margin for me to not continue to be furious with it

The first 3 episode of Goliath S3 are as good as the show's ever been imo

ta for all suggestions folks.
i watched fleabag (uk = iplayer), and agree, it was bloody brilliant.
re prime - spotted Tick in the list, and thought it looked good fun, so that's next on the list.

I don't know when it happened, but Banshee seasons 3 and 4 are now free on Prime. I watched seasons 1 and 2 a long time ago and was unwilling to pay to see the rest, but now I know what I'll be watching the rest of this month.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Thursday, December 5, 2019 8:38 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just watched the first half of the pilot and this is...terrible? Like, unwatchably bad.

it is a great show KEEP WATCHING goddamn you

how many episodes until it's not dumb?

I was just settling into this display name, too

It’s in the so over the top it’s good category for me. Similar to Spartacus

wait what

I just watched the first half of the pilot and this is...terrible? Like, unwatchably bad.

Nah. Give it two or three full episodes and you'll be hooked, I think. For those who aren't familiar, Banshee is a fucking blast. It’s about a criminal fugitive posing as the sheriff of the town of Banshee, PA (the “real” new sheriff was killed on his way into town, before anyone got a look at him), battling the local gangsters (some of whom are Native American, while others are outcast Amish) and pulling jobs of his own. Every episode features at least two sex scenes and two fight scenes, and you’re never quite sure if a dialogue scene is gonna suddenly turn into one or the other. People bleed a lot on this show. It’s pornographic, and I say that in the best possible way.

the fight scenes have a great Billy Jack kinda 70’s vibe, it all feels like they’re really beating each other up

it’s v enjoyable

wait what

I never went back to it but yeah the appeal is its ottness surely, it’s like road house or something

I've seen the pilot and one later-season fight scene that was so OTT that Vox did a piece just about it. It was pretty silly but I see the appeal.

Yeah, here's the Vox article, and here's the fight they call out, which I just watched the other day and which left me literally breathless by the end. (Note that it begins with one character picking a severed ear from the previous episode's big fight scene out of the trash.) If this isn't your kind of thing, Banshee isn't for you. Period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUjE0NlS7vI

spartacus the movie?

or that dumb series? if it’s the dumb series then i agree

I've never seen Spartacus the TV show. Is it any good? It's on Netflix...

It gets to be great but it takes a little while to figure itself out. And you gotta be able to roll with the aesthetic.

The latter seasons are some of my favorite TV ever

also, iirc the only TV show of the last decade+ that literally had to recast its main role midstream

idk my impression was that Spartacus was as dumb as a naked box of hammers

which is good if thats yr thing

Yah the show.. which is a top 5 all time show for me

idk my impression was that Spartacus was as dumb as a naked box of hammers

it definitely starts out that way, but it develops a rhythm and emotional register that makes it totally unique imho

plus hot naked people

Something Wild is on Prime, and I’m really curious to see how it looks now vs. 1986.

On Prime Now That You Could Be Watching:

Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Transit (2019)
Hale County This Morning This Evening (2018)
One Child Nation (2019)
Fast Color (2019)
Gloria Bell (2019)

Good list: thank you.

After the first 35 minutes of sappy Tollywood, the Telegu film Eega / Fly (2012) opens up into the most fun I've had watching a CGI-heavy action film in years.

can't recommend transit highly enough

it's very good!

Eega/fly was a lot of fun, but yeah, waiting for it to get going was tough.

Ash Is Purest White now up.

Midsommar is up too.

saw this post on twitter from Darren Hughes: “FYI, there's a bunch of '80s and '90s Taiwan stuff on Prime: The River, The Sandwich Man, Dust in the Wind, The Time to Live and The Time to Die, The Terrorizers, Growing Up.”

They're really pushing that "Hunters" show, which looks like "The Boys" with, um, Nazis.

reviews suggest it suffers from "Amazon syndrome" which has affected everything they've produced except Catastrophe: it's... okay?

Catastrophe not produced by Amazon, they just bought US transmission rights & then co-funded later seasons (it's produced by mega-agency Avalon for Channel 4)

what exactly is Amazon syndrome / what are the symptoms? I associate Netflix syndrome w/ general mediocrity, poor pacing, and trend-hopping.

otm about netflix. amazon seems like it hasnt set any type of standard yet.

Netflix seem to be just about churning out new content these days (most of which is mediocre).

Saw a few articles after BoJack's finale about how it would have been very unlikely to get a second season if it had debuted now rather than five years ago

i consider amazon originals to consistently be subpar to netflix originals... which are mostly subpar to Hulu/HBO i guess

this is Bosch slander

I’d rate Man in the High Castle over 90% of what I’ve watched on Netflix

both companies are shady about what qualifies as “original content” and like to blur the line by badging things as original to their service when they’re really just exclusive in one region, though. Fleabag wasn’t amazon’s, You wasn’t Netflix’s (and some people were very o_O when they figured out the latter aired on Lifetime of all places)

i tried to watch bosch but it was too stupid. and i was hoping it would be kind of stupid

Does Man in the H Cast.get better? I watched all of the first season and it was fine at first, had a dip and then??? I didn't feel like continuuing. I was really meh about the three leads that I recall were supposed to be a love triangle?

I’m not sure what the origin story of Undone is - it’s on amazon - but it’s up with netflix’s best stuff (Russian doll, and the first seasons of glow and american vandal imo)

It's been a while, but I think we made it through ... 2 episodes of "High Castle?" 3? Then we kind of looked at each other and said, you know, why are we watching this? Same thing with "Handmaid's Tale," tbh.

I got through two episodes of High Castle and then binged through the rest by reading their Wikipedia summaries instead. Good time saver. Was good on atmosphere but v. dull leads.

the ad for hunters had me laughing.

pacino in his very arch, late period style:

"it's not murder...

it's mitzvah"

I’m not sure what the origin story of Undone is

It's an Amazon commission - notable that for their first animated series they went for a cosign from the creator of Netflix's first animated series.

Man In The High Castle was a big disappointment after the pilot episode, they should have just made it a two hour movie

might have been one of those “gets good mid second season” shows tbh

they do kill Frank eventually and keep him offscreen enough before they do lol

The shows I watch or have watched on Amazon are all really high quality imo --- Man In High Castle, Expanse, Red Oak, even the dumb Jack Ryan show is watchable (the dumbness is kind of inherent to Tom Clancy imo)

Goliath, as I seem to be saying into the void, is fucking incredible

I liked the first season of Goliath a lot, the second started strong but was awful by the end, and couldn't make it through the premiere of the third.

Yeah, I'm having trouble finishing the second season. First season was aces.

many xps but yes: undone is also quite good.

S2 of Goliath is absolutely nauseating but also brilliant imo

S3 gets the balance between gonzo batshit and, like, “serious drama” a bit righter but it’s still pulp at heart. I missed the daughter a lot but she gets an extremely satisfying payoff.

Does Man in the H Cast.get better?

No. The show runner left midway through the first season, the second season had no exec producer, and the new one brought in for the third didn't have a clue.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/man-high-castle-renewed-taps-new-showrunner-season-3-960304

It gets worse: PKD's daughter was sexually harassed by Amazon's programming chief.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amazon-tv-producer-goes-public-harassment-claim-top-exec-roy-price-1048060

yikes

I thought it ended... ok-ish, but the rudderless nature of the middle was clear

I really didn't like hunters (the how I met your mother guy hamming it up saying corny as fuck lines = not a good time, macabre fictional holocaust scenarios also not my favourite thing), and only saw about half of it, but the ending was wild and al overacts delightfully

I liked the first season of Goliath a lot, the second started strong but was awful by the end, and couldn't make it through the premiere of the third.

idk if we talked about this already but this was my EXACT trajectory.

third season was fucking great. i guess you really have to like ultra-pulp maybe.

Tracer's enthusiasm is infectious and I agree about season 3

I watched the first ep of Hunters & wow this show is def Not For Me™️

Pacino as the headlining Jewish Person while Saul Rubinek is a minor costar feels so fucking wrong on so many levels.
Also kind of surprised that Rubinek would be on board? idk. the tone of this thing was my biggest problem. that and wtf shit like concentration camp human chess

i understand it from Pacino being a huge draw but still i am very O_o about the whole thing

yeah it looked fuckin’ gross so i skipped it

my parents highly recommended it to me but i couldn't bring myself to watch it glad veggrrl who ime generally has impeccable tv taste has validated my laziness

yeah Mordy i would approach w extreme caution

Anyone seen Tales From The Loop yet? I was surprised to learn it had been made into a TV series.

I’m still watching me some Maisel but I still have the same problems w/it, that it’s trying to force comedy through tone and not content. The show looks incredible and generally is “likable” but it’s kind of astonishing at how there’s nothing particularly hilarious going on, it’s just this constant banter that’s supposed to make you feel like something hilarious is going on. It’s a shame bc i certainly prefer it in theory over yet another “people doing very bad things and caught in a vise-like plot” show.

xp
We watched the first episode last night. Very slow and pretty. Not sure if I liked it enough to go back for ep 2. Probably will at some point since I'm a shut-in now.

Anyone seen Tales From The Loop yet? I was surprised to learn it had been made into a TV series.

No but I am intrigued by the fact that Shane Carruth apparently makes an appearance

best thing on Prime for me continues to be The Expanse (on the tail end of S3 now), which is just phenomenal. My platonic ideal of a sci-fi show (great plot, plenty of mystery, little in the way of soap opera level bad TV acting, zero new agey bullshit the likes of which sank BSG).

I watched the first ep of Hunters & wow this show is def Not For Me™️

Pacino as the headlining Jewish Person while Saul Rubinek is a minor costar feels so fucking wrong on so many levels.
Also kind of surprised that Rubinek would be on board? idk. the tone of this thing was my biggest problem. that and wtf shit like concentration camp human chess

i understand it from Pacino being a huge draw but still i am very O_o about the whole thing

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, April 8, 2020 10:23 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I ended up watching about half of this, including the finale, because my gf watched it and I just thought it was horrendous.

watched the first two episodes of ZeroZeroZero and so far it's just OK. very nicely shot but so far I don't give a shit about any of the characters. not sure if I want to carry on with it but I probably will eventually out of sheer boredom.

if ppl forgot abt like i did the series finale of transparent, i recommend it; also the lil peep doc

hunters seems vile i would never

I just watched Dragged Across Concrete and need a shower. Zahler makes me feel grubby as all hell. (This will stay with me and I need to pick apart why - for good and ill.)

stay with ZeroZeroZero! The characters develop imo but most of what they do is not get in the way of a show about systems. It's very well done I think, and yeah, it looks and sounds great esp. by shit streaming-original standards

I just watched Dragged Across Concrete and need a shower. Zahler makes me feel grubby as all hell. (This will stay with me and I need to pick apart why - for good and ill.)

I watched Brawl in Cell Block 99 and washed my hands of that dude for good. He hasn't got the visual or storytelling chops for me to put up with his not-even-really-winking chud politics.

agreed.

I like both of those movies a lot :/

I even started a thread about him

the degenerate nu-pulp movies of S. Craig Zahler

We've been enjoying Tales From The Loop. Have seen first 5 of 8 episodes so far. It's beautifully filmed, interesting storylines, excellent acting, setting is mysterious & not explained (this is good). Pace is slowish & contemplative. Fits really well for the times. We're watching 1 episode per night, not binging.

Hey Joe Dante fans! Explorers and Eerie, India season 1 both free to stream with Prime atm

I think that's understandable with Zahler but I think he's interesting enough to stick with. I have *thoughts* but I'll have them on Simon's thread.

It looks like the Cadfael mysteries are available via Prime without extra subscriptions finally

are they good.

I haven’t seen them in a long time but I have fond memories of them being “Masterpiece Theater Name of the Rose” so take that as you will.

i think i will take that as a yes and now start binge watching.

thanks milo z. (i have no control over these things - you are entirely responsible if i go on a cadfael-induced rampage in a month’s time.

I don't know what day it was added but The Lighthouse is up.

hell yes, going to wait until it gets dark out and spend some time in THE LIGHTHOUSE

A bunch of Soviet films from the Ruscico vaults that appear worth a look have just been added to Prime:

Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase (1970)
Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair (1970)
A Captain at Fifteen (1945)
Commissar (1967)
Evdokiya (1961)
Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1962)
The Golden Horns (1972)
Happy Go Lucky (1972 )
Holy Moly! (1988)
The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1965)
I Am 20 (1964)
Kaschey the Immortal (1944)
Morozko (1965)
Night Witches in the Sky (1981)
Once 20 Years Later (1980)
School Waltz (1978)
Science Fiction Dilogy (1974)
The Secret of the Iron Door (1970)
Through the Thorns to the Stars (1980)

I am asking a Russian friend of mine which of these to see :)

One more that I missed: Father of a Soldier (1964)

That and Commisar, which I've long been wanting to see, are the only ones I've heard of before.

Also added to Prime but not Russian: 10 Rillington Place (1970), true crime thriller with Richard Attenborough playing a creep.

ooh thx! i want to see that Christie movie

Hard to find classic just added to Prime: The Go Between (1971)

The transfer looks good, although the sound could be better.

I haven't checked it out yet, but apparently the original theatrical cut of Altman's California Split was added recently: https://theplaylist.net/california-split-robert-altman-amazon-prime-20200512/

Hard to find classic just added to Prime: The Go Between (1971)

The transfer looks good, although the sound could be better.

Gave the Seberg film a look last night. I bailed about 30 minutes into it after the FBI baddies came on. It seemed to be just another dreary biopic-by-numbers with nice clothes, production design. I was a bit surprised I couldn't find any mention of it on ILX. I don't know, maybe Kristen Stewart's acting makes it worth staying with. I couldn't stop thinking she looked more like a depressed Ellen DeGeneres.

she's quite a depressing actress, imo.

anyone seen True History of the Kelly Gang?

tapped out about ten pages into the book, haven't read a Carey since

well, movies are different, and it's apparently a loose adap

fwiw The Kelly Gang film is only viewable for about a $7 fee on Prime and the other usual VOD providers.

seberg had terrible reviews when it premiered but people seem to like it more now that it's on streaming services. probably not going to watch it. kristin stewart is a depressing actress or at least she plays depressed people very well (like in Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper).

I really enjoyed the new film Frances Ferguson on Prime. Dry no-budget absurdist comedy about a bored young substitute teacher in Nebraska who gets caught hooking up with a student. The actress playing Fran is fabulous. Nick Offerman narrates. A Schubert scherzo on synth is the soundtrack.

Anyone catch The Vast Of Space yet? Super enjoyable movie about weeeeird goings-on in smalltown America in the late 50s, framed like an episode of The Outer Limits, great actors, dialogue, and lovely roaming steadicam shots from a dog's eye view.

So good I got the name wrong, 'The Vast Of Night' lol

Yes, watched it last week and thought it was excellent. Filmed on a micro budget too but with some amazing cinematography (and that one incredible tracking shot)

20 mins in, I was already wishing it was a TV series I was watching.

I mentioned it on the movies thread, possibly another thread as well. It's really well done, like a great student film prequel to "Close Encounters."

The Vast of Night is remarkably good

So talky! I understand they were going for a radio play feel, but it was exhausting. For people who feel like Mrs Maisel doesn't have enough dialogue.

I turned the subtitles on after a few minutes thinking I was in for a bit of a Sorkin-esque time but the dialogue slowed down and the snappiness ceased as the uncertainty ramped upwards.

Hm, ok. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

I mean, it's not exactly His Girl Friday speed. If anything I imagine many people will find too slow.

Yeah it was only the first 10 minutes or so doing the Sorkin walk and talk thing xp

some of the dialogue was hard to hear, I had to crank the volume

Knives Out and Knife + Heart just added to Prime. I really liked both movies..

Could be a theme? Next up Knife in the Water and Knife in the Head? Sling Blade?

Or not.

But did I mention Cutter's Way is on Prime?

I had a terrible time hearing a lot of the dialog in Midsommar on prime, and it sounds like I'm not the only one. Not sure if there's any kind of settings change I can make to help.

I've noticed poor syncing of sound with picture on some older movies on Prime that otherwise seemed to be good quality transfers. Just off by a split second, not enough to make them unwatchable for me.

I didn't have any sound problems watching Midsommar.

Oh hell yeah, I love Knife + Heart. Just in time for Pride, lol.

i have problems with dialogue in almost everything, I think it's because things don't downmix to stereo very well (all of these things are default surround now).

3 episodes in, and Prime's Utopia seems utterly banal and unnecessary compared to the Channel 4 original. I miss the quirky Tapia de Veer soundtrack, the beautiful cinematography, the feral Fiona O'Shaughnessy, the sociopathy of the original Arby and Lee. Really wish Prime licensed the original and financed a 3rd season (many threads to tie up there). Avoid.

Bad movie fans should check out Love on a Leash. Also on Tubi which is free with a few ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5Pi82-G8c

Upload, the transhumanist romance satire series, was a lot better than I expected.

What looked like Altered Carbon meets The Good Place has enough of its own ideas to keep one engaged through a long binging session. The jabs at marketing, corporate life, and class divides are welcome, but its carried by fine acting.

Only just caught up with The Boys, wow is it bingeable. I can imagine it being a GoT level hit in two or three seasons time.