Loved BCS, probably more than BB. Very subtle, very patient, great acting/writing/direction. It's as if they learned from the one major mistake BB made, which is to make Walt pretty much instantly malevolent/malignant. He's great and a great character, but not unlike the Nicholson character in "The Shining." If you start out over the top, there are not a lot of places to bring the character. Iirc, by episode 2 he's already dissolving bodies in chemicals. Whereas BCS, it takes its sweet time, intentionally, to make the most of each character beat and development. Like a really good movie.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, February 8, 2016 6:52 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
same!
they're doing a pretty deft job of making jimmy's transformation subtle and always in character. his worst choices are made impulsively or by some fingers-crossed i think i'm doing the right thing motivation, and not obviously due to some latent mean-streak/capacity for evil (like it was for walt). his slowly piling up merely not as bad choices flow naturally from his general comportment, and would be less consequential if the stakes weren't getting higher and higher.
it's certainly making the platonic everyman lawyer saul of BB more plausible --- tacky but successful and almost certainly shady criminal defense lawyer with a heart of gold and who can somehow make you feel like he honestly just kept getting mixed up with the wrong crowd and making do because isn't that what you would've done c'mon
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Tuesday, 9 February 2016 01:32 (eight years ago) link
Billions is kinda like Dynasty or something. i mean it's that level of camp/OTT.
i have a problem with whatshisface's face. the rich guy. hard to watch. and then i got depressed cuz i was totally gonna watch Homeland on Showtime and forgot he is also in that.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 21:01 (eight years ago) link
harry and tonto is streaming and its the best movie
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 21:05 (eight years ago) link
I thought he was great in Band of Brothers (like 15 years ago, shit) but now it's like he had a stroke and one half of his mouth is permanently clenched.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 9 February 2016 21:15 (eight years ago) link
he's british too, right? the brits have stolen all the best american asshole roles. trump should look into that. build a wall or something.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 February 2016 21:35 (eight years ago) link
Ooh I really don't like that guy either! I had to bail on Homeland early on because I kept wanting to punch him in the head. And I thought that would make him a tolerable heavy in Billions but nope.
Also I know Paul Giamatti is supposed to be Laurence Olivier or whatever but jesus can he occasionally dial it down a little. Guy's intensity is unmodulated, all the way up. I can't take him seriously anymore.
― Hadrian VIII, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 00:20 (eight years ago) link
"I'm an act-or!"
― Hadrian VIII, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 00:21 (eight years ago) link
all his guys are the same guy.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 16:23 (eight years ago) link
surprised he hasn't done waiting for godot with kevin spacey yet.
i do want to keep my good memories of american splendor though.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 16:24 (eight years ago) link
He was good in Win Win
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 16:44 (eight years ago) link
So I finally got to the end of the man in the high castle and this actually gets really good in the last 3 episodes. Good enough so that it should probably get its own thread that I won't start.
― silverfish, Sunday, 14 February 2016 06:01 (eight years ago) link
I couldn't even get into Breaking Bad, but I'm really enjoying BCS. I started watching it on the laptop two days ago and am already on E7. It's fun to listen Bob Odenkirk talk. What year is it supposed to be set in?
― Sith Dog (El Tomboto), Sunday, 14 February 2016 16:09 (eight years ago) link
late 90s early 2000s iirc
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Sunday, 14 February 2016 20:57 (eight years ago) link
Wikipedia says 2002
― JRN, Sunday, 14 February 2016 20:57 (eight years ago) link
Xpost We saw the first ep of High Castle, and man does the production design account for like 80% of the praise. Because after so much A+ TV acting it was jarring to watch a show anchored to maybe B- acting. Haven't watched beyond ep one yet, but a friend told me they do a poor job picking where to end each episode. Also that it only gets really good toward the end.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 15 February 2016 12:38 (eight years ago) link
My issue with it is the volume difference is so extreme with soft talking and then loud special effects. I have to turn it way down and just put CC on. General pet peeve with shows/movies.
― Jeff, Monday, 15 February 2016 12:41 (eight years ago) link
You kind of get used to the acting on Man in the High Castle after a while. I also kind of like how all the bad actors are American and they somehow managed to get mostly good actors for all the Japanese and Nazi roles. Somehow feels right for a Philip K Dick adaptation.
― silverfish, Monday, 15 February 2016 14:26 (eight years ago) link
I couldn't even get into Breaking Bad, but I'm really enjoying BCS. I started watching it on the laptop two days ago and am already on E7. It's fun to listen Bob Odenkirk talk. What year is it supposed to be set in?― Sith Dog (El Tomboto), Sunday, February 14, 2016 10:09 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Sith Dog (El Tomboto), Sunday, February 14, 2016 10:09 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
breaking bad was fairly one note until saul goodman showed up. I try to rewatch BB every few months or so but cant make it past a couple of episodes. Id probably have better luck start with the first saul episode.
also rewatching S1 of BCS but crazy excited for S2 tonight!
― It's dummy on dummy crime (sunny successor), Monday, 15 February 2016 16:01 (eight years ago) link
oh also, thanks to whomever recommend the the Great British Baking Show. I was hooked from the start and ended up watching the whole season over the weekend.
― It's dummy on dummy crime (sunny successor), Monday, 15 February 2016 16:03 (eight years ago) link
big baking crush on chetna.
http://images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/117/photos/943000/143943.jpg
― scott seward, Monday, 15 February 2016 16:13 (eight years ago) link
she had the best expressions. hung out with my mom the last three days and finished that season at her house.
― scott seward, Monday, 15 February 2016 16:14 (eight years ago) link
wish there were more seasons on netflix.
― scott seward, Monday, 15 February 2016 16:15 (eight years ago) link
has her own youtube channel if you are a chetnamaniac.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQA_Di4tqU
― scott seward, Monday, 15 February 2016 16:20 (eight years ago) link
Chetna! yes! also just crazy for Martha.
Woah...just googled and found all of season 2 for free on pbs.org: http://www.pbs.org/show/great-british-baking-show/episodes/
― “I hate my wife. She doesn’t even have a dick” (sunny successor), Monday, 15 February 2016 16:22 (eight years ago) link
they all had great shoes too....luis' blue suede adidas orginals (Gazelles I think), chetna's tangerine chucks, etc.
― “I hate my wife. She doesn’t even have a dick” (sunny successor), Monday, 15 February 2016 16:25 (eight years ago) link
Has anyone watched Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon?
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 02:17 (eight years ago) link
i started better call saul. i do love bob. i am a little burnt out on shows based on damage control after watching three seasons of ray donovan. and watching fargo. so many messes to clean up so quickly. i got good wife fatigue after however many seasons. so many fires to put out. i blame breaking bad. or the sopranos. they make me edgy. kinda make me want to clean the house too. but usually i just keep watching t.v. (i realize that cliffhangers are as old as time. i'd just like something to go smoothly one in a while. i end up thinking that the good wife lawyers are actually the WORST lawyers. and the sons of anarchy are definitely the worst criminals. they can't shoplift a pack of gum without a body count.)
― scott seward, Wednesday, 17 February 2016 02:43 (eight years ago) link
Trophy Kids
half way through and already hate pretty much all these parents, except the hippie new age mother, she's pretty hilarious
― just1n3, Saturday, 20 February 2016 06:04 (eight years ago) link
Love is... not impressive, 2 eps in. Cast are good, but it feels a little perfunctory and overlong and not funny enough, like mediocre Apatow.
― SCROTUS (stevie), Saturday, 20 February 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
i don't like the main guy. i kinda want bad things to happen to him. i stopped watching and went and read a book. talking about Love...
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 February 2016 16:04 (eight years ago) link
the volume difference is so extreme with soft talking and then loud special effects
This is a serious problem we've also had watching Netflix on the big teevee. Mixing which sounds okay on the laptop comes across as completely bad and insane on a real screen with real speakers. You know what productions don't have this problem, ever? Disney properties.
― Sith Dog (El Tomboto), Saturday, 20 February 2016 16:19 (eight years ago) link
ours defaults to 5:1 but we only have stereo. I always have to reselect stereo rather than 5:1, and it rarely cures the loudness issues.
― SCROTUS (stevie), Saturday, 20 February 2016 20:10 (eight years ago) link
Love is short on really funny parts in the first three episodes, and it fundamentally bothers me that the show is largely about a scrawny low-achieving spineless dweeb in his early thirties who goes from one ridiculously attractive woman to another (stopping over in between to be propositioned for a threesome by foxy college students).
But I'll still watch the whole thing, because I'm a sucker and because I want to see what happens with Mickey's roommate.
― JRN, Saturday, 20 February 2016 20:17 (eight years ago) link
It gets better with episode 4, tbh. I'm warming to the dweeb too. Episode 5 has a great premise. But like a lot of this Netflix/Amazon stuff, it seems as if it needs a good edit.
― SCROTUS (stevie), Sunday, 21 February 2016 13:02 (eight years ago) link
watched the first episode of the returned. the french show. like air were the french band. don't know if i want to keep going. but nicely moody.
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 February 2016 15:01 (eight years ago) link
the hannibal buress netflix special was...kinda meh?
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:00 (eight years ago) link
It keeps getting better and better...until is gets drastically worse.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:08 (eight years ago) link
Guys I don't know if it has been mentioned upthread but has anyone seen MAD DOGS on Amazon yet? Oh my god this show, it's like quicksand. Ten episodes with weird murderer's row of veteran supporting-role bro's (Micheal Imperioli, Steve Zahn, Ben Chaplin). Somebody please watch this.
― Hadrian VIII, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:19 (eight years ago) link
It says a lot about how much tv people watch that service providers can generate content like this w/ zero advertising—just throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. This was one of the dozen or so pilots Amazon put up to subscriber vote last year or the year before, Man in the High Castle was another....
― Hadrian VIII, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:22 (eight years ago) link
yea ive been interested in that since it dropped but just haven't gotten to it
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:33 (eight years ago) link
i laughed a lot @ the hannibal special fwiw
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:34 (eight years ago) link
good, run do not walk
― Hadrian VIII, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:34 (eight years ago) link
word thx
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
yeah, I thought it was pretty funny
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:36 (eight years ago) link
"It keeps getting better and better...until is gets drastically worse."
argh! i hate when that happens...
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
i watched like half of all three hannibal specials.
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 February 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
thought second episode of Love was great. blu-ray scene was very cathartic.
― Toof Seteltha (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 21 February 2016 18:07 (eight years ago) link
this. worth soldiering on till the last throes of the first season though.
― SCROTUS (stevie), Sunday, 21 February 2016 20:27 (eight years ago) link
Watched Love. Hope in season two a meteorite kills every character except Bertie and Grandpa the cat, and the show focuses on them.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Sunday, 21 February 2016 20:49 (eight years ago) link