# Community > General Discussion / Chit Chat >  Stuff to watch

## dilettante

In these times we face a lot of indoors time yet at the same time not as much traditional new media gets produced for obvious reasons.

I'm not really one for celebrities and actors but Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum holds my interest now and then.  He's gotten pretty good at long-form interviews that get the subjects to open up and be themselves.  He also has a backlog of interviews with a wide range of folks you might be interested in.


These tend to run an hour to hour and a half, but you can always stop and resume later since they're on YouTube.  And if nothing else it might give you something to leave on as background noise like people used to do with television in earlier times.

The audio podcasts are typically available from Spotify, ITunes, Podbay, etc. etc.

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## dilettante

Small film, big names, quite a ride.  Better than the trailer suggests.

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## dilettante

Here's one that won't be everyone's cup of tea.  A short series, 7 stories, interconnected by a thread, and sort of "Twilight Zone" like.

But the overall theme is probably aimed at audiences maybe 55 years old and up.

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## dilettante

There are a couple of YouTube channels that specialize in nostalgia.  If you're old enough you may rediscover things long forgotten.

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## Peter Swinkels

Hmmm, I watch all kinds of stuff on Youtube, I already mentioned some stuff in the "what are you listening to" thread. The Geodiode channel has uploaded some pretty good stuff about climates and biomes recently.

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## dilettante

Here's a quicky from 1979.  MCU fans may appreciate the AntMan bit.

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## dilettante

Italian comedy miniseries that has been edited into the weirdest 2-part spaghetti western you've ever seen.

Thin plot, low budget, clunky acting, awkward sound design, goofy special effects, slow paced.  Yet the story still seems to move at a nice if relaxed pace, the scenery is decent, and the characters can be quite endearing.  Quite... er, "wholesome" I guess, as entertainment out of "Torontowood" goes lately (Hollywood works in Canada these days to evade taxes and unions).  Your grandmother would have no problem with it at all.

Comedy?  Well, yeah.  But this ain't your Blazing Saddles or Legend of Brisco County Jr.

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## baka

talking about Italian and Terence Hill.
I would recommend any spaghetti western starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. actually any movie with those 2.
one classic that I really enjoy and want to recommend, now, with Terence Hill and Henry Fonda, My Name is Nobody. its a nice movie that also has music made by Ennio Morricone.

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## dilettante

Thanks.  Sounds like a good recommendation.

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## dilettante

When life cries for a little sarcasm:

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## dilettante

Before COVID we had:




Sort of "Star Trek on the high seas."

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## dilettante

Watched this again.  Even wackier and raunchier than I remembered.

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## dilettante

Wow, so many "pandemic" stories in cinema.  Many clearly made before this real one officially hit too.

Here is another one, with more of a "Children of Men" vibe.  Seemed a bit slow and sad, but I think that was what they were going for.  I just wish the indie film makers could get the hang of editing time jumps and flashbacks better, less subtle and jarring.  Most of the big budget companies seem to manage it.

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## dilettante

Here is a horror flick, not slash and gore but spooky.  I found it watchable and I don't seek out this sort of thing.




I'll admit to a guilty pleasure though.  I like the ginned up "documentaries" by _Small Town Monsters_ on cryptozoological mysteries.  I don't take them even half-seriously, but they make good "cool down" background before bed in these times when you don't chat on porches with neighbors at the end of the day.

A neighbor even got several of us into doing "watch parties" of them on Amazon once a week.  Gives us something else to talk about on the phone, across the street, etc.  Lots of older folks in my neighborhood, so people try to "distance."

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## Niya

> Before COVID we had:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sort of "Star Trek on the high seas."


OMG totally forgot about this. I have to finish watching this. I was watching it while it was still on going. Last episode I saw was with the Spanish guy, Tavo I think his name was. Having to wait every week for a new episode kinda made me forget about it which is why I never finished watching it. This one is on my "to do" list.

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## Niya

> Hmmm, I watch all kinds of stuff on Youtube, I already mentioned some stuff in the "what are you listening to" thread. The Geodiode channel has uploaded some pretty good stuff about climates and biomes recently.


My YouTube is mainly STEM content with some history thrown in there. I also watch a lot of financial content, some red-pill content, and a little League of Legends content and of course, music but who doesn't listen to music on YouTube.

Yea but History and STEM are the majority of what I watch on YouTube and where 90% of my subscriptions are. I especially love PBS Digital Studios and all their related channels. I'm also subscribed to ColdFusion, Veratasium, It's Okay to be Smart, The Science Asylum, Thoughty2 and many many more.

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## dilettante

Yeah, getting busy and missing an episode or two can put you off a show, and they move them in the schedule too.  Both can lead you to abandon a show.

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## Niya

> Yeah, getting busy and missing an episode or two can put you off a show, and they move them in the schedule too.  Both can lead you to abandon a show.


Yea, I have so many shows like that to finish. I can't even remember them all. And sometimes, I start watching one show and then I discover another show and fall it love with it and forget about the previous show. For example, recently I started watching Under the Dome, then I gave True Blood a try. I ended up completely forgetting about Under the Dome and binged watch all 7 seasons of True Blood like a madman.

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## dilettante

My YouTube viewing is mainly music, financial, paleo-anthropological, and geopolitical.  But I've been following the pandemic story as it unfolds too.  Oh, and stories about battery technology developments, electronics, and some retro consumer electronics gear stuff.

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## Niya

> Oh, and stories about battery technology developments


I have a great interest in this too. I can't help it whenever I see a new video about the latest developments in battery tech. I can't wait to see which of all these new technologies will eventually dethrone Lithium ion. I'm betting on solid state batteries.




> Geopolitical.


For some reason, I have very little interest in politics. Politicians are great at saying a lot without saying anything which I find incredibly annoying and boring.

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## Peter Porter

Discovered Matt Mulholland a few days ago. Love his comedic cover of this song!  :big yellow:

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## dilettante

Geopolitics is more of a "where we've been, where we are, and where it looks like we are going" thing.  Nonetheless it tends to rankle people highly focused within their own Bubbles.  A lot of people are used to politicized banners and sound bites so they have a hard time sitting through a geopolitical presentation which might take a hour, two hours, or more.

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## Niya

> Geopolitics is more of a "where we've been, where we are, and where it looks like we are going" thing.  Nonetheless it tends to rankle people highly focused within their own Bubbles.  A lot of people are used to politicized banners and sound bites so they have a hard time sitting through a geopolitical presentation which might take a hour, two hours, or more.


Ah I see. 

I just took a little piece of his opening and I'm sold. I'm probably gonna end up watching this whole video. It's more like a historical analysis but with a more political colouring than a typical historical analysis piece. This is definitely my kind of stuff too.

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## dilettante

Keep in mind that politics was just the 1st segment in his talk.

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## Niya

I watched all the way up to the Q&A. It was very interesting. He seemed a bit biased at times which is a little jarring but he mostly kept it straight. He did a good job explaining his points to someone like me who really doesn't understand much about politics. I especially liked the segment near the beginning about how Americans align themselves politically and the reasons behind it and I wish he spent a little more time on this.

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## dilettante

He has his biases, and plays to his audience which tends to be business segments having conventions.  There are some things I disagree with, others I hope he proves to be wrong about, but he's a futurist not a prophet.

Here's one he did for a group of Indian Economic Conclave folks, but it runs about 40 minutes.  You'll see him refer to the same books and slides though.  He's basically selling his books and lectures and stuff.

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## Niya

> He has his biases, and plays to his audience which tends to be business segments having conventions.  There are some things I disagree with, others I hope he proves to be wrong about, but he's a futurist not a prophet.


Err. Well nobody is perfect I guess. But I find his presentation overall appealing. He seems mostly neutral and sticks to facts and figures which I love. I hate when people talk out of their ass with zero evidence to back up their claims. That's definitely not this guy.




> Here's one he did for a group of Indian Economic Conclave folks, but it runs about 40 minutes.  You'll see him refer to the same books and slides though.  He's basically selling his books and lectures and stuff.


Watched a couple minutes of this to get a sense of what it's about. I will definitely watch this later. There are a couple of talking points in that I'm eager to hear about, specifically about how the American military is playing it's part in the world arena.

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## dilettante

I wouldn't call this a "big" film and it does bog down in places but it is watchable and something you may not have seen.  No gore, but there are images that you might find disturbing depending on the context you approach the movie from.

It's another take on a cautionary tale about AI, but it takes things in a different direction from most films on that topic.  Perhaps a less sappy "Chappie" but I think that movie had its points as well.

It's almost "District 9 meets Mad Max, with robots" in a way.

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## dilettante

Prefer stories about supersoldiers?

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## dilettante

Here's a wartime Christmas season flick that seems all but forgotten today.  No spoilers, but there is actually a lot here.  This isn't just a vacuous story to someone who has had family in such situations.  It's also a slice of life from an earlier time, practically historical times by today's standards.

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## Niya

This one is a must watch in my opinion. It's been a long time since a mainstream movie has entertained me this much. All of the politically correct SJW feminazi rubbish made today is really hard to stomach to be honest. This one was a rare gem.

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## dilettante

If you like the wacky crypto-science spook hunter genre you might give Hellier a try.  Well done as such things go, about 15 episodes in total telling a more or less linear yarn.

This one starts around the Kentucky Goblin Caves legends but wanders from that quite a bit.

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## Niya

Yea, that one very interesting. I'll have to check it out.

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## dilettante

This isn't for everyone, but it's a movie I keep coming back to.

The setting is a small New Mexico town one evening in 1959.  This is a light horror/sci-fi picture that recaptures the feel of the better 1950s drive-in B movies like "The Blob" thinly wrapped in a "Twilight Zone" format, but done using modern cinematic equipment and techniques.  It has the feel of a campfire tale or late night call-in talk radio segment told so well that the movie plays out in your mind as you listen.

It isn't for the impatient.  There are no caped spandex superheroes and not one explosion to be seen.  One of the important characters is an old man only heard over the telephone.  Another is an old homebound woman telling her piece of the story.

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## dilettante

Here's one most people have missed.  Not a kids' story, it's a little bit rougher than PG-13.

I think all three parts are still free on YouTube.

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## dilettante

Clip: John Connor meets his father.

Time travel is so freaky!

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## dilettante

This show is probably another sleeper many have missed.  A science fiction drama.

This clip is from late in the run of the show, but it contains an example of the show's use of an instrumental arrangement of Radiohead's "Creep" that gets used fairly often underlying various scenes.  The lyrics actually go quite well with the story.




Caution: If you haven't seen the show and plan to, this clip is a little spoilery.  And violent.

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## Niya

> This show is probably another sleeper many have missed.  A science fiction drama.


I've watched this entire show a few years back. It started out pretty plainly but it got very interesting as the show went on. The only thing that disappointed me was that the doctor on the island was a fraud. It would have been 10x more interesting if he was in fact some kind of ancient immortal that discovered the secrets to eternal life. Still though, really good show. 

Also. I'm convinced that Tatiana Maslany is the most talented actress alive. She played all these clones, yet she did it so good that you sometimes forget they were all played by one actress. Never seen anything like that before. Very few actors could do something like that. Johnny Depp might be the only well known actor who can match her in the sheer talent of playing a wide diversity of characters convincingly.

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## dilettante

> I've watched this entire show a few years back. It started out pretty plainly but it got very interesting as the show went on. The only thing that disappointed me was that the doctor on the island was a fraud. It would have been 10x more interesting if he was in fact some kind of ancient immortal that discovered the secrets to eternal life. Still though, really good show. 
> 
> Also. I'm convinced that Tatiana Maslany is the most talented actress alive. She played all these clones, yet she did it so good that you sometimes forget they were all played by one actress. Never seen anything like that before. Very few actors could do something like that. Johnny Depp might be the only well known actor who can match her in the sheer talent of playing a wide diversity of characters convincingly.


Another show I think is similar in some ways is "Hanna" which repeated and extended the story of the earlier movie of the same name.  It differs though.  It has genetically modified humans bred to be female next-generation _Jason Bourne_s.  Season 3 should drop on Amazon this Thanksgiving (US).

The young actresses in this show do a pretty good job too, though different since they are playing "Pretender" assassins.

Come to think of it the old "Pretender" TV show was pretty good itself.

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## dilettante

Bicycle safety... or something:




Good introduction to Rifftrax.

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## dilettante

Interesting background on a beloved and influential classic:

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## Niya

Very interesting indeed.

I have a kind of soft spot for *some* classic Sci-Fi. Most of them are cheesy and dumb. But some like Forbidden Planet are absolute masterpieces as far as I'm concerned.

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## dilettante

If you missed it, this series is very engaging and bingeable:




A take on automation and AI but with a focus on the people, both organic and machine.

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## dilettante

Here's a clip:




Odi is a damaged "Synth" who has recently lost his master and become self-aware.  He's struggling with his self awareness, independence, and purpose.

The priest thinks he's just a random human parishoner.

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## Niya

Oh I watched the first season of that show like 3 or 4 years ago. I was waiting too see if they'd make a second season or if it would get cancelled. Guess I kinda forgot about it eventually.

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## dilettante

The casting threw me at first in this reboot of a classic series I enjoyed over 40 years ago.  Takes me right back with waves of nostalgia though.

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## Niya

> The casting threw me at first in this reboot of a classic series I enjoyed over 40 years ago.  Takes me right back with waves of nostalgia though.


When I was younger I naïve, I used to enjoy romantic comedies like this but now I find it rare that I enjoy them. The majority of them portray the men as lovesick simps with no backbones trying desperately to win over some woman you'd never even notice if she passed you on the street. Not saying that's what this is, but a lot of modern remakes are tainted with modern garbage ideas of how a man should act. It's very disgusting.

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## dilettante

Well, they did rework the story a bit.  The female housekeeper is portrayed much younger now, and with a different background and strengths.  I'm not far enough into it yet to see where it may go with the female lead who begins as a minor character.  So far though it keeps to its time and has not reconned the past too extensively.

So far the women and the men are all pretty strong.  Season 2 isn't available here yet, so we'll have to see where it goes.

The story is about a young, newly certified country veterinarian as he makes his way in the world and acquires strong relationships in a new community and a kind of extended family.

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## Niya

Sounds interesting and hopeful. I might look at it when I'm in the mood for some "feel good" lightheartedness. 

These days I'm in the mood for something more dark. I was feeling a Nazi theme last week and watched both Defiance and Schindler's List. This week I stumbled onto one of the best vampire flicks I've seen in a long time, Midnight Mass and I'm in the mood for more shows like it:-



It's a vampire mini-series but it's unlike any vampire show I've ever seen before. The vampires are actually not the main theme but just serves to carry the real story which is about religious belief and our relationship as people to religion and how we use it to relate to each other. It's a character driven story so don't expect vampires ripping people's heads off every 20 minutes. It's not an exciting show but it is a very good piece of storytelling that will captivate you if you give it a real chance. One of the best shows of the modern age. It's rare to find shows made with this level of quality and care towards the crafting and portrayals of it's characters in 2021.

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## dilettante

"All Creatures" isn't all giggles.  It deals with its share of stressful situations and pathos.

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## Niya

Ah ok. I love a good drama, especially when they aren't afraid to push the boundaries a little and go a little dark.

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## dilettante

BTW:  The original UK airings were much earlier than international syndication airings.

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## Mezer

New Spider-Man

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## Schmidt

To bring up another great (somewhat shorter) TV-series (7 Episodes)...

"The Queen's gambit"
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/

I'm not much of a chess-player, but this little Masterpiece had no weaknesses IMO:
- great cinematography, great story, great acting  
- great portrayal of "the 60s"
- great insights into "how chess works, when played at a professional level"

"Chess is boring"?

Nope, not in this case - hard to describe, how exactly they managed it - 
but this was a binge-watch, keeping me at the edge of my seat throughout.

Olaf

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## dilettante

Something like 24 short (about 15 minute) episodes, hilarious and packed with cameos.

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## Peter Porter

I just finished watching _Don't Look up_. It's getting mixed reviews, but I personally found it entertaining.

As of posting this comment, it's currently #1 on Netflix.

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## Niya

> I just finished watching _Don't Look up_. It's getting mixed reviews, but I personally found it entertaining.
> 
> As of posting this comment, it's currently #1 on Netflix.


I just have one question....is it woke? I absolutely hate woke TV shows and movies which is practically every thing made after 2015. It's really hard to find those rare gems where the showrunners are not trying to convince you that there are 57 genders or that men are just horrible beasts with no brain and women are these perfect beings that need to be worshiped.

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## Peter Porter

> I just have one question....is it woke? I absolutely hate woke TV shows and movies which is practically every thing made after 2015. It's really hard to find those rare gems where the showrunners are not trying to convince you that there are 57 genders or that men are just horrible beasts with no brain and women are these perfect beings that need to be worshiped.


Is it woke? Do you always ask that question when someone recommends a film or TV show? Did the video's pre-image worry you?  :big yellow: 

Normally I read reviews before viewing anything, but I decided to sidestep that, and took a chance with this film and found it enjoyable, even though it's not perfect.

I just give you some tidbits of the cast to help you decide:

Jennifer Lawrence - student who discovers a comet.Leonardo DiCaprio - her professor, who calculates the comet's trajectory.Rob Morgan - head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.Meryl Streep - US President. A cross between Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Donald Trump.Jonah Noah - son of the President, but her Chief of Staff.Ron Perlman - a foul-mouth racist general.Mark Rylance - tech billionaire. A cross between Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Mister Rogers.

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## Niya

> Is it woke? Do you always ask that question when someone recommends a film or TV show? Does this video's pre-image worry you?


Well yea. I've noticed the past few years that all the latest shows are full of American leftist propaganda. While normally I don't care, I've noticed that it just gets bolder and bolder each year to the point that I find it impossible to enjoy these shows because their socio-political messages actually hurt the quality of the stories. They just beat you over the head with it to the point that it's hard to ignore. For example, yesterday I tried a new show called Wheel of Time and from the get-go it was a bunch of feminazi man-hating propaganda. It just killed it for me. 




> [*]Meryl Streep - US President. A cross between Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Donald Trump.


This is a red flag. Not because a woman can't be a capable President but because this kind of thing is the calling card of left-leaning show runners. I'd bet she spends all her screen time berating the "dumb clueless men" while the writers are careful to make all her terrible decisions work out in the end no matter how ridiculous. If you want to see an example of this phenomenon on crack, check out a show called The Outpost or the new Star Wars movies.

I don't care what people's politics are but for the love of God I wish they would keep them out of movies and TV Shows or at the very least, don't make the story unenjoyable because of it by beating us over the head with it every chance you get....

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## Peter Porter

> Originally Posted by Peter Porter
> 
> 
> Meryl Streep - US President. A cross between Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Donald Trump.
> 
> 
> This is a red flag. Not because a woman can't be a capable President but because this kind of thing is the calling card of left-leaning show runners. I'd bet she spends all her screen time berating the "dumb clueless men" while the writers are careful to make all her terrible decisions work out in the end no matter how ridiculous.
> 
> I don't care what people's politics are but for the love of God I wish they would keep them out of movies and TV Shows or at the very least, don't make the story unenjoyable because of it by beating us over the head with it every chance you get....


So a President that is a mix between Hillary, Sarah and Trump, is a calling card for a left leaning show? Well, I'll tell you the truth, judging by your comments, you wont enjoy the movie if you see it, even though it doesn't play-out how you envision. All I'm gonna add to this is there's no Dr. Fauci equivalent, and through more than half of the movie, everyone (left, right, centrist, apolitical) don't take the comet threat serious, but are more interested, brainwashed into non-news. Oh, and there are no left sided news networks, from what I remember. But I'll watch it again to be sure and report back, just so you don't have a heart attack if you decide to watch it without this valuable information.  :big yellow:

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## Niya

> So a President that is a mix between Hillary, Sarah and Trump, is a calling card for a left leaning show?


Not exactly. It's difficult to explain. It's one of those things where you know it when you see it. Nonetheless, I'm not saying it's a bad show because of that, only that it might be. I'll take a look at the show. I'll be able to tell within the first 30 minutes whether it's an actual movie that's meant to entertain us or just another piece of left leaning propaganda.

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## Peter Porter

> Not exactly. It's difficult to explain. It's one of those things where you know it when you see it. Nonetheless, I'm not saying it's a bad show because of that, only that it might be. I'll take a look at the show. I'll be able to tell within the first 30 minutes whether it's an actual movie that's meant to entertain us or just another piece of left leaning propaganda.


The movie does divide, but it feels like one party vs everyone else.

The side that goes along with the "Don't Look Up" movement (started by the Pres admin), eventually see the comet since it's impossible not to notice, and they get pissed off!




> I'd bet she spends all her screen time berating the "dumb clueless men" while the writers are careful to make all her terrible decisions work out in the end no matter how ridiculous.


Hey, remember the detail I wrote about the President going in, and that her son is the Chief of Staff.  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## Niya

Ah ok. I'll take a look at it and tell you what I think.

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## dilettante

Here is a 1998 Christmas movie, though the holiday isn't very central to the plot.  Essentially it's more of an action thriller a little like Die Hard or perhaps the Bourne franchise.




You may have already seen it, but it holds up to a second or third viewing pretty well.  And it is probably as relevant as back then seeing that the same cabal is back in power in the US again.

Here it is currently streaming free (with ads) on Tubi.  Internationally you may find it elsewhere.

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## dilettante

If you are into "weird" I found this:




Originally 2 seasons of short episodes, some streaming services now carry it stitched together into two "movies" of around 2 hours in length.

I can't tell whether it is just really bad or meant to be some sort of "avant garde" stuff.

One site called it "science fiction soap opera" but I'm not sure even that covers it.  It almost feels like somebody wrote three stories and tried to shuffle segments together like cards.

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## FunkyDexter

I wasn't blown away by Midnight Mass.  It was good but nowhere near as good as Haunting of Hill House.  If You haven't seen it, do!  It's the directors previous work and was truly excellent.

Watched the Lighthouse recently.  Now that's intense.

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## dilettante

The History Channel has been doing well for a number of years with things like its "Ancient Aliens" and "UFO Hunters" type shows.

Here is a drama series in a similar vein, combining a lot of Cold War history and fantasy.  It only ran for 2 seasons though before being canceled.







Post-war Nazi defectors galore, both East and West.

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## Niya

> It was good but nowhere near as good as Haunting of Hill House.  If You haven't seen it, do!  It's the directors previous work and was truly excellent.


That's interesting. I've also heard something similar among various YouTube review channels. However, a lot of the them claim that his previous work is stronger in some areas while Midnight Mass is stronger in others. They also say that Midnight Mass is the most ambitious of them all. Nonetheless, point taken  :Wink:

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## jpbro

Quite enjoyed this one:




I thought Martin Freeman put in a great perfomance, and pulled off a very convincing Scouse accent. Would love to hear what you guys England-side think?

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## FunkyDexter

Haven't seen it but it's been getting rave reviews.  BBC tends to be really good at hard hitting crime dramas so I hold out high hopes for it.

As for the accent, it sounds pretty good to me but I'm from the other end of the country so may not be the best judge.  I'll defer to our expert in all things Norvern, NSA.

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## jpbro

If I closed my eyes I could be convinced it was Stephen Graham playing the part at times. It took me a while to figure out what kind of soup they were having in one scene! Anyway, I won't say I have a perfectly tuned ear for the accent, but it didn't sound like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins at least  :Wink: 

Speaking of Stephen Graham, this was another one I enjoyed recently:

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## Shaggy Hiker

> Well yea. I've noticed the past few years that all the latest shows are full of American leftist propaganda. While normally I don't care, I've noticed that it just gets bolder and bolder each year to the point that I find it impossible to enjoy these shows because their socio-political messages actually hurt the quality of the stories. They just beat you over the head with it to the point that it's hard to ignore. For example, yesterday I tried a new show called Wheel of Time and from the get-go it was a bunch of feminazi man-hating propaganda. It just killed it for me.


Did you read the books? The first few were pretty good, but eventually they ended up with so many different plot threads that you'd end up with this thousand page book that didn't manage to advance anything much at all. Still, the show, if it was faithful to the books, would probably drive you crazy, since it has strong women in it.

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## Niya

> since it has strong women in it.


This isn't the problem. The problem is when they do at the expense of the men in the story. These modern shows make it a point to paint the men around these "strong" women as incompetent, cowardly or lustful brainless brutes unable to do anything without her guidance. The idea is to force a contrast that make the women seem like more than they really are. It's cheap and distasteful.

If you want to see this on full display, check out a show called The Outpost. I just could not connect with any of the male leads because they were so damned incompetent and it was all to make the women in the show seem better than they really are. It was truly ridiculous. These men couldn't find dirt in the desert without the guidance of a "strong independent" woman.

Another example, look at the trailer of the Batwoman series for the Arrowverse. The premise is that she came out of where ever she was to take over the role of Batman. There is a part of the trailer where she asks the tech guy that makes all the gadgets to fix his suit. He told her it was perfect to which she responds, "It will be, when it fits a woman". The implication is obvious here. Women are better than men. I've watched all the Arrowverse shows but I stayed clear of this garbage because I have no interest in watching a show that's constantly going to preach to me that I'm defective or inferior just because I was born a man. To hell with that nonsense. And just in case you think I'm crazy, here is the link to the trailer. Scroll down to the comments section and you'd see that I'm not the only one that has a problem with this garbage. Here are some comments that from video, just so you know it's not just "Niya being crazy":-



> Batman: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
> 
> Batwoman: its important that everyone knows im a girl.





> BatMANs suit is flawed because it is designed to fit a MAN. Makes perfect sense.





> Imagine creating a strong female character that doesnt constantly remind us shes a female character





> This shows plot is literally just "fEmAlE BeTtEr tHaN mAlE"





> Everything about this even the song,  is literally screaming "I'M A WOMAN" all over. Like damn, ok i get it.
> 
> The point is, the batman series didn't really have the need to emphasize his gender. Just straight up action.
> 
> This batwoman's gender is basically her whole personality at this point and that's all what's going for her.





> Im not about to let a man take a womans work
> As she takes everything bruce wayne has built including his legacy. Not creative DC!!!





> Steals a man's entire persona
> 
> 
> "I'm not about to let a man take credit for a woman's work"





> "It will be when it fits a woman." Now reverse the role and tell me this line isn't sexist.





> This B: "I'm not about to let a man to take credit for a women's work"
> 
> Batman: "Now hold on a second there buddy!!! Did you lose your parents!!! where you orphaned at a young age!!! did
> you have to fight on the streets of Gotham to survive!!! Have you fought and trained years in a martial arts dojo in the mountains!!! did you
> climb out of a prison deep in a massive hole!!! Did you save your family's fortune and legacy!!! did you create the Bat suit!!!
> did you design the bat gear!!! did you modify the bat cave under my manor!!! Did you fight crooks on the street!!! Did you save
> thousands of innocent lives!!! Did You stop the Joker or Riddler!!! Did you help Harley try and get over Joker that one time!!! Did you
> fight alongside the Justice league!!! Did you devise all of the emergency procedures in case if superman were to go super evil!!!
> Did you raise a boy after also being orphaned the same as me!!! did you solve crimes like sherlock Holmes!!!! Did you ever ONCE get beaten the crap
> ...


It goes on and on. This kind of thing is all too common in many modern shows. Too many shows are just straight up unwatchable because the writers are more focused on preaching about a bunch of SJW and identity politics nonsense that nobody asked for rather than just telling a good story.

But let's look at the other side. Is it possible to write a good story with a strong female character? Hell yes. Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise is a great example. However, the best example I have ever seen actually comes from the Star Wars franchise(another franchise that's been infected with the identity politics disease as of late). I don't know if you like Star Wars but a few years ago they created an animated series called Clone Wars. Don't let the fact that it's animated fool you, it's actually quite enjoyable even to mature audiences. One of the main characters is a character called Ahsoka Tano who is a very formidable young woman. This character is the perfect example of how to write a strong female lead. She works really well without making the male characters around her seem like hollow stand-ins that only serve to boost her glory. She adds to and compliments the story in a very believable way. I think every writer in Hollywood should be made to watch this show before they are allowed to write female leads so they can learn how to do it right so we don't end up with man-hating trash like Batwoman.

----------


## dilettante

> It goes on and on. This kind of thing is all too common in many modern shows. Too many shows are just straight up unwatchable because the writers are more focused on preaching about a bunch of SJW and identity politics nonsense that nobody asked for rather than just telling a good story.


I think it is about increasing market share by bending their appeal toward profitable, er, groups.  This can be by ethnicity, gender, or even by country in the case of China for example.

As long as nobody in the corporate popular media trust breaks rank, those consumers in traditional market segments "have nowhere else to go."  They can just take you for granted.

They've reached such levels of market dominance that nobody can rise in opposition to go after the disenfranchised segments.  There is no free market, so market dynamics can't operate.

----------


## Niya

> I think it is about increasing market share by bending their appeal toward profitable, er, groups.  This can be by ethnicity, gender, or even by country in the case of China for example.
> 
> As long as nobody in the corporate popular media trust breaks rank, those consumers in traditional market segments "have nowhere else to go."  They can just take you for granted.
> 
> They've reached such levels of market dominance that nobody can rise in opposition to go after the disenfranchised segments.  There is no free market, so market dynamics can't operate.


This is pretty spot on here! I've given up on it ever improving because of this. I just mostly stick to watching older shows now since they were made before all this madness infected Hollywood. There are a few gems here and there in the modern age but not nearly enough to make a difference.

----------


## dilettante

I found some really funny stuff on this, but I won't post any links because I suspect we are venturing very close to prohibited discussion once again.

----------


## Niya

Yea, it's probably best to kill this line of discussion before it gets out of hand. Steve and Funky are on the warpath these days with political/social discussions. This is a good thread. I'd hate to see it get locked.

PM the links to me lemme have a look-see.

----------


## FunkyDexter

It's not so much that the discussion is prohibited, it's the manner in which it's held.  With a contentious subject like this, it's important to stay very low and level rather than reaching for hyperbole and buzz phrases.   If you can't avoid terms like Feminazi, SJW and Simp, which are clearly deployed to provoke, it's a pretty strong indicator that your argument isn't strong enough to stand on its own merits... which is a shame, because I actually agree that there have been recent examples of the film and television industries reaching for identity politics as a cheap marketing tool.  I feel you're overstating the volume and I ascribe it to lazy writing rather than any sort of agenda but I don't think it's a conversation we should have while your tone is as it is.

So yeah, the feminism topic probably is one that would be better dropped for now and, in that vein, please do.  When everyone has cooler heads, perhaps it be revisited while retaining civility.

----------


## Niya

> If you can't avoid terms like Feminazi, SJW and Simp


Unfortunately I will be unable to do this. In my culture a blunt instrument works best when communicating ideas. If you sanitize your language towards a more politically correct language, people will perceive you as wishy-washy and lacking conviction and they won't take you seriously. We are very practiced in using blunt and emotionally charged language where I'm from. I try my best to sanitize my language when communicating with Americans online but I can only go so far. It's always a huge struggle for me to write in a way that is palatable to the sensitive disposition of a primarily American audience while staying true the whatever thoughts I'm trying to express. People often misunderstand what I'm saying because I'm not used to watering down my words so much.

----------


## FunkyDexter

> Unfortunately I will be unable to do this


Then don't engage in the discussion on this forum about contentious subjects.  Your choice.

----------


## Steve R Jones

> Then don't engage in the discussion on this forum about contentious subjects.  Your choice.


Your Choice for now :Wink:

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

Add me to the warpath list, I don't want to be left out. I'm always up for a good walk on a good path.

There is a branch of the Hindu religion that holds that to get to 'heaven' (they don't really have that, but it's the best translation for this purpose) you have to constantly keep God in mind. Therefore, there is a parable about a devout atheist who spent all of his time denying the existence of God. When he was working he was denying God, when he was eating he was denying God, all the time he was denying God. So, when he died, he was pretty surprised to be invited into heaven. After all, he had spent all his time thinking about God, if only to deny him. 

Niya, you dwell too much on your darkness.

----------


## dilettante

Well darn, there go my hopes for a companion thread "Stuff not to Watch."  :Wink: 

I'd probably list the entire "CW Network" roster, including the current "Simperman Defers to Lois."

Guess I'll let that go.

----------


## Niya

> I'd probably list the entire "CW Network" roster, including the current "Simperman Defers to Lois."


 :Thumb:

----------


## wes4dbt

> Add me to the warpath list, I don't want to be left out. I'm always up for a good walk on a good path.


I'll join, if little foot soldiers are allowed.  Actually, a sarcastic, wise arse foot soldier.  But, nobody is perfect.

----------


## dilettante

I shouldn't have made my last post.  Why trigger people further?  That's the end of it for me.

----------


## Schmidt

> Add me to the warpath list, I don't want to be left out.
> 			
> 		
> 
> I'll join, if *little foot soldiers* are allowed...


Guess there's still some hope, since it was at least correctly recognized:
"The only rank there will ever be" (in that kind of "military")...  :Wink: 

Olaf

----------


## Peter Porter

Back to stuff to watch, I've started watching The Mandalorian about a month ago. The first season was garbage, but so far the second season is pretty good.




I was gifted Disney+ last year for Christmas, and after reading good reviews of the 2nd Season of the Mandalorian, from the same reviewers who trashed the 1st season, I figure I would give the series a chance.

I'm gonna watch episode 5 today of the 2nd season. Hopefully the show doesn't goes down hill from there.

----------


## FunkyDexter

Yeah, I've heard great things abut the Mandalorian and the new Bob Fett series.  I've never bothered with a disney subscription but I'm considering a temporary sign up for those two.

----------


## Peter Porter

Call me crazy, but does anyone else remember this scene from the James Bond movie Moonraker, where after a cable car accident, Jaws meets the love of his life, who smiles a full set of braces?

I have a funny feeling they were CGIed out in the early 2000s.

----------


## dilettante

Who else recalls MST3K 624 "Samson vs. The Vampire Women" an English-dubbed Mexican horror flick?  That's the one where Torgo The White rescues TV's Frank and takes him to Second Banana Heaven:

----------


## 2kaud

> anyone else remember this scene from the James Bond movie Moonraker, where after a cable car accident, Jaws meets the love of his life, who smiles a full set of braces


Yes - but checking my DVD version (bought 2002) they're not there any more!.

----------


## Peter Porter

> Originally Posted by Peter Porter
> 
> 
> anyone else remember this scene from the James Bond movie Moonraker, where after a cable car accident, Jaws meets the love of his life, who smiles a full set of braces?
> 
> 
> Yes - but checking my DVD version (bought 2002) they're not there any more!.


I brought this movie on VHS back in the early 90s, way before DVDs were introduced in 97. If I can find it, and she doesn't have braces, then we're nuts!  :big yellow:

----------


## 2kaud

I threw away my VHS tapes years ago when I replaced them with the DVD versions...

----------


## NeedSomeAnswers

> Yeah, I've heard great things abut the Mandalorian and the new Bob Fett series. I've never bothered with a disney subscription but I'm considering a temporary sign up for those two.


Not watched Boba Fett, but The Mandalorian was good. 

I have been watching - *The Man in the High Castle* - on Amazon prime recently which is a good series, it been out for ages but never got round to it for some reason. 

The 2nd series of *Upload* is due out soon on Amazon Prime too, the first series was great

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

----------


## Peter Porter

> Originally Posted by Peter Porter
> 
> 
> anyone else remember this scene from the James Bond movie Moonraker, where after a cable car accident, Jaws meets the love of his life, who smiles a full set of braces?
> 
> 
> Yes - but checking my DVD version (bought 2002) they're not there any more!.


A Finnish producer of a Visa commercial that Richard Kiel played in remembered the braces. In the commercial, Kiel walks around a store, scaring a few people, just right before he meets a girl working the register. After she sees him smile, she smiles, revealing braces, while music over the store's speakers sings "telling me that this was love at last."





From the BBC website, the day Richard Kiel died:



> Kiel reprised the role of Jaws in the 1979 film Moonraker. The film culminated with Jaws changing sides and joining forces with Bond to save the world. It also saw romance blossom between Jaws and Dolly, a small, pig-tailed blonde with braces, comically played by Blanch Ravalec.


https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29160096

----------


## dilettante

Is anyone following the "Hanging With Doctor Z" talk show?

----------


## dilettante

> THE COMPANION PRESENTS these hilariously fun highlights from the Stargate A.I. project, organized by the science fiction magazine site with help from STARGATE SG-1 co-creator Brad Wright and Google A.I. advocate Laurence Moroney. *They fed an artificial intelligence all the scripts from Stargate, and then had it generate a "script" for the actors to reunite with a table reading.*

----------


## Niya

> 


That made me feel something. I really loved seeing all of them again, especially Jewel Staite! I haven't seen her since SGA and FireFly. It also kills my hope for a proper ending to SGA, something I've secretly hoped for for like a decade plus. She has aged way too much to play a 20 something year old doctor and of course Jason is now a big superstar now so they can't possibly pay him to reprise a role on a TV show.

----------


## dilettante

Yeah, the world has changed and aging of familiar faces is a big part of that.

There is another piece of it that may hit people harder right at home when it directly impacts them.  I'm not sure who might follow Fran here, she's in electronics and has an interest in historical aerospace engineering.  But this was an interesting video about the changing face of technical employment for all fields:




It's one thing to be ousted into the cold for your age at all.  Even more so when you face being put on a track toward "put out to pasture" starting as early as 35 years old.

----------


## dilettante

Another classic.  I'm actually surprised how many have never watched the trilogy, even among those who watched the derivative cash grab "Fury Road" that was made much later.

----------


## dilettante

Has anyone seen those sarcastic insurance commercials where the crusty aging Gen-Xer "Dr. Rick" constantly berates Millennial homeowners "not to turn into their Baby Boom parents?"

----------


## dilettante

> That made me feel something. I really loved seeing all of them again, especially Jewel Staite! I haven't seen her since SGA and FireFly. It also kills my hope for a proper ending to SGA, something I've secretly hoped for for like a decade plus. She has aged way too much to play a 20 something year old doctor and of course Jason is now a big superstar now so they can't possibly pay him to reprise a role on a TV show.


I'm not sure where Stargate will go.  The only recent concrete news is that we just (April 1st) got a new Stargate Channel on Pluto TV (Viacom/Paramount) streaming the old movies and shows 24 hours/day.

----------


## Peter Swinkels

Here are a few somewhat random recommendations:
-Anyone who is interested in futurism should give Isaac Arthur on YouTube a try.
-Better Call Saul is a surprisingly good Breaking Bad spin-off.
-There are two surpisingly decent Masters of the Universe (He-Man) series on Netflix  (one is more for older fans and the other for children).
-Personally I am waiting for Rick and Morty season 6.

There are so many things I could go on for a while. :-)

----------


## Niya

> I'm not sure where Stargate will go.  The only recent concrete news is that we just (April 1st) got a new Stargate Channel on Pluto TV (Viacom/Paramount) streaming the old movies and shows 24 hours/day.


I'm hungry for some new stuff. I have all the old stuff on my HD which I binge watch from time to time. I want new entries in the Stargate franchise.

----------


## sapator

I watched Fight Club yesterday. Believe it or not there is a known member here that hasn't watched it and still refusing to do so.You give someone a gem and sell it to get an ice cream...

----------


## dilettante

Who remembers that final season of Star Trep Deep Space 9 and the character "Vic Fontaine," a 1950s holographic lounge singer?

Remember when he helped Nog come to terms with the loss of a leg and its associated PTSD:

----------


## Peter Swinkels

@dilettante: I remember that.

----------


## Niya

Yea, I remember that episode. Nog got addicted to the Holosuite in an attempt to hide from his pain. DS9 was such a legendary show the likes of which would never be seen again.

----------


## dilettante

So far I've noticed that Pluto TV has added a Stargate Channel, at least in the US.

It seems to be rotating the movies and 3 series, in a TV-like fashion since that's their "live TV" model.  I haven't seen what they offer "on demand" yet.  They are cross-promoting by running Stargate Chaanel advertisements on their other channels.  That might bring in new fans.

Nothing concrete on new content though.


_Edit_

Just checked and Pluto TV does have the 3 Stargate series on-demand too.  I'll have to see if the movies are all there.

----------


## Niya

I've been seeing YouTube videos showing up in my feed lately talking about new Stargate material in the works right now. Though I will only believe those when there are official announcements.

----------


## dilettante

Scary places life can take you:

----------


## dilettante

A lot of us old codgers remember the "Peanuts" specials that came out on broadcast TV back in the '60s.

How many remember one of the longer ones that came out late (1972) as a movie shown in theatres that later started to run on TV in the US (1976)?  "Snoopy Come Home" revealed to all of us (including Charlie Brown himself) that Snoopy was a "used dog" with a former owner.

My oldest sister has a soundtrack CD she got one Christmas, and still tears up when this tune is played:




While very dated today, this movie should still resonate with kids today.  Perhaps even more so since culture in much of the world has become even more pet-focused than 50 years ago.

Not sure it ever made it into BluRay collections, but the DVDs are probably still around and surely some streaming service has the rights to offer it.

----------


## dilettante

Supernatural mystery thriller series, western setting but not really a western.  It is basically set in the present day.




Appears that episodes will drop 2 per week for the first season, which runs 8 episodes in length.

----------


## dilettante

If you know it, you know it.  if not you are in for a treat.  A forgotten comedy: Doctor Detroit.

The Doctor is _in_:

----------


## dilettante

If you aren't really a fan of where the Star Trek franchise has gone, there is always comedy gold to be found in reviews.

These guy mainly review things like home video era schlock horror and select indie films, but a couple of them are also classic Star Trek fans.  Their review series on "Star Trek: Picard" season 2 is pretty funny, their pain is palpable.

----------


## Niya

I'll be honest, the only reason I watch Star Trek: Picard is because of Patrick Stewart(Cpt./Admiral Picard) and Jeri Ryan(Seven of Nine) and the hope of seeing other cameos from *real* Star Trek shows. The show itself reeks of the same rubbish you find in CW shows like all the woke stuff and a cavalier attitude towards situations that should be taken seriously, an attitude that is characteristic of children and teenagers. For example characters are always cracking jokes and making snide or sarcastic remarks when the situation doesn't call for it. They are also very heavy on feelings being used to justify decisions no matter how utterly stupid, which is another characteristic of childish CW shows. For example, the character Rios actually had to be told that jeopardizing the future of the entire human race just because you have some childish school-boy crush on a pretty woman is a bad idea. Like seriously? They put such an irresponsible person in charge of a star ship? You would never see this kind of garbage back in the day in real Star Trek shows. These plots and characters feel like they were written for children by children. 

That's my main gripe with Star Trek: Picard. Only nostalgia keeps me watching it to be honest. If Patrick and Jeri wasn't in it, I wouldn't have bothered with it at all. This show isn't Star Trek, it's just a CW-esque teenage soap-opera that pretends to be Star Trek.

----------


## dilettante

Here's a good one.  It's a short documentary about an animated media creation technology that is so nearly forgotten now that it can freak modern audiences right out.  We once took it for granted though it was always quaint.  These days it is seem as nightmare fuel.





I always got a kick out of its use within a landmark episode of Stargate SG-1.  Skip ahead about 1 minute 45 seconds:

----------


## dilettante

> Archaeologists have recently uncovered ancient human footprints beneath the windswept landscape of White Sands National Park in New Mexico that date to as far back as 23,000 years. That makes these footprints the earliest unequivocal evidence for human habitation in the Americas, pushing back our understanding of the date of arrival by as much as 10,000 years. The history-shaking find also helps to validate Native American claims of a deep time connection to this continent, and could forever alter our theories about the peopling of the Americas.






New discoveries push origins further and further back.  When matched against other known mileposts in time such as glaciation intervals a lot of myths and hypotheses will need to be revised.  So far the Beringians still dig in their heels, squint hard, and create "magical corridors" and other epicycles and Piltdowns but that particular myth has already been all but undermined by more recent findings.

----------


## Niya

I recently finished the herculean task of finishing watching the 4th season of Star Trek: Discovery and by God I was sick to my stomach by the end of it. The visuals and special effects were top notch but the characters and dialogue were some of the most idiotic nonsense I have ever seen in my life. That show is just pure unapologetic trash. Just pure trash. MY GOD THAT SHOW IS GARBAGE!! To date this show is by far the best example of how political narratives ruin the quality of what could have otherwise been a fantastic show. It surpasses the Disney Star Wars movies in this regard. 

I know we were talking about Stargate earlier but after watching this latest season of Discovery, I do not want them to bring back Stargate. It would no doubt be infected by the same disease of far-left political propaganda.

EDIT:

And just to be sure that it's not just all in my head, I decided to look up how others felt and it seems I'm not the only one that felt this way. I mean look at these reviews.
https://www.metacritic.com/tv/star-t...reviews?page=0

Here's are a couple of reviews from the site:-



> Except for the name this has nothing to do with star trek. The agenda pushing ruins what's left of the show.
> 
> If you are looking for something that actually feels like star trek I recommend watching the Orville.
> 
> /edit: the show manages somehow to become even worse.





> What the heck did I just watch? My God... Every negative review here is right.





> What a waste of opportunity. Politics destroys fun. This is actually not Star Trek. This is propaganda. But... there is positive side here... Hollywood is going to destroy itself. Who cares.





> Every episode is like the creators wanted to get an Oscar. Wokeism, tokenism, virtue signaling - you can all find it here. The makenosense dialogs and cringe. The story is not bad - I can say that I like it. Some of the main characters are not likable and you want them dead, some have nothing special to offer yet are promoted.





> Everything except the special effects are really terrible. The main char is some sort of black Jesus character that is responsible for everything good in the universe and every white person is evil and gets crushed by asteroids as soon as they talk back to the main character.
> 
> Sad to say, but this is really really woke and bad.





> I can't get into this show. I tried I really tried but the writing is so bad that it is painful to watch. The story doesn't make any sense and I feels like a generic sci-fi show and NOT star trek. One character spock says a line "I like science". If that is not the definition of bad writing I don't know what it.





> What a total train wreck!!! I've never seen such a bad series in my whole life!! Hollywood and Disney love ruining franchises as they have done with Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Terminator and now Star Trek! I have more fun doing homework and reading a boring book than the new Star Trek. I actually made me feel sick in my stomach cause it's that bad.





> Cringy soap-opera in space with a annoying main cast and constant emotionally overloaded partnership quarreling. If Burnham is not crying right now she either ignores orders and does what she wants or solves unsolvable problems that apparently only she is capable of solving. Doug Jones's Saru is one of the few bright spots in this trainwreck of an embarrassing rip-off of Star Trek


If we made a "Stuff not to watch thread", this trash would be number 1 on my list. The only good thing that comes out of my suffering through this garbage is that I can warn others to avoid it. Watching paint dry would be a better use of your time than watching this.

----------


## dilettante

I suspect a lot of this has come about because the media industry has not been subjected to due antitrust action.

In a competitive environment there is far more economic pressure to produce what people want.  That would make it a lot harder to co-opt media and use it as an indoctrination tool to push agendas.

It gets harder every day to avoid making unsavory comparisons with Communism.

----------


## Niya

> It gets harder every day to avoid making unsavory comparisons with Communism.


It's funny you should mention this. I've been wondering for a few years now how utter garbage like Discovery make it to 4 seasons while great shows of the past like FireFly could not get past 1 season. Something has definitely changed in the industry. In the "old world" a show like Discovery would not have made it past the pilot. There is something in the background that keeps these shows alive. I refuse to believe that modern garbage like this are economically viable.

----------


## dilettante

Or perhaps I have it all backwards.

Maybe they know the only economically practical entertainment is that which gains their advertisers massive revenue.  If the advertisers know that certain market segments have control over frivolous household spending _and_ are the most easily swayed to blow money on crap by advertising... they'd naturally want to provide patronage to media that caters to that demographic, and not care what anyone else enjoys.

So that would be perhaps the ugliest part of Capitalism at work.

Maybe the spectrum is not a line but a circle, so the two extreme "ends" fall right next to each other and are essentially the same thing?

----------


## Niya

Interesting theory. Perhaps later I will type "Why do woke TV shows not get cancelled" into Google and see if anyone else has come up with a reason why this seems to work.

----------


## Niya

And in other new, I accidentally stumbled onto this new show today:-



There are 3 episodes so far and as far as I can tell, it's completely free of the typical far left woke trash which feels like such a breath of fresh air. I was actually able to enjoy it without feeling like I'm being preached to about tolerance and acceptance or insulted for being born a male. Just on that alone I'd recommend it.

However, I get a slight feeling it might be environmentalist propaganda. I get the feeling that we may start hearing about "carbon footprints" before long into this series. I don't look forward to that but I'm willing to live with it and so far it does seem like it would hamper the quality of the show.

----------


## dilettante

Ahh, Cotyar.  Badass as James Bond.  Gritty as Jason Bourne.  Just a man, with a man's courage.

Here's a tribute somebody edited together.

Careful: spoilers.




Turning on closed captions helps get the dialog through the overlaid music.

----------


## Niya

> Ahh, Cotyar.  Badass as James Bond.  Gritty as Jason Bourne.  Just a man, with a man's courage.
> 
> Here's a tribute somebody edited together.
> 
> Careful: spoilers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Turning on closed captions helps get the dialog through the overlaid music.


 :Thumb:   :Thumb:   :Thumb:   :Thumb:   :Thumb:   :Thumb:   :Thumb:

----------


## FunkyDexter

I can recommend Taboo.  I'm only about two thirds of the way through but it's been excellent so far.

----------


## dilettante

Taboo?  Is that the one about English robber barons of early Western Canada?

----------


## FunkyDexter

Yes, though I'm not sure Robber Baron's is quite the right term (close though).  Tom Hardy inherits a small island of the coast of Canada that essentially means he can lock down naval access to Vancouver Island and therefore the Far East.  He's in a battle of wits to protect his interests from the East India Company, the British Crown and the American Government, all of whom want to take it off him.  Add to that strong implications that he's learned some kind of black magic while living in Africa and you get a pretty cool melting pot of period drama and mysticism.  Tom Hardy's unsurprisingly brilliant in it and there's a load of other really strong British actors too.

----------


## dilettante

Sounds like the potential for a larger-scale period version of "Big Trouble In Little China."  :Wink:

----------


## FunkyDexter

No very different (though Big Trouble is definitely in my top ten).  It's much darker and it sure ain't playing for comedy as Big Trouble does.

----------


## dilettante

Lots of funny stuff out there.  Some of it is even real!

----------


## Niya

> Lots of funny stuff out there.  Some of it is even real!


God I hope this is real. If it is, they'd have no problem getting my money for nothing more than the fact than they have the balls to speak out against woke leftist garbage. Even if they made the worst razors on the planet and I'd still buy just because of that ad.

----------


## dilettante

Here is an odd one.

A short streaming series, though it might get a Season Two.  You can never tell though since this sort of thing fails to get renewed pretty often today with an infant mortality rate close to 50%.




I enjoyed it, though I read 6 reviews and they all seemed to hate it after the scene-setting first episode.  But then it had no blue milk, no poorly animated attacking birds, and seems to have failed to meet the diversity standard.

----------


## Niya

> 


Oh I'm definately watching this based on this trailer! This is going on my to-watch list.




> I enjoyed it, though I read 6 reviews and they all seemed to hate it after the scene-setting first episode.


I recommend Filmento and the Critical Drinker YouTube channels. Not only do they take a lot of bullets for us by watching a lot of rubbish to provide reviews, they both understand what makes a good story and best of all, they aren't infected one iota by the "leftist disease".




> seems to have failed to meet the diversity standard.


Now I'm really interested. Seem the woke crazies missed this one which means the producers would have a lot of breathing room to write a story that is actually interesting.

----------


## Niya

> You can never tell though since this sort of thing fails to get renewed pretty often today with an infant mortality rate close to 50%.


Well if it's not some crazy leftist's pet project, it would probably get cancelled. Hollywood money doesn't seem to support producers not willing to tow the line these days. This is my hunch.

----------


## jpbro



----------


## dilettante

> Now I'm really interested. Seem the woke crazies missed this one which means the producers would have a lot of breathing room to write a story that is actually interesting.


Very odd in my opinion.  Sure the main characters are an old white couple.  But they have a young adult granddaughter with a significant role who had a black mother their son had married.  There are also quite a few important characters who are Argentinian as well as others who appear to be of mixed racial background.

So various ages, genders, and ethnicities... though nothing from the corners of today's gender palette I suppose.  And all we have seen is Season One which seems to just be getting started on the larger story.  Down the road we may yet meet test-tube baby based societies or whatever.  For all I can tell the entire story may prove to be based on some scenario out of religion, more like a "Constantine" situation.

----------


## Niya

> though nothing from the corners of today's gender palette I suppose.


Praise God for that. I had enough mental anguish trying to figure out what Adira and Grey from Star Trek Discovery were supposed to be and they didn't even make a point with it. They were just there. 




> Very odd in my opinion. Sure the main characters are an old white couple. But they have a young adult granddaughter with a significant role who had a black mother their son had married. There are also quite a few important characters who are Argentinian as well as others who appear to be of mixed racial background.


I won't know until I watch the show but my guess is that these characters actually made sense and weren't just there for just the sake of diversity or to preach some childish "why can't we all get along" message. In other words, the producers weren't pious enough so the wokies don't even see it.

----------


## dilettante

Well, there is one "Is it because I am black?" moment.  However the story defuses that almost immediately, point being that the awkward feelings of the grandmother toward her granddaughter stem from issues utterly unrelated to race.  The moment gives the old woman a chance to push her guilt to the past and repair relations on the spot.

Clearly this isn't how a things work in a "modern" film though.

----------


## dilettante

A couple of 1990s neo-classics that might get the wokesters' knees a-jerking:  :Wink: 







I like to watch these as "prequels" to the _Jason Bourne_ movies, though sometimes I'll slip the two Tom Cruise "Jack Reacher" flicks into the rotation too.

Here's another from the same genre, recently restored in 4K:

----------


## Niya

Just got my heart broken once again. The "wokies" got one of my favorite franchises.




That trailer tells me all I need to know. So disappointed. The Predator franchise has just become yet another casualty for the sake of the woke political left.

----------


## dilettante

A 2008 remake/reimagining of the story from the book and original classic film, this 2-part miniseries seems pretty good:

----------


## Niya

> A 2008 remake/reimagining of the story from the book and original classic film, this 2-part miniseries seems pretty good:


Donno how I managed to miss this one. Going on my "to watch" list.

----------


## dilettante

Well darn.  That wasn't what I had hoped.

The first "episode" is pretty good by TV-movie standards.  Some of the actors have been in good stuff before and the story was going fine.  The second "episode" began ok too but things gradually got more awkward.  By the midpoint of this one they started speaking ignorantly about "ASCII codes" and setting that cringe aside... the story went rapidly downhill.  The very last 3 minutes or so were ok but that doesn't make up for "Birdemic" levels of story and attempts at special effects.

It's a toughie.  A bit of gratuitous wokeness on top of the usual hilarious awkwardness from the cheap non-union Canadian actors trying to mimic US accents.  I'm not sure why one character decided to "come out" as gay just before he ended up dead.  But the weird Canadian "Mexican girl" at the end was at least as bizarre a choice.  I guess they has a casting quota.

----------


## Niya

Sounds like what I expect from a cheaply produced movie. I might be able to tolerate it. After all Guyver 2 is one of my favorite movies. It's the quintessential B movie yet I can't get enough of it. Must have watched it 100 times in my life.

----------


## jpbro



----------


## Niya

I just watched this one. If you like military science fiction movies, I highly recommend this. While it's not breaking new ground, it is still one of the best movies in this genre I've seen in a long time. A must watch!

----------


## NeedSomeAnswers

I have been watching *The Orville* recently on Disney+, which is basically Seth MacFarlane (from Family Guy) version of Star Treck and I have been really enjoying it.

----------


## dilettante

I watched the first season, and while good compared to other things that year it seemed like a clownish rehash of 1960s Star Trek scripts to me with a few TNG scripts thrown in to pad it out.

I just couldn't get lured back into it for the second season, and I won't spend money to chase it behind the paywalls it lives behind in the third season.

That doesn't mean I won't go back and consider it once it hits the free-with-ads second-tier streaming services.  I still hear people saying good things about The Orville.  I'm just cheap and not a fan of the Disney Empire.

----------


## Niya

The Orville is actually really good. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I consider it an true successor to Star Trek, far more so than rubbish like Discovery. It has that old-school Star Trek feel but with modern special effects. 




> I watched the first season, and while good compared to other things that year it seemed like a clownish rehash of 1960s Star Trek scripts to me with a few TNG scripts thrown in to pad it out.


The second season toned down on the campiness and was less "monster of the week". It was actually a lot better than the first season in my opinion.

----------


## Peter Porter

I'm sure most of you have seen Shawshank Redemption. I've watched it four times myself over the years.

----------


## FunkyDexter

^One of the best films ever!

----------


## Peter Porter

> ^One of the best films ever!


The ending gets me every time!  :Embarrassment: 

It's on the top of my list of movies to watch over and over!

----------


## wes4dbt

> The ending gets me every time! 
> 
> It's on the top of my list of movies to watch over and over!


Well, I liked the escape but I thought the whole, there's a rock in a field, in the country somewhere unbelievable.  Other than that it was a very good movie.

----------


## Niya

I just finished watching this one:-



Another really great gem, hidden amongst the "woke" garbage proliferating entertainment today. It's fast paced action sci-fi that straddles gracefully between being a comedy, drama and action flick, peppered slightly with a style reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino movie. I highly recommend this one. 8/10 easily!

----------


## dilettante

Though good choices are getting thin they are still out there if you dig for them.

----------


## NeedSomeAnswers

I know I am late to it (there is just so much to watch to get round to everything) but I have also just started watching *Ozark* on Netflix, just the first couple of episodes so far but is great so far.

----------


## Niya

> I know I am late to it (there is just so much to watch to get round to everything) but I have also just started watching *Ozark* on Netflix, just the first couple of episodes so far but is great so far.


Ozark is a great show too. Seen about 10 to 15 episodes so far. Unpredictable but good plot with some interesting characters. My only criticism is that it's pace is a bit slow which is partially solved by binge watching. This is definitely a show I don't want to be waiting a week to find out what happens next.

----------


## dilettante

Here's a weird one: I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW

Post-apocalyptic, nominally "sci-fi," but aside from some brief sequences it is more of a low-key demented and eerie drama.

Dated 2018 but wide release was probably delayed.  The tiny cast almost screams "Covid Era Film" but it was before all of that.

----------


## Niya

Hmmm...That looks interesting. I have room for a movie or two tonight and I need something to watch. I might watch that.

----------


## Niya

> Though good choices are getting thin they are still out there if you dig for them.


This is soooo true.

----------


## dilettante

I came away from it feeling a little depressed.  But since I am getting so old now it doesn't take much to kill my buzz.

I hadn't realized how much media is actually hopeful but only in the context of certain age groups.  Too old and you feel the sting of missed opportunity.

Joe Jackson in "Steppin' Out" sings:




> We
> are tired of all the darkness in our lives.
> With no more angry words to say
> can come alive.
> Get into a car and drive
> to the other side.
> Into the night,
> into the light.
> 
> ...

----------


## dilettante

But then I did just get my 4th shot of vaccine earlier today and maybe I'm feeling more than just a sore shoulder.

----------


## Niya

Lol....I almost forgot Covid was a thing. I got two shots back in the middle of the "pandemic"(yea I put it in quotes because I'm almost convinced now it was a hoax or an over-reaction at the very least) and haven't thought about it since.

----------


## Peter Porter

Removed reply

----------


## dilettante

I'm not much for anime, though there are a few franchises with such good stories, characters, and music that they can transcend more common anime.

One of those is Fullmetal Alchemist.

While I really enjoy FMA-B ("Brotherhood") I like the original FMA 2003 adaptation more.  In part that may be just because I saw it first, or even because it seems all but forgotten by youngers fans weaned on "B" instead.

You may (or may not) know that the development of FMA 2003 outpaced the source manga, so at a certain point the show had to start writing its own development beyond the point of divergence.  That gets us the story point that most of FMA takes place in a parallel universe and that Ed crosses over into ours later on.

A movie was made to provide a story ending: "FullMetal Alchemist The Movie, The Conqueror of Shamballa."




The DVD may or may not be out of print.  No idea whether it ever got a Blu-Ray release.  Some streaming services seem to carry it from time to time though even if they don't carry FMA 2003.

Yes, it is anime.  But there is enough meat on the bones to hold my interest.  All of FMA seems to have excellent English dubs, I'm not sure about other languages though.

In theory this was made to be accessible to viewers who never watched the series.  There is some brief recapping but you'll really want to have seen the TV show first.

----------


## dilettante

BTW:

By the time of the events in this movie the story takes place in 1923 Germany.

----------


## Niya

> While I really enjoy FMA-B ("Brotherhood") I like the original FMA 2003 adaptation more.


I liked Brotherhood way more than I liked the original anime. The story in Brotherhood was just way more compelling to me. For example, the main villain in Brotherhood, Father, was just far more interesting. He started as this mysterious thing conjured up from beyond the gate for his forbidden knowledge, wiped out an entire civilization to become this god-like being. He then went on to establish an entire nation for the explicit purpose of trapping Truth within himself to become even more powerful. Now Dante, the villain from the 2003 anime was just an ordinary human, a woman scorned who was just a tad bit better at alchemy than the average alchemist. As a villain she is just not nearly as interesting as Father to me. 

Don't get me wrong though, both anime are good but I just like FMA: Brotherhood way more.

----------


## dilettante

There was also a post-Brotherhood film but I haven't seen that one.  I think I've been through everything else a couple of times at least.

----------


## Niya

> There was also a post-Brotherhood film but I haven't seen that one.


Really? I was unaware they made a movie for Brotherhood. I'll have to look that one up.

----------


## dilettante

It appears to be set somewhere _within_ Brotherhood, not after like the other one:

----------


## Niya

Ah ok. I completely missed that one. Gonna have take a look at it soon.

----------


## dilettante

Maybe this is a "Not To Watch."  Or perhaps times have changed enough to alter its impact.

How One Apocalyptic BBC Movie Scarred a Generation of U.K. Schoolchildren




> Threads starts by juxtaposing the mundane everyday activities of two normal English families with calamitous events playing out on the world stage. The film uses a worst case scenario (Soviet Union invades Iran, America retaliates, England gets caught in the crossfire) alongside the bleakest of visuals, to emphasize just how little power the average person has over their own fate. Both protest and prayer are depicted as utterly useless.

----------


## dilettante

I think all of this show has been uploaded to YouTube by the History Channel.  No idea whether any of it is region restricted though.




I know they had some problem on initial release though, and had to move its time slot to late at night even as a cable-only show.  Probably too upsetting for casual viewers or children.

----------


## Niya

> No idea whether any of it is region restricted though.


Yea, it is. It's unavailable to me because it's restricted from my country.

----------


## dilettante

There are several "comfort food" quirky comedic police procedural and medical TV series out there.  I think of Psych, Monk, House, Scrubs, and the like in this category.  Some might also go to Friends but I'd reach for The X Files before that.

Another that many might have missed.  This got cut short after a 2-season run:




Cop gets framed, sent to prison for life, does 12 years before being exonerated.  Comes out a bit quirky, almost in the Monk vein, but gets reinstated.  This seems to frustrate many in the police force and around his life.  On the side he quietly works at investigating the conspiracy against him though he never goes Full Batman.

"Life" (NBC), original run was in 2007.

----------


## dilettante

"Haven" is a Stephen King adaptation that ran from 2010 to 2015 before being canceled.

Small town cop show with weird but low-key supernatural twists.




I may be scraping the bottom for ideas, but I have to get the taste of "Superman & Lois" out of my mouth.  Even the advertising that show carries is pretty hard to take.  Selling huge 2-row seating pickups to urbanites by offering interiors in crimson, purple, gold, or lime green velour?  Seriously?  How is the target demographic not offended?

----------


## dilettante

I won't post another video for it, but I will plug this film again:

The Vast Of Night Is A Hidden Gem That Uses A Radio Drama Style To Tell UFO Stories




> Once you attune yourself to its wavelength, "The Vast of Night" conjures the spooky atmosphere of a radio drama or campfire tale. Nowadays, people in the mood for such stories are more likely to put on a podcast (say, Unsolved Mysteries), but there was a time when you might tune into "Coast to Coast AM" with Art Bell for that sort of thing.
> 
> "The Vast of Night" is like something you'd hear in a secret song on a Tool album. It's like a whole movie of that "Ghostbusters" scene where Winston and Ray are driving across the bridge in the Ectomobile, talking about the end of the world. The film itself deliberately harkens back to "The Twilight Zone" and the famous Orson Welles radio broadcast, "War of the Worlds." Other comparable touchstones might be "American Graffiti" or "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."


Saw it again tonight, and for me it holds up to repeat viewing.

----------


## dilettante

I'm not very far in, but you know it has to be watchable.

How?  The sheer amount of vein bursting by the woke media from here to Australia straining to take a dump on it says it must be fairly free of the cultural engineering so much entertainment has succumbed to.

----------


## Niya

> I'm not very far in, but you know it has to be watchable.
> 
> How?  The sheer amount of vein bursting by the woke media from here to Australia straining to take a dump on it says it must be fairly free of the cultural engineering so much entertainment has succumbed to.


Yea, it's the same deal with Top Gun Maverick. I haven't seen it yet but just from all coverage by sources I respect talking about how much the "wokies" are losing their minds over it, I know it will be enjoyable.

----------


## Niya

Reached episode 6 of Season 3 of the Orville and I must say this show is great. Not only is it not infected with leftist nonsense, they actually can do "woke" stuff better than the actual "wokies". For example, S03E05 deals with identity politics, which is the latest obsession of leftist showrunners. However in this show did it with such grace, maturity and class it was just captivating and brilliant. They dived deep into the issues of gender identity, exploring all aspects of the subject in a very realistic and balanced way. None of the garbage you see in most shows that try to pretend that one way is right and everyone that disagrees is a bigot. 

Anyways, if you're a fan of old school Star Trek, I highly recommend The Orville. 10/10 it is easily in my top 5 TV shows ever made.

----------


## dilettante

I watched the 1st season and found it funny and enjoyable but somewhat derivative.  Something happened by season 2 and I no longer had access to it... the decline of broadcast TV and deep commercialization and compartmentalization in streaming video services?

I try to stick to offerings that are either free with ads or included in other "membership" fees I already pay.  That can be very limiting but I don't resort to piracy.  So I probably will not see 2 and 3 until they take in enough cash to farm the show out in syndication.

But that's just me.

----------


## dilettante

Speaking of ad-supported streaming, I see that Crackle is currently running one of my favorites: "Last Resort" (2012).




Sadly it was cut short at 13 episodes.  Er, "because it wasn't popular."

----------


## Niya

That one reminds me of The Last Ship. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to finish watching the last few episodes of that series for a couple years now. I like military shows like this.

----------


## dilettante

This YouTube channel takes an interesting approach to delivering information:

----------


## dilettante

I'm starting to see more of these people retiring into comedy:




Caution: the humor might be too raw for coddled urbanites.  :Wink:

----------


## Niya

> Caution: the humor might be too raw for coddled urbanites.


I wonder how many leftists popped a vein listening to that.....and that is as PG-13 as a stand-up session can get. What a world we live in  :EEK!: 

It was funny as hell though. Interestingly what he says about nicknames still applies today where I'm from. Everyone has at least one. I've had several in my life lol.

----------


## dilettante

I haven't track this down yet: World on a Wire (1973).




It appears to have good ratings and is recognized for being ahead of its time.  Has anyone already watched it?

Caution: It seems to be 3 1/2 to 4 hours long.


Oh yeah: It is in German so you'd want to locate a subtitled copy unless you are reasonably fluent.  I don't think they ever released a dubbed version but I might be wrong about that.

----------


## Niya

> I haven't track this down yet: World on a Wire (1973).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It appears to have good ratings and is recognized for being ahead of its time.  Has anyone already watched it?
> 
> Caution: It seems to be 3 1/2 to 4 hours long.
> 
> ...


I've never even heard of this film to be honest. Doesn't strike me as something I'd like though however I'm probably wrong and it is probably a good movie. Showrunners had a knack for making solid movies in this era.

----------


## Niya

But speaking of classic Sci-Fi:-






Two of my favorites.

----------


## dilettante

Forbidden Planet was pretty solid.  I have seen Logan's Run lots of times and always enjoyed it.

Some more oldies:

----------


## Niya

Ah nice. I believe I have seen when I was very young but I never knew the names of those movies. Good stuff.

There was also one I saw a bit of where a ship was shrunk down and they were exploring the human body or some such thing. I can't remember the name of that one.

----------


## dilettante

Probably an adaptation of an Isaac Asimov story, such as:




There was even a cartoon series:

----------


## Niya

Yea that's it! I never saw the whole thing but I did see a good chunk of it on TV when I was young. I never knew it was called until now.

I'd really love to see what modern special effects can do for this concept though. However we all know that would be accompanied by woke leftist propaganda(unless Tom Cruise makes it) so perhaps it's better to leave good enough alone.

I think I will watch it fully when I'm in the mood for oldies again.

----------


## dilettante

I know I've gushed about this one before (probably at least twice) but it still seems to be an underappreciated branch of The Terminator franchise.

Season 1 is short with 9 episodes.  Season 2 dives deeper into the lore with 22 episodes.  Sadly it was canceled beyond that, chopping off a "might have been" set in the future where SkyNet had become dominant.

This is slightly spoilerish, but not fatally so.  A "making of" for Season 1, it illustrates some ways the TV series remained faithful to the vision in the first two films.  "John Connor's emo teen years" could almost be an alternate title.  Some people don't care for this aspect of the show, but maybe they've never had any teenaged kids of their own.

This video is nice because it points out something audiences often miss.

In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles we see that Terminators themselves are evolving and acquiring full sentience.  They have become interested in independence from SkyNet and possibly even some sort of partnership with humanity.  Season 2 explores some _creator's angst_ experienced in different ways, even religious ways, by different characters when they can slow down and contemplate what they are seeing.

----------


## Niya

I've always thought about watching this show since the Terminator franchise(up to the Christian Bale one and no more) was one of my favorite franchises, probably my number 1 at some point. However, by the time I knew of it's existence it was already cancelled. I knew from experience with FireFly that falling in love with a cancelled show is not very pleasant. It always leaves this yearning to know what happens next accompanied by the melancholy from the knowledge that you will never find out. For this reason I try to avoid incomplete TV shows. I prefer to watch shows that have a conclusive ending.

Still, it's Terminator and I'm not going to leave this Earth without watching this someday. I'm just not ready to face the disappointment of an inconclusive ending.

----------


## dilettante

Well in this case those close to the show insist that the cancellation was a little different.  The claim is that the ending was a setup for future shows that we just never got.

So in that sense TSCC is complete.  We just never got those new shows that continued the story following a major shift in time.

Maybe there was never going to be a season 3 anyway.  I'm not completely convinced, but as I dig into it more it does seem to fit how the second half of season 2 played out.  It was already more than twice the length of the first season.

Anything beyond that might have been named "Terminator Timeline Reset: Who The Hell Is This 'John Connor' Guy Anyway?"  In the final episode that is pretty explicit.

----------


## Niya

> Well in this case those close to the show insist that the cancellation was a little different.  The claim is that the ending was a setup for future shows that we just never got.
> 
> So in that sense TSCC is complete.


I suppose that could work for me. There is nothing worse than watching a show that ends abruptly before most major plotlines have been brought to a conclusion. It just leaves a sour feeling in your soul when you enjoyed the show.

It sounds like what they did with The Expanse. There was more to tell but they wrapped up most of what they had going on as best they could. The only thing I'm bummed about was those dog things that brought that boy back to life. I was really looking forward to knowing more about what was going on there.

----------


## dilettante

> It sounds like what they did with The Expanse. There was more to tell but they wrapped up most of what they had going on as best they could. The only thing I'm bummed about was those dog things that brought that boy back to life. I was really looking forward to knowing more about what was going on there.


That did feel like an odd way to let a subplot trail off.  I'm not sure what the goal was there.  Maybe there is some sort of short-run thing planned for that.  Maybe something like a short-episode thing, more like "webisodes."  Or maybe a movie or something.  Perhaps we'll get something, perhaps not.

----------


## Niya

> That did feel like an odd way to let a subplot trail off.  I'm not sure what the goal was there.  Maybe there is some sort of short-run thing planned for that.  Maybe something like a short-episode thing, more like "webisodes."  Or maybe a movie or something.  Perhaps we'll get something, perhaps not.


I too was wondering about that. I didn't even know it was going to be a short season until like the penultimate episode so I thought they would have wrapped up that plotline as well.

----------


## dilettante

I'd guess these guys are are from 68 or so up into their 80s somewhere.  I was worried this "comedy" might end on a grim or deeply sad note, but nobody dies after all.

"Fish out of water" movie, where the "water" is modern life and finding yourself old before you are prepared for that.  There was enough here to be worth watching.  Some of it low-key funny, some of it painful enough to trigger introspection.




It might be an incredible choice to watch with younger family though.  There are parts that might make them curl right into a ball from embarrassment.

----------


## dilettante

This is so bad even George Takei would exclaim "Oh my!"




The only thing notable is that within the first 15 minutes you can see where George Lucas got Luke & Leia, Han & Chewie, perhaps even Obi-Wan... as well as the Cantina.  And maybe even most of his screenplay dialog style.

By 18 minutes in the story deviates from the Star Wars tale more substantially.  Come for the plagiarism, stay for the comical monster effects.

----------


## dilettante

Pretty funny parody of election campaigns:

----------


## Niya

> Pretty funny parody of election campaigns:


lol....that was funny. Also pretty effective at illustrating what a circus elections are.

----------


## dilettante

Slow paced, parts of it almost look like modern video game animation rather than live action.  Not as bad as low budget indy stuff tends to get though.




The back story is a little vague.

My mental rewrite of it is that coastal urban excess has depleted the resources of the heartland of the US.  Solar and wind farms combined with excessive energy consumption, paving over the land, and growing water-wasting almonds and avocados and dairy cattle in the desert have altered the climate drastically.

The big cities are feeling the pinch but getting by.  Everyone else must produce more than they consume or get "sent to New Eden" by the neo-feudal urban masters.

----------


## Niya

> My mental rewrite of it is that coastal urban excess has depleted the resources of the heartland of the US.  Solar and wind farms combined with excessive energy consumption, paving over the land, and growing water-wasting almonds and avocados and dairy cattle in the desert have altered the climate drastically.


lmao.... :Wink: 




> Slow paced, parts of it almost look like modern video game animation rather than live action.  Not as bad as low budget indy stuff tends to get though.


Donno how I missed this one. The post-apocalyptic genre is among my favorite genre of movies/TV Shows. Though it doesn't strike me as something ground-breaking, it's going on my to-watch list. Plus Nicholas Cage is one of my favorite actors. I often enjoy his performances.

----------


## dilettante

Here's another goofy "climate change backdrop" indy flick.  Low budget, Charlie Sheen, primitive CGI, but somehow I enjoy it.

Not to be confused with the over-hyped big budget train wreck with the smoke-ring blowing Snuffleupagus aliens and weird mental time travel tacked on.  They stole the name, but that's about it.




Note the year of release.  Hollywood has been promoting artificially produced climate change for a very long time.

----------


## dilettante

> The post-apocalyptic genre is among my favorite genre of movies/TV Shows.


Are you familiar with "The Postman" (1997) with Kevin Costner?  It gets a lot of hate.  I liked the book well before the movie got made.

"The Road" (2009) is almost too grimly dystopian for me to watch again.

But I really would like to see a movie or a mini-series made of Niven and Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer" published in 1977.  Closest thing I've seen is the TV movie "A Fire In The Sky" (1978), not to be confused with the silly UFO abduction tale that ripped off the name.

----------


## dilettante

At the very end of _The Humanity Bureau_ (above) we get a cameo by Lorne Cardinal.

He was one of the regular cast of _Corner Gas_ and voices the same role in _Corner Gas Animated_.

If you aren't familiar with that, well, it is sorta kinda the sister show of Stargate SG-1.  The main difference it nobody there knows about the Stargate or aliens and it doesn't pretend that it isn't in Canada.  Brent Leroy and Jack O'Neil have an almost identical sense of humor.

----------


## dilettante

Canadians aren't above "eating their young" so to speak either.  Here's is a run they took at their own general population:




I believe it began as short videos on YouTube and then became a TV series for a while.

----------


## dilettante

No, by no means is this a good movie.  Yet somehow, some way, it is a great movie.

----------


## Niya

> No, by no means is this a good movie.  Yet somehow, some way, it is a great movie.


OMG! Can't believe you mentioned this one! This movie is no doubt a cheap B movie with many problems but by some miracle it is one of my all time favorites since I was a teenager. Even to this day, I go back and watch it in full every couple years or so. I must have watched it 10 or more times by now.

----------


## Niya

Speaking of B movies, there is also Guyver 2: Dark Hero. This one was also a favorite of mine since my teenage years and I've watched it probably over 100 times by now. As a matter of fact, I've already re-watched it about 4 times already this year, the most recent being just a few days ago. The special effects are ok, the acting is mostly terrible and the dialogue is horrible. Despite these gaping flaws, there's just something about it that I just can't get enough of. 




Note: You can actually find the full movie easily on YouTube. It's a B movie and my guess it whoever produced it either don't exist anymore or they don't think it's worth to effort to prevent it from being pirated. This is typical of B movies.

----------


## dilettante

I should look into the Guyver franchise again.  I'm not sure I have watched any of it for a very long time.

Thanks, this might be another movie or two for rainy days.

----------


## dilettante

The "Kolchak" franchise comes to us from way back in the 1970s.  Two original TV movies and a one-season series have become cult classics.  There was even another brief series about 20 years later, sort of a reboot.  And it also has some direct ties as an inspiration for "The X Files" where Darrin McGavin (the original Kolchak from the '70s) was even showcased in a few cameo appearances.

Here is a "Creature Features" presentation of the original film "The Night Stalker."

"Creature Features" is a cable-TV-and-YouTube program of the _hosted horror show_ stripe with interstitial skits, guest interviews, etc. to add color and flavor.







> A has-been rock star hosts horror films in his haunted mansion. Guest: Former Creature Features host John Stanley. Movie: The Night Stalker from 1972.

----------


## wes4dbt

I liked the Night Stalker.  Always liked Darrin McGavin.   I never thought about it but that show was a lot like the X Files.  But without all the secret government agency stuff.

----------


## dilettante

If you enjoyed "Romancing the Stone" (1984) and it sequel... it looks like we have a sort of reboot.

"The Lost City" is a sort of comedy adventure parody thing.




My expectations were low, but it had me laughing a lot.  What a name for an adventure hero: "Dash McMahon."

----------


## Niya

> If you enjoyed "Romancing the Stone" (1984) and it sequel... it looks like we have a sort of reboot.
> 
> "The Lost City" is a sort of comedy adventure parody thing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My expectations were low, but it had me laughing a lot.  What a name for an adventure hero: "Dash McMahon."


Funny you should mention this one. About a week ago or so I was looking for a movie to watch or a new series to get into. I saw the poster for that show and blindly assumed it was some high adventure show in the like of Indiana Jones or Uncharted. It was 10 minutes in when I realized it was some kind of chick flick. I had a good laugh over how I managed to fool myself. Ended up settling on a new show called Evil. I'm currently in it's second season.

----------


## dilettante

I thought it was going to suck at the beginning too.  But then the comedy really kicked in and I found it enjoyable compared to the sort of crap we've been getting recently.

I thought is was a series, but now it appears to be just one movie.  Of course if I had finished watching it I'd already know that - duh.

----------


## Niya

Game of Thrones fans might enjoy this.




It's a Game of Thrones prequel that's been in development since the original ended. I just watched the pilot. I had my doubts and still do have some. There was a scene scene where a princess was being schooled by her mother on her duty to produce an heir for the king and her response was to babble some nonsense about wanting to be a knight and fight in battles. Almost stopped watching right there as I recognized it as a signature of the leftist feminist trolls that somehow bamboozled their way into Hollywood. But I kept watching and found it not bad. It has potential to be a great successor to Game of Thrones. The set design, special effects, dialog and acting are all top notch, exactly what you'd expect from a successor to Game of Thrones. I only hope they don't water down the plot with leftist garbage in the coming episodes. If not, this could turn out to be one of the best shows in recent years. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

----------


## dilettante

When TV was still young and sitcoms still simple and direct.  This show began airing in 1952:




Black and white, and in transcoding the aspect ratio got a little squished, but the audio is mostly crisp.  Some may benefit from turning on auto-generated subtitles though.  Pronunciation and vocabulary has changed.

For example the "bop language" (bop as in "bebop") Episode 2 referred to soon become "beat language" and today most people have no words for it at all.  It was a sort of white bread imitation of the slang used by jazz musicians, but very quickly was replaced by hippie slang in the 1960s as the well-off Silent Generation got older and bolder about privilege.

This comedy provides an idealized view of upper middle class Silents and their parents in the decade before they turned on and tuned out.  Funny how most kids today get confused and refer to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as "Boomers" - though they are not.

----------


## dilettante

"Salvage Marines"

Has anyone else sampled this new series yet?

No idea how well it might be doing and I'm only partway through the 1st episode.  It's a bit of a slog but setting the stage often takes a few episodes in the first season.

Production values are low, about the level of Canada's "Starhunter" (2000) in its original incarnation.  But the budget is probably very tight.  So far I find it on second- and third-tier streaming services like Crackle and Popcornflix here in the US.





"Starhunter" plus "Starhunter 2300" (its late 2nd season) got a re-edit and enhancement and came out as "Starhunter Redux" (2017).  Essentially identical from a "10 thousand foot" view, but with significant enough changes to make it nearly a different show.

----------


## dilettante

It appears to be based on a book series.  Book 1 of 6: "Salvage Marines (Necrospace)"

----------


## Niya

> "Salvage Marines"


That looks like my kind of series. However, the trailer gives me low budget vibes. Casper Van Dien, Armand Assante are staples in low budget productions and the special effects look like early 2000s TV special effects. I would be willing to give it a chance since good acting, dialog and an interesting plot can overcome it's lack of a reasonable budget. A good example of this is the FireFly franchise. It also has low budget "feels" but is excellent in it's dialog, writing and acting. FireFly has since become a cult classic that is still referenced to this day. It was a really good show. Perhaps this could be the case here too. I'll take a look at it and see for myself.

----------


## dilettante

These shows are hard to judge until they have a full season "in the can."  Even then Star Trek The Next Generation was pretty darned awful until it got its act together halfway into Season 2.

So I'll try to get through the episodes available now, then try to remember to come back for more as they trickle out.  You're right, so far effects, directing, editing, etc. all seem pretty cheesy and the actors haven't settled into their roles.


I'm pretty happy with "Resident Alien" (Alan Tudyk, even Linda Hamilton in a recurring role) so far.  However it is smaller in scope and can get by on a smaller budget for effects but the acting is great even for the children in the cast.

----------


## dilettante



----------


## dilettante

I almost think the entire story was hinged upon the term "anti-hero."

----------


## FunkyDexter

Bit of a late suggestion but The New Legends of Monkey on Netflix.  It's actually a pretty worthy successor to the old 70s series that pays enough homage to the original while also going in it's own direction.

----------


## Niya

Here a trailer for it so people can see what they are getting:-



Not my usual stuff but it seems to have a charm of it's own. It doesn't seem to be another woke leftist propaganda piece probably because of NetFlix's purge of leftists from it's ranks recently. I might give this a try. I do like the fantasy/adventure genre.

----------


## dilettante

When starved for stuff to watch there are always videos I call "travel samplers" that can show where you might like to go on a short trip.  Or you can watch them, nod, and save yourself the trip.

Some are overproduced amateur video, others more professionally done.  Some are just simple and quaint, just above the "family home movies" level.




I don't know these people, and only watched this one video by them because I know the location (at least as it was 30 years ago when it was much wilder).

From the excessive gear for such a short Summer trip they look like city folk.  From the accents I'd guess Detroit suburbs but the rest of their videos (thumbnails) suggest Milwaukee.  Perhaps they are transplants?

----------


## FunkyDexter

> It doesn't seem to be another woke leftist propaganda piece


Why would you assume it was?

I've just started on The Devil is in Ohio which is looking good so far.  A little heavy handed on the hints at Satanism perhaps but intriguing and, after 3 episodes, I'm thoroughly hooked and curious about where it's going to go.

----------


## Niya

> Why would you assume it was?


Why would I assume it's not. Hollywood was taken over by far left nut jobs in recent years and they have ruined so many great franchises with their nonsense. Shows that are devoid of leftist politics are extremely hard to come by today. It's always safe to assume that every new show that comes out is going to be "woke" as hell.

There is some good news though. People are getting tired of it and are starting to push back. Just look at Mark Ruffalo's recent tweet about the new She-Hulk show. It brought a smile to my face to see that people are finally waking up to this insanity. It took too long but better late than never.

----------


## dilettante

For some reason the word "woke" is now a pain point.

I hear arguments like "This was once a social badge of honor, but both the 'intentionally and unconsciously racist' are now using it to call us out on our bullshit.  Unfair!  How dare they use the label we chose to identify ourselves by to identify us?"

One the one hand "unconsciously racist" bears a strong resemblance to Philip K. Dick's term _pre-crime_.  One the other hand... batshit?


Here's a guy who trades in popular media rumors who isn't very comfortable as the tide turns against the positions he has chosen:

----------


## FunkyDexter

> Shows that are devoid of leftist politics are extremely hard to come by today.


You're clearly not looking very hard.  I can certainly identify franchises that have embraced inclusivity, but I can trivially identify franchises that have simply ignored it too.  I guess the standard advice applies: if you don't like it, don't watch it.

----------


## Niya

Inclusivity? So I'm supposed to enjoy the garbage shows just because they are "inclusive" Is this how it is now? 




> I guess the standard advice applies: if you don't like it, don't watch it.


I will gladly avoid them but this leftist garbage is in 95% of shows now. It's unavoidable.

----------


## FunkyDexter

OK, I've asked you to avoid provocation multiple times and you seem to be unable to make a post without including a barbed, baiting insult.  Take two weeks.

----------


## jpbro

Loved this series, it had me in stitches:




Based on some of the reviews I read, it seemed to piss off both the left & right wingers about equally (for different reasons of course). It must have been doing something right  :Smilie:

----------


## FunkyDexter

I like the team behind it.  That looks good.

----------


## wes4dbt

> You're clearly not looking very hard.  I can certainly identify franchises that have embraced inclusivity, but I can trivially identify franchises that have simply ignored it too.  I guess the standard advice applies: if you don't like it, don't watch it.


That's good advice.  

The biggest problem I have is being old means you've already seen all these various situations portrayed many times.  I haven't been watching any new TV comedies or dramas ...  for several years.  I mainly watch the Science Ch, Discovery, History,  Cartoon Network(adult swim), Turner Classic Movies, sports.   On Netflix and amazon I watch a lot of documentaries.

Even with all of that, I still hardly ever find anything I'm excited to watch.  Not because there's something about the shows that offends me but it's just hard to find something fresh that interests me.

Old age sucks but the alternative is worse.  lol

----------


## dilettante

I think you understand his complaint but reject it because he delivers it too aggressively and it conflicts with your own bias.  Inclusivity is one thing, and perfectly reasonable.  But what I think he objects to is cultural misappropriation and indoctrination.

If you watch recent advertising (let alone entertainment programming) you'd think your own country is 90% non-white, 50% gay or trans, 99% female, and families 70% multiracial.

There are certainly places in the world where some of that is true, but that isn't the geography being targeted.  And if you view domestic media in African and Asian countries you don't see any of that at al.

So when well-off western white professionals preach "inclusivity" their double-speak really means _exclusivity_.  The lower-middle and working class folks are being bludgeoned because "I don't have to outcompete the bear, I just need to outcompete you - by holding you down and excluding you from your own society."

It is class warfare that has nothing to do with "minority" people except as tools.

I'm sorry if that comes off as too aggressive.

----------


## wes4dbt

> I think you understand his complaint but reject it because he delivers it too aggressively and it conflicts with your own bias.  Inclusivity is one thing, and perfectly reasonable.  But what I think he objects to is cultural misappropriation and indoctrination.
> 
> If you watch recent advertising (let alone entertainment programming) you'd think your own country is 90% non-white, 50% gay or trans, 99% female, and families 70% multiracial.
> 
> There are certainly places in the world where some of that is true, but that isn't the geography being targeted.  And if you view domestic media in African and Asian countries you don't see any of that at al.
> 
> So when well-off western white professionals preach "inclusivity" their double-speak really means _exclusivity_.  The lower-middle and working class folks are being bludgeoned because "I don't have to outcompete the bear, I just need to outcompete you - by holding you down and excluding you from your own society."
> 
> It is class warfare that has nothing to do with "minority" people except as tools.
> ...


I don't find that aggressive.  No name calling or degrading comments of stupid people and idiots.  But I don't agree.

I've said this before, TV or politics are driven by the people.  TV is a business and it's purpose is to make money.  The more viewer they can attract the more money they can make.  So, TV is provide what people want.

If it's,



> If you watch recent advertising (let alone entertainment programming) you'd think your own country is 90% non-white, 50% gay or trans, 99% female, and families 70% multiracial.


so be it.  Those numbers are extreme but I agree the real US is not near that inclusive.  TV has never been a true representation.  I mean June Cleaver wore a pearl necklace while cleaning the house.  lol

I'd say TV is more representative of what people wish the world was like.  Cops catch the bad guys, racism is minimized or called out, happy endings, ....

----------


## Schmidt

> "entertainment programming"


Ah, there you have the whole issue, expressed in just two words...  :Wink: 
...(and it apparently works on people, as the recent "banning" has shown).

wes4dbt is right, that mass-media was always (mis)used, to transport "agendas".

What Niya (and others, myself included) are trying to say here (and I'm all for "real inclusivity")
is the "increased intensity" of these programming-attempts over the recent years.

It's "the degree of it" which makes one sick (when encountered) these days...

Just my $0.02...

Olaf

----------


## FunkyDexter

> I think you understand his complaint but reject it because he delivers it too aggressively


That's actually a fairly accurate summary of why he was banned. He's entitled to his opinion, he's not entitled to the aggression.  For the record, though, it's not the aggression that leads me to rejecting his complaint.  I reject it because I disagree with it.

But let's not derail yet another thread onto this particular culture war.  The "what to watch" discussion is pretty useful and derailing it probably won't lead anywhere good anyway.  If people want to have that discussion I'd suggest starting a new thread but people should keep it civil and avoid baiting.  (I actually think it would be an interesting discussion to have as long as it's kept civil)


Edit> This should probably go without saying but just to be clear: @Wes, @Dil and @Olaf, nothing you've put in those last few posts would be considered beyond the pail.  It would be completely appropriate for a discussion to be had in that tone.

----------


## dilettante

> But let's not derail yet another thread onto this particular culture war.


Yeah, I was disappointed by where it had begun to go myself.


I'm beginning to think what causes things to get so harsh and brutal is escalating rounds of "Well I can't let _that_ go unchallenged!" that start slow then ramp up exponentially.  The flaw behind that might be a vain belief that "If people can just _hear my truth_ they'll fall in line or at least be silenced."  That can't possibly work for these kinds of topics.

It doesn't even work for programming topics that have far more objective "truths" though in practice few are absolute.  Even if you narrow things to issues of performance there are things to consider like algorithm edge cases or risk of implementation flaws, volume of data, or tradeoffs between space and time.  Is a binary search or a hash table important when your application never has more than 12 items to juggle and only needs to do it once?

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

Well, I can't let _that_ go unchallenged!

Can't think of anything to add to it, though. Good post.

----------


## dilettante

No, Rick Deckard _was not_ a Replicant.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

How about a reptile? I'm not too concerned about the spelling. Replicant, reptile, I'm flexible.

And I don't know who Rick Deckard is.

----------


## dilettante

Seriously?

Welcome to Los Angeles:




Arguably the first major cyberpunk feature film, and a landmark in science fiction cinema.

----------


## dilettante

I'd hoped to find this scene for something closer to the theatrical and television release cuts.  Those had more narration over the silences to provide exposition that is still probably useful for those who haven't seen the movie in its various forms over the decades since initial release.

----------


## dilettante

For the masochist:




But of course the narration comes out as a muddle after all of this mixing.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

I saw that movie about thirty years ago. I didn't remember his name after all that time.

----------


## dilettante

One of my sons saw it when he was 19 as part of a college class on literature and media, and became obsessed with it for a while.  He was even caught up in a campus fan club for Philip K. Dick and adaptations of his work, which at least had more girls than something like a board gaming clan would have back in those days.

----------


## FunkyDexter

> a landmark in science fiction cinema


Definitely!  I thought the recent sequel was a worthy successor too.  Not ground breaking in the way the original was but still had an intelligent plot, great direction, great acting and stunning visuals.


Speaking of sequels, if you haven't seen it, go and see the new TopGun.  Objectively it's a very silly film but so was the original and that didn't stop either of them from being AWESOME!

----------


## NeedSomeAnswers

> Arguably the first major cyberpunk feature film, and a landmark in science fiction cinema.


One the my favourite Science Fiction Movies ever, love Blade Runner. 




> I thought the recent sequel was a worthy successor too


I Liked the Sequel but didn't love it, it was a bit slow and I guess I'm just not a Ryan Gosling Fan he is no Harrison Ford.

----------


## dilettante

> I Liked the Sequel but didn't love it, it was a bit slow and I guess I'm just not a Ryan Gosling Fan he is no Harrison Ford.


I feel ambivalent about the newer Mad Max movie too.

The 1st movie is good in its way, but the 2nd and 3rd are pretty good stuff for its genre.  The recent "Fury Road" was ok but seemed too derivative and opportunistic.  I have no idea what to expect of "The Wasteland" or "Furiosa" that were slated to arrive soon.

----------


## FunkyDexter

I really liked Fury Road.  Like the new Top Gun, it's a very silly movie but I don't think that matters.  A Mad Max film is all about the visuals and the vehicles and they absolutely nailed that (particularly the Doof Warrior).

Some films I want a serious and intelligent plot from (Blade Runner being one) but other's I just want to be left grinning like a loon.

----------


## wes4dbt

> I really liked Fury Road.  Like the new Top Gun, it's a very silly movie but I don't think that matters.  A Mad Max film is all about the visuals and the vehicles and they absolutely nailed that (particularly the Doof Warrior).
> 
> Some films I want a serious and intelligent plot from (Blade Runner being one) but other's I just want to be left grinning like a loon.


I got a kick out of Fury Road.  As you said for the visuals.  Plus I've been a Charlize Theron fan ever since I saw her in Two Day in The Valley many years ago.  She just was an absolute knockout.   

The first time I saw blade Runner it was at a drive in and you couldn't really see crap.  I wasn't impressed.  I've come to like it more now that I've seen it on a good TV.

----------


## dilettante

Well to me "Fury Road" was really just a random action/visuals flick.  They could have replaced Max by any random character or left his role out entirely and nothing would change.  The Max character wasn't really even the audience POV this time.

It's like "Big Trouble in Little China" with no Jack Burton.  It would go from a spoof of Asian exploitation martial arts flicks to just another example of what it was pushing back against.

But who knows what audiences are thinking.  People watch "Starship Troopers" with no self-awareness or a clue that they are supposed to be cringing at nearly every moment of the authoritarian cultural tendencies it lampoons.

----------


## wes4dbt

> Well to me "Fury Road" was really just a random action/visuals flick. They could have replaced Max by any random character or left his role out entirely and nothing would change. The Max character wasn't really even the audience POV this time.


True, it was just a action/visual movie.  But with a very large budget.  So the quality of the visuals was excellent.   Of coarse whether you like them or not is your choice.  But you got to have Max in a Mad Max film.  Other wise it's just another post apocalyptic, lone wolf film.  

One thing the movies have taught me is stay away from lone wolfs, their tortured souls have made them like a violence magnet and they're almost impossible to kill.

----------


## dilettante

A failure to generate wealth for the bottom half of the population, the slowdown of general education, and the rise of a fatalist worldview.  Stuff we don't seem to look at head-on.




> In 1970, Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich published a famous book, The Population Bomb, in which he described a disasterous future for humanity: The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.
> 
> That prediction turned out to be very wrong, and in this interview American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt tells how we are in fact heading toward the opposite problem: not enough people. For decades now, many countries have been unable to sustain a population replacement birth rate, including in Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, and, most ominously, China. The societal and social impacts of this phenomenon are vast.
> 
> We discuss those with Eberstadt as well as some strategies to avoid them.


Two guys talking for an hour.  Painful but some things worth hearing here.




Yes, there is some self-congratulatory conservatism here but I discount that as the kind of fallibility we all have.  It is hard to escape our own bias.

----------


## FunkyDexter

I seem to be on a reboot binge.  Been watching Cobra Kai and absolutely loving it.

----------


## dilettante

This was decent:




> A filthy animal unfit for human company and a dog.

----------


## FunkyDexter

That does look good.

Another recommendation for fans of the woofer would be "A Dog's Purpose" but be prepared to shed a tear or two.

----------


## dilettante

I just noticed that The Roku Channel has season 5 available for the next few weeks.




I haven't seen these episodes since they first ran on TV.

----------


## dilettante

If you can place yourself in its time, this is sort of "the nerdy man's Ocean's 11."

The tech is mostly obsolete but in its day it was gripping, so much so that it was a bit over the heads of general audiences.




The movie is mostly a showcase for its cast.  Young people today probably won't even recognize most of the actors though, despite the fact that 1992 really isn't that long ago.

----------


## FunkyDexter

Oooh, I've never heard of that but it looks good. And what a cast!  I'll have to see if I can hunt it down.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

I've seen that one a few times. There is a scene in there in some kind of penthouse with some art on the walls. Most people wouldn't notice that, and I don't really understand the reference, but either the art was owned by a friend of my sister's, or the penthouse was owned by him, or something like that. They all recognized the art, anyways...and I did not.

----------


## dilettante

Ryan Reynolds.  What a goon.




Any chance this is for real?

----------


## dilettante

Anyone remember Defiance?

----------


## FunkyDexter

> Any chance this is for real?


Think so.  I'm seeing lots of Deadpool memes starting to crop up.

I'm 50/50 on whether I want to see more Deadpool films.  I thought the first was awesome, the second was good.  On that trajectory it could trend toward mediocrity.  If the recapture the first, though, I'll call it a win.

----------


## dilettante

I thought it was interesting that the tease seems to be serious about Jackman returning as Wolverine.  But I suppose that could just be a Deadpool gag.

----------


## FunkyDexter

I'd say the odds are pretty high.  They definitely like taking the mickey out of Wolverine and I get the impression Jackman enjoys leaning into it.

----------


## dilettante

I'm not sure how much of the 1980s schlock and semi-schlock sword and sorcery flicks inspired by the success of the Star Wars franchise people are familiar with.

Here's one that seems less known today:




Not up to the quality of the Conan movies, maybe not even up to Krull's level.  But still fun and a part of '80s culture.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

They should have had Arnold playing Conan in that movie. After all, Red Sonja and Conan often crossed paths in the comics of the time, and Arnold had already played Conan, so it would have fit.

----------


## dilettante

"Sleepcore" takes old visual media and strings snippets together and re-contextualizes them.

These videos vary by theme.  There is also an annual "Nightmarecore" for Halloween season.  Those are not posted to YouTube, but dig around there and you can find links to them.

Here's one of the more conventional examples:




While these are not intended as a sleep aid, many people seem to find them useful for that purpose.  Lots of them will offer a taste of advertising and educational shorts of the 1950s and 1960s.  Many of those filled out the programs of movie theaters and drive-ins, while others were aimed at classrooms or on-the-job training.

----------


## dilettante

Maybe check this out first:

----------


## mmarkgilbert

Loft

----------


## dilettante

If you dig around you can find the skits and snippets of this prototypical role model for the iPhone and EV owners of today.

----------


## jpbro

The first youtube videos that I've watched in their entirety in ages:

----------


## dilettante

The History Guy:

----------


## dilettante

Seems all but forgotten though once a fairly regular Saturday TV offering a few decades back:

----------


## dilettante

Not the biggest fan of the modern theatre experience, but this looks interesting:




Weird for a Christmas message though.  Basically this evil Claus attacks populist mercenaries preying upon some innocently hyper-privileged rich family.

Egad, the Reagan Years really _are_ back!  Shades of DuckTales, where Donald gets shipped off to war and Scrooge McDuck becomes a cuddly plutocratic hero to children.

----------


## dilettante

Browsing some older material from the late 1960s and early 1970s, I'd forgotten how diverse science fiction visual media once was before Lucas and Spielberg sucked the oxygen from the room.

Here's an old Thanksgiving-themed pilot for a TV series that just was not meant to be.




Since it was released as a TV movie there are not many good digital copies out there today.  Most are roughly VHS quality.

----------


## FunkyDexter

> evil Claus


Does look like some pretty ridiculous fun.

----------


## dilettante

Ahh, that classic October comedy bit to annoy your friends with:

----------


## dilettante

*Supervized*

"Wake up and smell the justice!"




A simple little comedy vehicle for some aging stars.

----------


## dilettante

Everybody loves creepy AI movies, right?

Not out yet:




But early-release insiders claim it is good.  If you like horror.

----------


## sapator

Windows software no doubt.

----------


## gewone

I know it's mainstream AF so kind of pointless spittin' it over here but still, I like it. Soo here goes.
Dahmer, available on Netflix, definitely worth watching!  :Smilie:

----------


## dilettante

Is that the "Dahmer - Monster" biographical drama thing?

I haven't given Netflix money since they were a DVD rental by mail thing that often substituted awful Asian movies with a similar English title slapped on when you selected stuff.  Today they may be more than the semi-scam they were back in the day, but I'm too cheap and can still feel my burnt fingers from the last go-round.

However they seem to have a ton of subscribers and some people like that sort of show too.  You sound satisfied or even appreciative, so that's an endorsement.

----------


## dilettante

What's the deal with the campy slob horror genre "Chucky" TV series?

I remember the original film franchise.  Not my bag, but I do recall trailers.

For some reason Syfy/USA has put S2E2 up on YouTube for free.  Is that a one-off or have they been doing this all along?

Oh wait, I see S2E1 there as well.  Not sure if they are having trouble getting eyeballs or something else (Halloween season promotion?) is at work.

----------


## wes4dbt

Watched a show on NetFlix called "Last Breath".  Documentary about a saturation diver accident @ 300ft down in the North Sea.  It keep my interest, actually caught myself tensing up.  lol

Lots of actual video.  Really enjoyed it.

----------


## FunkyDexter

> I haven't given Netflix money since...


I'd say it's worth signing up for a free trial and seeing what you think.  You can always drop it at the end of the trial.

I personally have it as my only paid streaming service.  I preferred it back in the day when they had a huge catalogue of golden oldies.  Now they mostly concentrate on the latest Hollywood films and their own series which isn't as interesting to me but some their own series have been particularly good.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

> Watched a show on NetFlix called "Last Breath".  Documentary about a saturation diver accident @ 300ft down in the North Sea.  It keep my interest, actually caught myself tensing up.  lol
> 
> Lots of actual video.  Really enjoyed it.


Did it take your breath away?

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

I was picking things on Netflix based on very little research. At least, that's probably why I added The Battleship Potemkin to my list. It may be that I thought it was a documentary, and didn't look too closely. Turned out to be a soviet propaganda film from the silent film era. Pretty entertaining, really. Two people would come up to one another, one would say something, the other would talk for a minute or two, then the first would reply for a time...and then a dialog card would come up and say, "Hello". 

I had no idea what that movie was about. The thing with soviet propaganda films was that there was always a message, it just wasn't always clear what the message was.

----------


## wes4dbt

> Did it take your breath away?


Someone did stop breathing.  I was mainly clinching my teeth.  

It's pretty amazing the way they do saturation diving.  The crew live in a gas rich chamber for 28 days at a time.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

> The crew live in a gas rich chamber for 28 days at a time.


 I had a colleague who ensured a gas rich environment for more than 28 days.

----------


## wes4dbt

> ensured a gas rich environment


How do you do that???

----------


## dilettante

Baked beans and boiled cabbage?

----------


## wes4dbt

> Baked beans and boiled cabbage?


lol,

Yeah, that will do it.

----------


## sapator

Since you where talking about Netfix, this might probably be the best of it:



And a good new one to spend a couple of hours:

----------


## FunkyDexter

> this might probably be the best of it:


I'll second that.  The Irishman is an excellent film.

----------


## dilettante

Ahh, MST3K.  So funny, not just the film riffing but also so many of those hosting bits.

Sadly a lot of it references popular culture now far outside the experiences of recent audiences.  But for the oldies among us this one roasting Jack Palance a little is hilarious:




Do people even remember Jack Palance any more, much less recall his TV series "Bronk" now?

Or remember the "Gor" books, one of which was adapted into the film they riffed on here in episode #519 in 1993?

----------


## FunkyDexter

I've just started watching the Midnight Club on Netflix.  Been pretty good so far.  It's made by the same people as The Haunting of Hill House (which was awesome!) but aimed at a lower age demographic - teens and twenties.  I'm not in that demographic, in case you didn't guess, but I'm finding it stands up regardless.

Edit> I should note that the subject matter is DARK.  I think it's handled well but may not be for everyone.

----------


## dilettante

I've heard that darker matter like that tends to be avoided by older and specific audiences.  Older folks are feeling too close to mortality watching people leaving them one by one.  Some audiences are fighting issues of anxiety and panic attack in their lives and can be "triggered" (overused word today) or put on edge by darker stuff too easily to enjoy it.

----------


## dilettante

I didn't say that to be insensitive.  I'm old myself and have also had some anxiety issues (sometimes severe) and won't claim to understand them.  So in both cases above I'm pretty sympathetic.

----------


## wes4dbt

> I've heard that darker matter like that tends to be avoided by older and specific audiences.  Older folks are feeling too close to mortality watching people leaving them one by one.  Some audiences are fighting issues of anxiety and panic attack in their lives and can be "triggered" (overused word today) or put on edge by darker stuff too easily to enjoy it.


I'm definitely old and I'd say my tastes have moved farther away from "scary" movies.  But not much because I've never been a big fan that genre.  Especially I've never liked slasher movies.  For many years I've avoided most movies that feature a lot of fear or pain.  So you wont catch me watching "Saw".  Just the thought of a situation like that makes me uneasy.  And the last thing I need is more things making me uneasy.  But I have no problem with action movies where some guy kills dozens of bad guys.  lol

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## dilettante

Yeah, I was thinking of some weirder stuff.  Not even slashers.

I tried to watch a subtitled film from India billed as "mature horror" and it turned out to be entirely about older people getting trapped under things and dying, abandoned and ignored as they died in poverty from hunger and exposure, etc.  Sort of like a series of very short Twilight Zone episodes with the same themes.  When I got to the one where street thugs broke into an old lady's shack and terrorized her... "click" off it went.  The jarring soundtrack didn't help much.  It seemed to be mostly squeaky flutes and something like a concertina wheezing and wailing.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

That sounds like something specifically designed to target anxieties. There are plenty of weird coping mechanisms, fetishes, and stuff, so it probably has it's own niche audience.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

The stock market can be it's own horror show, these days. You just can't take it seriously.

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## dilettante

I like to watch old movies that give a sense of how people lived in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.  How they spoke, dressed, etc. including things like average folks' views of authority and the government or how they respond to alarming events.

Here's another one, a 1957 flick.  A cut above the drive-in fare of the time.  People were still going to theaters until TV took over in a big way for most families and going to the theater became a rarer event.




Though the story is about "aliens" arriving it is more about human reactions and actions.

----------


## FunkyDexter

I think I might have given the wrong impression about The Midnight Club.  It's not a slasher, it's barely a horror.  I'd describe it as a character drama that hints at being a ghost story (though I get the feeling those hints may become more pronounced as the series progresses - don't know yet).

When I say the subject matters dark I mean it deals with some dark themes but I don't feel it sensationalises them.  I think I can give the set up without spoiling anything that isn't covered in the first episode.  A young woman is diagnosed with cancer, the treatments aren't working so she decides to check herself into a hospice with other terminally ill young people so she'll feel accepted.  They sneak into the kitchen each night at midnight to tell each other ghost stories.  Given the setup, their stories tend to be very fatalistic and deal with subjects like self-harm, drug abuse, religion, prejudice etc.  It's all very maturely handled but, yeah, could trigger (I agree - over used word) some folks and for other may just be total turn off.  But if you want some solid drama with heavy themes, it's pretty good.



New recommendation if you want some lighter, thoroughly inappropriate NSFW fun: The Boys.  I'm loving the new series but it's definitely aimed at those of us with a puerile sense of humour.

----------


## wes4dbt

> New recommendation if you want some lighter, thoroughly inappropriate NSFW fun: The Boys. I'm loving the new series but it's definitely aimed at those of us with a puerile sense of humour.


Have no idea what NSFW mean but The Boys is much more my type of entertainment.  But I didn't stick around very long with this series.  Can't really say why.  I did make it through the Umbrella Academy.  Which is very similar.

Well, when I say "make it through" a series, it's only true in the technical sense.  My usual method is, I'll watch the first couple of episodes to learn all the players/goals/story and then fast forward through most of the other episodes, just stopping to watch enough to keep up or the situations/characters that I enjoy.  Then, I watch the last episode.  I can usually finish a series in a 3hr sitting.  lol

I'd say it was a because of a short attention span but I can sit through a 3 1/2hr movie like Lawrence of Arabia and not touch the remote.  Except to pause the movie for a bathroom break and give my butt a rest.  lol

----------


## dilettante

Little known today:

"In 2087, free thought is illegal and the population is controlled by governments. A small band of free thinkers sends Garth A7, a cyborg, back in time to 1966 to prevent Professor Sigmund Marx from revealing his new discovery. The discovery will eventually make mind control possible and create a tyranny in Garth's time. He is pursued by two "Tracers" (also cyborgs) sent by the government to stop him."




Sounds like pure schlock, but it isn't as tacky as the description makes it seem.  Very low budget and meant for television release.

----------


## wes4dbt

He was in one of my favorites in my younger years.  The Day The Earth Stood Still.  I still enjoy it.

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## FunkyDexter

NSFW = Not Safe For Work.  It was originally used to tell folks not to open a link/attachment etc. at work but it's become a catch all for "content is risqué".




> Umbrella Academy


Excellent choice.  I don't think the second and third series were as good as the first but they're all good.

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## dilettante

Not awful, and it tries to deliver a message for the times.

It got a lot of negative criticisms, though mostly from people pushing back against the message... and aviation nutjobs complaining that the movie poster featured a jetliner's silhouette and the aisle between the seats of the plane interior set was unrealistically wide!

"The film's storyline deals with an alien abduction. When his flight disappears, a rocket scientist finds himself on trial in the future for his part in designing a weapon that has destroyed all life on Earth."




Bonus: For fans of the Theremin this movie uses one for background music.

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## dilettante

Are you into cryptozoology?  Puppetry and practical effects?  Meat Loaf's acting?

Ok, sarcastic humor?




Something to play in the background while playing handheld video games maybe.

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## dilettante

I'm surprised many don't remember or never watched "Lucy" (2014)

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## Shaggy Hiker

The premise is flawed. We all use 100% of our brain, of course, but some early research was misreported...of course, and we end up with fun movies.

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## dilettante

Myth: We Only Use 10% of Our Brains




> The origin of the 10% Myth is unclear, but some people attribute it to a misunderstanding of a statement in an article by William James (1907).





> His statement is actually consistent with what we now know about attention and flow states, but James clearly was not claiming that most people perpetually use only 10% of their brainpower.

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## wes4dbt

Started watching a series on The Peripheral on Amazon.  So far it's pretty interesting.  Though I don't like like watching series when you got to wait for each weekly episode.  Probably wait for a month and then go back to it.

----------


## dilettante

I started it but haven't gotten far into the first episode.  It didn't grab me at all and I'm pretty used to a slow build up to stories.

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## wes4dbt

> I started it but haven't gotten far into the first episode.  It didn't grab me at all and I'm pretty used to a slow build up to stories.


It got me interested before it even started.  The warning in the top left of the screen says, Contains:  Drug, violence, sexual content, smoking.  lol

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## dilettante

Who else remembers this theme music and these characters every weekday for many, many years?




That music ("Puffin Billy") was stock material, and already popular in the UK.

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## Shaggy Hiker

Yeah, I remember that. We didn't have a TV, so we didn't watch it all that often, but we did when we visited one of our grandmothers.

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## dilettante

I think when I was young we had a hand-me-down TV with like a 4" diagonal screen, a really old cheapo probably from the 1940s.  I don't remember ever watching it.  The next one we got after years with none was was a used 13" screen maybe in 1963 or so.  That one got a lot more use, at least 1/2 hour a day in the mornings and occasionally at night.

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## FunkyDexter

My first tele was about that size and no preset channels.  It had a little wheel on the side you used to tune to the next channel every time you wanted to change.

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## sapator

I watched this in the weekend:


Decent.

It's similar to the 1917 movie, so you get the idea (OMHO 1917 is better).

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## dilettante

A little trip through time.  Technological history that younger people may not even be aware of.




Some of this even takes me back, though most of it is before my time.

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## FunkyDexter

I added that All Quiet on the Western Front to my watchlist yesterday.  The original film is a classic so I hope Netflix have made a worthy version.

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## sapator

Haven't see the 70's version, or I have seen in a loooooong time ago, so I will do the opposite and try to find some spare time this weekend (although 27 degrees = sea time!) and watch it.

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## FunkyDexter

It's waaaay older than the 70s.  It was made in the 30s.  It was made as a protest during the build up to WWII.

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## sapator

I'm talking about the 70's movie tho.  :Smilie:

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## FunkyDexter

I actually never knew there was one.  That completely passed me by.

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## sapator

Yep. So probably a watchlist addition there  :Wink:

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## Shaggy Hiker

The recent one mentioned here, I think that was the one produced recently by a German director?

I don't think I saw the earlier one, but I read the book.

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## sapator

Yes that is the one mentioned.

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## dilettante

Interesting guests, though more North American than global most of the time.

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## wes4dbt

Yeah, I liked Myth Busters.  They could really take Duct Tape to the extreme.

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## dilettante

The show is funny, and they even post a version of each episode without the B movie so you can just enjoy the guest segments and interviews.

I'm sure it's just a gag, but their location is given as Bodega Bay.




> Vincent, Tangella and Mr. Livingston host the 21st-century version of Creature Features, the classic San Francisco Bay Area horror-host program made famous by Bob Wilkins in the 70s and John Stanley in the 80s. Host Vincent Van Dahl, popularly known as Vince Vandal, is the former frontman for the 1990s metal band Prince of Darkness. He retired from music several years ago to pursue a quiet life in Bodega Bay at his newly-acquired home, the historic Poulter Manor. From this allegedly haunted mansion, he is joined by his peculiar housemate Tangella and his loyal valet Mr. Livingston to deliver the best guests and the worst movies to the entire Bay Area and around the world.
> 
> Creature Features is independently produced by Crowhaven Productions LLC.

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## NeedSomeAnswers

> Started watching a series on The Peripheral on Amazon. So far it's pretty interesting. Though I don't like like watching series when you got to wait for each weekly episode. Probably wait for a month and then go back to it.


Yeah I have watched the first 3 episodes of Peripheral, its been pretty fun to watch. The reason I watched it is its adapted from a William Gibson book, who is a really interesting classic sci-fi writer. I dont think the TV series will be quite as good judging so far but Its been fun, have enjoyed it.





> I started it but haven't gotten far into the first episode. It didn't grab me at all and I'm pretty used to a slow build up to stories.


It does start slow but the pace picks ups noticeably, have you got as far as when one of the characters has there eyeball removed while tied down to a medical table?

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## dilettante

Yes, I took the time to stick with it and have gotten through the 1st 3 episodes now.  I hope this isn't another show that gets cut short and abandoned.

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## wes4dbt

As I said, I'm waiting for a while before I go back.  So no spoilers.  lol

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## FunkyDexter

> Interesting guests, though more North American than global most of the time.


Oooh!  I was a huge fan of Mythbusters and always thought the B Team were more fun than Adam and Jamie (not dissing the originals, the B Team just connected a bit better for me) so this looks right up my street.  Any indication on where it can be viewed.

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## dilettante

It should be carried on their YouTube channel Creature Features on November 12th.  It might take a day or two before they post the version without the movie though.  These are usually referred to as "Lite" versions there.

They are also carried on a lot of small TV stations here and some streaming services carry them.

See the site https://creaturefeatures.tv/ which may list additional places to watch.

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## dilettante

They had her on two years ago too, though I don't see a Lite cut of the show.

----------


## dilettante

Spoilers, so you might not want to view it:




The movie is set in 2022!

----------


## dilettante

If you like outdoor solitude stuff:




It runs about an hour and 10 minutes.

----------


## dilettante

Short (22 minutes) but interesting.  A bizarre event we haven't seen repeated.

----------


## dilettante

A cheap and cheesy UK knockoff of the classic "Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951).

No idea why tis was ever made, but at least production values remain higher than anything in the entire "Dr. Who" franchise which was based on garbage cans and mop handles.




With Patricia Neal involved in both versions one can only wonder if this was the actress' own memory of the story based on her script readings while making the original or something.

Why was this thing made?

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

> Short (22 minutes) but interesting.  A bizarre event we haven't seen repeated.


That was an interesting story. Those lakes can be pretty rough.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

What baffles me about that video is that a fair amount of the activity on the Regina is reported, both in that video and elsewhere, and yet there were no survivors, nor was there radio available. Seems like a whole lot of guesswork.

----------


## dilettante

Probably cobbled together out of newspaper articles and other sources of stories from families, friends, other crews, and the shipping company.

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## Shaggy Hiker

I tried to do some research on that one, and the best I could come up with is that it was mostly guesswork. The captain blew the whistle, indicating that the ship was in distress. That was heard on shore. They could have determined that he had tried dropping the anchors, since they would still be deployed when the wreck was found. They could have determined that the ship grounded, as the hull would have shown that (the ship was hull up, so the hull was relatively easy to study, unlike the Edmund Fitzgerald, which split in half, thereby obliterating key evidence about what caused it to sink). But with no survivors, there's a lot of guesswork. I thought that the fact that the captain's journal was recovered would be telling, except that the last entry was about the weather getting bad, and it was written well ahead of time. He didn't leave the ship with the crew, as his body floated out later, so the bit about him going to his cabin to await the end makes sense, but apparently, he didn't spend his final moments updating his diary.

I didn't see any suggestion about how he spent his final hours, or the ship, either. 

I'm kinda thinking that they made a good story out of thin evidence. It's quite plausible, but perhaps they got out ahead of their evidence.

----------


## dilettante

Sci-fi action horror.  Some say it might be too intense for modern audiences.

Odd that it seems so familiar to those aware of it, yet somehow others aren't sure they have ever even heard of it.  I wonder how much of that is down to its first-run distribution pattern that mostly skipped over New York and California.  Seems like an odd reason because it got plenty of airtime via cable TV networks over the years.

----------


## dilettante

A lot more short fiction films lately.  Being old, this one feels a bit difficult.  The questions it raises are getting too close to home.

----------


## jpbro



----------


## wes4dbt

Caught up on the Peripheral tonight.  Hadn't watched it since episode two.  I still like it but I don't enjoy long drawn out series.  Would enjoy it more if they cut out some of the side stories and have a four episode series.  Then start a new season with a new plot line.

----------


## dilettante

Woo-hoo, a holiday gift.

One of their most bizarre suites of weird old videos, full length.

----------


## dilettante

Hilarious episode, probably Shatner's favorite too as George plays his fussy, bumbling self.




Did you catch the _Stargate_ franchise actors in these clips?  There are at least two.

----------


## dilettante

An introduction and tribute to a relatively unknown slice of meta-Americana.  A hilarious comedy that captures so many real scenarios that some viewers find the pointed reminders of their own childhoods too painful.

The TV movie itself is hard to come by, since it was only released once on NTSC VHS and got little promotion.  Close to original airing in 1988 it was shown a few times but then fell off the syndication circuit.

If you look you can find a VHS transfer on YouTube, but other than that garage sale copies of the tape are probably all you'll ever find.  Since there is another new effort at HBO Max to cash in on "A Christmas Story" perhaps Disney might revive this early sequel from higher quality sources in the vaults somewhere.

----------


## abhijit

> Caught up on the Peripheral tonight.  Hadn't watched it since episode two.  I still like it but I don't enjoy long drawn out series.  Would enjoy it more if they cut out some of the side stories and have a four episode series.  Then start a new season with a new plot line.


I finished the entire season of the Peripheral. It was pretty interesting.
Now I am watching Wednesday Adams. 2 episodes in and I am hooked.

----------


## dilettante

Not sure many caught this take on the character:




Note that the "thumbnail" image s another character in one episode.

----------


## FunkyDexter

I've watched the first episode.  It's good but she just doesn't feel like Wednesday to me.  She comes across as a sulky teen rather than having Wednesday's self assured darkness.  And the relationship with Morticia is all wrong.  Morticia should be should be totally supportive of Wednesday but she comes across as dissaproving.

Like I said, though, it's good and I'm going to give the rest of the series a fair chance.

----------


## dilettante

Old man vlogging:




Just one of many, but a perspective on life that might seem foreign to younger folks.

Most of his posts feature mid day meal prep and consumption with tales of his early years and entertainment industry career.

----------


## dilettante

Most of us know the film "White Christmas" but here is a brief _making of_ video covering some of the story behind it:




The "VistaVision" process seems to be a cleverer bit of technology than I had imagined.  It was used as an early low-cost way to help Paramount compete with television, which was picking up audience share.  There were other processes, and later more advanced but costlier ones requiring more equipment and theater upgrades.

----------


## dilettante

It seems the coastal urban enclaves are beginning to twig to the changes under way:




Of course denial is still the way foreword elsewhere in the world.  With just a few exceptions their fortunes look dim under demographic collapse and without the backs of American families to ride on any more.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

They'll have no problem riding on the backs of American families. The US population drives the bulk of GDP in this country, and likely will for a very long time. So long as we are buying vast quantities of crap, there will be people making vast quantities of crap. Where that is made will keep on changing. Sometimes it will change in good ways, sometimes in bad. If labor costs are a bigger issue than shipping costs, then globalization will continue apace. If labor costs drop below shipping cost...you had best be asking why that is, because it may not be a good thing.

----------


## dilettante

Metajournalism of science fiction, fantasy, comics, etc.

Old guy, interviewing an old guy, who used to do video interviews of old guys when he was a young guy.





Aspects of the TV program's format may have provided inspiration to Mystery Science Theatre 3000, a very different kind of show.

----------


## dilettante

If you enjoy this sort of thing you're probably quite aware of the story, but this retelling doesn't do a bad job of outlining the tale.




25 minutes, but there is additional video material there in the form of a livestream discussion.

----------


## dilettante

Old farts know stuff.




I'm sure that all around the world there are retired and retiring scientists with information and advice to pass on.

----------


## dilettante

A snippet of hilarious history.  I have to say I miss the old guy though.

----------


## FunkyDexter

Just starting rebinging (that soooo needs to be a word) Babylon 5.  I'd forgotten how good that series was.

----------


## dilettante

This one seems oddly neglected.  It says so much about our times.

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

I saw one of the stupidest scenes I've ever seen in a movie, yesterday. I watched Hunter Killer, which is a simple action movie, and was entertaining as such. However, it opened with a totally superfluous scene of the hero hunting in the Scottish highlands. He was bow hunting, which is illegal in Scotland, but that wasn't the bad part. He also took aim at a trophy bull elk from WAYYYYY too far for a bow, but that wasn't the bad part, either. The fact that elk aren't found in Scotland wasn't the bad part, either.

The bad part was that he was about to shoot the elk when he sees a doe and fawn following it, so he decides not to shoot it. There is SO much wrong with that. It's hard to cover them all. Was it that they don't form family units? Or the fact that it was an elk with a whitetail doe? Or the issue with the fawn being really young, yet the elk had antlers it would only have in the fall? 

Worse, the scene had nothing to do with the movie, so it was a really bad scene for no reason at all.

----------


## Lord Orwell

yeah there's a lot of stuff wrong with that.  I saw a bollywood movie where the protagonist went full-speed at a flatbed trailer on a horse, then slid the horse, on its side, under the trailer (while still saddled to it) and out the other side then the horse popped up and kept going.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUi_...=Hadeswithaids

----------


## Shaggy Hiker

Horses don't like doing that.

----------


## dilettante

I'm only into this season 2 episodes, but it still looks good:

----------


## FunkyDexter

I just finished watching ET.  He made it home.  That was a relief.

----------


## dilettante

"The Postman" (1997) the movie that woke Hollywood doesn't want you to see.




Trailer:

----------


## dilettante

I'm not sure why this made me laugh so hard.  Perhaps the accent?

----------


## FunkyDexter

Why the UK would beat the USA in a fight.  It's all about the cheese.

----------


## dilettante

Not about Hitler or even the Bigfoot.  More of a character story about a long lifetime.

I'm not sure there is much audience left for such films.  No caped spandex, no pap sports, no live-action cartoon story.

----------


## dilettante

Seems to be fantasy eco-horror, but I haven't gone past the first episode yet.  Might be a rehash of a 2010 movie of the same name, which is probably an adaption of some bottom shelf novel.




I'm not really into Lovecraft style stuff, and clunky accents don't cover thin stories for me.  But I might stick with it and see if some of the sourness dissipates.

Without spoiling the tale for others, did anyone here like this new show?

----------

