What are you watching?

[RVInit]

I've started watching Jamestown on Prime. It's pretty good so far. It's based on the history of "tobacco wives". I don't know how close to history it sticks, though. I had never heard of this before and this link describes that the women chose which man they wanted to marry. But the Prime series depicts it as men paid passage for specific women and the woman was obligated to marry the man who specifically paid her passage. I'm watching it as entertainment, not taking as an accurate telling of the actual practice.

[realist]

I've started watching Jamestown on Prime. It's pretty good so far. It's based on the history of "tobacco wives". I don't know how close to history it sticks, though. I had never heard of this before and this link describes that the women chose which man they wanted to marry. But the Prime series depicts it as men paid passage for specific women and the woman was obligated to marry the man who specifically paid her passage. I'm watching it as entertainment, not taking as an accurate telling of the actual practice.

I really enjoy good historical fiction and the book Tobacco Wives was one I enjoyed.

I've not yet seen any of Jamestown but hopefully it will be a good one. I had an ancestor who arrived there in 1610 (aboard the ill-fated Sea Venture) and the princess and I did quite a bit of research on Jamestown so I hope it's not too far off the historical mark unless it is of course touted as historical fiction.

[Luke]

Thank you, Bill, excellent advice. And true about how good most of those guys are (with direction and patience). I've always been around jocks and muscles. Rightly or wrongly, Asian guys were never known for muscle, food issues after the war was mentioned. But Physical 100 shows that has all changed.

On the show, they each have a plaster cast of their torsos. aka torso sculpture or bust. When they lose, they have to personally take a sledgehammer to it. Some cry. It's a sad moment on the show.

busts.JPG (133.35 KiB) Viewed 521 times

[Whatever4]

Rightly or wrongly, Asian guys were never known for muscle, food issues after the war was mentioned.

Not any more… see Descendants of the Sun (Korean drama)

IMG_2878.jpeg (176.67 KiB) Viewed 494 times

[Luke]

You're right. Thank you W4, totally on the list to watch now.

[neonzx]

Going to dip my toe in the water, bill_g. Didn't know it was a series but I'll trust you for now.

As a consumer of the video games, I intend to watch.

Around a decade ago, there was a fan-made limited series released on YouTube; surprising good. I wonder if the no-fun IP overlords ever found it.

It's a bit of a farce on the Red Scare from the 50's in an alternate America where people took shelter building and cowboy movies very very seriously.

PS: They offer some sage advice: If you see a bright light on the horizon, and it's bigger than your thumb, don't bother running.

Managed to get through all 8 episodes of season 1 over the weekend. VERY GOOD!

And that was with me knowing zero of Fallout the video game.

Amazon hasn't announced a season 2 yet but pretty sure they will pay.

[bill_g]

Managed to get through all 8 episodes of season 1 over the weekend. VERY GOOD!

And that was with me knowing zero of Fallout the video game.

Amazon hasn't announced a season 2 yet but pretty sure they will pay.

Okie Dokie!

[Flatpoint High]

TCM Documentary on Marsh Hunt.

[bill_g]

Thank you, Bill, excellent advice. And true about how good most of those guys are (with direction and patience). I've always been around jocks and muscles. Rightly or wrongly, Asian guys were never known for muscle, food issues after the war was mentioned. But Physical 100 shows that has all changed.

On the show, they each have a plaster cast of their torsos. aka torso sculpture or bust. When they lose, they have to personally take a sledgehammer to it. Some cry. It's a sad moment on the show.


busts.JPG

Oh ouch. That show has a cruel streak. Strong guys can be nice people, but if they are gym rats, they tend to have a narcissistic streak. Taking a hammer to their image would be excruciating for them. But, like Survivor, they have to snuff your torch somehow.

[Luke]

Very cruel and some of them have cried when they did it so you're absolutely right.


Watching the classic Judgment at Nurenberg (truly a must-see if you haven't. Hadn't seen it in years and it's on Amazon Prime but just for the next 12 days.) What a cast, forgot Judy Garland was in it. The housekeeper's wife looked familiar. Why, it was Mrs. Olsen from the Folger's commercials. She's Virginia Christine( 1920-1996). Her line readings are flawless, exact same intonation every time ("It's the richest coffee)".


Here she is in the 60's helping people with the biggest problem in the universe those days... making good coffee. "Mrs. Olsen, for the life of me, I just can't make good coffee!" This 8-minute reel has Mrs. Olsen helping lots of coffee victims.

[Luke]

From the sublime...

THE CIRCLE Season 6 dropped on Netflix. This was hugely popular during lockdown, and audiences were huge. The contestants are all isolated in their own apartments and vote each other off. They can be themselves, or catfish. For the first time, one of the contestants is... an AI. It's creepy watching the AI interact with the contestants who of course have no idea which player is the AI! I kinda hope the AI wins.

The winner gets $100K. One girl showed up with her "ESS": Emotional Support Skeleton Herbie. She's an astrologer. It's always a fun show, I ended up talking to a UK professor who was on a few seasons ago, the nicest guy you'd want to meet. It has all ages and types of people so it's not like the usual FBOY Island kind of competition. It's about how well they communicate, strategize, and interact through a keyboard (they never see or hear anyone else until the end).

[Suranis]

This is the best review I've read in a long time

https://twitter.com/PhillyMovieNerd/sta ... 2511275189

Philly M. Nerd (@PhillyMovieNerd) on X

if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all: I watched Rebel Moon 2 and the Netflix app worked well. showed me the entire movie. in color.

[Flatpoint High]

currently watching FALLOUT

[Rolodex]

Ok someone else needs to be traumatized with me. Just finished Baby Reindeer.

I HAD NO IDEA.

I posts about how good it was and finished something else up so I though why not. I don't normally watch stuff that has "comedy" in the description but hoo boy. what a ride

[RTH10260]

[Maybenaut]

Ripley on Netflix (Two stars)

This is a remake of the 1999 movie The Talented Mr Ripley, told in eight parts, and presented entirely in black and white. The cinematography is beautiful. It was a good choice for this story, and it was well done. They honored the great B&W films of the past with this.

► Show Spoiler

OTOH, I think they overbaked the story. Much of the dialogue was predictable and boring. They could have cut the time in half, and still told the story. They didn't need this amount of character developement. I imagine many people will be delighted by this. They want this amount of depth. I don't.

Re Ripley: I loved it. I give it 4 stars. I think the series did a much better job at capturing the nuances of Patricia Highsmith’s book than the 1999 movie did. Fans of the book would love all that detail. I love these books - I listen to the audiobooks every couple of years. Love Highsmith - she wrote some really dark stuff, including Strangers on a Train.

There were some odd plot devices in the series - the whole thing about Greenleaf Sr. searching out Ripley because someone told him he and Dickey were friends isn’t in the book or the’99 film (which itself was the third film based of Highsmith’s book, the other two being Purple Noon (1960) and The American Friend (1977), neither of which I’ve seen). Don’t know why they did that - in the book the whole thing was a set-up by Ripley.

Nevermind - just went back and listened to the first few minutes of the book. Greenleaf Sr. sought him out.

[Maybenaut]

Ok someone else needs to be traumatized with me. Just finished Baby Reindeer.

I HAD NO IDEA.

I posts about how good it was and finished something else up so I though why not. I don't normally watch stuff that has "comedy" in the description but hoo boy. what a ride

Loved it! There was nothing comedic about this. It was dark, dark, dark, dark, dark - and I love me some dark. It was like an onion - every time you think you understand the protagonist, a little bit more of him is revealed.

[Rolodex]

Ok someone else needs to be traumatized with me. Just finished Baby Reindeer.

I HAD NO IDEA.

I posts about how good it was and finished something else up so I though why not. I don't normally watch stuff that has "comedy" in the description but hoo boy. what a ride

Loved it! There was nothing comedic about this. It was dark, dark, dark, dark, dark - and I love me some dark. It was like an onion - every time you think you understand the protagonist, a little bit more of him is revealed.

Exactly! I love dark, too but I'm so glad I really knew nothing about it. I pretty much binged it and maybe that was too intense.

► Show Spoiler

I hate that it was his empathy that kept him entangled with Martha. But he also thought his trauma made him vulnerable to more trauma - which isn't unusual.

[neonzx]

Well, darn. Everytime i wanna put my Netflix on pause, they toss out a cookie. Baby Reindeer for the weekend binge!

[bill_g]

I'm plugging my nose and jumping into the deep end of Baby Reindeer too. If I don't return, it's been nice ...

[Rolodex]

Well, darn. Everytime i wanna put my Netflix on pause, they toss out a cookie. Baby Reindeer for the weekend binge!

It would be awful if it weren't so well written and acted. TW for...everything.

[Maybenaut]

A Gentleman in Moscow on Paramount +. I absolutely loved this book, and the series (so far) is incredibly faithful and so well-done.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I love that book!

[June bug]

I love that book!

Me too!!!!

[Luke]

It's time for my annual plug of UK TV Many are from pay channels in the USA that are available for free. Of course, this works with other countries too, Australia and the like.

https://www.channel4.com/ has a huge number of programs. If you're not in the UK, you need:
1. A VPN (NordVPN works well) switch it to UK
2. Free Ghostery extension on desktop (that cuts out the ads)
3. A Channel 4 account (when you sign up, you need a UK address, any Theatre on the West End works fine).

https://www.itv.com/ also has a ton of content. The Chase and Beat The Chasers are on ITV. The UK questions are tough but fun to try to answer. I've been corresponding with The Governess, Anne Hegerty (she's awesome) https://twitter.com/anne_hegerty and The Beast (Mark Labatt, whom you might have seen on the US version of The Chase). Somebody said Pub Quizzes are so successful in the UK because it's about Being Right and Drinking. Here's an exciting example -- she is a HILARIOUS contestant, former teacher now a Magistrate: