What are you watching?

[AndyinPA]

Dexter on Showtime ended last night. I did NOT see that coming.

Do you mean the original Dexter series or the new one? I watched the new series, season 1 is out so far. It is very good. I don't want to give anything away in case anyone is still planning to watch it, but hasn't seen any of it yet. But I enjoyed Season 1 of the new Dexter quite a bit.

New Dexter. I don't know what ending I'd have liked, but I didn't like that one.

[RVInit]

Dexter on Showtime ended last night. I did NOT see that coming.

Do you mean the original Dexter series or the new one? I watched the new series, season 1 is out so far. It is very good. I don't want to give anything away in case anyone is still planning to watch it, but hasn't seen any of it yet. But I enjoyed Season 1 of the new Dexter quite a bit.

New Dexter. I don't know what ending I'd have liked, but I didn't like that one.

Oh wow. Your post caused me to look at it. I must have thought the whole series was already dropped when I started watching and I believed Episode 8 was the last one. So, I have two more episodes to watch. I will watch them tonight!

[Kriselda Gray]

Dexter on Showtime ended last night. I did NOT see that coming.

I thought it had *just* restarted like a few weeks ago... must have missed when it actually came back.

[Kriselda Gray]

And the Bush Administration. We thought it was about 30 minutes too long.

Also, I agree it seemed to run long and could have been trimmed a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's not a comedy, but they were able to sprinkle in humor to an otherwise serious plot without mucking the story.

The final dinner scene was subtle but intense.

Up until that dinner scene, I felt like I was watching a comedy with a serious message, but that scene took it over into feeling more like an incredible drama with a lot of humorous elements and some beautiful poignancy. Either way, it was a great, great movie. I find I'm liking it more as I have more time to reflect on it, too. There were just so many nuggets tossed in along the way.

[RVInit]

Do you mean the original Dexter series or the new one? I watched the new series, season 1 is out so far. It is very good. I don't want to give anything away in case anyone is still planning to watch it, but hasn't seen any of it yet. But I enjoyed Season 1 of the new Dexter quite a bit.

New Dexter. I don't know what ending I'd have liked, but I didn't like that one.

Oh wow. Your post caused me to look at it. I must have thought the whole series was already dropped when I started watching and I believed Episode 8 was the last one. So, I have two more episodes to watch. I will watch them tonight!

I was mistaken, I had only watched through Episode 7. I guess I easily believed that was the last episode of this season because it could have been a good last episode. So, I watched the actual last episodes tonight.

For anyone that still wants to watch and doesn't want spoilers, don't read the rest of this post.

► Show Spoiler

Yeah, I didn't see that coming either. And also not what I would have preferred for an ending. I am torn as to what to believe about the kid. He obviously knew his father really loved him, he had that letter. So, he seems like probably a worse version of a psychopath. I wonder if they will make a series about him. That might be interesting, but I'm not sure how they would make him likeable. Dexter was "likeable" sort of, because he had "the code", which weirdly kind of mitigates his killing. Sadly, he made the fatal mistake and killed an innocent person because of his desire to be with his son. So, he was right, the only way he really could live was alone.

[bill_g]

Up until that dinner scene, I felt like I was watching a comedy with a serious message, but that scene took it over into feeling more like an incredible drama with a lot of humorous elements and some beautiful poignancy. Either way, it was a great, great movie. I find I'm liking it more as I have more time to reflect on it, too. There were just so many nuggets tossed in along the way.

Yeah. This movie was complicated, or perhaps a better description is sophisticated. This is where the A List actors paid off. They made a serious topic into a true farce that made you think about what you just watched. It's doing it to us. Have we ever discussed any other movie at length before in here? Not that I recall. This movie is a sneak attack. It creeps up on you.

[bill_g]

New Dexter. I don't know what ending I'd have liked, but I didn't like that one.

Oh wow. Your post caused me to look at it. I must have thought the whole series was already dropped when I started watching and I believed Episode 8 was the last one. So, I have two more episodes to watch. I will watch them tonight!

I was mistaken, I had only watched through Episode 7. I guess I easily believed that was the last episode of this season because it could have been a good last episode. So, I watched the actual last episodes tonight.

For anyone that still wants to watch and doesn't want spoilers, don't read the rest of this post.

► Show Spoiler

Yeah, I didn't see that coming either. And also not what I would have preferred for an ending. I am torn as to what to believe about the kid. He obviously knew his father really loved him, he had that letter. So, he seems like probably a worse version of a psychopath. I wonder if they will make a series about him. That might be interesting, but I'm not sure how they would make him likeable. Dexter was "likeable" sort of, because he had "the code", which weirdly kind of mitigates his killing. Sadly, he made the fatal mistake and killed an innocent person because of his desire to be with his son. So, he was right, the only way he really could live was alone.

[sigh] Gotta wait for it to come out on Netflix. Not subscribed to Showtime.[/sigh] BUT! Looking forward to it!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Signs of a Psychopath on Discovery. The show uses archival footage, interviews of family, and interviews of forensic psychiatrists to point to the visible, and audible, signs of convicted psychopathic killers. The eyes for me are a big tip off, but not in all cases.

Psychopaths/sociopaths are wired a whole lot differently than the rest of us.

[AndyinPA]

Signs of a Psychopath on Discovery. The show uses archival footage, interviews of family, and interviews of forensic psychiatrists to point to the visible, and audible, signs of convicted psychopathic killers. The eyes for me are a big tip off, but not in all cases.

Psychopaths/sociopaths are wired a whole lot differently than the rest of us.

Hasn't that been on full display for the last six years?

The program sounds interesting, though.

[filly]

Signs of a Psychopath on Discovery. The show uses archival footage, interviews of family, and interviews of forensic psychiatrists to point to the visible, and audible, signs of convicted psychopathic killers. The eyes for me are a big tip off, but not in all cases.

Psychopaths/sociopaths are wired a whole lot differently than the rest of us.

Hasn't that been on full display for the last six years?

GMTA

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Hubby introduced me to this youtuber. She tells an interesting tale well.

[AndyinPA]

Yellowjackets ended for the season on Showtime last night, and has been picked up for another season. This is one of the funniest*, and most macabre, shows on the tube right now. Great acting. Trying to figure out what's really going on and developing a theory, just to have it dashed a week later, has been a hoot. Even at the end of the first season, don't quite know who got eaten (first). Okay, you probably know after last night who got eaten first, but still don't know who got ritually eaten.






Edited to add: dark comedy.

[filly]

Life of Crime 1984-2020 on HBOmax. It follows three white street criminals in NJ over 36 years. Gripping and a remarkable documentary.

[Kriselda Gray]

AMC+/Shudder/Sundance Now have started showing the third and final season of "A Discovery of Witches" which is really nice little show. It's based on the Deborah Harkness trilogy, which is absolutely excellent, and does a good job of telling the tale in a more compacted way than the books. Harkness, like the series' heroine, is a historian with a special interest in alchemy. The story involved a secret world of witches, vampires and daemons searching for a long-lost alchemical tome that is supposed to contain the mysteries of their creation and could allow one of the factions to gain an upper hand over the other two. There's also a romantic storyline that is pretty cool.

Personally, as much as I'm enjoying the show, I do like the books better just because they can get so much more in depth as to some of the nifty historical tidbits the author includes and the fact that they allow the story to move as a slower pace which helps some of it to feel more realistic. But if you think you'd like a magical romance but don't want to take the time to read 3 books (and a post-trilogy sequel, of which there may be more) then the series should do quite nicely.

[Estiveo]

AMC+/Shudder/Sundance Now have started showing the third and final season of "A Discovery of Witches" which is really nice little show. It's based on the Deborah Harkness trilogy, which is absolutely excellent, and does a good job of telling the tale in a more compacted way than the books.

I've really enjoyed the first two seasons. They've done a good job of bringing the books to the screen given the amount of detail.

For those that haven't read the books, I recommend them highly, and not just because I share a last name with the author.

[neonzx]

"Better Than Us" -- it's Russian but funded by Netflix, so there is an English audio dub (and French, Spanish, Portuguese..). It's sci-fi with robots but drama, too.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8285216

A family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists.

---

n 2029, robots have become an ordinary part of human life - they help raise children, work as personal drivers, security guards, and lovers. For most people, "Bots" are just soulless machines that perform routine work, but they also become capable of emotions. A group of rebels, "The Liquidators," reject life with the bots - and are ready to shed human blood in their war against the machines.

[Luke]

From your Reality TV buddy Also thanks to Paramount+ via the ad-free 99 cent per month deal from Amazon, we discovered Undercover Boss. There are a huge number of episodes, it's a CBS show with 11 seasons. We've had fun picking the companies we wanted to see, from Boston Market to 7-11 to Mohegan Sun to 1800 Flowers to NASCAR to Chiquita to Twin Peaks to Hooters to Norweigan Cruise Line.

It's a simple format, the CEO or Sr Manager visits several stores/locations and meets employees in disguise. Employees are told something about another reality show and that the boss is a contestant. Invariably, while they think they'll be great, they are hilariously terrible at their jobs (several get fired). While it's about the operations, the human dimension ends up being the most revelatory to the boss. In the end, the boss gifts the employees with wonderful things from cars to schooling to legal assistance and beyond. The endings are really uplifting and fun to see.

Lots of them are on Dailymotion too but don't tell CBS. Here's Season 11 Episode 1, it's the College Hunks Hauling Junk. These are the new ones from 2022 reflecting the pandemic and issues.





Here's Twin Peaks, S5E1:

[neonzx]

"Archive 81" (2022) -- Netflix

When archivist Dan Turner takes a mysterious job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994, he finds himself reconstructing the work of documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras and her investigation into a dangerous cult. As Dan is drawn into Melody's story, he becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago.

[Kriselda Gray]

I saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings this weekend. I was watching it mainly "for completeness" (I've seen almost every other movie except Eternals and Black Widow), but found it was a lot better than I was expecting. I'm not a fan of "Kung-Fu" movies, but while this is steeped in all things Asian (including a spoken intro that lasts about 5 min and is done all in Mandarin Chinese with subtitles) it manages to avoid the schlocky feel that Hollywood sometimes imparts in Asian-Action films.

For most of the movie, the story stayed much "smaller" than many MCU features do. It wasn't until the very end that the stakes got raised to potentially world-ending; prior to that the heart of the story had focused on a family devastated by one member's death. The acting was pretty good, and while it was filled with the expected implausibilities (learning to shoot a bow and arrow accurately in 2 days? Please...) the movie made it easy enough to overlook them if you wanted to. My favorite thing, though, was how Marvel used the movie as an opportunity to "fix" the mistakes they made with the Ten Rings in Iron Man 3, and take the Trevor Slattery character from basic schmo to someone who can be heroic.

It's not a perfect movie - very few movies (in general) even come close - but it's a lot of fun and introduces some new characters to the MCU roster that I'm actually looking forward to seeing again.

[neonzx]

From your Reality TV buddy Also thanks to Paramount+ via the ad-free 99 cent per month deal from Amazon, we discovered Undercover Boss. There are a huge number of episodes, it's a CBS show with 11 seasons. We've had fun picking the companies we wanted to see, from Boston Market to 7-11 to Mohegan Sun to 1800 Flowers to NASCAR to Chiquita to Twin Peaks to Hooters to Norweigan Cruise Line.

I've watched many episodes over the years. Some of them can be a bit lame, but most are fun.
Do you know if the show producers compensate the "undercover boss" ... or is the free brand marketing the $$?

[Luke]

Last I heard, it's the brand marketing, Neon. If the boss is a union member, they may be required to get scale but that's tiny. Companies are required to pay at least five employees at least $200,000 in incentives and bonuses (usually ends up being more). Used to be about 8-10 days of production, including 5 employee visits, probably still is. CBS controls everything, including what's aired, but the visibility of an hour of network airtime is huge (along with reruns and streaming). Companies do not have to advertise or pay for anything. Compare that to Shark Tank, where the company has to give ABC a percentage of the business just to be on the show, even if the Sharks don't invest.

[RVInit]

I binged the first half of Season 4 of Ozark. Excellent. Episode 7 is a doozy. I don't know how long until part 2 of Season 4 is coming, but I'm on the edge of my seat. Season 4 part 2 will also be 7 episodes, making Season 4 longer than other seasons by 4 episodes. But, split in two, they killin' me! I wasn't going to binge, I was going to watch one episode each week for the next 7 Sundays, but it was too cold to get out of bed. Yeah, I know. The blood really does get thin down here, and we really do lose the ability to take the cold. 56 for us Floridians is like -20 for you northerners.

[John Thomas8]

(I've seen almost every other movie except Eternals....

That movie sucked the life outta me. Visually stunning, 0.0 story and characters as shallow as a CPAC conference. I sincerely wished we'd skipped that one.

Just got out of the latest installment of Spiderman. Wicked story, great acting, much much deeper than I expected. No spoilers, but it's worth a watch.

[Kriselda Gray]

(I've seen almost every other movie except Eternals....

That movie sucked the life outta me. Visually stunning, 0.0 story and characters as shallow as a CPAC conference. I sincerely wished we'd skipped that one.

Just got out of the latest installment of Spiderman. Wicked story, great acting, much much deeper than I expected. No spoilers, but it's worth a watch.

Oh joy! Eternals is the next one on my list.... Oh well, at least if it gets too bad, I won't have paid theater prices to watch it

I'm glad to hear you liked the new Spiderman. Imma gonna try to stay as spoiler free as I can between now and when it comes out on the streaming services, but it's pretty rare I succeed in that

The one I'm most looking forward to, of course, is Thor: Love and Thunder. That sounds like it should be Epic. They've screwed up the lore in a number of places, but aside from that, I LOVE how they portray the gods and other Asgardians

[Foggy]

Well, the price for renting Venom: Let There Be Carnage on Amazon finally dropped enough, so I rented it. I'm halfway through it, so no spoilers por favor.

Can't help it - I have to see every Marvel movie at least once, so I have a grasp of the overall situation in the MCU. Weirdo.