What are you watching & why? (splain)

The Virginian said:
I'm pretty picky. To give a sense of my taste, my favorite shows in the past have been Night Stalker, Miami Vice, Picket Fences, X-Files, Breaking Bad, True Detective, Better Call Saul, Bosch, Jack Ryan and the Mandalorian.

Right now, I'm watching Fargo Season 4. Why? It has terrific cinematography, interesting plot developments, and a dark sense of humow which matches my own. Also, Chris Rock and especially Jessie Buckley are killing it in their roles.

It's only one episode, but I liked the premier of Next last night. Didn't love it, like I have Fargo, but I liked it. Why? I like John Slattery as an actor, and the theme (out of control AI) is of personal interest to me. I could sour on it, but I'm going to watch the second episode - and I bail on 90% of shows in or after the first episode.

That is all.
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:thumbsup: Been watching Fargo too. I’ve liked all the Fargo including the original movie.
 
For those with Disney+:

If you are fed up with the current news cycle and wish to take a break to watch something very real, the telling of a very harrowing tale, watch Lost on Everest which was just released on Disney+ last night (Originally shown on BBC & NOVA IIRC). It is about modern day explorers tracing the steps and the route taken by two young British mountaineers, namely George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, who had tried to summit Mt. Everest a whole 29 years before the first successfully documented submitting of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and his sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Both Mallory and Irvine disappeared from spotter's view while ascending the final stages of the summit, about 800 vertical feet from the summit, never to be seen again till...

Without giving too much away, in 1999 Mallory's mummified body was discovered at just over 26,500 ft (Mt. Everest peaks at just over 29,000) showing obvious and fatal injuries in accordance with a slip/fall while descending. The story is about documenting the expedition and the search for the remains of George Irvine who would've been on Mallory's tow while ascending and then descending. Some had always speculated the two could have very well summited Mt. Everest as the first ever therefore it was very crucial to find George Irvine and hopefully his camera!

The joy and the thrill of watching this 1 hour or so documentary is in having your faith restored in humanity and the human spirit because there are so very few pioneers and explorers among us humans, whose gutsy endeavors have always been the crowning achievements of our species.

Watch it if you can :)

ETA: it is not for the squeamish as you will see dead, frozen and abandoned bodies of some climbers who perished to the summit and still lay where they fell.
 
The Social Dilemma on Netflix. It really depressed the fooque outta me! I'm glad that I'm now almost a fossil, born in a different era when I could grow up without "helicoptering" or "plowing" parents. I feel very fortunate to have grown up as a "free range" child / adolescent! I luv to believe in the human spirit, specially those among us who through guts, innovation and sacrifice intend to attain the zenith for our species but this monster which we have inadvertently created could very well turn the intended utopian zenith into a dystopian nadir!

#fudgeme
 
So I got into watching The Vow on HBOMax. It starts kinda slow, perhaps because it's a docuseries, but it hooked me in by the end of 1st - 2nd episode. It's basically about what turns out to be a cult (NXIVM pronounced as nexium) and as we all know by now, 99.99999% of cults pivot around sexual exploitations and some kinda human trafficking.

So I'm looking at these people who get sucked into these cults whose leaders are obviously highly intelligent, possessing super high IQs, extremely articulate and eloquent, yada, yada... But the flock are not exactly dumbass numbnuts either! Most of these followers come from positions of comfort in their middle/upper class lives but by and large they seem to majorly suffer from some forms of inherent self-loathing :rolleyes:
 
Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson. I've seen it a few times, since we have the DVD. Never gets old or out of date.
gonna sign up for amazon prime just so we can watch Borat this week
 
WValtakis said:
Oliver Stone's "Untold history of the United States"...just finished the first episode on WW2, some pretty enlightening stuff.
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I watched the entire series and I still have a bad taste in my mouth. While the series sheds some light on the past events it is extremely biased and one-sided especially when it comes to USSR and Stalin - they paint him as a good guy that was betrayed by US and gloss over the terrible atrocities (maybe 2 sentences and 5-sec footage in the entire series) against humanity perpetrated by Stalin and USSR. I am originally from Ukraine and let me tell you that Stalin was a mass murderer of the same magnitude, if not worse, as Hitler. Stalin orchestrated mass murder and forced relocation (ie ethnic cleansing) of various populations occupied by the soviets including Ukrainians. But it was the Ukrainian nation that USSR had a special disdain for. Not only did Stalin ordered the mass murder of Ukrainian poets, clergy, professors, and officers he also announced Ukrainian peasants as "kulaks" (from "fist" - meaning they hold land and have a cow or two) as the enemy of the USSR that should be eradicated. And eradicate they tried by forcefully taking all of the grain and produce starting in 1931-1933 which resulted in a mass famine known as Holodomor (execution by famine) in which an estimated 8 million Ukrainians have died (this number is still disputed by some pseudo-historians and other apologists of Communist atrocities (including here in the West)). So yeah take it with a grain of salt.
 
Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is a beautifully done and also well-acted mini-series with high scores both from fans and critics. I am enjoying watching it immensely as it is mostly a feel good story. It is a bit corny at times but still very worthwhile to taking one’s mind off the current affairs :)
 
fatfrog said:
Do you need to watch the film before the series? Not sure which I should start with.
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The film and the FOUR TV miniseries / seasons have some VERY minor interconnections, but these are almost like Easter Eggs for dedicated viewers. They are all essentially independent of each other . . . different characters, different actors, different plots, different times even. So you could start at season 3 or 4, or with the movie, or wherever you want and not miss anything from the movie or the other series / seasons. The original movie, however, is quite a bit different in tone and style from the TV miniseries / seasons - which I think are similar to each other. IMO the movie is not as "hard core" as the TV series, and has more dark comedic elements. I could see someone liking the movie, or the series, but not the other. I like 'em all!
 
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