What are you watching & why? (splain)

I have at times mentioned Curiosity Streaming as my go to programming which for its measly $20 annual subscription (SD, the HD not being worth the bump) has given me the best bang for the buck as I thoroughly enjoy and prefer documentary programming over anything else. I know that there are other choices such as Disney+ and Discovery+ but they run substantially more and IMHO offer less!

Anyhoo, watching Icemen and 200 years of Antarctic (I have a morbid fascination with freezing out like a wooly mammoth but that's just my weirdness) and my hat's off to the toughest explorers who have ever walked this planet. Just imagine the coldest place on the planet with miles and miles of ice hundreds and thousands of feet deep, yet also the driest place on this planet! You can lose your sight, your senses, your mind and literally end up eating your sled dogs, your travel companions, even yourself if you get desperate enough! Of course, I'm talking about those explorers of early 20th century who trailblazed this most rugged and most unforgiving of places on Earth. One thing which I found to be really cool was the fact that when you set foot exactly in South Pole, the closet human beings to you are those astronauts in the space station orbiting 400 miles (or was it kilometers?) above!

#donttelltinfoilhattimmy
 
Just watched the 1st episode an old series on PBS featuring Stephen Hawkings called "Genius."

iu


Don't recall watching it before but the 1st episode did actually help me understand the basics of the theory of relativity and the concept of the "space-time" continuum as it's affected by gravity.

Yeah, I'm a bit of a nerd. Actually, a nerd wannabe because I was never really good at math or physics which is why I need a "quantum physics for dummies" show like "Genius" to help me figure this sh*t out. LOL! ;)

Was going to buy a copy of the 2 DVD set of the 6 episode show but discovered that it's available free from PBS online. If you're interested, you can find the episodes to free to stream online HERE.

Oops! Just discovered that you have to be a PBS "member" to steam "Genius."

PBS Membership costs $60/year. The DVDs are not available from Netflix DVDs and not for steaming on the pirate sites. So, I guess I'm going to have buy the 2 DVD set or just wait til the remaining 5 episodes air on Xfinity (unless it's available "On Demand" which I haven't checked on yet).

Oh well . . . 🤷‍♂️
 
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Had to watch the first episode of "East New York" on CBS last night. My wife is from the neighborhood / precinct, and I worked there for a time in the late 70's. and on and off in the 80's.

The show was completely ludicrous as I suspected.
 
Blues said:
Had to watch the first episode of "East New York" on CBS last night. My wife is from the neighborhood / precinct, and I worked there for a time in the late 70's. and on and off in the 80's.

The show was completely ludicrous as I suspected.
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I recorded it and watched the intro chase scene. Reserving judgment til I watch the entire episode tonite.

Update:

I watched the 1st episode of "East New York" last night and I'm not sure what to think of it yet.

The lead -- a Deputy Inspector taking over "leadership" of the 74th Precinct -- played by a black woman is consistent with the current trend in casting women (particularly women of color) in lead roles but she doesn't have enough gavitas for me to be convincing in the role.

Jimmy Smits is playing a very familiar role for him but he didn't add much to the episode other than telling the black woman that he had her back but w/o ever actually covering for her.

Then there's the apparently corrupt (or at least meddling) and 2-faced black Deputy Mayor who's 1st contact w/the Deputy Inspector is to infer that she let the suspect she chased get away. Then he takes a call from a real estate developer who he is "bros" with and gets a couple of dectectives from the 74th to terminate an "interview" but then claims he didn't "really" know the developer when he's arrested by the Deputy Inspector on his private yet (didn't she need a warrant to board the plane?) in connection w/the murders which occured in the opening scene.

The characters who seems most interesting to me is the white female (rookie?) cop who agrees to live in the "projects" where (based on the trailer of the next episode) it seems a lot of the "action" is going to focus and the older black cop who tries to protect the female cop by checking up on her and giving her a radio to call for "backup" if/when she needs it.

So, I'm going to give the show the benefit of the doubt and watch it at least twice more before I make a final decision about it.
 
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Blues said:
Watched "Dog" last night with Channing Tatum...a decent flick if you like dogs. (And who doesn't?)

Then watched "The Outfit" with Mark Rylance. More of a play than a movie, (as he is known primarily for his work on stage), and very much in the British tradition of whodunits...but we enjoyed it.

Both on Prime.
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Watched both awhile back and posted my "reviews" of them here then.

Liked them but "Dog" was definitely weaker than "The Outfit."

"Dog" was a typical vehicle for Channing Tatum. Basically, comedic fluff w/o much substance but it has its moments and is "entertaining over all, especially if you like silly dog movies like "Turner & Hooch."

"The Outfit' was a more sophisticated "who's really the smartest guy in the room" vehicle for Mark Rylance, who was the lead actor and is the type of actor you've seen but whose name you never remember (even after you look it up), who always gives a strong but understated performance in the movies of his -- like "Bridge of Spies" and "Dunkirk" -- whether hes in a lead or supporting role. Good stuff!
 
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Pàdruig said:
Well... We have at least 5 seasons to find out 😁.

I've been enjoying the hell out of Rings of Power. I'm showing my age but The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was a pretty big part of my young adulthood (mine and my wife's). We have been religiously sitting down these past few weeks and watching the new episodes and it's been quite a treat.

1.) The orcs are just fantastic - I LOVE the return to more practical makeup and prosthetics. Cinema is getting lazy with all the CGI these days.
2.) It makes sense that Galadriel is "difficult". I read it explained that the difference in age between then and the Lord of the Rings timeline for her is akin to the difference between an 18 year old and a 40 year old. There is a lot of growing/maturing that happens in that amount of time.
3.) It's been great to experience Númenor and it will be interesting to see how all of the intrigue plays out - it's a bit nasty in the source material.
4.) Despite Halbrand's character being an original creation for the show, the theories surrounding who he might eventually become are pretty fun to entertain.
5.) The chemistry between Durin and Elrond is pretty great to see and as a side note, the dwarves are some of the best parts of the series so far - just awesome.
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I'm still waiting for the "action" to start in HotD and still want more "action" in RoP.

I can tolerate Galadriel when she's killing Orcs but listening to her still leaves me cold and wanting to mute the audio.

The coolest guy in RoP is the dwarf and IMO he's too trusting and loyal to the elf.

Not as into all of the ins & outs of the plot as you are. I'm just an action addict and won't be happy til I see more blood & gore but RoP has been much better than HotD on this score so far.

LOL! ;)
 
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sgt1372 said:
I'm still waiting for the "action" to start in HotD and still want more "action" in RoP.

I can tolerate Galadriel when she'skilling Orcs but listening to her still leaves me cold and wanting to mute the audio.

The coolest guy in RoP is the dwarf and IMO he's too trusting and loyal to the elf.

Not as into all of the ins & outs of the plot as you are. I'm just an action sl*t and won't be happy til I see more blood & gore but RoP has been much better than HotD on this score so far.

LOL! ;)
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I am perhaps a bit more familiar with the source material than the casual watcher of RoP.

That said, I'm a bit frustrated with the pitfall that I saw coming a mile away. I am hoping recent events will nip it in the bud but we'll see... Galadriel, at this point in time, is supposed to be married to Celeborn (who you see in the LotR trilogy) - however, RoP is setting her up for a romance with the human Halbrand. Not only does it fly in the face of actual lore but it makes little to no sense why a vengeance driven, centuries old elven badass would feel a romantic attraction to this human man.

I knew it was going to happen because studios always have to have a romance but it's still irritating.

I did enjoy the action in that last episode though. Good to see some orcs losing their heads.
 
Pàdruig said:
I am perhaps a bit more familiar with the source material than the casual watcher of RoP.

That said, I'm a bit frustrated with the pitfall that I saw coming a mile away. I am hoping recent events will nip it in the bud but we'll see... Galadriel, at this point in time, is supposed to be married to Celeborn (who you see in the LotR trilogy) - however, RoP is setting her up for a romance with the human Halbrand. Not only does it fly in the face of actual lore but it makes little to no sense why a vengeance driven, centuries old elven badass would feel a romantic attraction to this human man.

I knew it was going to happen because studios always have to have a romance but it's still irritating.

I did enjoy the action in that last episode though. Good to see some orcs losing their heads.
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I guess the LotR has already set the precedent for a romantic relationship between humans and elves with the "king" and the elf he always loved who eventually married in the end.

The budding romance between Galadriel and Halabrand isn't the only 1 in the RoP either.

There's the relationship between the black elf and the towns woman (sorry, I can never keep track of most of the characters' names) whose son "found" Sauron's knife (or spearhead), stupidly kept it secret (like the dark character in "Wheel of Time") and was almost killed by an Orc before being saved by the black elf before he revealed the secret which turned out to be "too little, too late."

And, as we learned again, it NEVER pays to spare the life of the "bad guy" which happened twice in just 1 episode.

I also find it incredulous that no one ever checked the contents of the "sack" to see if it was the "real deal" or not and why no one could tell the difference between the profile of an ax (whch was changed later) for a knife/spearhead. WTF! 🤷‍♂️

And why go to all of the trouble of chasing/catching the bad guy and leave him unguarded? Ridiculous plot gaps!!

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BTW, since you are really "into" the intricacies of LotR and RoP, I've heard tell that there are show "purists" who are complaining about the casting of a black actor as an elf. Haven't read the complaints but it's just sounding like a lot of petty racism to me.

What's your opinion, if you have any, about this?
 
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sgt1372 said:
I guess the LotR has already set the precedence for a romantic relationship between humans and elves what with the "king" and the woman he always loved an eventually married in the final scene.

The budding romance between Galadriel and Halabrand isn't the only 1 in the RoP either.

There's the relationship between the black elf and the towns woman (sorry, I can never keep track of most of the characters' names) whose son "found" Sauron's knife (or spearhead), stupidly kept it secret (like the dark character in "Wheel of Time") and was almost killed by an Orc before saved by the black elf before he revealed the secret which turned out to be "too little, too late."

And, as we learned again, it NEVER pays to spare the live of the "bad guy" which happened twice in just 1 episode.

I also find it incredulous that no one ever checked the contents of the "sack" to see if it was the "real deal" or not and why no one could tell the difference between the profile of an ax (whch was changed later) for a knife/spearhead. WFT! 🤷‍♂️

And why go to all of the trouble of chasing/catching the bad guy and leave him unguarded? Ridiculous plot gaps!!

-----------------------------------

BTW, since you are really "into" the intricacies of LotR and RoP, I've heard tell that there are show "purists" who are complaining about the casting of a black actor as an elf. Haven't read the complaints but it's just sounding like a lot of petty racism to me.

What's your opinion, if you have any, about this?
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I don't mind the romance between Aragorn and Arwen as it was showcased in LotR - it's at least entirely appropriate to the story. It was a lot more front and center in the movies though than was written in the books.

Romance doesn't bother me as long as it makes sense. Forcing it into the narrative though because "showbusiness" dictates that it should be is what generally grinds my gears. The romance between Arondir and Bronwyn is perfectly normal and actually helps the narrative in the sense that humans and elves did mingle in Tolkien's writings. Both of those characters were created for the show (like Halbrand) and serve as representative vehicles for storytelling purposes. The screenwriters are having to fill in a lot of blanks because a lot of this content from Tolkien was unpublished and somewhat fragmented - his son has been doing a fair bit of work over the years bringing a lot of it to light.

I hear you on the plot gaps - that was some loose storytelling amidst one of the more action-oriented episodes.


Regarding the discussion surrounding casting persons of color in a show that "purists" think should be all white - I think you summed it up just fine, petty racism. I haven't felt that having a black elf, a black dwarf, black Harfoots, or other persons of color throughout the various groups of humans to be detracting from the story in the least. In fact, I've rather enjoyed the characters - Durin's wife is amazing and I want to see more of her and I am looking forward to Arondir (the elf) being developed more going forward.

Tolkien didn't mention skin color a whole lot in his writings - one notable instance being that the Harfoots were "browner" of skin than their Hobbit descendants. Of course, the idiot "purists" take that to mean that they spent more time in the sun :rolleyes:.

I try not to let such things spoil my enjoyment of the show. The real impact however, is on the actors themselves - they get subjected to a lot of toxicity from the supposed "fanbase". Such "fans" ought to be ashamed of themselves.
 
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duramax said:
Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus 2
Halloween town
Halloween 1,2,3 ah who’s counting lol
The conjuring
Etc etc etc lol

Tis the season 😊🎃👻🎃🤣🤣🤣

I’m kinda a Halloween geek lol
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Did I mention that care NOTHING about Halloween?

I don't particularly like "horror" movies based on a Halloween theme. If it's a good horror movie, the time/occasion shouldn't matter.
I don't like dressing up in costume ever -- Halloween or not.
I don't like needing to answer the door every 2 mins to give candy to the kids -- it's not that I don't like kids, it's that it's just annoying.
I usually go out to a movie on Halloween night so that I don't have to do that.
I'dleave a bowl of candy out front, if I didn't worry about someone stealing the whole thing; bowl and all.
If I still had a "kid," I'd suffer thru it but my "kid" is 40 now and, while I like his kids, I have nothing good to say about him.

Bah humbug!!!! LOL!!! 😎

Maybe I should have posted this in the Random Thoughts thread instead. 😇
 
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