I have one episode left in Shogun and it is a lot less great than I hope for. OK, I guess?
Did you like (or saw at all) the original miniseries? Or read the book? I’ve done both and really liked the first and loved the second, but have so far have been holding off on the new series.
I have not, though strangely I played the incomprehensible DOS game back in the day.
My wife and I watched half of the first episode so far. So far there’s a lot of subtitle reading and my wife has been asking “who’s that guy? what are they talking about?” quite a bit.
Really? I mean, I have no reason to think you’re wrong, but… the show certainly seemed to go out of its way to evoke that imagery, particularly early in its run. That can’t have been a coincidence… can it?
Started the detective series Shakespeare & Hathaway on Britbox. Funny and entertaining, thus far, and I like all of the Shakespeare references (they’re usually subtle-ish). I wonder if Shakespeare is a common surname in England?
Did the term exist before 1992? It’s possible people adapted the term from the movie title.
There are also claims that the term reservoir dogs is a criminal slang for an informant. But that usage may also be a result of the movie title rather than an inspiration for it.
Tarantino himself has said the origin of the term is from when he was working in a video store and a customer was looking for the movie Au revoir les enfants. But he was unable to remember the title and asked for “reservoir dogs”. This apparently became a running joke in the video store.
Getting back on topic, I’ve been rewatching Bravest Warriors. They’re releasing the fourth season on YouTube and I want to rewatch the series in anticipation of watching the new episodes.
Last year one of my cable channels (Sundance?) ran all of the Shakespeare & Hathaway episodes, two per week, and I watched the run fun. It was fun catching all the Shakespeare references, and I thought the characters were well done. As with many shows, after watching the last episode I found myself wishing there were more.
Just finished my rewatch of the original Justified series. It was as entertaining and well done as I remember, with a satisfying ending. Sadly, the more recent effort didn’t live up to the original.
This article makes the same claim I do, although without any citation: Reservation Dogs: a groundbreaking, hilarious sitcom about Native American teens | US television | The Guardian
There are two concepts here–one concept is that the usage by the kids in-universe is meant to be a reference to the movie Reservoir Dogs, which is true. The other is that the term “reservation dog” or “rez dog” itself was coined by the TV series, which is not true. The term was already in use describing a type of tough, beat-down and common style of street dog found in reservations and by extension as a metaphor for people living on reservations outside of any connection to a pun on a movie title.
I liked it fine for what it was – where murders happen all the time but it’s like no big deal. I think the writing weakened a little in the later seasons, but it was still watchable and enjoyable. I loved Sebastian – great character! The actor popped up in another more serious UK murder show (River?), and he was the killer! It did bug me how Lu was always parking her BRIGHT RED MINI like three feet from people they were surveilling, but that’s a minor nit.
Reminds me of the time I bought Le Sacre Printemps conducted by Seiji Osawa. The store clerk laughed when he saw it and said a customer once came in asking for The Sacred Printer. LOL.
That’s about as far as we made it too. My husband said. “too much reading”.
So hear me out.
The new animated series, X-Men '97 is worth watching.
My husband is obsessed with the X-Men, I like them well enough but you have to be careful not to be too enthusiastic about them in this household or my husband will never stop talking about them.
The original X-Men '92 animated series was decently entertaining, but the new series kicks up the quality of storytelling and animation, including, so far, an absolutely heart-wrenching episode. According to Spouse Weasel there are a ton of Easter eggs for the comic book fans. The series hits hardest when it deals with the real effects of discrimination - as per usual. There are some little details in the animation and dialog and voice acting I just love.
This is probably my favorite X-Men thing since X2 the movie. Don’t tell my husband.
So…do I need to have seen the X-men animated series this is continuing from?
No, you can follow it pretty well without having seen the original.
Man does this series take a turn from the original light fun romp. I bartended for over a decade and every aspect of these characters is recognizable, including the obvious self destructive behavior. In a way that is all a bar/pub is, daycare and therapy for incomplete development.
We’re 3/4 the way through and it’s been a wild ride, glad we stuck with it but it’s been a journey. Wished I hadn’t recommended it to the folks, it’s gets a bit saucy.
Holy cow, does it ever. Like as if it was written by two different people(though we know it was all Richard Gadd). I don’t necessarily criticize the latter half on it’s own, but to switch from the original tone to that was very offputting for me.
Around when it first dropped, I watched The Peripheral and liked it. I saw it had been renewed for a season two, which was great because I was not happy about the ending. I hate collapsed timelines. First in Star Trek TNG and now the entire season was following one? It really pissed me off to the point of ruining the show.
My wife hadn’t seen it so I suggested it because we watched The OA and devs. I don’t remember if I talked about these.
The OA: The OA is the child of Lost and Heroes. It has a good first season and sets up a lot.
Then, like Heroes, changes direction in season two. The ending was strange as f. It had highs and lows, like Lost. It also had some major things left unexplained by the end that were annoying. If nothing else, my wife and I had some good conversations on all of it, plotting it out in our heads, and figuring out what some things meant.
devs: This is by the same person who did Ex Machina. As with that show, there is technology at the heart of it and the abuse of it. It also touches on how far we will go for our obsessions. Overall, well done but there are times when the dialog should have been clearer or said more. I’m not a fan of the ending, either, but still a good show.
Because my wife liked devs, I suggested The Peripheral and we started that. She has loved it! She wanted to binge it on Sunday but we couldn’t even watch a second episode due to a family zoom call. Then she wanted to watch it instead of John Oliver, which we usually watch, before my game on Mondays. She is going to want to binge this. Sadly, due to the actor and writer guild strikes, Amazon canceled season two. I doubt I will read the books to find out what happens.
I’m almost done with Bad Batch season three and have enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to the new live action series.
We enjoyed this show a lot! Would definitely watch more!
I have started and trailed off on so many. I went to rewatch Justified and stalled out about three episodes into it. I don’t remember if I saw the whole original run. It’s good but for some reasons didn’t pull me into it this time. I also started Extraordinary but found it to be the cringe comedy I don’t like. I made it through two episodes before I stopped.
Having not read the books, Longmire was interesting but forgettable for me as I don’t remember if I saw the whole show. I agree that Vic needed work at the end. She seemed to lose herself in a weird way that didn’t fit. (On an aside, Katee Sackhoff told an interesting story how she and Bailey Chase used to carpool every day to set, forty five minutes one way. I won’t spoil it but enjoyed hearing about it.)
If I didn’t mention it, we trailed off on The Rookie. I didn’t like the first couple of episodes of s6 and was ready to be done with the show. I saw it was renewed and good for Nathan but I don’t think we will watch it anymore.
I find it tough to rewatch Castle, although I like early seasons of it, with how it ended. Both for the characters and the actors.