HBO which became HBO Go which became HBO Max which then became Max is now getting yet another rebrand:
HBO Max
Seriously:
Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service Max becomes HBO Max — again.
I’m not surprised. Not only was getting rid of the ‘HBO’, one of the most recognizable brand names, absolutely stupid, a lot of people probably thought that just the name ‘Max’ was a rebrand of ‘Cinemax’.
That’s what I initially thought.
My issue is that we get cable TV- discounted rate- but HBO does not have the same shows as Max, the streaming service.
I wonder if I’m going to lose my free HBO now. For some reason, that I don’t dare ask too many questions about, I seem to get Max for free. When I had cable, I had HBO, and therefor had access to their app on my Roku. I cut the cable a few years back and the HBO app just kept working. Interestingly, however, it only works on my Roku. It doesn’t work on my new TV or if I log in from a browser, only through Roku. During the first year that I didn’t have cable, I thought that maybe in all the confusion as I was signing up for various streaming platforms, I had bought a year subscription to HBO, but it’s been almost three years now and I still haven’t paid.
Every time I watch something on that app, I think of the Friends episode where Joey and Chandler got free porn.
“Free porn” in my day:
“I think I see a boob!”
Well, after being out last night, I woke up at 3:00 am thirsty, which is normal when I’ve been drinking the evening before. Finding myself wide awake, I thought I would start viewing the single season Amazon Prime series, “The Many Hidden Worlds of Quantum Mechanics”.
Well, it was basically one scientist sitting and lecturing with cheap pencil like drawings as occasional illustrations of what he was talking about. Did he have a compelling and interesting voice like Carl Sagan or even Neil deGrasse Tyson? Lord no, his voice was a monotonous drone, the whole presentation in a format abandoned in education because it was so inefficient and repelled the students who endured it.
From wide awake, I jerked and opened my eyes and realized 15 minutes had gone by. Turning off the TV, I went back to bed and easily fell asleep. So, I guess it was useful afterall.
I’ve complained before about the lighting in Handmaid’s Tale, but the series finale was so dark it was nearly unwatchable. Glad it’s over.
Several years back I had been having trouble with my U-verse internet service, and when I called customer service they gave me a deal on upgrading to U-verse Fiber. In addition to a very reasonable rate for the Fiber, it included free HBO streaming. It survived the change to MAX, and I’m hoping I’m not going to lose it with the new change.
I started watching Poker Face and am hooked on it. The concept is that Natasha Leonne is Charlie Cale, a woman with the ability to know if someone is lying. She gets in trouble with the mob and is running around, trying to keep them from finding her. And she uses her ability to solve murders.
It has an interesting structure. The shows start out by showing the crime. Unlike Columbo, where he shows up after the killing, it flashes back to before the murder to show Charlie at the scene and spotting lies that often lead her to suspect the killer.
It’s not usually the killer saying “I didn’t do it,” too. The lies can be innocent, and even take place before the murder. For instance, she spots someone lying about why someone’s in the bathroom, which turns out to be a key later.
The show does have some big name guest stars, beginning with Adrien Brody in the first episode. Chloë Sevigny, Judith Light, and Nick Nolte also showed up.
It’s created by Rian Johnson, who directed Knives Out. I note that that also had a character who was a human lie detector.
If I remember correctly that was not the case She could not tell a lie as it caused her to throw up. She was not good at detecting other people’s lies though. Still the character had an interesting trait.
Knowing that Ryan Johnson is involved makes me interested in watching it though.
//i\\
I be it “subverts our expectations”. I’m still upset that Episode VIII subverted expectations…but did so in such an unsatisfying way.
Rian, by the way.
Um, it has two more episodes.
What???!!! It had all the earmarks of a finale. I don’t know if I can watch two more.
Watched the first episode of Bet, a live-action Netflix series based on the manga/anime/Jdrama Kakegurui.
For years now Netflix has been making animated series that have the look and feel of anime. Bet so far does a geat job of reproducing the look and feel of a manga-based Jdrama: questionable acting, melodrama, implausible characters with unlikely personalities, a narrow focus on one activity. All in all a must-watch so far.
(So new it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet, I had to settle for IMDB.)
Does it have the main character squeezing her enormous breasts in orgasmic glee? That’s one of my biggest memories of the anime Kakegurui.
Nooo, no squeezing enormous breasts in orgasmic glee. In episode one.
I watched plenty of Spice TV through those lines. On my cable box (or with my cable co), pay channels wouldn’t be scrambled for the first second or so after tuning to it, so the trick was to keep going back and forth between it and another channel.
I like to think Natasha Lyonne was picked, at least in part, because her raspy voice is reminiscent of Peter Falk’s. I’m also assuming that she’s smoking brown colored cigarettes as a nod to his cigars.
If you’re liking that one another similar-ish show is High Potential. Similar-ish in that it’s about someone that’s, for lack of a better term, a crime solving savant. And if I didn’t know High Potential was originally a French show, I would’ve assumed it was quasi-remake of Psych.
Chefguy missed those as they were entirely blacked out. 
I watched the first episode. It has SO many things wrong with it, that I couldnt watch any more- First there isnt one lone cleaner at the LAPD- it is a team, they wear uniforms, and are vetted. Next, crime information is locked up overnight, and also the LAPD doesnt close at night- maybe the team might sure, but there’d be people around. It is impossible that she could find something and make notes- “victim!”. There’s more.
Generally if a non police who isnt at least a licensed detective starts trying to solve crimes they are considered a suspect, or arrested for interfering. The whole genre is bogus today. Sure, back in Sam Spades day (who at least was a PI) things were different.
It’s a TV show.
