I read the books- I rate them- good reading but not on my list of “save to re-read later”. I tried the series but lost interest.
I found it got better the longer I watched it. I was hooked someplace in the 2nd episode. I’d try a little longer if I were you. I really like it.
Sort of a series
…I just binged all the Harry Potter films over a couple of days.
Deathly Hollows 1 & 2 today on a rainy and cool day.
Finished but I cut it at the correct ending instead of the 19 years later nonsense. I always pick up something new
The Potter films are a great achievement. They not only adapted the movies well, cast the movies well, directed them well, but they also made some changes that are great:
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The rotating stairs at Hogwarts are movie only. So iconic, people forget the stairs don’t rotate in the book(they just don’t always lead to the same place).
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Seeing Snape hold Lilly’s body is completely film only and amazing.
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Harry breaking the Elder Wand is a better ending than him keeping it.
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Love that Umbridge is more like a polite kitten lover than a toad.
I don’t blame them for cutting things out, either.
I presume the TV show that is forthcoming will include many more book scenes.
Having finished the Sean Combs documentary (about which I can only say yeesh), we’ve started the Taylor Swift The End of the Eras Tour one. It’s a little hard to tell how true this is given that this is a Swift production, but she comes across as a very nice person. It certainly seems to be true that she gave out a metric shit-tonne of bonuses to everyone on the tour. And wrote them all personal notes.
I’m hoping the series ends before we get into discussions of her husband’s junk.
Oldman’s character is pretty relentless in his treatment of underlings, but he has a firm loyalty to his “joes” that transcends that, even if they’ve gotten themselves into a mess through their own doing. There are some good “Le Carre” plotlines, and while Jackson Lamb is always Jackson Lamb, the stories involving the agents holds up as decent drama. I’m still reading the books, and the Lamb character is the same in reading as in watching. The author has a good turn of phrase and I’ve found that it’s worthwhile to slow down my reading to fully enjoy it.
As per one of the best lines in the show (which is in the ads so not really a spoiler):
Emma Flyte: So, you’re in charge of the rejects.
Jackson Lamb: They don’t like being called that.
Emma Flyte: What do you call them?
Jackson Lamb: The rejects.
One last comment on Slow Horses: A big difference between the David Brent character and the Jackson Lamb character is that the latter has none of the sleazy smugness of the former. Gervais was trying to make his audience squirm. Lamb is a burnout in charge of other burnouts.
I know a fellow who was part of the technical crew on one of her tours a few years ago. He remarked that she is indeed a very nice person who treats everyone involved with respect and does not at all act the diva. He is the kind of person who cares little about contemporary music and would not be a gushing fan of any performer, so I tend to believe him.
Same. Back when it began, my immediate reaction was “Ugh, this looks a slog I can do without” and quietly assumed that all people who think like me* will bury this and it will be cancelled. And then it turns out to be huge, the Mrs Maisel of that year, and ongoing it’s still very popular.
*I do this a lot, but it turns out nobody seems to think like me at all
Slow Horses is my favorite show by far, my wife and I rewatch it from the first episode to the last repeatedly and always seem to find something new. It is relentlessly dark and funny, but if you don’t like the first few episodes, the you will never enjoy the show.
Re watching Star Trek, the Next Generation. ’
In Elementary my Dear Data, everything is supposed to be accurate- then why is Data wearing the wrong hat? Holmes never wore the deerstalker hat in London, it would be absurd. In The Adventure of the Silver Blaze, Holmes does wear something that could be a deerstalker.
A Bowler or a top hat would be worn in the city.
Been a while since I’ve seen the original Matrix and then fired up second and realized not seen either of the sequels.
Know what I’m doing for the next few hours. Really good 4k HDR transfer on the second one. First one too dark but watching in day time did not help tho was cloudy day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mKShbO7xNk&1
Would be better to use the headphones but I’m new dog sitting.
I finished season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again. I think it stands up to the Netflix series. Vincent D’Onofrio remains the best MCU villain. My main issue with it is the season seemed like a 9 episode set up for season 2.
Since I’m eventually will watch everything MCU I started on Ironheart. Part way through the first episode I was bored out of my mind. It was late and I was tired so I’ll give it another shot.
I watched A Discovery of Witches so you don’t have to. I watched it because of Matthew Goode. He’s always good(e) and he does a good job in this. Teresa Palmer plays a pretty block of wood. It’s set in a world where “creatures”, witches, vampires and daemons live among us. It comes from a series of books. One positive thing is they had a three season plan to follow the books and kept to it. The series came to a conclusion without trying to drag things out. I’m assuming that they remained fairly faithful to the books. I think that led to my main complaint with the series. The relationships between characters, both romantic and otherwise, seemed to progress much too quickly. Strangers became fast friends in half an episode. The main romantic storyline moved from meeting to unbreakable love in a very short time. I’m sure there were a lot more exposition in the books. A couple other random thoughts: they never really explained what a daemon was and why they were considered creatures. I looked it up online and quite frankly the book explaination isn’t much clearer. The actor playing one character changed in season 3. Apparently it was because of scheduling conflicts due to Covid delays. That’s not a big issue. Unfortunately with the change of actor there was a change in personality. That was more jarring than a new face. Overall the show was watchable. Light entertainment before I go to bed.
Speaking of Matthew Goode, I also watched Dept Q. I know it was spoken about here. I wasn’t sure of it for a few episodes but I think it finished very strong. I really liked Akram and Hardy. Looking forward to season 2.
I mean, isn’t he just using the hate because it was so famously portrayed that way on film and TV?
It’s one of those famous things that isn’t in a book that everyone just figures was in the book.
I don’t think it will grow on you.
Fallout Season 2 has begun on Prime
I plan to watch ep1 tonight. Hoping the writing remains consistent with season 1.
I think I’ll rewatch season 1 before I start.
Just started a quick re-watch the other day. It’s great, still. Fun stuff.
I finished off Tacoma FD the other day.
It started out hilariously parodying all the usual well-worn sitcom tropes, then gradually began to lean into all those same tropes more and more, until it became indistinguishable from what it set out to lampoon.
Still reliably funny, though, even while limping to the finish line.
FYI, It will be leaving Netflix at the end of this month. 49 half-hour eps over four seasons.