Entertainment @beehaw.org sub_o @beehaw.org 11 mo. ago

Weekly “What are you watching” Thread || Week of December 3rd, 2023

Here are some shows that I have watched or have been watching

Fringe (S04)
- I'm at episode 9 right now
  I'm really liking
  
  how they interact with characters from season 1, and from alternate universe
Amazing Stories 1985 (S01)
- This show won some Emmys, right? Somehow it feels like a kid's show. I was expecting it to be tonally more like 1959's Twilight Zone, but it doesn't seem so. Maybe I should adjust my approach to it.
Impractical Jokers (S01)
- I've finished the season, and it's definitely up there as a comedy show. I still feel weird / scared about some of the pranks, e.g. randomly eating people's food at a Chinese restaurant, but they are hilarious.
What We Do In the Shadows (S03)
- The first 2 seasons were okay-ish, but it seems like the 3rd season is way funnier. The jokes are funnier whenever Matt Berry is involved
Castlevania Nocturne (S01)
- It was suddenly over. I'm just not feeling it. Just like the other Castlevania shows.
Love, Death & Robots (S01)
- Just finished the first episode... it looks pretty. Not sure about the writing yet.
Gunbuster (S01)
- Finally finished all the 6 episodes. I can see it as a prototype for other more bombastic mecha shows like Gurrenn Lagann or Evangelion. It started out low key, then undergo a sudden tonal shift to darker tone.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (S05)
- Netflix really hurt the season by splitting it into two parts. I've just finished watching the episodes where they defeated the invisible zombie guy and started to fight the feng shui geezer. It's still really good, I still prefer Jolyne's story arc to Giovanna's. I wonder if they'd eventually do a Steel Ball Run anime.
Oppenheimer (2023)
- I'm amazed at how much I'm liking it. Somehow social media buzz was making it to sound like a jingoistic nuclear proponent movie. But it's not, it's a story about Oppenheimer's feeling about atomic weapons, the slimy politicians and physicists who became slimy, and surprisingly around half of the movie is about McCarthyan red scare witch hunt.

That's the recap of my week, how about yours? What have you been watching last week?

10 comments

I've been binging Peep Show, just finished season 5! One of the funniest shows I've ever seen if you can handle some second-hand embarassment and a POV filming style.

As far as movies go, I watched Annihilation and loved it. Solid sci-fi with just the right amount of creepy. I'd recommend it if you enjoy films like Alien.

I also rewatched Megamind. This is one of those "kids movies" that has no right being as good as it is. The "I'm bad and that's good" bit from Wreck-it Ralph comes to mind, but I really enjoy Metro man's character as well.
- Just watched Megamind with my son last night. Solid film. Set a decently high bar for bad guy goes good films that would follow, like Ralph and Despicable Me. Good pace too. I guess we could whine about how they filled it up with Hollywood actors instead of voice actors, but who cares.
- Oh wow, maybe I should watch Megamind.
  
  I've watched a couple of episodes of Peep Show before, but couldn't get into it, I presume it only gets better after 1st season. I should give it another try.
Love, Death & Robots

Some episodes fall flat, but there are a lot of really cool shorts in that series.

Fringe

Amazing show, watched it twice, once by myself and then later again with my wife.

Currently, we are rewatching Continuum. It’s decent, but not as good as I remember. There are quite some writing issues and logic sometimes goes out the window.

We watched 3 episodes of "The Old Man", but stopped because it was too much of an action show. We might check out "Blue Eye Samurai" on Netflix, a bunch of people on a Metal Discord were loving it and the trailer seems okay.

Upcoming shows that we plan to watch once their respective seasons are done:

Invincible, we will wait till the whole season is out, as it’s weirdly split.

Vigil is returning for Season 2, typical slow British crime drama mystery show, with tons of well-known people because there are only like 50 or so British actors doing these shows ;)

Fargo, slightly comedic seasonal crime drama anthology, is returning for a 5th season. The last 4 were amazing, so I have high hopes for this one as well.

Slow Horses, an off beat spy drama about bad spies. Not a comedy, though it has its moments. 3rd seasons of a show that is very much character driven.

For All Mankind S04, we only recently started watching it. The series feels a bit aimless, but has very strong acting and characters, which carries the often weak writing.

Reacher S02 is easy watching, funny and over the top action.
- I enjoy watching Invincible and Fargo. Tried For All Mankind, but S01 was kinda slow, maybe I should give it another try.
  
  Is Reacher S02 out now? I really like the first season, it's a really fun action show
  
  Is Reacher S02 out now?
  
  Didn’t even start yet, it’s under my "upcoming" subheading ;)
We just finished My Daemon on Netflix and liked it a lot! It’s a bit like post apocalyptic pokemon with weird eldrich horror monsters. It also does that weird thing where it’s all 3D and stylized to look cell shaded, sometimes it looked okay though.

After that we started Akuma Kun to keep on the demon train going 😆 It’s surprisingly bloody but still has a really fun lighthearted tone that I’m enjoying.
- I've never heard of both shows, I'm going to google them now. Both sounds intruiging.
So I watched the original BBC Ghosts a few weeks ago.

Then made the terrible mistake of watching the American one as soon as I was finished. Bad idea, since the original was too fresh in my mind.

Gave it some time, and now giving it a shot.

Turns out it's pretty fun, actually. I don't like some of the straight character swaps, and obviously there's a little retreading here and there, but it's not that bad.

I still prefer the humor of the original and feel much more of a connection with those ghosts, but find the two main (living) characters (especially the husband) waaaaaay more likeable in the American one. Probably helps that I like Rose McIver in general.

One thing I don't like is that the American one seems to not be able to just use context clues. Instead, it has to say things out loud. Like, I don't want to spoil either show, but with the original, there was more mystery and you'd figure out the reason for this or that just from observing or learning with the characters instead of being told something outright.

Also don't like how it seems to ruin the mystery of another major aspect regarding the nature of the ghosts. Like they want to explain everything when not everything needs an explanation.

Still, it's funny and I'm enjoying it for the most part.

Other than that, not exactly a "show/movie", but UEFA Women's Nations League is finishing up the group stages tonight, so hopefully that should be fun.

Edit: Yeah, Nations League was pretty entertaining tonight. Gotta feel bad for England (although they really weren't their best throughout the tournament). My girl Bronzey knocks in that last minute header spectacularly, knowing that it's the goal they need. Meanwhile, on the other side of the North Sea, the Netherlands somehow find it in them to pull some late drama of their own against Belgium and top the group on goal difference.

(Honestly, Netherlands absolutely deserves the spot, but it was still so disheartening for England.)
Watching season 3 of Pretty Hard Cases, a Canadian crime comedy

Watching season 2 of Shining Vale

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