my recent tv binge viewings

[tipou]

apparently tv series binge viewing is a trend, and i confess to have succumbed to it. here i will confide as to exactly what caught my attention over the last few months, and i invite you guys to do the same.
tv is not what it used to be. it went up a notch or two, and some series vastly surpass what is commonly seen on movie screens these days.
so really, this is my tribute to what tv can be, and sometimes is.

[lovethemanrs]

Nice one tipou..

LOL...I'm not feeling so guilty now about my recent film binge.

Several weeks ago (on a Saturday) Mr LTM was out. I had just set up Netflix and I was feeling rather poorly, so thought I'd have a binge viewing session.

I watched 4 films!!! The best of the bunch being The Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliff, which I had wanted to watch for some time.

Funny thing was that when Mr LTM returned home and we sat down to eat, the first thing he said was, 'Do you fancy watching a film this evening?'

'What a great idea', I replied.... Can't tell you what the film was though.

[tipou]

LOL dont you LOVE netflix?
movie theaters are deceptive. you can burn 15$ plus candies (another 15$)and suffer a dud, and never be able to get your money back.
with netflix, its a fair 8-9$ a month, and if you are silly enough to start watching, say, jaws #14, and realize you made a mistake, you can turn around and watch 2 seasons of house of cards... and you still paid the same.
i realize, though, that netflix does not help much if your social life is already so-so

[lovethemanrs]

Yep love Netflix tipou. My eldest son (on hearing we had acquired it) reckoned there weren't any decent films on it.
I have watched about ten so far...so far only one I thought was rubbish. But each to their own, someone may like it.
Plus I get it for 6 months FREE.
As for my social life - I'm well happy thanks.
Only downside, not much Rufus, but hey I have the DVD's....

[tipou]

**house of cards**

talking about horror movies (!), i will start with house of cards.

now this is frightening stuff.

in fact, i began watching season 1 last year and gave up. i was very active in political discussions on facebook at the time, and HOC actually caused an overdose. i got back to it when season 2 was launched, and when tv commentators started foaming at the mouth, reminding me what a fabulous production that was - perhaps not as fabulous as some critics would want you to believe, there is some exaggeration there,but still, HOC is an outstanding series. i finished the whole thing within a week. whhile working full time.

that series might be the most realistic political story ever made (except of course for the part where kevin spacey talks to us through the screen ). which is what makes it so frightening.

the baddie is not jack the ripper. he is not a criminal biker. he is not a drug lord. he is not a mob boss - well, then again, he is,since frank underwood happens to be house leader in washington.
and i guarantee, that frank underwood will terrify you even more than darth vader did when you were a kid. because he sounds awfully real and believable, and might truly be scheming his way to the top of the free world at this very moment.

if you are afraid of ever disliking kevin spacey, dont watch house of cards. he is as reptilian as can be. he can comfort you one second, and snap your head off the next. he caused me nightmares, for real.

THE SCRIPT IS F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S. you will NEVER know the meaning of "unexpected twist" until you watch season 2. more than once, you are led in one direction, then forced to turn on a dime, make an about turn, and they dont let you catch your breath until you are floored again. it MUST be celebrated how courageous that kind of cringe inducing, seat grabbing power writing just happened to be graced upon us. i love that.

acting is unbelievably good, even as you hate and despise these people, you want to kiss the feet of the actors portraying them. i am not exaggerating here. if people were so good in movies, hollywood would be the new fort knox.

LONG LIVE NETFLIX. as for frank underwood, someone has to stop him, good god, please!

[tipou]

here in canada, to be honest, when i first got netflix i was rather disappointed in their choice of movies. but i found a few scandinavian or documentary gems. still not enough to keep me for cancelling a couple of times.

when my thirst for movie going fades, i get netflix back, and now that i have a tablet i might keep it longer this time.

but of course if you are not watching it, 8-9$ a month is still too much. i like the fact that i can cancel and come back without any extra fee.

[lovethemanrs]

I do like Kevin Spacey and I still have the joys of House of Cards to come.
After hearing your view I want to watch it more.
He is pretty reptilian in Swimming with Sharks too!! Have you seen it tipou?

[tipou]

***breaking bad***

in my tv series top ten, Breaking Bad is up there with The Sopranos. so there.

there definitely are similarities. both series were blamed for "promoting crime" - which is truly a farce. anyone who really watched either of this series and still plan to become a criminal is totally out of their minds, because if there is one moral the The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, it's that crime really does not pay, and that 9 to five jobs are really nirvana compared to what these very stupid criminals do.

another thing that these series have in common, though, is their ability to portray the moral described above, and yet never get into cheesy moral lessons. quite the contrary, in fact. in both series, writers have happily delved into rich character creation, freely established original points of views, went to the core of the matter with surgical and often cold precision, and delivered some of the best drama that i have ever seen, on any screen.

one thing that distinguish them: the kind of humor involved. neither series is a comedy, that is for sure,and whatever humor is involved has to be (and is) very black.make no mistake, these are not series for the easily upset stomach. if you cannot take the dissolving of corpses in acid, or seeing walls re-decorated with brain matter, perhaps choose barney reruns instead.

the difference is mainly in degree of "dark". as characters in The Sopranos are very successful parodies, every character in Breaking Bad is painfully real. believable. hell! you might have them as neighbors and friends. it might be you!!! Breaking Bad is the heart wrenching statement that anyone, in similar circumstances, might make the same choices as jesse and the whites do. from that premise, authors explore possibilities to their most terrifying conclusions.

humans will be humans, and you will never get a more despicable, unlikeable "hero" as the great bryan cranston playing walter white. and you will never get a more endearing, heartbreaking "baddie" as the equally great aaron paul playing jesse pinkman. (notice the colors in their names.keep them in mind as you watch the series.) these ill-paired criminals are in fact human communicating vessels, their levels of morality, fear, love, hate, and even mere humanity ever shifting and causing havoc between and around them.

to the very end, this partnership/conflict/deflagration-teaming is the greatest thing about BB. as a viewer, you constantly are caught in a "would i do that? - no i would not.- Really?" inner dialogue that is quite a bit more unsettling than the violence portrayed

there are anthology-headed spaces where you are offered the delight of simply enjoying some of the best fiction writing ever produced - be prepared to be amazed at an exceptional episode where jesse and walter, locked up in their labs, chase a fly that could compromise a batch of meth, while coming face to face about personal issues. that is one piece of drama that could be turned into a play. just... perfect.

the whole cast... oh my dear god. anna gunn gets an exquisitely complex role as the innocent wife unknowingly pulled into mayhem, only to become less and less innocent. dean norris is taking the cliche cop character over the top, with impressive know-how. there are simply too many to list, all characters are perfect, perfectly played.

there are no faults in Breaking Bad. no fault at all. period.

[tipou]

Mar 8, 2014 17:26:16 GMT lovethemanrs said:

I do like Kevin Spacey and I still have the joys of House of Cards to come.
After hearing your view I want to watch it more.
He is pretty reptilian in Swimming with Sharks too!! Have you seen it tipou?

no, i have not seen Swimming with Sharks, you are piquing my curiosity, i have to watch it now.

one thing about House of Cards, i was very careful not to say too much, but a few real critics were not as careful. i advise you do not read or listen to any review. some i heard and read, that made me cringe, as they totally ruin some major turns in the plot. and plot twists are a major part of HOC's greatness.

i was lucky enough not to have my surprises ruined, and i truly wish that you will have the same luck.

and if you like spacey as "reptilian"... well... you will like that show, for sure

[tipou]

*** revenge *** (ominous music over the sound of distant ocean waves)

now that is one honest name for a tv series. never was a tv series more aptly named.

the millionaires characters have chosen revenge as a career plan. some of them even attended a revenge school! no less, and no kidding either. these rich bastards are serious.

oh, sure, they sometimes show temporary interest at actual jobs, like being c.e.o. of a company without ever showing up, being editors at magazines while seemingly never having held a pen, or owning art galleries while making sure to display their utter ignorance of the art world. sure, they work sometimes - aka sighing heavily staring at papers on their desk, screwing someone on their mahogany desks, or drinking champagne at business meetings - but you soon realize that for them, its all about revenge, baby.

these very rich socialites, with the means to overturn governments or disrupt world economy, nonetheless have the ability to focus on the real stuff: planning revenge, drinking champagne, exacting revenge, getting revenge for failed revenge attempts, getting hit over the head by revenge, and temporarily forgetting why they wanted revenge so badly but rapidly remembering, exchanging bitter repartees and pledging more revenge on each other, throwing champagne on each other's designer clothes,thus bringing revenge over themselves, screwing around, thus provoking new revenge schemes, forming revenge teams that have to be split and reformed as revenge partners are swapped, thus insulting people and causing more wish for revenge, disrupting each other's extravagant parties by exposing each other's revenge plans, trading notes so they can get better at revenge, comparing revenge records, revealing spousal infidelities, reappearing unexpectedly as the secret child fleeing a shady past.

and why did the secret child reappeared, fleeing a shady past?

come on. give it a try. i will even provide a choice of answers.

a) to drink champagne
b) to redesign the gardens
c) to throw a party
d) to sleep around
e) TO EXACT REVENGE

so, what have you answered?

of course, there are non millionaires as well. air-headed, naive bird brains (strangely looking like us, the viewers ) stupidly showing signs of joy, affection, and happiness, you know, the useless, meaningless stuff. but fear not.. the revengeful socialites will be quick at crushing any such silliness.

but these ordinary folks, caught in revenge back fires, or even ridiculing themselves at trying their luck at revenge - clearly, they dont have what it takes - they do have real jobs. there is barman and a baker, and it is clear that the writers know that owning a bar means that you wipe the counter from sunrise to sundown, and that being a baker means that you stand behind a counter and smile - that is, until the bastard who broke your heart and left you for dead enters the bakery to order his wedding cake, thus making you wonder about a good recipe for revenge pie.

yeah. its all about revenge, baby.

[Petruchio - Good God]

Sounds interesting ladies... in the news I have seen, that netflix is coming to Germany this year.. maybe ... would love to have...

[tipou]

afterthoughts about above post on *** revenge **** (ominous music over distant sounds of ocean waves)

1. there are bitter people who might say that i just tried to exact revenge on the "revenge" show because i feel silly about having lost valuable time watching it. they would not entirely wrong.

2. there is something going on with madeline stowe's make up. they are trying to achieve some kind of effect with it, perhaps trying to create acting abilities where there are none. they have to stop that. young kids could be traumatized and scarred for life.

3. i like gabriel mann, he brings the only flicker of humor in there, with his out of context joie de vivre and his silly clothing collection. there is one bit in season two, that may be an inside joke from the writers over the fact that rich people in soaps never work. in that episode, mann's nolan is so remote from his multinational IT empire that his company is actually on the brink of bankrptcy. when he shows up at his office, no one one knows who he is, and he has to prove his identity to a total stranger who happens to be his finance director. this sequence is hilarious, and may be a signe that the writers (and mann)really know that they are working on a dud.

4) the pretty (and much too joyful for the show) who plays margot is québec's karine vanasse, and she comes from my home town, actually attended ballet classes with the daughter of a friend of mine. she is much too luminous and happy looking for the revenge obsessed characters, and i fear she will be crushed, like the counter-wiping barman and the standing-behind-the-counter baker. please look out for her, she is the lovely, smiling eyes, pretty dress wearer with the french accent. please root for her, she really is a nice girl.

5) in the title sequence, you see something that looks like ocean waves at night. i have the weird suspicion that the "ocean waves" are in fact a garbage bag in front of a fan. i mean, that would be appropriate, but what do you think?

[tipou]

Guillermo Diaz in *** Scandal ***

another one of my current "guilty pleasures" is abc's "scandal". there is a lot of things going wrong with this series, things that might have to do with standard must-haves in u.s. tv: the unrealistic and unbelievable love story, severe overacting by some, severe underacting by others. kerry washington i can barely stand, and that is only because she was so good as an host on snl.
as the title of this thread reveals, though, the one thing that keeps me coming back for more is Huck, the oh!so complex character among washington's hord of dedicated misfits.
the thing is, i got hooked on scandal because some of my favorite tv character actors are in it., jeff perry and joshua malina. and now i am discovering another one, the magnificent guillermo diaz.
his Huck is dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, and there does not seem to be any " getting better" in sight for him. he went from the heartbreakingly tender family man to the ptsd nightmare of a warped monster hooked on torturing people. you even see him at a.a. meetings, where he confesses having relapsed into drinking whisky.... but its not really whisky, its rather extracting info with a scalpel while explaining to victims the extent of his affection for them.
so, you might ask, tipou, why are you so fond of this ghoul?
i would be unable to find any other answer than:guillermo diaz.
nothing else than outstanding acting ability and sensibility could explain why i cherish this character as if he were a good old teddy bear, not screenwriting, not directing. his eyes. as you are ready to give up on him and kick kerry washington until she calls the cops, you get a look into his eyes, as she does. good golly, what a powerful actor, subdued, subtil, wearing his pain as tightly as he can, ever combatting the demons in his soul. he is very frightening. very. yet you want to hug him and comfort him. weird, but amazingly effective in terms of "ACTING". and washington's character reacts the same way exactly, you know she will never give him up, but you can see fear in her eyes every time she looks at him, seemingly wondering when she will be the one to meet the scalpel.
thank you, mr. diaz. tv acting does not get any better than that. i raise my saturday morning cup of coffee to you.

[tipou]

Kim Coates in *** Sons of Anarchy ***

yep, this must be my "bad guys" period - but hey, us rufus fans know how a villain might be the perfect character to show true talent.
canadian-born kim coates was born to play the villain, and in s.o.a, he is some kind of a psycho villain with a number of unforeseeable twists. only a great actor could keep this all into a believable and even endearing focus.
dont get me wrong, his Tig is mean and utterly disgusting, a very dangerous beast. but he is loyal to a fault. he shows decency when you expect it the least. and yes, he has a heart, somewhere. coates plays him in a dangerously subdued way that could be mistaken as lack of expression at first, but the guy knows how to play these cold, bright blue eyes. he knows how a simple move of the shoulder can make you get exactly how he feels. he knows the line between good and bad, and how to bring us both sides.
kudos to kim coates. he is one of the best things in s.o.a., and there is a lot of good things there.

[kygal]

I have not been watching many of the dramas lately. Usually catch Modern Family, makes me laugh. Did watch some of Breaking Bad and agree with your assessment. My son and hubby like Walking Dead but I cant bring myself to enjoy it. It is hard to look away though.

The Following...to disturbing.