Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:25 am**

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 11:56 pm I finally figured out how to get back my access to Max that comes with my AT&T Wireless plan. So I’m jumping into The Sopranos for the first time.

Finally finished Sopranos Season 1 last night. As someone who doesn't typically enjoy mobster shows, I actually thought viewing the mob activities through the lens of Tony's normal, everyday family life was actually pretty interesting. And Gandolfini is an absolute beast in this role. Truly remarkable acting. His mother (Nancy Marchand) is fantastic as well, reminding me a lot of my grandma with the passive-aggressive emotional abuse.

It's certainly not all great though. I'm baffled how Lorraine Bracco won a bunch of acting awards for this show. She always looks like she's struggling to read her lines off a cue card awkwardly positioned just over Tony's left shoulder. Edie Falco's voice is like nails on a damn chalkboard. And I want to punch the screen every time Christopher shows up (which is kinda the point with his character, I suppose). There were also some really odd tangents that seemed to go nowhere, like the Italian dentistry student hallucination, the whole grunge band music producer thing, etc. Maybe those mean something later, but they just felt weird.

I'd give the first season a B, and am interested enough to keep going to see what happens.

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 10:54 am**

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:25 am
Skinypupy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 11:56 pm I finally figured out how to get back my access to Max that comes with my AT&T Wireless plan. So I’m jumping into The Sopranos for the first time.
Finally finished Sopranos Season 1 last night. As someone who doesn't typically enjoy mobster shows, I actually thought viewing the mob activities through the lens of Tony's normal, everyday family life was actually pretty interesting. And Gandolfini is an absolute beast in this role. Truly remarkable acting. His mother (Nancy Marchand) is fantastic as well, reminding me a lot of my grandma with the passive-aggressive emotional abuse.

It's certainly not all great though. I'm baffled how Lorraine Bracco won a bunch of acting awards for this show. She always looks like she's struggling to read her lines off a cue card awkwardly positioned just over Tony's left shoulder. Edie Falco's voice is like nails on a damn chalkboard. And I want to punch the screen every time Christopher shows up (which is kinda the point with his character, I suppose). There were also some really odd tangents that seemed to go nowhere, like the Italian dentistry student hallucination, the whole grunge band music producer thing, etc. Maybe those mean something later, but they just felt weird.

I'd give the first season a B, and am interested enough to keep going to see what happens.

It follows the Breaking Bad/Deadwood pattern. The beginning is good, but it keeps building. What you've seen is the setup for the mind-blowing stuff what follows.

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 3:26 pm**

Just wait until you get to the episode where Tony and the gang steal a space shuttle and go joyriding in it.
Comedy gold!

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 4:24 pm**

We're mobsters on the moon,
Laws we do impugn,
So they ain't no jails
We tell tall tales
And sing our criming tune.

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 8:56 pm**

Season 12’s weird attempt to make the show into a Scooby Doo type comedy with Tony driving around a van while solving supernatural mysteries was where I bailed.

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:49 pm**

When I watched it, I always got a BSOD long before that.

Posted: **Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:52 pm**

Don’t stop believin’, man.

Posted: **Sat Oct 07, 2023 4:19 am**

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 8:56 pm Season 12’s weird attempt to make the show into a Scooby Doo type comedy with Tony driving around a van while solving supernatural mysteries was where I bailed.

You should have stuck it out. Turns out it was Old Man Wilkens, the former owner of The Bada Bing all along.

Posted: **Sat Oct 07, 2023 8:34 pm**

Watching No One Can Save you on Hulu. I was worried it would be another overly verbose movie about people dealing with psychological issues when I read a short review that mentioned the main character dealing with guilt, but Stephen King and a few other horror icons are raving about it.

Well, I’m happy to report it’s a full on creature feature. It hits you with that fact about 13 minutes in and does not let up…at all. There’s barely ANY dialogue too. I’m about halfway in and I think there has been less than 10 words so far.

Also, it stars Mags Bennett favorite kid.

…and done.

Loved it. I was afraid it was going for an ending I was going to hate, but it pulled back after playing with that and went with one that is open to at least two interpretations…but probably more. M. Night Shamalamadingdong wishes he’d made this instead of Signs.

Also, if you’re looking for some great sci fi creature films for Halloween, this would make a great double feature with Nope.

Posted: **Sat Oct 07, 2023 9:45 pm**

Halfway through S8 of Red Dwarf. The first time I watched it, back in the early '90s, I'm quite sure I didn't know there were more than four seasons. So finding out that Tubi has 12 seasons means there's a whole lot of "new" Red Dwarf that I never saw. Wiki tells me the original run ended with S8 in 1999 (where I am now), then new seasons were released sporadically from 2009-2017. There was also a movie ("The Promised Land") in 2020; IDK if Tubi has that. I had thought that Red Dwarf was a short series that ended way back in the day.

Posted: **Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:31 pm**

Still one of my favorite scenes (along with Winnie the Pooh refusing the blindfold at his execution) of Red Dwarf.

Spoiler:

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 1:45 am**

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 30, 2023 3:07 pm
Oh and I've just started watching Sex Education's final season and while the show was already quite progressive and bold, I dunno yet about this new season. While the first 3 seasons felt fairly grounded, this new season has a new school that feels rather... fantastical? It certainly doesn't resemble any school I've ever been to, ie a school completely run by a student body, eschewing paper with every student being given a tablet. And in an effort to be even more inclusive than the prior seasons, it ends up feeling less authentic and less relatable, if that makes any sense.

And fair warning, first episode of Season 4 has a fairly lengthy scene with lots of groin shots.

And just finished the final season. It was brilliant, although bittersweet. Overall just really good. I've seen a lot of comments online about season 4 being awful, but I don't really see it. It's the same show it's ever been.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:59 am**

FWIW, my kids' school eschewed paper (and books) with every student having a Chromebook, and they did so close to a decade ago.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:22 am**

Ummm...did you mean to post that in this thread?

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:42 am**

hepcat wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:22 am Ummm...did you mean to post that in this thread?

I believe so. He was responding to:

It certainly doesn't resemble any school I've ever been to, ie a school completely run by a student body, eschewing paper with every student being given a tablet.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:33 pm**

Teach me not to read the rest of the thread...or the one immediately prior to the post.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:41 pm**

Been there. Done that. ... Doin' it tomorrow!

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2023 1:05 pm**

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:59 am FWIW, my kids' school eschewed paper (and books) with every student having a Chromebook, and they did so close to a decade ago.

Yeah, Chromebooks I understand, but the school itself wasn't a very realistic portrayal, in that it resembled more a Google HQ, and the tablets themselves they made them look like something out of sci-fi. Fortunately that was only a small part of the show though.

Posted: **Fri Oct 13, 2023 12:02 pm**

I just watched the Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dressup) documentary on Amazon Prime Video. Some of my earliest memories involve Mr Dressup (I vaguely recall being confused about why the show wasn't Butternut Square any more), so I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe

Posted: **Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:48 am**

Finished Season 2 of The Sopranos last night. Definitely still enjoying it, but as gangster dramas go, Sopranos doesn't really hold a candle to The Wire, imo. Mostly because the supporting cast isn't nearly as strong. Gandolfini is incredible, but most of the rest are varying levels of meh.

Posted: **Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:50 am**

How can you hate on Steven Van Zandt as Silvio? The amount of physical effort required to keep his lip in that position for all those seasons was inhuman!

Posted: **Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:00 am**

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:50 am How can you hate on Steven Van Zandt as Silvio? The amount of physical effort required to keep his lip in that position for all those seasons was inhuman!

Heh. Oddly, that exact thought crossed my mind as I was watching the last episode of S2 last night.

Speaking of, the whole bit with Tony's fever dreams brought on by food poisoning was just super weird...and not in a particularly interesting way. I thought it really distracted from the big emotional climax of the whole season (Big Pussy's fate).

Posted: **Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:04 am**

I’m (almost) never a fan of dream episodes as the consequences don’t seem real. They always feel like fillers to me.

Posted: **Fri Oct 20, 2023 10:08 am**

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:48 am Finished Season 2 of The Sopranos last night. Definitely still enjoying it, but as gangster dramas go, Sopranos doesn't really hold a candle to The Wire, imo. Mostly because the supporting cast isn't nearly as strong. Gandolfini is incredible, but most of the rest are varying levels of meh.

If you opinions don't change (and change soon), I will be absolutely stunned. I just watched the entire series earlier this year and I was amazed at how well it held up. All killer, no filler and the cast was stellar.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:41 pm**

Watched the first two episodes of the new Frasier show, and boy was that rough. The first episode shows a lot of promise, the second one just falls into typical sitcom writing making it feel like Frasier stepped into an episode of a third-rate show with already tired jokes that could already exist with or without Frasier.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:10 pm**

I haven't seen it, but I'm of the opinion that traditional sitcoms were dead long before they actually died. Frasier was one I tended to enjoy, but as most of the original cast hasn't returned for this one, I can't imagine there being much appeal.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:45 pm**

Wife loved the old Frasier so I thought she'd lobby hard for picking up Paramount+ again, but she hasn't mentioned it. I want to catch up on Star Trek after we finish Babylon 5 a month or two from now. So I'm glad there's no pressure to sign up before I want to watch it. Myself, I don't care about Frasier but will watch with her. I've seen the old show enough times to understand at least some of the callbacks the new one will inevitably make.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:20 pm**

Sudy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:10 pm I haven't seen it, but I'm of the opinion that traditional sitcoms were dead long before they actually died. Frasier was one I tended to enjoy, but as most of the original cast hasn't returned for this one, I can't imagine there being much appeal.

Yeah, agreed. I don't even typically like sitcoms, as I only enjoy a few of them, so they have to be something special for me to like them. So much of what made Frasier was based on the writing and comedic timing, and so far from what I've seen, none are present here. It just feels so odd seeing Frasier interacting in a traditional sitcom and the scenarios just come across as typical sitcom fare. For example, in the second episode, his son Freddy brings home an air-hockey table because Frasier made an off-hand comment that he could help furnish the apartment, and a tacky light-up air-hockey table is supposed to double for a dining room table according to Freddy. This kind of joke comes across as being out of place in a Frasier show.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:25 pm**

Freddy sounds like he's never met his father. I guess he's standing in for John Mahoney, whose Martin sadly can't be reprised as he passed away.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:35 pm**

Yeah, and perhaps it's still too early to tell, but I don't find him convincing as Frasier's son. He's a bit too generic a character. David, who is Niles and Daphne's son, on the other hand, manages to evoke a bit of both Niles and Daphne in him, and to me he's the breakout star.

But then, this begs the question... why are Freddy and David both in Boston? Just kind of feels like convenience for the sake of the sitcom for two sons of the two brothers living in the same city. The entire scenario just feels so contrived. In the original Frasier, yeah, many of the situations were contrived, but much of it was overcome by the charm of the series, which this has none of.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:19 pm**

Sudy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:10 pm I haven't seen it, but I'm of the opinion that traditional sitcoms were dead long before they actually died.

Did you watch "Kevin Can F*ck Himself"? That was the ultimate anti-sitcom.

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 11:41 pm**

Sudy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:25 pm Freddy sounds like he's never met his father. I guess he's standing in for John Mahoney, whose Martin sadly can't be reprised as he passed away.

Oh, they actually made a whole scene on that in the second episode. I suspect it was meant to be a callback to the fact that Frasier himself had said his father aka Martin, was dead on Cheers. Freddy works as a firefighter, and Frasier went to their local hangout to talk to Freddy. They all knew who Frasier Crane was, but Freddy pretended not to know who he was, and there's a really long awkwardly drawn out moment where the Firefighters tell Frasier what Freddy told them about his father being dead. Instead of what could have been a touching moment between father and son, they played it out for cheap laughs. It wasn't funny though.

Posted: **Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:12 am**

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:19 pm
Sudy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:10 pm I haven't seen it, but I'm of the opinion that traditional sitcoms were dead long before they actually died.
Did you watch "Kevin Can F*ck Himself"? That was the ultimate anti-sitcom.

I just watched the first episode. Damn, the sitcom portions are hard to watch. It's barely a parody.

Posted: **Wed Oct 25, 2023 8:12 am**

I think that’s a large part of why it works as parody.

Posted: **Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:26 am**

Like the sitcom parts of Natural Born Killers?

Posted: **Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:45 am**

I don't think NBK was parodying sitcoms though. I thought it was directed more at the media and their role in creating pseudo heroes out of murderers and other villains. But it's been ages since I've seen it.

Posted: **Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:49 pm**

There was a 4-ish minute I Love Mallory clip.

Posted: **Mon Oct 30, 2023 3:26 am**

Screwball (2019) is a hilarious documentary about the Biogenesis/MLB doping scandal. It focuses on the testimony of the ludicrous figures of Anthony Bosch and Porter Fischer. But what makes it really special is that all the re-enactments are done by children.

It's a lot of fun even if you're not a baseball fan. The first google result has it on a free documentaries streaming site (watchdocumentaries), though I'm not certain if it's legit.

Posted: **Mon Oct 30, 2023 10:16 am**

Okay, that's great. I'm going to have to find this now. I did watch (and enjoy) Cocaine Cowboys, but it was very much a straight laced, by the books documentary. This one seems to have some fun with a lighter topic.

Posted: **Mon Oct 30, 2023 11:17 am**

I watched CODA on Friday (I stay up on all the new movies!). It was pretty great.

Octopus Overlords

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