Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Hahaha, that's great. Comedy is definitely one aspect in which the Sopranos beats The Wire. Pauly Walnuts alone:

 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Is anyone watching/already watched The Get Down? I'm a few episodes through, and totally unsure whether I think it's a complete mess (having the first episode directed by Baz Luhrmann was a gamble and a half), and whether that's the point anyways. Arresting TV either way, and some of the musical sequences are fucking glorious
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Hahaha, that's great. Comedy is definitely one aspect in which the Sopranos beats The Wire. Pauly Walnuts alone:


Haha, this is great!

Did you know this, btw?

Tony Sirico only agreed to sign on for the show if it was guaranteed that his character Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri would not be a "rat", an informant. As Sirico explained in James Toback's documentary The Big Bang (1989), he had served time in prison for robbery. Altogether, Sirico's rap sheet included at least 28 arrests. Reportedly, he also appeared briefly in an uncredited role in The Godfather: Part II (1974).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141842/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

Real-life gangsta! Or robber, at any rate.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
i started watching stranger things but dont see the point in watching the whole thing. is this what people get excited for now? rehashed 80s spielberg where the appeal is all the films (that prob have not aged that well, but people just wont admit it cos they saw it when they were 9 years old, and cos they saw it when they were 9, it cant be bad) it references rather than anything it does particularly novelly?

i half liked super 8 but it would be good if the jj abrams-ification of american tv and film stopped there. american horror story seemed to do 70s/80s rehashing better, without hedging all its appeal on the stuff it made you think of. then again, maybe if i was 10, id think stranger things was amazing. but its a bit pathetic that all these nostalgia exercises are so hyped.

winona ryder looks good, though i cant totally buy her as a middle aged mother. she looks, and somehow still appears too young.
 

you

Well-known member
Anyone watching Westworld. I put my thoughts on the show on the vomitorium blog. I quite like the series so far. Though some of Maeve's lines are quite corny.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
Anyone watching Westworld. I put my thoughts on the show on the vomitorium blog. I quite like the series so far. Though some of Maeve's lines are quite corny.

i am.

i loved the original film with yul brynner and also the 1978 porno parody, sex world.
the HBO reboot is a good balance of the two.
 

you

Well-known member
I can't help but see Westworld as analogous to every major city in the west, the playgrounds of the super-rich. Very pessimistic I know, but that is my take on it.

You know, I never saw the original film. I should after this season.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Bit slow on the uptake, I know, but I'm three episodes into Peaky Blinders. Really enjoying it so far. The obvious comparison is to Boardwalk Empire, though it's too early to say if it's as good/better. The use of modern music is really clever and doesn't seem jarring. Acting is pretty solid. Oh, and one for the HN-SB thread: Annabelle Wallis as the Irish barmaid/police agent Grace:

1415305009021


She has a nose that could conceivably grace (n.p.i.) a bust of Athena. I'm a bit smitten, tbh. And I can say that while watching it because Mrs Tea is too busy drooling over Cillian Murphy to notice, lol.
 
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entertainment

Well-known member
been going through the seasons of The Eric Andre show. Love everything about it, the meta-humorous jokes, the surrealist satirizing of american talk shows, the abstract expressionist-styled disposition, even the fact that it's significantly more miss than hit. One of the only shows on tv i've actually laughed out loud at besides The Simpsons and some of The Office, US version. Too many comedians make jokes they know are going to work. Eric Andre and Hannibal Burress are some of the few people pushing the genre forward.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
i just finished Bojack Horseman
deeply existential and hauntingly good
best show i've seen in ages

not properly TV though, is it?
episodic, but not broadcast
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I started watching that. Didn't stop cos I didn't like it, just stopped. I hear it gets really good though.

My favourite comedy show ATM is Rick and Morty.
 

Leo

Well-known member
i'm telling you, watch "occupied". available on netflix, well worth it.

good TV times here in the states: next week starts the new season of "better call saul", the new "fargo" starts the week after, then "master of none" and "house of cards" are back in may.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Y'all watching goddamned Fargo and Rick & Morty...

Meanwhile the only tv show worth syndication is Riverdale, but small minds can't see the big picture.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
CrowleyHead is the only person here who still appreciates Serious Art. The rest of us just watch soaps, listen to Justin Bieber and read airport thrillers.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Has anyone been watching Guerrilla? I'm quite enjoying it as a fictionalisation of an important and little-known - well, I was hazy about it, anyways - piece of British history, though I think the criticisms of the erasure of black women in the series are undeniably accurate (going well beyond the casting of Freida Pinto, which could probably be justified if there was another foregrounded black female character in the first two episodes [which are the ones I've seen] The rather brilliant Wunmi Mosaku is woefully underused too).

@entertainment - the Eric Andre Show is genuinely odd, that's for sure. Thanks for the heads up
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Anyone else been watching Stranger Things? It's a soap opera/romantic drama/police thriller set in a superficially wholesome typical-small-town-in-Middle-America and deals alternately with the love lives of some preternaturally clear-skinned and articulate teenages, and with high-grade Weird Shit involving nameless horrors from another dimension. If that sounds oddly familiar, then frankly yes, if I were being unkind I could call it an homage to, or even pastiche of, Twin Peaks.

Having said that, it's doesn't really feel at all Lynchian, as it has none of his trademark surrealism/magic realism, and lacks the oneiric (or rather nightmarish) quality that characterized Twin Peaks in particular. In fact the narrative so far (I'm four episodes in) is pretty straightforward. The show wears plenty of other influences on its sleeve, too, particularly [SPOILERS]the psychic girl who escapes from the sinister facility where she's been brutally 'encouraged' to develop her powers, which is straight out of Akira or Scanners; the government agents/conspiracy angle is very X-Files and the monsters are quite Stephen King. The distinctly organic and gloopy nature of the Other Place makes me think of Laird Barron, however, which maybe goes to show 'highbrow' horror lit having something of an influence on mainstream TV these days, along with all the Ligotti references (or ripoffs, if you prefer) in the first series of True Detective - which itself has quite a Twin Peaks-ish feel to it. Quite apart from that, the kids-riding-around-on-chopper-bikes-having-adventures aesthetic reminded me of E.T. crossed with a few of the more whimsical episodes of South Park.[END SPOILERS]

It's quite well made and entertaining, with a great performance by Winona Ryder (there's a few other faces I recognize, but she's the standout name), but I think I'll need to watch some more before deciding whether it's more than a cleverly assembled collection of influences and hat-tips.

Baboon, in answer to your question: nope, sorry.
 
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Leo

Well-known member
"stranger things" was all the rage here last year, even the soundtrack was a hit. i haven't watched it, most of the reviews were pretty positive. i think it's starting season 2 now or soon.
 

luka

Well-known member
I'm watching the new twin peaks. I'm enjoying it but the last episode I watched was 8 and it was terrible. Like an hour long arty 80s pop video
 
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