Hooligans Sportsbook

Movies and TV

  • Start date •
  • Replies
    13,879 Replies •
  • Views 1,067,028 Views
Follow
Mudcat

Mudcat

yap
Since
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
32,603
Score
436
Tokens
0
With all my new channels and technology I am going to need a place for some ongoing discussion of these topics. I am giddy as a schoolgirl over here.


There is so much going on, I have to break it down. To pick one thing for starters.




The Newsroom - I believe this is a brand new show and I believe the episode I saw this week was not the pilot but episode #2. Why am I guessing, lemme see . . . no, I saw episode #3. Anyway, everything was clear enough and I didn't feel in the dark about stuff I missed.


Pretty entertaining absorbing show. Aaron Sorkin is the main creative force behind it and he has done other stuff I liked. (Charlie Wilson's War, A Few Good Men.) It has some intelligence to it. Safe to say, Americans of right-wing political stripes will not like it.

It has some things to it that I found to be weaknesses. For one thing it was in my listings as a comedy and it's not all that funny. Many of the attempts at humor were ham-handed and weak. The drama worked reasonably well though. The dialogue at times can get a little overly cutesy/clever/ultra-smooth - to the point where it does not ring true.


I am not totally sold for the long term but I will definitely try some more episodes.
 
Something else new (to me)

Veep - this is a half-hour HBO sitcom with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Vice president of the United States. My understanding is they never show the President and just focus on her comings and goings in her subordinate and somewhat toothless role.

In the one episode I have seen, there was some sharpish political observation. Some of the humor was very conventional and fell flat but it is a notch above what I have seen of the current network sitcoms (of which there is not a single one I am watching - unless you count the animated stuff).

The jury is out on this one. I will watch another episode but am not willing to make a commitment beyond that.
 
Now the last movie I saw on VHS before getting all the new stuff - perhaps the last movie I will ever see on VHS ??? - was


The Inside Man - This is a Spike Lee joint. Spike Lee's work is something I have not enjoyed to the point where I simply skip whatever he puts out. I have found him very self-indulgent and clumsy. I couldn't even tell you the last Spike Lee joint I saw before this.

I suppose I can look that shit up . . . okay looks like it was 25th hour (2002).

But I actually heard some good stuff about The Inside Man. Basically I heard it is not like a Spike Lee joint - plus I like Denzel - so I taped it. I was really expecting it to be a situation where I would end up thinking, Okay you knew you weren't going to like it and you watched it anyway and surprise, surprise ---> you didn't like it.

But I actually didn't hate it. It was not like a Spike Lee joint (except a little bit). I'm not going to rave about it but I enjoyed the watching of it. There are a few bad scenes and plot holes but, with one exception, they are more stuff I noticed while thinking about it afterwards. They didn't take away from my watching experience.

I gave it a 6 at imdb.
 
matty can tell you about the Girls show...says its quite funny...

really enjoying Newsroom...muddy, you really should go to a site and watch the 1st ep. ... the first 5 minutes of that show is some of the best jeff daniels you will run across, imo...

enjoyed Inside Man too... kept me interested the entire time and i like the roles that jodie foster and the little black kid played...interesting bonding between the main guy and that black kid... and the ending was cool :yup:

watched TED yesterday... its just funny in a raunchy language way...lots of stupid stuff that just had me cracking up... i dunno if its something you will like, muddy, but its the funniest movie ive seen in a few years (but thats not really saying a whole hell of a lot)
 
I am a prime candidate to like Ted. I like Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy a lot. I don't like American Dad and The Cleveland Show but I think Seth is more just a producer and voice actor for those whereas Family Guy is his creative baby.

Speaking of which, I hear Johnny Depp is reprising his role of Edward Scissorhands on tonight's Family Guy. I keep hearing about it from a bunch of different places so I guess it is a big deal to people.
 
Lena Dunham, the girl who writes/directs Girls and plays the main character, said that her show is what she thought SATC would be when she first heard about it.

It's basically Gen Y's version of SATC. It's dirty, it's raw and it's filled with despicable characters. It's also incredibly witty.

Great show, can't wait for season 2.

:clap:
 
The Ricky Gervais Show however . . . I doubt I will watch more than the one episode I have seen.

It reminds me of different places where I have worked - and the people have fun together and make each other laugh - and someone will say, "It is so funny here; someone should record it and sell it."

But the truth is, it is just regular somewhat funny stuff that seems extra special because you're in the middle of it and there is personal significance.

That's how the Ricky Gervais Show struck me. Like I was watching some people who have fun together but aren't as funny as they think.
 
RayRay
really enjoying Newsroom...muddy, you really should go to a site and watch the 1st ep. ... the first 5 minutes of that show is some of the best jeff daniels you will run across, imo...
Click to expand...


As it turns out, the first 2 episodes are both running this afternoon so I will PVR them.

The best of Jeff Daniels is a bit of a dubious concept for me. I'm not much of a fan. I am more watching the show in spite of him than because of him. But in any case, I will check out the pilot sometime this week.


So many channels . . . so many channels . . .
 
I just watched the first episode of The Newsroom. Just excellent.

I find it very heartening to see something so insistent on being intelligent. It also had some really promising actors/characters. Alison Pill :)canada:) really stands out. And it had some great moments and details and just plain good TV writing.

On another level: I find it heartening to see that kind of thing in an American production. It so often seems like Americans are just shrill, mindless, dangerous, partisan, jingoistic drones. I know they are not all like that - not at all - but sometimes there is a bombardment of airheadedness that seems endless and it is so idiotic and discouraging.

But obviously there are intelligent citizens who are going to stand up for thinking and discourse and making their voices heard. At least there are some making the show. Hopefully it catches on with a good viewership.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.