TV/Movies Megathread

[Viking]

My parents love Big Bang Theory, but I can't really get into it. 
It's almost like every IT Assburger I've ever known that made my job difficult, plus Languish.

I found out my pop loves it, too. I wouldn't have guessed that.  Myself, I can't stand it.

The characters remind your fathers of their sons?

I once saw a selection of Edison Studio films.  His company shot a lot of their films in New York City at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th; and they recorded a lot of stage acts from the time.  A lot of the acts then presented stereotypes of various ethnic groups in New York City.  The pretentious film historians said that the immigrants would buy tickets to see themselves made fun of; because by being made fun of they were being included in America.

I don't usually watch it, but I look at BBT that way.  Even if Howard is the butt of the jokes at least there's an engineer being portrayed on television outside of a Sci-Fi show.

....and the specialists are specialists in some field, not knowledgeable of all science just because they have a masters from MIT in technobabble. To be honest, in my experience being a PhD in X means you know less about NOT X than virtually everybody else.

[FunkMonk]

Watched Take Shelter last night. Superb. Masterful. Engrossing. Exhausting.

Five doomsday preppers out of five.

[Barrister]

My parents love Big Bang Theory, but I can't really get into it. 
It's almost like every IT Assburger I've ever known that made my job difficult, plus Languish.

I found out my pop loves it, too. I wouldn't have guessed that.  Myself, I can't stand it.

The characters remind your fathers of their sons?

I once saw a selection of Edison Studio films.  His company shot a lot of their films in New York City at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th; and they recorded a lot of stage acts from the time.  A lot of the acts then presented stereotypes of various ethnic groups in New York City.  The pretentious film historians said that the immigrants would buy tickets to see themselves made fun of; because by being made fun of they were being included in America.

I don't usually watch it, but I look at BBT that way.  Even if Howard is the butt of the jokes at least there's an engineer being portrayed on television outside of a Sci-Fi show.

Love is far, far too strong, but I'll watch BBT and mildly enjoy it.  Sav's analysis is interesting, actually.  I hadn't thought of it that way - they're being made fun of, but at least they're on tv in a generally positive attitude.

But also it's a traditional multi-cam sitcom in an era that doesn't have many of them.  It has a basic sitcom structure (friends and their relationships) that everyone can relate to.  It's also interesting that BBT had solid but unremarkable ratings until it hit syndication, and now that people are more familiar with the show its original run episodes get monster ratings.

[Syt]

I DVRed The Wind And the Lion from an HD movie channel last night. Haven't seen this movie in ages. Looking forward to watching it.

[Queequeg]

Watched Take Shelter last night. Superb. Masterful. Engrossing. Exhausting.

Five doomsday preppers out of five.

So fucking good.  Both Shannon and Chastain were amazing.

[Tonitrus]

I DVRed The Wind And the Lion from an HD movie channel last night. Haven't seen this movie in ages. Looking forward to watching it.

Between The Wind and the Lion, Farewell to the King, and Conan the Barbarian...young, energetic, early John Milius is one of the greatest, most underrated, and under-utilized filmmakers of all time.

[crazy canuck]

I DVRed The Wind And the Lion from an HD movie channel last night. Haven't seen this movie in ages. Looking forward to watching it.

Crap, I wish I had known it was on.  I would have liked to see it again too.

[celedhring]

Wow, the Arrow season 1 finale is pretty brutal.

[Viking]

Wow, the Arrow season 1 finale is pretty brutal.

What I really liked about it is that in the two parallel stories one of the villain plots work.

[celedhring]

[spoiler]Yeah, I honestly was expecting the heroes to swing by and save the city, and then they didn't. [/spoiler]Really ups the stakes going into season 2 and makes stuff a bit more poignant - there isn't much tension to stories if you know the good guys always win.

[Viking]

I went into season two wondering which villain plot would fail [spoiler]Brother Blood[/spoiler] in Starling or[spoiler] Dr Ivo[/spoiler] on Lian Yu, and man did the mess with my expectations there. I really appreciate how they are not putting the "hero" in positions where he is not struggling to do the right thing, but rather having to choose between two wrongs and having to live with it afterwards.

BTW, Moira Queen and John Diggle now exist in the comics. Felicity [spoiler]Raymond[/spoiler] neé Smoak already has been in Firestorm and Green Lantern/Power Girl (in the 80s and 90s).

[Sheilbh]

Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark

Just searched back. There's a great little essay in the Guardian calling for a reappraisal of Kenneth Clark:
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/may/16/kenneth-clark-arrogant-snob-saviour-art

Edit: Also Ways of Seeing, the documentary prompted by Civilisation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfB-pUm3eI

[Josquius]

Anchorman 2- Silly, not as good as it should have been, but kind of amusing.

[CountDeMoney]

I DVRed The Wind And the Lion from an HD movie channel last night. Haven't seen this movie in ages. Looking forward to watching it.

Bestest.  Mooselimb.  Evah.


Islam was so romantic and exotic until 1960.

[Razgovory]

Between The Wind and the Lion, Farewell to the King, and Conan the Barbarian...young, energetic, early John Milius is one of the greatest, most underrated, and under-utilized filmmakers of all time.

I had thought John Huston had directed it, but you are right.