TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

I enjoyed the first season of The Diplomat so I gave Madame Secretary a try.  Tea Leoni is an ex-CIA current university professor who gets tapped for Secretary of State to replace someone who died in a plane crash.

Tea is a hottie and I applaud her milfiness but the little nagging issues I had with The Diplomat are ramped up to 11.  Namely, that both protagonists are micromanaging all kinds of shit either above or below their pay grades.  And generally they don't scan as how things really work in the executive.

Giving up after an episode and a half.

[Barrister]

Ted Lasso.  Watched the last episode. Did I miss something? Why is Nate not with the team ? Why is he so depressed?

So I was out of town, took the flights as an opportunity to catch up on Ted Lasso.

Spoilers:






Nope - didn't miss anything.  Exactly what precipitated Nate leaving West Ham is not stated.

Good episode with lots of personal growth, but felt rushed and a little unearned.  Nate and his father's reconciliation in particular seemed like it was out of the blue.  Also something like the "Super League" could easily have been a season-long story arc, not a B plot in a one-and-done episode.

They're definitely bringing this thing in for a landing, trying to wrap up as many dangling plot lines as they can.  Only 2 episodes left.

Roy Kent in the tie-dye was fun though.  And not so subtle that the next day, while he wasn't wearing the tie-dye, he was wearing at least a little bit of colour.  Mean Danni Rojas was also fun - though the "Canadian" commentary for the Canada-Mexico match was painful.  Besides we just import Brits for soccer announcing anyways.

Not much Ted though.  Guess that's going to be one of the next two episodes.

Final ending seems obvious though - Ted (and Beard) are going to go back to the US, Nate comes back to manage Richmond.

[Syt]

Nope - didn't miss anything.  Exactly what precipitated Nate leaving West Ham is not stated.

I think it's hinted at very briefly in the intro - "reports of improper conduct" at WestHam. Since we see Rupert with a new personal assistant, I assume that's the "improper" conduct. And between this, his "guys night" at the end of the previous episode and realizing his "old crew" still cares (and not getting on with the new sycophants in the club kissing up to him) probably led to a "what am I doing here?" moment.

But yeah, it kinda feels like an episode's worth of conent was skipped.

[Josephus]

Yeah, as BB says, Nate's character development seemed rushed; although BB's prediction for the ending may be the reason why they need to move Nate back to the "good side" of things. It seems strange that they rushed through all that and yet many other scenes are too long...like anything to do with KeeLee or whatever her name is.

[Admiral Yi]

Watching Last Tango In Halifax.  Two old widowed Limeys hook up.  I have this idea in my head that old age romances or rom coms are all shyte so I stayed away from this for a long time but it's pretty good.

Eye candy: none.

[Gups]

Finished Colin from Accounts, an Aussie comedy. Best comedy I've seen since Derry Girls.

[Josephus]

Anyone watching Love and Death. Based on a true story of an adulterous affair gone wrong in Texas in the late 70s. It's told in that quarky southern style and has Jesse Plemons and one Elizabeth Olsen-- whom I thought was one of the Olsen twins but is really their baby sib.Really quite good.

[Eddie Teach]

She's also the Scarlet Witch.

[viper37]

AI generated movie:  Last stand

Interesting.

[Admiral Yi]

Question for the Brits re Last Tango in Halifax: is it common in the UK, or in the Manchester area, or the rural parts, for people to end phone conversations with 3 good byes?

Person A: bye
Person B: bye
Person A: bye
hangs up

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I think so.

(Also FYI: Manchester is in Lancashire, Halifax is in Yorkshire. You'd get tarred and feathered if you mixed them up there )

[HVC]

Yeah I think so.

(Also FYI: Manchester is in Lancashire, Halifax is in Yorkshire. You'd get tarred and feathered if you mixed them up there )

Because they're basically the same and refuse the admit it?

[Admiral Yi]

(Also FYI: Manchester is in Lancashire, Halifax is in Yorkshire. You'd get tarred and feathered if you mixed them up there )

They need to get over themselves.

I asked Manchester because they were talking about a character flitting off to Manchester for fun when she was younger.

[Sheilbh]

Because they're basically the same and refuse the admit it?

Just a big rivalry since the War of the Roses. And my impression is (I come from the Lancashire side of the Pennines) that Yorkshire is basically England's Texas

[Barrister]

OK, so Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 11 (the penultimate episode).   Spoilers ahead...










Again, the episode feels like it is too long yet too rushed also.  They clearly have an arc they want to tell, and the show is pretty clearly over after this season, but I feel like they should have gone one more season.  A lot of the storylines (that they closed off in Ep 11) feel like they could have gone longer.

No particular order:

-Ted finally moves back into the spotlight with Mamo Lasso showing up!  A nice portrayal of how the apple didn't fall far from the tree, but how that kind of sweet positiveness isn't always the most helpful.  Ted's "thank you / fuck you" speech actually did feel like well deserved character development.  Season 1 Ted would never have sworn at his mom like that.

-OMG we get Coach Beard's backstory!  Makes sense why he sticks with Ted even though he's clearly the brains of the operation.

-I missed this on first watch but saw in a review: the goalkeeper Van Damme, formerly known as Zorreau, was wearing a mask in the game because of his broken nose.  The mask of Zorreau if you will...

-I had to look it up but yes - the Man City manager is the real manager for Man City.  I guess I'd know that if I was a meaningful EPL fan.  The comments online I saw were that manager would never be so generous and thoughtful in defeat in real life.

-Jamie Tartt had some good scenes.  Nice echo in his substitution at the end of the game echoing back to season 1 in very different circumstances.


So what's left?

-Ted's news to Rebecca cliffhanger has to be that he's leaving, right?  I mean it's so obvious I wonder if there's some kind of swerve coming.

-there's still the psychic's "prophecy" and Rebecca's "motherhood".  There was that night with the dutchman, plus last week she was talking about a visitor that came every month unless you were pregnant - which turned out to be a wine delivery service.

-do they bother explaining what happened with Rupert and Nate at West Ham?  I mean the basics are pretty obvious already, and the writers of Ted Lasso sometimes give their audience credit for being able to figure things out without spelling them out.  And does Rupert really need any more of an arc at this point?  Rebecca has "won" by no longer needing to beat Rupert, Betz knows about Rupert's philandering.

-ok so Ted is going back to the US, but what about Beard?  And his relationship with Jane?  It was definitely shown to be rather toxic earlier on, but the writers have backed down on that side of things,, now showing it rather to just be weird (and that Beard is also a weird dude also).  Does he realize he's strong enough to move on without Ted, and stay at Richmond?

-does Richmond win the championship?  I'm leaning to "no" - after all Ted doesn't care about wins and losses (and neither, apparently, does Pep Guardiola).

-and Nate comes back to the team of course, but that's like 95% of the way there already so not much left.

-oh by the way - does Ted Crimm really have a story arc?  What has been the point of his character in this season (other than serving as a confidant with Colin)?

-and I guess - do Roy and Keeley wind up together?