TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

the pleasure one derives from watching a movie is always political to some degree.

See, I guess I am just too stupid to even understand what a statement like that actually means.

I think I like it better that way though - seems like it would suck to always be worrying about the political implications behind what I enjoy in entertainment.

Nah, it's fun.

But I can see your point.  Sometimes I listen to David Allen Coe, for example.

[Eddie Teach]

American Idiot is no Dookie. 

[Ideologue]

American Idiot is no Dookie. 

Now this is something I think we can all agree on.

[Tonitrus]

I was driving home from a game in Pennsylvania the other day, and I had some Green Day on my droid playlist.

My fellow official from Rochester I was driving hom with were talking about music, and I mentioned that I thought that American Idiot was a great album. He said he couldn't really enjoy it because he objected to the message.

I thought about that, and found it rather odd. I imagine I don't really agree with the message of that particular song either, I guess. It is kind of a trivial message really, and pretty shallow and stereotypical. But I don't really look for savvy political insight from my musicians, so what do I care what message they might be fumbling around? Why would anyone think that anything Billie Armstrong (or whoever wrote the song) has to say about politics would be insightful enough to actually think serious about anyway?

I think it is a great song, and don't really care about what it is trying to say. It is interesting in the context of the song, but it seems bizarre to me that someone would actually let that interfere with their enjoyment of the song itself.

Hmm, I tend to agree with your friend. 

While one can recognize that a particular song is a very good composition of music, sometimes the political message is too overpowering for one to stomach it.

A good example might be John Lennon's "Imagine".  I think the composition is very good, but I am sure many people balk at the politics.

[Berkut]

I was driving home from a game in Pennsylvania the other day, and I had some Green Day on my droid playlist.

My fellow official from Rochester I was driving hom with were talking about music, and I mentioned that I thought that American Idiot was a great album. He said he couldn't really enjoy it because he objected to the message.

I thought about that, and found it rather odd. I imagine I don't really agree with the message of that particular song either, I guess. It is kind of a trivial message really, and pretty shallow and stereotypical. But I don't really look for savvy political insight from my musicians, so what do I care what message they might be fumbling around? Why would anyone think that anything Billie Armstrong (or whoever wrote the song) has to say about politics would be insightful enough to actually think serious about anyway?

I think it is a great song, and don't really care about what it is trying to say. It is interesting in the context of the song, but it seems bizarre to me that someone would actually let that interfere with their enjoyment of the song itself.

Hmm, I tend to agree with your friend. 

While one can recognize that a particular song is a very good composition of music, sometimes the political message is too overpowering for one to stomach it.

A good example might be John Lennon's "Imagine".  I think the composition is very good, but I am sure many people balk at the politics.

Wow, I think "Imagine" is an incredible song, even though I think the message is rather naive. Different drums and all that, I guess.

[Josquius]

I fell asleep during my first attempt at this weeks the walking dead
Boardwalk Empire....continues to plod along decently, not quite at the levels of sheer awesome it has been in the past but more than watchable.
Misfits I think is proving rather awesome this series, contrary to the fangirl rage out there.

[Tonitrus]

Yeah, this week's "The Walking Dead" was the weakest so far this season.

Interested to see the one-handed brother come back next week though.

[Capetan Mihali]

the pleasure one derives from watching a movie is always political to some degree.

See, I guess I am just too stupid to even understand what a statement like that actually means.

I think I like it better that way though - seems like it would suck to always be worrying about the political implications behind what I enjoy in entertainment.

And I can't imagine just uncritically enjoying things with no critical thought about what I'm experiencing.  It seems like it would be like being lobotomized.  Thinking about the implications of a piece of entertainment is a big part of the enjoyment for me, not some kind of burden to make sure I only watch things that conform with my views. 

That's why I don't think the explicit political message of a movie is usually very interesting (though there are "political-statement" movies I love).  What more interesting is the way that a movie, especially when it involves a persona like Tarantino and comes out of Hollywood, expresses its politics through the cinematography, composition, etc. 

What bothered me about "Inglorious Basterds" was that it didn't really have the nerve just to wallow in graphic violence for the sheer pleasure of experiencing it, like the 70s grindhouse movies Tarantino loves.  The movie's violence is structured around a premise that basically provided a moral rationale for the violence -- how much more obvious can it be than Jews vs. Nazis?

Would you just sit there enjoying the action and technical prowess, and not giving a shit whether the premise was a small band of scrappy Nazis scalping the Jews, carving Stars of David in their faces, and burning them alive?  That is politics. 

I don't think the "it's ironic" idea is anything more than Tarantino's way of abdicating responsibility for the politics of his movies (esp. where race is concerned). 

This movie aside, I bet you already recognize certain political elements in movies you watch and maybe enjoy.  If you watched a 30s screwball comedy, funny as hell, but showcasing black servants behaving in a stereotypically degrading way, wouldn't you see some of the racial politics of the era in play?

Movies have been political since day one.  It's not an accident that the first huge blockbuster of great action and technical feats, that tons of people just "enjoyed," was an extended propaganda piece for the virtues of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.

[Sophie Scholl]

Anyone else watching Grimm?  It's not bad actually.  A decent show if you get a chance to track it down, and only 2 episodes in so far.  However, being on NBC, I'm predicting it dies a la Kings.

[Eddie Teach]

I dunno. Similar premise to Once Upon a Time, but it has more of an episodic feel to it. I don't really care for episodic cop shows, even with a supernatural twist to them. When somebody dies, I want to care about it. I'm giving it a shot for now though.

[Sophie Scholl]

Are you watching Once Upon a Time as well?  It's kind of growing on me.

[Eddie Teach]

Yeah, though I get the feeling it's only got one good season in it. Once they run out of familiar characters to reintroduce, they'll probably get tangled up in the plotline. Kind of how Heroes started to suck when they ran out of unused superpowers.

[Sophie Scholl]

Yeah, though I get the feeling it's only got one good season in it. Once they run out of familiar characters to reintroduce, they'll probably get tangled up in the plotline. Kind of how Heroes started to suck when they ran out of unused superpowers.

I almost hope they only plan for it to be one season.  It seems like it would lend itself to the idea of a one or two season planned run.  Establish the characters, establish the storyline, then finish with a nice "And they lived happily ever after" fade to black.  It would certainly fit the premise.

[Viking]

Anyone else watching Grimm?  It's not bad actually.  A decent show if you get a chance to track it down, and only 2 episodes in so far.  However, being on NBC, I'm predicting it dies a la Kings.

meh, it's not as good as Kings. It's sufficiently silly to survive. No-name actors, low cost SFX, it probably does not cost much to make and those german linguists wrote most of the plotlines.

Once upon a time, however, full of star power, with more expensive SFX seems more vulnerable.

[Eddie Teach]

I expect Once is getting much better ratings though. It's appearing on ABC on Sunday rather than NBC on Friday for one thing.

Also I don't know that I'd call Goodwin and Morrison "star power".