TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

Ludwig II discourse played a minor role in the early period of dating my husband.

He's been very romanticized in the past as "Märchenkönig" (fairy tail king), though in his conservative home state of Bavaria they didn't want to hear anything about him being homosexual and considered it slander. Not sure how the mood about him is these days.

There was a bit of a revival of revering him in the 1950s, when German movies were often set in the late 19th century, the "good old times," pre-WW1, creating a romanticized image of the period. The Sissi movies, the 1954 movie about Ludwig II (which was painting a very ramantic, melancholy picture with no hint of homosexuality or other items that could have been considered controversial at the tim), a slew of 19th century operetta adaptations, along movies categorized broadly as "Heimatfilm", i.e. movies set in rural (southern) Germany or Austria, usually comedies or rmantic movies, at any rate "feel good" movies, often with musical numbers interspersed.

I don't think they outright said anything but I do think at Neuschwanstein they did have more than a couple mentions of his male favorites.

[The Brain]

1899, S1. Passenger ship on its way to New York receives message from her sister ship that disappeared four months before. Decent budget, nice feel. I was entertained, but [SPOILER] the ending is a bit weak I think. I was hoping for a long time that it wouldn't be a modern/SF Matrix situation, but of course that's what it was. I would have preferred if it had actually been set in 1899 (with some fancy tech by some genius) and that, for instance, all the special passengers had been inmates at the asylum and that the asylum had been real.

[Eddie Teach]

Quite the opium dream, that.

[Josephus]

I'm about 3 episodes in. Not sure I like it yet. But am intrigued.

[Admiral Yi]

Not crazy about the casting of Diana and Charles.

[viper37]

Not crazy about the casting of Diana and Charles.

Diana is too pretty and Charles ain't ugly enough?

[Josquius]

I've watched the first few episodes of the American version of Ghosts.
Its interesting. First ep totally copies the UK one only with far 'broader' acting. By episode 3 it is merely borrowing bits and doing different stuff with them.
Its curious identifying how they've changed the characters. Some are direct one to ones whilst with others they've split features apart and constructed them into new characters- the caveman becomes both a viking and the native American for instance. I suspect they realised early on in development a direct translation would mean having an ooga booga native which wouldn't have went well for them.

[Grey Fox]

*Canadian version

  

[Admiral Yi]

Diana is too pretty and Charles ain't ugly enough?

Diana is too boney and gigantic and Charles is too confident.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm really enjoying the Mohammed and Dodi Fayed story line.

[Sheilbh]

I'm really enjoying the Mohammed and Dodi Fayed story line.

Yeah I think it's the best and most interesting thing about it this time round.

[The Larch]

I started watching Wednesday today, the new Netflix show based on the Addams family, with Tim Burton involved in it. I've seen 3 episodes so far (all of them directed by Burton himself), out of a total of 8 in the 1st season that just dropped, and I'm enjoying it although I think it could be a tad better.

The show, as expected, is completely centered on Wednesday Addams, who after being expelled from her regular high school (Nancy Reagan High  ) is sent by her parents to a Hogwarts-like boarding school for supernatural kids (located in New Jersey). There it is revealed that it was the school that both Gómez and Morticia attended when they were young themselves. The current headmistress (played by Gwendoline Christie) is in fact Morticia's old room-mate at the school, and they take Wednesday as a favour.

The school, as expected, has its quaint traditions, as well as several student cliques, based on each group's supernatural origin (so far the ones mentioned have been vampires, werewolves, sirens and gorgons), and some school-drama storylines are present in the background (Wednesday herself is not really involved in them, but secondary characters are).

Right as Wednesday arrives at the school, a mysterious murder takes place in the woods surrounding the school, which the local sheriff (the school is in a quaint small town that sees the school and its pupils with suspicion) thinks must be related to the school, but has no proof. And, of course, the school holds old secrets, some of them related to Gómez and Morticia's stay there.

So far, I'm enjoying it, but it's walking a bit of a tightrope with all the different subplots, it feels like it has too much on its plate, what with school stuff storylines, the murders, the mysteries, and so on, in only 8 episodes. Let's see how they tie everything together. The production is great and the school setting is appropriately spooky and gothicky, but I'd say it's more grounded that what we're used to from this setting. The actress that plays Wednesday looks great in her characterization, but there's something off about how she comes across when playing the role, at least to me. She's a bit too... unsympathetic, for lack of a better word. The way she reads her lines ends up coming across a bit know-it-all, or bossy, or too aloof. I know very well that that's the way the character is, but at least in the movies Christina Ricci (who has a small role in the show too) had a way to deliver her lines that worked very well. I'd love to hear somebody else's take on this if anyone is watching the show or plans to do so. I'd also say that it lacks a bit of wackiness or zaniness, as it's a bit plain for the kind of show I imagined with these characters. Also, besides Wednesday only Thing (the disembodied hand, that acts a bit as the show's comedy relief) is the only canonical character that appears regularly. The rest of the family only appeared significantly in the first episode, and only briefly once in the next two.

So, if anyone else has watched this... thoughts?

[Admiral Yi]

The Avatar II trailer looks pretty underwhelming.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special was great.  Very funny. 

[Eddie Teach]

Was it as good as the Star Wars Christmas special?