TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Man season 6 is totally awesome.  Every episode has been a killer so far.

[viper37]

Britannia

I really liked season 1.
It's the conquest of Britain by the Romans, but with some magical elements mixed in it.  Druids are fighting one Roman general who is serving the evil lord of the underworld.  And the druids are shady ones, betraying and allying with some of the Celtic tribes in turn.  The Chosen one vs the Evil one.

Season 2 wasn't that bad.

But now season 3.  It's everywhere all at once and it's really weird.  5 episode in, out of 8, I'm note sure I understand much of what I'm seeing.

And it's goddam bleak.  Like hard to watch.  I'm not even gonna put spoilers.

Available on CBC's website, and likely BBC too since it's a British tv show.

[The Brain]

Succession S4 is kind of not going anywhere. One of the episodes was good but the rest are just moving in circles. At the start of the season they were hesitating over the Matsson deal, and six episodes in they still are.

[Gups]

Britannia

I really liked season 1.
It's the conquest of Britain by the Romans, but with some magical elements mixed in it.  Druids are fighting one Roman general who is serving the evil lord of the underworld.  And the druids are shady ones, betraying and allying with some of the Celtic tribes in turn.  The Chosen one vs the Evil one.

Season 2 wasn't that bad.

But now season 3.  It's everywhere all at once and it's really weird.  5 episode in, out of 8, I'm note sure I understand much of what I'm seeing.

And it's goddam bleak.  Like hard to watch.  I'm not even gonna put spoilers.

Available on CBC's website, and likely BBC too since it's a British tv show.

Sky I think, not BBC. Watched the first one. It was ok but didn't pull me in

[Josephus]

Succession S4 is kind of not going anywhere. One of the episodes was good but the rest are just moving in circles. At the start of the season they were hesitating over the Matsson deal, and six episodes in they still are.

I disagree--it's a chess game of sorts--or a poker game, might be a better metaphor. Lots of backstabbing, and doubletalk. Loving it.

[Duque de Bragança]

Britannia

I really liked season 1.
It's the conquest of Britain by the Romans, but with some magical elements mixed in it.  Druids are fighting one Roman general who is serving the evil lord of the underworld.  And the druids are shady ones, betraying and allying with some of the Celtic tribes in turn.  The Chosen one vs the Evil one.

Season 2 wasn't that bad.

But now season 3.  It's everywhere all at once and it's really weird.  5 episode in, out of 8, I'm note sure I understand much of what I'm seeing.

And it's goddam bleak.  Like hard to watch.  I'm not even gonna put spoilers.

Available on CBC's website, and likely BBC too since it's a British tv show.

Season 1 was entertaining fantasy, at least for laughs, with caligae sounding like jackboots to signify Roman imperialism. 
Season 2 not as much.

Did not watch season 3.

[Savonarola]

Gentemmen welcome to:

Fight Club (1999)

I'm sure you know the rules

I saw this during it's original theatrical run.  In those days I would read the movie critic from The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press and if they ever disagreed I'd go see the movie.  Usually those were the best movies you'd find at the Megaplex.  I haven't seen this since; I'd forgotten a lot of it.  For instance I thought Tyler Durden succeeded in his nefarious scheme; I didn't remember that the police easily figured out the plot and he ended up in a loony bin



The film was controversial at the time in part because it doesn't provide easy answers or much of a resolution for that matter.  Furthermore it's a film where the narrator decries the typical standards of male beauty, but stars Brad Pitt; and it's a film which has Tyler Durden denouncing consumer-capitalism, yet has a product placement deal with Pepsi.  You can read almost anything into it that you want to; and judging by the interwebs many pretentious film critics still do.  (My personal favorite is this one from Vanity Fair in which the author demonstrates that Fight Club foresaw (or perhaps caused) all the unpleasantness of the past quarter century: 9/11, Trump, Men's Rights Groups, Millennials and so on.)

For my part I thought it was a good metaphor for Marx's intellectual development.  As a young man Marx developed a theory of alienation, moved on to a critique of capitalism, and ultimately proposed a bloody revolution which would lead to a utopia, which, in practice turned out to be not much better than wearing leather pants and hunting elk.

 

I'm certain that wasn't the intent of either the scriptwriter or Chuck Palahniuk.  Actually I assumed the story was supposed to be Freudian; the narrator is abandoned by his father and is unable to form a relationship with a woman that he's attracted to.  He creates a new father figure who can have a relationship with that woman.  That father figure in turn abandons him^1. and only by killing that father figure can the narrator experience any sort of psycho-sexual growth and have a relationship with the woman (thereby supplanting the father figure.)

After reading the novel and listening to the commentary and listening to Chuck Palahniuk's commentary that wasn't his intent either; he seems to derive most of his ideas from Buddhism.

The film does a good job of showing the consequences of fighting, as a lot of the men have some fairly serious injuries; I'm surprised anyone watched this and decided to form his own fight club.  It does make domestic terrorism look like a lot of fun, though; I can't blame the critics who thought it was a fascist film.
 
The film is really well shot; I like the contrast between the sterile corporate world, the filthy house and the saturated colors whenever Tyler is on the screen.  It's also a nice time capsule of the 90s cubicle world, right down to the extra-glorious Windows 98 OS.  On some of the commentary tracks the commentators called it "The Graduate" for Gen-X; which is certainly more flattering than "Reality Bites," even if the protagonist is psychotic.

I watched the French dub as well.  I couldn't catch all the idioms, but it's interesting which concepts can be directly taken from American English (Martha Stewart, Lorena Bobbit) and what needs to be changed (Ozzie and Harriet, Clam Chowder, Khakis.)  Also how Jared Leto's "She's hot" in the English becomes "She's not bad" in French.

1.) Which reminded me of this Dilbert strip:
)

[Admiral Yi]

Your revisionist attempt to salvage Scott Adam's reputation is noted for the record. 

[Barrister]

Gentemmen welcome to:

Fight Club (1999)

I'm sure you know the rules

I saw this during it's original theatrical run.  In those days I would read the movie critic from The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press and if they ever disagreed I'd go see the movie.  Usually those were the best movies you'd find at the Megaplex.  I haven't seen this since; I'd forgotten a lot of it.  For instance I thought Tyler Durden succeeded in his nefarious scheme; I didn't remember that the police easily figured out the plot and he ended up in a loony bin

I feel like it's pretty cliche of me to say that as a Gen X white male I really liked Fight Club.

To pick on another 90s classic it's like Starship Troopers - the movie is quite plainly trying to portray the protagonists as bad guys, but it's so slickly made you can't help but root for them anyways.

I remember watching this in a second-run theatre back in the day and being blown away by the twist.

[Josephus]

I feel like it's pretty cliche of me to say that as a Gen X white male I really liked Fight Club.

Fight Club was the last great movie of the Gen X generation.

[Barrister]

I feel like it's pretty cliche of me to say that as a Gen X white male I really liked Fight Club.

Fight Club was the last great movie of the Gen X generation.

I wanted to say The Matrix, but The Matrix came out in spring 1999, while Fight Club came out in the fall.

By the way - when am I ever going to feel like the years 1999/2000 are in the past, and not in the future?

[celedhring]

I feel like it's pretty cliche of me to say that as a Gen X white male I really liked Fight Club.

Fight Club was the last great movie of the Gen X generation.

Requiem for a Dream.

[Savonarola]

Requiem for a Dream.

I was going to say "High Fidelity," but "Requiem for a Dream" was a couple months later.

[Savonarola]

Your revisionist attempt to salvage Scott Adam's reputation is noted for the record. 

I have to work with what I've got.  Ziggy never had a strip that mirrored a plot point of "Fight Club."

[Josquius]

Despite obviously being made by teh olds I'd place fight clubs cultural standing as more of a millenial film.
It was hugely influential in a lot of the more negative shit that has cropped up over the past 2 decades.
To go out there MMAs being a thing I'd even somewhat link with the success of the film for instance.  And man is that a negative sport.