TV/Movies Megathread

[Barrister]

Cheers is also on there, though. I caught a few episodes here and there in the past but never really watched it, and also never really felt like going back to it. Knowing most of the characters and tropes either through mention on Frasier or through general cultural osmosis (NOOORM!) I kinda never felt like watching all of it.

Started the first few episodes, though (and while remastered for HD, they're actually 4:3 ... ) and I actually find it quite good and funny.

Cheers is pretty funny stuff.  I think it holds up a lot better then many other 80s-90s sitcoms.  I mean it's still "of its time", everything resets back to the same at the end of the episode, but it's certainly quite watchable.

[grumbler]

None of that argues against the Homeric sagas as being the first franchise we know of; it, in fact, reinforces the claim.

Agreed. I was disagreeing with your reference to virgil as the reason why those works are a franchise and making the point that it was a franchise hundreds of years before Virgil.

So you were disagreeing with an argument I never made?  Whatever.  Contrarians will be contrary, I guess.

Tedious is the most polite thing I can say about your post.

First Rule of Holes

[Syt]

Cheers is pretty funny stuff.  I think it holds up a lot better then many other 80s-90s sitcoms.  I mean it's still "of its time", everything resets back to the same at the end of the episode, but it's certainly quite watchable.

Yes, I'm fine with that, and I don't mind a show's age if it's still a good watch (I still gladly watch Taxi now and then).

I was actually a tad surprised by a minor B plot in an early episode where a guy is stressed out because his son came home with a black fiance from college ... who's a guy. There's no gay jokes, no racial humor, it's all in subverting the expectations - at first he just says he brought home a black fiance, so you think he has a hang up about race, only to reveal later that his son's fiance is a guy. And of course the resolution is him realizing that if he loves his son he'll accept him for who he is.

Damn woke TV of the early 80s pushing the liberal LGBTQ+ agenda down people's throats!  

[Savonarola]

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Here's a Dupin story for you, Celedhring, although he's Pierre Dupin rather than Auguste; and he's a medical student rather than a... dilletante?   This is loosely based on the Edgar Allen Poe story; the murderer is still a baboon and a number of the clues are left in (everyone identifies the baboon's language as a different foreign tongue, demonstrating that it's not a human language; the baboon fur in the dead woman's hand - although this happens after Dupin has already realized the killer is a baboon.)  It's more horror than mystery, though, the baboon kills on Dr. Mirakle's (Bela Lugsoi's) orders and Lugosi intends to prove his theory of evolution by having a human woman mate with the baboon and produce offspring... and what the Dickens was going on in Hollywood back then?  Two movies in a year that involve apes abducting women in order to rape them (FOR SCIENCE!) maybe the Production Code wasn't such a bad idea.

"The Island of Lost Souls" is much more shocking, and better.  This does have its moments, the scene where a dozen young Frenchmen profess undying love to their respective sweethearts over a picnic was amusing; and Bela Lugosi is always great.

[Savonarola]

Yes, I'm fine with that, and I don't mind a show's age if it's still a good watch (I still gladly watch Taxi now and then).

I was actually a tad surprised by a minor B plot in an early episode where a guy is stressed out because his son came home with a black fiance from college ... who's a guy. There's no gay jokes, no racial humor, it's all in subverting the expectations - at first he just says he brought home a black fiance, so you think he has a hang up about race, only to reveal later that his son's fiance is a guy. And of course the resolution is him realizing that if he loves his son he'll accept him for who he is.

Damn woke TV of the early 80s pushing the liberal LGBTQ+ agenda down people's throats!  

They had a couple episodes that touched on gay themes (and won some GLAAD awards back in the day.)  Cheers also dealt with Sam's alcoholism openly as well.  It's also innovative in that it was the first show to use a three camera setup creating a better illusion that you were looking at a real room rather than a sound stage.

I used to watch Cheers back in its initial run.  I remember thinking it was funny, until the final seasons; like a lot of shows it was just on for too long. 

[Savonarola]

For an early franchise I'd suggest the histories by William Shakespeare; recurring characters, same author and Falstaff even gets his own solo adventure.

 

[Josquius]

History is a franchise.

[Savonarola]

History is a franchise.

Only if you're Georg Hegel.   

[Josephus]

Yes, I'm fine with that, and I don't mind a show's age if it's still a good watch (I still gladly watch Taxi now and then).

I was actually a tad surprised by a minor B plot in an early episode where a guy is stressed out because his son came home with a black fiance from college ... who's a guy. There's no gay jokes, no racial humor, it's all in subverting the expectations - at first he just says he brought home a black fiance, so you think he has a hang up about race, only to reveal later that his son's fiance is a guy. And of course the resolution is him realizing that if he loves his son he'll accept him for who he is.

Damn woke TV of the early 80s pushing the liberal LGBTQ+ agenda down people's throats!  

They had a couple episodes that touched on gay themes (and won some GLAAD awards back in the day.)  Cheers also dealt with Sam's alcoholism openly as well.  It's also innovative in that it was the first show to use a three camera setup creating a better illusion that you were looking at a real room rather than a sound stage.

I used to watch Cheers back in its initial run.  I remember thinking it was funny, until the final seasons; like a lot of shows it was just on for too long. 

Show also introduced the world to Woody Harrelson

[Jacob]

I've never been much of an anime watcher beyond the Miyazaki stuff and one or two snippets here or there.

However, my boy decided he wanted to watch One Piece after some youtube talked about it and/ or because he's playing some free to play MMO on RoBlox that's sort of One Piece based.

So we've started watching a few episodes on Friday and Saturday nights.

Totally not what I expected. It's pretty outlandish, but entertaining. I did have some quibbles about the realism of the sailing they're depicting and the social construction of piracy, but I've decided to keep them to myself

... and apparently there's something like 1,000 episodes, so I may be watching this for a while.

[Savonarola]

When I was a junior in high school I took chemistry.  The teacher assigned us a report on an element.  She chose the individual student's element based on his or her personality.  I was assigned arsenic ().  We had to bring in something which had our element in it; and, while arsenic is used in a variety of insecticides and the like, I had something better, I had:

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

(I actually just got the play from the library.)  The film was completed in 1942, but because the play was still running on Broadway it wouldn't be released to the general public until 1944 (it was released to the armed forces before that.)  Boris Karloff was under contract to the play, (Warner Brothers even offered to have Humphry Bogart fill in the Karloff role so Karloff role, but the theater refused), so they had to have Raymond Massey do the Karloff part.  The film features one of Cary Grant's more... exuberant performances, allegedly they were planning to reshoot some of his scenes, but the war intervened and Frank Capra had to report for duty before reshooting could take place.  The film isn't the usual Capra-corn, it's more zany than anything (Capra would be back in Capra-form on his next civilian picture "It's a Wonderful Life") but it's still a lot of fun.

[celedhring]

Watched Killers of the Flower Moon. Loved it - as much as I can love a movie with such a dreary subject matter and overall pessimism. Despite its runtime, it didn't feel long - except for the last hour, which feels a bit more perfunctory (it still features some brilliant moments - I loved the radio show scene).

Like many Scorsese films, this one is very much a contemplation of evil, without any of the twisted glamour that a Henry Hill of Jordan Belfort had. Amazed that Apple went and gave Marty 200 million for this, although I read that the first version of the script featured DiCaprio playing the fed agent that led the investigation (and the film would have been centered about the investigation), which would have been much more palatable for a general audience. But a lesser film imho.

I hope Scorsese still has 1 or 2 more movies in him. His late period has been better than 95% of other filmmakers' entire careers.

I'm tempted to pick up the book.

[The Brain]

The Stand (2020). In a postapocalyptic world religious fanatics set up a theocracy in Boulder, but all doesn't go to plan. Or does it?

It's competently made and I was entertained. There are several problems though. The story is weak and doesn't make much sense. The show is very preachy. And the big showdown in the center of evil is a confused mess. SPOILER: What the hell is happening there? God finally smites the Big Bad and the other evildoers. Why at that moment? Because people started chanting "fear no evil"? But God doesn't need permission to smite (though I suppose there could be dualism afoot...). Some other reason? The human sacrifice of the committe members? Unclear. And it wasn't very clearly explained why the nuke guy drove there. Misguided enthusiasm? Stupidity? Guided by God? Visually it appears that God helps set off the nuke, which means instant death to both the former evildoers who had started chanting "fear no evil" and all the slaves in the slave pens. Is the show anti-religion, anti-God? Based on what little I know of King probably not? And how did the nuke guy get radiation sickness from a nuclear warhead?

[Syt]

I didn't watch the new one, only the 90s miniseries. I liked it at the time, though not sure how well it aged.

I still like the opening credits of the first part, though.

[Syt]

Actually, I read the longer edit that was released of The Stand in 1990 ... during the time the events of the book (supposedly) take place - I think the long edit moved the story from the 70s to 1990s. It was weird.

(Also, I ended up reading a book about a killer virus, originating from  bats, and where people transmit the disease before showing symptoms when the whole Corona thing started ... very uncomfortable )