TV/Movies Megathread

[The Brain]

The movie where Dr. Michael J. Fox gets stuck in a small rural town is on TV. I think him being white was for the best, really.

[Razgovory]

I am glad every passing comment I ever make isn't parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by...

It's a moronically tone-deaf thing for someone to say, even an old person, "when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry."  It's an innocuous, maybe even praiseworthy, comment in some other context; but if her response to a question specifically about black representation in film was "We're all Africans!", thereby denigrating the problem in a ridiculous, frivolous manner, then that's not "parsed by people looking to find something to be offended by," it's patently offensive.

Of course it is, because you can come up with a way of being offended, hence it must be offensive.

Obviously she is a racist, and probably a secret Grand Dragon of the KKK.

This may sound somewhat politically incorrect, but isn't the obvious answer not that the film industry is racist but that it is painful and shamelessly pandering to its audiences? Outside of period drama and indie cinema etc., people are generally interested in watching stories of people like them, having similar experiences to them. Perhaps US whites are more likely to go to cinema, so the industry is making films about people who are like them?

I'm not sure if it's shameless but the vast majority of people in the US are white so the vast majority of American stories are going to involve white people.  Most of the talent is white.  I imagine that in China the majority of films involve Chinese people.  Hell, I image that a lot of the Polish films are made by Poles and have Polish actors!  I suspect there is a serious dearth of Polish films about Afro-Brazilian fisherman.

[dps]

Generally all black cast movies don't become major mainstream fare, no? Despite Mr. Perry's best efforts.

Pretty sure that I've posted this before, but my then-gf and I went to see The Preacher's Wife when it came out and we were the only white people in the theater.

[celedhring]

The Fast and Furious flicks have a very diverse cast and are very successful.

[11B4V]

The Fast and Furious flicks have a very diverse cast and are very successful.

just ask Seedy, the president of the Vin Diesel fan club.

[Ideologue]

The Fast and Furious flicks have a very diverse cast and are very successful.

They even wrote out the one white guy.

[Liep]

Danish Eurovision is on and as per usual the production value has increased a bit and the song quality has decreased dramatically from last year.

[The Brain]

The Fast and Furious flicks have a very diverse cast and are very successful.

They even wrote out the one white guy.

[Liep]

Danish Eurovision is on and as per usual the production value has increased a bit and the song quality has decreased dramatically from last year.

The liberals are complaining on twitter about a scene where the children take over the stage in black clothes and balaclavas and sing a song from the children's eurovision. Why? "It's too close to the 1 year-day for the Copenhagen attack to joke about terror" which is tomorrow.

[Queequeg]

Occupied, a squarehead drama about a Russian occupation of Norway, is the best drama I've seen in a while.  It's brilliant. 

[celedhring]

Crimson Peak. Dull and very predictable. The big mystery is pretty much obvious from the get-go and it's not like they do anything interesting with it.

[Maladict]

The third X-files episode is hilarious. I did not expect that.

[Josquius]

Occupied, a squarehead drama about a Russian occupation of Norway, is the best drama I've seen in a while.  It's brilliant. 

Sounded cool so I read a synopsis. ..... the EU is the one who got Russia to invade Norway?
Err.....sounds like europhobic silliness

[Neil]

"Waltz" is a tremendous episode, and I could've lived with that being the end of Dukat.

I'm just not sure I like the wraiths stuff period.  It's this weird magical superhero story in the midst of a somewhat more-grounded science fantasy, and I'm not entirely certain I could ever really embrace it.  And putting Kai Winn in the midst of the climactic Harry Potter duel is not necessarily an improvement, either... although at the least it gives her character more than being Dukat's helpmeet.  (When her big problem was that some black guy from Earth got to be the Emissary, it's kind of a double-bummer that it was likewise the Space Nazi who oversaw her planet's Space Holocaust got to be the Bajoran Devil.  Seriously, I'm not convinced the wormhole aliens actually like the Bajoran people one bit.*)

*Even though I'm fond of the fan theory that the wormhole aliens are, indeed, Bajorans from the future, who will at some point evolve to exist outside of linear time.

That would make sense.  After all, it's pretty common for people to hate their ancestors and hold them in contempt. 

While I feel that a lot of the Prophets episodes were generally weaker episodes (although I always enjoyed seeing how the aliens and their Emissary was dealt with by Kira), but at the same time they were sort of central to who Sisko was and how he changed over the course of the series.

But, regarding Season 7 more broadly, there's still a lot to like.  I like Ezri Dax a lot, considering her a major improvement over Jadzia (whom I also liked, but had a tendency to be written as the most annoying possible version of herself).  Likewise, Chrysalis is one of my all-time favorite bottle episodes--in case we've forgotten, it's the one where Dr. Bashir pulls a Flowers for Algernon on one of the genetically-engineered mutants from Statistical Improbabilities, mainly so that he can sexually exploit her.  It's one of the weirdest, brittlest, and most psychologically on-point things I've ever seen risked in a Trek episode (even if it was probably half-accidental)--and the thing even has a bitchin' musical number.  Then again, I also enjoy Take Me Out to the Holosuite.

In Seven they it seemed like they just wanted to have fun.  Obviously, new Dax was incredibly fun, and brought a different energy to the show that I appreciated.  But episodes like Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, Treachery, Faith and the Great River or Field of Fire are fun episodes.  I would say that the pacing sometimes seemed a little odd, as the show would go from some pretty grim war episodes like AR558 to holodeck romps like Paper Moon or Badda Bing.  And they gave Bashir some interesting things to do, and Garak something to do other than lie to Bashir.

[Razgovory]

Occupied, a squarehead drama about a Russian occupation of Norway, is the best drama I've seen in a while.  It's brilliant.

To you, almost everything is brilliant.