What T.V. Shows Have Your Attention?

Hedda Gabler

Mind Your Manners — Netflix

BevVincent

I'm thoroughly enjoying 1899, five episodes in. I particularly enjoy the multinational cast and the fact that so many of the characters can't communicate with each other due to linguistic differences, which complicates everything.

Lou_Sytsma

Finished Inside Man. Fun, quick 4 episode series that keeps you off-balance with the proviso of buying the inciting conceit.

Finished Cabinet of Curiosities. Overall, disappointing. One excellent episode and the rest are OK or mediocre. My expectations of a del Toro series were not met.

Two episodes into 1899. It's definitely twisting and that last scene from episode 2!?!?!  Wow.

If you haven't checked out the creative team's previous series - Dark - do so  ASAP. You're in for a treat.

BevVincent

When you finish 1899, check out the 50-minute making-of doc on Netflix. 

Hedda Gabler

What is going on with 1899? I have watched one episode and absolutely love this. 

For whatever reason, 

The black pyramid gave me such a strong feeling of 2001 SpaceOdyssey’s monolith. 

BevVincent

Hold on to your hat -- you're in for a helluva ride. Just when you think it's one thing, it's something else and something else yet again. I love the way people who don't understand each other talk to each other anyway. 

BevVincent

I am very happy about this.

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1596192959690674177

Hedda Gabler

BevVincent said:

Hold on to your hat -- you're in for a helluva ride. Just when you think it's one thing, it's something else and something else yet again. I love the way people who don't understand each other talk to each other anyway. 

What the holy hell? Finished second episode. 

I am the type of person, when something hooks me, I become part of it. I’m not just a watcher, I’m a participant. I can’t just sit back most times. I am actively trying to figure it out. And I LOVE when I get it wrong.  I get led down that primrose path thinking, I got this. I know where this is going and why  — And then the creators say, nope, you don’t. 

Hedda Gabler

great choices in the music.  This also reminds me of Ghost Ship with Gabriel Byrne. Is this another ferryman collecting souls? The dirge music similar, flashbacks and alternate realty scenes. Julianna Margulies is the protective “mom” figure to a child as is Maura to the boy. The mutiny of the crew, the use of slow motion in dramatic moments.   I can’t wait to see where this ends up.  Oh wow. Some Matrix and some Storm of the Century. Jack Torrance and Under the Dome.  I see lots of inspiration from other things to make this unique thing.

BevVincent

I found the music a little jarring because it was so out-of-time. A little too on the nose.

Lou_Sytsma

Watched the 4th episode.  Disturbing and significant events in this one.

Hedda Gabler

Wow. 1899. Some westworld feel too. Watching the Making Of now.  Just deep respect for the use of nationalities and languages. The comraderie.  The respect. The work ethic. The friendship.  Just beautiful.  And the technology, science, intelligence is crazy good. Smart people = very sexy and stimulating. 

It’s things like this that bum me out I will die. And I will miss out on all these amazing creative works in the future. 

Books, movies, music, art.  My idea of heaven after I die is I get to keep experiencing all of this with friends and family i love. 

Hedda Gabler

Oh my god. The guy who travelled to get the sound.  All of these professionals that contributed in their field of expertise. 

Don’t any of you complain how much entertainment costs. It takes a damn global village to bring creativity of this scale to life. They deserve every penny.  Every. Damn. Penny. 

Hedda Gabler

Aw damn. Waterworks again. As Alexandre Willaume who plays Anker says in a comment about this show, about all different cultures coming together and how it very much speaks to our world—

“It is the same hurt, love, and happiness. We’re in the same boat .” 

Same boat, bitches. Remember that. 

FlakeNoir

I'm at the beginning of episode 3 of 1899, intriguing, really.

Have also gone back to the beginning of Dead to Me, and am onto season 2 now. It's incredible how much I had forgotten of this. 😳

Notaro

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, on episode 4, enjoying it.

Lou_Sytsma

Finished 1899 and was... underwhelmed.

Too much busy work in each episode and too much repetition of the same actions - how many times did someone climb down the bedroom ladder for crying out loud! - to get to the truth, or at least one version of it.

Who knows if

Spoiler:

the final scene is the truth or just another layer of the reality onion or not?

I guess Season 2 will be called -

Spoiler:

2099?

Enjoyed the multi-cultural mix, the visuals, the acting, and the SFX, but the story not so much.

The Dark is a much better written and conceived show.

Hedda Gabler

Lou_Sytsma said:

Finished 1899 and was... underwhelmed.

Too much busy work in each episode and too much repetition of the same actions - how many times did someone climb down the bedroom ladder for crying out loud! - to get to the truth, or at least one version of it.

Who knows if

Spoiler:

the final scene is the truth or just another layer of the reality onion or not?

I guess Season 2 will be called -

Spoiler:

2099?

Enjoyed the multi-cultural mix, the visuals, the acting, and the SFX, but the story not so much.

The Dark is a much better written and conceived show.

That’s a bummer when things get under your skin.  Whatever reason, something catches us up. 

Lou_Sytsma

Hedda Gabler said:

That’s a bummer when things get under your skin.  Whatever reason, something catches us up. 

Indeed. 

BevVincent

I'm quite enjoying Andor -- the heist episode was particularly good. 

Lou_Sytsma

Finished the first season of The Peripheral. Solid series with some great characters. The police inspector who showed up in the back half was quite entertaining. Came off as a transsexual Sherlock Holmes in style and behaviour which is quite unique.

BevVincent

Definitely in my queue.

I started Crossfire on Britbox this morning, starring Keeley Hawes. Starts with a bang...many of them, in fact.

BevVincent

Karen Pirie on BritBox -- three 90-minute episodes. A young DS is assigned to lead a review of a 25-year-old cold case that has been brough back to public attention by a Serial-like podcast. A got a real kick out of the main character (who was three at the time of the original murder) and it's a nice, twisty who-did-it.

Hedda Gabler

BevVincent said:

Karen Pirie on BritBox -- three 90-minute episodes. A young DS is assigned to lead a review of a 25-year-old cold case that has been brough back to public attention by a Serial-like podcast. A got a real kick out of the main character (who was three at the time of the original murder) and it's a nice, twisty who-did-it.

Good show. I had 2 guesses from the get go. One was coming off dastardly immediately, so I was suspicious. But, the other one was more subtle.  I was right. 

The two boss cops immediately rubbed me wrong. I knew it was one of them and it quickly became the one. 

Lou_Sytsma

Station Eleven - just finished this HBO Max series based on the novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel. The story is about the survivors of a flu pandemic and how the threads of the past, present, and future interleave.

A great cast headed by Mackenzie Davis from Halt and Catch Fire. 

The book was quirky and so is the series. What shines through both is how differently a common item, event, or person can change the course of a person's life.

There is a lot of time jumping from the past to the future. This is a story of survivors all suffering mass PTSD carrying on the best they can, trying to forge a new future while longing for a lost past. There's a dignity and vulnerability to these characters that makes for an engrossing and emotional viewing.