I'm in a show hole, need suggestions | Page 115 | Syracusefan.com
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I'm in a show hole, need suggestions

I recently watched two newish series.

BALLARD is a spinoff from the Bosch set of series, on Amazon. It stars Maggie Q as a detective put in charge of… and this will sound familiar… a ragtag crew investigating cold cases. Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, and Mimi Rogers make a few appearances to tie the shows together. It’s an okay show—if you thought Bosch was okay.

The Better Sister. Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks play estranged sisters. Banks was married to Corey Stoll first, and then it was Biel’s turn…. He ends up dead. The investigation is headed by an abrasive, wordy Kim Dickens. And there’s a frilly Mathew Modine with some interesting neckwear. Again, not bad, except for some elements of the trial, which were just stupid.

Sorry—three series.

Season two of Such Brave Girls. Hulu, I think. It’s a British show (comedy) about a bad mother raising two bad daughters. Mom is intent upon landing a new dad who can pay for everything/a lifestyle upgrade, one daughter is aggressively aggressive and the other daughter is aggressively depressed and semi suicidal. The show was created and written by that second ‘daughter.’ This show is funny, but it is so very raw and unapologetically vulgar and rude. Nothing ‘politically correct’ about it. Lots of envelopes pushed. A lot of fun.
 
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I'm enjoying an older French series called 'The Art Of Crime' on Prime. The two leads have excellent chemistry, all of the crimes revolve around art and artists.

If you're gonna have a police procedural, you could do far worse than to base it on such a fascinating premise. You'll also learn about art and artists without having to go to class for it. Not to mention, a tour of the Louvre and other French museums w/o having to pay an admission fee.

A minor caveat: The words and subtitles are slightly out of sync, as is the sound. As in, you hear a door slam, then you see the door slam.

Agree with Zelda on Ballard. It's definitely better than Bosch: Legacy. I really like Maggie Q, which is why it's better than Bosch: Legacy. But they're close to having squeezed the last juice out of this franchise.
 
Zelda Zonk said:
I recently watched two newish series.

BALLARD is a spinoff from the Bosch set of series, on Amazon. It stars Maggie Q as a detective put in charge of… and this will sound familiar… a ragtag crew investigating cold cases. Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, and Mimi Rogers make a few appearances to tie the shows together. It’s an okay show—if you thought Bosch was okay.

The Better Sister. Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks play estranged sisters. Banks was married to Corey Stoll first, and then it was Biel’s turn…. He ends up dead. The investigation is headed by an abrasive, wordy Kim Dickens. And there’s a frilly Mathew Modine with some interesting neckwear. Again, not bad, except for some elements of the trial, which were just stupid.

Sorry—three series.

Season two of Such Brave Girls. Hulu, I think. It’s a British show (comedy) about a bad mother raising two bad daughters. Mom is intent upon landing a new dad who can pay for everything/a lifestyle upgrade, one daughter is aggressively aggressive and the other daughter is aggressively depressed and semi suicidal. The show was created and written by that second ‘daughter.’ This show is funny, but it is so very raw and unapologetically vulgar and rude. Nothing ‘politically correct’ about it. Lots of envelopes pushed. A lot of fun.
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The ratio to which I enjoyed Bosch and Ballard is about the same in which I enjoyed the respective books. I love the Bosch books, and the Ballard ones were okay. I though Maggie Q was pretty solid. First time I have really seen her as a lead. She captured Ballards' persona from the book. (Titus Welliver did a great job of that with Bosch.)
 
Symphony Steve said:
I'm enjoying an older French series called 'The Art Of Crime' on Prime. The two leads have excellent chemistry, all of the crimes revolve around art and artists.

If you're gonna have a police procedural, you could do far worse than to base it on such a fascinating premise. You'll also learn about art and artists without having to go to class for it. Not to mention, a tour of the Louvre and other French museums w/o having to pay an admission fee.

A minor caveat: The words and subtitles are slightly out of sync, as is the sound. As in, you hear a door slam, then you see the door slam.

Agree with Zelda on Ballard. It's definitely better than Bosch: Legacy. I really like Maggie Q, which is why it's better than Bosch: Legacy. But they're close to having squeezed the last juice out of this franchise.
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Legacy was a reach and is not in the books. It was strickly a money grab. The Lincoln Lawyer, on the other hand, is part of that universe, and I think that is going strong.
 
Capt. Tuttle said:
Watched Hired Guns about session players. Very interesting. Billy Joel comes off as an a#@, which I am okay with.
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The best 'hired guns' movie ever is 'Standing In The Shadows Of Motown'. The Funk Brothers were never allowed to go on the road, they had to stay in the studio churning out hits off the Motown assembly line.

One day, they all got pissed off, walked out, and went across the street to a different recording studio, and recorded 'Cool Jerk' by the Capitols:

 
Symphony Steve said:
The best 'hired guns' movie ever is 'Standing In The Shadows Of Motown'. The Funk Brothers were never allowed to go on the road, they had to stay in the studio churning out hits off the Motown assembly line.

One day, they all got pissed off, walked out, and went across the street to a different recording studio, and recorded 'Cool Jerk' by the Capitols:

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Another good one was about Muscle Shoals
 
The Phoenician Scheme
The latest Wes Anderson film. Benicio del Toro stars, with Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Cera, and Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton. And Bill Murray as God.

I unabashedly love Wes Anderson, so it's difficult to be either fair or critical of his projects. After i saw The Royal Tenenbaums, each film thereafter has initially disappointed me, because it's not The Royal Tenenbaums, and then i need to go back and rewatch in order to be able to accept it for what it is. I think Zissou was the first film after Tenenbaums and i initially hated it. Of course, now it's one of my favorite things.

So, this. This comes after Asteroid City, which i initially disliked and then subsequently still disliked. This, though, i immediately did like. So much so that i immediately wanted to watch it again. it's not perfect and it's not Tenenbaums-good for me, but it's breathtaking filmmaking. it has all of the Wes Anderson signature flourishes and character, somehow without going beyond and into the kind of substanceless affectation of Asteroid City. It's not warm like Tenenbaums, and it's got a primary story thread (the business aspect) the details of which that i didn't completely grok the first time and didn't really care about the second time, and still it's fun.

Really, really beautiful. And i recognized something about the aesthetics in these worlds that i love so much—this film, Zissou probably, The Crown—there are no plastics. The world pre-plastics was so much more elegant and beautiful. Anyway, that's just another one of my personal oddities.

So, anyway—see it. Let me/us know what you think.
 
Zelda Zonk said:
The Phoenician Scheme
The latest Wes Anderson film. Benicio del Toro stars, with Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Cera, and Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton. And Bill Murray as God.

I unabashedly love Wes Anderson, so it's difficult to be either fair or critical of his projects. After i saw The Royal Tenenbaums, each film thereafter has initially disappointed me, because it's not The Royal Tenenbaums, and then i need to go back and rewatch in order to be able to accept it for what it is. I think Zissou was the first film after Tenenbaums and i initially hated it. Of course, now it's one of my favorite things.

So, this. This comes after Asteroid City, which i initially disliked and then subsequently still disliked. This, though, i immediately did like. So much so that i immediately wanted to watch it again. it's not perfect and it's not Tenenbaums-good for me, but it's breathtaking filmmaking. it has all of the Wes Anderson signature flourishes and character, somehow without going beyond and into the kind of substanceless affectation of Asteroid City. It's not warm like Tenenbaums, and it's got a primary story thread (the business aspect) the details of which that i didn't completely grok the first time and didn't really care about the second time, and still it's fun.

Really, really beautiful. And i recognized something about the aesthetics in these worlds that i love so much—this film, Zissou probably, The Crown—there are no plastics. The world pre-plastics was so much more elegant and beautiful. Anyway, that's just another one of my personal oddities.

So, anyway—see it. Let me/us know what you think.
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My step-son is named Anderson due to Wes so you can guess where my Wife stands on this matter. I'm in the same boat as you that absolutely loved Tenenbaums and have never loved anything that has come after to nearly that same degree. I don't know if it's me getting older or more critical but I seem to like each one less and less. The last ones that I thoroughly enjoyed were probably Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest. Since then I basically like to look at them but don't care for anything about the story or anything else. After watching this and then seeing the trailer for One Battle After Another I told her that she should tell him that he was named after P.T. instead.
 
Is anyone watching the Netflix doc, Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War? I just saw it and started watching it last night.
 
chugg21 said:
. I don't know if it's me getting older or more critical but I seem to like each one less and less.
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it's not beat you over the head comedy like say a HAPPY GILMORE. it's subtle and cerebral. some people like and others hate it. i live in a house divided. but to me it's brilliant. and the sets and colors that wes anderson incorporates have an almost colourform feel. each line and scene perfectly pasted on to create his bizarre motif.
i mean just look at the actors/actresses he draws. the best of hollywood. it's genius.
 
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I'm watching We Were Liars on Amazon Prime. It's about rich people that are terrible. One of them has amnesia.

It's great, I'm enjoying it.
 
tbonezone said:
it's not beat you over the head comedy like say a HAPPY GILMORE. it's subtle and cerebral. some people like and others hate it. i live in a house divided. but to me it's brilliant. and the sets and colors that wes anderson incorporates have an almost colourform feel. each line and scene perfectly pasted on to create his bizarre motif.
i mean just look at the actors/actresses he draws. the best of hollywood. it's genius.
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I certainly get that and mentioned that they are beautiful to look at but they continue to become more and more Wes Andersonly to a degree now that is nearing bothersome to me.
 
I finished We Were Liars last night. It was compelling and interesting the whole time, even for a slow burn show, but you do have to catch on to the main character Cady being a show version of an unreliable narrator for certain things to make sense. The last episode really stands out and they paid off a bunch of little clues dropped throughout the season.

It sounds like it's been a hit for Amazon and the author has a few more books in the series it was based on. They set up some things that could make for a really interesting second season and I hope that gets the greenlight.
 
Just watched 'Trainwreck: Woodstock '99' on Netflix. Highly-recommended. Perhaps the inevitable result of valuing marketing and branding over the idea of putting on a festival based on, you know, music and positive vibes.
 
tbonezone said:
it's not beat you over the head comedy like say a HAPPY GILMORE. it's subtle and cerebral. some people like and others hate it. i live in a house divided. but to me it's brilliant. and the sets and colors that wes anderson incorporates have an almost colourform feel. each line and scene perfectly pasted on to create his bizarre motif.
i mean just look at the actors/actresses he draws. the best of hollywood. it's genius.
Expand...
Just the opening title/credits sequence was stunning, The overhead thing, where all the typography was ‘outlined’ to read against the floor pattern. From a graphic designer’s perspective, that alone was just brilliant.

I agree with chugg21 ‘s comment that the films are “Wes Andersonly” sometimes to a fault, as in Asteroid City, but this one was so very Wes Andersonly, but somehow it all contributed. Maybe it can be said that without all of that self-pastiche, he might find more human/personal/emotional resonance. He really does favour that flat affect delivery too much. Sometimes it’s funny and sometimes it just makes the entire thing more of a flat comic strip.

I do love some of his ‘tricks,’ though. For instance how a character leaves the frame and then quickly reappears in the distance—as if they can move at hyperspeed once out of view. And in The Phoenician, my favorite little bit was with the fighter pilot. Anyone else catch a Racer X reference?
 
I watched The Assessment on the plane. Weird movie, but interesting. I've read some commentary online and a lot of the discussion is focusing on the futuristic elements as opposed to the themes about relationships, parenting, and life style that I think are more interesting.
 
Watched Eddington a few nights ago. Was really looking forward to it as I really like Ari Aster movies outside of the absurd Beau is Afraid which I recommend to no one. Loved the 1st half, liked the 2nd half. Pretty funny look back at Covid lockdown times.
 
Picked up a month of Paramount to watch Strange New Worlds. Only one episode in, but I got back into it very quickly.
Because it's awesome.

Gorn got fast!
 
"Paradise", a Hulu original. Have watched two episodes so far. The 2nd episode was one of the most riveting episodes that I have seen. Hope it continues to be well done.
 
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