In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
We just started “Station 11” (HBO), and it’s terrific so far. Just finished “Midnight Mass” (Netflix), which was really interesting, though not really my cup of blood.
Tell us what you’re watching, or reading, or listening to. There’s so much content out there I find these threads really useful and I hope you do too.
raven
We have a little investment in the production of “The Fallout”, a film about a school shooting that is on HBO Max. We thought it was well done and recommend it.
Howard Beale IV
Vox Machina on Amazon Prime. I’m letting Apple Music randomly select music and it’s interesting.
raven
I’m also surprised how little attention “Dickinson” has gotten, it’s loads of fun.
(Apple TV)
Omnes Omnibus
Reverse recommendation. Reacher on Amazon. Started well and then went down hill.
JoyceH
I’m halfway through season 1 of Reacher. Maybe not for everybody, but folks who like the books will probably like the show.
dm
On Netflix, I enjoyed the Lupin series, which is a modern day Count of Monte Cristo with Arsene Lupin trappings.
Also on Netflix: Dennou Coil, a Japanese animated series about kids who have grown up with virtual reality, and the games they play (this series was originally made in 2007 or so). It is delightful.
Netflix has the new series Orbital Children, by the same director as Dennou Coil. I haven’t seen it yet, but I expect it’s equally brilliant.
MazeDancer
Enjoying The Gilded Age on HBO, mostly for the great CGI of Robber Baron NYC. Though, they shot a great deal of it in Troy, NY, made to look age appropriate.
Also, very much enjoyed Reacher on Prime. Low-brow and snappy. Liked it so much, I polished off one of the 19 books.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyceH: That’s about where it started to lose steam for me.
Yarrow
“Starstruck” on HBOMax. Comedy series, sort of a Notting Hill for the Gen Z generation. Funny and smart, but I’m only a couple of episodes into it.
Totally love “Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.” It’s just a tremendously relaxing show. It’s free on Tubi but there are ads.
West of the Rockies
Thanks for the Station 11 link. It looks good, and I intend to give it a go. Looking forward to Picard season 2. Loved Only Murders in the Building!
dm
Reading: I just finished Battle of the Linguist Mages, delightfully told in gamer patois by the narrator, “The Queen of the Sparkle Dungeon”, which is a DJ/Rave-inspired massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
The protagonist has been on the top of the leader-board (thus the title “queen”) and is invited to play-test the next version. Only, when she recites a spell, it shatters the glass in the room where she is testing.
It turns out the spells are “power morphemes” being experimented with by the advertising agency that handles the game account — and the account of the candidate for governor of California. Power morphemes have the ability to shape reality — or at least people’s perceptions of reality, and they are the creation of alien invaders hiding in punctuation.
It’s an hilarious mix of Snow Crash (virtual reality, delightful argot), The Space Merchants (advertising mixed with government plot and conspiracy, plus humor),and Babel-17 (language as shaper of thought and bender of brains). I frequently found myself laughing out loud.
… And when I finished it, I went back to re-read Babel-17. While I think it falls apart a bit at the very end, the first 95% of the book is brilliant. Samuel Delany was only 24 when he wrote it (and won the Nebula Award).
debbie
@West of the Rockies:
Thanks for the memory jog. The first season of Picard is on DVD and now on reserve at my library.
SiubhanDuinne
This may be slightly off-topic as stated, but I am recommending (sight unseen) the documentary Love and the Constitution, airing tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern on MSNBC.
It focuses on Congressman Jamie Raskin over a recent three-year period, including the tragic loss of his son Tommy; the January 6 attack on the Capitol; and Raskin’s lead role in TFG’s second impeachment. I’ve been seeing the promos, as well as interviews with the director and with Raskin himself, and this film looks more than worth watching. I’m a big Raskin fan anyhow (his book is amazing), so I’d probably be watching regardless, but in fact the documentary looks very well done.
Scout211
We just read The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates in my book group. We all loved it. It was such a moving and emotional piece of historical fiction centered on the main character’s life as a slave (and son of the plantation owner). Coates tells the story with so much rich detail and emotion, plus a bit of fantasy and magic. He also brings in actual historical figures into the history of the young man’s life. It was just an amazing read. Highly recommend.
brendancalling
Latest episode of the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast is really good. The whole season has been amazing.
trollhattan
“Ozark” is kind of a “Breaking Bad”-“Justified” mashup and features the lovely Laura Linney in a role that has her variously earnest, perplexed, conniving and just this close to shoving a shiv in your temple. My favorite character among a vast cast, however, has to be Ruth, who another character referred to as “Curly Sue” in an episode I recently finished. Comes out of deep trash whipsmart and with quite the mouth.
Am in Season 3 so no damn spoilers, or I’ll unleash Ruth on you or worse, Darlene. You do not want Darlene showing up at your place, do you?
I have many inlaws dwelling in the Ozarks, so consider this my family contribution to the genealogy thing.
ETA binging it ain’t for everybody and the body count could comprise a hill in somewhere like Florida,
brendancalling
Almost forgot—the new Aziz Ansari special, “Stand Up Comedian,” is REALLY good. Very socially conscious.
dmsilev
Currently enjoying The Afterparty (on Apple TV+). An utterly demented crossbreed between an Agatha Christie mystery and Rashomon, and a healthy mixture of farce added in for good measure. The titular event follows a fifteenth-year high school reunion, and the host is murdered roughly ten seconds into the first episode. Said host was a hugely successful pop star, so the police arrive in force and start questioning all of the former classmates/guests/suspects (all of whom have issues or things to resolve with the victim, of course). Each of them tells their story (one per episode), and the night is replayed from each perspective. Only, the style of the flashbacks is a genre pastiche based on each person. So, the guy still carrying an unrequited crush for a classmate gets a rom-com, the aspiring musician gets a musical complete with big production numbers, etc. It’s only about halfway through, so still no real idea whodunnit.
Main show-runner is Christopher Miller (Lego Movie, Into the Spider-verse).
VOR
Watched “Leverage: Redemption” on Amazon. Good reboot of the show Leverage, like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes.
Layer8Problem
I just finished the first two books of Phillip Pullman’s projected trilogy The Book of Dust and really hoping the third shows up soon. I’m currently reading a book on the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Also wondering when the next Babylon Berlin arrives.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: The new Reacher with the taller guy?
cope
“The Rescue” documentary on Disney+ is excellent.
delk
Season 2 of The Queens of Mystery on Acorn. Cross between Pushing Daisies and Midsomer Murders.
Latest episodes of Vera on Britbox
Tread on Netflix. Documentary of a man pushed over the edge who starts doing some pushing himself.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for that. I was thinking I might watch it this weekend.
BGinCHI
Sorry to be tardy, but things to do, things to do….
We finished Station 11 last night and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It has so many threads, facets, elements: Shakespeare, revenge, parenting, grief/loss, trauma, joy, and on and on.
I’m still processing it.
Phylllis
“We Need to Talk About Cosby” and “Shut Up and Dribble”, both on Showtime.
BGinCHI
@dmsilev: On my list. Want to give it a try.
craigie
I just watched all the episodes of Murderville (Netflix). Very very funny – a mixture of celebrity improv and goofy murder tropes.
UncleEbeneezer
We just finished the 2nd half of Light The Night, a Taiwanese drama/mystery about women working in a Japanese style hostess bar in 1980’s Taipei. If you like Asian dramas, this one is pretty enjoyable. Pretty good costumes, story, sets and a great soundtrack featuring Mando-Pop band, Accusefive, who are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands.
Also watching Yellowjackets which is good but a bit overhyped, imo.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: Light the Night streaming somewhere?
RSA
@Layer8Problem:
I read the first, which I enjoyed, but the second was so unrelentingly grim that I had to put it down. Characters I’d loved in the first trilogy now hated each other. Phenomena we’d been led to believe were rare and precious were almost commonplace. I think for an SF/fantasy story to be successful, you need to be able to trust the author, but I kind of lost that.
trollhattan
“The Alpinist” on Netflix follows a Canadian kid who comes seemingly from nowhere (the place that produces the most climbers, you could look it up) to quickly become one of the most accomplished climbers in the world. Riveting documentary.
UncleEbeneezer
@trollhattan: If you like Ozark and Breaking Bad, I highly recommend Snowfall. John Singleton’s final project about the rise of the crack epidemic in 1980’s Los Angeles. It’s like a mix of Ozark, Breaking Bad, The Wire and Narcos. Really great show and a refreshingly Black perspective.
cope
@trollhattan: Seconded.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: Netflix. Sorry, thought I wrote that. It’s about 12 episodes (part 1 & 2) total and a 3rd part that should be dropping soon.
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: It’s SO GOOD.
14 Peaks on Netflix too.
NeenerNeener
Let’s see…what did I watch this week? Season 2 of Raised by Wolves on HBO Max, which is sci fi about the colonization of another planet by two warring ideologies after they’ve already destroyed Earth. Then there’s a show called Wolf Like Me, more sci fi/fantasy about a widower who meets a widowed werewolf and starts dating her. Hilarity does NOT ensue. That’s on Peacock, I think. I’ve finished Firebite, on AMC+, about a bunch of vampires preying on an Aboriginal town in Australia, and I’m up-to-date on the third season of A Discovery of Witches, also on AMC+.
I’m watching some more conventional stuff too..The Gilded Age, Pam & Tommy, Around the World in 80 Days, All Creatures Great and Small. I watch way too much tv. And here’s a plug for Abbot Elementary because one of my co-workers has a son who plays a teacher on that show.
Stopped watching Yellowjackets because I got bored, will probably give up on Billions for the same reason. Did make it all the way through the Dexter reboot and wish I’d skipped And Just Like That, the SATC reboot.
RSA
@Omnes Omnibus: Uh-oh. I’m only in the middle of the third episode. The show runners have done some solid work to bring the story to the present day as well as streamlining plot and characters. (Kliner and his son are obviously different from the novel even at this point, but I don’t know how important that will be.) Finding no reason to complain so far, but… thanks for the warning.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: Have you seen Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai”? It’s on Criterion.
BGinCHI
@NeenerNeener: Wanted to like Raised By Wolves but started to fade for me late in the season.
UncleEbeneezer
@raven: Dickinson is so damn original. We love it. I was just reading a Black History Month article about Henry Box Brown, who I didn’t realize was a real historical character. Anyways, Dickinson is one of those rare comedies that actually makes us laugh out loud. And it manages to make great feminist points without being heavy handed (and sometimes even making playful fun of social justice advocates)…it’s brilliant.
Renie
2 shows I really enjoyed on Amazon prime were Unforgotten and Shetland. Both police/ mystery series. Unforgotten in England and Shetland in Scotland. Beautiful scenery.
frosty
@BGinCHI: Yeah, Tom Cruise as Reacher was a horrible miscasting.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: Did you see 100-Foot Wave? Another good Netflix sports/adventure documentary with some truly incredible footage, interesting people (big wave surfers) and story.
Doug R
Peacemaker on HBO Max , Crave tv in Canada.
James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy and Super fame takes John Cena’s character from The Suicide Squad and has some real character development.
Based on a DC property, it’s rated TV-MA for a reason but it’s profane, violent and funny. It’s about 6 episodes into a 8 episode season, so plenty of time to catch up.
Yarrow
@NeenerNeener: I like “Abbott Elementary.” If you’ve ever had anything to do with schools or teaching it’s hilariously accurate in various ways.
frosty
Travels by Narrowboat on Amazon Prime. English guy sells off everything to live full time on a canal boat. Life at 2mph!
Peale
The Thai political thriller (maybe) Not Me on YouTube is what I’m caught up with. Can I recommend it? Well, its politics seem to be in the right place, but there’s so many problems they want to call attention to that its a bit muddled and rather preachy at times. And they may have taken on too many things. Basically, a young man returns to Thailand after 12 years in Russia to find that his twin brother is in a coma and goes undercover as his twin with a group of direct action activists who he thinks might have beaten him. He becomes politically aware the more he is involved with their plans to take down a wealthy political party boss. I think they are in general sympathetic to the student protests in Thailand that have been going on for the past 2-3 years. But because it hasn’t ended, I’m concerned that the only reason that it was greenlit through the censors is that it will show how the existing political arrangements are totally on top of the fight against corruption and there is no need for change. I guess I’ll find out once the last 4 episodes drop this month.
Bex
Recommend The Shadows of Men, book 5 in the Wyndham and Banerjee mystery series by Abir Mukherjee. Set in 1923 Calcutta it’s the latest case for Imperial Police Force detectives Sam Wyndham and Surendrananath Banerjee. Great series that keeps getting better.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: No but we’ll have to check it out. For Asian period series’ we absolutely loved the K-drama Mr. Sunshine, as well as Crash Landing Onto You (though that one is modern). Both were surprisingly funny in addition to being dramatic, moving and sometimes action-packed.
UncleEbeneezer
@frosty: OMG we love that series so much and wish there was a new season. Absolutely loved the first two seasons. The guy seems like a bit of an apolitical, Libertarian type which sometimes annoys us, but all in all a great series, especially for unwinding before bed.
zhena gogolia
@MazeDancer: We’re enjoying The Gilded Age too. The second episode flew by. I like all the NY stage actors who pop up.
While doing P/T exercises I have been binging a silly Britcom of 2011-20, Friday Night Dinner. Absurd comedy by a bunch of pros with great timing.
thruppence
Werewolves Within is a funny take on a mashup of the small town murder mystery and, surprise, werewolves conventions well worth a look
UncleEbeneezer
@Yarrow: Haven’t seen it yet but the principle, Janelle James, is a semi-regular on a podcast I love and she is absolutely hilarious. She’s also on a Netflix comedy special doing stand-up, that I’ve been meaning to check out.
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: Really like “Friday Night Dinner.” Big fan of Simon Bird since “The Inbetweeners,” a show which always left me howling.
schrodingers_cat
Peaky Blinders just finished Season 2. The show has got me interested in Irish history. Britain tried a lot of the same nonsense they tried in India over there.
Kalakal
Mum on Britbox (think it’s also on Amazon). Comedy about a recently widowed woman coping with being alone with the ‘assistance’ of her family. It’s very funny (despite the subject matter), warm, very well acted and written.
eclare
@NeenerNeener: I watched And Just Like That…because I loved the original SATC, and I was so disappointed. At the end I thought “what was the point of that reboot?” It was not funny, or touching, one of the characters had a wholly unrealistic story arc based on her past, just, pass.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: I did not, but will check it out.
Mike J
@BGinCHI: Now you need to read the book. Completely different, equally brilliant.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: It’s a film. Kind of similar subject (though set further back….late 19th C.). It’s terrific.
NeenerNeener
@eclare: Come join us at Primetimer in the television forums. We’ve been fussing about how bad and unneccessary that reboot was for the whole 10 episode run. The documentary on the clothes and filming wasn’t half bad, though.
BGinCHI
@Mike J: I’d read the beginning, then got sidetracked. Now I’m kind of glad I didn’t finish. Will get to it, though, for sure.
Curious now too about her earlier novels, which are noir/crime I think.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: If you can get past the these-people-are-bonkers-for-doing-this-shit skepticism, it’s pretty good. Amazing footage. And a pretty cool community of surfers who are all really supportive of one another whilst competing. And a couple bad-ass women who are breaking barriers in a typically male-dominated sport.
joel hanes
Reading H.G. Well’s 1916 novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through, about the English home-front experience of WW I.
Just finished the first part, in which everyone can see an unimaginably barbaric European war coming, and yet all the governments are in stasis, unable to break the chains of inertia and interest that will doom them, and now the word on every page is “mobilisation”.
The style is kinda antique (IMHO, Wells became a better writer later in his career), but the sense of looming catastrophe enabled and made unavoidable by folly is very familiar.
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow: Ooh, that looks good. I love him.
AliceBlue
I just finished Sugar in the Blood by Barbados historian/writer Andrea Stuart, who is a descendant of a white 18th century sugar planter and one of his enslaved women. She begins with her 8x great- grandfather’s arrival on the island from England in the 1640s and tells the story of her family along with the rise of sugar cultivation and the island’s colonization. Definitely a must-read.
NotMax
Without repeating previous titles from similar threads again*, gotta say so far as solid recommendations go there’s been a drought of late.
Willi give a (qualified) half a thumb up to The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window on Netflix as a good try which doesn’t quite hold its shape. Not a pan per se, more like something to put in the queue for when there’s nothing else that floats yer boat at a particular time.
Worth a look (without being a full-throated recommendation) are The Good Traitor, Passage to Mars and Memories of Murder on Hulu.
Same qualified mention in the cases of The Hour and Drop the Dead Donkey on Tubi. On the same streaming channel, now more an innocuous, albeit copacetic curiosity of its time rather than anything in the must watch category is the 1950s series Mr. and Mrs. North.
*Okay, one title to solidly recommend again, only because it has been on walkabout for such a long time; note that the live action Corner Gas is back on Prime, via IMDb TV. Wacky Canadians dish out the snarkitude by the bucketful.
Yutsano
I’m going for obscure anime but it’s really good. Bokurano is about a group of 15 kids who get roped into a life or death struggle that will change the destiny of humanity forever. It had the unfortunate release date of 2007, when a lot of really good anime were also released, so it never got its due. I can’t be too specific about the plot because otherwise I’d be spoiling the story, but if you’re anime inclined go watch it. It’s on YouTube broken up.
EDIT: Yus! I haven’t hit 69 in forever!
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: What? “The Inbetweeners”? OMG, if you haven’t seen it you’re in for a treat. It even has two movies it was so popular. Love, love, love “The Inbetweeners.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JoyceH: We just watched the second episode. So far, so good.
I read Station Eleven when it came out and really liked it. I haven’t seen the series
Steeplejack
* DVR Alert *
Two excellent films by Wong Kar-Wai on TCM overnight. Both highly recommended.
2:00 a.m. EST. Chungking Express (1994). Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Faye Wong. “Two melancholy Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with an ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.” Trailer.
4:00 a.m. EST. In the Mood for Love (2000). Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung. “Two neighbors form a bond after both suspect their spouses of infidelity.” Trailer.
NotMax
One additional title which comes to mind, moderately enjoyable enough for what it is, Tales of Para Handy on Prime.
Sure Lurkalot
I’ve been listening to The Dream podcast about multi-level marketing. I need to get back to EarHustle, about life in and out of San Quentin as they have new episodes. Both highly recommended.
I finished Midnight in Washington and now I’m reading Empire of Pain about the Sackler family.
If you haven’t read Dreamland by Sam Quinones about opioid addiction, tying together the black tar heroin trade and OxyContin, it is excellent and $2 on Amazon for the Kindle version.
You would think EarHustle would be the most depressing of all these “entertainments” but it isn’t all darkness. It’s intriguing how people make a life in prison and how “society” operates there. Some episodes are indeed harrowing, others quite uplifting.
eclare
Dopesick on Hulu was excellent all the way around: cast, writing, riveting.
I recently discovered Hulu has the whole series of Scrubs. I watched it sporadically when it was first on, now I’m going back to watch the whole thing. It’s a comedy that’s occasionally touching and has things to say about our healthcare system.
Feathers
I’m settled in for two weeks of Olympic figure skating. Not enjoying it as much as I had hoped because there is so much cooing over Kamila Valieva which completely ignores the fact that we have had 15 year old stars at the last two Olympics whose worn out bodies didn’t even make it to the next season. NBC is trash.
One thing I realized I didn’t mention in the Japan thread was City Pop. It was 80s Japan version of the smooth pop of Basia, Sade, and Swing Out Sister. The most popular song from the rediscovery of the genre is Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi. It even got an official music last year, which it never did in its original release. It’s mellow, up beat, and good for background listening. Plastic Love.
Anyway
I read Station Eleven when it was first released pre-Covid and really liked it. Didn’t care for her other books.
Haven’t seen the series. (no HBO*).
Anyway
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Jinx!
Kalakal
Also been rewatching some older stuff, of the films easily the best was The Long Good Friday British gangster movie with Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren Of the TV Father Ted was as hysterically funny as ever as was Goodness Gracious Me
cope
From left field but on the Discovery Network on most cable (which we get) and streaming service Discovery+ (which we do not) there’s a British show called “The Repair Shop” which I have touted previously. They take in items that have great importance to the owner (stuffed animals, clocks, paintings, toys and so on) and bring them back to life.
citizen dave
Agree with Not Max about The Woman in the House… on netflix. It requires no viewer investment, so very easy to watch. Eight 1/2 episodes. Seems like it could have been so much funnier, though. Like the played everything too straight. Comedy is hard–if that’s what they were going for.
We watched the movie Four Good Days with Mila Kunis as a long-term heroin addict trying to kick it, and Glenn Close as the mother. I’d never heard of it but saw it at the library. It’s fine, but a heavy subject.
We (wife and me) watched the LuLaRoe multilevel marketing doc on amazon last couple of weeks. It’s well-made, not my cup of tea. So many of these cult-type things, so easy to see how TFG commandeered so many people.
I have a Criterion set of Mario Van Peebles films borrowed from the library. I had never watched any before, but watched The Watermelon Man (1970) last night. Fairly interesting, but the whole style is hitting you over the head with the same point, same joke, over and over and over. Looking forward to watching more of his films, though. Watched a life story doc on him, what an interesting path to movie director. The guy was a grip on the SF cable cars in 1958 or something.
My favorite series continues to be How To With John Wilson on HBO Max. (Am going to watch Station 11, though).
patrick II
I have been watching some of the Olympics, but it doesn’t seem as exciting in front of empty stadiums — although they had a shot of an American bar with a bunch of maskless people standing shoulder to shoulder and cheering for their guy. The contrast was interesting.
Miss Bianca
I’ve become a little bit obsessed with watching The Adventures of Robin Hood. Not the 1938 Hollywood extravaganza of the same name with Errol Flynn – the 1955 British TV series with the very dishy Richard Greene. I bought a DVD of 39 early episodes several years ago from a Wal-Mart bargain bin, and watched an episode here and there sporadically, but never sat down and plowed through the whole thing till recently, and OK…I’m hooked.
As I watched it, I realized that my obsession with All Things Robin Hood must have come from the time I spent watching this series as a wee one – I think in Detroit it actually aired on Channel 9, which was the Canadian station.
Yes, it’s kid-friendly, so the violence/fight scenes tend to be rather hammy than otherwise, but the stories are great, and I love that they just kept using the same actors over and over in a variety of supporting roles – I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere that they’ve started to feel like old friends. Plus, every once in a while you see actors pop up who became famous later, like Leo McKern and Donald Pleasence, which is always a treat.
Also plus, I have a feeling that all the Monty Pythons watched this show and were influenced by it – not only in their “Dennis Moore” sketch, which totally hijacked the Robin Hood theme song, but Holy Grail as well.
OK, I’ve ordered “Series Two” from the library. Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen…
And for books, thanks to whichever jackals brought the Murderbot Diaries to my attention. Just finished #2 and raring to go on the rest.
patrick II
@frosty:
Tom Cruise was the producer on the Reacher films and hired the actor he thought could best portray the 6’5″ Reacher. And I actually think he did a better job than the 6’5″ walking monolith Prime hired for the part.
Big Mango
Norsemen and Lillihammer on Netflix made by the many of the same folk are enjoyable…
I also liked Ragnorak a teenager realizing he is thor…
BGinCHI
@AliceBlue: This sounds amazing. Thanks.
BGinCHI
@Yutsano: Congrats. I was pulling for you.
raven
@UncleEbeneezer: I know and I can’t believe the high falutin BJ intelligencia has just ignored it.
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
Yes! “14 Peaks” was quite a ride. What an achievement and isn’t it nice to see Sherpas being showcased for their phenomenal abilities and skills.
Did you find yourself wondering about the story behind the story? I know they’re bound by whatever they have footage of, but some “and then he bagged these peaks” segments had me scratching my head as to how. Also, getting permission from China for access, etc.
“The Making of ’14 Peaks'” I’d watch.
Layer8Problem
@RSA:
I found the first book pretty grim, what with children in danger and all. The second’s dark too, but Pullman has a direction he’s going with this and I want to see how he wraps it up.
band gap
On Netflix (all with subtitles) police procedurals:
Babylon Berlin (German) 1930s Berlin. How did they make those amazing street scenes?
Valhalla Murders (Iceland)
Bordertown (Finnish) One of the lead characters, middle-aged Lena, many episodes in is revealed to be a total badass.
Steeplejack
@Miss Bianca:
I remember that old British Robin Hood series. It was on one of my third-tier cable channels for a while a year or so ago, and I watched it pretty regularly. Agree with you about the cast recycling. “Hey, wasn’t that Merry Man one of the sheriff’s henchmen last episode?!” Really noticeable when they showed two or three episodes in a row. Also agree about the occasional appearance of someone later to be famous.
And there’s a possibility that I have a trace memory of seeing it back in the day, because my family lived in England from 1957 to 1960, when it was first on. Weird.
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: Yeah, same.
Amazing how many people they saved while they were doing something impossible.
BGinCHI
@band gap: These are all good. Esp Season 1 of BB.
The books are good too (the translation published by the publisher of my novel).
Steeplejack
@patrick II:
The Reacher movies are pretty good—the first one, anyway (I think I was unduly distracted by Cobie Smulders in the second one)—but the movie Reacher has little to do with the Reacher in the books. I had to sort of tune out that part, similar to the way the HBO Perry Mason had nothing to do with Perry Mason but the names.
Layer8Problem
@band gap:
They built a huge permanent set at Babelsberg Studio in Berlin for it. Alexanderplatz itself has a lot of CGI. I can’t imagine a lot of period Berlin is left.
Steeplejack
@MazeDancer:
The books are good, at least the first 10 or so. After that they got a little uneven—occasional “phoned it in” syndrome.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: Yep.
prostratedragon
Since I tend to be behind, as on this thread, I just recently enjoyed Beasts of the Southern Wild and Maigret (the Rowen Atkinson version), both on Prime.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: It was on here too.
RSA
@Layer8Problem: I’m glad you’re following through—I’ll be interested to hear about the resolution. Maybe I’ll pick it up again.
Layer8Problem
@RSA: The second book’s unresolved mystery leading toward Central Asia has me intrigued. I went through a period once where I read everything I could find on the region: Britain-Russia Great Game stuff, the history of the Silk Road, the exploration of the Taklamakan Desert. The place fascinates me. I expect the sundered bond will be resolved, but at what cost? I think a lot of the stuff you and I are wondering about are covered in some of the shorter pieces Pullman wrote before this.
James E Powell
@Renie:
Love both of those. Shetland makes me want to go to there, although it is nothing like anywhere I would normally want to go. And I’ve liked Nicola Walker in everything I’ve seen her.
The Oracle of Solace
To my surprise, Midnight Mass did turn out to be my cup of blood. The first half was as badly-paced as a Stephen King novel, and I was pretty sure it was going to be a fairly conventional horror story. Until the penultimate episode, when the horror that got to me was a perfectly human one, and it actually produced a sense of dread that most horror doesn’t do for me. Didn’t think I’d like it, was pleasantly surprised.
Currently I’m reading Blake Crouch’s Pines, just after finishing Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The latter was homework for a tabletop RPG to which I got invited. I did not know there were Jane Austin (well, Regency) RPGs, but it turns out there is one!
patrick II
Pennyworth on HBO. Young WW II vet starting a security firm in England fights against fascist underground.
MattF
I’m rereading Max Gladstone’s Craft novels. Pretty great. There are six in the sequence- I’d start with the third, Three Parts Dead, followed by the fourth, Four Rooads Cross.
piratedan
just my humble reccomendations…
The Chestnut Man – Danish police procedural only 8 episodes but compelling story, realistic characters
the written word – really enjoyed the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
JoyceH
@citizen dave:
I watched the first episode and couldn’t get into it. Then I read a review that said it’s supposed to be parody. Well, that went right over my head, so I’ve got to say the parody wasn’t parodic enough.
Not new, but I really enjoyed it and another season is promised – Dead To Me. Funny, but also weird in a way that’s hard to describe. Every episode has at least one utterly head-snapping plot twist that unveils a bit more information that gives you a whole different slant on the story.
Tehanu
Best things I’ve read lately: Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni, humane and imaginative fantasy set in the immigrants’ neighborhoods of New York City of the 1890s, and its sequel The Hidden Palace, both of which gave me the best insight into my grandparents’ experience I’ve ever had. Now, I’m just on the point of finishing Hilary Mantel’s 2nd sequel to Wolf Hall, The Mirror and the Light, beautifully written but kind of a slog through the parts where Henry VIII is such an asshole! — but it’s a fine book.
fancycwabs
I’m watching Peacemaker episodes as they come out, and just finished Reacher last night, and I’ve gotta say Reacher could have really benefited from an opening credits dance number featuring the entire cast and a scene where Reacher goes to career day at an elementary school.
Last book of significance I read was Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock, about the (fictionalized) guy who runs Buc-ee’s saving the planet with the help of a falconer, a dude who hunts feral hogs, and the queen of The Netherlands, overcoming the opposition of a cyborg who does kung fu.
I recommend them all.