Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

Cali, thats my Mom's favorite show . I do notice its on basically all day long.

I tried to watch a little of Castle and couldn't get into it. It was a little too cheeseball for me (obviously its done on purpose, I just don't find it all appealing). Both of the actors are pretty likeable though. I think she's gorgeous. But it takes a hell of a lot for a cop show to get me to watch it. Cop shows and medical dramas are the X-Men titles of TV shows.

I watched a bunch of movies over the last few weeks, some good, some not so good, though none that were really outstanding:

- Vicky Christina Barcelona - this was very fun, and it helped that all of the actors are extremely likeable. Javier Bardeem just seems like the coolest guy you'd ever want to meet. Penelope Cruz as a crazy artist is actually something I found extremely attractive despite knowing I shouldn't. It was the lead character that I really liked here, not Scarlet Johannson. This was definitely worth a watch.

- Rachel Getting Married - I watched this with Lady Cobalt. You know what? I pretty much hated it. Hard to say why...just something that wasn't for me. And I usually like Anne Hathaway. But it was very dark, depressing and yet felt so full of itself thinking it was all hip and trendy.

- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - this movie is one that won't appeal to many people but I liked it. Its very dark, and it has a definite slow burn feel to it (don't watch it if you're tired, you might fall asleep). But Casey Affleck is nothing short of fantastic, and Brad Pitt lends a degree of menace to the character he hasn't done since Fight Club. Even Sam Shepard as Frank James (who isn't in it that long in the film) is superb. I know the James Bros. legend very well already which enhanced my viewing (Lady Cobalt did not, and thus, wasn't into it). The train robbery scene is by far my favorite--its so dark and scary, its like strait out of a horror film. Its by far the most intense train robbery scene I've ever viewed. The traditional train robbery in movies has become a photocopy of the Butch & Sundance 'good ol' times' sequence; here, it returns to the real terror such a thing must have been.

I Love You, Man - I was hoping this would be hysterical, because I think Paul Rudd rocks, Jason Segel is funny as hell, and Rashida Jones is awesome. And you know what? It was utterly terrible. This is a classic case of "going to the well one too many times". A clear reminder of why so many comedy films get it wrong.

I thought Unusuals was better the second week than the first. There's still a little too much kind of cliched sentimentality in it, while I keep hoping to ratchet up the offbeat absurdism a little bit.

I totes agree, Cobster! Which was actually kind of disappointing for me 'cause I really love Nathan Fillion. I watched the first episode, though, and was just kind of like "eh". Castle was cool-- smarmy and know-it-all and just kind of an ass but in an awesome way. The girl cop, though, was just a cold fish and didn't do much for me. And the other cops? They seemed to be totally inept, which was disappointing.

Truthfully cop dramas really aren't my thing unless there's an underlying theme that I really dig. (NCIS has the character driven stuff and my other show, Numb3rs, is cool with the math/family stuff.) That's why I don't usually watch any of the CSIs and will catch an episode of L&O or Cold Case here and there but am by no means an obsessive fangirl. (Shocking, I know.)

Also, Cobaltus, to the X-Men reference. Y'know, you could've as easily said AVENGERS these days. Or BATMAN for that matter!!

..on the other hand, I was totally feeling the X-Men analogy, Des!

"The Unusuals" - I had high hopes for this one, but it's quickly losing me. I can see what's it's trying to do, but it doesn't quite work. (interesting coincidence that the newbie comes from privilege - the same device used in "Southland") Having the dispatch call in oddball crimes and numerous shots of downtown NYC (my neighborhood, actually) in an effort to "place" the series doesn't really convince me that the show's as oddball as it wants to be or that the show's filmed in NYC (the greenscreen stuff in the last ep was just distracting).

"Castle" is kinda fun. It reminds me of "Bones" in what it's trying to do. That show took awhile to really grow on me and the same might be true for "Castle". Right now, Fillion seems to be trying his darnedest to carry the show on his smirk. Hopefully it'll have time for the characters to gel. And for some reason, the female cop's wardrobe doesn't seem genuine to me. (the shot they use for the police station is several blocks from where I live so one can only hope they actually shoot something there sometime)

"Better Off Ted" - I'm really getting into this show. It reminds me of "Arrested Development" (not just because of Portia DeRossi) and "Scrubs." It's got a sharp sense of humor and has a good amount of absurdity without being over the top.

I caught part of "Idiocracy" on Comedy Central over the weekend. It's Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph as two "average people" who somehow end up 500 years in the future, into a time in which the "dumbing down" of society as advanced to a degree that they are by far the smartest people around.

While I didn't like the movie much at all, it got me started thinking that it was actually kind of a cool and original premise for a story.

I saw that too! It was utterly terrible! One of the worst movies I've ever seen actually.

But yeah, the premise for the whole thing is actually pretty good. It'd make a great Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode, or one issue story in Strange Adventures or something.

I agree -- "Idiocracy" has an interesting premise and it would be interesting to see what this "dumb" world would look like,(the tv show of neverending blows to the crotch is probably going to be on Spike next season) but it was a bad film and there wasn't really a story there.

It could have been a collection of short films, each helmed by a different director showing different visions of the "dumb future".

Not so original: The Marching Morons was published in 1951.

Outer Limits had a similar story when I was a teen.

These parents were shown trying to hide that their son, or maybe daughter, I can't remember for sure, was very smart.
We don't know why until the end, when he's (she's) taken away by authorities to be euthanized so that the other kids, who weren't smart, wouldn't feel bad about themselves.

Everyone had to be mediocre.
sigh

I love 'Fringe'.

The stories are so interesting and BEST OF ALL, the characters are so incredibly perfect.

What superb casting!

Harper's Island.

It's so tacky and cliched, yet strangely compelling.

New obsession: Life After People

There's something just incredibly cool about this show!

I saw that miniseries when it first came out, I think, or something very like it.

Is it based on the idea of humans leaving the planet with probes either sent back periodically over the years to check on what's happening here?

Anyway, I rattle on so.
sigh

I'm waiting for the new Star Gate Universe to come out.

You're thinking of the Future is Wild, which is somewhat similar. It focuses on the future course of evolution in the absence of humans.

Life After People is more about what would happen to all of our stuff after we suddenly disappear, and how long it takes for all evidence of human life to be wiped out. There's something oddly groovy about watching the International Space Station crash into Earth, thus destroying our attempts to preserve human DNA, or finding out that it will take about 100 years for parrots to quit mimicking human language in our absence.

Idiocracy would have been okay as a half-hour short. Not so much as a full-length movie. The premise is somewhat disturbing, but not in the way Judge intended, I'm sure.

The Day the Earth Stood Still.

the new one

ugh

The DVD box had the original movie also, making the new one seem even worse in a side-by-side comparison.

Quantum of Solace.

WOW! Smartest written James Bond movie I can remember. I like that it continued on the story and some non agency characters from the last movie and I think I'm going to like this "real" Bond. Best foot chase sequences I recall seeing in a movie.

Still wouldn't mind a super villain on occasion but this direction has to be my favorite of all Bond takes(sorry Mr. Connery).

Is anyone familiar with a cartoon called Spicy City?

Life After People was pretty groovy! Is that an ongoing series?

I love watching the history channel specials. The one about Krakatoa is simply fascinating to me. I also watched the gloomy one about 2012...my friend said it best: "looks like shit is over in 2012." The special is a little over the top in being alarming and trying to scare you. Its like Fox News or something.

It is such a '90's slasher flick. I'm sadly hooked on it.

Yeah, they just started an ongoing series of it, on Tuesday nights! Tomorrow night pigs take over the world or something!

The History Channel is definitely a mixed bag. A lot of stuff is extremely good, but a lot of times it seems more like the National Enquirer than National Geographic.

Yeah. I really couldn't stop watching the 2012 thing, but I was half-smiling the whole time. I was like, "jeepers, these people are trying so hard to convince me we're done in 2012 that I almost feel bad not believing them!".

But for the most part they have some good stuff.

Over the past week or so, I caught up on the last 10-or-so episodes of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". These episodes really brought out the potential in the show that had been evident in the first season and the first part of this season. It's a shame that this show is pretty much guaranteed to be cancelled because it was exploring some storytelling back alleys that the Terminator films never have time for. Really, the whole concept that Jim Cameron created has so much more potential than what got distilled into a hand full of white knuckle chase flicks, and this series was realizing it.

There are a lot of astute and demanding viwers of television on this site, and I think many of you would have been pleasantly surprised by this series. It was on the cusp of becoming another Lost or BSG, and it looks like it would have jumped that cusp based on where they were apparently taking the series based on how the last episode ended. I think that was quite admirable seeing as how it was obviously working with some effects budget constraints.

I'd encourage any of you to check it out on DVD or whatever. With a new movie coming out, it's a shame that a series with such potential may be all but forgotten.

Lardy, I'll see about getting that added to our Mega-Flix queue. It sounds like just what I need to be watching right now.

Alright, so after I caught up on my DVR backlog of "Terminator: SCC" and "Pushing Daisies", I caught up on the last five episodes of "Life on Mars". I've mixed feelings about the finale...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">It fell somewhere around "St. Elsewhere" and "Newhart" territory with the solution that was offered. On one hand the writers worked hard to show you that everything fit; on the other hand, I would have preferred something that didn't relegate the series to an 'imaginary tale'. (yeah, they're all imaginary tales, but you know what I mean... )

Yeah, there was always the chance it was the delusions of a guy in a coma from the beginning or he was crazy or something, but the story seemed to be leading to a greater significance behind everything Sam was experiencing. Like maybe he was there to change the future for the better and learn more about his past (particularly with his father) in the process. And God, Time or Whatever was behind it all--but that's the "Quantum Leap" fan within talking.

But we do get some resolution in 1973 and see that Tyler no longer wants to return to 2008 before the Big Reveal. Interestingly enough, the original UK series it was based on had a much different, possibly more satisfying ending. I Wikipedia-ed it!

But the series title sure got added meaning here, eh?</span></span>

In the end I really enjoyed the series a lot and hope to see Jason O'Mara, Gretchen Mol and Michael Imperioli doing more great stuff in the near future.