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

My mileage varied with "Inland Empire", I found it almost too Lynchian, if that's a thing (though, if I recall correctly, there was a DVD special feature with Lynch showing the proper way to cook quinoa that I quite enjoyed) but - yes, absolutely - "Synecdoche NY" was a phenomenal film. Even months later, I was still parsing through the emotions that movie stirred in me.

You have such good taste in movies, Dave.

The usual Game of Thrones, always teasing with not giving you what you want. So frustrating! So awesome!

Penny Dreadful is just overwrought, and beautifully so. I've kind of been half paying attention to it, as much for the period setting and costumes, as for the characters and story.

Sherlock season 3 is finally on Netflix, so I've caught up with that as well.

Someone here had echoed my love of the "Young Ones" earlier, but I sadly can't remember who. Cast member Rik Mayall just passed away. He was awesome in YO, and equally great as Lord Flashheart in Black Adder. Fond memories of my youth watching British comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP1vSIOmCc4

Dave, I think it was actually two people -- myself and Thoth -- who share your love for "The Young Ones."

R.I.P., Rik.

A real sad surprise to hear that today. Such a lot of good memories watching the Young Ones, Black Adder and Bottom.

Man, he's the only Young One I knew by name, too, thanks to Lord Flashheart! (Awesome character, from an awesome show.)

"There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing," Edmondson said.

"They were some of the most carefree, stupid days I ever had, and I feel privileged to have shared them with him. And now he's died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard."

Another good show for Mayall was the New Statesman a political comedy. His utterly sleazy, self absorbed character still hits home when you look at today's crop.

Binged: "Orange is the New Black" season 2.

Binging: "Serenity."

Penny Dreadful. LOVING IT!

It's pretty cool. Eva Green gives awesome scaryface! Those eyes!

I had no idea that James Bond IV had gotten so old...

What's his name (the one who wasn't Ben Affleck, in Pearl Harbor) can act? Who knew?

Dr. Von Ressurection-Man has crazy, crazy intensity. He's just constantly dialed up to 11. Possibly 12. Again, might be the eyes. Him and Eva need to have a stare-off, although the sheer intensity backwash might kill everyone around them!

'Dorian' isn't quite winning me over yet. I think it's a bit of an uphill struggle for a young actor to portray someone as world-wearied and jaded as he's attempting. (Dakota Fanning, in Push, somehow managed it, as well as the kid who played Godric, in True Blood, but this guy's not quite at that level, IMO.)

^ Totally agree with all your points. Dorian is definitely the weak link but not so much that I'm not invested in his scenes. And how was that ending to episode 4!?

Speaking of which, I cannot believe how hot Timothy Dalton has gotten in his later years! He did nothing for me when he was younger but now... swoon. And he's apparently 70?! Wow - the years have been kind to him.

This show reminds me a little of American Horror Story (another fave of mine) except that it's a lot more coherent, is genuinely scary at times, and doesn't have all that crazy 'just for the sake of it' OTT campiness that AHS does. Not that it doesn't have any of it - that seance scene! One of the best scenes I've seen on TV in ages! Eva Green is bringing it!

I rarely react out loud to stuff I see on TV, and, occasionally, see stuff coming, just based on narrative needs. (The 'shocking' ending to a recent Game of Thrones episode, for instance, I kind of expected, if only because Martin *never* gives the reader a sense of satisfaction or resolution or justice. He'd already defied expectations earlier in the season by giving us a 'happy ending' with Joffrey.)

But that last bit, I blurted out "Holy 5H1+!" out loud, before clapping my hand over my mouth. At that moment, it felt completely out of nowhwere, and yet, thinking back on the scene, it was both inevitable and scripted (not just scripted by the show's writers, but 'scripted' by Dorian himself, pushing cowboy-whose-name-I-never-remember into such a raw needy place that he's pretty much doing all the work of getting himself to the place where Dorian wants him).

In retrospect, yes, it was obvious. That's exactly the sort of game Dorian plays, disregarding all the shiny common toys everyone else is admiring to play with / poke at the most broken thing he can find. (Just as he ignored the dozens of beautiful women at the Séance-party to zero in like a laser on Vanessa Ives, a wolf circling the most vulnerable / wounded animal in the pack.)

Ep 5 of Penny Dreadful was probably necessary backstory, but dragged a bit, IMO. Ep 3 got a little talky, too, but the new character was intriguing enough (and the shock ending of Ep 2 still raw enough) to carry it.

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As for AHS, it's pretty fun, but on a different level. I haven't seen Coven yet, waiting for it on Netflix, but I'm a ginormous Angela Basset fan, thanks to her role in Strange Days, so I'm looking forward to it.

Yes! Agree.

The other great thing about that scene was the way it totally set us up to think that it was Ethan (the cowboy) who was about to make a (probably deadly, based on the preceding flashbacks and all the anvils being dropped about his true nature) move, only to suddenly flip it at the last moment and show us that it was actually Dorian who was in control (as he really had been all along).

It was actually quite ballsy writing too. To think that a scene like that couldn't even have been shown on TV ten years ago.

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This show is reminding me that I really need to get around to reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' one day. And 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' now that I think about it. Man, I have a big hole in my gothic literature library.

Coven is a bit of a let down. There are great individual episodes, and there are great individual scenes and performances, but it doesn't hold together narratively or thematically very well, and the ending is rather weak.

IMO, the *only* thing worth watching in that horrible League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie was whoever they had playing Dorian Gray. He really lived it up.

Ooh, it was Stuart Townsend. No wonder!

"Silicon Valley" on HBO - watch them NOW!! Funniest show in the last several years.

"Killer Women" (with Tricia Helfer)- it got a bit of a raw deal, but it's better than its cheese-cake marketing would have you believe, especially once the larger personal stories had time to develop. It was only 8 episodes, but it used them well. (and if you watch them, make sure to watch EP 7 *before* EP 6 - abc skipped over an episode when they cut it short so that it would end after ep6 (which was actually 7)) It misses being a great show, but it's pretty good to burn through if there's not much else going on.

Game of Thrones: Season 4 in the books.

That was an especially good, eventful season--possibly the best yet!

Like every episode was number 9! At this rate, Season 5.5 is going to be five episodes of everyone looking at an empty chair made of swords.

I hear what the fight between Brienne and the Hound, plus what happened to bran's companion, were completely off-book.

I've decided, though, that I'm not reading the books any time soon. I just love the surprises so much!

But in the books you get to see more of the Red Viper's awesome sexual fetishes!

Just finished watching the leaked pilots for Constantine and the Flash. Both were pretty good, although I liked the Flash better.

The Flash seems to have more of a DC scope with it's many Easter eggs for the fans (especially the ending), but Constantine had a good one, too. I'm not well versed in the mythology of John Constantine, so I can't speak to the other characters, but he seemed close to the smart-assed John that I've seen in the DCU.

Thumbs up to both!

Watched the pilot for Penny Dreadful and was underwhelmed. Does it get better?