Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING? Part 2

(You can close the other thread now, Rick. Thanks for the alert.)

I recently replaced a DVD set I'd given away a few years ago -- Hawaii Five-0 The Original Series, Season 1. The show was never a favorite of mine, but it had its moments.

The 2-hour TV movie pilot, though, it's breath-taking, as stylish as any of the best big-screen spy thrillers of that time (1968!) And the DVD presents it in its original broadcast format, instead of the way it was chopped in half for syndication and had the original (superior) title sequence removed. Makes all the difference.

And thank you for starting this one, Ann.

My pleasure, Rick.

I think the next thing I might watch is the first Season 3 episode of "2 Broke Girls." That's the one where Max gets all mushy about a stray kitten. I remember towards the end of the episode, when she and Caroline are going to abandon the kitten, Max remarks, "This is a lot harder for me than when I abandoned my drug-addict cousin's newborn baby."

Yes, the humor on that show was often crass. Even Kat Dennings & Beth Behrs have admitted that some of the jokes made them just as uncomfortable as they made a lot of viewers.

But the way I try to look at it is, I believe we NEED that kind of humor as a catharsis. There's a difference between humor that offends just for the sake of being offensive, and humor that tickles that little devil in our brains that says, "Admit it, you've thought that but never said it out loud." Ideally, a comedy show that pushes the envelope would be less hit-and-miss that 2BG was, but I think the hits outnumbered the misses by a healthy ratio.

I tried "fortitude" last night and couldn't get into it. Been watching a lot of retro lately.

What are You Watching Season 2: Electric Boogaloo!

I just binge-watched The Runaways, on Hulu, and it was pretty cool. A lot changed from the comics, but it was still pretty awesome (and they found an interesting hook to tie everything together, and much, much further develop the Pride, who got kind of short shrift in the comics).

HOLY CRAP!

I found the Crisis on Earth X collection on CW.

I don't think I've ever seen anything so awesome on television!

I'm on the first part, the wedding on Supergirl.

I was dreading the wedding the whole episode because only bad things happen in comics' weddings. But then there was a battle royale which was so awesome!!!!!!!!!

The Runaways tv show on Hulu might be my favorite show now. I put off watching it because I loved the book so much I thought it couldn't live up to it but ... live up to it it did, it is a bit different but the changes make it better for tv IMO.

Those kids are awesome!

Currently, One Day at a Time, the remake.

How the hell does Rita Moreno still have a figure like that at 86?

Found Cougar Town on Hulu. Loved it then and I'm watching it now. Lash would love that.

Mario Bava double feature -- "Kill, Baby, Kill" and "Baron Blood."

Amazing how Bava got so much grandeur and such atmosphere out of tiny budgets that these days wouldn't even pay the catering bill.

It was like that at one point, Ann. Heck, Film Noir was the outgrowth of trying to make movies with very low budgets. And even though a lot of people consider it out of date, many elements of it still linger in so many ways. Mood lighting, characters that didn't look like they stepped off a bandbox.

I wish they'd do that with some of the superhero movies they are putting out now. They all look so squeaky clean. Even the dirty parts (like explosions and battle remains) look sterile to me. Nothing beats the dirt of life. Less special effects and more practical. I know not everything is practical, but it just seems more alive.

Very well said, Rick.

Bava was fortunate that he was able to become a director -- after many years of honing his skills as a cinematographer and a special-effects man -- at a time when the global B-Movie industry was still thriving, while simultaneously Italy's own movie industry was at its all-time peak of productivity, hosting everything from big-budget American epics to home-grown potboilers.

Fun fact: A few years before Boris Karloff passed away, he said that working with Bava (on the "Wurdalak" segment of "Black Sabbath,") was the most fun he ever had making a movie.

Right now, I'm watching I,Zombie on a binge.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Still love it. Still my favorite of the Trek movies with the original series' crew.

Admittedly, there is some sentimental value at play here, as it was the first Trek movie I saw on the weekend of its big-screen premiere, so in that sense it will always be my personal, special Trek movie.

Okay, getting a serious jump the shark feeling for Izombie right now. Catching up on season 4? on CW. New Seattle? 2 eps into the new season. Better pick up.

Shark is officially jumped.

Wild Wild Country is a documentary series about the notorious fight in the 1980s for control of a U.S. town called Antelope, Oregon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country

I remember the Rajneesh and his followers making national news back then. My own move to (urban) OR was still a ways off.

It's pretty fascinating. I accepted pretty quickly that I would like virtually no one on either side of the dispute. There were moments in which each declared they were being persecuted in a "Holocaust" and you'd better believe I made mr_cleome turn the show off for a few minutes so I could pound my fist on the desk and rant.

Good viewing, though. Just don't watch it to relax and unwind.

Just finished Bosch season 4 and am starting Lost in Space.

Baseball. A couple of years ago I decided to make an attempt to start following baseball, the sport I decided I was most likely to get into. Well, the sport I'm most likely to get into is MMA, what with the hot guys rolling around on top of each other. But baseball is the one I'm most likely to get into as a sport. It didn't work out, mostly because the main guy I had to talk about it to turned out to be a Sports Bro who was constantly lecturing me on what "Real Fans" do, and I lost interest. Now I've decided to try again.

The team I followed last time and this time was the Angels, mostly because Mike Trout was the only current baseball player I could name at the time.

By sheer luck, I wandered into something pretty special. I almost immediately got to see the first major league game by Shohei Ohtani. I hadn't heard of him, but he is apparently a baseball prodigy from Japan, so good at both hitting and pitching that commentators constantly have to go back to Babe Ruth to make comparisons. That's not always a good thing. You will be SHOCKED, I'm sure, to learn that this baseball rookie is not able to consistently match the rose-colored memories of the greatest player in the history of the sport, whose career has passed out of living memory.

But by sheer luck, I get to follow a sensational player, wherrever his career goes, from his very first major league at bat. That's pretty cool, and it's helped to keep me focused. Lord knows I need it, with 20+ hours of baseball to watch every week.

Better Off Ted. Quirky fun show that didn't seem to catch on.

You Nina Simone fans... you know who you are. If you haven't seen this fabulous (and heartbreaking) documentary yet, you know what to do.

http://amazingnina.com

Been binging lately. Watched LA to Vegas. Lunacy. Very fun.

In the middle of American Gods, Gaiman's story. In the middle of a Murder of Gods. Haven't read the book, but get Odin is in hiding. Stormire seems like a Thor wannabee, maybe...Perun?

American Housewife. Love this show and she is gorgeous.

Cougar Town, Better off Ted and the UK version of Coupling are my "Knock me the sexual intercourse out and put me to sleep", but I love them anyway. The Bed Time episode of Coupling is possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. Well, that and the Lesbian Spank Inferno episode.

Watched the new Lost in Space show. It was meh. Part of the appeal of those old shows, to me, was the genuine goofy charm of them. Now everything is either balls to the walls gonzo, or so damn depressingly serious just watching makes you want to go out and murder puppies.

Recently, I've reevaluated the overall work of David Lynch, and my turn from generally disliking him to generally liking him -- which began years ago, the first time I watched Mulholland Drive -- has now reached a full 180 degrees.

Back in the early 90s, when he was at the peak of his fame-slash-infamy, I foolishly lumped him in with all the cynical smart-asses in movies, music, TV, and comics who subjected viewers to ugliness for its own sake, and with an icky nostalgic streak to boot.

But now I interpret his work as being that of a true subversive -- he clearly knows very well that it's not smart to take the kitsch of his (or anyone's) childhood and early adolescence at face value, but he also accepts it sentimental value; and he's at all not desensitized to the ugly side of life, but, rather, I see him as being extraordinarily sensitive and empathic, and he simply presents his highly individualized vision of existence as something both horrific and fanciful, neither one negating the other.

Are all his works perfect? No. But sometimes their faults were not his artistic intention (for example, with "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," most the lighter scenes and supporting-character bits ended up on the cutting-room floor because the movie's producers and financiers insisted that the movie had to be a certain length.) And I also see a very clear upward curve of artistic evolution and maturity when his works are lined up chronologically.

I haven't yet watched the "Twin Peaks" web-series revival, but I'm certainly more proactive now about changing that.

Super late to the party, but damn (the British) show The Inbetweeners is so good! Seriously relatable stuff for any guy.