What Are You Watching?

WillyGilligan · Post by **WillyGilligan** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:06 pm

poorpete wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 8:01 pm One thing that irritates me in a lot of multiseason dramas is lack of growth. In that respect, McNulty is getting on my nerves too.

That may be intentional with the Wire. The police either don't/can't change, or they do and the system pulls them back to start.

[tube][/tube]

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:46 am

This "Was It Love?" show is not as good as the Rookie Historian show - I think I lucked into the #1 all time K-drama when I picked that one based on the word "Historian", because how could a show about historians in a context where it makes sense to speak of a rookie not be great? It was great. It was everything. But I am not ready to re-watch it so I had to move on to this "Was it Love" thing. I am not sure what to make of this - on the one hand, it's making me feel negative emotions like frustration and anguish and actual anger at the writers on occasion, and it drags on WAY too long at times. On the other hand, it's a really excellent show in the sense that I am genuinely surprised by what happens in the episodes to the point of frequent gaspings and gapings, and many of the actors are phenomenal (I personally identify 1000% with the bartender auntie - no, 2000%, though I have no hope of ever being elegant and pretty in that way - it's an intellectual/spiritual/aesthetic identification). Plus we have a cute puppy and two cute kids - this is not the cloying distraction it may seem - just cute, and the kids are both essential to the plot and talented actors in their own right.

There's also the inconvenient but incontrovertible fact of my passionate and undying love for Oh Dae-O. I really don't care about the actor who plays him; it is only the character I love, much as I have no interest in whoever plays Min U-Won, but love only this fictional character. But you guys, Oh Dae-O is the most flipping hilarious, awesome human being, and he is being so unjustly harmed and destroyed by the "heroine", who is at this point so annoying because she has no business meddling with this man, much less inspiring his romantic interest. Leave him alone, hussy! This is the type of thought I have as I am on the exercise machine - the discovery that I can watch my show while exercising was quite the rosy dawn and no doubt will benefit fitness.

New characters have appeared, among them a woman from the past who also wishes to steal Dae-O from me, yet she is clearly no competition and I actively sympathize with her efforts simply because the weak, non-threatening enemy of my enemy is... well, you get the idea. Do your worst, girl, peel him away from that menace and I'll pick up the pieces later. In one scene, loudly comic antics are underway and all the other characters are caught up in their dramas, and meanwhile Dae-O is sitting there perfectly chill and remarks, with the perfect mixture of sardonic humor and serious concern for wastefulness: "You broke a perfectly good mug." He is not everything but he is close to everything, and he cannot help that he's not an early 19th century historian clinging to his deontological principles despite being unjustly caught up in tragic dilemmas. Oh Min U-Won, everyone else is doomed to being your #2 forever. But at least #2 is tolerable to watch. Speaking of which, one of the sub-plots in this show is driven by the fact that one character accidentally witnesses another character involved in his own #2 production (the baser version), but the public is under the clear impression that this person simply does not #2, ever. In the way, like, angels and demi-gods don't have to. That should tell you how good the show is if you weren't already convinced. Also a mobster skins and fillets a fish for comic effect, inspiring love in the local fishmonger.

UPDATE: it turns out I can watch my show from the kitchen. Say goodbye to exercise I guess. I can watch this program no matter what is being watched in the other rooms. We still have like 4-5 episodes left in this dumb show and I am dead and writing this as the ghost of my former self because the sight of Dae-O destroying books also destroyed me. He ripped the book in half and it was my heart and now I am dead. What else could possibly be left in this show? What else can they do to me at this point? I hate so many of these other characters now, because they have hurt him. The kids are still OK, the mobster OK, the production assistant OK, the bartender 9000% good still, the dog still good. Not sure about her mom. Maybe? Maybe not. Not sure. Everyone else is wicked and must suffer for harming Dae-O. I'm done with this and as a ghost I will exact such revenge as ghosts are capable of exacting. I am also personally going to step into the television and PUNCH the dumb schoolteacher who is a creep and a stalker and pervert and everything else wrong in the world! HE IS THE WORST.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:11 pm

My child (9) says: "Blah blah blah, you know what's going to happen here, the people say they're in love, something goes wrong, they're not in love, events happen, they're in love. It's over. There! You saved yourself hours, you're done, STOP WATCHING."

OK now that I have watched other episodes while so many other things are going on, let me say that the child was Incorrect. At first I thought this statement showed a certain wisdom. But I could not have predicted these events. I was dead; I was haunting the room as a vengeful ghost; now I am a sweaty and exhausted ghost, I'm shaky, I'm going to have nightmares. This show was advertised to me as a frolic, a romp, a terrible dilemma where Heroine had to choose from among four eligible bachelors. I was not told to expect emotional trauma, anxiety, horror, headache - it's overwhelming. Also: so much violence! Blood! Did I mention horror? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS SHOW? Who thinks of this stuff? Who plans this?

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Jan 27, 2021 8:48 pm

Watching true crime type recreations narrated by police/fbi who were tangling with criminals, being shot, etc. Honestly less upsetting to watch after that other show, but still scary!

WillyGilligan · Post by **WillyGilligan** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 8:08 pm

So I've been meaning to catch HBO's show Barry for a bit now, and I finally watched the first season. Bill Hader was one of my favorite SNL cast members while he was on and it's about a hit man that wants to become an actor. I thought it would be funny, and it is. But it got a lot darker than I was expecting, even with that premise. But it's also really goofy, drawing parallels with nonsense hollywood acting culture and organized crime. I loved it, and I'm going to get back to the second season after I get caught up on college. By far the best thing in the whole show is Anthony Carrigan (Victor Zsasz from Gotham) as Hank. He is the best kind of disaster in every scene he's in.

Interestingly, to me anyway, was an interview with Hader about the origin of the show. Apparently he originally intended to go to Hollywood and be a writer, because performing gives him huge amounts of anxiety, which made SNL for that long absolute hell. But he's known for being funny in front of the camera and making the transition has been hard when people don't want what he's moving towards as much as what he's running from.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:57 pm

Itaewon Class

K-drama but NOT a romance/epic - y'all should watch. I'm only a few episodes and it's already been well worth it, regardless of how the whole thing turns out. Fundamental moral questions, disturbing questions. Scouring the meaning of the human.

Update after more episodes: yes, it also has romance, but rather non-traditional ones due to the nature of the persons involved. Given that major themes of the show include what it means to be good, bad, strong, weak, wise, foolish, cruel, or kind, and what it means to seek domination or revenge, you can imagine it's not exactly a chipper rom-com. The three women who are involved in some sort of relationship plot are 1) icy, uncommunicative, emotionally damaged woman incapable of living and enjoying a normal life; 2) cute sociopathic 20 year old who is bored and repulsed by nearly everything and everyone; 3) transgender woman who is frequently criticized for her incompetence and unable to work out what appears to be potential romance with coworker. The men in whom these women are interested are: 1) probable on-the-spectrum and definitely unusual man who is found obnoxious by most people but who is clearly the moral hero and center of the show; 2) ex-con prone to rare but tremendous outbursts of violence.

This is one of the few shows I've ever seen that has a transgender character who is treated semi-appropriately as deserving of full respect - there is one scene played for laughs where her coworker discovers she is trans while discovering he is attracted to her (audience has known for some time so I don't think I'm giving anything away there), and the scene of revealing is kind of dumb, but since it leads to a follow-up where the other characters are respectful, and the show is certainly signaling some kind of normal romance storyline for the character, at least it's about a hundred times better than any trans storyline or character I've seen on US TV. My daughter happened to be in the room when this episode was on and she was like, this scene is so cringe, but then as the rest of the story played out she agreed it was better than initially expected. There is also a Black character and I won't say anything more about that in case somebody watches the show, because it would be a spoiler, but I think they do a pretty good job confronting the blunt fact that many people are racist and shouldn't be, and that our hasty assumptions about people are generally stupid. it's the same deal that when the character first appears you think, oh no, this is so cringe, they're going to mess this up, but then it plays out better than expected.

So in addition to the cast of young people there are a number of older actors who are so good - just so, so unbelievably talented! One of them is the reason I started watching the show - after watching Rookie historian I searched to see what other shows the Queen Grandma had been in, and this was one. Unfortunately her part is too small for my taste - she plays the mother of the sociopath, and so far has dominated the screen like a master anytime she appears on it. She physically resembles one of my own grandmas, and I basically want to look and be just like her, except the version of her that's in Rookie historian, please. Much better clothes.

This is another one of those shows where I get to dwell heavily on the fact of getting older, and the strange changes wrought in the process. One of the bizarre things is that as you get older - at least this is true for me though I imagine it might be different for others - you start to find young people smooth and baby like, and by young people I mean people of 35. Everybody on this show is a baby, like they could be my baby and so I find them extremely cute in the way bunnies are, but otherwise totally unattractive in That Way. But the villain is a whoooooole other story! (Also the hero's father... but we don't get to see as much of him...) Anyway, the villain of our show here - the old man, the Boss, not his kid! He's hot. I don't love him the way that I actually LOVE Min U-Won and always will, but he's definitely a tiger (as the character calls himself at one revealing point). If you stroked his grizzly cheek I think your finger would burn off. I don't know what else to say.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Feb 10, 2021 3:13 pm

Having watched a horrid show about the Medici, now watching a horrid show about the Borgia. I really do not "watch" so much as "this is on while I am doing other things, muttering under my breath about how I want my Korean show back on". I have hated both of these other shows. Maybe people would like them, who knows, but they are terrible in a way that matches many of the real-life deeds of the people pictured. Not a good show about terrible people, but a bad show about terrible people. Terrible in all the ways.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:11 am

Downton Abbey. I am on Season 5 and it has been an education.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 10:32 am

Ahhhhha, I hope you have enjoyed it! I feel like the first season was by far the best, and they did okay in the subsequent seasons, but it slid gradually downhill to the end. The first season was simply hilarious and unexpected in a way they were never able to recapture. The dowager Countess Grantham also had some of her best moments early on, as did Thomas Barrow. I later missed the character who got married and then left the show, and they were never able to properly deal with the remaining spouse in subsequent seasons. As they did with Barrow, they basically neutralized everything interesting and assimilated it. I know I was supposed to be moved by the endless travails of Anna and Mr. Bates, yet sadly I found them insufferable. Daisy remained a constant delight for me, however, as did my alter-ego in life Mrs. Patmore. Can they just leave her alone to practice her art? The last two seasons should and could have been simply a cooking show.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:09 am

Have been watching a show off and on, as the husband watches it, called High Maintenance. The guy who writes it apparently plays the main character, a pot dealer in NYC. Each episode shows him interacting with different characters. I think the idea originally motivating the series was to tell stories about people's lives, with pot smoking and the pot dealer as the one thread running through all the stories, both generally portrayed in a positive light. However, from my perspective as a non-fan of pot smoking, I see a series of stories about people who are either fabulously and wildly screwed up in multiple ways of which one happens to be all the pot smoking, or nice, pleasant people who probably would be happier and better off if they stopped smoking the pot. So the show has, as it were, an unintended effect on this particular viewer, but it is still HILARIOUS in so many ways, and does tell some profound, moving, and reflection-prompting stories along the way, so I highly recommend it. If you have watched or do watch, imo the best episode is about the dog, and you'll know what I mean. Profound. Genius. I am not pleased that they took several episodes off Vimeo, where it started, so now you have to get it on HBO. I have slept through or otherwise not been present for many episodes, but luckily it does not matter because you can watch them in any order. Some threads and characters repeat, but you'll pick them up eventually.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:56 pm

I thought I wrote a whole review of this last night. Hmmm. Netflix was pressing upon me a particular show with great urgency, because it was the number one trending show of the US blah blah blah: Ginny and Georgia. I have doubts about whether it's really the number one show on Netflix because I am usually told that the trending things on Netflix are exclusively k-dramas. So is the number one trending thing that you would get the same as the one I would get or that my kid would get?

Anyway, it started playing this show and I didn't turn it off in time, so there I was watching it and kept on. I had much laundry to deal with and I was doing a thing and so I just let it go. It's kind of an amusing show - imagine a remake of my so-called life for 2021, with more texting, and this time the biracial Megan-Markle-resembling character is the primary teen character, while the lgbt friend is the wacky theatrical sidekick and the moody boy is much better looking than Jared Leto was. Then mash this up with a wild story about the mom: the frivolity and attitude of Hart of Dixie meets the absurd suburban combat of Desperate Housewives and the grim life-or-death menace and paranoia of Ozark!

I'm glad it came through and passed away quickly, that's about all I can say, although they did offer a more realistic and serious take on various troubled teenager issues than the usual programming, and I was hoping for her to find romance with the cafe owner, but then we realize the cafe owner deserves so much more in his life.

After this Netflix presented me with a show about terrible women who make a business of exploiting senior citizens, which is so disturbing that I literally felt nauseous because you should know, if you do not already know, a less slick and polished version of this is in fact reality for many vulnerable seniors. It made me sick to see it even in this obviously exaggerated TV take. But the true promise of the show is that Peter Dinklage gets back to non-GoT acting here, and it seems clear he's going to do something to mess with these wicked ladies and I am probably going to like it. It feels like justice or something - at least the false pretense of justice in a world where the justice is often lacking. If someone is going to deal out TV justice it really should be Peter Dinklage with an amazing hair situation happening. His voice is like the murmuring of bumblebees; he is a marvel.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:55 pm

Final Season of Downton Abbey...2nd season of Brooklyn 99

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:08 pm

Don't we have a movie thread somewhere? Anyway it turned out that the show I had been starting to watch is a movie! It is called I Care a Lot, how about that?
But most importantly, One of the villains of our story is played by Peter Dinklage, and he is all the things at once: hilarious, intense, ominous! He's so awesome. You should watch it just for that reason, but also because it's a fast-paced and very creepy sort of "thriller" also starring Dianne Wiest and Chris Messina, two other perennial favorites.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:04 pm

Haven't been watching much movies but our TV diet at night seems to be Muppet Show followed by Little House on the Prairie. Fun drinking game with Prairie... drink anytime someone dies, because nearly every episode it happens. Danger if you are a guest role on that show...

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 11:42 am

Oh seriously, that's the truth.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:34 am

Unexpected life issue:
I walked in to my room and saw a mysterious new tv show starting. What is this, I said? Live action Beauty and the Beast? Lion, Witch, Wardrobe? Why are they in the snow?

Turns out, husband just started watching Game of Thrones season 1 episode 1 and I WILL NOT Watch this again, nor will I be awoken by it in the dead of night, or risk my innocent kids walking in on it. That twisted George RR man has occupied more than enough neural real estate of mine to last a lifetime and not even Peter Dinklage or whoever plays Arya Stark was enough to overcome it. Garrrrrr he even has a derivative Scarlet Witch. Bah. I explained my feelings on this to no avail so now here I am in my new bedroom shared with my kid. The magic of menopause finallllly blessed me with its best gifts and among them is the newfound power of never, ever watching GoT again, ever, however passively or inadvertently or in the dim mists behind deep sleeps. Kid says why not have a normal calm show or if not maybe something like Naruto?

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 12:20 am

I have been exiting my bedroom late evenings to avoid Game of Thrones, but it's still on at various times in the background so I see parts and osmose others. This second time through I have been cautious about avoiding scenes with chopping and spearing and crucified bodies and all the screaming involved in these processes. I sit up while kid goes to sleep or sleep on the couch, etc. The result is that I'm getting a sanitized fragmentary version of the show, and it turns out to be radically different from the previous time through, when I had nightmares while sleeping through it and then awoke for the most gory highlights! The fascinating discovery is that this wretched, brainless show is every bit as shitty and perverse this way as it was the other way. I have gleaned some enjoyment from fleeting scenes with Arya and the Hound.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:28 am

I finished season 1 of my fall-asleep-to The Simpsons campaign. As with previous rewatches, the first few episodes are kinda hit or miss, but forgot how many parts are hit -- there's some really great Simpsons-style jokes in there. Really doesn't take off the second half of Bart The General. Not on full-steam yet.

Avoiding Falcon and Winter Soldier for now, probably gonna binge it when there's a few episodes left.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Sat Apr 24, 2021 9:15 pm

I did exactly that. Took a bit to get moving but hit its stride and took on some very serious real stuff which is welcome! The last episode I don't think completely stuck the landing, as I dunno if anything could have. Messy ending for a messy subject.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun May 09, 2021 3:06 pm

I actually happened to be watching the news last night and thus turned on Elon Musk hosting SNL. It was pretty much as bad as expected, but then he claimed to have Aspergers and I don't even know, man. I'm just... I already disliked him fairly intensely for a total stranger, and that didn't help. I feel like he just wanted to humanize himself in some way by pretending to be neuroatypical, and he could have simply admitted to being a sociopath and let it rest there. Ugh.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sun May 09, 2021 4:30 pm

Phoebe wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 3:06 pm I actually happened to be watching the news last night and thus turned on Elon Musk hosting SNL. It was pretty much as bad as expected, but then he claimed to have Aspergers and I don't even know, man. I'm just... I already disliked him fairly intensely for a total stranger, and that didn't help. I feel like he just wanted to humanize himself in some way by pretending to be neuroatypical, and he could have simply admitted to being a sociopath and let it rest there. Ugh.

My wife and I “diagnosed” him awhile ago simply because of his mannerisms (and our experience with autism and Aspergers). It doesn’t affect my opinion of him. He’s a deplorable person who does deplorable things to elevate his personal wealth and power. And he has Aspergers.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 10, 2021 9:46 am

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but my complaint is it's simply a calculated "admission" he's making to milk this latest PR stunt for the potential value of covering for his past and future idiotic public comments. That's one of the few ways he can actually deal damage to his businesses and future prospects, so this is damage control.
I think it's sad that he now will be classed with other people with Aspergers who are just normal, nice people.
What I mean is, appearing on SNL was a way to present himself to the public as a goofy, fun nerd whose ill-advised tweets and recurring redpilled shit are merely the understandable behavior of a slightly dorky Aspergers dude who is just like any other lovable nerdy sitcom character on TV. NO.
Having Asperger's does not make you an a-hole or a nazi.
Whatever kind of brain he has the more important, more relevant fact about it is that it's a sociopath brain that lies all the time as a matter of course, fixated as it is on the success of one man without appropriate concern for how that success affects other people. Note how even on SNL he gives himself credit for things like electric vehicles, when he was only the flashy grifter who swept in and hyped the company as opposed to the one who actually had the future vision, luxury concept, and engineering know-how to make it happen. I don't even think he cares that much about his own kids - just the new one until that one stops being amusing, just the new girlfriend until that girlfriend or wife stops being amusing.
I don't know whether I have Asperger's or not or whether my kid or kids have Asperger's or not, but the sight of that man self-identifying as a PR move still felt personally affronting. At the least, I can tell you only one person in this house is "neurotypical" and about the last thing I would want is this dirty sociopath representing neuro-atypical people to the world.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 10, 2021 10:59 pm

OK hive of tasteful people: I need a show.
I need the type of show that permits me to fold laundry while it's on and trim the dog toenails, micron by micron. It cannot be a k-drama. It should be something streaming on Netflix or Amazon prime. For free. It should not go on for 20 seasons, nor should it have just six episodes and then be canceled.
It may or may not have subtitles.
It cannot be a Joss whedon show.
What do you think I should do next?

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Tue May 11, 2021 3:33 pm

On Netflix:

The Way of the House Husband is about a yakuza turned domestic. Not very deep, short episodes.

Hilda is a kids animation about a girl who has to move to to the city - she has adventures with fantasy creatures and odd things.

Derry Girls is about girls growing up during the violence in northern Ireland. It's super funny.

Comedians in Cars getting Coffee. Jerry Seinfeld hangs out with a different comedian each episode. Usually under 20 minutes. No need to watch them all, just skip to guests who you like.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu May 13, 2021 11:47 am

You get me. I think I'm going to try the Derry girls show because it is on Netflix, and you know, comedy. In the meantime I have been completely captured accidentally by a Korean show called My Shy Boss. This is about a stupid as you might guess from the title but for me it is a fully profound and emotionally nuanced life experience.
I keep hoping we will see a little more of Kim Mi-Kyung, who reappears here as a mom after her enjoyable appearance in Was it Love? I adore Yeon Woo-Jin whose character (the boss in question) is definitely a kindred spirit, so I am probably stuck watching this through to the end despite the protestations of the people here. Most of them have no right to make any such protestations. Only one has a legitimate claim because she is trying to watch a Thai drama of a similar type and there's only one TV on which we can trade off. No legit claims from the person in my house who is presently trying to convince me that commenting on spider veins is a valence and significance free observation, perfectly consistent with celebrating the appearance of a leg, and who also stole and ate a donut I specifically bought for one of my kids. I'm not eating a donut myself because of the comments about goddamn spider veins what the hell is wrong with people.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu May 13, 2021 11:58 am

Phoebe wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:47 am I keep hoping we will see a little more of Kim Mi-Kyung, who reappears here as a mom after her enjoyable appearance in Was it Love?

She also appears as the tough mom on The Sound of Your Heart (not the reboot), which is a goofy comedy about a web cartoonist.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu May 13, 2021 7:30 pm

I'm afraid to even click on it.
This masterful programme, alternatively translated as Introvert Boss, has a mom character who has just gotten drunk and announced, "I'm not a good employee. Nor am I a good mom. What am I then."
Oh Lord. What is this life. Innocents are slaughtered and suffering daily. Nothing has purpose.

The introvert boss is now stuffing his drunken employees into taxi cabs so that they will be taken home. Some type of hot dude appeared and I don't even know who he was or why he appeared and where he went.
Now the heroine of our show is drunk and telling truth fortunes.

One of the things I find most charming about these kdramas is that you'll be watching some emotionally intense or crazy sequence of events or some big reveal, in stunned silence, and then they'll pop in with a super chipper theme song! Lalala, people are nearly escaping death or they have just died! Lalala something crazy is happening! Cha cha cha!

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat May 15, 2021 10:48 pm

ORIGINAL star strek:
James t Kirk just slapping the hoes slapping them in all the episodes and sometimes (always????) This is portrayed as HELPFUL to the female. No memory of this from younger days. Someone needs to make a list of it maybe someone already has.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat May 15, 2021 10:57 pm

Ok ASIDe From the slappings, in current episode there is a DRONE delivering an actual plastic baggie of RITALIN.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun May 16, 2021 5:38 pm

I have continued watching My Shy Boss. This show my youngest child detests and middle child thinks is terribly cringe is a profound comment on the problem of other minds, of communication, of the tension between performing for others in trying to be socially acceptable, and being sincere and capable. Watching k-dramas is interfering with the happiness of my marriage because it sets up an unattainable ideal for human life and interaction. These characters - for example, the shy boss - treat the beloved as some sort of exalted figure deserving constant protection and efforts. No comment.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 17, 2021 9:35 am

Phoebe wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 10:57 pm Ok ASIDe From the slappings, in current episode there is a DRONE delivering an actual plastic baggie of RITALIN.

I missed this offering from my evening of ill-fated drink but friends, what it reports is truth! We are somewhere deep into the seasons of original Star Trek rewatchings, and Kirk is slapping the ladies left and right. He is! Why does he slap women so often, and so many of them? The worst thing about it is, these slappings and threatened spankings and such are NEVER an occasion for regret or remorse or repentance! They are always the sign of wisdom and good judgment in training one's woman, or any woman who happens to be misbehaving inconveniently nearby. It is really something to see.

The other part, about a drone - does anyone remember this episode? It's the supposedly-smart dude - he multiplied himself and exists all over the internet these days - who invented various things like his "robots" (flying drones) and is offering sub-standard products to our intrepid crew while distracting them with his daughter who is wearing what can only be described as a blue tin-foil slingshot for the breasts. Anyway, the drone comes in at one point with a baggie containing this substance, which they pronounce ri-TAL-in, but you know, ritalin. From a drone! And prominent boobs, but no slappings (that I know of) in this episode.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Mon May 17, 2021 10:08 am

Slapping hysterical women was a thing back then. Really fucked up. They made fun of it in Airplane.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Mon May 17, 2021 10:52 am

Yeah, back then, the only thing that can stop a bad guy who slaps women is a good guy who slaps women.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon May 17, 2021 11:24 am

True story: I was slapped like this once by a man who was offended by my expression of agnosticism. Imagine! Yet, true story. TBH I was more taken aback by the other guy who was trying to do an exorcism or witch-trapping or whatever, demon-trapping?, outside my dorm room door because that really did not make sense. Slapping, okay, that's a thing, a shitty thing men do when out of options for controlling the wayward woman. At that point you can slug him back, press charges, or just go on with your day knowing he is a weakling. However, what do you do about a man who is trying to do an exorcism OF you? I wish I knew what he was doing, like he got it out of a book but what book? He was Episcopalian. Do they do witch-removal? I'm glad I'm old now. The fact that this shit was happening is, however, a pleasant reassurance in the pandemic dissolution and disrepair that I was once hot enough to drive men to actual madness.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Mon May 17, 2021 11:56 am

Phoebe wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 11:24 am He was Episcopalian.

Twist!

I'd probably be too shocked to do anything too but kinda wish you'd Mr Tibbs him

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu May 20, 2021 7:25 am

I was trying to start watching Derry girls and unfortunately it's on Netflix and was in my queue right next to a show called Crash Landing on You. I realized J-Hope of BTS once recommended this show, so I said to myself, I'll watch a few minutes of it to see why. Because I love J-Hope who is in fact the Hope of humanity, and turns out to have fabulous taste in K-dramas. In this way I was sucked in and wrecked permanently.

The long and short of it is: the Korean pop culture has far surpassed all others at this point. I don't think any program could be better than Rookie Historian but this one is doing an excellent job of trying. It involves people from both North and South Korea, which as you might guess creates urgent situations and drives the plot. Many threats of violence arise along with serious action-adventure type scenes of fighting, fleeing, chasing, imprisoning, etc.

Our male hero is basically a human superhero, which is supposed to be one of his attractions. This works, by the way. I don't know that a guy of such traditional physical charms has ever been more attractive. This is not normally my type of guy but WOW my goodness he is almost BTS Jin level hotness, and indeed the show includes a BTS joke like this because it's so obviously True. Like you might be a heretofore hetero male and you will nevertheless discover this man is absolutely gorgeous and you, like any sentient being, would hit that right here and now if he appeared before you, with those huge shoulders and muscles rippling, and that coldly serious yet tenderly expressive face glowing. I would watch this man read the phone book. This man could rule the whole world by starting a cooking show. He also (in the show) happens to be an excellent cook, on top of the action hero stuff, oh and by the way our hero is also a world class concert pianist. He is basically a perfect man. My love for him is uninteresting - surely others love this man even more than I do, so I don't mind sharing him, unlike e.g. Min U-Won who belongs exclusively to me, or even Oh Dae O. The heroine loved by Oh Dae O was a flimsy placeholder until he finds me.

In the current show, by surprising contrast, the heroine is wonderful. She MUST be with our hero or I am not going to make it. She is powerful and clever and hilarious. At one point I thought she had been killed off and the show was ending and I literally laid on the bed crying and sobbing uncontrollably, trying to stop so that I could look up the name of the show's writer and hunt that person down for revenge. Luckily this proved to be unnecessary because she lived on. In general, I have dehydrated myself from crying over this show to the point that I have migraines and now last night actually got a leg cramp from dehydration. It's not a joke. I have to approach each episode with a glass of water.

Let's say no more about these things but mention the supporting characters: The supporting actors are absolutely hilarious and provide a kind of over the top dramatic and comic relief. It's necessary or we would all lose our minds watching the main plot between our hero and heroine. There has never been a more amazing love story. There has never been anything to match it. I'm several episodes in and I don't know how many episodes total there are but when it's over I'm probably just going to immediately rewatch the whole thing.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu May 20, 2021 7:37 am

Phoebe wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 7:25 am Let's say no more about these things but mention the supporting characters: The supporting actors are absolutely hilarious and provide a kind of over the top dramatic and comic relief.

I find this is a feature of many K dramas. I think the leads are often young and skinny and interchangeable compared to the character actors.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu May 20, 2021 8:16 am

It is often true - I think perhaps one reason I like this Crash Landing show so much is that the characters are said to be in their mid-thirties, so they seem closer to my side of the hill than a lot of these other dramas that feature a pair of kids, or kids who look like kids even though they're supposedly 27. The main characters in this one have already lived an adult life. The same was true for Was it Love? where our pair got back together again later after they had already had a middle school age child. Another exception I liked is Itaewon Class, where the heroine is young but there's an age gap between the couple that causes her to be dismissed as too young at first, and the other supporting actors are profound. Come to think of it even Introvert Boss is supposed to be like this, where the main character is supposedly in his 30's and the woman he loves is probably late twenties? And the supporting characters are of all different ages and varieties. I'm saying this in the context where I have started and then quickly rejected a lot of other dramas that followed more of the pattern you mentioned with two young and supposedly perfect people in a couple. Those were a lot less interesting and there are a lot of them, judging from my Netflix queue.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat May 22, 2021 12:25 am

Have finally finished watching "Crash Landing on You", which is the Netflix relevant title for a Korean show that could have been translated as a few other things. It was probably clear from what was said above but this is a combination of extremely intense dramatic love story, violent action adventure elements and the general sense of danger and threat pervading many scenes, and completely quirky comic relief because otherwise you would lose your mind trying to watch the rest of it.

I do not want to give away any spoilers because this might actually be a k-drama more enjoyable than others for the average TV viewer. It's very fast-paced and snappy, and much of the plot revolves around the difficulties of navigating the separation between North and South Korea, whether physically or culturally. Apparently this show was a big hit on South Korean TV perhaps because it has a little something for everyone and is dealing with this fraught and very live issue.

The comic relief elements of the show are endearing and important to the overall success of the episodes. Comic relief really is needed and they do a great job of making it relevant plot as well as charming.

However, most of the show is about a romance between the two main characters that absolutely runs the viewer through the ringer. It's one of those shows where the main romance is so overwhelmingly intense that they had to spin off to a few other sub romances not only for the sake of the plot but also to give us something else to look at for relief.

There are 16 episodes and each one is pretty long, and I believe Netflix offers English voice overs for a lot of these programs. However, I prefer to listen to them speak the original language and hear the actor's voice, as well as pick up on a few new words. By this point I have got quite a few simple phrases and reactions down, which is cool. One thing I still really don't understand is how they're modifying the words and sentences to indicate respect for an elder in status or in the family.

The romance drama itself is incredibly intense and terrifying. The taller buildings of my mind were reduced to rubble, and they kept threatening to kill or harm or imprison our main characters or other characters we cared about, so the whole thing was absolutely exhausting. It was not clear that a particular happy ending was in the cards, nor am I sure how to judge the ending we did get. I am sure I became enraged quietly inside when people kept turning off my program to watch a documentary about aircraft carriers, and then acted like the aircraft carrier show was more important than me getting to finish watching my episode. The problem with these kdramas is that whatever the problems the couple may be having, the guy in the k-drama is sure as heck not going to be telling the gal she can't watch what she wants to watch. The amount of worrying about and fretting about one another's well-being and doing all sorts of gymnastics to ensure the comfort of the beloved is a huge theme in these shows. I really do not need anyone to go as far as these people go to protect one another but there's some kind of huge cultural thing about protecting the beloved that comes through loud and clear in these shows. It's not as if in our culture we don't have that sort of interest in protecting the beloved, but this goes way beyond it. The first example of this I noticed was when BTS army are always talking about protecting members. So for example, one of the recent stories about the group mentions only six out of the seven members. I've seen this happen before: army will descend on the Instagram or Twitter or whatever of that publication and repeatedly demand equitable time for all the members. This is just the first example of sprang to mind, but in the k-drama we see thousands of situations where Love is demonstrated by expressing concern for the comfort of the other person and going to great pains to achieve it. It's also really important that the other person maintains their sense of respect and dignity all the time, so things that might damage it have to be dealt with preemptively or afterward. It's a fascinating thing.

Suffice to say that by episode 16 of this program our main couple was engaged in a massive death spiral of trying to outdo one another in expressing worry and concern for the other party. Not only was this psychologically burdensome to observe, both as evidence of love and as a reinforcement of general tendencies toward anxiety, but it led to a great deal of crying. I do not recall when I have cried so hard over a show on TV, except of course rookie historian. I used to be crying in every episode for that one. For this one it was like every other episode but they were very bad crying incidents because you think someone is dead, or you can't understand why they're doing and saying the things they're doing.

I feel like I won't have peace until I have completely rewritten the entire plot of that show in my mind so that it works out differently. Highly recommend watching this show for just about anyone, even those normally not interested in K-dramas.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat May 22, 2021 10:57 am

I tried to rewrite the plot of this entire show in my mind last night but promptly fell asleep because I was probably exhausted from all the crying and sobbing over the prospects that one of the characters was dead or hurt. I don't understand why things that happened later were not assumed to be possible in earlier episodes. I just don't understand a lot of how the actual plot went down. I don't understand why the woman's father played so small a role, because I kept expecting him consistently to rise up as a powerful figure in the plot and it was never really explained why he did not. There were explanations that could have accounted for this and maybe it was just assumed by the Korean audience, but I needed it spelled out for me. Basically traumatized by watching a TV program - Post TV PTSD. Episode 16 is the finale during which you find out a number of things that one of the characters has been doing behind the scenes, and it destroys you mentally and emotionally. Why can't everyone do that? Why aren't all people like this? I have known real people who were kind of like this so I know it's possible. It did not help that one of the characters suffers from a medical event that has happened to me personally, so it was at the same time all too realistic but also impossibly unreal. To sum up: they had an incredible source of material in the uncrossable border between North Korea and South Korea and the violence and corruption that might be expected as an accompaniment, and they milked it to the maximum for our star-crossed but also 100% fated and necessary lovers. I have a hard time not assuming that these people really exist somewhere and so this is a documentary and we just don't know it.

Post by **Mike** » Sat May 22, 2021 11:55 am

Season 2 of Love Death and Robots is on Netflix. It's a bunch of animated sci-fi short films. Both seasons rock. Season 2 is only 8 episodes,so you could binge the whole thing in under 2 hours. Season 1 is like 23 episodes.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat May 22, 2021 3:23 pm

That sounds terrific, just what the doctor ordered!

Post by **Mike** » Sat May 22, 2021 5:25 pm

If you like sci-fi short films, there is a channel called Dust that has hundreds. You can watch it on YouTube or if your streaming device is capable, you can download the channel there

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:23 pm

Nobody, with Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul fame. If you enjoy John Wick, you'll probably enjoy this. I liked it.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:38 pm

Good Omens and ..

Supernatural season 6

Post by **Mike** » Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:47 pm

Mando wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:38 pm Good Omens and ..

Supernatural season 6

Loved Good Omens. Never tried Supernatural.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:58 pm

Supernatural was by osmosis...older kids in the house were watching it and I eventually paid attention. It takes a bit to get into it. There is a large fan base who can be quite toxic....mostly women who love to see hunks on TV.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:12 pm

So far this year, I've watched...
Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist, 2 seasons
Disenchantment, Season 3
Masked Singer, Seasons 4 and 5
Masked Dancer, Season 1
Community, All 6 seasons
Superstore, All 6 seasons
WandaVision
Love Death and Robots, Season 2

Working on Falcon and Winter Soldier now, and I started Resident Alien, but after episode 2, it's all behind a paywall.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:34 pm

Started watching another top quality K-Drama, where by drama we mean a hilarious comedy, called Mad About Each Other. Apparently when it was first in development it was something called like crazy person on the block? Lol. Or crazy person nearby, crazy person in the neighborhood, something like that.

Anyway the premise of this absolutely fantastic show is that a man and woman are next door neighbors in an apartment complex, and you know they're going to get together at some point by the end of it but you don't know how.
He is a police detective who has been suspended temporarily from the force to deal with his anger issues in the wake of a bad incident during a bust.
She has had a terrible breakup with an abuser and moved to this apartment to get away from her former life, and she has PTSD and panic attacks on top of her normal enormous layer of anxiety and OCD behaviors. I'm serious that this show is a comedy, but also that watching her in her apartment is basically like watching me live in my apartment in my twenties. Another layer of hilarious in hindsight!
Anyway, these two people live next door and visit the same therapist at about the same time each week so they keep running into each other to disastrous effect.
They quickly grow to despise one another and are very unhappy with each other - or more specifically, she finds him terrifying and he finds her enraging.

Obviously this changes over time and you know how it goes, They discover they are crazy and very compatible ways and they fall in love and blah blah blah. There is also a very cute small dog involved.

I don't know how it is because there are still three episodes to go and it won't be done releasing on Netflix until next week. I would never have started watching it had I known I would be forced to wait a week for the resolution. However, we did at least get to the point of some form of romantic reunion between these two, and although the show is a comedy I will say they do their romantic scene with great panache and impact.
Adieu until it is all over.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Wed Jun 23, 2021 2:08 pm

I've been watching the 1979-1981 TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on Tubi. It's pretty much the 1980 Flash Gordon movie in a weekly, hour-long (48 minutes without commercial breaks) series. I'm about a third of the way through the first season. Cheesy as heck, but kinda fun in a nostalgic sorta way.