What are you watching?

[Phoebe]

Those games were fixed?!

Okay, I'm ashamed of this but Netflix kept proudly presenting this "Love is Blind" show, so I had to watch. My family members mocked me roundly but it did not matter; watch I would and did. Then just when we were to discover which pairs of people were either failed or fakery the whole time, and which stayed together for real, they were out of episodes! Now I have to wait to see the finale or whatever. Horrid. Horrid. But I must know. One of the ladies, the one with Barrel or whatever his name is, could be exactly the same person as my cousin a few decades ago, facing precisely the same set of relationship problems with a guy exactly like Barrel. I feel Barrel is not the right name but I'll be damned if I can recall or want to bother looking it up. You'd know who I meant.

The blonde women are each in a different way completely deranged, but one is malicious and evil as well as deranged. The other one is with a dude who repels me on every possible level and one of us would be in jail, if it were me having to deal with that nonsense. That one is Damian, I remember because someone needs to search his head for marks.

[Ronster]

On Amazon Prime:

Electric Dreams by Philip K. Dick - every episode is a sci-fi short story. No two are even remotely similar. I love every tantalizing sci-fi minute of them. I am on my fourth episode as I am only able to see about 20 minutes a day, but I hope to change this. This is what I want out of modern sci-fi.

[Tahlvin]

[Phoebe]

I am duly horrified! Monopoly never ends well.

I have finished watching that dumb Love is Blind show. I cannot imagine any of you would willingly watch this, but perhaps my comments can serve as a prophylactic against anyone else trying to lure you into it. It's a terrible show. It's horrible. Why does Netflix do this to me? It doesn't know me at all. The reason a person wants to watch North and South about 25 times has nothing to do with this dumb show, trust me. However I'm happy to report that the couples I thought would end up fake marrying ended up getting fake married or whatever it was. And the other ones all dodged a bullet one way or another. Maybe in some cases both people dodged a bullet simultaneously. The one blonde woman is an absolute psychopath. The other one seems weird but the guy she was with, Damian, is like the worst person I have ever seen. There's something deeply wrong with him and I think his parents don't love him or something.

Then I watched a really good show that everybody here should watch because it is absolutely amazing and worth the watch:
Three Identical Strangers.
Not even going to give any spoilers about this - at one point I realized I had seen the episode of Phil Donahue that was featured in the show, back when it aired. Some of you may already be familiar with the story that way but I think it will be better if it just hits you with full force as you remember. It's a really great show, recommended to me by Ron who actually has good taste in shows sometimes.

[Phoebe]

"Neelix is the JarJar of Star Trek"

[Ronster]

I LOVE Neelix!

He is the better self of ST:Voy

Watch the episode "Tuvix" if you want some great content with the signature ST morality/ethics questions. Season 2, ep 24

[Ronster]

Also, as part of our "Going off to college preparation" My wife is introducing my daughter to Criminal Minds.

Mandy Patinkin is PURE AWESOME!

..and it makes the kids wary of a very dangerous world they are going out into.

Me, I've been re-watching Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency on the treadmill and Amazon Prime's Electric Dreams at lunch on workdays.

[Zen]

I watched the first episode of Electric Dreams quite a while ago. I need to watch the rest. The first episode was seriously good.

[Phoebe]

West World might be an interesting show but it is not the show I needed at this time. Literally said to my husband, PLEASE can we just watch something new that has nothing to do with WWII, Hitler, or concentration camps, doesn't show people being killed or raped or abused, and just... I don't know, tells an interesting story? Sure, yes, I said, let's try this one - no fewer than eighty-four people have assured me I will love it. Supposed to be about artificial intelligence and robots and stuff, cool eh? Now I question the eighty-four people who were breathlessly certain I would love this show, but I'm also not in a good place for this type of "entertainment". WTF doesn't Prime have shows about a horse and cat who become friends, or the struggles of a grumpy old man with his hilarious oddball neighbors, or historical period piece romances sans violence? God the violence is just exhausting, and nobody will give me a turn on Animal crossing yet.

[Stan]

If you're ok with subtitles, Call my Agent! (American title for Dix Pour Cent) on Netflix is fun. It's about a agency representing actors with drama and farce in equal measures. Every episode features an actor playing a version of themselves. No violence.

[Phoebe]

Not only am I good with subtitles but I sort of understand French, if that's what it is. I am just starting a movie but if it sucks I know what to do.

[Phoebe]

Westworld continues; it's too much violence for me but I do like the way they're spinning out some of these ideas. I thought it would be cheesy in that respect but it's more impressively done than I expected.

[Phoebe]

Okay, I've now seen enough of Westworld to judge it terrific. THIS is a philosophy show. Unfortunately, it isn't wholesome like the Good Place, but it's much more of a philosophy show. That is all. I very much dislike how violent it is, and if I could change it I would probably keep the violence but not show the violence, if that makes sense. It's important but I don't think we have to see it onscreen to understand it. Sometimes in episodes now they indicate (by showing someone shooting) that killing is occurring, but it's enough, and even better, to show the person choosing to do it rather than showing the victim being shot.

I don't know how to describe more without liberal use of white text. If you're interested in questions about meaning, selfhood, consciousness, freedom, ethics, divinity, compassion, love, cruelty, and you can handle a show this horribly violent, then you will be rewarded with something very well done and very interesting. Also, Anthony Hopkins and Thandie Newton absolutely shine here. They're so brilliant, so layered, so inscrutable even as they appear to be letting you in to great depths. Without such good actors - and hello, Jimmi Simpson is incredible too - I don't know that they could have pulled it off as well, but they did.

Love this show, and you know I'm serious because you know I hate how violent it is. Also I'm deeply uninterested in seeing naked people who are very unattractive to me, and there is a LOT of nudity. Male nudity as well, which is somehow even more repellent to me personally, ick! Nobody wants to see that unless it's Sam Rockwell's derriere, and it's all a very far cry from that. A bit of the sex, rape, and nudity is necessary for the plot, but most of it is for $$$ and eyeballs and the HBO brand, so yeah, I want to have my own version of the show that skips these more BS parts, not to mention permits watching at normal hours of day when kids are awake.

[Ronster]

Dead Like Me on Prime...stars Mandy Patinkin.

Grim Reapers have day jobs too. They were people who died and take the souls out of bodies before they die so the people don't suffer...They meet at the Waffle House daily to get their assignments.

[Phoebe]

Ok, on to season two of Westworld! It's not as good as season one. This isn't surprising, for many shows that get a big bang out of letting you in to an idea over the season. However, the problem so far with season two is that they expanded the use of vignettes in time, and they have way too many cutaway storylines going for different people to permit that. Not only are we bounced between characters, but we have to figure out what part of the character's backstory or future story we might be seeing. It's a MESS. However, it is still an A#1 philosophy show and remains super subtle and interesting! I don't know who all is responsible but they occasionally show a writer, Lisa Joy, between episodes, and she definitely gets it. She's full of the ideas!

The absurd violence not only continues but if anything has been ramped up. I know they need some of it to communicate what they need to explore, but my goodness, we can gesture very effectively without this. It's a sad irony that for intellectual reasons I love a show that is maybe one of the most violent I have ever watched in my life. Probably THE most violent. But Thandie Newton! Oh my heart! The other thing I like about this show is that they know how to showcase the actors, and they let the best of them shine. I am not an Evan Rachel Wood fan, by contrast, but she's playing it a certain way because she has to, and the way it has transitioned is perfect for the plot. The dude who plays Hector is also really getting a chance to shine in season two.

[Phoebe]

Today wasn't the greatest day. They can't all be the greatest, right? Things have gone smoothly and we are doing well, in general, but today everyone was in a foul humor and nothing seemed to go well. My husband and I were having an argument for a ridiculous reason, which was that I asked him to turn off the annoying infomercial that was on the TV (Saturday network TV is full of that sort of thing), and he didn't like being asked so he told me that he was NOT going to do it just because I asked. Usually this is just eyeroll time, but I was displeased because of my instant pot failure, so this began a pointless argument. At some moment or other my husband must have decided to change the TV program after all, but I thought he was still flipping through these infomercial channels.

Because there was zero point in arguing, we soon grew disinterested and idly regarded the TV while attempting to resolve the impasse, or entrench it further, who knows. I was trying to figure out what they were selling; it seemed to be a documentary/infomercial raising money for some weird organization. It wasn't that horrid commercial my son and I loathe, about rescuing puppies from puppy mills and whatnot, but it was something in that vein. Some type of wildlife charity? Animals needed saving. Animals in bad cages. People breeding wild animals, very weird people.

At some point I realized, this is not an informercial or grifty charity thing, though it appeared to feature humans who were indeed nothing but bizarro grifters. WTH, I ask my husband, now having completely given up on the argument as hopeless. What are we watching here? Who ARE these people and... Why? WHY are these people as they are, doing as they are doing?

This my dear, he says, is the most popular show on TV right now, Tiger King. Two episodes worth and I'm frozen in horror. The day has not improved.

[Phoebe]

A tiger at the Bronx zoo has developed Coronavirus and I blame it on all the people watching this show. Sinister.

[Phoebe]

At one point when I was supposed to be going back to normal work schedule and my kids suddenly were not in school, I watched a few movies and a few TV shows, but I got quickly very tired of watching anything on the screen. I don't mind playing video game that's more interactive but for some reason right now I just feel lousy if I lay around watching the TV. I have to be doing something while I've got it on, and even then I'd rather have music or the windows open with the sound of birds and such.

So that brings us to the one TV show that lures me in regardless: Engineering Giants. I think it's a BBC or British show, and basically it is what it says in the title: giant feats of engineering. Big projects that have to be undertaken, and what they're doing and how they have to do it. The detail level is extremely low (it is TV, after all) so that a non engineer like me understands what they're talking about, but it's detailed enough that a non-engineer like me finds it fascinating! I think a lot of you might enjoy this. Five stars, many bells, much enjoyment.

[Kyle]

If y'all aren't watching American Horror Story: 1984, y'all are missing out. Great, nonsensical, violent fun. So good.

[Phoebe]

A show about fixing up old muscle cars called Rust Valley Restorers. Even though obviously I like the cars, I don't really know why I'm obsessed with this. I am pretty sure I don't want to be obsessed with it, but we can't always choose our joys anymore than we can choose our sorrows, like just now finding out that there's only two seasons of it: