What are you watching?

[Phoebe]

Fauda - another season. They found a great new actor and some other terrific supporting cast. I know people complain that the show presents an unrealistic and dangerous image, but at this point I have to differ. Without giving any spoilers away, I think I can safely say the entire season is a story about how the main Israeli character attempts to solve something but ends up putting wheels in motion that destroy so many people's lives and end up causing so much death and misery. And this is a metaphor for the entire conflict.

There are also so many scenes that force you to confront how innocent people get sucked into doing things that they didn't want to do and shouldn't even be considered responsible for on some level, because they're forced into impossible choices. The fact that other people are being violent and terrifying around them is pushing all the other pieces around.

The show explicitly confronts the problem that each side has people who think they're trying to do the right thing, and who are sure that the other side has people who don't care about human life, even as their own actions betray a deep lack of concern about human life or a fundamental dishonesty of some sort. At one point a character we know is trying to do good based on lots of specific history, and who is trying to save an innocent person, nevertheless makes clear that it is worth sacrificing other innocent people to get that job done. The character doesn't seem to see the contradiction, but other characters do, and the show clearly wants the viewer to confront this. Basically everybody involved is cast into a moral hell, and some of them struggle with it poorly and others don't bother struggling, while a few do the best they can.

Plus the show is just gripping; I can't watch it before bed because I won't be able to go to sleep. Needless to say it is not a show for kids.

[Tahlvin]

Watched the History Channel miniseries about U. S. Grant, and it was good. So now I’m reading the book it was based on.

[FlameBlade]

Space Force. 5 episodes in. I can see why critics hated it, but to be honest, I loved it. Especially John Malkovich.

[Mike]

[akiva]

Deadwater Fell is pretty damned awesome. Great acting.

[Phoebe]

My husband informs me that Carole Baskin has been given the tiger zoo that belonged to that other weird guy with the hair. I found this amusing so I said to him, everyone thinks that she killed her husband and fed him to the tigers but I don't think she did, although I guess I would have to finish watching the whole series to know why people think so. My husband informed me that we did in fact watch the whole series. So where does that leave me? I can't believe I invested any type of attention resources on that show, and it was such a waste that I just assumed we had not really watched the whole thing. Surely there is more? Anyway I'm really glad she got the tiger zoo. Screw that crazy dude, I don't think she killed anyone. She's just a weird hippie with hypocrisy problems and many childhood issues.

[Phoebe]

Space Force

More later; it's hilarious so far.

[Ronster]

Witcher
Into the Night Community
IT crowd
Criminal Minds
Tales from the Loop
Space Corps
The Office (UK)

[Kyle]

I just watched Into the Night, Ron. I think I liked it, but didn't love it.

Your thoughts?

[Tahlvin]

Watched the 4-part Epstein documentary on Netflix.

[Phoebe]

Give me your best guess: is it too disturbing for a person to watch, or does it just talk about all the bad stuff he did? I don't want to watch if it somehow sensationalizes child abuse, which a lot of these "documentaries" that report on abuse manage to do. But if not, I'll watch it.
My husband was going to watch it without me, since I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. He has been putting it off because, to his credit, he doesn't want to recreate the usual situation where he starts watching TV so late at night that I fall asleep and then this horrid content is playing in the background of my mind without the usual cognitive defenses. (See: Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, Bank Heist, a huge long list here of things I'd rather not think about...) So maybe we can watch it together if it's ok.

Anyway, we watched that netflix documentary about Trump instead and it was really interesting.

[Tahlvin]

I'm not sure what your threshold is. You can't have a documentary about this man without talking about the child abuse. But in my opinion, they don't sensationalize it. It was very focused on the victims, with lots of interviews with them. And while there is some discussion of the acts themselves, mostly when recorded police interviews of the victims are played, I don't think it gets TOO graphic. Nonetheless, my wife did not want to watch it.

[Phoebe]

I have been watching the WORST show and, like, I get that it's the worst but I cannot stop. It's like digging in to a cat-litter-and-mayonnaise pint of Ben and Jerry's. It's called Marriage at First Sight. Do I really need to explain further why it's the worst, after this name? It's so bad! There is one season of it on Netflix and Netflix decided I was a sucker for this, and I clicked on it, and it was such a bad decision because there are SO MANY episodes, it just goes on and on and on and I have to finish it at this point. Sunk costs. I have to know how it turns out. I must even if it destroys me.

They follow four couples who have agreed to let matchmakers set them up with someone based on various inquiries and questionnaires. They get married without having seen the other person before, which is so WRONG to do to people - the entire show is a rolling Ethics Violation and maybe that's one reason I find it impossible to look away from the trainwreck. It's as if the "experts" designed this thing to make a whole IRB board break out in hives and have nightmares.

Anyway, the problem is that you develop reasons to find each of these four couples interesting, as its own special unique trainwreck. The show sucks you in with questions like "WHAT THE HELL WERE THE MATCHMAKERS THINKING?!" and "OMG THIS IS ABSURD ON ITS FACE", and then slowly you replace those with other questions like, "why would a person not PREFER to have her husband use the second bathroom? that's why second bathrooms exist!" or "omg they BOTH lied to the interviewers about the same thing, maybe they ARE a great pair after all - wait, did the interviewers realize they were both lying and this was another factor utilized?"

The way the show handles the sexual congress of these ... victims is tragic. We have seen and heard too much, particularly about the matter of Virginity (and y'all here know how much I hate the whole nonsense concept of Virginity and everything associated with it), but everything else in that area has been disturbing as well! At our current point in the show, two of the couples have managed a mating, and one of them was surprising because it's not clear how they managed it, and the other is horrifying because there are... visible bruises! My god.

However, this is the real boss problem of the show for me: one of the women is... like me. My older kids who have seen pieces of the show immediately identified this woman as being like me (they call her "the mean one" which is also sad when they are identifying me with her, wth people I am not mean?! but I guess they are finding that humorous and not serious). It took me a few episodes to realize she was like me, but oh wow, she is, and then we met her dog and it got even worse because it's like, even in that way we are alike. She wants a LOT more closet space than I do and she has no fear of heights or motion sickness on boats, so in that way she is very different from me, but psychologically? Scary similar. There is an episode where she expresses dismay that the man is always giving her compliments and petting her and I was like, my GOD woman, I really understand you. I really understand you. It was disturbing. All of these people are truly weird so you don't want to find yourself self-identifying and, worse yet, having others identify you with one of the participants. Two of them in particular (which luckily are paired up) are so offputting to me, I could not even imagine having like a 10 minute coffee with these people. SO CREEPY. I question myself, like why would I watch such a terrible show? I even can tell that my husband is smugly racking up points right now, like "she will live through another five years of poorly done documentaries about military history and will not be able to say anything because she is watching the worst show ever made". Yet I cannot break free from it.

[Tahlvin]

Crossing Swords on Hulu. Definitely not kid-safe!

[Phoebe]

Okay, I'm watching this dumb show as my laundry companion and Greg and Deonna are making me cry actual tears, I love them so much. Deonna, basically I'm not only like her, I'm even more like her dog (but not as adorably cute) because with sufficient food treats and walkies I would be perfectly happy. Deonna, the dog and I want you to succeed in this thing, you can do it! I'm the world's biggest idiot.

[Phoebe]

Ok, please do NOT watch this Married at First Sight show. I didn't think any of you were going to do it anyway, which reflects well on you, but if you are tempted to do it simply because I am so horrified, to see what the fuss is about, my reasons have to do with the deep lack of ethics and decency displayed by those who made the show. Netflix does not need anyone to be clicking on this and giving it any form of support. I knew the show was a walking ethics violation from the start, but I had no idea how bad it would be. It suffices to say there are serious questions about the consensuality of the sexual relations between one couple, and furthermore a disgusting pressure was placed on another participant to have those relations despite not wanting to. In another case they encouraged the continuation of a relationship between a woman and a man who was blatantly cheating on her in a way that the show's creators should have been well aware of and done something about before the woman was put at further risk.

The show was so horrifying that even my husband, who hated it from first glance, as it were, was compelled to watch the last few episodes because of how terrible the situation had become. He and I both let my older kids watch it just so that they could see what assholes these two guys in particular were and what that might look like when encountered in the wild, not to mention how easily they were able to dupe their partners into a very bad situation.

The only good news is that the couple I liked managed to work it out and they are still married today. I love them so much; I sobbed like a baby at the end when things worked out for them. I also sobbed like a baby at how awful things worked out for the other people. There was another nice couple whose lives were harmed in a completely preventable manner by this show. They dealt with the virginity of the woman in the couple in the most obscene and ridiculous way throughout the entire program, and only at the end when it started to become obvious how much psychological damage they were contributing to in this way did they back off from that, but even then they caused untold harm. It was horrifying. And this is not just for me because I so loathe the way they were presenting the concept of virginity, but anyone could see how awful what they were doing to this woman was. It was also very damaging to her partner who was trying to be a decent and ethical person and was being placed in a ridiculous and impossible situation.

Anyway this show is a train wreck and the people who produced it and the so-called "experts" who participated in it should face some sort of consequences for what they have done. I don't know if it's lawsuit, or possibly jail, or what, but their behavior was unconscionable. Do not watch!

[Phoebe]

My daughter has now followed her father's lead in enjoying with amusement my so-called "bunny rabbit anger" - implying the helpless and ineffective kickings of a small harmless forest creature. Okay, people. Say what you need to say. I admit that things that annoy me often take this form, but I am actually pissed about something and trying to figure out what to do about it.

We have a Netflix subscription and we have it divided up into accounts for each person. Yesterday I was trying to find shows in Spanish for my kid to watch, after reading a list of recommended shows of this kind. One suggestion was to search for shows en español, which I did. I was lazy and doing this on my own account instead of logging back out and reloading in with my kid's account, so I can't say for sure if this would have happened on my kids account, but my account is so thoroughly and harmlessly populated by British period pieces and nature documentaries that I let the kids use it whenever they like. Alas, as I was searching for a Spanish language show, I was given the usual list of suggestions over there, and as I scrolled over it and paused to read, one of them started playing in the larger box. The thing that started playing was an absolutely x-rated pornographic scene with full nudity of every type. Now I don't appreciate that for myself because honestly, I am really not into watching other people do the deed. (Witness the list of nature documentaries and historical dramas, if you want to know what I find appealing in that department.) But considering that it could easily have been my kid that I told to go up there and search for a Spanish language program, it really pisses me off that they would put that on there without you choosing it. It's one thing if they warn you of the type of program and then you choose to click on it, but this is stuff coming up in autoplay that I definitely would not want to see. I don't know how to contact Netflix and complain about this but I seriously wish to complain about it and have other people join me in this complaint, if they agree with my reasoning on the matter. I wonder if this happens to other people when they are scrolling through shows, because this didn't always happen but over the last few months I've noticed that it will just start playing programs, and then it will even take you into the program if you're not quick enough on the draw to stop it.

[Phoebe]

Alone - I love this show and always have and probably always will. They always create "drama" out of things like wildlife encounters and risky situations or injury, but lately perhaps they realize their diehard fans are mainly just interested in how the experts go about doing this. What features of a shelter are better or worse, how do they manage fire maintenance, fishing, trapping, and so on? The ability some of these people have with a bow is stupefying, like watching those people who can shoot tiny targets while moving on horseback. They will spy a tiny bit of squirrel or rabbit and hit it spot-on from a distance. Anyway, I also enjoy the psychological portraits of people who (a) wish to do this, (b) are qualified by past experiences to do this, and (c) are successful at it. These people are invariably extremely interesting. I watch with total fascination and also enjoy learning about what their lives were like prior to the contest. Often they live a wholly different form of life, but one I really like and admire.

POWER - Fifty cent has a smaller role in this show about the relationship between a drug dealer and an agent, and the various forms of fallout therefrom. It can be cheesy, it can be NSFW, it can be ultra-predictable, it jumps way too quickly through time across scenes, but I am a passive participant while others watch it and so I watch and try to glean what I can from it.

[Phoebe]

Netflix has a show called Indian Matchmaking and not only did they accurately target me like I was a giant black rabbit bounding across a fresh field of snowfall, but within 5 minutes I knew there would be no possible escape. The obsessive attention already paid to height and horoscopes has my jaw on the floor and my eyes boggling out of my head. I am beyond fascinated. This is everything. Can I just say that one of the criteria the first woman has for a partner is somebody who understands that there are salt flats in Bolivia, but she is also kind of terrible and does not value a sense of humor? I am I am I am I cannot even I cannot even.

I will admit to during this past week attempting to set up a couple for lifelong love and matrimony or at the very least a torrid month's affair. I'm pretty sure I have succeeded and now the next part is out of my hands. I want to be the woman who is the matchmaker in the show. I really get that this is a sick and unethical desire, and I want to root this desire out of me, but I'm just saying that it's very deeply rooted there.

[Phoebe]

Watched the entire show about the Indian Matchmaking lady because there weren't very many episodes and the whole problem is, there weren't enough episodes. It was irresponsible and cruel of Netflix to release this when they only had a few little episodes of it to offer. We don't know what the hell happened to most of these people. The truly important thing is that we know Nadia has found love with the cute liberal lawyer guy and everything's fine for them, even though the other ketchup hater from the gym broke her heart because he was a liar and jerk. So okay, the most important things got solved. But what happened to the terrible fearsome lady and her even more fearsome mother? What happened to the awesome D&D playing guy whose dad was in prison and did everything work out for him? Did that one guy ever find out that he's gay? Did the woman who runs the denim fashion company find love, because her fashion company must have taken a boost from this whole thing - practically everything cute in an L is sold out on the whole site. There are so many problems with this show but I am not capable of resisting and the second season has to come out tomorrow, or else.