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Iffy762's Replies
It seems like comment sections have been gradually disappearing. Although in a way this is disappointing, I'm not sure it's as great a loss as it seems. Comment sections on news articles often seem to devolve into name-calling and trolling, all of which one has to wade through in order to find the few truly insightful comments. It was interesting to read comments that disagreed with the ideology of the article author, but sometimes patterns in the comments make you wonder how many of them are real and how many are bots. Occasionally I've seen comments that actually provide information that the article didn't provide, information that can only be provided by someone local to the situation. Those comments are worth having, but since you can't confirm their veracity they probably don't add sufficiently to the fact-finding we'd like to see.
Something that has happened in parallel to comment sections disappearing is that websites that used to be "free" (ie ad-supported) are moving to subscription models. This is bad for those of us who read a lot, but if it works then it may reverse the trend away from actual news reporting if people are willing to pay to subscribe to sites where journalists focus on finding the facts rather than shifting the narrative.
I do think that it's useful to have places where the rest of us can voice our opinions without gatekeeping by the powerful. It's concerning to me that some of the bigger and more powerful sites have deplatformed conservative voices. If voices from only one side are allowed to speak then I won't believe the truth is being told fairly.
I thought it was to create a storyline that might interest adults. It seemed to me the show was trying to emulate the aspect of Lost in Space that allowed family viewing by toning down the horror a bit (making it more of a mystery) and having a plotline for kids, a plotline for teens, and a plotline for adults. But the mother's plotline was boring and the mother was pretty annoying, in my opinion. I thought the world created by the show was interesting and the various mysteries were good, but the actors who played the teens and their friends did not hold my interest, or the interest of my teenage children!
Yeah, I think Battlestar Galactica was really timely in being produced within a few years of 9/11. It really captured that feeling of life changing in a way you thought could never happen. They portrayed some of the things we all remembered, like those walls where people had posted pictures of their missing loved ones in the hope that they were in a hospital somewhere and could be identified. Now that all of that is almost two decades in the past, those parts of the show probably don't have quite the same effect. James Callis is worth it though!
I think that a lot of sci-fi fans were also ready for the idea of a spaceship world that felt more realistic, in contrast to Star Trek. Where sedition had consequences, that kind of thing. That was all fairly new back then. Now it's just an accepted part of the genre and the genre has moved on to things like The Expanse, where certain realistic aspects of space travel have been maintained (I get a chill every time those magnetic shoes click. Every time! I'm so easily pleased...), and other rules can be broken.
I agree with you that Stargate SG1 is really watchable. That is one thing I miss with recent tv -- shows that are enjoyable, that you can dip in and out, that the characters are likeable, and that have enough of a theme to sustain the story but not so much that you feel weighed down at the end. I think that shows back then were written that way for syndication. They weren't earth-shattering on the first viewing, but you could watch them again and again and enjoy them even if the suspense of the original viewing was gone, and, of course, that it was not essential to view them in the order they were originally shown.
Wow, that is exactly what I thought of the series, I agree on every point you said, including the draw of Reese Witherspoon. I cannot figure out why Kerry Washington chose to play Mia in such an unlikeable way. The last two episodes it seemed like the writers were telling me what to think about their theme. I dislike when shows do this. Just present the events and let me draw my own conclusions on your theme.
On the good side, I thought the actress who played Pearl was a real find. I hope we see her again.
Thanks! I'm glad to hear it's worth sticking with it.
I've just started The Americans, and it's really great. I think I caught an episode in the middle of the run years ago and couldn't work out what anyone liked about it. It's the kind of show you have to start from the beginning and watch the episodes in order.
I'm going to try The Wire and The Sopranos when I have time.
Has anyone here watched Homicide: Life on the Street? I really liked that one.
I watched Battlestar Galactica and 24 in "real time" and that was great. But I lost interest in 24 after the third season and although I loved BSG I felt a bit like they lost control of their plot around halfway through and betrayed some of the characters. After those experiences I decided that I didn't need to watch shows in real time, I would just wait and see if they maintained their quality before I decided whether to invest in them.
I assume at some level the actor must be able to get into the head of the character in order to play them so I can see that it would be disconcerting when an actor is able to convincingly play an evil person.
He was terrific as Mike Ehrmantrout. I didn't remember that he was in Beverly Hills Cop but he must have been much younger then.
I guess it's really good acting if the actor is so convincing that you can't separate him from the role, but it seems a pity to be unable to enjoy his performance in other movies.
Just watching this series now. I love this hair. But I'm wondering how they get all that hair underneath the short wigs.
Wow, good analysis. I just thought it was about class warfare. Yours is much better.
I am similar, I love to talk about tv and movies, and have been missing having a place to do that. I have lurked on Reddit a bit, for various tv shows, but I haven't posted there because of all the problems that people mentioned below. Years ago, televisionwithoutpity was a great place to talk about tv (and some of the staff would do reviews of the episodes of popular tv shows), but it was shut down, supposedly because it wasn't profitable to run. I think the message boards there may be archived and still available to view but you cannot post new messages and I haven't tried to access the archived boards in years. I enjoyed televisionwithoutpity but, in hindsight, I think their commentary (and their message board activity) on tv shows tended to drive cricitism in a very nitpicky direction that wasn't really helpful. Maybe that is why the owners decided not to keep it going.
Recently I have been reading about how tv shows and movies are written, for fun (I have had some extra time during the quarantines), and it has been really interesting. That is why I set up an account here, so I could participate more in-depth discussions of the shows I like.
That was a great line! Gonna go re-watch this movie.
I agree regarding Bad Santa. Deeply unfunny.
Footloose
Highlander
The Terminator
Stargate
(watching with my kids...)