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Recommending South Side and the Other Two on HBO Max. Both came from Comedy Central, and are in their second seasons. South Side is a workplace/slice of life comedy set (and largely shot, I believe) in the South Side of Chicago. It's Always Sunny or Workaholics are good comparisons for the format, but with more black characters and less sociopathy. This one has become a bit of a critical darling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADn6qWVHZYU The Other Two is about a brother and sister in New York who are a little too old to justify their quarter life crises, and what happens when the younger brother they left behind suddenly becomes a YouTube heartthrob. A lot of rapid fire, 30 Rock-style jokes about their relationships and the industry, but also a lot of sweet stuff about a loving family. Molly Shannon is fantastic in both seasons as the mom. First episode exposition dump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n__faewZyH8 The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Jan 20, 2022 |
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Jan 20, 2022 12:40
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I'd really enjoyed Steven Universe, but never followed Steven Universe Future because I guess I felt that is was just going to be "Steven Universe: the College Years" or something. Halfway through the series now on HBO MAX, and it's pretty amazing how they've built off the original show. It's set a few years after the original series (Steven's now 16), and centers on Steven's difficult finding a place for himself with the world saved and his friends moving into their own individual lives. It covers some pretty advanced territory with a lot of emotional nuance, but be warned that there is not one ounce of narrative subtlety (which makes sense considering the primary audience). I will say that the ability to spoon-feed these difficult concepts in a way that still feels emotionally true is a trick that I feel should not be underestimated. I think it makes sense as a separate series, rather than as a sixth season on the original show -- it feels like SUF needed some clear distance to fully unpack and address the implications of everything the original series did and was about.
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Jan 22, 2022 21:39
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I mean, Apple TV has generally been regarded as having a solid concentration of quality series. I've heard good things about For All Mankind, Servant's supposed to entertaining and even Morning Show and See have gotten decent reviews for being fun for "wtf" watching. Why are you not interested in Ted Lasso? If the sincerity turns you off, maybe For All Mankind isn't for you, but it would help to know what you're interested in.
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Jan 23, 2022 00:11
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Part of it is me changing and what I'm willing to experiment on, but I remember that disc Netflix basically could act like the clerk at the cool video store. Like Robocop and Total Recall? Check out the Fourth Man. Did you like The Vanishing? Check out the Swedish original. I don't think those kinds of movies are as likely to get to a Netflix where they have to pay ongoing license fees, and they certainly aren't the movies that get active promotion. Disc Netflix would always have to manage available supply of blockbusters, so to keep you subscribed they had to get creative on finding more left of center things that you would still enjoy. Now, supply of any individual hit is infinite, and they have enough money to keep cranking out new stuff to meet any and every niche. Netflix has lots of good targeted tuff, but it's harder to be truly surprised by a recent recommendation anymore.
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Jan 23, 2022 23:54
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I guess what is "looking" in 2022. Unless you're getting fed stuff in the carousel, what is actually a meaningful way to find shows of interest? In the linear days, you had TV Guide to get synopses and whatnot, or you could just bounce around the channels and see what caught your eye on Wednesday at 8. Hell, even when cable made that onerous, you could just sit on the GUIDE channel and get a rundown of what was around. Netflix has eliminated most of its own public facing categorization and curation, certainly in its tv-based interactions, and most of their stuff relies on licensed or created originals so it's not even as if you can say "I missed a season of that show/missed this big movie." You mostly only know about something if Netflix tells you it's there. If you're someone who's not terminally online, how do you even know what's available, much less what's good beyond the big tentpoles? EDIT: This is true for all of them, but I feel Hulu and HBO have done a better job of straight genre or subject matter searching.
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Jan 24, 2022 16:10
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Basebf555 posted:I think that's really the issue more than anything else though. James Gunn has a very specific style and we're at the point where we've seen that style a bunch of times and it's not fresh or novel anymore, especially when it's applied to the superhero genre. The solution to this is a bunch of 60-80 million dollar movies for people who will never tire of the style (me), with maybe a couple of tentpoles for everyone else. There's absolutely no reason why we can't have a Universal Soldier/Resident Evil style universe of mid-tier super hero movies that do a particular niche style reliably well.
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Feb 2, 2022 21:33
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Nihonniboku posted:Can anybody explain why the Gilded Age on HBO looks the way it does? Not necessarily the backgrounds, but all the actors (costumes and all) look all washed out, like every scene was filmed on green screen and the lighting wasn't matched. Haven't watched The Gilded Age, but it's possible that some it was filmed just so. I watched the pilot of the show Grand Crew, and a number of the early bar scenes were very clearly shot on green screen before they settle on the final wine bar setting for the series.
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Feb 15, 2022 19:29
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punk rebel ecks posted:People are talking about Euphoria and Peacemaker? People are absolutely talking about Euphoria and Peacemaker. Euphoria is huge amongst the youngs (and the dirty olds who are watching along), and I think Peacemaker may be the biggest word of mouth hit of the short year. From a "buzz" perspective, I think week to week allows each week's big meme moment to get huge and burned out, so you have an ever refreshing pool of new content. Irrelevant if you're not following along with social media, recaps, etc., but just watching a show is only like 20% of what studios are looking for from you anymore. It's like a book club that discusses each chapter vs a book club that discusses the whole book -- all the peaks are gonna get hit either way, but going week to week let's you dwell on the great small parts of each chapter that might get swept away as the larger story arc presents itself. e: Succession is actually a great example, because the reach of the discussion and memes has absolutely dwarfed the actual viewership. Peacemaker, at least, is a legitimate hit -- it could be arguable whether it would have done AS well in a binge, but it was going to be big regardless. I definitely think there would have been fewer people watching the intro every episode. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Feb 18, 2022 |
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Feb 18, 2022 20:00
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precision posted:releasing everything at once is best for consumers, but a scheduled release is so much better for marketing and buzz in general I would even push back against this a little, since "buzz" is just another word for fan engagement. As a music example, Beach House just released their latest album as a series of four four song "chapters," and I think the time for fans to engage with each other over discrete manageable portions was a plus for both sides. It largely depends on if you want to engage with the material as a text in itself, or if you enjoy the community of speculation. I don't know that a show like Lost or Breaking Bad would've had the experience it had if it came out in a streaming world, but I also imagine that a show like Happy Endings or Community would have found an audience faster (or at all) if it were released as a binge. This is not to say that Lost or Breaking Bad aren't amazing shows to binge, but the overall experience is different. E: I also think that a show can be made for binging. I've been watching Frayed on HBO... the show is very funny and enjoyable, but the episodes feel dense in a way that actually makes it difficult for me to just run through from episode to episode. It's definitely not a "six hour movie" if that makes sense. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Feb 18, 2022 |
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Feb 18, 2022 20:31
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It's almost like a week by week roll out allows buzz to build over time.
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Feb 18, 2022 22:06
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Lot of good stuff (too much to excerpt, and probably too much to dump here) in this article on the decision to move Ms. Maisel to a 2-episode/week release schedule. https://www.indiewire.com/2022/02/marvelous-mrs-maisel-streaming-landscape-1234700646/ “As more serious streaming competitors have entered the marketplace, the release models have destabilized,” said Myles McNutt, author, TV critic, and associate professor of communication and theatre arts at Old Dominion University. “Netflix’s sheer volume of TV shows made binge releases the default early on even when Hulu was primarily releasing shows on a weekly basis, but each new platform that has emerged has observed a changing marketplace and said, ‘Hmm, let’s try this instead.’” The past year in TV has seen wins come from all over the map regarding release schedules. Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” started slow, but word of mouth saw the series grow from week-to-week, a fervor only fueled by the premium cable network’s choice to allow for streaming of each week’s episodes more than 20 hours before it aired. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Netflix’s “Squid Game” was an unprecedented global phenomenon that was completely unfazed by a binge release, creating months of buzz from episodes readily available from the time it premiered.
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Feb 19, 2022 03:11
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A premiere date! What a concept!
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Mar 8, 2022 18:52
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Roth posted:I missed this post while I was taking a break from the internet. I would also say that "Like if you took all the films with an IMDB score between 7 and 8.5, and had a decent number of them, not the amazon or netflix approach of 12 decent films floating in a sea of poo poo." largely describes my experience with the HBO Max movie selection. Like, all the mid-tier genre movies that I saw ads for during the early to mid 90s, but was too young to actually see. Plus, a pretty insane selection of both "old" (70s and 80s) and OLD (golden age and earlier) movies. EDIT: Like someone said, between their existing reputation for decent to great originals and their broad and deep Warner and Warner-adjacent film library (going back literally a century in some cases), HBO Max has low-key become one of the best streaming values. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Mar 16, 2022 |
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Mar 16, 2022 17:22
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veni veni veni posted:One thing I hated in the last season of Glow was that they spent 2 seasons actually making the spoiled yuppie guy that you want to hate extremely likeable, which I felt like was kind of a fun out of left field move that felt unique. Then they just made him kind of a prick in season 3. A lot of this may have just been the nature of a four season arc that gets cut off in season 3. I watched the trailer for "Out Flag Means Death" almost solely because the photo made me think that it was Martin Freeman. Realized it wasn't, and then checked out pretty quickly once the concept unfolded. EDIT: Although reading this guy's wiki, what a president! The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Mar 17, 2022 |
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Mar 17, 2022 03:56
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I've only watched the first available episodes of Minx, but it feels like it took a lot of inspiration from GLOW. Uptight feminist wants to do serious X, has no options but the most lowbrow X, learns that lowbrow X has as much (or more) opportunity for dignity, empowerment, and creativity than serious X. The first two episodes are practically procedural: Joyce thinks some sex thing is gross and beneath her, Doug tough loves her about how the world works, she has a heartfelt talk with her infinitely more accepting sister, who unlocks that "real" women want and worry about sex thing, then she finds a way that make sex thing "feminist." Ironically, because Jake Johnson is such a bigger star than Also, the first episode had a lot of playful dicks. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Mar 21, 2022 |
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Mar 21, 2022 07:47
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GonSmithe posted:Horrendous take. Jackass is funny and will continue to be funny. I don't give a poo poo about prank youtubers like 99% of the world, I care about these people who are very clearly funny and know how to be funny, instead of people being "funny" to make 12 year olds watch their videos. *You were probably around 12 when first exposed to Jackass* *I'd imagine most adults first being exposed to Jackass today probably also don't give a poo poo about Jackass, and would not necessarily find them to be "very clearly funny"*
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Mar 23, 2022 14:27
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Catching up on Minx. I really really enjoyed episode 5. Does a great job of the standard "the women are the power behind the throne narrative," and I love how the end gives Joyce her emotional judo moment while still doing the work so that Doug still remains sympathetic long-term
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Apr 6, 2022 00:55
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Watching Winning Time, and it's reminding me: when people say that something is an acquired taste, the idea is that it's a taste worth acquiring. The over the top cinematography is a legit hurdle, but there's a real solid show under all the embroidery and gold leaf. Plus, every so often, they really hit on a lovely image.
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Apr 6, 2022 03:18
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Martman posted:I'm amazed that Big Mouth has managed to inspire a spin-off series (Human Resources), and it seems... I dunno, it seems fine, if you loved Big Mouth I think it'll be worth watching. Mostly I wanted to open up a can of worms because it had a hilarious but potentially problematic background joke. One of the characters, Pete the Logic Rock, has an autographed photo of a big muscly brown bald man that says "Pete, you're MY Rock", signed obviously "Dwayne" although it's scribbled. Is The Rock being gay such an open secret these days that it's just part of the conversation of shows and stuff? I've always heard rumors and as a "blink and you'll miss it" gag I found that hilarious, but then I was like "hmm..." I feel you're really reaching to make this a gay joke.  That's a pretty standard autograph pun (like, even if Pete wasn't a rock, I'm positive that Dwayne's written that at least once in his career). Plus, maybe it's literal--that Pete is his logic rock. Even if you take it as a personal statement and not just an impersonal celebrity autograph, lol at your life if you see an appreciation for emotional support from one male to another and think "gaaay!" Also, Pete's character is written as straight, so it doesn't even make sense as a gay joke unless you think straight guys walk around with expressions of romantic love from the gay people in their life.
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Apr 8, 2022 13:29
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Watching Johnny Mnemonic (on Netflix) for the first time. What a wild effort to do a straight faced live-action anime. Wikipedia says they were forced to both hire and create a character for Dolph Lundgren. I've never read the original story, but cutting around his parts I could see how this might have been planned as a smaller genre exercise on... I dunno, the battle between selfishness and self-sacrifice. Like a version of Total Recall where they didn't have the budget for a full "Blue Sky on Mars" adventure and instead doubled down on the narrative themes.
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Apr 20, 2022 22:43
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If we're talking comedy specials, Rothaniel on HBO is really something special. It's more a one man show/"special television event" than a stand up special, but what a journey. Very similar tonal shifts as Annihilation, if that vibes with you. EDIT: Kotaro Lives Alone is enjoyable enough, but it swings between painfully adorable and brutally sad in a way that's frankly disorienting. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Apr 24, 2022 |
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Apr 23, 2022 23:42
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LifeLynx posted:I watched At Home with Amy Sedaris (HBO Max) on a whim and it's great. Too bad it was cancelled, but it had a good run of absurd, surreal humor. I love the commitment to the bit of being a "live broadcast". That show could be hit or miss, but it was pretty great when it hit: "It's Friday night I'm gonna drunk I'm gonna get laid I'm gonna be late on Monday!"
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May 7, 2022 09:22
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veni veni veni posted:Mike Myers did basically Austin Powers 2.0 for Netflix as a show, and it's dumb as hell but tbh pretty fun. So I Married an Axe Murderer extended universe, actually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMS6tGOACo
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May 11, 2022 00:08
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Winning Time is not a good show, but I don't think there was a moment when I wasn't entertained.
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May 11, 2022 02:10
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:How is that not "good" ? It's just as big, gaudy and tasteless as Jerry Buss was. It's a good time, just don't examine it too closely and know when to walk away for a bit. Also, it's 2022 and we apparently still can't find a convincing wig for black male actors regardless of budget. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 11:04 on May 11, 2022 |
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May 11, 2022 11:02
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:I mean, Step Brothers is one of the few memorable comedies of the last 15 years, so I guess what I'm saying is I don't know what you're on about. I suspect that he has some stylistic quirk that really annoys you, but why should anyone else give a poo poo? What does this even mean? Like how many is "few"? I haven't done a comparison, but I would not be surprised if I've enjoyed Paul Feig's overall filmography more than McKay's. Fake Edit: As a director, it's personally no contest. Which is not to say that McKay's a bad filmmaker, but this apparent shock that people wouldn't be that into him feels disingenuous.
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May 12, 2022 02:31
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Two episodes into the Kids in the Hall revival. Enjoying it, but still haven't laughed as hard as I smiled when that theme song first kicked in. EDIT: Also, surprising amount of peen. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 21:12 on May 17, 2022 |
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May 17, 2022 21:08
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Nihonniboku posted:How does it compare to the amount in Jackass Forever I was never much of a Jackass guy, but I can't imagine it's close.
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May 17, 2022 22:17
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precision posted:it seems to me that blockbuster movies are still paced this way, i think people got used to having that "break, then there's a quiet scene that doesn't matter very much" right at predictable intervals I mean, that's just building the rollercoaster. Once you get over 80 minutes, you need a couple of slow points before you start ratcheting things up again or it just gets exhausting. The question is how much effort your writers and director put into those moments for things like character development.
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May 19, 2022 03:17
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I don't want to live-tweet, and it may circle back at the end, but I thought it was masterful how they introduced the 3-D Dale in the Chip and Dale movie. First you see Dale, and your mind recoils. Then you see Baloo, and you figure "okay, maybe this is just what happens to stars at this point." Early signal that it's plastic surgery that's just accepted. Then you see Ugly Sonic, and your mind bends so far that Dale seems absolutely adorable when you see him again. EDT: How the gently caress did they get Disney to sign off on this? The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 22:20 on May 27, 2022 |
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May 27, 2022 22:12
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RRR is a loving blast, and as ridiculous as anything you've heard about it, but it definitely also does as much for Hindu nationalism as Top Gun did for the Navy.
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May 31, 2022 17:05
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:So do you mean like Indian Sovereignty or the Hindu Nationalism espoused by the current President of India? The movie is explicitly... inspired by the former, but by acting as an Elseworlds hagiography of actual historical figures, it also serves as the latter. I was gonna use the term Hindutva, but that's only based on the cultural markers that I would ignorantly characterize as "Indian"
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Jun 1, 2022 00:10
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:Nah, that's not it. It's like being passionate about gym socks. It doesn't offend, it's more like I simply cannot grasp the mindset. On the other hand Twilight or Harry Potter, I don't like it but I utterly get the appeal. Not your fault, since you're being asked to fully unpack what was a tossed off observation, but you're probably better off stopping now since you're basically arguing that you can't possibly see the appeal (even if it doesn't appeal to you) of a brightly colored, visually inventive, feel good story that is (at least) about : Intergenerational trauma among immigrant families; The lines between gay tolerance and gay expected (also among same); The silent resentment and communication breakdowns between mothers and daughters; Smiling in the face of existential terror; and The difficulty that comes with recognizing that you haven't achieved the things you'd hoped for themselves That includes fart jokes, kung fu, and Michelle Yeah (also doing Kung Fu). Like it or not, you honestly get the appeal of Twilight over that?
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Jun 22, 2022 23:19
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Boo to the Orville for chickening out of the full polyamory sideplot. There was never any sense that Lamar and Keyali actually loved each other, and the entire scope of their relationship began and ended at their ability to bang each other. If they had actually loved each other, it could have been an interesting topic (however it turned out) on a show that has handled interesting topics well before. EDIT: Also, that actual ending felt weird. Having the Aryan rear end Ensign say "not all biologicals, but I get that slavery was really bad and had lasting effects" threw me off like that Mister Krabs spinning meme. The Modern Leper fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Jul 14, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 13:57
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Critics are spilling ink over the ethical implications at the end of the first episode of the Rehearsal, but I haven't seen enough mention of the earlier moment at the pool where Nathan gets an old man to interrupt after Kor makes a deep personal disclosure, so Kor will think that Nathan was about to make one of his own. I recognize why the second feels more impactful, because of the reason for the choice and for the idiosyncratic importance to Kor, but man that first moment really made me sit up and wonder "is this just hosed up?"
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Jul 22, 2022 05:25
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I had not seen First Reformed, and picked up the Card Counter as a Soderbergh-esque genre flick about a guy with a troubled past who's pulled into the world of WSOP competitions. I was... unprepared for that movie.
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Jul 24, 2022 01:55
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I'm so scared that this adaptation of Paper Girls on Amazon is gonna just go "Stranger Things, but g-g-g-girls," since the comic series was so loving good. Fingers crossed...
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Jul 29, 2022 17:55
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TheMopeSquad posted:I'm a little disappointed that Riddler isn't swole anymore in Harley Quinn. Makes sense--he got a boyfriend, and he's not in a hamster wheel for 24 hours a day anymore.
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Aug 2, 2022 19:12
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Usenet still exists, and is Apple level easy once you get it running. OP is out of date, but still has some good information to get started. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3409898
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Aug 4, 2022 12:42
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:I find this viscerally repulsive. Like literally, what the gently caress are they doing? People have been joking about it, but I really feel like Nathan Fielder is somehow involved here.
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Aug 5, 2022 03:08
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