Netflix released a trailer for Season 5, part 2. Still no glimpse of Tony Wonder, let alone hints that they'll actually solve Lucille 2's murder/disappearance. Just saw glimpses of Tobias's son Murphy Brown and Debrie, and it's not an encouraging sign. I wish I could get some sense that Mitch is aware this needs to be the end, that there's got to be closure this time, not stupid shit like Rebel Alley and the damn wall again. Stop dragging things out with retreads, 'cause some of us aren't coming back for another disappointing season. Fucking end this thing with dignity, Mitch!
Meanwhile I'm more excited about Mr. Malcolm's List being made into a full movie.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Movies
So anyway, the Oscars were this weekend. I was watching an old Murder She Wrote movie instead. I heard about the awards though, and was disappointed that Black Panther or Blackkklansman didn't win. Maybe they split the vote. Sure, Green Book was a charming movie, but Best Picture shouldn't go to merely charming when there are better films nominated. Also, I didn't like the fact that they nominated Mahershala Ali for Supporting Actor instead of Lead Actor with Viggo. Oh well. Oscars disappoint all the time and they snubbed Crazy Rich Asians to start with.
I really don't understand the obsession with "Shallow" or A Star is Born either. From the moment I watched the trailer I found both godawful annoying. Plus, the phrase is "the shallows" not "the shallow" if you're writing a metaphor about swimming in deeper waters. It bothers me pedantically, along with the fucking vague lyrics. I much prefer Lady Gaga's other music and resent the implication that being electronic or more pop-oriented means your music is "inauthentic", which seems to be the theme of the movie due to all the reviews and interviews about it. What a strange way to shame the female lead, when the oft-made movie is supposed to be about the alcoholic breakdown of the man due to jealousy about his wife's rising career. Why put down that career and make it seem like she shouldn't be happy for her success?
Anyway, I did go to see Lego Movie 2, hoping there'd be enough Lego Batman to make it worth it. It wasn't really worth it. I mean, he was there in the plot but didn't do anything really cool, nor did Lucy, and it was all bogged down with time travel. So, disappointed with that, I finally went to see that Into the Spiderverse movie. It was more charming, and its message was that "anyone can wear the mask" due to the multiple universes. Still, I do wish they'd stop remaking Spiderman so frequently, almost as often as Batman. I also recently enjoyed What Women Want, which was over the top at times, but still had some good lowkey moments with her father, as well as a gay romance in the background. Still would like more LGBT in the foreground, but at least Ali did right by promoting her assistant to agent. I hope March movies will be better, starting with Captain Marvel.
I really don't understand the obsession with "Shallow" or A Star is Born either. From the moment I watched the trailer I found both godawful annoying. Plus, the phrase is "the shallows" not "the shallow" if you're writing a metaphor about swimming in deeper waters. It bothers me pedantically, along with the fucking vague lyrics. I much prefer Lady Gaga's other music and resent the implication that being electronic or more pop-oriented means your music is "inauthentic", which seems to be the theme of the movie due to all the reviews and interviews about it. What a strange way to shame the female lead, when the oft-made movie is supposed to be about the alcoholic breakdown of the man due to jealousy about his wife's rising career. Why put down that career and make it seem like she shouldn't be happy for her success?
Anyway, I did go to see Lego Movie 2, hoping there'd be enough Lego Batman to make it worth it. It wasn't really worth it. I mean, he was there in the plot but didn't do anything really cool, nor did Lucy, and it was all bogged down with time travel. So, disappointed with that, I finally went to see that Into the Spiderverse movie. It was more charming, and its message was that "anyone can wear the mask" due to the multiple universes. Still, I do wish they'd stop remaking Spiderman so frequently, almost as often as Batman. I also recently enjoyed What Women Want, which was over the top at times, but still had some good lowkey moments with her father, as well as a gay romance in the background. Still would like more LGBT in the foreground, but at least Ali did right by promoting her assistant to agent. I hope March movies will be better, starting with Captain Marvel.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Crowded Field
Well the news has been awful lately, from Trump's "emergency" declaration that will hopefully be neutered by lawsuits, to Bernie Sanders running for 2020. When will that fucker give up? Of course it stirred up pie fights on Daily Kos again. Stupid idiot fans when he's not even a Democrat. Anyway the field for the 2020 election is crowded already with a lot of better candidates than him.
Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke hasn't declared for anything though he did the march/rally in El Paso and has given interviews. I hope he'll run for Cornyn's seat instead of abandoning Texas so soon. I heard Joaquin Castro is interested too, if Beto doesn't run for Senate again.
I was also very disheartened by the attacks on Ilhan Omar for her tweets against AIPAC. She was accused of being anti-semitic and racist for attacking a pro-Israel lobby. Why the fuck has Israel got such a hold on American politics, that people disingenuously equate attacking a country's government with attacking a race? If people complain about Theresa May and the disastrous Brexit deal, they are not being "anti-British" or "anti-Caucasian." Plenty of Jewish people don't like Israel's apartheid treatment of Palestinians. There's also that virulent characterization of BDS boycott as antisemitic too. As long as the fucking US government is going to send my taxpayer money to fund Israel's illegal occupation and war crimes, then I have the right as a citizen to protest and try to keep from sending any more money to them or to companies based in the stolen territories.
So far, Ilhan Omar has not been hypocritically forced to resign, and just now a new Democrat has won a special election in Virginia after similar hysteria over his anti-Israel comments. So hopefully people aren't scared off of voting for Muslims or Palestinians.
Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke hasn't declared for anything though he did the march/rally in El Paso and has given interviews. I hope he'll run for Cornyn's seat instead of abandoning Texas so soon. I heard Joaquin Castro is interested too, if Beto doesn't run for Senate again.
I was also very disheartened by the attacks on Ilhan Omar for her tweets against AIPAC. She was accused of being anti-semitic and racist for attacking a pro-Israel lobby. Why the fuck has Israel got such a hold on American politics, that people disingenuously equate attacking a country's government with attacking a race? If people complain about Theresa May and the disastrous Brexit deal, they are not being "anti-British" or "anti-Caucasian." Plenty of Jewish people don't like Israel's apartheid treatment of Palestinians. There's also that virulent characterization of BDS boycott as antisemitic too. As long as the fucking US government is going to send my taxpayer money to fund Israel's illegal occupation and war crimes, then I have the right as a citizen to protest and try to keep from sending any more money to them or to companies based in the stolen territories.
So far, Ilhan Omar has not been hypocritically forced to resign, and just now a new Democrat has won a special election in Virginia after similar hysteria over his anti-Israel comments. So hopefully people aren't scared off of voting for Muslims or Palestinians.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
They Shall Not Grow Old
Well Peter Jackson's WWI documentary was not what I expected. All the trailers and ads for it showed off the colorized footage and smoothed, natural-looking motion, but when I actually watched the film, the color footage didn't start for almost an hour. First we had to wait through the black and white jittery footage during the recruitment of young lads, then their bootcamp, and their travel to the front lines in Belgium. If we were gonna wait that long, then why show the "please put on your 3D glasses" message at the beginning? And after the Armistice, the color once again was replaced by black and white footage while soldiers narrated their feelings of isolation when they returned to civilian life. If the ads for this documentary had described it as half color, half black and white, then I wouldn't have felt so irritated. The way this was advertised as a marvelous, immersive transformation, they should have gone to color immediately after the long drawn out title sequence of soldiers marching until the screen turned white. That would have made much more sense.
Anyway, the depiction of the British soldiers showed a lot of faces with personality and lots of humorous moments as the soldiers coped with their unsanitary, makeshift conditions. With no toilets, the soldiers had to instead sit on a plank suspended above some holes in the ground. There was no privacy of an enclosed outhouse; this primitive lavatory was exposed, with several people using it at once. The documentary footage is also interspersed with some propaganda posters and newspapers cartoons of the war, helping to flesh out stories that they didn't have footage for. There were some hard to watch images of trench feet, dead horses and rats, etc, and it added to the drama about the horrors of war. There's also lots of footage and stories about captured German prisoners of war. The British soldiers often recognize that the Germans are kids like them, and that it's a shame that the war makes them foes. Overall, this is an affecting movie of the war, but with very few glimpses of regiments of color who also fought for Britain as part of the Empire. This is very much limited to the point of view of a white British soldier. I suppose it was originally tailored that way, since it was broadcast for UK audiences on their Armistice Day. But still, the UK was not, even back then, all white.
On TV, A Million Little Things finally gave some plot answers about Jon's suicide, but the melodrama of the subway stop vote seems like a distraction from the mumbo-jumbo about Jon taking out a second insurance policy called Rutledge with the guys as beneficiaries. What the fuck? Because of the whole suicide thing, I read up that insurance policies will pay out for suicide after two years have passed, just to make sure that the person didn't intentionally buy the policy so they could kill themself. But here Ashley is implying that either Jon knew he was screwed for two years and staked his entire family's welfare on the stupid subway vote and on a 2nd insurance policy, OR Jon only realized everything was screwed in the day before the vote and he somehow bought an insurance policy that day and killed himself the next day, even though no insurance would pay off that??!!! What the fuck is wrong with these writers and their convuluted suicide scenario? Jon, you're still an egotistical, reckless gambler, and Ashley you're still an asshole for not giving Delilah the envelope the day you found it. No, you weren't being "helpful" or trying to "save" the family and the house by secretly paying the loan out of Rutledge Trust. You were withholding truths they needed to hear, and not letting them prepare themselves and find other solutions to keep their fucking home! And fuck the tiresome Barbara Morgan mystery which continues to be unsatisfactory teases.
Sheesh. At least The Orville had a good episode of Claire and Isaac dating. Isaac has always been a clear knockoff of Data from TNG, but this relationship was really well done. A great way to give him more dimensions, and his grand gesture from "Singing in the Rain" was great.
Anyway, the depiction of the British soldiers showed a lot of faces with personality and lots of humorous moments as the soldiers coped with their unsanitary, makeshift conditions. With no toilets, the soldiers had to instead sit on a plank suspended above some holes in the ground. There was no privacy of an enclosed outhouse; this primitive lavatory was exposed, with several people using it at once. The documentary footage is also interspersed with some propaganda posters and newspapers cartoons of the war, helping to flesh out stories that they didn't have footage for. There were some hard to watch images of trench feet, dead horses and rats, etc, and it added to the drama about the horrors of war. There's also lots of footage and stories about captured German prisoners of war. The British soldiers often recognize that the Germans are kids like them, and that it's a shame that the war makes them foes. Overall, this is an affecting movie of the war, but with very few glimpses of regiments of color who also fought for Britain as part of the Empire. This is very much limited to the point of view of a white British soldier. I suppose it was originally tailored that way, since it was broadcast for UK audiences on their Armistice Day. But still, the UK was not, even back then, all white.
On TV, A Million Little Things finally gave some plot answers about Jon's suicide, but the melodrama of the subway stop vote seems like a distraction from the mumbo-jumbo about Jon taking out a second insurance policy called Rutledge with the guys as beneficiaries. What the fuck? Because of the whole suicide thing, I read up that insurance policies will pay out for suicide after two years have passed, just to make sure that the person didn't intentionally buy the policy so they could kill themself. But here Ashley is implying that either Jon knew he was screwed for two years and staked his entire family's welfare on the stupid subway vote and on a 2nd insurance policy, OR Jon only realized everything was screwed in the day before the vote and he somehow bought an insurance policy that day and killed himself the next day, even though no insurance would pay off that??!!! What the fuck is wrong with these writers and their convuluted suicide scenario? Jon, you're still an egotistical, reckless gambler, and Ashley you're still an asshole for not giving Delilah the envelope the day you found it. No, you weren't being "helpful" or trying to "save" the family and the house by secretly paying the loan out of Rutledge Trust. You were withholding truths they needed to hear, and not letting them prepare themselves and find other solutions to keep their fucking home! And fuck the tiresome Barbara Morgan mystery which continues to be unsatisfactory teases.
Sheesh. At least The Orville had a good episode of Claire and Isaac dating. Isaac has always been a clear knockoff of Data from TNG, but this relationship was really well done. A great way to give him more dimensions, and his grand gesture from "Singing in the Rain" was great.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
New Starts
Well it's February now, almost Lunar New Year, or Tết, as it's known in Vietnam. It's the Year of the Pig, though I don't know much about the Chinese Zodiac. I'll be visiting family soon, though I can't get off work next week, and I'll try to see that WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, now that it's getting a regular movie release instead of those pop-up Fathom Events.
I'm also going to spend much of my weekend moving files and things to a new laptop, because my old one is slowly falling apart, acquiring more slowdowns and malfunctions all the time. It is many years out of date, though I upgraded memory and operating systems to keep it going for years. It's not worth the trouble anymore.
Apparently the Superbowl is this weekend, though I never watch even for the commercials. This week has been the TCA press tour, and some TV shows got renewed recently. Oh, also Netflix announced that Arrested Development would finally release more episodes on March 15th. Finally. It's the Ides of March too, so I certainly will beware that the ending could be a total dud. I just hope Mitch learned his lesson and will not put in yet another cliffhanger or waste more time on stupid Rebel Alley. Just solve the Lucille Austero mystery and give us a good Blunder ending, even if you have to overdo the narration to make it happy and good. I don't care about the political satire border wall anymore and FUCK NO, I don't want Tracey to secretly be alive, out of left field. End the show respectfully and gracefully, Mitch, like you did season 3. (Or even "Beef Consommé" in season 1, when you didn't know if the show would last past 13 episodes.) Wrap it up and let it fucking go.
I'm also going to spend much of my weekend moving files and things to a new laptop, because my old one is slowly falling apart, acquiring more slowdowns and malfunctions all the time. It is many years out of date, though I upgraded memory and operating systems to keep it going for years. It's not worth the trouble anymore.
Apparently the Superbowl is this weekend, though I never watch even for the commercials. This week has been the TCA press tour, and some TV shows got renewed recently. Oh, also Netflix announced that Arrested Development would finally release more episodes on March 15th. Finally. It's the Ides of March too, so I certainly will beware that the ending could be a total dud. I just hope Mitch learned his lesson and will not put in yet another cliffhanger or waste more time on stupid Rebel Alley. Just solve the Lucille Austero mystery and give us a good Blunder ending, even if you have to overdo the narration to make it happy and good. I don't care about the political satire border wall anymore and FUCK NO, I don't want Tracey to secretly be alive, out of left field. End the show respectfully and gracefully, Mitch, like you did season 3. (Or even "Beef Consommé" in season 1, when you didn't know if the show would last past 13 episodes.) Wrap it up and let it fucking go.
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