Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

Yeah, enjoyed The Force Awakens quite a bit.

There were too many cutesy, wink-at-the-audience moments in the middle of it, and the plot was, overall, fairly predictable, but generally speaking it was solid. Definitely a massive step up from the prequels.

Maybe the biggest complaint is that

Should we just have a separate thread to discuss the new Star Wars movie?

Yeah, we should.

The more i reflect on the movie, the less and less I like it. The kids are desperate to see it, so it will get another viewing from me. Maybe it will come out better through their eys.

Yes so I don't have to fear spoilers. Absolutely no spoilers until at least a month after the DVD comes out.

Someone recommended SyFy's Expanse. I hadn't read the book, which apparently are very popular. Kind of slow going through the first two eps but seems to be picking up.

While at the website I saw the solicit for Childhood's End. Watched that and enjoyed that a lot. It gets right to the story and every ep leaves you with questions answered and new questions. A lot of fun.

My mom and I binged watched the first season of Twin Peaks on Netflix these past few days. I've only had the barest of exposure to David Lynch's work, but this show is awesome! I love Kyle Maclachlan as Agent Dale Cooper. He's that right level of quirky straight-laced honesty that you want in a character like that, especially when everyone else is morally ambiguous. The first season finale blew us away and we can't wait to see where the series goes next!

I'm generally not a David Lynch fan, but I loved "Mulholland Drive," and I give it the highest possible recommendation.

I'm watching an old 1960s/70s spy/thriller series called Callan. It stars Edward Woodward as our protagonist. He's a government killer with a conscience. Well, a bit of a conscience. I've actually been given a later series of this. It's along the same lines as the early Harry Palmer films and the Sandbaggers. Three episodes in, and it's not bad.

This song was my gateway drug into Twin Peaks.

Was that song featured in the show itself? I don't remember hearing it.

I just finished the series finale to Twin Peaks and I only have one thought on my mind: What the hell was that series finale?! I can't tell if it's the most genius TV show ending I've ever seen or the biggest "fuck you" ever. I'm so conflicted.

Did you pair the Finale with "Fire Walk With Me" (The movie)? It doesn't give you much of a resolution, but there's at least a bit more to the story.

Either way at least you don't have to wait 25 years like the rest of us for next year's return.

The Knick:

Came across this in a desperate attempt to find something to do. The characters are pretty good so far. Clive Owen plays head doc at an early 19 hundreds NYC migrant district hospital. It really appeals to my nerdy side as the doctors try to bridge that gap between barbershop hackery and creating science and technology and of course they throw some human foible into the mix for a little soap opera.

8 Eps in and we've had guest appearances by a Vanderbilt, Edison, probably a bunch I'm forgetting. Been fun watching characters you're not meant to like, take multiple images of themselves with an early x-ray machine, heh, heh.

Ant-Man: one of the few Marvel universe movies I will probably watch many times and probably the ONLY Michael Douglas role I've ever liked, at least didn't hate.

I haven't watched the movie yet. I'm going to give it a watch soon though.

So I've been traveling like a son of a bitch for work (and as is well known, son of a bitches travel like crazy). Part of that gives me some downtime when I'm stuck on a plane or in a hotel room and can catch some random movies.

Mad Max: Fury Road, which I had zero interest in prior, ended up being really terrific! I absolutely loved the high-octane action plot, which was chalk full of tension which at times verged on nervous-breakdown inducing. But the best part was not only the face-meltingly good performance by Charlize Theron, but the unspoken, amazing chemistry that Theron and Tom Hardy had with one another. Hardy, playing the “so silent, its deafening” role, gets the difficult job of playing his character in a way that makes the audience relate to him. Meanwhile, Theron is a badass of epic proportions, which also leads her into dangerous territory audience-empathy wise. But because both actors are terrific and because the director keeps their growing relationship a steady, quiet one of respect and “earned” devotion, both characters come across magnificently and the entire movie works in a huge way. This is in addition to all the supporting characters that are with them for the ride, who all do a great job too.

I also caught The Judge which also was a nice little film. This one had a plot that was totally predictable and some moments that felt a little “seen it before”-ish, but because of the acting by Robert Downey Jr. it all felt totally appealing and delicious. He was helped by terrific jobs all around from Vera Famiga, Vincent D’Onofrio and of course Robert Duvall. But it’s just come down to Downey being so charismatic and so good at dropping the “too cool” act in order to let emotion hit the viewers like a punch in the gut that I can’t help but want him to star in every film ever made henceforth.

I also caught some parts of other movies that I didn’t feel like finishing. And I watched most of the Martian with no sound because meh, I was feeling sorry for myself for traveling.

Tried to watch Mad Max last night but my wife disliked it so intensely we had to turn it off about 10 minutes in. I'll wait until she falls asleep some night this week to return to it.

I don't blame her since the beginning was a little bit of a "what the eff is this all about?" moment for me too. It wasn't until later--and I don't think this is giving too much away--when the group of them are "on the run" that the movie actually starts to get really good. That's probably about 30 minutes into (rought estimate)?

So if at first you're like "uh yeah, not for me", try to hang in there a little longer.

Finally watched "The Man in the High Castle", which I had mixed feelings about. A lot of interesting world-building and some hints at some pretty cool stuff, especially in the last episode, but a lot of it was watching kind of blah characters doing things for inexplicable reasons. The villains/secondary characters were definitely much more interesting than the main protagonists. At ten episodes it was definitely worth watching, and I'll definitely check out the second season, but it felt like it could've been a lot better than it was.

Binge watching Orphan Black with the wife. The first season is amazing, and Tatiana Maslany is brilliant. It's a tightly scripted puzzle with amazing performances (Seriously, she's in a league all her own, running with all the different characters so subtly and seemlessly).

We're mid-way through season two now and it's a bit of a mess. Still fun, but definitely more ridiculous than season one, with plot holes big enough to drive a camper van through and lots more filler than I'd like. I'm hoping the last few episodes pick up and season 3 returns it to the high watermark of season 1.

As I recall, the first half of season 2 didn't do a lot for me, but the second half more than made up for it! Can't recall all of the details, but that's how I remember the overall trend. I felt that season 3 was overall much more consistent and better.

Re-watching our Fawlty Towers discs, because mr_cleome has been complaining about his boss quite a lot lately.

I thought he needed a reminder that his work situation could be a whole lot worse than it is.

I can't really recall the specifics of Season 2 of Orphan Black other than I enjoyed it immensely--mostly because of the wonderful performances and main characters. But the overall "big story" does kind of meander in Season 2 and then re-find its purpose at the end of the season and all season 3. It's all a bit "out there" but I don't mind all that much.

Currently my wife and I are watching Black Sails which has been really terrific. Season 1 is good but its actually not until the final episode or two that it really takes off and then Season 2 takes it to the next level. And then once again, the finale in Season 2 increases things to an even higher level, and Season 3 thus far has been terrific. So its a rare show that steadily gets better as it goes (and it starts out pretty good to begin with).

Before that we finished the third and final season of Da Vinci's Demons and honestly I was a little let down. It was such a terrific show but by season 3 I think they were so caught up in wrapping up the bigger plots that they lost a bit of the show's identity and allowed many of its characters to become a little unrecognizable. This is a complaint I have about a lot of shows and their final seasons.

Vikings Season 3 was mind-blowingly awesome, and I continue to find this one of the best shows on TV. The characters are enjoyably complex and I love the way they blend the real history of the vikings into the character's lives. There was a death (more than one really) that I found really surprising and heartbreaking. And a character I ended up loving was King Ecbert, who is played perfectly by Linus Roache. And Lagertha is probably the hottest woman ever on television.

Before that we did a full multi-season rewatch of True Blood, including the final two seasons which we hadn't seen before. The show was actually better than I remember: I always liked the first two seasons but felt later seasons were not as good; on this rewatch, I changed my opinion big time. Primarily, it was a few characters that were better than I remember like Jason Stackhouse. In the final season, the plot was stretched to the very max of believability and I had a few complaints but I actually really liked the final resolution to Sookie's story.

Movie wise, I thought that:

- Trumbo was amazing and another reason to proclaim Bryan Cranston as the actor most enjoyable to watch on television.

- Sleeping with Other People starring Allison Brie and Jason Sudekis was a great comedy-drama that surprised me by being actually really romantic on top of being hilarious.

- Digging for Fire was another awesome indie film by Joe Swanberg starring Jake Johnson. Much like the prior Drinking Buddies with Olivia Wilde and Anna Kendrick (and Johnson), it is a really small scale film chalk full of emotion. We're in a crazy era of movies where some of the best stuff is made with no budget and then released directly to On Demand and Netflix; meanwhile most of the stuff in movie theaters is absolute shit. These indie films are really more similar to a lot of the great noir and drama films of the 30's and 40's that tells great stories about characters and situations that don't need explosions or high end sets.

- True Story with Jonah Hill and James Franco was simply riveting and the best thing I've ever seen either of them do. I knew Hill could act, but here he takes it to another level, and Franco matches him. It's a really great, scary little story that happens to be true and I recommend people take a look at.