I watched his latest standup when it came out on Netflix. There were a few hood bits but I felt most of the material fell flat and forced to make a point.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I thought the more recent couple Netflix specials were pretty brilliant. I can’t think of anyone working today who has better joke construction & better delivery.

Re: offensiveness... sarcasm aside, it’s a weird generation. The ones who came into their own in the Internet era are the worst-equipped to handle its capacity for magnifying their weird hangups & their solipsism.

Chappelle Show was ok, it occupied a niche; more interesting than most of the post-Carol Burnett variety shows. A little too ghetto & a little unapproachable for many, is my guess.

arugula2 wrote:I thought the more recent couple Netflix specials were pretty brilliant. I can’t think of anyone working today who has better joke construction & better delivery.

Re: offensiveness... sarcasm aside, it’s a weird generation. The ones who came into their own in the Internet era are the worst-equipped to handle its capacity for magnifying their weird hangups & their solipsism.

Chappelle Show was ok, it occupied a niche; more interesting than most of the post-Carol Burnett variety shows. A little too ghetto & a little unapproachable for many, is my guess.

His show was pretty fantastic and scathing at times. And I agree about his comedic abilities which is why I was expecting better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Outsider (2020)

(HBO) A lot of strong characters. Some not so strong: the DA is minor, the 2nd PI isn't... I like her half the time, I just think she hasn't had a chance to develop a believable affect. (It's too bad she's the only major character who's 'black', and extra-token bc that character isn't, in the book.) Pretty much the rest of the cast is consistently excellent, in particular Julianne Nicholson and Mare Winningham as the "wives". They're so much better than this script, and it's not a horrible script. They're just stunning. Also, Scarlet Blum, as the requisite creepy little girl, has her moments.

I'm in episode 6 of 10. Before this, there'd be a smattering of lazy exposition, cushioned by good pacing & expert direction, and a mostly great cast. But now, in ep6 (and a bit in ep5), people are being dumb. And so of course, the shit they say to each other, to justify their being dumb, takes up more of the script. So less enjoyment of the atmosphere & the great cast (and the tantalizing mystery)... and more eye-rolling at dumb words in the mouths of erstwhile smart people suddenly being dumb. Writers dropping the ball... hope it's just some corner-cutting to set up the rest of the show in original form.

ETA: A special request to showrunners who add loud, foregrounded foley effects to simulate "beeping" button presses (on a smartphone) or want us to believe a wifi connection stands in the way of an email reply (in the age of smartphones), and some other gadgety stuff that might've been believable when they were young: Stop it.

^ sucks from episode 5 onward... made it to episode 8. Plot, dialogue, pacing, trash. Good actors, wasted. If the final 2 episodes got good again for whatever reason, it won't have earned it.

arugula2 wrote: The Outsider (2020)

(HBO) A lot of strong characters. Some not so strong: the DA is minor, the 2nd PI isn't... I like her half the time, I just think she hasn't had a chance to develop a believable affect. (It's too bad she's the only major character who's 'black', and extra-token bc that character isn't, in the book.) Pretty much the rest of the cast is consistently excellent, in particular Julianne Nicholson and Mare Winningham as the "wives". They're so much better than this script, and it's not a horrible script. They're just stunning. Also, Scarlet Blum, as the requisite creepy little girl, has her moments.

I'm in episode 6 of 10. Before this, there'd be a smattering of lazy exposition, cushioned by good pacing & expert direction, and a mostly great cast. But now, in ep6 (and a bit in ep5), people are being dumb. And so of course, the shit they say to each other, to justify their being dumb, takes up more of the script. So less enjoyment of the atmosphere & the great cast (and the tantalizing mystery)... and more eye-rolling at dumb words in the mouths of erstwhile smart people suddenly being dumb. Writers dropping the ball... hope it's just some corner-cutting to set up the rest of the show in original form.

ETA: A special request to showrunners who add loud, foregrounded foley effects to simulate "beeping" button presses (on a smartphone) or want us to believe a wifi connection stands in the way of an email reply (in the age of smartphones), and some other gadgety stuff that might've been believable when they were young: Stop it.

I hated, hated, hated this series. It's boring. It's anti-climactic.

Eps 1-4 were promising... 5-7 were regrettable... I can't imagine enduring it to the end - which sounds like you might have.

Raised by Wolves (2020)

Nah.

arugula2 wrote:Eps 1-4 were promising... 5-7 were regrettable... I can't imagine enduring it to the end - which sounds like you might have.

i hate watched it from episode three forward. i would not have bothered with it at all, except my S.O. cannot bear to let a series go unfinished once he has committed a cetain length of time to it. and since he was watching it i sat beside him reading a book or working sudoku puzzles.

arugula2 wrote: Raised by Wolves (2020)

Nah.

best avoided. this one is at least as stupid as the outsider was.

^ I knew about 5 mins in. Gave it another 10 or so.

The Undoing (2020)

Nah.

scott1328 wrote:

arugula2 wrote: The Outsider (2020)

(HBO) A lot of strong characters. Some not so strong: the DA is minor, the 2nd PI isn't... I like her half the time, I just think she hasn't had a chance to develop a believable affect. (It's too bad she's the only major character who's 'black', and extra-token bc that character isn't, in the book.) Pretty much the rest of the cast is consistently excellent, in particular Julianne Nicholson and Mare Winningham as the "wives". They're so much better than this script, and it's not a horrible script. They're just stunning. Also, Scarlet Blum, as the requisite creepy little girl, has her moments.

I'm in episode 6 of 10. Before this, there'd be a smattering of lazy exposition, cushioned by good pacing & expert direction, and a mostly great cast. But now, in ep6 (and a bit in ep5), people are being dumb. And so of course, the shit they say to each other, to justify their being dumb, takes up more of the script. So less enjoyment of the atmosphere & the great cast (and the tantalizing mystery)... and more eye-rolling at dumb words in the mouths of erstwhile smart people suddenly being dumb. Writers dropping the ball... hope it's just some corner-cutting to set up the rest of the show in original form.

ETA: A special request to showrunners who add loud, foregrounded foley effects to simulate "beeping" button presses (on a smartphone) or want us to believe a wifi connection stands in the way of an email reply (in the age of smartphones), and some other gadgety stuff that might've been believable when they were young: Stop it.

I hated, hated, hated this series. It's boring. It's anti-climactic.

I thought the series was great, some turns I didn't expect. Bit slow moving/boring at times but over all I enjoyed it

arugula2 wrote: Raised by Wolves (2020)

Nah.

Good start to this show, interesting setting for further story line. I have only seen the first three episodes but so far so good

scott1328 wrote:

arugula2 wrote:Eps 1-4 were promising... 5-7 were regrettable... I can't imagine enduring it to the end - which sounds like you might have.

i hate watched it from episode three forward. i would not have bothered with it at all, except my S.O. cannot bear to let a series go unfinished once he has committed a cetain length of time to it. and since he was watching it i sat beside him reading a book or working sudoku puzzles.

My go-to remedy is a podcast + earbuds, but I totally get it.

Re: HBO free sub which just expired... downloaded some things to the ipad, hoping I'll remember to turn off the wifi before unpausing.

Just stating for the record that I'm missing Sense8 and feel strongly that it was a show that could introduce inclusion and empathy for all humans to people that didn't 'get that' before. Apart from anything else the show makes me envious of the characters, yes they have a lot of crap aligned against them, but having 'contemporaries that you can just 'think at' would make it worthwhile to me.

This show was great... But way too much explicit erotic/sex scenes for all the conservatives out there in power.

It could have started with something other than man rubbing himself against a pole while unknowingly being telepathically connected to fucking lesbians on other side of the world. Almost stopped watching right there. Glad I didn't, that series was really awesome.

Something else that is awesome is Lovecraft Country. Two episodes left to watch, hopefully it doesn't fall flat at the end. But so far, loving it. All the monsters/demons/magic transformations are so well done. The only thing that felt weird in a wrong way was how the shaman was offed... I mean sure, do it that way, but should have some signifigance or consequenses or something..

And hate-watched all of Raised by Wolves. Wishing I hadn't. So much stupid, stupid stuff and scifi cliches and a fucking tiny spaceship that makes a sliding crashlanding that ends up just hair away from falling into a giant pit... argh. Really should have just stopped there.

It’s taken me a while to come around to the idea of subtitled TV series (lockdown helped!).
Watched The Bridge (all seasons) - terrific.
Just started The Killing season 1. Great stuff so far....
(yeh, I know these are waaay old....!)