Movie/TV recommendations

[Codicier]

Just finished watching Cold in July, its a superb film but gawd darn don't make my mistake and watch it late night unless you want to be left pondering a very unsettling opening and some very dark themes overall.

[Bolegium]

Just watched this short from Adult Swim:

 

It gets REALLY distrubing, and not (in my opinion) in a ironically humorous way that their other shorts do like in Too Many Cooks.

Probably deserves a trigger warning

[Gormongous]

Just watched this short from Adult Swim:

 

It gets really distrubing, and not (in my opinion) in a ironically humorous way that their other shorts do like in Too Many Cooks.

Probably deserves a trigger warning.

 

That is incredibly upsetting. I'm not going to spoiler that, because I think you're right about the warning.

[Bolegium]

Fair enough, edited my original post and made the trigger warning obvious.

[Gwardinen]

What the fuck? I thought Adult Swim just made weird cartoons and iOS games? What the hell was that about?

[Brannigan]

I don't think it's even meant to be funny

[Twig]

Wow that was...weird.

I don't think it was supposed to be funny either.

[SuperBiasedMan]

That was pretty interesting, I'm not sure if I got it but I'm certain it's meant to be unfunny.

 

Here's my attempt at understanding it,

I think it might be a weird depiction of a descent into madness and sort of a statement about the futility of always wanting to put a bandaid of drugs on any problem and thinking that will resolve it totally. Both because there are side effects to anything you take but also because drugs don't just fix things, they produce chemical changes in your body with the intention to cure or treat an ailment but nonchemical pyschological disorders could only be treated with this method.

I don't get what the bear bit would really mean then, maybe something about our core nature? A lot of it does seem to be trying to go weird enough to shock but I think there's a coherent point underneath.

 

...but maybe I'm wrong? I wonder if anyone else has thoughts cause this didn't seem like total gibberish, they just played up the weirdness a lot more than it seems they needed to.

[Gwardinen]

I had a slightly more literal interpretation of it.

 

I didn't think it was so much about going mad and trying to fix it with drugs, so much as the scary side effects that drugs can have even on previously stable people. It seemed to be taking the psychological side effects of drugs to a logical extreme. Certainly the whole doppleganger situation seemed to be about the loss of control one might feel when a drug changes your brain chemistry and affects your behaviour.

[Mawd]

After a point it felt like it was just a concerted effort to be 5edgy4u. Critique of some approaches to mental wellbeing aside the whole thing was a wasted effort to me at least.

[SuperBiasedMan]

That interpretation makes way more sense given what the medication actually was, and makes it even more unnecessarily overblown.
I agree that it was too much edginess for a relatively simple message that's also not that new.

[Brannigan]

The bear is just a lead in to make the infomercial look like it's legit. All these things they air are meant to be fake infomercials with the exception of too many cooks. See also broomshakalaka, For profit school...and others I can't think of right now. The rest are comedic

There's also a website set up for the drug.

[deleted user]

_

[Mawd]

It might just be suffering from the context of being an Adult Swim short, it still has a lot of AS tropes that make it easier to relate to all the previous comedy skits they've done. It feels like they're trying to do something different, either just taking their previous creepy concepts to the extreme, or actually trying out a different tone, in which case I think they should have probably done something to remove it from the context of their comedy videos.

EDIT: Just saw Brannigan's post. That context makes a lot more sense; the best way to experience these is probably to be just completly unaware of what they are, to begin with at least.

 

I do view these videos without context (at least as far as not watching most of the other skits). I watch some Adult Swim shows but here in NZ we don't actually get the channel (not that I've had cable for years anyway).

I've seen Too Many Cooks and I think I know what some of the classic AS 'shit gets real' tropes are. I'm not sure what I hope to add here except to say the problem was largely in the execution because there possibly could have been something worth watching in there.

It did feel like they were trying something else in the wake of TMC. I kinda hoped the next infomercial I'd hear about would at least be in the same vein of worth-the-time-to-watch as TMC was. But I guess the production team is going through some growing pains?

[Twig]

I liked it fwiw. Think it did a good job. It helps that it's short. Had it been a few minutes longer I'd probably have bailed. Or at least liked it way less.

[shammack]

I had a slightly more literal interpretation of it.

 

I didn't think it was so much about going mad and trying to fix it with drugs, so much as the scary side effects that drugs can have even on previously stable people. It seemed to be taking the psychological side effects of drugs to a logical extreme. Certainly the whole doppleganger situation seemed to be about the loss of control one might feel when a drug changes your brain chemistry and affects your behaviour.

 

My initial read on it was closer to SuperBiasedMan's, but

now that I've noticed that the drug was just for allergies and not anxiety or something as I had originally assumed, this interpretation seems more likely. Which is a shame because if that's what they were going for, it's a really inane message, clumsily delivered.

[agorman]

Unrelated to that very disturbing video I just saw We Are The Best and adored it. It did such an amazing job of actually showing 12 year olds act like 12 year olds and reflect what that age is like. Touching and joyful

[melmer]

[Twig]

I watched Broadchurch 'cause all y'all seemed to like it and dangit if I don't like it too. It's damn good. I was sorta offput by the ending at first until I recalled some foreshadowing here and there and I think a rewatch would reveal even more, although I don't intend to rewatch. Anyway thumbs up or whatever emoticon fart noise bird noise baboo.

 

I also picked Luther back up because I started it months ago and made it halfway through episode four... And then I checked and it's actually a really short series and I liked it well enough that I dunno why I stopped watching. So now I'm back into that. Is it good? I think it's good. Should I? Fart noise emoticon pbpbpbpbt..

 

I also watched the first two seasons of Black Mirror on Netflix. (I'd seen the first season already, but wanted to watch it again since it's only three eps.) Still good. Still like it. Thumbs up baboo etc.

 

I guess I'm watching a lot of British television. You weird Brits and your television.

[brkl]

The first small season of Luther ia good, but it gets real dumb real fast.

[Twig]

Well it's 14 episodes total and I finished episode five last night so I'll probably just finish it unless it gets super bad.

[TheLastBaron]

Anyone here have a high refresh rate TV? I just got a new TV that's 240 Hz and it's so weird. Do you get used to it eventually?

[BadHat]

 

Oh hell yes. I watch these every year and every year I tell myself I'll keep up with his show in the new year. Maybe this time I actually might...

[thefncrow]

 

Watching this now, I love that it features the return of Barry Shitpeas.

[brkl]

Anyone here have a high refresh rate TV? I just got a new TV that's 240 Hz and it's so weird. Do you get used to it eventually?

That interpolation stuff is a crock. Turn it off.