Movie/TV recommendations

[SecretAsianMan]

Yeah, I feel the same way. The first episode was just so off-putting; not just because it was focused on a single character, the entire tone felt wrong. Everything is meaner; the characters are meaner, the jokes are meaner. I managed to slog through the first two episodes, got through about half of the third one, and have no real motivation to continue. I keep hearing people say that it gets better around the fifth episode, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give this show the benefit of the doubt and keep watching.

 

I'm sure eventually I'll watch all the episodes, but my enthusiasm was be extremely tempered by what I've seen so far.

 

 

I completely agree about everything being meaner.  I never really used to hate any of the characters because the perspective would switch often enough that I didn't have time to become annoyed by any of them.  But having an entire episode focus on one person makes me not like them by the end.  I also had a really hard time figuring out what was going on.  I'm used to the way the show constantly jumped around, but even then everything would be moving forward and each individual episode's main plot is mostly wrapped up at the end with some progress made towards the overall plot.  Now it keeps going back in time when it switches characters and I have no sense of the timeline.  For me, it wasn't so much that it got better around episode 5, but more that I got used to it and thought "well, I guess this is just how it is".  Taken on their own, they're not bad, but when you compare them to the original run, they don't really hold up.  I can't say I'm surprised but still somewhat disappointed.

[BigJKO]

I'm 8 episodes in and really like it. It's deliberately different, I think both because the creator wanted to do something new with it and because a regular season would've never felt the same anyway. I kind of happy they made that decision, otherwise I would've constantly compared it to the original episodes and it would never have felt right. As it is, it's easier to accept them as a new take on AD but with the same attention to detail, and dynamic of the narrator. I didn't think it was stellar at the start, but did not find them difficult to watch at all.. So if you're not enjoying it a little at the start, then it's probably not going to win you over.

I agree, though, that one-character episodes do feel slower and less dynamic and reveal just how one-note some of them are. And yeah, it does be a bit darker and meaner. But not much more so than I remember Season 3 being?

Right now, every episode taking place around the same time has me the most excited. Getting little glimpses into each past episode, or noticing events that you figure might make an appearance later on, or seeing a hand at the corner of the screen and then later finding out it was another character sitting behind them. That stuff makes it really worth watching for me.. also, I still think they're so great at the visual humor.

I like it a lot. I'll never beat the original, but it's doing a good job of being something new.

Edit: watching this with a friend, he said he felt the fourth episode was the first one that felt truly as fast and funny as the old AD, and I agree. So maybe watch up to that at least before giving up?

[BigJKO]

The Show Stealer Pro watermark joke actually making people think Netflix were too cheap to get the right to old material is hilarious.

[Patrick R]

Turning Michael into Homer Simpson for the first episode was just about the most off-putting way to reintroduce the character imaginable.

[Argobot]

Here's a great review of the fourth season on the AV Club: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-complete-fourth-season,98241/

 

The AV Club article makes a big deal of how groundbreaking -- if flawed -- the structure of this season is, and makes me feel a little more motivated to watch the rest of the season. But even if you agree that Hurwitz's idea to focus each episode around one character is groundbreaking, you have to acknowledge that the only reason the show is structured this way, is because they couldn't get the whole cast together at the same time. It was a situation of fans expecting more episodes (which at this point, everyone should know to not listen to fans) and Hurwitz's and co basically worked with what that had. Sometimes that can lead to something truly exceptional and well-released, but I don't think that's the case with Arrested Development.

 

Anyway, speaking of shows that have been long dormant but are coming back soon: New season of Venture Bros starts this Sunday.

[BigJKO]

Reading a recent interview on AVClub it seems Hurwitz is a man of many ideas, so I think it might be selling it a bit short to say the only reason for its existence is the cast not being able to be together at the same time. That obviously seems to be a part of it in this case, but I think this idea might also just have to come about as a reaction, some time ago, to what I assume is a common problem for showrunners. But you're right, at the end of the day a lot of the structure probably comes from looking at the schedule and going "Ok, we have Tambor at that fundraiser that day when we're shooting Bateman, so that's a perfect place for this scene." (I think he even says something like that in the interview..)

 

In the end, how/why the idea came about isn't as important as the end result, IMO. But the idea is still pretty clever and, according to the AVClub, groundbreaking.

 

As an aside:

The two ideas he mentioned in the interview were a) A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style version of Season 4's timeline, where you watch it all in one flow and choose which character to follow going out of each scene. He says it would be best done when you're rewatching the thing, to get to follow the story the way you want.

And releasing an episode's entire footage disk, and let fans piece together the story the way they want to. Sort of helping fans out with what they already do with Fan Edits. Then someone could theoretically go and make a Season 4 in an ensemble-episode structure. Which would be kinda neat to watch.

 

EDIT: That's a great review.

 

When Hurwitz got the deal to make a new season of the show for Netflix, he could have very easily just churned out 10 episodes (the original order) of fan service, filled with callbacks and running gags and silliness. He could have simply made another 10 episodes of the old Arrested Development, whenever he could get the old gang back together for a weekend or so.

For better or worse, Hurwitz and his creative team have taken the original series, broken it down for component parts, and turned it into an eight-hour behemoth of one story, spread across 15 episodes of variable quality.

 

In the end, I think it's better than just getting a possibly mediocre, disappointing, regular AD. I can see why people don't like it, and it's not always good. But in the end, I'm glad we got something different and new and surprising.

 

 

EDIT again: Alright, it seems the consensus is that it's just a result of the cast schedule. But whatever, I still think the idea is great.

[SecretAsianMan]

That review does a pretty good job of summing up how I feel about it.  I'm glad they didn't cop out and fill it with call backs (although the fanboy in me is a little disappointed there weren't more).  And as disparaging as I am about how it turned out, I am glad they tried something new.

 

Also I can't get that stupid "Getaway" song out of my head.  It's driving me crazy.

[tegan]

My amazon order came in already!

 

Alien remains an incredible piece of filmmaking. I think this is my first time ever seeing the original cut.

[tegan]

The theatrical cut of Aliens really says a lot more with so much less. I'm glad I finally got to see it.

 

And it's true what they say! The Assembly Cut of Alien 3 is actually fairly good. It turns an unwatchable movie into a halfway decent (if overly long) one!

 

So logically I should have to watch Alien Resurrection tomorrow, but I think I might just skip right on ahead to special features.

[Patrick R]

Resurrection is kind of an interesting and Whedon-y movie on it's own, if an unsuccessful one. 

 

But Resurrection doesn't have a crotchety Dan O' Bannon wearing a bow-tie and complaining about what idiots everyone he worked with was. Advantage: Special features.

 

EDIT: And it's good that you got to see the Assembly Cut on the blu-ray. For the blu-ray release of the Quadrilogy, they went to great pains to restore it to a much better state than it was on the DVDs. They even brought back some of the original actors to do ADR on some lines of dialogue that were inaudible on the DVD.

[Argobot]

Alien 3 has the dubious honor of being the only movie I've ever stopped watching and never finished. I'm not sure if I watched the original edit or the Assembly Cut, but I am sure that it was awful.

 

(The plus side of having such a terrible experience with Alien 3 was that it finally convinced me to watch Se7en.)

[Patrick R]

I'm not a fan, but the Prince of Darkness-esque opening credits are maybe my favorite thing in any Alien movie ever. That facehugger's legs unfolding against the fluorescent lights and then abruptly cutting to the black is so incredibly nightmarish. I couldn't name three characters in the movie, but that image is permanently burned into my brain. Everyone complains that they killed off Hicks and Newt, but they did it so amazingly that I can never be mad at them.

[SecretAsianMan]

Alien was the source of a truly terrifying series of nightmares when I was a child.  Watching it while home alone with all the lights off was probably not the best idea, and it has resulted in me not being a fan of the series, though I can appreciate what others see in it.

[Nappi]

I'm about halfway through the new season of Arrested Development. So far it has been quite unfunny, and somehow incredibly sad. I don't remember the previous seasons being nearly as grim. 

[tegan]

I know it doesn't usually show up on peoples' radar when they talk about him, but Alien Resurrection is so Joss Whedon it hurts.

 

Also, those late nineties CG shots have aged so terribly but Winona Ryder's character is still super cute.

[Zeusthecat]

Does anyone else here like Workaholics? I have to assume it's been talked about here at some point considering they do an entire fucking Wizard rap routine in one of the episodes.

 

The reason I bring it up is there is one episode of this show that is my favorite episode of any tv show I've ever seen. It's called Office Campout (Season 1 Episode 3) and if you've ever had any experience with shrooms this is a must watch. Even if you haven't it is pretty solid.

 

(My post in another thread about Catherine Zeta Jones is what reminded me of this episode)

[Max Ernst]

I just watched the first season of Nathan for You and it is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. The "sex offender" stunt is going to go down as a highpoint of television history. Here is the intro to that particular episode to explain its premise:

 

 

The guy has comedy flowing through his veins.

[Max Ernst]

Alien 3 has the dubious honor of being the only movie I've ever stopped watching and never finished. I'm not sure if I watched the original edit or the Assembly Cut, but I am sure that it was awful.

 

(The plus side of having such a terrible experience with Alien 3 was that it finally convinced me to watch Se7en.)

I walked out of the second Lord of the Rings film and it has the honour of being one of the very few decisions I have made in my life that I do not utterly regret.

[castorp]

Resurrection is kind of an interesting and Whedon-y movie on it's own, if an unsuccessful one.

Damn, I had no idea the movie was written by Whedon. Surprise!

[tegan]

Whedon was also a writer on Toy Story of all things.

 

Apparently "wind the frog" was his line.

[SecretAsianMan]

Just saw Star Trek Into Darkness.  Thought it was pretty good.  I enjoyed it about as much as the first one, maybe a bit more.  Lots of little Star Trek nods, and of course a few big ones,   It did seem to have multiple points where it could have ended, but I was enjoying it enough that I didn't really want it to.  Also, thanks to a Monday off work, I had the theater to myself.  Made me feel important, like I was getting a private screening.

[Ucantalas]

Also, thanks to a Monday off work, I had the theater to myself.  Made me feel important, like I was getting a private screening.

I love it when the theatre is empty except for myself and maybe a few friends. Had that happen when I went to watch the Astro Boy movie back when it came out, definitely felt more relaxed than when watching a movie in a packed theatre.

[Nappi]

My short review of Arrested Development Season 4: Kinda shit.

 

The format is interesting and well-crafted (in a way), but ultimately does not really work. What it does is highlight how fucking selfish and horrible everyone in the series is and how these kind of people couldn't (shouldn't) exist in real life. In that way, Season 4 reminds me of those Simpsons images where the artist has kept the comic proportions but replaced the yellow skin with a realistic one, to show what freaks the characters actually are. As a whole, the series felt incredibly sad, pessimistic and gruel. Practically everyone is somehow intrinsically incapable of understanding other people and of changing.* The Tobias/DeBrie episodes were particularly nauseating to me, although I suspect Buster's drone pilot bit should have been more so.

 

There was one laugh-out-loud moment towards the end, though. Unfortunately, I can't remember what it was. 

 

 

* This was probably the case with the first three seasons as well, but I did not pay nearly as much attention to it earlier. The new format was very effective in making everyone seem horrible, one at a time.

[Ben X]

Working my way through The West Wing, on S3 and really enjoying it. I know there's generally understood to be a post-S4 quality-valley, but how deep and how long is it?

[BigJKO]

Ben, it dips in quality but it's mostly fun still.. for the later half of season 5 and season 6 it gets back on track, but it's never as good as the first two seasons.

Nappi, couldn't agree less. After finishing AD s4 I ended up in love with the thing. In the last four episodes everything seemed to click for me and get funnier with every minute. George Michael's episode, especially, was really fast and funny and had my biggest surprise moment.

Agreed about Tobias' episodes, though. He has his moments, but the DeBrie storyline was not my favorite. Catch A Predator bit made up for it for me.

I really can't wait to rewatch it, catch all the details in the first episodes I might have missed due to not having seen the whole picture.