What are you watching now?

[KoshFan]

I'm told that the third season of Veronica Mars is nowhere near the quality of the first two -- but the first two are, to my mind, magnificent.

Some have described it as Buffy meets Nancy Drew; I might go with a vampire-less Buffy with shades of The Wire. The show rewards long memories, as it's continuity-heavy. Very well-plotted seasonal arcs, some exceptionally well-crafted individual episodes ("An Echolls Family Christmas" I watched two or three times in a week, it was so well-done), awesome dialogue, solid-ranging-to-great acting... and plot twists that come out of nowhere but make perfect sense in retrospect.

So yeah, I'd say the first two seasons are worth your time.

 

[darth_librarian]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (again). Its great. Michelle Monaghan is divine. Robert Downey jnr is in it. Perfect movie.

 

[Recoil]

I'm told that the third season of Veronica Mars is nowhere near the quality of the first two -- but the first two are, to my mind, magnificent.

Having seen all three seasons, I can confirm this to be true. Seasons one and two were fantastic. Three fell flat. Instead of a season long mystery/arc they split the [shortened] season up into two smaller arcs, and neither of them were very well done IMO. It was still OK, but nothing compared to seasons one and two.

 

[KoshFan]

After wrapping up season 2 I was really curious about what was in that case that Kendall Casablancas showed to Keith, and also curious about what would happen next with the Fitzpatricks. Also I love Veronica and Logan together. But I manfully resisted the temptation. Better that I not know than I learn and get disappointed.

Since Trek TOS is up for free on YouTube, I'm inching my way through that. As long as I remember the context (i.e. crap for special effects and women get no respect), I'm pretty entertained. And occasionally impressed with the allegory, although it can sometimes be too direct. I rather like McCoy.

 

[Recoil]

Are they the original TOS releases or the remastered in HD versions?

 

[KoshFan]

No official word, but they look pretty remastered to me.

 

[darth_librarian]

Firefly. Properly in order. Whilst eating my words over all the bad things I may have said about it in the past.

 

[Recoil]

No official word, but they look pretty remastered to me.

You can easily tell by shots of the Enterprise and often of planets. If it looks like CGI done better than B5, its the remastered version. If it looks like something made, well, in the 60s with a model hanging in front of a camera, it isnt.

 

[KoshFan]

Hmmm. Then, no, since the planets looked painted on, the Enterprise is pretty clearly a model, and in fact it looks to me like they are visiting the same three planets over and over.

But the shots of the actors look very clean.


And DL, good for you.

 

[Recoil]

The shots of the actors WILL look very clean. That's because the film media used back in the day translates extremely well to HD. A lot of old movies are easily ported to HD as the detail and quality are already there.

Special effects on the other hand...require being redone completely.

 

[KoshFan]

Interesting! I had no idea. In that case, it just looks like the original versions, I suspect.

I'm skipping around and avoiding some of the ones I know to be bad. I find myself reluctant to watch "City on the Edge of Forever," too, perhaps because I already know how it ends.

 

[Recoil]

Thats still a good one for many reasons, you should just watch it anyway.

 

[darth_librarian]

Old Trek's effects were shakey and don't res-up to HD well, but they still have class. I liked the CGI recreations, but it would be a shame if the model stuff disappeared completely.

The instrumental music in TOS is just fantastic.

 

[KoshFan]

It's pretty good, but seems a touch repetitive, especially the "romance" music.

 

[GKarsEye]

I just watched Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna, in HD, on the Encore HD cable channel. I thought it was great! There are some superficial similarities to Inglourious Basterds, in that it involves Nazis, and revenge, but I thought Spike's film was far superior. It is historical fiction, based on the black "Buffalo Soldiers" in Italy, in WWII.

Watched this last night I did not care for it.

The reason I watched it, primarily, is because Spike Lee is one of the few directors whose entire output is a "must-see" for me (others include the Coen Brothers and Scorsese). This doesn't mean I like all his movies, just that he tends to offer unique movies.

The desire to do a movie about the Buffalo Soldiers and portray the stories of black WW2 soldiers is understandable. What I don't get is the need to show a fictional story, especially one as preposterous as this one.

As usual, a Spike Lee movie had "controversy," but this time it was completely unnecessary- the inclusion of an Italian collaborator being responsible for the non-fictional Nazi massacre of civilians.

Also what stunned me was how the main characters often acted as negative black stereotypes seen in other movies- the overly-sexed up crude one; the mildly retarded big oaf. Lee's greatest contribution to film is that was introduced a wide variety of black characters, expanding their presence beyond a few simple archetypes (I recently watched his first movie, She's Gotta Have It, and the way it took on both racial and sexual conventions of the time reminded me of how important he is to cinema).

And then you have a magical little boy, awkward "emotional" moments and dialogue (though there are plenty of technically great moments, too- Lee became a great visual filmmaker around the time of his Malcolm X movie), and the fact that it's 3 hrs long for no good reason.

Lee has been on a long streak of alternating between great and unsuccessful projects (his last one was When the Levee Breaks, a great documentary about New Orleans post-Katrina), so I look forward to his next film.

 

[Alexa]

Watching DS9 and awaiting the next season of Bones and NCIS...

 

[Nordenstam]

Currently me and my bf are watching all Star Trek movies. Today it was Insurrection.

Otherwise we use to check upon new episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Castle.

For myself I plan to watch DS9, Sherlock, Downton Abbey (Michelle Dockery!), Weeds and Breaking Bad.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I recently saw Hugo, which I highly recommend. A magical film, with great use of 3D.

I've also been watching old eps of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on the Encore Suspense channel. Lots of soon-to-be great actors in the early 60s. I saw one ep starring James Caan, and Walter Koenig, written by Harlan Ellison, and directed by Joseph Pevney, who directed several eps of ST:TOS.

 

[Sindatur]

Just finished watching Merlin Season 4. Next up is the The Invaders with Roy Thinnes, haven't seen this in over 20 years when it aired on PBS SciFi Sundays

 

[Nordenstam]

Today I filled another gap with second Space Odyssey.

I was so really sorry for Hal for few minutes.