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carrobin
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:53 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
"The Alienist" impressed me. I don't remember a lot about the novel, just that it was a good read. But the series that started tonight on TBS is excellent, starting with the gruesome discovery of a murdered boy prostitute among the high girders of the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge, proceeding through the efforts of the alienist and his journalist/artist friend to find the killer, after they satisfy themselves that it wasn't the man who's been convicted. The scenes are beautifully filmed (I think I read that the location was someplace in Eastern Europe, but it's quite believable as 19th-century New York), with more style and detail than in most period shows. Dakota Fanning is the only member of the cast who's familiar to me--she's the first female to be employed by the NYPD, hacking away at her complicated typewriter and working herself into the investigation (naturally, a romance is already blooming between her and the journalist, but it's got a way to go yet). I'm looking forward to next week, marking it on my calendar so I don't forget and end up with Rachel Maddow as usual.
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Syd
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:36 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
You have ample opportunity to see it. They're repeating it five times at least during the week.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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carrobin
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
Alec Baldwin's best line as "Trump" in SNL's opening sketch tonight:
"I'm running the country like a business--a Waffle House at 2 a.m."
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Syd
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:54 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Blindspot lost its big plotline involving Shepherd (thank God), but Roman (Jane's stepbrother) is carrying on. I was glad to get rid of Shepherd, who was annoying, and Roman's created interesting plot lines (although how he knows what he knows is an interesting question). Unfortunately the plot line in which he figures is a crashing bore which begs to be fast-forwarded through, which is a problem since he may well resolve the season's major conflict.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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Syd
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:22 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
watched Station 19, which seemed pretty incoherent plot wise, but was still entertaining. I don't see how you can sustain this for a whole season. "Grey's Anatomy" has the advantage that there are an infinite number of plot lines you can do in medicine, but I think after a few episode, this will run out of plots, and quite a few of them were exhausted in the pilot.

That said, I'm rooting for fireman Miller and the sexy girl with the "defective" smoke alarm. The show has an appealing cast, including Ben Warren from Grey's Anatomy, and shows Tucker Bailey as an intelligent kid who will use radical means to solve medical crises, just like his stepfather.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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carrobin
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
Having missed the first two episodes, I caught the new "Roseanne" tonight. I never watched it originally--I think it was slotted against something I liked better. Anyway, tonight's episode had nothing to do with politics, focusing on Roseanne's spoiled granddaughter, and although I love John Goodman, the rest of the characters just annoyed me, as did the laugh track (maybe it's a live audience, but it's still distracting). And Roseanne herself is hard to watch, not to mention her loud strident voice. In fact, everyone seemed to be too loud, as if it were an off-off-Broadway play in a too-large theater.

Incidentally, I read about Roseanne's love of weird conspiracy theories like pizzagate, and her belief that Trump has heroically rescued scores of children that were kidnapped for pornography. The most unbelievable thing about that idea is that Trump wouldn't be bragging about it.
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knox
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 11:45 am Reply with quote
Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1245 Location: St. Louis
Anyone see the news about the shooting this morning in Nashville, and think of the season 2 opener of Fargo?

I really hope this lunatic wasn't somehow inspired to pick a Waffle House by watching that series.
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carrobin
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 7:41 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
knox wrote:
Anyone see the news about the shooting this morning in Nashville, and think of the season 2 opener of Fargo?

I really hope this lunatic wasn't somehow inspired to pick a Waffle House by watching that series.


It does strike me as a very Coen Brothers crime--bizarre enough to make you laugh if people hadn't been killed. Can't help wondering why the killer took off his jacket, unless he figured it would make him stand out in a crowd.
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Syd
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 9:39 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Damn, it's good to have Elementary back.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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carrobin
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:17 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
A few weeks ago I found "The Bletchley Circle" on the Ovation channel. I had missed it on PBS because it was up against something else I liked, but it pulled me in immediately this time. Postwar London, four women whose brains and skills had made them respected code crackers at Bletchley (but they still couldn't tell anyone else), looking for a serial killer whose "pattern" one had discerned in the newspapers. I just caught the final episode tonight, and it was a winner--except that our smart sharp heroine went to see the killer alone and didn't tell the others, which gave me that stupid-move-for-dramatic-scene feeling. Fortunately the other three were smart as well.

My friend who likes to put TV stuff on disk sent me the series a few months back, but I hadn't gotten around to watching. I think I'll catch up with it now.
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billyweeds
Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 11:14 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Killing Eve on BBC America is a thriller, a psychological study, and a dark comedy all in one, and features standout work by the two leading ladies Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in the tale of a detective (Oh) tracking a psycho serial killer/paid assassin (Comer). It's one of a kind and almost without peer on television.
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bartist
Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 10:49 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
I must watch it, if only to finally learn what is the difference between MI5 and MI6. No, really, it sounds good, though usually anything with "psycho serial killer" in the plot causes me to flee. This serial killer, however, appears to be much cuter than your standard American serial killer, and appeals to an inherent bias I have.

Rotten tomates gives it 100 percent "fresh," so there's that.

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Syd
Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 12:06 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Leigh's got me watching Instinct, starring Alan Cummings as a gay police consultant. There were two episodes tonight, the first of which struck me as pretty good (though the solution was pretty mundane). It was how they got to the solution that made it work.

The second episode didn't work for me. I know we have a master villiain executing his evil plan, but what exactly was the evil plan that was foiled?

Not an awful show, but Cummings is the only really interesting character, and he's not interesting enough to carry the series.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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bartist
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Some review warned me off, called it an underwhelming procedural. Also I tend to like it more when actors play a little against type. I don't like thinking of producers saying, "okay, the lead is gay and consultant on legal matters.... Alan Cumming, of course! " I liked The Good Wife for awhile but no need felt to follow the trajectories of supporting cast. I guess there's a web series, too, that continues on with Diane. Some things just need to over when they're over.

Sheesh, I'm so opinionated today.

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carrobin
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:19 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
On a "Boston Legal" repeat this afternoon, I caught an end-of-show balcony discussion between Alan Shore and Denny Crane in which Denny expressed an interest in becoming president. (There had been much argument about politics during the show--it was the Dubya years, with a lot to criticize.) Alan was skeptical, but asked what he'd do if he were; Denny said he'd attack Cuba and take all the cigars, then bomb Iran. Alan said he'd settle for someone who would bring dignity and intelligence back to the office (which annoyed Denny). It was interesting to consider that the Bush years were followed by Obama, who actually did bring dignity and intelligence--only to be succeeded by the undignified ignoramus (who so resembles Denny Crane but without the charm) we have now. I'll bet David E. Kelley wishes he could start the series up again.
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