Finished Peaky Blinders. Really enjoyed the series even though it had some down moments. Not many shows or movies focus on the aftermath of WW1 and just how brutal that war was and what it did to people.

Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson are just next-level actors. The cinematography on this show is just off the charts too. The camera angles, subtle shots, everything is so detailed.

The scene below for instance. His reflection, the closeups, the cuts to the kid running from multiple angles. The camera moving with Tommy as his head moves. This is just stuff you don't see out of TV shows today (or most movies).

The music is also awesome. It really is a fantastic show.

I just recommended it to someone as their next watch, with the caveat that they do hit a lull in the season or two before the end but that they recovered and paid off nicely.

Hopefully, they are just floating this out there as a bit of a test balloon to gauge people’s reactions and will adjust accordingly, because some of the ideas are really dumb and incredibly inconvenient.

The seasons are short enough that it's not too bad. I kind of like the 6 episode pacing.

One other thing is this show made smoking look cooler than any marketing tactic tobacco companies have ever tried. Couple more seasons and I might have taken up smoking.

I have NOT come back into this thread to bitch about Netflix's soon-to-be PW sharing policy. At least not until it officially comes from Netflix's own PR team. ALTHOUGH... I did receive an email yesterday about the fact that Netflix added all sorts of benefits to my premium plan, which is a sure sign the other shoe is about to drop. One of those benefits was:

Stream on 4 devices at a time
Anyone who lives with you can watch.

Yep. It's coming.

Anyway, I came here to post about watching Volcano, the 90+ minute documentary about the December 2019 volcano eruption just off the coast of New Zealand. I'm sure I heard about it at the time, but I confess, I didn't remember anything about it at all.

Coming on the heels of watching the Everest earthquake/avalanche documentary, I decided to check it out. At just one super-size episode, it was tightly packed and, to me, packed even more of a gut punch/emotional reaction. Perhaps it's because the scale of the tragedy was small enough to wrap my mind around. I mean, thousands died in Nepal and the stories were harrowing, tragic and amazing, but this one packed it all in about 90+ minutes and it was easier to identify with some of the people.

I thought they did a good job telling the stories and interviewing a representative cross-section of people affected - the SC newlywed couple who went to White Island as a cruise excursion, the family of 4 who did the same (only 1 surviving), a father and his daughter who were just leaving the island when the eruption happened, several tour guides (only one of which lived), local Maori people (including the mother of one of the guides who died), some of the post-explosion heroes who flew into the danger to attempt to rescue people, etc.

In the end, 47 people were on the island when it erupted and 22 died. The SC couple survived but both are significantly burned. The teen/early 20s young man whose parents and sister died and appears to be the last survivor pulled from the island and came out of it as the most inspirational story of all of those featured (although they all have amazing wills to live, or gave their lives heroically).

Because it was so tightly-packed, it really only had time to set the seen, tell the stories of how the main featured people came to that point, and then it was a point-by-point re-telling of the disaster and the immediate aftermath, complete with audio and visual evidence as it all happened (similar to the video of the avalanche in Earthquake). There was clearly an element of the story that they only touched on and didn't get into, which was how the tours and the cruise excursion info downplayed any real danger and that many people/organizations ought to be held responsible. That came out in some of the interviews and a summary statement flashed on the screen at the end, but that was the extent of it.

Anyway, good way to spend about 100 minutes if you can prepare yourself for the emotional element. The perverse part is, nature is so beautiful even when it's doing terrible things to humans, that it was still breathtaking to watch the destruction as it happened.

OK, so when are they rolling out the password sharing thing? I'm too lazy to hunt it down online.

I ask because my folks are on my account and I need to transfer them over (or whatever) before it happens because if they miss an episode of The Great British Baking Show there's going to be hell to pay.

I don't know if there's a specific date yet, other than some online references to March. I don't think the company has sent out any official communications yet.

Here's a USA Today article that sums up everything we think we know:

Netflix password sharing crackdown is coming. What you need to know.

It's interesting that Netflix is the first to take a harder stance on this since they're only streaming service that makes money. Most of the others are losing billions a quarter. Something has to give eventually. I guess these services will consolidate and some will fail, but there are not enough paying subscribers to pay for the content that's being produced, not even close. This is kind of the golden age of reckless spending on content creation and acquisitions.

Wife and I are getting through 1923. It is good but not as good as Yellowstone or 1883.

We are almost done with season 2 of White Lotus. Really enjoying it. Better than season 1.

We are watching Moon Knight with our almost 3 year old. Only 1 1/2 episodes in but so far it has me hooked.

Absolutely. A lot of this prestige TV, especially Apple & Amazon, is being paid for out of profits from other parts of the parent company.

Edit: this was a reply to molson.

It's a market share battle. The winner is the one who loses the least amount of money, but can corner the market.

You see it in aviation too. New airlines, with new planes, and new crews barely have any overhead, come into a market to attack it and undercut pricing. Legacy carriers attack markets by flooding them with seats at a loss using profits elsewhere to make up for it, and protect their market share, and make it unsustainable for new carriers to handle it.

We fell into a couple months of free Apple+ over the holidays and just wrapped up season 1 of Ted Lasso. I don't think I'm saying anything new here but great show, 10/10. Jacked for season 2, and disappointed that our trial membership will run out before season 3 (which was probably Apple's evil plan - kudos to them).

It the best show to come out in several years IMO. Hits every note.

I just watched the trailer for "Mel Brooks History of the World Part II". It is going to be 4 nights on Hulu. I cannot wait.

I can't believe that Hulu cancelled Reboot. It was such a great show all around, with big critical praise. I was really looking forward to more of it.

Agreed. I thought it was a good show that really found it gained traction more as it went on.

88% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes but only 68% with regular people. I suspect that might be an indication of why it ended up axed.

This SNL sketch from this weekend reminded me of the exchange we had here about the absurd amount of streaming money-losing content that nobody can keep up with anymore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2G9QePGoI

Though, that wasn't the best thing on SNL this weekend, which was this (Mario movie trailer with Pedro Pascal)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2G9QePGoI

So many companies are losing so much money to make kindof good TV. Usually when people start talking about their favorite shows now, it's like "I love this show because X is good", which the little bit unsaid that everything else isn't quite up to snuff. It's a more uneven watching experience.

Because there is so much TV, talent is spread thin and the floor on a number of aspects of shows is lower. So many have a couple of hooks to draw people in but are mediocre in so many more qualities. Like, there will one show with a couple of good actors but the production values are hot garbage, another where the effects look cool and has a neat premise but everything else is mediocre at best, and one with a good, witty script but no one who can act it. Whereas, in the past, maybe that script, effects team, and the two actors are together in the same show on some network.

SI

I've lamented this from a trivia perspective. Getting a handle on what was on TV from the 50s through the 90s is pretty doable, especially if you lived through the period (or got reruns from them). Nowadays it's just like wtf, if I've heard of it I've heard of it (but odds are I haven't watched it). Actors and roles, same deal. The proliferation is just too great.

Holy shit that latest episode of Last Of US.

Wow that was good.

Poker Face is fantastic. I strongly recommend it if you're into the mystery of the week type shows.

I just finished watching ep 3 of Poker Face. I'm not blown away but it's good. I thought ep 3 with Lil Rel was the best so far, even if it had direct nods to Columbo with the dog interplay and the key clue being a sound that wasn't heard in a recording (which featured in at least 2 Columbo's that I can think of off the top of my head). The first 2 eps had super-obvious clues, although I do like the twist on the "show the murder up-front" thing where it's out of sequence with other events. And the fact that it's an homage to Pulp Fiction which they show Charlie and the murder victim in ep 1 watching.

The next one has to do with a metal band so I'll probably love it.

I just finished 3 last night and I agree it's the best episode so far. I thought Adrien Brody and Benjamin Bratt were great in the first episode although the episode overall was good, not great.

They've landed some big names for single episode appearances. Looking forward to seeing Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ron Pearlman, Nick Nolte, ect.

It was cool to see John Ratzenberger in the 2nd episode and I guess Rhea Perlman is set to appear in one of these episodes as well.

Here's an article on how the Poker Face metal episode came to be:

How the "Rest in Metal" episode of Poker Face came together

Season 3 of Ted Lasso will premiere on March 15.

In addition to "The Last of Us"(which has been fantastic), I have been watching Season 2 of "Vox Machina" (Amazon Prime), which I really enjoyed. I've never listened to the "Critical Roll" podcast (and likely never will - there's just too much and I don't really enjoy watching/listening to other people role play), but the cartoon is great.

I, also, finally got around to watching "Alice In Borderland" (Netflix). I'm about halfway through season 2 (of 2) and am really enjoying it. It's a Japanese show based on a manga. The easiest way to describe it is that it's similar to "Squid Game" (it pre-dated Squid Game), in that it's largely about people participating against each other in extremely dangerous and fucked-up games to survive, but there's quite a bit more going on. It's a Mystery Box show, but I'm really enjoying it, despite not being too terribly invested into what the actual answers are. Good characters, super interesting "games", etc.

Our kids love Alice in Borderland. I think it is okay, although these days I'm not that crazy about super-violent content. We're just starting season 2.

That will dovetail nicely into my 3 month Apple TV running out on March 9th. Exactly what I expected when I received the offer.

No problem. Let free offer expire, wait until all of season 3 Ted Lasso has been broadcast, turn Apple TV on for one month, watch season 3, turn Apple TV off. :)

I'm living almost the exact same timeline. Sneaky Apple.

The movie God Forbid needs to shown in political science classes for decades to come.

Nobody told me that Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle came out.

This changes everything.

Watched Picard s3 first 2 episodes.

Not bad but not great either. Good to see some old characters again. The StarFleet Intel woman is a waste of story (so far at least).

Hope it gets better soon.

My mom watched Sins of the Mother about the Lori Vallow case (mom who along with her new husband killed her 2 kids and likely killed each other's spouses). I haven't watched it because the story is fairly recent and I followed it while it was happening.

However, my mom said that they showed video of the woman and new husband getting married in Hawaii and that the guy who officiated it was the same guy who officiated our vow renewal last summer on Kauai. So now I guess I'm gonna have to watch it.

ST Discovery is ending after this upcoming s5 in "early 2024". Am grateful for Discovery as it started the series of new ST series on Paramount. It's been a great time to be a streaming Star Trek fan.

No issue with cancelling Picard either. Am watching s3 and think its run its course also. Hope they have some sort of replacement for both but probably asking too much

Strange New Worlds is fantastic. Most like original ST series with more episodic shows vs Galaxy/Universe saving stuff.

We're three episodes in and struggling to finish the first season. I find it really hard to watch shows where all of the characters are "flawed" (aka conscious writing decision to make all of the characters completely unlikable and mostly unrelatable).

I also really don't get the acting plaudits for the show. Like 2/3rds of the cast got nominated for Primetime Emmys and I just don't see it. Murray Bartlett (Armond) has been excellent, Connie Britton (Nicole) has been very good, and Jennifer Coolidge (Tanya) has a really hard role to play to be so "much" yet not becoming cartoonish - it's a really fine line and she deserves a ton of credit for it.

But Jake Lacy (Shane) and Alexandra Daddario (Rachel) - you can replace them with a decent random meathead actor playing a spoiled rich manchild and doe-eyed (Zoe-eyed) lost 20-something woman from a number of romcoms and get the same effect. Same with Sydney Sweeney (Olivia) and Brittany O'Grady (Paula) - grab someone from central casting from a mean girls movie about rich kids from Cali and you can replicate those eye rolls, sarcasm, and general unlikableness without missing a beat. Natasha Worthwell (Belinda) is doing a fine job but it's a fairly simple part without much screentime and not much reach. Steve Zahn's (Mark) a tough one - it's a challenging role but it's also getting hammed up a bit, though I'm not sure if that's him or the writing. And 5 of those 6 also got nominations (O'Grady didn't). I'm not saying any of these people are actively bad and, if they were bad, they would stick out. I just don't think that, aside from Zahn, they're giving anything more than a standard reasonable primetime show performance.

Also, I get that, hey, we're only partway through so maybe my mind changes. And we'll probably stick it out because it's only 6 episodes. But, man, it's been a slog, and I don't think we're going to watch season 2 when there's so much other stuff we haven't seen.

SI

It took us a bit to get into it then we liked it. I actually think season two is better.

Sorry, lost me right there. No one can replace Alexandra Daddario for reasons.

Ted Lasso final season? WTF?

Okay, I can see the soccer guy schtick getting old but maybe one more season.

The eyes?

The eyes. Yes. Let's go with that.

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There's something to be said for a well-executed series that doesn't outstay its welcome.

Wife and I had this conversation this morning about that very thing. Way too many shows hang on too long and lose their charm.

Ted Lasso may be my favorite show of all time, so while I will miss it terribly I also won't have to watch a declining product out of obligation ( looking at you Dexter Morgan)

I could have sworn we once had a conversation here about what was the average number of seasons before a show started to lose it. QuikSand probably started it.

I feel once you get past 5 you're asking for trouble.

I haven't watched Ted Lasso, but the announcement that the upcoming Season 4 of Succession is bringing forth all the same feelings. I don't really want to see that (fantastic) show limp through the predictable weakened seasons 5...6...7...8... but at the same time I suspect a B- Season 7 of Succession would still be appointment television for me.

I know it’s not 9 or 10 seasons or however long the Goldbergs has been going.

Zombie Simpsons in its 34the season?

SI

Yeah, that one is going to be hard to let go.

Yeah, I feel 3-5 seasons is a nice sweet spot for a show. Very few shows that go beyond 5 seasons hold up.