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    Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
    Finished Starstruck last night. A really entertaining and well-done romantic comedy, six episodes long. Rose Matafeo is a woman in her late 20s floundering in some low-paying unrewarding jobs. On New Years' Eve she goes home with a guy she met in a bar...in the morning she discovers he's a movie star. The whole arc of the show might be a bit predictable--crossed emotional signals leading to conflicts that should be easily resolved but lead to both people rejecting each other, will they/won't they, etc.--but Matafeo's screen presence is worth watching alone, and it's funny without being overly sweet or mean to its characters. Some really nice cinematography and an occasional jazz score that I liked.
    I was on the ground floor with Rose Matafeo. I listened to her podcast and watched some of her early Youtubes. I'm glad to see she's "broken through." Not a lot of New Zealanders become big stars in the northern Hemisphere.

    But I don't think I'll persist with the show. I'm just getting old such that the romantic troubles of people in their 20s no longer interests me. It didn't really interest me very much when I was in my 20s either, but at least I could relate to the work parts of those shows. Now, I'd rather just forget about what it was like to have sketchy roomates and a customer-service job.

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      Started the final season of Kim's Convenience on Netflix. Was a bit apprehensive after some behind the scenes stuff came out on various sites recently. But it's still funny and sweet.

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        I saw 'Nobody' over the weekend, the geriaction movie starring Bob Odenkirk and by the same writer as the John Wick films.

        It was enjoyable but not as good as I was expecting and nowhere near the quality of the Wick trilogy. There are many elements of a very good genre film but a lot seems to have been lost in the edit and the relatively inexperienced director appears to have done a pretty ham-fisted job.

        Certain characters and plot points are thrown in with no real explanation and the pace is very stop/start. The set up in the first half of the film is too long and slow while the climax seems dashed off.

        Odenkirk is very good as is his nemesis Aleksei Serebryakov but I would really like to see it recut by a more skilled director.
        Last edited by Ray de Galles; 16-06-2021, 11:54.

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          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
          Was a bit apprehensive after some behind the scenes stuff came out on various sites recently.
          Yeah, a whole world of grief came pouring out as soon as the non-renewal was announced.

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            Just started the Scottish thriller/drama/comedy Guilt last night. Loved it from the first scene. Mark Bonnar as entertaining as ever. It was already good, then got better when Ellie Haddington appeared in the final scene.

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              I am currently ploughing through Jessica Jones on Netflix.

              ​​​​​​I am usually the last person to watch anything Marvel or superhero comic related. But this is really rather good.

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                The first season of that was good. I don't recall anything about season 2. I found the character to be a bit "one note."

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                  Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                  I am currently ploughing through Jessica Jones on Netflix.

                  ​​​​​​I am usually the last person to watch anything Marvel or superhero comic related. But this is really rather good.
                  Yeah. The last Marvel series I watched from beginning to end (and there probably won't be another as I'm not shelling out for Disney+.)

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                    I find it more useful than Netflix. But HBOMax is by far the best.

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                      I don't think HBOMax is available here, but like Hulu, their stuff eventually shows up on Crave (I believe.)

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                        It's not just the HBO shows that make it valuable. It's the massive library of old movies. And soon, they'll have all the Discover reality shows and docuseries too, although that's not really my thing.

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                          Nor mine. I normally watch TV for a maximum of two hours a day (football tournaments excepted.) I really don't want, or need, any more choices.

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                            I started a rewatch of The Expanse last week.
                            Just gone past the season 3 mid point.
                            Although I'd watched season 1 a couple of times I've not rewatched the rest.
                            Blum and flip it's a fantastic piece of tv. Not only does it look spectacular (certainly by season 3) but the character development is brilliant. Amos, Bobby and Avasarala have all the best lines of course. There's a pace and energy to the show even when not much is happening on screen.
                            And the science is realistic, so no warp drives etc.

                            I don't think there's another show on TV so effortlessly representative either. Of the 6 major characters 3 are women all with different back stories (engineer, marine, politician) all of whom are of different ethnic backgrounds. One of the men is BAME and one comes from a family where he has 8 parents. Same sex relationships happen as a matter of course not as a plot point.
                            All of this just is, because it's the future innit? There are different battles to fight.
                            If you in any way like sci fi and haven't seen The Expanse then you really REALLY should.

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                              Even if you don't particularly like sci-fi, (like me) it's worth watching.

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                                Critics might point out that, despite all the diversity, Holden, the one straight white cis American guy in the group, is portrayed as the leader and the conscience of the group. But I find that the show is a bit less-focused on him. And, as Hobbes points out, he's the son of eight people.

                                The unstated premise is that the racism and ethnic categories that we're familiar with will disappear in the next 200 years only to be replaced by new prejudices and categories. Its both reassuring and sad simultaneously.

                                The books also point out that the Belters look noticeably different than Earthers and Martians. They're tall and skinny due to the lack of gravity. But the authors didn't want to play that up in the show because they thought the audience would then think of them as "aliens" like the Klingons or Romulans in Star Trek, which would make it harder for the audience to empathize with them.


                                * In season one, there is one young belter woman played by a very tall and thin actress - presumably a fashion model - but none of the other belters look like that.

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                                  There was a sequence of Avasarala overseeing torture of a belter where they really emphasised the lanky freakery- not sure if that's the character HP was referring to..?

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                                    Oh right. I forgot about that.

                                    I was thinking about this woman.

                                    https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Sara_Mitich

                                    Perhaps they started trying to cast actors who look like volleyball players but then realized that was limiting their options and certainly didn’t want to use cgi on them.

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                                      Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                      * In season one, there is one young belter woman played by a very tall and thin actress - presumably a fashion model - but none of the other belters look like that.
                                      Drummer is pretty thin, though not tall.

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                                        Incidentally, Sara Mitich (Gia in season 1) has played two different regular characters in Star Trek Disco.

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                                          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                          Critics might point out that, despite all the diversity, Holden, the one straight white cis American guy in the group, is portrayed as the leader and the conscience of the group. But I find that the show is a bit less-focused on him. And, as Hobbes points out, he's the son of eight people.
                                          He's also, by far and away, the most boring and least interesting character in it.

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                                            He’s a little more interesting in the text, but mainly he’s just an avatar for the audience’s perspective.

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                                              Anyone watching Loki? I'm enjoying it so far, not as much as Wandavision but I prefer it to Falcon.

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                                                Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I didn't really see the point of a Loki series when it was originally announced, but I like it a lot. It works well both as a character/actor showcase and a set-up for the next big "phase" of Marvel films and shows.

                                                I also really liked Wandavision. A lot of people didn't like the end, but I thought it was satisfying.

                                                Falcon and the Winter Soldier was fine, but seemed to be much more about just connecting the story from Avengers to whatever is next* rather than being especially interesting on its own.

                                                *And appeasing fans that insist that everything conform to the way it was in the comics.

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                                                  Originally posted by Tratorello View Post

                                                  He's also, by far and away, the most boring and least interesting character in it.
                                                  He doesn't have the interesting story of some of them, but boring is over-stating it rather.

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                                                    We watched The Highwaymen, a formulaic but enjoyable film where Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson play #outofretirementforonelastjob Texas Rangers hunting Bonnie and Clyde. Not another out-of-retirement jobbie I thought, but it’s basically true. Costner and Harrelson try to out-grizzle one another but it’s nicely done.

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