Current Watching

[Jon]

Kids ages 7-13 or so, won’t like it. The educational parts will be too basic while the comedy will mostly go over their heads. But I recall that by the time I was teenager, I understood the comic timing and appreciated the characters.

Yes, I first saw it in my teens - Channel 4 were showing it, I think - and I instantly got it and loved it.

When my son was born I bought 2 Sesame Street box sets, covering the first ten years or so and we watched them constantly for a year or so.

What is the name of the documentary, HP?

[Hot Pepsi]

Yes, I first saw it in my teens - Channel 4 were showing it, I think - and I instantly got it and loved it.

When my son was born I bought 2 Sesame Street box sets, covering the first ten years or so and we watched them constantly for a year or so.

What is the name of the documentary, HP?

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

The doc mentions that, early on, a lot of college students were watching it. It was so different than anything anyone had seen. It was trippy.


Henson's company sold The Muppets to Disney a while back and, as has frustrated a lot of fans, they haven't really done much with that. More coming, apparently.

Apparently, Jim Henson had planned to do that even before he died because he just wanted to focus more on the creative end of things. However, he insisted on splitting-off the Sesame Street characters and, at the time, Disney didn't want to do that.

But eventually, a few years ago, they managed to figure out how to do that. So Sesame Workshop (formerly The Children's Television Workshop) is still a completely separate non-profit entity in New York.

I don't know how that applies to characters that crossed over, like Kermit. I suspect they have some kind of licensing deal like they do with Sony and Spider-Man.

They have had financial issues from time to time, but then they kinda sold out to WB by agreeing to put Sesame Street on HBO a few months before the episodes appear on PBS. As selling-out goes, that's probably fine. It gives them a lot more money and a bigger audience. They also just put their episodes on YouTube, which is probably the format most little kids are most interested in and I can't imagine a four-year-old being upset that the richer kid in their class got to see an episode before they did.

At that age, I had no concept that the episodes were recorded. I assumed it was live.


I also learned that they got sued for this one:

[Uncle Ethan]

I am getting fed up with mixed up timelines. As an occasional device it's fine, but telling a linear story is really okay.

[ad hoc]

I agree wholeheartedly, Ray. This is great to see at the cinema, just as you'd expect. To my shame, I've never seen the original film version nor seen it on the stage. How does it compare to the original?

I haven't seen the new film but I would definitely recommend the old one. It's brilliant. (So good, in fact, that I'm sort of reluctant to see the new one, though eventually, when I get the chance, I imagine I probably will)

[ad hoc]

Oh, it can be enjoyable. Everything is enjoyable to someone... snuff movies, donkey porn, you name it. Satire though, like propaganda, has a particular agenda: "the use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc. to expose folly or vice, or to lampoon an individual." says the OED. It has to fulfill those qualities above anything else. In relatively complacent times, there are matching targets. Network, which I enjoyed too, was released during those times. Post-Nixon USA, everyone was taking a breath. It was not a time for hard-core satire. Easy to to poke fun, sure, but it didn't seem much was at stake. Gerald Ford, for example, was a very soft target. The mid-60s and right now, were/are very different. We need the hard-stuff. If anything Don't Look Up, was too scattered in its focus, well made but not quite coherent or angry enough. A good start, but better needs to be done, and done soon.

Agree with all of this

[Patrick Thistle]

Bit late but we watched the first episode of The Outlaws last night. It hits a lot of tropes but went slightly differently to how I expected. Weirdly, the one character who seemed superfluous was Stephen Merchant's. Also, nice to see shots of Bristol.

[WOM]

I don't know whether I should have mentioned Yellowstone in the Best TV of 2021 thread. I still really enjoy it. I think probably 20% for the storyline, 20% because I like Beth's character, and 60% for the cinematography.

We're almost to the end of S1. My God, is it ever the Toxic Masculinity Handbook. Enjoyable, but in many ways worse than Billions. At least Billions' toxicity is played for effect. Conservatives all over the US must watch this and nod in agreement all the way through.

[Uncle Ethan]

1883 - the precursor to Yellowstone apparently - is quite good. The actual Yellowstone contains far too much killing of animals for my liking.

[Hot Pepsi]

We're almost to the end of S1. My God, is it ever the Toxic Masculinity Handbook. Enjoyable, but in many ways worse than Billions. At least Billions' toxicity is played for effect. Conservatives all over the US must watch this and nod in agreement all the way through.

It started with a horse having to be put down, so I shut it off and don't plan to go back.

[Tony C]

I’ve enjoyed the first two episodes of The Tourist on BBC1. I think the full series is on iplayer.

[Sunderporinostesta]

Binged The Tourist (bbc), six episodes over two nights. Bloke comes around with Amnesia in Aussie outback. Great premise with plenty of twists and turns but some obvious loopholes. I’m not really sure what else I think of it tbh. Good not great, though the scenery is spectacular.

[Tony C]

Binged The Tourist (bbc), six episodes over two nights. Bloke comes around with Amnesia in Aussie outback. Great premise with plenty of twists and turns but some obvious loopholes. I’m not really sure what else I think of it tbh. Good not great, though the scenery is spectacular.

After two episodes I’m actually more drawn to the story of the young female police officer and her dysfunctional relationship than the titular character.

[Hot Pepsi]

That sounds good. Not available here yet, apparently.

[Amor de Cosmos]

We're almost to the end of S1. My God, is it ever the Toxic Masculinity Handbook. Enjoyable, but in many ways worse than Billions. At least Billions' toxicity is played for effect. Conservatives all over the US must watch this and nod in agreement all the way through.

SB and I are both fans (see scattered references up-thread) and, as it goes, it's one of the two shows La Signora insists I don't watch until she gets back from Texas, so we can catch up together. Your "toxic masculinity" comment is well off-base I'm afraid. Beth Dutton, the daughter of ranch owner John Dutton, is far and away the the strongest character in the show. A consistently blistering performance by Kelly Reilly (who's British, believe it or not) the series is worth watching just for her. There are other female characters, including ranch-hands, who are no pushovers either.

Overall the show is an odd-mix of the elegiac and violent, which don't always mesh successfully. But as a modern Western — which it basically is — it's more than decent.

[San Bernardhinault]

The politics of it that I find most offputting, if that's the word, is the way that it's aligned the reactionary ranchers with the Native Americans as people who used to not get along but who are both now allied against Coastal Money and outsiders ruining the lovely Montanan way of life. Implying that they're two sides of the same coin, rather than diametrically opposed.

[WOM]

By toxic masculinity, I'm talking about all the constant 'a man oughtta...' and 'a man needs to...' bullshit, and all the fetishizing of land and taking land and keeping off land. All that isn't undone by one or two strong women. That's on top of all the constant 'outsider' bashing, right down to predictable jokes about how they like their coffee. I'm not saying it's a bad show, but it wears its politics on its sleeve.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The politics of it that I find most offputting, if that's the word, is the way that it's aligned the reactionary ranchers with the Native Americans as people who used to not get along but who are both now allied against Coastal Money and outsiders ruining the lovely Montanan way of life. Implying that they're two sides of the same coin, rather than diametrically opposed.

That's true, but I guess I don't find it that off-putting. AFAIK it's a fairly realistic POV. Many native bands see opportunities in outside development, but many don't. It's probably a case of "the devil you know" in the latter case. In this province it's oil and gas interests, rather resort building, that ranchers and first nations oppose, but the alliances are similar. Dramatically the introduction of the environmental activists in the current season adds a valid third element.

[Amor de Cosmos]

By toxic masculinity, I'm talking about all the constant 'a man oughtta...' and 'a man needs to...' bullshit, and all the fetishizing of land and taking land and keeping off land. All that isn't undone by one or two strong women. That's on top of all the constant 'outsider' bashing, right down to predictable jokes about how they like their coffee. I'm not saying it's a bad show, but it wears its politics on its sleeve.

Yeah. But that doesn't bother me too much. I'm not looking to have my opinions reinforced by everything I watch or read. I'd rather the opposite TBH.

[slackster]

Just started Stay Close on Netflix. Cush Jumbo is always great, Mrs. S is enjoying seeing Richard Armitage* who is her favourite, and it’s decently made. But like the other two recent series by Harlan Coben (Safe and The Stranger) I find them complicated for the sake of it, and with the faintest whiff of cheesiness I can’t explain.

*Mrs. S has decided Armitage has a portrait in his attic, as (now 50) he looks the same as he did in Sparkhouse (2002) and as Guy of Gisborne (2006-9).

I’ve never read a Harlan Coben book, but the fact he gets the Stephen King treatment with his name above the TV adaptations title suggests he must be a in the superleague of writers. I’ve been forced to watch The Stranger, Safe and now Stay Close, as it’s the sort of formulaic drama the mother in law enjoys.

All are set in well-off suburbia, all involve secrets, disappearances, murders and ridiculous character connections to move the plot along at a gallop. None are badly done, and ok viewing if you don’t fancy engaging your brain for a bit, but the twists are all exceptionally silly and the episodic reveals as red herrings are ticked off and the villains finally unmasked are pretty laughable.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yeah. That about nails them. His name above the credits implies "Don't Bother." I think he has some sort of "quantity over quality" deal with Netflix, his stuff appears there rather than anywhere else I've noticed.

[San Bernardhinault]

I tried watching Finch a couple of days ago - post apocalyptic robot drama - but just couldn't get on with it at all. The robot was just immeasurably annoying. It was as if someone decided to remake Castaway but with Wilson played by the most irritating version of an irritating child that you could picture. I'm sure that's the whole point, but it was so grating, and at the same time somehow patronising to children, that I had to switch off.

[Ray de Galles]

I agree wholeheartedly, Ray. This is great to see at the cinema, just as you'd expect. To my shame, I've never seen the original film version nor seen it on the stage. How does it compare to the original?

Comparisons are always invidious but the original is certainly a must see. Elements of it are quite clearly problematic fifty years on but putting those aside it has a definite case to be the best musical ever.

[Sits]

On Harlan Coben, is there any significance in the fact the books are all set in the US but the series have been made in the UK? Suggests to me the desired level of studio clout was not forthcoming.

[ad hoc]

The Lost Daughter on Netflix. Still processing it a bit. Great performance by Olivia Coleman (and also by the actress that plays the younger version of Coleman's character). It's one of those films that is cinema (by which I mean the kind of film where one discusses the cinematography and direction* rather than the plot). I may need to watch it again.

(*Maggie Gyllenhaal's debut as director)

[Slightly Brown]

After two episodes I’m actually more drawn to the story of the young female police officer and her dysfunctional relationship than the titular character.

Yeah, she’s great. Reminds me a bit of Marge from Fargo (different relationship dynamic, though). The show’s started well. I’ve never been a huge Doran fan, but he’s good in this. He’s got the handsome/mysterious thing down pat. Oh, and Dewey from Justified is in it.