Current Watching

[Femme Folle]

I was on assignment at a client's site in one of the iconic twin towers for about 18 months.

[Satchmo Distel]

Paranoid is an uneven anti-Pharma British police series. Decent cast, two fairly engaging romantic subplots, but a somewhat clumsy script. The scenes shot in Düsseldorf are badly integrated into the plot and I couldn't take Christiane Paul's flat performance as the German detective seriously. I would say 'avoid'.

[slackster]

Watched the 1st part of A Very English Scandal on the beeb iplayer last night. Hugh Grant was excellent as Jeremy Thorpe.

Also took a look at a Peter Kaye Car Share Unscripted episode. Not seen any of the earlier ones, but thought it very funny. Sian Gibson - who I can’t recall watching in anything else - is a great foil too.

[Satchmo Distel]

Struggled with first episode of The Split, about a family of divorce lawyers. The writing did not make me care what was happening.

[Benjm]

We bailed on The Split after and episode and a half. The characterisation seemed too schematic and they were all pretty dislikeable to boot.

[Ginger Yellow]

Started watching Missions, the French sci-fi mystery show about a manned mission to Mars. It's an odd one, as it's ostensibly trying to be on the hard rather than pulpy end of the spectrum (albeit with a touch of JJ), but whenever it does anything sciencey it either cocks it up royally or does it in the most facile manner (eg let's establish our character as a psychologist by having them do the marshmallow experiment - the most dumbed down version imaginable). I'm still going to stick around for a bit as the episodes are short and it's something of a novelty to watch a high production value Francophone sci-fi show, but I suspect I'm going to get angrier and angrier as it continues. It's possible it could be redeemed by the horror/fantasy elements that are being introduced, which is a shame, as I'm still looking for a good hard-ish sci-fi show other than the Expanse (which is also getting more supernatural as it goes).

[Femme Folle]

Just watched the last episode ever of The Americans. I thought they ended it well--although I still have questions. It wasn't a lame ending that made me feel let down after investing all that time and interest. I would have enjoyed another season, but I think it's good when shows end while they're still good--if that makes sense. It's not often these days that a show gets to decide when it ends. Most of the shows I like are unmercifully cancelled just when they're getting interesting.

Goodnight, The Americans, and thanks for showing us what it's like to be infiltrated by Russians. We needed that.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw a good French film last night- Jeune femme. Chose that over Solo- I really can't be bothered.

[Benjm]

Chose that over Solo- I really can't be bothered.

You and many others, according to an item on the news the other day, although the weekend take that they mentioned still sounded fairly tidy to me.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Well, as Kermode spells out in one of his books I skimmed, the distribution scale and marketing millions mean even a disastrous word-of-mouth flop takes huge amounts on an opening weekend before it dips.

Example that springs to mind is Da Vinci Code

[Ginger Yellow]

You and many others, according to an item on the news the other day, although the weekend take that they mentioned still sounded fairly tidy to me.

Well below expectations and possibly not enough to break even after marketing costs.

[ian.64]

Watched the 1st part of A Very English Scandal on the beeb iplayer last night. Hugh Grant was excellent as Jeremy Thorpe.

He's terrific, as are the rest of the cast, and that goes for the writing and direction - it's all top notch. I read one reviewer who liked it but hoped it wouldn't go too 'comic', but it's pitched perfectly and it would probably be a less satisfying (and completely different) watch if done totally seriously. Looking forward to part three.

[WOM]

Well below expectations and possibly not enough to break even after marketing costs.

Ron Howard seems to have a long record of movies that should have been huge but ended up doing relatively weak box office business.

[Hot Pepsi]

Well below expectations and possibly not enough to break even after marketing costs.

I doubt that. It will make it up over time.

It's pretty good. I think it didn't do so well because of the time of year and perhaps competition.

[Ginger Yellow]

It will almost certainly break even and maybe even make a healthy profit once non-box office revenues are taken into account (though I'm not sure how much Solo-specific merch they'll actually sell), but if that $400m-$450m forecast is accurate it will fall some way short on box office alone.Bear in mind the studio doesn't get all that money.

[Arturo]

Watched the 1st part of A Very English Scandal on the beeb iplayer last night. Hugh Grant was excellent as Jeremy Thorpe.

He's terrific, as are the rest of the cast, and that goes for the writing and direction - it's all top notch. I read one reviewer who liked it but hoped it wouldn't go too 'comic', but it's pitched perfectly and it would probably be a less satisfying (and completely different) watch if done totally seriously. Looking forward to part three.

It's great, and we're really enjoying watching this. I just hope the last part doesn't tail off.

[Fussbudget]

Well below expectations and possibly not enough to break even after marketing costs.

Holy shit, I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore but the absolute state of the comments under that article.

[Benjm]

Of course the failure of the Han Solo spin off project is down to the eponymous female lead character. What else could it be?

[Satchmo Distel]

The comments seem to assume that sci-fi films can't make money if they do not pander to racist white males. History says otherwise.

[San Bernardhinault]

I agree with FF on the ending of the Americans. Very nicely done. I have thoughts but they would be spoilery for anyone who's not seen it yet.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yeah, I could've done without the contribution of U2 and Dire Straits in the last twenty minutes, but overall a really sensitive conclusion.

[Snake Plissken]

Is there a topical comedy show out there that doesn't have Sara Pascoe and/or Katherine Ryan on it?

[Femme Folle]

Yeah, I could've done without the contribution of U2 and Dire Straits in the last twenty minutes, but overall a really sensitive conclusion.

I understand what you're saying, but contextually, the songs were appropriate for those moments. Just be thankful they didn't use "Russians".

[San Bernardhinault]

Yeah, I agree with FF on this one. They felt like they were appropriate, no matter how much they'd upset the cooler among us.

I'm going to be a bit SPOILERY here:

**
[spoiler]
One thing I really like was how the ending wasn't made explicit but you kind of knew it. When they saw Paige on the platform they couldn't go back. You realised this when they met up with Arkady. Which they needed to do to put an end to the coup planning. And we know they were successful, too, because we know history.[/spoiler]

[tracteurgarcon]

Holy shit, I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore but the absolute state of the comments under that article.

I love how they are all hot under the collar about the new films being SJW (Social Justice Warrior) films as if the originals weren't about a band of do-gooders fighting against an evil, all powerful Empire...