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    But she was the one who tried to shoot the guy by the train and was diverting it to Paris and said something about how Trotsky could go to hell or whatever, right? Or was that a different character? Wasn't it her, in the guise of her male singer persona, who met with the Soviets to give them intel?

    SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOIL ERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•S POILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•

    It was all her, yes. But she has her own agenda, which won't fully emerge until the final episode.

    Who were the dudes that murdered all the Trots in the printers? Were they the proto-fascists? Or was that supposed to be ambiguous until later?

    They were Soviet goons.

    Comment


      Watched Tickled on Amazon Prime last night. A fascinating documentary that at times made me think "this must be a spoof". But it isn't -

      After stumbling upon a bizarre "competitive endurance tickling" video online, wherein young men are paid to be tied up and tickled, reporter David Farrier reaches out to request a story from the company. But the reply he receives is shocking-the sender mocks Farrier's sexual orientation and threatens extreme legal action should he dig any deeper. So, like any good journalist confronted by a bully, he does just the opposite: he travels to the hidden tickling facilities in Los Angeles and uncovers a vast empire, known for harassing and harming the lives of those who protest their involvement in these films.

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        The Chi is still very good, five episodes in. All-black cast except for two white feuding cops.

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          And the brothers who own the convenience store.

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            Fair enough. Also the chef (Dan) and Mr Gasca, drama teacher. I think what's impressive though is the screen time and the centrality of the main black characters. The "non-blacks" are guests in their world, so to speak, even moreso than in The Wire, which this resembles without yet being as good (it would need to establish a longevity and a heavier emphasis on the complexities of bureaucratic corruption than just the fairly orthodox conflict we get from the two white cops with different ethics we get so far).

            The women are also very well written and performed, which makes sense given that it's created by a woman, Lena Waithe. The challenge, I guess, is whether it can sustain a series idea beyond the current plot.
            Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 19-02-2018, 02:24.

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              The tension between them — ironically but clearly intentionally — is one of the more interesting side-plots in the show I think. As is the "dance" between Brandon and his white female supervisor(?) at the restaurant. The main plotline is strong but, as La Signora says, it's a bit like watching a slow-motion car-crash.

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                Brandon and the supervisor suffers from having a very good male actor in scenes with an actress who seems to have picked for her looks, with all due respect to her. The cops will be more interesting if they get to interact more with the main characters rather than just having their own feud.

                But as I said in my (edited) post, it depends how the creator, Lena Waithe, wants to develop it beyond this current plot. Her interviews indicate that she wants to weave the lives of several black male characters - to explore black masculinity as such - but that will be hard if the plots revolve around the usual guns, drugs and dodging the cops themes.

                My wife kinda agrees with La Signora - it seems rather slow and darkly lit, and also trying a bit too hard to be "look, we are serious black actors", i.e. self-consciously art-cinema theatrical.
                Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 19-02-2018, 02:47.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                  But she was the one who tried to shoot the guy by the train and was diverting it to Paris and said something about how Trotsky could go to hell or whatever, right? Or was that a different character? Wasn't it her, in the guise of her male singer persona, who met with the Soviets to give them intel?

                  SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOIL ERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•S POILERS•SPOILERS•SPOILERS•

                  It was all her, yes. But she has her own agenda, which won't fully emerge until the final episode.

                  Who were the dudes that murdered all the Trots in the printers? Were they the proto-fascists? Or was that supposed to be ambiguous until later?

                  They were Soviet goons.
                  Spoilers

                  I’m at the part where Lotte takes her friend to the swank rowing club with that guy who flaunts his dick everywhere. That’s just odd.

                  I figured that out about the Soviets murderinf the Trots. Or it was mentioned, maybe. But the police don’t seem to know that massacre happened. The drag queen they talked to in the club (or in da club, as the kids say) told them the location of the Trot’s hideout like it was an important secret. If any of them knew what had happened, they would have mentioned it.

                  Sorkina shoots Kadakow, but he doesn’t die. I assume that, at this point, she doesn’t know that. I suspect that she’s playing everyone off each other to get the gold or she’s a lost Romanoff or something. And now the not-dead-yet guy is recruiting the Armenian mob to get it, which seems sensible.

                  Meanwhile Rath and Ritter are trying to figure out whose using the porn to blackmail the mayor or something. I don’t see how that ties into the rest of it yet.

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                    Meanwhile Rath and Ritter are trying to figure out whose using the porn to blackmail the mayor or something. I don’t see how that ties into the rest of it yet.


                    [spoiler]It doesn't really, though it will eventually explain why Rath is in Berlin at all. There are several sub-plots and that's one of them[/spoiler]

                    I’m at the part where Lotte takes her friend to the swank rowing club with that guy who flaunts his dick everywhere. That’s just odd.

                    Not really, nude swimming was pretty standard among Nordic youth back then... maybe still is.

                    I figured that out about the Soviets murderinf the Trots. Or it was mentioned, maybe. But the police don’t seem to know that massacre happened. The drag queen they talked to in the club (or in da club, as the kids say) told them the location of the Trot’s hideout like it was an important secret. If any of them knew what had happened, they would have mentioned it.

                    [spoiler] At that point the cops don't know about the massacre at the printing works. But they're going to find out soon... [/spoiler]

                    Sorkina shoots Kadakow, but he doesn’t die. I assume that, at this point, she doesn’t know that. I suspect that she’s playing everyone off each other to get the gold or she’s a lost Romanoff or something. And now the not-dead-yet guy is recruiting the Armenian mob to get it, which seems sensible.

                    [spoiler] You're getting warm. Kadakow has nine lives. In fact I don't think we ever really find out what happens to him (if you see something I missed let me know!) I suspect he'll show up in a later series. [/spoiler]

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                      I’m at the part where Lotte takes her friend to the swank rowing club with that guy who flaunts his dick everywhere. That’s just odd.

                      Not really, nude swimming was pretty standard among Nordic youth back then... maybe still is.
                      Yeah, but he's the only one in the scene doing it.

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                        Yeah, 'cos he has the hots for Lotte (and who can blame him.) Little does he know that she has other ideas for him.

                        Comment


                          Dan Snow’s Whig History on how the Ancient Irish “saved” civilization, Jesus BBC4. It wasn’t fact free, but fuck sake. As far as it referred to scholarship it seems to be mostly depending on church friendly bollocks from 40 year back or more. And don't use hagiographies and lives of saints as factual unproblematic pieces. And no mention of St Palladius, Roman presence in Ireland at all (they had a trading post/fort at Howth at least, it was no more cut off from the Roman sphere than say India (where they had similar stations on the east coast near Madras).
                          Last edited by Lang Spoon; 20-02-2018, 00:09.

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                            Gunpowder. Three part series - starring Jon Snow - about the King and the Catholics and Guy Fawkes plotting to...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

                            Just three episodes? Feels more like 16.

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                              Originally posted by WOM View Post
                              Gunpowder. Three part series - starring Jon Snow - about the King and the Catholics and Guy Fawkes plotting to...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

                              Just three episodes? Feels more like 16.
                              Yeah, I gave up on that in EP 2. So dull.

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                                Oh, thank gord it's not just us. Whenever the credits finally roll, it feel like when the dentists says 'I'm done here'.

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                                  It may be an inherently dull subject. After all, they didn’t manage to blow up parliament.

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                                    I remember us doing it at school when I was 10 and it was the first time I can recall us being taught primary sources, namely the confessions written with tortured limbs, which were quite macabre. But there wasn't any drama in it, more about politics. Maybe the filmmakers here were trying to do a Wolf Hall, but that had more interesting characters who actually did change history.

                                    Would be interesting to see a counterfactual history in which the Gunpowder Plot succeeded, exploring how history was changed.

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                                      Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                      It may be an inherently dull subject. After all, they didn’t manage to blow up parliament.
                                      There was a production the BBC(?) did on the same subject about ten years ago (can't remember what it was called). I think it was written by Jimmy McGovern and Robert Carlyle played James. It was OK, bit stagey but certainly not dull.

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                                        Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                        There was a production the BBC(?) did on the same subject about ten years ago (can't remember what it was called). I think it was written by Jimmy McGovern and Robert Carlyle played James. It was OK, bit stagey but certainly not dull.
                                        Yeah. There’s a show about it that actually begins with Mary QOS coming back to Scotland from France. I started it on Netflix, but haven’t got very far.

                                        Comment


                                          Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                          There was a production the BBC(?) did on the same subject about ten years ago (can't remember what it was called). I think it was written by Jimmy McGovern and Robert Carlyle played James. It was OK, bit stagey but certainly not dull.
                                          http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377184/...nm_flmg_act_27

                                          Comment


                                            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                            It may be an inherently dull subject. After all, they didn’t manage to blow up parliament.
                                            Please...they've turned books about baseball finance and the mortgage industry into compelling movies. Someone could do a bang-up job of payday lenders, I'm sure. This was just dully made. I googled reviews of it yesterday and the very first one said "this is sooooo boring".

                                            Comment


                                              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                              Yeah. There’s a show about it that actually begins with Mary QOS coming back to Scotland from France. I started it on Netflix, but haven’t got very far.
                                              Yeah that's the one. It's two 90 minute dramas, The Mary one, and the Plot one. Carlyle is very good as the weak whiney fucked up James.

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                                                Yeah, that’s the one.

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                                                  Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                                  Please...they've turned books about baseball finance and the mortgage industry into compelling movies. Someone could do a bang-up job of payday lenders, I'm sure. This was just dully made. I googled reviews of it yesterday and the very first one said "this is sooooo boring".
                                                  True. Maybe if they got Aaron Sorkin to write it and Adam McKay to direct. Lots of long walking and talking scenes, breaking the fourth wall. Boobs.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                                    Please...they've turned books about baseball finance and the mortgage industry into compelling movies. Someone could do a bang-up job of payday lenders, I'm sure. This was just dully made. I googled reviews of it yesterday and the very first one said "this is sooooo boring".
                                                    True. Maybe if they got Aaron Sorkin to write it and Adam McKay to direct. Lots of long walking and talking scenes, breaking the fourth wall. Boobs.

                                                    Comment

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