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    Current Watching

    Thanks to Netflix:

    “Europa Report”: really good hard science fiction drama. Looks very polished on what I believe was a (relatively) low budget. Decent cast and no resort to histrionics or unbelievable traitor-in-the-midst plots. Like a very meticulous and patient found footage combination of “Mission to Mars” and “The Abyss”. I now have a real crush on the Romanian actress playing the copilot too.

    “Generation War”: I'm only two episodes in so far but while the grimness seems to be there the characters don't seem quite believable. Maybe that changes, but it feels like a collection of stereotypes all on the more-or-less blameless end of the spectrum. God knows I'm in no position to judge or talk knowledgeably about the complicity of German civilians and the regular Wehrmacht in the worst crimes, but it feels like all the really unpalatable stuff is Somebody Else's fault.

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      Current Watching

      ...oh, and about eight hundred million episodes of fucking “Pocoyo”, which is as addictive as crack. Both the most irritating and best kids' show ever.

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        Current Watching

        The Cub has found out about Peppa Pig.
        Fuck.

        In the Night garden, Abney and Teale and Sarah and Duck I can cope with. Hell, I even like them.
        But fucking Peppa "head shaped like a cock and balls" Pig? What a nightmare.

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          Current Watching

          Crusoe, there is a thread on Generation War.

          But I can't find it.

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            Current Watching

            Oh yeah, I just found it. Ta. Think I agree word-for-word with garcia's opening post.

            http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/30-film-tv/859118-generation-war-unsere-muetter-unsere-vaeter

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              Current Watching

              I've been catching up on Orphan Black. It's surprisingly good for trash TV. It's like a JJ Abrams show if JJ Abrams actually followed through on anything.

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                Current Watching

                On my occasional trips to the Horror Channel (to watch old Dr. Who episodes), I caught the vintage Amicus horror flick, Tales From The Crypt, and it seemed almost an eerily prescient comment on coalition politics with its best set-piece story, with Nigel Patrick as the ex-army colonel being put in charge of a home for the blind. The colonel, having no experience of running a home, cuts all heating, removes all obligatory comforts and serves stingy, unappetising meals, while, all the time, keeping a nice fire going for himself and tucking into roast beef and a good wine (and snacks for his dog). The death of one of the home's occupants through his austere approach inspires a unique revenge.

                It's like Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky knew something we didn't.

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                  Current Watching

                  Andrew Graham-Dixon on the Gothic, currently available on iPlayer. Latest one, Gothic Goes Global, interprets the G word pretty loosely, with Karl Marx, Joseph Conrad and Francis Bacon being considered alongside Bram Stoker and Hammer Horror. I really, really enjoyed it.

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                    Current Watching

                    Yeah, I was gripped start to finish- fascinating stuff.

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                      Current Watching

                      Watched Edge of Tomorrow (or Live, Die, Repeat, as it seems to have been subtly rebranded) last night. I'd heard from friends that it was decent but I really didn't think that much of it. Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers meets the creatures from the Matrix films. It was just a bit, well, limp. The battle sequences were unconvincingly bloodless, the ending felt anticlimactic, and I really couldn't picture Emily Blunt as a super-soldier.

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                        Current Watching

                        Crusoe wrote: Watched Edge of Tomorrow (or Live, Die, Repeat, as it seems to have been subtly rebranded) last night. I'd heard from friends that it was decent but I really didn't think that much of it. Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers meets the creatures from the Matrix films. It was just a bit, well, limp. The battle sequences were unconvincingly bloodless, the ending felt anticlimactic, and I really couldn't picture Emily Blunt as a super-soldier.
                        Saw it on a plane recently and thought it was okay although overall it's just like watching someone play a computer game, each "life" taking them a little bit further in the game.

                        As Crusoe says it's also a mishmash of various other Sci-Fi films, obviously "Groundhog Day" but with bits of "Starship Troopers", a pinch of "Avatar", a soupçon of "Aliens" and so on.

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                          Current Watching

                          Ginger Yellow wrote: I've been catching up on Orphan Black. It's surprisingly good for trash TV. It's like a JJ Abrams show if JJ Abrams actually followed through on anything.
                          It's much better than that. JJ Abrams is as overrated as that guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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                            Current Watching

                            Crusoe wrote: Watched Edge of Tomorrow (or Live, Die, Repeat, as it seems to have been subtly rebranded) last night. I'd heard from friends that it was decent but I really didn't think that much of it. Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers meets the creatures from the Matrix films. It was just a bit, well, limp. The battle sequences were unconvincingly bloodless, the ending felt anticlimactic, and I really couldn't picture Emily Blunt as a super-soldier.
                            I didn't mind it. The last 30 minutes kind of tailed off but it's pretty good for a film with him in it.

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                              Current Watching

                              It's much better than that. JJ Abrams is as overrated as that guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
                              I'll ignore the bait. What I meant was that it's very much a mystery box show in the Abrams mould, but unlike almost all Abrams shows there's actually something to be revealed inside the box, rather than to be strung out until the show gets cancelled. It feels like the writers know where they're going and aren't just passing time to get to syndication. And its elevated above other trash telly by Maslany's performance(s). But at the same time, it's not actually great - the plot barely hangs together and the characters' motivations don't ring very true in a lot of cases.

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                                Current Watching

                                F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion is on TCM (the sequel to the superb F/X: Murder by Illusion).

                                I loved those films as a kid. Bryan Brown - HE used to rein when he poured in Cocktail - plays special effects grandmaster and all-time salty wizard "Rollie". My memories are vague, but I think he uses exploding cigar-cases/dry ice/animatronic boobs to solve crimes/trap criminals/prove his innocence.

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                                  Current Watching

                                  Elementary Series 3.

                                  Not particularly enamoured that they have given Sherlock a new young assistant, quirkily pretty with a terrible mock English accent.

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                                    Current Watching

                                    The Red Shoes is on BBC2 ("You will dance, the red shoes...) At present.* What a film. And not even their best.

                                    *It was BBC2's showing of distant classics on Saturday afternoons that gave me my first you're-fuqing-kidding-me-that-good! experience with "old" films.

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                                      Current Watching

                                      Five episodes into animated comedy 'Archer'...and I ain't feeling it, bruv.

                                      Of the new comedies I've watched this year, trailer park boys had me hooked after one episode, as did review with Forrest Macneil, childrens hospital, Campus and Toast of London.

                                      Gonna keep watching though.

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                                        Current Watching

                                        Andy Townsends Tactics Truck wrote: Five episodes into animated comedy 'Archer'...and I ain't feeling it, bruv.
                                        Took me a while to get hooked, but I got hooked. FWIW.

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                                          Current Watching

                                          There are times in the first season when it feels like it's trying too hard to be outrageous, but it all pays off later. It's possibly the densest comedy in terms of character gags and callbacks since Arrested Development.

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                                            Current Watching

                                            Ginger Yellow wrote: There are times in the first season when it feels like it's trying too hard to be outrageous, but it all pays off later.
                                            Up to s2 e2, and your words were prophetic. It all starts to tie in toward the end of season one, and by that point found it had settled into a nice rhythm. Liked Pam, think she's my favourite character up until now.

                                            And like you also said, and in hindsight, the density requires a bit of ground work to set it up.

                                            But I'd had it recommended to me by a few people, and can remember watching things like Seinfeld and only fools and horses, both of which took an entire season to get going, but going back to Archer, I'm glad I stayed with it.

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                                              Current Watching

                                              To be fair, it is gratuitously and sometimes tiresomely OTT in later seasons too (eg around Lana's near-nudity), though even those occasions have a callback quality to them.

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                                                Current Watching

                                                Crusoe wrote:
                                                “Europa Report”: really good hard science fiction drama. Looks very polished on what I believe was a (relatively) low budget. Decent cast and no resort to histrionics or unbelievable traitor-in-the-midst plots. Like a very meticulous and patient found footage combination of “Mission to Mars” and “The Abyss”. I now have a real crush on the Romanian actress playing the copilot too.
                                                Watched this over the weekend and really enjoyed it, even if it did throw away some of its hard sci-fi credibility toward the end and some of the characters actions didn't make a whole lot of sense at times. I'm not sure I'd go with the Abyss comparison - Sunshine without the final act is more like it. Anyway, if you're at all into space, watch it.

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                                                  Current Watching

                                                  Teeny, tiny update RE: Archer.

                                                  I've continued watching, up to season four now, and for me, Krieger and Pam hold the show together.

                                                  That tattoo on Pam's back. I did pause to read what it said.

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                                                    Current Watching

                                                    Oh, and an honourable mention goes to the fake cancer drugs episode, which got me right in the feels when Archer asks the Irish gangster if he'd watched Regis that morning.

                                                    It is never earnest, ever, yet that episode was.

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