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From: "Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-28 (Wednesday)
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 13:50:35 -0700
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On 5/29/25 7:52 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

> What Did You Watch?

After an unexpectedly long workday, I finally got to "John Wick 4". But 
first:

soaps: GH - I think this was Wed's(?) ep. Everybody - Brook Lynn & Dante 
(the episode before), Ned and Olivia - dumps on Lois, and it still 
wasn't enough for me! - Lois is clearly the villain in this piece!! 
Brook Lynn and Dante try to explain Gio's background to him, but are 
unable to prevent him leaving the Q estate with dumb Emma. They are 
really making Sasha hateable with this NuMichael storyline. As expected, 
Mac tells Willow and Drew that he can't do anything legally about 
Michael repossessing his kids; later, Willow goes to NuMichael to plead 
with him (I'm sure he will shut her down in the next episode). And, in 
the best bit, Nina is consoled by Maxie at the dive bar, and during the 
conversation she figures out that Michael is the father of Sasha's baby 
- Nina then gets the bartender to basically confirm it, which should 
give Willow a fighting chance in the custody hearing.

John Wick 4 (Peacock) - The most ridiculous "John Wick" yet!! I don't 
know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!!
    I don't think this was in glorious 4k on Peacock (I'll have to 
double-check when I get home).
    Sidenote: The same visual artifacts I was occasionally seeing with 
"Andor" were also popping up during this movie, especially during the 
desert scene early in the movie. As "Andor" is Disney+ app, and this was 
Peacock, it had to mean that the issue was the 4k TV. Sure enough, the 
problem went away when I switched from "Cinema Home" visual mode (and I 
was seeing the same artifacts in "Standard" mode as well) to "Filmmaker" 
visual mode. I have no idea how they've screwed up "Cinema Home" visual 
mode so badly - I've got to think that this problem has been introduced 
with a recent update from LG, as the 4k TV was definitely not doing this 
before.
    Anyway, this was a fun, but ridiculous! ride.
    SPOILERS
    Will
    Surely
    Follow
    I was disappointed that some previous characters, like the 
"Adjudicator" from the previous film, didn't show up in this one.
    I also was annoyed that so many hatchets were buried from "John Wick 
3" - both Wick and the Bowery King should have wanted Winston dead, but 
it's almost like the events of "3" didn't even happen on this front. (I 
guess they felt like they couldn't throw Ian McShane overboard!)
    And, on this same front - Did they just get insanely lucky in 
killing off Charon in this flick, just before Lance Reddick died IRL? Or 
did they change the film somehow after Reddick died?!
    I was quite surprised when Shamier Anderson (of "Wynonna Earp", and 
before that season #1 of "The Next Step"!!) popped up in this in a 
pretty darn prominent role.
    Meanwhile, they have Donnie Yen playing the Asian Daredevil (how do 
they get away with this!?!) as John Wick's main "rival" (though, unlike 
in "3", this time the rival is actually an old buddy, and not a deranged 
fanboy!!). Also popping up in this one was Hiroyuki Sanada (he's 
everywhere these days), Japanese(?) pop star Rina Sawayama, and Clancy 
Brown! (as "The Harbinger"!).
    Whatever else you want to say, the "John Wick" films *look* great on 
screen, esp. "2" thru "4". This one has lots of great shots of backlit 
thugs standing around palaces and opera houses and churches and the 
like, for your visual eye candy!
    Hey - are those napalm(?) shotgun shots(?) a real thing, or not?! 
That was another killer filmed sequence in this film - looking down on 
John Wick as he wields the napalm(?) shotgun(?!) and exterminates loads 
of thugs!
    In the ridiculous department, apparently John Wick (& co.!) have 
"inter-dimensional travel" among their various superpowers, what with 
the way John Wick (& co.!) hopped all around the globe in mere 
miliseconds in this flick!
    I also am having a harder and harder time buying the "criminal 
underworld world-building" they're doing in these films - this High 
Table stuff and all it's accompanying pomp and circumstance is insane!! 
The last several films (I think all the way back to "2") have definitely 
suffered from the lack of an appearance of even a single cop or Fed in 
the proceedings.
    I also didn't care for the obvious use of CGI (and/or greenscreen?) 
in this film - especially the sequence in Paris with all of the cars was 
most obviously CGI in large part.
    I guess this film wraps up the "High Table" storyarc. (Indeed, the 
end of this one implies John Wick is dead!) But apparently a "John Wick 
5" is in the works - but it sounds like this film is going to be more 
like a "Fugitive"/"Equalizer" type thing, without all the insane High 
Table malarkey.


What did you watch?