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From: "Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-19 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:20:14 -0700
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On 4/20/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

> What did you watch?

Yesterday, I just wanted to get home to watch TV and movies, so that's 
exactly what I did!:

Fallout (Prime) - First two episodes.
    I finally decided to pull the trigger on this. I dunno if I will be 
able to watch it straight through - I'm hoping I will have enough time 
to be able to finish it over this coming week.
    So far I like it, though I am not sure I am going to like the show's 
structure - e.g. how it seems to rely heavily on "guest stars" who show 
up for one, and only one, episode. It's just a good thing that Walton 
Goggins is main cast on this, or I fear we'd never see him! (e.g. Kyle 
McLaughlin).
    I do like Moises Arias as the brother, though it may be the worst 
casting ever, as Arias and Lucy Purcell couldn't look less biologically 
related if they tried! (Maybe Arias' brother character was "adopted"?!)
    Curious to see where they go with this - I have never played the 
video game, though I've heard about it over the years...

soaps: GH - Thur's ep. Ava discovers that Sonny's bipolar prescription 
has been *under*dosing him! Under normal circumstances, Ava would 
actually be the #1 suspect for this, but seeing as she's doing the 
investigating here, she's obviously not behind this... So who is?! 
Later, Ava tells Sonny that Dex is joining the PCPD! (Ha!!) Joss worries 
about Dex's career path to Carly; later, Agent Jagger/John appears to be 
hitting on Carly! Cyrus decides to file charges with Anna, against 
Sonny, for the beating; later Cyrus runs into Dex who apologizes for his 
part in, you know - trying to whack Cyrus! Lois continues to annoy me 
now (and Rena Sofer doesn't seem to be going anywhere!!).

I then watched two movies... strangely, these were both in 4k - I guess 
everything is in 4k now!:

Lisa Frankenstein (Peacock) - Well, this was... "quirky" (written by 
Diablo Cody!).
    For no reason at all, this is set in the (late) 1980s.
    Because of the film's premise, it kind of doesn't work - Kathryn 
Newton plays Lisa, a teen who is emotionally disturbed in the wake of 
witnessing her mother's axe-murder. (Who thought this was a good idea 
for establishing the character?!) Her father has since remarried (to 
Carla Gugino), and Lisa now has a well-meaning and supportive, but 
ditzy, stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano, who is apparently famous in the 
Philippines).
    Anyway, Lisa is the school weirdo in her new school, and she likes 
to hang out in cemeteries, and is attracted to the headstone monument of 
one particular young man who died in 1837.
    Taffy drags Lisa to a party where Lisa is dosed (with a 
hallucinogen?), and then almost sexually assaulted. (Who thought this 
was a good idea?!) This happens during some sort of freak lightning 
storm (you can see where this is going).
    After, Lisa comes across the lad from the 1837 grave, now reanimated 
by the lightning. At first, Lisa is terrified by him, but then decides 
to clean him up. In return, the monster helps Lisa unleash her inner 
hott Goth chyck!
    Meanwhile, Lisa's stepmom (Gugino), who is a villain straight out of 
"Snow White", has had enough of Lisa, and intends to have her committed.
    Murderous wackiness ensues.
    I never thought this got the tone right. While Lisa's tragic 
background should make her sympathetic, the murdering quickly renders 
her (and the monster) very *un*sympathetic - why are we rooting for two 
killers to get together?! And they're going for "comedy-horror", which 
this doesn't get right tonally either.
    Thus, the ending is unearned, and the movie kind of never works as a 
result.

I almost pulled the trigger on "Night Swin" (off Peacock) but didn't 
feel in the mood for it.

Bottoms (Prime) - Now, this was absurd, but several of the comedy bits 
actually pay off. So I thought this was much better than "Lisa 
Frankenstein" (it's also 10 minutes shorter!).
    The gist? Two bottom-of-the-high-school-pecking-order lesbians 
(Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote it, and Ayo Edebiri from "The Bear") 
decide to put together a "fight club, for girls!" at the HS, with the 
help of their also weird and pathetic friend (Ruby Cruz). They bill it 
to the other girls as a "self-defense (and empowerment!)" club, but the 
real point is that Sennott's character wants to use the club to seduce 
their two cheerleader crushes (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu).
    Of course, the club takes off beyond their wildest expectations.
    Anyway, this was amusing. The only thing I didn't like was that the 
asshole male football players never suffered any consequences for their 
horrible behavior.


What did you watch?