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From: "Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-07 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 10:19:37 -0700
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On 6/8/24 8:16 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>
>> What did you watch?
> 
> Hey, thanks for asking!

I don't see Ubi's original post - Is there one? Or did you just take an 
old WDYW? post, and make it into "2024-06-07 (Friday)"?

Yesterday, I focused heavily on finishing "Shogun" and movie watching:

Shogun (Disney+ (from Hulu)) - Ep's #1.8-1.10, so I finished out "season 
#1".
    I actually thought ep. #1.8 was a bit of a dud. For example, I 
really didn't like that Blackthorne turned his back on his fellow 
sailors, and there were totally needless deaths in this episode.
    Ep's #1.9 and #1.10 were better. Stuff actually happens. But, still, 
by the end of the season, we *still* haven't gotten to the big battles 
or anything.
    I still think more seasons of this show is a bad idea - by the end 
of season #1, probably three of the show's best characters are dead, and 
another is apparently leaving for a monastery, and I don't think the 
show can recover from the loss of that many key characters, despite 
there still being history left over to tell after the end of James 
Clavell's novel. So I remain skeptical here.

soaps: DOOL - It's Maggie's and Constantine's wedding! Constantine 
orders "The Pawn" to eliminate Maggie as soon as the wedding ceremony is 
complete. But they never get that far! Maggie implements her plan to 
frame Constantine for embezzlement before the end of the ceremony! 
Constantine lashes out, and blames everyone for his fate (but, oddly, 
never throws NuTheresa under the bus!). Honestly, I was kind of hoping 
they'd keep John Kapelos as Constantine around for a while, but after 
this episode I don't see how they can... Meanwhile, NuTheresa uses Brady 
to get Alex back, so I think Brady is finally and completely done with her.
    GH - Finn has become a dirty drunk, and picks up a bar fly, which 
one of Lizzie's sons witnesses, so he tells Lizzie who catches Finn in 
the act. Chase and Brook Lynn try to figure out what to do about Violet 
and Finn...  Nina comes across Willow and Wiley and Drew at the pool 
(weirdly, unlike Eden McCoy, Katelyn MacMullen seems "swimwear modest", 
and is unwilling to show her body off much...). New guy Gio triggers 
Trina's grief about Spencer. Dex and Josslyn continue to reconcile.

Then the two movies:

Roadkill (Tubi) - I think this 2024 flick is better than the 3.5 IMDb 
score indicates (though with only ~500 votes) - I would definitely put 
in the 4's out of 10.
    Deliberately filmed like a 1970s or early 1980s 'B' picture (after a 
flashback opening, the film is set in the summer of 1983, somewhere in 
the "southeast" of the U.S.). The film is a slow burn, and 
leisurely-paced, like those 70s and 80s films it's an homage to.
    Former child actress Caitlin Carmichael has graduated to adult 
roles, here playing a pretty literal "babe in the woods", credited as 
only "The Driver" - it is never really explained how she has money or 
how she obtained the Chevy Nova SS she drives (though one can guess). 
But she wears perfectly tight jeans (later converted to 
cutoff-shorts!!), and a flattering T-shirt... so, perhaps she's up to no 
good?!
    Anyway, she picks up a drifter (Ryan Knudson, credited as only "The 
Hitchhiker"), whom we know from the film's opening is a disturbed 
individual. So you're supposed to be thinking - "Oh, no! What is she 
doing?! This guy's a killer!!"
    Indeed, in the subplot, the local sheriff and deputy keep coming 
across murdered bodies on the road.
    Anyway, this film managed to keep me partly guessing. I figured out 
the main twist, but there are some other twists along the way.
    Could it have been better? Sure - there are some things I still am 
not sure of (e.g. questions about The Hitchhiker, specifically.) But, 
overall, this kept me entertained. Though, as usual, I didn't care for 
the ending.
    Warren Fast, who plays the sheriff, directed and wrote this.
    P.S. Danielle Harris turns up in this playing a waitress, and I was 
depressed at how old she looks now.  :(

The Stranger (Hulu) - So, this was apparently a 2020 Roku webseries that 
they converted into a movie.
    One thing I can say about this - this one *really* kept me guessing, 
pretty much up until near the ending.
    Maika Monroe plays a rideshare driver, newly relocated from Kansas - 
the "joke" here is that she is supposed to be from the same town in 
Kansas that Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" is from, and she even has a 
"Toto-like" dog of her own.
    Anyway, she picks up a passenger (Dane DeHaan) who pretty quickly 
turns psycho and threatening. She manages to get away from him by 
crashing her car. But the cops turn out to be useless, assuming she's a 
liar, leaving her to mercy of this psycho who starts stalking her.
    Eventually, she ropes in a convenience store clerk (Avan Jogia) to 
help her.
    The one weak element here is that DeHaan's villain is pretty much a 
nearly all-powerful supervillain (hacker, 'natch!). But if you are able 
to put that aside, this is a pretty decent thriller "ride" movie with a 
lead heroine who is possibly an unreliable narrator.


What did you watch?