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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-27 (Thursday)
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2024 13:49:38 -0700
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On 6/28/2024 9:49 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 6/28/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 
>> What did you watch?
> 
> Yesterday was a strange day...
> 
> First, Anim sent me down a rabbit hole (it's all Anim's fault!!). And, 
> yes, this is TV-related - just bear (bare?...) with me...
> 
> Anim has discovered something I didn't know existed - there are about 
> half-a-dozen (at least! more if you include the Christians!) producers 
> of "short-form "TV" series" out there...
> [I'll cover the rest of this in a separate post...]
> 
> Then, in the morning, there was nothing else on, so I put on TCM as 
> background noise.
> 
> I joined "It's Alive" (1974), which I had never seen before, about 
> halfway through. I didn't give this my full attention, but this was more 
> stylish, but also much less satisfying, than I had been led to believe.
> 

I think maybe I caught this on TCM a few years ago.

> TCM followed this up with "From Beyond the Grave" (1974) with Peter 
> Cushing. This also didn't get my full attention, but this was supposed 
> to be "horror-comedy", right? I mean, right?! - There's no way this was 
> supposed to be taken seriously, right?!!
> 
> Otherwise, I watched soaps, and put aside Tubi for a while to watch a 
> couple of higher-profile flicks:
> 
> soaps: DOOL - NuTheresa, trying not to get busted for switching the 
> identity of Victor Kiriakis' secret son, tries to prevent Xander's mum 
> from showing up to Xander's and Sarah's wedding, but Theresa is secretly 
> thwarted by Bonnie. Brady warns Alex against Theresa, and surmises 
> (correctly) that Theresa knew that Alex was Victor's heir before 
> seducing him... Eric considers leaving town.
>     GH - Dante lays Sam out for getting Spinelli to hack into the FBI's 
> database, completely missing the point she is trying to make about Jason 
> (and Carly). Carly gets legal advice from Diane, who advises Carly that 
> she is likely to lose a RICO case in court. Most of this was Finn saying 
> goodbye to little Violet (lots of tears), and then Chase driving Finn to 
> rehab.
>     B&B - Steffi is (still!) a total bitch (and Hope is a marshmallow). 
> As I figured, I think Bill Spencer's new "daughter" isn't really his 
> daughter, and it's a con.
>     Y&R - Diane fires (her son!) Kyle - Jack should either back Diane 
> up, or fire them both (I didn't stay through the end of the episode to 
> find out which).
> 
> Monkey Man (Peacock) - As India's/Dev Patel's attempt at "John Wick", 
> this 2024 flick was OK, though not nearly as action-packed as "John Wick".
>     This kind of takes way too long to get going (though I guess the 
> first "John Wick" film is kind of like that too...).
>     I did kind of like how in the first part of the film, Patel's 
> character is kind of a loser - he can take punches, but loses most of 
> the fights he is in. And, unfortunately, there aren't that many fights 
> in the film's first half. (Patel's character, of course, is a "fight 
> club" at the start.)
>     But I don't like how Patel's character basically undergoes a 
> "Gandalf rebirth" in the middle of the film, and comes back as... well, 
> the Indian John Wick.
>     I gather this is Patel's attempt to do a modern retelling of some 
> old Indian fable/tale. As a result, there are some elements I don't like 
> - e.g. the film is expressly political (I'm guessing it's thinly veiled 
> anti-BJP) - though that may be an explicit part of the fable being told. 
> I don't know.
>     The ending, at least, manages to be more "John Wick"-esque, with 
> lots of fighting mayhem, though Patel's character is kind of dumb at the 
> very end, which seemed uncharacteristic for the rest of the film's ending.
> 

I think maybe I liked this a bit more than you did.  It's currently on 
my rewatch list, but I'll probably hold out until I watch John Wick again.
snip
> 
> 
> What did you watch?
> 


I watched:


The Boys (Amazon streaming) - "Beware the Jabberwock, My Son" - The Boys 
visit a family farm.  Meanwhile Hughie has to stop his father from 
turning into Jar Jar.  Pretty good episode.


A Quiet Place: Day One (theatrical) Prequel and third movie in the Quite 
place franchise.  This one shows the events of the Aliens arrival on 
Earth.  One of the things I hate about zombie apocalypse movies where 
the Earth is overrun by zombies is there's no plausible way that the 
zombies could overtake humanity.  Similarly one of the things that 
bugged my about the Quiet Place movies is there was never a plausible 
way the aliens could overtake humanity.  This movie promised to deliver 
that answer.  Instead the aliens show up.  The main character hits her 
head or something and is unconscious for a few *hours* at best, then 
when she awakes the aliens have already overtaken humanity.  There are 
millions of people in New York City yet they all magically disappeared 
per plot.  And now somehow the entire city is totally silent except for 
when the plot demands someone make a sound then that's the only sound. 
And the aliens who were no where to be found suddenly all converge on 
that location.  I was really expecting more from this movie but it's 
more of the same.  But I guess fans of the first two who aren't 
expecting any real answers should like it.


A Quiet Place (4K disc) 2018 movie about a family living on an isolated 
farm trying to stay quiet so aliens that don't like noise won't kill 
them.  It was mostly background silence.