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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-01 (Saturday)
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2025 10:02:50 -0800
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On 2/2/2025 8:41 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2/2/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 
>> What did you watch?
> 
> Yesterday, I did household chores, and watched soaps, golf and a 
> theatrically-released movie!:
> 
> soaps: Y&R - I believe Tue's and Wed's ep's. Mostly this concerned 
> Victor summoning Ian Ward to the ranch house, but the situation quickly 
> going south as Ian Ward turns the tables and holds a gun on Victor and 
> Nick, and then increasing numbers of the Newman family who show up (most 
> of the principals, except for Abby). In the end, both Victor and Ian get 
> shot, but Ian is almost certainly on the way out... There was Billy/ 
> Sally stuff on the side, but it wasn't important.
>     DOOL - Fri's ep. Very disappointing - as expected, the writers don't 
> let Rafe escape, and it looks like EJ is going to successfully implement 
> his plan to ruin the wedding and Jada's career.  >:/  But more and more 
> people are suspicious of FauxRafe.
> 
> golf - Day 3 at Pebble Beach was a mostly miserable affair of wind and 
> rain (it was so rainy in parts that CBS's cameras were all wet, and you 
> could only barely see the action on TV!!). The weather did improve for 
> about the last 6 holes though. Right now, it's a shootout, with Sepp 
> Straka barely in front by 1. It should be anyone's tournament today.
> 
> Gladiator II (Pee+) - Such an uninspired title! They could have at least 
> called it "The Gladiator Returns" (or "The Gladiator Rises"?!) or "The 
> New Gladiator", or even better "Gladiator II: The Spawning" or 
> "Gladiator II: Electric Boogaloo"!!
>     It took me a while to realize how this sequel directly tied into the 
> original, but I figured it out about 15 minutes before the movie got there.
>     To say that this movie is not historically accurate is an 
> understatement!! Yes, the twin emperor bros existed (though their 
> father, and especially their mother, were important figures, who don't 
> even get a mention here!), and yes Macrinus (Denzel Washington) was a 
> real person whose background loosely matches with what's in the film. 
> But that's about the only parts of this that come close to being right!
>     This is full of spectacle and is generally entertaining (and looks 
> pretty awesome in 4k), doing a decent (though in some places maybe an 
> over-enthusiastic!) job of tying things to the original film.
>     I mean, they bring Derek Jacabi back! though he's actually barely in 
> the film, only showing up in about three scenes. (He's in his 80s so 
> it's understandable!)
>     Hey, they cheat! That's not Spencer Treat Clark as Lucilla's (Connie 
> Nielsen) son in the flashback sequence! Couldn't they have used CGI 
> trickery to make Clark appear for this!?!
>     While I was mostly entertained through this film's 2-and-a-half 
> hours, I did not care for the ending which is both massively 
> ahistorical, and lacking in an actual resolution to the overall story.
>     But this is mostly a fun ride if you're up for this sort of thing.
> 

I think what the movie mostly has going for it is Denzel's performance, 
and playing it as the hero (in his own mind at least) of the story.

> 
> What did you watch?
> 


On Lennier's birthday I watched:

Babylon 5 (blu-ray) "Matters of Honor"  Season 3, episode 1. Season 3 
picks up with Earth sending someone to investigate the Shadow ship, or 
at least that's the cover story.  Meanwhile, Sheridan gets a shiny new 
White Star.
Season  3 has the best opening credits: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9EbGd1AlMg

"A Day in the Strife" - A representative from the new occupation 
government on Narn goes to B5 to convince G'Kar to return home.  And 
with him is the Narn Sheraden met last season.  There's also a 
developing subplot where the doctor is addicted to stims.  I almost 
skipped this one because the episode recap said it was about an alien 
probe.  And technically, I guess that probably is the A-plot, which I 
would have happily skipped, but all the G'Kar scenes were excellent and 
worth watching. "You are needed here." 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WROHQ2TuVPM

"Passing Through Gethsemane" - This one I was going to skip, but as a 
compromise to myself I watched the Lyta scenes and fast forwarded the 
main plot where Brad Dourif reprises his role as a mindwiped priest.

"Voices of Authority" Season 3, episode 5.  Team B5 goes searching for 
the First Ones.  I must have missed why Drall needed Ivana to hook 
herself up into the great machine.  Other than it did allow for Ivana to 
conveniently learn the truth about President Clark and make a recording. 
  Sheridan gets a new political officer which gives him the opportunity 
to go where everyone has gone before.  If you know, you know.  ;-)

"Dust to Dust Season" 3, episode 6. G'Kar gains telepathic abilities and 
learns the truth about Londo.  And the truth (more or less, OK mostly 
less) about Kosh.

"Exogenesis" - Season 3, episode 7.  Alien parasites in the plot 
description tricked me into watching this skippable episode.

"Messages from Earth" - Season 3, episode 8.  Team B5 learn the Shadows 
are already on Earth.

"Point of No Return" - Season 3, episode 9.  Martial Law is declared on 
Earth causing a shooting war at home and people are forced to pick sides 
on B5.

"Severed Dreams" - Season 3, episode 10. After President Clark starts 
dropping bombs on Mars Babylon 5 and a number of colonies declare their 
independence prompting a fire fight between B5 and Clark's forces.  "If 
you value your lives, be somewhere else!"


Arcadian (Hulu) Covered by Ian yesterday.  Nicholas Cage raises two boys 
in a nonspecific post apocalyptic world.  This is one of those movie 
where the monsters are always in the dark so save money on effects. 
Some of the monster designs looked like they may have been interesting, 
that is had then been enough light to actually get a good look.