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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-04-11 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2025 12:05:20 -0700
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On 4/12/2025 8:28 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 4/12/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 
>> What did you watch?
> 
> I ended up staying *really late* running off exams for Monday, so I got 
> home late, and was tired. So all I did is watch GH with dinner, then 
> played my video game before going to bed:
> 
> soaps: GH - Thur's ep. Joss gets her "spy" assignment, which intersects 
> with awful Emma's interests - the same Emma who was trashing Joss the 
> entire time to Gio (I don't even like Joss, really, but this was over- 
> the-top!). I'm guessing this is going to end with secret spy Joss saving 
> Emma from... something. Nina tries to talk some sense into Willow (who 
> is acting as dumb as a box of rocks lately), but Drew tries to block 
> Nina. Tracy tells Carly to get control of Willow, and Carly complains to 
> NuJack Brennan (of all people!) about Willow (I don't think Brennan has 
> even met Willow!), before going over to Drew's and Willow's co- 
> habitation to confront her. Sahsa talks Jason out of doing the same. 
> Tracy almost holds up the deal with EVOL! Jenz Sidwell, but ultimately 
> relents and let's the deal go through. Natalia (I always want to call 
> her "Valentina"!!) admits to Sonny that her ex-husband is Sidwell, and 
> Sonny dumps her like a hot rock! (I smirked at this.) Jordan and Laura 
> concoct a plan to plant Jordan with Sidwell.
> 
> And that was it. I recorded last night's Lifetime flick (to add to my 
> now large backlog of Lifetime flicks).
> 
> What did you watch?
> 


I watched:

Black Mirror (Netflix) - I binged through the 7th season.

"Hotel Reverie" - Issa Raw stars as a film star who agrees to make a 
movie using Awkwafina's new technology that puts an actor inside an old 
movie so they can do a remake using the original actors and sets.  But 
this being Black Mirror things go wrong.  I wasn't always giving this 
episode my full attention, and it seemed a little unclear if they were 
trying to make a comedy or drama.

"Plaything" - Peter Capaldi stars as a man arrested for a very old 
murder.  He then tells the police interrogators his life story which 
involves creating digital lifeforms that live in a computer.  I can't 
say much more without getting into spoilers.  This episode is set in the 
same universe as the 2018 episode "Bandersnatch" which was a choose your 
own adventure style episode where the viewer could select what the 
characters did leading to multiple possible endings.  But there was no 
option to chose anything.

"Euolgy" - This is a two character episode starring Paul Giamatti who 
spends the episode reminiscing about a lost love to a computer AI played 
by Patsy Ferran.  This episode is nothing more than an excuse to let 
Giamatti talk for 45 minutes.  Depending on how much you like Giamatti 
that's either a good thing or a bad thing.

"USS Callister: Into Infinity" This is a sequel to the 4th season 
episode "USS Callister."  This was a feature length episode.  It picks 
up where the first episode ended with the crew of the USS Callister, now 
free and living in a virtual game universe.  The crew is comprised of 
sentient digital clones of people who are trapped in the game universe 
by a sadistic computer programmer at the company the real versions of 
themselves work.  Now stuck in the game they are trying to make the best 
of it, but they need in universe game credits to purchase supplies for 
themselves.  They get the credits by robbing players who think they are 
also just real world people playing the game.  But out in the real world 
people start to take notice of a glitch in the game.  I'm trying not to 
say too much about what happens, but it's a pretty good episode.  And 
while this episode builds on the first episode, it is not a rehash, it 
is a totally new story, just using the same characters.


The Amateur (theatrical) New spy movie based on a novel of the same name 
(there was also a 1981 movie based on the same novel).  The movie 
follows a CIA cryptographer (Rami Malek) whose wife is murdered by 
terrorist while she is visiting London.  Malek's character is a meek man 
who has zero fighting skills or training but he is determined to get 
revenge on the terrorists who murdered his wife, and wants to be the one 
who personally kills them.  I'm not going to say much more to avoid any 
spoilers, but obviously Malek goes after the terrorist with a vengeance 
using his unique set of nerd skills.  Keep in mind Malek has to go on an 
international killing spree, but he's afraid to fly, and doesn't speak 
any foreign languages.  The movie is *not* a comedy.  It is a stone cold 
thriller.  But moments like when a woman is beating Malek senseless 
because he has no fighting skills, or he's standing in a crowd asking if 
anyone speaks English are icing the cake.  The movie is really good. 
It's another one of those movies where everyone is smart and competent. 
And to the degree Malek is not competent that's literally a plot point. 
It's sort of like if the Marcus Brody character from Indiana Jones and 
the Last Crusade was the star of the movie (but done seriously): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiDpaM2r72A

I should also mention Laurence Fishburne basically reprises his role as 
Morpheus, and plays a CIA killer who tries to train Malek in the art of 
espionage and killing before giving up because Malek couldn't shoot 
straight if his life depended on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCWcK4c-F8Q