Tag: TV
Sam Jones doesn’t seem quite sure what he’s documenting here. Is it a behind-the-scenes record of the making of Jason Isbell’s 2020 album Reunions? Or the barest of peeks into the home life of the former Drive-By Trucker? More…
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John Carpenter’s three-picture deal with Alive Films in the mid-to-late ’80s produced only two features: 1988’s They Live and this one, from the year prior. They Live is generally feted as a cult classic and a high point for Carpenter, but let’s be honest that Roddy Piper and Keith David’s shared charisma does a lot of the heavy lifting; the budgetary limitations really show in its final act, which renders what’s meant to be a global conspiracy of alien dictatorship middlingly local. More…
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Steven Spielberg is such an icon that his story deserves to be told without glossing over the failures that make his career trajectory that much more interesting and compelling. So let’s have another run at this one some time; we’ll need more than two-and-a-half hours, but so be it. More…
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Back to a monthly schedule for these, I think. More…
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So, a week fairly busy with content management, and a new edition of Enlarged Heart Radio, besides moaning online about missing parcels in the post. And as I sit here and contemplate the previous days, I mostly have thoughts about the arts. More…
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Feeling mostly ill and cold and tired: the last four weeks in a nutshell. More…
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I’m still not quite sold on the utility of these weaknotes when my blog already pulls in tweets from the stream of consciousness of my daily life (of which I care to share) but I suppose there’s some worth in sitting down to take stock, and see what’s stuck from the previous days (or weeks). As for this past fortnight? Mostly depression about the awfulness of the UK general election. That and I’ve hardly seen the sun come out this month. More…
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Technically it’s four weeks since my last one of these, not quite a month, but there’s no shorthand for ‘four weeks’ so m/e it is. More…
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We could all benefit from learning more about Marion Stokes, so I’m looking forward to both the upcoming documentary and the Internet Archive’s digitisation project for her tapes. #link
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Rex Sorgatz replaced his blog with a newsletter of weekly recommendations, and his latest recommends the Netflix docu-series Diagnosis, of which I watched roughly half in a binge last week. It’s exactly what you’d expect it is from the synopsis, and from familiarity with the format, but still very watchable. #link
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Forty-plus years of Super Sentai tokusatsu covered in about eight minutes. Interesting to see how blatantly toy-oriented the Japanese shows are compared to the western adaptations. #video
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Whatever one can say about the politics of Sky News’ output, this is an invaluable look into the production process of TV news. (No idea if this video will last beyond the end of the live stream at five this evening.) #link
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Another blur of a month couple of months goes by, this time mostly busy with work, which is a good thing. You’ll never see me complaining about getting paid! More…
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Wire, performing songs from their classic first three albums live on German TV’s Rockpalast in 1979. #video
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Yeah yeah it’s the Steamed Hams meme but this version wins the prize for Best Thing. Though I will admit it’s given a run for its money by Steamed Hams but it’s the French New Wave. #video
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So close to parody, I’d never believe this actually happened if I hadn’t seen it myself. #link
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Care of MetaFilter, here’s lovely tribute to a show that I feel is only starting to find a bigger audience today. See also Darren Mooney’s musings on DS9 as ‘The Most Humanist of (Star) Treks’. #link
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‘Recognition memory’ might explain how I can always rewatch stuff like TNG and DS9, forgetting where most of the plots go till I’ve naturally caught up with the final act. (I’m not a big re-reader of books, so TV/film is my reference point.) [c/o Phil Gyford] #link
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Turns out, he got old, then found a new direction. “It’s so cool to see leading men become great character actors later in their career,” says a producer quoted here; indeed it is, and Fraser comes across as such an intelligent, sensitive and likeable guy in this GQ profile, that I’m quite looking forward to watching him in Trust now. #link
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Too many good nuggets in here to pick just one. Read it for yourself, it’s well worth the half hour or so. #link
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Following my post on Santa Clarita Diet, two other shows I’ve had the pleasure of binge-watching recently, a few episodes at a time, are Billions and The Expanse.
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The writer and script editor collecting tweeted thoughts on various TV and film type things. Can’t say I agree with everything, and certainly not his take on the Ghostbusters reboot (it’s not a fraction as funny as it thinks it is, and I fucking hate the Holtzmann character). But his tweets on Rogue One get to the nuts and bolts of why it doesn’t really work. My own review is superficial in hindsight, too forgiving of its flaws, but it’s a fairly superficial movie that I was evaluating in the context of a greater disappointment. #link
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Just piping up to recommend Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix, if you haven’t seen it already.
Think a mildly gore-splattered Desperate Housewives with the sensibility of 30 Rock. If that floats your boat, give it a couple of episodes to get going and find its tone; by the third, you’ll know.
For me, it’s all in the combination of great writing — especially in the fleshed-out characters and relationships — and spot-on casting. You can’t go wrong with Drew Barrymore, though Timothy Olyphant is the real standout. Who knew he had such a gift for comedy?
Anyway, if Netflix keeps doing shows as entertaining as this, it’ll make the subscription worth keeping.
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In this house we’re probably the only people who haven’t seen Stranger Things among all the world's Netflix subscribers, but the issue discussed here is one that’s been a thing a lot longer. And it’s a problem with story-arc shows in general, when the main narrative thrust is too slow-burn to let the individual episodes stand alone. #link
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There’s no good reason why TV news producers can’t make better use of the web and social media as channels. They’re brands people can and do trust, but their absence from Facebook and the like only leaves a void to be filled by the fakes. #link
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I love this kind of behind-the-curtain creative stuff about how entertainment gets made. #link
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It's funny because it's probably true. #link
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The full list of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition is here (of course it is, Wikipedia). And that's why I love TNG/DS9-era Star Trek. #video
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I’ve been thinking a lot about television recently — more so since we got our first PVR last weekend. I hadn’t felt I was missing out in not having one before (apart from the programme clash conundrum); I’d always been in the habit of scheduling myself around my favourite shows, and didn’t think that would ever change.
But it’s been three days now and I’m already converted. It’s really been one of those ‘you don’t really know until you try’ experiences. From now on TV will be fitting into my schedule, not the other way round.
Now, while I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s part of the ‘democratisation of television’ or anything, thinking about it does lead naturally to ideas about how the TV audience behaves in the networking age — and how this audience isn’t adequately served.
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