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Yeah, the new voices (or voice? Same guy doing both?) on R&M are close enough. The season is very frenetic, I like the balance of call backs versus episodic nature of the eps. Some got quite deep into the weeds (the numbers and letters one, for instance), others hit the perfect mix of absurd (valhalla pope). I'm glad they seemed to have wrapped up the multiverse rick stuff, that always got too navel gazing even for me. At this point most of the art direction and B plot elements are so bizarre I can't tell if they just fed the show to an AI and let 'er rip on doing most of the background work.
I do find it amusing that they have EXTREME violence, like just horrific mutilations, dismemberments, disembowlings, often towards random civilians, as well as a fair amount of profanity, but we gotta pixelate some low res animated genitals? Americas strange slide back towards 50's era prudeness WRT sex but full steam ahead on vulgarity and violence continues....
Death and Other Details (on Prime) is Benoit Blanc without the fun. Amid opulence there is a murder, and a private detective is dragged in. Mandy Patinkin is solid as our detective and it certainly is a pretty production, but everyone is constantly miserable. I know you want to criticize the rich, but let us enjoy the luxury by proxy a little. I was enjoying the whodunnit and questioning of memory that might offer clues on a rewatch, but halfway through it looks like there’s a pivot to something different and even less fun.
I’m enjoying Mr. and Mrs. Smith (also on Prime) a lot. It has absolutely nothing to do with the vastly underrated Pitt/Jolie vehicle but is weird and funny and thrilling by turns.
The Bodyguard (on Netflix) is pretty solid for most of its run. The first half of the finale is overly convoluted and the ultimate villain reveal is weak, but the early episodes put in the work to earn a constant sense of paranoia and inability to trust anyone. Characters make dumb decisions, but they feel motivated, not pushed to generate tension or further the plot.
I'm enjoying season 2 of Tokyo Vice on Max. I don't know how accurate any of it is, but I think it gives me a view of Japanese culture that I would not see otherwise.
Shellhead wrote: I heard that Echo underwent significant revisions and re-shoots because Kevin Feige considered it unreleasable in its original form.
Fourth season of True Detective continues to impress me, aside from the disappointing musical selections. The show does a great job of portraying a harsh northern winter, and the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska has a very lived-in texture. So it is disappointing that the music utterly detracts from the atmosphere by being a mish-mash of sounds from unrelated times and places. Musician and composer T-Bone Burnett did a great job with handling the music selections for seasons one and three (and inexplicably failed with season two), but he is not involved with season four. I was hoping for some traditional Inuit music and some dark, northern folk, especially given the supernatural aspects of this season. Instead, episode 2 featured songs by the Spice Girls and the Beach Boys. However, the theme song by Billy Eilish is growing on me, as it suits the visuals in the opening credits.
So how does this season connect, if at all, to prior seasons of True Detective? I don't remember any connections between season two and anything else, but seasons one and three both involved child abductions in the deep south. There is a recurring spiral symbol in season one that is back in season four. And here is a big one: Detective Rust Cohle used to live in Alaska, with his father Travis who died of leukemia. In season four, an old woman is haunted by the ghost of her deceased lover Travis Cohle, who had leukemia. I didn't connect the dots until episode two revealed that Travis had leukemia, and then it came together. My brother-in-law has leukemia, so the reference got my attention the last time I re-watched season one.
I just started watching it and the bleakness fits my mood perfectly. There are a few True Detective tropes at play: "I'm a damaged cop who hurts everyone around me". and "I'm engaged in casual intercourse because I'm emotionally broken" as well as the interesting callbacks to other seasons that you noted. I am not sure what to think of Jodie Foster's character yet, as I am halfway into the second episode. She gets major points for acting her age. I fear that at the end of the series we'll be left with a lot of unanswered questions and shattered lives. I felt that the use of the cheery soundtrack was meant to be darkly ironic. Prior to starting the series I was halfheartedly looking at cheap real estate in Fairbanks but now am looking only 1/4 heartedly. Those winters are designed to destroy marriages and create alcoholics.
Putting the frozen scientists in the hockey rink was an interesting choice.
True Detective season 4 nailed the landing. I wish the pacing had been better so it clocked in at one hour, but the extra 15 minutes was probably necessary to allow the scenes to breathe. Season 1 is unquestionably still the best season, but seasons 3 and 4 are both good, and I personally prefer season 4 because season 3 was too similar to season 1. I don't know anybody who loved season 2.
Shellhead wrote: True Detective season 4 nailed the landing. I wish the pacing had been better so it clocked in at one hour, but the extra 15 minutes was probably necessary to allow the scenes to breathe. .
You are the only one I've seen saying that. I was about to abandon the last ep because the buzz around it was so poor, but I guess I can give it another hour to see for myself.
HBO renewed TD with the same showrunner for season 5 so hopefully she has better ideas more in line with my tastes, I'm not too impressed with s4 as I felt the "Detective" parts were pretty under baked given the scale of the case. Maybe missing kids, a more gruesome killing, or whatever is a better hook?
hotseatgames wrote: Season 2 is the only one I didn't finish. I felt like 4 crammed way too much into a short runtime.
I rank them season 1 (by a mile), 3, 4, 2. I don't know of another series that is so wildly hit or miss.
Season 2 is pathetically poor. Season 1 was Pizzolatto's baby. He nurtured that thing for years and perfected it and then finally sold it and it was a huge hit and then... they needed another one in like six months. So he wrote season 2 and it looked like it had been written in six months (if that.) The plot is both convoluted and non-sensical. The dialogue is often moronic. The characters often lack any kind of discernible motivation. It's just bad.
Season 3 was OK. It was basically Pizzolatto going back to what he knows, so it was kind of a rehash of season 1 which, OK, fine. I haven't seen 4 because we turned HBO off after Discovery took over and glutted it with "reality TV" dreck. But I doubt anything will be able to touch season 1 because, again, it was something that was tended to for years and had everything slotted perfectly into place. The fact that both McConaughey and Harrelson put in performances of their lives only helped push it over the top.
I was not really a fan of Season 4's ending. I don't know, it just wasn't the tone or vibe I want from this show, and I think so many of the details this season are just nonsensical. I started off enjoying this season much more than 2 or 3, but by the end, I think I'd put 3 above it.
None of them are close to the first.
On another note, I'm really enjoying Masters of the Air.
I've nothing of importance to add other than the fact that I really liked season 2 of True Detective -- I'd rate it a 9 to season 1's 9.5. I didn't like Season 3 very much, but it was good enough that I watched it all (the wife gave up half way through).
Loudermilk on Netflix is pretty decent. It stars Ron Livingston of Office Space fame, as a recovering alcoholic who also runs an addiction support group.
Livingston is basically type cast to always play the same sort of character, and he is pretty damn good at it. The show is funny but the addiction stuff also gives it a unique flavor.
The only thing that bugs me about it is that everyone, including his best friend and ex-wife, calls him by his last name. His first name is Sam, which is not only worlds better than the horrible name Loudermilk, it's two less syllables. Then again, he is usually being a dick, so perhaps they do it to irritate him.
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