I’m showing my sister-in-law how to bake a cake. She’s a mess. I told her to start the mixer; I turn around and she’s only got one beater in the machine and can’t figure out why it’s not mixing.
If their losing ways hold up another week or two and that goes down to 15:1, I’d snatch that shit up.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
My wife was hoping that when Manny came out during the pre-game, they would show footage from the time (one of the times?) when he randomly cut off Damon’s throw.
i just don’t have TV to keep up with your caps. am always a netflix season behind. but i read them. and when i catch up to the season i go back to them.
i almost want to suggest we all pick a show and watch the rerun together, but that’d be awkward i guess.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Also Fargo is halfway through its miniseries lifespan.
Without getting into specifics (One ep behind now, the last thing I’ve seen is the lady cop getting accidentally shot by the hapless geek cop), I really love the way they’ve sustained the deep Midwestern weirdness. I was sure it would feel inauthentic, like bad fan fiction, but it actually builds on the original’s sensibilities quite well. I also liked the way they worked in the money Steve Buscemi buried in the snow.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
The one thing I’m not crazy about is that I do get that fanfic feeling (though I hadn’t thought of it that way) a little bit. From the exaggerated accents, to the general weird vibe, to the derivative characters (Lundegaard/Nygaard the milquetoast broken bad, Gunderson/Solverson the understatedly tenacious woman cop, the pairs of hit men one talking one quiet) – sometimes it feels like it’s trying just a little too hard to be the movie, but with a tone that’s just a little bit off. (The Coens themselves are listed as executive producers, but my sense is that they’re not very closely involved.)
That quibble aside, it’s a fun show to watch. Good mix of comedy and ultraviolence, and the cast is mostly top-notch. Billy Bob Thornton is great as the deadpan psychopath. One gets the feeling that Mr. Malvo really enjoys his line of work. And I really like Allison Tolman too, who manages to put her own spin on the younger Frances McDormand part.
Is anyone watching Silicon Valley? I watched the first episode, which was terrible, and was ready to give up on it. But my wife convinced me to watch a second episode and it turned out to be great.
I’m only a couple of episodes in, and I’ve been a little bit disappointed. The basic premise of the show is just a little hard to relate to (accidental invention of something extremely valuable), and the characters don’t really do it for me so far. The landlord in particular is just too broadly written or absurdly acted, I can’t tell which. And the tycoon characters, while pretty quality satire, are very cartoonish. I was hoping for Office Space II, and it’s not that I guess. I’ll keep watching though, mostly because I enjoy Martin Starr and the creepy business major guy.
What series would you guys recommend? I just got into the series a while ago, and this is my/our profile. Loved Breaking Bad, found Wire to be OK, liked House of Cards, liked/loved Game of Thrones, didn’t like Walking Dead, liked first few episodes of Newsroom, didn’t like the rest, tried 24 and found it to be damn awful, found Bored to Death to be OK. Any suggestions?
I’m limited to what’s either on my cable here in Germany or what is out on DVD/Blu Ray. The Americans was recommended by Tango, too, but I can’t get it here (yet). Netflix Germany is supposedly starting this fall, but I am afraid they might be stupid enough to dub their stuff.
I don’t think the Americans is on Netflix. Amazon got an exclusive streaming deal on it. I actually bought the season pass on iTunes after watching the pilot.
I don’t remember that specific episode well enough to say whether it was a good or bad representation of what’s to come, but I do think it does only gets better and funnier as you become more familiar with the characters.
Yes. I’d also add that if you have any experience working with elected officials and their staff, the characters’ motivations ring very true (enhanced for comedic effect of course).
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
My experiences in Washington may help explain why I find the show so incredibly funny. I think the only show that has ever made me laugh more reliably is classic Simpsons. Even as a farce, it is way, way more accurate about Washington than House of Cards.
Sopranos – first of the great cable series, big influence on all that came after, especially Breaking Bad and the Wire.
Twin Peaks – first season is the best thing ever on network TV. Second season isn’t as good, but still fun. (If you like David Lynch.)
Foyle’s War – British police drama set in WW2. Mix of standard case-per-week police procedural, with longer storylines about impact of the war on the main characters’ lives.
Deadwood – A boom town on the American frontier as a microcosm of the development of civilization. Kind of sprawling, with lots of different characters introduced very quickly at the start. Gloriously profane. Some others here think it is the best series ever. I would not go so far, but I liked it.
Justified – Yeah. Crime drama set in rural Kentucky. First few episodes aren’t great, but stick with it, it gets really really good.
Oh, also if you don’t mind subtitles (or if you count Swedish among your many languages) the Wallander series that stars Krister Henriksson. (There is also an English series with Kenneth Branagh, which is decent but not as good.) Smart police procedural show, with a great lead character.
I actually did have two Swedish girlfriends/acquaintances when I was younger, but neither lasted long enough for me to learn the language. I don’t mind the subtitles at all, I used to watch all the movies with them.
Deadwood is indeed the best series ever. So there.
If you haven’t seen it that could add to the impetus for the collective (re)viewing that was mooted elsewhere, though if you’re a binge-watcher the one a week suggestion might not work so well for you.
If Deadwood had run a full arc of 4-6 seasons and been allowed to have an ending which was planned for and befitting its greatness, then yes, it could have contended for best show ever. Ending suddenly and unsatisfyingly (fuck you David Milch) prevents it from reaching any higher than top 3-5 in my book.
I assume the ending would have included the camp burning to the ground, as it did in real life. Fire as a motif is a near constant, I am noticing as I re-watch now.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Milch’s story (and he’s sticking to it) was that Deadwood got canceled before he decided to do his other show.
Either way, I’m still not really convinced, since I wasn’t crazy about season 3. Blasphemy, I know. I get why they introduced the theatre troupe as part of the overall development of civilization theme, but all the storylines involving them just seemed really boring, and took up way too much of that season.
I just finished re-watching the whole thing last night. I liked it even more the second time; there’s just so much nuance in the dialogue and staging, and in many of the acting performances (Swearengen is genius. Sol Star, not so much).
But goddamnit the lack of an ending is just so fucking frustrating!
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Oh most definitely, after other primary characters become more important, maybe towards the end of season one, EB starts getting written specifically as a Shakesperean narrative device, part Hamlet, part fool.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
homeland
orange is the new black
boardwalk empire
friday night lights
top of the lake
the killing (i hear the european version is better)
the fall
the americans (i still need to see it. i just know i’ll like it.)
i like treme but it clunks worse than the wire, but i also like the wire. WHAT? david simon telling me his world view directly through artificial dialog is easier than reading!
not quite A-list:
hell on wheels
sleeper cell
awake
revolution
the english one that’s like walking dead/jericho but it’s a disease, not zombies, and it’s about rebuilding community rather than each one surviving by screwing each other over…
if you still haven’t:
west wing > newsroom
sopranos
firefly
6 feet under
deadwood
luther
arrested development (half hour sitcom, but written with closure. in the first cycle anyway.)
stupid guilty pleasures:
lost
dollhouse
galactica / caprica
ringer
they’ll tell you (but they rub me the wrong way):
mad men
sons of anarchy
* caveat: i don’t know how to tell you which ones i actually admire and which ones i go through forgiving their pecadillos.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
So, after four seasons of Justified and one and 3/4 of Homeland, I like Justified. It doesn’t have the suspense of Breaking Bad or the general greatness of Deadwood, but it’s enjoyable to watch and there are some really good moments. Also, so many characters are from Deadwood, as well as some other ones, so it’s kind of fun to see them in a new surrounding.
Homeland, I’m not sure. Production is really good, actors as well (Mandy Patinkin I really liked), but the general plot and lot of plot twists are just pretty weak. Also a bit too much of behavior designed to get on viewers nerves, like the daughter character. There are some elements of 24 in it (which I found to be atrocious and can’t believe I actually made it through an entire season), like somewhat forced twists of (s)he is good, no wait bad, no wait, good… But as I said, it is very well packaged and watchable
I’m now through 0.9166 seasons of Homeland and basically agree with your take (except I find the Brody actor horrible). I’ll keep watching it, because Nurse Upgrade likes it, but the poor writing/plotting keeps pissing me off. Right from episode one, when this blond American walks down a Baghdad street yelling into her phone “put me on with the assistant director of the CIA!”
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
We’ve been watching season 3 of The Fall. First season was OK, but it has gotten so boring. It’s like they took a single episode of Law and Order SVU and stretched it out to 17 hours over three seasons.
The HBO show Rome doesn’t get mentioned often, only ran two seasons and appeared just before the real golden age of modern TV serial dramas began, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
It was very good most of the time. The episode in which Matt’s father passes away is my favorite. The closing scene in that is something else. A saving grace of the later seasons.
But, with exception of the coach’s family, Matt, Smash and Riggins (played to perfection), I found the rest to be stock characters moving through pedestrian story lines.
West Wing in spite because of its high-minded idealism gets best American non-cable drama nod from me. Though I admit that I don’t really think of everything after reelection–a period which coincides with the departure of one Sam Seaborn–as part of West Wing.
I’m rewatching the West Wing, more closely than I did at the time it aired. The first three seasons are even better than I remembered. Every episode a little movie, and much more nuanced and less preachy than I feared.
I’m going to say that the moment it started to slip is Mark Harmon in the bodega. I was willing to forgive the random twist of fate with Mrs. Landingham because it gave us “Two Cathedrals,” but doing that to CJ…just wrong. Also, that agent wouldn’t suspect an accomplice? And the accomplice wouldn’t run rather than shoot a secret service agent? And Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah? Sheesh. It’s saved by by how unbelievably good Allison Janney is (the whole story line is worth it for her at the shooting range) and “crime…I don’t know,” but still the first step too far into typical network melodrama.
I’ve watched through it three times (most recently about a year ago).
I was surprised the third time how good I thought the “bad” seasons were. The Goodman thing sucked, but is over with MUCH faster binge watching than it was live. The rest is fine and the last season makes me wish they’d spun-off and kept going.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
I haven’t yet hit the bad seasons on my rewatch. We’ll see.
I’m just astonished how few missteps there were in the first three seasons. The show really hit the ground running and absolutely nailed the characters and casting (even for the smallest roles). Well, other than Mandy I guess, and they disappeared her without much fuss.
I remember the last season being really fun. Although I could never suspend my disbelief that the Republicans would nominate Alan Alda (or his character).
Lots of other good recs here, but one I haven’t seen is the first season of Damages. Glenn Close, a very young Rose Byrne, and Ted Danson as a great villain. Season 2 dropped off a lot but season 3 was ok. I haven’t watched the online only seasons.
Another oddball one, and the rare hour-long comedy, is Northern Exposure. Not sure how it would hold up today but it had a pretty good run, with some great quirky characters.
Slings and Arrows (canadian show about a theater company putting on Shakespeare)
Firefly/Serenity (“space western” conceit) and Battlestar Galactica are both “gritty” sci-fi if you’re willing to move from GoT to space.
We’ve been talking about Louie some, but it’s the most unique show on TV right now.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
Most of mine have already been mentioned, but if you want just fun shows there a couple of USA shows that are pretty good: Psych, Suits, Monk, and Burn Notice.
Historically, the other show I would recommend is Six Feet Under.
I’m little curious as to why they chose a Brazilian actor to portray a Colombian (who speaks Spanish throughout the series), but I like his acting enough to not really care.
Also, AV, can you explain to me when one uses vos and when usted. It seems that it is almost the opposite of castellano, namely that “usted” is below “vos”, but also somehow interchangeable.
i’m not sure usted is below vos in spain. you can’t vosear a king. but you can vosear your wife or customers. you know them. the king, you don’t know. so you can’t even address him directly. in fact, if you think about it, usted isn’t really 1st person; it kinda conjugates in 3rd. el rey manda. vuestra merced manda. usted manda.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Sorry, perhaps I wasn’t clear. In Spain “usted” is definitely above “tu” (“vos” is never used, except when joking). But in “Narcos” “usted is used when talking to kids and babies, for example, and both vos and usted are used when talking at what seems to be informal, equal level. (And another thing I wasn’t clear about, I was looking for the usage in Colombia, if you know anything about that – they seem to be very funny in many other areas, as well)
ah. yeah, there’s using usted as an exaggeration of distance to show endearment, like when talking to kids. my grampa would sometimes switch into that.
colombia mostly tutea. but there are regions within where they vosean.
they’re switching back and forth a lot, more to do with the supposed tone of the message than the levels of the speaker/listener. when heckle and jeckle are doing the “after you,” “oh no, after you,” they’d be doing it in usted even though they’re obviously long-acquainted cronies.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
because i’m liking this show, the mood, the degree of historicity, etc., it’s starting to really, really bother me that the central character has such a bad accent. it’s not just crossed-countries inflection, he’s a non-spanish-speaker and his pronunciation really throws off any believability in him as a robin hood paisa. especially when he’s next to guys like cockroach, who really know how to turn huevón into a 1-syllable interjection, the way chileans and only chileans do.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Four episodes in to Narcos, I like it but I don’t yet love it. It’s an incredibly interesting true story and I like it a lot as a quasi-documentary, but as a televised drama, the amount of exposition being delivered through narration and montage is jarring. It just seems like either lazy writing or cheap filmmaking to not show us some of the stuff they are telling us.
I’ve only seen the first and the second one is not available on the German Netflix. I was contemplating buying the Blu Rays for the second, but now I think I’ll just wait.
Meh … it’s fun, but there are some glaring problems.
For instance, in the very first episode we’re repeatedly shown his deductive brilliance (the analysis of the dead woman in pink in particular), but it never occurs to him that the taxi has a driver as well as a passenger.
1) Rectify (season 3). Probably my favorite show of the last few years. Maybe not for everyone, as it is more atmosphere- and character- than plot-driven. Beautiful visually, with great writing and acting creating complex, real-seeming characters.
2) Bloodline (season 2). Some similar themes to Rectify (Southern family, prodigal son returns) with a more traditional show with emphasis on plot and action. Decent.
3) Peaky Blinders (season 3). Godfather in 1920s England. Already discussed here. Still great.
4) Narcos (season 1). Goodfellas in 1980s Colombia. Already discussed by others here, but I just watched it. Season 2 about to come out. Very good. 20 episodes on Pablo Escobar seems like a lot, but it’s managed to hold my attention.
5) Stranger Things (season 1). Recently discussed elsewhere. Supernatural stuff isn’t normally my bag (nor is 80’s nostalgia) but it’s a good story and by the end things mostly make sense in a suspended-disbelief way.
5 makes me angry. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: spadla z oblakov.
it’s kinda horribly silly if not sillilly horrible, but i’m enjoying the get down. the dance sequences as abstracted kung fu are my favorite.
however, i have to admit i’m barely hanging on to finishing mad men and, at most-promising on the horizon, warily eyeing the latest season of OitNB, because my podcast addiction has turned on my TV show addiction and seems to be severely endangering it. namely, B.E.E.‘s (yep, him.) views on TV’s current golden age (basically stated as, what golden age??) are making me see things differently than even a couple months ago. but seriously, he has a point.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Oh, I just realized this is the one where we get to see it in Europe before you guys do overseas. Coming to you in January. Not brilliant, but entertaining
So, Westworld. How do the visitors know who the other visitors are? Even if we assume that the guns are so sophisticated they would not fire at other humans, there are still knives and good oldfashioned strangulations that could be cause some problems.
I am loving Westworld, fascinated by the broad thematic questions of what it even means to be “real,” let alone who is or isn’t. And Anthony Hopkins is brilliant.
I recommend the weekly recaps at io9.com if you want to dig for more background as you go along. The comment sections in particular delve deeply into the timelines (many think the story is told on two or more separate ones), limits on what the hosts can do (programming stops them before the point of injuring guests), and how this all starts to break down as the hosts gain self awareness. This show is a great one for obsessing over the details.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
OK, I just finished Ep. 3. Love the potential, some really good acting. I think one has to just accept some unsolvable mysteries, because I don’t think there will be a perfect answer for everything. I checked the site you mentioned, obviously only until the articles immediately after Ep.3, quite like it. Thanks
My understanding was that the visitors were all kept apart (except when they entered the park as a group). Not quite sure how you’d do that without there being a huge bottleneck in the arrival town though.
To the extent that they’re guided by the hosts over a huge area I can see it being manageable – main town aside – and there’s only one visitor I can think of who’s going rogue.
(And the guns can shoot visitors, but it only bruises them)
I got through about 15 minutes of the pilot to Silicon Valley. I hated every character. Since a few of you say it got better maybe I’ll give it another look. It’s a show by Mike Judge and I’m a fan of his work.
I’m engaged, the laughs get better, but I do agree with Glorious Mundy’s critique above. The story and characters are a bit one-note, and where I was hoping for howling comedic satire, what I got was a sitcom. A good one, but still, just a sitcom.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Yeah, but it’s a franchise that could use a new start.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
agüero to barça? reportedly, they offered city €38M, el kun already agreed, now it’s between the clubs. real madrid apparently* offered €70M but agüero wants to play with lio.
so the front line would be neymar-messi-agüero? oh man…
*not from sport, but from arg press, so don’t believe un centavo of it.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
If Ballmer really is offering $2 billion for the Clippers:
1. Donald Stirling waffling on the offer is certainly proof of his mental incapacity.
2. Ballmer would get more for his $2 billion by buying the A’s even though they’re “not for sale”, doing 100% or close-thereto private financing of a new ballpark and still having money left over to boost the payroll at least to the MLB midpoint.
Gonna disagree on #2. The Clippers are a national brand right now. They’re a major media darling in an world class arena (albeit a shared one) in a much more renown city. In the proper hands, he could use the huge amounts of publicity the team is getting to make even more money. With the A’s, there’s no immediate return on that investment and it would take years to realize it (if ever).
It’s not just that. NBA teams are crazy valuable right now in large part because the league crushed the union in the last couple of CBA negotiations. The last crushing was so demoralizing that the players haven’t even been able to get together to hire a new head of the union. As a result, players are getting a much smaller percentage of the insane TV money than they would be in an open market.
pondering the colors of mexico’s alt, i saw that they did wear red a few times before, with blue shorts. still not getting why fully. but i also saw hints of their 50s away colors. WTF!!?
though this hints at it in the way the shorts are drawn, what’s missing is the fit. that’s changed a lot too. the 90s weren’t just the worst design years, everybody looked like they were wearing 5-gallon trashbags. i think we’re in a good moment for fit, except for that tight jersey france debuted last time with the cross-your-back straps that i hope doesn’t trend in.
and i miss the short shorts of the 70s–80s. can i admit i went just a lil bit chub looking at the upper thighs of old players the other night?
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
I remember 1998 as being the nadir for fit. England looked especially silly. (Of course we’ll never know what they would have looked like in 1994.) I think Francesco Totti singlehandedly killed the baggy trend dead in 2002.
oh, also… that nanu-nanu misremembering of mine brought up an old issue. i seem to hold on to a lot of misunderstandings i had when i was young, and live by them today. circling back to kits, didn’t they use to give yellow cards for playing with your jersey untucked from your shorts? did i also make that up and keep holding on to it?
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The USA really needs to chill on changing the jerseys so often. I’m OK with unveiling a new look every World Cup — we’re never going to be a classic like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, or Uruguay so why pretend — but I don’t get unveiling a new radical redesign practically every year. The Where’s Waldos and the Centennial gear never got a runout on the world stage.
with every kit change, i think of that line at the beginning of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown… baby, some things are unmistakably american.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The uniforms up until about 1982 are pretty gorgeous, I think. The only current ones I really love are Brazil and France.
The problem with national team jerseys now are that the Nike et al. are trying to hard. Club jerseys are mostly atrocious because of the ads and the fact that teams at some point in the last 15 years or so decided they no longer cared at all about their traditional color schemes.
but not every sport can wear light capri pants with dark belts, with socks sticking out under the floods, and partial-socks over those socks even, and short sleeves over long ones.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Hey, any of you gals and guys who are so inclined are welcome to join the brian.only Saturday pickup sloshball crew. Noon tomorrow, Lowell Park at 14th and Filbert in West Oakland. A good time will be had by all.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Million-Dollar Comic Book Idea: finally bringing transgender issues to comic books with XX-Men
5 cent porn idea: XXX-Men. I’m sure there are already over 9,000 such things.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
If I die during my surgery this week…Jennifer gets the 2,496 page book I wrote about VORP, Kay gets my time share condo in Ukraine, and Oz gets custody of our children.
I kinda of just half watched the ending to The World Wars on the History Channel…easily one of the worst documentaries I’ve ever seen. You would think Patton won WWII by himself, and Eisenhower is never even named…which is nuts. If someone watched this, and used it as their only knowledge of WWI and WWII they would be completely ignorant as this documentary is mostly fact free. You do however get to see what Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Joe Lieberman thought about all this though.
If you long for actors, who look very little like the people they’re playing, starring straight into the camera, and nodding their heads, this is the documentary for you. The Hitler scenes are wonderfully cheesy. Whoever made this piece of garbage documentary is dumber than a box of rocks.
Agreed here. As someone who has complained more than once about the lack of stuff about WWI I did like the beginning more. But once we got to Versailles it was done. And I was interested in how McCarthur was leading all of these battles in the Pacific. The next time I drive down 880 I wil make sure to remember that his accomplishments were clearly the defining feature of the Pacific theatre.
The first episode was the strongest of the three. It was basically a World War For Dummies type show except it left out a lot of really basic stuff. If an event didn’t involve one of the five or six guys they had actors for it never happened.
I’ll get this off my chest and then shut up…any documentary that thinks MacArthur and Patton were more important WWII figures than Eisenhower is fucking stupid.
i was fooling around about my affinity by saying the opposite. i just i forgot to shout “soft-scientific study of mental functions and behaviors!” after.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
In fairness, Sinead had I think three big hits off that one album, which was pretty huge. She also picked a fight with the pope, which at the very least shows profound ignorance of history. I’m sure if she’d had a second successful album she’d have gotten into a land war in Asia.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Emperors New Clothes was definitely a hit at the time. And I’m sure she released at least one more single from the album.
I actually am a fan of early Sinead. Her first album was nominated for a Grammy I believe and was great almost top to bottom. Still listen to it frequently.
When I Do Not Want What I haven’t Got came out it was like she put the Aces in the center of the Venn diagram and went from there. A Prince track for her lead #1 hit single? SWOON.
Overall that album is also pretty good. I recommend Black Boys on Mopeds and The Last Day of Our Acquaintence for your consideration (although dont listen to the latter if you are starting a seperation..or so I’ve heard).
No, they just wrote a really bad song about it. It was noteworthy I suppose for not being the kind of cookie cutter mass consumable song that is the mark of the Rolling Stones Corporation over the past 20 years or so.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Dude. I saw a 3 month old today that was bigger than most 8 month olds. Totally precious. I almost stole him, but the carrier broke as I was power walking away from the crime scene.
i don’t want to say deep throat, but the food seems to go right past her mouth into this like pocket area. glimpses of feeding the snake my college roommate had, unhinged jaw and blank stare. i doubt she knows that it tastes like.
and her table manners are deplorable!
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
just watched the wet burrito one. down in 3 minutes and change. but she spends the first two minutes prepping by dumping a cup of ice on top and mincing it. the she slurps it. so gross.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The Bacon Bacon food truck has an appetizer on its menu called “The Bouquet,” which is a dozen of so strips of thick bacon, served sticking up in a french fry bag. I’d be lying if I said it was too much bacon. It is not.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Before surgery I try to have my “just in case” meal. Ribeye, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup for desert. I’ve only died twice during surgery so it seems like a solid good luck charm.
I’m showing my sister-in-law how to bake a cake. She’s a mess. I told her to start the mixer; I turn around and she’s only got one beater in the machine and can’t figure out why it’s not mixing.
Hell, even I can bake a cake.
You know, if I knew you were coming.
TWSS
Now I have Donna Summer stuck in my head.
We apply negative pressure.
10:1 on MLB Futures for an A’s World Series win.
If their losing ways hold up another week or two and that goes down to 15:1, I’d snatch that shit up.
El Pibe is the best. I really want to know what the “Tequendama Falls” position entails, but I’m afraid to google too deeply.
She also has baby ducks. She lets them swim in the toilet.
i hope that’s a similar euphemism to my “serving pheasant under ass.”
OK, it’s the RedSox, but still, this is hilarious.
My wife was hoping that when Manny came out during the pre-game, they would show footage from the time (one of the times?) when he randomly cut off Damon’s throw.
I don’t get it.
Exene, oh, Exene. So disappointing when one’s idols turn out to be lunatics.
Oh my gawd.
She has been a little loonie for a few years. I think the drugs got to her
Eh, she’s desperate. Get used to it.
and dr k wins the lounge
No more recapping for me for a while, unless all you people want to read about Fargo. It’s odd not to have many current shows I’m watching.
I miss The Walking Dead.
I’m enjoying Fargo quite a bit, and I had assumed it would be disappointing. But I’m always 2 or so episodes behind.
I really liked the pilot for Halt and Catch Fire. Will be interesting to see whether it makes good.
i just don’t have TV to keep up with your caps. am always a netflix season behind. but i read them. and when i catch up to the season i go back to them.
i almost want to suggest we all pick a show and watch the rerun together, but that’d be awkward i guess.
We did have a plan to do this with Deadwood, which I was enthusiastically behind, but it was a victim of circumstance.
I’d be up for reviving that at an episode a week with a revolving hoster-poster.
revolving could work.
or movies? everybody gets one shot at sitting next to the projector on the FKmily film festival.
prolly only ed gets/has an uncomfortable sleepy fondness for that joke.
loved that show. its like having wikipedia on your tv!
And now I get your signature
Love the Doc.
He’s fantastic. And it took me almost until the end of the series to realize that guy was also Wormtongue.
And Billy Bibbit in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”
brad dourif. one of those dudes who’s in everything. spot him in blue velvet! had a small arch in star trek. and absolutely shines in wise blood.
and:
I had been wondering what people thought of Fargo, but I don’t know if it needs a recap or its own thread.
Or I could blog about Family Feud.
Also Fargo is halfway through its miniseries lifespan.
Without getting into specifics (One ep behind now, the last thing I’ve seen is the lady cop getting accidentally shot by the hapless geek cop), I really love the way they’ve sustained the deep Midwestern weirdness. I was sure it would feel inauthentic, like bad fan fiction, but it actually builds on the original’s sensibilities quite well. I also liked the way they worked in the money Steve Buscemi buried in the snow.
Overall I like it too.
The one thing I’m not crazy about is that I do get that fanfic feeling (though I hadn’t thought of it that way) a little bit. From the exaggerated accents, to the general weird vibe, to the derivative characters (Lundegaard/Nygaard the milquetoast broken bad, Gunderson/Solverson the understatedly tenacious woman cop, the pairs of hit men one talking one quiet) – sometimes it feels like it’s trying just a little too hard to be the movie, but with a tone that’s just a little bit off. (The Coens themselves are listed as executive producers, but my sense is that they’re not very closely involved.)
That quibble aside, it’s a fun show to watch. Good mix of comedy and ultraviolence, and the cast is mostly top-notch. Billy Bob Thornton is great as the deadpan psychopath. One gets the feeling that Mr. Malvo really enjoys his line of work. And I really like Allison Tolman too, who manages to put her own spin on the younger Frances McDormand part.
I like it too, but it can drag a bit for me. The Malvo character is great though.
Is anyone watching Silicon Valley? I watched the first episode, which was terrible, and was ready to give up on it. But my wife convinced me to watch a second episode and it turned out to be great.
That’s exactly how it went for me, was let down after episode one, since the reviews had been so strong, but the show improved a lot after that.
I don’t have that kind of TV, but it seems like a crappy nerd boy fantasy
Except that it is not a very flattering portrait of the tech nerds.
I’m only a couple of episodes in, and I’ve been a little bit disappointed. The basic premise of the show is just a little hard to relate to (accidental invention of something extremely valuable), and the characters don’t really do it for me so far. The landlord in particular is just too broadly written or absurdly acted, I can’t tell which. And the tycoon characters, while pretty quality satire, are very cartoonish. I was hoping for Office Space II, and it’s not that I guess. I’ll keep watching though, mostly because I enjoy Martin Starr and the creepy business major guy.
martin starr is awesome
He really is. Zach Woods is also spectacular.
Now that I have watched both seasons, what was I thinking? This is the funniest show on TV right now. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.
I’m not sure I’ve laughed as hard at a TV show in recent memory as I did to the “Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency” episode.
So good. From this last season, I’m still laughing when I hear some of the Russ Hanneman lines in my head.
What series would you guys recommend? I just got into the series a while ago, and this is my/our profile. Loved Breaking Bad, found Wire to be OK, liked House of Cards, liked/loved Game of Thrones, didn’t like Walking Dead, liked first few episodes of Newsroom, didn’t like the rest, tried 24 and found it to be damn awful, found Bored to Death to be OK. Any suggestions?
Oh yeah, seen and liked True Detective
Justified?
Seems to be a popular choice. Thanks
The Americans
I’m limited to what’s either on my cable here in Germany or what is out on DVD/Blu Ray. The Americans was recommended by Tango, too, but I can’t get it here (yet). Netflix Germany is supposedly starting this fall, but I am afraid they might be stupid enough to dub their stuff.
I don’t think the Americans is on Netflix. Amazon got an exclusive streaming deal on it. I actually bought the season pass on iTunes after watching the pilot.
it’s disk only on netflix.
They still mail those? Huh.
(The first season is on DVD though.)
And now the second, two
the assets scratches some of the same itches.
Veep
Seen it, liked it
Watched the first episode this weekend. Found it painfully awkward. Does it get better?
I don’t remember that specific episode well enough to say whether it was a good or bad representation of what’s to come, but I do think it does only gets better and funnier as you become more familiar with the characters.
Yes. I’d also add that if you have any experience working with elected officials and their staff, the characters’ motivations ring very true (enhanced for comedic effect of course).
My experiences in Washington may help explain why I find the show so incredibly funny. I think the only show that has ever made me laugh more reliably is classic Simpsons. Even as a farce, it is way, way more accurate about Washington than House of Cards.
Sopranos – first of the great cable series, big influence on all that came after, especially Breaking Bad and the Wire.
Twin Peaks – first season is the best thing ever on network TV. Second season isn’t as good, but still fun. (If you like David Lynch.)
Foyle’s War – British police drama set in WW2. Mix of standard case-per-week police procedural, with longer storylines about impact of the war on the main characters’ lives.
Deadwood – A boom town on the American frontier as a microcosm of the development of civilization. Kind of sprawling, with lots of different characters introduced very quickly at the start. Gloriously profane. Some others here think it is the best series ever. I would not go so far, but I liked it.
Justified – Yeah. Crime drama set in rural Kentucky. First few episodes aren’t great, but stick with it, it gets really really good.
Oh, also if you don’t mind subtitles (or if you count Swedish among your many languages) the Wallander series that stars Krister Henriksson. (There is also an English series with Kenneth Branagh, which is decent but not as good.) Smart police procedural show, with a great lead character.
I actually did have two Swedish girlfriends/acquaintances when I was younger, but neither lasted long enough for me to learn the language. I don’t mind the subtitles at all, I used to watch all the movies with them.
I love the Branagh version of Wallander. I haven’t checked out the Swedish version yet. Since I’m Swedish I should watch it I suppose.
I’ve seen Twin Peaks and loved it.
Thanks for the tips.
Deadwood is indeed the best series ever. So there.
If you haven’t seen it that could add to the impetus for the collective (re)viewing that was mooted elsewhere, though if you’re a binge-watcher the one a week suggestion might not work so well for you.
We watch several episodes at a time when we catch an opportunity.
If Deadwood had run a full arc of 4-6 seasons and been allowed to have an ending which was planned for and befitting its greatness, then yes, it could have contended for best show ever. Ending suddenly and unsatisfyingly (fuck you David Milch) prevents it from reaching any higher than top 3-5 in my book.
I assume the ending would have included the camp burning to the ground, as it did in real life. Fire as a motif is a near constant, I am noticing as I re-watch now.
Milch’s story (and he’s sticking to it) was that Deadwood got canceled before he decided to do his other show.
Either way, I’m still not really convinced, since I wasn’t crazy about season 3. Blasphemy, I know. I get why they introduced the theatre troupe as part of the overall development of civilization theme, but all the storylines involving them just seemed really boring, and took up way too much of that season.
It’s been on my list since Bloomie once described it to me as “Shakespeare, if Shakespeare said ‘cocksucker.'” But I haven’t watched TV in a while.
I would be in for the collective (re)viewing, should that take place.
I started Deadwood. It took me two or three episodes to warm up to it completely, but I am thoroughly enjoying it now, cocksuckers.
Fixed.
Thanks, and go As.
excellent
I just started rewatching it… it is really fantastic and holds up so well
I just finished re-watching the whole thing last night. I liked it even more the second time; there’s just so much nuance in the dialogue and staging, and in many of the acting performances (Swearengen is genius. Sol Star, not so much).
But goddamnit the lack of an ending is just so fucking frustrating!
E.B.’s soliloquys are Shakespearean.
Oh most definitely, after other primary characters become more important, maybe towards the end of season one, EB starts getting written specifically as a Shakesperean narrative device, part Hamlet, part fool.
Finished. I, Deadwood, hang dai!
OK, Justified is next
homeland
orange is the new black
boardwalk empire
friday night lights
top of the lake
the killing (i hear the european version is better)
the fall
the americans (i still need to see it. i just know i’ll like it.)
i like treme but it clunks worse than the wire, but i also like the wire. WHAT? david simon telling me his world view directly through artificial dialog is easier than reading!
not quite A-list:
hell on wheels
sleeper cell
awake
revolution
the english one that’s like walking dead/jericho but it’s a disease, not zombies, and it’s about rebuilding community rather than each one surviving by screwing each other over…
if you still haven’t:
west wing > newsroom
sopranos
firefly
6 feet under
deadwood
luther
arrested development (half hour sitcom, but written with closure. in the first cycle anyway.)
stupid guilty pleasures:
lost
dollhouse
galactica / caprica
ringer
they’ll tell you (but they rub me the wrong way):
mad men
sons of anarchy
* caveat: i don’t know how to tell you which ones i actually admire and which ones i go through forgiving their pecadillos.
I’ll bookmark this one, thanks
archer if you can watch cartoons.shutup
i can’t.
Archer is amazing.
The Shield hasn’t been mentioned. Got better as it went along, never really expected it to be outstanding, but it got there by the end.
I love The Shield…it has one of the best series finales ever in my opinion.
And Homeland was ordered, too
yay! first season is amazing. then it dips, just slightly. but i hear in the latest season they’ve brought it back up to greatness.
Last season was really good.
How many are there? I bought three
There are 4.
I petered out somewhere toward the end of the second season. Worth jumping back in on?
I think it is. But then again I could say your exact same sentence about me for Breaking Bad, so it’s a matter of taste.
I mean, come on!
Don’t you have more important things to remember than 9 month old game threads?
http://freekraut.net/?p=14271#comment-411292
You expect me to read Mr. V?
So, after four seasons of Justified and one and 3/4 of Homeland, I like Justified. It doesn’t have the suspense of Breaking Bad or the general greatness of Deadwood, but it’s enjoyable to watch and there are some really good moments. Also, so many characters are from Deadwood, as well as some other ones, so it’s kind of fun to see them in a new surrounding.
Homeland, I’m not sure. Production is really good, actors as well (Mandy Patinkin I really liked), but the general plot and lot of plot twists are just pretty weak. Also a bit too much of behavior designed to get on viewers nerves, like the daughter character. There are some elements of 24 in it (which I found to be atrocious and can’t believe I actually made it through an entire season), like somewhat forced twists of (s)he is good, no wait bad, no wait, good… But as I said, it is very well packaged and watchable
I’m now through 0.9166 seasons of Homeland and basically agree with your take (except I find the Brody actor horrible). I’ll keep watching it, because Nurse Upgrade likes it, but the poor writing/plotting keeps pissing me off. Right from episode one, when this blond American walks down a Baghdad street yelling into her phone “put me on with the assistant director of the CIA!”
We’ve been watching season 3 of The Fall. First season was OK, but it has gotten so boring. It’s like they took a single episode of Law and Order SVU and stretched it out to 17 hours over three seasons.
The HBO show Rome doesn’t get mentioned often, only ran two seasons and appeared just before the real golden age of modern TV serial dramas began, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Hell yeah.
Strongly endorsed. Plus, with only two seasons it’s fast to get through. Similarly, I have an abiding fondness for Band of Brothers.
rome: somewhere between apocalypse now, dirty harry, conan the barbarian, and red dawn (1984). (i had no idea.)
Ordered
Finished that, too. Nice one.
non-HBO, but I really, really loved Friday Night Lights
Thanks, and go As.
Best American non-cable drama ever.
Best depiction of marriage in TV history.
It was very good most of the time. The episode in which Matt’s father passes away is my favorite. The closing scene in that is something else. A saving grace of the later seasons.
But, with exception of the coach’s family, Matt, Smash and Riggins (played to perfection), I found the rest to be stock characters moving through pedestrian story lines.
West Wing
in spitebecause of its high-minded idealism gets best American non-cable drama nod from me. Though I admit that I don’t really think of everything after reelection–a period which coincides with the departure of one Sam Seaborn–as part of West Wing.WW’s last season was also pretty good, I thought. Alan Alda is awesome.
I’m rewatching the West Wing, more closely than I did at the time it aired. The first three seasons are even better than I remembered. Every episode a little movie, and much more nuanced and less preachy than I feared.
I’m going to say that the moment it started to slip is Mark Harmon in the bodega. I was willing to forgive the random twist of fate with Mrs. Landingham because it gave us “Two Cathedrals,” but doing that to CJ…just wrong. Also, that agent wouldn’t suspect an accomplice? And the accomplice wouldn’t run rather than shoot a secret service agent? And Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah? Sheesh. It’s saved by by how unbelievably good Allison Janney is (the whole story line is worth it for her at the shooting range) and “crime…I don’t know,” but still the first step too far into typical network melodrama.
I’ve watched through it three times (most recently about a year ago).
I was surprised the third time how good I thought the “bad” seasons were. The Goodman thing sucked, but is over with MUCH faster binge watching than it was live. The rest is fine and the last season makes me wish they’d spun-off and kept going.
I haven’t yet hit the bad seasons on my rewatch. We’ll see.
I’m just astonished how few missteps there were in the first three seasons. The show really hit the ground running and absolutely nailed the characters and casting (even for the smallest roles). Well, other than Mandy I guess, and they disappeared her without much fuss.
I remember the last season being really fun. Although I could never suspend my disbelief that the Republicans would nominate Alan Alda (or his character).
Yep. Its not by accident it made (and in my opinion won) the shortlist for best network TV series of all time.
Another thing that is surprising me on rewatch is how much I like Hoynes, and what an asshole Bartlet is to him. Tim Matheson is great in that role.
Mark Harmon in a 4 episode arc ruining a show you say? This sounds familiar…
Looooooove Friday night lights!!!
Ordered
When I saw new comments pop up on a lounge titled “We suck”, I figured it would be about the Oakland A’s.
A lounge in May about us being bad. I assumed too.
And how weird that we look back at how good we were in the first half in 2014, yet we had lounges about how “we suck”.
Ungrateful bastards!
I don’t think I actually meant it at that time. Later? Totally
So, it was about our sexual practices?
And finished. Liked it a lot, found both main acting roles excellent. Read the book afterwards, liked it even better.
Lots of other good recs here, but one I haven’t seen is the first season of Damages. Glenn Close, a very young Rose Byrne, and Ted Danson as a great villain. Season 2 dropped off a lot but season 3 was ok. I haven’t watched the online only seasons.
Another oddball one, and the rare hour-long comedy, is Northern Exposure. Not sure how it would hold up today but it had a pretty good run, with some great quirky characters.
i still like it.
ever watch wonder falls?
I liked that one
it was fun.
The new Hannibal TV series by Bryan Fuller is pretty good.
I’ll second this. It’s probably not True Detective, Justified level for me, but it’s pretty good.
A couple more:
Slings and Arrows (canadian show about a theater company putting on Shakespeare)
Firefly/Serenity (“space western” conceit) and Battlestar Galactica are both “gritty” sci-fi if you’re willing to move from GoT to space.
We’ve been talking about Louie some, but it’s the most unique show on TV right now.
1 and 2a were last summers bingewatching.
Most of mine have already been mentioned, but if you want just fun shows there a couple of USA shows that are pretty good: Psych, Suits, Monk, and Burn Notice.
Historically, the other show I would recommend is Six Feet Under.
Oh, and the first 4 seasons of Dexter are fantastic.
Started Suits. Like it a lot. Mostly because Gabriel Macht is dead sexy.
If you are into mini-series, Five Days is not bad
Magic City was enjoyable, too
I’m six episodes into “Narcos” and find it to be very enjoyable
We just started, two eps in. Intense. I’m hooked.
I’m little curious as to why they chose a Brazilian actor to portray a Colombian (who speaks Spanish throughout the series), but I like his acting enough to not really care.
Also, AV, can you explain to me when one uses vos and when usted. It seems that it is almost the opposite of castellano, namely that “usted” is below “vos”, but also somehow interchangeable.
our vos is at the same level as tú. both informal. usted remains formal in américan countries whether they vosean or tutean.
i’m not sure usted is below vos in spain. you can’t vosear a king. but you can vosear your wife or customers. you know them. the king, you don’t know. so you can’t even address him directly. in fact, if you think about it, usted isn’t really 1st person; it kinda conjugates in 3rd. el rey manda. vuestra merced manda. usted manda.
Sorry, perhaps I wasn’t clear. In Spain “usted” is definitely above “tu” (“vos” is never used, except when joking). But in “Narcos” “usted is used when talking to kids and babies, for example, and both vos and usted are used when talking at what seems to be informal, equal level. (And another thing I wasn’t clear about, I was looking for the usage in Colombia, if you know anything about that – they seem to be very funny in many other areas, as well)
ah. yeah, there’s using usted as an exaggeration of distance to show endearment, like when talking to kids. my grampa would sometimes switch into that.
colombia mostly tutea. but there are regions within where they vosean.
i’ll have to watch to see if it jibes or if it’s the typical as-long-as-it-sounds-like-some-sort-of-spanish mess.
they’re switching back and forth a lot, more to do with the supposed tone of the message than the levels of the speaker/listener. when heckle and jeckle are doing the “after you,” “oh no, after you,” they’d be doing it in usted even though they’re obviously long-acquainted cronies.
Wagner Moura was the star of Tropa de Elite (“Elite Squad”), whose director I believe is involved in Narcos. He’s great.
because i’m liking this show, the mood, the degree of historicity, etc., it’s starting to really, really bother me that the central character has such a bad accent. it’s not just crossed-countries inflection, he’s a non-spanish-speaker and his pronunciation really throws off any believability in him as a robin hood paisa. especially when he’s next to guys like cockroach, who really know how to turn huevón into a 1-syllable interjection, the way chileans and only chileans do.
Four episodes in to Narcos, I like it but I don’t yet love it. It’s an incredibly interesting true story and I like it a lot as a quasi-documentary, but as a televised drama, the amount of exposition being delivered through narration and montage is jarring. It just seems like either lazy writing or cheap filmmaking to not show us some of the stuff they are telling us.
Add Peaky Blinders to the list of the good ones.
Agreed, though as usual the first season was much better than the second.
I’ve only seen the first and the second one is not available on the German Netflix. I was contemplating buying the Blu Rays for the second, but now I think I’ll just wait.
It’s still good stuff, mind, just not up the the standard of the first season IMHO.
I dunno. It felt way too slow for me (and I’m a Mad Men fan!). Too many scenes with endless dialogue that I wasn’t sufficiently invested in.
Do you mean season two specifically, or the show in general?
Season two specifically had more of it (at least to my eye).
Does anyone else here watch Sherlock? Re-watched S2 last night. Another to definitely recommend.
Sherlock is amazing.
Meh … it’s fun, but there are some glaring problems.
For instance, in the very first episode we’re repeatedly shown his deductive brilliance (the analysis of the dead woman in pink in particular), but it never occurs to him that the taxi has a driver as well as a passenger.
Which would be a problem if it were actually a detective series and not a comedy.
Zing!
Love it!
I am right now. Finished S2 yesterday, starting S3 today. Virginia enjoys it more than I do, but I still find it entertaining
I really enjoyed season 1, but haven’t gotten around to the rest yet.
Summer 2016 Netflix:
1) Rectify (season 3). Probably my favorite show of the last few years. Maybe not for everyone, as it is more atmosphere- and character- than plot-driven. Beautiful visually, with great writing and acting creating complex, real-seeming characters.
2) Bloodline (season 2). Some similar themes to Rectify (Southern family, prodigal son returns) with a more traditional show with emphasis on plot and action. Decent.
3) Peaky Blinders (season 3). Godfather in 1920s England. Already discussed here. Still great.
4) Narcos (season 1). Goodfellas in 1980s Colombia. Already discussed by others here, but I just watched it. Season 2 about to come out. Very good. 20 episodes on Pablo Escobar seems like a lot, but it’s managed to hold my attention.
5) Stranger Things (season 1). Recently discussed elsewhere. Supernatural stuff isn’t normally my bag (nor is 80’s nostalgia) but it’s a good story and by the end things mostly make sense in a suspended-disbelief way.
Mrs. N and I just finished The Last Kingdom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Kingdom_(TV_series))
Well worth eight episodes of your time (and apparently season two is in production)
5 makes me angry. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: spadla z oblakov.
it’s kinda horribly silly if not sillilly horrible, but i’m enjoying the get down. the dance sequences as abstracted kung fu are my favorite.
however, i have to admit i’m barely hanging on to finishing mad men and, at most-promising on the horizon, warily eyeing the latest season of OitNB, because my podcast addiction has turned on my TV show addiction and seems to be severely endangering it. namely, B.E.E.‘s (yep, him.) views on TV’s current golden age (basically stated as, what golden age??) are making me see things differently than even a couple months ago. but seriously, he has a point.
No “The Night Of”?
Nurse U and I just started this, liking it a lot 3 episodes in.
Sounds good. No HBO though.
Yeah, was not on Netflix here, but Sky, my bad.
Anybody watching The Young Pope?
Oh, I just realized this is the one where we get to see it in Europe before you guys do overseas. Coming to you in January. Not brilliant, but entertaining
I saw it already
How so? Hack?
Anyway, I finished it, and am turning to Westworld now.
[joking. name thing]
So, Westworld. How do the visitors know who the other visitors are? Even if we assume that the guns are so sophisticated they would not fire at other humans, there are still knives and good oldfashioned strangulations that could be cause some problems.
I am loving Westworld, fascinated by the broad thematic questions of what it even means to be “real,” let alone who is or isn’t. And Anthony Hopkins is brilliant.
I recommend the weekly recaps at io9.com if you want to dig for more background as you go along. The comment sections in particular delve deeply into the timelines (many think the story is told on two or more separate ones), limits on what the hosts can do (programming stops them before the point of injuring guests), and how this all starts to break down as the hosts gain self awareness. This show is a great one for obsessing over the details.
How far into it are you now?
Current, thru Ep 8.
OK, I just finished Ep. 3. Love the potential, some really good acting. I think one has to just accept some unsolvable mysteries, because I don’t think there will be a perfect answer for everything. I checked the site you mentioned, obviously only until the articles immediately after Ep.3, quite like it. Thanks
My understanding was that the visitors were all kept apart (except when they entered the park as a group). Not quite sure how you’d do that without there being a huge bottleneck in the arrival town though.
Yeah, but how easily can you do that and still have them roam around as freely as they want?
To the extent that they’re guided by the hosts over a huge area I can see it being manageable – main town aside – and there’s only one visitor I can think of who’s going rogue.
(And the guns can shoot visitors, but it only bruises them)
OK, so Samaritan Reflex is probably the answer to my question (made it through Ep. 5)
We’re not overseas. You’re overseas.
this whole world is overseas!
Don’t worry, with Myron Ebell in charge, we’ll all soon be underseas.
Black Mirror is a fantastic one, in case you haven’t seen it yet
And finished it. Easily one of the best ones I have seen
I liked Ozark, mostly because I like Jason Bateman
I got through about 15 minutes of the pilot to Silicon Valley. I hated every character. Since a few of you say it got better maybe I’ll give it another look. It’s a show by Mike Judge and I’m a fan of his work.
I was really really ready to give up after the first episode. I’m still kind of astonished that I now like the show.
Okay, I’ll give it another look.
I’m engaged, the laughs get better, but I do agree with Glorious Mundy’s critique above. The story and characters are a bit one-note, and where I was hoping for howling comedic satire, what I got was a sitcom. A good one, but still, just a sitcom.
We’re doing origin story reboots of FKing Sleeping Beauty now? What’s next, a gritty reimagining of Lady and the Tramp?
i kinda like bates motel.
I’m hoping for a faux reality series about Snow White and those seven freaky dwarves.
I want to see an origin story reboot of Jesus.
I thought his story was a reboot from about a dozen others?
Yeah, but it’s a franchise that could use a new start.
I’m thinking a present day re-imagining. He gets thrown into an asylum, spends the rest of his life in group sessions. Sort of One Flewish.
I see it now…a look at the young Jesus. We call it Jesus: The Wonder Years. Hmm who can we cast in the Winnie Cooper role?
agüero to barça? reportedly, they offered city €38M, el kun already agreed, now it’s between the clubs. real madrid apparently* offered €70M but agüero wants to play with lio.
so the front line would be neymar-messi-agüero? oh man…
*not from sport, but from arg press, so don’t believe un centavo of it.
holy shit.
Thanks, and go As.
I guess they did alright with Suarez instead.
Thanks, and go As.
If Ballmer really is offering $2 billion for the Clippers:
1. Donald Stirling waffling on the offer is certainly proof of his mental incapacity.
2. Ballmer would get more for his $2 billion by buying the A’s even though they’re “not for sale”, doing 100% or close-thereto private financing of a new ballpark and still having money left over to boost the payroll at least to the MLB midpoint.
Gonna disagree on #2. The Clippers are a national brand right now. They’re a major media darling in an world class arena (albeit a shared one) in a much more renown city. In the proper hands, he could use the huge amounts of publicity the team is getting to make even more money. With the A’s, there’s no immediate return on that investment and it would take years to realize it (if ever).
It’s not just that. NBA teams are crazy valuable right now in large part because the league crushed the union in the last couple of CBA negotiations. The last crushing was so demoralizing that the players haven’t even been able to get together to hire a new head of the union. As a result, players are getting a much smaller percentage of the insane TV money than they would be in an open market.
World Cup
KitsUniforms Through the Ages1994 was the peak of tackiness for just about everybody.
neat.
pondering the colors of mexico’s alt, i saw that they did wear red a few times before, with blue shorts. still not getting why fully. but i also saw hints of their 50s away colors. WTF!!?
though this hints at it in the way the shorts are drawn, what’s missing is the fit. that’s changed a lot too. the 90s weren’t just the worst design years, everybody looked like they were wearing 5-gallon trashbags. i think we’re in a good moment for fit, except for that tight jersey france debuted last time with the cross-your-back straps that i hope doesn’t trend in.
and i miss the short shorts of the 70s–80s. can i admit i went just a lil bit chub looking at the upper thighs of old players the other night?
I remember 1998 as being the nadir for fit. England looked especially silly. (Of course we’ll never know what they would have looked like in 1994.) I think Francesco Totti singlehandedly killed the baggy trend dead in 2002.
oh, also… that nanu-nanu misremembering of mine brought up an old issue. i seem to hold on to a lot of misunderstandings i had when i was young, and live by them today. circling back to kits, didn’t they use to give yellow cards for playing with your jersey untucked from your shorts? did i also make that up and keep holding on to it?
they got the USA truborocket popcicle wrong. forgot the white chest band.
Yeah.
The USA really needs to chill on changing the jerseys so often. I’m OK with unveiling a new look every World Cup — we’re never going to be a classic like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, or Uruguay so why pretend — but I don’t get unveiling a new radical redesign practically every year. The Where’s Waldos and the Centennial gear never got a runout on the world stage.
with every kit change, i think of that line at the beginning of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown… baby, some things are unmistakably american.
They messed up Germany 1994, too. Theshorts!
ack! i lost my chub.
Yordan Letchkov’s hairy thighs don’t do it for you, eh?
Soccer seems to universally have really ugly uniforms.
The uniforms up until about 1982 are pretty gorgeous, I think. The only current ones I really love are Brazil and France.
The problem with national team jerseys now are that the Nike et al. are trying to hard. Club jerseys are mostly atrocious because of the ads and the fact that teams at some point in the last 15 years or so decided they no longer cared at all about their traditional color schemes.
well, sure.
but not every sport can wear light capri pants with dark belts, with socks sticking out under the floods, and partial-socks over those socks even, and short sleeves over long ones.
What the hell is this?
Hollywood Stars of the old PCL with the first use of shorts as part of a Baseball uniform. With stirrups even.
i frickin’ love the german green away kit with adidas stripes on the sleeve. my 2nd favorite overall (1st being a conglomerate of albiceleste looks).
Those are very nice uniforms…for Ireland.
too obvious!
and germany is pretty much guaranteed to wear adidas; the three stripes make it for me.
TNT’s current slogan is “BOOM”.
Goes the dynamite.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/oakland-athletics-mlb-reply-challenge-card-system/
We have a laminator? Fancy.
Coin-operated.
I wish our system were based on the Fresh Prince.
Also, picture of the author at the bottom of the page: Is Grantland hiring 14 year olds now?
He’s the freaking Editor-in-Chief of Baseball Prospectus! Amazing. I’ve grown to quite enjoy his podcast. He has a laid back, nerdy-funny persona.
And all before his chest hair has come in, very impressive.
And before his balls drop too!
I feel like we should make this more of a spectacle. Maybe have Stomper hold up the numbers.
The fans should start bringing cards, too.
That would be awesome, we should definitely do this.
yes
You’re welcome.
I think a 3 tiered system makes more sense than just thumbs up thumbs down
Thanks, and go As.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
katakana? fancy keyboard
you just blew my mind
Siskel and Ebert it.
Does that involve thumbs or dying?
Wait…an article on Grantland that isn’t about the NBA? Is that legal?
Hey, any of you gals and guys who are so inclined are welcome to join the brian.only Saturday pickup sloshball crew. Noon tomorrow, Lowell Park at 14th and Filbert in West Oakland. A good time will be had by all.
I will join again. not this weekend, or next, I think the 14th might be doable.
I cannot do this weekend but possibly next. Andeux and I are going to try to goad each other into going.
Bed bait supremo
Awesome.
Wait…this isn’t Tulsa.
There were a lot of comments made this week. I’ll just assume most of them were about Billy Carter and skip them.
Ok, but when you find out later that you missed the Billy Beer appreciation thread you only have yourself to blame.
Shucks…oh well, I always miss the fun stuff it seems.
I’m supposed to be in Tulsa picking people up. Instead they’re flying in tomorrow which means I get out of airport duty. There is a God.
putting the lay in delayed.
anybody got the game thread? i feel weird doing two posts in a row.
Do X-Men ever wonder Y?
Million-Dollar Comic Book Idea: finally bringing transgender issues to comic books with XX-Men
5 cent porn idea: XXX-Men. I’m sure there are already over 9,000 such things.
My wife is watching a show about a shop that sells a BLT that has 20 slices of bacon on it. I guess there can be too much of a good thing.
but do they use grilled cheese sandwiches instead of bread and deep fry the whole thing?!?
There’s gangsta and there’s Pat Boone gangsta.
I spend much of my time telling people that…no, that’s not ironic.
Halt…and catch fire!
is that a rejected adam ant song?
No, it’s the new show on AMC…and it’s about the Commodore 64 I think.
I had no idea it was such a cool system function until the intro. Makes an awkward title, but at least there’s a reason for it.
If I die during my surgery this week…Jennifer gets the 2,496 page book I wrote about VORP, Kay gets my time share condo in Ukraine, and Oz gets custody of our children.
oz is reportedly good with kids
He’s really been a great mom.
I wonder how far X-Men can C?
solve for Y
My posts in this lounge make more sense if you read them in my voice.
pardon?
I sound like a cross between Irv Cross and Randy Cross.
There’s dead and then there’s Gerald Ford dead.
You mean Gerald Ford dead sexy!
Well, I guess they have a list for everything when it comes to Presidents. Taft did better than I thought he would.
Taft is first on the objective attractive Presidents lists.
If you like big butts and you cannot lie.
Flash Gordon Saves.
I kinda of just half watched the ending to The World Wars on the History Channel…easily one of the worst documentaries I’ve ever seen. You would think Patton won WWII by himself, and Eisenhower is never even named…which is nuts. If someone watched this, and used it as their only knowledge of WWI and WWII they would be completely ignorant as this documentary is mostly fact free. You do however get to see what Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Joe Lieberman thought about all this though.
If you long for actors, who look very little like the people they’re playing, starring straight into the camera, and nodding their heads, this is the documentary for you. The Hitler scenes are wonderfully cheesy. Whoever made this piece of garbage documentary is dumber than a box of rocks.
Agreed here. As someone who has complained more than once about the lack of stuff about WWI I did like the beginning more. But once we got to Versailles it was done. And I was interested in how McCarthur was leading all of these battles in the Pacific. The next time I drive down 880 I wil make sure to remember that his accomplishments were clearly the defining feature of the Pacific theatre.
The first episode was the strongest of the three. It was basically a World War For Dummies type show except it left out a lot of really basic stuff. If an event didn’t involve one of the five or six guys they had actors for it never happened.
I’ll get this off my chest and then shut up…any documentary that thinks MacArthur and Patton were more important WWII figures than Eisenhower is fucking stupid.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Look-the Patton decoy was great and it sure as hell worked. But who do you think DID that?!?
No mention of:
Doolittle
Nimitz
Rommel
Monty (I hate monty so I dont really care, but still)
And anything that talks Mussolini and doesnt say get the trains to run on time at least once should go away.
i have an emotional sense of affinity for eisenhower.
it’d be great if there was a catchier way to say that though.
Do you shout it over a voice enhancement device?
i was fooling around about my affinity by saying the opposite. i just i forgot to shout “soft-scientific study of mental functions and behaviors!” after.
Dennis Eckersley Saves.
Honeycutt holds.
Excellent.
There’s irrelevant and then there’s Sinead O’Conner irrelevant.
Hey, she recently took it on herself to give Miley Cyrus advice on the proper decorum for one’s public persona.
When I’m looking for advice on how to comport myself in public I often wonder what 1990’s one hit wonders have to think about the subject.
In fairness, Sinead had I think three big hits off that one album, which was pretty huge. She also picked a fight with the pope, which at the very least shows profound ignorance of history. I’m sure if she’d had a second successful album she’d have gotten into a land war in Asia.
And years later the History Channel would do a documentary about the Sinead/Asia Land War and somehow it would involve Hitler looking into space.
…and three big hits? Really? Nothing Compares 2 U…and?
Emperors New Clothes was definitely a hit at the time. And I’m sure she released at least one more single from the album.
I actually am a fan of early Sinead. Her first album was nominated for a Grammy I believe and was great almost top to bottom. Still listen to it frequently.
When I Do Not Want What I haven’t Got came out it was like she put the Aces in the center of the Venn diagram and went from there. A Prince track for her lead #1 hit single? SWOON.
Overall that album is also pretty good. I recommend Black Boys on Mopeds and The Last Day of Our Acquaintence for your consideration (although dont listen to the latter if you are starting a seperation..or so I’ve heard).
Okay, I really only remember the one hit…it was a huge though. That song was everywhere at the time.
my fave of hers is the duet with the the.
very nice one
Coupon Shopper Saves.
you enjoy saving?
Souls mostly…can I preach the word to you, brother?
Do X-Men ever have time to just B?
Just because I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs doesn’t mean I don’t deserve love.
Things no one has ever said…I prefer The Rolling Stones later work in the 90’s.
That’s sweet, neo con.
Did the Stones support the invasion of Iraq?
No, they just wrote a really bad song about it. It was noteworthy I suppose for not being the kind of cookie cutter mass consumable song that is the mark of the Rolling Stones Corporation over the past 20 years or so.
Not many people are consuming those songs. Have they even had a moderate hit since Steel Wheels?
I wonder how the X-Men take their T?
Bed, would you rock me to sleep?
Sure…I helped put Baby Phil to sleep earlier so I’m warmed up.
Dude. I saw a 3 month old today that was bigger than most 8 month olds. Totally precious. I almost stole him, but the carrier broke as I was power walking away from the crime scene.
Baby Phil is getting to be a big boy. The kid really likes to hit the bottle.
Tit happens.
Heh…yeah, who knows when I’ll get a crack at those things again?
When they’re a knee length scarf.
Well, something to look forward to.
And down at.
You’re the best.
I would like it if from now on you people would refer to me by my religious title…The Ayatollah of Rock N’ Rolla.
I hate a bad Pandora radio shuffle.
I gave up on Pandora…too many repeat songs.
There aren’t enough posts about Irv Cross here on Free Kraut.
Irv Cross makes me want to jump.
He made Jimmy The Greek jump to his death.
(Puts on NFL Today suit backwards)
You’re looking live at 5Aces putting on his NFL Today suit backwards. What’s the spread on 5Aces vs the Browns today, Jimmy?
The spread has been about 12-14 inches since HS Brent.
Do the X-Men sit or stand when they P?
Depends on if the X-man has a D or C.
The things we learn here in the lounge.
I feel like a French Dip Sandwich…or maybe that 20 slices of bacon BLT.
I still can’t get over that sandwich…I can’t imagine your body feels all that great after eating 20 slices of bacon in one sitting.
just doesn’t look that good.
maybe with a little avo and mayo…
oh and this happened the other day. 144 oz of steak, 15 minutes.
That chick likes her meat.
i don’t want to say deep throat, but the food seems to go right past her mouth into this like pocket area. glimpses of feeding the snake my college roommate had, unhinged jaw and blank stare. i doubt she knows that it tastes like.
and her table manners are deplorable!
I only watched a bit of it…it’s gross. I don’t get the extreme eating stuff outside of Paul Newman doing it on a bet in Cool Hand Luke
just watched the wet burrito one. down in 3 minutes and change. but she spends the first two minutes prepping by dumping a cup of ice on top and mincing it. the she slurps it. so gross.
Normally I like a gal who knows how to use her mouth but I think she’s on my undateable list.
The only the show looked pretty similar. It did have some lettuce and tomato on it but it was mostly just bacon piled upon more bacon.
Pork Roast with bacon in it?
Bacon Explosion. It is basically Bacon with bacon in it, covered with bacon.
Anytime you can say something like “a quilt of bacon” how can you not make it?
The Bacon Bacon food truck has an appetizer on its menu called “The Bouquet,” which is a dozen of so strips of thick bacon, served sticking up in a french fry bag. I’d be lying if I said it was too much bacon. It is not.
If you could go back in time and kill one person who would it be?
I mean besides sirbed.
Kirk Gibson.
1988: We Will Never Forget.
I’ll go with whoever invented goat cheese…well, or Hitler…no, I’m sticking with the bastard that invented goat cheese.
Things Bed has never said…I feel like some goat cheese.
Horsing around with Sarah Jessica Parker doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Horsing around with John Elway doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Things my mother has never said…I’m proud of you, son.
(Bed goes off for a good cry.)
Damn you mother! Damn you for making me eat goat cheese!
Game of Thrones is on right now…SPOILER ALERT!!!That one guy who has a name I can’t remember is talking to that other guy whose name I forget.
Hey Hey LBJ How many coconut waters did you drink today?
this is one of my favorite bed categories.
I really need some sun…I’ve become whiter than Michael Jackson got.
At some point I’m going to have to give up the family and get back to my first love…my blog on Don Henley.
…and now a musical performance from Ginsberg & the Nipples!
Oh, it’s June 1st…is today the day we’re supposed to have our taxes done?
I don’t pay taxes … I’m a sovereign citizen.
Good for you. How is life in rural Idaho these days?
Finished them on Wednesday! Now we play “will Mrs. Aces old bad debt catch up to the family”. The home game will be available by Christmas..
Idaho: Even crazier than Arkansas.
Idaho: Come for the potatoes, stay for the skinhead rally.
Idaho? I hardly knew her.
idaho once. if i see her again alaska how much iowa.
Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder: I will see this movie and I will kill you if you try and stop me.
Before surgery I try to have my “just in case” meal. Ribeye, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup for desert. I’ve only died twice during surgery so it seems like a solid good luck charm.
yeah, thing is… no eating after midnight before surgery.
Stay classy.
Well that was painless.
Catcher power
dammit.
First Dr. K of the series for me
so bochy wants lopez norris instead of Jaso hudson.
OK then
fk me, the DrK note is right there
lol
a) how on earth did you end up in this one?
b) did you do it a second time AFTER you realized you did it the first time?
c) if yes to “b” repeat “a”