demagogue on 1/11/2020 at 08:31
For Halloween I watched the first episode of Haunting of Hill House due to the recommendations here. I thought it was trying to pack too much into one episode, but I some point I realized it's meant to be a horror romp about this messed up family, and with my expectations duly settled, I started to enjoy it a bit more as it is.
It reminds me of why I like the polar opposite of this style, which is Robert Eggers' movies (The Witch, The Lighthouse), really pared down & naturalistic folk mystery, and I wish there were a horror tv show like this. Well, I can think of one, Picnic at Hanging Rock, although not exactly as it overlays modern tropes on that classic style.
Anyway, I'm enjoying both of these shows more or less, so I can't complain too much.
Kolya on 1/11/2020 at 19:58
I once saw the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock. It's based on a book. Originally the author explained what happened to those girls in the last chapter of the book. Her editor said, it's a great book, if you leave out the last chapter. So she did. And then she spent decades evading the question if it was based on real events, which added a lot to the mystery and interest. It's the kind of thing you could get away with pre-internet.
demagogue on 1/11/2020 at 21:38
For that reason I'm deliberately not reading up on how this series handles it. I imagine it has to be like the original though, since keeping the mystery right through the end is what made it famous.
It reminds me of when Lynch said solving the murder in Twin Peaks killed the show because not knowing was the golden egg that kept people coming back. And he was basically right, since it did die off in the 2nd season.
Of course on the other hand there's Lost where the mystery got so buried under other mysteries it's a wonder they were able to wrap it up at all, and by that time it was an incoherent tangle of them. But I don't know if they could have done it any better any other way.
SubJeff on 2/11/2020 at 08:42
RE: The Mandalorian. There's some serious fan service in this that's pretty out there. Boba's armour entrance was great stuff, as was the reveal at the end and the setting of the jetpack a la Solo.
Harking back to S01 though, that spurs thing was nuts fine detail, no?
demagogue on 2/11/2020 at 08:57
Quote Posted by demagogue
It reminds me of why I like the polar opposite of this style, which is Robert Eggers' movies (The Witch....
Speaking of which, I just saw that the lead in The Queen's Gambit is the same girl in The Witch. I guess the hair and age threw me off, but once I saw it, I definitely saw it. She's going places.
SubJeff on 2/11/2020 at 09:22
Yeah, she's very good.
Kolya on 2/11/2020 at 17:09
Quote Posted by icemann
Great movie. The mystery of not knowing what happened to the schools added to that. I thought they never discovered the girls in actual real life? Though I assume they were killed in a rock slide or falling boulder etc.
The story is completely fictional.
Harvester on 5/11/2020 at 22:22
I'm enjoying The Haunting Of Bly Manor. It works for me when I stop expecting to jump in my seat and enjoy it more as a drama with supernatural elements. It's very atmospheric, I enjoy the house as a location as well as the British accents and customs, and the show succeeds very well in making me care about the characters. 3 episodes left to go.
The previous show I watched was HBO/BBC's I May Destroy You, which I also really liked. It's written by the lead actress and supposed to be partly autobiographical. It depicts a lifestyle very different from mine but what the characters are going through is still very relatable. I recommend it for when, like me, you want to become more sensitive to issues concerning sexual violence against women and the problems people of color have to deal with in modern society. It's very well written and acted, I was engaged the whole way.
Tocky on 8/11/2020 at 07:29
Queens Gambit really is good. The games were tense. Her life was always teetering on disaster. You didn't know how it would end. It was seriously well acted by all involved too. I liked it immensely. When I first sat down to watch I figured I would likely fall asleep during the first episode but it had me hooked right away and I blew through eight episodes before I knew it. I had sat up until two and had to go to work the next day. It was like reading a good book you just can't put down.