Speak Up Saturday

[misbegotten]

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week?

Comments

[wearing_tearing]

Interview with the Vampire: season 2 continues to be everything I've ever wanted! The unreliable narrator element is so much fun, and I'm loving seeing what "really happened" with Louis and Armand :D

Tarot (2024): this movie was so so bad? And I loved every minute of it! The plot holes, the bad acting, the murdering of tarot, the iconic line "he's an earth sign! they found him in the dirt!" I was so damn entertained throughout all of it :D

[rogueslayer452]

the iconic line "he's an earth sign! they found him in the dirt!"

I just saw a gifset of that on Tumblr! It made me curious to want to check it out, because I love ridiculous and entertaining bad horror movies.

[wearing_tearing]

This seems like it would be your vibe, then! It was honestly so bad and I loved it very much :D

The visuals for the tarot deck/creatures were pretty cool, in case you need at least one (1) redeeming quality in your bad horror movie.

[goodbyebird]

I've also been enjoying s2 of IWTV. What a bunch of messy sneaks :D

[wearing_tearing]

They're all messes and I love them!

[jo]

This week I started in on catching up with shows on Apple+. First up was season 3 of The Morning Show, which I enjoyed, but as I posted on my own journal, I kept getting really distracted by Jennifer Aniston's face. It's just... off. Too much what? Botox? Filler? Dunno, but it's just not right. She has a bit of that whole "uncanny valley" thing going. But the series is good and I look forward to season 4.

Other than that, it was tennis when I could catch some (French Open), and the finale of season 4 of Race Across the World, which is so much fun. It's the BBC's alternative to The Amazing Race, but with no stupid challenges/tasks built in that the competitors have to complete, and more demanding as they can't fly anywhere -- they have to rely on ground transportation only to get from place to place, country to country. Also the finale of season 10 of Portrait Artist of the Year -- just the commission unveil episode left this coming week.

I discovered that the second season of Colin From Accounts started in Australia (and on your fave torrent site), but I will wait until all the eps are available before starting in on that.

[yourlibrarian]

Agree with you about Anniston. It depended sometimes on lighting or angle but there were times her face looked odd.

Looks like Colin is on Paramount+ in the U.S. I'm adding that to my list of shows to try out.

[bleodswean]

Hee! I watched The Idea of You and swoooooooooooooooooooooooned my way through the entirety of it and then celebrated the ending! Lusty, gentle, romantic, eye candy all around, just an uplifting movie. And rewatchable. *wink* Not enough of these and I would love a list of top notch romcoms.

Also, She Came to Me. Another Hathaway outing, but her role is fiddley. Real star here is Dinklage and this one is worth the watch.

Attempted Eric and just sat uncomfortable and felt icky and decided nope. It's weird? There is a lovely lovely side character consisting of a detective and his private life that was astonishingly well done but the rest of it just isn't on the same level, and I stopped watching.

[china_shop]

I watched The Idea of You and swoooooooooooooooooooooooned my way through the entirety of it and then celebrated the ending!

Ooh, I just watched the trailer, and that looks delightful! *makes a note for next time I have Prime* :D

[goodbyebird]

Continued onto 1x06 of Babylon 5 in my group watch (they really do aim for one impactful speech per episode, huh?). Started Scavenger's Reign, an animated sci-fi show with very interesting worldbuilding/fauna. Not attached to the characters yet but I'm only three episodes in.

Looking forwards to the next episode of Interview With The Vampire tomorrow.

[colls]

(I love your icon!)

I rewatched B5 not too long ago and once you get past the pilot episode, I thought it really stood up and has aged well.

[goodbyebird]

:D

I know I saw some when I was young, but all details are lost in the after school shows slurry that is my brain. We're only six episodes in, but I've really been enjoying the writing and politics and worldbuilding.

[colls]

I say it's aged well, but it does have issues about how women are sometimes portrayed. It could've made canon one particular F/F relationship but didn't, for example. And Garibaldi's relationships with women can be too dudebro-ish. Nothing uncommon for the time the show aired though, and nothing so egregious that it deters my enjoyment of the points you call out - the writing and politics and worldbuilding.

I found many threads I enjoyed more on a rewatch, so that's a bonus.

[feurioo]

The Atypical Family E7 & 8: I'm finally starting to enjoy Dong-hee's scenes! This is my "drama-magic" K-drama right now, and I'm perplexed to see there's practically no buzz about it. (The 8 Show has been in the German Netflix charts since its release. Why not this little gem as well?)

Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale: Watched half of the first episode. I didn't expect them to push the Cinderella angle so hard. Not sure I need this kind of humor in my life right now (or ever).

Konin Todoke ni Han wo Oshita dake desu ga: I'm giving up. Frustratingly stupid male lead. Episode 7 was already a chore, don't ask me why I watched two more.

Taskmaster S17: Crylaughed at Greg's reaction to the penultimate task.

Taskmaster AU S2: Glad that Tom Gleeson and Lesser Tom are back as hilarious as ever. So far, Lloyd Langford's probably my favorite contestant. However, they're all super funny people with great chemistry.

On my to-watch list: Tomorrow with You, Kotaki Kyodai to Shikuhakku, Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, as well as the J-drama recs I got in my K-drama post. I'm also thinking about rewatching Koisenu Futari and finally finishing Prism after falling in love with the first couple of episodes when it was released.

Btw, has anybody watched 6-Byoukan no Kiseki: Hanabishi Mochizuki Seitaro no Yuutsu? Is it worth watching? I saw that the second season is currently airing but I never started it because I couldn't find subs. (I miss having Takahashi Issei on my screen.)

[rodo]

(The 8 Show has been in the German Netflix charts since its release. Why not this little gem as well?)

Probably because The 8 Show is a Netflix original and they always make more of an effort to promote it, even to people who don't usually watch drama, while The Atypical Family is not. But I agree, it should get all the attention! Can't wait for the finale next week, even if I have to watch it after I'm done with poll work and dead tired.

I think Dong-hee got a lot more intriguing these last two eps, in particular her relationship with her mother. There's just so much baggage there and we're barely scraping the surface, I love it! Also, I think it's pretty clear now that her flying problems were not due to her weight - I think it's all about self-confidence.

[feurioo]

I somehow always assumed it was a Netflix drama because it feels so different from the "typical" drama fare. Can't believe it's already over. I'm both ready and not ready. :'(

I really love the Dong-hee/Grace relationship. Almost wishing they could marry each other to spite both their mums, get the building, and live their best lives. I haven't watched the Sunday episode yet, but I'm absolutely ready for more Dong-hee.

[rodo]

It coming out weekly is a surefire sign it's not a Netflix drama. Disney+ might release stuff the old-fashioned way, but with Netflix, it's half a season at once at least.

Dong-hee and Grace absolutely deserve to live their best lives together, and I think you're absolutely right - hell, everyone but the mums would probably agree. It's not as if Gwi-ju even wants the building.

[china_shop]

Mostly Veronica Mars season 3, which kind of devolved into BH90210 by the end. We've started the movie, and if she gets sexually assaulted or violated in that, too, I'm going to hit something. >:-(

We're also still watching Turning Point: the bomb and the cold war, and it continues to be excellent.

And I've really enjoyed eps 3 and 4 of this season of Doctor Who. (Haven't seen ep 5 yet; please don't tell me anything at all!)

[yourlibrarian]

There was definitely too much of that in VM alright. I don't believe anything like that happens in the movie but honestly I barely remember it.

[yourlibrarian]

Trying out Dark Matter and can't say I'm enjoying it much. It's still being released a week at a time so I'm not sure I'll finish the season.

I'm trying out S2 of Invasion but I wasn't very taken with S1 so not sure if I'll see the whole thing. Am enjoying Loot S2 more than S1 though. Maybe I'm just reconciled to the show being what it is and not what I'd hoped. Also finished the latest season of Call the Midwife.

I'm hoping to make a lot of progress on other shows this week as I might be able to cancel Apple+ next week and rotate onto Peacock.

[jo]

I think I mentioned this on my own journal a few months back, but I've been going back and forth re: trying Invasion because all of the reviews I've read just keep talking about how SLOW it is before anything really happens. I think the Guardian called season 1 "anemic". Is it really that bad?

[yourlibrarian]

You know, I can't figure out what it is that makes the show so boring to me. I know that I'm not fond of having shows with multiple storyline strands for characters that don't gel until the end of the season. I know this put me off S1 of Expanse but I persisted because of the good reviews. And once it did come together I was totally on board. I really enjoyed the show.

However Invasion did this in both seasons. Essentially the series has four main characters and follows each of them separately. Each has at least 4 characters involved in their storyline, making for a lot of characters. They do try to develop them, but in this case I really feel the story would have been better served had the show focused on the storyline alone and moved it forward faster. All of the main characters are fairly obsessive people for one reason or another and it sometimes makes for exasperating viewing.

[tinny]

Still rewatching Bridgerton for my icon challenge. (And rewatching season 3 part 1, and watching a million cast interviews on youtube, because how can it still be ten days until part two? Time is stretching interminably...)

Started the animated movie Suzume, as it was recced to me, and love it so far. It's two hours long, though, so I couldn't do it in one sitting. (Not even in two.) Hping to finish it this week.

I found out that there's a German adaptation of an English-language romance novel, called Maxton Hall. I watched the first episode, and I gotta say, the culture mix is weird - it all looks British, all the names, all the writing, everything, but all the dialogue is in German. Also, the male love interest is shown as the most despicable rich boy stereotype ever. I'm not sure I can finish this.

I rewatched the first episode of Parallel World (cdrama), and remembered that I really loved it the first time around already, so I should get on watching more of that soon.

Oh, and one more episode of Ted Lasso season 3. Almost done with that, and still loving it.

[yourlibrarian]

I'm glad to hear that about Lasso. I think maybe people who see it all at once don't feel as negative about the last season. I've recommended it before to people but I don't think they've taken me up on it.

[tinny]

I'm glad to hear that about Lasso. I think maybe people who see it all at once don't feel as negative about the last season.

Idk? I've watched the first two seasons as they aired, and it's been a long time. I just love the characters still, so maybe I'm just watching it through rose-colored glasses? And I'm of course not done with season 3 yet, so maybe it's going to get worse for me? I'll see.

[feurioo]

Maxton Hall is actually a German-language novel series. But, yeah, the experience is really strange. Didn't know whether I should watch the English dub, simply to make the names seem more palatable to me.

[tinny]

I realized that when I tried to find the novels last night (but couldnt change my comment anymore of course). I'd been confused because the novels' titles are all in English. (wtf, author. really?)

I like watching stuff in the original language, so I'm definitely sticking with German - it just looks better re: people's facial expressions and timing. But it is very weird indeed.

[feurioo]

Me too re: preferring to watch shows in the original language. However, as a German, some of the dialogue sounded really cliché, so I wanted to know if the English dub was less bad.

[tinny]

Yeah, I'm German too.

I'm honestly already struggling with the cliché character setup... :D The fact that they talk like walking clichés kind of follows. :D

I'm very used to "all tropes all the time" writing from cdrama, but I'd been hoping for a bit less of that. It doesn't look like this show delivers, though. I'm sure the evil male lead will come to his senses in no time, although the way he's been treating her (and she's been treating him) would never in RL lead to that. Quite the opposite, probably. Ah, well.

I made it through two eps so far, and I'm watching for the train wreck factor at this point. (That said, I think the acting and the production quality are pretty good!)

[feurioo]

I'm usually all about enemies-to-lovers, even with a trashy teen setup like this one, but it all felt so forced and charmless. The ending of the first episode killed any interest I had in the show because it was ridiculous without being fun. That said, if the male lead had been established as sufficiently angsty and morally grey from the start, I might have given the series one more chance.