Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by purr1n, Jan 8, 2020.

  1. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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  2. Pharmaboy

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    Sorry to hear no video!! But totally understandable. Have been seeing Texas get a weather ass-whipping for days.

    Are you OK? Have power, no forced out of house or apt?

    Who is to blame for the Texas power disaster?
     
  3. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Click the link I posted for more info.

    I did have power come back on recently, but many people still don't and any power you get may be temporary. The article goes into the absolute shit show this was at the hands of Texas leadership, and their citizens are suffering because of it.
     
  4. Pharmaboy

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    Sorry--didn't realize that was a link. Will read it...
     
  5. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    Well, to quote Gomer Pyle "surprise, surprise, surprise!", CNN has found a way to blame Texas' lack of (political) liberal disposition and independence from Fed. Gov. If this is truly a 100 year weather event then I don't know about political/media blame games - better to learn from an unprecedented experience and do better next time. One good thing about Texas' legislature is that they are still capable of legislating/acting (unlike some other states) so I would count on them improving the grid for next time.

    I am in El Paso Electric service area:

    https://www.epelectric.com/company/about-epe/service-area

    We had bitter cold weather about 10 years ago and the consequences were widespread outages and rolling black/brown outs for a few days. They promised to get the properly rated equipment for next time. Now that it is 'next time', they have proved true to their word, no outages in our service area.

    All that is off topic - @ColtMrFire I watched 'Splash' the other night and I was noticing the real plot/dialogue (John Candy's lines were great) and how NYC itself was a character in the movie. They don't make them like the used to...
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  6. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Apparently the same thing happened in 1989 and 2011 and nothing was done about it on a large enough scale, so I wouldn't count on it. Texas has had a very long time to fix the problem and they didn't do it on a large enough scale. Millions without power for days is inexcusable. I'm glad your area has been okay, but you're an exception it seems.

    The only saving grace is that social media outrage is much more of a thing now, so it may be the only element that gets results. But I wouldn't be surprised if again the issue falls prey to the 24 hour news cycle and people's memories go blank.
     
  7. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    You might be right to be pessimistic, but you may be wrong - we will see. Having lived through 2011 I can tell you it was not nearly as widespread (if memory serves only the low population western part of Texas was significantly effected), and in our case at least it was fixed.
     
  8. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Well that's the thing about being in politics, you kind of have to prepare for the worst when it comes to people's lives. Texas intentionally cutting itself off from the nation's other two power grids seems insane in hindsight, and they are reaping the consequences.
     
  9. Pharmaboy

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    I'm sorry to say but that's not really true--or even much of a factor--all too often in state politics. Infrastructure is decidedly non-sexy and not a top-of-mind issue to begin with; it's the first line item to get cut from the budget and the last thing to be considered in planning.

    I live in mid-state NY State, where the weather routinely gets awful for weeks each winter (also during summer storms), albeit not routinely as cold as TX and AR have just seen. Years ago I tired of fearing the usual 2-5 day-long power outages, which not only threatened my home office-based business, but also threatened the water pipes in the walls (w/no heat they freeze & burst, causing an epic/very expensive repair job).

    So I buried a 550 gallon propane tank in the front yard & purchased a 20KW whole-house standby generator + automatic transfer switch. That thing saved our asses on several occasions, incl. a 48 hour outage ~1 yr ago. I also have a back-up ISP, so internet never goes out.

    The point here is that with your infrastructure is at the mercy of politicians and thus undependable--you have no choice (if you can afford it) to make some infrastructure of your own...
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  10. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    If you're lucky enough to own a home. But not when you live in an apartment complex/condo.
     
  11. Pharmaboy

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    Of course you're right. We're in our 2nd house; bought the 1st in '84. I tend to forget those many days in apartments, w/no real control over the space or the utilities...
     
  12. crenca

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    This. Government and big corp/utility bureaucracy only ever plans for yesterday's crises, and only to the extent that it does not cost very much. 100 year weather events will always (always always - unless they get lucky) be beyond them. No career government/big corp. bureaucrat gets ahead by recommending spending real dollars or time planning on such things, quite the opposite. I only escaped outage because of the recent (2011) weather and it did not cost that much. If we had gotten the precipitation along with the cold that most of the rest of TX suffered then I bet the outcome would have been different. My last off-topic comment on this thread :D
     
  13. Pharmaboy

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    This is all happening because @ColtMrFire couldn't post a Wednesday video. We lost our way!

    I'll try to steer back from the edge: I just finished watching a very appealing & entertaining Norweigan series on Netflix: RAGNAROK.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9251798/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

    If this kids-in-school/people-with-powers drama were made in the U.S. it would be unbearable: the school scenes would be arch & centered on adolescent sex; and the people-with-powers thing would predominate in a Marvel type way (or worse, in a Michael Bay way). But it never really jumps its lane. Some of the characters are more realistic & likeable than others, but the core 4 (main character; his mother; the girl he has feelings for; and the father of his friend who died in suspicious circumstances) are very well played: sympathetic, intriguing, and very much like real people.

    I'm crazy for Nordic TV and film precisely because it's usually so unlike ours. They do things their own way, and more often than not, the results are very pleasing to me, dramatically & aesthetically.

    (recommended)
     
  14. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Looks like I spoke too soon about Season 3 of The Sinner...

    Basically I had a huge problem with Jamie's character "arc". He goes from "the world is an illusion and a trap, and I wanna break free of it" to "I'm gonna murder everybody who is important to Harry because he betrayed me". These seem to be two completely different characters. When we first meet Jamie, he is fairly normal. But Nick comes back into his life and stirs the pot regarding their old life. Basically he and Nick were just nihilistic adrenaline junkies, not psychopaths. They wanted to conquer the fear of death, not satisfy some bloodlust. When Jamie let Nick die, that was manslaughter, not murder. It was more about getting rid of a bad influence. So I was just baffled when in the last episode Jamie basically turns into a serial killer. You could argue losing his wife and kid made him "snap", but none of this jives with previous episodes. Jamie is basically a normal guy who thinks society is a lie and ends up doing something he greatly regrets (letting Nick die), but he had his reasons and they were sound. And I never bought the murder of the psychic either... again it just seemed random and not really in line with what we know about Jamie. The show hints that Nick is somehow possessing Jamie to kill, but even Nick was never someone who seemed all that psychopathic... again, just a frustrated adrenaline junkie who's read too much Nietzsche in college. And If Jamie is mentally ill, the show never really successfully communicates that... he has visions of a dead Nick constantly hovering over him, but this always seemed to be presented as Jamie's guilty conscience for letting his friend die, not actual possession, so I never bought that idea. The Jamie in the last episode isn't the Jamie from previous episodes. It's more like the writers needed to wrap up the show and do the typical "will the hero save his loved ones in time?", rather than an evolution of Jamie that made sense. Jamie was just a confused guy with good intentions, not a murdering psychopath. My problem is that this twist seems to come out nowhere. In Taxi Driver, Bickle is clearly disturbed from the beginning... his murders at the end seemed inevitable. Jamie is just a plot device used to wrap up a story in suspense. That's why I thought overall the season was a failure. While the last episode did give Harry some dramatic meat to toy with (and Jamie's death scene really was touching and ironic), I never felt that strongly about his journey. And Jesus Christ Harry, please make another bad decision as a detective.... because you haven't made enough. Harry made alot of stupid decisions this season, and I felt the show was a little too ambiguous about why. Harry as a character was frustratingly half baked this time around. And the Jamie stuff is just a mess for me.
     
  15. Pharmaboy

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    Someone here (forgot who--sorry) mentioned that season-2 of GOLIATH on Prime Video was a big step down from season-1. I liked season-1 so much that I tried to ignore the mounting evidence that season-2 isn't just bad--it's bonkers bad, the kind of bad where I find myself shouting "WHY?" at the screen from time to time.

    I'm 4 episodes in & can't believe how badly the writing fell down compared to season-1. And it really is the writing. The new character played by Mark Duplas is especially poorly conceived of and written. Nothing about that character rings true or makes sense, at least to me.

    There are 2 more seasons after this. I'm hoping against hope that the writing improves; if it doesn't, I'll have to drop out and find something else.
     
  16. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    That would be me. Yeah it sucked compared to S1.
     
  17. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Reservoir Dogs is more than just violence, quotable lines and Madonna references. It has a very strong theme of identity and what it means to be an outlier amongst an accepted social order. Check out my latest essay on this Tarantino classic.

     
  18. Pharmaboy

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    I always learn from your videos. And you obviously got way more from R.D. than I ever did. I especially appreciate the attention you pay Harvey Keitel, who definitely served as a kind of warrior/muse for Tarantino, as he did for Martin Scorcese before him.

    This film was hard for me. It was easy to see an exciting new talent at work. However, I disliked things about this film, which began my love/hate relationship with Quentin Tarantino's work:
    • love for the energy, pulse, and thematic creativity of many of his pictures (he single-handedly created a new pulp cinema, no pun intended)
    • hate for the purely-for-effect, often very cruel violence (I didn't enjoy Michael Madsen's razor scene here, though many praised it), and Tarantino's fondness for racial invective, sometimes also misogyny, particularly in group scenes
    I watch plenty of violence onscreen. But somehow I'm put off when it's used for ironic effect, winking at the audience about the things men do...

    The cast of R.D. was epic; I do need to see it again, also check see whether my negative perceptions hold up over time. Your video has me thinking about doing so.
     
  19. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Who knew zombies were more than just moaning, flesh eating monsters? In my latest video I explore what it is about the zombie phenomenon that hits so deep, and tells us more about ourselves than any daytime soap ever could.

     
  20. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Cobra Kai brought alot of people around to the awesomeness of The Karate Kid. But our culture's current love affair with anti-heroes makes Daniel LaRusso stand out as part of a seeming bygone era of cinematic heroism. PLEASE NOTE THAT NEW VIDEOS WILL NOW RELEASE FRIDAY INSTEAD OF WEDNESDAY.

     

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