What Did You Watch? 2011-06-05 (Saturday)
Ubiquitous
PARKING WARS
BOX WARS
Not sure of the title, but it's a candid reality show about people
who bid on the contents of abandonned storage lots.
THE VENTURE BROTHERS"
"The Doctor is Sin". Killinger arrives to help Rusty. For a price.
What did you watch?
--
It's now time for healing, and for fixing the damage the Democrats did
to America.
Ian J. Ball
Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:
> What did you watch?
I watched:
Star Blazers (recorded from late-night Siffy) - Man, it's been ages
since I've seen this! I'd forgotten how awful the music is! Which is
funny because, as a kid, I'm pretty sure I loved the theme song. But, as
bad as that is, the 'intra-episode' music is even worse.
I had also forgotten what a little punk Wildstar was - I hope
somebody punches him out every episode! And I had also forgotten how
little Nova is actually in the plot.
Anyway, nice trip down memory lane. I'll keep grabbing these... :)
Flashpoint (recorded) - Delusional crazy on a 'terrorist (witch) hunt'
takes over a restaurant and Jules and her current boyfriend get caught
in the crossfire. But, wait! There's a twist!!...
I'd say this was probably one of the weakest "Flashpoints" I've seen
yet.
H2O: Just Add Water (YouTube) - The last two episodes of season #3.
Well, Window wasn't kidding when he said they literally saved the
world at the end of season #3. Apparently modified 'water cannons' come
in handy in nearly every opportunity! I was actually impressed with the
SFX used to render some of this - it was pretty high quality for a
'low-budget' kids show.
Meanwhile, there's a whole subplot with the greed of Sophie (the new
guy's/Lewis' replacement's sister) threatening to destroy the Moon Pool
on Wako Island (curiously, I'm not sure that storyline was ever really
resolved!)... blah blah blah.
This finale actually pissed me off because, at one point, Cleo spouts
some palaver about how "This is why the three of us were chosen! [to be
mermaids, so we can save the world]", and I'm sitting there thinking,
"Oh yeah?! *Which* three?! Because Bella wasn't around in season #1,
honey, and Emma was!!" (I'm also pissed that, some time in season #3,
they replaced Miss Chatham's/crazy Jack Hammilton's mermaid lockets with
some stupid sapphire necklaces - just another way they attempted to blot
out the memory of season #1-2, and try and ingratiate the new girl on to
the team... >:/ )
Anyway, aside from the saving the world silliness, and the annoying
'B' plot, the finale managed to deliver some goodness, as Lewis makes a
return engagement in the last episode, just as Cleo wins the science
prize at graduation. (That, of course, is something else that pissed me
off, as Cleo was failing biology just 2 years before, and I doubt she
could turn her academic science career around like that... :/ ) And,
Rikki 'mans up' and repeatedly shuts down any chance of a Zane
reconciliation, which I greatly appreciated - in fact, on some level,
it's ironic that this series ends with Rikki being the only one
*without* a boyfriend! Heh.
All that said, I still didn't like the resolution: no return
appearance from Emma, no sending Bella out of town at the end, and no
'the girls lose their mermaid powers' resolution (which, since season
#1, is always the way I thought the series should have ended...) - it
kind of leaves the whole show unresolved, IMO, if they're still mermaids
at the end here.
Anyway, overall, I don't feel I'm missing anything by skipping the
bulk of season #3. :/
Victorious (recorded) - The prom episode, in which Tori is determined to
throw a prom, and in which Jade is determined to sabotage her. This
episode was OK, but it wasn't as good as the previous "Ice Cream for
Ke$ha" episode.
And Baby Will Fall (Lifetime) - Anastasia Griffith plays a pregnant
woman (with many previous miscarriages), and Brendan Fehr plays her
husband, the latter of who is soon accused of murder. Wackiness ensues.
Red Faction: Origins (Siffy) - Some silliness on the Planet Mars, based
on a video game. It was OK. I will say that the lead of this movie
(Brian J. Smith) kind of reminded me of a young Ivan Sergei a little.
Kate Vernon, Danielle Nicolet (who I know from something previously, but
I can't figure out what!), Tamzin Merchant of "The Tutors", and Robert
Patrick co-starred.
--
"Am I a bird? No, I'm a bat. I'm Batman. Or am I? Yes, I am Batman."
- Abed as "Batman" on "Halloween", "Community", 10/29/09
Ian J. Ball
<ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
> In article <y9KdnUk587biHnbQ...@giganews.com>,
> Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:
>
> > What did you watch?
>
> I watched:
Forgot one:
Franklin & Bash (recorded) - Series premiere. I was much less enamored
with this than a lot of people around here were. (One thing's for sure -
the claim that this was better than "Raising the Bar" is rendered even
more patently absurd!) It was OK, but was trying too hard, and I think
the pilot tried to cover too much ground. The real problem is that,
outside of the two leads (maybe), and Malcolm McDowell, I don't care for
any of the characters at all. (For example, what *is* Dana Davis?! - Is
she their investigator? Or a paralegal? (I'm guessing the Indian guy's a
paralegal, right?...))
The one exception to that was Alexandra Holden's character... but, of
course, it seems like she will only be appearing in the pilot, and not
in the rest of the series. Big mistake, as her character filled a needed
role on this show.
I'll probably sample this again, to see if it improves from the
pilot. But this show's on a pretty short leash with me... :/
rwgibson13
>
> What did you watch?
The Searchers (AMC)
The John Wayne/John Ford classic western. AMC shows a lot of good
westerns, but only shows what I'd call a "classic" maybe once or twice
per month. Ethan Edwards is one of the great screen characters, an
avowed racist and ex-Confederate soldier, who in the end does the
right thing by not killing his neice who had been kidnapped and raised
by Indians. The comedy elements, pretty much there in all John Ford
films, sometimes take away from the overall thrust of this one in one
or two many places, but also save it from being overly depressing as
it might have fallen and drowned in its own pathos had it been
directed by some of the new breed directors who came later. This is
one of those films who show younger John Wayne fans who dismiss him as
a guy who can't act.
"That'll be the day."
NASCAR Nationwide at Chicago
Well, whataya know? For the second time in three week, a Nationwide
driver wins a Nationwide race, even if it took Carl Edwards and his
crew to run out of gas for it to happen. Still, that's four
Nationwide wins in two years for the young dudes. Trevor Bayne came
in third in his first race after coming back from whatever sickness he
had that kept him off the race track for over a month. We knew the
car could win, since Kenseth won in it a couple weeks back. Nice,
clean race. Probably because Kyle Busch was busy getting the old
headlock plus nooggies from 65-year old Richard Childress after the
truck race the night before and wasn't in it. Should make for an
interesting scene in today's race if Busch comes into any contact at
all with any of Childress' cars for whatever reason. We know Kevin
Harvick has to stay away from Busche because of the double secret
NASCAR probation, but Childress still has three other cars in the
race...Maybe NASCAR can set up a matt in the center of the winner's
circle and Childress can wrassle Joe Gibbs after the race...
Chaos (CBS)
It was on about the same time as the race above, so I switched back
and forth for a while until it seemed obvious that Kurtood Smith would
be pretty much absent from the episode. Sadly, I think he's the best
thing about this show, in kind of the same way that Simmon's JJJameson
was the best thing about the Spider-Man films. I hope the next (which
may also be the last?) episode of this one has Higgins having to tag
along on a mission for some dumb reason. May not be realistic, but
I'm sure it'd be funny.
RWG (sorry to see this show go - I'd probably watch it on a regular
basis)
rwgibson13
>
> Star Blazers (recorded from late-night Siffy) - Man, it's been ages
> since I've seen this! I'd forgotten how awful the music is! Which is
> funny because, as a kid, I'm pretty sure I loved the theme song.
Well, that was at the tail end of when TV shows actually had OP that
included vocal music. One of the things we've lost, along with the
length of OP in general, is good theme music. Yet something else
sacrifced to the altar of commercial time...
RWG (for the Star Blazers OP, the producers took the actual vocal
theme music from the original Japanese show and rewrote the words)
Windowwasher
news:ijball-NO_SPAM-CEE...@news.eternal-september.org...
> In article
> <ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> "Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
>
>> In article <y9KdnUk587biHnbQ...@giganews.com>,
>> Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:
>>
>> > What did you watch?
>>
>> I watched:
>
> Forgot one:
>
> Franklin & Bash (recorded) - Series premiere. I was much less enamored
> with this than a lot of people around here were. (One thing's for sure -
> the claim that this was better than "Raising the Bar" is rendered even
> more patently absurd!)
Better than RTB. RTB used the same crackpot, biased, female judge for the
first several episodes of their run. F&B sets out to be lighthearted. RTB
was supposed to be serious I think and it ended up snarkworthy for most of
us.
Windowwasher
episode.
Two really bad DVDs:
Waiting for Forever -- childhood buddies, a boy and a girl, are separated
and lose contact after the boy's parents die in a train accident. Later, the
boy follows said girl wherever she goes in life but never makes contact. The
girl goes on to become an actress and returns home when her father is dying.
Boy follows and finally makes contact. (He survives by juggling as a street
performer). He finally contacts girl and bares his soul. Girl tells him he
needs to stop following her. He leaves. Girl finds she really cares for him
and finds him in SanFran juggling. Rachel Bilson was the girl and is the
only reason I bothered to waste time. It wasn't worth the 90 minutes or so.
Somewhere -- a Coppola family production from start to finish. It was like
watching paint dry for 100 minutes. A Hollywood star of the Charlie Sheen
mold comes to find how empty his life is after his tween daughter visits for
a week. Much of the movie consisted of silent scenes of the dude being
alone. Stripper twins with portable poles were featured a couple of times.
Bleh.
Ian J. Ball
>
> Somewhere -- a Coppola family production from start to finish. It was like
> watching paint dry for 100 minutes. A Hollywood star of the Charlie Sheen
> mold comes to find how empty his life is after his tween daughter visits for
> a week. Much of the movie consisted of silent scenes of the dude being
> alone. Stripper twins with portable poles were featured a couple of times.
> Bleh.
IIRC, this was a Sundance fave. i remember Elle Fanning getting raves
for it.
Definitely would not be my cup of tea.
I also watched one other thing(!) yesterday:
Max Payne (FX) - Great visuals but a pretty hollow movie. I love how
the ads for this in its theatrical run were highly, highly misleading
as to what the movie was really about. Mila Kunis' part was
disappointing, as she was given nearly nothing to do. Can only
recommend if it's a slow weekend, and you want to watch a movie that
*looks* great (a la "Underworld" (the original)...).
Windowwasher
news:21db230f-0226-47cb...@l2g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> On Jun 5, 7:56 am, "Windowwasher" <windowwas...@somewhere.com> wrote:
>>
>> Somewhere -- a Coppola family production from start to finish. It was
>> like
>> watching paint dry for 100 minutes. A Hollywood star of the Charlie Sheen
>> mold comes to find how empty his life is after his tween daughter visits
>> for
>> a week. Much of the movie consisted of silent scenes of the dude being
>> alone. Stripper twins with portable poles were featured a couple of
>> times.
>> Bleh.
>
> IIRC, this was a Sundance fave. i remember Elle Fanning getting raves
> for it.
She did a good job with her character and seems a good actress. The movie
just sucked entertainment-wise overall. It was meant for the artsy fartsy
coffee house set, I suppose.
>
> Definitely would not be my cup of tea.
>
> I also watched one other thing(!) yesterday:
>
> Max Payne (FX) - Great visuals but a pretty hollow movie. I love how
> the ads for this in its theatrical run were highly, highly misleading
> as to what the movie was really about. Mila Kunis' part was
> disappointing, as she was given nearly nothing to do. Can only
> recommend if it's a slow weekend, and you want to watch a movie that
> *looks* great (a la "Underworld" (the original)...).
Yeh I only watched it a while ago for Kunis and she was barely in it.
Lord Vader III
Watched Parking Wars and rented The Dilemma on DVD. The Dilemma was
quite disppointing. Not really funny at all. To make it worse,
Redbox has "rental" copies of it in their machines. We went to the
special features on the disc and a message popped up from the
manufacturer telling us to go out and buy the DVD if we want to watch
the special features.
LVIII
Mason Barge
>What did you watch?
DVD of the French "Best Foreign Language" candidate, "The Illusionist".
It was really not bad, if you can get French whimsy. It was a Jacques
Tati creation, a guy I can't stand, but there is only a touch of him in
it.
Best about it was the beautiful, even spectacular, old-fashioned feel to
the animation. I'm not capable of talking about animation techniques, but
as a layperson, the backgrounds appeared to be painted and they seem to
have painted all the characters, etc., by hand (in watercolor) before
entering the info into the computer.
The special features showed that even some of the animation was,
apparently, done by hand. I'm open to correction about how they got the
visuals the way they did.
Also nice is that you don't need subtitles, although if you speak a little
high school French it helps a bit. Mostly it is set in England and
Scotland, so you can read everything. Dialogue is fairly rare.
Grade: A+ as a visual work of art.
B- for overall interest.
Other than that, mostly stuff of little interest to anyone on r.a.t. Golf
and a 2 hour special about D-Day that had a lot of info I had never heard
about before.
Mason Barge
That is, unfortunately, more and more true of rental DVD's. As if someone
who rented it is going to go buy it -- not likely.
So Universal, who has always been pretty good about customer-friendly
DVDs, is joining Sony as "royal pain in the ass"?
I even remember someone complaining (on Netflix reviews) about a DVD that
wouldn't let you fast forward or menu past the previews. You had to watch
every damn one of them every time you wanted to watch it! As if -- I
wouldn't even rent it.
When are these jerks going to learn the "Blockbuster lesson" -- the
customer is king. Jerk him around enough, and it will come back to haunt
you.
Anim8rFSK
<ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
> Red Faction: Origins (Siffy) - Some silliness on the Planet Mars, based
> on a video game. It was OK. I will say that the lead of this movie
> (Brian J. Smith) kind of reminded me of a young Ivan Sergei a little.
> Kate Vernon, Danielle Nicolet (who I know from something previously, but
Yeah, me too. I looked her up; one shots in Angel and Stargate SG1 (the
'SG' stands for: STARGATE!) and that awful update of Jekyll and Hyde
are all I've seen of her work. And she's waaaaay older than I thought.
> I can't figure out what!), Tamzin Merchant of "The Tutors", and Robert
> Patrick co-starred.
I watched most of this; still have the last 15 minutes to go, even
though there doesn't seem to be anything to wrap up.
Madre de Dios! Didn't somebody say this was BETTER than most Syfy
stuff? It's AWFUL. And .... it IS better. Damn, how our standards
have fallen.
Zorro girl is hot and hilarious. I like Obi-Wanderer too. The hero is
the lowest energy protagonist I've ever seen. And Kate Vernon! What
the Hell happened to her?? She's acting like Jan-Michael Vincent did,
AFTER the car wreck!
Why is this called Red Faction: Origins when it's not about the Origins
of Red Faction at all?
And the script is just painful. People constantly saying stuff that's
just wrong.
--
"Please, I can't die, I've never kissed an Asian woman!"
Shego on "Shat My Dad Says"
Anim8rFSK
<ijball-NO_SPAM-CEE...@news.eternal-september.org>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
> In article
> <ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> "Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
>
> > In article <y9KdnUk587biHnbQ...@giganews.com>,
> > Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:
> >
> > > What did you watch?
> >
> > I watched:
>
> Forgot one:
>
> Franklin & Bash (recorded) - Series premiere. I was much less enamored
> with this than a lot of people around here were. (One thing's for sure -
> the claim that this was better than "Raising the Bar" is rendered even
> more patently absurd!) It was OK, but was trying too hard, and I think
> the pilot tried to cover too much ground. The real problem is that,
> outside of the two leads (maybe), and Malcolm McDowell, I don't care for
> any of the characters at all. (For example, what *is* Dana Davis?! - Is
uber hot
> she their investigator? Or a paralegal? (I'm guessing the Indian guy's a
> paralegal, right?...))
> The one exception to that was Alexandra Holden's character... but, of
> course, it seems like she will only be appearing in the pilot, and not
> in the rest of the series. Big mistake, as her character filled a needed
> role on this show.
> I'll probably sample this again, to see if it improves from the
> pilot. But this show's on a pretty short leash with me... :/
I swear, the next episode description is "the boys do something
unconventional" which is right up there with "a petty officer is dead"
Ian J. Ball
Anim8rFSK <ANIM...@cox.net> wrote:
> In article
> <ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> "Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
>
> > Red Faction: Origins (Siffy) - Some silliness on the Planet Mars, based
> > on a video game. It was OK...
>
> Why is this called Red Faction: Origins when it's not about the Origins
> of Red Faction at all?
That's exactly what I was wondering, actually...
Anim8rFSK
<ijball-NO_SPAM-583...@news.eternal-september.org>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
> In article <ANIM8Rfsk-4FD3E...@news.easynews.com>,
> Anim8rFSK <ANIM...@cox.net> wrote:
>
> > In article
> > <ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> > "Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote:
> >
> > > Red Faction: Origins (Siffy) - Some silliness on the Planet Mars, based
> > > on a video game. It was OK...
> >
> > Why is this called Red Faction: Origins when it's not about the Origins
> > of Red Faction at all?
>
> That's exactly what I was wondering, actually...
Maybe "White Faction: Collapse" didn't test well?
David Johnston
> Chaos -- Russian brides as the cover for an op. This wasn't a very strong
> episode.
>
I found the rookie with the Russian bride to be a very squirmy moment
Red Faction: Best movie (aka television pilot) version of an
electronic game I've ever seen. That is, of course, setting the bar
low. Movies based on games are notorious for sucking, just as games
based on movies suck.
The Debaters
Canadian version of that show Lewis Black had. Canadian comedians
"debate" important questions like Spiderman vs Batman and Plastic Bags
Blessing or Curse. I learned that although it only recently came to
television, but it was already on CBC radio.
The Closer
Her niece continues to be inserted into storylines, talking herself
into a hospital room to talk to a guy at the school they enrolled her
in who got shot in the parking lot.
Nancy 4
> On Jun 5, 8:56 am, "Windowwasher"<windowwas...@somewhere.com> wrote:
>> Chaos -- Russian brides as the cover for an op. This wasn't a very strong
>> episode.
>>
>
> I found the rookie with the Russian bride to be a very squirmy moment
>
> Red Faction: Best movie (aka television pilot) version of an
> electronic game I've ever seen. That is, of course, setting the bar
> low. Movies based on games are notorious for sucking, just as games
> based on movies suck.
The difference here was that Uwe Boll didn't have his grubby little
fingerprints all over Red Faction.
Default User
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball-...@mac.invalid> wrote in message
news:ijball-NO_SPAM-259...@news.eternal-september.org...
>> What did you watch?
Piggybacking. Parking Wars.
Brian
--
Day 851 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
Current music playing: None.
KoshN
> What did you watch?
CHAOS. Good ep.. Martinez's Russian bride was a hottie. Malick
certainly seemed to be enjoying himself.
Ken Wesson
> I didn't watch much:
>
> PARKING WARS
>
> BOX WARS
> Not sure of the title, but it's a candid reality show about people who
> bid on the contents of abandonned storage lots.
>
> THE VENTURE BROTHERS"
> "The Doctor is Sin". Killinger arrives to help Rusty. For a price.
>
> What did you watch?
B5: the rest of the series.
The final few episodes were fairly slow.
And they left a bunch of loose ends!
* The Telepath War. We don't see Bester get his comeuppance, or for that
matter find out if they are able to undo what the Shadows did to his
wife. All we know is there's increasing violence of a street vandalism
level nature on Earth, and then that's it.
* The "keeper" in the jar. Delenn sensed something of the one clinging to
Londo; I'd have thought she'd subject the jar to a scan after that, or
something, discover it, and get rid of it, but no. Instead we have no
idea what happens to it.
* It's not at all clear where Lockley is during the finale. Wouldn't she
have been invited? OTOH we get to see Ivanova one last time. It's also
unclear why Ivanova replaced the Asian female number-two seen in the
pilot, though her absence from the finale makes sense since she never
to our knowledge met Sheridan.
* It's implied that the finale takes place after the future-set events of
War Without End, so Londo and G'kar are both dead, but never stated
outright. Nor is there any indication that they eventually resolved the
issue with the Keepers and the Drakh on Centauri Prime.
* There was never any followup on the Ikarran civilization, making S1E4
"Infection" a true MOTW episode and as near as I can tell B5's only one.
The others that come close would be:
- The one with the child whose parents believe if he is surgically cut
open, his soul will disappear. Also first season; their race isn't
seen again.
- The one with the alien probe of unknown source that eventually
explodes.
- The "lower decks" episode in S5 fending off an attack by aliens never
mentioned before or since.
But in all of those, either that was the B plot or the B plot involved
the series arc in some way, such as in the S5 episode the station being
vulnerable because the White Stars were away as a result of the previous
episodes. (The absence of the variety of Alliance warships usually seen
near B5 is unexplained, though.)
The one arguable point that touches on the arc in "Infection" is that
one might guess that the Ikarrans were wiped out by the Shadows during
a previous Shadow War.