But if a show seems to be perfect, it's pretty hard to watch a different version. I enjoyed Diana Rigg as Mrs. Pompfrey, but then I liked anything she did.
Thanks for the heads up!
youtu.be
I watched this without knowing anything about it beyond this. It popped up in my recommendations because I watched "Julia."I saw The Menu tonight. It mostly takes place all in one room with people sitting at tables but held my interest and managed to build suspense. I didn't really know what the theme of the movie was supposed to be so I find it funny that one of my first comments is that a dining experience like that would be fun if people weren't so pretentious and self-important about them.
I liked it. There is a lot to process but it was worth watching. Again I was very impressed with the camera work in keeping the one room interesting. It was definitely an example of how less can be more.
It's streaming on HBO Max right now.
I was looking for a break from "Wednesday" so I watched "The Menu." There is definitely more horror in "The Menu." It is more than a little dark. Well done, but definitely dark.Miss Scarlett reminds me slightly of Enola Holmes. Female detectives at a time when that was inappropriate. Scarlett is a little older than Enola and it was her father, not her brother, who was the detective.
Can’t wait! Looks fantastic!
Don't bother. The man is a desperate attention seeker and am now sorry I finished his stupid story up to episode 4. If any of you make it past that I salute you.
He didn't prove his ex was guilty of any crime or fraud but she didn't deserve any of his assets due to the short duration of the marriage. The FBI declined to do any further investigation and won't take his calls anymore. That's probably all we need to know about his story He's a complete nut job.
Man, Pedro Pascal is killing it with these series: He was so good in "Game of Thrones" and people at another site as going gaga over "The Last of Us" and he is one of the stars. I just began the latter and I am IN.- YouTube
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I wasn't sure about the idea for the series but I sure do trust HBO who never seems to be without good to great content when it comes to these series. It has been interesting as I loved "Station Eleven" which was post pandemic and had a different feel than this series. I like that they appear to be taking their time with the story and giving us time to get to know the characters.
I share your HBO assessment. Series-wise: For me it was just GoT and to some extent Westworld. Station Eleven wasn't to my taste (just watched first episode as I didn't like it).
You know I pulled up their Wiki and looked under Drama, Comedy and Mini-Series. I've been a member forever and there just aren't a lot of misses with them and much of the content is far, far better than what we see on much of traditional network tv. I remember Benedict Cumberbatch talking about that "golden age" of television in the US in the late 90's and 2000's when HBO, FX and AMC were branching out in creative new directions. He felt like sometimes the BBC of that time was holding the reins too tight and not letting writers fly with new ideas. I can't speak to that but I can't imagine the creators of the sublime "The Wire" going into a meeting admitting they had never written scripts but were all published authors and wanted to go their own way on this series. HBO said yes. And it was incredible television. And that is just one series.
I wish more shows realized this! (Or romantic tension between leads)
This is on my binge list. I've been waiting for some uninterrupted time for it.Speaking of HBO, we just finished watching the final season of His Dark Materials (based on the Philip Pullman book series).
I have to say this was probably my least favorite season of the show. It was still good, but I didn't find it as compelling or satisfying as the other seasons. But, I think this feeling has much to do with the source material (the third book in the series), not just the show itself. I don't know if anyone else here has read the series or watched the shows, but I'll go into a little bit here anyhow.
The third book of the series is probably the weirdest and the hardest to portray visually. I actually thought the show did a quite good job of creating and portraying the visual world. (Particularly the tree world and the weird creatures in it--which could have looked terribly silly onscreen, but was instead quite beautiful. The portrayal of the world of the dead was, to me, less successful, but then again, it's a really big challenge in production design.) So I have to give the season pretty high marks in that regard. Another thing I liked about the third season was that we saw the daemons more, and they were more involved in the action.
What bothered me about season 3 was the same thing that bothered me in the third book.
Namely, that the heroine of the book, 13-year-old Lyra, is supposed to experience a deep, fated, once-in-a-lifetime true love with fellow teenager Will, which comes to a tragic end when they have to part to save the world. This love is supposed to last the rest of their lives, and is heavily emphasized in the storyline. I just always found this plot conceit to be credulity-straining and a bit cringey, considering how young Lyra is in the story. Also, it casts what I see as an unnecessary gloom on the end of the story, detracting from the victory over the Authority.
For me, the best aspect of season 3 was Mrs. Coulter's storyline, which came to a more satisfying and complete conclusion than in the book. As Mrs. Coulter, Ruth Wilson was fantastic throughout and deserved more attention than she got for this role. She was a near-perfect Mrs. Coulter in my opinion--fierce, intelligent, cunning, and interesting.
Some of the other actors weren't quite as successful, in my estimation. James MacAvoy was okay as Lord Asriel. He captured the obsessive and passionate quality of Asriel well, but I didn't feel the charisma and charm that I think was supposed to be a part of his character. I liked Dafne Keen as Lyra in the first two seasons, but she looked noticeably much older in season 3 and seemed a little flat, like she wasn't fully engaged. Amir Wilson basically played Will as just a nice guy, and again was fine but lacked intensity. Simone Kirby seemed out of place as an earth-mothery, nurturing type. (I had actually forgotten her character existed in the books--she's that uninteresting.) Aside from Ruth Wilson, the actor I enjoyed most was Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby. His warmth and humor made for a welcome reappearance in season 3.
I think I'd give the series as a whole a B+. First two seasons were strong IMO, the third season a bit less so. Still, it's definitely worth watching, particularly for people who have read the books, or are into fantasy or alternate world stories.
This was a quite good adaptation overall. But I think it could still be improved on, potentially.
I'm so glad they renewed "The Gilded Age." A mystery (from TNT originally) set during the Gilded Age and called "The Alienist" is currently on HBOMAX. I loved the Caleb Carr mysteries when they were published and like the three stars cast in the series. The limited series I liked were "Chernobyl" "Big Little Lies" and I was pleasantly surprised by "Perry Mason."
Thanks for reminding me about Perry Mason! I was intrigued by the promos I saw. I watched Big Little Lies but enjoyed the book a lot more than the series.
