Post by: Laurentus on July 31, 2016, 05:48:31 PM
I've begun watching The Wire again, after attempting to do so 5 years ago as a teen, and I must say I'm finding it much better the second time around. I just couldn't get into it the first time. It takes place in Baltimore, but the issues at play are universal. I highly recommend it to any fan of TV dramas. It's worth it for the dialogue alone.
Post by: beautifulthing on July 31, 2016, 05:56:45 PM
Post by: Laurentus on August 12, 2016, 04:39:49 PM
Obviously, don't watch this if you haven't seen the series in its entirety yet but plan to:
Post by: Gerrick on August 17, 2016, 02:36:09 PM
After seeing it recommended on Reddit, I watched the HBO series John Adams for the past few days. It's only 7 episodes of an hourish long, so it's a quick watch.
I really liked it. It made the whole founding of America story quite interesting, coming from the point of view of one of the lesser talked about founding fathers. The series starts in 1770 with the Boston Massacre and Adams's defense of the British soldiers in court, then goes to the Continental Congress and the talks that led to the Declaration of Independence, Adams's time as an ambassador to France and Britain, his terms as Vice President and President, and finally his retirement years and death in 1826 at the age of 90.
The cast and acting was very good as well. Paul Giamatti of course played John Adams, Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, David Morse as George Washington, and many more.
Definitely recommend it to anyone, but especially those who wish to get a better understanding of the founding of the US as well as John Adams himself.
Post by: Laurentus on August 22, 2016, 09:48:42 PM
Now on to my spoiler-filled thoughts:
POI Series Finale
It was a bit underwhelming, to me. The high-point was season 3's finale, in my opinion.
Perhaps it was just that I had a pre-conceived idea of what would happen after episode 10's ending, with Finch possibly finally going off the rails and doing some truly terrible things to save the day, as Elias predicted he might. John's remark to Shaw in episode 10 reinforced that idea. Finch was the Mary Sue of this series, and Mary Sues bore me. Except if they're lucky enough to be in the shows of my youth, when I was a far happier and less critical person.
To me, the ending felt far too formulaic. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with it. It just didn't surprise me at all. Unlike season 3's finale. Reese was always going to save Harold's life at the expense of his own, Fusco was always going to pull through against all the odds, and Shaw was always going to follow in Reese's footsteps to a large degree, after Reese's death.
I will give the show credit where it's due, though. Good or bad choices never really mattered in this show. It was such a subjective thing, after all. These characters simply made choices, and they had to deal with the consequences. Blackwell tried to weasel his way out of this, so of course he got shot and killed. He just didn't get it. Neither did Samaritan. For all its talks about saving humanity, it wasn't prepared to go down with the ship when the going got tough.
While we're on that subject, I have to remove points for the flimsy way in which they handled Samaritan's end. It would have been nice to get some sort of techno-babble explanation for why exactly The Machine was finally able to defeat it when it really mattered. "Because now I don't have a choice" is the type of useless rationalisation I would only ever expect to find in a lesser show.
Perhaps it was just that I had a pre-conceived idea of what would happen after episode 10's ending, with Finch possibly finally going off the rails and doing some truly terrible things to save the day, as Elias predicted he might. John's remark to Shaw in episode 10 reinforced that idea. Finch was the Mary Sue of this series, and Mary Sues bore me. Except if they're lucky enough to be in the shows of my youth, when I was a far happier and less critical person.
To me, the ending felt far too formulaic. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with it. It just didn't surprise me at all. Unlike season 3's finale. Reese was always going to save Harold's life at the expense of his own, Fusco was always going to pull through against all the odds, and Shaw was always going to follow in Reese's footsteps to a large degree, after Reese's death.
I will give the show credit where it's due, though. Good or bad choices never really mattered in this show. It was such a subjective thing, after all. These characters simply made choices, and they had to deal with the consequences. Blackwell tried to weasel his way out of this, so of course he got shot and killed. He just didn't get it. Neither did Samaritan. For all its talks about saving humanity, it wasn't prepared to go down with the ship when the going got tough.
While we're on that subject, I have to remove points for the flimsy way in which they handled Samaritan's end. It would have been nice to get some sort of techno-babble explanation for why exactly The Machine was finally able to defeat it when it really mattered. "Because now I don't have a choice" is the type of useless rationalisation I would only ever expect to find in a lesser show.
Post by: Laurentus on September 08, 2016, 02:19:40 PM
If you're just here to spam and troll, you're going to get banned.
Post by: Laurentus on October 02, 2016, 11:13:18 AM
Post by: Wintermoot on October 02, 2016, 03:02:19 PM
Post by: hollawarp on October 03, 2016, 12:27:01 AM
Post by: Gerrick on October 07, 2016, 02:15:11 AM
Spoiler
House realizes he hallucinated having sex with Cuddy and so admits himself into a psychiatric hospital.
Post by: Laurentus on October 07, 2016, 12:39:49 PM
Post by: Wintermoot on October 09, 2016, 11:09:05 PM
Post by: Gerrick on October 10, 2016, 01:34:53 AM
I actually thought the series went downhill as it went on, especially after the first few seasons.But but but... Olivia Wilde isn't in the first few seasons. I'll have to respectfully disagree.
Post by: Laurentus on October 10, 2016, 05:32:31 PM
Anyway, I'm trying to get behind Luke Cage, and not succeeding. Marvel just raised my expectations so much with Jessica Jones that I can't willingly sit through this dialogue, pace and plot.
Post by: Wintermoot on October 12, 2016, 02:40:00 AM
But but but... Olivia Wilde isn't in the first few seasons. I'll have to respectfully disagree.Sorry, I tend to base my opinions on more than whether one person was on or not. :P
Post by: Felicity Mercer on October 12, 2016, 03:30:13 AM
Post by: Wintermoot on October 17, 2016, 02:51:50 PM
The first half is from the end of the third season of The West Wing, where the fictional president is attending a play as part of charity fundraiser after having ordered the assassination of a middle eastern official who was sponsoring terrorist attacks on Americans. I think that the events of the show being transposed with the song from the play made for a very powerful ending to the season.
And while the play was a fictional production of War of the Roses, the song is actually from The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby, which was based on a Dickens novel.
I only hope at some point the Wintrean government attends the theater. :D
Post by: Laurentus on October 26, 2016, 11:55:44 AM
Post by: Evelynx on November 03, 2016, 11:54:52 PM
It's a show on the nature of consciousness told the the lens of a wild-west theme park called WestWorld. All of the world's inhabitants, who look and act in almost indistinguishably human ways, are androids. You can kill them, rape them, pretty much do anything you want just like a video game. Underlying it all is the fact that one of the original creators of the android technology didn't want to make a theme park.. he was obsessed with making a new consciousness, so early designs for the software were modeled after human consciousness. As their behavior has been updated over the years to be more and more human, will a consciousness emerge?
What's gonna happen? oooOooooOOOOO. There are many scenes from a Host's (what the androids are called) perspective, and she might be considered the main character of the show.. Dolores, Dolores, what is it like to awaken into consciousness?
Post by: Laurentus on November 05, 2016, 09:44:02 PM
Spoiler
I didn't know it was going to be a sci-fi, which actually ended up being a nice surprise.
Post by: libertarin on November 08, 2016, 03:58:51 AM
Post by: Laurentus on November 08, 2016, 04:47:08 AM
Post by: taulover on November 08, 2016, 05:17:08 AM
Post by: taulover on November 18, 2016, 07:30:59 AM
Post by: Laurentus on November 18, 2016, 09:20:17 PM
Post by: taulover on November 18, 2016, 10:20:13 PM
That's how I've always felt about Top Gear. My interest in cars is minimal. The trio who presented it were simply amazing. I hear the new Top Gear is horrendous.It is. I tried watching it for the first few minutes, and it was terrible, even with a fan edit that cut out the worst parts.
Post by: Gerrick on December 26, 2016, 10:55:30 PM
Spoiler
Was pleasantly surprised that it was a happy ending with House and Wilson riding off into the sunset. With the finale being called "Everybody Dies", I was more expecting an ending where House finds himself alone and depressed rather than House himself dying, and knowing it's a reference to House's saying "Everybody lies", I could infer that the title itself was a lie (for House at least) before watching it. Also, in the finale, when we had a bunch of older characters returning, I was surprised that Cuddy didn't appear, but I suspected that had to do with the actor, Lisa Edelstein, rather than the character. I was also expecting a better resolution for Alvie (Lin-Manuel Miranda), like coming back at least as a hallucination, but oh well. All in all, it was a nice wrapping up of the series. Not the best ending, but satisfactory.
Post by: Emoticonius on December 27, 2016, 12:50:51 AM
Post by: Michi on December 27, 2016, 04:47:27 AM
I only hope at some point the Wintrean government attends the theater. :D
Attend it? I went to school for it. :P
(I now realize that was an old message. I just saw the fact that the thread had a new reply and then saw that message. :P)
Post by: Michi on December 27, 2016, 04:50:03 AM
I finished watching the first season of a show called Travellers, on Netflix. It's about an organization that sends the consciousness of it's members back in time to the 21st century for the sole purpose of creating a better future. It's kinda crazy actually.I just saw that pop up on my Netflix. I need to watch that, as well as a couple of other NF originals that actually look pretty decent...including Sense 8.
Post by: Emoticonius on December 27, 2016, 05:01:06 AM
Post by: taulover on December 27, 2016, 05:11:14 AM
While generally interesting, it's not exactly great. The chemistry between the trio is usually missing, as they generally do projects on their own. At times, it just feels like a glorified top-ten list, especially since they don't even try out everything they discuss and sometimes just interview or show video/reenactments. And they're still doing the post-break recaps for some reason, even though there aren't any ad breaks.
Post by: Gerrick on December 29, 2016, 12:45:15 AM
Someone added a laugh track over Negan's funny scenes in S7E7, which is pretty great. Editing is pretty spotty, but it gets the job done. Warning: spoilers.
Post by: PB on January 27, 2017, 01:34:59 AM
Post by: Emoticonius on January 27, 2017, 02:12:56 AM
Post by: PB on January 27, 2017, 03:00:42 AM
Lately I've been watching Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Daredevil. They're not half bad and they do crossovers with each other which are pretty fun.
How do the shows compare to the rest of the capeshit, namely the movies, in production and acting and etc.?
Post by: Emoticonius on January 27, 2017, 05:11:45 AM
How do the shows compare to the rest of the capeshit, namely the movies, in production and acting and etc?Surprisingly decent and not remotely cheesy. The person they have playing Flash (Grant Gustin) does look kinda clumsy in the suit. The special effects look great. Don't get me wrong I still think Ben Affleck played a way better Daredevil than Charlie Cox (playing Matt Murdock in the TV series) but it's still not awful. I really got sucked into Arrow, Supergirl and The Flash. Daredevil doesn't have any special effects like Supergirl's heat vision or that cool trail The Flash leaves when he runs but I think they make up for it with better acting.
Post by: BraveSirRobin on January 30, 2017, 05:05:15 PM
The one problem with Arrow that I have generally is that nobody ever seems to die. Except the one or two that do....How do the shows compare to the rest of the capeshit, namely the movies, in production and acting and etc?Surprisingly decent and not remotely cheesy. The person they have playing Flash (Grant Gustin) does look kinda clumsy in the suit. The special effects look great. Don't get me wrong I still think Ben Affleck played a way better Daredevil than Charlie Cox (playing Matt Murdock in the TV series) but it's still not awful. I really got sucked into Arrow, Supergirl and The Flash. Daredevil doesn't have any special effects like Supergirl's heat vision or that cool trail The Flash leaves when he runs but I think they make up for it with better acting.
Post by: NyghtOwl on February 02, 2017, 09:04:36 PM
Post by: Laurentus on February 11, 2017, 08:03:16 PM
Post by: Arenado on February 11, 2017, 09:17:37 PM
Post by: PB on February 12, 2017, 05:44:39 AM
I'm watching The Crown. It's so obviously propaganda but its still interesting to watch.
The Kenya scenes were pretty cringey, but besides that it's been excellent, especially, Churchill's radio address after King George kicked the bucket. I'm on episode 6...?
Post by: taulover on March 29, 2017, 04:26:06 PM
Post by: Gerrick on April 02, 2017, 01:01:45 AM
Post by: Gerrick on May 09, 2017, 04:51:38 PM
Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s, Boardwalk Empire is the story of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (played by Steve Buscemi), the treasurer of Atlantic County, most powerful New Jersey Republican, and "boss" of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Due to his relationships with mobsters as well as political contacts, the Federal Government starts to take an interest in him. His lavish lifestyle seems at odds with his county treasurer position, evidence of the prolific bootlegging and corruption in the area as well as his "business" connections in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Tampa, and even Cuba and Ireland. Nucky is more of a Machiavellian type rather than a hands-on gangster, and his conflicting interests of family, integrity, and taking care of people on one hand and prestige, power, and money on the other often tear him apart.
At 56 1-hour episodes long, it's definitely worth a watch. Chock full of schemes, constantly-changing alliances, backstabbing, gang wars, bootlegging, political intrigue, drugs, quite a bit of comedy, and so much nudity and death that you almost get used to it. The visual style and historical accuracy are part of what make it so great, and the settings of the boardwalk, clubs, hotels, and other locations are quite impressive. Though most of the characters and activities are based on real life, there's still enough fiction to it that you can't know what will happen. The large number of characters and factions may be hard to remember at first (which is poked fun at a couple times), but it's not hard to straighten things out, especially as characters are killed off. The ending of the series was even satisfactory as all of the loose ends and character plots were tied up. Overall, I'd recommend it.
Post by: binkthesismarck on May 17, 2017, 06:55:05 AM
It's a fantastic and funny fantasy series that takes place during the Napoleonic era in England about Magic returning to England (Which has a long history of it before it disappeared several centuries ago). I'd give it a watch, or better yet read the book as it has created an entire lexicon of in-universe books that the main book references through footnotes.
Post by: Aegon on June 10, 2017, 10:24:10 PM
Post by: Red Mones on June 11, 2017, 01:14:39 AM
Post by: taulover on June 11, 2017, 01:44:35 AM
Binge watching House of Cards and waiting(dying) for GoT to start up again.I still haven't caught up on Game of Thrones... Finished the books several years back, but not the show.
Just wondering, which Aegon have you named yourself after?
Anyone watching 13 reasons why?It only came to my attention through the Streisand Effect. (Schools were telling parents to discourage their children from watching it, apparently.)
Post by: Aegon on June 11, 2017, 02:02:59 AM
Also, my countries animal is Balerion who, apparently, lives in the forest and is being threatened by the logging industry. ???
Post by: Gerrick on June 11, 2017, 02:06:53 AM
Post by: Aegon on June 11, 2017, 02:18:25 AM
Post by: taulover on June 11, 2017, 02:48:36 AM
Aegon the Conqueror.Ah, I was kinda hoping it'd be Egg (Aegon V the Unlikely).
Also, my countries animal is Balerion who, apparently, lives in the forest and is being threatened by the logging industry. ???
Post by: Aegon on July 15, 2017, 06:17:17 PM
Post by: Laurentus on September 27, 2017, 02:25:36 PM
Post by: Gerrick on September 27, 2017, 04:06:26 PM
Spoiler
the Targaryen/Lannister battle and the gang of 7's trip beyond the wall.
Post by: taulover on September 27, 2017, 04:44:33 PM
Post by: Laurentus on September 27, 2017, 04:46:16 PM
Spoiler
The season just didn't make a whole lot of sense, either. There was never any chemistry between the actors playing Jon, Dany, Sansa or Arya, and their motivations were completely lacking all throughout. Why does Jon suddenly think Dany would be a good queen, when she's just given him reason upon reason not to think so? Why does Tyrion, for that matter, when he is clearly not a fan of her mad decisions to burn people alive for no reason whatsoever? I'm sure there are some layers they could have added somewhere, but they just don't want to.
In a way, they're falling prey to asking: "What happens next?" instead of "Why does it happen, and what would these characters reasonably decide to do in response?"
EDIT: Added spoiler tags, in case anyone is even remotely interested at this point.
Post by: Red Mones on September 27, 2017, 05:43:40 PM
Post by: taulover on September 27, 2017, 06:42:18 PM
In a way, they are the victims of their own previous success. Seasons 2 and 3 just raised the bar so high that something like this previous season just left such a bad taste as to elicit a response like mine.I've heard quite a few people argue that this is because they no longer have GRRM's writing to work off of, only the basic plot ideas.
In a way, they're falling prey to asking: "What happens next?" instead of "Why does it happen, and what would these characters reasonably decide to do in response?"
Maybe they're running out of money. :PI'm assuming that that's a joke, because their funding is higher than ever, allowing them to stick in more big action scenes than before...
Post by: Elbbsas on September 27, 2017, 09:35:46 PM
...It did at times feel as if there were an invisible checklist being ticked off per significant scene.
Post by: Laurentus on September 28, 2017, 04:01:40 AM
It certainly helps that they keep the seasons short.
Post by: Laurentus on November 06, 2017, 04:18:56 AM
That said, I don't understand what the fuck the point was of introducing 008. The episode she appeared in went absolutely nowhere.
Post by: taulover on November 06, 2017, 05:44:47 AM
Just watched Episode 1 of Blue Planet II. Episode 2 is already out too, don't yet have the time to watch it.
But holy shit this is amazing it's just 60 minutes of pure mindblowing information and beautiful cinematography and exciting animal suspense
Post by: Gerrick on November 06, 2017, 03:45:21 PM
That said, I don't understand what the fuck the point was of introducing 008. The episode she appeared in went absolutely nowhere.
Spoiler
Exactly. After watching that episode, I just thought why? What did that do for the story? If you skipped that episode, you wouldn't've really missed anything except for a few minutes of internal struggle for Eleven to decide not to run away.
It seems like with that episode/Kali, the writers are signalling that they're going to introduce more Hawkins Lab test subjects next season and set up some kind of team of super-powered mutants like X-Men? But if they introduce more test subjects next season, why did they throw Kali in this season for only one episode?
If not, the writers probably just really like the idea of real-life D&D where (as it was stated a few times) Eleven is the party's "mage" and then Kali would be some other class, and together they'll all fight the Mind Flayer. Don't know why Eleven wasn't enough, though.
It seems like with that episode/Kali, the writers are signalling that they're going to introduce more Hawkins Lab test subjects next season and set up some kind of team of super-powered mutants like X-Men? But if they introduce more test subjects next season, why did they throw Kali in this season for only one episode?
If not, the writers probably just really like the idea of real-life D&D where (as it was stated a few times) Eleven is the party's "mage" and then Kali would be some other class, and together they'll all fight the Mind Flayer. Don't know why Eleven wasn't enough, though.
Post by: Laurentus on November 06, 2017, 06:06:31 PM
Spoiler
Yeah, it seems they're going the X-Men route. Don't rightly understand why, though. You know who else does X-Men? X-Men. They should just stick to a faintly Alien-inspired horror story, with well developed characters.
Post by: Laurentus on November 15, 2017, 01:56:53 AM
EDIT: it should go without saying, but it's worth repeating anyway. It's not for you if you have no stomach for blood.
Spoiler
What's most fascinating to me is how it affects the characters. Holden is undeniably right when he says the law enforcement of the time just isn't equipped to catch these killers, anymore, and yet you begin to see he's more interested in building a legacy with his new techniques, and becomes the type of narcissistic asshole he's chasing
Post by: Imaginative Kane on December 10, 2017, 06:58:17 AM
Maybe I should also watch more of the old Simpsons episodes. Not the new ones but the good ones.
Post by: Laurentus on January 30, 2018, 01:57:06 AM
Spoiler
Post by: Imaginative Kane on March 23, 2018, 07:20:11 AM
The Santa Clarita Diet is actually an interesting show. It is not good to watch for those who can't handle graphically violent images though along with a ton of cursing.
Post by: Laurentus on October 21, 2018, 12:46:07 AM
Post by: Gerrick on November 06, 2018, 12:08:58 AM
In other news, the series finale to House of Cards was utter shit.
Post by: Arenado on November 06, 2018, 01:19:50 AM
Post by: Michi on November 06, 2018, 07:54:03 AM
It's not going to win any awards, and I have some major gripes with some of the shots and annoying filters they used...but those gripes aside, it was actually a pretty decent season. I'm actually looking forward to season 2.
It's absolutely nothing like the cheesy 90s show, adapting much more from the newer comic of the same name. It's much less about the laughs and more about Sabrina's journey as a witch. There's definitely more emphasis on the darkness of it all right down to small things like "praise satan" replacing the commonly heard "praise god/jesus," and other small bits like that when it comes to the witches and warlocks throughout.
I'd compare it to another Netflix adaption...Series of Unfortunate Events. It's not the most amazing thing out there, but for what it is it's still pretty well done.
Post by: Cinciri on November 06, 2018, 02:25:48 PM
Post by: Laurentus on February 19, 2019, 07:12:26 PM
Post by: Gerrick on February 19, 2019, 07:47:39 PM
Post by: Laurentus on February 19, 2019, 08:08:33 PM
I just saw the prison sequence. My mind was completely blown.
Post by: Imaginative Kane on February 20, 2019, 03:17:23 AM
Post by: Laurentus on February 23, 2019, 06:36:46 PM
My spoiler-filled thoughts will follow.
Spoiler
I was pretty much impressed from the get-go. All the awkward dialogue was immediately gone, and it was great to see a weakened Matt Murdock try to build himself back up.
I kinda expected not to like the season as much afterwards, as I expected he'd just get better and deliver a big beat down on Fisk again, afterwards, like he did in the first season. What I did not count on was that Dex, aka Bullseye, would continuously kick his ass the way he did.
I was especially impressed when Matt adapted to the situation by turning Dex and Fisk against each other, so Fisk could take care of Dex and leave himself open for the long-coming beat down I was expecting from the beginning.
And for once, that whole schtick about letting the bad guy live didn't feel as trite as it usually does.
I also was not expecting Sister Maggie to be Matt's mother.
This may be the end to Netflix and Disney's alliance, but Netflix really did deliver one hell of a swansong. I fucking salute them.
I kinda expected not to like the season as much afterwards, as I expected he'd just get better and deliver a big beat down on Fisk again, afterwards, like he did in the first season. What I did not count on was that Dex, aka Bullseye, would continuously kick his ass the way he did.
I was especially impressed when Matt adapted to the situation by turning Dex and Fisk against each other, so Fisk could take care of Dex and leave himself open for the long-coming beat down I was expecting from the beginning.
And for once, that whole schtick about letting the bad guy live didn't feel as trite as it usually does.
I also was not expecting Sister Maggie to be Matt's mother.
This may be the end to Netflix and Disney's alliance, but Netflix really did deliver one hell of a swansong. I fucking salute them.
Post by: Laurentus on June 28, 2019, 08:36:18 PM
Post by: Emoticonius on June 28, 2019, 09:41:44 PM
Just after finishing the above show I went straight to Saving Grace. It follows the story of Detective Grace Hanadarko of the Oklahoma City Police Department. She hasn't exactly lived a life that gets you into eternal paradise. So God sent her Earl, an angel tasked with guiding her onto the right path as one last chance to avoid an eternity in Hell. Of course Grace isn't exactly the God-fearing type so Earl has a difficult task ahead of him. Then again Grace has a more difficult task ahead of her than she could possibly imagine. Amidst her booze-soaked life of promiscuity and desperation to protect the people that love her all she knows is that for whatever God has a plan for her, whatever it may be and she isn't up for the responsibility God has placed on her shoulders. So while she's stumbling in the dark, an angel over her shoulder that can't reveal any spoilers, she has to turn her life around. But how? What's the right choice? What's the wrong choice? Will she be able to survive the trip?
It's a great show. It's gritty, dramatic, very funny, heartwarming and touches on some deeply philosophical (as well as theological) subjects. In addition to being an emotional roller coaster it really makes you think.
Post by: BraveSirRobin on July 03, 2019, 04:33:29 PM
Post by: Laurentus on July 03, 2019, 09:29:29 PM
Post by: taulover on July 04, 2019, 12:26:29 AM
I've also just started watching The Life of Mammals (2002) by David Attenborough. Not as visually stunning as Planet Earth or Blue Planet, but it's actually written and presented by Attenborough himself, not just narrated by him, which ultimately means that it's on the whole more informative than his later, more eye-catching shows.
Post by: Laurentus on July 05, 2019, 06:55:15 PM
Post by: Marzipan on July 07, 2019, 06:43:04 PM
Post by: taulover on January 07, 2020, 08:30:06 AM
The series began as a one-off, Seven Up, produced in 1963. It was inspired by the saying, "Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man," and interviewed fourteen 7-year-olds from varied social strata in Britain on their plans, dreams, social/political beliefs, etc. Every 7 years since, Michael Apted has returned to interview them. The latest installment, 63 Up, aired in 2019.
The series is fascinating to watch. It began on the premise of class determining future, and it's interesting to see where this appears both to be and not to be the case; in that sense, it's a great look at class, gender, generational/social change, and more. But the series turns more towards the personal as it goes on, and here is where the series spends most of its focus. It's this really unique glimpse of the full life of the everyman growing up and living out their lives in the last half century.
I suppose the series isn't made to be binged in one go, but rather absorbed every seven years. As a result, a lot of the footage feels repetitive, but I also feel the repetition helps get you acquainted with the participants and give their stories greater meaning, as 7 more years keep getting added every episode. You get invested in these people and what they represent, even as they themselves point out the issues of their own portrayals. It's not your typical film series, but it feels earnest and important in what I feel to be a very unique way. Absolutely worth the watch.
Post by: Michi on January 07, 2020, 11:21:00 AM
It's just as good as I remember it. Time definitely hasn't aged it, at least to me.
Post by: Dani on January 20, 2020, 02:54:07 AM
It is a great mother-daughter feature with economic, romantic and social crisi. Not bad for the 00s.