Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-28 (Tuesday)

On 1/29/2025 8:59 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 1/29/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 This is supposed to be a two-day catch-up except I don't exactly remember what I watched on Monday:
 MONDAY:
 I ran a morning errand and I think I mostly did work from home after. I'm pretty sure I didn't watch a movie off streaming on Monday (I definitely didn't watch one off Tubi). I think I only got through soaps:
 DOOL - Mon's ep. Brady and Kristen figure out where Rachel is and drag her home, but Kristen's insane Mom hides herself and conked out Ava so Ava is still in peril. Meanwhile, Holly whines about the Tate-Sophia situation to Doug III, and Sophia proposes to Tate that they put their baby up for adoption anyway, as she will be 18 by the time she gives birth. It looks like Sophia is falling for Tate again (so dumb that they are recasting this part...).
    GH - Mon's ep. Lucky and Elizabeth con a nurse at the hospital care facility where Lulu was a coma patient, and get some key documents before being caught by the facility's administrator and being run out of there. Laura tells Lulu of Lucky's kidnapping in Africa, and tells Lulu that the kidnapper, Jenz Sidwell, is in Port Charles now. Anna tells Jason that Sidwell is back in town, and Jason pretty much vows to eliminate Sidwell as a "threat" and as the mostly likely person behind Michael's burning. IIRC, Jack Brennan shows up in Germany to "comfort" and support Carly. Curtis and Nina come up with a plan to further destroy Drew (who is *never* doing his job, BTW - a new Congressman would be spending nearly all of this time in DC!). Finally, Kristina is suspicious of Sonny's and Natalia's sudden "trip" to L.A.
 I think that was it for Monday.
 TUESDAY:
 I ended up spending most of yesterday at work, now that my job situation has changed (I'm down to one "main" job, and will no longer be working a second job, except likely one last time this summer) - one of the changes is that I now have my own office, so I spent most of yesterday moving offices. (However, that office computer still isn't working for me - hopefully that gets fixed today!)
 So, as a result, I also didn't watch movies yesterday. But I did get through soaps, and I started up "Paradise" on Hulu:
 soaps: GH - Tue's ep. A lot of this was Quartermaine family drama, with Tracy acting especially awful, esp. to Sasha, the latter of whom snaps and blurts out that she's pregnant. Jason puts two and two together and figures out that Michael is the father and confronts Sasha about it. Brook Lynn whines to Lois about Lulu being her assistant, but is happy as her fertility results came back all positive. But Chase is crushed and has to tell Brook Lynn that he can't father a child... Portia (and later the new doc, Isaiah) have to tell Alexis that Sam's death was no accident and that somebody murdered Sam - Alexis vows to discover the culprit. Trina gets Portia to talk to Kai and Portia encourages Kai to gets second and a third opinion on his "career-ending" football injuries (like, duh!!). Anna (and Felicia) confront Emma for being a college partying lying liar - the character of Emma is a passive-aggressive bitch, and I really don't like her... Oh noes! At the end, Valentin shows up and he's going to murder Jack Brennan! (He better not! - Brennan is my favorite recent new character!)
    Y&R - Fri's & Mon's ep. Mostly fallout from Sharon being "rescued" and Claire's plan to murder Jordan - which works! when Jordan deliberately drinks Claire's poisoned tea, and then all of the Newmans just stand around and let/watch Jordan die, and then lie about it to the cops. (So, to be clear - they're *all* murderers!) Stupid Sharon is reunited with her stupid daughters; Mariah blames herself for this whole mess because Ian Ward was behind it all. At the end, Mariah is frantic when Tessa and their daughter go missing... Disappointingly, after Filis rejected his scheme, Billy seems set to abandon his revenge plan against Victor (I really hope Billy is just telling people what they want to hear...). There was stuff about Nate and his new brother, but I don't care!
 Paradise (Hulu) - First two episodes, "Wildcat Is Down" and "Sinatra".
    This was not what I was expecting. I can't really say why, without getting into spoilers. But this show has a whole "meta" storyline which I'm not sure I either like, or buy for that matter. I was expecting a simple "Secret Service murder mystery" a la "Shooter" here, but there's more going on.
    And I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I think I am going to wait for ep. #4 to drop before watching ep's #3 and #4, to help me decide.
    I was pleased as punch to see Cassidy Freeman pop up in this as the "first lady" who seems to be stirring up the good kind of trouble.
    Others will be happy when Sarah Shahi shows up in episode #2.
  What did you watch?
 

I watched:
Mayfair Witches (AMC) "Double Helix" - I'm not entirely sure how to summarize the latest episode.  Stuff happened is I guess the best I can do.  But in the previous episode and this one they have doubled down on vampires being a part of this universe, and it looks like they may be setting up a spin off show which follows people who watch the vampires. If hey go down that path, the only thing missing is a vampire slayer. Well that and someone to interview them.
Watson - New CBS show about Sherlock Holmes' partner Dr. Watson (Morris Chestnut).  Following Holmes' death Watson returns to the U.S. to run a medical clinic.  This show is basically "House" with Watson and his team of doctors taking on a weird medical case that stumps all the other doctors.  But Watson uses the deduction techniques he learned from Holmes to solve the cases.  The only thing that makes this show different than "House" is a spoiler I can't mention yet.
Babylon 5: In the Beginning (DVD)  1998 made for TV movie and prequel to Babylon 5 TV series.  The prequel details the Earth / Minbari war.  I have been planning to revisit the series ever since they released the direct to video animated movie in 2023, and the Blu-ray upgrade of the original series.  Originally, I wasn't going to get to this until a few months from now, but I got tired of waiting.  The DVD quality was horrible!  It looked so fuzzy I almost didn't bother to watch.  But it's been, I'm guessing, 20 years since I last watched B5, so I pushed through the fuzzy picture.
Babylon 5: The Gathering (blu-ray) 1998 pilot movie for the TV series. About half the cast from the series is in this and the other half will get replaced.  The plot follows everyone awaiting the arrival of the mysterious Ambassador Kosh.  Kosh is poisoned upon his arrival and the episode focuses on figuring out who poisoned him and why, while also keeping the Ambassador's people from blowing the station up in retaliation.  It was an OK pilot, but it was weird seeing G'Kar played as a mustache twirling villain.
As far as the picture quality goes, in spite of being on blu-ray disc the picture quality was only slightly better than the DVD.  I then read a review that explained "In the Beginning" is considered an extra.  And the movie is on a separate blu-ray disc in the back of the case instead of with the regular episodes.
"Midnight on the Firing Line" (blu-ray) Season 1, episode 1 of Babylon 5.  Finally, the picture quality looks good!  Bright, shiny and clear. First up in the series proper, Commander Sinclair has to keep the Londo from G'Kar from fighting after the Narns (G'Kar's people) launch attacks on Centauri (Londo's people) colony.  And once again G'Kar is written as the villain.  It's going to be interesting watching his character grow, and of course Londo's character fall.  Also notable is Delen's makeup has been totally redesigned from the pilot.
If you are not familiar with Babylon 5, first shame on you!  Second, check out the intro to the first season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtrUhIuEqdY
Each season had a new introduction.  Season 3 is my favorite, but I don't remember season 1 being this good.
As an aside, I've been busy putting together watch lists for more shows.   In the next year or two I plan to dive back into The X-Files, Farscape, Seaquest, Battlestar Galactica, and Freeks and Geeks. These are all shows I have sitting on a shelf in shrink wrap collecting dust. I think X-Files is the only one I watched on DVD way back when.  But if the DVD quality of the B5 prequel is any indication, The X-Files may be cut way back!