Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-19 (Friday)

On 4/20/2024 9:20 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 4/20/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 Yesterday, I just wanted to get home to watch TV and movies, so that's exactly what I did!:
 Fallout (Prime) - First two episodes.
    I finally decided to pull the trigger on this. I dunno if I will be able to watch it straight through - I'm hoping I will have enough time to be able to finish it over this coming week.
    So far I like it, though I am not sure I am going to like the show's structure - e.g. how it seems to rely heavily on "guest stars" who show up for one, and only one, episode. It's just a good thing that Walton Goggins is main cast on this, or I fear we'd never see him! (e.g. Kyle McLaughlin).

Goggins chewing the scenery is probably the best thing about the show.

    I do like Moises Arias as the brother, though it may be the worst casting ever, as Arias and Lucy Purcell couldn't look less biologically related if they tried! (Maybe Arias' brother character was "adopted"?!)
    Curious to see where they go with this - I have never played the video game, though I've heard about it over the years...
 soaps: GH - Thur's ep. Ava discovers that Sonny's bipolar prescription has been *under*dosing him! Under normal circumstances, Ava would actually be the #1 suspect for this, but seeing as she's doing the investigating here, she's obviously not behind this... So who is?! Later, Ava tells Sonny that Dex is joining the PCPD! (Ha!!) Joss worries about Dex's career path to Carly; later, Agent Jagger/John appears to be hitting on Carly! Cyrus decides to file charges with Anna, against Sonny, for the beating; later Cyrus runs into Dex who apologizes for his part in, you know - trying to whack Cyrus! Lois continues to annoy me now (and Rena Sofer doesn't seem to be going anywhere!!).
 I then watched two movies... strangely, these were both in 4k - I guess everything is in 4k now!:
 Lisa Frankenstein (Peacock) - Well, this was... "quirky" (written by Diablo Cody!).
    For no reason at all, this is set in the (late) 1980s.
    Because of the film's premise, it kind of doesn't work - Kathryn Newton plays Lisa, a teen who is emotionally disturbed in the wake of witnessing her mother's axe-murder. (Who thought this was a good idea for establishing the character?!) Her father has since remarried (to Carla Gugino), and Lisa now has a well-meaning and supportive, but ditzy, stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano, who is apparently famous in the Philippines).
    Anyway, Lisa is the school weirdo in her new school, and she likes to hang out in cemeteries, and is attracted to the headstone monument of one particular young man who died in 1837.
    Taffy drags Lisa to a party where Lisa is dosed (with a hallucinogen?), and then almost sexually assaulted. (Who thought this was a good idea?!) This happens during some sort of freak lightning storm (you can see where this is going).
    After, Lisa comes across the lad from the 1837 grave, now reanimated by the lightning. At first, Lisa is terrified by him, but then decides to clean him up. In return, the monster helps Lisa unleash her inner hott Goth chyck!
    Meanwhile, Lisa's stepmom (Gugino), who is a villain straight out of "Snow White", has had enough of Lisa, and intends to have her committed.
    Murderous wackiness ensues.
    I never thought this got the tone right. While Lisa's tragic background should make her sympathetic, the murdering quickly renders her (and the monster) very *un*sympathetic - why are we rooting for two killers to get together?! And they're going for "comedy-horror", which this doesn't get right tonally either.
    Thus, the ending is unearned, and the movie kind of never works as a result.
 

Agreed.

I almost pulled the trigger on "Night Swin" (off Peacock) but didn't feel in the mood for it.
 Bottoms (Prime) -

This is on my watch list.  I'll get to it eventually.
Now, this was absurd, but several of the comedy bits

actually pay off. So I thought this was much better than "Lisa Frankenstein" (it's also 10 minutes shorter!).
    The gist? Two bottom-of-the-high-school-pecking-order lesbians (Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote it, and Ayo Edebiri from "The Bear") decide to put together a "fight club, for girls!" at the HS, with the help of their also weird and pathetic friend (Ruby Cruz). They bill it to the other girls as a "self-defense (and empowerment!)" club, but the real point is that Sennott's character wants to use the club to seduce their two cheerleader crushes (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu).
    Of course, the club takes off beyond their wildest expectations.
    Anyway, this was amusing. The only thing I didn't like was that the asshole male football players never suffered any consequences for their horrible behavior.
  What did you watch?
 

I watched:
Law & Order: SVU - "Combat Fatigue" - In a bit of a change for SVU this episode focuses on the trial of the kidnapper they've been following all season.  The opening scene with in the jury room I could swear was ripped off line for line from another show, but I don't remember which (LA Law maybe?).
Abigail (theatrical) New horror movie about a group of kidnappers (including Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, and Katheryn Newton) who are hired by Giancarlo Esposito to kidnap a little girl for ransom.  But the little girl (Alisha Weir) turns out to be a blood thirsty vampire who enjoys playing with her food before slaughtering them.  This was surprisingly good.  I think mostly because I went in expecting a paint by numbers PG-13 jump scare flick, and this turned out to be a hard "R" gore fest.  And the characters were generally smart and didn't do obviously dumb things.  It also borrowed heavily from "Fright Night" but that is meant as a compliment.  This was probably a better "Fright Night" remake than the actual "Fright Night" remake!  Although it obvious has a different plot with the whole kidnapping thing, there are some definitely and welcome similarities.