Netflix Diary
a) Date Night
Maybe the expectations were too high for a movie pairing up the prom king and queen of NBC's Thursday night lineup, but I'm not sure why everyone was so down on this movie or what they were expecting. I thought it was pretty funny and there were a lot of entertaining little cameo roles and odd plot twists. It kinda drove me nuts how in one scene they have will.i.am playing himself, and then Common comes in playing a character in the story.
b) Hot Tub Time Machine
This was definitely not as funny as it could have been, but I appreciated how unabashedly silly the whole thing was. I especially enjoyed the running gag about Crispin Glover's arm.
c) Repo Men
I liked the way the ads for this laid out the premise but didn't really give away any of the story, most trailers spoil way too much these days. However, that allowed me to use my imagination and assume this was what I hoped it would be, a dark satire. Instead, the movie's not really very funny at all and very quickly takes a turn into a really corny predictable plot where the white guy develops a conscience and has a redemption arc while the black guy becomes the villain.
d) Mystery Team
Rented this since I'm a big fan of Donald Glover's work on "Community" and had heard that the movie by his comedy troupe Derrick Comedy was pretty good. It took me a while to fall into the movie's rhythm though, since as with even the best movies made by sketch comedy groups (Super Troopers, Hot Rod, the Python flicks, etc.), the pacing's brisk to the point of being kind of choppy as they settle into a long form narrative, but after a while it started to get really funny. This movie seems to have at least one person from every single comedy show on NBC right now, although Glover's obviously the star and the center of attention most of the time.
e) "Sons Of Anarchy," Season 2
Since someone had the obnoxious idea to release season 2 on DVD like a week before season 3 began, I pretty much watched this whole season all in a row so that I'd be caught up enough to watch the new episodes. And man, this is a really intense show to watch like that, so much stuff happens in every episode and some of it is just gut-wrenching. Really enjoyed this season, though, the whole plot with Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins as the bad guys was great.
f) "Breaking Bad," season 1
I've always liked Bryan Cranston and was happy to see him get a big award-winning vehicle like this, so it was nice to finally start catching up on this show. I can't say I love it, some of the mixtures of drama and dark comedy don't quite work for me and sometimes the plot kind of grinds along in ways that don't ring true, but I definitely enjoy it and there have been some pretty amazing moments. Kinda felt like the season slowly petered out with a shrug when I expected more crazy plot developments like in the first few episodes.
g) "Dead Like Me," Season 2
I think I'm too wrapped up in auteur worship of Bryan Fuller to totally love this show after he walked off of it the way I love his other shows, "Pushing Daisies" and "Wonderfalls" -- I keep thinking of how much better it could've been if it'd stuck with his vision and his writing. But still, not a bad show, was enjoyable to the end, just felt a bit lightweight and had some squandered potential.
h) "The Tick," Season 1
This show used to blow my mind on Saturday mornings, and some of the guys who worked on it now make the amazing "Venture Bros." so it seemed like a good time to revisit it. And I have to admit, it hasn't aged terribly well, some of the stuff that used to really crack me up seems kind of overly wacky now, but it's still pretty funny and entertaining.
i) "Twin Peaks," Season 2
I have kind of an unfortunate relationship with this show, where I feel like I've been told too many times that it doesn't make a lot of sense if you try really hard to understand it, and so I try to just watch it and enjoy the ride but my brain just shuts down and starts thinking about other things because I know there's no point in paying close attention to the plot or the characters, until I end up kind of ignoring it and not even enjoying it. Now and again I catch parts that are really bizarre and awesome and classic Lynch, like maybe I could enjoy it in the right mood at some point, though.
Maybe the expectations were too high for a movie pairing up the prom king and queen of NBC's Thursday night lineup, but I'm not sure why everyone was so down on this movie or what they were expecting. I thought it was pretty funny and there were a lot of entertaining little cameo roles and odd plot twists. It kinda drove me nuts how in one scene they have will.i.am playing himself, and then Common comes in playing a character in the story.
b) Hot Tub Time Machine
This was definitely not as funny as it could have been, but I appreciated how unabashedly silly the whole thing was. I especially enjoyed the running gag about Crispin Glover's arm.
c) Repo Men
I liked the way the ads for this laid out the premise but didn't really give away any of the story, most trailers spoil way too much these days. However, that allowed me to use my imagination and assume this was what I hoped it would be, a dark satire. Instead, the movie's not really very funny at all and very quickly takes a turn into a really corny predictable plot where the white guy develops a conscience and has a redemption arc while the black guy becomes the villain.
d) Mystery Team
Rented this since I'm a big fan of Donald Glover's work on "Community" and had heard that the movie by his comedy troupe Derrick Comedy was pretty good. It took me a while to fall into the movie's rhythm though, since as with even the best movies made by sketch comedy groups (Super Troopers, Hot Rod, the Python flicks, etc.), the pacing's brisk to the point of being kind of choppy as they settle into a long form narrative, but after a while it started to get really funny. This movie seems to have at least one person from every single comedy show on NBC right now, although Glover's obviously the star and the center of attention most of the time.
e) "Sons Of Anarchy," Season 2
Since someone had the obnoxious idea to release season 2 on DVD like a week before season 3 began, I pretty much watched this whole season all in a row so that I'd be caught up enough to watch the new episodes. And man, this is a really intense show to watch like that, so much stuff happens in every episode and some of it is just gut-wrenching. Really enjoyed this season, though, the whole plot with Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins as the bad guys was great.
f) "Breaking Bad," season 1
I've always liked Bryan Cranston and was happy to see him get a big award-winning vehicle like this, so it was nice to finally start catching up on this show. I can't say I love it, some of the mixtures of drama and dark comedy don't quite work for me and sometimes the plot kind of grinds along in ways that don't ring true, but I definitely enjoy it and there have been some pretty amazing moments. Kinda felt like the season slowly petered out with a shrug when I expected more crazy plot developments like in the first few episodes.
g) "Dead Like Me," Season 2
I think I'm too wrapped up in auteur worship of Bryan Fuller to totally love this show after he walked off of it the way I love his other shows, "Pushing Daisies" and "Wonderfalls" -- I keep thinking of how much better it could've been if it'd stuck with his vision and his writing. But still, not a bad show, was enjoyable to the end, just felt a bit lightweight and had some squandered potential.
h) "The Tick," Season 1
This show used to blow my mind on Saturday mornings, and some of the guys who worked on it now make the amazing "Venture Bros." so it seemed like a good time to revisit it. And I have to admit, it hasn't aged terribly well, some of the stuff that used to really crack me up seems kind of overly wacky now, but it's still pretty funny and entertaining.
i) "Twin Peaks," Season 2
I have kind of an unfortunate relationship with this show, where I feel like I've been told too many times that it doesn't make a lot of sense if you try really hard to understand it, and so I try to just watch it and enjoy the ride but my brain just shuts down and starts thinking about other things because I know there's no point in paying close attention to the plot or the characters, until I end up kind of ignoring it and not even enjoying it. Now and again I catch parts that are really bizarre and awesome and classic Lynch, like maybe I could enjoy it in the right mood at some point, though.
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on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 11:12 AM.
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