i tried watching it and my favorite things were the shots of live births (simulated? brutal...i've seen live births) and rachel weisz herself... she's great)

but the direction? i don't think so (for me). a bit too slow...

dead ringers is not my favorite cronenberg movie by a mile but it's hard to top from what i've seen.

--

meanwhile started watching "the peripheral" on amazon which was heavily marketed while i was busy.

it's from a william gibson book! i had lost track of him and now this surprise.

lots of fun so far!

well shit the peripheral did not end in one season... i guess i'll save time and read the book

summer is here! rewatching sopranos

it was after seeing this yootoob:

https://youtu.be/Jj3g6CCNB-A

and i was like "yeah, gotta watch again..."

presumably i'll eventually get to succession with the same subscription.

but sopranos-the wire-tremé are too tremendous to pass up a chance to rewatch

also maybe boardwalk empire if it is an hbo thing. chalkie white! hahah.

anyway yes, succession, white people, whatever, i'll get there...

succession's theme sounds a lot like "variations on coolio's gansta's paradise"

yes?

(first season anyway. not sure if it changes later.)

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left ...

--
my initial assessment after 3 episodes:

kendall: utter dweeb
igby: clown
shiv: no opinion yet
ramy's mom aka wendi deng: seems reasonable so far
tom: weirdo weirdo weirdo
cameron from ferris bueller: idiot
greg: what is his character here for?

as mafias go i'd rather hang out with the soprano crew than these creepy whiteys

Yeah, so, all these opinions are going to change dramatically lmao

yeah wendi deng already showing a different face i guess lol
igby still a sociopathic clown, kendall still a massive dweeb,
and greg's hilarious plotting starting to pay off hahahahhaa
also cameron's banquet hysterics hahaha (still an idiotj
(i mean cameron from ferris bueller i can't remember his name here.)

but the music

They've been spendin' most their lives livin' in the gangsta's paradise
They've been spendin' most their lives livin' in the gangsta's paradise
We keep spendin' most our lives livin' in the gangsta's paradise
We keep spendin' most our lives livin' in the gangsta's paradise

the music i'm still convinced that's the piano lol

...

but anyway finished the entire season 1 of sopranos and i wanna rewatch the final episode again. so good. the mother smiling! fuck, that mother. fuck! what a show.

finished season 1

ken doll still an utter fucking dweeb, the worst fucking dweeb
cameron/connor (similar names!) more idiot than ever
igby still a fucking clown
greg still comedy relief
shiv i still don't know, she's hard to figure out for me
tom less of a labrador retriever now, maybe there's one change in my opinion
marcia aka ramy's mom still reasonable. and tough too! i like her.

i like this show, just watched 1 entire season over a weekend

but

season 1 sopranos vs season 1 succession:

soprano wins by k.o.! no doubt.

also i would rather hang out at the bada bing or the pork store than at some ballet fundraiser/castle/rich people party/whatever i think.

but 3 more seasons to go... i like this show!

Ken is a dweeb and Roman is a sociopath, I’ll grant you all of that.

ken is the king of all sad fucking dweebs and igby is a twisted fuck for sure

logan which i have not mentioned yes is a fucking monster. very reasonable at some level, and has balls to match his brains, but man the way he uses people hahahahaha what a total bully bastard. he broke his toys.

so i hope with all my heart that marcia turns out to be a terrorist hahahhahaaa (a bit like "homeland," you know)

season 2 starts tonight! i like summer lololol.

It’s a great, great show but everyone is terrible. Which is fine.
Kendall is probably my favorite character, which isn’t that weird because he is the central protagonist after all.

Ken doll

Watched season 1 and season 2 of The White Lotus, by the guy who played the original Mr. Schneebley in School of Rock

hahahha yes



so, season 2 episode 8 im officially dropping this show. happy to see any spoilers at this point.

i mean it's the same church churn churn of the same 5 or 6 insufferable white fucks going around in circles, nobody is likeable, i can't root for anyone, not even sympathize a bit. fuck them all, i can't stand any of them. burn them alive already.

the plot is the same, everyone trying to please and not piss off the dad or trying to take him out and failing, everyone a fucking incompetent who wouldn't be here if they weren't related, everyone the same overprivileged abused-abusive spineless fuck, always ready with the lies.

the dysfunctional family was a great premise, but it's too many hours of the same thing for me. sitting around in an office lying and insulting each other and dropping literary references. sitting around in a castle doing the same thing. sitting around in the hamptons doing the same thing. sitting around in england and scotland and in an airplaine and on a stage doing the same thing. and on and on and on.

the plot seems to me a bunch of ripped from the headlines stories about davos, murdoch buying the wsj and myspace, the fate of various tech blogs, etc etc.... which would be cool, but behind the changing façade of one-percenter trappings, i find it excessively repetitious overall. someone is up, someone is down, and nothing changes but the location. i mean, even game of thrones had more suspense. people fucking died. factions were eliminated, factions rose. things changed. this here is like sitting at the airport around obnoxious people waiting to catch a flight that never departs.

about the popularity of this series i feel the way rob felt about mad men i think.

but even if the show is thematically a j'accuse against inequality, i get the point and don't need all the fictional gory details, and don't need to spend any more time around these incompetent manipulative fucks. i'm sick of them, and have no further reason to watch them. whatever happens to them i give zero fucks.

-

anyway, so it's back to sopranos for me! rewatching last episode of season 1 this morning. sure they're a bunch of sociopaths too, but with some likeable aspects, better plots, funnier moments, livelier dialogues, a more entertaining soundtrack (very goodfellas), a greater scope and mix of characters and situations, the therapy angle, the cultural/anthropological angle, etc.

and nancy marchand as livia soprano is fucking great. artie bucco confronting tony in the parking lot hahhahahahahahahaaa.

i love the way they mix the horrible and the farcical, like paulie walnuts shooting mikey palmice while getting a poison ivy rash hahahahahaha.

-

on season 2 of sopranos now.

that sister! fuck!! the fucking gorgon hahahhahahahaaaa

I didn’t read all that but you should keep watching

nah i really won't. much less on command because i'm not a labrador retriever hahahahahaaaa,

if there is a reason why i should spend time in it, please explain. spoilers okay.

*** SPOILERS FOR THE INNOCENT. BE WARNED. ***

i even tried to watch the final episode and... ken doll is still counting votes! hahahah. same shit, the stupid fuck.

so i turned it off.

i get the point of the show, i get why the labrador retriever gets the cookie, he's been a labrador retriever from the start, he's a middle class striver willing to please the master even if the master beats him. and the master is a moron. haven't we seen this in real life daily? if you're an adult, yes. every fucking day. at work, in the news, everywhere.

my problem is i think i got the point of jt too soon maybe, so there's nothing left in it for me to "solve."

okay so there are some jokes and other things, greg is funny, "park coke" is funny, igby makes me laugh a little every half hour with funny shit he says or jerking off to the old lady. and shiv's eye-popping ass, is it real or implants? she's made of lies, so maybe implants, but still impressive(ly large).

either way, it's too scant a payoff for the unpleasant chore of watching the old man playing the violin and his broken toys trying to dance. i find too little butter on this toast.

***SPOILERS END***

so i'm cancelling the hbo subscription at the end of the month, and will get a month of netflix instead. i need to catch up with a few things there before i close it for another year lol.

then it will be hulu's turn, or maybe i'll finally get to try apple tv. every time i buy an apple thing they offer me 3 months free, but i haven't taken them up on the offer yet.

so yes, i watch a lot of tv, but life is too short to watch *all of it* just because.

look: https://www.ft.com/content/e5d14398-...b-4e6371167c6d

"cruises"

see if it opens

sarah silverman "someone you love" hbo special. good laughs.

trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSBwni58WXg

It’s just an excellent show, and I’m really curious to see whether you end up developing reluctant compassion for these horrible characters, as I did.

Also everyone gets theirs in one way or another

ah well from the beginning i did feel sorry for what their bastard father had turned them into. the dweeb in particular who can't even drive a fucking car and rides bitch on the bike. tragic. the effects on igby are more comical, he enjoyed being caged like a dog and eating from the bowl after all. and the thick eyelids girl her father plays like a violin is also a nothing, just made of lies. and yeah, as igby declares it at the end, they're bullshit! hahahhaa. (yes i went back and watched the "i am the eldest boy" moment lmfao). but i already knew they were bullshit... i think this would have worked better for me as a full loser comedy, veep style.

i'm currently feeling sorry for the sopranos. everyone except for fucking ritchie aprile, the psycho motherfucker with his "manson lamps" hahahahahahahaaaaa.

i think the device sopranos uses to make you sympathize with these sociopaths is to first show their human side and then put right next to them a character who is objectively much fucking worse. so it's all about degrees of shit hahahaha.

also feeling sorry for poor pussy bonpensiero right now. he's gone mental. full stockholm syndrome!

also feeling sorry for poor carmela. she's guilty too, and yet... a sorry idiot in some respects.

(this is the third time i watch the entire thing btw lololol)

feeling sorry for poor irina too, fucking mental case

...

actually feeling sorry for ritchie aprile when he's having his strings pulled by janice fucking soprano hhahahahahahahahshaaaa

there's always someone worse. it's like a rock paper scissors game....

Succession really had a profound impact on me. I haven’t had appointment-viewing like that in ages. I’m sad it’s over.

And there’s a scene in season 4 that makes me tear up like mad, but that might be because my dad is is in very poor health. Fuck cancer.