that above seems a case of what hitchcock called moronic logic. a denial of the suspension of disbelief due in fiction on the basis of some logical flaw. sorta like saying "superman can't fly therefore i refuse to accept this story." if you're into a superman story you have to accept that our yellow sun gives him the superpower of flying and get on with things.

then again, when things are *too absurd* it's really impossible to get into anything.

i'm willing to take at face value that poppy could be grown in 'merica at the same time that i'd understand that the show it's not a documentary about alternative agriculture. then again if i knew too much about poppy fields i might just be unable to believe any premise here at all and we'd end up with an episode of frontline.

===


anyway taking advantage of my minor flu plus the holidays i've been watching some unknown season of the great british bake-off (netflix season numbers don't match the original).

it's nice to watch and relaxing fun except for the 2 presenters (not judges) who very annoyingly try to be "clever" every fucking time, and all they accomplish is to sound stupidly forced and unfunny. someone please shoot them. otherwise great show.

No you're a moron.

Bahaaahaha... just fucking.
Good point though. To be fair I don't think ilduclo said anything about the flaw ruining the show for him. Certainly didn't ruin it for me.

But again, all I know about poppies is that they make opium, are used to make heroin, we fought a few wars for them, and they were a cheap but labor intensive way to get lit back when I got lit. That's really it. If I was an agriculture dude or a drug lord the whole thing might be way too much for me. I'm nothing close to either.

And the poppy angle was a minor part of the story. Will play in more if they have another season, but very much secondary and trivial.

Good show.

A few other discrepancies. No way to launder that amount of cash thru Tiny Town. Distro by boat? In bibles? Mexican gangs sending 1 guy to guard 50$ million? Dang, suspension of disbelief is required. Just poor writing.

And just about anyone would have gotten rid of Ma & Pa Kettle like right off.

Btw, tried a couple of episodes of "Marco Polio", will skip any more. High dollar production, but too much wail-ey vocals and throat singing for me. Jim Black did the soundtrack, I guess he's drinking again? And the naked girl kung fu?

Too much!!

not enough! :D

i haven't seen it so i'm not really disputing your claims, it's just that for me bad writing would me more about a poorly constructed character or terrible dialogue (one of the worst lines i've seen is when in lord of the rings aragorn talks about sending an army to the gates of mordor and mr. legolas the obvious say "a diversion"-- yeah duhhhhh, thanks for the definition).

anyway, your criticisms have more to do with plausibility, which is more of a journalism approach to the thing--if you were the editor of this magazine, you'd send an army of fact checkers. which is a good thing!

i don't mind the occasional absurd story as long as it has some entertainment appeal. for example the first season or two of "weeds" were preposterous but also hilarious and engrossing. it was only later as characters turned into caricatures (e.g. celia) that i lost interest in that shit.

same thing with that show i was talking here some weeks ago-- the royals. apparently 3 dudes are enough to guard the royal family, ha ha ha. who knew! it's absurd and preposterous and all kinds of implausible but i keep watching because it makes me laugh- and i think the writers want me to laugh with them-- i think they're very conscious of their kitsch mass product for the celebrity channel and don't mind wearing their underpants on the outside. i applaud that. talk-back tv is a thing in itself.

that was a terrible reply even as a joke because it further confuses

hitchcock called it that way and didn't mean that anybody was a moron

what he meant by it was that stories are driven by emotion, and that logic could destroy a good story

imagine if we had been given a scientific explanation for the events in "the birds"-- just pure ruin

but he did recognize that the public often needed that-- which is why we get that cop explaining shit at the end of "psycho". i fucking hate that ending!

Hey, goddammit... I thought you liked the show! You said it was good! Don't bitch out on me. Yeah, the premise of middle drug guy "testing" main guy and sending him off with that much money out of "curiosity" and "too see if he can pull it off" was... yeah. That was dumb. But without it? No show.

All in all, the effect of the show was, in my opinion, greater overall than that of the sum of any discrepancies. You gotta "believe" Superman can fly, or there's no point... right?

ALSO... I'm not a drug dealer. Don't know shit about money laundering. But I do know a bit about accounting, statistics, risk management, etc. and I think from that angle, the show was pretty goddamn well written and believable. Seriously, if they didn't do their homework on agriculture they certainly did it on the actuarial side of things. The main characters were the real pull... all great. The tone of the show was a pull. Good, ominous, realistic.

The hardest part for me was listening to that godawful accent affected (overly so) by "Pa Whatshisass. What the fuck was that exactly? Little bit of Appalachian, little bit of Texas twang, little bit of Lenny from "Of Mice and Men" mixed with a little bit of halting weirdo borderline-foreign (like, Australian trying not to sound Australian or something) all mixed together in a big mess of accent chili that would win NO cookoffs, not even in the Ozarks.

Honestly, I watched the show because it had a Kanye song in the trailer and because Jason Bateman has never really let me down. I was surprised at how by-the-balls it had me by the end of the first episode.

I actually thought it was a pretty funny reply, buddy. I laughed a bit when I typed it actually. So... yeah.

But I get what you're saying. I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before... "we" as in, I don't know, whoever was in the movie thread and had nothing to do at the time. The end of Psycho being necessary and whatnot. We all hate the ending of Psycho.

i now really wanna watch ozark, just so i can say

I know the "diversion" line and it drives me crazy too!
I think it's somewhat famously stupid even. At least among nerdier circles. I'm not actually that big of a nerd (I know it seems that way, but trust me, by comparison, I'm like a 3.5 out of 10, tops), but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in meme-form.

Ilduclo, do you work for a magazine?

Do it! We'll have to shut the fuck up about it so as not to spoil the damn thing for you.

One thing I can promise is that it is at least compelling. And addictive. Even if I'm wrong and the holes do kill the story, it's not to feel like a waste of time.

no! ilducio is a geologist by training (science!) who works/worked in construction projects (facts are important or the building crumbles!)

i said "that magazine" because the other day i was watching the new yorker show on amazon and they showed the fact-checkers at work. i meant it as an image of journalism at work, not to imply that ilducio was a journalist, because i was saying this wasn't a documentary etc.

anyway, he reads a lot of nonfiction too. me i prefer the fantastic genre in general. i hate reality, but it's the only place where i can get a good steak.

--

since i just finished marco polo (nude kungfu rules all), it would be good timing to get into another "serious" show. looking more for epic/war shit right now so i have shaka zulu lined up right now but maybe i could skip for a test.

I actually did sorta enjoy it, mostly due to stellar acting by Mike Bluth and Linney. Their daughter character was pretty good, too. I probably wouldn't have watched it all the way thru if Ms Ild didn't like it so much...I really do hate crime stories that get major shit wrong, though...maybe that's just me?

Ah, so you agree that Batman and Linney were excellent? Cool. That's really what I was looking for.

Gotcha gotcha.

Ozark is super serious though. Almost weird to see Bateman in something that is so completely not funny. I think that's why it was gripping for me. You keep kind of thinking he's going to snark off, and make you giggle, but when he does get snarky it's deadly serious, or surrounded by deadly serious shit. Maybe that's a cheap trick from the writing angle, I dunno. But it worked.

Edam! Looks like my persona is defined! Hey, if you want reality, that French WW 1 drama, Ceux de 14 is really good.

I do not want reality. In any sense. Hah.

Watching 3rd season of Narcos. I like how they use actual footage of the arrests and public shit that happened. Keeps it grounded!

During the hurricane I put seasons 4-7 of Seinfeld on a memory stick and the wife and I binged as Houston drowned. fucking awesome as always.

so how did you fare? were you on 2nd floor? how are mosquitoes?

So glad you're ok.

Now I have friends in Florida to worry about. Christ, the nerves.

When in doubt bring out Seinfeld. Hope things are good, man

Mrs. Instigator and I rode it out with power and no flooding. I now live in the house I spent my teen years in, and it was built back when the area was a real far suburb of Houston, so the houses were built on higher ground and all elevated from the street level. The house has never ever flooded and for that I am lucky. My mother's place has roof damage and water damage.
My wife and I drove around when the rain finally stopped (8-10 inches a day for 4 days....) and we could not get more than a mile in any direction due to flood.
horrible. I have had a house flood before (early 2000's) and I know what Bytor is going through.. so demoralizing.

the Houston Police had to set up a makeshift precinct office due to the flooding and my wife read they had no food, water, toiletries, etc for these cops that had been working 20 hour shifts. we picked up 6 pizza pies and some drinks and took it to them. Turns out they had set up the "precinct" in an empty strip center. They were very grateful. One dude almost started crying..

BTW, the mosquitos are fucking HUNGRY and razor sharp.

damn, dude. so lucky you kept dry. yeah i remember your car getting flooded just a few years back and you bought a new one (was it a volks?). don't swamp it!

anyway so are you off work or back to work or what? this your first day internet?

and you mom doing ok? i remember a while ago she was not well

spray on the deet and avoid zika/west nile/whatever is out there

Mom is as OK as can be.

Went back to work yesterday. Normal commutes are double or triple the time. so many major roads and freeways still closed.

good to know!

and now back to our regular programming i guess? ha ha ha

===

watched both THE UNEARTHLY CHILD and THE DALEKS serials of the first season of doctor who with the old man in it.

unearthly child okay, already discussed, esablishes the characters fine.

the one about the daleks was at once exciting and very boring and disappointing. it's 7 episodes, but two of those are just fillers with people (the "thals") gesticulating in some wood/ some cave/getting eaten by monsters/falling into a hole/ like it's some sort of outdoor adventure. sure, it is and outdoor adventure now i guess, but i could skip right to the ending and nothing would be affected (just time saved).

next will be THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION. which follows chronologically. here's to them having trimmed the fat off it.

so.... yeah... looks like im gonna follow all 3 years of hartnell first ha ha ha ha. there is only one serial missing from the extant ones-- meaning netflix doesn't have the discs for THE WEB PLANET. whence the internet was invented. or something ha ha. yeah. seems out of print/unavailable but was once issued. i'll get there in due time...

have also alerts for THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN which seems unavailable as both stream and disc on my main sources. not about to go hunting for some grainy $250 vhs copy of it so i'll just keep waiting till it pops up

Good for you, man.

From memory it's one of the more watchable stories from the Hartnell era.


To each their own, I just hope you don't burn out on DW before getting to the actual good stuff.

Re: Quatermass, The Hammer film versions of Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass and the Pit should be easier to track down.They're both great Pit especially is one of my all-time favourite British horror films - despite arguably being more sf than horror. But who cares about its genre when you've got Barbara Shelley helping to save mankind in a red jumper and tartan skirt?

Dammit, you've mentioned Quartermass before. I've wanted to get into it, but simply haven't because I guess I'm too hung up on other shit.

Also, I feel like I'm not out of the loop with Doctor Who, because you guys are talking about shit I've never seen. So I'm sad.

one disc at a time from netflix will give you the chance to see them. i've been queueing up the discs in chronological order, and can send you the names.

it takes a bit of work to match the list of the serials with the available dvds from netflix, because there are serials missing (that were destroyed) and discs missing (that netflix doesn't have).

usualy 1 disc will contain a serial (or two). i've seen up to 7 episodes in one disc-- they're only 20-some minutes each so the whole story fits. so you can get one disc, watch a whole serial, return it, get the next for the following weekend, etc. takes some patience i guess ha ha ha, this archaeology business.

fyi i don't think demonyo has seen all the hartnells, as they're from before his time. this is just me being a maniac.

i don't think i will. at worst i might skip a dull episode or clear emails while things play.

at the end of the daleks, by the way (the dead planet, the thals, etc) the doctor launches on a little rant about "truth" and i felt a resonance with the early star treks. different characters sure but they both embody a certain idealism which while it may not be found on earth could be found in space-- or in a more advanced alien.

this was of course hilarious and ironic because the doctor earlier had lied to his companions about some shit. this first doctor was hilariously imperfect on the ethics department. very selfish too ha ha ha. but then he goes on about "truth" ha ha ha. wish i had memorized his lines cuz now i can't remember them. agh!


quatermass and the pit was available last year on amazon i think, and i missed it. but i want to get the first movie first. what is hammer film? should i google? hmmmmm [edit: the production company that made them? oh vs the contemporary one? i dont want the contemporary one/remake]

nice lady, that one. my favorite 60s sf star of course is raquel welch on fantastic voyage. which i can't find anywhere! gaaaaahhhhhh!

original dr who's "the edge of destruction" was fun and short and to the point (2 episodes). which was nice. first time i think we hear of the tardis having an intelligence of its own.

the doctor is such a stupid jerk though, ha ha ha! the humans are better.

next in line would be the lost marco polo episodes ("the roof of the world")

for obvious reason i'll be skipping to the next serial, "the keys of marinus". looks longer.

btw seems as if many of these are on youtube?

Ok, the Americans is just too goddamn good. It's simply one of the most intricately crafted shows I've ever seen. Nothing feels like a plot device, even though there are plenty of those. Everything feels so vital and crucial. Nothing feels like filler — not even the weird experimental moments like when they spend 5 minutes digging a hole — I'm sure some of it's filler, but it doesn't come across that way.

I can't believe this show has been losing Emmys to Game of Thrones. That blows my mind. Spectacle over substance, I guess. But the Americans is without a doubt one of the most important shows on television and also one of the best thrillers I've ever seen on television.

It may be the recency effect working its magic, but I think this show almost puts Breaking Bad to shame.

I found out it was developed by a former CIA agent, so that explains a lot of the uncanny believability of the show. Now they're starting to get into a time period that I'm actually old enough to remember a bit, and I really can't wait to see how it's all going to end.

5-star show. Applause. Excellence all around.

this past week more or less i've been chillin with old episodes of 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN (they're all on amazon).

i didn't remember it so well but i find myself laughing hard every time. i know it's a lot less iconic than seinfeld, which was its contemporary, but i find the characters tons more likeable, and in the end i laugh more, and more freely, with their absurdities.



it also helps that i find myself lost and disoriented by the cultural rituals of others so i empathize tons with the aliens i guess.

plus it often has a kind of 3 stooges aspect that i appreciate

i remember trying to watch seinfeld reruns last year and it was like a chore so i quit trying. truth is, i never liked jerry himself, or his standup. george was always hilarious and kramer too before we found out he was a racist and he ruined the memories. so i prefer curb your enthusiasm, in which larry is permanently the malconnected and neurotic outsider, and there's no jerry to kill the mood-- ha ha!

I need to re-watch 3rd Rock. That was a good show.

30 Rock was a great shooohhhhhwaitnevermind ;)

I FINISHED AMERICANS.

Or at least, I finished what's available. There's still one season coming. Can't wait.

Season 5 wasn't free to stream so I actually bought the goddamn thing. That's how into it I was/am.

Now there's a void.

I'm filling it with the EXCELLENT fourth season of Bojack Horseman on Netflix; an animated show about a neurotic talking horse that is more human than virtually anything else out there. Sign 'O the Times.

Also watching Judd Apatow's show LOVE on Netflix, and it's pretty good all far. Three episodes in and it's better than any of his later movies by far. Hope it holds up.


EVERYONE WATCH BOJACK HORSEMAN. You will not regret it.

i love bojack. just waiting for the right season.