TV Snark: Stud Book
Everything behind a cut for massive spoilers on a bunch of stuff. I think it's kind of artificial to consider things spoilers a decade after original airing, but OTOH it's a hoot on The AV Club to watch newbies trying to guess what's going to happen on, say, BtVS.
I thought that for what it is (zero-budget monster movie) "Cloverfield" was pretty good, and as an example of NYC whumpage I found it much scarier and more moving than The Avengers, at what? one-one thousandth of the cost? My subject heading comes from the spot-on Netflix characterization as "Blair Witch Project Meets Godzilla," so if you think you would watch that, you would watch this. Warning for people who get headaches from intentional shaky hand-held camera work though.
As Shaw said, if you have a skeleton in the family closet you might as well make it dance, so I thought it was an interesting acceptance of "Hey, I bet our footage is going to look crappy, so let's make that a feature". I was going to post about Russell T. Davies' determinedly sordid 1920s Mancunian soaper "The Grand" and never got around to it. There's one episode where until near the end it's impossible to tell if Something Unusual Is Going On or Rusty just couldn't figure out how to break the story. It pays off at the end, but only after a daring flirtation with convincing the audience of the writer's total ineptitude.
And, in the first episode, when Susan Hampshire, she of the million Heritage corset shows turns up, I said, "I know this one! The hotel's in financial trouble and she's going to buy it!" And, in the last episode, it turns out that she does, although in this one she is *not* playing Lady Glencora's daughter.
Oddly for me summer is when I have the heaviest workload, so my normally low standards are relaxed even further. I am not a full-scale Rennerphile, but considering that nine of the ten episodes (WTF, Netflix?) of "The Unusuals" are on Watch Now, I've watched two episodes and obtained the second disk of the series so I can eventually watch #10.
I liked the first two episodes although, since synchronistically The AV Club is reviewing "Police Squad" "The Unusuals" definitely races as By HLOTS Out of Police Squad. It takes place at a Manic Pixie Copshop where the Quirk level may eventually cause me to stop watching before the end. I suspect the voiceovers will fade, like the black-comedy bits and fake ads in S1 of Six Feet Under. Like Damages it has real!New York!exteriors (Cloverfield snatched a few shots for which you KNOW they didn't have permits, but the subway and Bloomingdale's sets aren't very convincing.)
So if you hate Renner don't watch this because there's a LOT of Renner about, but I'm enjoying watching the cast. Although at the end of Episode 2 there's an event that is a Big Deal more if you're a TV watcher who says "OK, I know this one!" than if you're actually a character in the show.
By the way, Netflix has, of all things, 10 episodes of "The Black Donnellys", a series which was canceled after either two or three episodes. Which I actually watched. And I think this was before I was even in fandom so I didn't have the vocabulary to say "Boy, is this fanservice for the brocest shippers or what?"
The release of non-burned-off episodes gives me hope of eventually being able to see the remaining three episodes of "The Playboy Club".
I thought that for what it is (zero-budget monster movie) "Cloverfield" was pretty good, and as an example of NYC whumpage I found it much scarier and more moving than The Avengers, at what? one-one thousandth of the cost? My subject heading comes from the spot-on Netflix characterization as "Blair Witch Project Meets Godzilla," so if you think you would watch that, you would watch this. Warning for people who get headaches from intentional shaky hand-held camera work though.
As Shaw said, if you have a skeleton in the family closet you might as well make it dance, so I thought it was an interesting acceptance of "Hey, I bet our footage is going to look crappy, so let's make that a feature". I was going to post about Russell T. Davies' determinedly sordid 1920s Mancunian soaper "The Grand" and never got around to it. There's one episode where until near the end it's impossible to tell if Something Unusual Is Going On or Rusty just couldn't figure out how to break the story. It pays off at the end, but only after a daring flirtation with convincing the audience of the writer's total ineptitude.
And, in the first episode, when Susan Hampshire, she of the million Heritage corset shows turns up, I said, "I know this one! The hotel's in financial trouble and she's going to buy it!" And, in the last episode, it turns out that she does, although in this one she is *not* playing Lady Glencora's daughter.
Oddly for me summer is when I have the heaviest workload, so my normally low standards are relaxed even further. I am not a full-scale Rennerphile, but considering that nine of the ten episodes (WTF, Netflix?) of "The Unusuals" are on Watch Now, I've watched two episodes and obtained the second disk of the series so I can eventually watch #10.
I liked the first two episodes although, since synchronistically The AV Club is reviewing "Police Squad" "The Unusuals" definitely races as By HLOTS Out of Police Squad. It takes place at a Manic Pixie Copshop where the Quirk level may eventually cause me to stop watching before the end. I suspect the voiceovers will fade, like the black-comedy bits and fake ads in S1 of Six Feet Under. Like Damages it has real!New York!exteriors (Cloverfield snatched a few shots for which you KNOW they didn't have permits, but the subway and Bloomingdale's sets aren't very convincing.)
So if you hate Renner don't watch this because there's a LOT of Renner about, but I'm enjoying watching the cast. Although at the end of Episode 2 there's an event that is a Big Deal more if you're a TV watcher who says "OK, I know this one!" than if you're actually a character in the show.
By the way, Netflix has, of all things, 10 episodes of "The Black Donnellys", a series which was canceled after either two or three episodes. Which I actually watched. And I think this was before I was even in fandom so I didn't have the vocabulary to say "Boy, is this fanservice for the brocest shippers or what?"
The release of non-burned-off episodes gives me hope of eventually being able to see the remaining three episodes of "The Playboy Club".