3123 replies to this topic

[Quint]

Twin Peaks is frequently kitsch; the visuals are by far the weakest element of the production. That show is a great, no, the perfect example of what makes superior tv: characters & writing. That's isn't to say it isn't well filmed - because it is. But people certainly don't remember Twin Peaks for its photography.

Speaking of which, I'm up to the penultimate episode! It finally picked up again last episode, after completely nose-diving into rambling soap opera territory for about four episodes. Almost broke it it did. But everything before is magic. About twenty five none-stop episodes of masterful tv heaven.

[KK.]

If I'm going to invest my precious evening time into a show which is based around an overarching storyline, I expect a resolution at the end of it; I want the writers vision to come to full fruition. I don't care how good it is - it's not worth it if halfway through the door is suddenly slammed shut.

There's story to Community, and the show is back from its hiatus, so I don't think the problem applies.

I'm rewatching the Dungeons and Dragons episode. I love the parody here! And the LOTR style music is pretty awesome too!

[alicebrallice]

Freaks and Geeks

don't know if it ever aired in sweden (probably would've been too young to watch it anyway). great cast, surprisingly addictive and the ending was absolutely brilliant.


love this scene!

[Alexcremers]

Story isn't important. it's the way it's the story is told, the visuals.

You mean 'style'. Absolutely, it's very important. Style brings home, conveys and communicates the content. If it's all about the story then why bother? Of course, the story is usually responsible for the foundation and the basic structure, so that's important as well, but story means nothing without great artistic vision. In the end, all the elements must work in a complementary manner.


Alex

[Chaac]

But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

[Richard Penna]

If it gets a proper ending I'll watch it. I won't waste my time with shows that are abruptly cut short due to falling ratings etc. None of those Heroes, Jericho time-wasters.

The first season of Jericho was great TV. It ends on a massive cliffhanger, but by that point all of the wonderful character stuff had been told, and it came down to inter-town rivalry. It's definitely worth watching if you want to go out on a high.

Homeland is continuing to impress - we have four episodes left of season 1, and there are so many cliches that the writers are avoiding, which gives the whole thing a much more believable feeling. The characters are also memorable and I don't think there's a bad performance anywhere.

[Quint]

But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

I'm not sure Alex realised Steef was being wry in his replies to me

If it gets a proper ending I'll watch it. I won't waste my time with shows that are abruptly cut short due to falling ratings etc. None of those Heroes, Jericho time-wasters.

The first season of Jericho was great TV. It ends on a massive cliffhanger, but by that point all of the wonderful character stuff had been told, and it came down to inter-town rivalry. It's definitely worth watching if you want to go out on a high.

It's on Netflix actually. After watching Fire Walk With Me I may give it another go (I watched the pilot at the time).

[Joey]

The Walking Dead finale was gory, exicting, action packed, frustrating.

[Wojo]

I missed the first fifteen minutes because I muted the tube to answer an important call. By the time we catch up with Rick to see if this new swordsperson is worth all the fuss, an entire baseball season will have come and gone, summer will be history, and we will probably be stuck in another war.

Season 3 can take its sweet time getting here.

[Alexcremers]

But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

Yes, but even though I didn't really exclude it, it is often less attributed to the filmmaker.

[Chaac]

But the story is "artistic vision" as well.

Yes, but even though I didn't really exclude it, it is often less attributed to the filmmaker.

Well that always depends. The thing with filmmaking is that it's teamwork.

[Alexcremers]

Ideally, it's the director who is artistically in charge. You can easily recognize Scott's artistic vision in Alien and Blade Runner, two films made in two different countries and by two different teams. You can see he had a saying about each little detail on the screen.

[Chaac]

Yeah of course. He also decides on aspects of the story, in a similar fashion to Spielberg: wants this and this, has a script written, dislikes this or that and wants to add this or that, has another draft done, and so on.

Personally I appreciate filmmakers that write and direct their films. It requires quite a wide variety of skills to do that.

[Alexcremers]

Spielberg doesn't write anymore, am I right? I got the impression that he surrounded himself with a team where each team member is granted complete artistic freedom. He's no longer a control freak who lives, eats and breathes movies that he once was. Kaminski gets to decide how he's gonna shoot each movie. If Williams feels a certain film needs a disco score, then a disco score it will be. And so on ... Spielberg is the director of a well-oiled, self-sustaining machine who forgets about movies the moment he gets home. I miss the ol' fire of the young, wild and eager filmmaker.


Alex

[Quint]

You haven't seen Tintin.

[Stefancos]

It does not seem like an Alexcremers film.

[Quint]

It isn't.

[Alexcremers]

Then this only proves my point.

[Quint]

No it doesn't.

[Alexcremers]

Fanboy.

[Quint]

1941, Always, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones 4 are shit btw.

[Alexcremers]

Good! Now all you have to do to prove you're not a archetypical JWfan member is to denounce Jurassic Park ...

[Quint]

This is like that time when you were trying to tell me how good A Serious Man was without actually seeing it.

[Quint]

My thoughts on Twin Peaks:

Finally wrapped up this phase with the movie, Fire Walk With Me. It was a mostly disappointing waste of its two hour runtime - why didn't Lynch use his good fortune to be permitted a follow up movie to tie up the loose ends of the series instead of giving us a prequel we didn't need? It wasn't a truly bad movie, but it wasn't particularly necessary, either. Appetite was not sated.

But the Twin Peaks show itself is sublime. At a time when Dallas and Dynasty were the peak (easy pun) of conventional serial entertainment in the States, Peaks came along, pulled the rug from under their feet and paved the way for a new wave of rich and stupendously original American tv mini-series. That was twenty years ago, and it hasn't aged a day. Better late than never, as they say.

The characters, ah the characters; I've never known a show to feature such a diverse cast of eclectic and deliously written personalities - it would be so easy to talk about Kyle Maclachlan's universally beloved Agent Cooper, with his endless quirks and effortless commitment to his duty, his unwavering heroism in the face of fear of failure - since he is absolutely just the tip of the iceberg. In the entire thirty two episodes of its run, I can't think of a single character who wasn't at some point given something to do, who wasn't fleshed out, a backstory revealed - that they managed to be intriguing subplots of their own is clearly part of the shows enduring appeal - there's so much there to get your teeth into, and to return to. One of the best buddy duos in either tv or film are found in Cooper and Sheriff Truman, Robocop's Bob Morton as a sociopathic FBI forensic genius (with a heart of gold), Sherilyn Fenn's über-sexpot daughter (WHAT happened to her?) of season one's villain - rich would-be megalomaniac Ben Horne in his pined interior hotel, Piper Laurie's devious bitch Catherine Martell, her poor estranged husband (who right at the beginning found The Body "wrapped in plastic"), the gormlessly likeable police deputy and his slightly less daft receptionist girlfriend, the list truly does go on and on; all gifted some beautifully observed mood music in the form of lazy jazz and eerie synth - the soundtrack often as addictive as meth and as under-your-skin disturbing as only the very best soundscapes can be. As with the numerous and unique sets which soon become places of dreamy viewer comfort, it's the perfect marriage of music, characters and place - to the point that they become inseparable. Yeah, you can keep your bland Lost line-up, thanks.

And it's all so cheesy, so kitsch, so hilarious, so dark. At times frightening - who killed Laura Palmer indeed? Are they even human? With a cast of potential suspects as large as this, it's little wonder audiences were gripped to their boxes back in the day - I watched episodes back-to-back in my haste to get to the reveal to end all reveals. Famously (as it turns out), the answer came along a bit too soon - under the pressure of idiot execs who were worried about ratings - just a few episodes into the final second season the Laura Palmer case is all but wrapped up, fantastically well I might add - some of the greatest scenes I've ever had the pleasure to watch in all of tv, but from there onwards the writers really struggle to keep up the barnstorming momentum of what went before. Subplots get lazy and dreadfully contrived (and boring), worse still - a major new plot is introduced which takes up a lot of show time but in the end goes absolutely nowhere! Fuck you - gimme back my Twin Peaks! There's still so much story left from the Laura Palmer case and they waste everybodys time with this? Her pretty face over the end credits even becomes irrelevent and strangely awkward - the story has largely moved on from her and yet here she is again with her theme playing as the credits roll. Why? A new villain is introduced, or should I say, the Joker descends onto the town to reap havock from his hut in the woods. There are still moments here and there that are utterly worthwhile and important, but in general the overriding feeling is one of annoyance - to the point you start to wonder why you're still even watching. And then it gets good again. Ooo yes. Lynch returns to the helm, and tv history is made.

The last couple of episodes are absolute gold. The finale is, at the very least, subliminally known to almost everyone over the age of thirty. Lynch mounts a scarlet red climax so nightmarish and thoroughly weird (yet somehow decipherable) that I fall to my knees and bow down to the man in awe. The nonsense we endured before it is instantly forgiven; Twin Peaks may have been sadly cut short by stupid tv execs, but boy did we get an ending. I can understand how many must have hated it, felt robbed when it first aired, but as a coda it was just way, way ahead of time. Audiences may well have congratulated themselves for feeling intelligent enough to enjoy a serial which wasn't as straightforward and literal as Dallas back then, but were suddenly thrown into disarray by what Lynch was asking of them as the credits rolled. It would happen again some years later, with The Sopranos.

I've watched it all now, but the fascination continues. I must have spent nearly as much time googling the show, it's characters, the actors, the creators, the lore, as I have watching it. The depth is there, it supports further analyses and study. The entertainment value is so supreme I'm compelled to start again from the beginning.

[crocodile]

It is a fantastic series and hold up really well. Even the dated elements add up to its charm and quirkiness.

Karol

[Quint]

For me they almost make it

[Chaac]

I'm seeing it, let's see if it's on the library. Last time I went there I found I, Claudius.

Spielberg doesn't write anymore, am I right? I got the impression that he surrounded himself with a team where each team member is granted complete artistic freedom. He's no longer a control freak who lives, eats and breathes movies that he once was. Kaminski gets to decide how he's gonna shoot each movie. If Williams feels a certain film needs a disco score, then a disco score it will be. And so on ... Spielberg is the director of a well-oiled, self-sustaining machine who forgets about movies the moment he gets home. I miss the ol' fire of the young, wild and eager filmmaker.

Well, all you have to do is to see Tintin. He decided what he was going to use from the books, assembled the story, supervised the script, supervised the designs, shot a big deal of it himself... and Kaminski wasn't there either.

And one of these days, we'll talk about War of the Worlds...

[Jason LeBlanc]

The Adventures of Tintin is the most Spielbergian movie since 1993

[Quint]

Indeed.

[Stefancos]

It depends on ones definition of Spielbergian, i guess...

[Quint]

Can anyone here recommend Fringe? It looks like it could walk a fine line between intrigue and bullshit. I don't want to waste my time if it frequently veers too closely to the latter.

[Stefancos]

Looks like a typical JJ Abrams show. High production values, yet somehow always less good then you think it's gonna be.

All talk and no trousers.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Can anyone here recommend Fringe? It looks like it could walk a fine line between intrigue and bullshit. I don't want to waste my time if it frequently veers too closely to the latter.

It's a good show, but it takes a little while to get there. The majority of the first season is one-off "monster of the week" type episodes. Then the season 1 finale (actually it could have been the episode before as well) introduce a major plot element that defines the show for much of the second and third seasons. Season 3 ends with another big game changer and season 4 has been fairly different from what came before, while still being very fresh and exciting too.

So yea I recommend it, but don't give up if the first handful of episodes don't do much for you. Like most shows, it takes a little bit to find its groove.

Also I didn't mention it yet but the score by Tilton and Seiter (with Giacchino in some early episodes) and the performance by John Noble are really top notch. Also Anna Torv as the main character didn't impress me much at first but as the show goes on she gets REALLY good especially when she gets to play.... an interesting character. Good stuff.

[Richard]

Lately, I've been getting into "The Good Wife". It's snappy, sassy, stylish, and intelligent...just like me!

Does anyone else watch this show?

[Stefancos]

I watched one episode, hoping it was porn...

[Pasi Tiitinen]

I hate television. Only series i have watched in ten years was LOST.It was brilliant.

My lovely Mrs. watches a lot television and asks me time to time me to join her in the sofa.
Of course I do(in a hope to have some sex) but I can't stand those programs, live shows copied from US or UK, most
of all I hate those live audiences, they even copied that annoying cheering/shrieking from america. But I like sex.

[Alexcremers]

And one of these days, we'll talk about War of the Worlds...

Not with me.

[Joey]

poor AMC, after having 9 million viewers for the Walking Dead next week they'll likely have less than 3 for TV's most overrated bore fest.

[Quint]

That's because there are a lot more thick-as-pig-shit people watching tv than there are those with taste.

Now that The Walking Dead has finished, the vast majority of its audience will move onto American Idle.

[Joey]

I tend to believe it is because people really don't give shit about smoking advertisers and their whorish ways. It's not must see tv.

Big Bang is the first show to beat American Idol head to head. And bashing American Idol is pointless, people find the contest interesting, it doesn't make them stupid because they do.