From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
On 10/21/2026 5:59 AM, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:
On 10/21/2026 7:46 PM, The True Melissa wrote:
I think that's why (some) young people are rejecting current
culture and diving into older culture. Unlike today's "assume a
second screen" pablum, it rewards us for the time we invest.
Yes, way too many /current/ Netflix shows are made as background noise
for people doing other things. In my opinion, it's not healthy to watch
any of it like regular TV. One obvious shortcut, if you care about a
some of it, is to watch the first and last episode, and skip the rest.
Hopefully the story will be coherent then.
Best wishes, and happy TV.
I haven't posted in a while. This is a catch-up of a some random stuff
I watched over the past couple of weeks.
I watched a bunch of ghost/haunted house movies including:
House I-IV (4K disc) I watched the 1985 movie and the three sequels.
This was a 4K box set I had to import. The highlight for me was "House
III" and "House IV" since I had never seen either before, although I had
seen clips from House IV.
House III was bad. It had *nothing* to do with the franchise, although
the characters lived in houses, so there was that. The movie starred
Lance Henriksen as a cop who watches a serial killer die in the electric
chair only for the killer to come back as an evil ghost that terrorists
him and his family. I assure you, my description is actually far closer
to the original "House" than anything that happens in this movie. Much
like "Troll 2" this appears to have been an unrelated movie that they
just slapped a sequel name on it to sale tickets.
House IV first let me say this so called 4K disc looked like washed out
VHS. Now that that's out the way. The plot of this one saw the return
of William Katt as Roger Cobb, although that's about the name is the
only thing this movie has connecting it to the first one. This Roger
Cobb comes off as a completely different character with a different
backstory, and the first movie is not referenced at all. They quickly
kill off Katt and focus on his widow who is being terrorized by her brother-in-law, that wants the house for himself, so he can pay off
debts. And I guess the House is haunted too or whatever. Yeah, stuff
happens which is about the best compliment I can give this mess of a
movie. Did I mention they killed off Katt? What were they thinking?!?
Cupertino (CBS) This is a new lawyer show on CBS. I have really been
enjoying it. It stars Mike Colter as a Silicon Valley corporate
attorney who gets cheated out of his partnership and along with another attorney from the same firm and a receptionist starts his own scrappy
firm that takes the unwinnable big tech cases that other firms are too intimidated to take. It has a lot of quirky humor and reminds me a lot
of "Boston Legal."
Vision Quest (Disney+) - I also caught the last two episodes Tuesday
night. This is the concluding series in the "WandaVision" trilogy of
series. It follows a rebuilt Vision who has Tony Stark's AIs living in
his head, including James Spader as Ultron. Vision is trying to hide
out until he has a contract put on him and later discovers he may have
two kids out in the world. The highlight of the show is Spader's
Ultron. Spader steals every scene he's in! He is basically playing
Raymond Reddington, if Reddington was forced to be Hannibal Lecter and
give out not so fatherly advice. The first two episodes were OK, but
the last two really were great. I especially liked the "exorcism"
scene, "The power of Code compels you!"
Wildwoods (theatrical) I caught an early screening of the latest stop
motion film from Laika ("Coraline" and "Kubo and the Two Strings"). The
plot is simple enough, borrowing from "Labyrinth," a teenage girl's baby brother is kidnapped and taken to a fantasy world and she must travel
there to rescue him. The reviews online have been saying that the movie
is a masterpiece and on level with Lord of the Rings. I went in with
high expectations, and they were met. The movie is absolutely as good
as the reviews say it is, and in my opinion, this is a contender for
best picture. It took 16 years from announcement to get this on screen,
and it was worth the wait. The attention to detail and scope of this
movie shows. At 131 minutes, I think this might be the longest stop
motion film ever, but it was never boring and there is a battle sequence
in this that holds up to anything in live action. This movie was
surprisingly dark; I was not expecting the level of deaths and violence
in this movie. Anyway, if you are a fan of Laika's earlier films or
fantasy in general, this is an absolutely must watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POneS8h1jyU&t=3s
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