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Post by The Herald Erjen on May 20, 2019 17:33:12 GMT
I'm not completely certain, but I think Storm of the Century was the last TV miniseries I watched. I missed it when it was first run but caught it on rerun in the early 2000's. Then my TV service lapsed in late 2006 and I never renewed it.
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Post by hi224 on Jun 2, 2019 7:50:31 GMT
In April I celebrated the 35th Anniversary of GEORGE WASHINGTON (1984) Based on James Thomas Flexner's 4-volume Biography series, this mini-series covers the man from his relationship with the Fairfax family (falling in love with his best friend's wife), the French and Indian War, his peaceful life as a plantation farmer, and then the Revolutionary war. Starring Barry Bostwick, Patty Duke Astin, David Dukes, Jaclyn Smith, and a cast including James Mason, Trevor Howard, Lloyd Bridges, Jose Ferrer, Rosemary Murphy, and Robert Stack (Viggo Mortensen and Kelsey Grammer have early career cameos) The 30th Anniversary of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1989), starring Pierce Bronsan, Eric Idle, Julia Nickson, and Peter Ustinov, with a cast including Christopher Lee, Simon Ward, Lee Remick, Patrick Macnee, John Hillerman, Anna Massey, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, Roddy MacDowall, John Mills and Robert Morley (the latter two were in the 1956 film version). Both these series were directed by Buzz Kulik. nice.
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Post by claudius on Jun 2, 2019 18:40:07 GMT
This May I celebrated: The 35th Anniversary of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1984). Based loosely on the novel, covers Pagan cults, Christian persecution, Gladiator Games, capped with Vesuvius exploding. Starring Nicholas Clay, Olivia Hussey, Franco Nero, Linda Purl, Duncan Regher, with a cast including Lesley Anne-Down, Ned Beatty, Ernest Borgnine, Soibhan McKenna, Brian Blessed, Anthony Quayle, and Laurence Olivier. The 30th Anniversary of WAR & REMEMBRANCE: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1989) The conclusion chapters of Dan Curtis' expensive adaptation of Herman Wouk's World War II Novel (a sequel to his THE WINDS OF WAR, which dealt with the War in Europe to Pearl Harbor). Filmed at the same time, W & R was split into two broadcasts (The first part aired in November of 1988). The latter covers the remainder of the war from mid-1943 to August 1945, mainly focusing on Europe (with a grisly- for ABC Television standards at the time- portrait of an Auschwitz Gas Chamber in operation). Starring Robert Mitchum, Victoria Tenannt, Jane Seymour, Hart Bochner, John Gielgud, with a cast including Topol, Sharon Stone, Jeremy Kemp, Robert Stephens, E.G. Marshall, Ralph Bellamy, Robert Hardy, and Steven Berkoff. The 35th Anniversary of THE FIRST OLYMPICS: 1896 ATHENS (1984), covering the historic games through its American, Greek, and Australian contestants. Starring David Ogden Stiers, Hunt Block, Benedict Taylor, David Caruso, Alex Hyde-White, Nicos Ziagos, with a cast including Louis Jourdan, Gayle Hunnicut, Honor Blackman, Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, and Angela Lansbury.
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TheSowIsMine
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Post by TheSowIsMine on Jun 8, 2019 21:24:03 GMT
Chernobyl(2019), very good. One of the best Ive seen.
And I was feeling very nostalgic today and watched Return to Eden(1983)
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Post by forca84 on Jun 28, 2019 0:54:53 GMT
Also "Chernobyl". And "Les Miserables" (2018). Thought both were well done.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jul 3, 2019 10:58:15 GMT
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on DVD. I can see what others were saying about this mini-series feeling like it was trying hard to recapture the ‘essence’ of the show...and not entirely succeeding. It felt like they wanted to have the show’s humour, but were trying too hard at times and thus it didn’t quite work. Honestly, considering I only just finished it with the family member of mine that I watched the complete series box set with, I don’t really remember that much of this mini-series (at least not the first two episodes/’seasons’ – which were Winter and Spring). Things I do recall from those first two episodes: Paris was still as annoying as all get-out. And I found it kind of amusing that they couldn’t get back Chad Michael Murray to play Tristan (the guy from Season 1 who took Rory repeatedly saying ‘no’ to mean ‘yes’). HirundoRustica , you must’ve been so very disappointed. They seemed to get pretty much everyone else back, though. I guess it was inevitable that they were going to kill off Lorelai’s father, Richard, since the actor who portrayed him (Edward Herrmann) had passed away in real life. And although Richard's passing would have naturally affected his wife, Emily once again proved to be so self-centred that all the grieving over him became about her. Yes, Lorelai got drunk and made a mistake when she was supposed to be telling a nice story about her father with his friends (though she eventually did get there in the end/final episode - Fall), but she knew she messed up and once again Emily flew off the handle. She just goes SO over-the-top in regards to everything Lorelai does/says all the time. There was only a very brief period where it seemed they got along and that was during their therapy session (which, naturally, was mostly a disaster) when they were laughing together over some joke. That didn’t last long, though. No matter what Lorelai did to try and make therapy work, Emily couldn’t help but complain. Honestly, most of the mini-series is a blur to me. Though I remember the last two episodes/’seasons' (Summer and Fall) slightly better, as they’re fresher in my memory. The best part of the ‘Summer’ episode was the delightful surprise of seeing Sutton Foster appear (along with Christian Borle, who I knew from the short-lived TV series Smash, along with one or two other things I’d seen him in). I know Sutton Foster mainly from the TV series I’ve been watching each season of on DVD as they got released called Younger. I didn’t know she was going to be guest-starring in this, though considering they needed Broadway quality people to perform the musical that was put on in the episode, it makes sense they’d get her since she *is* a Broadway star. And speaking of that musical – what an amusingly weird musical that was. I wish I could find the ‘Love Revolution’ number somewhere to include a clip of here. Both Sutton and Christian certainly committed fully to the weirdness. They were delightful (as was watching Lorelai’s disgusted reactions to it all and her constantly writing down all the ‘problems’ with it). Out of all of Rory’s love interests, I did think Logan ended up being the most suitable for her. Dean was too needy/possessive, while Jess was too mopey/rude. Logan was a jerk at times, but on the whole he felt as though he was the best one who could ‘keep up’ with Rory. Too bad they seemed to end it. But, hey, at least they got to have this sequence before it was all over (and I recognised the version of the song used here from the movie Across the Universe). I guess with Jess returning, a lot of his fans hoped he was going to end up with Rory. I personally was just amused to see Jared Padalecki return as Dean and looking more like I’m used to seeing him looking (being that I’ve watched him in the TV series Supernatural for what seems like forever and it’d been weird for me seeing him look so young in the early seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD). Despite all the returning actors/characters and whatnot, all the really mattered to me was the end where Lorelai and Luke FINALLY got hitched. It certainly looked nice. I’m glad that for once they put what they wanted to do *ahead* of the townspeople. I’m sure those needy/possessive/stalkerish townspeople would’ve complained once they found out about the secret wedding...but who cares? They always seemed so annoyingly ‘entitled’ to me, acting as if Lorelai/Rory/Luke owed them anything. They could’ve easily ended the show there^...but, no, they had to end on a ‘cliffhanger’ of sorts with Rory confessing to Lorelai that she was pregnant. Obviously it was an attempt to ‘come full circle’ (considering Lorelai got pregnant and ended up raising Rory by herself). The difference is Lorelai didn’t have all the people who could help her out that Rory will have. Still, ending on the ‘cliffhanger’ of who the father was just seemed purposely mean (though, I’m pretty sure it would’ve had to have been Logan. Surely it wasn't Jess...as much as his fans would’ve liked it to be. And I don’t think it was that poor boyfriend she kept forgetting either). Anyway, I’m more or less fine with this being the end. As far as crappy revivals of shows go, this wasn’t the worst ( Heroes Reborn probably takes that spot for me). It still wasn’t great, but it could’ve been even worse. Faint praise, I know, but there you go. Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel were what got me through, as their mother/daughter/best friend chemistry was undeniably the main strength of the TV series and, to a lesser extent, this TV mini-series revival. So long, Gilmore Girls. Thanks everyone who has replied to this thread.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2019 4:54:58 GMT
I'm not completely certain, but I think Storm of the Century was the last TV miniseries I watched. I missed it when it was first run but caught it on rerun in the early 2000's. Then my TV service lapsed in late 2006 and I never renewed it. I watched that a few years ago. Found it in Walmart dvd bin. Was pretty good.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 3, 2019 8:48:56 GMT
Well, I finally finished The Lizzie Borden Chronicles mini-series, mszanadu (I actually finished it sooner than I thought I would, as I’d lost count of how many episodes I’d watched and thought there were more to go...but nope). So, as promised, here are my thoughts on it. **spoilers below** What can I say? They certainly went ‘all-in’ with the craziness. I’d watched the TV movie prior to these 8 episodes a while ago and wasn’t even sure what point in time this was supposed to be taking place, as I thought Lizzie’s sister (Emma) didn’t want to have anything to do with Lizzie after she confessed to their parents’ murder. So I was confused when it seemed like she’d either forgotten that or gotten past it. Anyway, Christina Ricci was the best thing about the show, I thought. She was just perfect as Lizzie, who could sound all sweet and nice, but then turn on a dime and she would let her ‘crazy eyes’ take over. I also loved when they let her show some humour (albeit ‘dark’ humour). Whenever someone would dismiss her as ‘just a woman’ and she’d make some remark that’d let you know that person wasn’t long for this world. It was very satisfying seeing all those who underestimated Lizzie pay the price for it. And despite her murdering people left and right, she showed that she cared about a poor mistreated little dog (though apparently didn’t feel the same way about horses, given the story we heard about what she did to a woman who loved her horse). Siringo: “She killed three husbands and the family dog.” Lizzie: “That poor dog.” That^ was my first thought too, and so that made me like Lizzie. And just as well I *did* like her character, as she basically offed most of the show's castmembers, it seemed. I was a bit sad to see Jessy Schram’s character get offed just as she was getting interesting (I recognised the actress from things like Once Upon A Time and Season 2 of Veronica Mars), but it eventually became clear that no one was safe besides Lizzie herself. It was almost funny that two episodes from the end of the series, Lizzie had managed to off enough people that she had to change location/her identity – there was just no one left worth killing in her town. Not even Harper's Island (a mini series I saw ages ago) offed TWO people every episode. I think it may have offed one person per episode and then near the end started to ramp things up. With this show, however, Lizzie was offing at least two people per episode...no wonder hardly anyone was left by the end. Speaking of, it did feel as those the last two episodes were a bit ‘tacked on’, but that was okay, as it allowed for an all-out killathon in the final (I was surprised to see Michelle Fairley/Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones show up. She seemed like she might’ve been a half-decent adversary for Lizzie). I guess the ending we got was the best possible option, with Emma leaving Lizzie behind after saying she’d go with her – it was either going to end like that or end with one (or both) of them dead (and I doubted the writers would go there). Though Emma really shouldn't have wasted time hanging around for Lizzie to see, she should've been hightailing it out of there ASAP, as not even being sent off on a boat would keep Lizzie from tracking her sister down. I wasn’t fond of the soundtrack used (I didn't like it in the TV movie, and I didn't like it here either). It just felt very 'out-of-place', I thought. However, it was clear this show wasn’t to be taken too ‘seriously’, so I guess they thought they could get away with the modern soundtrack. I also got a bit sick of them constantly flashing back to Lizzie’s murder of her parents from the TV movie. I could only take seeing her axe her father in the face so many times. I’m not sure how much longer the show could’ve run for if it hadn’t been cancelled, as it was lucky for Lizzie she’d gotten away with so much killing for so long already. It may have been pushing things if she kept up the body count in every new place she went without ever getting caught. Still, this isn’t the first show I’ve watched that’s been pretty ‘nuts’. Salem was another show that seemed to go ‘all-out’ with the violence at times and got pretty crazy. It was enjoyable, though. Thanks for recommending I check out this TV mini-series, mszanadu. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I may have never seen it.
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Post by mszanadu on Sept 4, 2019 1:47:58 GMT
Well, I finally finished The Lizzie Borden Chronicles mini-series, mszanadu (I actually finished it sooner than I thought I would, as I’d lost count of how many episodes I’d watched and thought there were more to go...but nope). So, as promised, here are my thoughts on it. **spoilers below** What can I say? They certainly went ‘all-in’ with the craziness. I’d watched the TV movie prior to these 8 episodes a while ago and wasn’t even sure what point in time this was supposed to be taking place, as I thought Lizzie’s sister (Emma) didn’t want to have anything to do with Lizzie after she confessed to their parents’ murder. So I was confused when it seemed like she’d either forgotten that or gotten past it. Anyway, Christina Ricci was the best thing about the show, I thought. She was just perfect as Lizzie, who could sound all sweet and nice, but then turn on a dime and she would let her ‘crazy eyes’ take over. I also loved when they let her show some humour (albeit ‘dark’ humour). Whenever someone would dismiss her as ‘just a woman’ and she’d make some remark that’d let you know that person wasn’t long for this world. It was very satisfying seeing all those who underestimated Lizzie pay the price for it. And despite her murdering people left and right, she showed that she cared about a poor mistreated little dog (though apparently didn’t feel the same way about horses, given the story we heard about what she did to a woman who loved her horse). Siringo: “She killed three husbands and the family dog.” Lizzie: “That poor dog.” That^ was my first thought too, and so that made me like Lizzie. And just as well I *did* like her character, as she basically offed most of the show's castmembers, it seemed. I was a bit sad to see Jessy Schram’s character get offed just as she was getting interesting (I recognised the actress from things like Once Upon A Time and Season 2 of Veronica Mars), but it eventually became clear that no one was safe besides Lizzie herself. It was almost funny that two episodes from the end of the series, Lizzie had managed to off enough people that she had to change location/her identity – there was just no one left worth killing in her town. Not even Harper's Island (a mini series I saw ages ago) offed TWO people every episode. I think it may have offed one person per episode and then near the end started to ramp things up. With this show, however, Lizzie was offing at least two people per episode...no wonder hardly anyone was left by the end. Speaking of, it did feel as those the last two episodes were a bit ‘tacked on’, but that was okay, as it allowed for an all-out killathon in the final (I was surprised to see Michelle Fairley/Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones show up. She seemed like she might’ve been a half-decent adversary for Lizzie). I guess the ending we got was the best possible option, with Emma leaving Lizzie behind after saying she’d go with her – it was either going to end like that or end with one (or both) of them dead (and I doubted the writers would go there). Though Emma really shouldn't have wasted time hanging around for Lizzie to see, she should've been hightailing it out of there ASAP, as not even being sent off on a boat would keep Lizzie from tracking her sister down. I wasn’t fond of the soundtrack used (I didn't like it in the TV movie, and I didn't like it here either). It just felt very 'out-of-place', I thought. However, it was clear this show wasn’t to be taken too ‘seriously’, so I guess they thought they could get away with the modern soundtrack. I also got a bit sick of them constantly flashing back to Lizzie’s murder of her parents from the TV movie. I could only take seeing her axe her father in the face so many times. I’m not sure how much longer the show could’ve run for if it hadn’t been cancelled, as it was lucky for Lizzie she’d gotten away with so much killing for so long already. It may have been pushing things if she kept up the body count in every new place she went without ever getting caught. Still, this isn’t the first show I’ve watched that’s been pretty ‘nuts’. Salem was another show that seemed to go ‘all-out’ with the violence at times and got pretty crazy. It was enjoyable, though. Thanks for recommending I check out this TV mini-series, mszanadu. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I may have never seen it.
You're most welcome Chalice_Of_Evil !
This is an excellent and spot on review of yours here
and so glad you enjoyed this somewhat new to us show as well .
Thanks so much for sharing this with us here also .
I totally agree this mini saga ( & TV movie ) can definitely be a
" WHOA Moment " with most tame people I know of in my life but for the ardent horror slasher movie ( and TV Show ) fans
it can be most amusing , intriguing ,
and done very well with the special effects too ( IMPO ) .
Of course for me the real main interests are usually
the well developed characters , the main storyline ,
and also the actors & actresses who played these roles as well .
Most recently I had just finished up watching
about a week ago on the LIFETIME Channel
" The Book To Screen Series " of past but known writer V. C. Andrews on her twisted yet gothic storyline of " The Casteel series "
which was a 5 part movie saga - very intriguing indeed .
It's just like her other set of TV Movies " The Dollanganger series "
on this same channel a couple of years ago too ( of which I recommend both also ) .
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 3, 2019 14:13:36 GMT
Just finished the TV mini-series Good Omens on Blu-ray. I’m pretty sure I’ve never read any Terry Pratchett books, but I have previously watched two other mini-series based on his works - Going Postal (which I enjoyed) and Hogfather (which I thought was ‘okay’, but I didn’t enjoy as much). I guess I should’ve been prepared for the sheer weirdness/wackiness of this show after having watched those two other ones. The first episode was a bit hard to get into, as I wasn’t yet accustomed to the strangeness of it all. By the second episode I started ‘getting it’ a bit more, and by the third I was eager to finish it (I watched the last three episodes in a row, whereas the first three had been spread out over a couple of days). I think the easiest way to review this would be to split things up into the categories of ‘Stuff I liked’ and ‘Stuff I didn’t like’. Stuff I liked: David Tennant as Crowley and Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, obviously. Without these two actors playing the parts, I doubt I would’ve made it through the first episode. Since I haven’t read the book on which this mini-series is based, I can’t say whether they were accurate portrayals of their book counterparts, but judging them based solely on what I was watching...they were pretty entertaining. Sheen managed to make his ‘Southern pansy’ of a character (to quote another character’s description of him) not be too annoying (which his character could’ve been if left in the hands of a less capable actor). While he could oftentimes be ‘prissy’, he also showed spine, and one of the biggest laughs I got from the show was his reaction to being unwillingly beamed up into Heaven towards the end of the series. The characters didn’t constantly drop F-bombs (which was a bit of a relief, as I find shows/movies that overuse that word tend to make it lose all meaning/all impact from doing so), so on the rare occasions one of them *did* utter it, it was quite unexpected (especially in this^ case, when it was coming from the mouth of an angel) and therefore had much more impact/was far funnier than it would’ve been if they’d dropped F-bombs all willy-nilly. I was almost as amused when Crowley said it too. Speaking of Tennant, at times I wasn’t so much seeing ‘Crowley’ as I was seeing what I imagined would be his version of the Doctor from Doctor Who if he’d gone a bit ‘bad’/somewhat Master-esque. He has a certain way of delivering certain types of lines that I recognised from his time as the Doctor, but that didn’t particularly distract me. His hair in his first scene, on the other hand, did distract me quite a bit. And as for those snake eyes he was sporting - it’s a shame they had to cover up Tennant’s real eyes, as actors do so much acting with their eyes. So I felt he lost a bit of something when he was constantly wearing sunglasses (and the few times he wasn’t, he had those^ distracting serpent eyes). After watching the trailer, I thought it’d just be repetitive scenes of Crowley doing/saying ‘bad’ things and Aziraphale being all ‘uppity’ about it or Aziraphale insisting on being ‘good’ and Crowley acting exasperated/annoyed. While there was some of that, I was surprised to see how they came to really care about each other. Both actors had great chemistry together and were funny when they needed to be, but also conveyed the emotional moments between their characters well too. Attempting to pick out some of their best moments/lines would be too difficult. Suffice to say they had quite a lot of them. The next thing most of note, I would say, would have to be the opening credits/theme for the mini-series. The style of the opening credits felt very ‘fresh’/’new’, like something we hadn’t really seem before in opening credits (though I have seen something vaguely similar to them in another show). The theme, meanwhile, sounded (to me, at least) like the most sinister-sounding circus music since the Dexter theme...and I liked that about it. After hearing it a couple of times, I was practically humming it each time I watched the opening credits. I also really enjoyed the use of songs from the band Queen used throughout. They fit well and really added something. I knew some of the actors/actresses who were going to be appearing in this alongside Tennant and Sheen, but some took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see Michael McKean, but since I’ve always liked him in the stuff I’ve seen him in, he was a welcome surprise. His character was quite funny, although not really ‘politically correct’ with some of the stuff he said - especially to Miranda Richardson’s character (I also didn’t realise Miranda Richardson was going to be in this). I’m fairly certain I knew Adria Arjona was going to be in this prior to seeing it, as I knew her from Emerald City (which I’ll have to get around to finishing on DVD one of these days). Her character here had one of the more ‘odd’/memorable names: Anathema Device (you just don’t get character names like Pratchett’s character names anywhere else). This character was quite a bit different to her Dorothy in Emerald City, but I enjoyed her nonetheless. She was slightly ‘quirky’ and amusing at times too. It also didn’t hurt that she’s pretty easy on the eyes. Even with the, shall we say, ‘unique’ style of costumes she wore - I actually liked those outfits (they worked for her). As ‘quirky’ as her character could be, when compared to some of the more outrageous characters populating this world, she was more or less one of the ‘serious’ characters/’playing it straight’. Thankfully, however, I didn’t find her ‘boring’ (which could’ve been a possibility, since there were so many other ‘wacky’ types of characters). I only wish we could’ve seen her interact with Crowley and Aziraphale a bit more. Who she got stuck with sharing the majority of her screentime with wasn’t a character I was that fussed on. Another character I *did* enjoy, though, was Jon Hamm’s Gabriel. I haven’t watched him do much in the way of comedy. I’m so used to him playing Don Draper from Mad Men that it always take me by surprise to see that he has some decent comedic chops. I got a few laughs from some of the stuff he said. Rather than pick out the funniest moments, it’s much easier to just include a video of all his ‘best moments’. I didn’t realise Mireille Enos from The Killing was going to be in this, and when she made her first appearance as War (one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), I thought to myself, “Wow, that actress reminds me of Mireille Enos/bears an uncanny resemblance to her.” (I hadn’t read the list of guest stars during the opening credits, obviously, because I totally thought it was some other actress who just looked a lot like her). I think what was throwing me off was that she was actually [smiling (although she was doing wicked things as she smiled). I’d gotten so used to hardly ever seeing her smile during The Killing that it was weird for me to see that here. Sadly, she seemed a bit wasted in this role. I bet she could’ve had a lot of fun with it if she’d been given more to do. I recognised some other faces here and there too (like the actor who played Famine, who I knew from The Originals. I recognised an actor and actress from Outlander too) and enjoyed some of the ‘side’/’minor’ characters. Some of the demons were mildly amusing. Beelzebub was delightfully icky (all those flies constantly buzzing around her), and I liked the dog (though I thought we were going to see more of his ‘hellhound’ self). Stuff I didn’t like:Having just finished a season of a show on DVD that focused on two kids and not finding myself too annoyed by them (as I usually am by kids in shows/movies), I guess it was time for me to have to be subjected to annoying kid characters again. I did NOT enjoy the ones in this show who were ‘friends’ of the Antichrist. Every time the show cut to them, I wanted to get back to other characters. That whole aspect of the story bored me and things only started to get slightly more interesting when the Antichrist seemingly began to embrace his evilness (my reaction to him making his 'friends' shut up at long last, by taking away their mouths, was me cheering "FINALLY!"). Sadly, though, that didn’t last and in the end he just wasn’t that evil (he was more the ‘Diet Coke’ of evil), and pretty much resolved the apocalypse that he was supposed to ensure happened. That^ was another thing I didn’t like - how easily everything was resolved. Talk about an anti-climax. The defeat of the Horsemen was too easy and consequently quite disappointing (had to roll my eyes at these kids defeating supposedly super-powerful evil beings), though the defeat of Satan himself was even more disappointing (I was expecting to see Benedict Cumberbatch to show up in person after noting his name in the opening credits, but I guess I must’ve missed seeing that he was only providing a voice for what turned out to be a pretty averagely-CGI’d giant monster. Other than that instance, I didn’t really have too much of a problem with the majority of the special effects used. Yes, they didn’t really look that convincing a lot of the time, but they didn’t distract me too much either). The ending felt a bit too ‘neat’, and with how everything was pretty much undone (or ‘corrected’), it felt like a bit of a cheat/cop-out (on the plus side, at least Crowley got his beloved Bentley back, after it’d held together for so long whilst aflame, only to fall apart near the end). However, I will give them props for surprising me with the reveal of how Crowley and Aziraphale managed to survive their bathtub of holy water and walking into a pillar of hellfire punishments. I'd figured that Crowley had done enough 'good' and Aziraphale had done enough 'bad' that they were no longer a demon and an angel, but vice versa. It never occurred to me that they'd actually swapped roles, posing as each other. So that was a good surprise, at least. Apart from the kids, I also wasn’t too fussed on Newt Pulsifer (he seemed a bit too ‘dweebish’ and just kind of Hugh Granted his way through things), Miranda Richardson’s character (I had to fast-forward through that godawful séance scene - it felt like such a timewaster) and a bunch of other ones I can’t even be bothered remembering. When the voice-over started in the first episode, I thought that I’d seen in the opening credits that ‘God’ was being voiced by Frances O’Connor...but it was in fact Frances McDormand. I always get those two mixed up. What added to my getting them confused here was the fact that McDormand’s voice sounded a lot like O’Connor’s voice/accent did in the show I knew her from ( Mr Selfridge). I did feel the voice-over was a bit intrusive at times and was only there for exposition (whilst providing the occasional snarky comment). My main problem, however, was with the sometimes non-linear way of telling the story. It resulted in things feeling like they were all over the place and it was a bit hard to keep track of what was going on at times. It felt like the story would be going along fine, then would take a detour and go off in some other direction/on tangents, before eventually course-correcting and getting back on track/to the actual point. Another problem was how obvious the author and makers of this show were with the ‘messages’ they were attempting to get across. There wasn’t really any subtlety. It felt a bit ‘preachy’ at times and like they were hitting you over the head with a sledgehammer to drive home what they wanted you to think/feel about certain things. There’s probably other stuff I’m forgetting, but I felt the show was a bit ‘hit and miss’. I think I got more into the show as it went along, after being rather unsure about it in the beginning. It was good, but I won’t be in any hurry to rewatch it anytime in the near future.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Dec 3, 2019 14:32:17 GMT
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maxwellperfect
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Post by maxwellperfect on Dec 4, 2019 4:09:20 GMT
Pretty sure it was 'Good Omens.'
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Post by Winter_King on Dec 4, 2019 9:43:20 GMT
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Dec 4, 2019 14:21:02 GMT
Well, I'm currently watching Watchmen (hey-o). Before that was Chernobyl back when that aired.
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Post by hi224 on Dec 6, 2019 0:42:47 GMT
Probably Mrs.Fletcher and Patrick Melrose.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 25, 2019 22:54:39 GMT
Just finished the three-part mini-series The War of the Worlds on Blu-ray. I *wanted* to like this due to it starring Eleanor Tomlinson who I’ve seen in quite a few things, but mainly the TV series Poldark which just finished here earlier this year. After that show was over, I was happy to see she’d already gotten work elsewhere in this mini-series (and also Joss Whedon’s new show). However, this interpretation wasn’t what I’d hoped it’d be. I thought we’d finally get a decent version to make up for the Tom Cruise movie version...but, sadly, this one was rather disappointing as well. How does one take an alien invasion story and somehow manage to make it dull/boring? Because that’s how this mini-series felt. They threw in some violence (people burned alive, kids being killed by the aliens, etc), but none of it really made up for the fact that the series felt like it was plodding along. Switching between two timelines (the actual alien invasion and a post-apocalyptic future) didn’t really help. Then you had the heavy-handedness of the ‘message’ they were trying to get across with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Eleanor Tomlinson did the best with what she could - I did like the role reversal of the woman being the ‘level-headed’ one whilst the man broke down/lost it, as her character of Amy kept it mostly together whilst George (it was weird hearing her say his name with concern after five seasons of hearing her say the name ‘George’ in Poldark with such contempt/loathing, since that was the name of the show’s antagonist). Rafe Spall’s performance felt a bit ‘overwrought’ to me at times, while Robert Carlyle was totally wasted (and wound up having to act with a distracting half-face mask in the latter part of the series). On the whole, this mini-series feels like it had a lot of wasted potential. Very disappointing (oh well, at least I still have Joss Whedon’s new show to look forward to seeing Eleanor Tomlinson star in - hopefully he doesn’t kill her character off, as he’s prone to doing).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 20, 2020 22:40:06 GMT
Just finished the TV mini-series Vanity Fair on DVD. **spoilers below** I’d bought this on DVD quite a while back, but just hadn’t gotten around to watching it until now. I'd left it so long that the mini-series actually aired on TV here before I got around to watching it on DVD. Oh well. It’s probably better I watched it on DVD, as I didn’t have to wait a week between episodes and consequently finished over two nights. I’d previously seen the Reese Witherspoon movie version last year, but really couldn’t remember anything of it, so watching the mini-series was like seeing the story anew/fresh. I knew Olivia Cooke (who plays the part of Becky Sharp here) from the TV series Bates Motel where she played Emma, who had cystic fibrosis. I also watched her in the movie Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on TV towards the end of last year, so it was nice to finally see her playing someone who was healthy for a change....though it’s up for debate whether she was healthy mentally, considering some of the crap her character pulled. Despite all that, Olivia Cooke managed to make Becky quite likeable (at least until the last few episodes, anyway). The character of Lady Matilda Crawley (who Becky had wormed her way into the favour of in the hope of gaining a healthy inheritance from, but messed it all up when she married Matilda's nephew, Rawdon) actually summed up my thoughts on the last few episodes when she said in episode 5 (the episode with the big battle, where I felt so sorry for the poor horses), “It was entertaining at first, but I'm bored with the Battle of Waterloo.” - as I was quite enjoying the mini-series up until that point, but as I mentioned previously, Becky became much more unlikeable in the last few episodes...as did her best friend, Amelia - played Claudia Jessie, who was quite lovely in the role (even though she was required to cry a lot). That was until she started being horrible to the man who held a candle for her for so long, William Dobbin. Amelia's problem was that she was so hung up on her husband, George Osborne (who wound up getting killed in battle), that she just never appreciated Dobbin (even though he cared for her more than George did). She was really horrible to him in the last episode, but thankfully Dobbin told her off. Disappointingly, though, he went back to her in the end. But as Amelia came to the realisation of, their daughter was the 'love of his life' now, taking her place in his heart. As the narrator states, "None of us is ever happy in this world. Except, of course, the major, content at last. And he deserves it, doesn't he?". Speaking of the narrator of the series (who is supposed to be the author of book on which the series is based, William Makepeace Thackeray, played by Monty Python's Michael Palin), it took me a while to adjust to his character speaking directly to the audience, giving a brief summary of what each episode was going to be about in regards to Becky's journey. The really weird part was each episode started with the same 'opening credits' (which I didn't even realise were opening credits at first, as I thought they were just part of the episode when I started watching), and the only part of the opening that was different each time was his brief summary where he addressed the audience directly (when I started episode 2, I thought I'd accidentally hit 'play' on the first episode again, since it began the exact same way). He always managed to work 'Vanity Fair' into what he was saying (naturally), and every time we were treated to the same visuals of the carousel, the performers and Becky (as well as other main characters) riding the carousel, which would always end with her looking to either side of her, then throwing her head back and letting out a "Whoooo!" - this quickly let me know the series wasn't exactly going to be accurate to the time period. Another clue was the fact they used 'modern' music, both for the opening and for each episode's end credits. Oddly, the one I enjoyed hearing the most was Madonna's 'Material Girl'. It was so unexpected...yet felt 'right' (I know some probably had problems with the use of such music and felt it 'didn't belong' in a period piece). I can't say I really liked any of the other characters in the series. Most were horrible, though some were decent (but could be annoying). It was a surprise to see Anthony Head (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) appear near in the last few episodes as a rather horrible person who gave Becky riches, but demanded something in return (which she gave). I never watched Doc Martin with Martin Clunes in it, but I was aware of it and the fact that he was in it. Here he played someone who was also pretty unlikeable (I felt sorry for his poor dog who stayed at his character's gravestone after he'd had a heart attack - there seemed to be a couple of those in the series, as his wasn't the only character who suffered one. George's father, who also died that way, was especially horrible, as he treated his son badly and Amelia even worse). Although there were a lot of unlikeable characters, at least there was a sense of 'fun' in the first four episodes which kept them entertaining. Not to mention the clothes/hat porn on display (kudos to the costume department). So, in conclusion, I'd say I liked roughly half of this mini-series. It was good, but there were some problems I had with it which kept me from regarding it as 'great'. Then again, I've never read the book on which it is based.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Jan 20, 2020 22:50:30 GMT
The War of the Worlds (2019) with Eleanor Tomlinson
The only word i can think of to describe this mini series is boring.
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Post by forca84 on Jan 21, 2020 0:06:36 GMT
"Madoff" and "Rillingtion Place". Both were well done.
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Post by HirundoRustica on Apr 13, 2020 12:13:49 GMT
I'm not sure if it technically qualifies as a mini-series, but oh well.
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