TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

[thrill]

Aziz isn't a great actor (he's not bad either), especially with the emotional stuff, and the show can be sort of grating in it's intensely privileged lifestyle porn way, but it is exceptionally made, really fun, and almost perfect despite the flaws I mentioned. The lifestyle pornishness is forgivable; you can't blame someone for writing a show that lets him do everything he loves to do, go where he loves to go, and get paid for it.

[heyzeus]

Good point, thrill. The most grating parts of the show are the point in every episode where a character yells "OMG this food is so good!" at some fancy/impressive restaurant, and then Eric says some weird catch phrase about cuties.

But look past that! The show is a lovesong to a city and the varied people that live in it. It's a beautiful take on what it feels like to be alive.

[thrill]

Beyond the obvious, heavy artistic influence, Aziz is starting to build a resume that is placing him as our generation's Woody Allen, minus the sex creep stuff. I bet there's even a compelling think piece to be written about how his comparative laziness next to Woody's prolificness and his fetishization of technology in the form of his phone, social, media, dating apps, etc are all the perfect millennial expressions of Woody Allen's perpetual neurosis and immaturity. There's probably even a terrible comparison about how Aziz's stand up being more comparatively shallow and focused on things like social media, hip hop, and dating is the millenial version of Woody Allen's early stuff about religion and politics. Not that I would have any interest in reading that think piece, but there's definitely a thread there. I'm getting annoyed just thinking about this slate article that hasn't even been written yet.

[ghostrunner]

This is interesting. Hadn't heard of this book:

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/jordan- ... 202429550/

Jordan Peele will executive produce the new series “Lovecraft Country,” which has been ordered straight-to-series at HBO, Variety has confirmed.

Based on the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, the anthology horror series follows 25-year-old Atticus Black, who joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. They must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

Especially interesting given Lovecraft's racism.

[Swirls]

This is interesting. Hadn't heard of this book:

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/jordan- ... 202429550/

Jordan Peele will executive produce the new series “Lovecraft Country,” which has been ordered straight-to-series at HBO, Variety has confirmed.

Based on the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, the anthology horror series follows 25-year-old Atticus Black, who joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. They must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

Especially interesting given Lovecraft's racism.

And I'm sure [expletive] Cthulhu will make an appearance.

[Farewell Friends]

I haven't watched last night's episode of 'Fargo' yet, but I'm hoping it picks up steam. This season has just not had high enough stakes. It's a well-told story and everybody is doing superb in their roles, but there's just not a lot of tension outside of Varga. I thought I was going to hate the Los Angeles episode, but it turned out to be the best episode of the season.

[go birds]

it does

[thrill]

Good. I'm still enjoying it, but the ratio of cutesy stuff to actual plot was starting to trend in a bad direction.

[go birds]

I'd even go so far to say that it takes a pretty dark turn.

[ghostrunner]

I think I enjoy Fargo similar to how I enjoyed Justified. Fun characters played by good actors, generous amount of humor, plot very similar year to year. Not great, but more of a fun ride when it's at it's best.

There's a good podcast I listen to and they've talked a lot about how for them this season feels like some of the more offbeat Coen material - Burn After Reading, Hail Caesar, weirder parts of A Serious Man and Man Who Wasn't There. Burn After Reading in particular, which is like a useless machine in movie form.