Have you watched anything good recently on screen, either movie theater or at home (TV or streaming)?

I just watched Elf with my grandson. Does that count?
Actually I relay loved the movie Inside Out too. My son took me to it. It was his third time seeing it. He cried like a baby and he’s 31 years old. He said, “Finally, someone explained what’s going on inside my head!” He has suffered from mental health issues most of his life.

There’s a new film out in the UK called ‘Brooklyn’ which I can thoroughly recommend.

Scream Queens on Fox is my new favorite show. It reminds me a little of Heathers and Mean Girls.

I just watched John Wick and very much enjoyed it.

I’ve just started watching an extremely interesting Israeli-made, Englist-subtitled film called ALL I’VE GOT on Amazon Prime.

A 72-year-old women dies and finds herself on a ferry which will take her to the hereafter. On the ferryboat she meets her first love, who was killed in a road accident in when they were young. She is presented with a fateful choice: to start life with her old love; or to remain a 72-year-old woman with all her life’s memories intact.

I started watching a quirky Danish show called “Rita” on Netflix that I enjoy.

Also watched a documentary on Netflix about an old man who housedo hundreds, if not thousands of Barbies, in his home. He took pictures of themy as if they were live models. It was fascinating, bizarre and also heartwarming and sad.

I recently saw an excellent Estonian movie (a Netflix DVD rental) called Tangerines, which I described here. I don’t give five stars to many movies, but to that one I did.

I very much enjoyed The Tudors—binge-watched it and went through British Drama Withdrawal afterward.

I’ve been watching a French series called Les Revenants (The Returned) about a French town where the dead come back. It’s excellent

I recently saw Pawn Sacrifice (with Tobey Maguire and Liev Schreiber) in the theater. Like all “based on a true story” movies it takes its liberties, but I enjoyed it overall.

@Stinley I’ve been waiting for the second season to come out. Not sure there is going to be one, though.

I keep looking at that Minnie Pearl VHS tape sitting on the kitchen table, but I’m not certain that I can still make the TV play VHS.
Sarah Cannon telling how the Minnie Pearl character came about. Oh, well, I can always put it in with the autographed book and postcard.

It’s a hotbed of new around here! Boy, howdy!

I watched the entire run of “Six Feet Under” in order, 2–3 episodes a day, most days of the week. It got so dark there for a while I thought it would end with me slitting my wrists, but the real end – final episode – made it all worthwhile.

@ibstubro If you want a lighter take on death once you’re through with Six Feet Under, you might enjoy Dead Like Me and/or Pushing Daisies. (If you haven’t already seen them.)

We’ve been watching this Spanish mini-series called Gran Hotel set in a gorgeous seaside town in Spain in the early 1900’s in a fancy hotel. It’s part Downton Abbey, part Upstairs Downstairs, and part Poirot Mysteries. There’s murder, sweet romance, forbidden love, intrigue, and several beautiful Spanish men. I’ll warn you, this show is like video crack, you’ll have to plan your day around your binges.

Our other binge favorite (we’ve seen the entire set, they’re supposed to be making a feature length movie for the next part, but we shall see) is called The Miss Fisher Mysteries. This one is about a gorgeous woman of means (we’re still not sure where she acquired her fortune) ends up doing some amateur sleuthing to figure out a potential crime in her own circumstances. Turns out she’s good at it. Real good, much to the chagrin of the local police authorities. But the Inspector keeps on running into her (Phryne Fisher) literally, and figuratively, when he and his assistant are out solving crimes for pay. At first he’s confounded by her, but then he realizes that she could be his greatest asset in more ways than one, but our poor Inspector, although he is quite manly and brave and smart, is also rather shy and reserved (and married). But wherever a murder is about to be, or has already been committed, Phryne and her lady’s maid, Dot, always seem to be in the wrong place at the right time, or is it the other way round? Either way, the Lady Detective and the Handsome Inspector always end up on the same path, but coming in from different directions. Is it fate, or luck, or something stronger? Only time will tell. In the meantime, there’s a whole cast of supporting characters with lots of interesting stuff going on behind the scenes. This show is set in Melbourne Australia, starting in the 1920’s so there are fabulous clothes to be seen, especially on Phryne, even if she’s scaling the side of a building in the rain (in heels), or perusing a speakeasy, or entertaining gentleman friends (of whom she’s got a lot). This show is a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Moonlighting, only with better clothes. Again, plan your day accordingly, you will be staying in.

I recently watched a very heart warming documentary about fashion photographer, Bill Cunningham. It was called Bill Cunningham, New York. Id recommend it to anyone who can appreciate the more quirky and eccentric human beings amongst us whether or not fashion is your thing!
I also just started watching the series, Masters of Sex. I’ve only seen two episodes so far but I am looking forward to watching the rest.
@ibstubro Id love to see that Minnie Pearl doc. I wonder if it’s available on DVD?!

This is what I have, @OpryLeigh, and I only see it on VHS.
1988
You might find it streaming easier than DVD?

Thank you, I need to see this!

@DrasticDreamer The 2nd series is on in the UK currently. It’s not quite as good as the first so far but it is developing nicely!

I’ve not seen them, @dappled_leaves, but we go (literally) months without turning the TV on.

I enjoyed Six Feet, but along about the ‘hitch-hiker’ episode (if you’ve seen the series), it was nearly unbearable to watch.

I tend to watch what finds me (I have a season of Dexter I intend to sample, and the whole run of a show called Dead Zone), but I’ll keep an eye out for Dead Like Me – I remember hearing good about it.

@ibstubro Yeah, both are favourites of mine. I’ve seen all of Six Feet Under, and can’t say I’d watch it again – there’s definitely a point where it drags and drags, but it does pick up again before the finale (have you met Nikolai yet? “God have mercy!”).

Dexter was brilliant for the first three seasons. I enjoyed the rest more than most, probably. I think after season three (which featured John Lithgow), people thought it had reached its peak, and there was nothing more to see. And the finale was certainly disappointing. The Six Feet Under finale, by comparison, was excellent, I thought.

The main problem with Dexter is that they changed showrunners midstream. I read an interview with the original showrunner who was as disappointed with the ending as the rest of us and said he would never have ended it like that.

Unfortunately, they kind of painted themselves into a corner by having Deb discover the truth so they had to kill her because there was no place else to go with that.

But the ending clearly shows that they really lost touch with the essence of who Dexter was.

Regardless of what else happened, there’s just no way that Dexter would have left his son to be raised by a psycho-killer nutbar like her (I forget her name, but…)

And I agree; the season with John Lithgow as the villain was absolutely brilliant. Incredibly accomplished storytelling.if I were going to reccommend Dexter to someone new, I’d advise them to just watch the first three seasons and skip the rest :)

@Buttonstc Umm… spoilers? @ibstubro is watching it for the first time.

Sorry I wasn’t aware of that. He said that he had “a season” of Dexter but hadn’t watched it yet and didn’t even mention WHICH season.

But my advice still stands. He will enjoy it more if he stops after the third season. I’m sorry I wasted all that time afterwards watching the entire thing through to the end. Unfortunately you can’t unsee something, but I sure wish it were possible.

He is free to either take my advice or ignore it as he chooses.

One last bit of advice about Dexter: if the season you already have is not the first season, this is really one of those shows where you need to watch from the beginning so that it’s not just a constant muddle of unanswered questions if you just jump into it further along.

No worries. I saw @dappled_leaves’ spoiler alert before I read @Buttonstc‘s posts.

I loved the Six Feet finale, @dappled_leaves. Brilliant. It made all the darkness worthwhile. If the finale hadn’t been so great I probably would have been disgusted with the series. I know the actors want to ‘grow’ their characters, but when Freddy Rodriguez, aka “Rico” Diaz, fell into the cess pit with the rest of them, I could hardly take it.

Looks like I picked up season 5 of Dexter to sample. Is that a bad idea? Just to get a feel for the show.

We tried to marathon Desperate Housewives and made it through around 5 seasons. I love Felicity Huffman, but you can only binge on that stuff so long. That reminds me, I have the full run of Sports Night around here some place to watch.

@ibstubro I totally agree with you about Six Feet Under.

Picking up Season 5 of Dexter as a sampler is definitely a bad idea. I would watch all of the first three seasons. Season 3 is the one to see, but I don’t think it would have nearly the same impact if you hadn’t seen Seasons 1 & 2.

I am surprised you made it that far with Desperate Housewives. Season 1 was okay as ironic melodrama, but after that, it kind of stopped being ironic and became a real melodrama. I think the show’s producers forgot the point of the series.

I’ll put Dexter 5 back out on the market then, @dappled_leaves. Wait until season 1 shows up.

Desperate Housewives was about like my past TV viewing. Never miss an episode until I do, then I’m done with the show.

Any opinion on Dead Zone, anyone? I need to either price it or put it away someplace to not watch later.

@ibstubro I’ve never watched Dead Zone, though I read the original book and saw the movie based on it, with Christopher Walken. I knew there was a series, but didn’t expect it to be any good, so didn’t bother. The reviews look pretty good, though – I’m sure you’ve done that research already.

@ibstubro

Dexter is one of those series where you really do need to start with the first episode of the first season. That entire first season sets the basis for his character and subsequent decisions after that.

If you start with Season five I seriously doubt you’d like it and miss out on a really excellent series (at least for the first three seasons:)

It presents a truly unique character which has no precedent in any other previous TV show. That’s a rare thing and even rarer when it is done well.

I think that’s what attracted people to Breaking Bad at first. A totally unique character.

BTW If you’re looking for other series with well drawn unique characters, you might want to consider Northern Exposure. I know it’s an older series but great stories and characters are still great years later.

And some writers/producers just have a knack for creating shows and characters that draw people in. Steven Bochco is one of them and David Chase is as well.

David Chase is best known now for the Sopranos but he cut his eyeteeth on Northern Exposure. He really knows what character development is all about and this show was one of his earliest efforts. I think you’d enjoy it.

Actually, no, I’ve not looked into Dead Zone much @dappled_leaves. I bought the 6 seasons for $6 and loaned them to a friend. She brought them back recently and they’re in a bag in the living room floor. I think I can turn them into $60, so I probably just need to do that. I barely remember the book.

I’ll pass on Dexter for now, @Buttonstc.
As for Northern Exposure, I watched it at the original air time until I just burned out on it. I think of it often – whenever I see moose decor. lol

Twin Peaks is something I’d be interested in revisiting, but the S/O would never stand for it. I’d have to watch alone and try to stay awake.