[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

Fact!

The X-files

This series is based on a wet dream that many believers in the paranormal/conspirational/cryptozoological/alien visitation seem to have, i.e. about the closeminded and angry skeptics that don't want to believe out of fear despite overwhelming evidence for the paranormal, and the heroic believer who always turns out to be right in the end. Even Scully, who's the most positively portrayed skeptic, is still an awful caricature of what a skeptic is, as her insistence on denying overwhelming evidence and avoiding the most rational conclusions due to her biases is the antithesis of what a skeptic should ideally be. As a skeptic myself, this very common theme in american movies and series should annoy me, but for some reason I always enjoy it immensely. I guess it's an easy theme to identify with, no matter what you believe in real life.

The greatness of this series has a lot to do with the likability of the two main actors. Duchovny is a decent actor, but Anderson is clearly better. Duchovny has so much charm though, that he becomes the lifeblood of the series. I'm onto season 7 now, and worry how the last two seasons will be without him. The X-files without Duchovny seems to me like a hotdog without the sausage; it might taste alright, but it can never be as good and it's not really a hotdog anymore.

I watched the show's episodes at random when I was younger, and never got the whole alien mythology story arc, so these kinds of episodes used to annoy me. They are much more enjoyable now that I watch them all in chronological order. Anyway, the episode that so far has stood out the most is Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. It has several genuinely funny moments, but also a heartbreaking and memorable ending. I also thought that Soft light, Eve, Unruhe, Unusual suspects and Folie à deux were great, and the latter part of Small potatoes is just hilarious.

I rate this 9 outta 10.

Peter

I'm with you there Thor, I'd love to see them all again but it's a bit of a commitment.

Currently I am watching the 4th season of "STAR WARS Clone Wars". I love the score by Kevin Keiner. This show just gets better with every season.
Next up will be "BSG Caprica". That show did not air in Germany but I got myself the UK DVDs.
I also have "Rome" in store and two seasons of "Miami Vice" ... so much to watch, so little time.

Well, this week I saw "Snow White and the Huntsman". Now, that is a score that I rate much higher than has been done in most reviews. I loved it in context. I also liked the film. I like how they made a solid fantasy adventure while keeping the structure of the fairy tale essentially intact.

Cheers!
Volker

Les Miserables?

NO!

Finished watching all 25 episodes of the one season lived series "Nowhere Man".

Tehre were many plot holes and moments where you could buy it (they can replace people, talk every into things, have men everywhere, and unlimited funding, yet when they coem to get you, nobody's in back watching the back door and no helicopters, so all you ahve to do to escape is climb out a back window and run away? Come on.), but then there's a good deal of believability and plots that did turn out slowly.

The series centers around a photographer, Tom Veil, whom while at dinner with his wife after a gallery premiere of war pictures, incuding one of U.S. millitary hanging four people, he goes to the bathroom. When he comes out, his wife is gone and an elderly couple is at his table.

The head of the resturant knows nothing and says that couple has been at that table the same day for a long while and has never seen a wife of his before.

Nobody he knows, knows him any longer. The keys won't fit into the lock at the house, and there's another man with his wife, and his wife claims to not know him.

The photo of the hung men is missing and he's got no bank account now.

Then a good friend turns up dead, and he's arrested while trying to talk to his wife. And it goes downhill from there.


The fealing of dread in the first few episodes is high, and everytime he thinks he's gotten away from the unknown, mysterious organization that's done this to him, there they are -- the whole time.

Veil goes on a hunt to hide from these people who want the negatives, which he hide and still has, and tries to find anybody who might know him from his past.

But as the sries develops, you learn things are not as they appear and what you know, and what he knows, may not be what it looks like.


Fans of such mystery series like "The Prisoner" and "The X-Files"[/b], will likely enjoy this a lot. This is a good TV series that deserved more than one season. In fact, the show has a good bit of science fiction like TX-F.

The show is scored by Mark Snow and the score is very much in the vein of "The X-Files", in fact one of the cues from TX-F is repurposed here and given variations for a little while. Many of the sounds, synths, and ideas from TX-F scoring, are presant here; it's like a sibling work. There's enough strong material here to make a very nice 2CD set. The opening theme (re-used in the end credits), is the weakest link in the scoring; the show needed something else.


Special note to make: the dreamy vertual reality dance by a lake sequence. The beautiful lighting, the lush painting design, and Snow's dreamy music, makes what is probably one of the most beautifully done moments I've seen in a TV series.


The show is on DVD. For those who want to preview it, here is the pilot episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfXqVV6JOq4 (Part 1)

There's a great deal of reveal and things you thought you knew, you didn't, passed episode 15.

I have so many other tv shows to watch (and films) that it's easy to procrastinate, especially since I've seen 95% of the episodes already. But I'll get there, no worries. Maybe inspired by your revisit, plindboe.

Not hard work at all Peter but fitting it all in with everything else I want to see that I have yet to catch up on such as the last couple seasons of Dexter, Game of Thrones season II etc.

Brave

It was cute, although it takes a sharp left turn in the second half and where it goes is less interesting than where it could have gone. Doyle's score supported the film well but wasn't terribly memorable.

Go for Dexter.



Shame on you. Game of Thrones isn't a show you just toss to the side after one episode.

-Erik-

I tossed it aside after about six episodes. I needed to pay more attention to it than I did. I want to go back to the start and watch it properly.

I think I will, after I'm done with The x-files.




I don't want shame on me, so I guess I will have to give it another chance. Anyway, with that many people raving about it, there must be something to it.

Peter

[spoiler]Her mother changing into a bear [/spoiler]was the obvious, cliched route? You saw THAT coming?

-Erik-