What are you watching?

[starcanuck64]

I come from a family of miners and have been underground a few times, I really relate to the scene where Homer looks up to watch Sputnik pass overhead as he rides the elevator down into the mine.

[Moose]

It's interesting how the catalyst of having what was America's greatest enemy at the time, the Soviet Union, put the first satellite into orbit, motivated a lot of young people around the world to get into science and see the world and universe much differently than they had before.

Not just young people. It sparked some massively tangible (and wildly successful) effects towards western education philosophy, as well as the support kids could expect from home. Students (and their teachers) could accomplish a lot during that decade.

[starcanuck64]

Not just young people. It sparked some massively tangible (and wildly successful) effects towards western education philosophy, as well as the support kids could expect from home. Students (and their teachers) could accomplish a lot during that decade.

Wasn't that also the International Geophysical Year, I think I read somewhere that the Sputnik launch was connected with that in some way?

[Moose]

A lot of things went right for education that decade, yeah. [Edit: Still deciding what I want to watch tonight, if anything. Maybe The Mummy.]

[Gillianren]

Wasn't that also the International Geophysical Year, I think I read somewhere that the Sputnik launch was connected with that in some way?

Yup. I verified (with Wikipedia), but there are also banners hanging up about it in the movie.

[Parrothead]

Whitechapel - Series 1 - The Ripper Returns.

I managed to see the third episode of both series 1 and series 2, when they aired on a local station. Found series 1 in the library system. I'll now get to see all of series 1.

[starcanuck64]

I am not sure what to make of it. I started with a movie then started the series. One seems to be based on the other, but I can't figure out which is which. The characters are different in each, while maintaining the same flavor.

I watched Series 1 of Doc Martin over the weekend and liked it a lot. It's creator and chief writer(for season one anyway) is Dominic Minghella who also worked on the Hamish MacBeth series, and Doc Martin has a lot in common with that series I find. They both have quirky locals in a small coastal village, only the village is in Cornwall for Doc Martin and in NW Scotland for Hamish MacBeth.

[Gillianren]

"Sir Tyrone Guthrie's production of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex," as translated by William Butler Yeats. Performed in masks and with minimalist sets. It's taking a bit of getting used to, but it's not bad.

[ToSeek]

I watched Series 1 of Doc Martin over the weekend and liked it a lot. It's creator and chief writer(for season one anyway) is Dominic Minghella who also worked on the Hamish MacBeth series, and Doc Martin has a lot in common with that series I find. They both have quirky locals in a small coastal village, only the village is in Cornwall for Doc Martin and in NW Scotland for Hamish MacBeth.

Our local PBS station is showing Doc Martin. I need to figure out the next time it loops around and start watching it.

[starcanuck64]

Our local PBS station is showing Doc Martin. I need to figure out the next time it loops around and start watching it.

There's also the film Saving Grace that the Doc Martin character comes from, I'm waiting for it to come in at the local library branch.

[starcanuck64]

I'm watching Reggie Perrin with Martin Clunes, it's funny, but I could do without the laugh track.

I've also got Series 2 of Sherlock to watch.

[Gillianren]

Graham and I have been watching QI the only way it seems to be available in this country. Today on my own, however, I watched Candide (the 2009 version) and In Darkness, both from Netflix.

[Moose]

Um... Ponies the Anthology II on Youtube.

[starcanuck64]

Graham and I have been watching QI the only way it seems to be available in this country. Today on my own, however, I watched Candide (the 2009 version) and In Darkness, both from Netflix.

QI sounds good, I like Stephen Fry and Alan Davies did another good series Jonathan Creek...and I'm starting to think I watch way too much TV.

[Gillianren]

QI is much fun. We watched an episode the other day where one of the panelists was Brian Cox, who was not allowed to answer at least one of the questions on the grounds of seriously, give someone else a chance.

[ToSeek]

Our local PBS station just started showing Ashes to Ashes. It might be even better than Life on Mars (its predecessor). Keeley Hawes is fantastic.

[starcanuck64]

I find I'm watching more and more British series, along with Doc Martin(which is great) and Reggie Perrin I'm also catching up on New Tricks and I just finished season two of Sherlock which I like a lot more than the movies with Robert Downey Jr. I think you almost need to be British to capture the complex character of Holmes.

[Gillianren]

I just dislike Holmes quite a lot. At least Robert Downey, Jr., is entertaining.

[starcanuck64]

He is, and I'm not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, but I do enjoy the new series with Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch.

I just find that the whole time I'm watching the new movies I'm aware that's it's Downey acting as an Englishman, which tends to get in the way of the story for me a bit.

[Gillianren]

To me, the character he plays is so removed from the human experience that it doesn't matter that he isn't British. There's something unreal about him, no matter who's playing him or which version it is.

I'm watching Offside, an Iranian film about women who tried to sneak into a football game.

[starcanuck64]

Just finished Season One of The Walking Dead and liked it a lot.

One thing that kept bugging me was the transmission of the disease though. If it spread like wildfire across the globe, it must have gone airborne, something like Ebola is truly nasty but can only go so far due to being transmitted by contact with bodily fluids. Some of the characters in the show get covered in Walker goo but still don't get sick, it's a small thing but bugs me...

[Gillianren]

A Cat in Paris, the famous-Americans dub. This is the thing I don't like about Netflix streaming--I wasn't given the choice. D is on my lap right now, and he doesn't like the bit with the vacuum cleaner.

[Solfe]

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

[Gillianren]

I thought that, provided you went into that movie with the right attitude, it wasn't terrible. I liked it better than Temple of Doom, anyway.

[SeanF]

I thought that, provided you went into that movie with the right attitude, it wasn't terrible. I liked it better than Temple of Doom, anyway.

I thought that The Crystal Skull qualified as "an Indiana Jones movie" better than The Phantom Menace qualified as "a Star Wars movie."

But that may be damning with faint praise.

[jokergirl]

Um... Ponies the Anthology II on Youtube.

Season Three starts on Saturday.

*hides*

[starcanuck64]

The Lovely Bones, very good film.

[Solfe]

My favorite stunt in all Indiana Jones movies is that the vehicles are not especial fast. The car chases are really very slow and they do nothing to speed up the vehicles. Editing is more cinematic than "speed shake". When they want crazy and fast they introduce a character who does the impossible with the vehicle, so the stunts are merely "faster than Indy running". If the character gets out of the vehicle, it goes back to "normal". Usually this is played for laughs.

In my opinion, even the worst Indy movie is better than the best of the first three episodes of Star Wars. The original three Star Wars are hard for me to compare, I feel really good about anything with Harrison Ford. I may go out on a limb and say Indy is better in my mind; every bit of the movie is character development and Indy's background reveals. Perhaps I am colored by the "New Star Wars" series dragging the better three movies down.

[Gillianren]

The Lovely Bones, very good film.

Really? I hated that movie. I thought it was dull and cliché.

[Paul Beardsley]

When it comes to modern day Sherlock Holmes, I much prefer Elementary to Sherlock. The latter is all "Look how quirky we've made the character! And aren't we radical, suggesting there might be homoerotic undertones to Holmes and Watson's relationship - coz nobody's ever thought that before! And look how we included all the fan favourites - Lestrade, Mycroft, Irene Adler, Moriarty, Baskerville, the Reichenback Falls. Oh, and we managed to shoehorn in a mystery in."

Elementary actually works as an engaging mystery series, and the female Watson works rather well. In fact the mixed platonic couple works as an antidote to the hackneyed gay thing.