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Jan. 1st, 2019 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Finished watching The Kominsky Method which was surprisingly good. It's written by Chuck Lorre, and about ten, thirty minute episodes. Tightly written. And focused on the friendship between an acting coach, Stanley Kominsky (Michael Douglas) and his agent, Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin).
The series is that rarity that focuses on what it's like to be in your 70s and 80s, trying to work, date, and pee. At one point, Norman states...being human hurts.
One exchange?
Douglas goes to Norman's urinologist (played by Danny Devito), and finally gets the test results back from his doctor.
Doctor: Good news or the not so good news?
Kominsky: Not so good news?
Doctor: No, ask for the Good News.
Kominsky: Okay -- good news.
Doctor: You don't have cancer.
Kominsky: Great. (Is thrilled.)
Doctor: But you have a few cells in there we need to watch which are the slow-acting kind of cancer. Nothing to worry about though. You're more likely to die from a car accident than from this.
Kominsky: Wait, what? Slow-acting cancer? What do we do?
Doctor: Nothing. But I can give you meds to make you pee better. There is a side-effect though.
Kominsky: What?
Doctor: When you ejaculate it goes backwards into your bladder, so on the plus side? A clean blow job.
I found it funny in places and moving in others. One of the better sitcoms I've seen in recent years.
2. Homecoming -- I've seen four episodes of this so far and given up. It's by the same people who did "Mr. Robot", which I didn't like either. Reminds me a lot of Mr. Robot and The Prisoner, with all the Hitchockian camera angles and tricks, but no likable or relatable characters. I don't care about anyone and was quickly bored. That said, the episodes are rather short -- thirty minutes each.
And it is intriguing, if frustrating in places. The frustration overtook the intriguing, so I gave up. But if you loved Mr. Robot, and like Julia Roberts, you might want to give it a whirl -- it's on Amazon.
3. While I'm feeling slightly better, I'm tired and feel like I've an 800 pound gorilla sitting on my chest. Also dreading going back to work tomorrow. There's a couple of projects held over from 2018 that I'm dreading. Every year I get a few.
4. There's an interesting moral question that I've been pondering since I read an interview with an actor regarding their role on a television series that I'd recently watched.
"Would you kill one innocent person a year if you knew it would ensure the survival of the human race?"
The actor, who shall remain nameless, said he hoped he would if it would save millions. For what is one life if millions are at risk? Shortly after that I saw the film Mission Impossible - Fallout, where Ethan Hunt is taken to task for putting the lives of one person or a member of his team ahead of millions. He'll put himself at risk. But he won't kill the innocent person.
It's certainly a theme that has been explored in fiction and non-fiction, with mixed results. I don't know. I think taking a life, any human life, comes with a serious karmic cost. It's akin to tearing off a piece of one's soul. We're all here to learn, we aren't here to play God. The first rule is to do no harm -- or at least try really hard not to.
The series is that rarity that focuses on what it's like to be in your 70s and 80s, trying to work, date, and pee. At one point, Norman states...being human hurts.
One exchange?
Douglas goes to Norman's urinologist (played by Danny Devito), and finally gets the test results back from his doctor.
Doctor: Good news or the not so good news?
Kominsky: Not so good news?
Doctor: No, ask for the Good News.
Kominsky: Okay -- good news.
Doctor: You don't have cancer.
Kominsky: Great. (Is thrilled.)
Doctor: But you have a few cells in there we need to watch which are the slow-acting kind of cancer. Nothing to worry about though. You're more likely to die from a car accident than from this.
Kominsky: Wait, what? Slow-acting cancer? What do we do?
Doctor: Nothing. But I can give you meds to make you pee better. There is a side-effect though.
Kominsky: What?
Doctor: When you ejaculate it goes backwards into your bladder, so on the plus side? A clean blow job.
I found it funny in places and moving in others. One of the better sitcoms I've seen in recent years.
2. Homecoming -- I've seen four episodes of this so far and given up. It's by the same people who did "Mr. Robot", which I didn't like either. Reminds me a lot of Mr. Robot and The Prisoner, with all the Hitchockian camera angles and tricks, but no likable or relatable characters. I don't care about anyone and was quickly bored. That said, the episodes are rather short -- thirty minutes each.
And it is intriguing, if frustrating in places. The frustration overtook the intriguing, so I gave up. But if you loved Mr. Robot, and like Julia Roberts, you might want to give it a whirl -- it's on Amazon.
3. While I'm feeling slightly better, I'm tired and feel like I've an 800 pound gorilla sitting on my chest. Also dreading going back to work tomorrow. There's a couple of projects held over from 2018 that I'm dreading. Every year I get a few.
4. There's an interesting moral question that I've been pondering since I read an interview with an actor regarding their role on a television series that I'd recently watched.
"Would you kill one innocent person a year if you knew it would ensure the survival of the human race?"
The actor, who shall remain nameless, said he hoped he would if it would save millions. For what is one life if millions are at risk? Shortly after that I saw the film Mission Impossible - Fallout, where Ethan Hunt is taken to task for putting the lives of one person or a member of his team ahead of millions. He'll put himself at risk. But he won't kill the innocent person.
It's certainly a theme that has been explored in fiction and non-fiction, with mixed results. I don't know. I think taking a life, any human life, comes with a serious karmic cost. It's akin to tearing off a piece of one's soul. We're all here to learn, we aren't here to play God. The first rule is to do no harm -- or at least try really hard not to.
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Date: 2019-01-03 01:12 am (UTC)Good to know about Homecoming though. I wasn't planning to watch it because it's on Amazon but I also disliked Mr. Robot so I doubt I am missing out now as I probably wouldn't have stuck with it.
I couldn't get through Mr. Robot either...I tried four episodes (because part of it was filmed near my subway station and grocery store), highly touted, and I like Christian Slater -- but I was bored, and disliked the characters.
Homecoming? Exactly same experience. I tried four episodes because highly touted, and Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulrony....but...I was bored, annoyed, and disliked everyone.
The filmmaker likes to use camera angles that appear to be borrowed from films like North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and The Prisoner. Also it is filmed in a 1970s style, with a wide screen for the past and truncated screen for the future. With dull lighting. And dated clothing. Yet takes place in 2018 and several years later in the future -- yet the future looks like the 1970s and 80s??
The series also has the pacing of the Prisoner.. and well I finally gave up. My parents gave up after two episodes. And my poor father couldn't make heads or tails of it.