(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Sluggish weekend. Air quality was better yesterday, today it's kind of overcast with a bit of a haze. Around 80-126, which is unhealthy for sensitive types. I think this is going to be a bad summer for allergies.

Blood sugar has been higher this month, for well, reasons, and as a result, sleep has been harder. Not that it was excellent when the blood sugar was low, exactly.

Oh well, have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday - we'll see if he has anything interesting to state.

I'm kind of between television series at the moment, not sure what to start next. Binge watched most of the Yellowstone Episodes saved on the DVR for S4 or is it 5? (Have lost count - I skipped over S2, and only saw half of S1, mainly because S2 was white supremacist/nazis, and S1 was watching the lead female characters get beaten up repeatedly and raped, and hard pass. But the ending of S2, plus S3 - S4, are rather good. It's a series that gets better as it goes.) At any rate I stopped - after the last episode of Yellowstone (Whisky, Cigarettes, a Meadow, and You) because it got preachy about how wonderful ranchers are and how horrible environmentalists, city dwellers, and urbanists are - and I thought, fuck you, Taylor Sheridan and the horse that you rode in on. I don't need to watch this shit.

I'm only watching it for Kelly Reilly who plays Beth - she's utterly amazing in it. I've a girl crush on the actress and her character.

For those who've never heard of or watched this series - it's a dark "modern" Western that airs on Paramount Network (although not yet Paramount Plus). Written by Taylor Sheridan (who was in Sons of Anarchy and is kind of the Cowboy version of Sons of Anarchy). It's not quite as dark and gritty as Deadwood. Kevin Costner plays the ruthless anti-hero rancher who will do anything to keep his thousands of acres of land intact, no matter the cost. Kelly Reilly is his tough as nails daughter, with Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, Wes Bentley, Teri Polo, and Wendy Moniz rounding out the cast. Sheridan apparently has a lucrative deal with Paramount because he has about six series on the air - all anti-hero series.

The series is at its best when it delves into the characters and the cowboying. At it's worst when it gets political and violent.

I recommend - if you liked Deadwood, The Shield, Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, or the hyper-realistic anti-hero series. If you don't? Pass. Anti-hero series aren't for everyone. Although the series is apparently very popular, so apparently for more people than one would think? It is ending this year - with a spin-off being heralded by Mathew McConaughy. Costner and Sheridan had a falling out, so they decided to end it this year.

Tried to watch Last Night in Soho on HBO (now called MAX) but fell asleep during it. This happens a lot. I may go back to it. Max was acting oddly in how it was presenting the content on the screen - but finally snapped out of it. Max - is actually easier to find stuff on now than it was before - because considering it was "impossible" before - this isn't saying much. Sorry, Disney and Hulu are still the easiest of the streamers to find anything on. Everything else requires a search button and a lot of patience.

Did manage to watch The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix, starring Christian Bale, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, Gillian Anderson, and the guy who played the Dursley kid in the Harry Potter series as Poe (he looked like Poe).
It was haunting, and better than expected, but I was admittedly amused by the subplot that felt like it was hand-lifted from the Fall of the House of Usher, also Poe's speech to Landor at the very end would have worked far better if Landor hadn't had to save his life twice.

Poe's life is in danger a lot, and I kept thinking - okay movie, we know he's not going to die, stop teasing. He's Edgar Allen Poe and he's not written anything yet. Unless this is some AU version of his life. It would have been more suspenseful if they put someone else's life in danger.

Also, it does have the cliche ...man needs to revenge a female family member's savage rape in there. Warning - that's a major plot twist and may trigger and annoy folks.

So I had mixed views regarding it.

***

Niece made it out to Sequoia National Park without too much mishap. She did have to go to an auto shop in Vegas to fix her rear breaks which were making a grinding sound. And then stopped by a Target to stock up on supplies. Her family uses Target more than I have recently. Granted - I don't necessarily live near one, and the one at Atlantic Avenue Terminal is annoying.

***

Started reading The Witch King by Martha Wells - so far it's rather entertaining. I don't know if I'll stick with it or not.

I don't suppose anyone has any television recs?

Should I start watching:

1. The Night Agent
2. Manadlorian S3
3. Firefly Lane
4. Finish Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
5. Re-watch S1 of the Witcher, so I can watch S2 and S3?
6. Strange New Worlds (finish S1)
7. 1923 - Yellowstone Prequel
8. Finish Vox on Amazon - the Anime series

Something else?

Comments

[wendelah1]

I'm watching Yellowstone for the scenery. I tried an episode of 1923 and fell asleep but when the Paramount channel starting running the episodes of the parent series back to back over Memorial Day weekend, I recorded them. I find most of the characters unpleasant to say the least. (My sister loves the series, so I gave it a chance, and she also adores Beth, btw.) My favorite character was Jimmy and he got a nice character arc/happy ending in season 4-5. I am kinda terrified that the 6666 spinoff is going to ruin his life so I'll probably skip it entirely. I got stalled out about four episodes into season five--the plots are feeling repetitive to me--but I haven't deleted the rest from the DVR. Eventually, the second part of season five will make it to cable TV and I'll watch them then. The whole "ranchers are good for the land and environmentalists are evil" is a bit much to take, but I think the writers know their Red State audience well.

I don't watch much television apart from reruns of NCIS, which I find predictably soothing, and HGTV, ditto.

[shadowkat]

My parents were watching Yellowstone for the scenery, but gave up during S2, because the characters are unpleasant.

I got into it again around the S2 cliff-hanger ( I think it was S2 - where they tried to kill everyone and Beth almost got blown up). I did the same thing you did - recorded all of them and slowly binged through them. The best arcs are Jimmy and Beth. The Jimmy episode - where they focus the whole episode on Jimmy and cowboying in Texas - was excellent. Sheridan is at his best when he focuses on the cowboying, ranching, and Beth's arc.

I don't think Sheridan understands environmentalism well enough to write about it. And I'd agree the stories are getting repetitive in S5. S3-4 was by far the best. S5 is kind of sluggish. I'm waiting for them to blow apart the Rip/Beth relationship. I know they plan on killing off Costner's character in the second half.

[spiffikins]

I haven't any opinions on the shows in your list, sadly. I've been watching "The Cleaner" - which has been really quite interesting. It's a BBC show - the main character is a crime scene cleaner, and each episode is a standalone story of the crime scene he is cleaning and the person/people he meets. I've finished season 1 and am on to season 2 (hooray for short BBC series!)

[mefisto]

The Night Agent is not a great show, but it's solid and I enjoyed it.

[shadowkat]

That's the general consensus that I'm picking up on online, which is interesting.

[yourlibrarian]

I saw Pale Blue Eye as well and had a similar reaction. I was interested enough to keep watching and was glad the mystery wasn't completely obvious (though I'd suspected the ending some time before the end).

I haven't seen Night Agent or Firefly Lane or 1923. Of the remaining ones I enjoyed S3 of Mandalorian the most.

[shadowkat]

Yep, we had the same response to the Pale Blue Eye. Although it took me longer than it should have to figure it out.

[atpo_onm]

I've been very nicely surprised with Gotham Knights on The CW. I'd think it would be kind of hard to spin off anything interesting at this point off the general Batman franchise, but... good actors, good writing and direction, interesting storyline. If it keeps this up, may be as good as Superman & Lois

Just Finished the Mr. Robot series (on DVD) last week. First seasons were okay, reasonably intriguing, but then the last two... WHOA!! Not only really enjoyed the story, and the excellent work by the actors, but the head cinematographer is some kind of genius, just one stunning shot after another, even in the scenes where you think nothing much is going on.

[shadowkat]

Sorry to be the one to inform you? But CW just cancelled Gotham Knights. The other remaining ones were renewed. (I missed the first few episodes, so just deleted from the DVR.)

Never could get into Mr. Robot, although my brother adored it for more or less the same reasons you did.

[mefisto]

I assume you know this, but the latest Ilona Andrews book (Kate Daniels) is out today. That should give you something to occupy your time. :)

[shadowkat]

Thanks. Currently working on The Witch King by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries).

[mefisto]

I've been thinking about reading that, so let me know if you like it.

[trepkos]

Strange New Worlds ... I like Pike, but I'm not keen on how stuff in the Original Series has been forgotten/is being retconned or perhaps preconned. I don't see how the two series are supposed to mesh, if the timelines ever get to join up. ETA: And I joined a FB group for it, which is like the Wild West. Everything from "I'm just glad for the entertainment" to "Well, don't watch it then!" I posted one thing with a positive and a negative in it, and before long there were hundreds of comments, including people trying to tell me what a vegetarian can and can't eat, like I don't know. Exhausting.

[svgurl]

The weather seems to have made sure there are spikes in allergies everywhere! Hopefully the air quality improves soon - over in California, we just came to expect wildfires every year but considering we finally got a good amount of rain, I'm hoping that won't be the case this summer.

I hope your doctor's visit went smoothly!

I haven't seen Firefly Lane, but I have read the book. I've heard they made changes for the show (the book goes chronologically through the two women's lives starting when they meet as teens) though I think I heard people liked it.

[cora]

Finish Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It's a great show!