True Detective season 3 (2019)

2019.02.25
Just watched Season 3 finale.

The time skipping narrative finally feels sincere coming from the perspective of an old man with failing memory, but if this story was just told in a straight linear form would it have been as interesting to watch?

I like the little nods to the supernatural, as old and young versions almost see each other a few times.

The aging make-up is the best I've ever seen.

Twist ending averted is fine, except the son saved the note and invited over dad's friend, so there's the strong hint someone will know the whole story. Unless the ghost visits dad again and drops the clue all over again, starting the search once more. And why wouldn't she? BTW, if they mentioned how she died I never caught it. I kept waiting for it to be a plot point.

Russian Doll (2019)

2019.02.22
Finished.

2019.02.25
Does this genre have a name? I just think of it as Groundhog's Day movies. But I think it goes back much further, wouldn't "It's a Wonderful Life" be a primitive ancestor? Off to tvtropes for the answer... and the first link is to /GroundhogDayLoop. Though there are many of these stories, I guess Groundhog's Day really does deserve to be the namer.

And as good as Groundhog's Day is, these stories all have the same problem: its extremely entertaining to set up the loop and watch our hero experiment with it, but then, because its a story, some sort of conclusion has to be forced on to it. Of course it can be very hard to come up with some new metaphysics to explain this, so its easier to just not explain it (Groundhog, Russian Doll) but it leaves one a little unsatisfied. I can think of at least one example where the looping method is explained, Edge of Tomorrow, but that movie also has a forced happy ending, and so is unsatisfying at the end for a different reason.

2019.02.27
Not thinking about this show at all, its kind of unmemorable, but it was fun and I would happily watch hours more if anything like it was available.

Fyre Fraud (2019)

The Hulu one.

I don't think I finished watching it, but who cares, I get the gist of it.

Travelers season 3 (2018)

That was good.

There's so little science fiction on the glowing square nowadays, you treasure anything you can get. Oh there's plenty of "sci-fi", but precious little science fiction.

I appreciate the economy of story-telling, I appreciate the short-hand. I appreciate not being entirely dumbed down to. Of course its still there, to bring along the larger audience, but I appreciate that they try to take it up a level.

I like how we finally get a glimpse of the future, and its just an irrelevant footnote. I like how they keep pushing the borders of the metaphysics (multiple timelines).

As annoyed as I am by some characters (McClaren's wife) I appreciate how even that little bit of backstory becomes a plot hook.

Travelers is a name now, even if they never make another show. It's almost up there with X-Files, or Lost, or Buffy. It's staked out a bit of territory, and it owns it. And I'm glad I was there to see it.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon (2015)

That filled in a lot of gaps in knowledge I really didn't need, but its still interesting.

Seventies (2015), Eighties (2016), Nineties (2017)

2018.12.04
The seventies series was quite good, same so far for the eighties. It's interesting to go back and get a different perspective, and find gaps in your knowledge (and fill them).

2018.12.11
The eighties felt really brief, which makes sense since that's my decade. Still good.

Sleepy Hollow seasons 1 - 4 (2013-2017)

I forgot to put this one to rest and it deserves a decent burial, at least.

Looking for things to watch, this filled a curious niche, like somewhere between Buffy and X-Files. Nowhere near as good, of course, but sort of the economy version, and they made it with a bit of heart, and sometimes a little bit of smarts that keeps your attention. Some of the attention to detail is surprising in a show that seems like shallow fun entertainment, and there are so many callbacks near and distant that it gives the show a deeper lore than you might expect.

So, cheap shallow fun, everything usually turns out ok, so something nice to watch an episode of at the end of the day as you work your way towards sleep. And then, as with most such products, you notice its just not that good anymore, and then you realize you haven't watched it in a week.

And now its been months. A brief look at its current status, cancelled, no surprise for a show wandering away from the core that made it fun, and there's an avalanche of spoiler there's no escaping from, and makes me not even want to try the show again.

I might as well read synopsis to see where this burning airplane finally landed.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_(season_1)