Television

[Roscoe]

I saw a couple episodes of HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and just lost interest when it became clear that it was a remake of IT, but with a house instead of a clown. I sat there predicting the little shock moments -- "cue the cockroach, and the light in the model house will turn on in 5, 4, 3, 2..." kind of thing. My favorite moment was when Henry Thomas woke one of the children from sleep, explaining that they needed to get the fuck out NOW.

[josiahmorgan11]

I tend to kind of enjoy texts that show their mechanics on their sleeve, so found things like the model house very rewarding - and given my familiarity with Shirley Jackson's source material (on which note, IT is definitely a rewrite of The Haunting of Hill House), found the way it creates a tension between mechanics of narrative and the mechanics of symbol really fascinating; especially because significant affecting moments still work and are all the more powerful because the mechanics are clear. That, I think, is a side-effect of the fact that I'm not drawn to things for their narratives much at all - I struggle with TV as a medium holistically because it is so continuous and audience driven, though I'm starting to enjoy more of the stuff coming out these days. Looking forward to Bojack 6, though I'll be catching up with it a few weeks late.

[Roscoe]

"IT is definitely a rewrite of The Haunting Of Hill House" -- how so?

[pabs]

I saw the first episode of Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) yesterday. Wow, I'm in awe of it already. Otherwise, I'm also progressing through the first season of Sex and the City. It's fun.

Is there a more varied, eclectic tv-watching menu than this one? Not a rhetorical question.

Fassbinder's is the fourth German tv series I've embarked on. In the last 12 months or so, I've watched the excellent Babylon Berlin (seasons 1 & 2), the brilliant sci-fi/social/historical drama Dark (seasons 1 & 2), and last week I finished the Berlin Cold War espionage drama The Same Sky , which was quite good, but it finished without resolving any of its plots. It was made in 2017 and there's no mention anywhere of any continuation, of any crucial follow-up season, and therefore very frustrating. Had I known this before, I would never have watched it.

[josiahmorgan11]

Stephen King's career is, I think, in many ways a rewrite of Haunting of Hill House - all derivative of Shirley Jackson's exploration of geographical locations that manifest themselves psychically. I'd argue that IT's "RETURN TO DERRY" structure is very similar to Eleanaor's "INFECTED BY THE HOUSE" conceit; though, sure, the show is far more similar to IT in that they're literally in a process of returning to a site of childhood trauma. King's The Shining is probably a more obvious ancestor of Hill House; as is Salem's Lot, which opens with a Hill House epigraph. I guess I see a lot of the geographical trauma stuff in King's career.

[Roscoe]

I was thinking of the TV series of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE as being much more indebted to IT than the other way round -- the childhood trauma in a Bad Place being reawakened when the Bad Place seems to call for the now grownup survivors and all that, which just isn't a factor of Jackson's novel's smaller time plan. Nice points about King's Geographical Trauma. I've never been as big a fan of King's more sprawling efforts like SALEM'S LOT and IT and especially THE STAND, much preferring the tighter fear of THE SHINING and PET SEMATARY.

[Silga]

This month I've watched King's The Storm of the Century. While it is an admirable effort to present small town dynamics, overall it fails to become a wholesome experience of a small town horror that King intended. Climatic morality play comes at a time when it is already hard to care anymore about the people of Little Tall Island (also the setting of King's novel Dolores Claiborne which I still need to watch).

It was a screenplay directly written by King, not based on any of his previous novels. But it reminded me of Carpenter's The Fog.

[josiahmorgan11]

My favorite King book is probably Hearts in Atlantis, though I have a real soft spot for the four novellas in Different Seasons, too. Did you read his new one? I really enjoyed that, he's definitely an older guy a bit out of sync with contemporary politics now, but I thought it was his best book in years. I like bits of Storm of the Century, Silga, I actually think it's pretty effective, as far as TV movies go, but yes, the morality play is bit much. Dolores Claiborne is a great book and a less great film.

[Silga]

I've only seen Hearts in Atlantis film and liked it quite a bit. As for Claiborne, I am drawn to it because of Kathy Bates and her performance in Misery. So there's a curiosity about her second turn as one of King's characters.

Also, there is a new upcoming Stephen King's TV series The Outsider starring Ben Mendelsohn on HBO.

[josiahmorgan11]

Yes, The Outsider looks very good. I can't shake the sense that HBO are trying to find their replacement GoT (huge-budget renditions of King work, Watchmen and His Dark Materials all between now and January), which makes me feel a bit tentative (especially because it seems clear Watchmen won't be their next GoT; Lindelof has expressed little interest in returning for a second season).

[Roscoe]

I stopped reading King round about the time of THE DARK HALF, where nothing was taking five pages if it could possibly take fifteen. I've picked up one or two since then, like DOLORES CLAIBORNE. The good stuff in the film of DOLORES CLAIBORNE is very good indeed, but the "nobody dast blame this woman" courtroom speech was a bit much. Still, Ms. Bates and Ms. Parfitt and Mr. Strathairn and Ms. Leigh do more than enough to make it work.

[pabs]

...

[Roscoe]

And SCHITT'S CREEK continues to bring the awesome, as Catherine O'Hara finds new ways to have me helpless with delight in every episode, and the love story between David and Patrick is among the most amusing and moving depictions of a same-sex relationship that I've yet come across, funny and resolutely avoiding the self-pity that can make this kind of thing just unendurable (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME for example.)

[josiahmorgan11]

Third episode of WATCHMEN was the best episode of television I've seen in a long time.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Is anybody watching Amat Escalante's sf/horror TV series The Untamed?

[thoxans]

finished the west wing. i really enjoyed it! thought i'd hate it after sorkin left, and while it took a little time to ease into that transition (it def becomes a diff show at that point), i thought there were still some good things about it through to the end. the final season in particular was great. i liked the structure/symmetry of the season, each ep going back and forth between the campaign trail and the waning presidency. the debate ep was awesome, and i'm so glad that they pulled that off. per usual, i was super sad when it ended, thought about immediately starting it again, but showed some self-restraint (personal growth! yay!), and instead switched over to mindhunter. plowed through that right quick. loved it. there's something about holt mccallany. i can't quite put my finger on it, but i always find his presence welcome and comforting. the cast in general is roundly solid. the actors for the serial killers do some good work. you'd think it would be corny af, but nah. they pull it off. now, i'm watching the impeachment inquiry hearings cuz i find it interesting, and i like to watch the people in the background, and imagine what they're doing or thinking or daydreaming or...

https://youtu.be/dAkzlIku1XU

[flip]

the writing in the west wing (first two seasons especially) is so dense that you can revisit it frequently and discover new things (or forget things and remember them again) each time, though i'd suggest spacing those views out a bit! i rewatched it recently, but gave up midway through season 3, where the quality of the writing really falls off a cliff. i might go back though since i seem to remember it recovers a bit later on. i really liked the newsroom too, though i don't know anyone who shares that opinion. sorkin is the closest thing to preston sturges we have today, imo, though studio 60 was a misfire.

[pabs]

I recently saw the English series The End of the F*cking World, seasons 1 & 2.

It was quite entertaining, but the two main characters were difficult to like.

6.5/10

[Roscoe]

And the majesty of BETTER CALL SAUL returns on Sunday February 23.

[DT.]

The Crown - stopped watching the new season a third of the way through. A phenomenal performance from Olivia Colman can't overcome how heavy-handed and one-dimensional the show's become, while it desperately reaches for profundity. Or was it always like this and I just never noticed?

[Roscoe]

MACBETH -- a television production of an apparently famous production from the late 1970s, with very young Ian McKellen and very young Judi Dench as Macbeth and the Lady. Admirably done from start to finish, with Judi Dench in particular being nothing short of magnificent in her role. I can't imagine thinking of anyone but her in the role ever again. Streamed from Amazon Prime, the video quality isn't great. I defy you to care. Seek it out for Dench.

[spiderman]

Finished bingeing Nathan For You. I'm curious how much of it, if any, was staged. Very entertaining show nonetheless.

[josiahmorgan11]

spiderman, I'm curious too, but I think the entire tension of the show is about asking that question! the final episode makes that quite clear, IMHO.

For me:

WATCHMEN continues to astound week after week. 3, 5 and 6 have been highlight media releases of this entire year.

Just started M. Night Shyamalan's SERVANT. It's less immediately coherent than his other recent masterworks (he's been on an astonishing roll for a while now) but is frequently brilliant. I'm in.

[Roscoe]

Got the Blu-Ray of Season 8 of GAME OF THRONES, and revisited the Long Night Battle Episode, the one that got so many complaints for being too dark and too grainy and too nearly incomprehensible visually, and the Blu-Ray cleans it up and straightens out the problems and at long last I can see what the fuck is going on, which I sure as fuck couldn't via cable or streaming or DVR.

[pabs]

I'm into the second season of BBC 4's comedy CATASTROPHE, and really enjoying the dry, cutting humour and acid, scorching remarks the woman and her husband constantly toss at one another, though it's always quite evident that they love and appreciate each other.

I was in two minds about watching the second season, having thought the first one merely serviceable and definitely not great, but it's really hit its stride from the get-go with season 2, and I'm relishing every minute of it now.

Carrie Fisher as the foul-mouthed and evil narcissistic Mother in Law From Hell is wondrous, too, and another great bonus to this fun series.

[thoxans]

thinking about starting sacred games, but always hesitate starting a new show cuz it takes dedication, and i hate responsibility

[Roscoe]

And the newest and final season of SCHITT'S CREEK starts tonight, and I'm counting the fucking seconds.

[thoxans]

SCHITT'S CREEK

good piece in the times today about that show. might need to give it a gander myself

[Roscoe]

The first episode of a new DRACULA from Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat, the guys who gave us SHERLOCK. They've kept the SHERLOCK model, with extreme re-thinking of a classic going on all over the place (Van Helsing is a nun, for example, and vampirism is an STI kind of thing) but the magic that made SHERLOCK such fun for a couple of seasons is resolutely missing -- they've cut straight to OMFG Train Wreck, and a good deal of the blame has to be laid at their decision to depict Dracula as an unholy combination of Tommy Wiseau and Andy Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes.

[nrh]

has anyone been watching the new richard price/stephen king/jason bateman thing the outsider? i thought the first two episodes were pretty strong, weighed down only by some modern prestige tv camera stuff and the usual awkward line readings that seem to pop up in even the best tv these days.

curious what people more conversant with king and his later work think, since the show really does seem to be trying to keep what i think (in my limited exposure) are some of the idiosyncrasies of his voice...