One of the joys of becoming ‘awake’ about so many things thanks to the Covid insanity is that I no longer feel I have to watch anything woke. Instead I’ve been rediscovering so many fabulous movies and TV series made before 2000, most of which couldn’t be made now.
I don't watch much of anything made after 1948. Oh, a few -- "Spartacus," say, or "Cold Comfort Farm" -- but in general, spouse and I are content to Google around for pre-Code stuff and lesser known movies featuring silver-screen stars, and to watch favorite movies once a year: "The Magnificent Ambersons," "A Letter to Three Wives," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "I Know Where I'm Going" among them. (It doesn't get much better than Wendy Hiller.)
It might be that at almost 70 and 72, we're in our dotage and, like children, prefer our bestest stories best.
But it might be that it's fun to watch real pros at work.
Speaking of 1948. My favorite of favorite of favorites is "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" - with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison, not to mention a young lady named Natalie Wood. And the incomparable beauty, Audrey Hepburn, in "Roman Holiday" et al. Once you know her back story, you'll love her even more.
My brother always laments that he was born in the wrong century and should have been an 1880s cowboy. I should have come of age in the 'forties; clearly I don't belong here and now.
“Once you know her back story, you'll love her even more”.
There were other actresses from that era whose contributions to the war effort remain largely unknown. My favorite is Hedy Lamarr. Stunningly beautiful, free spirited and brilliant. Overshadowed by her movie career, including the nude scenes in the 1933 movie “Ecstacy”, her inventive genius has long been overlooked. In 1942 she patented a “frequency hopping” communication system, intended to guide torpedoes to their target. She presented it to the Navy but they were too stupid to implement it. The technology exists today in the form of Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth.
Electronics and ham radio have been hobbies for a long time, as well as the history of WWII. I'm pretty familiar with Hedy Lamarr's frequency hopping regime. If I recall, her husband was a rich and pretty high-up player in the fascist arms industry; she would accompany him to meetings but of course as a woman in the 'thirties wasn't allowed to participate. I think she later left him. Her bloodline is Jewish on both sides, so I'm not surprised by her intellectual horsepower.
And DAMN was she a beauty! She did a simulated (maybe) orgasm scene in that movie you mentioned ("Ecstasy") in the 'thirties, and her husband freaked out. Hell, I didn't know they knew women had those things back then ... LOL.
The thing about frequency hopping is that the way the enemy finds your transmissions is to scan across the frequencies and then settle on wherever you are. The FH system splits the signal into components that are at or below background level noise, so you have to know where to go and scan them all simultaneously to put the signal back together. I don't remember exactly, but I think her system used some kind of electromechanical method, like vibrating strings or something equivalent. The new thing now is LoRa - a low bandwidth system a lot of people are planning on using in the next Revolution.
I read that Hedy hung out with Howard Hughes for a bit and was intrigued by his desire to produce ever faster airplanes. She studied the fins and wings of the fastest fish and birds and presented him with sketches for a new wing design. The design caused him to tell her, “you’re a genius”.
You would think some enterprising screenwriter could develop that relationship into a movie script. Instead we get movies about “Barbie” and the gazzillionth Marvel “superhero” character
Well, Lamarr sued Corel corp. for using her image (unmistakably so) on their product advertising and she later sued Mel Brooks for his "Hedly Lamarr" joke in Blazing Saddles, so maybe people don't want to deal with her estate.
Vibrating reeds were a Thing in such as multi-channel radio-controlled model aircraft up into the 50s. Amazing what could be done with mechanics; see also the Real History of undersea cables. Laying the cable was (and is) only the beginning; though it's now all computerized.
She created it together with George Antheil, who used to be famous/notorious as a bad-boy composer. He was quite talented, actually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfciL-werS8
Also absolute favorites of mine. Thanks for mentioning.
Bernard Herrmann, who composed the music for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," is buried somewhere near spouse's family plot in Elmont, but for the life of me I cannot find his grave.
He used to joke that that music was his Max Steiner score -- with themes for each of the characters, including the sea. It's great stuff.
I take it you've read that book about Audrey Hepburn's childhood during WWII -- carrying messages for the resistance. Young people today should only know. . . .
They made a TV show of The Ghost and Mrs Muir in the late sixties, with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhane that was wonderful. I've been looking for Gull Cottage ever since!
Is any body actually getting any? And why, oh why, oh why, does heterosexuality have to be bad so misandrist lesbian feminism can be right? Is it a fantasy requirement of film producers, as illustrated in Ms. Rosenfield's review of Ms. Marling's Agatha Christie knock-off, that all trendy in the know modern girls be at least bisexual? Or, has all sexuality been stripped of actual love and emotion and reduced to face pierced/tatted mutual masturbation because the frigid corporate sterility of mercenary poseur feminism has at last reduced human love and orgasm to a controlled and monitored function of the bureaucratic surveillance corporate state? Isn't the (repeating myself) attempted DNC/CCP/Davos ball gag on free speech, thought and movement, the willing destruction of lives, freedom and economies, a kind of sideways sadomasochism. In Hollywood the pathology is readily visible in the high jink antics of Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Weinstein, faux Academy Award devil worship and films like the one described. In the political/financial sphere the "we can't wait to diddle your daughters" Epstein crowd. But that's not enough: Now "hey diddle diddle" to your hearts content without consequence because by psyop decree: There is no such thing as a man, a woman or a child. ---- But, as we see daily, and the lesson the world is learning: "Don't f'k with Mother Nature." Or allow yourself to be forced to deny your own. When did healthy heterosexual schtupping become a Class A felony?
By the way, I suspect that like myself, 99% of those present, have nothing against anyones personal sexual preference. For myself, the recurring theme here, the "tell" and the question: Why do so many people have a problem with mine? --- On the gay man/lesbian front the vast majority deserve, not demand, admiration and respect for the hard work they've done in coming to terms with their personal evolution as human beings, their own lives, and the world they live in.
I like Kat's review (and, given the part Brit Marling can act). Likewise Kat's suggested opportunities for entertainment and enrichment at the end. I would like to point out that everyone looks through the elderly. It is not a uniquely female experience. Much of the visible human damage in today's youth is a consequence of, in order to destroy the family, the willing removal of the elderly from social/cultural reality. Their removal, "invisibility", and the ever expanding state euthanasia center is another marker of DNC/CCP/Davos billionaire sadomasochism, narcissism and its desire to reduce the human to disposable "thingdom". (Couldn't resist taking a shot eh Kat?)
The film itself (as described) exists on the fascist/"woke" assumption that their murder and distortion of all things human, the butchering of the adolescent psyche (thus destroying the future), and the capture and final reduction of art to propaganda has been successful. Of course the X boyfriend and his toxic masculinity must, "why can't we kill men", die. And include a protagonist, who like our much loved big/tech surveillance state, likes to break through those pesky firewalls into the private lives of those evil doing "deplorables". What began as a Hollywood requirement that all motion pictures have at least one butched out police woman or federal (" ..gee-she can do it just like a man..") agent, now requires, that the all women leads be at least partially queer. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (the movie) is really just porn land cheap thrill voyeurism and display of what the megalomanic narcissism of power finance and a manipulated and battered society is capable of.. Both the true feminine and the masculine have been assaulted and distorted by the unholy mal pathology of criminal financiers and the mercenary ideological utopian sycophants that -- nothing new to see here--serve them.
"Doctor filth he keeps his world--inside of a leather cup--but all his sexless patients are trying to blow it up--and his nurse-- some local loser--is in charge of the cyanide hole--she also keeps he cards that read--have mercy on his soul. They all play on the penny whistle--you can hear them blow--if you stick your head out far enough from desolation row." B.Dylan
Now that was awesome. Out there, but awesome, nevertheless.
And now back to my post workout reverie of slowly pulling Herr Schwab up the lamp post to hang there as the ravens peck out his bulging. lifeless eyes; reflecting the terror of his realization that these serfs aren't servile . Because, in good time wrongs will be righted and scores settled.
Thank you! Just watched "Broadway Danny Rose," hadn't seen it since the days when red Netflix envelopes were getting delivered, and absolutely roared. I remembered the bit in the Jersey wetlands.
Also, as with Allen's old films, touching.
Especially because he showed the New York I used to know.
Oh, we LOVE “a Letter to Three Wives”, and my husband and I are in our 40’s/50’s. Until I married him, I didn’t have a lot of familiarity with classics, which he introduced me to, and now we are obsessed with watching something from TCM just about every night. And I’m absolutely loving the education.
When "Letter to Three Wives" first came out, audiences were well able to catch the grammar jokes in the scene in which the advertising mogul and his unbearable wife are leaving Rita Phipps's (Ann Southern's) dinner party. How the world has changed.
As soon as VHS tapes and then DVDs let me, I used to show that bit to my students:
"Don't YOU feel badly, my dear," says Mrs. Manleigh to Rita, who is upset at her husband's tirade about radio.
"Bad, not badly! You feel badly like this!" And there's George, the English teacher, played by Kirk Douglas, wagging his finger tips furiously, as though they were malfunctioning, to make his point. I never find George pedantic although I know that some do.
There were other grammar jokes too. I made sure my kids could catch every one of them.
I wasn't commenting on what you watch. I know millenials who watch flicks from the '40's. I was curious as to you describing yourself and your wife as being in your 'dotage.'
May I suggest 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' if it's westerns that suit you - Coen Brothers release around 2017/18. They ain't Hollywood. And they ain't broken..
For a Few Dollars More is one of very favorite Westerns, and certainly my favorite in that trilogy. Lee Van Cleef makes my heart beat a lot faster than Clint Eastwood does.
In real life, no. But the aesthetic appeal I prefer shows up in some bad boys. Looking up at my shelf of Funko Pops, I see Snape, Loki, and Ben Solo (aka Kylo Ren).
Good for you!" I get fed up with searching and so - on many evenings - still end up copping for UK drama serials "conforming to the formulaic scriptwriter’s tick-box: Non white person traduced but eventually revealed to be a surprisingly decent sort – Tick....Middle class white person eventually revealed to have a sinister dark side – Tick...Gay Couple included – Tick.... (Post 2017 update: transgender characters urgently needed). More recently it has become an integral part of the story that ‘lgbt’ people are abundant and everywhere. They are bound to be nice as well. Curiously though there is another box to be ticked: there needs to be some graphic depiction of violence especially towards attractive young women (by white men of course)."
I still watch murder mysteries but I have 100% success rate in solving them well before the end. Not by solving any clues, but I immediately know that the white person, especially if male and/or business owner, is guilty (usually paying bribes as a subplot). And the person of color, who is almost always Black, will immediately be seized on as the guilty party. But that is always and everywhere a red herring. Do not fall for that; it's the white guy!
It's become near impossible to find a drama that ISN'T a murder mystery and my wife and I do like you do and 'guess the white villain'. But I have one rule: just ONE murder per episode (or two max) because another trend we've noticed is the serial killer scriptwriter fad where you get a murder every twenty minutes or so..... to keep the viewing figures up (presumably).
Been recently introduced to the Midsommer shtick by a Friend. Moderately entertaining, though the staggering body count in a relatively small population has been a cognitive dissonance from the git-go. Last night stumbled upon the fact that this blood bath has been ongoing for 25 years. In Real Life such a place would have collapsed economically due to lack of population or been bulldozed by the Authorities and the ground salted for being so hazardous.
Don't know your age but back in my (very distant) day the American equivalent was Murder She Wrote, which went on for almost as long. JB Fletcher was a writer in the tiny town of Cabot Cove, Maine, which had one police officer for a town that averaged about three murders per show. So JB was often pulled away from baking her pie or knitting to end the day's murder spree.
I was just about to mention that as a spectacle to behold. But it still manages to maintain its quaint English village feel despite the murders crammed into one hour. In multiple murder American series, it's a much darker, dystopian feel.
The killer is either the richest most obnoxious character or the guest star. I used to be a big fan of Law and Order, both the original and the SVU spin off. But the newest version of L&O launched three years ago doesn't have any of the great actors of the past except Sam Waterson, who has a small role and is starting to show his age. SVU has good episodes except when they're beating the audience over the head with some transgender crap. L&O also falls into the woke nonsense at times, as in an episode where a masculine black army officer comes out as trans at the end. If this guy was trans, then I'm the Pope. Of course if a black suspect is shot or has to be physically subdued, it's almost always by a black officer. Most of the episodes in first 15 or so seasons of L&O are better than any cop shows done today.
I've just been reminded of a great pre-2000 BBC drama series....the Catherine Cookson novel dramatisations. Great stories with no nonsense (possibly better in fact than the novels themselves).
Great show. We are rewatching Seinfeld, and with nine years worth of episodes, it should take us through most of the winter. I had forgotten how the show got wittier and sharper with each season!
Sounds like this is content you can skip then. Just like how, despite my love of Douglas Murray, I tend to skip his Poetry posts because poetry doesn't do it for me.
I was going to say the same thing. But slogging through the comments is a nice break from plain-old-politics as usual. Glad to know so many still seek out the qualities the woke strive to obliterate with nonsense like this.
I suggest the topic “I don’t need to read this one.” It is odd how many commenters seem to feel that a site should only post content that they are personally interested in.
I think the most noteworthy part of this review was discovering that the show's writers and producers think they are actually being cutting edge. That anyone *doesn't* see a young, sexy, tattooed girl coming.
The show is a cliché, and the Woke people who made it have no idea.
There was a great old SNL sketch (I know!) called “High School Theater Show” where a bunch of parents are watching their students put on some sort of modern theater art piece full of these kinds of trite “think about it” messages. (https://youtu.be/sMgXzuz5Ecs)
The parents are in misery and the best moment is when one parent says to the other, “I just hate that they think that they’re teaching us.”
My wife and I repeat that phrase constantly these days.
I have been saying for a while now that the biggest issues with so much of the woke writing is that if you took the woke part out, it would still be bad. Because the writers are just not good at their craft. In this case thinking that they are being subversive while shouting their intent at the audience.
There are ways they could have told this story that made it both good AND still had their overall point. They just aren't capable of pulling it off. Likely because they were hired because they checked boxes, not because they are actually good filmmakers.
The reality is that propaganda is almost never good art.
I will never forget sitting in the theater during the opening credits of the latest attempt to film A Wrinkle in Time. The director (who checked all the boxes) appeared on the screen to talk in a very pleading voice about HOW HARD everyone had worked on the film. I knew at that moment it would be bad, because the only directors who plead with an audience that way are doing middle school or lower productions.
The irony was that the special effects were amazing--pretty nearly perfect at capture the magic of the book. But the script....
That is a great way to tell....or if the creators are insulting part of audience for not supporting it or something similar. That is very common these days. Take a popular property. Wokify it. Then call the fans nazis for not going and seeing a bastardized version of the thing they love. And then somehow, they think this will bring in audiences.
Look at She-Hulk. The whole season ended up being a direct middle finger to the fans of the comics. They purposefully made it in a way they knew would enrage fans. Then they made fun of the fans for getting upset, IN THE SHOW. The point of the show was to point out how fans get upset for changing things. How did someone think this plan would make money? Why would you pay billions for a property and then do everything in your power to drive away the fans, who are why the property you bought was worth anything to begin with.
Agreed! I just re-watched 1974 Death Wish with Charles Bronson on Netflix.
How amazing to watch the NYC Mayor and Police Commissioner tell the Lead detective played by Vincent Gardenia that because Charles Bronson as "The Vigilante" has made the crime rate go way down, they do NOT want him arrested, just make him go away.
Juxtapose that with 2024's NYC "Vigilante: Daniel Perry who is of course being prosecuted for felony murder in 2024's Pro-Criminal" NYC
That's exactly my words as we switch channels "no thanks, I want a story not a lesson in what to think". And as you say, it takes 5 minutes max to spot the SJW lesson coming!
Every time I see Hollywood on strike, it occurs to me that so much wonderful content has already been created that I could happily spend the rest of my life consuming only past content, obviating any need for Hollywood.
Same here! Aside from some live sporting events I rarely if ever turn the TV on. It’s such a drag to be scolded and lectured to by these phonies . Covid was such a wake up call. I was sleepwalking through the first 50 years of my life, but my eyes started opening in April 2020. My cynicism and skepticism in regards to anything said or done by any mainstream/elite institutions has grown tremendously. I blindly believe nothing that I’m told.
I gave the Horton Foote/Robert Duval movie classic TENDER MERCIES a rewatch last evening. I'm working toward owning a thousand of the best motion pictures/ films (there seems to be a difference). Books likewise. Most recently I've been rereading Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and, God help me, for the first time, Hannah Arendt's THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM.
In my view it's time to begin personally collecting and protecting the best in available music, art, film and literature. The corporate fascism driving and funding iconoclastic "woke" fully intends to destroy it.
And they are working to bowdlerize and censor old books and movies even after you "buy" them. Anything you buy streaming rights to is subject to meddling after the fact. Your only defense is to buy hard copies of both books and video and keep them in your home. I wish I could direct you to a reference here, but I've forgotten where I read this.
Exactly. If you like art in all its forms unadulterated, original and not tampered with to satisfy modern mores, buy hard copy of everything. And buy it fast.
No reference needed. I've got book shelves full of vids, music and of course books. Ideological utopian nitwits in service to narcissistic criminal financiers. Fearful moral cripples convinced that destroying the world will erase their culpability for doing so. (Stay strong-stay clear.)
One of the things I appreciate about VM these days is that she wasn't flawless. She made mistakes and bit off more than she could chew. More than once she was in a positions where she was in real danger. But she was tough and didn't give up and eventually overcame.
There’s nothing particularly unique about a younger generation that thinks itself more talented and intellectually superior to its predecessors…
It is, however, uniquely annoying when said younger generation manages to grab hold of the megaphone and insists I acknowledge “their truth,” while steadfastly and earnestly denying everyone else’s.
I do find it hilarious that the generation of transexual vegan communists still is not as bad as the boomers. No matter how hard you try you can’t be worse than the boomers.
I hope you are being sarcastic because I am a baby boomer and happen to think we are pretty damn good. Most of us worked our asses off to get where we are and went through many tough times such as the Vietnam war and 9/11 amongst many other challenges.
Have them list their accomplishments. That’s the only measure of a generation’s success. Interestingly it looks like we boomers wrecked the place starting with EEO right around the time a bunch of (mostly) white guys smoking cigarettes went to the moon. Our error was thinking if you’re nice to people using public policy they will change. Took a while to realize that’s false. Maybe the hatest-generations will clean that up before the “oppressed” take all of their money away.
Hordes of fat former hippies waxing nostalgic about fornicating and defecating in the mud in a haze of drugs on Yasgur's Farm? Which the majority never came anywhere near? That generation?
I don't know any of those people. I do know, however, the people who transformed the planet into the richest, best-fed, best-clothed, healthiest place for humans that it has been since the dawn of time, only to have it attacked and downgraded by their pampered ungrateful offspring.
All that would be forgiven if they would forego the $1600 welfare check from the government that is being sent every month to their $900,000 house that they refuse to downsize out of.
It's not a problem. Just tell the gub'ment to give me back all my FICA they took from my paycheck at gunpoint (If you don't think they tax you at gunpoint, don't pay your taxes this year.) and then spent. Hell, I won't even ask for the 11% compounded that I could have had putting MY money into an index fund all those years.
No, that's not welfare; that's MY money and I want it back, what little is left of it.
Be more than happy to exchange my “welfare” check for the money taken out of my pay-roll check every month for 40 years with the interest and capital gains I could have earned with that money invested. By my calculation and with the returns I got on the money I did invest - it would be worth at least 2 million and at a 4% withdrawal rate - way more than I get from the government. And that doesn’t even count the money the companies I worked for forked over on my behalf to said government. (BTW - Trump just said he ain’t touching SS reform - so more of the same even after you vote.)
I think any experienced realtor could give you half a dozen far more relevant reasons than these prejudicial ones why more affordable housing is not more available. You need to think outside your particular disillusionment.
In Canada the housing shortage in cities is blamed on:
1. Out of control immigration (legal and otherwise), and
2. Foreign students (colleges and universities provide them with questionable educations and the “students” get on the fast track to permanent residency.
Why do you assume retirees would have to downsize? My parents had their homes paid off before they even retired. They saved enough that they did not have to change their lifestyle regardless of a government check. Are they supposed to move out of a house they have added onto and improved over decades because they don't work anymore?
I often agree with you on things around here. This one definitely feels like you are being narrowly focused on a specific type of person and then broadly painting all of people of a certain age with that brush.
Housing is affordable in places where the government allows housing to be built. No new housing, housing goes up. And the people who bought their houses decades ago generally keep them or sell them back at this new higher rate. So even if they all left, it would be expensive.
There are many issues with housing. Retirees getting their social security money back after a lifetime of paying into it is probably not a huge factor...and certainly doesn't seem unfair to me. Certainly not less fair than a young person who expects to start out with a 4 bedroom home as their first one.
here is my story, which I believe may be similar to lots of long term working boomers if you will. Certainly not all, but I feel I am pretty middle of the road. I started "paying into" SS in 1978. By paying, you must recognize that us working folks did put money into SSA, matched by our employers contribution of same amout, and we also put into Medicare for our future retirement.
my monthly is approx $3500, less ~$200 for addl Medicare coverage.
Then this net amount is taxed at approx a 15% rate. As another fellow suggests, I would have preferred to put my 40+ years of SS contributions towards my 401k or other retirement plans, and manage that as I did my retirement funds, and keep the govt out of the program. But, as you also know, the govt has not invested the SS pool wisely. For years, current workers monies have been paying off older retirees SS needs, or more accurately, commitments the govt has made to retirees.
Do I think the system needs some updating, certainly. IF we as a country can get behind some common sense reforms, that is a good idea. Now the issue is, who gets to decide what is common sense, or perhaps "fair" to those impacted. *note , my wife also worked, and receives a much smaller monthly SS amount than I do.
With our SS and some small withdrawls from our 401k plans (also taxed) we manage to make our life okay. If we have medical issues, then the dynamic may change significantly.
RE home ownership. As this implies, we "own" or are making mortgage payments on our (much smaller/downsized) home we retired to in Texas. The bulk of the equity we recd from our last home sale, was used towards the payment for a new house. I am well aware that many folks, of all generations who have bought or are buying a home, have benefitted from an equity bubble. It is not always the case, but more so the past 20 years. The equity is on paper as you know. It is not real until the home sells, and profits are netted out. I dont see anything wrong with realizing this gain and as you may know, new laws allow a 55 year old couple to "keep" up to $500k of gains tax free. Balance after that, taxes are required to be paid - IF you dont roll that gain into a new home purchase.
for me any our family, the few homes we bought and sold all fit this situation, and for clarity, practically every home we bought had to be more expensive than the prior, to avoid the tax implications that were in place. I dont feel we have been treated special, but have done what is legally required, and fit us financially at the time.
I may have some fine details slightly incorrect, but I believe this is a fairly accurate assessment of what has gone on for most boomers during our lives. btw we are 68 yrs old, doing okay healthwise, and have 3 adult kids and 5 grandkids to sheppard through the same landscape. I hope they do well for themselves.
take care
rich
PS Kev
now if you want to really talk "welfare" that is monies given to people who have not done a damn thing for it, except perhaps try to get work, cant work or hold a job due to personal issues, or have too many kids and no supporting husband or family to rely on. that is welfare, and from my chair, those folks made their bed. Any monies they get should have some serious conditions attached. such as time limits, must work, drug tests, cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes with SNAP etc. Now that is a system of welfare you should be upset about... rich
I know a couple who have lived in a modest house in Austin, Texas, that they bought 50 years ago for a modest price. 3 beds, 1 bath, built in 1960. It is now "worth" more than a million dollars. The taxes are killing them. But they are both fifth-generation Texans, they worked at blue-collar jobs, they put three kids through college, and in their retirement they are raising two grandchildren whose parents died. They don't want to move out of their house. They don't want to move out of Austin. They don't want to live in an RV. Why should they have to, to satisfy your selfish BS opinions? Get a heart, Kevin, and a tune-up for your brain.
Do your grandparents agree? Another aspect of that 900000 house is that when those narcissistic assholes die, someone will either inherit that house or its worth.
Except that wasn’t the deal was it. Make all the changes you want for future generations. That will be their deal.
This is why government programs like SSA are stupid. Government screws up the way they run the program and everyone bitches about who is getting what. As many have posted here we would be better off investing our own money for retirement. And our employers could have dumped their SSA portion into our 401ks. We already have welfare programs for people who didn’t save enough. Or their families could take care of them like in the old days.
So, sorry, when someone retires and responsibly plans to have their social security as part of their income it is not sensible to pull the rug out from under them. Having a $900k house has little to do with actual wealth. There are many reasons a not otherwise wealthy person may have a valuable house, but selling it isn’t sensible.
That would be an interesting topic for another day. My son feels the same way. Sure more worthwhile than wasting time on a self-indulgent cable show few will bother to watch.
I'm always arguing with the head of our local theatre festival, which strives to be cutting edge. She's always promoting plays that unflinchingly wrestle with racism, or not afraid to tackle transphobia etc. I tell her filling the stage with Black transgenders isn't cutting edge, it's mandatory in this day and age. A play about transgenders who are desperate to reverse the operation, or a Black rights group that is really a con to dupe virtue signaling corporations out of millions; those would be real cutting edge plays. No interest so far.
And entirely unrelated, I just stumbled on the Daniel Deronda series of ten years ago as well. Who knew I wasn't the only one?
Brave cutting edge would be SNL tapping into the gold mine of material provided by Biden, Pelosi, Sharpton, Baldwin. Seriously, SNL milked the hell out of OJ, but Alex is waaaay too close to home. They could learn from the Israeli sketch comedy group who's done some 10/7 comedy.
I cut my teeth on the humor of the 60s-70s when comedy was dangerous and got people arrested.
Long ago they did have their moments. The Betty White bit lampooning NPR was priceless and remains so because self reverential, preening dipsticks are immutable
Ahh and the Phil Hartman years... His sketch of Charlton Heston reading Madonna’s book is one of the funniest things I ever saw. Dana Carvey has a podcast with David spade about that era and they still interview the old cast members about it. It’s priceless.
They were funny until 1990 or so, whenever the original cast was completely replaced. After that, they had only occasional humorous moments, mostly due to Norm McDonald.
I used to love stage theater. Now it's totally ruined. Too many production involve tiresome woke themes. Or else the cast are all gender confused with too-creative pronouns that don't match their sexes even though their photos look as conventionally the sex they are as can be. Tickets for Broadway or big traveling productions are outrageous. God forbid you take the whole family. For the same price you can do a weekend getaway. The smaller arthouses I avoid now because God knows if they only have woke bathrooms that are mix-sexed. Sorry I refuse to use those and no one can make me, and I ain't risking a whole show having to hold it in.
Wow, I thought my husband and I were the only ones bothered by this. Given the general lefty politics of my town, that certainly seemed to be the case. One has to be very careful before willy nilly buying theatre tickets these days. You may just buy yourself a 2.5 hour lecture in wokist values. Yikes!
I wish David Mamet would serial release a new play exclusively to us instead of doing those comics. Those comic strips do nothing for me sorry Mr. Mamet your illustrations honestly aren’t great. But your plays were tops. We theater lovers can use more of them
I'm 50 and I still get attention, just from older men. Some are actually quite attractive older men actually, although I am married and off the market. You aren't going to get the same attention as younger women though, and (here's where the claws will come out for me) a lot of older women just let themselves go. It's tough as there are hormonal issues and you gain weight just looking sideways at a carb, I get it, but I see too many women who just give up and then blame ageism. Men aren't not looking at you because you are 50. They aren't looking at you because you are obese, wearing cheetah print leggings with a muu-muu top, chunky jewlery you could see from space, got one of those middle-age women bob's that makes men dicks shrink back into their body cavities and are wearing the same frosty shade of blue eyeshadow that you wore when you were at your hottest back in the 80's.
If it makes anyone feel better I can go on about middle age men with massive pot bellies wearing dirty sweatpants with poor hygiene habits waxing on about how they need a mail order wife because women just don't appreciate a good man nowadays but you get the picture.
At least those women are trying - putting makeup on and a outfit you think looks nice, accessorized with jewelry, at least that’s something. Maybe the most invisible ones are those who put zero effort into their appearance - no makeup, clothes by the bulk from Costco, no jewelry. When you give up on yourself, others around you feel that, too.
It’s so true though that after a certain age, women are “good looking for their age”. Men are just good looking. Women are good looking with a qualifier.
Oh, I don't know. I'm in my late 50s, and I don't find that men ignore me any more than they did when I was in my 30s. Most people are friendly and pleasant, and some are self-absorbed jerks no matter what.
I have always found that most men ignore me (as a sex object, anyway), even back when I was a teenager. I feared that it was painful proof that I was somehow "ugly," in spite of what the mirror told me. (And my husband tells me almost every day how beautiful I am, which is very nice to hear.)
It took me years to realize that I give off a very strong "don't go there, dude" vibe, which even the dullest of guys seem able to pick up on. As much as it would have been nice to be hit on (as proof that I was "desirable"), I was not about to "put out" even a tiny bit in response.
Yep. I’m approaching 70 and just made a chart topping albeit Indy chart music video as a back up line dancer. And I pump iron with the youguns at a weight lifting gym. No one would bat an eye at this chubby grey haired Granny.
I hear you can get away with pretty much anything including murder now in all Democrat led cities as long as you identify as one of the oppressed classes.
Word. My daughter asked why I don't just let my hair go gray. I told her it's because I'm not ready to be dismissed even faster than I already am. People whine about discrimination because they "identify" as something. They have no flaming clue.
If I had a natural gorgeous silver/gray/white hair color I would do it. Since that isn’t the case (it’s a drab blond threaded with gray), I will continue to have someone color it a totally unnatural red.
My hair was very resistant so i went gray, ok mostly white but I call it blonde, in my 40’s . Plus I never wanted to be like Bob Costas, with very dark hair and wizened face, like no one can tell, hah!
Anyway, you’d be surprised how many compliments you’d get if you went natural. Okay most, well all, of the compliments came from women but still its nice. Besides, just because yiur hair might be dark (ish) once you get to a certain age, you’ll still be invisible.,
It's not that you're invisible so much as reverting to what the rest of us are. You were a minor celebrity (for better or for worse) now you're back to being ordinary.
Once he's no longer an obvious child, a man is either (depending on the person doing the observing) useful, a threat, or background. You can be glad that you, ad an older woman, are limted to two of those.
Nice comment, though I don't totally agree. I don't agree with "either useful, a threat, or background." I think those are way too limiting. I see a mature man and if I have the time I might think he is just interesting, someone I might like to have a conversation with, a fellow human.
I liked this comment because I thought of the spiritual leaders who say, "Strive to be ordinary." The temptation to be famous is not healthy.
Yep. I’m approaching 70 and just made a chart topping albeit Indy chart music video as a back up line dancer. And I pump iron with the youguns at a weight lifting gym. No one would bat an eye at this chubby grey haired Granny. LOL
I am always amused when I hear some woke author or movie star talk about how subversive something is. They only know how trivial, boring, and anything but subversive they are if you lump intellectual rot into that category.
One of the great reasons that Hollywood and movies are failing is that people like Brit Marling are writing, producing, and acting in them. There is little intellectual heft with these people. Sadly, they are the product of the woke education and culture where their self-importance is off the charts. But they have yet to read much history or have any worldly knowledge. But as long as the money flows in, culture will keep getting this crap.
But there is a dowside to this; this thought is like donuts, McDonald's, and soda to the body. If our body politics is fed this nonsense, it rots the soul of a culture and society. We as a country need great storytelling that conveys the cardinal virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and moderation. Our youth and many millennials need to see things that make them productive human beings rather than the neurotic, angry, and depressed group we have today.
It all went downhill when Marlon Brando in his ripped T-shirt lurched around bawling "Stella!"
Before him, we had cinematic heroes who, no matter how badly behaved offscreen, were gallant and well spoken on screen. I'm good with that. And for what it's worth, virtually all of the Hollywood stars enlisted in 1941.
“No one sees a 24-year-old girl coming,” she says, with a wry smile.”
—————————————————
Sex jokes aside, nobody is easier to see coming than a 24-year-old girl. This is not an endorsement of 24-year-old boys, who are also retarded. But God help you if you think 24-year-old girls are doing anything James Bondish.
With that pixie pink hair I honestly didn't see "her" coming. I thought them kind are all they/them nonbinary now.
I'm still sitting here sweating in fear what to make of "her" being a cisgender character. And I thought I FINALLy got the pronoun thing figured out! Why it they a "she"???!
Me? I'm left wondering why Bari wasted her time, you time, and mine on a worthless column like this. I get it....there's plenty of trash on tv, but.....
My daughter has a t-shirt that says.....And Your Point is?
It's a new take on a tired theme, and I don't want to discuss my problems with it, because I may inadvertently disclose spoilers.
In summary, it's been done many times before, but this is the new Hollywood mindset; Let's take something that worked before, only change the races, genders (all 37 of the letters and symbols) and add some new woke spin to the crisis! That's so much easier than actually creating something. Every stereotype represented people who I find annoying, and examples of parental failure on the part of my generation.
Plus, I like Elon.
I told my BIL that he's off my 'critic's choice' list.
My lament as well. Nothing new. No original ideas. Which extends well beyond the fails to entrrtain industry. The only thing new is the language they make up. Giving something a new definition does not do anything except make communication difficult.
Hulu keeps trying to make me watch this. I took one look at the Image and descriptions (and that it had Mandy Patinkin) and I knew it was going to be pushing a message that had nothing to do with the mystery.
I saw a comment on Twitter recently (@cliftonadunca) about how the entertainment industry, Disney specifically, is failing because it’s not entertaining us with fantasy and escapism but with social justice messages that slap us in the face at every turn. That sounds exactly like what this show is. No wonder all the teenagers are watching The Office, Friends, The Simpsons, etc. It’s exhausting to be lectured to all. the. time. Especially when you’re a teenager and even more so when you’re over 40.
I personally don’t care if you are any alphabet related sexual preference. Much like race, when you have to make it central to something, then I feel sorry for you. It’s also an immediate signal to not watch.
The entire movie industry has suffered from the alphabet and race syndrome. Everything must be viewed in the woke prisms. All it does is stifle creativity and enjoyment. So pox on the woke so called movie industry.
What a grand idea. Plagiarize - er, I mean borrow - all the way from Conan Doyle up through Agatha Christie through Columbo, through Murder She Wrote. Take every plot line that has worked for the last - oh, 150 years - put them all in a box, shake them up, add a dash of Woke, and Bob's your uncle. The creator of this series (he/she/they/them/zir/zem/it) should apply for Hahhhhhhhvahhhhhhhhd president. I hear it's available.
While I don't have a timeline, I think it will. I read a compilation of Emerson essays a while back and I was struck by a passage in the introduction. The writer mentioned how far society had frayed during the civil war, and how very uncertain the future seemed.
Ours is not the first age of chaos or strife. I don't believe it will last forever because so much of it is anti logic, anti reason, anti truth. And that which is "anti" must be propped up, it can self-sustain. And no thing can be propped up indefinitely.
And you wonder how Claudine Gay got to the top of Harvard. We live in an instant-ramen, excruciatingly duplicative world where every artistic or social project has to make it through a committee of TV-conditioned children.
One of the joys of becoming ‘awake’ about so many things thanks to the Covid insanity is that I no longer feel I have to watch anything woke. Instead I’ve been rediscovering so many fabulous movies and TV series made before 2000, most of which couldn’t be made now.
Same. We’ve been watching old series on BritBox. 😂
Doing the same with BritBox and Acorn. Have uncovered some wonderful shows with tremendous acting.
I don’t watch BritBox because I’m not a traitor who likes England.
😂….Interestingly the humor sounds American… one sees how we influenced the world in the ‘70s, 80’s …
And yet my favorite series are from England or are an American take on it.
Pity.
Good luck in your new appointment at the New York Times!
I’m a Brit - it’s not the British people it’s their evil government and oligarchs doing the damage!
Don't be ridiculous—it's the ACCENTS that make Brits do evil. Everybody knows that.
I don't watch much of anything made after 1948. Oh, a few -- "Spartacus," say, or "Cold Comfort Farm" -- but in general, spouse and I are content to Google around for pre-Code stuff and lesser known movies featuring silver-screen stars, and to watch favorite movies once a year: "The Magnificent Ambersons," "A Letter to Three Wives," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "I Know Where I'm Going" among them. (It doesn't get much better than Wendy Hiller.)
It might be that at almost 70 and 72, we're in our dotage and, like children, prefer our bestest stories best.
But it might be that it's fun to watch real pros at work.
Speaking of 1948. My favorite of favorite of favorites is "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" - with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison, not to mention a young lady named Natalie Wood. And the incomparable beauty, Audrey Hepburn, in "Roman Holiday" et al. Once you know her back story, you'll love her even more.
My brother always laments that he was born in the wrong century and should have been an 1880s cowboy. I should have come of age in the 'forties; clearly I don't belong here and now.
“Once you know her back story, you'll love her even more”.
There were other actresses from that era whose contributions to the war effort remain largely unknown. My favorite is Hedy Lamarr. Stunningly beautiful, free spirited and brilliant. Overshadowed by her movie career, including the nude scenes in the 1933 movie “Ecstacy”, her inventive genius has long been overlooked. In 1942 she patented a “frequency hopping” communication system, intended to guide torpedoes to their target. She presented it to the Navy but they were too stupid to implement it. The technology exists today in the form of Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth.
Electronics and ham radio have been hobbies for a long time, as well as the history of WWII. I'm pretty familiar with Hedy Lamarr's frequency hopping regime. If I recall, her husband was a rich and pretty high-up player in the fascist arms industry; she would accompany him to meetings but of course as a woman in the 'thirties wasn't allowed to participate. I think she later left him. Her bloodline is Jewish on both sides, so I'm not surprised by her intellectual horsepower.
And DAMN was she a beauty! She did a simulated (maybe) orgasm scene in that movie you mentioned ("Ecstasy") in the 'thirties, and her husband freaked out. Hell, I didn't know they knew women had those things back then ... LOL.
The thing about frequency hopping is that the way the enemy finds your transmissions is to scan across the frequencies and then settle on wherever you are. The FH system splits the signal into components that are at or below background level noise, so you have to know where to go and scan them all simultaneously to put the signal back together. I don't remember exactly, but I think her system used some kind of electromechanical method, like vibrating strings or something equivalent. The new thing now is LoRa - a low bandwidth system a lot of people are planning on using in the next Revolution.
I read that Hedy hung out with Howard Hughes for a bit and was intrigued by his desire to produce ever faster airplanes. She studied the fins and wings of the fastest fish and birds and presented him with sketches for a new wing design. The design caused him to tell her, “you’re a genius”.
You would think some enterprising screenwriter could develop that relationship into a movie script. Instead we get movies about “Barbie” and the gazzillionth Marvel “superhero” character
There's a neat documentary about her. She really had a brain.
Well, Lamarr sued Corel corp. for using her image (unmistakably so) on their product advertising and she later sued Mel Brooks for his "Hedly Lamarr" joke in Blazing Saddles, so maybe people don't want to deal with her estate.
Triple dog-dare upvote.
Vibrating reeds were a Thing in such as multi-channel radio-controlled model aircraft up into the 50s. Amazing what could be done with mechanics; see also the Real History of undersea cables. Laying the cable was (and is) only the beginning; though it's now all computerized.
She created it together with George Antheil, who used to be famous/notorious as a bad-boy composer. He was quite talented, actually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfciL-werS8
Also absolute favorites of mine. Thanks for mentioning.
Bernard Herrmann, who composed the music for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," is buried somewhere near spouse's family plot in Elmont, but for the life of me I cannot find his grave.
He used to joke that that music was his Max Steiner score -- with themes for each of the characters, including the sea. It's great stuff.
I take it you've read that book about Audrey Hepburn's childhood during WWII -- carrying messages for the resistance. Young people today should only know. . . .
They made a TV show of The Ghost and Mrs Muir in the late sixties, with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhane that was wonderful. I've been looking for Gull Cottage ever since!
Yeah, me too...
Love The Ghost and Mrs Muir.
And yet Midnight in Paris was made in 2011. ....
Is any body actually getting any? And why, oh why, oh why, does heterosexuality have to be bad so misandrist lesbian feminism can be right? Is it a fantasy requirement of film producers, as illustrated in Ms. Rosenfield's review of Ms. Marling's Agatha Christie knock-off, that all trendy in the know modern girls be at least bisexual? Or, has all sexuality been stripped of actual love and emotion and reduced to face pierced/tatted mutual masturbation because the frigid corporate sterility of mercenary poseur feminism has at last reduced human love and orgasm to a controlled and monitored function of the bureaucratic surveillance corporate state? Isn't the (repeating myself) attempted DNC/CCP/Davos ball gag on free speech, thought and movement, the willing destruction of lives, freedom and economies, a kind of sideways sadomasochism. In Hollywood the pathology is readily visible in the high jink antics of Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Weinstein, faux Academy Award devil worship and films like the one described. In the political/financial sphere the "we can't wait to diddle your daughters" Epstein crowd. But that's not enough: Now "hey diddle diddle" to your hearts content without consequence because by psyop decree: There is no such thing as a man, a woman or a child. ---- But, as we see daily, and the lesson the world is learning: "Don't f'k with Mother Nature." Or allow yourself to be forced to deny your own. When did healthy heterosexual schtupping become a Class A felony?
By the way, I suspect that like myself, 99% of those present, have nothing against anyones personal sexual preference. For myself, the recurring theme here, the "tell" and the question: Why do so many people have a problem with mine? --- On the gay man/lesbian front the vast majority deserve, not demand, admiration and respect for the hard work they've done in coming to terms with their personal evolution as human beings, their own lives, and the world they live in.
I like Kat's review (and, given the part Brit Marling can act). Likewise Kat's suggested opportunities for entertainment and enrichment at the end. I would like to point out that everyone looks through the elderly. It is not a uniquely female experience. Much of the visible human damage in today's youth is a consequence of, in order to destroy the family, the willing removal of the elderly from social/cultural reality. Their removal, "invisibility", and the ever expanding state euthanasia center is another marker of DNC/CCP/Davos billionaire sadomasochism, narcissism and its desire to reduce the human to disposable "thingdom". (Couldn't resist taking a shot eh Kat?)
The film itself (as described) exists on the fascist/"woke" assumption that their murder and distortion of all things human, the butchering of the adolescent psyche (thus destroying the future), and the capture and final reduction of art to propaganda has been successful. Of course the X boyfriend and his toxic masculinity must, "why can't we kill men", die. And include a protagonist, who like our much loved big/tech surveillance state, likes to break through those pesky firewalls into the private lives of those evil doing "deplorables". What began as a Hollywood requirement that all motion pictures have at least one butched out police woman or federal (" ..gee-she can do it just like a man..") agent, now requires, that the all women leads be at least partially queer. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (the movie) is really just porn land cheap thrill voyeurism and display of what the megalomanic narcissism of power finance and a manipulated and battered society is capable of.. Both the true feminine and the masculine have been assaulted and distorted by the unholy mal pathology of criminal financiers and the mercenary ideological utopian sycophants that -- nothing new to see here--serve them.
"Doctor filth he keeps his world--inside of a leather cup--but all his sexless patients are trying to blow it up--and his nurse-- some local loser--is in charge of the cyanide hole--she also keeps he cards that read--have mercy on his soul. They all play on the penny whistle--you can hear them blow--if you stick your head out far enough from desolation row." B.Dylan
Let's get a room!!
(Sincere thanks for use of your "reply" Bill.)
but Mike- tell us what you REALLY think!!!
Now that was awesome. Out there, but awesome, nevertheless.
And now back to my post workout reverie of slowly pulling Herr Schwab up the lamp post to hang there as the ravens peck out his bulging. lifeless eyes; reflecting the terror of his realization that these serfs aren't servile . Because, in good time wrongs will be righted and scores settled.
True! But the only Woody Allen film we can watch once a year is "Radio Days." And we do.
Not crazy about Allen's later movies, but yes, I've seen all of them once.
"Radio Days" is wonderful, and IMHO, "Broadway Danny Rose" is right up there with it.
[Hours later]
Thank you! Just watched "Broadway Danny Rose," hadn't seen it since the days when red Netflix envelopes were getting delivered, and absolutely roared. I remembered the bit in the Jersey wetlands.
Also, as with Allen's old films, touching.
Especially because he showed the New York I used to know.
cant see a TV dinner without thinking of BDR.. such a great scene and Mia Farrow with her hair..
Love Woody Allen’s movies
Love Audrey Hepburn too - thoroughly enjoyed her in “Charade” and “Sabrina”
Oh, we LOVE “a Letter to Three Wives”, and my husband and I are in our 40’s/50’s. Until I married him, I didn’t have a lot of familiarity with classics, which he introduced me to, and now we are obsessed with watching something from TCM just about every night. And I’m absolutely loving the education.
When "Letter to Three Wives" first came out, audiences were well able to catch the grammar jokes in the scene in which the advertising mogul and his unbearable wife are leaving Rita Phipps's (Ann Southern's) dinner party. How the world has changed.
As soon as VHS tapes and then DVDs let me, I used to show that bit to my students:
"Don't YOU feel badly, my dear," says Mrs. Manleigh to Rita, who is upset at her husband's tirade about radio.
"Bad, not badly! You feel badly like this!" And there's George, the English teacher, played by Kirk Douglas, wagging his finger tips furiously, as though they were malfunctioning, to make his point. I never find George pedantic although I know that some do.
There were other grammar jokes too. I made sure my kids could catch every one of them.
There is no butter in hell. one of my fav lines from Cold Comfort Farm
“I saw something nasty in the woodshed”
Dotage? At 70 and 72?
Good to know, I had better slow down now..
Yes, but I gave you the alternative: Maybe we just like watching real pros.
With real faces.
I wasn't commenting on what you watch. I know millenials who watch flicks from the '40's. I was curious as to you describing yourself and your wife as being in your 'dotage.'
It was a diffident, modest "perhaps."
Perhaps we're in our dotage, or . . . .
LOL...ME TOO!
I've just finished a few months of Westerns. Lot's of John Wayne, and yesterday, For a Few Dollars More.
We've rewatched most of our favorite series including John Adams, Olive Kitteridge and Tremé.
Hollywood is thoroughly broken. Shit, I may even pick up a book again.
May I suggest 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' if it's westerns that suit you - Coen Brothers release around 2017/18. They ain't Hollywood. And they ain't broken..
For a Few Dollars More is one of very favorite Westerns, and certainly my favorite in that trilogy. Lee Van Cleef makes my heart beat a lot faster than Clint Eastwood does.
Outlaw Josie Wales is my favorite Clint Eastwood western.
It has definitely got some of the best dialogue ever written.
I never figured you for one who coveted the bad boys.
Watching Escape from Alcatraz as I type.
We usually watch it every New Year's Eve!!
In real life, no. But the aesthetic appeal I prefer shows up in some bad boys. Looking up at my shelf of Funko Pops, I see Snape, Loki, and Ben Solo (aka Kylo Ren).
Lucius Malfoy was much more attractive than Snape. (In the movies: he's a cretin in the books.)
Good for you!" I get fed up with searching and so - on many evenings - still end up copping for UK drama serials "conforming to the formulaic scriptwriter’s tick-box: Non white person traduced but eventually revealed to be a surprisingly decent sort – Tick....Middle class white person eventually revealed to have a sinister dark side – Tick...Gay Couple included – Tick.... (Post 2017 update: transgender characters urgently needed). More recently it has become an integral part of the story that ‘lgbt’ people are abundant and everywhere. They are bound to be nice as well. Curiously though there is another box to be ticked: there needs to be some graphic depiction of violence especially towards attractive young women (by white men of course)."
There is a grim pleasure to be had in slagging it off though! https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/non-binary-sibling-is-entertaining
True except gay couple is inter-racial and anyone who ever went near a church is a pedophile/murderer/canibal.
I still watch murder mysteries but I have 100% success rate in solving them well before the end. Not by solving any clues, but I immediately know that the white person, especially if male and/or business owner, is guilty (usually paying bribes as a subplot). And the person of color, who is almost always Black, will immediately be seized on as the guilty party. But that is always and everywhere a red herring. Do not fall for that; it's the white guy!
It's become near impossible to find a drama that ISN'T a murder mystery and my wife and I do like you do and 'guess the white villain'. But I have one rule: just ONE murder per episode (or two max) because another trend we've noticed is the serial killer scriptwriter fad where you get a murder every twenty minutes or so..... to keep the viewing figures up (presumably).
My husband and I got a kick out of keeping track of the body count on Midsommer Murders. Three! Seldom 4 or 2, and absolutely never just 1.
Been recently introduced to the Midsommer shtick by a Friend. Moderately entertaining, though the staggering body count in a relatively small population has been a cognitive dissonance from the git-go. Last night stumbled upon the fact that this blood bath has been ongoing for 25 years. In Real Life such a place would have collapsed economically due to lack of population or been bulldozed by the Authorities and the ground salted for being so hazardous.
Don't know your age but back in my (very distant) day the American equivalent was Murder She Wrote, which went on for almost as long. JB Fletcher was a writer in the tiny town of Cabot Cove, Maine, which had one police officer for a town that averaged about three murders per show. So JB was often pulled away from baking her pie or knitting to end the day's murder spree.
I can't look at a bucolic English scene without knowing that there are corpses all over.
I was just about to mention that as a spectacle to behold. But it still manages to maintain its quaint English village feel despite the murders crammed into one hour. In multiple murder American series, it's a much darker, dystopian feel.
The killer is either the richest most obnoxious character or the guest star. I used to be a big fan of Law and Order, both the original and the SVU spin off. But the newest version of L&O launched three years ago doesn't have any of the great actors of the past except Sam Waterson, who has a small role and is starting to show his age. SVU has good episodes except when they're beating the audience over the head with some transgender crap. L&O also falls into the woke nonsense at times, as in an episode where a masculine black army officer comes out as trans at the end. If this guy was trans, then I'm the Pope. Of course if a black suspect is shot or has to be physically subdued, it's almost always by a black officer. Most of the episodes in first 15 or so seasons of L&O are better than any cop shows done today.
To me, shows like Law and Order were less about figuring out who did it and more about figuring out how to prove who did it.
I've just been reminded of a great pre-2000 BBC drama series....the Catherine Cookson novel dramatisations. Great stories with no nonsense (possibly better in fact than the novels themselves).
Thank you! You just reminded me of one of my all time favorite authors, Catherine Cookson. Off on a search for her now.
“Instead I’ve been rediscovering so many fabulous movies and TV series made before 2000”
————————————————
‘The Hangover’ starts with a scene where Bradley Cooper is yelling
“Paging Dr. Faggot!!!”
Northern Exposure on Amazon!
Great show. We are rewatching Seinfeld, and with nine years worth of episodes, it should take us through most of the winter. I had forgotten how the show got wittier and sharper with each season!
Thanks for the tip! It used to be one of my favourite shows.
loved it. the one where they break that bottle of wine. great..
Loved that show!
FP is now a movie critic?
Doesn't this topic fall under, "Who give a shit?".
Most newspapers have a movie review section. I like the branching out.
I have a distain for anything Hollywood.
well then you agree with the author
Sounds like this is content you can skip then. Just like how, despite my love of Douglas Murray, I tend to skip his Poetry posts because poetry doesn't do it for me.
You are correct.
I was going to say the same thing. But slogging through the comments is a nice break from plain-old-politics as usual. Glad to know so many still seek out the qualities the woke strive to obliterate with nonsense like this.
I suggest the topic “I don’t need to read this one.” It is odd how many commenters seem to feel that a site should only post content that they are personally interested in.
To my eye the point is the cultural rot, not the actual content or quality.
I think the most noteworthy part of this review was discovering that the show's writers and producers think they are actually being cutting edge. That anyone *doesn't* see a young, sexy, tattooed girl coming.
The show is a cliché, and the Woke people who made it have no idea.
There was a great old SNL sketch (I know!) called “High School Theater Show” where a bunch of parents are watching their students put on some sort of modern theater art piece full of these kinds of trite “think about it” messages. (https://youtu.be/sMgXzuz5Ecs)
The parents are in misery and the best moment is when one parent says to the other, “I just hate that they think that they’re teaching us.”
My wife and I repeat that phrase constantly these days.
I have been saying for a while now that the biggest issues with so much of the woke writing is that if you took the woke part out, it would still be bad. Because the writers are just not good at their craft. In this case thinking that they are being subversive while shouting their intent at the audience.
There are ways they could have told this story that made it both good AND still had their overall point. They just aren't capable of pulling it off. Likely because they were hired because they checked boxes, not because they are actually good filmmakers.
The reality is that propaganda is almost never good art.
I will never forget sitting in the theater during the opening credits of the latest attempt to film A Wrinkle in Time. The director (who checked all the boxes) appeared on the screen to talk in a very pleading voice about HOW HARD everyone had worked on the film. I knew at that moment it would be bad, because the only directors who plead with an audience that way are doing middle school or lower productions.
The irony was that the special effects were amazing--pretty nearly perfect at capture the magic of the book. But the script....
That is a great way to tell....or if the creators are insulting part of audience for not supporting it or something similar. That is very common these days. Take a popular property. Wokify it. Then call the fans nazis for not going and seeing a bastardized version of the thing they love. And then somehow, they think this will bring in audiences.
Look at She-Hulk. The whole season ended up being a direct middle finger to the fans of the comics. They purposefully made it in a way they knew would enrage fans. Then they made fun of the fans for getting upset, IN THE SHOW. The point of the show was to point out how fans get upset for changing things. How did someone think this plan would make money? Why would you pay billions for a property and then do everything in your power to drive away the fans, who are why the property you bought was worth anything to begin with.
Now there, Lonesome, you made me laugh. Enjoy the weekend..
Me too. It's amazing how well most of my favorites have held up. I don't think the same will be said 20 years from now about the current crop.
Agreed! I just re-watched 1974 Death Wish with Charles Bronson on Netflix.
How amazing to watch the NYC Mayor and Police Commissioner tell the Lead detective played by Vincent Gardenia that because Charles Bronson as "The Vigilante" has made the crime rate go way down, they do NOT want him arrested, just make him go away.
Juxtapose that with 2024's NYC "Vigilante: Daniel Perry who is of course being prosecuted for felony murder in 2024's Pro-Criminal" NYC
Watched it last week! So apropos for today!
I saw "Death Wish" up in Glen Falls, NY, when it came out. How the audience cheered whenever yet another thug got his comeuppance!
Just rewatched Escape from New York. "Snake, I thought you were dead."😝
Same! I give everything the five minute test. That's all it takes to know if I'm getting an SJW lesson.
"McCabe and Mrs. MIller" is worth watching again.
Love recommendations!
That's exactly my words as we switch channels "no thanks, I want a story not a lesson in what to think". And as you say, it takes 5 minutes max to spot the SJW lesson coming!
My household too. We're going back to old movies and tv shows, some as far back as the 40s. Lots of gems and good writing.
Every time I see Hollywood on strike, it occurs to me that so much wonderful content has already been created that I could happily spend the rest of my life consuming only past content, obviating any need for Hollywood.
Same here! Aside from some live sporting events I rarely if ever turn the TV on. It’s such a drag to be scolded and lectured to by these phonies . Covid was such a wake up call. I was sleepwalking through the first 50 years of my life, but my eyes started opening in April 2020. My cynicism and skepticism in regards to anything said or done by any mainstream/elite institutions has grown tremendously. I blindly believe nothing that I’m told.
I gave the Horton Foote/Robert Duval movie classic TENDER MERCIES a rewatch last evening. I'm working toward owning a thousand of the best motion pictures/ films (there seems to be a difference). Books likewise. Most recently I've been rereading Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and, God help me, for the first time, Hannah Arendt's THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM.
In my view it's time to begin personally collecting and protecting the best in available music, art, film and literature. The corporate fascism driving and funding iconoclastic "woke" fully intends to destroy it.
And they are working to bowdlerize and censor old books and movies even after you "buy" them. Anything you buy streaming rights to is subject to meddling after the fact. Your only defense is to buy hard copies of both books and video and keep them in your home. I wish I could direct you to a reference here, but I've forgotten where I read this.
Exactly. If you like art in all its forms unadulterated, original and not tampered with to satisfy modern mores, buy hard copy of everything. And buy it fast.
No reference needed. I've got book shelves full of vids, music and of course books. Ideological utopian nitwits in service to narcissistic criminal financiers. Fearful moral cripples convinced that destroying the world will erase their culpability for doing so. (Stay strong-stay clear.)
So grateful for today’s read giving me the heads up, I definitely won’t be watching this crap.
Shitcanned the TV about 30 years ago. Problem doesn't even arise.
Clever human!!
There are good ones until about 2012 to 2014. Both Girl with the dragon tattoo and many of the Veronica Mars episodes were made
One of the things I appreciate about VM these days is that she wasn't flawless. She made mistakes and bit off more than she could chew. More than once she was in a positions where she was in real danger. But she was tough and didn't give up and eventually overcame.
Just watched Airplane on prime. It's still laugh out loud funny, but I was kind of surprised it is "allowed" to be viewed these days!
There’s nothing particularly unique about a younger generation that thinks itself more talented and intellectually superior to its predecessors…
It is, however, uniquely annoying when said younger generation manages to grab hold of the megaphone and insists I acknowledge “their truth,” while steadfastly and earnestly denying everyone else’s.
I do find it hilarious that the generation of transexual vegan communists still is not as bad as the boomers. No matter how hard you try you can’t be worse than the boomers.
I hope you are being sarcastic because I am a baby boomer and happen to think we are pretty damn good. Most of us worked our asses off to get where we are and went through many tough times such as the Vietnam war and 9/11 amongst many other challenges.
Have them list their accomplishments. That’s the only measure of a generation’s success. Interestingly it looks like we boomers wrecked the place starting with EEO right around the time a bunch of (mostly) white guys smoking cigarettes went to the moon. Our error was thinking if you’re nice to people using public policy they will change. Took a while to realize that’s false. Maybe the hatest-generations will clean that up before the “oppressed” take all of their money away.
Hordes of fat former hippies waxing nostalgic about fornicating and defecating in the mud in a haze of drugs on Yasgur's Farm? Which the majority never came anywhere near? That generation?
I don't know any of those people. I do know, however, the people who transformed the planet into the richest, best-fed, best-clothed, healthiest place for humans that it has been since the dawn of time, only to have it attacked and downgraded by their pampered ungrateful offspring.
Those people.
All that would be forgiven if they would forego the $1600 welfare check from the government that is being sent every month to their $900,000 house that they refuse to downsize out of.
It's not a problem. Just tell the gub'ment to give me back all my FICA they took from my paycheck at gunpoint (If you don't think they tax you at gunpoint, don't pay your taxes this year.) and then spent. Hell, I won't even ask for the 11% compounded that I could have had putting MY money into an index fund all those years.
No, that's not welfare; that's MY money and I want it back, what little is left of it.
Be more than happy to exchange my “welfare” check for the money taken out of my pay-roll check every month for 40 years with the interest and capital gains I could have earned with that money invested. By my calculation and with the returns I got on the money I did invest - it would be worth at least 2 million and at a 4% withdrawal rate - way more than I get from the government. And that doesn’t even count the money the companies I worked for forked over on my behalf to said government. (BTW - Trump just said he ain’t touching SS reform - so more of the same even after you vote.)
Kevin
what "welfare" check is that exactly? and is downsizing your house a requirement for older people today?
thx
Two things have made housing unaffordable:
1) millions of college-‘educated’ useless parasites working bullshit jobs that pay well
2) old people being subsidized so that they never have to downsize their lifestyle in retirement
I think any experienced realtor could give you half a dozen far more relevant reasons than these prejudicial ones why more affordable housing is not more available. You need to think outside your particular disillusionment.
In Canada the housing shortage in cities is blamed on:
1. Out of control immigration (legal and otherwise), and
2. Foreign students (colleges and universities provide them with questionable educations and the “students” get on the fast track to permanent residency.
Why do you assume retirees would have to downsize? My parents had their homes paid off before they even retired. They saved enough that they did not have to change their lifestyle regardless of a government check. Are they supposed to move out of a house they have added onto and improved over decades because they don't work anymore?
I often agree with you on things around here. This one definitely feels like you are being narrowly focused on a specific type of person and then broadly painting all of people of a certain age with that brush.
Housing is affordable in places where the government allows housing to be built. No new housing, housing goes up. And the people who bought their houses decades ago generally keep them or sell them back at this new higher rate. So even if they all left, it would be expensive.
There are many issues with housing. Retirees getting their social security money back after a lifetime of paying into it is probably not a huge factor...and certainly doesn't seem unfair to me. Certainly not less fair than a young person who expects to start out with a 4 bedroom home as their first one.
Social Security. I think it’s about $1600/mo.
You should not receive any money from the government ever when you own property worth $900,000.
You can sell your $900,000 house and live comfortably in an RV without destroying the national currency.
Kev
here is my story, which I believe may be similar to lots of long term working boomers if you will. Certainly not all, but I feel I am pretty middle of the road. I started "paying into" SS in 1978. By paying, you must recognize that us working folks did put money into SSA, matched by our employers contribution of same amout, and we also put into Medicare for our future retirement.
my monthly is approx $3500, less ~$200 for addl Medicare coverage.
Then this net amount is taxed at approx a 15% rate. As another fellow suggests, I would have preferred to put my 40+ years of SS contributions towards my 401k or other retirement plans, and manage that as I did my retirement funds, and keep the govt out of the program. But, as you also know, the govt has not invested the SS pool wisely. For years, current workers monies have been paying off older retirees SS needs, or more accurately, commitments the govt has made to retirees.
Do I think the system needs some updating, certainly. IF we as a country can get behind some common sense reforms, that is a good idea. Now the issue is, who gets to decide what is common sense, or perhaps "fair" to those impacted. *note , my wife also worked, and receives a much smaller monthly SS amount than I do.
With our SS and some small withdrawls from our 401k plans (also taxed) we manage to make our life okay. If we have medical issues, then the dynamic may change significantly.
RE home ownership. As this implies, we "own" or are making mortgage payments on our (much smaller/downsized) home we retired to in Texas. The bulk of the equity we recd from our last home sale, was used towards the payment for a new house. I am well aware that many folks, of all generations who have bought or are buying a home, have benefitted from an equity bubble. It is not always the case, but more so the past 20 years. The equity is on paper as you know. It is not real until the home sells, and profits are netted out. I dont see anything wrong with realizing this gain and as you may know, new laws allow a 55 year old couple to "keep" up to $500k of gains tax free. Balance after that, taxes are required to be paid - IF you dont roll that gain into a new home purchase.
for me any our family, the few homes we bought and sold all fit this situation, and for clarity, practically every home we bought had to be more expensive than the prior, to avoid the tax implications that were in place. I dont feel we have been treated special, but have done what is legally required, and fit us financially at the time.
I may have some fine details slightly incorrect, but I believe this is a fairly accurate assessment of what has gone on for most boomers during our lives. btw we are 68 yrs old, doing okay healthwise, and have 3 adult kids and 5 grandkids to sheppard through the same landscape. I hope they do well for themselves.
take care
rich
PS Kev
now if you want to really talk "welfare" that is monies given to people who have not done a damn thing for it, except perhaps try to get work, cant work or hold a job due to personal issues, or have too many kids and no supporting husband or family to rely on. that is welfare, and from my chair, those folks made their bed. Any monies they get should have some serious conditions attached. such as time limits, must work, drug tests, cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes with SNAP etc. Now that is a system of welfare you should be upset about... rich
I know a couple who have lived in a modest house in Austin, Texas, that they bought 50 years ago for a modest price. 3 beds, 1 bath, built in 1960. It is now "worth" more than a million dollars. The taxes are killing them. But they are both fifth-generation Texans, they worked at blue-collar jobs, they put three kids through college, and in their retirement they are raising two grandchildren whose parents died. They don't want to move out of their house. They don't want to move out of Austin. They don't want to live in an RV. Why should they have to, to satisfy your selfish BS opinions? Get a heart, Kevin, and a tune-up for your brain.
To each according to his needs; from each according to his abilities. Give me a leg up; where have I heard that before?
Do your grandparents agree? Another aspect of that 900000 house is that when those narcissistic assholes die, someone will either inherit that house or its worth.
Except that wasn’t the deal was it. Make all the changes you want for future generations. That will be their deal.
This is why government programs like SSA are stupid. Government screws up the way they run the program and everyone bitches about who is getting what. As many have posted here we would be better off investing our own money for retirement. And our employers could have dumped their SSA portion into our 401ks. We already have welfare programs for people who didn’t save enough. Or their families could take care of them like in the old days.
So, sorry, when someone retires and responsibly plans to have their social security as part of their income it is not sensible to pull the rug out from under them. Having a $900k house has little to do with actual wealth. There are many reasons a not otherwise wealthy person may have a valuable house, but selling it isn’t sensible.
You very conveniently lump us all together. I think you are way off base for most of us.
That would be an interesting topic for another day. My son feels the same way. Sure more worthwhile than wasting time on a self-indulgent cable show few will bother to watch.
Phew you hit a vein here...
Wow. How original. You've got the 'boomers' schtick down pat. Brilliant.
So I guess you're not one of us then.
😂
I'm always arguing with the head of our local theatre festival, which strives to be cutting edge. She's always promoting plays that unflinchingly wrestle with racism, or not afraid to tackle transphobia etc. I tell her filling the stage with Black transgenders isn't cutting edge, it's mandatory in this day and age. A play about transgenders who are desperate to reverse the operation, or a Black rights group that is really a con to dupe virtue signaling corporations out of millions; those would be real cutting edge plays. No interest so far.
And entirely unrelated, I just stumbled on the Daniel Deronda series of ten years ago as well. Who knew I wasn't the only one?
Brave cutting edge would be SNL tapping into the gold mine of material provided by Biden, Pelosi, Sharpton, Baldwin. Seriously, SNL milked the hell out of OJ, but Alex is waaaay too close to home. They could learn from the Israeli sketch comedy group who's done some 10/7 comedy.
I cut my teeth on the humor of the 60s-70s when comedy was dangerous and got people arrested.
Still
Not
Laughing
SNL has never been funny. I’m suspicious of people who think it is, too.
Long ago they did have their moments. The Betty White bit lampooning NPR was priceless and remains so because self reverential, preening dipsticks are immutable
Ahh and the Phil Hartman years... His sketch of Charlton Heston reading Madonna’s book is one of the funniest things I ever saw. Dana Carvey has a podcast with David spade about that era and they still interview the old cast members about it. It’s priceless.
Pars and Recreation also had a running bit with a local public radio host. Not over the top but spot on and funny!
You don’t think Eddie Murphy playing Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson was funny? Even funnier now.
They were funny until 1990 or so, whenever the original cast was completely replaced. After that, they had only occasional humorous moments, mostly due to Norm McDonald.
I used to love stage theater. Now it's totally ruined. Too many production involve tiresome woke themes. Or else the cast are all gender confused with too-creative pronouns that don't match their sexes even though their photos look as conventionally the sex they are as can be. Tickets for Broadway or big traveling productions are outrageous. God forbid you take the whole family. For the same price you can do a weekend getaway. The smaller arthouses I avoid now because God knows if they only have woke bathrooms that are mix-sexed. Sorry I refuse to use those and no one can make me, and I ain't risking a whole show having to hold it in.
Wow, I thought my husband and I were the only ones bothered by this. Given the general lefty politics of my town, that certainly seemed to be the case. One has to be very careful before willy nilly buying theatre tickets these days. You may just buy yourself a 2.5 hour lecture in wokist values. Yikes!
I wish David Mamet would serial release a new play exclusively to us instead of doing those comics. Those comic strips do nothing for me sorry Mr. Mamet your illustrations honestly aren’t great. But your plays were tops. We theater lovers can use more of them
Thus the business of theatre is suffering. "Why aren't we filling the seats?", they ponder. Duh.
the woman who’s gotten so old that men don’t just underestimate her, but look right through her as if she doesn’t exist at all.
IE invisible
And you don’t have to be 70 to be invisible, past 50 will do. Us older women could literally rob a bank, sans mask, and they’d never catch us
I'm 50 and I still get attention, just from older men. Some are actually quite attractive older men actually, although I am married and off the market. You aren't going to get the same attention as younger women though, and (here's where the claws will come out for me) a lot of older women just let themselves go. It's tough as there are hormonal issues and you gain weight just looking sideways at a carb, I get it, but I see too many women who just give up and then blame ageism. Men aren't not looking at you because you are 50. They aren't looking at you because you are obese, wearing cheetah print leggings with a muu-muu top, chunky jewlery you could see from space, got one of those middle-age women bob's that makes men dicks shrink back into their body cavities and are wearing the same frosty shade of blue eyeshadow that you wore when you were at your hottest back in the 80's.
If it makes anyone feel better I can go on about middle age men with massive pot bellies wearing dirty sweatpants with poor hygiene habits waxing on about how they need a mail order wife because women just don't appreciate a good man nowadays but you get the picture.
At least those women are trying - putting makeup on and a outfit you think looks nice, accessorized with jewelry, at least that’s something. Maybe the most invisible ones are those who put zero effort into their appearance - no makeup, clothes by the bulk from Costco, no jewelry. When you give up on yourself, others around you feel that, too.
It’s so true though that after a certain age, women are “good looking for their age”. Men are just good looking. Women are good looking with a qualifier.
Oh, I don't know. I'm in my late 50s, and I don't find that men ignore me any more than they did when I was in my 30s. Most people are friendly and pleasant, and some are self-absorbed jerks no matter what.
I have always found that most men ignore me (as a sex object, anyway), even back when I was a teenager. I feared that it was painful proof that I was somehow "ugly," in spite of what the mirror told me. (And my husband tells me almost every day how beautiful I am, which is very nice to hear.)
It took me years to realize that I give off a very strong "don't go there, dude" vibe, which even the dullest of guys seem able to pick up on. As much as it would have been nice to be hit on (as proof that I was "desirable"), I was not about to "put out" even a tiny bit in response.
I think I remind people of an intimidating teacher who made them spell and punctuate correctly.
Sorry to burst that bubble but there are many who feel that a woman doesn't even become interesting or alluring until she passes 40.
Yep. I’m approaching 70 and just made a chart topping albeit Indy chart music video as a back up line dancer. And I pump iron with the youguns at a weight lifting gym. No one would bat an eye at this chubby grey haired Granny.
Shrug. In New York City, getting away with anything isn't a feat.
I hear you can get away with pretty much anything including murder now in all Democrat led cities as long as you identify as one of the oppressed classes.
I’m talking about the real world not woke city
Which, for all its faults, is the place I was born, and my parents before me, and so home it is. One grieves for it, hopes for the best, and remains.
Look what Nancy got away with, and she was drunk and busy covering up for her basket case of a husband nearly full time.
I think they were a team who were very useful to each other. She provided the useful info, he made the useful trades.
Word. My daughter asked why I don't just let my hair go gray. I told her it's because I'm not ready to be dismissed even faster than I already am. People whine about discrimination because they "identify" as something. They have no flaming clue.
Letting my hair turn silver was the most freeing decision I ever made and I’m not alone. It’s a new world.
If I had a natural gorgeous silver/gray/white hair color I would do it. Since that isn’t the case (it’s a drab blond threaded with gray), I will continue to have someone color it a totally unnatural red.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm always thinking about it. I'm sure it will feel right one of these days.
My hair was very resistant so i went gray, ok mostly white but I call it blonde, in my 40’s . Plus I never wanted to be like Bob Costas, with very dark hair and wizened face, like no one can tell, hah!
Anyway, you’d be surprised how many compliments you’d get if you went natural. Okay most, well all, of the compliments came from women but still its nice. Besides, just because yiur hair might be dark (ish) once you get to a certain age, you’ll still be invisible.,
To me, the color is less important than the style. Flowing streaks to straight white is still beautiful to me.
It's not that you're invisible so much as reverting to what the rest of us are. You were a minor celebrity (for better or for worse) now you're back to being ordinary.
Once he's no longer an obvious child, a man is either (depending on the person doing the observing) useful, a threat, or background. You can be glad that you, ad an older woman, are limted to two of those.
Nice comment, though I don't totally agree. I don't agree with "either useful, a threat, or background." I think those are way too limiting. I see a mature man and if I have the time I might think he is just interesting, someone I might like to have a conversation with, a fellow human.
I liked this comment because I thought of the spiritual leaders who say, "Strive to be ordinary." The temptation to be famous is not healthy.
I literally have no idea what your point is.
Good point.
Yep. I’m approaching 70 and just made a chart topping albeit Indy chart music video as a back up line dancer. And I pump iron with the youguns at a weight lifting gym. No one would bat an eye at this chubby grey haired Granny. LOL
That's awesome! You go, girl!
I am always amused when I hear some woke author or movie star talk about how subversive something is. They only know how trivial, boring, and anything but subversive they are if you lump intellectual rot into that category.
One of the great reasons that Hollywood and movies are failing is that people like Brit Marling are writing, producing, and acting in them. There is little intellectual heft with these people. Sadly, they are the product of the woke education and culture where their self-importance is off the charts. But they have yet to read much history or have any worldly knowledge. But as long as the money flows in, culture will keep getting this crap.
But there is a dowside to this; this thought is like donuts, McDonald's, and soda to the body. If our body politics is fed this nonsense, it rots the soul of a culture and society. We as a country need great storytelling that conveys the cardinal virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and moderation. Our youth and many millennials need to see things that make them productive human beings rather than the neurotic, angry, and depressed group we have today.
Yikes! "Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and moderation". Brother, you're preaching to the choir. Virtures of a past generation. (May I add humility?)
It all went downhill when Marlon Brando in his ripped T-shirt lurched around bawling "Stella!"
Before him, we had cinematic heroes who, no matter how badly behaved offscreen, were gallant and well spoken on screen. I'm good with that. And for what it's worth, virtually all of the Hollywood stars enlisted in 1941.
Get da buttah.....
One of my favorite flicks. Of course if I wax too poetic about it, I'll be banned here. Marlon at his finest stout form..ahem
“No one sees a 24-year-old girl coming,” she says, with a wry smile.”
—————————————————
Sex jokes aside, nobody is easier to see coming than a 24-year-old girl. This is not an endorsement of 24-year-old boys, who are also retarded. But God help you if you think 24-year-old girls are doing anything James Bondish.
But, all those Hamas protests....
They're wearing those cool masks and holding their fists in the air and everything.
It’s possible that it was a bad idea to let Democrats, who hate America, run the schools.
As if it was a stretch to see that coming, too........
And screaming like banshees.
With that pixie pink hair I honestly didn't see "her" coming. I thought them kind are all they/them nonbinary now.
I'm still sitting here sweating in fear what to make of "her" being a cisgender character. And I thought I FINALLy got the pronoun thing figured out! Why it they a "she"???!
Me? I'm left wondering why Bari wasted her time, you time, and mine on a worthless column like this. I get it....there's plenty of trash on tv, but.....
My daughter has a t-shirt that says.....And Your Point is?
If you wasted your time reading it and then wasted more time commenting on it, how is that Bari’s (or the author’s) fault?
They saved us two hours of having to watch it! I hope the author got paid double overtime because she’ll never get those hours back.
It spun some really nice comments; which far outpace the story.
Kat writes murder mysteries/psychological thrillers--good ones. Which I assume explains her interest in the field.
I still don’t even know what a woman is
Definitely the most perplexing question of our time
How could you? Only highly trained and preferably Ivy League biologists possibly know.
“Darby Hart is brilliant, young, bisexual, and beautiful. But she’s no feminist hero, writes Kat Rosenfield.”
——————————————————
This reminds me of the greatest quote I’ve heard recently. I am mad I didn’t come up with it myself.
“We are all, especially children, walking barefoot on the shards of the glass ceiling that women broke.”
-Joshua Slocum
I started this on the recommendation of my BIL.
It's a new take on a tired theme, and I don't want to discuss my problems with it, because I may inadvertently disclose spoilers.
In summary, it's been done many times before, but this is the new Hollywood mindset; Let's take something that worked before, only change the races, genders (all 37 of the letters and symbols) and add some new woke spin to the crisis! That's so much easier than actually creating something. Every stereotype represented people who I find annoying, and examples of parental failure on the part of my generation.
Plus, I like Elon.
I told my BIL that he's off my 'critic's choice' list.
My lament as well. Nothing new. No original ideas. Which extends well beyond the fails to entrrtain industry. The only thing new is the language they make up. Giving something a new definition does not do anything except make communication difficult.
Hulu keeps trying to make me watch this. I took one look at the Image and descriptions (and that it had Mandy Patinkin) and I knew it was going to be pushing a message that had nothing to do with the mystery.
I am not a Hulu subscriber. It is a Disney subsidiary. I know they are all woke, but to me Hulu is excessively so.
I saw a comment on Twitter recently (@cliftonadunca) about how the entertainment industry, Disney specifically, is failing because it’s not entertaining us with fantasy and escapism but with social justice messages that slap us in the face at every turn. That sounds exactly like what this show is. No wonder all the teenagers are watching The Office, Friends, The Simpsons, etc. It’s exhausting to be lectured to all. the. time. Especially when you’re a teenager and even more so when you’re over 40.
@cliftonaduncan
Typo in my comment above.
They used to be mocked as "scolds." Now they run the show. Thank you Democrats and your teachiz yoouyun stooges.
Dana Carvey lampooned “the church lady,” and these new guys ARE the church ladies!
"Well isn't that special." That character was brilliant.
I personally don’t care if you are any alphabet related sexual preference. Much like race, when you have to make it central to something, then I feel sorry for you. It’s also an immediate signal to not watch.
The entire movie industry has suffered from the alphabet and race syndrome. Everything must be viewed in the woke prisms. All it does is stifle creativity and enjoyment. So pox on the woke so called movie industry.
Good analysis
What a grand idea. Plagiarize - er, I mean borrow - all the way from Conan Doyle up through Agatha Christie through Columbo, through Murder She Wrote. Take every plot line that has worked for the last - oh, 150 years - put them all in a box, shake them up, add a dash of Woke, and Bob's your uncle. The creator of this series (he/she/they/them/zir/zem/it) should apply for Hahhhhhhhvahhhhhhhhd president. I hear it's available.
Good one, Jim... funny
“ She moves through the story like the living embodiment of a comments-section diatribe…”
I love this turn of phrase! 😂
Yes, I LOL-ed at that line.
If a new TV show or movie doesn't contain *the message* does it even exist?
Just think about how many billions of dollars were spending to produce this propaganda, which will be lost to time once society goes sane again.
Many generations ago, there was a movie mogul who was quoted as saying, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union".
Preston Sturges, I believe.
Will it go sane again? Seems like it is 2 steps forward and 3 back and the line of sanity keeps creeping back
While I don't have a timeline, I think it will. I read a compilation of Emerson essays a while back and I was struck by a passage in the introduction. The writer mentioned how far society had frayed during the civil war, and how very uncertain the future seemed.
Ours is not the first age of chaos or strife. I don't believe it will last forever because so much of it is anti logic, anti reason, anti truth. And that which is "anti" must be propped up, it can self-sustain. And no thing can be propped up indefinitely.
Hope you’re right.
Yes, they do exist. You have to look hard for them. Check this out....
10 years old, Australian, old fashioned love story, drama & comedy, great music, no violence.
https://movies2watch.tv/tv/watch-offspring-hd-37790
And you wonder how Claudine Gay got to the top of Harvard. We live in an instant-ramen, excruciatingly duplicative world where every artistic or social project has to make it through a committee of TV-conditioned children.
One merely has to visit the Whitney in NYC to see your lament writ large.
Kat,
Your review was excellent.
Thank you for your insight and obvious talent.
"a 70-year-old grandma in bifocals and a housecoat"
Miss Marple, you mean? Or the protagonist in Helene Tursten's "An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good"?
Murder, She Wrote.
Yes, but, as a professional mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher was more of an expected crime-solver.
I know just know no one their right mind would move to Cabot Cove!
Or Badger's Drift.