Netflix (and other VOD) recommendations

That particular episode was only half an hour. I’m still getting used to that with Netflix!

Oh yeah Lore also varied from 35 minutes up to an hour. And that was on amazon. Haunting Of Hill House also has a 70 minute episode in the middle of the season while others are like 45 minutes.

The advantage over classic TV is that they are as long as they´re supposed to be and nothing gets cut for time when it´s too long (probably) or paced out and dragged on when it´s too short.

1 Like

Yeah, it’s definitely a benefit but is just a surprise sometimes. And means I can’t plan properly :smile:

You´re saying you don´t know what to with the extra 15 minutes now? :scream_cat:

But yeah, I think you have to get used to look at the episode lists in advance, I always do that now.

1 Like

Yeah, you’re right, should be obvious huh :monkey:

1 Like

Or if that´s too much maybe something more casual (see your latest blog post :wink: )

1 Like

Seems you know me much better than I know myself :smirk:

:joy:

1 Like

Maniac was brilliant. I highly recommend. I’d like to watch it through again as I was distracted during some of the episodes, and I know I missed things - especially as later on there were some clever connections and references.

The beginning of episode 9 had me beaming at the TV in amusement. Jonah Hill totally proved me wrong in my theory that he’s a bit one-dimensional.

And some of the moments between Annie and her sister were so moving. To me those were Emma Stone’s best performances, not the comedy parts.

Lots of good actors in it, too - Justin Theroux and Sonoya Mizuno were both great. And a nice surprise when Hank Azaria popped up towards the end!

I kind of hope they don’t do another series at that was a nice amount of episodes and it ended well. It felt like watching a feature film in ten parts.

1 Like

Thanks for the warning @milanfahrnholz. Didn’t find it too bad :smiley_cat:

1 Like

Good, I might have played it up a little. :relieved:

I guess the bug crawling out of the mouth thing might have been a bit more disturbing (and it also got mirrored on the body of the sister later) then the giant white eyes. But those stiff little kittens also looked real realistic.

But the whole thing about responsibilty and first encounters with mortality through pets was told really well that way if you think about it.

Looking forward to more comments from you on that show. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Yeah - I really liked how they brought those two things together in that morgue scene.

1 Like

Ok. Tonight I watched the finale of Better Call Saul, too.

I’m a bit disappointed. I had great expectations with this 4th series.

I had the impression the 4th series would have been the last, but at half of the way I understood there was room for a fifth series.

In many occasions the story seemed to drag.

Chuck died abruptly at the very beginning, giving the impression it was not a plot twist, but a “cast twist”. And if it was a really intended plot twist, it was really badly made, if it gave such a wrong impression.

The subplots were all canceled. No more Chuck and his disease, no more Mesa Verde affair, no more bizarre career stunts by Jimmy , no more HHM stories. And even no more Mike’s drama, except for the episode with the references to his lost son. Just the story of the cartel, with no more Hector Salamanca and a Gus Fring in rapid ascent. The only thrill, there, is Nacho’s fate, who is between a rock, a hard place and he has the Sword of Damocles of being absent in Breaking Bad over his head. And just the story of a depressed Jimmy, who is suspended from the profession for the whole 4th series, while his relationship with Kim is wearing worse episode after episode. By the way, how and when, precisely, did he lose his professional license? I forgot it.
In the whole 4th series doesn’t happen much. The tone is much more sad and anhedonic. It is difficult, for a moviemaker, to make something good out of this. But these guys are good, and they try to save the product with their gorgeous shots and good photography, and their great storytelling. The shots are great, I agree with @PiecesOfKate: the shots from inside the machines (the parking machine, the coffee machines) are fantastic. But what to say of the whole intro in splitscreen about the routine life of Jimmy and Kim? That’s a masterpiece in storytelling!
Anyway, I felt everything to be too much dragged. Why Jimmy is so different in this series? Ok, his borther is dead, but why he behaves so weirdly and in such a self destructive way?
The only moment in which I start to understand what’s happening into his mind is in the last episode. Which is sad as hell, but still not much happens. Except that you can frankly tell how come Kim won’t appear in Breaking Bad.

2 Likes

I agree this season dragged but thought the last episode was worthwhile. Hopefully season 5 will finally put the cap on the questions of why Nacho and Kim aren’t in Breaking Bad.

Yes, I wonder how much of the mood is in the writing, or how much is just Bob Odenkirk’s general vibe.

I found it got less interesting when those parts suddenly stopped, too. But I guess they were just building up to Chuck’s death. I didn’t get the immediate impression that was solely because McKean wanted to leave, but maybe a combination of the two.

He lost it after Chuck set him up. Chuck recorded Jimmy confessing that he manipulated the case he was working on. Jimmy broke in to destroy the tape, and Howard and an investigator were there to witness it.

I must admit, to me it feels a bit like they’re rushing to transform his character into Breaking Bad’s argh stop changing that to Breaking Brad! Saul, because by the time they reach that part of the timeline he’s a very different person. It’s a shame, I like him as he is now, but I guess the point is he’s so messed up by the events in his life he just becomes a cold cynic.

2 Likes

At least it doesn´t autocorrect it to “Baking Bread”.

But I agree by now I´m not really sure what exactly they will do with a fith season. Jimmy, Hector, Mike and the Methlab are now all pretty much where we find them in the show. I guess they will have to use a lot of flashbacks to fill up 10 episodes.

And hey what about the promised backround for Gus? He´s still mostly a mystery. What did he do before coming to america? They alluded to something real big like having his hands in a dictatorship, in BB. Will they finally show that in season 5 now, after there was nothing in season 4 even though they mentioned a couple of times they would?

3 Likes

If I were to make a forecast… Kim won’t be in Breaking Bad because she will be pursuing her career and/or raising some kids she had in another relationship. While Nacho will be busy in counting the worms.

It seems that is a shared feeling. I had a hard time in convincing my wife not to abandon. She was Bored to Death™ (by the way did anyone see the homonym show?).
The strange thing is that suddenly we have no plotline at all. From a storytelling point of view, it might work: he is depressed and anhedonic, so a dull plotline, where nothing happens, is fine. But maybe for an episode. Not for an entire season. Remember when Walter in Breaking Bad was in such a self-centered and out-of-this-world mood that he spent an entire episode chasing a fly? It worked, for one episode. I had the impression that the whole BCS4 is a “fly-chase”…

And, @PiecesOfKate, thanks for the reminder. I remembered it was related to the manipulation, but I forgot the Howard/investigator thing.

She has English(UK) layout. Change it into English(Vatican) layout, then see.

I almost totally agree, and that was my concern. I don’t agree only about Jimmy.
He’s not so much “where we found him”.
In Breaking Bad he seems to be happy with his status quo. He is an enjoyable character despite his flexible moral. He isn’t bad, he’s just a funny and nice small-time crook… a “chicken thief”. He is a comedic character, as he somehow was in the beginning of BCS. At the end of Season 4, he is totally a negative character. He’s resentful, selfish, he seems in game for anything. I won’t be surprised if in BCS5 he will be… breaking bad. Breaking really bad.

BTW, all the BCS spin of started as a comedy. Which makes sense, since Saul Goodman was a comedic character in BB. But, if you look at season 4 alone, there’s nothing comedic at all.

They must keep some leftover for another spin off. But they have to rush, the actors are aging. In BCS they’re visibly older than in BB.

1 Like

“We were inside each other´s brains”

Okay this is getting spooky, did they base this show on @PiecesOfKate and me? :open_mouth:

1 Like

Don’t read these blurred bits if you’ve not seen it!

Just watched the episode of Hill House where it’s Nell’s funeral and think that’s the best one yet. So heart-wrenching and sorrowful. Loved everything about it - the slick camera work, the way the old house was ‘sewn’ into the scenes, and the relationships coming to a head amidst the overwhelming grief. Great performances from all. And the scares were pitched perfectly - eerie and sad without being jumpy.

And that closing scene where she says ‘I’m right here!’… :cry:

1 Like