What are you Watching?

southcoastukes

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I thought there was already a thread with this title, as we have "What are you Listening To" & "What are you Reading". But a search turned up nothing, and folks do watch films and television, so it seems this should draw some interest from fellow Ukulele lovers.

I'll start out with a film I stumbled on recently. I actually might have been able to put it in the "Listening To" thread since so much of it is music.

It's called "Biguine 2004"; Biguine being a music of Martinique. But it's not set in 2004; it starts in 1873 in Martinique in a place called Saint Pierre. As soon as I saw that name in the beginning, I thought to myself: "Oh non, dat place no existe no moah"! And the end of Saint Pierre is the end of the film.

It's in French and there aren't any subtitles. Watching this made me realize that the French of my youth is really gone. But as I said, much of it is music, and the plot is very simple and straightforward: folks from the country who come to town and are instrumental in the beginning of a new music form. You don't need French at all to follow what's happening.

And this is a story that could have been set in Haiti with Meringue or here in New Orleans with Dixieland Jazz. The history and timelines are almost identical and the music is similar as well.

You would think that a film like this would have been made already here in New Orleans. Give it to the French for investing in their cultural history (Martinique is part of France). And invest they did; would love to know where it was shot, as there is no Saint Pierre now.

Great music, excellent performances by the actor/musicians. Give it a look:


 
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Saint Pierre

My mistake in the original post. Saint Pierre was the chief city of Martinique and was destroyed in 1902 with practically all its 2800 inhabitants killed; and yet a smaller Saint Pierre was built at the old site.

That is the city shown in the film. What a beautiful place. Shades of Malcolm Lowry ("Under the Volcano").
 
Last week there was a free preview week for HBO and Cinemax on our cable station so I binge-watched a bunch of stuff.

Westworld - There's a lot of positive buzz about this show and it got a ton of Emmy nominations but it didn't really do much for me. It is well acted but I was having a hard time buying in to several premises and I lost interest before the end of the first season. A lot of people seem to like it but I can't recommend it.

The Leftovers - This show ran for 3 seasons (by design) and I thought that it was fantastic! It's one of the best shows I've seen on TV in a long time! For some inexplicable reason, 2% of the world's population suddenly disappears. The show follows a group of people and how they and the population deal with the sudden departure. Highly recommended! I'd like to watch the whole series again now that I know how the whole thing played out.

Big Little Lies - This was an excellent 7 episode mini-series. There was a murder at the huge, affluent community fundraiser gala but neither the victim or the murderer are revealed until the very end of the last episode. Highly recommended.

Quarry - I read and enjoyed a couple of the pulp-style books that the series was based on so I thought I would check it out. It's about a Vietnam vet who was suspected of committing possible war crimes. He finds his return home is not exactly a welcome one and he is having a hard time finding employment when he is approached by a man who wants to employ him as a professional hit man. I enjoyed the series and would have liked to have watched more but unfortunately the series was cancelled and they weren't able to find another network to pick it up.

American Gods - This is actually a Starz show which ran a free preview several weeks ago. This show is truly bizarre and I loved it! I don't even know how to describe it so you'll have to look it up. It may not be for everyone but if you like something that is original, different, quirky and very well done, check it out. Highly recommended.
 
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I signed up for a one-month Netflix trial so I could see Okja, and ended up binge-watching all of Season 1 of Midnight Diner in the next few days. I thoroughly enjoyed both, but I'm glad that nothing else on Netflix has really captured my interest - binge-watching definitely cuts into my ukulele playing time!
 
Except for the nightly news and Jimmy Fallon, we pretty much watch Netflix. We've been watching a TV series filmed in Australia called Offspring. We don't binge watch, so we have been working our way through it two or three episodes a week. We like those dark detective dramas from Great Britain. Shetland, Broadmore, River, and Wallander, to name a few. But my favorite is Death in Paradise. We are all caught up on Death in Paradise though.
 
I don't watch much. But I did see the premiere ...Midnight, Texas filmed in New Mexico, of course. New Mexico looks more like Texas than Texas. I was totally surprised that I enjoyed it. Quirky, campy, and supernatural!

I might give it a shot.
 
to my mind, the best made for television serial documentary that has yet been produced.
here is a link to the first episode.
there are 8 in total.
utterly compelling.
 
and this.
I read the book last year, written by the man who was
the son of this person.
 
The Tunnel on PBS and Ozark and Paranoia on Netflix. Plus Sunday night, from 8 until 11 on PBS.
 
I watched The Blues Brothers last night. The extended version. Tonight I'm playing a solo set in a seedy downtown bar that reminds me a lot of Bob's Country Bunker, without the chicken wire. See the link below in my signature. I needed a little inspiration.
 
I've been bingeing a bunch of stuff lately.

The Great - I wasn't sure what I thought of this show early on but it grew on me. It took me a while to get my head around it. The lead is an American actress speaking with a British accent yet her character is continually referred to as German. The rest of the cast speak with British accents yet the story takes place in the Russian Empire. One of the main characters, Peter, is a love him/hate him type of character but necessarily so so it took me a while to accept him. Elle Fanning is great in her role. I look forward to the next season when it becomes available.

What We Do In The Shadows - Initially I thought the premise sounded kind of dumb and I wondered how they could possibly pull it off but I gave the show a chance and found it to be very funny. Hats off to the writers and actors, I loved it and definitely want more!

Stay Close - A limited series with twists and turns galore! I love it when I can't predict the ending and this show had me guessing until the very end. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes crime/mystery type shows.

Cowboy Bebop - The anime, not the live series. This was the second time I watched the series the whole way through. It's excellent in so many ways. I watched it in anticipation of checking out the live series but the live version got such bad reviews it only fed my low expectations for it given how excellent the anime was. It seemed the only direction the live version could go was down and I'm not sure I want to subject myself to that.
 
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i'm about 1/3 of the way through Ken Burns' incredible
16hour documentary series chronicling the history of country music.
having also chewed my way through his previous panoramic
series' on the civil war, jazz and blues i knew i would be utterly
absorbed in every minute of this. i'm certainly not disappointed
so far. he's an amazing film maker.
 
I'm currently watching the 4th season of Justified starring Timothy Olyphant. I had never heard of this show until recently when I got access to Hulu. Olyphant has an excellent grip on his role and I'm really enjoying the series.
 
I'm currently watching the 4th season of Justified starring Timothy Olyphant. I had never heard of this show until recently when I got access to Hulu. Olyphant has an excellent grip on his role and I'm really enjoying the series.
Justified is a great series. I’ve got out of the habit of watching it though….I just checked and I’m also on Season 4, episode 7. Olyphant is, as you say, really good. Walter Goggins is excellent as Boyd too. A not very likeable character in the early series, but, well I don’t know about you, but I find, as bad guys go, he’s grown on me. I’m not even sure why I got out of the habit of watching it….. One thing I binge watched, well, over two days, is Reacher which is also on Prime. I’m not familiar with the books and I’ve only seen brief clips of the Tom Cruise films, so I can’t really compare them, but it’s a great watch, and Reacher is a fantastic badass. Supposed to be a second season in the pipeline. I see you mention What We Do In The Shadows as well. We loved the film so weren’t sure if it would work as a TV series. How wrong we were! Especially like the introduction of Colin Robinson the Energy Vampire! Genius! Unfortunately though, we bailed part way through the third series…..I don’t know, it just didn’t quite work for us this time round, though it’s always good to see Kristen Schaal in anything ( she was of course brilliant in Flight Of The Conchords). I think the problem at the moment is that there is so much great TV out there. We started on The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, loved it for the few episodes we saw, then got out of the habit of watching that one, like Justified, I mean to return to it. My current favourite is Schitt’s Creek, about half way through Season 2. 👍
 
Agreed on Justified! Olyphant and Goggins are both great individually, and together they're brilliant.
Olyphant's working on a sequel series set 8 years later in Detroit: Justified: City Primeval
No idea if they'll find a way to fit Goggins in - they're obviously shifting characters around as Raylan wasn't in Leonard's City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit

Last week I finished Peacemaker (my wife skipped - she doesn't like the splatter) and we finished Around the World in 80 Days. We're now a couple of episodes from the end of Lucifer and will likely finish this weekend. All recommended watches (if you don't mind the splatter).

Peacemaker was much better than I expected. They took unlikable one-note jokes of characters and made them interesting. By the end every character had a purpose and depth.

I'm not sure what's next. Possibly the current season of Star Trek: Discovery.
 
I'm a few episodes into season 5 (of 6 seasons) of Justified and I'm still enjoying it as much as I did from the beginning. Beside Olyphant and Goggins, I get a kick out of the character Dewey Crowe. 😄 It's good to know that once I finish season 6 they'll be more coming down the road. I'm looking ahead to try and figure out what I'll watch once Justified is over.
 
Ozark is really good, have just started Season 4 so hopefully it’ll be as good as it the rest I’ve seen. It’s all down to the characters, just such great characters. One thing I wonder though, as a Brit speaking to our American cousins…. I always wonder how well Brit actors do at playing Americans…..specifically Scotsman Peter Mullan, who I think is a superb actor, playing Jacob Snell a native of Missouri. I can think of plenty of Americans who have played Englishmen and Englishwomen so well I forgot they were American….
 
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