What are you binge watching? | Page 79 | The Boneyard

What are you binge watching?

nelsonmuntz said:
Stick on AppleTV. By the numbers comedy is well cast and has an interesting premise. Owen Wilson is perfect for the role of a screw up ex-golf star. I like the kid, and through three episodes the girl from the clubhouse has potential. But something is just missing. There isn’t great chemistry between the cast at times so scenes that should be funnier just kind of miss.
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Santiago is now pissing me off. He had some youthful charm, now he's just a selfish pissant.

I have now formed an opinion on how all this works out:
  • Santi blows up, doesn't win the tourney, realizes he has to grow up
  • Zero becomes a personal growth coach
  • Santi's mom hits the jackpot with helium and gets into a relationship with Migg
  • Bryce realizes he still loves the game, is still good at it, still owes money to his creditors, and goes on to dominate the Champions Tour.
 
Watched S4 E1 of The Bear last night. I loved the first two seasons and even enjoyed S3 more than most.

I was not compelled to watch S4 E2. I was surprised and disappointed by that, but I simply found myself not caring about the characters or the restaurant. It's probably more me than the writing/acting - I think I'm just over fine dining as something I care about.
 
All caught up on Stick. So far, so good. I keep comparing it to Ted Lasso and hope the first part of this season/series is "goofy" character and story set up with much deeper, better written things to follow. I kinda see that coming?

Also, I sort of think of it if Ted Lasso and Roy MacAvoy had a kid.....LOL
 
storrsroars said:
Watched S4 E1 of The Bear last night. I loved the first two seasons and even enjoyed S3 more than most.

I was not compelled to watch S4 E2. I was surprised and disappointed by that, but I simply found myself not caring about the characters or the restaurant. It's probably more me than the writing/acting - I think I'm just over fine dining as something I care about.
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Hard to keep it fresh. I didn't realize season four had dropped. I'll probably take a look at it in September.
 
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storrsroars said:
Watched S4 E1 of The Bear last night. I loved the first two seasons and even enjoyed S3 more than most.

I was not compelled to watch S4 E2. I was surprised and disappointed by that, but I simply found myself not caring about the characters or the restaurant. It's probably more me than the writing/acting - I think I'm just over fine dining as something I care about.
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CL82 said:
Hard to keep it fresh. I didn't realize season four had dropped. I'll probably take a look at it in September.
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I gave up after season 3 episode 1. Decided I disliked almost everyone in the show except Marcus who wants to make deserts. I also disliked the entire culture of "elite" restaurants, finding it just so pretentious and self aggrandizing. The episode where Richie finally "gets it" while working at a different restaurant, that showed me why I despise such places. In short, the original sandwich shop was better.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I gave up after season 3 episode 1. Decided I disliked almost everyone in the show except Marcus who wants to make deserts. I also disliked the entire culture of "elite" restaurants, finding it just so pretentious and self aggrandizing. The episode where Richie finally "gets it" while working at a different restaurant, that showed me why I despise such places. In short, the original sandwich shop was better.
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It's a quirky show because virtually everyone is an antihero, or at least deeply flawed. Richie was a really annoying character until he "got it" then he was a slightly less annoying character. But I agree with you the notion that a week under demanding circumstances would cause a complete reformation of a character is a little bit of a push.

The Jaime Lee Curtis episodes were, in my opinion, absolutely riveting. It's probably the best acting she's ever done. They definitely aren't feel good and the "seven fishes" dinner in particular, left me staring at the screen thinking "what the heck was that" but in a good way. They were very powerful.

I did like the bit at the end of season 3, where Carmie confronts the chef that tormented him and really developed him as a perfectionist. He views that chef as his nemesis, with this huge negative emotional connection, only to find out that to the chef, Carmen was just another guy. Again a powerful moment.

I do wonder how they're going to be able to keep up the energy and narratives. I'll definitely give it a watch eventually. They built up enough goodwill with me that even if the last season drags, I'll stick with it.
 
CL82 said:
It's a quirky show because virtually everyone is an antihero, or at least deeply flawed. Richie was a really annoying character until he "got it" then he was a slightly less annoying character. But I agree with you the notion that a week under demanding circumstances would cause a complete reformation of a character is a little bit of a push.

The Jaime Lee Curtis episodes were, in my opinion, absolutely riveting. It's probably the best acting she's ever done. They definitely aren't feel good and the "seven fishes" dinner in particular, left me staring at the screen thinking "what the heck was that" but in a good way. They were very powerful.

I did like the bit at the end of season 3, where Carmie confronts the chef that tormented him and really developed him as a perfectionist. He views that chef as his nemesis, with this huge negative emotional connection, only to find out that to the chef, Carmen was just another guy. Again a powerful moment.

I do wonder how they're going to be able to keep up the energy and narratives. I'll definitely give it a watch eventually. They built up enough goodwill with me that even if the last season drags, I'll stick with it.
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I think the overall challenge I face is that these details, both in preparation, selection, combinations of food the precision of things like utensils and how and when service occurs (what Richie got) are, to me utterly immaterial. To watch these people obsess and turn their lives upside down over something so unimportant in the scheme of things is really hard to watch. I'm sure that servants creating a banquet for kings and royalty had to behave this way (still do in England) and it gives me the same vibe. I don't even like it when waitstaff pours my wine.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I think the overall challenge I face is that these details, both in preparation, selection, combinations of food the precision of things like utensils and how and when service occurs (what Richie got) are, to me utterly immaterial. To watch these people obsess and turn their lives upside down over something so unimportant in the scheme of things is really hard to watch. I'm sure that servants creating a banquet for kings and royalty had to behave this way (still do in England) and it gives me the same vibe. I don't even like it when waitstaff pours my wine.
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My favorite is when the wait staff presents my own wine to me at a BYOB restaurant. Do they really expect I'll send my own wine back? That said, maybe six months ago, we were out with friends who are wine aficionados and one of the bottles he brought was corked, so, we literally did "send it back."
 
CL82 said:
My favorite is when the wait staff presents my own wine to me at a BYOB restaurant. Do they really expect I'll send my own wine back? That said, maybe six months ago, we were out with friends who are wine aficionados and one of the bottles he brought was corked, so, we literally did "send it back."
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Many years ago my dad's lifelong best friend invited us for Christmas dinner at a fancy place in Manhattan. He invited everyone my uncle, aunt, and all our cousins too. He rented a private dining room and said all my dad was responsible for was bringing the wine because my dad was a wine guy. Well, the guy serving our table opens my dad's wine and says the wine is bad. This didn't exactly go over well with my dad. Not only did he try and embarrass him by saying all the wine he brought is bad his solution was to throw out all that wine and have him pay for all the wine they had on the premises. If I remember correctly my dad told him to f^^^ off and we drank all my dad's wine which was perfectly fine.
 
CL82 said:
My favorite is when the wait staff presents my own wine to me at a BYOB restaurant. Do they really expect I'll send my own wine back? That said, maybe six months ago, we were out with friends who are wine aficionados and one of the bottles he brought was corked, so, we literally did "send it back."
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Corked is the only reason to send it back. I think it's all tough on restaurants because some people will be "oh I don't like this much" and send it back. No. We see more screwcap wines now because of it. Haven't found any BYOB places here in MA. Used to really enjoy one in Saratoga, CA.

I just don't like to be waited on really. It makes me uncomfortable. The fancier it is, the less I enjoy it. I've give myself haircuts if I could.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
I gave up after season 3 episode 1. Decided I disliked almost everyone in the show except Marcus who wants to make deserts. I also disliked the entire culture of "elite" restaurants, finding it just so pretentious and self aggrandizing. The episode where Richie finally "gets it" while working at a different restaurant, that showed me why I despise such places. In short, the original sandwich shop was better.
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Richie finally "gets it" in season 2. I thought the final two or three episodes of season 2 were amazing because we actually got to see the characters. Season 3 is where it really went off the rails, they didn't build at all off of the end of season 2. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen to the characters and to give me some reason to care about any of them. It boringly built up to the finale where all the chefs had a self suck session talking about how important they are for the world. I'm sure I'll watch season 4 but it became a pretentious boring show about people who cook food.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I'd give myself haircuts if I could.
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During Covid, like everybody else, I did without haircuts. After a while, my hair was longer than I felt I could reasonably tolerate. Someone, I think on The Boneyard, kept telling me cut it yourself. I do my own hair. It's easy. So I gave it a shot.

About two minutes in, things had already gone horribly wrong. I was thinking to myself I can always shave my head if need be. After about five minutes in it actually looked pretty solid. So it is doable if you want to give it a shot. Much easier if your wife is willing to do it though.

Here in Jersey liquor licenses are limited so you can find BYOB restaurants. The challenge is finding good BYOB restaurants. Like I said, my friend is a big wine guy, so he dramatically prefers to bring his own wine. So when we go out down here, I'll pick a good BYOB restaurant. He has very particular taste in wine, but I will say, other than that one corked bottle they always are memorable.
 
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superjohn said:
It boringly built up to the finale where all the chefs had a self suck session talking about how important they are for the world
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Nice turn of phrase. I agree it was a little pretentious.
 
For those that didn't like the Bear after Season 3, I fully agree. I'm just here to tell you that I'm really enjoying Season 4.

I'm not sure if the theme of season 4 was intended from the beginning or was a reaction to people rooting against Carmie in Season 3, but I think they've done a good job balancing the business and personal difficulties of the characters while giving some victories and redemption. I'm really rooting for all of them and the restaurant this season.
 
superjohn said:
Richie finally "gets it" in season 2. I thought the final two or three episodes of season 2 were amazing because we actually got to see the characters. Season 3 is where it really went off the rails, they didn't build at all off of the end of season 2. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen to the characters and to give me some reason to care about any of them. It boringly built up to the finale where all the chefs had a self suck session talking about how important they are for the world. I'm sure I'll watch season 4 but it became a pretentious boring show about people who cook food.
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Same. I enjoyed season 2, even though I really just don't seem to like the high end restaurant business. Watched episode 1 of season 3 and stopped there.
 
Chuck said:
For those that didn't like the Bear after Season 3, I fully agree. I'm just here to tell you that I'm really enjoying Season 4.

I'm not sure if the theme of season 4 was intended from the beginning or was a reaction to people rooting against Carmie in Season 3, but I think they've done a good job balancing the business and personal difficulties of the characters while giving some victories and redemption. I'm really rooting for all of them and the restaurant this season.
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I saw S3 as basically advancing character development without really advancing the story arc of the restaurant. And I was fine with that.

I'm glad you posted what you did about redemption and victories as that might get me back into it. I do like many of the characters. For myself, my feelings about restaurants like The Bear simply reflect where I am vis a vis food. I've done a lot of fine dining, had a good friend who was a James Beard nominee who taught me tons about food, cooking and designing a plate. I was even a major part early on of the "pretentious" coffee culture, and taught Pittsburghers why they should pay >$3.00 for a small black coffee 20 years ago (and created a bespoke coffee service for one of my friend's acclaimed restaurants).

These days, I'm more interested in trying ethnic foods I've never had, or finding the best examples of foods I've long enjoyed. And what The Bear serves ain't that. And that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the creativity or attention to detail. Great food is a marriage of art and science. It's amazing what the best can do. I simply feel "been there done that" about the whole scene today. But if the right chef comes up with the right idea, I imagine I'd welcome it and go try what they're doing.
 
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storrsroars said:
I saw S3 as basically advancing character development without really advancing the story arc of the restaurant. And I was fine with that.

I'm glad you posted what you did about redemption and victories as that might get me back into it. I do like many of the characters. For myself, my feelings about restaurants like The Bear simply reflect where I am vis a vis food. I've done a lot of fine dining, had a good friend who was a James Beard nominee who taught me tons about food, cooking and designing a plate. I was even a major part early on of the "pretentious" coffee culture, and taught Pittsburghers why they should pay >$3.00 for a small black coffee 20 years ago (and created a bespoke coffee service for one of my friend's acclaimed restaurants).

These days, I'm more interested in trying ethnic foods I've never had, or finding the best examples of foods I've long enjoyed. And what The Bear serves ain't that. And that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the creativity or attention to detail. Great food is a marriage of art and science. It's amazing what the best can do. I simply feel "been there done that" about the whole scene today. But if the right chef comes up with the right idea, I imagine I'd welcome it and go try what they're doing.
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I’m in a similar place with food. I did my time at food as art places. I respect it, but don’t need to experience it anymore. Especially with kids in college. But I can still enjoy a great rustic meal.

I do think the industry makes a good vessel for the kind of people that live in that world. I know a few good chefs and cooks. It is a mix of people like Carmie’s mentors who could’ve been CEOs and people that have a lot of demons. It does make for good character development. And the high end restaurant attached to the beef window is a great mix to show the differences, but similarities.

I still have more episodes to go, but I’m glad my family forced me to watch this season.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Corked is the only reason to send it back. I think it's all tough on restaurants because some people will be "oh I don't like this much" and send it back. No. We see more screwcap wines now because of it. Haven't found any BYOB places here in MA. Used to really enjoy one in Saratoga, CA.

I just don't like to be waited on really. It makes me uncomfortable. The fancier it is, the less I enjoy it. I've give myself haircuts if I could.
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Even corked can get you into a debate. I've been really into wine for a long time. (still have hundreds of bottles stored at Horse Ridge Cellars in CT, an amazing place owned by UConn grads - if anyone wants to buy any high end, well-stored wine let's talk. Transporting it to CO is a PITA) Anyway I'm really sensitive to TCA (the chemichal behind "cork taint"). I've had more than a few painful "send it back because it's corked" conversations.
 
Season 4 is better than 3 but the show like many before it was best when it was simple like in season 1. Similar to Lost, The Walking Dead, as soon as it moves past a struggling sandwich shop trying to survive and trying to be too clever or what not, it loses that momentum.
 
87Xfer said:
Even corked can get you into a debate. I've been really into wine for a long time. (still have hundreds of bottles stored at Horse Ridge Cellars in CT, an amazing place owned by UConn grads - if anyone wants to buy any high end, well-stored wine let's talk. Transporting it to CO is a PITA) Anyway I'm really sensitive to TCA (the chemichal behind "cork taint"). I've had more than a few painful "send it back because it's corked" conversations.
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Yeah, I'm sensitive to it as well and can pick it out even when some others may not notice it.

We should create a wine thread since this is supposed to be the TV thread.
 
I'm binge wathing/listening to Will Smith rap videos. He's probably the best rapper I've ever seen at rapping. He also really, really, really likes pretty girls. I swear he likes girls.




 
My wife and I finished “The Waterfront” on Netflix yesterday, strong ensemble cast. We enjoyed it, obviously a little ridiculous and intense but enjoyable television.

…really just made me miss Mindhunter!
 
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Investigation: Shark Attack on NatGeo (Disney+). It's a different format as four experts call up other experts and look at cases of attacks and what may have prompted them. But it's so scripted. They talk about attacks being "incredibly rare" 20 times and episode. They also blame a lot on climate change, without any real evidence for it. On the plus side, there is some pretty good information and they hired Megan Winton, who has been working with Greg Skomal in MA on White Sharks for a long time.
It's part of the NatGeo answer to Shark Week, and goes a bit too far in trying to downplay the incidents.
 
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia new season is off to a great start.

Stick is getting better just about every episode.
 
ZooCougar said:
Foundation is back. And it actually is starting to get interesting.
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I watched the first season, but didn't love it because it went too far afield from the books. How was season two?
 
ZooCougar said:
Foundation is back. And it actually is starting to get interesting.
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I was pretty disappointed in the first episode of season 3. A) The Mule feels like a character Foundation would have if it was doing a Yellowstone crossover episode, and B) If we are supposed to care about the Mule because he has extra good magic, I am going to lose interest in this show, which will suck, because I really liked Season 2.

Magic was how I lost interest in Dune Prophecy, despite really liking the characters. When magic becomes a plot driver, it becomes difficult to care about anything that is happening.
 
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