What are you binge watching?

[ZooCougar]

I just crushed the first five episodes and love it. I think the actor playing Magic has a serious star on the rise. And I love John C Reilly in anything. He’s awesome in this.

It’s fake as hell, but it’s super well written. Halfway through the season and they developed how many characters?

John C. Reilly is awesome in everything. Stepbrothers forever.

 

[Mano]

Tokyo Vice has been really interesting as a peak behind the curtain of Japanese culture, something I've long been incredibly intrigued by. Need to watch the two new episodes, hopefully some of the storylines start building momentum. It has been a touch slow to start. I'm in till the end tho.

 

[Rich]

It’s fake as hell, but it’s super well written. Halfway through the season and they developed how many characters?

John C. Reilly is awesome in everything. Stepbrothers forever.

Ah, the story is probably ~90% straight. The characters are drawn liberally but the history is on point.

It's a must watch IMO, as is Tokyo Vice.

I've also been watching The Gilded Age with the wife and it's.....surprisingly good. The set design is absolutely superb and very evocative of Victorian Era NYC

 

[ZooCougar]

Ah, the story is probably ~90% straight. The characters are drawn liberally but the history is on point.

It's a must watch IMO, as is Tokyo Vice.

I've also been watching The Gilded Age with the wife and it's.....surprisingly good. The set design is absolutely superb and very evocative of Victorian Era NYC

You’d have to pay me to watch Gilded Age.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So it just dawned on me that the actor who plays Jack McKinney in Winning Time is none other than Tracy Letts. Letts really caught my attention in Ford vs. Ferraris where he played Henry Ford II and pretty much stole every scene. The scene where he starts crying in the GT40 is just aces.

Anyways. In Winning Time both Letts and Jason Clarke have blown me away. Jerry West and Jack McKinney are really interesting and these actors did these guys justice and then some.

As for the show, I’m not a basketball guy but the subject matter is great. The characters are well rounded and they disappoint you as much as you want to cheer them on. For instance I loved Jerry Buss talking about Red Auerbach, but he also shows an utter lack of human decency when McKinney gets hospitalized, not to mention being in denial over his mother’s condition.

In short. It’s a good show.

Letts was great in a small role The Big Short, and while I didn't like the movie, I thought he shined in Lady Bird.

Reilly does an incredible job portraying Buss. Buss is one of these classic promoters that win at life mostly through force of personality rather than brains. His partner Frank, along with his daughter and mother are absolutely critical to keeping him from going off the rails, and when he realizes he is losing one of them, he is crushed. He isn't just losing his mom to dementia, he is losing a critical part of his support network. It is really hard to get a character like Buss right, and Reilly crushes it.

I go back and forth on Adrien Brody in every role. I am still not sure about this one.

I really like DeVaughn Nixon playing his dad. Norm Nixon is one of the more interesting characters in this show, and I wish his story got more screen time.

 

[ZooCougar]

Letts was great in a small role The Big Short, and while I didn't like the movie, I thought he shined in Lady Bird.

Reilly does an incredible job portraying Buss. Buss is one of these classic promoters that win at life mostly through force of personality rather than brains. His partner Frank, along with his daughter and mother are absolutely critical to keeping him from going off the rails, and when he realizes he is losing one of them, he is crushed. He isn't just losing his mom to dementia, he is losing a critical part of his support network. It is really hard to get a character like Buss right, and Reilly crushes it.

I go back and forth on Adrien Brody in every role. I am still not sure about this one.

I really like DeVaughn Nixon playing his dad. Norm Nixon is one of the more interesting characters in this show, and I wish his story got more screen time.

This show is so well done. I wanted to give Jason Clarke an award and then along came Tracy Letts.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It may not be accurate but it’s entertaining. 'A total mischaracterization': Portrayal of Jerry West in HBO's 'Winning Time' sparks criticism

Perspective matters a lot in telling history. I think Winning Time is fairly accurate. Most of the subject matter is pretty well documented over the last 40 years. I don't have a subscription to the Athletic, but I suspect most of the people complaining about the show feel that they or their friends are being portrayed in an unflattering light. People, famous or otherwise, only want to be remembered for their good qualities. That is not reality.

Find me an article with people who go on the record with "Oh, that guy was a much bigger jerk than he is in the show" and I will be interested in reading about it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Dropout is excellent. The ending is a lot sadder than I expected, not because of Elizabeth Holmes, but because of George Schultz.

WeCrashed is really good. The show demolishes SoftBank and Benchmark Capital. That is pretty ballsy.

 

[Rich]

You’d have to pay me to watch Gilded Age.

Clearly Sir you are a Phillistine!

In all seriousness it really is a good show. And there’s no one that retches at the thought of a chick flick more than moi.

 

[ZooCougar]

Perspective matters a lot in telling history. I think Winning Time is fairly accurate. Most of the subject matter is pretty well documented over the last 40 years. I don't have a subscription to the Athletic, but I suspect most of the people complaining about the show feel that they or their friends are being portrayed in an unflattering light. People, famous or otherwise, only want to be remembered for their good qualities. That is not reality.

Find me an article with people who go on the record with "Oh, that guy was a much bigger jerk than he is in the show" and I will be interested in reading about it.

I tend to veer to the show being incredibly entertaining and probably not accurate. So many of the characters are over the top, so over the top. This works great in fiction but not real life.

Last night’s episode was so good. I don’t know where the series stands, Episode 7 is right up there in Leftovers “International assassin” territory. The build up to the game and the opening minutes of the game in Boston were perfection. I was laughing my ass off. That Leprechaun was genius.

I think I will have to watch it again.

 

[ZooCougar]

Clearly Sir you are a Phillistine!

In all seriousness it really is a good show. And there’s no one that retches at the thought of a chick flick more than moi.

It’s too clean and the characters seem too PC to be real. I’m a sucker for Carrie Coon too.

 

[ZooCougar]

Perspective matters a lot in telling history. I think Winning Time is fairly accurate. Most of the subject matter is pretty well documented over the last 40 years. I don't have a subscription to the Athletic, but I suspect most of the people complaining about the show feel that they or their friends are being portrayed in an unflattering light. People, famous or otherwise, only want to be remembered for their good qualities. That is not reality.

Find me an article with people who go on the record with "Oh, that guy was a much bigger jerk than he is in the show" and I will be interested in reading about it.

And how perfect is the guy playing Larry Bird in this? It’s like they made a clone just for the show.

 

[ZooCougar]

 

[Deepster]

Letts was great in a small role The Big Short, and while I didn't like the movie, I thought he shined in Lady Bird.

Reilly does an incredible job portraying Buss. Buss is one of these classic promoters that win at life mostly through force of personality rather than brains. His partner Frank, along with his daughter and mother are absolutely critical to keeping him from going off the rails, and when he realizes he is losing one of them, he is crushed. He isn't just losing his mom to dementia, he is losing a critical part of his support network. It is really hard to get a character like Buss right, and Reilly crushes it.

I go back and forth on Adrien Brody in every role. I am still not sure about this one.

I really like DeVaughn Nixon playing his dad. Norm Nixon is one of the more interesting characters in this show, and I wish his story got more screen time.

If you're not watching the "behind the scenes" after each episode, I recommend it. Really good insight into how the actors took on certain aspects or storylines.

 

[Rich]

It’s too clean and the characters seem too PC to be real. I’m a sucker for Carrie Coon too

Well, I think it's a matter of perspective. None of us were alive at that time so we have to depend on the writers to create a dialogue and atmosphere accurately evocative of that period in American history. I do believe that's how people in the upper crust conducted themselves back then....ceremony was prized, just as it was in Victorian England which basically ran the world back in those days and served as a societal template for most of the world. There's plenty of racism, commercial violence, underhanded business dealings.....it's just....done a lot more politely than we're used to these days. Most of that veneer started to wear away after WWI, and really started to fall apart after the Great Depression and World War 2 once England was reduced to a shell of its former commercial influence.

I know it's hard to buy. But sometimes you just gotta.....believe it, especially when it comes to these period pieces. If you've not already seen it I highly recommend 'The Knick' which is set about 20 years later but gives off the same vibe of late stage Victorian New York.

I had a similar reaction when I read 'War and Peace' (yes, I have read it, twice) a few years back. Like, 'Whoa, the French and Russians really conducted these elaborate social dances?'

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I tend to veer to the show being incredibly entertaining and probably not accurate. So many of the characters are over the top, so over the top. This works great in fiction but not real life.

Last night’s episode was so good. I don’t know where the series stands, Episode 7 is right up there in Leftovers “International assassin” territory. The build up to the game and the opening minutes of the game in Boston were perfection. I was laughing my ass off. That Leprechaun was genius.

I think I will have to watch it again.

The show has to give the characters depth. We want the Lakers to beat the Celtics because the people around the Lakers are so flawed but we care about them. West comes off like a lunatic, Buss is a hedonist and con man, Magic does feel like a phony at times, and Kareem is giving the world the finger. Which is why we care about them.

I do question the show's characterization of Paul Westhead. The show is just brutal to him. He can't really have been that helpless.

The funniest part of the episode is when we first meet Larry slowly walking down the hallway, spitting tobacco into a beer can, and the screen flash is "YOU KNOW MY [BLANKING] NAME".

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I will add that Winning Time's characterizations of Chick Hearn and Johnny Most were really funny. Making fun of the old-time radio guys is low hanging fruit, because they all were such characters. They had to be. Try filling two and a half hours with just words, and making it interesting enough that tens of thousands of people would want to listen to it for 82 games a season. They had to be a little crazy, and the ones that could do it well got a lot of leash, because it was hard. Many of them drank on the air like Hearn did, and Most was a jerk to opposing players.

I wish Winning Time would have had some of the lesser known radio personalities that worked smaller markets for lesser teams and were only local legends. I bet some of them were really good.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Dropout is excellent. The ending is a lot sadder than I expected, not because of Elizabeth Holmes, but because of George Schultz.

WeCrashed is really good. The show demolishes SoftBank and Benchmark Capital. That is pretty ballsy.

Super Pumped (Showtime) is pretty good. It goes a different direction than Dropout and WeCrashed, focusing on the business more than the characters, which I like so far.

 

[ZooCougar]

The show has to give the characters depth. We want the Lakers to beat the Celtics because the people around the Lakers are so flawed but we care about them. West comes off like a lunatic, Buss is a hedonist and con man, Magic does feel like a phony at times, and Kareem is giving the world the finger. Which is why we care about them.

I do question the show's characterization of Paul Westhead. The show is just brutal to him. He can't really have been that helpless.

The funniest part of the episode is when we first meet Larry slowly walking down the hallway, spitting tobacco into a beer can, and the screen flash is "YOU KNOW MY [BLANKING] NAME".

I can’t recall the last time a show developed this many characters in 7 episodes.

I don’t know if Westhead was that helpless, but I do know that the show runners have said that the show is heavily fictionalized. Did Riley really throw him in the shower? I don’t know but it works.

What bums me out if that I think the sports world missed out on seeing a genius like Jack McKinney.

 

[Waquoit]

I don’t know if Westhead was that helpless, but I do know that the show runners have said that the show is heavily fictionalized. Did Riley really throw him in the shower? I don’t know but it works.

It's wrong to fictionalize about living people for the sake of the story. I hate that Secretariat movie. And Moneyball for that matter.

 

[8893]

I can’t recall the last time a show developed this many characters in 7 episodes.

I haven't seen this show yet, but "The Wire" comes first to my mind as a show that developed an incredible number of characters over that span. It actually took me a few years to finally make it past the first two or three episodes and get hooked on the series because I was daunted by the sheer number of characters.

 

[billythekid]

I have been re-watching Season 1 of Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne. I'm always a sucker for time loop stories and this one is interesting as well as funny. Season 2 drops tomorrow.

 

[storrsroars]

I have been re-watching Season 1 of Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne. I'm always a sucker for time loop stories and this one is interesting as well as funny. Season 2 drops tomorrow.

Didn't know there was a season 2. Something to look forward to - S1 was fun and Lyonne is great in it. Suits her perfectly.

 

[ZooCougar]

I haven't seen this show yet, but "The Wire" comes first to my mind as a show that developed an incredible number of characters over that span. It actually took me a few years to finally make it past the first two or three episodes and get hooked on the series because I was daunted by the sheer number of characters.

Yeah but I watched The Wire and I don’t recall any of it. It was like the Chinese Food of TV for me at least.

 

[ZooCougar]

It's wrong to fictionalize about living people for the sake of the story. I hate that Secretariat movie. And Moneyball for that matter.

I don’t think so. As long as the creators are up front about it.

 

[ZooCougar]

I haven't seen this show yet, but "The Wire" comes first to my mind as a show that developed an incredible number of characters over that span. It actually took me a few years to finally make it past the first two or three episodes and get hooked on the series because I was daunted by the sheer number of characters.

Also I didn’t have that problem with this show.

I did however fast forward some of the Magic Johnson back home in Detroit stuff because it was tedious and repetitive. Kareem and Jerry West were way more interesting at first. Magic’s story didn’t start getting traction until episode 3 or 4 for me.

 

[temery]

Yeah but I watched The Wire and I don’t recall any of it. It was like the Chinese Food of TV for me at least.

Same here. I remember being hooked from the first show. Something about a phone pad code, and Omar comin'. Weird thing is I really liked the show, but don't remember much about it.

As opposed to Justified, which I also really liked, and remember most plot lines.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It's wrong to fictionalize about living people for the sake of the story. I hate that Secretariat movie. And Moneyball for that matter.

What did Moneyball get wrong?

Movies and TV shows have to tell a story. The irony is that the Steve Jobs movie, which had a weird structure to tell the Isaacson biography, did a great job capturing all the characters based on the book. Rocketman was a "true fantasy" which butchered the Elton John timeline but also did a great job capturing the essence of the key characters. Walk the Line is more linear, but also captures Johnny Cash pretty well. Elton John and Johnny Cash were involved in making their own biopics, and both men were portrayed as drug-addicted spitheads for much of their lives. I have a ton of respect for that kind of biopic. They had enough self-awareness to realize who and what they were.

Bohemian Rhapsody, on the other hand, is whitewashed bullspit. Sasha Baron Cohen wanted to make a real movie about Queen and Freddie Mercury, with plates full of cocaine and wild parties, but Brian May and the rest of the surviving band members vetoed it. So we got feel good treacle where Rami Malek lip-syncs his way through crowd pleasing, Queen stadium anthems while the rest of the band is 100% supportive and Mercury, who happens to be dead, is the only one who does anything wrong.

People are complicated and I don't think any of us would like the biopic of our own lives as told through the eyes of those around us. It might be true or false, but everyone has their own perspective.

 

[storrsroars]

What did Moneyball get wrong?

I like Moneyball and have probably watched it a dozen times. It's a great story and well acted.

That said, a whole lot of it was wrong or entirely made up.

The Real Story Behind 'Moneyball'

We look at the true story behind the movie Moneyball, as well as the criticisms with the way it depicts real events and ignores many details.

filmschoolrejects.com

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I like Moneyball and have probably watched it a dozen times. It's a great story and well acted.

That said, a whole lot of it was wrong or entirely made up.

The Real Story Behind 'Moneyball'

We look at the true story behind the movie Moneyball, as well as the criticisms with the way it depicts real events and ignores many details.

filmschoolrejects.com

Every single biopic and "true story" ever made would be inaccurate by the standards of that article, which complains about people that were NOT included. A movie has to draw the line somewhere. I have seen the movie 10+ times and I do not recall the line or scene where the movie says that traditional scouts are unnecessary. I apparently didn't watch it closely enough.

I do think the movie was unfair to Art Howe, but it is clearly one perspective and it appears that Beane really hated Howe so who knows?