Cycling Related

Sunday evenings on BBC4, David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema. It's a revelation.

Whiskeyjack wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Well Disney+ has been released, and now most people are barred from going out, has anyone watched the Mandalorian now?

A word of warning, despite the fact it has all been released in the US, it's being released weekly here. Only the first two episodes are up.

Seen the whole lot. Not too bad.

Rutabaga wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Sunday evenings on BBC4, David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema. It's a revelation.

Ah! David Stratton is still with us! that's good to know. I was a fan of his film review back in the last century.

I will try to catch up on that.

Regulator wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Seen the whole lot. Not too bad.

If you enjoy Star Wars, Ive found the making of mandolarian very interesting and enjoyable.

Disney+ has been surprisingly good. I watched the prop show and thought the Tron episode would be boring, (how many physical props can there be?) but it was actually interesting and quite bitter sweet when you met the director who seems to feel he let people down.

Whiskeyjack wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Well Disney+ has been released, and now most people are barred from going out, has anyone watched the Mandalorian now?

A word of warning, despite the fact it has all been released in the US, it's being released weekly here. Only the first two episodes are up.

I found it pretty weak. Even boy no.2, the font of all that is Star Wars, didn't think it was very good.

Gangs of London. Too violent than what I'm comfortable with, but really well made. Like today's Peaky Blinders.

And how did I miss Brassic the first around? I'm catching up on Series 1 before going to the current one. Again, it's very sweary and rude, but Vinnie is one of the most endearing characters I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knew what they were talking about.

Double post

Mister Paul wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I found it pretty weak. Even boy no.2, the font of all that is Star Wars, didn't think it was very good.

Really? Thats the first negative I’ve heard. I haven’t liked pretty much anything of the new Star Wars, except rogue one, but i really enjoyed this. Still it would be boring if we all liked the same thing.

I’m quite excited by the new Star Trek show just announced. I enjoyed Anson Mount In discovery so I’m looking forward to him returning.

Whiskeyjack wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Really? Thats the first negative I’ve heard. I haven’t liked pretty much anything of the new Star Wars, except rogue one, but i really enjoyed this. Still it would be boring if we all liked the same thing.

I’m quite excited by the new Star Trek show just announced. I enjoyed Anson Mount In discovery so I’m looking forward to him returning.

Taika Waititi is involved so it should be good.

Mister Paul wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Taika Waititi is involved so it should be good.

I love him, he has a great sense of humour

Is anyone trying the National Theatre Live streaming of theatre shows, or any of the equivalent offerings from other theatres?

It doesn't really work for me: theatre shows are designed for the dynamic of a captive audience in a physical place and the shared communication between audience and stage, and they don't transfer well to our living rooms.

Last night I tried the NT/Young Vic Streetcar Named Desire. I know it's a devastating play; I know Blanche's descent into final collapse is a gripping trajectory; I know it says a lot about toxic masculinity; I know that pretty well every part is a study in intensity; but watching it in my living room simply didn't engage me.

Bring back live theatre

I used to go to the theatre quite a lot (and the cinema), but the behaviour of the audience around me (arriving late, eating sweets, muttering, answering/looking at phones, wanting to use the toilet every five minutes) started to irritate me so much that my attendance has sadly declined. Lately I've been enjoying some streamed events (Volcano's weekly tasks have been really good), but I found One Man Two Governors unwatchable, not because of my isolation but because I don't like farces and I hadn't realised it was one.

JohnToo wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Is anyone trying the National Theatre Live streaming of theatre shows, or any of the equivalent offerings from other theatres?

It doesn't really work for me: theatre shows are designed for the dynamic of a captive audience in a physical place and the shared communication between audience and stage, and they don't transfer well to our living rooms.

Last night I tried the NT/Young Vic Streetcar Named Desire. I know it's a devastating play; I know Blanche's descent into final collapse is a gripping trajectory; I know it says a lot about toxic masculinity; I know that pretty well every part is a study in intensity; but watching it in my living room simply didn't engage me.

Bring back live theatre

Not really. NT Live already seemed to be dominating regional programming before the lockdown - having said that, if I were desperate to watch one of their plays I'd rather do it for nowt from my living room than pay £14 and sit in a theatre pretending you are really there. Meanwhile The Old Vic's plan is to replicate the pricing structure of their live performances for their online offerings, capping the audience at the same capacity as the actual theatre and charging between £10 and £65 for tickets. They claim that the cap is to do with streaming quality, which is obvious nonsense, but at the same time they are partly open about it being basically a plea for crowdfunding. Obviously there's an argument in an actual theatre for the idea of cross-subsidising cheap tickets by charging more to wealthy punters for better seats, but that hardly applies when you could have a virtually unlimited audience at a much lower price and there are no better seats anyway. I'm not against streaming theatre shows if it's the only way you can see something brilliant - the 1982 recording of Sweeney Todd onstage is one of the best things you can see on a screen; the 2007 movie probably one of the worst. But there's so much good telly and film that I don't really see the point. I have just binge-watched Fenix on More 4.

Rutabaga is very kind - I am pleased with our relatively modest lockdown output as a response to where we are and way of keeping people in work and thinking about what happens next, especially as not that many companies are doing much except streaming old shows, doing Zoom readings of plays, or having endless online talking shops. It's quite funny seeing pictures of socially distanced opera houses in other bits of Europe with a scattering of punters in the enormouse auditorium. We've literally had Edinburgh Fringes worse than that, and there wasn't even a pandemic.

We watched some of One Man, Two Guvners. I don't know whether it doesn't translate to TV or is just rubbish, but it was rubbish.