The TV and Streaming Thread: Summer Re-reruns (it's always summer somewhere)

[ShadySands]

52 minutes ago, Lexx said:

No, if the season has a good ending, I don't care. But most of those Netflix shows have cliff-hanger endings which make you want (or need) another season, which then never comes. It just sucks.

Same boat. I don't mind with limited series but with all the cliffhanger endings and unexplained sequel bait I usually just pass on it.

Netflix has kinda just become regular cable TV which is why it's probably the service at the top of my list for cancellation. I already have Hulu for safe and generic cable TV shows.

 

[ShadySands]

Top Gun 2. I think I liked it more than the original. Still confused about the Marine Corps honor guard at a Navy funeral. I feel gross like my viewing has supported Scientology in some small way.

My wife liked it way, way more than the original.

Edited January 8, 2023 by ShadySands

[LadyCrimson]

I find the term limited series a little odd but I'm used to stuff like k-dramas, that are 93% single, no 2nd season series, all the time. Although if Netflix has their way, it'll change before too long. At any rate, as long as Netflix continues to put up quite a few k-dramas (and other "foreign" to the US) shows that I like, I'll continue with it. I think hubby goes through Prime far more often than Netflix now tho (just more serials to try), whereas I find Prime mostly useful only for film rentals.  And while I occasionally like having HBO-Max on hand, I'm not sure it's worth the $150 a year at this point, either.

I miss the more procedural dramas the US used to make more frequently. Maybe they still do, just not for streaming channels so much, no clue, I haven't watched broadcast/cable TV in ages. But I mean where suchwould still have some character arcs sprinkled in, and cliffhangers, but each episode was much more self-contained. story wise. Made cancellations a little less painful. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

WHITE NOISE - I didn't realize it was on Netflix already. So I tried watching it. There was a chuckle here and there but despite the satire or whatever you want to call it, I found it generally not-amusing. Just offbeat and strange. I think it was too cerebral or existential or whatever, for my current tastes/moods.... Actors, including most of the children, were all fine. The middle section was probably the best section. The credits with a strange dance sequence in a grocery store was pretty creative.

[Hurlshort]

41 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Top Gun 2. I think I liked it more than the original. Still confused about the Marine Corps honor guard at a Navy funeral. I feel gross like my viewing has supported Scientology in some small way.

My wife liked it way, way more than the original.

Hmm. I though Cruise was a marine pilot in the first movie, but I can't verify that. It was a fun movie though.

[ShadySands]

Nope, they're all Navy. Navy uniforms and ranks which are completely different from the Marines. I'm guessing it was a style choice because they clearly had military access and advisors and the internet. Obviously, a minor thing overall but to me it stuck out.

Edited January 9, 2023 by ShadySands

[Hurlshort]

Jack Ryan Season 3 - This was a much better season than 2. I'd argue batter than season 1, since Mike November is fantastic as a side kick and Greer gets a lot of room to play too. It skirts the edges of the current Russian issues, which I assume is because it was all done before the war in Ukraine. Still, the Moscow connection makes for a thrilling setting and Ryan is back being an intelligence analyst instead of James Bond. I hope they keep making more.

[Gfted1]

Well the Marines are division of the Navy.  

[ShadySands]

Finished The Recruit. It got less frustrating or I just got used to it. Hope they make a second season because they didn't really resolve very much while adding more questions to the mix.

[Zoraptor]

Watched the first episode of the final season of Happy Valley. After seeing dozens of proudly made in Vancouver/ Georgia type messages- or, for that matter, made in New Zealand- it's nice to see a series that really upsells its setting. Can't wait to visit disused quarry with mud, broken appliances and dumped car plus obligatory dead body in blue 40 gallon drum, or random pile of rubbish #8 by side of rural road next time I'm in the UK. Makes The Wire look like it was written by the Baltimore Tourist Board.

Shame it's going to be 18 episodes over the course of basically ten years, but then I guess that's ultimately how it ends up being memorable.

[Gromnir]

for those with hulu, am seeing quo vadis, aida? is available

is making our shortlist o' best movies from the past couple decades, which is odd 'cause is also one o' the better reviewed movies o' the past couple decades and our opinions rare align with the meta-critic groupthink. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Sarex]

This should tell you everything you need to know about that movie.

https://cs-cz.facebook.com/МИМистарство-оностраних-послова-1085970928230025/videos/сцена-из-филма-quo-vadis-aida-и-аутентичан-снимак/349260583113469/

[Gromnir]

is possible a few boardies have a skew regarding the events which is the subject matter o' the film. am gonna suggest those who is ambivalent maybe check out reviews. 

‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ Review: Harrowing, Vital Retelling of the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre

as have noted previous, the only value we see in reviews is when one is unsure whether a movie is worth their time and money, considering the insights o' a reviewer who you recognize as having opinions which resonate may be helpful in deciding whether or not to view.

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/quo-vadis-aida

question: would we find a comradeyellow critique o' an elephant sitting still to be persuasive?

unlikely. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Sarex]

20 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

is possible a few boardies have a skew regarding the events which is the subject matter o' the film. am gonna suggest those who is ambivalent maybe check out reviews. 

I'm not saying that the movie is bad in a sense that you won't enjoy watching it, I'm just pointing out that the movie should not be taken as something that is objective or based in reality. I would go so far as to say that it's a propaganda piece. Still that doesn't mean that people would not find it entertaining.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Sarex

[Gromnir]

and am observing the objectivity o' a few boardies might be suspect. we would be suspicious o' comradeyellow regarding any material which were critical o' china and/or russia. similar, we would not look to orogun01 for insights 'bout a documentary with the holocaust as subject matter.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

So does anyone here that uses Firefox get Netflix and Prime to offer/play 4k titles thru it, at this point? I remember reading they stopped partly because of Covid/bandwidth concerns - and also maybe other concerns - and it hasn't returned yet for me. So wondering if this is still the normal for Firefox, or if it's maybe because, say, I haven't updated Win10 or the browser for a little while.

Edited January 10, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Sarex]

13 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

and am observing the objectivity o' a few boardies might be suspect. we would be suspicious o' comradeyellow regarding any material which were critical o' china and/or russia. similar, we would not look to orogun01 for insights 'bout a documentary with the holocaust as subject matter.

HA! Good Fun!

You can believe your eyes and ears by watching the short video in the link, which shows a scene from the movie and the actual event that was recorded. Nothing more objective than that one would think.

[Sarex]

17 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

So does anyone here that uses Firefox get Netflix and Prime to offer/play 4k titles thru it, at this point? I remember reading they stopped partly because of Covid/bandwidth concerns - and also maybe other concerns - and it hasn't returned yet for me. So wondering if this is still the normal for Firefox, or if it's maybe because, say, I haven't updated Win10 or the browser for a little while.

That never worked on Firefox. I think the max resolution on Firefox/Chrome is 1080p. If you want to watch in 4k you need to use Edge (previously IE).

edit: nope 720p on Firefox/Chrome.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Sarex

[Gromnir]

the main character o' the movie ain't a real person. the film is not hiding the fact it is a dramatization. so, yeah, events in the movie obvious ain't gonna be true-to-life in every respect. the thing is you may review war crimes testimony which shows that the stuff you find offensive did take place, many times, but you quibble over a specific event.

can take a single scene outta context and miss forest for the trees.

but again, am not surprised by skew.

edit: 

"The Srebrenica massacre has become the subject of intense politicization, to the point of genocide denial in some quarters, to which the moral clarity of Zbanic’s film operates like a rebuke. This is not historical revisionism, if anything, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” works to un-revise history, re-centering the victims’ plight as the eye of a storm of evils — not only the massacre itself, but the broader evils of institutional failure and international indifference." 

is from the variety review we linked.

forest v. trees. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 10, 2023 by Gromnir

[LadyCrimson]

18 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That never worked on Firefox. I think the max resolution on Firefox/Chrome is 1080p. If you want to watch in 4k you need to use Edge (previously IE).

edit: nope 720p on Firefox/Chrome.

No, 4k did work on Firefox initially, at least for me where I am. Both on Prime and Netflix. I remember suddenly noticing (at some point after Covid started) on both services that all the little 4k icon's on titles were suddenly nowhere to be found, as well as noticing the drop in video quality on the big TV's.  Edit: I wouldn't have gotten the 4k level sub. if it hadn't.

Edit: at any rate, thanks for checking for me. : )
PS4 still streams in 4k for services, it's the only reason I'm still paying Netflix that tier.

Edited January 10, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Sarex]

14 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

No, 4k did work on Firefox initially, at least for me where I am. Both on Prime and Netflix. I remember suddenly noticing (at some point after Covid started) on both services that all the little 4k icon's on titles were suddenly nowhere to be found, as well as noticing the drop in video quality on the big TV's.  Edit: I wouldn't have gotten the 4k level sub. if it hadn't.

Were you using some extension, as that is the only way that could have worked on Windows. Otherwise as I previously said due to DRM issues anything above 720p was only available on IE and then Edge (oh and on the netflix app from the ms store, but that is a buggy mess).

edit: this is only for netflix, I haven't used prime but I would guess it's the same.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Sarex

[Gromnir]

On 1/8/2023 at 3:49 PM, ShadySands said:

Top Gun 2. I think I liked it more than the original. Still confused about the Marine Corps honor guard at a Navy funeral. I feel gross like my viewing has supported Scientology in some small way.

My wife liked it way, way more than the original.

am knowing 0 'bout the new movie. miramar is setting for the first movie and miramar is a marine air station so am s'posing the marine presence at a funeral for an aviator at miramar would make a kinda/sorta sense... but we assume the new movie is set at fallon... maybe? 

most obvious answer is sailor honor guard just don't look as kewl as the marines.

dunno.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

20 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Were you using some extension, as that is the only way that could have worked on Windows. Otherwise as I previously said due to DRM issues anything above 720p was only available on IE and then Edge (oh and on the netflix app from the ms store, but that is a buggy mess).

edit: this is only for netflix, I haven't used prime but I would guess it's the same.

No, no extension.
Hm. It is possible that while the 4k icons were there, that it was only playing in 1080 and I just didn't think about it back then. All I know is the visual quality suddenly dropped (re: 50-55" TV's anyway, it still looks decent/good at 27"). I checked Prime on PC again (haven't in a while) and now the 4k/UHD icons are there again, but it tosses up a "because you're not on a supported device, only Standard Definition for you!" message that I never got/saw before. Supposedly this is mostly about DRM concerns and they consider Firefox not good enough for that.

There was a time when there was some command while playing Netflix that let you see the tech stats/bandwidth etc. info but I think it no longer works, or it's changed and I know not what it is. If it's actually 720, not even 1080, that's even worse/would explain why it's so much more drastically softer/compressed on the TV's now.

[Sarex]

10 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

There was a time when there was some command while playing Netflix that let you see the tech stats/bandwidth etc. info but I think it no longer works, or it's changed and I know not what it is. If it's actually 720, not even 1080, that's even worse/would explain why it's so much more drastically softer/compressed on the TV's now.

ctrl+shift+alt+d is the command. This is pretty much the only thing I use Edge for.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Sarex

[LadyCrimson]

Thought: I suppose it's also possible that they've just reduced the video compression quality so much that it's become very noticeable on big screens but not on smaller ones. All I know is the icons used to be there - even if they were lying, so to speak, and they've now corrected it - and that it used to look a ton better on the big TV's hence my assumption. Edit: well that and an article I read during covid, which I cannot seem to find now/again. >.>

Edited January 10, 2023 by LadyCrimson