Category: Watch

📺 “Hinterland” Devil’s Bridge – Part 1 | BBC

Watched "Hinterland" Devil's Bridge - Part 1 from BBC (Netflix)
Directed by Marc Evans. With Richard Harrington, Mali Harries, Alex Harries, Hannah Daniel. On his first day on a new job DCI Tom Mathias investigates a blood soaked bathroom and the disappearance of 64 year old Helen Jenkins. The inquiry focuses on an old Children's home above the ravine spanned by the Devil's Bridge.
Watching this in hopes of it being in the vein of Shetland. The first episode isn’t bad. I liked the way the audience is led astray about the victim at first. The characters aren’t as strongly written or as solidly acted as in Shetland, but I’ll give it a go.

📺 Michelle Wolf complete remarks at 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner | C-SPAN (YouTube)

Watched Michelle Wolf complete remarks at 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner from C-SPAN (YouTube)
From C-SPAN coverage, Michelle Wolf remarks at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Watch the complete video here: https://cs.pn/2JxzkC2

After having finally seen this, I don’t see anything wrong or problematic about Michelle Wolf’s act. In fact, she gave a generally solid roast that dished it around to almost everyone. If we want to take someone to task, why not Trump for being a “poor” coward? Was he worried he wouldn’t be the richest person in the room? Was Jeff Bezos RSVP’d?

Some have said that Wolf took Sarah Huckabee Sander’s appearance to task; the sad fact is that they’re just apparently not up enough on popular culture to have gotten some of the jokes. If anything Wolf was complimenting Sanders’ makeup technique.

On the other hand, if we want to beat someone up over taking people’s appearances to task, perhaps we should go back and do some better reporting on the President who says these things on a regular basis and not as part of an obvious comedy and satire routine? A real ad hominem appearance attack would sound something more like “With crazy hair, orange complexion, and bizarre makeup, I often wonder if Trump isn’t attempting to prove that he got just enough talent and votes to hold the office of “First Clown.” Apparently he wasn’t rich enough to buy the popular vote, but just like the sham of Trump University, he was able to afford the Electoral College. Can the voters get a settlement too?

At the end of the day it’s really Wolf who should be the most upset. The worst part of the whole performance was a painfully bad and poorly placed microphone that continually gave me nightmare flashbacks of Howard Dean’s Yahhh!! moment. Her material would have definitely done better with a more solid audio set up.

Now if the WHCA really wants to get righteously upset, maybe they should invite Jeffrey Ross to come? Perhaps he could toss off something tame along the lines of “I wouldn’t f@*k Trump with Sarah Huckabee Sander’s dick!” Maybe it would at least buy his redemption in Bea Arthur’s eyes?

📺 “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” West Virginia | CNN

Watched "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" West Virginia from IMDb
Bourdain digs deep into the proud, often misunderstood culture of West Virginia, as he traverses a 5,000 foot mine, observes the demolition derby-like sport of rock-bouncing and dines on signature Appalachian dishes.
There’s some interesting simple honesty to this show. Reminds me a bit of a more serious and food centric version of what W. Kamau Bell is doing with his show on CNN.

📺 “The Big Bang Theory” The Monetary Insufficiency | CBS

Watched "The Big Bang Theory" The Monetary Insufficiency from CBS
Directed by Nicole Lorre. With Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg. Sheldon goes to Vegas to win money for science. Also, Penny and Bernadette take Amy wedding dress shopping, but her terrible choice entangles them in a web of lies.
Had trouble paying attention to this episode for some reason…

📺 “The Big Bang Theory” The Comet Polarization | CBS

Watched "The Big Bang Theory" The Comet Polarization from CBS
Directed by Mark Cendrowski. With Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg. Sheldon's comic book store experience changes when writer Neil Gaiman puts Stuart's store on the map; friendships are threatened when Koothrappali takes credit for Penny's astronomical discovery.

📺 Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Stews of the Arabian Gulf | PBS

Watched Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Stews of the Arabian Gulf from PBS
Follow the flavor as Martha puts her spin on the stews of the Arabian Gulf. Each dish is layered with stick-to-your-bones satisfaction. Arabian Gulf potpie, braised lamb shanks with okra, curried swordfish stew and red lentil vegetable stew… these slow cooked treasures offer nourishing comfort with ease.
I find Martha Stewart a bit on the droll side.  Here she essentially makes a chicken pot pie and calls it Arabian Gulf cuisine?! Anthony Bourdain she is not. Even worse, she takes a taste of the stew for seasoning and then drips the remnants into the dish before using the same spoon to continue stirring. Yes, you read that right. She double dipped her spoon! Alas…

🎞 Inside Man (2006) – ★★★★

Watched Inside Man (2006) from Universal Pictures
Directed by Spike Lee. With Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer.

A police detective, a bank robber, and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation.
Third or fourth viewing… Always good and I’m still noticing little things that I missed previously.

Watched on big screen television via Netflix through Chromecast

Rating:

📺 “Madam Secretary” The Friendship Game | CBS

Watched "Madam Secretary" The Friendship Game from CBS
Directed by Sam Hoffman. With Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, Keith Carradine, Patina Miller. Negotiations for an agreement to combat gang violence in South America become complicated when the US's partner is complicit in a kidnapping. Elizabeth worries she is no longer fun.

📺 “Madam Secretary” Phase Two | CBS

Watched "Madam Secretary" Phase Two from CBS
Directed by Martha Mitchell. With Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, Keith Carradine, Patina Miller. Phase 2 of Elizabeth's deal with Iran is put in jeopardy when a Senator claims that money from Phase 1 was used in a bombing that killed a US citizen. Henry mulls over whether to accept the chair of the new military ethics department.

📺 “Madam Secretary” My Funny Valentine | CBS

Watched "Madam Secretary" My Funny Valentine from CBS
Directed by Rob J. Greenlea. With Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, Keith Carradine, Patina Miller. As the 20th anniversary of the embassy bombing in Uganda approaches, emotions run high among the State Department staff, who had personal connections to lives lost that day, including Elizabeth, who must decide if the United States should lift sanctions against the country deemed responsible. Also, Henry tries to help Jason break up with Piper.

📺 “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” John Dickerson/Charlamagne Tha God/Nell Scovell | CBS

Watched "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" John Dickerson/Charlamagne Tha God/Nell Scovell from CBS
Journalist John Dickerson (CBS This Morning (1992)); TV personality Charlamagne Tha God; author Nell Scovell

🎞 Miss Sloane (2016)

Watched Miss Sloane (2016) from Europa Corp.
Miss Sloane movie posterDirected by John Madden. With Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg.

In the high-stakes world of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. Known equally for her cunning and her track record of success, she has always done whatever is required to win. But when she takes on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds that winning may come at too high a price.
Stood up reasonably well even on a second viewing, though I think I appreciated it more the first time.

Watched via Amazon Prime on big screen 40″ television streaming using Amazon Fire Stick

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🎞 The Circle (2017)

Watched The Circle (2017) from STX Entertainment
Directed by James Ponsoldt. With Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Ellar Coltrane.
A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, only to uncover an agenda that will affect the lives of all of humanity.
Even more interesting to watch this after the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. It was sad to see the simplistic surface level only analysis of ideas in the film though.

Watched via Amazon Prime on big screen television through Amazon Fire Stick.

Rating: 

🎞 The Wizard of Oz (1939) – ★★★★

Watched The Wizard of Oz (1939) from MGM
Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy. With Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr.

Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home in Kansas and help her friends as well.
Haven’t seen this in years. Much more surreal than I remember, especially in HD on a big screen instead of an old TV set. I don’t think I’ve seen this since college sometime, and before that when CBS ran it annually before Turner bought it.

Watched via Amazon Prime (recently released there) on 40″ large screen television streamed through Amazon Fire Stick

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📺 Malcolm Gladwell Explains Where His Ideas Come From | The New Yorker | YouTube

Watched Malcolm Gladwell Explains Where His Ideas Come From from The New Yorker | YouTube

David Remnick speaks with Malcolm Gladwell about how he arrived at his particular approach to storytelling.

I appreciate how Gladwell makes the attempt to reach out to his readers between books and has thought about how podcasting is a useful way to do that. Some of this is the idea behind the why and how of what a good author platform is and how it should work. Podcasting is just a tool for doing a piece of that better.

There are some interesting references in here that I’ll have to read up on as well as taking a look at Gladwell’s podcast. I’m curious how he translates his storytelling approach in the audio medium compared to how he writes.

h/t Aaron Davis