Milburn Stone

They do care about product. They can go on only so long without it.

But there is a limit to how much people are willing to pay. The reason this strike will be prolonged is that the whole situation is between a rock and a hard place. If studio heads could solve the problem by giving the actors and writers everything they want, and then charging more to a consuming public who would willingly pay what's asked, it would have happened.

Wouldn't it be funny if when they move it to Broadway they interpolate Mancini's song into Guettel's score? Based on my reaction to Piazza, I'd call it an improvement. (Four bars of beauty are not enough to sustain me.)

Whenever they have these multi-host panel shows, it's nothing but bloviating. You could substitute all the hosts with any 6 of us and the result would be an equal number of blinding epiphanies.

I've only watched the first episode so far, but based on that, this season is phonier than a $3 bill. I say "so far," because I probably am going to continue to hate-watch. More to watch these Hollywood phonies than the poor director they prey on. The only exec I kind of like is the quiet, reserved one from Blumhouse. (I think.)

I thought it was awesome how the show made me nauseous as I experienced the same three weeks over and over. I mean that; not being snarky. They wanted me to feel how horrible, how psychotic, how physically ill it would be to be George or anyone aware of the 3-week loops, and they did.

Under Manage Followed Content, the Forums area ("Forums I Follow) continues to show the latest post on the right-hand side of the list. But in the analogous section in the Topics area {"Topics I Follow") this information has disappeared. This information became more essential than ever when the Forums ceased automatically taking us to the first unread post back in December. (Which is still sadly the case.) At least could we have those latest post listings back?

This could also belong in the "That Wouldn't Work Now" topic. The idea that it's funny that someone is gay and comes out of the closet when he doesn't have to--well, it was a different time and all that, but a movie's attitude, not just depicting a different time but having sport with gayness in its present-time interaction with the audience, is hard to look past now. Not like it condemns a movie to the pits of hell for all time, just that it hits a more than sour note.

But that might have been really clever of George. Because now the LP has skin in the game. They wouldn't do a reset to save Sarah, but they will do it to save Shiv. Which will save Sarah.

This post perfectly captures why I find this show so confusing. I don't understand the show any better than I understand this post! (Although I know, Dowel, that it makes sense to anyone who can.) I'm still watching and digging it, though.

I love Paul Kaye in everything he does. He was hilarious as the recurring shrink in the Ricky Gervais comedy-drama After Life on Netflix.

I agree with you re those three actors' performances. The Wakeling actor seemed a bit of a weak link but he redeemed himself in the final scene with the bobby. Good movie (I'd give it 3 stars I guess) which could have been better if only it had resisted some obvious clichés. The trope where the character seems to be confronting someone, only for the audience to find out that he's merely rehearsing the confrontation--that stopped being a surprise about 5 decades ago. The device to show the audience the passage of time by showing one calendar page turning into another--that stopped being novel about 7 decades ago. Why? Why?

And Succession is funnier than The Bear! Oh, the irony.

Loved the season and I don't care if restaurant kitchens aren't really that crazy, they are for these people. Can't believe Alex Moffat took a role that gave him that little screen time in a whole season. (What was it in total, about 14 seconds?) Is he one step away from homelessness in real life or something? Apparently star Chicago chef Rick Bayless isn't happy with how the show portrayed restaurant work. He said the show makes cooking "look like the worst profession in the world," and that the show has set the cooking profession "back another 20 years." (Not sure what the first blow was, but I assume Covid.) Michael Muser, co-owner of Ever, has said "the level of passion feels authentic" but maybe some of the show's depictions are a tad over-the-top. In any case he was glad to cooperate with filming because "it does a great job of paying homage to our extraordinary city" and "anything we can do to help represent the city in a good light, we will." Whole article is here.

EtoT, can you direct me to the Reddit thread with a link? I'm not conversant with Reddit but I'd like to take a look at this conversation. Also, @Charlie Baker, that was a great (though angrifying) NYT article on censoring. Thanks for sending.

Agree. I wonder if the thing that's stopped them is that they have some weird deal with Comcast and the other cable providers that if TCM offers a freestanding streaming app, Comcast will refuse to carry TCM on cable. Which TCM would hate more than most channels, simply because the one group that has been slow to cut the cord and move to streaming is old people, and that's the same demographic that makes up most of TCM's viewership. HBO can afford to lose some cord-cutters because they'll scoop them up in their streaming app MAX. TCM can't afford to lose any more cable subscribers than it's already losing due to, er, attrition, if you get my drift.

At least he knows there is such a thing as Watch TCM. (Whether he'll have time to attend to it with no help from staff is another matter.)

IMO, both those shows would be immeasurably better if they were half the length. (I watch them both and find things to like, and all those things would still be there. IIRC, there actually was a Brokenwood episode that was only an hour, and it was better.)

All I remember about Bulworth is that it would be more relevant today than ever.

This observation puts a related one in my head. I, too, believe Ron was a civilian. But in addition to the fact that all of us are influenced by TV in our styles of presentation, let us not forget that he was aware cameras were present at all times! The thing he thought to be true was that he was one of a bunch of people in a reality show. That was the very premise he was sold! We don't know what the real Ron, called for a real jury, sans cameras, would be like.

She also had a short role in that David O. Russell film from last year, Amsterdam. She was fine in it, did what she had to do. (My capsule review of movie: It was all over the place but I liked it.)

This news is making me realize that I may never have seen Seasons 3 and 4! I think I may not have been aware that they existed. Am going to have to go back to S3 and see if any of it looks familiar. I kind of hope I haven't seen them because that will mean I have two whole seasons to "enjoy"--if that's the right word.

I may be the only guy on this topic, but/and I sign on to the above. We watched it last night because Mrs. Stone heard about it from a friend, and even though a number of factors might work against us relating--for instance, we were tweens in the early sixties, not early seventies, as was my sister, not to mention that in my case, as I said, I'm a dude--we totally did. Movies that are true to human experience can do that.

I know. I went, how the hell are they charging

(Also posted this as its own topic in Other Dramas...) As a result of finishing Happy Valley, we went in search of other Sarah Lancashire shows, and found The Accident from 2019. A contemporary story involving a small Welsh town and, well, an accident. Four episodes, of which we've watched the first two. It's good.