What program/film/documentary are you watching now?

[mainsworthy]

on disney + fed 27th "Shogun" looks really worth a watch.

[James Taylor]

Just watched "SiSu", entertaining, but of course fictitious. Daughter sent a new WW2 book, "The Forgotten Highlander", intro reminds me of "Unbroken". Looks to be a good read about Death's Railway in Burma and Thailand.

[warspite1]

About 20 years late, but I finally got round to watching The Wire (Sky Atlantic). What can I say? A thoroughly brilliant series, great acting, great script... but also shockingly depressing too....

[Orm]

About 20 years late, but I finally got round to watching The Wire (Sky Atlantic). What can I say? A thoroughly brilliant series, great acting, great script... but also shockingly depressing too....

That is a stonking good show. How far into the series have you gotten?

I am re-watching it now as well. What I really like about it is that they show the issues from several different angles. Each season has a slightly different perspective on how the drugs affect the city.

One could indeed see it as depressing. However, I think it is good to be told, or shown, about what is bad so that one can do better. Here there is a lot of talk about the image of how things look, and how to improve the image. Instead, one should talk about how to actually make things better. Sweeping things under the rug might make for a better image, but it does nothing to solve the issue. In fact, in makes it worse. What could be seen as even more depressing is that I listened a bit to the shows creators and they said they couldn't show it as bad as really it was... they had to make it look better.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

The Wire, is decent, season 1, 2, 3
Season 4, 5, blah, skipped half of it.
Got tired of the Drunk, Bo Cops and Omar.
Needed to focus on the Drugs & more action.
More Action, less Soap Opera.

[warspite1]

About 20 years late, but I finally got round to watching The Wire (Sky Atlantic). What can I say? A thoroughly brilliant series, great acting, great script... but also shockingly depressing too....

That is a stonking good show. How far into the series have you gotten?

I am re-watching it now as well. What I really like about it is that they show the issues from several different angles. Each season has a slightly different perspective on how the drugs affect the city.

One could indeed see it as depressing. However, I think it is good to be told, or shown, about what is bad so that one can do better. Here there is a lot of talk about the image of how things look, and how to improve the image. Instead, one should talk about how to actually make things better. Sweeping things under the rug might make for a better image, but it does nothing to solve the issue. In fact, in makes it worse. What could be seen as even more depressing is that I listened a bit to the shows creators and they said they couldn't show it as bad as really it was... they had to make it look better.

warspite1

I've watched all 5 series. I've read that series 5 was supposed to have seen a drop off in quality, but I must say I can't agree with that. I think all 5 series were excellent - and as you say, it was interesting to see a different focus in each series.

I think one of the signs of a good acting/scripting/character development is when we actually find ourselves rooting (or at least sympathy for) someone we really shouldn't be. For example, the murder of Wallace was a shocker, but then I found myself feeling sorry for the murder, later on, of one of his executioners, Bodie - and was pleased that the other - Poot - appeared to make it out of that world. And I was really behind Omar - and was hoping he would come out of it alive.

The show avoided saccharine sweetness - with perhaps the exception of Bubbles and Namond who were two of the show's few "winners". I thought Duquan, and maybe Michael or Randy would come out the other side too, but for one reason or another, they remained firmly in that world at the end....

This is a show I will definitely re-watch in a couple of years.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Just watched "Masters of the Air", episode #3.
It's badass.

If Band of Brothers had a baby with Baa Baa Black Sheep TV series in Europe.

[Kuokkanen]

A short video about what books got burned by Hitler's Nazis and related circumstances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8AYHaz6ymM

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

It was a nice try, for a prequel, but falls flat.
It's predictable, Damien is certainly born, the anti-Christ, we know.
Like Darth Vader getting his mask, movie.
The cinematic effects feel 1970s scary, which aren't scary in today's era.

Me, love the original. The Harvey Stephens made the flick, along with Gregory Peck's panic surprise w/ Lee Remick.
Omen II with William Holden, I liked as a follow up.
The rest suck.
So does the stupid series.

[RFalvo69]

I watched Season 4 of True Detective. A waste of time and talent.

Jodie Foster is as great as always. Same for the young actor who plays her deputy. The rest of the cast... I don't know. ALL the characters are super-angry towards the World because "reasons". Of course ALL the male characters are 1. brutish 2. weak 3. corrupt 4. supid. Choose 1 to 4 from these character traits (and only from these) to build your male cratacter.

The plot is beyond stupid. We start with a situation which is borderline with John Carpenter's "The Thing" (or a Call of Chtulhu RPG adventure). Agencies ranging from the FBI, to the X-Files, to the Men in Black should descend on this small minerary town in Northern Alaska to see what the hell is up. The local police treats it as one among many cases. They literally treat an astounding occourrence with the same effort used to treat a fistfight in the pub.

EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER HAS MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS. Even worse, EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER HAS THE SAME KIND OF MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER. I understand the desire to maintain the possibility that supernatural forces are involved. Some H.P. Lovecraft fans like to think at Season One as a Lovecraftian tale where the characters were so lucky that they only met the "aura" of the Mythos. It is a cool concept - akin to Delta Green for those who know it, and intellegently left to speculation. In Season 4 EVERYONE hears "voices" and sees "things" - the same voices and the same things!

Which brings me to the characters - or, better yet, THE CHARACTER, as the main characters are all the same. EVERYONE has traumatic deaths in their past, EVERYONE has vision of these deaths mixed with elements of the case, EVERYONE suffers from - at the very least - baseline Schizophrenia... Talking of this, the way the show portrays mental health problems as a way to "fake" a supernaturtal element is offensive both towards real mental health problems and the very Northern Alaskan native culture.

And the we have the big reveal - something so profoundly stupid that it simply couldn't really have happened. Even worse, had really it happened that way, any cop just out of the Academy would have solved the case within the second episode.

The place and time are cool (no pun intended). Jodie Foster is great. The mystery could have been engaging. Sadly, the writing is a mess of things all over the place with no real research by the writers about what hey were writing (environmentalism, mental health, native culture, HOW THE POLICE ACTUALLY WORKS. (Very) apparently the creator of TD, Nick Pizzolato, wasn't involved in this Season. Nick, please, next time at least check the script!

4/10 from me.

NOTE: For good stories set in the same area during the "long night" check "Insomnia" (the original with Stellan Skarsgaard if possible, not the remake by Christopher Nolan) or "30 Days of Night".

SPOILER HERE: The sad thing is that I had an idea about what had happened. The researchers had brought from the permafrost a cluster of some kind of microorganism (possibly a fungus) capable to cause folly and dementia. That this organism is diffused - in low concentrations - across the whole region could explain why everyone is baseline schizo. I'll use my idea in mi CoC RPG campaign...

[warspite1]

Lol - having viewed the first episode I thought this is going to be Fortitude but set in Alaska....

I agree Jodie Foster was quality (and the excellent Christopher Eccleston was woefully under-used), but she couldn't save the series as the story was just silly - and there wasn't a character to get behind. Not a series I'd watch again - unlike True Detective series 1 (I've watched that three times) and series 3 which I intend to re-watch soon.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Season #12, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Best comedy series of all-time. No need to explain

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Greatest card, ever !!!
History being made UFC 300

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Watched these two movies (at theater) recently:

Dune 2: Had never seen a Dune movie, and regret seeing this one. The scenery and sound was incredible. Story and plot is absolutely awful. Ate popcorn & had a coke to salvage the time.

Civil War: This movie was so bad, we left. I couldn't take it. Unrealistic characters and combat. No clue about the plot, there wasn't one. The photographers used old cameras and thought they had Yoda like wisdom. So dumb.

[Kuokkanen]

A video about Finnish military. Has some errors, but pretty cool anyway. I learned something new from it, like the size of our navy. I knew beforehand we have 8 missile boats, at least 1 minelayer with some guns on it, and a number of troop carriers & landing boats. But I didn't know the total number of them (250). Video claims we have 900k of trained military personnel. Maybe true, but I wasn't accepted to the service/training due health issues (insignificant IMO). I heard from my brother that in possible war he would remain at hs farm and provide food supply.

One thing the video don't mention is the size of our mortar force. We have a mortar platoon in infantry company AND a mortar company in infantry battalion. Effectively 2 mortar companies in an infantry battalion. Think it's enough mortars?

[RangerJoe]

A video about Finnish military. Has some errors, but pretty cool anyway. I learned something new from it, like the size of our navy. I knew beforehand we have 8 missile boats, at least 1 minelayer with some guns on it, and a number of troop carriers & landing boats. But I didn't know the total number of them (250). Video claims we have 900k of trained military personnel. Maybe true, but I wasn't accepted to the service/training due health issues (insignificant IMO). I heard from my brother that in possible war he would remain at hs farm and provide food supply.

One thing the video don't mention is the size of our mortar force. We have a mortar platoon in infantry company AND a mortar company in infantry battalion. Effectively 2 mortar companies in an infantry battalion. Think it's enough mortars?

Interesting.

Also interesting, at 28:40 when the ground combat starts after the sauna and cold plunge is the soldier wearing the US Army 1st Cavalry Division (aka, Chicken Cav) patch.

Not the 1st Cavalry Division but another cavalry unit used to have (I don't know the current TO&E) three cavalry troops with three 4.2 inch mortars per cavalry troop, one tank company (17 tanks) and one battery of artillery with 6 M109s with 155mm guns. Three cavalry troops with 12 tanks each along with the other armored vehicles for the scouts, a total of 53 tanks. That US Cavalry regiment was supposed to hold off 4 Soviet divisions, one tank and three mechanized infantry divisions, for about 3 days before being relieved.

[RangerJoe]

06:30 to 19:30, Sunday the 15 September 1940.

World War II: The 13 Hours That Saved Britain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5m_tz4Bjk

[RangerJoe]

I have been watching Sharpe's Rifles where Sean Bean gets injured but not killed. So a person could state that he gets lucky in more ways than one. But there is a video that some may want to watch first:

Could You Survive as a Sharpshooter in Britain’s Elite 95th Rifles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPPGJwgWlGA

This person has other videos but 16 of the Sharpe's Rifles movies. It has subtitles in Spanish so you can learn and/or improve your Spanish language skills.

Crusher

https://www.youtube.com/@CrusherArgXXX/videos

[gamer78]

Kuokkanen , from what I understand -youtuber not from Finland-, Finland has long border with Russia. It is suitable for war like Vietnam. Russia doesn't know what irregular war is about as about what youtuber saying. Well Chechens in a tale rebelled for a hundred year. All can buy one in an imperialist state as my conclusion.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

"And Dana White, you're the Michael Vick, of humans".

Tom Brady Roast is hilarious.