Yesterday I saw The 5th Wave. It is the latest Hunger Games clone teen movie. It wasn't as good as Hungry Games, but I thought it was better than all the other clones out there. I enjoyed the characters. They had good motivations and their actions made sense, and I liked seeing them on the screen. Chloe Grace Moritz is the protagonist, and she puts in a good turn as a believable person I could root for. She was Hit Girl from Kickass (she was the only part of that movie worth watching).

The whole process of the alien invasion seemed well done too. The 'Waves' of alien actions in the movie actually go down a checklist of the basic ways to conquer a planet. EMP to knock out all electronics, earthquakes and tidal waves to cause massive damage and loss of life, an artificially engineered disease to wipe out the survivors, etc... I liked this, because it shows the writer was thinking and paying attention. The one tactic glaring by its absence is using asteroids to bombard the planet. But one character observes early on that the aliens want the planet. They just don't want the people on it. A serious comet/asteroid bombardment would make the world uninhabitable for millennia (which has happened in the past, more than once).

The Fifth Wave is the aliens finally getting their boots on the ground (it's not a spoiler, it comes out really early). But it is not a horde of monsters washing across the planet. Instead it is a lot more sneaky, in the form of infiltrators. More might be a spoiler, so I will leave it at that. But what I found interesting about that is it implies that the aliens don't have massive numbers. There would be no need to be subtle if they did have a horde of monsters. Granted, the writer may not have thought of that...

The ending is basically just the beginning. This is obviously meant to be Act I in a series of films. I will be looking for the sequels. It is not great, but I was entertained.



May The Fourth Be With You All!

I have not seen the Season 2 end yet. But I am looking forward to seeing Vader and "The Apprentice" squaring off. Obviously Vader is going to still be around afterward though... I did not know Maul was in it too. I have always liked him. It will be cool to see them doing more with him.

Vader was pretty chilling in the new season. Especially at the very end when he meets a certain apprentice.

Bruno - hysterically funny!

DE =

I finally saw Deadpool today. It was ok, but nothing astounding. It's basically a super action movie with a never ending train of pop culture one-liners. That is really all there is to it. It feels like it has no soul to it, like those two Amazing Cash Grab Spider Man movies. Look, I can make a snarky pop culture one-liner too! Do I get my own movie?

I have also gotten up the gumption once more to give Daredevil another try. I am glad I did, because I was very impressed with the first season - straight, white, Christian, male lead and all. Not nearly as many snarky quips as Deadpool, but it does have a soul, and plenty of it.

Vincent D'Ornifo was fantastic as Wilson Fisk - I don't believe I ever heard the name Kingpin. I thought he gave the character a great deal of depth, beyond being just a simple villain. As in real life, he saw himself as the hero, up until the end.

The rest of the cast is solid as well. I don't know their names, but the people playing Matt, Foggy, Karen, and Urich are all outstanding. They give their characters so much life and believability that I can believe they are real people.

I am into Season Two now. I was originally thrilled that the Punisher clearly has a large part to play in it. But last night I found out who is playing the Punisher - the same guy who did Chance from Walking Dead, and he still has the same bad hair he did before. That took all the wind out of my sails. I suppose Ray Stevenson will always be my Punisher. The movie he was in - Punisher War Zone - was pure crap. But that wasn't his fault. He was the perfect Frank Castle. But I suppose he is too old these days for the part.

I've been on an Avengers binge recently, so I'm finishing up with Age of Ultron, which isn't that great a film really.

Tomorrow, I think I'll take a break from Marvel films and watch Ran, since I recorded it the other day.

Forgot to mention that I watched In The Heart Of The Sea last week. Which I believe Grits referred to as Thor vs The Whale. It was pretty meh. I thought Chris Hemsworth was good. In fact, I always enjoy his performances. He always comes off as a very friendly, approachable, decent guy in the films he does. Someone easy to like. He's not a great actor, but he's not a bad one either. I think he makes bad choices in picking the movies he does though, because a good actor cannot save a bad movie.

But this was not really a bad movie. It just wasn't a good one. Most of it is dirty, grimy, ugly, and gross. Be it the ordinary life at sea, or killing whales and climbing into their corpses to bucket out their innards. Of course the whole killing whales makes it hard for me to root for the humans. While I liked Chris Hemsworth's and the young Brendan Gleeson's characters, I was still on Team Whale for the entire movie. That whole morality thing. It would have been cool if the whale had swam into Nantucket, pulled out a laser minigun, and killed everyone. Not very very realistic, but I still would have cheered.

I was wondering how they were going to end it, since it sure looks like it is either going to be Chris or the Whale. The ocean didn't seem big enough for both of them. But they did wrap it up nicely without having to go there, and what happened to everyone after it all was nice too. All in all it is an ok watch if you are bored and it turns up on Netflix's Instant Viewing.

Today I wrapped up Season Two of Daredevil. It was good. I will definitely be looking forward to the next season. I liked some of the small things I wove in that connect it to the rest of the MCU, like newspapers with stories about the Battle of New York. There were also some connections with Jessica Jones, with an oblique mention by Nurse Temple that she is in hot water at her job because of something she did (in Jessica Jones). Carrie Ann Moss also appears at the very end of the last episode, offering Foggy a job.

One thing I did not like was the split focus in the season between two major storylines. On one hand we have the whole Frank Castle arc, then we have a completely separate arc with Elektra, Stick, and The Hand. Just give me one story at a time please. I think one thing they were trying to do was to show how Matt/Daredevil was being torn in multiple directions at the same time. And it did make it clear why there would be a real need for an actual super team like The Defenders (the Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist show in that is in the works). But on the other hand, it just gets distracting going back and forth.

Star Wars Dogfights set to Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone

Pure awesomesauce, SubRosa! Thanks for sharing!

Holy Cow, when did they get these great graphics?

Watching Better Than Chocolate again for the first time in years. Fantastic!

Having recently commented in our 'favorite TV series' thread that I suspect I Claudius likely to have withstood the passage of time rather well, I decided to test my theory by seeking it out at YouTube. I did NOT find episode one there, but did find episode two and many if not all later episodes. They are severely cropped, probably to prevent take-down, which sometimes takes a heavy toll on character framing. Despite that I soon found myself utterly engrossed with the script, line delivery and facial acting. I was especially impressed by the actress who portrays Augustus' wife Livia. Augustus himself (Brian Blessed) has some fine moments too. But the entire cast does a creditable job, with no obvious weak links. Yes, the acting tends toward 'stagy', but in the right way. The series modest budget is most evident in its lack of anything beyond small soundstage sets.

By mid episode three I knew I wanted to own the series on disc if possible. Online research showed that it is currently available on DVD (not blu-ray) in a 5-disc 35th anniversary edition, which utilizes original BBC episodes rather than their censored American equivalents, and includes a decent amount o bonus material. What's more, it's part of a Barnes and Noble 30% off sale, making it very nearly as cheap as ordering off Amazon. I bought the set while in town today.

I've already watched the movie-length first episode and rewatched episode two. Good stuff, though I feel the series doesn't quite hit its stride until the second episode. Image quality, which has undergone a bit of restoration, looks impressive for its age and source when upscaled to 1080p.

Here is episode two as it appears on YouTube, cropping and all.

A few months ago I bought all four seasons of Wiseguy on dvd. Last night I finally started watching them. Even after all these years, it is still excellent. Ken Wahl just chews the screen, and I almost cheered when I first saw Jim Byrnes, with more dark hair than grey.

Today I saw the first episode of Mercy Street. I put it in my queue mainly because of Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Let me say that again, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. But the entire cast is outstanding. I was impressed with the show, set in a Union hospital in Alexandria at the beginning of the American Civil War.

A shipment arrived from Amazon this morning, just prior to lunch. It contained, along with Guy Gavriel Kay's newly released book Children of Earth and Sky, two home videos. Both replace already owned discs. The first is All Quiet on the Western Front, part of the Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary Collector's Series. It sports improved image and sound, and is indeed appreciably better in both regards than my early All Quiet... DVD. Added bonus, it comes with both a DVD and blu-ray discs, so that I'll see ever better image quality once I make the jump. I meant to watch only enough of the opening to verify the improvements, but ended up seeing it through to the end.

Second is the Cohen Film Collection edition of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. I own it on laserdisc, but have never been overly thrilled with that edition's choice of music track. The Cohen features a specially composed orchestra score by Carl Davis, whose silent film work I admire. The irony here is that I elected to buy it on blu-ray rather than DVD, though I do not yet own a blu ray player and remain uncertain as to when I'll order one.

I watched no further I Claudius episodes, but might do so ere retiring tonight.

ADDENDUM: I indeed watched episodes three and four of I Claudius this evening. Livia remains my favorite portrayal. I swear she can give the best/worst of the Game of Thrones ladies lessons in intrigue, manipulation and out and out ruthlessness. Augustus, who seems amazingly clueless as to his wife's nature and . . . oops, I'll say no more lest I spoil things.

ADDENDUM 2: During the 19th I watched episodes five through seven of I Claudius.

Yesterday, 20 May, I watched episodes eight and nine of I Claudius. I also watched All Quiet on the Western Front again.

Yesterday evening I watched the remaining three episodes of I Claudius on DVD. Such a marvelous series! Gonna be hard to follow it up. I still have the last few episodes of GoT season 1 and all of season 2 to watch on DVD, but haven't been able to drum up much interest in doing so.

I have been having a Transformer movie marathon. Certainly no deep characters or intricate plots. But fun if you do not expect much. Plus excellent eye candy when watching the blu-rays on a 4k television.

One prop I do have to give to Michael Bay is that in these movies I actually do enjoy and even care about the 'little people' (a.k.a. the humans). The first movie especially had a whole cast of interesting human characters, that I wish they had done more with. Even Shia LeBeof's character was interesting, even if his acting was not. Too bad they didn't get someone like Toby McGuire or Elijah Wood for the role. They are really good at doing the ordinary, everyman type characters, and can actually act.

I didn't even mind Megan Fox. In fact, I liked her in the first two movies, and really missed her in the third. I thought she was a lot of fun. It would have been nice if they had just wrote out Shia LeBouf and gave her the extra screen time. OTOH, I did love the parents of Shia's character. Their scenes are always hilarious.

Except for the completely stock and stereotypical white guy military leader, the army people were cool as well. Tyrese Gibson always gets my attention. He's not much of an actor, but he has charisma, and always chews up the scenery in every shot he is in. The Latin guy who was always speaking in Spanish was fun too (wow, a Latino in a movie! Isn't that illegal? Donald Trump will probably build a wall around Hollywood to keep Latins out of films in the future).

The hot Australian computer chick was neat, as was her black guy hacker buddy (who I will always think of as Antwon Mitchell thanks to the same actor's role in The Shield). Jon Voight was awesome as the Secretary of Defense. An actually sensible, reasonable man who is also a politician!

I just finished the Sonny Steelgrave arc of Wiseguy. Wow. This is one of the best gangster stories ever done. Sonny's bachelor party was chilling. The next episode his world came crashing down, when he finally learned that Vinnie was an undercover agent and he was trapped with the Feds closing in. Sonny's final moments were one of the best uses of a song to say all the things the characters cannot bring themselves to voice.

Sadly the dvd version did not use Nights in White Satin. They must not have been able to get the rights. That is one of the disappointing things about many shows that use popular music. When they go to dvd the rights to use the songs often cost too much, so they go cheap and replace it with some canned garbage.

Next up is the Mel Profitt arc. I am really looking forward to that. It is the first time I ever saw or even heard of Kevin Spacey. I think it was his big break in fact. He was pure awesome as an insane international arms dealer.

I transformed my Transformer marathon into a Megan Fox one. Which means I just watched Jennifer's Body. It was fun, better than I expected. Though still nothing special. Well, it did have a kiss between Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. That is pretty special.

Heh, I do love the Transformers films, the first three at least(I refuse to watch the fourth). But then, I've been a fan of Transformers since I was a kid. Sure, the plots aren't great, and Shia Lebouf is Shia Lebouf, but like you say Subrosa, there are some damn good characters. It's just a shame some of the Transformers ended up being so gimmicky.

But as much as I love seeing Michael Bay's Tranformers transform, I still prefer the original animated movie

Yesterday, I watched The Quick and the Dead, which was a damn good film, though it got a little absurd right at the end. And of course, like every other Western, allows for unreasonable levels of accuracy with those revolvers

My only dislike with the 4th Transformer movie was that it was way too long. And that was because it had the problem that so many shows and movies have - it is trying to tell too many stories at the same time. It was really two movies squished together. One was Stanley Tucci's ignorant company resurrecting Megatron/Gravitron and whole new horde of Descepticons. The other was the Space Bounty Hunter Transformer sent to corral up Optimus Prime. Either would be a fine plot for one movie. But doing both made it drag on way too long.

I remember the Transformers when they were toys. But I was already too old to play with them then, and that was before the first animated show came out.

Yesterday I finished my Megan Fox-athon with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was nothing special, but I thought it was fun. The standout for me was Megan Fox. I really liked her in this, and I am glad to hear that she is in the sequel.

It was also funny to watch this after seeing Daredevil recently, because there are some obvious homages to Daredevil. Daredevil was trained by Stick, the turtles are trained by Splinter. Daredevil's big nemesis was The Hand. The Turtle's big enemy is The Foot.

I still haven't gotten past the second Transformer's film. The second the n-wordbots showed up, I was out.

Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Aquarius. It was good. While Charles Manson is a character (and one I'd love to strangle), it is not a historical retelling of his rise (or fall) to infamy. Rather it is more like historical fiction set in the late 60s, and Manson is just one character in the cast. Most of the other characters are fictitious. But the events and organizations around them that are real.

David Duchovny really shines here, in a way I never thought he did in X-Files. He was always a little stiff before, a little too deadpan. But here he really gets it right. Decades of acting experience really show in his performance. His character of Sam the homicide detective really chews the screen in the show. He's a hard ass, straight arrow, square as they come LA cop. Which makes him believable. But at the same time shows if not a more liberal side, a more world-wise side. Like when he talks to another cop about how he grew up with a father who smoked pot ("your generation thinks you invented everything" he even laughs to the other, younger cop).

The rampant corruption and prejudice of the LAPD is also center stage here, which is nice. Because the show does not try to sugar coat the ugliness of the society it is set in. In other shows where the hero cop gets told by his superior to drop a murder case because those on high want it to disappear he always takes a moral stand, bucks the system, gets the bad guy, and comes out smelling like a rose in the end. In Aquarius when Sam is told to drop a murder case, he drops it, because he knows that some battles you cannot win.

TBH, I think it like most is simply the premise of a cop show set in the period it is, rather than the Manson stuff, which takes a lot of screen time. I would have been happy if they had left that all out. But it isn't really terrible either. All in all, it was a good show. I look forward to the second season (when it eventually comes out on disc next year).

I am halfway through The Whisperer In Darkness. It was made by the Howard Phillips Lovecraft Historical Society (or HPLHS) - the same people who did The Call of Cthulhu. Unlike CoC, this one is not a silent movie. But like CoC, it is very cool so far. It stays very close to Lovecraft's story, as well as his style - starting slowly and steadily building to a climax, when the Ultimate Horror™ stands revealed. Most people would probably find it boring. But if you are Lovecraft fan, you will love it.

Ok, just finished it. Not long after the halfway mark the movie diverges from the short story. But that is because that is where Lovecraft's story ended. The movie carries on, and takes the entire tale to a much more exciting, and horrible, conclusion. I absolutely loved it. Now I think I will have to rewatch Call of Cthulhu.

Watched some of this year's superhero films today, Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War.

I quite liked Deadpool. The jokes weren't all to my taste, but the action sequences were fun and it was a refreshing take on the hero genre.

CA:CW was ok. The whole film was basically one long action sequence, as expected, but that's all one really needs. The story was a disjointed and confusing mess, but the characters (both new and old) were fun. I particularly enjoyed this version of Spiderman, whose appearance in this film was better than all of the actual Spiderman films combined. I hope to see more of him.
Ant-Man also makes an appearance, and I've added his film to my 'to watch' list as I've yet to see it.

A whole bunch of Lovecraft-inspired movies came in the mail yesterday. Whisperer in Darkness was only one, and I still want to watch the behind the scenes stuff on it (the ones from Call of Cthulhu are hilarious!). Pickman's Muse, The Dark Sleep, Color Out of Space, and In Search of Lovecraft came in the mail as well. It's going to be a week of Eldritch Horror!

I just finished watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was absolutely brilliant! Easily it was the best movie I have seen this year. It follows P&P pretty closely, but with zombies! Elizabeth and the other Bennett sisters were all trained at the Shaolin temple, and Mr. Darcy by samurai. The lake scene is even in the movie, albeit cut short. There is a deleted scene that picks up from the second half of it though, with zombies of course!

It is even on 4k. So it is another reason to buy a 4k tv and player.

I've been dying to test this one out; really glad you gave it the thumbs up!

Oooh...The pain you must have felt throughout... ...

Aaaamywho...We went to see the second Turtles film last weekend...She was pretty much the best thing about it...

The actors did well with what they had...But...Oy...

Also AAaaamywho...Continuing with our semi-regular Saturday night Marvel-athon this evening with Guardians Of The Galaxy...which we much enjoyed in the cinema and thusly are likely to again...

Boo, and indeed, yah...

McB!


Was it less high-brow than the first GI Joe movie?

Oh c'maaaahn...G.I. Joe was totally highbrow...

So you mean you missed the -


"What light through yonder window breaks?"

"I think it's a laser-scope, sir..."

"Oh...Bollingtons..."


And...


"Is this a dagger I see before me?"

"No, I think that would be Snake-Eyes' three-foot ninja sword, sir..."

"Snake-Eyes is a three-foot ninja?"

"Ssssh...He's quite touchy about that..."

*Snort*..."Wait! AARGH!"...

"Told you...Alas, poor muppet...Sadly I gave no monkeys about it...Let's rock!!...Nurse! My RPG...Wasssuuuppp!!!"...



Totally highbrow...



Also...


Hey you... ... ... ...

Now you have me thinking of this!

...

My Daddy!!... ...

I miss him!... ...

Such class...

I finished watching The Call of Cthulhu. Still a delightful gem, and definitely my favorite silent film. I just love the behind the scenes stuff, from all the hair-brained stunts they did to make the movie (like using blankets and glitter to simulate the ocean), to the improv dialogue by the actors (who mouths had to be moving in the scenes, even though nothing had been written for them to say, since it is a silent film).

Just finished the 3rd season of "Rectify"- lots of strong performances, especially as it treats the family dynamics and dysfunctions. It is not a program for the faint of heart, and it certainly does not provide easy answers- or any answers- as far as the "central question" of whether the main character actually committed the crime for which he was on death row.

The next to last season of Hell on Wheels is now up on Netflix, so we are rationing our watching of that.

Final season of Person of Interest- sigh.

Otherwise, police programs... and Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls.

It is also fun to discover the occasional gem in the independent films on Netflix... e.g.- "The Year Dolly Parton was My Mom" or "Jackie and Ryan" (which I did not realize had the Grey's tie-in of Katherine Heigl).

Alas, dids't that most pleasant of comedy plays, Upstart Crow, come to the finale of its first act (in six parts!) this very night...Though rejoicing be had upon its end credits, when an angel dids't proclaim a return in due course!...

Huzzah!...

Look what came in the mail today!

I want to believe.

No kidding... ...

Good luck, see you sometime next year then... ...




Oh...As for me...Restarted the Doctor Who go-through some time ago...One a week...Sometimes it'll be on the x1.5 playing...I can still hear it but it's done ten-ish mins earlier... ...

This morning's was the Madame de Pompadour one though...So that was on properly...Love that one...

Aaaaand we just watched Episode 2 of the latest Musketeers series/season...Ye *Gods* I love that programme... ...

I loved the Madame Pompadour episode! I fell in love with Sophia Myles when I saw her in it.

There is more Musketeers? I saw the first season on dvd and thought it was fun. Does this mean the second is out on disc now? Or do I have to wait another year for that? Peter Capaldi was awesome as the Cardinal. I hear the guy they replaced him with is pretty good too.

Yet to watch any of Musketeers S3, though I keep seeing adverts for it on BBC. Very much enjoyed the first two seasons.

Rosa - Season 2 is out on DVD, and season 3 will be released in August. At least that's what amazon uk tells me. Might be different in the us.

Oh aye, the second series/season is definitely on DVD because they're pushing the "Series one and two boxset is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from the BBC Store..." at the end of it all...

Yeah, Rochefort was pretty devilishly excellent in a boo-hiss kind of way... ...He was played by the chap that, in Doctor Who, was in that Doctor-lite episode where there was that small group, LINDA and they all kept getting absorbed by that alien...he ended up "Married" to the girl stuck in the paving slab...(Everyone else, just move on...Don't ask...It's all too...Complicated... ..)...

The pair of nasties (Slight spoilers there, sweetie...) they've got in S3 are giving a fine effort in the jaw-dropping stakes too... ...

Awesome programme... ...

Immediately after lunch today I watched my newly arrived DVD of F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh, Kino's Restored Deluxe Edition. I chose the disc containing the restored German version, which features Giuseppe Becce's original 1924 music score performed by the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra. (A second disc contains the unrestored 'export' version of the film, with a specially written music score by Timothy Brock.) This was my first complete viewing of Laugh, though I had seen excerpts in the past. I find that I do not mind the tacked on 'happy' ending (added at the insistence of the studio), though I can't say I'm totally enamored with it. The Becce score is very nice, btw.

Wow... ...Fair dues...

For my own self I have to admit to...Slightly dumber...(There's a thing!... ...)...

Angie Tribeca...I mean, seriously, properly the funniest thing I've watched in years...

If you love Airplane!, Hot Shots and Police Squad...

This was from the one we watched last night...

I just finished the latest season of Orange Is the New Black.

So one of the major plot points of this season was the arrival of an inmate based of Martha Stewart's arrest, but possibly more Paula Deen (I never watched Paula Deen, I only know about her love of butter and the...other issue, which became a plot point in the show too). Anyway, for awhile, her friendship with one of the CO's, Luschek, reminded me of a warped version of Wrothken and Bernice, which I loved...until things took a dark turn.

In fact, this whole season was a dark turn. Usually, lots of bad things happen, but a few things get resolved. Not everything, but enough so certain things feel right.

Not this time.

I'm hoping it's because they know they've been renewed up until season 7 (so far) that things are getting stretched out and maybe things will be resolved in the upcoming seasons, but I really didn't enjoy season 4 that much.

I only saw the first two episodes of Orange is the New Black. It never did anything for me. I could not understand what it was supposed to be. If it was supposed to be a comedy, I never laughed. It isn't very dramatic either, and certainly isn't an escape/action show.

I bought Ghostbusters on 4k last week. It was a big disappointment. The quality just wasn't there, and many of the special effects looked terrible. I might as well have just been watching it on dvd. The story itself was ok. But I think I have seen it too many times now. It just felt flat all around.

Now I am watching X-Files on blu-ray. I bought the 6-part 'event series' on blu-ray as well, and the two X-Files movies. So it looks like I will be having an X-travaganza over the summer. I am only 4 episodes in, and I am already noticing the glaring issue this show had. The protagonists are often ineffectual, and the stories lack resolution. Most of the episodes go something like this: Weird stuff happens, Mulder and Scully come and look, weird stuff stops on its own accord, nothing is really explained or settled. At the most the main characters are just witnesses. They rarely ever truly drive events, and force a real ending.

The two Eugene Tooms episodes in the first season stand out because they break that mold, and give us solid storytelling. In the first Toom's secret is deduced by Mulder, and he is captured thanks to Scully's psychological profile of him. A combination of "I want to believe" with good old-fashioned policework. In the second Tooms escapes, and our intrepid heroes track him down and finish him for good. In both cases the protagonists drive events, and create a resolution to the danger of Tooms.

I just finished up Season Two of Rebels. Wow. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so won't go into more details. But very cool.

I KNOW RIGHT?!?!?! I watched it too, and I totally lost my mind when You-Know-Who did You-Know-What to You-Know-Them with such ludicrous ease! I can't wait when You-Know-Who meets You-Know-Who; it's been a You-Know-What in the making since You-Know-Who made his/her/its debut in You-Know-What-Episode.

You know?

I am still working my way through Wiseguy. I was really ticked off to learn that the boxed set of the entire show that I just bought did not include the Dead Dog Records arc. Those episodes have never been released on dvd, undoubtedly because of the rights to the songs. So I have to watch them from the old VHS tapes I made from when Wiseguy was still on tv. *grrrr*

But even on crappy vhs, it is still a fun story arc. I am on the 3rd episode of it so far. It is a big departure from the usual gangsters. Plus, Tim Curry, Paul Winfield, Glenn Frey, and Blondie. This was actually the first time I ever saw Paul Winfield (just like it was the first place I ever saw Kevin Spacey), so he has always been Isaac Twine to me.

One thing I like is that it really excoriates the music industry's unethical practices from when it was at its height. And I don't mean the blatantly illegal things like labels printing two million cds in a factory, but only claiming that they made one million, and then selling the other million overseas and pocketing all the money. But the technically legal stuff, like the fact that the artist pays for everything, and the music company never tells them that until the bill comes due later. The band pays for the studio time, for a producer, for the cost of printing the cds, and so on. Even the limo rides and catering is all charged to them. So a band can make millions, and still end up broke at the end of the day. While companies like Sony get rich off their hard work and inspiration.