Not for the whole episode.
I think this back-story adds to our understanding of what we already know.
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Agreed. We’ve seen the whole of it, but we only watch it when there’s not much else.
I continue to think highly of this show.
Just learned of the existence of, and watched the first episode of, Foyle’s War. I like it.
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Excellent show.
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Yeah. That’s pretty much where I am with it. It’s time filler, inoffensive cotton candy with good CG critters.
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Plus, if you watch them far enough apart, you can maintain an exciting level of confusion about the timelines.
Watched the latest epi of Half Man. Stressful, like all of them so far.
Palate cleanser was a couple of episodes The Thick of It, thanks to @Hunterwali’s recent recommendation. The shaky camera is taking a bit to get used to, TBH, but it’s quite witty.
Lastly, a couple of Peep Show episodes, which keeps getting funnier.
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Project Hail Mary (2026) - dir. Chris Miller and Phil Lord
Will Grace (Ryan Gosling) is a laughed-out-of-his-field molecular biologist, now teaching high school, that, for sci-fi reasons, is sent off to the Tau Ceti star system in order to figure out how to stop a space-borne parasite from eating the sun. By coincidence, he runs into an alien who has come to this system for the same reason! They must learn to communicate etc etc to save their respective home worlds.
The film is based on the book by Andy Weir, author of The Martian, which was hailed as one of the best “hard sci-fi” books in years and gave us the phrase “Let’s science this shit!” It was, as far as I remember, the ur-example of “competence porn”, where very smart people work methodically to solve a problem that isn’t “some evil guy doing evil things”. The Matt Damon-led movie was a pretty faithful adaptation and enjoyable enough.
The main appeal to The Martian was that they were using science that was VERY close to our current levels of tech. It felt extremely plausible. Weir famously consulted with bunches of NASA and JPL folks to get it right.
One imagines he did similar stuff here, but the ‘experts’ are necessarily doing a lot more speculation. A space parasite that eats the sun, a truly alien species with very different biology and tech levels… sure, it all sounds as plausible as any other well thought out fictional universe, but the truth is, things work out because the hand waving stuff is designed to give us the right ending.
Gosling as Grace is affable and sympathetic, and Rocky, the alien (voiced by James Ortiz) and he build a sweet, funny rapport. There are a few genuinely thrilling spacewalk sequences, and the flashbacks showing how Grace got to this point all ring true. Unfortunately, the film suffers from the “multiple endings” defect, and is a very indulgent 157 minutes. And worst of all, the ending is SO desperately corny, piling feel-good tags onto one another to a degree that would make even Spielberg say “ok, guys, we get it!”
It’s enough that it actively detracts from the very well made (if slightly hokey) film that precedes it. But I suspect it’s exactly this schmaltz that’s the reason why it’s one of the few films actually sticking around multiple weeks at the box office. Big, theatrical visuals, positive, feel good plot. Highly processed, polished middle-brow enteretainment for the masses.
2.5 of 5 amusing alien malapropisms. “Fist my bump!”
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Dark Wizard (HBO).
i watch all climbing films b/c i’m somehow in this community. this is a very good doc that should have been cut down by one episode. a fascinating figure. the bird stuff was very moving.
Marty Supreme, finally. My tolerance for so much yelling and running around is usually pretty low, but I was entertained by this (and also exhausted, as I was by Uncut Gems). The performances are great, as is the look of the film - a lot of it takes place in my neighborhood. The anachronistic soundtrack was distracting and detracting, and I wasn’t quite buying that so many people could get hustled by Marty. But it’s a fun ride, and even though it seems like a pretty messy tale, somehow things come together in the end.
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Gosh you almost make it sound watchable. If it wasn’t for my PIC’s unrelenting hatred of Timothy Chamalet I might just give it a try 
We checked out the first two episodes of the Monsterland anthology and liked it quite a bit. Creepy.
I can see being super-annoyed by Chalamet, but his character is supposed to be super-annoying, so maybe your PIC would find the movie cathartic. The cast is just fantastic - one cool cameo after another. Isaac Mizrahi, for crying out loud.
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I don’t even know why he hates him so much. I don’t think he’s seen a single movie with him, whereas I greatly enjoyed Call Me by Your Name. That’s the only one I’ve seen, not caring one iota for or about Dylan.
H hates Isaac Mizrahi. 
But that stems from an actual encounter they had when they lived on the same block. Mizrahi’s dog’s leash got wrapped around H’s legs, and words were exchanged.
That’s a great story!
Check out Bones and All, a creepy little love story about cannibalism. He’s very good in it.
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I just watched Season 1 of Criminal Record, starring Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi.
I’ve seen Cush Jumbo in many series over the last 5 years. I don’t remember seeing Peter Capaldi before Criminal Record. I’ve never been a fan of Dr Who, so I would not have seen him there.
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