After a week in which very little has gotten done reading/watching-wise, I am hoping to remedy such with a low-key evening at home. (Taken 2 sounds just about right for what I’m going for.)
But first we have to run errands in air that smells like a friend who has been camping all weekend. Ugh.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
I watched the new Seth Rogan movie yesterday and Evil Dead the musical. It was a day filled with hilarity and alcohol. Good times.
Hannibal wrapped up a fantastic first season fantastically, in a way that was both unexpected and seemingly-inevitable. Can’t wait for the DVDs to come out, so I can do a re-watch and share it with somebody. Best show not named Game of Thrones or The Americans this season.
Mad Men season finale tonight.
I might catch up on some blockbusters I missed like The Avengers or Dark Knight Rises this afternoon, we’ll see.
Almost finished with Flow My Tears, etc..
I watched the first episode of Hannibal last night. Not sure what to think of it, yet.
Here’s my advice:
Don’t marathon it, I suspect it could be too heavy that way. Like, “shatter your faith in the thin veneer of humanity tenuously overlaying a universe of savage chaos” heavy.
And don’t get overly-hung up on plot details like “how could there be so many serial killers operating in such a small area?” and “How on earth did he DO that?”
(A: A murder wizard did it).
Rather, look at it like a character study about psychological manipulation of others and self; and a gothic piece, in which the internal states of the characters are being reflected by their environments; as a gorgeous symbolic nightmare.
If you stick with it, I would love to discuss it further with you. Nobody I know is watching 🙁
I watched it. I agree with Glyph about marathoning it, although a few episodes at once is probably OK if you absolutely have to know what comes next.
Is it really a “small area”? I thought they were investigating basically all the serial killers in the entire United States. It was the Minnesota Shrike. And that’s STILL an awful lot of active serial killers (and just the clearly local stuff does suggest a rather high concentration of serial killers in the greater DC area).
Fnord – yeah, like you say, the jurisdiction is technically the whole US, but in practice mostly Minnesota and the DC area (and it’s still a lot even there, but I guess you just have to run with the idea that there are lots of serial killers in the Hannibal universe) but that doesn’t necessarily help with the other plot-hole factors – like how characters seemingly somehow manage to travel from Minnesota to Baltimore, do stuff, and come back overnight. Especially when they ain’t gettin’ on no plane.
Are you caught up? Because if so, ubj zhpu qbrf Qe. qh Znhevre xabj, naq jura qvq fur xabj vg?
Isn’t the fact that Will Graham can’t see the obvious serial killer right in front of him the elephant in the Alps?
Spoiler: At the end of the season, a plan comes together. And the title character loves it.
You know there *IS* a Silence of the Lambs/A-Team story just waiting to be written.
Murdoch and Hannibal getting into each other’s heads?
Someone needs to get on that.
Murdoch is far more evil than Lecter. (You mean Rupert, right?)
I’ve been watching the new season of Arrested Development is a fairly desultory fashion. There are some laughs, but overall it’s a big disappointment. Each episode focuses on just one of the cast (reportedly because the actors weren’t all available at the same time), and it doesn’t really work; the ensemble work that allowed scenes to build from funny to side-splitting is missing. The weirdest thing is how the perception of Jason Bateman’s character changes. Michael Bluth was always a bit selfish and self-righteous, but he was still sympathetic, because everyone else in was so much worse. When Michael is the center of an entire episode, he’s very unpleasant.
My son just started watching Breaking Bad: nine episodes so far this weekend. (I won’t insult you all with the cheap joke about addictive behavior.)
We just finished the third season of Justified, the last season we can watch for free on Amazon. I enjoyed it, and now want more. We briefly considered buying season 4, but decided against it.
I need to catch up on Hannibal, though I don’t know when I will be able to.
Just started Marianela by Benito Pérez Galdós. Interesting so far. Different from anything I’ve read recently.
finished listening to diane duane. read marbles. reading wyclef’s autobiography. not much watching this week – one ep of quantum leap was all.
Now I’ve finished the Wheel of Time, I decided I need to read some non-fiction. So I’m reading Quiet by Susan Cain.
I got to watch Dark Knight Rises this weekend. It was entertaining, and I like the way it ended the series. The problem with mixing gritty realism and comic book plotting is that it makes the implausible nature of comic book villains much more apparent.
Watched the sixth episode of Babylon 5 (Mind War). This is where it starts getting good.