What TV series are you currently watching?

[George]

Resident Alien

[Wendell_E]

Resident Alien

Me, too.

[drogulus]

    Ida Lupino directed On Dangerous Ground, a film scored by Bernard Herrmann. During the '50s and '60s she directed episodes of many TV shows including 8 episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel.

[Todd]

Shōgun.  I have only the vaguest recollections of the version starring Richard Chamberlain, and given the different cultural world of today, I figured I'd try the new take on this tale.  I've watched three episodes so far.  The first episode is blah, and the second and third are OK.  But I shall watch more, basically for the cinematography.  The show uses custom lenses that, appropriately enough, generate gobs o' boke-aji.  Many images are clearly taken at the maximum T-stop and have pronounced focus fall-off, with some background looks reminiscent of what can be achieved with Petzval or Helios lenses - and that's with projected backgrounds in many scenes.  Too, the barrel distortion is so severe in some scenes that it simultaneously distracts and draws the viewer in.  The light fall-off and vignetting have similar effects.  I know Dune 2 used rebuilt and repurposed Soviet-made Tair lenses to obtain a specific look, so this approach is kind of in right now, but I don't know if this show uses repurposed vintage glass or custom made and ground new glass.  Given the comparative lack of contemporary levels of resolution, I lean toward the former, but I could be wrong.  The consistent use of Japanese by the Japanese actors and swapping out of English for Portuguese are nice enough touches, and Néstor Carbonell obviously relishes chewing the scenery in his supporting role, so more than just wonderful imagery can be enjoyed while viewing.

[Karl Henning]

Ida Lupino directed On Dangerous Ground, a film scored by Bernard Herrmann. During the '50s and '60s she directed episodes of many TV shows including 8 episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel.

I knew she played the female lead, but shame on me for failing to note that she co-directed with Nicholas Ray (who also directed In a Lonely Place.) Oh, imdb.com suggests that Lupino's direction was uncredited, so no shame need attach to me. Were directorial duties really shared, or was it simply Lupino?

TD: I've just finished the 1981 Nero Wolfe series. Overall, I enjoyed it very much (my feeling seems to be "the more Nero Wolfe, the better.") I'm already on record as preferring the stylish later series with Timothy Hutton & Maury Chaykin, so let me add a few details. in the later series, Theodore the orchid man is always offstage. In the 1981 series, he's part of the ensemble, but he's rather buffoonish, which has me feeling that offstage is preferable. The opening credit sequence also ritually includes Saul Panzer, who actually appears less frequently in the series than does Theodore. In two of Saul's appearances, he's depicted as rather a peasant, in a derisory light. In the Hutton/Chaykin ensemble Panzer is perhaps salt of the earth, but a man of even keener talents than Archie, so that I cannot help feeling that the 1981 series does him a disservice. These cavils notwithstanding, as stated, I enjoy the 1981 series.

[drogulus]

   

I knew she played the female lead, but shame on me for failing to note that she co-directed with Nicholas Ray (who also directed In a Lonely Place.) Oh, imdb.com suggests that Lupino's direction was uncredited, so no shame need attach to me. Were directorial duties really shared, or was it simply Lupino?

     Nicholas Ray suffered a nervous breakdown during the filming of On Dangerous ground and Lupino took over. She was already an experienced producer, director and screenwriter.

[George]

More Resident Alien

[Karl Henning]

Nicholas Ray suffered a nervous breakdown during the filming of On Dangerous ground and Lupino took over. She was already an experienced producer, director and screenwriter.

Thanks for the added color. 

[Roy Bland]

[DavidW]

I finished S6 of Doctor Who.  Writing is a bit overly clever but messy, but not as rage inducing to 2024 me (as opposed to 2011 me).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I finished S6 of Doctor Who.  Writing is a bit overly clever but messy, but not as rage inducing to 2024 me (as opposed to 2011 me).

I'm trying to recall as to who played the Doctor then?  I don't recognize the actor on the cover.

PD

[DavidW]

I'm trying to recall as to who played the Doctor then?  I don't recognize the actor on the cover.

PD

Matt Smith.  The youngest actor to ever play him.  He was even younger than Pete Davidson was.

[Karl Henning]

Matt Smith.  The youngest actor to ever play him.  He was even younger than Pete Davidson was.

Kid Who!

[DavidW]

I also finished S1 of Foundation.  I thought it was great.  I know I read them so long ago, if it was fresh I might have been mad... but those short stories and novellas have clever ideas but not much in the way of character development and depth.  I think the changes for the adaptation were necessary to make a tv show out of it, and I feel like ultimately it honors the themes and tone of the trilogy... but keep in mind that it has been a long time since I read it.

There is only one thing which is the violation of the three laws of robotics.  I do know that the last robot in the books adhered to the zeroth law which allowed him to do that, but that has not been addressed in the show.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I also finished S1 of Foundation.  I thought it was great.  I know I read them so long ago, if it was fresh I might have been mad... but those short stories and novellas have clever ideas but not much in the way of character development and depth.  I think the changes for the adaptation were necessary to make a tv show out of it, and I feel like ultimately it honors the themes and tone of the trilogy... but keep in mind that it has been a long time since I read it.

There is only one thing which is the violation of the three laws of robotics.  I do know that the last robot in the books adhered to the zeroth law which allowed him to do that, but that has not been addressed in the show.

Boy, I haven't read those books for a gazillion years!  It looks like it's an Apple exclusive?

PD

[DavidW]

Boy, I haven't read those books for a gazillion years!  It looks like it's an Apple exclusive?

PD

Yup it is on Apple Plus.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Yup it is on Apple Plus.

Dang!   

PD

[Karl Henning]

Odds and ends from my recent viewing of The New Twilight Zone. The "Christmas Show" is fun: "But Can She Type" is probably my favorite of that triptych, with a brief appearance by Jno Frakes as a superficial dude at a cocktail party. The remake of "Night of the Meek" is passable. Even allowing for the original suffering the disadvantage of having been shot on tape rather than film (in retrospect, an ill-considered "cost save" that season. It hadn't registered, the first time I watched "The Star" that it featured Fritz Weaver. Weaver played across Leslie Nielsen in the Night Gallery episode "A Question of Fear. As to other New TZ stories, John Carradine (and son?) appear in "Still Life," a fun riff on the "natives think that the camera steals their soul" motif. Kenneth Mars is the Tooth Fairy in "Tooth and Consequences," whose plot germ bears a passing familiarity to "The Chaser" from the original series. "Monsters" is a fun, and suitably unconventional vampire story. "The Elevator" is a creepy Ray Bradbury story. Bradbury was an important (generally offstage) personality for Serling's original series, a mentor to Beaumont and Matheson, although the way things fell into place (or didn't) there was only one direct Bradbury contribution to the original show.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Odds and ends from my recent viewing of The New Twilight Zone. The "Christmas Show" is fun: "But Can She Type" is probably my favorite of that triptych, with a brief appearance by Jno Frakes as a superficial dude at a cocktail party. The remake of "Night of the Meek" is passable. Even allowing for the original suffering the disadvantage of having been shot on tape rather than film (in retrospect, an ill-considered "cost save" that season. It hadn't registered, the first time I watched "The Star" that it featured Fritz Weaver. Weaver played across Leslie Nielsen in the Night Gallery episode "A Question of Fear. As to other New TZ stories, John Carradine (and son?) appear in "Still Life," a fun riff on the "natives think that the camera steals their soul" motif. Kenneth Mars is the Tooth Fairy in "Tooth and Consequences," whose plot germ bears a passing familiarity to "The Chaser" from the original series. "Monsters" is a fun, and suitably unconventional vampire story. "The Elevator" is a creepy Ray Bradbury story. Bradbury was an important (generally offstage) personality for Serling's original series, a mentor to Beaumont and Matheson, although the way things fell into place (or didn't) there was only one direct Bradbury contribution to the original show.

I see that the new series didn't last long.   

Sneaking in a bit more tennis before listening to the Davis Prom concert.

PD

[George]

On Peacock