Television

You’ve been watching.
But is it good?

I saw its marker being advertised and I gave watching it a thought. I don’t really have much nostalgia for She Ra (although I watched He-Man).

Is it good as its own thing (ie not banking on viewer nostalgia)?

When it was announced the wife (@MsLoganHenney) and I commented on it. She’s into animation so she may like it.
She loves the reboot of Voltron and (she’ll correct me if I’m wrong) I believe one thing she liked was its more adult tone.

Yes, I liked the Voltron reboot. I originally started because of my nephew, but I finished if for ME! It was a surprisingly good storyline with decent character development.

I know their parents are doing an amazing job of raising them to be kind and accepting of others and themselves. I just sometimes like to dip in to make sure ALL of the diversity is covered. They get princess-falling-in-love-with-another-princess books from me, that kind of thing. My bro-in-law is actually the one that watches this with them on weekend mornings - he let's my sister sleep in. He texted me one morning while watching and I was skeptical of it. He told me to look up the writer and to give it a shot. It's cool. She Ra and Princess Glimmer (SHUT UP! THAT'S HER NAME!) are BFFs and go to the Princess Prom together. Which is something I wish I knew was ok when I was growing up - going with a friend. Bow may perhaps be transgendered but I'm not entirely sure. But also, that is why the show is cool. No one "comes out" because they shouldn't have to. They just are. Stuff like that.

I've also watched all 3 Descendants movies - solely because of my nieces. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ooohh! I'll definitely check out She Ra! I remember the original She Ra but wasn't sure about this remake. I was curious about it but worried they would change so much about the show it would lose the nostalgic charm for me like the original My Little Pony did after the newest remake. Although, I have heard great things about the new version. There's a show on Netflix called "The Toys that Made Us" that did a great job of giving the background on them too. It also talks about She Ra on the He-Man episode. On the plus side, I have the complete box set of the original My Little Pony for memory lane.
 
Is anybody else watching "I Know This Much Is True"? The tone and subject matter of it are so heavy, and I know everybody probably wants to take a break from all things heavy right about now. Still, the acting is amazing. From everybody. I have a feeling it will clean up come award season. If there is an award season. Ruffalo is fantastic playing twin brothers. Rosie O'Donnell is excellent in a supporting role. She was also really good in "Smilf"...maybe the best part of that show actually. Kathryn Hahn has been used sparingly, but is wonderful whenever she appears. I'm not sure Juliette Lewis appeared long enough to even be considered for any awards, but she definitely stole scenes in the first episode or two. Even the younger actors playing the brothers in flashbacks do excellent work.
 
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Is anybody else watching "I Know This Much Is True"? The tone and subject matter of it are so heavy, and I know everybody probably wants to take a break from all things heavy right about now. Still, the acting is amazing. From everybody. I have a feeling it will clean up come award season. If there is an award season. Ruffalo is fantastic playing twin brothers. Rosie O'Donnell is excellent in a supporting role. She was also really good in "Smilf"...maybe the best part of that show actually. Kathryn Hahn has been used sparingly, but is wonderful whenever she appears. I'm not sure Juliette Lewis appeared long enough to even be considered for an awards, but she definitely stole scenes in the first episode or two. Even the younger actors playing the brothers in flashbacks to excellent work.
I want to. But I'm sticking to lighter fare for a bit. It looks good though.
 
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Is anybody else watching "I Know This Much Is True"? The tone and subject matter of it are so heavy, and I know everybody probably wants to take a break from all things heavy right about now. Still, the acting is amazing. From everybody. I have a feeling it will clean up come award season. If there is an award season. Ruffalo is fantastic playing twin brothers. Rosie O'Donnell is excellent in a supporting role. She was also really good in "Smilf"...maybe the best part of that show actually. Kathryn Hahn has been used sparingly, but is wonderful whenever she appears. I'm not sure Juliette Lewis appeared long enough to even be considered for an awards, but she definitely stole scenes in the first episode or two. Even the younger actors playing the brothers in flashbacks to excellent work.
I'm watching it and find it quite compelling. As you mentioned, Ruffalo is fantastic in both roles. 👏
 
Is anybody else watching "I Know This Much Is True"? The tone and subject matter of it are so heavy, and I know everybody probably wants to take a break from all things heavy right about now. Still, the acting is amazing. From everybody. I have a feeling it will clean up come award season. If there is an award season. Ruffalo is fantastic playing twin brothers. Rosie O'Donnell is excellent in a supporting role. She was also really good in "Smilf"...maybe the best part of that show actually. Kathryn Hahn has been used sparingly, but is wonderful whenever she appears. I'm not sure Juliette Lewis appeared long enough to even be considered for any awards, but she definitely stole scenes in the first episode or two. Even the younger actors playing the brothers in flashbacks do excellent work.
The scenes set in the past might be the most compelling part of I Know This Much Is True S1E4, as they portray Thomas’s breakdown. Such an emotionally charged episode.
 
Anyone watched the Netflix comedy special Nanette by Hannah Gadsby? I was reading an article about other comedians and it was referenced in a glowing light.

I looked it up and it has an average critic score of 9.2/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, but an Audience Score of 22%. Anyone seen it that can shed light on the disparity. From what I've seen it's usually the opposite - a crap critic score and a higher audience score. Like with genre movies (e.g. horror movies have a baked-in audience so they tend to be liked by the audiences that go see them regardless of critic trashing); or low-brow humor ('cause people like to laugh about balls getting smashed or bodily functions and no critic is gonna stop them from wetting their pants); or YA novels that are turned movies. But this seemed like an odd reversal.

FWIW, I plan on watching it. The article said it was great and it wasn't about this comedian. Just curious about the gap. Never heard of her before but I'll give it a shot.
Gadsby is a seasoned comic who didn't have much of a US presence before Nanette was released. It's an amazing special with a powerful message. It has been savaged by lots of folks suffering from male fragility, mostly under the pretense that the special is "not actual stand-up." That's a valid observation of the work, but not a valid criticism of it, IMO. It's probably more akin to the type of one-person shows that Mike Birbiglia has been touring over the last several years: comedy presented as stand-up, but with a throughline that elevates it to something else.

This is a case where the audience score reflects angry backlash to a different perspective. That number is garbage. She's great and you should watch it, and then you should watch her new special that just dropped on Netflix too. It's quite different in tone, but still good.
 
Anyone watched the Netflix comedy special Nanette by Hannah Gadsby? I was reading an article about other comedians and it was referenced in a glowing light.

I looked it up and it has an average critic score of 9.2/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, but an Audience Score of 22%. Anyone seen it that can shed light on the disparity. From what I've seen it's usually the opposite - a crap critic score and a higher audience score. Like with genre movies (e.g. horror movies have a baked-in audience so they tend to be liked by the audiences that go see them regardless of critic trashing); or low-brow humor ('cause people like to laugh about balls getting smashed or bodily functions and no critic is gonna stop them from wetting their pants); or YA novels that are turned movies. But this seemed like an odd reversal.

FWIW, I plan on watching it. The article said it was great and it wasn't about this comedian. Just curious about the gap. Never heard of her before but I'll give it a shot.
Gadsby is a seasoned comic who didn't have much of a US presence before Nanette was released. It's an amazing special with a powerful message. It has been savaged by lots of folks suffering from male fragility, mostly under the pretense that the special is "not actual stand-up." That's a valid observation of the work, but not a valid criticism of it, IMO. It's probably more akin to the type of one-person shows that Mike Birbiglia has been touring over the last several years: comedy presented as stand-up, but with a throughline that elevates it to something else.

This is a case where the audience score reflects angry backlash to a different perspective. That number is garbage. She's great and you should watch it, and then you should watch her new special that just dropped on Netflix too. It's quite different in tone, but still good.

Nanette was truly wonderful and stunning. Give it a watch. And yep, I can see why it would get crap scores. It is definitely what Indy said.

She was in another really incredible show that you can find on Hulu: Please Like Me. It's an Australian comedy created and starring Josh Thomas. She is introduced in S2, I believe. That show handles mental illness with a lot of care and compassion and understanding. It's also a clever show, full of heart and I loved it. Josh may be more recently known for Everything Is Going To Be Ok which just finished its first season here in the USA. Also a comedy with tons of heart. The two young girls in the show are fantastic.

I have not yet watched Hannah's new special, Douglas. I will. But because Nanette had some heavy issues in it, I assume Douglas does too and I'm not ready for that yet.
 
The scenes set in the past might be the most compelling part of I Know This Much Is True S1E4, as they portray Thomas’s breakdown. Such an emotionally charged episode.

Agreed. Also, looking at the credits closer last night, it looks like there is actually one actor playing both twins for those flashbacks. I always appreciate when a show or movie that features flashback scenes is able to find actors that actually resemble each other. In other words, the younger actor(s) used in the flashback scenes resemble the older actor(s) for the scenes in the present timeline. This show has done a really great job on that front. Almost like seeing a really well done deep fake video clip at times.
 
I have not yet watched Hannah's new special, Douglas. I will. But because Nanette had some heavy issues in it, I assume Douglas does too and I'm not ready for that yet.
Don't worry too much. It touches on some heavy subjects, but not with nearly as much gravity as in Nanette, which is something she makes light of from the very beginning.
 
Ok, thanks. The wife and I watched a Mike Birbiglia special this past year that was good, and I liked the presentation - I forget the name but toys or balloons or something covered the stage at one point.

I wasn't too turned off by the number - more so curious as to why. Like I said, what I read sounded glowing and it talked about it in the context of envelope pushing.

I saw, in the Wikipedia synopsis, some of the topics she covers so I could see how people could react that way if their bubble feels like it's experiencing a little pressure. Funny thing though, I always looked at comedy as something that should be challenging (to one's perspective, etc.) - sometimes it is done with a soft force and sometimes with a hard force. But I guess if that makes people uncomfortable they always can fall back on Jeff Dunham or the like.
Yeah -- it's hard to discuss what you're describing in much detail until you've seen it. It will become crystal clear to you what exactly upset so many people men.
 
Nanette is incredible. And yeah I haven’t watched Douglas yet, but I’m going to tonight. I just haven’t felt quite in the mood. But I’m sure it’s wonderful cause she has such a strong command of her craft. I’m still excited to watch it.
 
oh shit!! really? I haven't really watched anything on Disney+ since the Mandalorian finished so I was thinking about cancelling it. I was going to watch the Simpsons on it, but the aspect ratio put me off ever starting.
Yeah, I didn't catch a big announcement or anything, but they changed it. You go to details once you are in the show and there is a toggle.
 
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