In one of those reminders that I'm about 85 percent nicer post full-time TV critic here on Substack than I was in my past life, when I'm NOT (like this post) the results are tangible. The person who created and wrote "Manhunt" was a paid subscriber who just unsubscribed. Ah, see, those "When I Was Cruel" lyric tattoos are on my legs for a reason...
That said, I've really liked most of this person's work and said so, out loud and in public.
I saw a panel with the Best Picture producers at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The Zone of Interest producer said they just ended up using Sandra Huller's dog, and letting him roam around the set doing dog things during the shoot. They were pissed because they lost the Cannes Dog Award (which is a thing I guess) to Anatomy of Fall's dog, for the record I liked that dog and movie more. I did think what a weird year it must have been to for Sandra Huller, to have a decent film career in Europe and then suddenly be the lead in 2 Best Picture nominees and be all over the entertainment world.
I LOVED how you talked about the chilling The Zone of Interest.
On AppleTV+, I have no interest in “Sugar”, from its promo. I watched “Lessons in chemistry” but I was disappointed. It’s nothing more than a cute feminist fantasy. “Monarch” had terrible dialogue. I would have enjoyed it as a tween, but as an adult I can’t say the same. But the special effects for the monsters are very cool and it’s ending reminded me of and old Japanese fairytale and that I appreciated. I am halfway through “Constellation” but so far I am unimpressed.
The New Look I look forward to watching. Soon, hopefully.
I tried to get my family to watch Zone of Interest last weekend but we just weren’t in the mood. We do have a plan to finally conquer Killers of the Flower Moon this coming weekend.
I really like Apple TV+ FWIW. I am currently watching Dickinson and the third season of For All MAnkind. I have several other shows to look forward to. My Dad is interested in Franklin so I will see what he thinks after he starts watching it.
I am an avid reader (low, middle and high brow), so my only advice to you is: read 15 minutes a day. Maybe right before sleep. That’s the way to get back into it. As a habit and ritual. I take it one step further and listen to an audiobook while lying down. I have struggled with insomnia and it’s really helped me.
I just happened to watch Zone of Interest recently too and it was the most chilling film I've ever seen. It will haunt me for a long time. I hadn't been aware that Jonathan Glazer, not a prolific filmmaker, also directed just Sexy Beast, Under the Skin (both intense, excellent films) and Birth (which I haven't seen) in addition to Zone of Interest in his career which began in 1993. He is a brilliant, incredibly talented director who future films I look forward to.
Re: Palm Royale, "If the trailer is insanely bad and I’ve never heard even one person talking about it, why would I trade precious time to watch it?" Hey now, you heard ME talking about it in the comments of a post just a few days ago! I wish the storyline was as compelling as the costumes & art direction. And there's a new season of "Loot," which I enjoyed the first time around (haven't started season 2 yet, since it just dropped a couple days ago). But it's funny, I seem to spend more time watching YouTube than any other streaming service. "Taskmaster," Seth Meyers' "A Closer Look" and the priceless weekly "Corrections," and "Queens Who Watch" (drag queens Trixie Mattel & Katya hilariously "review" usually-terrible Netflix series like "Love Is Blind") are all must-see TV in my household.
I hung in for the full season of Constellation and...yeah. Maybe they could have taken a thought from the Chinese Three-Body and worked the physics in sooner rather than leaning on intrigue/confusion/guesswork. I mean nice work from Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, but biggest shoutout goes to the twins who play the daughter (Rosie/Davina Coleman) - as a lot was asked of them and they delivered.
In more positive news, really enjoyed Season 2 of Tokyo Vice. As we often said to each other at the end of many episodes "Other than that, nothing happened." Hoping they have more in the tank and maybe they get Michael Mann to direct another episode.
On the rediscovery front - MI-5 (Spooks in the UK) is available again (Amazon) so we're working our way through those and getting caught up on Discovery. Waiting for a good time to break into Ripley, sure hope it's good.
I’m so into Manhunt! One of those shows that sends me down an internet rabbit hole for an hour or more after each episode. Will Finish Palm Royale only because I’m a completist. OK and an eye-candy whore. The clothes! The decadent decor!
One of the interesting things, to me, about The Zone of Interest is how much of it was filmed with constantly running hidden cameras. They had dozens of hidden cameras in the house, outside, etc. I don't know how much of it was shot traditionally. Apparently there were scenes they just were doing for hours, "improvising around the lines." And even if they were "done," the cameras were still going. The actors have said it was both stressful and exciting (Christian Friedel called it "a luxury experience") because they did not get the downtime that one usually does as they change camera positions, etc. Everyone in the house was an actor, it was all monitored remotely apparently. Sometimes people would yell action or cut or whatever, but sometimes not. All the furniture were new recreations of period pieces, so they looked new for the family.
They apparently gathered about 20 hours of footage per day, a total of 850 hours over the course of filming. I wonder how much of it was choreographed at all or just looked so choreographed because they were so familiar with the house and its space?
Fascinating film. Haunting. One of the best I've seen in years.
Haven't attempted Sugar yet but Zone of interest is on my virtual nightstand stack.
However, I've got something here to lift you out of your 10am wine addled lethargy: This Town. It's available on appleTV+ and it's rather awesome. Birmingham UK, 1981, Irish Rebels, Jamaican Gangs, A Space Suit, Michelle Dockery (singing!), Skinheads and ska. All brought to you courtesy of Stephen Knight. It's only 6 episodes, it's brand new and it will make you happy.
As for Sugar, it looks "meh" to me, I feel like I *should* watch it but there's absolutely nothing appealing to me about the show — and LA Confidential, it ain't. Hell, it ain't even The Big Lebowski (if you're going for a "mild LA period piece").
The history Geek in me is interested in Manhunt and I'll dive into it presently. Same goes for The New Look and the WWII era We Were the Lucky Ones.
One Apple TV+ show I'd highly recommend (if shows like "Blackadder" are your thing) is the comedy "The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin." Six half-hour episodes and while it takes maybe five minutes or so to really find its groove, I love the absurdist humor. And it has a murderer's row of British character actors and comedians from High Bonneville to Asim Chaudhry (who plays my favorite character, Craig the Warlock).
It's made for a specific audience, but if this kind of show works for you, you'll love it.
you forgot to mention that adding to your clusterfuck of a week was some woman in L.A. who kept pinging you with questions about moving to the Pearl ; )* oh well, they don't call you "The Mayor" for nothing ~
I need to watch Zone of Interest which might have been the only thing I recognized on your list. I saw Sugar somewhere but it didn't call to me. I guess I'm glad one of the only top services I don't have is Apple TV.
In one of those reminders that I'm about 85 percent nicer post full-time TV critic here on Substack than I was in my past life, when I'm NOT (like this post) the results are tangible. The person who created and wrote "Manhunt" was a paid subscriber who just unsubscribed. Ah, see, those "When I Was Cruel" lyric tattoos are on my legs for a reason...
That said, I've really liked most of this person's work and said so, out loud and in public.
I see things are getting softer out there...
I like Sugar. It’s mysterious enough to pique my interest. Have only seen first two episodes, though. Keep hoping for something of Severance quality.
I saw a panel with the Best Picture producers at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The Zone of Interest producer said they just ended up using Sandra Huller's dog, and letting him roam around the set doing dog things during the shoot. They were pissed because they lost the Cannes Dog Award (which is a thing I guess) to Anatomy of Fall's dog, for the record I liked that dog and movie more. I did think what a weird year it must have been to for Sandra Huller, to have a decent film career in Europe and then suddenly be the lead in 2 Best Picture nominees and be all over the entertainment world.
I LOVED how you talked about the chilling The Zone of Interest.
On AppleTV+, I have no interest in “Sugar”, from its promo. I watched “Lessons in chemistry” but I was disappointed. It’s nothing more than a cute feminist fantasy. “Monarch” had terrible dialogue. I would have enjoyed it as a tween, but as an adult I can’t say the same. But the special effects for the monsters are very cool and it’s ending reminded me of and old Japanese fairytale and that I appreciated. I am halfway through “Constellation” but so far I am unimpressed.
The New Look I look forward to watching. Soon, hopefully.
I tried to get my family to watch Zone of Interest last weekend but we just weren’t in the mood. We do have a plan to finally conquer Killers of the Flower Moon this coming weekend.
I really like Apple TV+ FWIW. I am currently watching Dickinson and the third season of For All MAnkind. I have several other shows to look forward to. My Dad is interested in Franklin so I will see what he thinks after he starts watching it.
I am an avid reader (low, middle and high brow), so my only advice to you is: read 15 minutes a day. Maybe right before sleep. That’s the way to get back into it. As a habit and ritual. I take it one step further and listen to an audiobook while lying down. I have struggled with insomnia and it’s really helped me.
I just happened to watch Zone of Interest recently too and it was the most chilling film I've ever seen. It will haunt me for a long time. I hadn't been aware that Jonathan Glazer, not a prolific filmmaker, also directed just Sexy Beast, Under the Skin (both intense, excellent films) and Birth (which I haven't seen) in addition to Zone of Interest in his career which began in 1993. He is a brilliant, incredibly talented director who future films I look forward to.
Re: Palm Royale, "If the trailer is insanely bad and I’ve never heard even one person talking about it, why would I trade precious time to watch it?" Hey now, you heard ME talking about it in the comments of a post just a few days ago! I wish the storyline was as compelling as the costumes & art direction. And there's a new season of "Loot," which I enjoyed the first time around (haven't started season 2 yet, since it just dropped a couple days ago). But it's funny, I seem to spend more time watching YouTube than any other streaming service. "Taskmaster," Seth Meyers' "A Closer Look" and the priceless weekly "Corrections," and "Queens Who Watch" (drag queens Trixie Mattel & Katya hilariously "review" usually-terrible Netflix series like "Love Is Blind") are all must-see TV in my household.
I hung in for the full season of Constellation and...yeah. Maybe they could have taken a thought from the Chinese Three-Body and worked the physics in sooner rather than leaning on intrigue/confusion/guesswork. I mean nice work from Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, but biggest shoutout goes to the twins who play the daughter (Rosie/Davina Coleman) - as a lot was asked of them and they delivered.
In more positive news, really enjoyed Season 2 of Tokyo Vice. As we often said to each other at the end of many episodes "Other than that, nothing happened." Hoping they have more in the tank and maybe they get Michael Mann to direct another episode.
On the rediscovery front - MI-5 (Spooks in the UK) is available again (Amazon) so we're working our way through those and getting caught up on Discovery. Waiting for a good time to break into Ripley, sure hope it's good.
I’m so into Manhunt! One of those shows that sends me down an internet rabbit hole for an hour or more after each episode. Will Finish Palm Royale only because I’m a completist. OK and an eye-candy whore. The clothes! The decadent decor!
One of the interesting things, to me, about The Zone of Interest is how much of it was filmed with constantly running hidden cameras. They had dozens of hidden cameras in the house, outside, etc. I don't know how much of it was shot traditionally. Apparently there were scenes they just were doing for hours, "improvising around the lines." And even if they were "done," the cameras were still going. The actors have said it was both stressful and exciting (Christian Friedel called it "a luxury experience") because they did not get the downtime that one usually does as they change camera positions, etc. Everyone in the house was an actor, it was all monitored remotely apparently. Sometimes people would yell action or cut or whatever, but sometimes not. All the furniture were new recreations of period pieces, so they looked new for the family.
They apparently gathered about 20 hours of footage per day, a total of 850 hours over the course of filming. I wonder how much of it was choreographed at all or just looked so choreographed because they were so familiar with the house and its space?
Fascinating film. Haunting. One of the best I've seen in years.
Haven't attempted Sugar yet but Zone of interest is on my virtual nightstand stack.
However, I've got something here to lift you out of your 10am wine addled lethargy: This Town. It's available on appleTV+ and it's rather awesome. Birmingham UK, 1981, Irish Rebels, Jamaican Gangs, A Space Suit, Michelle Dockery (singing!), Skinheads and ska. All brought to you courtesy of Stephen Knight. It's only 6 episodes, it's brand new and it will make you happy.
As for Sugar, it looks "meh" to me, I feel like I *should* watch it but there's absolutely nothing appealing to me about the show — and LA Confidential, it ain't. Hell, it ain't even The Big Lebowski (if you're going for a "mild LA period piece").
The history Geek in me is interested in Manhunt and I'll dive into it presently. Same goes for The New Look and the WWII era We Were the Lucky Ones.
You just helped me out actually…
At this moment I can’t think of one reason why I am currently paying for Apple TV…
At the same time I have every intention of restarting HULU to watch “Shogun” (and a few other things)…
I just figured out how that’s gonna work!!!
#bastardshelpingbastards
One Apple TV+ show I'd highly recommend (if shows like "Blackadder" are your thing) is the comedy "The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin." Six half-hour episodes and while it takes maybe five minutes or so to really find its groove, I love the absurdist humor. And it has a murderer's row of British character actors and comedians from High Bonneville to Asim Chaudhry (who plays my favorite character, Craig the Warlock).
It's made for a specific audience, but if this kind of show works for you, you'll love it.
Hilarious and just when I needed the laugh! You articulated my vague feeling of why bother for all. Hard not to watch Colin Farrell though.
you forgot to mention that adding to your clusterfuck of a week was some woman in L.A. who kept pinging you with questions about moving to the Pearl ; )* oh well, they don't call you "The Mayor" for nothing ~
I need to watch Zone of Interest which might have been the only thing I recognized on your list. I saw Sugar somewhere but it didn't call to me. I guess I'm glad one of the only top services I don't have is Apple TV.