Spoiler alert:










We've been eating people!

But I didn't know what you'd be spoiling! My appetite?

The leftovers in the fridge are 100% not people.

I don't think this is a spoiler, but a lot of the mechanics of Soul seemed very similar to The Good Place. Accountants, etc.
We're watching Unbelievable which is good crime solving drama but very much stress-dream-like including graphic half-remembered depictions of rape.
This is a spoiler for Soul:

Did anyone else think Soul was implying 22 became the next Dalai Lama? Clearly flying toward Tibet in the end.

I'm rewatching GoT so my kid can watch it for the first time. Totally not awkward watching graphic nudity and sex with your 16 year old. But having just watched TQG now I'm wondering if Jojen Reed is good at chess.
I assume I don't have to warn about GoT spoilers since everyone hates it after the ending.

My son really wants to watch that and I'm really pushing back because he's only 14.

Yeah 16 is borderline but he's always been more mature than his age. We called him the teenage preschooler. My wife won't let him watch Breaking Bad until he's 18 because she feels that it's the show most likely to convince kids that doing bad things can be justified.
One thing I discovered watching Soul and Inside Out on Disney+ is that Pixar has dozens of 5-7 minute shorts, some related to movies and some standalone. Some are pretty funny. There's one that's a 5-minute sequel to Inside Out that was funny.
Also our youngest is exactly Riley.

I think he's already watched "The Good Place." I have not.

We watched Soul (just me and my wife) because friends really liked it. We thought...meh. About the worldview they're pushing...at the back of my mind while watching was "I bet that the people actually making this film don't subscribe to the worldview they're pushing, which seems awkward." But then (spoiler)

it seemed like the worldview they ended up pushing at the end was different from what it seemed like at the start. At the end it was "live your life" or something similarly anodyne. But there was a lot of people helping other people along the way, so that seemed more like the "message?"

Anybody else watching Mandolorian and hearing Clint Eastwood's voice when the mandolorian speaks? I know it's an actor that people recognize from something else I have not seen, but he does a great Clint voice.

I didn't watch all of the GoT series, but I remember than the ending was all "the real throne is the people you meet along the way."

10: Yes. It is very deliberately a western in style.

That's the only new TV series I have watched this year.

Awkward things to watch with your teenage daughter (fide my friend): the first sex scene in Fleabag. But they still enjoyed watching the whole series as a family.

12: yes, the soundtrack is right out of a western, too. Was it here someone said "Gunsmoke in Space?"

What I hate about the current season of Mandolorian is when they killed off baby Yoda.

Maybe "The ABC Murders" count as a new tv series. I watched that and it was O.K. There was one scene where I though, because of Fleabag even though I've never seen Fleabag, that a woman was going to pee on a guy in bed. But she didn't.

16 OOPS Spoiler!

16, 18: actually I am just amusing myself. That doesn't happen afaik.

15: Yes.

I support myself in email.

I'll again recommend _Mom_, which I didn't originally think I would like, but has ended up one of my favorite shows. Alison Janey and Mimi Kennedy are both wonderful.

I really need to watch season one of the Mandalorian. Everybody else watched it, but I kind of fell asleep.

9 On Soul:

I think I was just so relieved that it wasn't an overtly religious message. I may have enjoyed it less if I was watching it of my own accord, instead of doing it to participate in a social obligation. (It was a friend's backyard movie night.)

Well dang, that wasn't the large paragraph break I intended.

That's better.

watching it of my own accord

My sister has an Odyssey with screens, but I've never seen one in an Accord.

I think I'm going to check out this list: https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-tv-shows-netflix.html

We're currently watching/catching up to The Expanse and enjoying it a lot (about a season or a season and a half behind). It's been an annoying amount of work not spoiling myself about what's to come - I don't even want to look up bland facts about the actors lest I see something like "Was in Seasons 1-4 of The Expanse", telling me something about S5.

Bleg to all: If you were going to pay for only one streaming service, what would it be?

Hulu has "How It's Made," but only the new seasons and not the good ones. Disney has The Mandolorian and The Simpsons. Netflix has lots of stuff, but Columbo and Midsomar Murders are now on Prime.

I'm boycotting Peacock because I blame NBC for their years employing Trump.

We currently have Netflix and Disney+, and get HBO on and off. Don't have regular cable, just antenna for local TV. Oh also Amazon video because we have a prime account but haven't found much included on there, everything is an additional rental cost.
We previously had Hulu for Handmaid's Tale and a couple other series, and had a trial of CBS for Picard. Have a trial to Apple TV+ but it's completely useless- from what I can tell it gives you the right to pay additional for other things. Supposedly they have original content but nothing I've heard of.
In terms of what we watch most it's Netflix by far, mostly for series but some movies including foreign language. Disney has a number of things for the kids and HBO has a lot of good movies and series.

The antenna is pretty good for us. We even get Columbo that way.

33: Thanks. We have Netflix, but I keep thinking about switching to Amazon Prime. It's one or the other. A lot of the films I want to watch seem to be on Amazon. I get internet through Cable... No FIOS here, so I'm stuck with xfinity for internet and phone and at that point, you might as well get cable.

Just make sure what you want is actually free with Prime. When we pick a movie to watch and I search who's streaming it a lot of sites will say it's on Prime but that just means it's available for rental not that it's included.
We also have the ridiculous Boston-area lack of FIOS. I used to think Comcast was cheaper to include cable but actually their plans recently changed and because of all the fees they lard on to cable that aren't in the top line price we saved a lot of money switching to just internet, even at a higher speed (300 MbPS). It's $85/mo and nominally cable plus 200M internet is $79/month but the regional sports fee is $11 and broadcast TV fee $19 which you don't pay with internet-only. They are adding a 1.2TB/month cap starting in March with a $10/50GB overage charge. We're way past that, around 1.8TB/mo with six people remote working or schooling so we're going to eat the $30 upcharge for unlimited data. But that applies whether you have internet only or a package.
As for phone we haven't had a landline in years.

The downside of antenna TV is the Trump pillow fucker sometimes comes on a commercial.

37: we used to have vonage, and found Comcast phone w/ internet to be cheaper.

Fleabag and Emma Thompson's movies were the things that I wanted to watch which seemed to be exclusive to Amazon Prime.

I like to have the landline for international calls, but I don't like giving out my cell phone number to pharmacies and other businesses, because they send text messages all the time.

I live in Arlington, so there are people with RCN, but my building is wired for Comcast only.

31: We started watching Midsomar Murders at S1 and have started on S2. Is that a good strategy? Which is to say, with 21(!) seasons out there, is it better to watch a few highly regarded seasons, or try to slog through all of them? (We are watching it on Acorn, because we watch a lot of bloody* Brit stuff.)

In spite of that, we watch Netflix more than anything else. Tempted to get Disney+ for The Mandalorian.

*(There was one episode with a real estate developer, and I was thinking how could anyone try to convince a buyer to move to what is obviously the per capita murder capital of the world? Probably per capita multiple murder capital as well.)

Honestly, I've not seen much after season six or seven. The early episodes are kind of creepily heavy on the incest, but I guess that's rural England for you.

I've never watched any after John Nettles retired.

Anybody recommend Warrior Nun? We've watched several episodes and enjoyed them a lot.

Franciscan or Dominican?

I'm watching Bridgerton with my SIL and my friend via some sort of extension for Netflix/Chrome. It's a bunch of pretty people in pretty clothes being sexy (the show, we're in pjs). It also has a happy ending for at least two people and 'happy endings' for...

Sorry Moby. Don't want to step on your feet too much.

Enjoyed Sweet Home recently. Koreans tv is really doing good work with the zombie genre. Also, now that the election is all but over I can watch apocalyptic drama again.

Enjoyed Sweet Home recently. Koreans tv is really doing good work with the zombie genre. Also, now that the election is all but over I can watch apocalyptic drama again.

The other Korean zombie show I watched was a period piece that I mostly remember for the variety of hats.

I don't know if it's still there but Amazon plus had a nice selection of Sci-fi and horror B movies. I've watched many a wholesome teenager be devoured by unnaturally large insects.

Pokey sounds SO SO stressed out when he plays Fortnite. He just downloaded it the other day, so he's new to it.

Antenna isn't available where I live...

50: Camping shitheads.

Franciscan or Dominican?

Ha! My question, exactly.

I've just finished binge-watching Bridgerton. Pretty people in pretty frocks, but I doubt I would have watched beyond the second episode were it not for COVID-19 lockdown.

I've also been bingeing on the Murdoch Mysteries. Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas ("bloody hell!") Brackenreid is what keeps me watching: he's one of those actors who just can't help stealing every scene, even when he's attempting to remain in the background.

Recently started Lodge 49. Not what I expected based on the few bits I had seen because it came on after Better Call Saul (I think0> Recommended by my daughter and am enjoying it so far, but different from what I expected. (And I think she says it was unfortunately cancelled before some of what it was building towards was realized. Also finally watched Succession. Found it very well done and engaging, although also enraging despite my trying to view it entirely as a black comedy. (Also somewhat my strategy with the world itself. Not necessarily recommended even though it might be the right frame.)

Am bouncing off Righteous Gemstones despite it nominally being the right amount of stupid. Apparently there is a new season Trailer Park Boys coming out in January. *That* I am looking forward to.

I'm usually pretty good at recognizing voice actors' voices without reading the credits, but finding out Moana's grandma is also in Soul was a surprise.

The boy and I just finished watching all 11 Star Wars movies again. It was the first time I've seen them all in chronological order.

The Back to the Future trilogy also holds up.

And while I don't know a whole lot about Korean zombie movies, I thought Train to Busan was amazing.

Content warning on that link for, you know, zombies.

Mando is very good. We've started the most recent season of The Expanse that just released here. It's great as usual, but I also liked the books.

I watched Die Hard for the first time on Christmas Eve. It's a perfect little film--it's so good I completely disagree with a premise yet still loved it. Had no idea that so many modern action movies are just pale replicas of it.

On Korean movies: finally saw Parasite. Dark and unsettling but great and lots to chew on.

Loved Deutschland 83 (followed by Deutschland 86 and 89). on Hulu.

The reference to Emma Thompson above reminded me how good Years and Years (HBO Max) was, although it does hit a bit close to home at times.

I'm currently on season 3 of a show called West Wing. (HBO Max) Turns out it's quite good.

Season 4 of Fargo was quite good.

Enjoyed Dark (Netflix). Also Ad Vitam (Netflix).

If you like scary stuff, I got far enough into The Fall to see that it was very well done, though too scary for me.

Kästner and Little Tuesday (Prime) was wonderful.

Enola Holmes (Netflix) also quite enjoyable.

Harlots (Hulu).

Missed headline opportunity:
You and me, baby, both wearing flannels; Would we pay 5 bucks a month for the Discovery channel?

Super late to commenting, but it was crazy to me how little Beth encounters in the way of sexism or misogyny in Queen's Gambit. Even the sore losers are gentlemen. And she's just totally, supremely confident and unafraid. That was the weirdest thing to me. I kept thinking, "Oh, this is going to be the scene where she gets raped" and then . . . no. It was weird and nice and sad that it was what I was expecting.

Someone should make an Emmy Noether mini-series, but only if they make the math parts as good as the chess parts are in the Queen's Gambit. (For all it's fault's, the way that Chess itself is handled in the Queen's Gambit is probably the best treatment of a technical subject I've ever seen on the large or small screen. They play way too fast and there weren't nearly enough draws, but the positions were always real Chess positions.)

More Good Place spoilers:








Last night I got to the part in Season 3 where they finally make it to the Good Place, and they're up in the mail room, and Michael meets with the Committee who decides how to deal with things. And the Good Place turns out to be drowning in proceduralism. It was such an on-the-nose turn of the events that I nearly cried with recognition.

Also Maya Rudolph as the judge is just an absolute delight.

I guess the space with the scroll is less effective when you're the last comment in a thread.

Maybe you could just put another comment after it?

Do you think everyone will agree to keep it to just one?

Yes.

Maybe.

In triplicate?

63: Yeah, massive props to The Queen's Gambit for subverting/dodging all the Orphan Girl In Peril tropes, but in the end it kind of leaves the whole thing kind of hollow. All Beth's challenges turn out to be nothingburgers.

whoa. Hi there!

Hamilton-Lovecraft! Whose name has since been stolen by both a Broadway production and an HBO series.

63, 72: I am seriously prepared to argue that H-L's use of the word "subverting" is entirely appropriate, even though the subversion is a paradoxical insistence on avoiding all forms of subversion. The orphanage? The creepy old man in the basement? The dangerously dysfunctional adoptive mother? The male rivals? Deep down, they're all okay!

Plus, the representation of chess was entirely satisfactory for those of us who geek out on chess. I don't think I've seen it that well done before (though I wish they'd found a way to convey how sloooow serious chess is.)

I succumbed to the lure of a chess.com account, and am rapidly learning that my brain is not well suited to chess (and that I really, really, seriously need to do something about my undiagnosed ADHD this year).

It took me a long time to recognize my son's ADHD -- and I still haven't admitted my own -- even though we are both fine sitting down for a 3 or 4 hour game of chess. Apparently ADHD doesn't work the way I thought it did.

63, 72: Your assignment is to read the book version of The Queen's Gambit, and compare and contrast with the TV show. Unless they've upped the price, it's $2 or $3 on Kindle.

The three hours isn't the problem for me, it's the three minutes of looking at a position and figuring out what can logically progress from it. After 30 seconds I'm all "fuck it, this is probably a cromulent move" and a turn later I'm down a bishop.

The three hours isn't the problem for me, it's the three minutes of looking at a position and figuring out what can logically progress from it. After 30 seconds I'm all "fuck it, this is probably a cromulent move" and a turn later I'm down a bishop.

78: My son talked me into tournament play not too long before the pandemic and (like him) I am the reverse, to the point where I have stopped playing games where the time control leads to something less than a three-hour game. He and I can stare at a chess board forever -- and we prefer doing so to feeling rushed. I'll spend 20 minutes on a move if I can afford the investment of time.

I am told that the key to ADHD is being unable to do boring stuff. But is anybody really any good at boring stuff? My son insists that yes, people succeed in doing boring stuff all the time. I think he might be right. I find chess really interesting.

77: Did it! The show follows the book remarkably closely. The major departures: a perilous incident in the orphanage with little apparent long term effect; Cleo isn't present in the book, and so there's no [redacted] in Paris -- Borgov simply outplays her; she reaches out to Jolene instead of Jolene magically appearing; Jolene's subplot is 13% less improbable (but still feels like the setup for a spinoff show); no twink in Townes' room in Vegas (as if there could be any other reason he'd not want to sleep with a much younger woman who he first met when she was a child); no Townes in Moscow nor Beltik helping Benny strategize during the adjournment.

I started playing a lot of chess.com two years ago (with a bit of a break from August to November when I was playing too much Magic the Gathering and then Queen's Gambit got me playing again). I'd played a reasonable amount as a teenager but am much better now. Psychologically I found it really important to realize that Chess is much more about avoiding mistakes and taking advantage of your opponents mistakes than it is about making the best moves. A good enough move is perfectly fine, and really the only point of making good moves is that if you're in a good position it's more likely that the opponent will screw up and less likely that you'll screw up simply because your pieces can do more things. So don't stress so much about what logically progresses and just think "does this move let my opponent win a piece?"

I've recently improved quite a bit and am now over 1800 for several consecutive days for basically the first time ever (I'd popped over 1800 a few times only to quickly go back down to 1700ish). It's almost to the point now where it's no longer about which person makes a mistake, and instead about which person makes an "inaccuracy."

If you play chess.com on the app and go through it's analysis of your moves sometimes it says "You made no mistakes. Good job!" And basically this is what I live for now.

82: "The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. Please don't check my man.

The big thing I'm working on now is not playing when I've had a drink, even if it's like only half a drink and I think I'm still fully sober. I'm not and I will lose.

This week I'm starting to fall down the rabbit hole of youtube chess videos, which seems like taking it a bit too far.

The ADHD trait that drives me crazy in Chess is that I always forget that my piece is doing something important in the spot where it is and even if I tell myself "Don't forget that this piece can't move!" I end up moving it like two turns later anyway.

Presumably some people do the Spelling Bee puzzle here? I want to repurpose the Spelling Bee as an ADHD diagnostic test where it just counts how many times you submit a word which doesn't include the middle yellow letter.

Oooh, there's videos about the actual games used in The Queen's Gambit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO1m1h9-3_c