Q: What are you watching (TV/Streaming/Movies) and want to recommend?

[XR7-4.6]

Didn't think I would, but I've been absolutely loving Miami Vice

It’s simultaneously dated as hell in its 80sness yet it’s timeless, it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a 40 year old network cop show, it feels like watching a modern “golden age of television” show.

 

[Vicinity]

Ive been watching it when I visit my mother, Im anxious for the next episode even though each is the same. Bust a small fish and bait the big one. Sexy cars, sexy women, bad acting. What more does anyone want???

 

[Boston-Bull]

 

[Trunk Monkey]

That's a cool video. I like the people making shadow figures in the lighting in the background. Did anyone else notice that?

 

[XR7-4.6]

I got hooked watching the rust armorer trial livestreams every night since last friday, I couldn't resist watching a good trainwreck.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I got hooked watching the rust armorer trial livestreams every night since last Friday, I couldn't resist watching a good trainwreck.

Wow! Didn't know that was livestreamed. I'd have watched it too. What a sad shit show that fiasco was.

What are your thoughts on Baldwin? Do you think he should be held accountable for her, and others errors that lead to him being handed a gun loaded with actual rounds?

Or do you think he's responsible for not learning how to check the firearms before he used them?

 

[XR7-4.6]

Wow! Didn't know that was livestreamed. I'd have watched it too. What a sad shit show that fiasco was.

What are your thoughts on Baldwin? Do you think he should be held accountable for her, and others errors that lead to him being handed a gun loaded with actual rounds?

Or do you think he's responsible for not learning how to check the firearms before he used them?

Oh I have many thoughts lol

First I think Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez Reed and the assistant director David Halls(who slimily struck a plea deal) should share equal sentences based on testimonies, They all were negligent in the chain of events.

Second, maybe I'm a softie at heart or maybe her cleaned up appearance was doing it for me and clouding my judgement but I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Hannah despite being being right there with the jury. This was literally her second movie as an armorer, and where most people starting out a career in their early 20s make mistakes to learn from, that is not afforded when a mistake like not thoroughly making sure a dummy round(or 5) isnt in fact full of gunpowder costs a life and I don't think she had the experience or maturity to grasp why that's important. She ended up learning the hard way the worst way possible and I have to imagine that haunts her every night, in addition to knowing she pissed away her career and anything related to that career, pissed on your dad's legacy as this legend in the same field, her characterization smeared in the courtroom and publicly(rightly or wrongly) and will forever be used as a cautionary example of what not to do in textbooks. I put myself in her shoes watching that trial and when she had the panic attack in the bodycam footage I imagine that's exactly what was rushing through her head, it was stressing me out. This pales to Helena losing her life and what her grieving friends are going through of course but the whole thing is a sad tale all around.

Third where she 100% dropped the ball and/or was horribly unqualified in the first place, I really expected the industry had higher standards for what is essentially a job that exists for safety. Hanna was responsible for weapon safety, but not responsible for providing a safe work environment, shit rolls downhill and the OSHA report supported that. They shouldn't have hired her and they could have fired her at any time(and there was a mishap that merited it days earlier). Doesn't absolve her role but Baldwin's lawyers have a fight ahead of them. With Baldwin being as involved as he is in production as well as literally pulling the trigger for zero reason at all, it would absolutely be an injustice he doesn't face the same punishment, he's at both ends of preventing this with Hannah making a fatal error in the middle. They skimped so much on the armorer budget they had her doing work with props when weapons weren't being used, which not one expert said was acceptable practice by any production.

Fourth *spoiler alert* they revealed the plot of rust was baldwin and his grandson are on the run from the law because... one of them accidently shot someone! Talk about fucking irony lol

Baldwins trial is in July and will be broadcast so I'm marking my calendar

 

[gunn]

I thought Baldwin was an entertaining actor (he really cracked me up in 30 Rock) but he really does deserve some of the blame for this death.
More than thoughts and prayers and honestly, more than just money. He needs to serve as an example.

Did you catch this clip of the firearms "expert" muzzle sweeping the judge during his testimony?

He was apparently called by the defense so yeah, that didn't help their case. Must have gone cheap on this guy as well.

Rust trial expert witness ‘points gun at judge’

Firearms specialist given stern warning after brandishing unloaded revolver for demonstration purposes

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[gunn]

I learned the other day that The Brothers Sun didn't meet Netflix viewing target so it was cancelled after just one season. Still entertaining to watch

Michelle Yeoh 'heartbroken' after cancellation of 'The Brothers Sun'

"Finding it so hard to understand why," the actress wrote about Netflix axing the show.

www.nbcnews.com

AppleTV has started a Neuromancer adaptation though which may end up being cool.

Apple TV+ announces “Neuromancer,” new drama based on the multi-award-winning science fiction novel by William Gibson

Apple TV+ announced it will expand its acclaimed science fiction offering with “Neuromancer”

www.apple.com

 

[XR7-4.6]

I thought Baldwin was an entertaining actor (he really cracked me up in 30 Rock) but he really does deserve some of the blame for this death.
More than thoughts and prayers and honestly, more than just money. He needs to serve as an example.

Did you catch this clip of the firearms "expert" muzzle sweeping the judge during his testimony?

He was apparently called by the defense so yeah, that didn't help their case. Must have gone cheap on this guy as well.

Rust trial expert witness ‘points gun at judge’

Firearms specialist given stern warning after brandishing unloaded revolver for demonstration purposes

www.telegraph.co.uk

Yep, and the the defense conspicuously left him out of their powerpoint slideshow featuring everyone else during closing statements

 

[Grog6]

I'm still waiting impatiently for ringworld. It's stuck in development hell, and cgi, from what I hear. Maybe this summer.
I think Baldwin is hosed; he shot someone. You do not mix props and live guns, people historically die. We did a 'murder' for halloween one year; what started as a shooting transformed rapidly into a stabbing, because it was too hard to control guns and ammo. During our discussions the prop got swapped for a real gun by accident, and that ended that. I opened the revolver, saw undented primers, ans said "No, this is not going to fucking work!" I always look when someone hands me a gun. And I don't trust it even if I just checked it, lol. "No one ever gets shot with a loaded gun, unless the police or army is involved".

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I'm still waiting impatiently for ringworld. It's stuck in development hell, and cgi, from what I hear. Maybe this summer.
I think Baldwin is hosed; he shot someone. You do not mix props and live guns, people historically die. We did a 'murder' for halloween one year; what started as a shooting transformed rapidly into a stabbing, because it was too hard to control guns and ammo. During our discussions the prop got swapped for a real gun by accident, and that ended that. I opened the revolver, saw undented primers, ans said "No, this is not going to fucking work!" I always look when someone hands me a gun. And I don't trust it even if I just checked it, lol. "No one ever gets shot with a loaded gun, unless the police or army is involved".

They learned nothing from Brandon Lee’s death. So sad.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/20/1150034900/brandon-lee-killed-prop-gun-rust-shooting-death-alec-baldwin-halyna-hutchins

 

[XR7-4.6]

They learned nothing from Brandon Lee’s death. So sad.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/20/1150034900/brandon-lee-killed-prop-gun-rust-shooting-death-alec-baldwin-halyna-hutchins

Something I was wondering all trial, was he role of armorer established in response to the Brandon Lee death? I got the impression from a few testimonies that guns were at one time simply handled by props on the set? Seems like rather than creating the position to provide a safer work environment they instead created a position where its more clear to direct blame towards.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Something I was wondering all trial, was he role of armorer established in response to the Brandon Lee death? I got the impression from a few testimonies that guns were at one time simply handled by props on the set? Seems like rather than creating the position to provide a safer work environment they instead created a position where its more clear to direct blame towards.

Either way she didn’t do her job that she should’ve taken much more seriously. Granted, there’s plenty of claim to go around.

Remind me of the you had one job meme!

 

[XR7-4.6]

Either way she didn’t do her job that she should’ve taken much more seriously. Granted, there’s plenty of claim to go around.

Remind me of the you had one job meme!

Technically two, the budget was so tight on rust they had her doing prop work part of the time.

My main point is I'd probably have my guard up if I were a career armorer watching these trials, I think everyone agrees with the outcome of this one, but if the only one who faces any real punishment(not just unsupervised probation) in this whole case is the armorer, I'd be very concerned about it. Mistakes happen, I'm sure even to seasoned skilled armorers, it doesn't often(ever up until this point) lead to a fatality on set, but accidental discharges from actors/stuntmen, mixing up dummies for lives has probably has happened before and nobody knew, there simply wasn't this perfect storm of events to have a cometographic at the end of the barrel. The expert witness who was a seasoned armorer testified about sets where he'd found live rounds mixed with dummies and stopped production(what Hannah should have been doing) but what about the set they were used on before that? Or the one before that? Somewhere along the line they got mixed and for all we know there were live rounds in cylinders in Django Unchained, which Thell Reed was the armorer on, who may well have been one of Hannah's sources for dummy rounds on the Rust set according to the prosecution.

 

[Grog6]

All it takes is one asshole dropping a live round into a box of dummies. Baldwin is enough of an asshole, someone easily could have. Or she shorted her coke dealer. There's no way to know.

 

[XR7-4.6]

All it takes is one asshole dropping a live round into a box of dummies. Baldwin is enough of an asshole, someone easily could have. Or she shorted her coke dealer. There's no way to know.

Nah either she didn’t inspect the dummies or just assumed having a live among them was so unlikely as to not bother, it wasn’t just one live round that was discovered among the dummies, it was 5, some in boxes some in ammo belts.

Besides which if this were a set up it would require the certainty that Alec would be pointing the gun at someone(not allowed) and pulling the trigger (not allowed). If he hadn’t this incident wouldn’t have happened.

Unless Alec swapped the round himself during lunch and planted a few random lives in the cart and belts when nobody was looking in a Columbo style murder mystery to kill Haylna Hutchins and frame Hannah Gutierrez for some reason.

 

[Grog6]

That would imply he had a working brain, idk. People were bitching about safety; self absorbed people with no thought of consequences might think"that'll show those idiots. When they find these they'll rethink... "But no one found them.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Must watch for Top Gear fans!

 

[dDUBb]

"Well now, that is a very small drop in a very very large bucket of drugs."

Walter Goggins in Fallout .. looking forward to this one.

 

[XR7-4.6]

That would imply he had a working brain, idk. People were bitching about safety; self absorbed people with no thought of consequences might think"that'll show those idiots. When they find these they'll rethink... "But no one found them.

The problem with that theory is the armorer was already one of the reasons for the safety concerns due to an accidental discharge from her assistant Sarah and then some stuntman in the same day. If they thought she was doing a bad job why would they risk planting live rounds in her cart that she would likely miss? Think about it, if she did find them and brought it to her supervisors attention it would have actually proven her to be a (semi)competent armorer.

 

[Grog6]

True. from what I saw of it, they were all coked up and drinking, shooting live rounds, and more likely fucked up and brought the live rounds in with them after they'd been out shooting. They were all playing russian roulette, after that. Baldwin rolled a 1. (my new d20 die says "fuck!" instead of 1, lol.)

 

[XR7-4.6]

True. from what I saw of it, they were all coked up and drinking, shooting live rounds, and more likely fucked up and brought the live rounds in with them after they'd been out shooting. They were all playing russian roulette, after that. Baldwin rolled a 1. (my new d20 die says "fuck!" instead of 1, lol.)

I don’t think that turned out to be true, it was a rumor going around but nobody actually confirmed it or it surely would have been used during the trial. Drug use falls in the maybe column, definitely drinking and smoking weed after hours, coke is claimed by the craft services lady who claimed she handed her a bag to hold which she immediately proceeded to throw in the trash seconds later.

 

[Grog6]

Jeez!! I got sucked into Smithsonian channel stuff on the ww2 pacific war. I worked for a marine that hit iwo Jima at 16, he was a hell of a guy.

 

[rampagingsloth]

Watching the 2nd season of "Will Trent", that's a damn good detective/cop show. Well-written, well-acted. It's one of those quirky genius detective characters but he's more believable than some others in previous shows.

It finished some months ago but "The Lazarus Project" is a great sci-fi series. It's from England, reshown here. It's not a time travel series but a time reset series, if that makes sense. I can't wait for the 2nd season to show up.

"Justified" is an older series but they recently added a mini-series extension to it so I can recommend that show. It's the best-written TV series I've ever seen, Elmore Leonard was writing the story and handing off the pages to the show writers who converted that to episodes. Unfortunately he died which killed the series. But this new short season is based off of one of his other books that had a different main character, they just converted him to Raylan Givens. Timothy Oliphant is a fantastic actor.

If you've never seen it, "Person Of Interest" is an amazing slow-build up sci-fi TV series. It starts off looking like a normal procedural crime drama (I think in order to dupe CBS into leaving them alone) but there's an A.I. component to the story that gets bigger as the seasons progress. It's the best take on an emergent true A.I. (not the fake expert systems people are worried about now) that I've ever seen. Great acting, great writing. J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan, the same team that later made "Westworld" which is also amazing and sort of the spiritual sequel to "Person Of Interest". Actually, Abrams' other show "Almost Human" could be slotted inbetween those two series in terms of similar subject matter but it unfortunately only lasted one season. Karl Urban was solid in it, as was Michael Ealy. Minka Kelly was great to look at as well as being a good actress, too.

Older series (2010) but if you liked the movie "Three Days Of The Condor" and wished there was a TV show that went down that same shadow government road, "Rubicon" is your show. It is a little scary how well they set up the big government/billionaire conspiracy in the show, I was truly pissed when it got cancelled after only one season.

"Counterpart" is a fantastic alternate universe sci-fi show starring J.K. Simmons in dual roles (most of the actors play 2 versions of themselves). Not only is it great science fiction but it also had a subplot about a terrorist pandemic being released yet the show got cancelled right around when COVID first hit, you would think that Starz would have had enough brains to capitalize on such a real world event! Idiots. Amazing acting, you actually like both versions of most of the characters. Still, two seasons of great sci-fi and mystery.

If you ever wished for a realistic take on mutants (unlike the X-Men and their fantastical-level superpowers) then "The Rook" is a great TV show. Another British show, there are a few special people who have mutant powers but they're "small", meaning increased strength or mind-reading or whatever, not being able to lift steel bridges or create tornadoes. Another one season only cancellation but it was great, though fans of the book didn't like that the magic aspects were deleted. I am glad that they didn't go down that road but I never read the book.

If you can find it (I bought the DVD set), "The Good Guys" is the best comedy cop show I've ever seen. Bradley Whitford is perfect as the older veteran cop stuck in the '70s mindset who isn't in the mood for his new, by the book smart younger partner (or using "computer machines" for that matter, hahaaha). They are relegated to solving minor bullshit crimes but usually stumble onto something much bigger. He also winds up driving a Trans Am and they try to include various rock songs when he's behind the wheel. One season (again!), criminally underrated.

"Backstrum" is almost as funny as "The Good Guys", more cynical in the humor. Stars Rainn Wilson from the U.S. version of "The Office" as an insensitive offensive detective who is really good at solving crimes. Lasted, sigh, one fucking season.

For fans of the Bourne movies, "Treadstone" was a really good TV series set in the same universe with new agents going further down that Blackbriar augmented spies idea. Really cool exotic locations, good acting. Yes, of course, cancelled after, wait for it, one season. Goddammit, is it me? Is there some conspiracy that kills off shows that I really like?!?

Maybe so. "Stumptown" is a really good private investigator series starring Cobie Smulders (from "How I Met Your Mother") that is sort of like the chick version of "Justified", similar writing and acting. One goddamn season, it was greenlit for a 2nd season but, hey, that guy really likes the show, kill it.

Hold on, this show managed to live through 2 seasons. "SIX", the best of the handful of SpecOps TV shows that came out some years ago, very realistic-looking, great acting, the action sequences were movie-worthy. About a Seal team both on mission and also their family life inbetween ops. If you wish the movie "Act Of Valor" had some actual acting in it, this is the show for you.

Back on track, another one season show, "Hunted" (from 2012), which stars Melissa George as a spy who is almost killed, she suspects by her employer. So she tries to figure out who/why while also working her next mission.

 

[Boston-Bull]

​

 

[Derphound01]

This episode of Bluey always cracks me up. Bluey and Bingo running around with masks on like they're running a covert search and rescue op is hilarious to me.




Toddler life, y'all...

 

[Grog6]

I was looking for something to watch, and caught part of Dr Strangelove on. It's awesome. Then I remembered the OG Pink Panther movies. Comedies were so much better back then. A shot in the dark is 1964; Peter sellers is a much better Cluseau than steve martin. If you've never seen them, it's a treat. There are 5 I think with peter sellers; he died making the last one. "Being there" is also a great movie; he worked for years to get that made into a movie.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I was looking for something to watch, and caught part of Dr Strangelove on. It's awesome. Then I remembered the OG Pink Panther movies. Comedies were so much better back then. A shot in the dark is 1964; Peter sellers is a much better Cluseau than steve martin. If you've never seen them, it's a treat. There are 5 I think with peter sellers; he died making the last one. "Being there" is also a great movie; he worked for years to get that made into a movie.

A shot in the dark and return of the pink panther are tied for the best IMO never bothered to watch the Steve Martin ones

 

[gunn]

I don't know how much you folks read scifi but one of the more interesting authors I've read over the past few years was a chinese author Cixin Liu. His series on what would the world do if faced with an unforgiving, alien influence was quite good because Chinese culture makes their approach to things different enough that how the characters react to situations is pretty fascinating compared to what a western (say a character written by an American or British author) would react.

Apparently, the chinese did make a film adaptation of another interesting book he wrote called The Wandering Earth (what if the Sun was dying so our solution was to band together as an entire species and take the one place we knew we can survive on the road). Yeah, that level of organization is NOT something I could fanthom American society could pull off but well, from a Chinese standpoint, the author thought possible. Good book but the movie was a total piece of shit (feels like total Chinese propaganda).

Now, Netflix has attempted to adapt the Three Body Problem with the showrunners of Game of Thrones. Reports on this series are mixed and considering how dense the source material is (truly a good read if you like scifi), I don't find this surprising at all.