DVD and TV logging
Nov. 1st, 2017 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckFestival: Folk Music at Newport, 1963-1966 - This is pretty much what the title says. It's footage from the festivals at Newport in those years. A lot of the songs and performers were familiar. I'm not sure what I was expecting that that surprised me.
Gilmore Girls - We've been watching this from end to end with Cordelia. I'm actually not sure what season we're on. Rory's in college, so maybe halfway through? I don't know. I find this better than some other things Cordelia could ask us to watch with her, but I get very, very irritated with the characters and often end up having to cover my eyes and plug my ears for a little while. Am I actually supposed to respond to Lorelai with a strong urge to shake her until her teeth rattle and then send her to psychotherapy?
The Good Place season 1 - Once I got past the idea of Danny Rebus as an adult, a philosophy professor no less, I mostly had fun with this. I have problems with embarrassment humor, and this hit that a few times, but mostly, I just laughed and tried to figure out what was going on. I’m impressed by the writing and plotting and characterization/acting.
Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance - Series of 36 half hour lectures by William Kloss, an independent art historian affiliated with the Smithsonian. I stopped partway through, either halfway or two thirds of the way through, because I had other things that couldn’t be renewed while this could. When I had time again, I couldn’t remember where I left off and realized that I hadn’t really absorbed anything about the art. I just couldn’t get myself to go back and figure things out.
An Introduction to Formal Logic - Series of twenty four half hour lectures by Professor Steven Gimbel. I only went through half of the lectures because I realized that I was just using them as background noise while I worked on other things and not paying sufficient attention to follow what was being taught. I think that part of it is that the first six lectures (the first DVD) all seemed like basic stuff that I already knew and didn’t need to give very much attention to. I lost my way during the second DVD when the lecturer started diagramming the possible truth/falsehood of nested sets of statements and then representing it all as equations. I also got a little annoyed that he acknowledged that a conclusion can appear logically sound based on untrue premises that the person doing the analysis doesn’t know are untrue but didn’t mention that bad premises don’t necessarily mean that the conclusion wouldn’t be valid if based on other, sounder premises that simply aren’t being offered for consideration.
The Last Witch Hunter - This was cheesy as hell but much, much better than I thought it would be. I was also worried that it would be too much in the way of horror/gore and violence, but I got through the whole movie and mostly enjoyed it.
Miss Minoes - This is a Dutch movie about a cat that gets transformed into a woman and who ends up helping a bumbling reporter find news by relaying gossip from the cats of the town. I ended up not liking the characters enough to finish. I watched the Dutch track with subtitles.
My Life as a Zucchini - I'm really not sure what to say about this beyond that it was a thing I watched. I was sad for the kids and glad that some of them got a happy ending. I'm just not sure that I didn't miss something completely because it seemed longer than it ought to be for what happens.
Person of Interest season 1 - I had been told that I wouldn’t like season 1 of this but likely would like later seasons. I found myself quite enjoying the characters here, so I look forward to seeing where they go. I’m watching in spurts of three to five episodes at a time with longish gaps between and have started season 2.
Rumpole of the Bailey season 1 episode 1 - No captions. I could follow part of the dialogue in the first episode because it was based on one of the shorts I’d read (I’ve read about three stories). I gave up at the beginning of the second episode because I really couldn’t understand what was going on.
Sailor Moon R: The Movie - I'm almost certain I watched this many years ago, pre-Cordelia even. It was nicely low stakes after a very high stress two weeks. I think it's watchable without having watched the series but not without knowing the frame for the series and the characters.
Saiunkoku season 1 episodes 11-19 - I'm guessing on the exact episodes. I know that I saw two DVDs worth of episodes from Netflix, but I somehow neglected to record the numbering before sending them back. I like the characters, generally speaking, but the gap of years between when I saw the earlier episodes in the season and when I watched these meant that I kind of didn't follow all of the who's who and machinations. I enjoy the story, but I keep stumbling over the fact that our heroine seems to know very little about people and politics. It seems an unsafe gap for her father to have left in her education.
Spider-Man: Homecoming - I liked the smaller scale of the villain and the fact that he had comprehensible reasons for what he did. I liked that Peter had a social network at school. The Tony Stark moments fit reasonably well in as much as Tony doesn't seem to have a mental filter that lets him deal with teenagers and was more an occasional catalyst than anything else. I like the idea of Peter Parker on the academic decathalon team.
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques - Series of 24 half hour lectures by Professor James Hynes. I only watched the first half dozen lectures because the lecturer’s focus was on things that I’m pretty comfortable doing and didn’t touch on any of the things that I was hoping to hear a bit about. Characterization, dialogue, and plot structure/flow aren’t my weak points. I need help with description, both of physical setting and of larger scenes of action. I have to work hard not to have my characters talking to each other in a featureless void unless something becomes plot pertinent because I don’t quite get how to integrate description into the flow of what I’m writing.
Xena season 1 episodes ??? - I have trouble getting myself through these because I get the impression-- repeatedly-- that the writing and staging don't respect Gabrielle as a person who adds value to whatever Xena's A plot is. I can't tell if she's meant to be comic relief or a plucky everygirl POV for audiences to project themselves onto. Also, I don't think I'm more than halfway through the season (I forgot to write down the episode numbers), and they've already had a clip show.
Gilmore Girls - We've been watching this from end to end with Cordelia. I'm actually not sure what season we're on. Rory's in college, so maybe halfway through? I don't know. I find this better than some other things Cordelia could ask us to watch with her, but I get very, very irritated with the characters and often end up having to cover my eyes and plug my ears for a little while. Am I actually supposed to respond to Lorelai with a strong urge to shake her until her teeth rattle and then send her to psychotherapy?
The Good Place season 1 - Once I got past the idea of Danny Rebus as an adult, a philosophy professor no less, I mostly had fun with this. I have problems with embarrassment humor, and this hit that a few times, but mostly, I just laughed and tried to figure out what was going on. I’m impressed by the writing and plotting and characterization/acting.
Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance - Series of 36 half hour lectures by William Kloss, an independent art historian affiliated with the Smithsonian. I stopped partway through, either halfway or two thirds of the way through, because I had other things that couldn’t be renewed while this could. When I had time again, I couldn’t remember where I left off and realized that I hadn’t really absorbed anything about the art. I just couldn’t get myself to go back and figure things out.
An Introduction to Formal Logic - Series of twenty four half hour lectures by Professor Steven Gimbel. I only went through half of the lectures because I realized that I was just using them as background noise while I worked on other things and not paying sufficient attention to follow what was being taught. I think that part of it is that the first six lectures (the first DVD) all seemed like basic stuff that I already knew and didn’t need to give very much attention to. I lost my way during the second DVD when the lecturer started diagramming the possible truth/falsehood of nested sets of statements and then representing it all as equations. I also got a little annoyed that he acknowledged that a conclusion can appear logically sound based on untrue premises that the person doing the analysis doesn’t know are untrue but didn’t mention that bad premises don’t necessarily mean that the conclusion wouldn’t be valid if based on other, sounder premises that simply aren’t being offered for consideration.
The Last Witch Hunter - This was cheesy as hell but much, much better than I thought it would be. I was also worried that it would be too much in the way of horror/gore and violence, but I got through the whole movie and mostly enjoyed it.
Miss Minoes - This is a Dutch movie about a cat that gets transformed into a woman and who ends up helping a bumbling reporter find news by relaying gossip from the cats of the town. I ended up not liking the characters enough to finish. I watched the Dutch track with subtitles.
My Life as a Zucchini - I'm really not sure what to say about this beyond that it was a thing I watched. I was sad for the kids and glad that some of them got a happy ending. I'm just not sure that I didn't miss something completely because it seemed longer than it ought to be for what happens.
Person of Interest season 1 - I had been told that I wouldn’t like season 1 of this but likely would like later seasons. I found myself quite enjoying the characters here, so I look forward to seeing where they go. I’m watching in spurts of three to five episodes at a time with longish gaps between and have started season 2.
Rumpole of the Bailey season 1 episode 1 - No captions. I could follow part of the dialogue in the first episode because it was based on one of the shorts I’d read (I’ve read about three stories). I gave up at the beginning of the second episode because I really couldn’t understand what was going on.
Sailor Moon R: The Movie - I'm almost certain I watched this many years ago, pre-Cordelia even. It was nicely low stakes after a very high stress two weeks. I think it's watchable without having watched the series but not without knowing the frame for the series and the characters.
Saiunkoku season 1 episodes 11-19 - I'm guessing on the exact episodes. I know that I saw two DVDs worth of episodes from Netflix, but I somehow neglected to record the numbering before sending them back. I like the characters, generally speaking, but the gap of years between when I saw the earlier episodes in the season and when I watched these meant that I kind of didn't follow all of the who's who and machinations. I enjoy the story, but I keep stumbling over the fact that our heroine seems to know very little about people and politics. It seems an unsafe gap for her father to have left in her education.
Spider-Man: Homecoming - I liked the smaller scale of the villain and the fact that he had comprehensible reasons for what he did. I liked that Peter had a social network at school. The Tony Stark moments fit reasonably well in as much as Tony doesn't seem to have a mental filter that lets him deal with teenagers and was more an occasional catalyst than anything else. I like the idea of Peter Parker on the academic decathalon team.
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques - Series of 24 half hour lectures by Professor James Hynes. I only watched the first half dozen lectures because the lecturer’s focus was on things that I’m pretty comfortable doing and didn’t touch on any of the things that I was hoping to hear a bit about. Characterization, dialogue, and plot structure/flow aren’t my weak points. I need help with description, both of physical setting and of larger scenes of action. I have to work hard not to have my characters talking to each other in a featureless void unless something becomes plot pertinent because I don’t quite get how to integrate description into the flow of what I’m writing.
Xena season 1 episodes ??? - I have trouble getting myself through these because I get the impression-- repeatedly-- that the writing and staging don't respect Gabrielle as a person who adds value to whatever Xena's A plot is. I can't tell if she's meant to be comic relief or a plucky everygirl POV for audiences to project themselves onto. Also, I don't think I'm more than halfway through the season (I forgot to write down the episode numbers), and they've already had a clip show.
