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Post by mr. excellent on Dec 26, 2019 16:58:03 GMT -5
Happy Holidays friends! How was it for you all?
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Post by Webber3000 on Dec 29, 2019 15:45:17 GMT -5
Thanks Excellent, Happy Holidays to you as well! I'm super happy to be back home for a couple weeks, it's great to see family and friends! How about you?
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Post by mr. excellent on Dec 30, 2019 15:31:40 GMT -5
Right on. I live in the town I grew up in, but it's nice to have a few weeks off from work every year (since I teach). Last year it was rough because my grandmother, the matriarch of my mom's very large family, had a stroke on Christmas Eve and then passed in the evening on January 1st. Six days later a good friend passed away suddenly and the whole ordeal was just... a lot. This year has been far less emotionally draining. I'll admit, I've been waiting for the ball to drop, unintentionally, but it can't be helped. I'm happy to say nothing of that sort has happened, thank goodness.
Outside of that, I've enjoyed being able to catch up on shows (His Dark Materials, Gargoyles, Watchmen, Mr. Robot, etc.) I started the Witcher. I'm on episode 4, and to be honest, it's not that exciting to me. Also, there's so much going on in the show, I'm not sure I follow it too well. I keep waiting for some strings to come together, to get sucked in the way His Dark Materials has pulled me in, but it hasn't happened yet. I still haven't finished the Irishman, but I've loved the first hour and a half. My nephew and I finally finished Spectacular Spider-Man and it was so much fun. In the penultimate episode, "Opening Night", the characters did "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and I realized that the entire series fits that story just as well as The Lion King is a retelling of Hamlet. This was something I realized when watching TSSM the first go around back in 2009 - 2010ish, but coming back a near decade later, I'm floored. Spectacular wasn't just a good Spider-Man cartoon, it was, a good cartoon period. I laughed a bit at Final Curtain because I was reminded of when you (Webber) said that all hell broke loose. You weren't wrong. Granted, I was watching clips of the final episode a couple weeks back on my laptop, but for the finale I saw it from beginning to end on a 70'' tv in my classroom, so the "bigness" of it all really stuck out.
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Post by Webber3000 on Jan 1, 2020 15:20:10 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember, some years feel like they just keep punching you while you're down. Super glad the end of 2019 has gone better, Excellent. Here's to 2020, a year that will hopefully lift us up instead of pushing us down, and to a new decade of new memories to be formed! 🥂 And, believe it or not (I think this is incredible), 2020 will mark this forum's 10th anniversary, which is definitely something worth celebrating! Re: TSSM, I never knew that about Opening Night! Kinda makes me wanna watch them back to back. I was actually thinking of dusting off my old TSSM DVD set and watching the whole series again. I completely agree with you, it's such a good cartoon, despite the grudge I hold against the season 2 finale.
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Post by mr. excellent on Jan 5, 2020 17:14:02 GMT -5
Yeah, for sure, haha. The episode lays it all out, and making the connection between the play and the overarching story of the show itself is pretty straight forward I suppose. The thing that blew me away though, just to sort of clarify, was that it wasn't just that story arc for that particular episode that mirrored the play, it was the entire series as a whole. I appreciate the words of encouragement and general, "relating to things" that you wonderful individuals always provide for me. I hear what you're saying about being able to start a new, 2019 brought some of my life's toughest challenges as of yet. I can't say it was the hardest year, but certain things that happened were firsts that I will be thrilled to never have again. I told my wife that if 2020 starts to suck, we should just hit the reset button that evening so the next morning we can start fresh. Forget about waiting a whole year, I don't have the patience for that. We were kind of joking around, but there's a lot of truth said in jest.
Been watching more of some newer shows lately. I'm hesitant to start a new thread for them because we're not super active here these days. The only new threads we seem to frequent are the year in review movie roundups (2016, 2017, 2018), new Marvel or DC movies, and maybe a couple more. With that, I'll just share about them here briefly. The wife and I finished season 1 of His Dark Materials. It's a very well made show. I don't see it ever being the next big thing, but it's a big one for sure. Daphne Keen from Logan is in it and she does a tremendous job along side James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin Manuel Miranda, among others. I've also gone through most of Watchmen, which is so freakin weird. I love it. If I could recommend only 1, it would be Watchmen because they're doing things with it that make sense but also that I never would've come up with. It's taking me for a ride for sure. That said, I can't say that it's better than His Dark Materials. They're just too different to really compare. I'm still only 3 episodes into The Witcher and have quite a ways to go. I will say that of the 3, The Witcher has been the least impressive for me. There's a lot of production value to it and Henry Cavill has done a fine job, but the world itself isn't as engaging for me as the other two just yet. Hopefully it gets better, I think Witcher is the current biggest streamed show now that The Mandalorian's inaugural season is done, so people are definitely enjoying it.
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Post by mr. excellent on Jan 6, 2020 23:56:27 GMT -5
Couple things I wanted to leave here, there's a lot of interesting rumors and speculation on the MCU right now. I mean, the rumor mill is always turning, but at this point in time in particular I'm pretty interested.
#1: I believe this was confirmed, but Hulk is now officially back in the hands of the MCU, and they are now able to do a solo picture without Universal. Also included in this news report is that another character came back as well, which many speculate to be Namor. I'm not sure that Namor was confirmed officially though.
#2: Disney was able to work something out with Netflix to use the Marvel Netflix characters much sooner than the 2 year cooling period permitted. They allegedly want to bring Charlie Cox, Kristen Ritter, and Jon Bernthal back to their roles of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher respectively. This is the rumor that just keeps going. I'm hesitant to believe it because the only places I know of that keep perpetuating this rumor are places like "We've Got This Covered", but they keep going back to the well so who knows? If it is true, I think they'd be crazy not to bring Vincent D'Onofrio back into the fold. His portrayal of Wilson Fisk in Daredevil Season 3 is great.
#3: I'm not sure if this one was confirmed, but Marvel and Taika Waititi are looking at casting Christian Bale as a yet unidentified character in Thor: Love and Thunder. Bale can do anything, but I just never saw him in a Marvel film. Whatever it is, I think it's bonkers crazy and I can't wait to see how this rumor pans out. If he is cast, who do you all think he would be?
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Post by Webber3000 on Jan 11, 2020 19:22:10 GMT -5
We've entered comic book territory a casual fan like me is completely unfamiliar with... I have no idea who Bale might be. Any theories, Excellent?
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Post by mr. excellent on Jan 11, 2020 23:10:25 GMT -5
I haven't been able to keep up with comics as of late. Honestly, I haven't read all that many Thor comics. Word around the "water cooler" is that it could be Gorr The God Butcher. Fans seem to want Bale to play Beta Ray Bill, but I'd rather Christian Bale not be given the full CGI treatment. What would be the point of casting him, you know?
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Post by Webber3000 on Feb 8, 2020 18:02:37 GMT -5
Are you guys planning on watching the Academy Awards tomorrow?
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Post by mr. excellent on Feb 9, 2020 1:34:32 GMT -5
I'd like to, but I'll be out of town so it depends on when we get back. Are there any categories that you have high hopes for?
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Post by Webber3000 on Feb 10, 2020 20:36:05 GMT -5
Eh, I stopped caring about winners and losers a long time ago, but I still enjoy watching such a high-profile celebration of movies I like. That said, I'd be lying if I said I'm not satisfied to see Parasite taking the win and Todd Phillips not earning it (though having him as a best director nominee still boggles my mind). How about you?
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Post by mr. excellent on Feb 10, 2020 21:50:39 GMT -5
I didn't have any dogs in this race, haha. I didn't see the show either unfortunately, but it was for a good reason! I was out of town all day having some fun with Mrs.Excellent and some friends. Sometimes I forgot how to do that sort of thing, it's kind of a problem in my life, which isn't the worse problem to have admittedly.
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Post by Webber3000 on Feb 18, 2020 21:42:59 GMT -5
Those are the right priorities, Excellent!
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Post by brotherandbassist on Mar 3, 2020 14:47:32 GMT -5
Sad to see this community dying out At least Excellent still occasionally replies! Well, as you can see, I'm not dead (pun intended). Hope you guys are doing well.
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Post by mr. excellent on Mar 3, 2020 20:50:06 GMT -5
I can relate to that... but I also kind of see it like this: There are those friends who you can go long stretches of time without talking to them. But when you talk to them again, it's like neither one of you has lost a step. That's how I feel about everyone who still comments on here. I hope to always speak with you wonderful people, even if life dictates that the talks are far and in between.
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