Which TV show did you watch lastֻ

I finished up this mini-series.

If you like horror movies, check it out.

It does contain some spoilers, but it's extremely entertaining and also somewhat educational.

I think I've seen most of the 101 movies that they focus on, and they pick out some really good movies/scenes.

The mini-series starts out a bit slow, but that's because they saved the best for the last few episodes.

The only movie I've seen in the last twenty years to truly scare me (Sinister) made the final episode in the countdown.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022 Netflix)

I’m four episodes in and am a big fan of this series so far. My ratings:

Episode 1, Lot 36 7/10 Loved the horror, but the protagonist is basically a political cartoon character
Episode 2, Graveyard Rats 8/10 Protagonist’s fate seemed avoidable with common sense
Episode 3, The Autopsy 9/10 The start was a little slow, otherwise amazing Sci-fi horror
Episode 4, The Outside 5/10 Some great ideas but dubious plot choices were made

Sounds interesting. I saw the preview and it looks like there’s quite an interesting lineup of actors in this.

Well, finished “Big Sky” season 3.
Overall? 6.5 / 10.
The series started out with a certain vibe and intrigue. By the end of the first season, there was a “set of regulars” you’d come to expect and it looked like things were settling into a certain formula. But the writers seemed to have had a lot of mental blocks drawn to making “left turns…” and changing things rather dramatically. A progressive line of antagonists. They “hang” with one or a group for a while, then ditched for another. Love interests are not very believable and then in one case the “teasing” between two women and one guy, “who will he end up with” was just a silly waste of time. Then by Season 3? Reba McEntire shows up with her ventriloquist dummy face (after all of that cosmetic surgery). I guess she was supposed to be some big draw to the series, very famous country singer from a few decades ago… But her acting is so-so and her character is just bizarre. And other characters are really quite unbelievable. The duo “investigative team” of two women has them taking very stupid chances and being just plain sloppy. It’s a wonder they both haven’t died.

Unless you’re bored and have exhausted your candidate series list, I’d avoid this one.

The Peripheral :+1:

Thanks for the review. We watched the first 2 seasons and then started the third but got side tracked. Now I have to wonder if it is worth it. I too noticed it started to morph.

One channel here has a marathon of “The Dog: The Bounty Hunter”, where The Dog and his crew goes after bail-jumpers and stuff.

Poor guy looks like he spent waaaaay too much time out in the sun. In fact, a lot of this stuff looks just way too Hollywood. He’s got the puffy shirt unbuttoned to the waist, feather earrings, 10lbs of gold chains, sunglasses he rarely takes off, even at night, huge mane of curly blonde hair, etc. He could be a good wrestler. :laughing:

There’s one normal-looking guy who’s… “practical”. Normal haircut, just slaps on the tac-vest, looks all business with no pretense. He’s the most normal of the bunch, who looks like an actual bounty hunter.

Different guy has a weird haircut, long hair on top but a skinny braided ponytail pulled in back, but shaved sides. Other than that, seems pretty normal.

Kinda cute bucktoothy chick I think is The Dog’s daughter who goes along for the ride, talks with women bail-jumpers they catch, probably provides the “softer” side of the crew.

Then there’s a shorter woman who’e like a 97ZZZ, and I think is The Dog’s wife, who drives one of the SUVs, does clerical stuff in their office, etc. Not quite sure what sense it makes to slap on the bulletproof vest and mace and other stuff when going with The Crew, but does so in high-heels and has those long talon-like nails. Ummm, okay.

Anyway, they go chasing these people around, staking out their hangouts, etc., enlisting the locals to help out, that kind of thing. And of course, at the end when they get their quarry, there’s the “Hey, you’re a smart guy, you could do so much better than smoking the crack and breaking into peoples’ houses, y’know?” and going on about getting help, etc. Feelgood stuff.

No shootouts or nuttin’ like that, more like playing cat’n’mouse and just catching the guy who just stands there, and doesn’t go running off or fighting back like you’d see on “Cops” or those kinds of shows. More like, “Yeah, you caught me, I give up.”, anticlimactic.

I thought the show would be about The Dog chasing down people, running after them, tackling them, slapping on the cuffs, etc., but it’s more like The Process, like I said, the cat’n’mouse thing, bugging neighbors about if they’ve seen so-and-so, where does so-and-so hang out, that kind of thing, then finally catching up and walking off together into the sunset… and central booking. Kinda sedate.

Interesting time-waster, though, if there’s nothing else on.

You’re welcome. I should point out that Season 3 isn’t done. I’d somehow thought it was, another cliffhanger. But apparently there are 3 episodes to go. I’ll very likely catch them, just to see how things wrap up, but I’m not all that convinced to keep going.

The morphing is rather dramatic. And unexpected. Season 1 is very different from Season 2. And now Season 3 is quite different. The “setup” of the detective firm (Dewell & Hoyt) in Season 2 seemed to be the “focus” for the series, but now it’s all muddled.

The arc of Ronald Pergman was really interesting. To see the evolution of a psychopath was fascinating and somewhat believable. And just when you think he escaped his psychotic life and found his own little happy life, his past catches up with him and he’s back to killing. It just goes to show—once a murdering psychopath… Anyway, the Ronald arc is worth watching. I’m just not sure Season 3, Reba McEntire’s arc, is going to be worth it. There also seems to be confusion about whether this is going to be a serious detective show or a dark comedy.

Inside Man. UK based 4 part mini series, developed by Steven Moffat. David Tennent is ostensibly the primary actor of this show, but Stanley Tucci has an interesting supporting role that kind of steals the limelight. Plus his “inside” cohort, this huge black guy, is a cool foil. Brilliant persona. Just watched the first episode and I’m hooked… though, kind of annoyed it’s only 4 episodes. I’ve no idea if it wraps up cleanly by the end, or if there’s “room for more.” Apparently it aired on BBC One back in Sept. 2022, then Netflix picked it up in October.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022 Netflix) Part II

I finished the show this weekend. Although I didn’t love every episode I was happy with the show as a whole. I would be happy to see more entries in this series if they can keep Guillermo del Toro around for it. My ratings:

Episode 5, Pickman’s Model 8/10 Great overall. Crispin Glover is so good! Some loose ends. A bit predictable
Episode 6, Dreams in the Witch House 6/10 Cool concepts but the plot was more Holly Black (Spiderwick) than H.P. Lovecraft
Episode 7, The Viewing 7/10 Ended just as it was getting somewhere. So many questions…I want to see the feature film version
Episode 8, The Murmuring X Couldn’t finish, the main character is insufferable. I was ~42 minutes in when I bailed.

“Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch House” are both adaptions of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Although I am slowly working my way through his work I hadn’t read either yet. Based on what other people are saying, “Dreams in the Witch House” bears basically no resemblance to the original work. Considering that episodes 1 and 2 both felt more Lovecraftian than this supposed adaption, I’m not surprised.

Yellowstone is back.

I read the synopsis because I hadn’t heard of this show. How do they drag out this premise for multiple seasons?

Andor is so good! Its like it is getting better and better with every episode.
And I am not a Star Wars fan at all. They are obviously targeting a more mature audience here, than the rest of the SW content. The acting, writing, score, attention to detail, all top notch.

Yikes. Saw the first episode. Hated the primary character. Not just for what is his personally but the acting. Droll. Really picked up near the end. Sebastian Roché is a great actor and he played his role brilliantly. So sorry it was so brief. I didn’t like this episode. Certainly don’t like loose ends. So now there’s this demon loose. And the next episode is about something else.
Does this series really get better?

Good to hear that. Hope it’s better than Kenobi (great star power, terrible writing).

The main character in EP 1 is supposed to be hateful. The viewer is supposed to relish his death and be cheering for the demon to end him. Clearly he was a racist asshole but I don’t think it was demonstrated that he was irredeemable or incapable of change. So for my part, I felt nothing one way or the other when he died. I would have preferred if they had crafted a likeable character for me to root for. I mainly enjoyed the episode for the set eye-candy, the scenario, and the monster. I was perhaps generous giving it a 7 from a narrative perspective but I loved the window dressing in this one.

I think both short stories and horror stories tend to have some loose ends. Some of the best horror ends with the monster still at large, right? If you hated the loose ends in Episode 1, avoid Episode 7! That one felt like the opening act to a movie and it was more build-up than payoff.

It might be that this series is not your thing. This series is more about the monsters and the horrors than the characters. It is literally a cabinet of curiosities. That being said, each episode is different. I think episode 3 has the most complete story arc.

You could always bail on episodes that aren’t working for you. For me Episode 8 was just worthless. Every episode is an unrelated short story so hating one doesn’t mean you’ll hate the rest. Maybe you will love Ep 8 who knows :smiley:

Kinda like HHOH’s “Silent Scream”, with Peter Cushing.

Both jailer and jailee (and his wife) were quite unlikable, and mutually deserved their respective fates.

By the time it was over, you were kinda hoping both would end up in A Bad Way. (And got yer wish! :laughing: )

Hmm I haven’t seen that one. I really need to watch those classic Hammer films.

Have you seen The Babadook? The kid in that movie is soooo annoying. Good movie though.

Cabinet of Curiosities kinda reminds me of Night Gallery

Yeh, each ep is like 45min without commercials, so it’s an easy watch.

Got it, sounds familiar, but don’t recall specifically.

Was thinking that was the one with Stephen McHattie, but nope. Goggled him, was apparently thinking of “Pointypool”.

I wanted to like Pontypool. It was an interesting premise and was pretty well acted, I thought. But there were so many things that didn’t make sense or were inconsistent surrounding the main threat. Ultimately I was disappointed with it.