Modern Vespa

Netflix - Bad Blood - the story of Vic Rizzuto and his Montréal crime family.

Band of Brothers. Surprised it took me this long to get to it. Just finished Billions and waiting for the next season.

The latest I'm watching is Into the Badlands. Just started last week and binged it all the way up to season 3.5 and waiting for probably February when it comes back with the second half. Awesome show and it just gets better and better.

I really enjoyed that movie. If you have an interest in Soviet life as it was, and not as we were told it was, there's a version of 7 up that was done in the USSR, and the country separated before they got to 14 up. I think they are on 35 now. What's interesting to see is now many people miss the good old days, even though they were teenagers when it changed. Also, there have been some great documentaries coming out of Russia that were shot in WW2. One of them is Moscow Strikes Back, and it was shot about six months after they turned the Germans back in 1942. The film is fairly straightforward, and you really get a sense from watching it, and knowing what happened later of course, that you are there witnessing the turning point in the war. The Soviet Army had some incredible cinematographers, and they put theirs to work just like we did ours. So a lot of the footage is breathtaking. I would like to see it in color, like some of the new ww1 and ww2 collections coming out now.

There have been over the years some VG non-fiction books, first hand accounts from people who were in Soviet gulags. Also a movie or two.
How people think in any country with a media that's suppressed (yes, even now) is gonna be nuanced toward what hey get fed. They most all like their pres for life too...go figure on that one?

Thanks for the tips. Other than being alive for a long time, much of what I know about the Russia and the Soviet Union came from a book The Russian Century, printed right after the downfall of the Soviet Union when information and photographic archives became more available. Fascinating read and awesome photography.

It's amazing what the Russian people lived through before Communism, more so during, and well, even now. Despite this (perhaps in part due to it), some amazing accomplishments as a people.

netflix

- the champions...about the rehab of that sh!thead michael vick's fighting dogs
- making a murderer 2
- mindhunter
- stranger things
- shooter
- punisher
- godless
- blackfish
- the haunting of hill house

love these threads...always find good new shows to start watching

Check out Kino Pravda. It was 23 newsreel shows shot in the early 20s. 22 of them were preserved in Austria and they are available online with English subtitles and a very weird soundtrack that reminds me of the experiments where they gave spiders LSD and took photos of their webs. One of them (20 or 21, IIRC) was done on the first anniversary of Lenin's death, and it's an amazing piece of history. Most of the other ones show different day to day and important events, like a streetcar wreck or the first car a factory made, or people vacationing in Sochi. In some of the early ones they asked for people to send story ideas.

On a much less historical note, I've started watching Fresh Eggs, which answers the question, "what if Luis Bunuel got a job making TV shows in New Zealand?" It's dark and funny and surreal (of course). Very little happens that you see coming. It would be great if they would spend a little more money on audio in post production. There's this very annoying tone whenever the actors are talking, and no matter how much you adjust the sound, you can't get rid of it...

Currently bingeing Parks & Recreation

After that you might try The Good Place -- same creator/writer etc.

After a dark winter of heavy bingeing, we've recently run dry. But over the past few months:

Russian Doll (crass, dark, cynical, funny, weird...like a mashup of The Good Place and Girls )

The Kominsky Method. Excellent.

Sex Education. Utterly, absolutely brilliant. And very, very explicit! Super, super smart tho.

Maniac. Wow. What I really liked was how things take a turn for the weird every five minutes. So, so tweaky. Completely deadpan but funny as hell. And then poignant as well.

...then also mixing in shots of the Quebecois Le Beaux Malaise and Mexican Club de Cuervos.

Been trying to dip into second or third etc. seasons of past shows we liked but so many just seem to run dry after one good run. Loved season 1 of GLOW, couldn't make it all the way thru the second episode of the new second season....

So, need something new. After so much dark "drama" we may just default back to starting The Office all over again...I need something to respark my love of, or at least toleration for, humanity during this endless, bleak winter.

...did I mention it's snowing? Again?

already done it, very good

I'm about 2 seasons through Brooklyn 99 as well, which i'm enjoying 8)

Our 16 y.o. has dragged us through the entire Parks and Rec. Have to admit it's pretty entertaining, though parts of me just want to fire the whole crew.... especially after a season or two.

She's gotten my wife through part of The Good Place, but I just don't have the time for that much viewing....

Yeah, we thought we had winter whipped, then we came home to cold and snow. I've been watching True Detective, s3. it's characters are all very well drawn. Hopefully March Madness will be a good run for the Cats, we love watching the tourney every year.

Columbo.
I know, I've seen every one but if I happen to have the time I just can't resist.

I have been hooked on this program on Thursday and Friday nights.

30 cameramen follow Police Officers live in 7 different police departments around the country. Real time stuff. I have always been a strong advocate of the police. These officers are responding to domestic disturbances, traffic
accidents, serving arrest warrants. shootings.

My reaction - tough job. Also, there are a bunch of intoxicated drunk folks out
and about. This live stuff shows police procedures - many designed to keep
the officer alive.

Some of the same stuff, over and over, but keeps me interested as I sip a
brandy and puff on a great cigar in the evening. If I get bored, I flip between
CNN and FOX news.

Bob Copeland
Minnesota

Nothing like enforced isolation to burn through all the things you've planned to watch, so I thought I'd breathe new life into this old thread.

So far, I've binged watched a few series that are a bit off the beaten path.
If you're running out of things to watch, here are some of the more interesting:

Friday Night Dinner, UK, I just went through the first two seasons, and it is laugh out loud funny. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844923

Arde Madrid, Spain, Franco, Juan Peron, and Ava Gardner, what could be better? Great music, a Vespa or two. Highly stylized and very funny. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7684260

Australian Survivor, All Stars, Just like American Survivor, but longer and a whole lot more physical. Three episodes a week, until the final episode. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6103712

Pequenas Coincidencias, Little Coincidences, Spain, Romantic Comedy. Two seasons. Hard to predict, very well crafted episodes. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8597326/

The Windsors, UK, Snarky look at the British Royal family. The Wedding Special is my favorite episode to date. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5692740

Guilty pleasure but we're watching RuPaul's Drag Race and yes I am man enough to admit it. It's actually our late night show before we head off to bed and well it's just fun. But wow man RuPaul is something else and if you haven't seen the SNL episode I highly recommend it as well.

Finsished The Outsider and slogging through Piacard though that is a definite meh. The New Pope is fun as well. We were definitely bummed when we caught up with Peaky. Just have to wait for the next season that is supposed to be filming now. Sure that has been put on hold though. Our accounting division has some film and production clients right now and very very little is being shot at the moment.

At the moment, I'm watching Money Heist on Netflix. It's a Spanish-language series, 4 seasons in length. I watched the first couple episodes with English dubbed, but I much prefer listening to the original audio track in Spanish and then use English subtitles.

We Just watched Never Surrender on Amazon Prime. It's about the making of the movie Galaxy Quest. It's a lovely documentary.

Immediately after, of course, we had to watch Galaxy Quest for the umpteenth time. It's still good.

We like the first season of Money Heist (with subtitles for sure) but don't know if we'll go for the other seasons.

For Spanish language stuff the Mexican Unstoppable is actually surprisingly good. Kind of a feminist thriller.

The Mexican Club de Cuervos is a hoot. We actually got thru all the seasons over a couple years.

Outside of the Spanish lessons Tiger King!

If it were fiction it would be utterly absurd and I wouldn't buy a minute of it -- but it ain't no fiction!

Ozark
Sex Education
Succession
Ken Burns Country Music
Dirty Money
Better Things
Shitts Creek
Better Call Saul
Ride with Norman Reedus
Vintage Voltage

w.

Now can SOMEBODY answer my starting shite?

Binged Star Trek: Discovery and Picard. CBS All Access is giving 30 days free with a sign up.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Zombieland 2 are in the Tivo waiting for me.

The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, and Carnival Row on Amazon Prime.

If you like historical cop shows, Foyle's War and George Gently are very good on Acorn. Several seasons of each to keep you going.

Shetland is pretty good.

The pet shop boys YouTube video clip:

Miracle

Watching Carnival Row with Mrs Z (once our schedules re-align) and Picard on my own.

Otherwise most nights I have Star Wars The Clone Wars going in the background.

I've tried to get in to the Clone Wars a number of times and keep moving on to something else. Maybe I'll give it another shot. I've been watching way too many press briefings in YouTube lately.

I should be all over that stuff for trying to improve my Spanish. Unfortunately, I'm off first to Michael's inspirations.....

We are allllmost on the same page: Did you watch Wanderlust? Sort of a mature version of Sex Education and equally brilliant.

Cool! We're definitely looking for more Spanish language stuff so that I can improve my...reading of subtitles, I guess. Gawd I'm too old to learn a new language, it appears.

Any NASCAR fans? The NASCAR I-Races on FOX Sports Network have been entertaining.

If you've watched Season 1 of Money Heist, you might as well watch Season 2 - at least see that storyline through to its end. I just finished it last night. It looks like numbers 3 & 4 take on a new angle (same characters, etc., but the initial heist aspect is concluded).

If that doesn't strike your fancy, I *highly* recommend Season 1 of "Narcos" on Netflix. Narcos tells the tale of Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel out of Columbia in the 1980s. The acting is terrific, the Spanish language absolutely addictive (Columbian Spanish is supposedly the most neutral 'accent' of all varieties) to listen to, and the music/soundtrack is tops!

We'll probably follow both those leads, thanks.

And now I'm especially curious about the Columbian Spanish -- despite having recently spent much more time in Spain vs. S. of the border, I still find I can follow the Mexican shows much, much more easily than the Spain ones. We've found that true in terms of travel, too...feckin' Spaniards sound like they're coughing up marbles from the backs of their throats!

Almost as bad as those damn mumbling Brits destroying good old fashioned English!


Also, fwiw, apparently Columbia is becoming the hip new vacation country, which I find very cool given the tragic narco past.

Yeah, I once learned (can't remember exactly where) that when production companies are looking for voice-over actors to do Spanish translations, at least in N. America - probably not the case in the EU - that they specifically seek out Columbians.

In the same way that broadcast radio DJs are told to have a "Colorado accent," (i.e., there is no such thing - it's just plain, American English without a drawl, accent, or otherwise), Columbian Spanish is apparently the equivalent.

Can't help but think that Larry David would go down pretty good on here, but I think he'd probably get ejected & banned quite a lot as well!

Have just moved from S08 to S09, gone are the Prius and Blackberry Bold, and in are the BMW i3 and iPhone, I'm not very happy with these 'upgrades'

We were gonna start watching season 2-slash-3* of Babylon Berlin but realized we'd forgotten in the earlier season(s) and so started it all over again.

Mein gott: utter brilliance!

(*that is to say, the most newly released season. Germany aired the first two seasons over two years but Netlix combined the first two into a single season.)

Just watched Lost in Translation, again.
It's quite a movie, nothing much happens and yet it is full of details and acting.

This is a good thread - I hadn't even noticed there is Zombieland 2.
Number one is one of my favourites....but not sure if the same works another time.

I have a poor ability to concentrate into any series... no matter how good, I tend to drop out at some point.

I've done quite well with 'This is Us', mainly because I've admired the work of the script team: they pull amazingly the stunt of almost balancing the lines between clever and way too much from the cliche box....like, who would have discussions like that in the real world Reminds me a bit of the dialogues from the good old Sopranos, although in different genre.

Netflix/ check out Spencer Confidential , I'll give it 3.4-4 stars in todays movie world.

We are anxiously waiting for our next "Harry Bosch fix"
and Idris Elba in Luther

Perdon, pero eso no es cierto.

Colombian accent varies depending on the location. From Bogota, the accent (antioqueno) is very distinct to the one from Barranquilla or Cartagena.
The most neutral Spanish accent from the Americas comes from Lima. Anywhere else, it has either too much accent, or too much singing. BTW, I'm not peruvian, but spanish is my native tongue.
Also, the spanish accent from Madrid is the cleanest, with the andaluz the worst.

Now, back to La Casa de Papel. There are very distinct accents on the actors, depending on the area they're supposed to be from. Some are andaluz, the Profesor sounds from Madrid, and Palermo is argentinian (although with a clean accent, compared to others spoken in Argentina)

As for the Narcos, they've taken care to have actors with colombian accent, or at least, they try

Another Netflix series to watch, along the line of Narcos, is Cocaine Coast, about the drug trafficking through Galicia.

Very interesting! Thanks for the lesson... I'm a language nerd (amateur at best), but I love learning the little intricacies about various languages that make them unique, if you know what to listen for.

While we're on this topic, I have a question for you. I bet you're the perfect one to answer this, based on what I learned above. Here goes...

Obviously, in either Narcos or Money Heist, there's a good deal of swearing (aka, curse words, bad language, etc). I watched Narcos first - all three seasons - and then Narcos: Mexico. Now I'm watching Money Heist. In Narcos, the Pablo Escobar character uses "hijo de puta" for "son of a bitch," and "pínche" for "f'ing". Correct?

"Pínche gringos," would essentially translate to "F'ing gringos." In Money Heist, they still use hijo de puta in the same manner as in Narcos, but I've noticed a pattern where the word "puta" (bitch, in English) is placed in a sentence at the point where the word "f'ing" would be.

Example: "Cierra tu púta boca!"

Is this just a difference between S. American Spanish and European Spanish? Or am I missing something else completely?

The swearing/slang varies by country. In Colombia, the use of hijo de puta is common, but the "pinche" is Mexican, particularly if you're "chilango" (i.e from "el DF"). You've got the translation correct Denver uses the form very well
But the word "puta" is used in that expression universally through out spanish speaking countries, with in some countries used more than others.

I would disagree. Colombian Spanish is as close as you can come to a Canadian speaking English. It's like talking to newscasters.
What pisses me off is having to use subtitles to follow shows from Spain. It's an entirely different vocabulary.
Another good show, if you like Cop shows, is Caronte. It's also from Espana, but I don't think Netflix or Amazon picked it up. Other police series that might be interesting once you've bingewatched everything on your list, but won't help you learn Spanish, are Roba, from Finland, the Wallander series, from Sweden and also remade in English by the BBC, The Jesse Stone series from the US, and il commissario Montalbano, from Italy. There is a series about a French detective, but it stars Mr. Bean, so I question it's authenticity. I think he plays Magritte, but I may the character's name confused with that of the painter of things that aren't pipes.
And there is a great show on called The Plot Against America, that asks what would have happened if Lindberg was elected President in 1940. The answer is, Nothing Good.