This guy is so unlikeable and so desperately wants to be a victim.
-The r@pe episode - despite the brief clip in that episode, his words were that he wished he could remember what happened. So he doesn't know if he was r@ped or not then?
-him being 'groomed' - he's not an innocent child, and he wasn't trapped in a relationship/marriage. And if the main offence did happen, it seemingly didn't in their initial activity. He made a point of writing in that he shouted 'stop' during the first activity. Despite the guy then saying he'd 'take it slower next time' he neither objected and straightened this out, nor stayed away to ensure it couldn't happen again. This looks more like a success hungry writer/comedian willingly and voluntarily repeatedly jumping back onto the casting couch in the hope of getting ahead of the scores of other struggling writers to get some success.
-the stalker - again not taking responsibility for his actions. There were many points where he could have stopped it progressing but he was seemingly too desparate to take advantage of her and use her to boost his own ego that he made sure she stuck around and paid him the attention and adulation he craved. ...until of course he decided he didn't want it anymore, but he did, and he didn't etc etc.
-then the pity show at the stand up routine. - that might be a great scene and final monologue in a TV show with an exit through the crowd. But there's no chance a comedy crowd would just sit in quiet silence and watch someone break down.
All just unrealistic. Which is fine if this was just a drama. But this is some dude trying to pass this off as a true story.
Just harking back to the 'success hungry' comment above - this element actually does ring true with the way the 'victim' of this 'true story' made sure he played the lead role.
I still wouldn't be surprised if this dude is actually just doing a Blair witch and found a good marketing angle for a story he mostly made up.
The whole thing - the TV series and the 'meta story' all just stink of manipulation of our perception.loading replies
Did you completely zone out during the final monologue? Or are you trying to be obtuse on purpose? Reactions like yours is EXACTLY why people wait years to report sexual abuse or grooming (yes, adults can be groomed), because they didn't "behave correctly". Maybe stop judging and realise his quote on quote "weird" behaviour is a trauma response. Might not seem logical to you, but it's natural to behave erratically when abused.
I have no idea what I just watched.
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@eliottrobson It's a musing on modern virality and the destruction being found by it can bring to even the most boring of people. There is humourous (but ultimately tragic) depictions of what this immediate fame imparts onto the one afflicted, from sexual encounters with people who'd never look at you twice, crazy home invaders who believe they must kill you and meetings with firms that only wish to capitalise on your current moment for themselves. Then there is the inevitable turn, where the freshly famous person is milkshake-ducked into the literal anti-christ and removed from society because of things taken out of context that don't reflect who they really are as a person. It's a very poignant critique in the world of overnight TikTok fame, told in a dream-like way that is fitting with how unreal all of this seems to the human experience.
Making it in B&W. Why? It isnt clever or cool, just annoying.
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@trevskie the book was written in 1955. The show is set in the 60s. And it is a thriller/film noir. Feels like a good choice to me. Plus the cinematography is amazing.
I'm probably the only one that didn't find Frasier to by funny at all. I've seen it in this era not when it came out so i found the comedy to be old school and not funny anymore.
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@romeroliveson yes yes i know all about that, with laugh track i mean it as a term i know about live audience and that both have the same story of editing the laughs or people not be able to act or play because they were laughing all the time. I just don't like these type of comedies any more. No Chuck Lorre of course, jeez that again was 10 years ago.
I fall in the trap of big bag theory, of mom of all that. but stopped wathching when i discover more comedies of my type. A very recent example and my type and what i'm looking is the Utopia (AU).
I still haven't figured out what excites people about this show. There is nothing clever about the plot, just an endless series of weakness and its results.
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@silrog Because it's a fictionalization of real events and the assholes that have ruined discourse and any positive action in the US and the world on the most important aspects of our lives. It's also morbidly gratifying to see the utter dysfunction of such loathsome people, especially when it's couched in a compelling dynastic drama full of black comedy. It's a late-stage Roman satire for the latest Rome.
Shout by Andreas Stenlund
VIP6I noticed that the note Juliette found at 18:50 reads "Remember where you were the last time you saw this? I found what I was looking for," whereas the note she handed to the sheriff at 27:45 reads "Remember where you last saw this?" (and then it's cut off, being torn in half). Production error? Feels kind of sloppy for a show that otherwise has amazing production design and a very keen attention to detail.
Overall, so far I like the show! I don't remember much from the books, but the looks and atmosphere seem to have been captured incredibly well here.
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@thefork Nice catch. Probably someone cut a smaller piece of paper that wouldn't fit the longer sentence and was lazy enough to cut another piece of paper :crazy_face:
Shout by Andreas Stenlund
VIP6Based on the lauded Swedish film "En man som heter Ove" (A Man Called Ove).
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@apttodo Excellent book, I highly recommend reading it.
whait who is becky butler???
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@mahaddiction Becky Butler is the subject of the podcast that made Cinda Canning popular. The gist is that throughout the series we've learned a little about Cinda and primarily that they came into prominence after blowing up the case, and solving the murder of Becky Butler in the podcast All is not Okay in Oklahoma. As a viewer you assume that All is Not Okay in Oklahoma is just the case that made her popular but the reveal in the ending of this episode is that Cinda has ALWAYS been pushy. Cinda had something to do with the painting and Cinda befriended the Detective Kreps to get the inside scoop and used that connection to get the case closed on the murder of Becky Butler. Also that Becky Butler was never murdered in the first place and she's secretly been Cinda's producer the whole time and Det. Kreps planted evidence that got whomever sent to jail for that crime.
whait who is becky butler???
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@mahaddiction Cinda Canning's ticket to fame...the subject of her podcast, "Everything's not alright in Oklahoma." And, whom Poppy referred to when she said, "Where the bodies are buried."
Shout by Jim222001
VIP6Weird how Selina’s boyfriend from season 1 totally disappeared so she can have a girlfriend now. There’s even no mention of him at all.
That’s my only complaint. Otherwise the show is still really good. I just hate when characters disappear from showsloading replies
@jim222001 They mentioned him in one of the previous episodes. Can't remember which one. Mabel (Selina) said something like they're just bonded by trauma, but they're both waiting on a text from the other saying they would better be just friends. Oliver replied with something about him and Judy Dench having been in the same situation years before.
Shout by Andreas Stenlund
VIP6Based on the lauded Swedish film "En man som heter Ove" (A Man Called Ove).
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Which in turn was based on the book "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman...
I thought it was ok, then it just got dumb as all the other scary movies do. Don't expect anything new or too scary. Police in the movie are depicted as dumb as any person can be ......lots of dumb people in this movie. Lots of nudity, I warned you....
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@usalittlebird Sometimes art imitates life. The same kinda thing happened to one of Dahmer’s victims…he was a 14 year old who was wandering around outside naked and bleeding from several spots after waking up from being drugged in Dahmer’s apartment and police were called by neighbors. Dahmer explained things away saying he was a friend that stayed with him and he got drunk on the weekends. The police officers helped Dahmer take him back to his apartment. They looked briefly inside his apartment and left. Dahmer later told police that he strangled the boy 30 minutes after they left and that he had another dead body in a separate room while they were there. A neighbor even followed up with police and FBI when she recognized a picture of the missing boy a few days later and police and FBI according to the neighbor never followed up on it. Dahmer killed 5 more people after that incident. He also told a story about police pulling him over after the first person he ever killed. From what I remember he said he was driving his parents station wagon with a body wrapped in plastic in the back during the traffic stop. Creepy stuff.
Review by TheDarkSide2024
What a collosal waste of time. If this is what passes as horror today I am so glad I grew out of that phase way back in the 80's.
It was literally like there were two sets of writers and directors, the first writer/director who wrote the beginning with the character Keith in it seemed to have something going and it certainly made it creepy and had me wondering what was going to happen but then once Keith was gone it was like they brought in a new writer and director who had no clue where to go with the plot or how to finish the movie.I was starting to wonder if half way through the movie I had somehow switched to another movie that seemed to have completely lost the plot.
The "Barbarian", I assume was the grotesque woman and not the man kidnapping women?, was creepy looking but hardly scary at all and wasn't used enough. I mean, really, they want us to be on the edge of our seats because she wants to keep them as her baby and feed them?? LOL
The guy kidnapping the women and who created the whole set up is some decrepit bedridden old man who can barely hold his pistol to kill himself and he was the only scary one :D
When the homeless guy says there is something even worse than the creepy lady I kept waiting for it to appear, maybe THAT is what the "barbarian" was going to be and would make it all worth the while to watch this movie.... nothing... crickets. Did they forget they mentioned it? or was it so uninspiring and forgettable I compeltely missed it?! :D :D :DThe sad thing is I usually read reviews first before watching a movie/show so I get at least some idea if it is worth it or whether it will interest me or not and when I saw consistant positive reviews (and 7 or higher ratings) I figured it was worth a shot. Really?? C'mon, someone could have warned me this was crap!!!
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@veganaf I’m guessing the “something much worse” down there, that he’s talking about, is the old guy who raped and murdered a bunch of people for decades and the offspring and inbreeding he eluded to.
Nice try, HBO. Fools me once...
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@mystech If you enjoyed the first seasons and the journey of GOT and not the end, I recommend you to watch it. It is full of the political aspect of the first seasons, has a nice pace and the story itself will be interesting.
This time we already know where we are heading, and the author is close to the project. Please, try to watch it with an open mind, otherwise, you might miss an acctually good show because of one you believe it was bad.
Another brilliant episode of tv. This season has just been knocking it out of the park imo. The wait was worth it.
Man, watching those scenes in 2025 were so hard. Honestly, as much as I want to see more of Gordon on this show, I don't think the crew made the right decision here. I hope that LaMarr was right about there being alternate timelines in this universe, because I really hope that future still exists out there in some form. I don't think he was being selfish at all.
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@morphinapg Loved your comment. I cried through most of this episode.
Minor nitpick: I think Gordon was being selfish--in the deepest and most profound sense of the term. He was deeply committed to his personal values and to what he knew his happiness and prosperity depended on. This is not a condemnation...I think it's the only philosophically serious way to use the word "selfish", and it's the hardest and most important thing in the world to get right.
I can appreciate it's not like every other spin off, focused on creatures and side missions but I still don't know what the hell is this show even about. Just a man on the run?
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@the_argentinian The start of the real rebellion, basically. At this point people are fighting the Empire, but very sporadically and unorganized. The rebellion that Ben and Luke joins doesn't exist right now. Andor, and the animated SW Rebels, are about how it starts.
I enjoyed this episode but I learnt something about TV shows these days.
It's ok to mess with a guy, tell him he's a bad dad for not being around and making him love a kid thinking it's his... Then tell him it's not his and it's all ok.
It's ok to force a guy to unwillingly have sex with you so he cheats on his girl.
All these things happened and it's ok because it was women who did it.
But, dare to misgender someone and you're evil
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@walgeon I don't think the show acts like any of it is okay. Lila in general just isn't a very good person and she never had the best morales, it's really not suprising of her to do something shitty like that. And the show makes us sympathize with Diego on this I think - at least I felt really bad for him when I saw his reaction and he stuttered.
Regarding what Allison did I will not disregard the history/problem media has with not taking sexual assault of men serious enough or straight up making it the butt of the joke but I don't think that's what happened here. At least not up until now. No one said what she did was okay, it was even portrayed as a bad thing that upset Luther. And now that she killed Harlan I'd say she's pretty much a bad guy at this point.
The people complaining about Vanya transitioning to Viktor should probably just stop watching and spare the rest of us. It doesn't take away from the story, the show's literal creator embraced it, why can't that be good enough?
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@bestivus It is good enough, but sadly people still choose to be hateful even though it's 2022. I personally thought the way they did it was pretty tasteful and didn't take away from the show at all - clearly there were conversations about this behind the scenes and they did it in a way that was positive for Elliot and the production team.
(I've been reporting bad comments for bigotry and blocking people, and would recommend anyone to do the same tbh.)
Shout by Reiko LJ
VIP6Oh damn that scene with Vanya and #1. Lay it out plain - don't fuck with her!
Will be interesting to see how she becomes Viktor but damn they could have given Elliot a better wig for the start of this. It's really good he was comfortable enough to play out the Vanya parts of the season though.loading replies
@reiko_lj Serious question: Did they not start filming season 3 until after Elliot transitioned? I was staring at 'her' the whole time looking for something off. But if that's a wig, they did a damn good job of making him look like Vanya from season 2, IMO.
Shout by Reiko LJ
VIP6Oh damn that scene with Vanya and #1. Lay it out plain - don't fuck with her!
Will be interesting to see how she becomes Viktor but damn they could have given Elliot a better wig for the start of this. It's really good he was comfortable enough to play out the Vanya parts of the season though.loading replies
@chibas I don't know about dates specific to Elliot's transition as that's his private life but I do know that his announcement of being trans was December 2020 and they started filming season 3 in February 2021. He'd already had his hair cut by then for sure coz the Time magazine cover and interview dropped in March.
Damn this show is so good!!! Watching this episode, I have this feeling that the next one is going to be a series finale =( I hope is not tough…we need a final 5th season!!!
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@anubis81 My apologies if I came off as too aggressive in my comment. When you said "long been confirmed" it really seemed like trolling to me - but that's still no excuse for assuming that and making a nasty comment on my part, so my bad.
Damn this show is so good!!! Watching this episode, I have this feeling that the next one is going to be a series finale =( I hope is not tough…we need a final 5th season!!!
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@anubis81 I assume you're either misinformed, or trying to troll people, but this has never been confirmed as the final season. The creators have mentioned plans to make a fifth season - it's not formally confirmed yet, so we'll see, but this wasn't mentioned/marketed as the final season at all.
Review by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[9.0/10[ An incredibly tense hour of television. What's so impressive is that Better Call Saul accomplished this despite us knowing that, of course, Jimmy and Gus both survive. It comes down to such fantastic performances from everyone involved. You immediately buy how shaken and terrified Jimmy and Kim are, and how frightened even the normally steady Gus is at the point of Lalo's gun. Vince Gilligan's direction is outstanding, with a Hitchcockian flair for light and shadow that sets the foreboding mood of all these set pieces. And the score does the rest, helping the audience to feel the emotion of these scenes even if we rationally know the fates of several of those at the most risk.
My only mild beef is that Gus' survival feels like a bit of a cheat. It's still not clear to me why he did the gun in the superlab, and the dialogue kind of shrugs at the idea. Even in the dark, it seems like Lalo would have done better against Fring than he did. But details like Fring seeming to make one last desperate ploy to survive, still suffering wounds despite his body armor, and admitting he was over his skiis with this whole thing in the end helps make it passable. On a moment-to-moment basis, the scenes absolutely work, which covers for a lot.
What struck me the most is that closing image -- Howard and Lalo, two very different men, sharing the same fate and the same grave. It's a sign that the barrier between Jimmy's legal life and Saul's criminal life has been firmly shattered. Both lives, both worlds, are bound up in these deaths now, with the psychic weight hanging over Jimmy and Kim for the last five episodes. This never happened, but they, and Mike, will all still have to live with it. I can't wait to see how.
EDIT: If you'd like to read my usual, longer review of the episode, you can find it here --
https://thespool.net/reviews/tv-recap-better-call-saul-season-6-episode-8/loading replies
@andrewbloom Fring had planted the gun there for the same reason why he took his men and left the safe house in this episode: He knew that Lalo wanted the laundry, perhaps even more than he wanted him dead. And I thought that the gunfight was believable because Fring was a moving target in the dark, whereas Lalo was stationary and in a space that Fring was familiar with, to the extent that he had even measured steps from the open area to where the gun was hidden.
how could a film that bases an entire storyline around a Ratatouille joke not be absolutely fantastic?
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@samtasia I think you mean Racacoonie?
The cynical side of me wants to call this Everything, everywhere all at once for consoomers.
The optimistic side of me sees Kevin Feige finally pushing the boundaries of his own franchise.
I guess it’s a little bit of both in the end.Undoubtedly, the best thing the movie has going for it is the Sam Raiminess of it all. His fingerprints are all over it; you’re getting the weird camera angles, camp, his sense of horror, etc. It definitely has more style than some other Marvel movies, though there's also still some of the usual blandness. I'll give it to Marvel for putting in a scene where a talking corpse gives a heartfelt, sentimental speech. There's more of a psychedelic feel to it than the first film, but every time it tends to get really interesting it feels like Raimi's being reigned it to adhere to Marvel's demands. Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Cumberbatch are giving some of their best performances as these characters to date, and the music’s really well done. But ultimately the film’s Achilles heel is its own script, which is complete junk. The story is thin, messy, nonsensical, and at times flat out embarrassing. The set-up in the first act is very rushed, while the second and third act feel like they’re written by a Reddit fanpage (you just know for a fact that Marvel only went in this direction because of the 2 Batmen that have been announced for The Flash). It’s Marvel at its most ‘producty’, and it’s going to trick a lot of people into thinking the film is better than it is. Regardless, I hope Patrick Stewart got a big paycheck for ruining his own perfect send-off in Logan at the very least. A lot of the story beats don’t make sense either, with most of the characters arcs feeling rushed and nonsensical, even despite the copious amounts of exposition that are desperately trying to tie everything together. The choices made with Wanda in the third act are baffling, and I still don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be by the end of the film. Her motivation is problematic in general, and I don’t like the use of the [insert plot device] corrupts the mind of the villain trope, which is becoming very overused in the MCU (Ant-Man, Winter Soldier) and just a lazy way of forcing a conflict where the villain stays redeemable. The new character (America Chavez) is a boring, underdeveloped plot device, while Strange himself doesn't even have a real arc. It's the kind of film where a lot happens, but very little leaves an actual impression. I’m not sure what happened, but I get the impression that a significant portion of this film was reworked and rewritten during post production. The action didn’t impress me whatsoever, but that’s been a case with these films for a while now (some of the stuff in Shang-Chi excluded). Some of the visuals look tacky and unfinished, the action’s a bunch of people shooting flashing lights at each other, shots don’t linger enough, people move like animated characters, it’s all the usual bs (and this is coming from someone who thinks the action and effects in the first one are still underappreciated to this day). Inbetween the first film and the sequel, Marvel has become a machine that’s now collapsing under its own pressure. If Disney would allow it, they really should go back to making 2-3 properties a year. The consistent mediocrity of their current output is killing their own longevity.
4/10
Oh, and your kids will be fine watching this. I’ve seen some uproar about the ‘horror’ and violence of the film, and it’s honestly not that shocking. There’s way more creepy stuff in some of the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones films (or just your average 80’s kids film in general).
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@medous Look, they’re banking on you as a viewer recognizing that character from the X-Men series, regardless of whether he’s technically a variant. Even though Marvel’s probably going with your route in order to not contradict the X-Men continuity, it’s pretty clear what their intentions are. You’re meant to think of him as that character, even though they can’t say that because it wouldn’t make sense. Hence, I found the way that it was handled extremely cheap.
Shout by Jordy
VIP8It’s hard to rate, because there are a lot of entertaining scenes in it, but the movie at its core doesn’t really work.
I can’t shed this feeling that Edgar Wright had a visual cue in his head of a girl experiencing visions of the 1960’s first, and tried to build a movie around that second.
The characters, drama, camerawork, music selection and social commentary are all very good, but the whole set up is kinda nonsense once you know the answers to the mystery.
I kept waiting for the twist that’d explain why our protagonist has these accurate visions of things that happened 50 years earlier , but it’s never answered, despite it being the crux of the whole film.
Also, showing CGI ghosts in a horror movie using well lit close ups is never the best idea, it kinda killed a lot of the horror and suspense.
I kinda liked that I thought that I was ahead of the film at one point, only to find out that it was a big misdirect to make you think you were ahead.5.5/10
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@xaliber I get why they’re in there, and what they do for the story. I’d let it pass if it was just that, a vision or an imagined thing. But it’s not, because as we find out, what she’s seeing is actually all true, so it’s not just a normal vision. At that point I feel like the film has to explain itself, especially given that it becomes such a major plot point in the third act.
Why are episodes 7 and 8 missing?
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@filmguy5 It's because trakt uses TMDB for their database and the mods over there for this show are obstinate in the view that because Disney+ didn't put them with the other episodes and released them as standalones, that they're not part of the series. Even though though they have the same title, are clearly part of the same series, and every other tv/movie database considers them that way. It's stupid and pedantic but unfortunately we don't have much control over it.
As is expected from Guillermo del Toro, this is an interesting one. The universal positive here is the acting. Bradley Cooper and Rooney Mara are both excellent, as is the entire ensemble, with Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, and David Strathairn being the standouts. Cate Blanchett was perhaps the only one who I was less on board with, but I think that has more to do with the writing than with her performance.
As far as the story goes, this film is divided into two very distinct segments: (1) Stan's life with the carnival; and (2) Stan's life with Molly in the city. For me this structure resulted in what felt like a pacing issue. After moving very quickly through the first segment, with numerous time jumps keeping things progressing, things seemed to slow down in the second segment. This might have to do with the fact that the story narrows significantly. The opening segment was more slice of life; establishing the setting, the characters, and their relationships. Character driven rather than plot driven. The second segment flips this around and becomes very plot focused. I can't help but compare the two segments and unfortunately the second doesn't quite deliver on the promise of the first. Character reversals and reveals felt rushed or unearned (e.g. Cate Blanchett's final scene in particular felt very contrived) and the main conflict itself felt somewhat half baked. At the heart of the story is also the phony mentalism, which started to wear thin for me, as it doesn't exactly make for exciting cinematic material and starts to strain my suspension of disbelief. Luckily, even some of these questionable elements are largely saved by the fact that everything else about the film is so damn good, including not only the aforementioned acting, but also the stellar costumes, set design, directing, dialogue, and pretty much everything else that goes into filmmaking. And beyond that, the movie is also able to steer itself into an appropriately nightmarish ending, tying back to all of the great groundwork from the opening section. I found it quite appropriate that Willem Dafoe's tremendous monologue about recruiting geeks would be the critical building block of the final scene. Plus Tim Blake Nelson does an excellent job in his brief cameo executing the devilish plan Dafoe outlined.
As an aside, soon after finishing this film I learned that it was a remake of an apparently well reviewed 1947 film, which was in turn based on a 1946 novel. While I'm not normally one to watch two versions of the same story back to back, in this case I'm tempted to watch the original, as I'd be interested to see how this story was told back when it was more contemporary (the story takes place from the 1930s-1940s). The period piece elements of this film are so intentional and well realized that I can't help but wonder if the original would feel a bit bland in comparison, as the setting/era might be less of a focus.
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The original can be found on YouTube. It's not nearly as good. My guess would be that they had to confine themselves to what was acceptable to put on screen at the time. It's good, just not great as so many people say.
Shout by silent_hunter
It seemed exaggerated to me: who in their right mind takes a little girl to a prison with serial killers? wasn't it better to take her to a normal office?
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@silent_hunter I mean, she's going through a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if she made that up.
