• What Did You Watch? 2026-03-07 (Saturday)

    From Ubiquitous@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, March 08, 2026 04:30:41
    While continuing to battle interspersant Internet service, I watched:

    TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE:
    "Seasons of Belief". On Christmas Eve, a father ends his two children's boredom by holding them spellbound with a scary story about a fearsome
    beast known as the Grither.

    Well, that's one way to tell your kids Santa ins't real!

    MAUDE:
    "Walter's Holiday". Walter makes up a holiday called "National I Love
    You Day," hoping to have a romantic day alone with Maude. However,
    Vivian Cavender, recently divorced, comes over crying and Maude has to
    tend to her friend. With Walter's plans ruined, he takes out his
    frustrations at the gym with Arthur.

    MAUDE:
    "Maude's Facelift". Recently divorced, Maude's friend Vivian decides to
    get a facelift. Carol and Walter love the "new Vivian" but Maude has
    nothing but contempt for Vivian's decision. Vivian rightly deems Maude jealous; Maude then makes an appointment to get the procedure done,
    keeping it secret from Walter.

    What did you watch?


    --
    Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
    love this country.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The True Melissa@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, March 08, 2026 10:20:39
    Verily, in article <UBI20260307@dont-email.me>, did weberm@polaris.net
    deliver unto us this message:

    While continuing to battle interspersant Internet service, I watched:

    TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE:
    "Seasons of Belief". On Christmas Eve, a father ends his two children's boredom by holding them spellbound with a scary story about a fearsome
    beast known as the Grither.

    Well, that's one way to tell your kids Santa ins't real!

    Hey, I remember this one! It was a lot of fun. I still find myself
    singing it sometimes: "I am the Grinther; you cannot escape me..." No
    monsters so far.

    This is a multi-day catchup.

    I watched "They Made BETTER Star Trek for FREE (So CBS Shut Them
    Down)," from TrekVault.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n6EWsVGroU

    It examines fan-made Star Trek, some of which was high-effort and quite impressive, and some of which even attracted the TOS cast. This is how fan-made content ought to have gone: ideas, dedication, and love all
    poured into a project, with results that impress professionals.
    Unfortunately, we lowered the entry bar so that anyone can get in, and
    so instead we're getting a flood of low-effort, low-idea garbage.

    I went on to watch a couple of other videos from this channel. It went
    into some stuff I'd never heard before. I think it idolizes early Trek a
    bit, but I also understand why recent Trek can produce that effect.

    I also watched "The Seeds of Doom," a classic Doctor Who episode, for a
    watch party over in rec.arts.drwho. It's a very solid episode from a
    good era. People say it reminds them of Day of the Triffids, "Who Goes
    There?" and even Jurassic Park. I just like it because it's a good story
    told well.

    What did everyone else watch?

    --
    The True Melissa - Canal Winchester - Ohio
    United States of America - North America - Earth
    Solar System - Milky Way - Local Group
    Virgo Cluster - Laniakea Supercluster - Cosmos

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Arthur Lipscomb@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, March 08, 2026 15:05:47
    On 3/8/2026 7:20 AM, The True Melissa wrote:
    snip
    This is a multi-day catchup.


    Yes.


    What did everyone else watch?



    I don't feel like going over everything I watched. But here are some of
    the highlights. Over the past week I watched:


    Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (4K disc) 1994 movie directed by and
    starring Kenneth Branagh as Dr. Frankenstein, and Robert De Niro as the
    Sharp Featured Man. This was mostly background noise with a pretty good commentary track.


    The Bride (blu-ray) 1985 movie starring Sting as Dr. Frankenstein,
    Clancy Brown as the monster, and Jennifer Beals as the Bride. David
    Rappaport ("Time Bandits") also stars as the monster's only friend, and traveling companion. This is one of those movies I used to watch all
    the time on TV when I was a child. This was background noise with a director's commentary.


    The Bride! (theatrical) New Frankenstein movie written and directed by
    Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Christian Bale as Frankenstein's monster
    (who is now living in the 1930s), and Jessie Buckley as both The Bride
    and Mary Shelley's ghost. Where to begin? There were two things on my
    mind going into this, first I was pretty sure this was a musical, but
    they were intentionally trying to hide that fact in the advertising.
    And second, I read a blurb where someone compared this movie to "Joker:
    Folie … Deux." But now that I've watched the movie, I think the bigger question is not is this movie a musical, it's is this movie supposed to
    be a comedy. Because I think maybe it is supposed to be a comedy,
    except it's not funny. In "Young Frankenstein" when the characters
    would mispronounce the name "Frankensteene" then correct the
    pronunciation, you got it was a joke. In this movie when they do it,
    you think, are they referencing "Young Frankenstein?" In "Young
    Frankenstein" when the monster sings "Puttin on the Ritz" you get it's a
    joke. In this when they do an elaborate "Puttin on the Ritz" sequence,
    you realize they *are* referencing "Young Frankenstein," except it's not funny. It's not funny at all. Then it goes from these not funny
    moments, to hard core "R" rated gore and violence. Anyway, this movie
    is for some people, but it wasn't for me. I think I might have liked it
    a little bit more while I was watching, mostly because I was in a state
    of shock. But now that I've had time to think about it, I like it less
    and less the more I think about it.


    I, Frankenstein (3D disc) 2014 movie from the makers of "Underworld"
    starring Aaron Eckhart as Frankenstein's monster. Eckhart reluctant
    teams up with gargoyles (that are basically angels) to battle against
    demons that are seeking the power to reanimate the dead so they can put demonic souls in the reanimated bodies. And as it turns out Dr.
    Frankenstein wrote a journal that explains how to reanimate the dead.
    It's watchable as long as you turn your brain all the way off.


    Frankenstein Unbound (DVD) 1990 sci-fi movie directed by Roger Corman
    and starring John Hurt as a scientist who accidentally gets sent back in
    time where he meets Dr. Frankenstein Raul Julia). Dr. Frankenstein
    forces Hurt's character to help him create a bride for his monster. I
    never knew this, because I only just recently watched "Bride of
    Frankenstein" for the first time the other week, but this movie is
    basically a retelling of "Bride of Frankenstein." All the years I've
    been watching this movie, and it never crossed my mind this was a remake
    of "Bride of Frankenstein" because I had never seen "Bride of
    Frankenstein" and had no way to compare it.


    The Man Who Fell To Earth (4K disc) 1976 movie starring David Bowie as a Starman who comes to Earth to secretly harvest Earth's water for his
    drought stricken planet. It's an interesting but dated flick. The
    director was definitely going for that 70s psychedelic arthouse vibe.


    Starman (4K disc) 1984 movie directed by John Carpenter and starring
    Jeff Bridges as an alien man who falls to Earth after his rocket ship is
    shout down by the military. He takes the form of Karen Allen's deceased husband and kidnaps her, so she'll drive him to his alien rendezvous
    location. Of course, along the way they fall in love. Kidnapped women falling in love with their kidnapper was the plot of every other movie
    in the 70s/80s. I have been looking forward to revisiting this for a
    while now. The movie holds up very well. And it has probably my
    favorite John Carpenter score. And as an added bonus the 4K includes as
    an extra the entire Starman TV series on a separate blu-ray disc. I
    haven't watched the series since it originally aired in the 80s. But I
    recall really liking it at the time. So, I will probably try to watch
    it. I'll start with the pilot and see if I get hooked and want to binge
    it or bored and turn it off.


    Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount+) "300th Night" - Penultimate
    episode which has Starfleet having to once again deal with Braka who has somehow managed to mine the space around the federation. Meanwhile
    Caleb set off to find his mother, and finds himself joined by a few
    other cadets. This was generally an OK episode, but I took serious
    issue with the claim they mined federation space to the point it
    couldn't be entered or exited. Federation space is vast and it's in 3 dimensions. How in the universe do you mine 3 dimensional space to that level? I know it's not the first time Star Trek has pulled the they
    mined space nonsense, but that's usually around a relatively small fixed location. But this made no sense to me.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From BTR1701@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, March 08, 2026 23:03:47
    On Mar 8, 2026 at 1:30:41 AM PST, "Ubiquitous" <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:

    What did you watch?

    I watched WAR MACHINE on the Netflix. Starring Reacher (Alan Ritchson), Esai Morales, and Dennis Quaid.

    It's basically PREDATOR if the thing stalking the soldiers was an alien war robot instead of a creature. It was fun if not overly inventive, and if you like gore, this is for you.



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Ian J. Ball@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, March 08, 2026 19:36:56
    On 3/8/26 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

    What did you watch?

    GH - Thur's ep. When Josslyn discovers Valentin hiding out at Carly's,
    Carly and Josslyn finally have it out about Josslyn being a WSB agent
    for almost a year and lying about it to everyone, including her mother.
    I enjoyed this, as this is back to the Josslyn that I like - the one
    that hates Sonny and thinks her horrible mom is a dope (and worse) for
    being a pro-Sonny bot. The last time I really liked Josslyn was when she
    was a bratty teenager who hated everything about Sonny and saw through
    Carly's lies and rationalizations about the whole relationship. This was
    a return to *that* Josslyn. Honestly, I hope Joss does turn her mom in
    as a traitor!! I hate Carly!! [evil smile]



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)