Hidden Gems of HBO Max

Its the least hidden gem on HBO but Im enjoying my 3rd re-watch of The Wire (after watching and quite enjoying We Own This City, which feels like a must-watch for anyone in the US)

polypusher wrote:

Its the least hidden gem on HBO but Im enjoying my 3rd re-watch of The Wire (after watching and quite enjoying We Own This City, which feels like a must-watch for anyone in the US)

For some reason I made it through Season 4 of The Wire, but bailed in Season 5. After also watching We Own This City it has made me want to do a rewatch of The Wire. It is some fantastic storytelling, and I am sure I missed a ton on my first go-round.

Now is a great time to do so, it premiered 20 years ago last month. I rewatch it annually.

Sometimes I want to drop a grenade into someone's lap. Wait was that The Wire or The Shield. And why is a lady getting into a bag in front of my camera, Jesus Christ. Now she is talking to the bag. This is going to be thing.

Did someone just say, The Shield?

Barry Season 3 Finale

Spoiler:

That was awesome. Brutal storytelling, I just feel amazed that it went for it. I love that the climax is Gene’s acting fooling Barry. I love that Barry is going to jail, having been well and truly caught. It completely sticks the landing, something I was so worried it wouldn’t.

I have heard that it has been renewed for a fourth season but I can’t think of anything they could do that wouldn’t screw things up.

So after several recommendations, we gave the first two episodes of Hacks a try tonight. Omg that sh*t is funny.

Agreed. We're only 2 episodes away from finishing season 2 of Hacks, and I love that show.

Finally got around to watching Doom Patrol. Season 1 was amazing. Flex Mentallo has to be my favorite character.

Mario_Alba wrote:

Agreed. We're only 2 episodes away from finishing season 2 of Hacks, and I love that show.

Yeah we binged it and that's exactly where we are, gonna finish it tonight.

OG_slinger wrote:

Tokyo Vice got renewed.

Started watching this since it was posted here. Enjoyable, but I can't imagine how much their cigarettes' budget was for this show.

Veloxi wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:

Agreed. We're only 2 episodes away from finishing season 2 of Hacks, and I love that show.

Yeah we binged it and that's exactly where we are, gonna finish it tonight.

Finished it! We loved it from beginning to end. I wonder if there will be a third season...

We also finished it and it WAS renewed for a third season.

Excellent news!

I also finished The Time Traveler's Wife and absolutely adored it. I loved the book back in the day as well.

Just started Hacks based on the recommendations here. Loving it so far. For some reason I thought it was going to be about prison guards, like an Oz spinoff Definitely not that!

I've been in need of a "turn something I've already watched on for background noise while I do stuff" show and have at least six months before I'm in the mood for another trip through Star Trek from TNG S1E1&2 "Encounter at Farpoint" to VOY S7E25&26 "Endgame," so I was delighted to find that HBO Max has all of Babylon 5.

God, what a great show. I'm mired in the rough first season right now, but even this one has its highlights.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2WTWH5u.jpg)

Note that "all of Babylon 5" means all of it, even the bits that they cut out for the DVD and earlier streaming release. What did they cut out? The top and the bottom for the most part. The series was shot on film at 16:9 in order to future-proof it for HD. The plan was at some point they'd re-render the computer graphics and boom, the show would be in HD. Then at some point they lost all the source files, so if they wanted HD effects they'd have to re-do them all from scratch. There wasn't anywhere near the budget for that, so instead they zoomed in on the SD computer graphics and cut the top and bottom off to make the show wide-screen. Going back to the original 4:3 version of the show has improved its look tremendously, even if it's still computer effects from the 1990s.

polypusher wrote:

Just started Hacks based on the recommendations here. Loving it so far. For some reason I thought it was going to be about prison guards, like an Oz spinoff Definitely not that!

My first exposure to J.K. Simmons was him as Vern Schillinger and it took me years to accept that he was just a fabulously talented actor and not a Nazi POS.

I refuse to watch Oz because I love J.K. Simmons too much.

OG_slinger wrote:
polypusher wrote:

Just started Hacks based on the recommendations here. Loving it so far. For some reason I thought it was going to be about prison guards, like an Oz spinoff Definitely not that!

My first exposure to J.K. Simmons was him as Vern Schillinger and it took me years to accept that he was just a fabulously talented actor and not a Nazi POS.

Hard same

YAYYY

Rat Boy wrote:

Hells yeah, now I gotta go finish season two!

Great news, everyone!

Woot!

OG_slinger wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I am trying to watch as much spanish tv as possible.

If you're still trying to watch Spanish TV then you might also want to check out Sr. Avila. It's about an insurance executive who leads a double life as a contract killer.

I found it after binging the latest season of Better Call Saul on Netflix and being blown away by Lalo Salamanca, played by Tony Dalton. Dalton starred in Sr. Avila before BCS.

I'm about a season in and am digging it so far.

Just finished the final season. It got a bit busy there at the end and not all the decisions made much sense, but ultimately I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I finally finagled enough HBO Max access to watch We Own This City, it was expectedly remarkable.

Relatedly, HBO has been posting a podcast series for The Wire's 20, hosted by Method Man. The latest episode is cast and crew remembering their time with Michael K Williams. I highly recommend it:

Also relatedly, my search info in FFXIV still includes "RIP Michael K Williams," and last week, in the middle of a dungeon, one of the party said "The cheese stands alone." We tossed a few Wire-isms back and forth, and they sent me a friend request after. I like to think he'd be pleased people are still connecting over his work.

The Time Traveler's Wife was excellent. The only thing I didn't like was that they could have wrapped up the show but they leave some stuff on the table maybe for a season 2.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

The Time Traveler's Wife was excellent. The only thing I didn't like was that they could have wrapped up the show but they leave some stuff on the table maybe for a season 2.

HBO cancelled it. But planning for a second season could have totally been what they were leaving stuff on the table for.