What old media are you watching? - Since new media isn't worth watching

[Questions are a Burden]

I've been rewatching X-Files again and it's kind of sad that the main story arc went nowhere because Cigarette Smoking Man was such a cool character; the monster of the week episodes are still always a fun time. The revival was a mixed bag but mostly a mess that fumbled another chance at a proper conclusion. I'm not too optimistic about the new series and not because of the usual talking points but because the original series was lightning in a bottle. Even if I'm open minded, I don't think any other show could match the chemistry of Mulder and Scully. Also, man, we could use another paranormal investigation show.

I've also periodically rewatch Arrested Development.

The Simpsons was the reason I decided to watch the show because it was such a wtf episode that I wanted to know what it was referencing. Probably has one of the best opening themes ever. I like how Rover being a big balloon was a happy accident because their original plan was a robot shaped like a foot stool but it kept breaking and then one day they saw a weather balloon.

I wish Patrick had relaxed a little and taken the role of James Bond. He would have been perfect.

Obviously he was Dangerman, which some reckon is Number 6. There are parallels there, if you look into it.

 

[Captain Quazar]

Monsters Inc. is still really great imo.

 

[strumpets exeunt]

Threw on an episode of Kolchak the other night because I wanted to get that seedy kind of washed out old LA vibe. Episode was about Darren McGavin having a little buddy cop style adventure with a Native American professor as they chase an earth spirit. Dude was using his specialized expertise to pick up some liberated college girls, but got roped into the hunt by Kolchak when he harshed his vibe. There's a scene where they reveal what the invisible monster looks like using hospital X-rays and it's as a good a gut punch as any modern day creepypasta.

Spoiler: Boo

Just a fun romp all around.

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

im watching old 90s comedy movies like ace ventura, dumb and dumber, and billy madison to watch with the nephews and realized they were much crasser than i remembered.

I remember one 90s movie my mom loved was Mrs. Doubtfire. Not as crass as the ones you mentioned, but it still had one or two moments like Daniel's fake breasts catching on fire.

The Simpsons was the reason I decided to watch the show because it was such a wtf episode that I wanted to know what it was referencing.

Ever watch ReBoot? There was an episode that also parodied The Prisoner. Not only did it nail the surreal tone and setting, it helped advanced a character's arc.

Monsters Inc. is still really great imo.

My grandma had that VHS at her place, and my brother I watched it whenever we slept over. Either that, Toy Story 2, or Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I wish Patrick had relaxed a little and taken the role of James Bond. He would have been perfect

I like McGoohan, but once that guy gets enough fuck you money he is completely impossible to direct.

 

[BubbaRobot887]

Just picked up these for ten bucks at WalMart, going to watch them tonight.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Mrs. Miniver (1942)



Mrs. Miniver is a wife and mom just trying to live her life when war starts popping off. The oldest kid Vin comes back from Oxford all full of himself, meets a hot rich girl, Carol. They start beefing over class shit then fall in love because it’s a movie. Meanwhile the dad takes his little boat to Dunkirk to go pull soldiers out of the water. While that’s happening, Mrs. Miniver’s at home and a fucking German pilot crashes into her garden!



I would be like, "Ja, Frau Miniver, I am your prisoner now." The cops come and bustle him away.



Anyway the family’s getting bombed every night. Vin and Carol get married quick because of the war, then right after the honeymoon Carol gets machine-gunned to death. The whole movie’s just British people being polite while everything burns. It won six Oscars.



I just want to speed through the plot because this movie’s not even that eventful, it’s just slice-of-life family stuff with the war looming. Everyone is acting their tits off, though.



Hi, Clarence!

Greer Garson being a smoke show helps. She spent the rest of her career complaining that she got typecast as the perfect wife and mom. Thread regulars might remember her from The Happiest Millionaire.



TOMMY STEELE JUMPSCARE!

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I've been rewatching X-Files again and it's kind of sad that the main story arc went nowhere because Cigarette Smoking Man was such a cool character; the monster of the week episodes are still always a fun time

buddy went through it with us a year or few back, we generally had fun
the mythos episodes were always a miserable slog of people standing around mumbling at each other, occasionally in the same shot, and basically fuckall happens
it was interesting to notice how the cinematography and stuff slowly morphed into Breaking Bad
also there's a great punchline to that story about CSM and Dad Mulder's waterski adventures

Spoiler: the truth is in here

 

[Captain Syrup]

buddy went through it with us a year or few back, we generally had fun
the mythos episodes were always a miserable slog of people standing around mumbling at each other, occasionally in the same shot, and basically fuckall happens

They gave Duchovny director and writing credits. Under his pen, Mulder and the Cigarette Man were supposed to be these big Luke and Vader figures. The lore episodes are pointless and not worth rewatching.



Bill Davis had the correct take which is Cancer Man worked much better as a bureaucrat and not as the overarching evil behind everything in the scenes. His speeches are terrible but he almost makes them work through sheer charisma.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Mulder and the Cigarette Man were supposed to be these big Luke and Vader figures.

ngl back in the day when shit was still happening with the way they would tease but never go all the way on Mulder and Scully I really expected the punchline was going to be
*drag off cig* "Deep Throat never told you what happened to your father"
"HE TOLD ME ENOUGH, YOU BETRAYED AND MURDERED HIM"
*smoking intensifies* "No, Fox... *I* am your father, join me, and together we can rule the military industrial complex! .... but there is another, yes.... SISTER.... if you will not join me, perhaps SCULLY will!"

 

[Captain Syrup]

ngl back in the day when shit was still happening with the way they would tease but never go all the way on Mulder and Scully I really expected the punchline was going to be
*drag off cig* "Deep Throat never told you what happened to your father"
"HE TOLD ME ENOUGH, YOU BETRAYED AND MURDERED HIM"
*smoking intensifies* "No, Fox... *I* am your father, join me, and together we can rule the military industrial complex! .... but there is another, yes.... SISTER.... if you will not join me, perhaps SCULLY will!"

Did you catch the metaphor about Mulder's dad leaving to go buy cigarettes



I don’t know all about the behind-the-scenes Duchovny/Anderson struggle sessions. But Cancer Man in the early seasons is basically a stand-in for father figures. Like the show is Gen X dealing with the fallout of their parents' bad decisions. Mulder kicks the door in and Cancer Man’s just sitting alone at home watching black and white war movies on a tiny TV, because that's how his generation sees the entire world.

By taking what was supposed to be a Cold War metaphor and making Smoking Man his literal father, it makes the whole thing feel trite.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Did you catch the metaphor about Mulder's dad leaving to go buy cigarettes

Ver archivo adjunto 9205185

I don’t know all about the behind-the-scenes Duchovny/Anderson struggle sessions. But Cancer Man in the early seasons is basically a stand-in for father figures. Like the show is Gen X dealing with the fallout of their parents' bad decisions. Mulder kicks the door in and Cancer Man’s just sitting alone at home watching black and white war movies on a tiny TV, because that's how his generation sees the entire world.

By taking what was supposed to be a Cold War metaphor and making Smoking Man his literal father, it makes the whole thing feel trite.

I figured Fox owned it all so they could rip off star wars and they wouldn't sue themselves, like Tenma San Ga Yuku, it's clearly a bit of debris from the "localize Ghostbusters in every territory" plan that was the only one to get the trigger pulled, and what, is Sony gonna sue Sony?

 

[strumpets exeunt]

By taking what was supposed to be a Cold War metaphor and making Smoking Man his literal father, it makes the whole thing feel trite.

I think it was the episode that revealed he was a failed sci-fi author that made me finally ask, “What are we even doing here anymore, guys?”

 

[Jean ValJean]

Seinfeld is on Netflix and we're binging it again. Almost 30 years since the final episode and still feels like it holds up. I feel like a lot of cultural references that are worked into the jokes (Thelma and Louise in the Car Dealership episode, The English Patient, Three Days of the Condor in the Junk Mail episode, and lots of others) would fly right over the heads of anyone under a certain age. Also a lot of the gags wouldn't get past the network's censors today.

 

[John Titor]

Ever watch ReBoot? There was an episode that also parodied The Prisoner. Not only did it nail the surreal tone and setting, it helped advanced a character's arc.

I have not and considering the thread I'm in, I should check it out.

it was interesting to notice how the cinematography and stuff slowly morphed into Breaking Bad

Not surprised. This is literally the "Hank. Nooo!" Scene.

I think it was the episode that revealed he was a failed sci-fi author that made me finally ask, “What are we even doing here anymore, guys?”

To be fair to that episode, it's supposed to be ambiguous and contradictory showing that what information the Lone Gunmen dug up about the CSM could be bullshit. Personally I like the premise that even villains have private lives and aspirations.


What annoys me about the myth arc is when they introduce a cool concept but forget about it by the next season. There's an episode in the revival about psychic alien hybrid children and it felt like Carter thought he did something new and forgot the original series already had a basis for it.

 

[Fuggalope]

My favorite shows are from the 50s-70s. Andy Griffith, MASH, emergency, Gilligan's island, and stuff like that.

I think my favorite movies at the moment are Master and Commander, and Kingdom of Heaven.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I think it was the episode that revealed he was a failed sci-fi author that made me finally ask, “What are we even doing here anymore, guys?”

They retconned Cigarette Man into the shooter who killed JFK and MLK. He is personally responsible for every conspiracy, in other words. That's the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard.

And they cast Chris Owens as the young Cigarette Man which was a colossal mistake. (Ironically Owens kinda looks like Bill Davis now that he's older, but at the time, he was just some squirrelly little shit.)

The only good part of the episode is when Deep Throat calls him a killer and CSM hits him with “Your lies have killed more men in a day than I have in a lifetime.”

 

[BubbaRobot887]

"You can't carry a gun Sid, You don't have a licenses to kill!"

 

[Captain Syrup]

W.C. Fields and Me (1976)



I keep giving Rod Steiger another chance. I mean he's awful in every movie. Here he plays the vaudeville star turned film actor W.C. Fields. Every line reading sounds like me imitating Edward G. Robinson. ("Moses, seeee?") He's old and cheap and he likes to yell at the help.

The narration tells us Fields was paranoid. Okay... about what? Poverty? Being upstaged? They don't really explain it. He's just randomly exploding at people.

Jack Cassidy shows up as Lionel Barrymore.



Looking exactly like Burt Reynolds. Doesn't sound like Barrymore. Doesn't look like him. Doesn't seem aware Barrymore existed. At least Steiger glued a fake nose on.



Bernadette Peters shows up as one of Fields' casting couch "comediennes". Then she leaves like two minutes later. That's the smartest decision anybody makes in this film.

This is as bad as Cobb. 2 stars.

 

[BubbaRobot887]

This is the best movie about Napoleon ever made.