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Post by Jay on Sept 5, 2017 6:23:33 GMT -8
I have fond memories of IT despite, you know, scary clown thing, but I've heard some of the production rumblings about what the original director's vision was versus what got executed and I'm bracing myself for disappointment. The hard R seems like an opening for something to be gratuitous, or neglecting the psychology of the original. I'm also interested by the choice to divide it into the childhood phase and have the adult phase (perhaps) come later as I sort of liked the back-and-forth between present and past, as it made me feel like individual traumas were resurfacing and causing the adults to revert to who they were when the trauma occurred.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 5, 2017 14:52:38 GMT -8
I'm also interested by the choice to divide it into the childhood phase and have the adult phase (perhaps) come later as I sort of liked the back-and-forth between present and past, as it made me feel like individual traumas were resurfacing and causing the adults to revert to who they were when the trauma occurred. I'm on the fence about the timeline division. On the one hand, as you say, it does lose the sense of immediate connection between the characters' young and old selves (which was a crucial part of what made the 1990 version work). On the other hand, telling the story in a linear fashion could generate more suspense, since the past won't be spoiled by scenes in the future. I also hope the R rating isn't just an excuse for the film to overly rely on blood-n-gore.
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Post by Jay on Sept 5, 2017 17:15:10 GMT -8
Ah, yes, I know exactly what you're referring to there when you talk about the past events being tainted by what will be known in the future. To be honest, that was one of the sticking points for me too in the miniseries adaptation because it felt not quite right / respectful. As I remember it within the novel, they took advantage of the third person narration to talk about that one event in isolation, well after it had been introduced as something the other characters "knew about" but didn't know precisely. It somehow retained that suspense and mystery, but as I remember the Tim Curry version didn't spend all that much time on that one past moment and it could have become hokey in the wrong hands, so the omission makes sense to me.
I know I'm being super vague here, but hey, spoilers and all.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 8, 2017 5:57:42 GMT -8
Today we celebrate 20 years of a show about courtrooms, couplings, and dancing babies! (BTW, don't ever watch the dancing baby scene. You've been warned.)
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 20, 2017 14:04:39 GMT -8
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 15, 2017 11:43:37 GMT -8
Yesterday, in a massive corporate upset, Disney bought 20th Century Fox. I've detailed some thoughts to explain why this matters and what it means for your favorite shows and movies, because that's how much I care about you guys.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 25, 2017 11:56:56 GMT -8
Okay, I'm sneaking the second half of my Studio 60 guide onto the site on a holiday, under the assumption that fewer people will be reading it. Please don't read the article, please don't watch the show, and please have a Merry Christmas.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 25, 2017 13:41:33 GMT -8
I don't know, Jeremy. It seems to me that SNL has always been uneven -- sketch comedy is, by its very nature, that -- but that people view the Murray, Belushi, Murphy, Hartman, Myers, Carvey, etc. years with rose-tinted shades. The current female cast of SNL is as talented and versatile as it's ever been, and I'd argue that last season was a banner year for the series (this season has been more up-and-down). You can certainly say that Baldwin's Trump impression is lacking in any sort of nuance, but quite frankly, it's a public service throwing Trump's own words right back at him to make him squirm. Anyways, McKinnon and Strong are exceptionally skilled performers, and Aidy Bryant is adept with a wide range of character types as well. It's a shame they had to end the year on such a low note -- why do actual comics like Kevin Hart always seem to turn out the worst episodes? -- but Saoirse Ronan's gifts were on full-display in her recent installment. And I'd also suggest that Jost and Che have found a real groove in the past year in the Weekend Update slot.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 25, 2017 15:15:40 GMT -8
The early seasons of SNL are indeed over-praised (particularly during the early '80s, when Lorne Michaels had left the show), but the show's edginess and spontaneity were just fresher and more biting back in those early years. SNL nowadays can still be pretty funny - I've enjoyed a lot of their sketches in 2017, probably more than in most recent years. But a show's fortieth-odd season just isn't going to pack the same punch as its second or third.
Of course, it helps that most of the old SNL clips I've watched have been cherry-picked by NBC, and the network probably goes out of its way to avoid re-posting the dud sketches. But I'd still say the above point holds true.
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Post by Jeremy on Jan 19, 2018 13:13:43 GMT -8
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 16, 2018 11:26:35 GMT -8
Been super-busy these last few weeks, but your long national nightmare is over. Today, I talk about Netflix's recent announcement about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and what it says about the future of Peak TV.
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Post by Jay on Feb 16, 2018 11:53:58 GMT -8
I don't know if they were "the first" properly to do it but I think that first I strongly noticed adhering to the split seasons model was AMC. Some of those were good shows that were being split and the halves didn't suffer from too much dithering. Others were not.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 16, 2018 12:41:11 GMT -8
I think the first show to perform an official "season split" was Sex and the City, which aired is final season across two shortened periods in 2003-04. (Oz had previously aired a split season in 2000-01, but it was a double-length season to begin with - 16 episodes instead of 8.)
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Post by Jeremy on May 11, 2018 12:28:08 GMT -8
It's been 20 years since Seinfeld ended. Thought I'd talk a bit about how one of the greatest sitcoms of all time wound up with one of the worst finales of all time. But don't worry, I try to keep things positive. Check it.
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Post by ThirdMan on May 11, 2018 17:21:45 GMT -8
Disagree re: it being one of the worst finales of all time (I'd go with "middling"), but I will say that punishing the main characters to such a degree was overkill, as they were generally punished for their bad behaviour on a week-to-week basis already.
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