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The Darwin Incident on Prime - Japanese manga thing about animal rights, the morality of eating meat, resisting the status quo. Started fluffy but this week's episode turned very dark abruptly. Curious to see where it's going.
(Oh, looks like it has it's own thread)
does it? or do you mean the detectorists thread?
Oh, yeah, kind of presumed the "PSA Detectorists Fans" was about it. Wasn't.. but it has morphed into a thread about Small Prophets. 🙂
Done the small prophet thing...... Felt a bit let down at the end, but I guess they're stringing it out for S2.
Have started How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on Netflix, well worth it, a bit tongue in cheek Norn Ireland schtick, a bit properly laugh out loud, and all round enjoyment
Got Apple TV last week, been catching up on shows - Long Way Down, latest Slow Horses and various others on the list. Started Platonic too, on the back of decent reviews and frankly I don't get it. Going back to the reviews I see lots of references to "good-natured" comedy, "feel-good" and the like - which I think is code for "not at all funny, just a bunch of stuff happens that's supposed to be nice". Can't recommend.
The Studio next. And the latest Lincoln Lawyer is out on Netflix
latest Lincoln Lawyer is out on Netflix
Lincoln Lawyer is my trainerroad accompaniment - tho will have to wait as i have Smiley's People to watch (again) having just watched TTSS (again) as a paleate cleanse of proper le Carre and proper BBC drama after the woeful Night Manager 2
Lincoln Lawyer
Left at the mid-point of series 2 as it had got so bad, I'm amazed anyone is still watching this!
Left at the mid-point of series 2 as it had got so bad, I'm amazed anyone is still watching this!
Yeah, I got to the end of S2 and bailed. I didn't really dislike it, I just couldn't be bothered watching anymore.
Stake Land has popped up free (with a few ads) on Prime. Good indie vampire apocalypse thing that slipped under most people's radar 16 years ago. Rewatched from 2026 you could almost say it's a metaphor for some of what now afflicts the US....
Edit: blimey, just found out one of the main characters was an unrecognisable Kelly McGillis! The sequel is also on Prime, that's this evening sorted.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/16/stake-land-review
I never got round to watching Game of Thrones but I reckon the new one, Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, is ace. A slow burn for sure but just watched ep.5, its really stepped up a gear...brutal!
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is excellent, they really should've just made this and not bothered with House of the Dragon! The slow burn is what made the original few seasons of GoT so good, and this is a real return to form. Will be gutted if they balls this one up too 🤣
I wasn't going to bother with Knight of Seven Kingdoms, but when I realised it's just 6x 30 mins episodes I added it to my list.
I'm going to boringingly chime in with how good Small Prophets is. Yeah it was left open at the end, but just means there will be plenty more of it 🙂
Not very timely, but also finally watching and really enjoying Riot Women and Daddy Issues.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is excellent, they really should've just made this and not bothered with House of the Dragon!
Yes, it's much better. Bit slow paced, but decent enough.
I never got round to watching Game of Thrones
The first few seasons were pretty good but then it just fell apart and the final season was just laughable.
Finally got around to watching Sugar on Apple TV, starring Colin Farrell. Really liked it (acting, cinematography, writing) until the plot twist, which rather took the shine off it. Enjoying Tehran (also Apple TV), and the subtitles ensure concentration, lacking Hebrew and Farsi. Glenn Close as guest star in S2, and Hugh Laurie in S3 (with a bizarre accent that veers from Seff Efrican to Awestralian).
Just finished How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on Netflix. It started out as an amusing Irish farce but gradually got deeper and darker until in the end it was really quite engrossing. Give it a try !!
I never got round to watching Game of Thrones
Im watching it for the third time on NOW. I always loved the Dungeons&Dragons type of film. GOT has to be the best take on any of that.
And its led to my nipping off to M&S to get a nice chunk of smoked ham and potatoes which i intend to fry up in garlic butter.
The scene from Craster's Keep had one of the actors accusing Craster about it and i got the sudden urge to nip out and get some for myself.
Stake Land has popped up free (with a few ads) on Prime. Good indie vampire apocalypse thing that slipped under most people's radar 16 years ago. Rewatched from 2026 you could almost say it's a metaphor for some of what now afflicts the US....
Edit: blimey, just found out one of the main
Great. I've not seen this.
Can highly recommend Train Dreams for something completely different. Very meditative, soothing & melancholic.
Third season of The Night Agent is good. (Netflix).
Ten episodes though - I'm sure they could have done it in 8!
Third season of The Night Agent is good.
Good to know as we started it yesterday evening
Ten episodes though - I'm sure they could have done it in 8!
I think that was one of the issues we had with series 2!
How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on Netflix. It started out as an amusing Irish farce but gradually got deeper and darker until in the end it was really quite engrossing. Give it a try !!
It's definitely worth a watch, some properly laugh out loud moments. I found towards the end it was labouring a little under all the plot intricacies and didn't quite know what to do with it all....was it a bit supernatural, was it a bit crime gangs, was it a bit John Wick/Kingsman secret society. I think it probably sounded great in the beginning in the writers' room, but needed a more robust edit. I'm still not sure I understood how it resolved all that at the end.
The first few seasons were pretty good but then it just fell apart and the final season was just laughable.
This is amusing (although, be warned, it's easy to get lost in the Pitch Meeting rabbit hole...)
Game of Thrones Season 8 Pitch Meeting
Can highly recommend Train Dreams for something completely different. Very meditative, soothing & melancholic.
Loved it
Finally got around to watching Sugar on Apple TV, starring Colin Farrell. Really liked it (acting, cinematography, writing) until the plot twist, which rather took the shine off it. Enjoying Tehran (also Apple TV), and the subtitles ensure concentration, lacking Hebrew and Farsi. Glenn Close as guest star in S2, and Hugh Laurie in S3 (with a bizarre accent that veers from Seff Efrican to Awestralian).
Good timing, I just hunted this down on Apple TV last night to add to the list; haven't started it yet but had heard decent things about it
I started to re-watch Loch Ness last night, largely because I have a bit of a crush on Laura Fraser. But I had forgotten that it started with a scene at a curling match. At which point I started cutting myself.
I started watching it (first time) last month, and was uninspired. Turned it off after 10 minutes - is it worth trying again?
It’s not great, tbh, even with the fragrant Laura. Nice Scottish scenery.
"Bugonia" on AppleTV over the weekend. OMG. Mostly, the usual madness from Yorgos Lanthimos... but it really hit a nerve with me. One of the most thought provoking films of recent years. Equal parts funny and disturbing. A work of genius in my book.
The first spin off from Yellowstone arrives next Monday on paramount.
No prior knowledge required as more of network TV level of procedural. (Hope the production values don't drop as Yellowstone was like a movie in aesthetics/technicals.)
But I'm still going along with the ride.
Taylor Sheridan Executive producer rather than showrunner and writer/director. (As I understand.)
Give me Montana scenary all day and every day.
Wonder Man was excellent
Just a nice buddy show with some good laughs
"Bugonia" on AppleTV over the weekend. OMG. Mostly, the usual madness from Yorgos Lanthimos... but it really hit a nerve with me. One of the most thought provoking films of recent years. Equal parts funny and disturbing. A work of genius in my book.
Not on my Apple TV unless I pay them another £4.99
"Bugonia" on AppleTV over the weekend. OMG. Mostly, the usual madness from Yorgos Lanthimos... but it really hit a nerve with me. One of the most thought provoking films of recent years. Equal parts funny and disturbing. A work of genius in my book.
Not on my Apple TV unless I pay them another £4.99
I'm very late to this (as usual), but I'm halfway through Dope Thief on Apple TV. It's very good. Quite bonkers and different to anything else I've seen recently. It is quite, erm, gritty.
Apologies if it's been recommended before.
"Ridley Scott directed the first episode of this crime series, which becomes more than the typical drugs-and-criminals thriller thanks to its lead actors. Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, If Beale Street Could Talk) and Wagner Moura (Civil War) play old friends in Philadelphia with a small-time scam. Posing as agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, they pretend to raid drug houses while really searching for cash to steal. By the end of episode one, they have targeted the wrong meth lab, and are on the run from both real government agents and the dealers whose business they literally blew up in an explosion."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20250224-10-of-the-best-tv-shows-to-watch-this-march
Yeah Dope Thief is a pretty good shout.
I feel Under Salt Marsh has gone off the boil a bit - as these sort of mysteries do.
Mostly it's Jonathan Pryce running everyone around in pointless circles.
Will watch the last one though.
So our first feature film is released on platforms at the end of March.
It's the culmination of 3 years of work - script through to distribution. (We do have a distribution deal now.)
My small production company produced it with all our resources (kit, money and time.)
We've never done a feature before and we did everything ourselves apart from location sound (which you need to pay good money for or it sounds crap.)
Getting a distribution deal has been the hardest part. It won't be on Netflix as it's just not got any stars and it costs 2K to take it to Netflix through an intermediary.
The film is more of an experiment to see what we could pull off. Sure it's got amateur actors (actually two are pros) so yes it has rough edges but you've got to start somewhere.
My personal role was the cinematography and lighting. I also did the colour grade and some vfx.
We shot on a ronin 4d with anamorphic lenses (adolescence was shot on a 4d.) I've owned my 4d for 4 years now. Great camera.
It's already had a cinema premiere locally.
Anyway it will be out on prime around the end of March.
looks awesome
will be watching!
So our first feature film is released on platforms at the end of March.
brilliant, will defo watch that! I have a lot of time for home-grown low-budget (comedy) horror. The trailer was giving me Killer Weekend/Fubar vibes although I didn't watch it all as I felt it was already giving away too much!!
What is the very approx budget to make something like that?
So our first feature film is released on platforms at the end of March.
brilliant, will defo watch that! I have a lot of time for home-grown low-budget (comedy) horror. The trailer was giving me Killer Weekend/Fubar vibes although I didn't watch it all as I felt it was already giving away too much!!
What is the very approx budget to make something like that?
It's difficult to pinpoint because we haven't paid ourselves yet. You do these things because you want to!
It's embarrassingly low in many ways.
We reckon around 100K total excluding marketing. (Which is part of the distribution deal.)
Costs to us around 30k - (money we have paid out for locations, props, costumes, catering, sound recordist, boom op, posters, make-up, expenses, insurance.)
Production is nearly all in house which is:
Pre-production, Script, Camera, Post production, VFX, Colour Grade and Sound Mix. Delivery.
(A Dolby sound mix is from around 13K so we did that ourselves too in the end.)
Really, the next project we're hoping to get funding to pay ourselves and move quicker and not do something with a cast of 20. Which was hard work for a first feature.
Shot in Wales and Nottinghamshire in 2023.
So our first feature film is released on platforms at the end of March.
It's the culmination of 3 years of work - script through to distribution. (We do have a distribution deal now.)
My small production company produced it with all our resources (kit, money and time.)
amazing, will keep an eye out for this when it’s released. Trailer looks good. Did you manage a cameo / extra / walk on in the film ?
it’s true there really is every type of job covered here at STW.
explains how you know quite so much about cameras too 🙂
So our first feature film is released on platforms at the end of March.
brilliant, will defo watch that! I have a lot of time for home-grown low-budget (comedy) horror. The trailer was giving me Killer Weekend/Fubar vibes although I didn't watch it all as I felt it was already giving away too much!!
What is the very approx budget to make something like that?
It's difficult to pinpoint because we haven't paid ourselves yet. You do these things because you want to!
It's embarrassingly low in many ways.
We reckon around 100K total excluding marketing. (Which is part of the distribution deal.)
Costs to us around 30k - (money we have paid out for locations, props, costumes, catering, sound recordist, boom op, posters, make-up, expenses, insurance.)
Production is nearly all in house which is:
Pre-production, Script, Camera, Post production, VFX, Colour Grade and Sound Mix. Delivery.
(A Dolby sound mix is from around 13K so we did that ourselves too in the end.)
Really, the next project we're hoping to get funding to pay ourselves and move quicker and not do something with a cast of 20. Which was hard work for a first feature.
Shot in Wales and Nottinghamshire in 2023.
that’s really interesting and thanks for sharing, is the cinema work your day job, or did you manage this around doing another job? Either way super impressive for the budget. Must be some talented people in your team to cover all the above, without outsourcing.
must take a while to complete and get through everything, if filmed in 2023 and on prime in 2026.