New Year Binge Watch

 The weather here was cold and raw today so after a brisk walk...well maybe not so brisk as my knee was acting up and very stiff and sore...hubby and I sat down in front of the TV and binge watched the entire eight episodes of the series The Recruit on Netflix.

CIA intrigue, a dash of comedy (well not exactly comedy, maybe humor) here and there and suspense, and an addictive story and characters. 

Noah Centineo as Owen was superb and cute as well.

 

Its almost 10pm now so I'm keeping this short.

But here's a trailer for Glass Onion which we watched the other night.

Happy New Year 2023

 You know, I really don't have much to say about that. 

And I don't even have photos of food. 

We watched Glass Onion on Netflix last night and went to bed at 10:30. Missed the ball drop in Times Square. 

If I made resolutions it would probably be to stop reading so much news and blogs and watching fewer YouTubes. Oh well.

Another One From Netflix

We've been watching a series called "Smiley" the title of which would have had me skip on by. I think Leon chose it based on the preview. 

It is a Netflix series made in Spain, set in Barcelona, (it is dubbed in English - and I think the dubbing was well done) about a gay 30-something guy who gets a "Smiley" emoji after a hookup with another guy. He feels insulted, so sends back a voicemail rant, but to the wrong number. Mr. Wrong Number then takes it from there.

There are a number of gay and lesbian characters, a wise drag queen, parents, friends, and assorted others, all of whom make for an interesting menagerie. It kind of reminds me of a cross between Queer as Folk, Tales of the City and Boys in the Band. 

There is quite a bit of bantering and arguing (which may be a bit much for some viewers), but also a lot of humor in the interactions. The characters are generally likable and the English dubbing is well done with expressiveness, inflection and good timing.

The generous use of split screens is clever and lets you in on conversations that are going on between people and sometime between different people simultaneously. Very well done.

It's a fun series. We still have a few episode to watch and have been doing 2 or 3 at a sitting. Enjoy. Looks like there may be a Season 2 coming.

Odd that I cannot find a YouTube English language trailer but go here to Netflix for one (scroll down to the trailer - you may need a subscription to access it):

https://www.netflix.com/title/81445999

Here is one in Spanish.

Netflix Movies

 We watched a (Christmas) RomCom last evening on Netflix. We really should make popcorn when we put on a movie but I never think of it. 

Anyhow the movie was "Noel Diary".  Not a gay movie.

Justin Hartley as Jacob Turner, previously from the TV series This Is Us, isn't bad to look at. And the story is not awful. Sorry for the negative positives, but that is the best I can do given it is a rather typical RomCom. Of course the fact that it takes place in upstate New York, Connecticut and Vermont, our previous familiar territories, made watching it a bit more personal.

My main criticism is that something was just wrong about the winter/snow scenes. If anyone has lived in New England where the story takes place (or anyplace where there are snowy winters) one would know that when you put the heat/defroster on in the car or Range Rover or whatever, the snow and ice on the windows does eventually melt. I couldn't understand why the car windows were always frosted.

Some of the snow scenes looked authentic, and other just looked fake. Come on, movie makers, you can do better. The scenes in which you can see the steamy breath as characters talked - were they filmed in a meat locker or really outdoors in winter.

The other thing I found odd was that Rachel spent an awful lot of time standing out in the snow and cold on more than one occasion or sitting with Jacob's dog in a vehicle that was not running for what seemed like hours while Jacob and his dad put lights on a Christmas tree. 

Some of the plot twists were a bit of a stretch, not entirely believable. But it was worth watching on a cold winter night.

 

We also watched "Front Cover" a gay film about a Chinese American stylist (Jake Choi as Ryan) who is hired to work with a young male Chinese movie star, (James Chen as Ning). The movie explores the cultural beliefs and attitudes toward gays and juxtaposes the Chinese and Chinese American experiences. The writer and actors do a superb job with the material. 

The only thing I found confusing was why the young actor Ning needed a stylist to begin with - he was quite cool and stylish without any help from Ryan.

The pivotal scene was when Ryan and Ning go with Ryan's parents to visit Ryan's grandmother in a nursing home. Both the dialogue and what was not said was very revealing of the characters and was important to the rest of the story.

I'd recommend it.

Something to Watch on Cold Winter Nights

 I can't resist anything Italian so I was eager to see the new Netflix series "From Scratch" which is about an African-American woman who goes to Florence to study art and meets an Italian, more precisely, a Sicilian chef and, well it goes on from there.

I wouldn't define the story as just a "chick flix" or a "Hallmark card" because the script and the acting are really superb. The story may well appeal to women more than to men (although Lino is eye candy for the gay audience as well as for the ladies) but there is more substance to the story that gives it a wider appeal.

The inter-racial relationship presents a tension that drives the story initially but the complexity of the characters and ultimately their acceptance, respect and love are the values that make the story real. It's addictive. We watched several episodes each evening and finished the series last evening. Emotional.

This may start out as a popcorn film but by the last few episodes you'll be trading the popcorn for kleenex.

 

Another series is Tiny Pretty Things a drama that takes place at a ballet school in Chicago. The series begins following an accident - or was it attempted suicide or attempted murder? that leaves a student in a coma on life support. We see the passion and dedication of the students for their art and the intense physical endurance and athletic abilities and emotional discipline required of them as they train and compete for a place in the world of dance.

As the series progresses we are given glimpses into the personal lives of the students and the demons that they wrestle with as they try to fulfill the expectations imposed on them by parents, instructors and themselves. The lies, the schemes, the back-stabbing, the passion, the emotions, all keep the viewer interested. We are not yet finished watching the series but have only a few episodes left in our queue. Popcorn, yes.

Netflix Disappointments - "Uncoupled" and "Grace and Frankie"

 Gay themed shows on Netflix have become scarcer over the past several years and so when Netflix announced the new (I'm hoping "single-season") series "UnCoupled" we were anxious to view it.

Let me start by saying Neil Patrick Harris should be embarrassed to to have agreed to star in this series. Did he not read the script? 

Tisha Cambell-Martin (does everyone have to have three names now?) is probably the best actor of the bunch and pulls off her lines with great timing and without taking a breath.

But back to the script. The New York based elitist characters (high end real estate brokers, their clients, art gallery owner, TV personalities, etc) when not lamenting their being jilted by husbands and boyfriends, flit around from exclusive parties to exclusive clubs and live a "life-style" that I and my friends could never relate to.

Not only are they all of a class and world that is out of touch with most of reality, but they spew lines that are mere clichés of the last 50 years of gay wit and camp. The gay humor is so tired and droll. 

Leon and I are suffering through the episodes on the outside chance that the series may have some redeeming value.

P.S. My memoir would make better entertainment if I do say so myself. Coming Soon: The free, revised, expanded edition of "Did You Ever See A Horse Go By?" available on the internet - as soon as I do some last minute tweaks and figure out the best format for presentation. (I'm thinking either installments or in its entirety on this or the blog dedicated to the book - suggestions welcome).

My second scathing review goes to Grace and Frankie, a series that started out with some decent script writing and promise of light entertainment - which it did deliver for a while. Then, what happened? I'm guessing it got some new, amateur or low paid writers who were tasked with producing quantity rather than quality.

The show has become a modern "I Love Lucy" full of ridiculous plots and story lines and almost slap-stick situations that I cannot even call comedy. Not to mention dialogue that no real live person would utter unless they were delusional.

Once again I cannot imagine how the actors, all of whom are seasoned and have decent reputations, can deliver such stupid, humorless, senseless lines, episode after episode. Are they not thoroughly embarrassed? I know I am. Don't bother with the popcorn.

Netflix Pix Recommendation

 Just a quickie in the midst of all the political crap: we are several episodes into "Lincoln Lawyer" on Netflix. It is well written script, well acted, and has a very good looking leading man. We are glued to the screen and usually watch more  than one episode in an evening.

Some Things to watch on Netflix

We haven't been watching a lot of Netflix lately but here are some picks:

The Queen's Gambit

The mini-series starts out slow and, well it's about as exciting as watching two people play chess. But it is both a pleasant change from murder mysteries and cop shows and a well written, well acted drama. 

It does draw you into the story after a few episodes and there is enough suspense in who will win the next Chess Tournament to keep you tuning in. The acting (and the relatively unknown-to-me actors) is really quite good. 

Ratched

A take-off from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The series focuses on Nurse Ratched, a new employee of a luxurious, mid-century Asylum for the mentally ill in a sea-side California locale. The doctor who runs the place is an egomaniac who imagines he has the miracle cure for every patient. This macabre series does get a bit beyond believable, and I found that I lost interest in both the characters and the plot after six  or seven episodes. For those who like bizarre stories and classic insanity.

 

 

Someone Has to Die

A Spanish series with dubbed English dialogue. Gay characters; nineteenth century Spain. We haven't gotten into this one far enough to give a review. But here's the trailer:

 

Recently On Netflix

We have been watching two new Netflix Original series: Special and Bonding.

Both have gay male characters who are "mentored" by strong, independent women but in totally different contexts. Both series are well-written, kind of sexy, and full of little surprises.

Both series are following what must be a new kind of format where episodes are no more than 15 minutes or so long. We ended up watching the entire series of Bonding and Special in one evening each.

Special follows a 20-something gay man with a "mild" case of cerebral palsy as he seeks independence from an overprotective mother and finds support in a no-nonsense female co-worker who pushes him into new territory.

Bonding brings together a female grad student who is a dominatrix in her spare time and a young, awkward gay guy who she hires as her "assistant" and insurance against would-be nefarious clients.

The short, 15 minute episodes are just enough to make the viewer want to see more. Light, sometimes outrageous, sometimes funny, these shows may be just what you need after watching the Evening News.

Popcorn Movie - Deep Water - Netflix

Sunday was a stay-indoors Netflix day: cold, wet and dreary. We decided to binge-watch an Australian 4-episode miniseries called Deep Water. 

Australian Detective Tori Lustigman gets deeply  involved in investigating the murder of a gay man near Bondi Beach. She and partner Nick Manning are led on a trail of evidence that goes back to a series of gay-bashing murders that took place in the 1980s and 90s that were never solved or pursued by the authorities.

Intricate threads of evidence and connections are revealed as the story evolves and the many loose ends keeps one wanting to watch and learn more. There is not only the mystery being solved, but also the many deeply emotional scars that the characters reveal during the investigation that make the story compelling. (not to mention some eye-candy) We had to watch it through to the end of the 4th episode to see how the many loose ends are finally resolved. Definitely recommended (but if you are anything like me when it come to other than American English), with this caveat:

USE YOUR CLOSED CAPTION OPTION because the Australian accent is very strong (especially that of Chief Inspector Peel). The closed caption made a world of difference as I was getting exhausted trying to translate Australian to English in my head and missing much of the dialogue. Did the rewind from the beginning after 10 minutes, with captions...much better.

The story is based on actual cases of a large number of murders of gay men that took place along the Australian coast in the late 80s and early 90s. *


After a whole day of cold, dreary rain on Sunday, we woke up to this, this morning:

Much too early in the season for snow and freezing temps in this neck of the desert. Hope I can save some of those tomatoes!

* Note: I have been irritable, angry, cranky, depressed and disturbed all day today (Monday) and I think it has something to do with after-effects of watching the "Deep Water" story. The fact that gay men were (and in many cases still are) bashed and murdered for being who they are, is disturbing to the core. 

As Wikipedia states "The drama is based on the historical, unsolved hate murders of possibly 30 to 80 gay men in Sydney's eastern suburbs and beaches in the 1980s and '90s."  A documentary was aired by Australian TV at the same time as the series.

Links to the documentary here: Part 1    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tq9ju
Part 2   https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5txh5s

I haven't watched the documentaries yet...I'm not sure I'm ready emotionally to watch.

Netflix Review - Queer Eye

The new Netflix "reboot" of Queer Eye is not necessarily always for the "straight guy" (in one episode the new Fab Five make over a gay guy whose been struggling with his own internalized homophobia) but it keeps to the original format which always went beyond fashion and grooming to compassion and understanding.

I was skeptical about the show, figuring it would be all superficial and too contemporary. But because the show does stick to the original premise, the episodes are far from shallow presentations of guys being a canvass for fashionistas and pop culture. The Fab Five are truly compassionate, feeling, non-judgmental human beings who not only zero in on their subjects psychology but, in the process, reveal their own vulnerabilities, challenges and life experience.

While each is an expert in some area - design, fashion, food, grooming, culture - I am amazed that they have such a gift for focusing on the interpersonal and psychological elements of their subjects lives - and facilitating what appear to be deeply personal transformations. And they do so with respect and sensitivity.

I do have some questions, however: Who pays for all the furniture, clothing, painting, grooming and products? (One shirt probably costs more than my yearly clothing expenditure at KMart) How much of the show is scripted? How do Leon and I get a makeover from the Fab Five?

Yes, there is plenty of frivolity and silliness in each episode (we've seen 3 so far), sometimes embarrassingly so, but if the shows don't bring a tear to your eye, you may be hopelessly hard-hearted.

Another Gay Popcorn Movie from Netflix - Hurricane Bianca

OK. We all need a break from the daily reports about the disaster in the White House and all the depressing news about how our world and all its safeguards are being dismantled by executive order and draconian legislation....

So here is a Campy Netflix Movie to warm your heart and bring a smile to that troubled countenance.

A gay male science teacher gets fired in Texas, of course, (sorry Russ) and somehow is able to return - in outrageous drag - as a female science teacher and get his revenge.

Yes, this is so over the top. The drag outfits are over the top, the situations are over the top, the whole premise is preposterous.

But if it doesn't make you laugh or at least root for Bianca, then you are worse off than I am.

Link here

Gay Popcorn Movie 6 - And Netflix Binge Picks

2/20/2014 Update: Just watched Cloudburst on Netflix. With Olivia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette (eye candy). This is a cool lesbian film. Dottie and Stella have been together for 31 years and due to family interference in their lives as Dottie's health fails, the two decide to go to Canada to get married. This all takes place in our neck of the woods - well close enough - Maine and Nova Scotia, with some great filming locales. Olivia is brilliant as usual. And there are some priceless lines and a little male frontal nudity for good measure. Don't expect a great artistic film - it is very outrageous, the character of Stella is over the top and there are some stupid scenes, but it is certainly entertaining on a cold winter day.

Satellite Reception on a Stormy Day

We pulled the plug on our our Satellite TV in December and cut that bill by 100%. (which was about to go up to over $120/mo for 5 thousand channels of mostly crap).

Now we have no Cable, no Dish, no Direct, no Uverse, no PAY.

We get 30 or more channels over the air and that includes the major networks, PBS, and a few sub-channels like COZI, Create (love Lydia Bastianich) and others that offer mindless entertainment and old TV shows like Maverick, McMillan and Wife, etc.

The only thing we really miss is HGTV (Homo and Garden) and USA (White Collar and a few others)

Leon purchased a TiVo for $49 special offer which does require a modest monthly subscription ($15) for your local guide and is configured for Netflix, YouTube, and a bunch of other streaming sources. This allows you to record several programs at once IN HD (unlike AT&T Uverse) while watching TV or streaming Netflix. Obviously you cannot record a Netflix show.

We have had Netflix streaming (currently $7.95/mo) for several years and while they do not offer a great selection of movies, they do have a number of award winning TV shows.

What makes watching TV shows on Netflix nice is the ability to "binge" - that is watch back to back episodes until you can't take it anymore. Doing this during the long, long, brutally cold winter makes the practice somewhat forgivable.

This winter we have been hooked on three shows in particular that we binged on: Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards. Leon has a couple of others, mostly UK shows that I often find I can't follow because of the language barrier.

The three I mentioned have something in common that disturbs me. We watched them, like we did OZ and Dexter, and Damages, thinking we must be sick and depraved to be watching, to be wanting to see more.

It is very disturbing to find one's self routing for the serial killer (Dexter) or the sexier prisoners (OZ) or the less bad bad guys vs the more bad and the most bad bad guys (Breaking Bad). There is something disturbing about one's fascination with ugly power and corruption (House of Cards, Damages) or the power of corruption to break someone (Orange is the New Black).

What does our addiction say about us? What do these dramas say about our world? How much more cynical can we become? Yes, these stories are fiction (mostly), but there is some truth running through them all. And it is scary. They are the New Horror Shows.

I'd hope these TV shows would have a chilling effect - one that helps us put a brake on those whose money and power has got us by the balls, but I don't think that beyond "entertainment" these shows really have an impact. That is sad, if true. I'm not really sure how I feel about watching these Hollywood depictions of the world, but disturbing is the best I can come up with.

For a little less serious tone or when you need a break from the intensity of power mongering and criminality, we've binged on The Glades (eye candy), The Finder (eye candy, but if you make it to the last episode, you will be pleasantly surprised I think), Emily Owens, MD, Bomb Girls, Land Girls, (kind of chick flicks) Orphan Black (sci-fi) and a few others that we watched in previous seasons, United States of Tara, Drop Dead Diva, among others.

OMG we watch a lot of TV. Can't wait till all this snow melts and we can get outdoors a bit more in the evening. We just looked out the window and the 2 feet of snow is now covered with a nice sheet of ice, as is the driveway and the cars.

Back to the TV, I guess.

Gay Popcorn Movies 5 - (not so gay) Marriage Italian Style (1964) "Matrimonio all'italiana"

A Netflix movie. One that is definitely NOT "TRENDING" - god that's a word I hate.

This past Saturday Leon had gone to the camper show in Boston with Dave and I was home with Benni. It was cold, damp, snowy and a rather good day for a Netflix movie. Benni doesn't care what movies we watch - he is so agreeable on that score and doesn't insist on Lassie re-runs - so it was my choice.

I was in the mood for an Italian classic - one I hadn't seen - Marriage Italian Style with Sophia Lauren and Marcello Mastroianni. The movie is in Italian (actually Neapolitan dialect) with English subtitles.

I'd seen Divorce Italian Style and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, many years ago and loved Sophia Loren from the first. Why are women like Sophia Loren admired by gay men so often. Is it because she is her own person and this comes across in her films?

In this movie, Sophia as Filumena, portrays a woman who is strong and determined. Even though Filumena lives in a society where women have strict, very traditional roles, she is able to transcend the confines of the culture, misogyny, and the often limiting roles of prostitute, mistress, mother and wife by turning her subservience into power.

I am reminded of the movie, Before Stonewall and what I saw as the depiction of some gay men who wore the roles they were relegated to like badges of honor. They too turned their oppression into power by proudly being themselves; and their ability to be their own person took power away from their oppressors.

Perhaps these symbols from the past still have plenty to say to us today.

The Palace - A Netflix Recommendation

For those of you who enjoyed Downton Abbey and Upstairs/Downstairs and other such English TV programmes, here is one for you:  The Palace.

The Palace is a British TV series about a fictional contemporary young prince who assumes the throne when papa dies.  The somewhat untraditional English monarch Richard tries to do everything with honesty and openness, but is constantly challenged by events and the schemes devised by both the royals, their trusted staff and the help.

The series is an interesting and entertaining look at a somewhat anachronistic institution.  There is only one season, but Leon and I sat through nearly the whole season one recent rainy afternoon.