Filtering by Tag: hbo

HBO Shows Watched -- It's Florida, Man

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Dramatic re-enactments of true stories from Florida. I watched the first 23-minute-long episode which was about a gentleman whose arm was bitten off by an alligator. He miraculously survived three days in a swamp before finally being rescued by a passer-by.

This is exploitative TV, making fun of dumb, foul-mouthed, poor white people who have had some tragedy befall them. You’re supposed to laugh at them and marvel at their stupidity, I suppose. I wasn’t into it. Pass.

HBO Shows Watched -- Sharp Objects

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Watched episode one of this and wasn’t thrilled… with the amount that Amy Adams drank, there’s no way she would be standing, let alone functioning. She wouldn’t look that good either. Vodka out of the water bottle combined with steady diet of Parliaments means old lady quick.

Amy is a reporter, haunted by some childhood trauma, maybe something to do with a dead sister, and now she’s back in her home town, reporting on some missing / murdered girls … it’s based in Missouri of all places.

This has strong girl vibes… the writer is a woman, the director is a woman, it stars a woman, the co-stars are women. I don’t think I’m going to continue this one. Amy Adams and her remaining weird little sister are definitely pretty, but that’s not enough for me to continue watching.

HBO Shows Watched -- Mare of Easttown

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Winslet has a nice man-face with pretty eyes, but she has sort of a heavy bod like a rugby player. I thought she was a Hollywood nepo baby, but she isn’t .. and she’s British! Anyway she’s a police detective in some dying PA town southwest of Philadelphia (Delaware county). I love the way she pronounced “go” and “home.” I don’t know if that’s a Philly-area accent they were all faking, but it amused me.

I watched ALL seven episodes of this for some reason. It wasn’t terrible, but also not great. There are some red herrings and an ultimate twist. I laughed every time a bottle of beer was cracked open. Yuengling of course, and Rolling Rock.

Winslet’s daughter Siobahn reminded me of Jeanne Naujeck, a pretty girl I went to school with. They made her a lesbian and sort of glossed over the homosexual stuff. She had a hot high yellow girlfriend who attended Haverford College, which is a school like Hamtech, a little Ivy I guess.

Let’s see, what else do I remember about this show? I waited a day to write about it and have forgotten everything, which may be a sign. Oh, Guy Pearce is in it, and it deeply disturbed be how he sucked on a bottle of beer, like he was sucking on one of Kate’s tits, which he no doubt did.

Ah, Lori Ross was also in it… she was Esther Randolph in Boardwalk Empire, but I’ve seen her in something else and still can’t place her. She is a talented actress unlike Kate, who mainly relies on the mouth twist to express emotion, just like the worst actress of all time: Kristen Stewart.

This is not good enough to recommend, yet I inexplicably sat through seven hours of it. Walked on treadmill, not sat, but you know what I mean.

HBO Shows Watched -- C.B. Strike

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Tom Harelip Burke plays a private dick in contemporary London … stories apparently based on J.K. Rowling books she wrote under a pseudonym, and originally a BBC production? … they give old Tom a CGI stump leg (lost in Afghanistan) and a rock star dad … he has a pretty, perky temp who becomes his partner in the business … made it through the first episode, but no interest in continuing since it’s formula TV, and I have 285 Original HBO series to work my way through by year-end.

HBO Shows Watched -- Luck

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I re-watched this recently and it holds up well. It was released in January 2012, but was cancelled after one season since some horses died during the making of it (it’s about horse racing). A David Milch (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, etc.) creation. It’s sort of a pity the show never had a chance to play out.

I liked the horse racing, I liked the crew of misfit degenerate gamblers including Jerry, their brilliant handicapper, who was unfortunately a bad poker player. I liked the Oxy-snorting, hard-drinking, hard-screwing jockeys. I liked grumbling Nick Nolte as a trainer. There were a number of story lines they were developing that looked promising: Turo and the beautiful vet, Ace’s relationship with Joan Allen (“that ship has sailed”), Ace’s grandson and his Jewfro (“you look like a baboon”).

Dustin Hoffman’s backstory isn’t clear though… yes, we know he’s a Jewish mobster, but his past isn’t fleshed out enough. Michael Gambon overplays his evil Robert Maxwell role (but I’ll always love him no matter what because of The Singing Detective). That whole rivarly / partnership gone bad was no doubt going to be revealed in later seasons.

Weronika Rosati, a Pole, plays Jerry’s beautiful poker dealer girlfriend Naomi… she has a great bod to boot. Dennis Farina as the aged muscle.

HBO Shows Watched -- Perry Mason

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This was like a full employment act show for old HBO cast and crew … it had that fake, digitized look to it that I see (and hate) in all the newer TV shows … it’s so heavily manipulated in post-production that it loses its soul. Forced myself to sit through one entire episode and regret it.

HBO Shows Watched -- Deadwood

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Tried to watch this … couldn’t even get through the first half of the first episode, I just wasn’t interested.

2004 — 3 seasons

“It is 1876 and the richest gold strike in U.S. history draws a throng of restless misfits to an outlaw settlement in the Black Hills of South Dakota.”