TV/Streaming Series or Movie Reviews

Ken Anderson said:
I saw the first two Terminator movies. Are there more than two?
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Egad, probably at least 7. But the story quality of the later ones is... well, not as good as the first two. And some are just weird.

It is hard to say much more about the series without spoiling things. But there are several characters who carry through most of it and several ties back to the events of T2. The episode about John's birthday has some incredibly touching moments.

What brought this series to mind for me here was the current concerns people have over AI. They explore pre- and post-sentient AI topics.
 
Yea Kenny I can review The terminator :)

The firat 3 movies to me are good.. It ended Nicely I thought with 3 and there wasnt any reason for more...
 
Jacob Petersheim said:
I'm not sure how familiar people are with the blockbuster Terminator franchise.

It began with a 1984 cyberpunk sci-fi horror movie The Terminator. This dealt with artificial intelligence, time travel, and more than a little bit of the Frankenstein folly of creating what may destroy us.

The second film was more of a straight-up action flick, following up with Sarah Connor, the protagonist of the first film, and her young teenage son John. It doesn't go into her intervening years much, when she fled to Mexico for "safety" among drug cartels where her treatment there turned her from innocent to a dangerous, feral man hater. This culminated in a belief that one of the Terminator machines would be a better father to her son than any man.

From there the timeline splits (the time travel factor makes this more plausible since it already brought up parallel universe ideas). Most of those movies are enjoyable, but a little dicey in various ways. They never really lived up to the first two.


However one of the post-T2 splits was the short-lived TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles from 2008.

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Here Sarah has worked through a lot and even begun to settle down with a new partner. This is a strong and stable guy, John likes him, and things are looking very good for them.

But the AI from the beginning of the franchise isn't done with Sarah. She made herself its primary threat in every timeline which had prompted it to send back Terminators through time in the first place, setting up the cycle.

Things start slow and then get crazy. She resumes her mission to sniff out and extinguish the developing AI and those responsible in her time. Along the way many things are explored including religious aspects of it all for some characters.

Without giving too much away, there are unexpected developments, such as a future split in AI factions. One faction might actually want a productive truce and partnership with humanity. Another tangent is more elaboration on the creation of Terminators with a cooperative purpose (as we saw in the 2nd movie T2).

There is a lot of exploration of humanity here and parts of the story have a lot of heart. There is also plenty of food for thought, eeriness, and outright horrific stuff here.

It's a favorite. I have it on DVD. I don't think it is free to stream anywhere right now But Amazon and YouTube are offering it for a price.
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I have to look for this one to add to my Terminator library.
 
I'm on the last seasons of CSI: NY with Gary Sinise. 2004. I like Gary Sinise and he is outstanding as Mac Taylor. The series is the typical detective solving murder scenario but I love the scripts. The actors portrayals of their characters are on point and all make the scenes believable to me. I found myself choked with tears, rooting to catch the suspects, and fascinated by all the stuff that goes on in the coroner's lab, examining the body or parts; testing of things collected at the crime scene; and then the powwows. Although it is a serious theme the script does slip in puns, or play on words as a hint of humor.

So I give my review of CSI: NY a rating of 10.
 
Von Jones said:
I'm on the last seasons of CSI: NY with Gary Sinise. 2004. I like Gary Sinise and he is outstanding as Mac Taylor. The series is the typical detective solving murder scenario but I love the scripts. The actors portrayals of their characters are on point and all make the scenes believable to me. I found myself choked with tears, rooting to catch the suspects, and fascinated by all the stuff that goes on in the coroner's lab, examining the body or parts; testing of things collected at the crime scene; and then the powwows. Although it is a serious theme the script does slip in puns, or play on words as a hint of humor.

So I give my review of CSI: NY a rating of 10.
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As an aside on Gary Sinise--he has had a lot of tragedy in his private life, losing his son recently to a terrible disfiguring cancer and his wife is also ill. Gary created a charity for veterans and is very active in fund raising for that cause. He actually posts on Reddit and regular people can talk to him. I think he's an amazing person.
 
We are currently watching, The Gilded Age. Created and written by Julian Fellows. It is really good. I love Christine Baranski in this series. She has that sarcastic humor that I like. :LOL:
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I didn't know she was in that. I used to love her in The Good Wife.
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I liked her in the Good Wife too. I liked her in The Good Fight series also, but I quit watching The Good Fight after the writing got too political for me. In the Gilded Age she plays one of the women from New York that is from old money. Her snarky comments makes me laugh, but I am easily amused by sarcasm.
 
We are currently watching "Mad Men". I think we have watched it before but it has been a long time ago. I get over how everyone is practically a chain smoker in the show. 🚬 I find myself trying to catch my breath with all the smoking.😂 The show is set in the 1960's. It's got it all; smoking, drinking, sex, cheating, men ogling the office girls, stupidity, and more....and lots of Brylcreem. 😀
 
Krystal Shay said:
We are currently watching "Mad Men". I think we have watched it before but it has been a long time ago. I get over how everyone is practically a chain smoker in the show. 🚬 I find myself trying to catch my breath with all the smoking.😂 The show is set in the 1960's. It's got it all; smoking, drinking, sex, cheating, men ogling the office girls, stupidity, and more....and lots of Brylcreem. 😀
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One of my all-time favorite series. I'm surprised that the liberal media doesn't have all kinds of warnings and scenes deleted what with smoking, sexual harassment in the workplace, racism, gay bashing, etc. Of course all those things are what makes the show culturally accurate but the libs don't let that get in the way of censorship.
 
I have been waiting to watch Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning with Tom Cruise. Very intense, the stunts performed by whoever were unbelievable. All the actors were dead on in character. The ending had me with tears in my eyes. If I had known MI:The Final Reckoning was going to be this good I would have paid to see it and not have waited, but it was worth the wait. Excellent!
 

A Boy Called Sailboat is a quirky little movie that you will either love or hate. It's a bit on the artsy side, which I generally don't go for, but I love it.
 
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Last night was the season finale of The Curse of Oak Island. I was hoping it would end this year with them having discovered the treasure that they've been seeking for the last 13 years. Over those years they have discovered over 2,000 artifacts some dating back to the Roman times. Except for a few that could be considered part of the treasure, most were non treasure like, buttons from clothes, ox shoes, parts of tools, nails, chains, hooks, etc.

The revenues from the TV show have allowed them to increase their staff, and have a abbreviated lab with an attendant. They are able to scan material for their composition, x-ray artifacts for hidden details. They have a full-time lab attendant that will research product found, to attach country, date, and use.

They have been drilling 7 ft diameter shafts in search of the treasure. They have pulled up some artifacts out of the shafts but nothing significant, in my judgment. They have been selecting the sites to drill based on a college professor of geology findings of silver and or gold in water beneath the ground in those locations.

Their final end of the year meeting to me was designed to pump up interest in the coming season. I've been watching for 13 years and I will continue to watch until they either find the treasure or give up.

I feel like once they finish with the TV activities there will be books written. Nothing catches the eye more than "behind the scenes" type books. I will probably be one of the first online to get a copy.

This year was a little slow I thought but enjoyable. Hopefully next year will be a little more exciting and fruitful.
 
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