Sept-Oct ’25 Media

A fair amount of this media was consumed on vacation (either on International Flights or while travelling) and some of the things I watched were because there weren’t many options.

Recommended

The Diplomat (S3) — The episodes ride the “West Wing Long Arc” Vibe train as far as it can go …. (I never mentioned Season 2, but it also tugged on the West Wing Fan Service rope until the butler answered).

The Great British Baking Show — Watching the newest season, never seen it before. There is something wonderful about the old school British show style of “people who are very good at what they do, doing it, with nothing but pride at stake.”

The Perfect Neighbor — A documentary mainly via police body cam footage of the escalation between neighbors that eventually leads to a shooting and death. Not an easy watch, but also one of the more compelling documentaries I’ve seen (mainly because most documentaries are just “talking heads” and “stock images” while this is almost all “found footage” and no narrator to tell you what to think).

Sinners — I had high expectations, and this didn’t live up to them; but it was still good and even if it had been worse I think it would have been a noble failure. Discussing why it didn’t live up to it would involve spoilers. Also, the “One Day Earlier” caption made me sigh out loud even though I knew it was coming (and totally obvious).

Stop Making Sense (A24 re-release cut from last year) — I’ve watched and recommended the original, and watched the re-release because its a perfect rewatch on a red eye flight (as I’m mainly listening to music). This edit also showed much more of the crew working between (and during) songs, which was nice. Whether you care enough to rewatch is up to you.

Wednesday — I resisted this, figuring it would be derivative and hacky. Derivative? Yes. It’s a sequel, and the plot is a mystery set in a supernatural school. But well done and well acted (although I did not like Luis Guzman’s/Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gomez and Morticia. As they were a bit one-note, but that might have been screen time). Props to Emma Myers for channeling the still-living spirit of Alyson Hannigan for her role as Enid.

Maybe

A House of Dynamite — OK procedural (on the US responding to a rogue nuclear strike). I didn’t like the format (of showing the scene three times in a row from various POVs) and also their view of how the US would respond is … odd. (More would be spoiler-y).

I Like Me — A documentary on John Candy. Seems like a genuinely nice guy.

The Longest Day — OK if you are interested in the topic. Very static & slow, as is typical if B&W films. But a few battle scenes were impressive (state of the very-limited art: long takes with Crane shots). Also I fired up Wikipedia (and Chat GPT) to find the inaccuracies … despite the look it is not a true documentary and embellished a few points.

Sound of Music — I’d never seen this (despite my sister playing it on VHS every day for … possibly years) but it was available to watch on the cruise during a sea-day and Tyler Cowen had recently sung the praises of the 60th anniversary re-release. It drags in the second act, and you already know all the (good) songs, but still of interest. Honestly if you haven’t already seen it, you probably don’t need to, but it was good. A factoid I learned after reading a bit … The Sound of Music’s initial theatrical release in America lasted four and a half years. (” In some cities in the United States, the number of tickets sold exceeded the total population”)

Under the Skin — Weird SF movie that only got made because Scarlett Johansson gets naked. But it’s almost a silent movie … Scarlett is an alien, but speaks only to deceive and lure men to their fate (despite the S.J. nakedness it is a role reversal — she is clearly a predator and males are prey). Almost nothing is explained. Good soundtrack. Good cinematography (the visuals are stunning, and I’m not referring to the nudity). I’m planning on reading the book.

The Verdict — Never seen this, a typical slow burn 70s film (although it was ’82). David Mamet is the screenwriter but the dialogue was not his typical earlier stuff. Solid, though.

Maybe Not

Crime Scene Zero — Another Korean reality/game show (like Devil’s Plan). It’s a Murder Mystery Party where five players (actors?) roleplay the suspects, with another playing the detective (who is not guilty). Great … in theory. The sets are custom built/staged for the murder, have a ton of clues, shows the body, crime scene, etc. (They appear to sometimes have puzzles/activities that can be triggered). Players rush around to uncover more clues. Thankfully, they wear costumes and refer to each other by character name (“Pretty Boy X,” “Village Chief Y”, “Shaman Z”, “Doctor A”) which really lets you follow along.

But the bad: A) Clues are written in Korean. The dub sometimes provides the gist, but some important stuff is missed. B) After evidence gathering there’s a long “everyone gathers to argue/point fingers” and its melodramatic and over-acted (The players sometimes break character, which is often quite funny, though I suspect there are in jokes you’ll miss unless you know who they are). C) The editing suffers the same problem as Devil’s Plan of repeating the same scene three times and being semi-deceptive, which is terrible in a murder mystery. D) The rules of the game aren’t explained until the end of first murder.

Also (at least in the first episode) the amount of complications (both for the guilty and innocent) is ridiculous. There are too many schools of red herrings swimming around. In the real world each innocent (sometimes with air quotes around that word) would already be in jail before the murder was solved.

Each murder takes ~2.5 hours to resolve (split over 2 episodes). I stopped after one mystery, but the idea might be worth it for someone.

Idiocracy — Not good at all, but annoyingly prescient.

The Loneliest Whale — I mean, I finished it, but this is one of those documentaries I mentioned above where it’s talking heads (like the director producer talking about how he is interested in the subject and how he feels) and footage of people setting up to do stuff. And then edited to drag things out. “This movie could have been a one line email.”

Turned off / Not recommended

Companion — Pleased to see this on a long flight, as I’d vaguely wanted to watch it after the trailer, but I turned it off after 15 minutes due to the cringey banter and general lack of interest. If the trailer really interests you it might be worth watching.

Haunted Hotel — Animated series “by the creators¹ of Rick and Morty” yet I don’t recognize the name. Seemed like a bog standard sitcom taking advantage of the fact that its animated to have ghosts and stuff and just riffs on existing stuff. (Oh, you have a sassy robot? psycopathic bunny-ear wearing 3rd grader? demonic child!). But it forgot to be funny. Not one laugh in the first fifteen minutes.

The Day The Earth Blew Up — A recent Loony-tunes film (Porky+Daffy) I tried to watch on a flight. A chuckle or two in the first 15 minutes, but no guffaws. I bailed.

1. The more accurate tag appears to be “A writer of one Rick and Morty episode, but a story editor on an season.” To be fair, it was a good episode and good season … ︎