^^ Paramount+ and Showtime are both Viacom properties. As are CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Episode 2 of The Boys
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Shit! Forgot all about that!
"That gum you like is going to come back in style."
I am in season five of Vikings. I dunno how I missed this show when it first came on.....it's on Netflix, and it's really good, if you dig this sort of thing.
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
The Last Kingdom was great, I think...but I agree Vikings is better.
In fact, the battle scene when Ragnar's band attacks Paris--that whole episode....may be one of the most amazing battle scenes on Film I have seen.
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
Just watched the new Gene Wilder documentary on Netflix. Really well done. I would think anyone who liked his movies would enjoy this.
We watched two episodes of the new season of The Bear. Opening episode was Carmy considering all his influences and set-backs. Second episode all the karma from the end of season two comes back to bite him in the ass. What a show.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Black Sails (Seasons 1 – 4) – Netflix: This series aired on Starz network back a few years ago, but it completely passed me by. It is now on Netflix and I can honestly say this is one of the most enjoyable shows I have watched in a long time. The show is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” The story takes place approximately 20 years prior to the events in the book. Black Sails mixes characters from the book like Long John Silver, Billy Bones, Captain Flint, and others with real life historical pirates like Blackbeard, Charles Vain, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and other historical and government officials in Nassau Bahamas. The acting is outstanding, the action sequences excellent and cinematography and attention to detail stunning at times. Unlike many shows, the 4-season arc was well planned out and never meandered. I really liked the way they intertwined historical events with fictional stories. This is historical fiction as it should be done. No, not everything is completely accurate, but not too far off either. My only criticism is of the 4 seasons, season 1 is by far the weakest. The first season is a bit heavy on gratuitous sex and violence that sometimes seems to be there just for shock value. Season 1 was a bit melodramatic in spots too. The show really takes off in season 2 though, and never looks back. Being familiar with “Treasure Island” is not a pre-requisite for enjoying this show, but it does not hurt you know how some of these people end up. If you are at all a fan of pirates, history of the Caribbean or “Treasure Island” it does not get much better than this.
Season 1: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Seasons 2 – 4: 5 out of 5 stars.
midway season 3 on a tear towards the final fourth
Anyone ever heard of Six Degrees of St Elsewhere, aka the Tommy Westphall Theory?
I heard about it this morning on a podcast (Stuff You Should Know) and found it really intriguing. Basically, it stems from the final episode of St Elsewhere, showing an autistic boy named Tommy Westphall who does nothing but stares at a snow globe all day, everyday. The globe contains a recreation of the hospital in St Elsewhere. Tommy, btw, is the son of a construction worker named Donald Westphall who, in the previous seasons of St Elsewhere, was Dr. Donald Westphall in the show. The theory rests on the notion that the St Elsewhere universe was all in the imagination of Tommy.
And given how some of the doctors appeared on an episode of Cheers, it too was all in Tommy's imagination. And since Frasier was first introduced on Cheers and then the spin-off was created, the show Frasier is part of Tommy's imagination.
The connections, usually in the form of characters, continue on and on to other shows that aired on NBC, such as Homicide: Life on the Street and Law and Order (Detective John Munch in both), as well as other networks, with connections via brand names (Morley cigarettes from The X-Files) or corporate names (Yoyodyne from The John Laroquette Show and Weyland-Yutani from Firefly and Red Dwarf).
To date, there are direct and indirect connections to over 440 TV shows.
I find it really interesting but have issues with shows that aired prior to St Elsewhere. Some of the links go all the way back to I Love Lucy and Make Room for Daddy. The logic is lacking, there. For example, if the style of clothing worn by Tommy and his father is clearly from the mid 1980s, how could a show from the '50s be a creation of Tommy's imagination when Tommy is still a boy?
Here's an article on it from Mental Floss: The Tommy Westphall Theory.
Here's a link to a grid created by Australian playwright Keith Gow that shows all the connections: TW Grid
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Season 2 is my favorite, but 3 and 4 keep things humming along. Watching Black Sails inspired me to go back and read "Treasure Island" again. I read it years ago, but had forgotten a lot about it. It is kind of cool re-reading it with the Black Sails backstory of many of the characters in mind.
Binge watched the five available episodes of The Boys over the weekend. Love this show!
A Comfort Zone is not a Life Sentence
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