Thank you for the heartfelt tribute to the great James Earl Jones. I was thrilled to see you praise his Field of Dreams performance--it was truly Oscar-worthy. What an amazing, fully realized character Terence Mann was. The shot of him caught in the van headlights as Costner turns to leave Boston gives me chills every time.
If my buddies and I go to a baseball game, there's a better than 50% chance one of us will ask "What do you want?" at the concession stand and launch into his whole speech.
It's kind of crazy to to think about the fact that we've had so many lave-action shows set in and around the DC universe over last decade and a half and Batman has yet to make a real appearance. Ian Glenn makes a few appearances as old, retired Bruce Wayne in Titans, Kevin Conroy has a scene as old, psychotic, crippled Bruce in CWs version of Crisis and there's what's essentially a Batman cameo in the final episode of Gotham, but I think that's it.
Superman made actual appearances on Supergirl fairly early on and then was spun off into his own, quite good, show. But Batman just seems to be verboten on live-action TV for some reason. Very odd indeed.
There was also one season of ‘Gotham Knights’, which springboarded off Bruce Wayne’s murder. I did hear that there was supposed to be a smaller crossover, the first after the ‘Crisis’ jam, between ‘Batwoman’ and the awfully named ‘Superman & Lois’ that dove into the search for Bruce in that shared world, but it didn’t happen due to covid, and ‘Superman’ ended up set in its own parallel continuity. ETA: While that show has its problems it’s easily the best live-action version of the character in decades.
I didn’t find ‘The Batman’ anything special and rolled my eyes so hard at the “Bruuuuuuuce Wayyyyyyyne” scene that just remembering it hurts. Colin Farrell’s Penguin is an impressive enough technical feat but, man, he seems made for Harvey Dent. While I’ll almost certainly at minimum sample ‘The Penguin’, I fail to understand the creation of such a series without even fleeting appearances of Batman in the background; also, it seems weird to premiere it on a Thursday night and then repeat that first episode in its Sunday time-slot debut while holding off the second episode for the next Sunday, although I definitely prefer that extreme to the one where three episodes drop at once to start.
Glad I'm not the only one to find The Batman underwhelming. I was promised Batman as a detective, but his biggest deductive leap in that film was....look under the rug.
Pattinson's performance didn't really feel to me like he was really playing Batman. It was more like he was playing a guy who dresses up as Batman.
It's funny you didn't love seeing Farrell disappear into that fat suit and mask because apparently he was in pure misery wearing it every day by the time the first season was wrapping up. Considering his shooting schedule for the film was limited, he probably didn't realize how just onerous that process would be as the main character in an 8 episode series.
Alan, do you share or have similar concerns as Sam Adams & other critics about HBO relying more on franchises moving forward? Or that this will just be the norm in all these streaming services?
(Series relating to Dune, It, & Green Lantern are all coming in 2025.)
We’re enjoying The Penguin. I’m kind of surprised, but it’s enjoyable and a crime drama that isn’t too high stakes is a nice diversion. I think Colin Farrell is great actually, and I like the actor who plays Victor.
As you finished the Twilight Zone, I'm not sure you seen this 1994 CBS special of two previously unproduced segments written by Serling. (DVD is only available in Region-2.)
They’ll be mentioned, but I doubt I’ll dive too deeply into them, other than maybe the episodes based on his scripts, or the sequels like the one with adult Bill Mumy. There’s way too much stuff that he directly made to get distracted by legacy projects.
Watched Three Women when it aired in Australia and had read the book. It’s hard not to recommend for Betty’s performance alone. The second episode focused on her was something else, I think about it all the time - even scenes of her just in conversation are thrilling. Would definitely have preferred a movie just focused on her character.
Wild to me that she’s not “movie star” famous, but I think she’ll get her due.
The book felt very uneven too, but Maggie’s taboo story was the interesting one to me at the time.
Great tribute to James Earl Jones -- I can't believe he is gone. In addition to all his iconic voice acting work, my favorite performances were Coming to America and Conan the Barbarian. The latter performance was a bit campy, but definitely burned into my memories growing up as one of my fave film villains.
Thank you for the heartfelt tribute to the great James Earl Jones. I was thrilled to see you praise his Field of Dreams performance--it was truly Oscar-worthy. What an amazing, fully realized character Terence Mann was. The shot of him caught in the van headlights as Costner turns to leave Boston gives me chills every time.
If my buddies and I go to a baseball game, there's a better than 50% chance one of us will ask "What do you want?" at the concession stand and launch into his whole speech.
In our house, it's the scene in Mann's apartment that's most quoted.
It's kind of crazy to to think about the fact that we've had so many lave-action shows set in and around the DC universe over last decade and a half and Batman has yet to make a real appearance. Ian Glenn makes a few appearances as old, retired Bruce Wayne in Titans, Kevin Conroy has a scene as old, psychotic, crippled Bruce in CWs version of Crisis and there's what's essentially a Batman cameo in the final episode of Gotham, but I think that's it.
Superman made actual appearances on Supergirl fairly early on and then was spun off into his own, quite good, show. But Batman just seems to be verboten on live-action TV for some reason. Very odd indeed.
There was also one season of ‘Gotham Knights’, which springboarded off Bruce Wayne’s murder. I did hear that there was supposed to be a smaller crossover, the first after the ‘Crisis’ jam, between ‘Batwoman’ and the awfully named ‘Superman & Lois’ that dove into the search for Bruce in that shared world, but it didn’t happen due to covid, and ‘Superman’ ended up set in its own parallel continuity. ETA: While that show has its problems it’s easily the best live-action version of the character in decades.
I didn’t find ‘The Batman’ anything special and rolled my eyes so hard at the “Bruuuuuuuce Wayyyyyyyne” scene that just remembering it hurts. Colin Farrell’s Penguin is an impressive enough technical feat but, man, he seems made for Harvey Dent. While I’ll almost certainly at minimum sample ‘The Penguin’, I fail to understand the creation of such a series without even fleeting appearances of Batman in the background; also, it seems weird to premiere it on a Thursday night and then repeat that first episode in its Sunday time-slot debut while holding off the second episode for the next Sunday, although I definitely prefer that extreme to the one where three episodes drop at once to start.
Glad I'm not the only one to find The Batman underwhelming. I was promised Batman as a detective, but his biggest deductive leap in that film was....look under the rug.
Pattinson's performance didn't really feel to me like he was really playing Batman. It was more like he was playing a guy who dresses up as Batman.
If you're taking the train, do NOT get off in Willoughby
It's funny you didn't love seeing Farrell disappear into that fat suit and mask because apparently he was in pure misery wearing it every day by the time the first season was wrapping up. Considering his shooting schedule for the film was limited, he probably didn't realize how just onerous that process would be as the main character in an 8 episode series.
which is a shame because the pilot is one of the most boring things i have ever watched. what a waste of his and cristin milioti's talent.
Alan, do you share or have similar concerns as Sam Adams & other critics about HBO relying more on franchises moving forward? Or that this will just be the norm in all these streaming services?
(Series relating to Dune, It, & Green Lantern are all coming in 2025.)
I don't love it, no. But it's not just HBO. It's everyone. Even FX is doing it as much as possible, now with Noah Hawley doing an Alien show.
We’re enjoying The Penguin. I’m kind of surprised, but it’s enjoyable and a crime drama that isn’t too high stakes is a nice diversion. I think Colin Farrell is great actually, and I like the actor who plays Victor.
As you finished the Twilight Zone, I'm not sure you seen this 1994 CBS special of two previously unproduced segments written by Serling. (DVD is only available in Region-2.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFRaCCk47V4
P.S. Will the various TZ revivals be part of the book or are they are too unrelated for it?
They’ll be mentioned, but I doubt I’ll dive too deeply into them, other than maybe the episodes based on his scripts, or the sequels like the one with adult Bill Mumy. There’s way too much stuff that he directly made to get distracted by legacy projects.
Watched Three Women when it aired in Australia and had read the book. It’s hard not to recommend for Betty’s performance alone. The second episode focused on her was something else, I think about it all the time - even scenes of her just in conversation are thrilling. Would definitely have preferred a movie just focused on her character.
Wild to me that she’s not “movie star” famous, but I think she’ll get her due.
The book felt very uneven too, but Maggie’s taboo story was the interesting one to me at the time.
Great tribute to James Earl Jones -- I can't believe he is gone. In addition to all his iconic voice acting work, my favorite performances were Coming to America and Conan the Barbarian. The latter performance was a bit campy, but definitely burned into my memories growing up as one of my fave film villains.
Help, My Son is a Nerd!
Oooh, Binghamton. I grew up down the road from there in Elmira. Enjoy the event.
Alan - I detected the slightest hint of sarcasm when you mentioned my upstate hometown. Don’t worry…no offense taken.
My wife is a Binghamtom alum! I've been there many times. Just never in winter. I'm told the weather this weekend is going to be gorgeous!