Great song

Finally watched The Last Dance off my DVR (yeah, yeah - I know, that was so 2020). It was quite good. I like how they wove the threads with each of the first few eps about one of the major charcters: MJ, Pippen, Rodman, Jackson. They wove in each of the previous titles, too, though I don't quite get why they did the first win over Utah in the ECF Indiana episode, except that maybe they figured there wasn't enough time to cover it in the final episode and work in denouement. It was worth watching for me.

SI

Has anyone seen the Gladbeck hostage crisis documentary on Netflix? For whatever reason, I've never heard of it. The whole ordeal lasted 54 hours and started on my 17th birthday, so you'd think I would have some awareness of it at that age.

Anyway, the documentary is entirely made up of video, photos and audio as the events unfolded. No interviews, no commentary, nothing. At the end, they provide a few subsequent details as far as the hostage takers and resulting investigations into the police's bungling of the entire thing.

It's really unbelievable to watch the police repeatedly screw up the situation with poor decisions and inaction. In 1988, we basically had the equivalent of what Twitter might have looked like because the cops let anyone and everyone have access to the hostage takers. They were repeatedly interviewed by tons of press during the whole thing, and the cops let press and onlookers control nearly every crime scene these guys drove to. It would have been comical if not for the fact that 2 hostages and a cop died. The press, given so much leeway, went overboard with the access. At times, the whole thing played out more like a rock band tour than a hostage situation.

Netflix Resident Evil series out today!

I didn't see this one coming and a total welcome surprise. Something to do this weekend while playing Solasta.

I started it and realized it was not something that I could just casually watch. I will probably take a look at it this weekend.

After you watch it, google some background on the entire story because the documentary misses some of the worst of the police screw-ups (likely because it was working just with real-time video/audio). It's possible I missed some of the references in the audio communications, but I couldn't believe some of the stuff I read about that I didn't get from watching the documentary.

I watched it while flying back from Hawaii last weekend and it's still stayed with me a fair bit. Unsettling, unbelievable, tragic.

I think it is more because the main theme was less Police failure but the unique role of the media in the events. It's not so much missing stuff (and as you say the way they chose to present it is limiting as to how much context you can give for an event like this*) but simply had a different aim.

It's not a recount of the hostage crisis and it's aftermath but a replay of it as it was seen by germans at the time through the eyes of the media that not only took on the role of (way to close) 'observer' (operating more like embeds) but even becoming the go-between in terms of communicating and even an active participant. Both in specific actions and generally by fuelling the perpetrators. The goal of the documentary isn't really to explain it or frame it but to replay the event as such as it was presented to the german public at the time. Which makes sense when you consider that hostage takings (and adjacent crimes like active shooter situations) are much rarer than in the US, so it hasn't got quite the 'cultural significance' where it would seem absolutely crucial to frame the police response. They could have very much done this as there was quite a lot of coverage concentrating on police both at the time and in the aftermath (public hearings, Press conferences etc). One could of course have drawn a straight line back to Police response/tactics when dealing with RAF crimes like the Schleyer abduction (there's bound to be english language or subtitled stuff on this as well, the whole RAF period is worth learning about) or even germanys first bank robbery involving hostages in Munich 1971 or the hostage crisis at the Olympic Games. But it simply wasn't the aim to do so.

If you don't know it be sure to watch "LA 92", which uses a similar style but uses source material for narration whereas Gladbeck makes the source material it's subject, If that makes sense. LA 92 puts big emphasis on police response on a micro and on a macro level which is why that documentary embeds it in a larger context of events leading up to it and the aftermath. Simply because the way police (and the Justice system and Media) handled it then has a lot of relevance to later and current event, whereas in the case of Gladbeck it's just not sth that is all that relevant in this way for Germany (and in general, this being an isolated crime and not part of a bigger social issue).
It's simply much more relevant how it shaped and fundamentally changed Media/reporting, that's it's 'legacy', but also how those lessons faded to a degree in light of a very much current debate on media standards and behaviour as well as the way that certain actors (mainly from the Right) chose to blur the lines between reporting and participating.

This more conventional documentary concentrates a bit more on the police and the aftermath (of course it was a big issue with the RAF crimes and the polices role there still very much present): HD Doku 1988 Das Geiseldrama von Gladbeck - YouTube

There's also a pretty good TV Mini series on it called "54 hours" in it's english language version that is available on amazon prime for the US, i think.

Finished the 8 episodes, ended on a cliff hanger so there'll be more. The first 6 or so was okay (the backstory to the 2 sisters got a little too whiny for me) and halfway believable (in a zombie genre).

Then the last couple got ridiculous with big mutations and stupid decision making.

But beggars can't be choosers. I'll watch pretty much anything with zombies or like.

(And apparently, season 3 for the Korean zombie flick "The Kingdom" hasn't been approved by Netflix)

Got a chance to binge The Bear last week. My son had watched it and recommended we give it a watch. The episodes are short but I really like a lot of things about the series. An Italian beef restaurant in Chicago, what's not to like? The actors were very good, liked the story, loved the way it was shot, the way the music was used. Overall a cool series I would recommend giving a watch. However if the F word bothers you this is not one for you to watch.

Really unique show that I enjoyed and also got anxiety from watching.

This one has been a slow burn for me, but a friend of mine who grew up in the restaurant industry said it's super accurate

Yeah having grown up in the Chicago suburbs and visiting quite a few places like the restaurant in the movie it does bring back memories.

Rewatched The Silence on Netflix. Wouldn't mind a sequel.

And since I was on the dystopian future kick, I found The Giver under "movies like". I really enjoyed it, it had an original idea (at least to me). Give it a shot.

I honestly don't remember the super duper mart from FO3 but am definitely excited about the Fallout series. I can't quite imagine the power armor at work in the series but really hope the series is faithful to the game.

We've got Prime and will be keeping it because of the free shipping. I don't think Prime's quality is as good as Netflix right now but it's definitely improving.

The Giver was fucking horrible. Like, I try to give film adaptations space to create their own version... but it so completely butchered the novella that it was a lie. And a bad movie in its own right.

Didn't know it was a book so didn't compare.

It contained elements of Soylent Green & Logan's Run, a couple of my favorite B grade movies (yes, I have them in my BR collection). The only thing I didn't like was the ending, I'm wondering "okay, how did that happen".

You got me curious now, may have to get the Kindle version.

It's one of the very first sizable encounters for many players, probably one of the most memorable fights in the whole game for me, at least from my first playthrough.

Northeast of Megaton, Northwest of Grayditch, the parking lot outside is where many meet the kid who triggers the fight-the-fireants quest.

It was also the site for one of the first wtf bugs I ever saw in the game. The launch-NPC-into-the-sky-like-a-rocket bug to be exact

Big thumbs up for The Rehearsal from Nathan Fielder. On HBO Max

It's a quick read YA novel that gets used in a lot of middle schools as an introduction to dystopian lit. (Also got expanded into a trilogy FWIW). Completely different in tone, structure, and pacing from the movie

The Boys season 3 is more of The Boys in a good way. Probably my favorite season so far. I can definitely see why it pissed off Trump supporters.

Watched the teasers for the LOR prequel "Rings of Power". It looks great and will be released on Sept 2.

Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power Release Date Details

It's costing Amazon quite a bit of money, the rights ($250M) and season one ($462M) but think it'll pay off. Season two has already been approved.

"The Gray Man" was fun shoot 'em up movie.

Yeah, a little too unbelievable when compared to Bourne/Bond but perfect believable when compared to John Wick.

Amusing nerd moment: There's an argument breaking out in the main AP Lit Teachers FB group over whether Ozark is a vibe of The Great Gatsby or Macbeth.

New season of Car Masters:Rust to Riches on Weds on Netflix. It’s one of my favorite fake reality shows about car restoration. Plus Constance is fun to look at.

Anyone used Curiosity Stream before? It's a documentary-based streaming site, it appears. I'm looking for more reality-based alternatives and wondering if the content is worth it.

A friend just introduced me to it. At first glance has a lot of really cool things and he loves it.

For $20 a year for HD and a Samsung TV app, I'll probably do it. It looks good

Watched St. Vincent on Netflix the other night. Solid movie. Bill Murray is a grumpy Vietnam vet who befriends his new neighbor's son. It co-stars Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts. Was worth the time to watch it.

A little behind the times but I watched season one of Russian Doll and it was really very good. Came close to turning it off in the first 10 minutes, but once it got over that hump it was worth the watch.

So it sounds like HBO Max might be cutting everything and shutting down.

Well, merged into Discovery+ seems more likely, right?

Which is fine with me, given that Verizon gave me a free year of Discovery+.

Merging seems all but certain at this point but also with a new focus on UNscripted programming.

Any HBO Max program survivors -- and rumors seem to suggest there could be a few but only a few -- are likely to move over to the HBO main brand.

I have free HBO Max from somewhere (AT&T?), but I never use it. My kids might, don't know.

It’s too bad. HBO Max is one of the best streaming services. Some really great shows on there: Peacemaker, Hacks, Station 11, Somebody Somewhere, Righteous Gemstones to name a few. It, also, has a great library of movie titles. It’s one of my go-to services if I am just looking for something random to watch, which is really quite rare. I typically only sit down to watch TV when I have something specific to watch.

HBO Max is right up there with Netflix in terms of quality content. It's a personal must have for me. It's better than Hulu and Amazon imo.

If I don't get a third season of Warrior because of this, I will turn into the Joker.

Also if people haven't seen it, Warrior is an incredible show. Made by the Banshee showrunner (if you want to know what kind of style the show is) and based on some writings of Bruce Lee.

It's late 1800's San Francisco with tons of martial arts fighting.

It's official. HBOMax and Discovery+ is becoming Warner Brothers Discovery.

I wonder if that freebee from AT&T is going away, or if they'll do something to make up for losing it?

I've heard of 90 Day Fiance, but there is apparently a 90 Day Fiance Universe they were promoting. Guessing that's other shows under the same brand?

So will HBO shows like Sopranos and such be available under Warner Brothers Discovery? They sure as fuck like to make streaming as confusing as possible.

We’ll have to see how it all shakes out, but at the moment, I’m not a fan. I have zero interest in anything on Discovery+ and do not feel like paying for it. Currently, I get HBO Max as part of my HBO subscription, if that carries over, I guess that’s fine. We’ll see.

I'm really confused by the move. So they have a combined 92 million subscribers, but 70 million of those are HBO Max and 22 million are Discovery. So the solution is to rebrand it as Discovery and cancel most of the HBO Max shows. And they said they expect to add 25 million subscribers in the next couple years.

I get cutting budgets and shows. I thought releasing big budget movies straight to streaming was a dumb move. But I legitimately don't know how they expect to grow the service by eliminating the popular stuff and increasing the less popular stuff.

HBO has historically been against streaming (at one point their CEO called it a fad) and it looked like that had turned around with a change in leadership and the HBO Max launch, but it sounds like the new leadership is going back to the old school thinking.

It sounds like they are committed to streaming, they just think it'll be reality shows people want instead of scripted stuff.

How did I miss this.

The fight choreography in that clip is reminiscent of Matrix: Reloaded. I'm a fan

SI

It better or I'll riot

No wire-fu.

I love good MA movies that keeps all the fake stuff to minimum. So yeah, I'm a fan also.

But it was clean and crisp and well choreographed

SI

I really liked the new movie Prey. My second favorite Predator movie behind the original.

1 > Prey > 2 > Predators >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Predator

Not counting the Alien movies.

You don't need to see any of the previous ones to enjoy it, although there is a clever Easter egg in there from the 2nd movie. I like the idea of dropping Predator into various times in human history. Ancient Rome, Japanese Samurais, Nazi Germany, etc.