From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
On 1/5/2026 6:48 AM, The True Melissa wrote:
snip
What did you watch?
I began watching The Neighborhood, a CBS show available on Paramount+.
The premise is that a well-meaning but somewhat clueless white family
moves into a black neighborhood, next to a man who's deeply suspicious
of white people. The pilot mostly just set things up, but it was
entertaining enough that I tried another.
The second episode, "Welcome to the Repipe," was pretty good. Calvin
(the black man with a grumpy attitude) agrees to help Dave with a
plumbing problem, and Calvin brings his adult son. Meanwhile, Dave plays catch with his young son Grover, who stinks at catch. Calvin is not a supportive father -- he's the sort who constantly threatens his
children's lives -- and Dave is the sort who tells Grover that
everything Grover does is wonderful. The fathers end up switching
places, and we watch as Calvin's son does better with some encouragement while Dave's son does better with more truthful feedback. It's not a
complex lesson, but I don't expect great wisdom from comedies.
I think I might have watched one or two episodes but didn't stick with it.
What did everyone else watch?
In the USA, I was up all night watching:
Hell Comes to Frog Town (blu-ray) 1988 post-apocalyptic movie starring
Roddy Piper as a fertile man who is coerced into rescuing a group of
women held captive by mutant frogs so he can impregnate them. I watched
with a director and writer commentary track. They didn't really discuss
what was happening on screen but talked a lot about the making of the
movie and the low budget movie industry in the 80s. They had lots of interesting stories about the making of the movie. They said the
original idea was for the movie to be a franchise similar to what
happened with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But early in the process
their lawyer told them to sign some papers to get the movie made, and
without knowing it, they signed away the rights of the movie to the
studio. They said this sort of thing happened all the time to young
creatives who would sign away rights without realizing it, or it was the
only way to get the movie made. Also, in order for the writer to get to direct the movie, the writer had to share the directing job/credit with
one of the studio head's friends who wanted to get into directing. They originally wanted Tim Thomerson for the lead, but the studio forced
Roddy Piper on them. They said Piper had a full-time acting coach on
set, so they never gave any direction, it was all the acting coach.
They also said they originally wanted Pam Grier for the female lead, but
the studio said no, because the studio didn't want an interracial
couple. There were many great stories about battling the executives to
get the movie made, but probably the best was when execs forced them to
change the frog costume from 4 arms to 2 arms, then one exec asked
couldn't they make the movie without any frogs.
Tank Girl (blu-ray) 1995 post-apocalyptic movie starring Lori Petty as
Tank Girl. Malcolm McDowell chews the scenery as the evil head of a corporation that controls all water on Earth. I think I saw this once
on TV when it first came out. If so, then this is my first time
watching it in the proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The proper aspect ratio
didn't help much. But I gave it a second chance. I also occasionally
sampled the commentary track with the director and Lori Petty but the
bits I sampled were boring. There was one amusing bit on the commentary
that I sampled where they talked about Ice-T, who plays one of the leads
in the movie, refusing to say lines that he felt his character wouldn't
say. In particular there was a clash with the director who tried to
explain to Ice-T she was making a feminist movie and wouldn't approve of
some of his alternative (definitely not feminist) lines he tried to say instead.
Waterworld (4K disc) 1995 post-apocalyptic movie starring Kevin Costner
as a man with gills in a world that's covered in water. I don't think
the people who wrote this movie understand how evolution actually works,
but whatever. A baby isn't going to be born with working gills because
it's born on a boat!!! Alright let me climb off my soap box. Anyway,
Dennis Hopper chews the scenery as the villain who spends the movie
chasing after a young girl Costner is protecting because the girl has a
map to "dry land" drawn on her back. I'm not sure but this is another
one I might not have watched since the 90s. It was OK I guess, in a
turn your brain off and do other stuff while the movie plays in the
background sort of way.
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