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I watched Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix recently. It's a four part documentary hosted by Shad, the former host of CBC's q. 

It traces the origins of Hip Hop right through to the Gangster Rap era. It was very good. A lot of stories I know but the way it was pieced together was great. Really put the rise of the entire genre into perspective. The interviews were awesome. 

Even if you're not a Hip Hop fan, it is an interesting story. 

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Someone take the GoT's poster and make the background castle a pic of Winnipeg...

Couple more new season shows I watched.  New series Gone (Bravo), starring Chris Noth.  I love everything Noth does and the cast is good but the writing is ridiculous.  Noth is an FBI agent who rescued a kidnapped child named Kit.  15 years later, Kit now calls herself Kik (because she mis-remembered her name as Kik when found) and is a martial arts expert, gun expert and apparent genius.  She lives with her gay best friend who is an expert hacker and wants to help find other missing kids.

Noth puts together a kidnap task force because apparently the FBI is really bad at finding kidnap victims.  He says they are "well funded" which is true because they have what appears to be a aircraft similar to Air Force One...a super jet outfitted with computers etc.  Noth sends his FBI partner (another former Law & Order cop) Bishop, to recruit Kik, which he does by pretending he needs self defense lessons and then apparently attacking her.  She defeats him and is recruited to the team.

They then arrest her friend for hacking but let him go when he agrees to help.  Because he's the best hacker ever or the FBI can afford a super jet but not an FBI hacker.  Kik proceeds to become the de facto partner of Bishop as they investigate a kidnapping with Noth, the best friend hacker and another agent who has nothing to do, relay info from the superjet. 

Fortunately, they have a fancy Google Maps program which Kik points out cant be FBI because the FBI doesnt have a fancy Google Maps.  Its okay, Bishop is former Military Intelligence and THEY have a fancy Google Maps which Bishop can use...

Lucky for them, Kik appears to be trained in all manner of FBI technique when it comes to clearing a building, making arrests etc.  And the best friend hacker is able to find anything they need on the internet.

I wanted to like Gone.  But man...it sucked.

 

Also, The Deuce (HBO) is back for its second season.  I want to love it.  But I'm struggling to stay invested.  I didnt even watch last week's episode until last night.  The back story is, HBO's series Vinyl had disappointing ratings, they fired the show runner and then cancelled it before the second season in favour of The Deuce (as both series' took place in 1970's New York).  But Vinyl was INFINITELY better than The Deuce.  

Besides the maddening fact that The Deuce' sound is so poorly mixed I have to strain the hear the dialogue over the rest of the audio, its just not that interesting.  Occasionally it seems to be...but its just hard to embrace.  One thing I noticed is, they have really quick cuts between scenes...there is almost too many storylines happening at once and its hard to embrace them.

Its slickly made of course, being HBO and well cast and well acted.  But the gimmick of James Franco playing identical twins seems to be really pointless.  It has a few elements of Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire without the drama or gravitas of those series.  It has the grit and period piece nostalgia of Vinyl without the heart or humor of that series.  And Bobby Cannavale was a better leading man than Franco (and I like Franco).

Tonight, it's Magnum PI!

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14 minutes ago, blueandgoldguy said:

So when are the Dukes of Hazzard and Married with Children coming back?  How about the Cosby Show?

I don't know as long as Modern Family is on the air I don't see Married with Children coming back (unless his character is the one being killed off this season) I mean come on, I heard about that crazy contract FOX had back in the day where the kids couldn't get married or something which can explain the sudden call off in the second to last episode (or rather third to last episode considering that the banned episode eventually aired)

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13 hours ago, Brandon said:

My co workers who checked out Magnum PI said it was super mediocre and won't be tuning back in.  

I was a generic action show with the Magnum named slapped on it and hoping the success of Hawaii 5.0 can give it a boost.  It wasnt Magnum.  If they wanted to do Magnum, do it right and make it a continuation with the original cast in supporting roles.

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For those of you that are curious.....Hillary Clinton is the surprise guest on Murphy Brown's return.....yeah this was not a surprise I think we all knew in fact on tvline when they said there was going to be a surprise guest the first thing I thought was "Yeah but I think Hillary's done enough"

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On ‎2018‎-‎09‎-‎20 at 12:19 PM, The Unknown Poster said:

On CBS All Access.  Another solid investment with a niche audience.  Hopefully SPACE or someone picks it up as I'll give it a shot.  The gf was a big Outer Limits fan, she'd try this too.

If it's anything like the 80's remake of the original series, it'll bomb. 

Edited by SpeedFlex27
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DC's Titans will air internationally on Netflix (I assume that means Canada also).  

New TV Season Review: Manifest.  Finally watched the premiere.  I liked it, despite some ridiculousness.  Honestly, since it borrowed so heavily from the missing MH flight, it was hard not to think about the circumstances around that real life event and want a series (or movie) that was more closely related to that drama.  Im not sure how it would work, but a series set on the plane would be interesting.

As it is, with Manifest, the flight was only a few seconds of minor background to the over-all plot.  It comes across like previous "mystery" shows such as The Event and Flash Forward, all of them trying to capture a little of what Lost was...with Manifest echoing Lost even closer due to the airplane.

But it struggles when its not sure what its supposed to be.  A mysterious character drama?  An FBI procedural?  A cop procedural?  Since its not sure what it is, we only get minor elements of each of those so it never lives up to its promise...or premise really.

I sort of thought, "what could this show be if someone like JJ Abrams was making it"...it has the foundation of something, but every aspect of the show is just a weaker version of what its going for.  It seemed to lack the budget to pay off its premise.  For example, if a flight that had disappeared suddenly re-appeared five years later...or at least, was an unknown aircraft entering New York airspace and claiming to be the missing flight, as if it wouldn't have fighter jets scrambled immediately.  In the show, it was asked to land at a smaller airport.

As if the FBI agent on scene would have the passengers deplaned and standing around and then, when challenged, immediately reveal the issue.  Just rang hollow.  Like, the writers had a goal with the first episode, something something, kidnapped kids something something...whereas the show could have benefited greatly from slowing down the plot, amping up the drama.  Think of the premiere of Lost and that huge crash scene with virtually no dialogue...but just an incredible first episode that essentially the crash and the moments surrounding it.

The passengers refer to being sent home so quickly by the authorities and it probably wont be that easy (ie. they could still be watching, listening, investigating etc).  But the show didnt show us any of that when the premise begged for a high level FBI, CIA, NSA, White House perspective.

Having said that, Im intrigued (but Im a sucker for airplane mysteries).  I like the cast.  So, its still on the PVR.

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