So...I'm Watching This Show

There's no doubt that Annihilation left a mark on us. Whether it was a good mark or a bad mark is yet to be determined, but it certainly inspired us to go back and analyze some of director Alex Garland's other work. Ex Machina is an easy choice, but we'll probably talk about that on another podcast, so we're going to dig into Sunshine, Danny Boyle's 2007 foray into space sci-fi which Garland wrote. The film fall's apart a bit in the third act, not unlike Cloverfield Paradox, which then triggered us to just go ahead and chat about all three Cloverfield films, their occasionally rocky endings, and this trend in Hollywood of buying a script and retrofitting it to work in an existing franchise. Tune in as Tristan and Layla discuss some marquee sci-fi films from the last decade and why they do and don't work, and we may find out something about ourselves along the way.

This week we found ourselves watching some really great comedy! Our episode opens with a chat about Bad Moms which we LOVED, despite its middling sequel. Any time a bunch of ladies get together in a comedy ensemble we are easily entertained. After a brief chat about classic but canceled Kitchen Confidential, we wax poetic about Game Night, which had both of us rolling in the aisles at the theater. It was smart, and riotous, and surprisingly well shot for a comedy; something you don't see every day.

This episode marks the inaugural episode of our Marvel Re-watch series! We're very excited! Can't you tell?!?! Our plan is to watch (roughly) on MCU film per week starting the first week of the year, which we nailed, and that will leave us finishing Black Panther the week before Infinity War comes out. It sounded like a good plan and a good excuse to watch 18 of our favorite movies with a group of friends so we did it.

When we talk about Annihilation, it may at times seem like we didn't like it. We assure you, we did. But boy were we SAVAGED by one of the scenes in this movie and left with a night of tossing and turning and nightmare fueled hallucinations. Well maybe not that extreme, but this was scary. No joke. After a brief intro detailing what Kristin has seen so far of CW's The 100, we chat spoiler-free about Annihilation for about 25m before delving into the spoiler zone. We tried to lighten the mood a bit before wrapping up so we chatted about the new Heather's show, which does not impress in its pilot, but supposedly course corrects quickly.

Hold on tight, folks, this episode is a weird one. It's not weird for us to talk about TV shows. Heck, it's where the title came from. But Channel Zero: Butcher's Block on SYFY is WEIRD MAN! There's a chick who wears oven mitts to keep herself from stabbing people with scissors, a white staircase to nowhere, and, well, Holland Roden. It's wild. Our deep dive this week is into Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and spoiler alert: neither of us liked it very much at all.

From the incredible set design, to the vibrant, colorful costumes, all the way down to the cinematography, there sure is a lot to like about Black Panther. And man, can we take a minute to talk about Angela Bassett's golden Medusa head earrings? I mean, where's the sequel for those. Black Panther is a top-tier Marvel movie at it's base level. It deftly tells the story of a superhero superheroing, and it does it with a visual panache not seen in most of the franchise (Guardians and Thor 3 excluded). Looking even a little bit deeper though reveals just how much meaning this film with have with not just for people of color, but for women as well.

In this episode of So...I'm Watching this Show, it's finally time to start talking about Kristin's all-time favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After a somewhat lengthy intro chat about just how damn good Syfy's The Magicians is (HUGE Spoiler Alert), W & K breakdown season 1 of Buffy with a focus on some of the particularly impactful episodes. They tackled issues of gender and rape so early on in the show that it really set the tone for the following 6 seasons which never shied away from taking on social issues.

The Shape of Water is a great example of a movie made by people making all the right decisions at all the right moments and coming together to create a modern-day masterpiece. We LOVED The Shape of Water, like LOVED it! The acting, directing, set design, music, everything is perfect, making this extremely well told love story one of our favorites of the year. Come hang out with us while we GUSH about just how much we loved it and everyone involved in The Shape of Water on today's episode of So...I'm Watching This Show!

Today we’re talking about I, Tonya and the Florida Project. We decided that pairing the two movies about poor people getting dumped on by society would be a great idea. Very uplifting and happy good times! Jokes aside, I, Tonya was a lot of fun despite their ability to make light of all the domestic abuse, and Florida Project brought it’s own light-heartedness in the form of child-like wonder. We both found things we liked and things we didn’t in both films and we’re excited to talk about them with you on this episode of So…I’m Watching this Show!

SHOW NOTES!

 

Ep 16 The Florida Project/I, Tonya . Listen now at soimwatching.com . . 1. Florida Project 2. Angel Woodside 3. La to Vegas 4. Me and Rhiannon at the Enzian 5. Willem “Bobby” Defoe 6. Fires don’t start kids 7. Tonya! 8. Allison Janney 9. Margot Montage 10. Nancy stank . . . #TheFloridaProject #ITonya

A post shared by So… I’m Watching This Show (@soimwatchingthisshow) on Feb 8, 2018 at 10:48pm PST

mother! is an undoubtedly polarizing movie for a ton of reasons. The filmmaking itself is enough to put people off, but it's also full of nightmarish imagery, religious overtones, and Ed Harris clogging toilets with rats that he's presumably hocked up from his ailing lungs. It's not for everyone, but it was DEFINITELY for us. Well, it was definitely for Wil. Kristin isn't quite as enamored of the film as you'll find out this episode though she did enjoy it. mother! recently was announced as the winner of the Golden Razzie award for worst film of the year some crazy how, presumably haivng been voted on by dopes who've never seen an objectively well-made film in their lives. Regardless, we enjoyed it and we'd love for you to hang out with us while we chat and debate about mother! Please comment below with any thoughts you have about the film. We're quite interested in everyone's take.