Sunday!
So my friends have been raving about this show on the television about some kind of chef and the show is called “Baking Bread”. They tell me that the writing is really tight, the characters are really strong, and that I should enjoy it if I only gave it a chance. Apparently, the entire series is now available.
Edit: I was, apparently, unclear on some of the details. In any case, the show is pretty good. I’m only about 3 episodes in but, so far, I want to say that they use an admirable amount of narrative restraint and economy. For example, when they’re establishing that the family is having some, seriously, financial troubles, the wife asks the husband “did you use the Mastercard at Staples last month for 15 dollars” when he affirms, she says “The Mastercard is the one we *DON’T* use.”
They do a good job of trusting you to not have needed her to say “you know that we’re having financial troubles!” Now, you may remember watching the show at the time and thinking “he works a second job at the car wash! He’s putting up with so much crap! I’m not saying that they beat you over the head with it but it’s not like they’re being *SUBTLE*.”
I guess I’ve reached the point where I see not beating you over the head with it as, effectively, subtlety.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
I just started watching the new Sleepy Hollow series. I promised myself I would give it four shows before I made a decision. The premier was pretty darn good. The second show was predictable. We’ll see what #3 holds for me.
Also in broadcast TV viewing…The Good Wife is killing it. The writing and plot lines are so darn good this season.
Going to try to catch 12 Years A Slave soon. I’ve been told it’s hard to watch but in a good way.Report
I am loving the Goldfinch so far but barely cracked it open. I’d like to read more but my hangover needs to go away.
I also picked up a book called Paper: An elegy.
This week I finished Detroit City is the Place to Be. A very interesting but grim book on the many problems of the Motor City and how things got this away including decades of racial strife which still continue, etc.Report
I’m reading Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal.Report
That sounds perfect for my wife, Thanks!Report
Are you saying your wife belongs in the kitchen?
😉Report
Ha! No, my wife is a fantastic cook, but she doesn’t really like “cookbooks” as she has a rather large library of them, and reads them like I read fiction. What she really enjoys are books on the theory of eating, history of eating, etc. This is the last book that I got her: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0749942150/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1B59MV7TN3UE1&coliid=I1NCC5P1617VYQReport
As I managed to throw out my back getting dressed yesterday (don’t try this at home Kids) I get to lay on my back and pretty much do nothing. Which is a problem, as we are moving in approx a month. So, watching Community, and rereading Patric Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts. This is probably the best European travel book ever written, so I highly recommend it.Report
So I finished Burn Notice this week. I cannot believe they actually got my eyes to well up on the last episode. I am not hugely sentimental when watching TV. I think it’s a combination of something particularly well done, as well as fatherhood increasing my general sentimentality (particularly when it involves things that happen with, to, and around children).Report
Finished the first season of B5. Started Newsroom. At this point Aaron Sorkin is awfully predictable. But I still <3 it.
The most enjoyable book I read this week was Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays.Report
PS Chelsea Campbell’s The Trials of Renegade X was also really delicious.Report
Oh, I like Zadie Smith.Report
I have given up almost completely on the old networks. I watch Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Dr Who, Being human (UK), Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove, Hell on Wheels, Game of Thrones and such. Most I watch on Netflix at my convenience.
Seems to me that TV has never been better, and that the old networks have absolutely nothing to do with the improvement.Report
Netflix is the way to do it.
The issue with the old networks, in my opinion, is that their financial model requires attracting a mass audience, where the sorts of shows you mention appeal to a narrower but more avid audience. HBO lives on subscriptions, while a basic cable network like A&E survives by being popular enough that cable systems continue to carry them, which shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men accomplish with ratings that would doom a CBS show.Report
That makes sense. It reminds me of what we are seeing in music. The market is effectively divided between the pablum served up to the masses but with plenty niche stuff for those with more demanding or eclectic tastes.
Every once in a while I see highlights from a music awards show with popular artists and songs I have never heard and never want to hear. And I listen to music six to eight hours a day (while writing, reading with about one hour of just listening).Report
I’d like to have Netflix, it sounds really good.Report
Netflix is two pieces, streaming and DVD in the mail. The DVD in the mail piece is awesome, particularly for movies. The streaming piece is just OK for movies, maybe worse than OK, but very good for television. However, Amazon has chosen to attempt to replace Netflix as the dominant force in the streaming market, and they’ve secured exclusive streaming rights to several TV shows (the most important one for me being Justified), and offer them to Prime subscribers with no additional fees. At this point Amazon is also undercutting Netflix in price — Amazon Prime is a one time fee, ~$80, while Netflix is about $8.00 a month for streaming, or $96 a year). Amazon still has some stuff to work out, but if it keeps devoting resources to streaming media, it will be much better than Netflix before long.Report
I want to start watching Justified. Is it good?
Netflix and Amazon really have created a market around niche series like Breaking Bad. They are also good for a constant supply of foreign movies. I love the first class Asian movies with subtitles. Red Cliff and The Good, the Bad and the Weird being two recent favorites. Both these movies are absolutely competitive with anything Hollywood makes.
I was surprised to find there is an entire genre of Asian movies basically revolving around the atrocities of the Japanese. Almost seems like the key to blockbuster status in Thailand, Korea or China is to make a movie on something the Japanese did.Report
I enjoy Justified. The one problem with it is that it’s not shot in Kentucky, and anyone who’s spent time in the mountains of Kentucky (where I used to go camping a lot) will realize that pretty quickly. Other than that, it’s well acted, the characters are absurd but awesome, and people from that part of Kentucky really are kinda crazy. I used to work for two of them, when I lived in Lexington.Report
I am desperately trying to find something to watch.
I’m reading the second book in the Border trilogy and some Krudy.Report
Go watch some Blackadder?Report
That is a cunning plan.Report
Just yesterday (Saturday night) my wife and I started watching the Sopranos on Netflix. We watched the first two episodes and seem to like it, but there’s something about it I’m not sure I like. I can’t put my finger on it….but maybe when I’ll have seen more I’ll have a better view.Report
We live in a post-Sopranos world. Going back to it will probably feel weird… I’m sure that a large number of the tropes feel tired by now.
That said, the first two seasons are *AMAZING*. Watch them and then daydream about how awesome the seasons that came after must have been.Report
Jaybird,
That’s probably it. Maybe if I saw the show at the time it came out, I would be a little less bothered.Report
I’m working my way thru the MaddAdam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Re-read Oryx and Crake, which I remembered as being terrific the first time I read it 10 years ago, and is even more terrific-er the second. I’m about a third of the way thru The Year of the Flood, which is surprisingly good.
We watched the first five episodes of Elementary on On Demand over the last couple nights, which is a damn fine show. Check it out Roger!Report
Is Elementary the one with Lucy Lu as Watson?Report
Yeah. Have you seen it?
She’s good in a side-kicky sorta way, but what I like is the guy who plays Holmes, great actor, great dialogue, excellent delivery. Plus, most of the story lines are actually really smart and compelling. For network TV anyway.Report
Sick Boy!
I may give it a try to tide me over until Sherlock comes back.Report
Elementary is no Sherlock, but it is entertaining. I watched most of the first season. It is the only TV I’ve watched on TV in the last couple years (everything else on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon).Report
I saw a brief snippet before starting a program for the family. An episode where mathematicians were being killed for their proof of a famous problem. I will record a few and are if it captures my attention. Thanks for the suggestion.Report
I have Sherlock in my queue but have not gotten around to it yet either.Report