What's good on Amazon Prime Video

Patriot is fucking amazing, one of the best written and directed things I have seen in ages.

yeah, really one of the best shows

oui c'est cool

Yes, thanks for the heads-up, ILX. Gotta admit that in the pilot the trappings of it - characters looking and sometimes acting like they would in a straight-ahead spy drama - threw me a bit but I'm fully onboard now.

somebody start a thread already, there's at least ten of us that love this show

perpetual grace has a similar vibe if you're looking for another season.

^same showrunner as Patriot if that's unclear

and much the same cast

Just learned the main actor is a Kiwi, mind blown.

Also the acting is fucking amazing, just a wonderful wonderful show.

guess i gotta check this perpetual grace show. never heard of Epix tho...

it's a one and done apparently

Patriot is so good

Okay, long overdue thread:
Patriot on Amazon Prime: Let me Walk You Through Our Donnely Nut Spacing

what's (not) good on Prime

In 2018, the artist Lorraine O’Grady said at a Brooklyn Museum book event, “In the future, white supremacy will no longer need white people.” That future is now.

O’Grady’s belief nods to the ways the structures of white supremacy are so ingrained in our culture that to exorcise them goes far beyond reckoning with whiteness itself. But after watching Them, Amazon’s latest “horror” anthology series, which dropped this past Friday, this quote came to mind for its distillation of the way people of color sometimes participate in their own degradation and in the systems that damage our lives and, in many cases, cut them heartbreakingly short.

Them — showrun and created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe — isn’t just rote, flagrantly biting the aesthetics of other filmmakers. It isn’t just morally bankrupt. It isn’t just grating in its empty platitudes and kiddie-pool-deep proclamations. I am comfortable calling it one of the most anti-Black pieces of pop culture I’ve seen in the last few years, one that left me spent after the grueling process of watching its virulent imagery. It is a stunning refutation to Hollywood’s belief that representation behind and in front of the camera will fix its inherent racism. (I’m not sure Hollywood can be saved, no matter how many people of color it ropes into its machinations.) Perhaps I should have known when, early in its first episode, it explains the Great Migration in text overlaying the screen, tipping its hand that it is not for Black audiences at all, but everyone else.

https://www.vulture.com/article/review-them-amazon-series.html

People really seem to hate that show. I can't imagine it being worse than American Horror Story, but I'm unlikely to have enough spare time to find out.

Three episodes into Invincible and it's really good so far. Pretty stellar cast too

the Seth Rogen empire of surprisingly quality funnybook adaptations is def a thing I did not see coming circa Pineapple Express

I'm kinda into Season 2 of City on a Hill ... it's still largely "The Departed: the series" (except with Kevin Bacon as a scuzzy FBI agent instead of Jack Nicholson as a crime boss). But they're kinda getting more into racial issues and politics and the conflicts of black people trying to enact social justice on racial issues from within "the system" ... as in, this show seems to be doing more with black people as more than just signifiers, which is kinda novel for the standard "corrupt Boston law enforcement show" which generally is v v white.

I watched the first ep of Invincible just cause it's getting good reactions - and I'm not into superhero stuff usually but this works for me, mainly because it feels more akin to a straight-faced/(all-)earnest Venture Bros than a typical superhero thingie, and also because even just in voice form Steven Yeun is extremely charismatic

It also has me thinking that maybe Prime will be the ones to revive VB

oooof mantzoukas' banter is brutal though

We were out at the last scene of Ep 1. Yuck.

At least Preacher and The Boys were funny.

idk... yuck for sure but the abrupt/extreme shift in tone felt warranted

Given that it's by the Walking Dead people, I worry that they'll have to shoehorn a bunch of awful gore every episode. If that is not the case, I'd love to know, since I was getting into it until that scene.

gore INTO every episode

It also has me thinking that maybe Prime will be the ones to revive VB

― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, April 20, 2021 11:25 PM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh man, your lips to god's ears

what show are you all talking about?

Invincible, based on a revisionist superhero comic by the writer of zombie comic The Walking Dead.

ah ok, thanks.

(afaik it's not "by the Walking Dead people" in any other way, but the comic writer also worked on both adaptations)

I worry that they'll have to shoehorn a bunch of awful gore every episode

There's at least a little in every ep so far.

I'm enjoying the pulpy worldbuilding more than the A-plot. weirdly overqualified voice cast for each and every single little part, but that's amazon for you

isnt this an animated series? animated gore is turning people off? how explicit is it?

lots of viscera

The presentation/tone is the real issue I suspect ppl are having, but to say more would be spoilery

Did not dig the comic so would need to hear it deviates considerably as incentive to check out

Given that it's by the Walking Dead people, I worry that they'll have to shoehorn a bunch of awful gore every episode. If that is not the case, I'd love to know, since I was getting into it until that scene.

― DJI, Wednesday, April 21, 2021

5 eps in there are a couple of winces here and there but only one other scene like the one you're thinking of, and again in that one a certain kind of point is being made. it's ugly but not gratuitous.

They've uploaded all 75 episodes of Jim Nabors' late '70s talk show and IT'S A VIBE...

Good news

Twitter: Announce Season 2, you cowards
InvincibleHQ: How about Seasons 2 AND 3?!?!?!? pic.twitter.com/lWCSGbNTka

— INVINCIBLE (@InvincibleHQ) April 29, 2021

people who take issue with the violence will uh not be happy with that finale

I do like the show but it kind of grew off me over the course of the season, mostly small writing problems adding up

chief among them:

I definitely see the appeal of a psychologically somewhat "realistic" superhero show where a big ol' chunk of the point is that in any sort of "real world" scenario, having godlike powers while being surrounded by fragile meatsacks called "people" would actually be a horrifying responsibility. that's a fine starting point to work from. so to then have our protagonist bounce back (physically and at least to some extent psychologically) within a couple weeks after his own father beats him nearly to death and murders "incalculable" numbers of people, including literally using Invincible's body as a battering ram to turn an entire subway car of people into gore, kind of makes it seem like Kirkman and co. have the same level of respect for human life that Omni-Man does.

but yeah I mostly came away from it wishing it was actually a new season of venture bros, which actually pulled off the "psychological quasi realism in a comic-book/cartoon/pulp world" without all the casual genocide

Consequence-free violence for bloodlusting fans is the Kirkman motif. That and bad dialog

yeah it's just jarring because it does feel like some people involved are trying to pull it in a less hateful direction and it ends up in a weird tonal place

I watched the new Dave Grohl van touring documentary 'What Drives Us' this morning on Prime.

It's not really about van touring, most of that is just glossed over. It's mostly famous rock stars (some of whom have never toured in a van!) talking about themselves and how much they enjoy playing live. They did interview some younger bands (Starcrawler, Radkey), but they get very little screen time. Dave Grohl made himself the star of the documentary, so there is plenty of Foo Fighters content. I enjoyed it, but if you're looking for a van-touring documentary, the one that was recently posted in the youtube documentary thread is a much better one.

Vannist critique

Simon OTM - I haven’t watched the finale yet but initial pleasure has dwindled

I'm wondering - is Prime's original content (not counting stuff actually intended for families/children) deliberately, notably edgier than Netflix's? (Disney+ is a foregone conclusion.) I thought it was just the Rogen/Goldberg joints but reading about the lowlights of Them has made me wonder if it's not a deliberate strategy.

The most violent Netflix original I can recall was Daredevil and it seems tame compared to the most gruesome stuff in these series.

I haven't thought about that before, but it does make sense