The day the Saltmarsh Seven assaulted the sahuagin lair, I watched:

I watched:

WE ARE THE 80'S

WE ARE THE 80'S

WE ARE THE 80'S

WE ARE THE 80'S

FAMILY GUY:
Several eps.

What did you watch?

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:

> What did you watch?

I'm actually doing prep work for the new academic year now, so I
watched a lot less (in terms of movies...):

soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. A mostly uninteresting episode. I liked EJ
trying to blackmail Ava Vitali, and Ava calling his bluff! The rest of
this was mostly Kristen nonsense, with a side of Dr. Rolf and Stefan
DiMera stuff. At this point, I wish they'd just get on with bringing
Stefan back... :/

golf - Patrick Cantlay managed to hold on for the win at the BMW
Championship (in Wilmington, DE!!), the penultimate tourney in the
FedEx playoff. This vaulted Cantlay into second place going into the
final tourney (with Scottie Scheffler in the #1 spot). Scott Stallings
made a run at the lead here, but couldn't hold it, settling for second,
which was more than enough to get him into the Tour Championship final
(in Atlanta) as well (he was well below the cutoff before this
tourney's result!!).

The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
This was all set-up.
The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in
1916.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
escape or not.
This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end
that Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!! But
I think the crediting only said he was about 80.
So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!
Anyway, at the end, Dream returns to his "Kingdom" ("the Dreaming"?)
to find it in shambles. And some of his "equipment" was stolen from him
by Dance, so Dream needs to track it down, and rebuild his kingdom... A
"quest"!!
What I didn't realize until we got a "Coming up on 'The Sandman'"
teaser at the end is that this show is actually going to be *episodic*
- e.g. we are done with the characters of Charles Dance and his son,
and it looks like every episode will be Dream interacting with someone
new.
However, it does appear that Jenna Coleman is going to be recurring
on this show.

I rewatched "Here Kills the Bride" with Ashley Fuss on Lifetime as
background noise - her character sure is cray-cray!! ;)

Big Lies in a Small Town (Lifetime) - This wasn't anything we haven't
seen before - woman's post-HS daughter disappears after a (forced) car
accident in a small town. The woman/mom, of course, refuses to leave
town until she finds her daughter. She is seemingly stonewalled by the
local sheriff, but is helped by the local motel owner.
The only suspense/mystery here was - Who is "in on it", in terms of
the daughter's kidnapping? E.G. Is the sheriff in on it, or is he just
an ass? Is the motel owner in on it or behind it, and just "playing
nice"? Is the local doctor in on it? Etc. And what is the motive?
(though it's pretty easy to guess, in a flick like this).
But it was relatively clear earlier on who was behind the
kidnapping, so the only question was - Who was the "Big Bad" working
with?
Anyway, this was OK, and did keep me guessing at least some, but was
nothing novel or special.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> What did you watch?
>
> I'm actually doing prep work for the new academic year now, so I watched
> a lot less (in terms of movies...):
>
> soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. A mostly uninteresting episode. I liked EJ
> trying to blackmail Ava Vitali, and Ava calling his bluff! The rest of
> this was mostly Kristen nonsense, with a side of Dr. Rolf and Stefan
> DiMera stuff. At this point, I wish they'd just get on with bringing
> Stefan back...  :/

They wake him up this week!

> The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
>   This was all set-up.
>   The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
> summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
> captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in 1916.
>   Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
> tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
> escape or not.
>   This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end that
> Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
> 2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
> lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!! But I
> think the crediting only said he was about 80.
>   So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!
>   Anyway, at the end, Dream returns to his "Kingdom" ("the Dreaming"?)
> to find it in shambles. And some of his "equipment" was stolen from him
> by Dance, so Dream needs to track it down, and rebuild his kingdom... A
> "quest"!!
>   What I didn't realize until we got a "Coming up on 'The Sandman'"
> teaser at the end is that this show is actually going to be *episodic* -
> e.g. we are done with the characters of Charles Dance and his son, and
> it looks like every episode will be Dream interacting with someone new.
>   However, it does appear that Jenna Coleman is going to be recurring
> on this show.
>
Thanks for the recap. I've seen two episodes and have no idea what's
going on. I may have to rewatch them.

On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> What did you watch?
>
> I'm actually doing prep work for the new academic year now, so I watched
> a lot less (in terms of movies...):
>
> soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. A mostly uninteresting episode. I liked EJ
> trying to blackmail Ava Vitali, and Ava calling his bluff! The rest of
> this was mostly Kristen nonsense, with a side of Dr. Rolf and Stefan
> DiMera stuff. At this point, I wish they'd just get on with bringing
> Stefan back...  :/
>
> golf - Patrick Cantlay managed to hold on for the win at the BMW
> Championship (in Wilmington, DE!!), the penultimate tourney in the FedEx
> playoff. This vaulted Cantlay into second place going into the final
> tourney (with Scottie Scheffler in the #1 spot). Scott Stallings made a
> run at the lead here, but couldn't hold it, settling for second, which
> was more than enough to get him into the Tour Championship final (in
> Atlanta) as well (he was well below the cutoff before this tourney's
> result!!).
>
> The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
>   This was all set-up.
>   The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
> summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
> captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in 1916.
>   Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
> tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
> escape or not.
>   This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end that
> Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
> 2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
> lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!! But I
> think the crediting only said he was about 80.
>   So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!

I had a similar confusion. I really shouldn't have been confused since
the explanation was obvious...magic. But in real time it just never
occurs to you. I guess you have to have read the comic (which I didn't).

>   Anyway, at the end, Dream returns to his "Kingdom" ("the Dreaming"?)
> to find it in shambles. And some of his "equipment" was stolen from him
> by Dance, so Dream needs to track it down, and rebuild his kingdom... A
> "quest"!!
>   What I didn't realize until we got a "Coming up on 'The Sandman'"
> teaser at the end is that this show is actually going to be *episodic* -
> e.g. we are done with the characters of Charles Dance and his son, and
> it looks like every episode will be Dream interacting with someone new.
>   However, it does appear that Jenna Coleman is going to be recurring
> on this show.
>

They are doing the comics. Everything you will see on the show is from
the comics, with minor changes to remove *some* of the more overt super
hero elements. And it *does* all tie together...

Except for maybe the bonus "cats" episode doesn't seem to tie to
anything. But it is straight from the comics. I didn't realize that it
was also from the comics until someone posted yet another comics to
screen comparison.

> I rewatched "Here Kills the Bride" with Ashley Fuss on Lifetime as
> background noise - her character sure is cray-cray!!  ;)
>
> Big Lies in a Small Town (Lifetime) - This wasn't anything we haven't
> seen before - woman's post-HS daughter disappears after a (forced) car
> accident in a small town. The woman/mom, of course, refuses to leave
> town until she finds her daughter. She is seemingly stonewalled by the
> local sheriff, but is helped by the local motel owner.
>   The only suspense/mystery here was - Who is "in on it",

Let me guess, the local sheriff and the local motel owner.

in terms of
> the daughter's kidnapping? E.G. Is the sheriff in on it, or is he just
> an ass? Is the motel owner in on it or behind it, and just "playing
> nice"? Is the local doctor in on it? Etc. And what is the motive?
> (though it's pretty easy to guess, in a flick like this).
>   But it was relatively clear earlier on who was behind the kidnapping,
> so the only question was - Who was the "Big Bad" working with?
>   Anyway, this was OK, and did keep me guessing at least some, but was
> nothing novel or special.
>
>

I watched:

Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an evil
genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
released him so he can destroy the world. But first he spends the movie
granting twisted wishes to everyone he encounters including cameos from
pretty much every horror movie icon from the last 10 or so years.
One annoyance is they played fast and loose with people making a "wish"
so he'd kill people just for agreeing to do something that he himself
asked if they wanted, then turned around and didn't come close to doing
what they said they wanted him to do.

Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the last
movie ended. The genie spends the first half of the movie hanging out
in jail collecting souls, which leads to this exchange, "What's it going
to take?" "Your soul. And a pack of cigarettes." He spends the second
half of the movie collecting souls in a casino. As bad as they were
about ignoring the actual wish in the first movie, they are even worse
about it in this one. One prisoner wishes to walk through the bars
*and* out the prison. The Wishmaster basically pushes his body through
the bars reducing the guy to a bloody mess on the floor. They should
have at least had the shoes keep walking out the front gate! Not as
good as the first one, but at least they kept Andrew Divoff. This is
the first movie where they started to weave in Christian mythology with
the Wishmaster mythology.

Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
sequel. The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
times. She uses one of her wishes to call down an angel from heaven,
who possess the body of her boyfriend (Tobias Mehler ) to help fight the
Wishmaster. For this movie probably the worst case of the wish not
matching the death was a woman who wished for a hiding place, so he
stuck her head in a cage of mice that ate her face. Monkey's paw effect
or not, that wasn't even close to granting her wish! I didn't care much
for this one when it first came out, I think mostly because they
replaced Andrew Divoff with John Novak. But as I've watched it again
and again, it has sort of grown on me. I think one of the reasons it's
grown on me over time is because I've always liked the 4th one and the
two movies go together. On the commentary track of this one the
director mentioned 3 and 4 were shot together and footage from 4 was
used for 3. He also mentioned on the commentary the producers made him
add in gratuitous nudity so the movie would sale in Asia.

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video sequel
and final movie in the Wishmaster series. John Novak once again returns
and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara Spencer-Nairn, makes
her three wishes early in the movie. But she makes a wish he doesn't
know how to grant so he can't unleash hell on Earth until he figures out
how to grant the wish. I've always really liked this one precisely
because of that premise. Meanwhile an angel from heaven shows up to
kill the woman before the wish can be granted, so the evil genie spends
the movie protecting the woman from an angel from heaven. On the
commentary the director explained why one of the scenes was set in a
strip club as once again being the producers wanting to sale the movie
in Asia.

Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
trash while collecting junk. Turns out the music box will grant seven
wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
Destination" style death. Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
wishing box. What could go wrong? It's an OK horror flick. It was a
bit better than I remembered.

As an aside, I am 100% convinced that the version that we got to see has
been significantly edited down with major plot points and characters
left on the cutting room floor. There is plenty of evidence of an
alternate cut still in the movie. For example, Jerry O'Connell has a
cameo in a nonspeaking role. I'm sure in an alternate cut of the movie
he had a full plot thread. Also, the lead character's mother (Elisabeth
Rohm) commits suicide at the start of the movie, then is *briefly*
brought back using a later wish. But like with Jerry O'Connell, there
is no way they hired Elisabeth Rohm for a blink, and you miss it cameo.
I am convinced that Rohm's character used the magic of the box before
her daughter then sacrificed her life in a failed attempt to get rid of
the box. This is even hinted at when the daughter finds a painting her
mother did of the box with no other context for why the mother would
have any knowledge of the music box; especially considering the mother
died before the box was found. This is all speculation on my part, and
neither Wiki nor IMDB says anything about deleted scenes, but I am sure
I'm right. There's just too much left-over bits and pieces for there
not to have been a much larger story that got cut away to slim the run time.

On 2022-08-22 16:53:15 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:

> On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>
>>> What did you watch?
>>
>> I'm actually doing prep work for the new academic year now, so I
>> watched a lot less (in terms of movies...):
>>
>> I rewatched "Here Kills the Bride" with Ashley Fuss on Lifetime as
>> background noise - her character sure is cray-cray!!  ;)
>>
>> Big Lies in a Small Town (Lifetime) - This wasn't anything we haven't
>> seen before - woman's post-HS daughter disappears after a (forced) car
>> accident in a small town. The woman/mom, of course, refuses to leave
>> town until she finds her daughter. She is seemingly stonewalled by the
>> local sheriff, but is helped by the local motel owner.
>>   The only suspense/mystery here was - Who is "in on it",
>
> Let me guess, the local sheriff and the local motel owner.

I'm not going to spoil it - suffice it to say, sometimes Lifetime
movies very much conform to expectations, and sometimes they confound
them.

Also, I left a few characters out of my summary, so there are other
potential "henchpersons" besides these two.

> > in terms of
>> the daughter's kidnapping? E.G. Is the sheriff in on it, or is he just
>> an ass? Is the motel owner in on it or behind it, and just "playing
>> nice"? Is the local doctor in on it? Etc. And what is the motive?
>> (though it's pretty easy to guess, in a flick like this).
>>   But it was relatively clear earlier on who was behind the kidnapping,
>> so the only question was - Who was the "Big Bad" working with?
>>   Anyway, this was OK, and did keep me guessing at least some, but was
>> nothing novel or special.
>
>
> I watched:
>
>
> Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an
> evil genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
> released him so he can destroy the world.
>
> Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the
> last movie ended.
>
> Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
> sequel. The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
> releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
> times.
>
> Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video
> sequel and final movie in the Wishmaster series. John Novak once again
> returns and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara
> Spencer-Nairn, makes her three wishes early in the movie.

OK, so help me out here - are you saying the 2018 flick "The Final
Wish" is *not* in the "Wishmaster" series?! 'Cos I just assumed it was,
and I've almost watched it a couple of times.

> Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
> whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
> trash while collecting junk. Turns out the music box will grant seven
> wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
> Destination" style death. Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
> wishing box. What could go wrong? It's an OK horror flick. It was a
> bit better than I remembered.

Yeah, I saw this in the last year or so, and I mostly liked it. I think
my only problem with it was the ending, which I didn't fully care for.

It was certainly better than King's "Slender Man", which arguably even
has the better (or, at least, more interesting) cast.

> As an aside, I am 100% convinced that the version that we got to see
> has been significantly edited down with major plot points and
> characters left on the cutting room floor. There is plenty of evidence
> of an alternate cut still in the movie....

Interesting. Makes sense. But you would think somebody would have
talked about it by now...

> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "The Heirs of the Dragon" - Game of
> Thrones prequel series.

Not sure when I will get to this - Maybe tonight? Or maybe I finish out
"The Sandman" first?...

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

In article <te0a50$2n0ia$1@dont-email.me>, IJBall@mac.invalid wrote:
> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:

>> What did you watch?
>
>The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
> This was all set-up.
> The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
>summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
>captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in
>1916.
> Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
>tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
>escape or not.
> This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end
>that Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
>2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
>lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!! But
>I think the crediting only said he was about 80.
> So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!

I am pretty sure somoene else or I exclaiomed that the original material was
written in the early 1990's, so being around 80 years-old is reasonable.

They call him Morpheus because that's his name.

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 8/22/2022 10:21 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-08-22 16:53:15 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:
>
>> On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>>
>>>> What did you watch?
>>>
>>> I'm actually doing prep work for the new academic year now, so I
>>> watched a lot less (in terms of movies...):
>>>
>>> I rewatched "Here Kills the Bride" with Ashley Fuss on Lifetime as
>>> background noise - her character sure is cray-cray!!  ;)
>>>
>>> Big Lies in a Small Town (Lifetime) - This wasn't anything we haven't
>>> seen before - woman's post-HS daughter disappears after a (forced)
>>> car accident in a small town. The woman/mom, of course, refuses to
>>> leave town until she finds her daughter. She is seemingly stonewalled
>>> by the local sheriff, but is helped by the local motel owner.
>>>   The only suspense/mystery here was - Who is "in on it",
>>
>> Let me guess, the local sheriff and the local motel owner.
>
> I'm not going to spoil it - suffice it to say, sometimes Lifetime movies
> very much conform to expectations, and sometimes they confound them.
>
> Also, I left a few characters out of my summary, so there are other
> potential "henchpersons" besides these two.
>
>> > in terms of
>>> the daughter's kidnapping? E.G. Is the sheriff in on it, or is he
>>> just an ass? Is the motel owner in on it or behind it, and just
>>> "playing nice"? Is the local doctor in on it? Etc. And what is the
>>> motive? (though it's pretty easy to guess, in a flick like this).
>>>   But it was relatively clear earlier on who was behind the
>>> kidnapping, so the only question was - Who was the "Big Bad" working
>>> with?
>>>   Anyway, this was OK, and did keep me guessing at least some, but
>>> was nothing novel or special.
>>
>>
>> I watched:
>>
>>
>> Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an
>> evil genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
>> released him so he can destroy the world.
>>
>> Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the
>> last movie ended.
>>
>> Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
>> sequel.  The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
>> releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
>> times.
>>
>> Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video
>> sequel and final movie in the Wishmaster series.  John Novak once
>> again returns and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara
>> Spencer-Nairn, makes her three wishes early in the movie.
>
> OK, so help me out here - are you saying the 2018 flick "The Final Wish"
> is *not* in the "Wishmaster" series?! 'Cos I just assumed it was, and
> I've almost watched it a couple of times.
>

No relation to Wishmaster or any other franchise that I'm aware of.
Netflix says I rented it and didn't care for it. I really wish Netflix
had a 2 1/2 star rating system. I give a lot of movies 2 stars which
technically means I didn't like it, but not necessarily that I wouldn't
be willing to watch it again.

>> Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
>> whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
>> trash while collecting junk.  Turns out the music box will grant seven
>> wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
>> Destination" style death.  Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
>> wishing box.  What could go wrong?  It's an OK horror flick.  It was a
>> bit better than I remembered.
>
> Yeah, I saw this in the last year or so, and I mostly liked it. I think
> my only problem with it was the ending, which I didn't fully care for.
>

If the movie was recut and edited as I suspect, then there's no way that
was the originally scripted and shot ending.

> It was certainly better than King's "Slender Man", which arguably even
> has the better (or, at least, more interesting) cast.
>
>> As an aside, I am 100% convinced that the version that we got to see
>> has been significantly edited down with major plot points and
>> characters left on the cutting room floor.  There is plenty of
>> evidence of an alternate cut still in the movie....
>
> Interesting. Makes sense. But you would think somebody would have talked
> about it by now...
>

Good point. I should do a little digging.

>> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "The Heirs of the Dragon" - Game of
>> Thrones prequel series.
>
> Not sure when I will get to this - Maybe tonight? Or maybe I finish out
> "The Sandman" first?...
>
>

In article <te0c9u$2n7tq$1@dont-email.me>, arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:

>Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an evil
>genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
>released him so he can destroy the world. But first he spends the movie
>granting twisted wishes to everyone he encounters including cameos from
>pretty much every horror movie icon from the last 10 or so years.
>One annoyance is they played fast and loose with people making a "wish"
>so he'd kill people just for agreeing to do something that he himself
>asked if they wanted, then turned around and didn't come close to doing
>what they said they wanted him to do.
>
>Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the last
>movie ended. The genie spends the first half of the movie hanging out
>in jail collecting souls, which leads to this exchange, "What's it going
>to take?" "Your soul. And a pack of cigarettes." He spends the second
>half of the movie collecting souls in a casino. As bad as they were
>about ignoring the actual wish in the first movie, they are even worse
>about it in this one. One prisoner wishes to walk through the bars
>*and* out the prison. The Wishmaster basically pushes his body through
>the bars reducing the guy to a bloody mess on the floor. They should
>have at least had the shoes keep walking out the front gate! Not as
>good as the first one, but at least they kept Andrew Divoff. This is
>the first movie where they started to weave in Christian mythology with
>the Wishmaster mythology.
>
>Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
>sequel. The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
>releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
>times. She uses one of her wishes to call down an angel from heaven,
>who possess the body of her boyfriend (Tobias Mehler ) to help fight the
>Wishmaster. For this movie probably the worst case of the wish not
>matching the death was a woman who wished for a hiding place, so he
>stuck her head in a cage of mice that ate her face. Monkey's paw effect
>or not, that wasn't even close to granting her wish! I didn't care much
>for this one when it first came out, I think mostly because they
>replaced Andrew Divoff with John Novak. But as I've watched it again
>and again, it has sort of grown on me. I think one of the reasons it's
>grown on me over time is because I've always liked the 4th one and the
>two movies go together. On the commentary track of this one the
>director mentioned 3 and 4 were shot together and footage from 4 was
>used for 3. He also mentioned on the commentary the producers made him
>add in gratuitous nudity so the movie would sale in Asia.
>
>Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video sequel
>and final movie in the Wishmaster series. John Novak once again returns
>and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara Spencer-Nairn, makes
>her three wishes early in the movie. But she makes a wish he doesn't
>know how to grant so he can't unleash hell on Earth until he figures out
>how to grant the wish. I've always really liked this one precisely
>because of that premise. Meanwhile an angel from heaven shows up to
>kill the woman before the wish can be granted, so the evil genie spends
>the movie protecting the woman from an angel from heaven. On the
>commentary the director explained why one of the scenes was set in a
>strip club as once again being the producers wanting to sale the movie
>in Asia.
>
>Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
>whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
>trash while collecting junk. Turns out the music box will grant seven
>wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
>Destination" style death. Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
>wishing box. What could go wrong? It's an OK horror flick. It was a
>bit better than I remembered.

I distinctly remember you reviewing these movies before.

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 8/22/2022 10:53 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> In article <te0c9u$2n7tq$1@dont-email.me>, arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:
>
>> Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an evil
>> genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
>> released him so he can destroy the world. But first he spends the movie
>> granting twisted wishes to everyone he encounters including cameos from
>> pretty much every horror movie icon from the last 10 or so years.
>> One annoyance is they played fast and loose with people making a "wish"
>> so he'd kill people just for agreeing to do something that he himself
>> asked if they wanted, then turned around and didn't come close to doing
>> what they said they wanted him to do.
>>
>> Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the last
>> movie ended. The genie spends the first half of the movie hanging out
>> in jail collecting souls, which leads to this exchange, "What's it going
>> to take?" "Your soul. And a pack of cigarettes." He spends the second
>> half of the movie collecting souls in a casino. As bad as they were
>> about ignoring the actual wish in the first movie, they are even worse
>> about it in this one. One prisoner wishes to walk through the bars
>> *and* out the prison. The Wishmaster basically pushes his body through
>> the bars reducing the guy to a bloody mess on the floor. They should
>> have at least had the shoes keep walking out the front gate! Not as
>> good as the first one, but at least they kept Andrew Divoff. This is
>> the first movie where they started to weave in Christian mythology with
>> the Wishmaster mythology.
>>
>> Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
>> sequel. The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
>> releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
>> times. She uses one of her wishes to call down an angel from heaven,
>> who possess the body of her boyfriend (Tobias Mehler ) to help fight the
>> Wishmaster. For this movie probably the worst case of the wish not
>> matching the death was a woman who wished for a hiding place, so he
>> stuck her head in a cage of mice that ate her face. Monkey's paw effect
>> or not, that wasn't even close to granting her wish! I didn't care much
>> for this one when it first came out, I think mostly because they
>> replaced Andrew Divoff with John Novak. But as I've watched it again
>> and again, it has sort of grown on me. I think one of the reasons it's
>> grown on me over time is because I've always liked the 4th one and the
>> two movies go together. On the commentary track of this one the
>> director mentioned 3 and 4 were shot together and footage from 4 was
>> used for 3. He also mentioned on the commentary the producers made him
>> add in gratuitous nudity so the movie would sale in Asia.
>>
>> Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video sequel
>> and final movie in the Wishmaster series. John Novak once again returns
>> and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara Spencer-Nairn, makes
>> her three wishes early in the movie. But she makes a wish he doesn't
>> know how to grant so he can't unleash hell on Earth until he figures out
>> how to grant the wish. I've always really liked this one precisely
>> because of that premise. Meanwhile an angel from heaven shows up to
>> kill the woman before the wish can be granted, so the evil genie spends
>> the movie protecting the woman from an angel from heaven. On the
>> commentary the director explained why one of the scenes was set in a
>> strip club as once again being the producers wanting to sale the movie
>> in Asia.
>>
>> Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
>> whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
>> trash while collecting junk. Turns out the music box will grant seven
>> wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
>> Destination" style death. Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
>> wishing box. What could go wrong? It's an OK horror flick. It was a
>> bit better than I remembered.
>
> I distinctly remember you reviewing these movies before.
>

I last watched the Wishmaster movies in 2017. I thought I watched them
much more recent than that, like maybe 2 years ago. But I keep records
and it was 2017.

I started tracking when I watch movies about 20 years ago using a
program that also catalogs my entire movie collection. I also started
to track when I listen to a movie commentary track so with discs with
multiple tracks, that I might watch years apart, I can be sure to listen
to the different tracks each viewing instead of accidentally the same
track over and over again.

I had to learn that the hard way before I started to keep track of what
movies I watched or if I listened to the commentary track when the lord
of the rings came out on DVD at 3 to 3 1/2+ hours each and 4 or 5 tracks
per disc. And I didn't keep track of which commentary I listened to the
first time around.

On 2022-08-22 23:38:22 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:

> On 8/22/2022 10:53 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
>> In article <te0c9u$2n7tq$1@dont-email.me>, arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:
>>
>>> Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an evil
>>> genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
>>> released him so he can destroy the world. But first he spends the movie
>>> granting twisted wishes to everyone he encounters including cameos from
>>> pretty much every horror movie icon from the last 10 or so years.
>>> One annoyance is they played fast and loose with people making a "wish"
>>> so he'd kill people just for agreeing to do something that he himself
>>> asked if they wanted, then turned around and didn't come close to doing
>>> what they said they wanted him to do.
>>>
>>> Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the last
>>> movie ended. The genie spends the first half of the movie hanging out
>>> in jail collecting souls, which leads to this exchange, "What's it going
>>> to take?" "Your soul. And a pack of cigarettes." He spends the second
>>> half of the movie collecting souls in a casino. As bad as they were
>>> about ignoring the actual wish in the first movie, they are even worse
>>> about it in this one. One prisoner wishes to walk through the bars
>>> *and* out the prison. The Wishmaster basically pushes his body through
>>> the bars reducing the guy to a bloody mess on the floor. They should
>>> have at least had the shoes keep walking out the front gate! Not as
>>> good as the first one, but at least they kept Andrew Divoff. This is
>>> the first movie where they started to weave in Christian mythology with
>>> the Wishmaster mythology.
>>>
>>> Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
>>> sequel. The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
>>> releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
>>> times. She uses one of her wishes to call down an angel from heaven,
>>> who possess the body of her boyfriend (Tobias Mehler ) to help fight the
>>> Wishmaster. For this movie probably the worst case of the wish not
>>> matching the death was a woman who wished for a hiding place, so he
>>> stuck her head in a cage of mice that ate her face. Monkey's paw effect
>>> or not, that wasn't even close to granting her wish! I didn't care much
>>> for this one when it first came out, I think mostly because they
>>> replaced Andrew Divoff with John Novak. But as I've watched it again
>>> and again, it has sort of grown on me. I think one of the reasons it's
>>> grown on me over time is because I've always liked the 4th one and the
>>> two movies go together. On the commentary track of this one the
>>> director mentioned 3 and 4 were shot together and footage from 4 was
>>> used for 3. He also mentioned on the commentary the producers made him
>>> add in gratuitous nudity so the movie would sale in Asia.
>>>
>>> Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video sequel
>>> and final movie in the Wishmaster series. John Novak once again returns
>>> and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara Spencer-Nairn, makes
>>> her three wishes early in the movie. But she makes a wish he doesn't
>>> know how to grant so he can't unleash hell on Earth until he figures out
>>> how to grant the wish. I've always really liked this one precisely
>>> because of that premise. Meanwhile an angel from heaven shows up to
>>> kill the woman before the wish can be granted, so the evil genie spends
>>> the movie protecting the woman from an angel from heaven. On the
>>> commentary the director explained why one of the scenes was set in a
>>> strip club as once again being the producers wanting to sale the movie
>>> in Asia.
>>>
>>> Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
>>> whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
>>> trash while collecting junk. Turns out the music box will grant seven
>>> wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
>>> Destination" style death. Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
>>> wishing box. What could go wrong? It's an OK horror flick. It was a
>>> bit better than I remembered.
>>
>> I distinctly remember you reviewing these movies before.
>
> I last watched the Wishmaster movies in 2017. I thought I watched them
> much more recent than that, like maybe 2 years ago. But I keep records
> and it was 2017.
>
> I started tracking when I watch movies about 20 years ago using a
> program that also catalogs my entire movie collection.

What program/app do you use?

I use MS Excel for stuff like this, but I'm guessing you're using
something more sophisticated?!

> I also started to track when I listen to a movie commentary track so
> with discs with multiple tracks, that I might watch years apart, I can
> be sure to listen to the different tracks each viewing instead of
> accidentally the same track over and over again.
>
> I had to learn that the hard way before I started to keep track of what
> movies I watched or if I listened to the commentary track when the lord
> of the rings came out on DVD at 3 to 3 1/2+ hours each and 4 or 5
> tracks per disc. And I didn't keep track of which commentary I
> listened to the first time around.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

On 8/22/2022 4:56 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-08-22 23:38:22 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:
>
>> On 8/22/2022 10:53 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
>>> In article <te0c9u$2n7tq$1@dont-email.me>,
>>> arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:
>>>
>>>> Wishmaster (blu-ray) 1997 horror movie starring Andrew Divoff as an
>>>> evil
>>>> genie who must grant three wishes to the woman (Tammy Lauren) who
>>>> released him so he can destroy the world.  But first he spends the
>>>> movie
>>>> granting twisted wishes to everyone he encounters including cameos from
>>>> pretty much every horror movie icon from the last 10 or so years.
>>>> One annoyance is they played fast and loose with people making a "wish"
>>>> so he'd kill people just for agreeing to do something that he himself
>>>> asked if they wanted, then turned around and didn't come close to doing
>>>> what they said they wanted him to do.
>>>>
>>>> Wishmaster 2 (blu-ray) Sequel which more or less picks up where the
>>>> last
>>>> movie ended.  The genie spends the first half of the movie hanging out
>>>> in jail collecting souls, which leads to this exchange, "What's it
>>>> going
>>>> to take?"  "Your soul.  And a pack of cigarettes." He spends the second
>>>> half of the movie collecting souls in a casino.  As bad as they were
>>>> about ignoring the actual wish in the first movie, they are even worse
>>>> about it in this one.  One prisoner wishes to walk through the bars
>>>> *and* out the prison.  The Wishmaster basically pushes his body through
>>>> the bars reducing the guy to a bloody mess on the floor.  They should
>>>> have at least had the shoes keep walking out the front gate!  Not as
>>>> good as the first one, but at least they kept Andrew Divoff.  This is
>>>> the first movie where they started to weave in Christian mythology with
>>>> the Wishmaster mythology.
>>>>
>>>> Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (blu-ray) 2001 direct to video
>>>> sequel.  The plot of this one has a young college student, A. J. Cook,
>>>> releasing a new genie then having to run before he makes her wish 3
>>>> times.  She uses one of her wishes to call down an angel from heaven,
>>>> who possess the body of her boyfriend (Tobias Mehler ) to help fight
>>>> the
>>>> Wishmaster.  For this movie probably the worst case of the wish not
>>>> matching the death was a woman who wished for a hiding place, so he
>>>> stuck her head in a cage of mice that ate her face.  Monkey's paw
>>>> effect
>>>> or not, that wasn't even close to granting her wish!  I didn't care
>>>> much
>>>> for this one when it first came out, I think mostly because they
>>>> replaced Andrew Divoff with John Novak.  But as I've watched it again
>>>> and again, it has sort of grown on me.  I think one of the reasons it's
>>>> grown on me over time is because I've always liked the 4th one and the
>>>> two movies go together.  On the commentary track of this one the
>>>> director mentioned 3 and 4 were shot together and footage from 4 was
>>>> used for 3.  He also mentioned on the commentary the producers made him
>>>> add in gratuitous nudity so the movie would sale in Asia.
>>>>
>>>> Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (blu-ray) 2002 direct to video
>>>> sequel
>>>> and final movie in the Wishmaster series.  John Novak once again
>>>> returns
>>>> and this time the woman (it's always a woman), Tara Spencer-Nairn,
>>>> makes
>>>> her three wishes early in the movie.  But she makes a wish he doesn't
>>>> know how to grant so he can't unleash hell on Earth until he figures
>>>> out
>>>> how to grant the wish.  I've always really liked this one precisely
>>>> because of that premise.  Meanwhile an angel from heaven shows up to
>>>> kill the woman before the wish can be granted, so the evil genie spends
>>>> the movie protecting the woman from an angel from heaven.  On the
>>>> commentary the director explained why one of the scenes was set in a
>>>> strip club as once again being the producers wanting to sale the movie
>>>> in Asia.
>>>>
>>>> Wish Upon (blu-ray) 2017 horror movie about a teenage girl (Joey King)
>>>> whose father (Ryan Phillippe) gives her a music box he finds in the
>>>> trash while collecting junk.  Turns out the music box will grant seven
>>>> wishes to the owner, but with every wish comes a gruesome "Final
>>>> Destination" style death.  Bullied teenage girl with a magic death
>>>> wishing box.  What could go wrong?  It's an OK horror flick.  It was a
>>>> bit better than I remembered.
>>>
>>> I distinctly remember you reviewing these movies before.
>>
>> I last watched the Wishmaster movies in 2017.  I thought I watched
>> them much more recent than that, like maybe 2 years ago.  But I keep
>> records and it was 2017.
>>
>> I started tracking when I watch movies about 20 years ago using a
>> program that also catalogs my entire movie collection.
>
> What program/app do you use?
>
> I use MS Excel for stuff like this, but I'm guessing you're using
> something more sophisticated?!
>

I use DVD Profiler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Profiler

It's really not all that sophisticated. But I've never found anything
better, and at this point with all the titles I have in there I won't
ever be switching to something new.

I also rely heavily on my Netflix rental history for stuff I don't own.

There's also a new website that lets you track movies you've watched.
They've been marketing themselves pretty aggressively lately.
https://letterboxd.com/

On Aug 22, 2022 at 9:53:15 AM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb"
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

> Animal Kingdom - "Exodus" - Penultimate episode. Seeing as how Smurf's
> plan was to intentionally turn her own daughter into a junkie hooker, I
> can definitely see why Jay killed Smurf and has been secretly plotting
> against his uncles... And just when you thought Smurf couldn't be any
> more vile!

I just found out that the woman who plays Smurf-- Leila George-- is the
daughter of Vincent D'Onofrio and Greta Scacchi. She has zero resemblance to
her father but I can easily see how she's Scacchi's daughter.

She's one to watch. She's obviously incredibly beautiful but she's also doing
an amazing job with the Smurf character. She deserves an Emmy for her
portrayal of the seductive psychopath who manipulates and corrupts her
children little by little. She often says more with just her eyes than all of
the dialogue in the scene.

On 2022-08-24 05:05:33 +0000, BTR1701 said:

> On Aug 22, 2022 at 9:53:15 AM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb"
> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>
>> Animal Kingdom - "Exodus" - Penultimate episode. Seeing as how Smurf's
>> plan was to intentionally turn her own daughter into a junkie hooker, I
>> can definitely see why Jay killed Smurf and has been secretly plotting
>> against his uncles... And just when you thought Smurf couldn't be any
>> more vile!
>
> I just found out that the woman who plays Smurf-- Leila George-- is the
> daughter of Vincent D'Onofrio and Greta Scacchi. She has zero resemblance to
> her father but I can easily see how she's Scacchi's daughter.

Oh, I know her! From this bit of silliness!!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5480528/reference/

(Emily Meade "out-sexies" her cold, tho.)

> She's one to watch. She's obviously incredibly beautiful but she's also doing
> an amazing job with the Smurf character. She deserves an Emmy for her
> portrayal of the seductive psychopath who manipulates and corrupts her
> children little by little. She often says more with just her eyes than all of
> the dialogue in the scene.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:

> On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

>> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>> The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
>>   This was all set-up.
>>   The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
>> summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
>> captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in
>> 1916.
>>   Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
>> tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
>> escape or not.
>>   This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end
>> that Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
>> 2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
>> lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!!
>> But I think the crediting only said he was about 80.
>>   So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!
>
> I had a similar confusion. I really shouldn't have been confused
> since the explanation was obvious...magic. But in real time it just
> never occurs to you. I guess you have to have read the comic (which I
> didn't).

I didn't either, but wasn't the whole beginning ushered in by a
convocation of magicians?

I'm told that the timeline was changed for the TV series, but magic
spackles up all cracks in the plaster. So far, the comics fans have
been surprisingly glowing in their praise for the series, so I guess
what changes there are don't bother them much.

>>   Anyway, at the end, Dream returns to his "Kingdom" ("the
>> Dreaming"?) to find it in shambles. And some of his "equipment" was
>> stolen from him by Dance, so Dream needs to track it down, and
>> rebuild his kingdom... A "quest"!!
>>   What I didn't realize until we got a "Coming up on 'The Sandman'"
>> teaser at the end is that this show is actually going to be
>> *episodic* - e.g. we are done with the characters of Charles Dance
>> and his son, and it looks like every episode will be Dream
>> interacting with someone new.
>>   However, it does appear that Jenna Coleman is going to be
>> recurring on this show.
>
> They are doing the comics. Everything you will see on the show is
> from the comics, with minor changes to remove *some* of the more overt
> super hero elements. And it *does* all tie together...
>
> Except for maybe the bonus "cats" episode doesn't seem to tie to
> anything. But it is straight from the comics. I didn't realize that
> it was also from the comics until someone posted yet another comics to
> screen comparison.

My instinct says to trust your instinct that it does all tie together.
It may just take some time. Everything ends up reflecting back on
Morpheus, so I assume that painting his portrait-in-motion has been the
point so far.

Possible spoiler for the cats episode:

..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..

Even the cat story taught us that Morpheus can be not just
anthropomorphic, but also felinomorphic, which implies that he can be
all things to all minds that can dream, so long as they have the
capacity to dream it.

> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "The Heirs of the Dragon" - Game of
> Thrones prequel series. The first episode was all set up and by
> episodes end they seemed to be in full "Game of Thrones" mode with the
> multiple sides vying for the Iron Throne.

It has the same high production values and solid acting of _Game_. I
think I like the writing slightly more. My sense is that there are a
few more wry one-liners per episode.

-Micky

On 9/5/2022 7:08 AM, Micky DuPree wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:
>
>> On 8/22/2022 9:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>
>>> On 2022-08-22 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>>> The Sandman (Netflix) - "Sleep of the Just" (ep. #1).
>>>   This was all set-up.
>>>   The God of Dreams (CC refers to him as just "Dream", but Netflix's
>>> summaries keep inexplicably calling him "Morpheus"(?!?)) is taken
>>> captive by a mad Englishman occultist (hey! it's Charles Dance!), in
>>> 1916.
>>>   Unfortunately, that is pretty much the whole episode. The only
>>> tension/suspense is whether Dance's browbeaten son will help Dream
>>> escape or not.
>>>   This ended up making no sense - they kept saying towards the end
>>> that Dream was held captive "for over a century" (so, from 1916 to...
>>> 2016-ish?). But the son was still alive when Dream escaped (and his
>>> lover too!), which means he would have been around 110 years old!!
>>> But I think the crediting only said he was about 80.
>>>   So, somebody is wrong, or is lying here!!
>>
>> I had a similar confusion. I really shouldn't have been confused
>> since the explanation was obvious...magic. But in real time it just
>> never occurs to you. I guess you have to have read the comic (which I
>> didn't).
>
> I didn't either, but wasn't the whole beginning ushered in by a
> convocation of magicians?
>
> I'm told that the timeline was changed for the TV series, but magic
> spackles up all cracks in the plaster. So far, the comics fans have
> been surprisingly glowing in their praise for the series, so I guess
> what changes there are don't bother them much.
>

Neil Gaiman himself was actively involved in the production so any
changes had to be signed off on by him. I read one of the reasons you
so rarely see Gaiman's characters in D.C. comics (unless he's writing
the story) is that he has to personally sign off on any appearance.

>
>>>   Anyway, at the end, Dream returns to his "Kingdom" ("the
>>> Dreaming"?) to find it in shambles. And some of his "equipment" was
>>> stolen from him by Dance, so Dream needs to track it down, and
>>> rebuild his kingdom... A "quest"!!
>>>   What I didn't realize until we got a "Coming up on 'The Sandman'"
>>> teaser at the end is that this show is actually going to be
>>> *episodic* - e.g. we are done with the characters of Charles Dance
>>> and his son, and it looks like every episode will be Dream
>>> interacting with someone new.
>>>   However, it does appear that Jenna Coleman is going to be
>>> recurring on this show.
>>
>> They are doing the comics. Everything you will see on the show is
>> from the comics, with minor changes to remove *some* of the more overt
>> super hero elements. And it *does* all tie together...
>>
>> Except for maybe the bonus "cats" episode doesn't seem to tie to
>> anything. But it is straight from the comics. I didn't realize that
>> it was also from the comics until someone posted yet another comics to
>> screen comparison.
>
> My instinct says to trust your instinct that it does all tie together.
> It may just take some time. Everything ends up reflecting back on
> Morpheus, so I assume that painting his portrait-in-motion has been the
> point so far.
>
> Possible spoiler for the cats episode:
>
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
>
> Even the cat story taught us that Morpheus can be not just
> anthropomorphic, but also felinomorphic, which implies that he can be
> all things to all minds that can dream, so long as they have the
> capacity to dream it.
>
>

It also taught us that dreams are powerful enough to retroactively shift
reality from the beginning of time. That's some top tier god level
power, that would have had to impacted all the gods as well, even those
gods more powerful than him.

>> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "The Heirs of the Dragon" - Game of
>> Thrones prequel series. The first episode was all set up and by
>> episodes end they seemed to be in full "Game of Thrones" mode with the
>> multiple sides vying for the Iron Throne.
>
> It has the same high production values and solid acting of _Game_. I
> think I like the writing slightly more. My sense is that there are a
> few more wry one-liners per episode.
>
> -Micky
>

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:

> On 9/5/2022 7:08 AM, Micky DuPree wrote:

>> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:

[re _The Sandman_]

>>> Except for maybe the bonus "cats" episode doesn't seem to tie to
>>> anything. But it is straight from the comics. I didn't realize
>>> that it was also from the comics until someone posted yet another
>>> comics to screen comparison.
>>
>> My instinct says to trust your instinct that it does all tie
>> together. It may just take some time. Everything ends up reflecting
>> back on Morpheus, so I assume that painting his portrait-in-motion
>> has been the point so far.
>>
>> Possible spoiler for the cats episode:
>>
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> .
>>
>> Even the cat story taught us that Morpheus can be not just
>> anthropomorphic, but also felinomorphic, which implies that he can be
>> all things to all minds that can dream, so long as they have the
>> capacity to dream it.
>
> It also taught us that dreams are powerful enough to retroactively
> shift reality from the beginning of time. That's some top tier god
> level power, that would have had to impacted all the gods as well,
> even those gods more powerful than him.

Possibly, even likely, but for now we have to take the cat-mom's word
for it that her encounter was genuine, and if it was, we also have to
take Morpheus' word for it that reality used to be dominated by cats.

If we take those two things as given, it's a bit unsettling that it
would take only 1,000 dreamers to dream the same dream to pull a
cosmological fast one. Seems like that would lead to chaos because the
number is so low.

-Micky