What I Watched, What You Watched #33

A Happy Easter to anyone reading this today! And my apologies for missing last week’s entry, I was indisposed all day with another engagement. I’ll make it up to you with a super-sized lineup in today’s What I Watched, What You Watched, including my review of Fate of the Furious, which you can read right here.

I started the weeks off on a strong suit with …And Justice For All, a well-made drama with a great central performance by Al Pacino. I followed this up with The Cabin in the Woods, which I started four years ago and had yet to finish. It was worth returning to, because the film is a really great horror throwback and laced with sharp, gut-busting comedy. A little bit on the other end of the spectrum of Cabin is Night Shift, a dumb little comedy from the early 80s that was fine for most of its running time, but filled with great moments for its breakout star Michael Keaton. As I began this past week, I realized that, despite seeing it twice, I was having trouble remembering anything about Good Night, And Good Luck, other than enjoying it. So I gave that a third watch, and was once again fairly entertained, and especially wowed by David Strathairn’s performance. I then recapped for Fate of the Furious with Fast Five, the second film of the series that I’ve seen. It was enjoyable, and properly dumb, but nothing in it was as great as Furious 7’s sheer idiotic earnestness. I finally got around to making my family watch Hidden Figures, which they all enjoyed, because really, how can you hate this movie? And finally, I followed my Easter traditions with The Passion of the Christ and the ABC showing of The Ten Commandments. The former is a well-made, albeit flawed, film, while the latter is a part-silent movie, part-camp, part-bombastic epic masterpiece. Oh, and I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve been watching Ben Affleck’s Live By Night, and good lord, is it bad.

Television wise, I really haven’t watched anything outside my norm. Mystery Science Theater 3000 has returned to Netflix, so I’ve been watching old and new episodes alike. I might write a proper review for the new episodes later, but my early thoughts are “good, not as great as the original.” What is bordering on great right now is The Middle, which has been slowly gaining steam in recent years after already being one of the most underrated shows on television, and I feel confident in saying these past two seasons are amongst the best they’ve ever done, and even amongst the best of TV right now. If you’re not watching it, you should definitely start. And, of course, I’ve been watching Feud, which is, once again, really great. And finally, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts, and I have two strong recommendations for you all: the Filmdrunk Frotcast, which has been putting out some of their best episodes recently (incidentally, one of their recurring jokes was a story involving Papa Roach, which ended up serving as the inspiration for the Paul Ryan meme. It was a nice moment of validation for us Frotters), as well as The Lake House episode of How Did This Get Made?, which made me pull over to the side of the road laughing while listening to it. Check both out if you get the chance.

That wraps up this edition of What I Watched, What You Watched. With Feud wrapping up, I’m looking for a new TV show to start watching, which I have narrowed down to Big Little Lies and 13 Reasons Why. Maybe you can weigh in in the comments over which you’d recommend. And please share what you’ve been watching, reading, or anything in the comments!