mrcellophane

I'm just going to go with one of my old themes: International and LGBTQ+ films.

shadokitty

That sounds like a good theme. Have fun.

BobO'Link

Hmm... I will repeat my "The British are Coming!" challenge as I have quite a bit of unseen (as in never have seen it before) UK R2 material collecting dust...

Travis McClain

Maybe you should call it "The British Have Been Kept Waiting!" challenge.

omike

I finally came up with something I'm happy with. I have a heck of a lot of box sets sitting around that I've only watched one or two movies from or are even unopened (shame!) so I'm going to try to get through some of these in May. Movies only. I'll have to watch all the movies in the set even if I've seen them before from other sources like in the theater. I'll probably start with Steven Spielberg Director's Collection which has eight films. I've only watched Jaws from the set but I saw several other ones when they came out in a theater. This should be fun!

BobO'Link

I began the invasion with Steptoe and Son, the UK series that Norman Lear reworked for Sanford and Son. Like with most of the Lear reworked series that jumped the pond, so far I prefer the UK version.

I'm currently 6 episodes in and have already seen one episode that was reworked for the US version - and it was done better, though is practically identical. The main difference is Steptoe uses a horse drawn trailer while Sanford has a broken down pickup and the Steptoe's are lower class British working clods. In both, the son has aspirations to lift his lot and get out of the drudgery of the junk business.

Steptoe has a fake heart attack in the first episode - but that's not yet been repeated - and doesn't call for the wife telling her "It's the BIG one! I'm coming..." In Steptoe it's, so far, a way for the old man to get out of work. And in the UK version it's a *second generation* business as the old man in the series was the *son* when the sign was first painted.

shadokitty

With the exception of the occasional cartoon on Dish, so far I've mostly been focusing on 80s cartoons. On DVD, I've been working my way through the first disc of Season 2 of The Transformers. Plus yesterday, for a little variety, I hopped onto Disney+ and watched the first two episodes of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends.

davidh777

I’m going to continue Star Trek but wondering if I’d want to broaden it a bit so I can also finish Cowboy Bebop.

BobO'Link

Roddenberry sold Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the stars" so call it The Wild Wild Outer Space and you can throw in Cowboy Bebop as well as Firefly...

HyperWeather

I already had plans for a big project this month (I cross stitch and will be working on something different everyday) so went with my favorite past challenge of baseball games and nostalgic movies/tv, both because something easy to watch and because I can stitch and rewatch some tv shows at the same time.

shadokitty

My challenge has been put on hold for a few days out of necessity. Earlier today one of my puppies got a hold of my glasses while I was outside on the phone. When I came back in they were completely destroyed. And I am blind as a bat without my glasses.

davidh777

Boba Fett (which I need to finish) and the Mandalorian as well.

ororama

I thought that I might repeat a previous challenge, but I subscribed to the Criterion Channel at the beginning of the year. The number of movies leaving at the end of this month is larger than usual, so I need to make the Criterion Channel a priority. I have therefore arrived at a challenge focusing on what is currently playing on subscription services that I'm paying for-Criterion Channel, Turner Classic Movies and maybe a few from Netflix. I haven't taken much advantage of TCM's on demand offerings in the past.

shadokitty

I'm actually kind of missing my challenge, so might set something up where I can sit close enough to my tv to sit if I want to watch a DVD. I still have the 'Death of Shirogane' episode of Golion to finish off Disc 1. And I can always use my phone to stream some things too.

shadokitty

While I'm not doing a Criterion challenge, I know kind of what you mean. Part of my free HBO Max has a TCM section, many of which are Criterion movies.

BobO'Link

I finished Steptoe and Son. Overall, it was pretty good. I *do* like it a bit better than Sanford and Son. The fake heart attack bit wasn't used that much in Steptoe... - actually being mentioned/commented on far more than it appeared. There *may* have been a few more episodes outside that "Piano Moving" one that transitioned to Sanford... but I really couldn't say just which, if any as I'm not familiar enough with the US incarnation to remember. I was a bit disappointed in that the majority of the episodes were presented in BW, even after the BBC switch to colour, due to the BBC all but losing the series due to their mass video tape wiping of the 70s/80s. I think the majority only survived due to collectors and kinescope type transfers.

Following Steptoe... I moved forward a few decades for the series Barbara. It's about a rather acerbic woman who works reception in a "surgery" (aka Doctor's office). She lives with her husband (played by Sam Kelly who I know from 'Allo! 'Allo!). Her daughter is married to a local TV presenter (who fancies himself to be far more popular than he is) and their son who lives at home and mostly drifts into/out of jobs/relationships. There's also her sister and fellow receptionist making up the rest of the regular cast. I've seen the series in its entirety and found it mostly funny, at times very funny, and then just plain odd as it ventured into some rather surreal and/or dark humor at times. I can see myself watching it again as it's fairly short (4 series of 6-8 episodes each). Worst part is it ended on a cliffhanger! While that last episode is funny it can also be easily skipped and *almost* is self-contained as it opens with Barbara in the hospital and then flashes back to show how she got there. The only thing missing is who shot her - and it could have been any of a half dozen people, including a few from her family.

From there I started watching a Ronnie Barker collection. It contains several series in which he's the star. More on that later...

shadokitty

I’m not sure if this would have anything to do with anyone’s challenge, but I just read on Facebook that Fred Ward has passed away.

Travis McClain

Between baseball and periodically not feeling great, I'm way behind on my challenge. I stand at 30/80. I'll have to get in 5 a day the rest of the way and then a few more in order to hit my goal. It's mathematically possible, but I dunno that I'm up to maintaining that pace.

shadokitty

Other reasons, like no glasses and stuff, but I am too Travis. I wasn’t even motivated to list it, but for close to two weeks, all I watched was yesterday I watched my digital copy of Scooby Doo on Zombie Island.

BobO'Link

I've been making up for you two... I've made it through 7 of 1, Porridge, Open All Hours, and The Magnificent Evans over the past week or so. All are in that Ronnie Barker collection I purchased some time back. I've seen Open All Hours before but all the others are new to me.

7 of 1 is a kind of anthology series with each episode being something of a pilot for other series. It contains the episode "Open All Hours" and "Prisoner and Escort" which lead to the series Open All Hours and Porridge respectively.

Porridge was quite humorous and features many British actors I'm familiar with for their other work: Brian WIlde, later to be one of the main 3 in Last of the Summer Wine, Richard Beckinsale, later in Rising Damp, Sam Kelly of 'Allo! 'Allo! and Barbara (one I also just saw for the first time), David Jason from Open All Hours and Only Fools and Horses, Fulton Mackay from Dad's Army, Graham Crowden from Waiting for God, and Peter Vaughan who much latter appeared in Game of Thrones. I had almost as much fun "actor spotting" as I did watching the series.

wishbone

Like BobO'Link I have been able to get through several series for this challenge. The final seasons of Taxi, Parks and Recreation, and Night Court were very enjoyable.

For Taxi I remembered the episodes of Latka sleeping with the cabbie to stay alive in a winter storm and a woman telling Louie she loved him the further away he was from her -- doing a scene with orange juice dumped on you must have been fun. There were parts of other episodes that seemed familiar too.

I missed most of the final season of Parks and Recreation when it aired so it was good to finish and a nice wrap up for the lovely people of Pawnee. Same for the final season of Night Court since I only saw a few episodes during college. Shame the show didn't get a proper send off. Hopefully the new series will bring back some of the magic of Criminal Court Part Two.

NewsRadio and Friends were series that I watched the first few seasons when they aired and bailed. It may have been the 'will they or won't they' premise of the shows. Nonetheless great writing and characters with more seasons to watch for future challenges.

Coach grew on me as the second season progressed with some great physical humor. I did find myself saying, "Da-aed!", a lot thanks to Coach's daughter Kelly.

Finally, ALF. I remembered several episodes as it was quite the phenomenon when it debuted. Andrea Elson and Anne Schedeen were nice to watch too.



Here is an online interview with Anne talking about the show and the literal pratfalls working on set with a puppet.

With about a week to go I will probably watch some random sitcoms to finish the challenge.

shadokitty

I wanted to make something of a showing on the last week, so even without my glasses, I’ll be making use of both digital purchases, as well as other streaming options.

omike

I finally finished my first box set yesterday - Steven Spielberg Director's Collection from Universal. This took longer than expected since there were extensive special features on some of the discs which I wanted to watch and for variety I started on another box set before I was done with this one. There were three films I hadn't seen before Sugarland Express, 1941, and Always. All were good but will never be favorites for me. I was surprised that I liked Always as much as I did. It's one of those ghostly romances but features some classic aircraft and exciting firefighting scenes. I had seen the other movies before (Duel, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Lost World: Jurassic Park) but for the most part quite a while ago so it was fun revisiting them.

BobO'Link

1941 is one of my favorite Spielberg films. Only the Indiana Jones films, Minority Report, and Schindler's List rank higher for me. I really don't care much for his other films.

shadokitty

That’s interesting, because today’s Bing Rewards poll asked if he was still relevant. My answer, no, was in the big minority with only 30 %.