This spring, I watched When Life Gives You Tangerines, and I honestly didn’t expect to be so fully transposed. Even though my own experience is tied to French Polynesia and the series is set in South Korea (Jeju), the depiction of island life - the good and the bad - the dream of escaping to the big city (in my case, the “Métropole”; in the series’ case, the mainland), and the struggles of adapting to that big city once you get there as an “exotic” person, all felt so familiar and well done that I cried during every episode. I’m curious - have you ever experienced something like this with a movie or series?
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Yeah life is rigged. What’re you gonna do, cry about it? Or get all your buddies together and turn to face life, and say “Who the hell do you think I am?”. Row row, flight the power.
500 Days of Summer. Had no idea what I was about to do to my relationship. In a way, it just sped up the inevitable, but damn. I was not ready to see our relationship resonated down my throat that hard. Still hurts.
Logan
Watching Professor X mentally decline hit so fucking close to home. When it came out, I had just lost my grandad (who raised me), and it was like watching a home movie in certain parts. Stewart nailed the fog of dementia that can ebb ad flow, and the relationship between him and Wolverine was pitch perfect.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Legendary_Heroes
Ryner just wants to take a nap but he’s the main character. He literally gets thrown in jail and is OK with it so he can nap. He writes essays on napping.
I, too, just wanna nap
Not my all time favorited but truly an unforgettable gem:
The Good Place.
Not only does it tackle the toughest questions in life, its the perfect thought experiment: okay, let’s say you have a heaven, what then?
Lazor Wulf.
It’s about a wolf with a laser on his back. And also pizza rolls are held in high regard.
The Good Place - Excellent characters, excellent humor, brilliant commentary, and one of the most thoughtful endings I’ve ever watched.
Ted Lasso - Excellent characters, people who hate sports can still love this show, unexpectedly hilarious (not funny, not humorous, I almost died laughing a few times), the worst character becomes one of the best characters, the nicest character becomes the most tragic characters.
Pachinko - Absolutely perfect in design and execution, the best period piece I’ve ever watched (covers multiple periods, as well), biting (almost damning) commentary on Imperial & Post War Japan, characters you either side with out of the gate or grow to understand and empathize with.
Season 1 of The Last of Us. I was very close to my dad, and my real dad isn’t my biological dad. I miss him and I’m often in !dadforaminute@lemmy.world
Watching a daddy daughter relationship develop was really powerful for me, I have NEVER connected with a show or film so much. They weren’t biological and started as strangers just like me and my real dad, but they fiercely were at the end. I couldn’t watch s2 because s1 is perfect for me and I don’t want to change that.
Good call on not watching season 2. You’re not missing out
Yeah I just finished season 2 and was super meh compared to the first. It did get a bit better the last couple episodes but the first half of the season was a melodramatic snooze fest.
Yep so I gather! I got spoiled about The Event in the 2nd game when I looked into the plot, it’s just not for me. S2 just doesn’t seem to be any good as well
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The hardest part of life is the problems you can’t just decapitate with a sword.
Northern Exposure, I think it captures something universal about living in a small town.
I haven’t revisited it in some time, but I loved Northern Exposure as a teen. Shit, I even applied to (but didn’t attend) The University of Alaska Fairbanks from Florida. They called to make sure I wasn’t just fucking with them, but I don’t think the admissions person had it in them to put on the hard sell.
Farscape and Fight Club. I love the slow decline in mental stability shown by the main characters. John Crichton (Ben Browder) Farscape does it so well, trying to keep it together when thrown so completely out of his comfort zone. Unnamed Narrator/Tyler Durden, just a complete nut bar that doesn’t even know who they are. Would love to see this from an outside view see how he did some of the things he did, it all made a weird kind of sense til the end then I was just confused.
edit: would love suggestions for similar themed shows/movies
Wasn’t Ed Norton’s character name Jack? I still quote
I am jack’s complete lack of surprise
pretty regularly
It’s been a decade or so since I watched it so went to the wiki to ensure I got things accurate. In the wiki it calls the starting half of Tyler unnamed narrator. Tylers original name is never disclosed in either the book or the movie, check this basically was reading a readers digest story - “Reader’s Digest article about the first person view of internal organs, called “I Am Jack’s ____”.” tho it should be Joe and Jill
They didn’t make me a manager until I had been on the job for over a decade.
One day I look at an old favorite, “The Dirty Dozen.”
Early on, the Major is ordered to meet with the General, who tells him he has to train twelve condemned prisoners for a suicide mission behind the German lines. The Major obeys the orders, but opines that whoever came up with the plan must be insane. The General tells him to shut up and go; then the General tells his staff that the idea is insane.
Then the Major has to meet the troops and convince each man that it’s in his best interests to join the mission.
Being given stupid orders and then having to lead a bunch of psychos and idiots to achieve the goal is the essence of being a middle manager.
Anne with an E was a surprise favourite of mine. I mostly just resonated with the stiff/gruff characters being totally undone by a loud mouthed girl with a heart of gold and a strong sense of justice. It kind of speaks to the idea that most people are shaped by their hard and tragic lives, but are only a few steps away from being good to one another if shown how.
I also like the unbeatable spirit of the main protagonist who somehow does not let the world get them down, rises to every challenge with spunky defiance, makes friends of their enemies, and sports orange. If Naruto and Anne of Green Gables ever met on the battlefield, I’m not sure who would be left standing.
Anne of Green Gables is one of my favourite comfort novels. It just instantly takes me to a happy place. Somewhere on the internet, I once saw Anne described as
a red-haired, freckle-faced orphan who faces the world with nothing but the sheer force of her personality
which summarises it very well.
If anyone is interested in checking it out, I cannot recommend this LibriVox recording by Karen Savage enough.
Detectorists is perfect in every way. Incredibly chill with dry humor.
This one is really good, we watched it also.
One of my favourite pieces of media of all time, hands down.
Our Blues is also very similar.
