King Lear is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I approached the Amazon prime adaptation gingerly, and it was definitely... a mixed bag.

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I will carry on waiting for a good King Lear.
  

I've only managed to watch the first two episodes so far because I had company over the weekend, but I'm totally loving it.  Such a great adaptation!
  

So.  Having finished the BBC adaptation of Les Miserables, there are a couple of things I want to say right off.

1) Enzo Cilenti should have held out for a bigger part.  He's the light of this production and he does nothing.  I quite shipped his character with Javert as well, especially toward the end.  Very sad.

2) Clearly I was right not to talk too much about it before seeing the whole thing.  I've had time to forget a lot of my more minor gripes and to focus on broader issues, and I did think the last episode was really very good.  It was kept from being great, imo, by the problems the adaptation had had throughout and by the general "eh" feeling of the ending, but it was good.

3) I've had to ask myself if it is in fact possible to make the end of this story uplifting without the spirits of the dead singing a rousing chorus about freedom, and I just don't know.  I've seen the 1934 French version, and 1935 version with Charles Laughton, and 1978 version with Anthony Perkins (it occurs to me that I only ever remember who played Javert), and I don't strongly remember the end of any of them.  The end of the 1998 version is memorable only because they made the executive decision to cut it short, and maybe that's fair.

Anyway, uplifting was not achieved, but I say again that the last episode was very good.  I also liked a lot of the casting, especially Enzo Cilenti once again, and the genetically improbable Thenardier family.  Really good performances all around there. I enjoyed the Waterloo opening as well.        

But I do still have complaints.  They are as follows:

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TL;DR I love the book, I love the musical, and I liked this adaptation toward the end and maybe overall I judged it too harshly.  If you haven't seen it, please don't hesitate on my account. 
   

Eventually I'll get around to a proper TV shows post, but right now the only thing I'm really watching is Instinct.  I've loved both episodes so far and I really recommend it.

Also it's on at a time and on a station that's convenient for me, so I9;ve actually been able to watch it on my TV as it airs.  I've missed doing that.
  

I just started Into the Badlands.  I've only seen one episode but I really like it so far.

I complain all the time about how over dystopias I am, but give me a ultra-bright color scheme and suddenly I am into it.  I think a good 75% of my boredom with gritty/grimdark is literally just if they look gritty, grim, and dark.  You can sell me on so much just by making it pretty and colorful.

(And seriously guys- Into the Badlands is the prettiest and colorfulest) 
  

Designated Survivor is back!  It came back last week and I didn't realize, so I had two to watch.  I have a complicated relationship with this show, but I'm still interested to see where it goes next.

( Designated Survivor )

And speaking of shows I have a complicated relationship with...

( Shadowhunters )

So Shadowhunters isn't coming back until June apparently and Lucifer isn't coming back until May?  What is that about?  Why are there suddenly going to be spring hiatus' and shows during the summer?
   

When Oscar season comes around I'm always pretty uninterested in most of the nominees but I always end up having to watch a few anyway.

I just saw Manchester By the Sea and... wow.  It was exactly what I expected.  Fine from a technical standpoint, not all that well put together in my opinion but definitely your classic Accomplished look-how-good movie, and so very, very boring.  I swear the same thing happens every couple of years.  Some drab, depressing movie gets made about a white guy who has a depression beard and acts like a jerk, and the academy flaps around like, "So innovative!"  And it's just not?

That said, I'd be interested to hear what anyone who liked it thought was good about it.  I do understand that a movie can be good without being enjoyable to watch, but this movie just wasn't saying anything new.
    

I went to see xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and let me tell you I thought it was fantastic.

In general the xXx movies have always brought out a slightly juvenile side of me that is 100% there for a cross between James Bond and the X-Games and wow did this movie not disappoint on that score, but there was also more to it than that.  All the action was great, all the characters were great, Donnie Yen was especially great (and Xiang's dynamic with Xander Cage really did it for me you guys) and there were so many women!

Like, I'm not going to claim it was some kind of feminist utopia, it's xXx, but there were three major female characters who were all well developed, each kickass in a different way, and really supportive of each other- and there were multiple minor female characters none of whom died for man-pain.  I can't really think of another action movie that can say the same, honestly.

Anyway, I think it's a shame that it's not getting much love.  It's not a perfect movie but it was really entertaining!  I spent the whole movie with a stupid grin on my face, and I shipped so many people.
  

I saw Rogue One and really enjoyed it.  I especially want to say one thing:

When I first saw the trailer and figured what it was going to be about, I didn't think it was a very good idea because- since it's set just before the original trilogy- whatever climax/happy ending they went for would ultimately mean very little, because the bad guys would still be kicking around and so much bad stuff was still going to happen.

But instead of trying to get out of that or conceal it somehow, they really played it out and I thought it was tragic but really beautiful.


Anyway, I thought it was great.  Having a stand-alone film instead of a trilogy was so refreshing, and I loved all the characters.  I actually liked it better than The Force Awakens.  It'll be interesting to see if I'm in a minority, because I suspect the movie won't be to all tastes.
  

I will do that meme eventually, I promise.  I've just been really busy lately.

But I did go to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  It had a few problems that I’ve heard people talk about already, but it was an enjoyable movie overall and I liked it.  There's one thing I need to get off my chest, though:

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Anyway, I did like the movie.  Maybe I'll do a proper reaction post later.