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You. Will. Know. Pain.
Actor Christopher Plummer has passed at the age of 91.
Look, it's hard to get through Plummer's filmography, because he's been working for decades upon decades, and has been in so many memorable films - and I think he's amazing in the recent Knives Out.
But I also credit him with making me realize actors could be many things. In 1987 or 1988, when I saw the comedic reboot of Dragnet on VHS, I remember snapping to "that... that's Christopher Plummer" as we were watching the movie. I mean, I only knew him from Sound of Music and as a "serious" actor. Seeing him in something so goofy, and what they were doing to leverage his gravitas, was kind of fascinating to me as a kid. Anyway - it taught me a little something about actors and their range, and their desire to be more than one thing. I won't say at age 12 or 13 that I stretched the idea beyond that - but over the years, watching him appear in film and after film, pulling off whatever was in front of him, was amazing.
Of course, I didn't know at the time, either, he had entered this phase of his career and was just as likely to appear in serious drama as, say, Starcrash. (He's actually very good in Star Trek VI).
But, man, what a life. He'll be missed.
Today marks Ida Lupino's date of birth, 1918. She's a favorite here at The Signal Watch, and I probably go on about her too much, but that's just how we're gonna be. I will defend this decision forever.
I'd originally started this post at the end of last year in order to relay what all we'd been watching. At this point, it's kind of hard to remember through the haze that was 2020 and the endless hours in my spot on the sofa what I put my eyeballs on. As you may know, I mostly watched movies, and baseball came back in July. I even gave a go of becoming a fan of Korean baseball, but kinda failed at that.
In general, I don't binge TV shows (and quietly judge people on twitter complaining when shows come out once per week), but this year has been a year unlike others. And I did plow right through some shows that I might otherwise have ignored.
For example - I watched all of something called The Great Flower Fight, which I can't say I even liked, but at the start of the pandemic, it was the right show at the right time. As was Love is Blind.
Frankly - I do not get how TV is funded in this era of a million channels and streaming services. What constitutes a win versus a cancel. It's all just a big mystery to me. There's so much stuff out there, and while the same percentage of it is watchable, with the sheer volume, there's a lot of decent TV in existence at this point. But, yikes, there's a lot of stuff on, and somebody is watching it.
None of these shows are recommendations, but the list is what I've watched over the past 12 months or so between baseball and movies. Some of it's pretty bad - but I somehow stuck it out.
I'm also not looking for recommendations - and I know you all have them. Good! Say them very quietly inside your head and give a knowing smile to yourself. Ahhh.... there's that familiar glow of a recommendation.
Anyway - here's my best possible stab at a list
The woman was an absolute delight and in too many movies that I liked for me to name all of them.
Glad she was with us so long, and was on our screens for so long.
