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shadowkatMostly uneventful day until my mother called. It was a pretty one. Took a walk and picked up groceries and CBD infused tea.
Mother called and informed me that there was a stabbing at my niece's campus. An African American female college student was pulled off campus and stabbed to death and the perpetrator is still at large. The school did not handle it well. It happened at 2PM on Wed, and the kids didn't find out about until 8pm on social media. My niece was on the campus at the time. She has a bunch of friends staying at her house tonight because they don't want to stay on campus. The Black College Student Caucus pushed the school to cancel classes for next week. And they have a break the week after. So no school for two weeks.
My niece called my Mom because she was a little disturbed about it. And my Mom called my brother and got details. I was upset by it. I'm tired of violent assholes.
Be nice if I could just snap them out of existence, wouldn't it. But alas, it's not possible nor should it be. Now, my niece who loves her school is uncertain about returning to it. They don't know who did it or why, but there have been swastikas found around the school, and there's an indication it may have been a hate crime. It's a very diverse school -- unlike the other two schools she looked at.
I wasn't sure what to do about it. So sent her a text stating that I was sorry to hear about it. And if she ever wanted to talk or anything -- to please know that I was available for her at any time, no matter what. Then sent her a picture of violets. (That kid is the love of my life.)
Anyhow, more television reviews...of new dramas. To date the best new television shows that I've seen are Bob Hearts Abishola, Prodigal Son, Stumptown, and Evil.
Bluff City Law is also pretty good and has potential. Everything else? Eh..Meh.
1. Prodigal Son -- and I think we've got a keeper. This is a Greg Berlanti, Chris Fedak (Chuck) and Skip Slaver. The cast, oh dear lord, the cast is phenomenal. Lou Diamond Phillips, Tom Payne, Bellamy Young, Michael Sheen, Aurora Perrineau...
And the cinematography and writing is well done. I found it edge of the seat gripping and I kept rewinding. Payne is excellent. And Sheen has fun with his role.
The only problem? I hate serial killer stories. But alas, this is good enough for me to skip past that big problem. Why? It's focusing on character.
The set-up? Malcolm Bright, aka Whitly, is an FBI profiler. He's also the son of a major serial killer, named the Surgeon, who he turned in to the cops as a twelve year old boy. The Surgoen, played by Michael Sheen, has an odd relationship with his son -- and it's unclear, but he may have been trying to groom the boy to step into his footsteps. Instead Malcolm rebelled and chose to capture people like his father instead.
Malcolm has been fired by the FBI for overstepping. A Sheriff killed a serial killer that Malcolm was trying to talk down. And Malcolm punched him. Malcolm is forensic psychologist and profiler, who is rather brilliant, in that he can see what a serial killer will do, why, and what he will do next.
An old friend, now head of a crime unit at the NYPD, Lou Diamond Phillips calls Malcolm in to help with a case. And join his team of detectives. Meanwhile Malcolm's socialite mother, portrayed by Bellamy Young, and his investigative reporter sister are distracting him. And of course there's his father -- who insists he's just like him and his legacy.
Malcolm suffers night terrors -- to such an extent that he chains himself to his bed at night and wears a tooth guard. Also takes a lot of medication. And has a tremor.
And a good portion of his childhood, he has blocked out. His greatest fear is that he will become his father.
The character interactions, dialogue, and direction are well-done and rather compelling. Also good actors in the roles. I'm on the fence about the subject matter, which as you are aware, I'm not a fan of -- this is not genre I like and tend to avoid. I did not like the television series Hannibal. So we'll see how long I stick with it. But right now, I'm curious and I really like everyone in the cast and the acting.
2. Emergence this is by Tara Butters and Michaela Ferezuka, and stars Alison Tollman, Donald Faison, Clancy Brown, and a few others...(the bald character actor from LOST is popping up in later episodes). I'm leery of the writing team. You may remember them from Reaper and Dollhouse. Also Jason (PRobably) Saves the World.
Also while it has a good cast. The pacing is slow, and dialogue monotonous (it doesn't really go anywhere). Also it's very tropey -- bordering on cliche in places. I found it predictable. The mysterious child with special abilities, and no memory of her past, is fast-becoming an overdone television trope. And it works best if you have a really good child actress in the lead. The child actress in this one isn't bad and servicable, but she's no where near the female leads of The Passage and Stranger Things, or for that manner, Hanna.
My other difficulty with it is the direction -- Tollman either comes across as bewildered or just...bland. (And I love Alison Tollman.) I found it to be slow and my attention kept wandering during it.
Also it buys heavily into another overdone television trope -- the evil government agency conspiracy. I wish television writers would stop it already with this trope. I found it old in the 1980s. Also, they clearly have never worked for a government organization -- or they'd realize how hard it would be to have a conspiracy like this and keep it secret in this day and age.
I don't know. This has some of the same problems as Manifest, Stranger Things, and The Passage -- and I liked those better because they were smart enough to focus on stuff outside of the kid and the conspiracy. They also answered the questions pretty fast. The setting appears to be a fishing town in Maine, although it could be the Pacific Northwest. No way it is Long Island, NY -- too out in the boondocks.
There's some interesting characters here and potential for an interesting family dynamic -- but most of it is well, been there see that before. I mean from watching the preview for the next couple of episodes, I could sort of see where it was going and I predict I lose interest in five episodes possibly less. I'll be surprised if it makes it two seasons, because my guess is other folks are tired of this trope too.
The set-up? A plane crashes. The sheriff discovers a little girl who may or may not have been part of it. Of course the sheriff chooses to take the little girl home with her, after a disturbance at the hospital -- where it appears the little girl might not be safe (the sheriff has a teen daughter at home and a father with cancer). This would have worked better if she was single with no family. Anyhow, weird shit goes down, it becomes clear rather quickly that nasty people are after the little girl -- so the sheriff chooses not to tell anyone that she has her.
The little girl -- we figure out -- has strange powers and appears to have a strange tracking device in her. And is far from normal.
So clone? Mutant? Alien? What? Do I care? Not really...and that's the problem.
Shame. I wanted to like this one more than I did.
3. Bluff City Law -- well, it's better than All Rise and most of the recent legal shows that I've tried to watch. Interesting cast and the writing is better than expected. Also, the legal stuff doesn't make me cringe or think, seriously, how many episodes of Perry Mason did we watch before writing this?
The set-up? Jimmy Smits runs a small law firm and is a celebrated lawyer fighting the Good Fight in Memphis. His estranged daughter is working at a top law firm in New York City. He manages to lure her back to his firm, to work beside him after her mother suddenly dies. They have a lot of baggage, including his teenage son who he never told her about -- and she discovers after working for the firm for a few weeks. Sydney, the daughter, also has an ex-hubby, who still has a thing for her, and is the Chief of Detectives.
The cast is good and compelling. It has the actor from Revenge and Longmire, playing the role of senior partner, a rain-maker and criminal lawyer, also Michael Luwoye (of Hamilton and other shows) playing Sydney's law school friend, and Jayne Atkinson as a senior partner.
The story is more family drama plus legal cases, than straight up legal procedural. The major flaw is pretty much the same one that a lot of these shows have -- which is a tendency towards preaching, but not quite as much -- the family drama and interpersonal relationship drama pulls it back from that a bit. Reminds me a little of LA Law in this respect. It's not a soap opera, more straight up legal drama.
The writing isn't as sharp as The Good Fight, but it's good for the pilot. The characters are interesting and likable. It held my attention. Also it's the best thing I've seen Smits in for quite a while.
So, I'll stick with it and I recommend it over All Rise, which felt a bit hooky in places.
Mother called and informed me that there was a stabbing at my niece's campus. An African American female college student was pulled off campus and stabbed to death and the perpetrator is still at large. The school did not handle it well. It happened at 2PM on Wed, and the kids didn't find out about until 8pm on social media. My niece was on the campus at the time. She has a bunch of friends staying at her house tonight because they don't want to stay on campus. The Black College Student Caucus pushed the school to cancel classes for next week. And they have a break the week after. So no school for two weeks.
My niece called my Mom because she was a little disturbed about it. And my Mom called my brother and got details. I was upset by it. I'm tired of violent assholes.
Be nice if I could just snap them out of existence, wouldn't it. But alas, it's not possible nor should it be. Now, my niece who loves her school is uncertain about returning to it. They don't know who did it or why, but there have been swastikas found around the school, and there's an indication it may have been a hate crime. It's a very diverse school -- unlike the other two schools she looked at.
I wasn't sure what to do about it. So sent her a text stating that I was sorry to hear about it. And if she ever wanted to talk or anything -- to please know that I was available for her at any time, no matter what. Then sent her a picture of violets. (That kid is the love of my life.)
Anyhow, more television reviews...of new dramas. To date the best new television shows that I've seen are Bob Hearts Abishola, Prodigal Son, Stumptown, and Evil.
Bluff City Law is also pretty good and has potential. Everything else? Eh..Meh.
1. Prodigal Son -- and I think we've got a keeper. This is a Greg Berlanti, Chris Fedak (Chuck) and Skip Slaver. The cast, oh dear lord, the cast is phenomenal. Lou Diamond Phillips, Tom Payne, Bellamy Young, Michael Sheen, Aurora Perrineau...
And the cinematography and writing is well done. I found it edge of the seat gripping and I kept rewinding. Payne is excellent. And Sheen has fun with his role.
The only problem? I hate serial killer stories. But alas, this is good enough for me to skip past that big problem. Why? It's focusing on character.
The set-up? Malcolm Bright, aka Whitly, is an FBI profiler. He's also the son of a major serial killer, named the Surgeon, who he turned in to the cops as a twelve year old boy. The Surgoen, played by Michael Sheen, has an odd relationship with his son -- and it's unclear, but he may have been trying to groom the boy to step into his footsteps. Instead Malcolm rebelled and chose to capture people like his father instead.
Malcolm has been fired by the FBI for overstepping. A Sheriff killed a serial killer that Malcolm was trying to talk down. And Malcolm punched him. Malcolm is forensic psychologist and profiler, who is rather brilliant, in that he can see what a serial killer will do, why, and what he will do next.
An old friend, now head of a crime unit at the NYPD, Lou Diamond Phillips calls Malcolm in to help with a case. And join his team of detectives. Meanwhile Malcolm's socialite mother, portrayed by Bellamy Young, and his investigative reporter sister are distracting him. And of course there's his father -- who insists he's just like him and his legacy.
Malcolm suffers night terrors -- to such an extent that he chains himself to his bed at night and wears a tooth guard. Also takes a lot of medication. And has a tremor.
And a good portion of his childhood, he has blocked out. His greatest fear is that he will become his father.
The character interactions, dialogue, and direction are well-done and rather compelling. Also good actors in the roles. I'm on the fence about the subject matter, which as you are aware, I'm not a fan of -- this is not genre I like and tend to avoid. I did not like the television series Hannibal. So we'll see how long I stick with it. But right now, I'm curious and I really like everyone in the cast and the acting.
2. Emergence this is by Tara Butters and Michaela Ferezuka, and stars Alison Tollman, Donald Faison, Clancy Brown, and a few others...(the bald character actor from LOST is popping up in later episodes). I'm leery of the writing team. You may remember them from Reaper and Dollhouse. Also Jason (PRobably) Saves the World.
Also while it has a good cast. The pacing is slow, and dialogue monotonous (it doesn't really go anywhere). Also it's very tropey -- bordering on cliche in places. I found it predictable. The mysterious child with special abilities, and no memory of her past, is fast-becoming an overdone television trope. And it works best if you have a really good child actress in the lead. The child actress in this one isn't bad and servicable, but she's no where near the female leads of The Passage and Stranger Things, or for that manner, Hanna.
My other difficulty with it is the direction -- Tollman either comes across as bewildered or just...bland. (And I love Alison Tollman.) I found it to be slow and my attention kept wandering during it.
Also it buys heavily into another overdone television trope -- the evil government agency conspiracy. I wish television writers would stop it already with this trope. I found it old in the 1980s. Also, they clearly have never worked for a government organization -- or they'd realize how hard it would be to have a conspiracy like this and keep it secret in this day and age.
I don't know. This has some of the same problems as Manifest, Stranger Things, and The Passage -- and I liked those better because they were smart enough to focus on stuff outside of the kid and the conspiracy. They also answered the questions pretty fast. The setting appears to be a fishing town in Maine, although it could be the Pacific Northwest. No way it is Long Island, NY -- too out in the boondocks.
There's some interesting characters here and potential for an interesting family dynamic -- but most of it is well, been there see that before. I mean from watching the preview for the next couple of episodes, I could sort of see where it was going and I predict I lose interest in five episodes possibly less. I'll be surprised if it makes it two seasons, because my guess is other folks are tired of this trope too.
The set-up? A plane crashes. The sheriff discovers a little girl who may or may not have been part of it. Of course the sheriff chooses to take the little girl home with her, after a disturbance at the hospital -- where it appears the little girl might not be safe (the sheriff has a teen daughter at home and a father with cancer). This would have worked better if she was single with no family. Anyhow, weird shit goes down, it becomes clear rather quickly that nasty people are after the little girl -- so the sheriff chooses not to tell anyone that she has her.
The little girl -- we figure out -- has strange powers and appears to have a strange tracking device in her. And is far from normal.
So clone? Mutant? Alien? What? Do I care? Not really...and that's the problem.
Shame. I wanted to like this one more than I did.
3. Bluff City Law -- well, it's better than All Rise and most of the recent legal shows that I've tried to watch. Interesting cast and the writing is better than expected. Also, the legal stuff doesn't make me cringe or think, seriously, how many episodes of Perry Mason did we watch before writing this?
The set-up? Jimmy Smits runs a small law firm and is a celebrated lawyer fighting the Good Fight in Memphis. His estranged daughter is working at a top law firm in New York City. He manages to lure her back to his firm, to work beside him after her mother suddenly dies. They have a lot of baggage, including his teenage son who he never told her about -- and she discovers after working for the firm for a few weeks. Sydney, the daughter, also has an ex-hubby, who still has a thing for her, and is the Chief of Detectives.
The cast is good and compelling. It has the actor from Revenge and Longmire, playing the role of senior partner, a rain-maker and criminal lawyer, also Michael Luwoye (of Hamilton and other shows) playing Sydney's law school friend, and Jayne Atkinson as a senior partner.
The story is more family drama plus legal cases, than straight up legal procedural. The major flaw is pretty much the same one that a lot of these shows have -- which is a tendency towards preaching, but not quite as much -- the family drama and interpersonal relationship drama pulls it back from that a bit. Reminds me a little of LA Law in this respect. It's not a soap opera, more straight up legal drama.
The writing isn't as sharp as The Good Fight, but it's good for the pilot. The characters are interesting and likable. It held my attention. Also it's the best thing I've seen Smits in for quite a while.
So, I'll stick with it and I recommend it over All Rise, which felt a bit hooky in places.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:17 pm (UTC)It's really good -- it's the only one that I found myself thinking about afterwards, and am looking forward to the next episode. The characters are really interesting and compelling. It's not your run-of-the-mill police or serial killer hunter procedural. It's far more character centric, and Tom Payne who plays the lead role is excellent.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 04:50 pm (UTC)I agree. People can't keep secrets, period. But look at the vast right-wing conspiracy theories being pushed by the Republican party right now: the Russians didn't hack the DNC--it was really the Democrats, trying to set up Trump for a fall. The Democrats are running a child trafficking ring out of a restaurant in DC i.e. pizzagate. Logic doesn't apply in real life, let alone TV plots.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 05:07 pm (UTC)True.
I will state that I'm consistent on this. I don't like government conspiracies in life or in fiction. I worked with a guy at a video game company once. We shared a cubical. And he believed that the US government orchestrated 9/11 and the attacks in order to get us into two wars. (sigh. No. The amount of planning and orchestration involved? Please. Eyeroll.) And then there was Whitey Strieber who was convinced people were being kidnapped by aliens and experimented on -- which became a popular sci-fi television trope to the point that I wished the stupid aliens had kept Strieber and not sent him back to earth to write it.
The mind is very suggestable. We will believe just about anything our mind tells us to believe...unfortunately. EVIL sort of plays with that a bit, which is the one thing I liked about it. Evil plays with similar concepts but does a better job with it s did the X-Files and Rosewell for that matter.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 07:32 pm (UTC)It's worth it. Sheen, Payne, Bellamy Young, and the gal playing the police psychologist (who is a tough cop from the Bronx) and had done some of the profiling prior to Malcom, are compelling. The first episode had me re-winding to rewatch bits of dialogue and scenes. (And I despise this genre. Don't like FOX. And I couldn't watch Hannibal, and have 0 patience with the police procedural/serial killer stories. For example? I skipped Alan Cummings Instinct (and I adore Cummings) and I do not watch Criminal Minds -- even though I like the cast. But this was different and pulled me in immediately.)
I was admittedly surprised. I thought I'd like Stumptown, Emergence, All Rise and Evil more than this, and it's the opposite. Very weird.