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Television, Book and Movie round up
You know, it's strange, I can't remember a lot of the television series and movies that I've seen this year. Brain fog has become an issue this year. If anyone asks me about the pandemic years - I'll state, they lasted forever, most of it is a blur, it was horrible, and can we talk about something else, please?
Anyhow...of the one's I do remember? First off, I don't re-watch things that often, or rarely. If I do - it's not because it was necessarily any good. Actually - I don't think people necessarily re-watch good television shows or write fanfic about good television, so much as whatever sparks their fancy or intrigues them. Either that - or it was for a class paper or some sort of assignment.
Television Shows and Films That Worked For Me
1. Sandman [Netflix Television Series] - it's worth a look, and has stuck with me. I was struck by how well-done the adaptation was, and how well they redid certain things. The series is more of an anthology than a straight narrative, which may put off a few folks. It's also dark fantasy/horror, with a delicate and somewhat twisty Judeo-Christian mythology underlining it. Gaiman kind of pokes fun at Christian mythology.
It is allegedly getting a second season - which is wonderful, because there's some interesting bits in the next two volumes. I don't know if it can go further than that though.
2. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once - this is not a movie for everyone.
It is very busy, very funny in some places (although funnier if you are into slapstick/physical humor, and not dry witty humor - my friends thought it hilarious, I...am on the fence and it gave a co-worker a headache). But I loved the metaphors and it worked well for me and haunted me long after the fact. [Currently on HBO] - I may re-watch this.
3. Tar - very odd movie, stuck with me long afterwards. I have no interest in re-watching it though. Too dark and disturbing, and I didn't like anyone in it. It's a film that makes the audience exceedingly uncomfortable during it, because they identify with the composer or are made to by the way the film is shot, and the point of view.
4. Rings of Power [Amazon] - once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. (I'd recommend watching it over House of Dragon, but that's just me.) It really pulls you inside Galdarial's point of view, and does a good job with her character arc, the pre-Hobbits, the Dwarves, and even Sauron. I liked it better than Lord of Rings, which says something. It definitely made me want to re-read them - and not even the films made me want to do that.
5. Andor [Disney Plus] - I'm six episodes in and it's compelling, also addictive. Much better than previous Star Wars entries (although I enjoyed Obi Wan more than most). I didn't expect to like it - since it's about a character who dies in Rogue One - which takes place years later, and is prior to Star Wars: A New Hope. The fun thing about the Star Wars franchise, is they can pretty much jump anywhere in that time line. Before Star Wars, before Anakin, post Star Wars, between Star Wars and Empire, shortly after Return of the Jedi, or after the sequels or during them.
Lucas blended four different genres, kind of creating a new one with Star Wars, and everyone who plays in his sandbox adds yet another blend to the mix.
This is by Tony Gilroy, and has some seriously good casting and direction behind it. It is possibly the best Star Wars series to date. And some good news? We won't see a CGI Luke at all in it.
6. Hacks (HBO) - I don't normally like these things. Standup comedy is hit or miss for me. And the set-up, I was leery of - millenial into herself comic writer is forced to work for a self-absorbed famous stand-up comedian in her waning years. But, the actresses and cast makes it work, and the writing for the most part delivers. It's uneven in places - mainly when the story diverges from the two leads (whose character names I forget - see previous comment about Brain Fog). When the focus is on the two leads, it works. There is a lot of embarrassment humor (which I could have done without and is the nature of the beast, so to speak), but it is also rather witty and I did laugh at various points, and was moved at others. Jean Smart is rather brilliant in it, and her co-star holds her own weight.
It's also short - just two seasons.
**
Television Shows that did not work for me...
1. House of Dragon. I tried eight episodes of this thing, based on the recs of co-workers, and various online critical approval. And the appeal is completely lost on me.
2. Severance - tried four episodes, gave up. I was bored. My brother was too.
3. The Essex Serpent - also tried five episodes, got bored, remembered my issues with the book - made worse here in the adaptation. Not helped by information I received on one of the male leads. Also the sex scenes, even without that information, were awkward and uncomfortable. Danes and Hiddleston don't have any chemistry.
4. Midnight Mass - got bored, also not helped by the fact that I'm spoiled on what the monster is. Nor did I like the lead or the cast, which was a whole other issue. Add to that - I despise religious horror. Some people love it, it annoys me. I prefer Neil Gaiman's take on it.
5. Interview with A Vampire: I read the books, also saw the films, and the comic adaptations all pre-21st Century. It was written in the 1970s/80s.
The update is interesting, and they fix a few of the problems in both the films and the books, but...I'm not interested in vampires any longer. I got burned out on the genre. Plus it also swings a bit towards religious horror.
I may go back to it - it's on the DVR still. I don't know. Rice is very gothic, into religious horror, and melodramatic, and violent. And I'm kind of ...not able to watch graphic violence as well as I used to.
6. Barbarian - haunting, but not in a good way. Reminded me of why I don't like horror films.
I've seen other films, but I can't remember most of them.
***
Marvel or the MCU Television Series
1. Hawkeye - was rather good, in how it focused on a few characters and mainly female characters with Barton being a supporting player. And it had a tight thru line. Of the Marvel series - its the only one I see myself re-watching or re-visiting.
3. WandaVision - it was good up to a point, then it kind of went over-the-top and the special effects felt kind of cheap. But the situation comedy homage/satire, and Wanda's attempt in her grief over the Vision to recreate reality as if she were living in a sit-com, trapping herself and everyone inside it, was clever. It was actually more interesting and far better done than what they did in the comics.
3. Falcon and the Winter Solider - much like WandaVision, it had pacing issues, and was good up to a point. What worked was the twist regarding the villain, and the complexity of the villain. The villain - the real villain, not the one we are told about - was the best thing in it. And how she plays the heroes is rather priceless. Also, there's a conversation between two anti-hero/villains and Bucky and the Falcon that is amazing, and I'm willing to re-watch for. It's about what it means to be a superhero and the ethics of it. The difficulty with it - is well the same problems I had with Thor Love and Thunder and Wakanda Forever - it is poorly paced, and needed to be tighter. Also the action scenes got repetitive and boring at times.
But there's some great character moments in there - and it is among the better series.
4. What If? - hit or miss. Some episodes were better than others. The Doctor Strange episode was intriguing, as was the Angela Carter, also the Dr. Strange episode in it - bleeds into Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness and Loki, as did the Angela Carter episode.
5. Loki - felt a bit too much like The Prisoner meets Doctor Who. It is must see viewing however - in that it sets up the next big villain, and the problem for the MCU. It also discusses how time travel works in the MCU and the consequences of it.
6. Ms. Marvel - I enjoyed it for the most part. The heroine, Kamala is engaging. But her family got on my nerves, they were a touch too protective. And the special effects were kind of silly as was the plot. However - what worked was the use of Persian mythology, and Kamala's friends, and inter-relationships. Also, Kamala herself. They did change it from the comics (which I liked better for the most part), in a respect that was an improvement over the comics - Kamala is a mutant not an Inhuman. Marvel apparently realized the Inhumans don't work and ditched them.
7. She-Hulk - it didn't work that well for me. Set up as a fourth-wall breaking sitcom about a Hulk who is a lawyer - it had good casting, but the CGI effects were on the clumsy side. And She-Hulk felt like a poorly animated character. A waste of the excellent casting. Decent cameos - well for the most part. It did go a bit too far in the finale though.
***
Films of the MCU
I've seen pretty much all of them now. Disney + is a lovely thing.
1. Wakanda Forever - did what it needed to do. (see previous post for a review). The best of the three that were released this year. I saw it in the movie theater - the other two on television.
2. Thor: Love and Thunder - had similar issues to Wakanda Forever - and was a bit too busy, and too long. It crammed the equivalent of three-four year comic arc into one movie. Jane Foster's entire run as Thor is crammed into this film, including how that arc ended. And they added things - like weird jokes - that didn't need to be in the film.
3. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness - eh, also too busy, and instead of following up on some of the excellent issues brought up in Spiderman: No Way Home, they chose to follow up on WandaVision instead. I honestly think this would have worked better if the villain was Strange not Wanda. We once again did the "grief-stricken" deadly witch trope. We've seen it with Phoenix, Willow in Buffy, and once again with Scarlet Witch. (It's been done multiple times with Scarlet Witch in the comics.) Sam Rami isn't clever enough of a writer/director to have allowed Strange to be the unwitting villain trying to fix his mistakes.
It is necessary to a degree - to know what happens to Scarlet Witch, Strange, and it brings forward a new character. (I found the new character annoying, but that's just me.)
***
With books, I'm once again doing better with audio books. I'm having troubles focusing on reading at the moment.
1. Mathew Perry's Memoir about Addiction - "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" - reminds me of something a creative writing professor told me once - never write about yourself, he said, you will either make yourself out to be the best thing ever, or the worst thing ever. Either way, it's horrible, and the reader will despise you.
Perry makes himself out to be the worst thing ever, and comes across as kind of pathetic and pitable and self-loathing at times. It's hard not to feel sorry for him. Also the name-dropping is annoying.
Note - the media did get a few things wrong.
Perry did not mention making out with Valerie Bertinelli. He had a crush on her, along with his friend Craig Bierko (who is wisely remaining silent about the book) while they were on Sydney (a short-lived situation comedy in the late 1980s).
The mentions of Keanu Reeves are just odd. I'm not sure why he used Keanu's name...except, that Reeves was part of that group, Chris Farely, River Phoenix, and Heath Ledger...and they all died while he lived. Reeves was the least talented of the four. But still, why didn't they edit it out?
In context, he states...Chris Farley dies...and then mutters, "and Keanu Reeves still walks among us" in disgust. I'd have said Donald Trump. Reeves seems to be pretty decent. Maybe it was meant as a joke - knowing Perry's sense of humor - that's highly likely. His humor is rather sharp, and has an edge to it.
I think Perry may be a narcissist. He requires external validation and really seems to have no sense of self, whatsoever. At any rate, his addiction has been his biggest problem - and the book is meant to destigmatize that - but I'm not sure if the name-dropping and other bits take away from it?
2. Princess and the Scoundrel...I'm slogging away. But I can't focus, so it's going slowly.
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - very very good on audio book. Ray Porter is excellent. I had trouble's focusing on it on regular e-book though. It's about a junior high science teacher who finds himself on a spaceship, by himself, in a distant galaxy, with no memory of how he got there or why. Through the book he slowly remembers and ends up forming a relationship with an alien, while together they try to save their home worlds from a parasitic threat.
4. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - read by Will Wheaton on Audio. It's okay, Wheaton can't do multiple voices like Porter. Everyone sounds like, Will Wheaton. However the story is fun. It's about a former tech guy who is demoted to food delivery that gets persuaded to do a dangerous and unknown assignment for millions of dollars. Turns out that he is to help a team of scientists protect a bunch of creatures in a parallel universe. Much chaos ensues.
I can't remember anything else at the moment. Although I know I read other things.
Off to watch more of Andor.
Anyhow...of the one's I do remember? First off, I don't re-watch things that often, or rarely. If I do - it's not because it was necessarily any good. Actually - I don't think people necessarily re-watch good television shows or write fanfic about good television, so much as whatever sparks their fancy or intrigues them. Either that - or it was for a class paper or some sort of assignment.
Television Shows and Films That Worked For Me
1. Sandman [Netflix Television Series] - it's worth a look, and has stuck with me. I was struck by how well-done the adaptation was, and how well they redid certain things. The series is more of an anthology than a straight narrative, which may put off a few folks. It's also dark fantasy/horror, with a delicate and somewhat twisty Judeo-Christian mythology underlining it. Gaiman kind of pokes fun at Christian mythology.
It is allegedly getting a second season - which is wonderful, because there's some interesting bits in the next two volumes. I don't know if it can go further than that though.
2. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once - this is not a movie for everyone.
It is very busy, very funny in some places (although funnier if you are into slapstick/physical humor, and not dry witty humor - my friends thought it hilarious, I...am on the fence and it gave a co-worker a headache). But I loved the metaphors and it worked well for me and haunted me long after the fact. [Currently on HBO] - I may re-watch this.
3. Tar - very odd movie, stuck with me long afterwards. I have no interest in re-watching it though. Too dark and disturbing, and I didn't like anyone in it. It's a film that makes the audience exceedingly uncomfortable during it, because they identify with the composer or are made to by the way the film is shot, and the point of view.
4. Rings of Power [Amazon] - once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. (I'd recommend watching it over House of Dragon, but that's just me.) It really pulls you inside Galdarial's point of view, and does a good job with her character arc, the pre-Hobbits, the Dwarves, and even Sauron. I liked it better than Lord of Rings, which says something. It definitely made me want to re-read them - and not even the films made me want to do that.
5. Andor [Disney Plus] - I'm six episodes in and it's compelling, also addictive. Much better than previous Star Wars entries (although I enjoyed Obi Wan more than most). I didn't expect to like it - since it's about a character who dies in Rogue One - which takes place years later, and is prior to Star Wars: A New Hope. The fun thing about the Star Wars franchise, is they can pretty much jump anywhere in that time line. Before Star Wars, before Anakin, post Star Wars, between Star Wars and Empire, shortly after Return of the Jedi, or after the sequels or during them.
Lucas blended four different genres, kind of creating a new one with Star Wars, and everyone who plays in his sandbox adds yet another blend to the mix.
This is by Tony Gilroy, and has some seriously good casting and direction behind it. It is possibly the best Star Wars series to date. And some good news? We won't see a CGI Luke at all in it.
6. Hacks (HBO) - I don't normally like these things. Standup comedy is hit or miss for me. And the set-up, I was leery of - millenial into herself comic writer is forced to work for a self-absorbed famous stand-up comedian in her waning years. But, the actresses and cast makes it work, and the writing for the most part delivers. It's uneven in places - mainly when the story diverges from the two leads (whose character names I forget - see previous comment about Brain Fog). When the focus is on the two leads, it works. There is a lot of embarrassment humor (which I could have done without and is the nature of the beast, so to speak), but it is also rather witty and I did laugh at various points, and was moved at others. Jean Smart is rather brilliant in it, and her co-star holds her own weight.
It's also short - just two seasons.
**
Television Shows that did not work for me...
1. House of Dragon. I tried eight episodes of this thing, based on the recs of co-workers, and various online critical approval. And the appeal is completely lost on me.
2. Severance - tried four episodes, gave up. I was bored. My brother was too.
3. The Essex Serpent - also tried five episodes, got bored, remembered my issues with the book - made worse here in the adaptation. Not helped by information I received on one of the male leads. Also the sex scenes, even without that information, were awkward and uncomfortable. Danes and Hiddleston don't have any chemistry.
4. Midnight Mass - got bored, also not helped by the fact that I'm spoiled on what the monster is. Nor did I like the lead or the cast, which was a whole other issue. Add to that - I despise religious horror. Some people love it, it annoys me. I prefer Neil Gaiman's take on it.
5. Interview with A Vampire: I read the books, also saw the films, and the comic adaptations all pre-21st Century. It was written in the 1970s/80s.
The update is interesting, and they fix a few of the problems in both the films and the books, but...I'm not interested in vampires any longer. I got burned out on the genre. Plus it also swings a bit towards religious horror.
I may go back to it - it's on the DVR still. I don't know. Rice is very gothic, into religious horror, and melodramatic, and violent. And I'm kind of ...not able to watch graphic violence as well as I used to.
6. Barbarian - haunting, but not in a good way. Reminded me of why I don't like horror films.
I've seen other films, but I can't remember most of them.
***
Marvel or the MCU Television Series
1. Hawkeye - was rather good, in how it focused on a few characters and mainly female characters with Barton being a supporting player. And it had a tight thru line. Of the Marvel series - its the only one I see myself re-watching or re-visiting.
3. WandaVision - it was good up to a point, then it kind of went over-the-top and the special effects felt kind of cheap. But the situation comedy homage/satire, and Wanda's attempt in her grief over the Vision to recreate reality as if she were living in a sit-com, trapping herself and everyone inside it, was clever. It was actually more interesting and far better done than what they did in the comics.
3. Falcon and the Winter Solider - much like WandaVision, it had pacing issues, and was good up to a point. What worked was the twist regarding the villain, and the complexity of the villain. The villain - the real villain, not the one we are told about - was the best thing in it. And how she plays the heroes is rather priceless. Also, there's a conversation between two anti-hero/villains and Bucky and the Falcon that is amazing, and I'm willing to re-watch for. It's about what it means to be a superhero and the ethics of it. The difficulty with it - is well the same problems I had with Thor Love and Thunder and Wakanda Forever - it is poorly paced, and needed to be tighter. Also the action scenes got repetitive and boring at times.
But there's some great character moments in there - and it is among the better series.
4. What If? - hit or miss. Some episodes were better than others. The Doctor Strange episode was intriguing, as was the Angela Carter, also the Dr. Strange episode in it - bleeds into Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness and Loki, as did the Angela Carter episode.
5. Loki - felt a bit too much like The Prisoner meets Doctor Who. It is must see viewing however - in that it sets up the next big villain, and the problem for the MCU. It also discusses how time travel works in the MCU and the consequences of it.
6. Ms. Marvel - I enjoyed it for the most part. The heroine, Kamala is engaging. But her family got on my nerves, they were a touch too protective. And the special effects were kind of silly as was the plot. However - what worked was the use of Persian mythology, and Kamala's friends, and inter-relationships. Also, Kamala herself. They did change it from the comics (which I liked better for the most part), in a respect that was an improvement over the comics - Kamala is a mutant not an Inhuman. Marvel apparently realized the Inhumans don't work and ditched them.
7. She-Hulk - it didn't work that well for me. Set up as a fourth-wall breaking sitcom about a Hulk who is a lawyer - it had good casting, but the CGI effects were on the clumsy side. And She-Hulk felt like a poorly animated character. A waste of the excellent casting. Decent cameos - well for the most part. It did go a bit too far in the finale though.
***
Films of the MCU
I've seen pretty much all of them now. Disney + is a lovely thing.
1. Wakanda Forever - did what it needed to do. (see previous post for a review). The best of the three that were released this year. I saw it in the movie theater - the other two on television.
2. Thor: Love and Thunder - had similar issues to Wakanda Forever - and was a bit too busy, and too long. It crammed the equivalent of three-four year comic arc into one movie. Jane Foster's entire run as Thor is crammed into this film, including how that arc ended. And they added things - like weird jokes - that didn't need to be in the film.
3. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness - eh, also too busy, and instead of following up on some of the excellent issues brought up in Spiderman: No Way Home, they chose to follow up on WandaVision instead. I honestly think this would have worked better if the villain was Strange not Wanda. We once again did the "grief-stricken" deadly witch trope. We've seen it with Phoenix, Willow in Buffy, and once again with Scarlet Witch. (It's been done multiple times with Scarlet Witch in the comics.) Sam Rami isn't clever enough of a writer/director to have allowed Strange to be the unwitting villain trying to fix his mistakes.
It is necessary to a degree - to know what happens to Scarlet Witch, Strange, and it brings forward a new character. (I found the new character annoying, but that's just me.)
***
With books, I'm once again doing better with audio books. I'm having troubles focusing on reading at the moment.
1. Mathew Perry's Memoir about Addiction - "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" - reminds me of something a creative writing professor told me once - never write about yourself, he said, you will either make yourself out to be the best thing ever, or the worst thing ever. Either way, it's horrible, and the reader will despise you.
Perry makes himself out to be the worst thing ever, and comes across as kind of pathetic and pitable and self-loathing at times. It's hard not to feel sorry for him. Also the name-dropping is annoying.
Note - the media did get a few things wrong.
Perry did not mention making out with Valerie Bertinelli. He had a crush on her, along with his friend Craig Bierko (who is wisely remaining silent about the book) while they were on Sydney (a short-lived situation comedy in the late 1980s).
The mentions of Keanu Reeves are just odd. I'm not sure why he used Keanu's name...except, that Reeves was part of that group, Chris Farely, River Phoenix, and Heath Ledger...and they all died while he lived. Reeves was the least talented of the four. But still, why didn't they edit it out?
In context, he states...Chris Farley dies...and then mutters, "and Keanu Reeves still walks among us" in disgust. I'd have said Donald Trump. Reeves seems to be pretty decent. Maybe it was meant as a joke - knowing Perry's sense of humor - that's highly likely. His humor is rather sharp, and has an edge to it.
I think Perry may be a narcissist. He requires external validation and really seems to have no sense of self, whatsoever. At any rate, his addiction has been his biggest problem - and the book is meant to destigmatize that - but I'm not sure if the name-dropping and other bits take away from it?
2. Princess and the Scoundrel...I'm slogging away. But I can't focus, so it's going slowly.
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - very very good on audio book. Ray Porter is excellent. I had trouble's focusing on it on regular e-book though. It's about a junior high science teacher who finds himself on a spaceship, by himself, in a distant galaxy, with no memory of how he got there or why. Through the book he slowly remembers and ends up forming a relationship with an alien, while together they try to save their home worlds from a parasitic threat.
4. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - read by Will Wheaton on Audio. It's okay, Wheaton can't do multiple voices like Porter. Everyone sounds like, Will Wheaton. However the story is fun. It's about a former tech guy who is demoted to food delivery that gets persuaded to do a dangerous and unknown assignment for millions of dollars. Turns out that he is to help a team of scientists protect a bunch of creatures in a parallel universe. Much chaos ensues.
I can't remember anything else at the moment. Although I know I read other things.
Off to watch more of Andor.