(no subject)

1. Hmmm...haven't read all of it yet, but I think The Panama Papers may have a sizable effect on our world economy going forward. The Panama Papers is the largest data leak in history apparently, and reveals all the off-shore accounts and the names, etc of those who set up those accounts. (Offshore accounts are a means of avoiding taxes, amongst other things. And illegal.)

2. Favorite Shakespeare Films:

* Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet
* Franco Zefreili's Romeo & Juliet
* Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing
* Ian McKellan's Richard the III
* Shakespeare in Love
* Julie Taymor's Titus Adronicus
* Kenneth Brannagh's Henry the V

Most of them fade in my memory, but those stuck out. There's humor in all of them. Even the tragedies.

3. Jane Austen vs. the Brontes

Austen by a mile. It's the humor. The Brontes don't appear to have a sense of humor and take themselves far too seriously. Had similar problems with Henry James. I do adore Austen -- who excelled at comedies of manners. Emma is hilarious in places. Didn't like Mansfield Park, far too dour.

The Catch - review

1.)Scrivener is really helping with the novel writing. No longer do I have to scroll a hundred and sixty-some pages to get to where I left off. And it provides the ability to write a little synopsis of each chapter as you go. Plus character sketches, settings, and an area for research. And, it has a built-in spelling and grammar check. Not to mention formatting for paperback, hardcover, e-book, and scripts. It's not that expensive for a software program - about $45 bucks and you just download it.

Highly recommend. I bought it for my birthday.

2.) Loving this new Shondra Rhimes/Betsy Beers series entitled The Catch - which was pitched by British author, Kate Atkinson, who wrote the novel Life After Life and serves as one of the executive producers. It's sort of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels meets The Thomas Crown Affair, with Peter Krause playing a con-man and Mirelli Enos portraying a private investigator who is chasing him, after he conned her out of millions and stole her heart. The catch is that he fell for her. But it is fiendishly clever in places. And diverse. With complicated characters and two cases of the week -- the con that Peter Krause (Christopher) and his associates are plotting and the investigation that Alice and her associates are investigating, plue Alice evading an interpol agent while she hunts down Christopher.

Last week he gave her a painting that was hanging in a museum. She thought he stole it to set her up. But what he actually did was forge the painting, switch the forgery with the actual painting and give
Alice the real one. With her lawyer, she discovers that he picks his aliases from the obituaries. (Hey, I came up with that idea first -- my con artist in Doing Time on Planet Earth chooses her aliases from the obitaries as well.) Adore that idea.

It's fun. And the actors portraying the lead roles are good. Also stars Penny from LOST as Christopher's boss/lover Margo, who he's been with for over 15 years. There's lots of back story and each week we get another intriguing tid-bit.

Sexy fun. With very little violence.

Although will state that like all television mystery shows...the mystery is somewhat predictable. (It's always the first person they suspect for some reason.) But, unlike Elementary, the mystery plot line holds together better. My problem with Elementary is their mysteries don't work, they sort of fall apart. (I watch Elementary for the characters not the plotting, the writers suck at plotting).
So far the plot of this series is working for me.

I know it got mixed reviews, but once again I find my taste diverging from the critics. It may just be me, but television critics seem to have a taste for raunchy, over-the-top, and violent television series. I'm wondering if it is just that they watch too many television shows? Must suck being a television critic.