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Dec. 8th, 2019 05:55 pm1. Another pretty but cold day. The days are either pretty and cold, or rainy and lukewarm. But the morning clouds have cleared and there's pristine blue with streaks of white outside my window...it's not a vibrant blue though...and upon looking closer not quite so pristine. I love the sky. It's so changeable and vast, and open to possibilities.
2.The Crown S3 -- continues to be excellent. The problem I'm having is there are too many television programs I want to watch right now -- it's hard to choose between them. There's The Report, Marriage Story, The Irishman, Modern Love, Kominsky Method, His Dark Materials, Watchmen...right now, I've narrowed it to The Crown and His Dark Materials, both of which are moving at a nice clip. The Crown is more episodic and you can watch each as standalone. While His Dark Materials is not episodic at all -- also HBO, being HBO, hasn't dropped all the episodes yet. I'm caught up, but there are three to go. Apparently they are just doing nine episodes this year?? [Also, it helps a great deal if you don't remember the source material all that well, because it does vary from it in some casting choices and story line choices...but nothing glaring. I don't remember the books all that well -- I read them over 16 years ago.]
Anyhow, back to The Crown -- the fourth episode is a rather touching portrait of Princess Phillip's mother, social justice advocate and nun, Princess Alice. Who was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, given electro-shock treatment, and treated by Sigmund Freud, who was rather unkind to her. She got heavily involved in social justice and charitable works soon after.
The advice she gives her son is to find a faith, that is what got her through everything. And they take a walk, after years of being estranged.
3. His Dark Materials -- is very good at world-building, and a fairly faithful adaptation of its source material. Some critics miss Pullman's voice -- I don't, I don't even remember it.
Anyhow, here's an article on it by The New Yorker - Building the Worlds of His Dark Materials
( excerpt )
I'd agree -- the best idea Pullman ever had was the daemons -- which are a physical manifestation of the human soul that walks along with the human and can be hurt. They change shape until the human reaches a certain age -- then they manifest into one shape.
The series is doing a rather decent job of playing with the concept.
And yep, only eight episodes. (It's a co-production with the BBC and the BBC only does 6-8 episode series. A number that Netflix, HBO and various US streaming channels and premium cable are adopting -- mainly because they've discovered it's cheaper to produce, faster, and you can get a higher quality of talent. So, the 13-22 episodes series are slowly disappearing as a result.)
Oh, and I finally figured out where I've seen Dafne Keen before -- she played Laura aka X23 in the film Logan. She's amazing. Utterly amazing. And by far my favorite television female young heroine to date -- and yes that includes people like Buffy and Ayra, Lyra could take both on with her wits alone, and she's far more empathetic and independent.
4. There's a new Doctor Who Trailer This one is for the New Year's Episode. The same cast and same writing team as before -- except it looks a bit more exciting, and seems to be more action oriented. Also a guest appearance by Stephen Fry.
5. Spoke with my mother who has connected with and made close friends with a liberal New Yorker couple who lives nearby. (Or former New Yorkers). The husband is 102, and so many people write them off as being too old. My mother and father don't. My mother told me that right now she's trying to practice kindness. And as a result has made a lot more connections in her community.
It struck me as odd how we write off old age or seem afraid of it -- when death and infirmity can hit you at any age. It's pretty much indiscriminate. I still remember the boy killed on a bicycle at the ripe old age of 6 years. I was in first grade, I think. And got all the gory details from the kids who watched it happen from the bus windows. My mother was shocked that I still remember his name. But some things never leave you.
6. A Spoiler Free Guide to the Witcher Television Series Universe. It should be noted that The Witcher is a series of books and games, which vary from each other, but that the television series is only adapted from the books NOT the games.
I skimmed it and...His Dark Materials has a more interesting and better developed world. This world seems a bit like it has been thrown together on the fly, and contrived to be as vague as humanely possibly, not to mention broad and encompassing, in order to cover every possible angle.
I prefer more focused worlds and less graphically violent ones, but I'm admittedly not the target audience or demographic for The Witcher series. Will I watch? IDK, I have a lot of things to watch as it is...
2.The Crown S3 -- continues to be excellent. The problem I'm having is there are too many television programs I want to watch right now -- it's hard to choose between them. There's The Report, Marriage Story, The Irishman, Modern Love, Kominsky Method, His Dark Materials, Watchmen...right now, I've narrowed it to The Crown and His Dark Materials, both of which are moving at a nice clip. The Crown is more episodic and you can watch each as standalone. While His Dark Materials is not episodic at all -- also HBO, being HBO, hasn't dropped all the episodes yet. I'm caught up, but there are three to go. Apparently they are just doing nine episodes this year?? [Also, it helps a great deal if you don't remember the source material all that well, because it does vary from it in some casting choices and story line choices...but nothing glaring. I don't remember the books all that well -- I read them over 16 years ago.]
Anyhow, back to The Crown -- the fourth episode is a rather touching portrait of Princess Phillip's mother, social justice advocate and nun, Princess Alice. Who was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, given electro-shock treatment, and treated by Sigmund Freud, who was rather unkind to her. She got heavily involved in social justice and charitable works soon after.
The advice she gives her son is to find a faith, that is what got her through everything. And they take a walk, after years of being estranged.
3. His Dark Materials -- is very good at world-building, and a fairly faithful adaptation of its source material. Some critics miss Pullman's voice -- I don't, I don't even remember it.
Anyhow, here's an article on it by The New Yorker - Building the Worlds of His Dark Materials
( excerpt )
I'd agree -- the best idea Pullman ever had was the daemons -- which are a physical manifestation of the human soul that walks along with the human and can be hurt. They change shape until the human reaches a certain age -- then they manifest into one shape.
The series is doing a rather decent job of playing with the concept.
And yep, only eight episodes. (It's a co-production with the BBC and the BBC only does 6-8 episode series. A number that Netflix, HBO and various US streaming channels and premium cable are adopting -- mainly because they've discovered it's cheaper to produce, faster, and you can get a higher quality of talent. So, the 13-22 episodes series are slowly disappearing as a result.)
Oh, and I finally figured out where I've seen Dafne Keen before -- she played Laura aka X23 in the film Logan. She's amazing. Utterly amazing. And by far my favorite television female young heroine to date -- and yes that includes people like Buffy and Ayra, Lyra could take both on with her wits alone, and she's far more empathetic and independent.
4. There's a new Doctor Who Trailer This one is for the New Year's Episode. The same cast and same writing team as before -- except it looks a bit more exciting, and seems to be more action oriented. Also a guest appearance by Stephen Fry.
5. Spoke with my mother who has connected with and made close friends with a liberal New Yorker couple who lives nearby. (Or former New Yorkers). The husband is 102, and so many people write them off as being too old. My mother and father don't. My mother told me that right now she's trying to practice kindness. And as a result has made a lot more connections in her community.
It struck me as odd how we write off old age or seem afraid of it -- when death and infirmity can hit you at any age. It's pretty much indiscriminate. I still remember the boy killed on a bicycle at the ripe old age of 6 years. I was in first grade, I think. And got all the gory details from the kids who watched it happen from the bus windows. My mother was shocked that I still remember his name. But some things never leave you.
6. A Spoiler Free Guide to the Witcher Television Series Universe. It should be noted that The Witcher is a series of books and games, which vary from each other, but that the television series is only adapted from the books NOT the games.
I skimmed it and...His Dark Materials has a more interesting and better developed world. This world seems a bit like it has been thrown together on the fly, and contrived to be as vague as humanely possibly, not to mention broad and encompassing, in order to cover every possible angle.
I prefer more focused worlds and less graphically violent ones, but I'm admittedly not the target audience or demographic for The Witcher series. Will I watch? IDK, I have a lot of things to watch as it is...