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Monday Scaries...
May. 30th, 2022 10:02 pmOr happy Memorial Day? Seems odd to say that. Time was I visited the graves with my Gran on this day - but that was over twenty some years past. (She died in 09, and I moved in 96, so...the last time I did that was probably 1994 or 95. Now my mother's cousin A visits Liberty, Mo once a year, at Memorial Day, to do it. I don't know who will do it when she passes, she's eighty. [No, it won't be me - can't drive and you kind of have to. Well that and I've an aversion to the mid-west.]
Didn't do much today outside of robot vacuum, and watch television. It was hot. I did make it to the grocery store and back - mainly for lunch items, and got a sick sinus headache for my efforts.
***
Television
1. Crimson Peak by Guillimoro Del Toro (whose name I can't spell). It stars Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Waswachowski, Jim Beaver, and Charlie Hunam. Hiddleston and Chastain pretty much own the movie.
It kind of reminds me of Dragonwyck, except with a murderous sister and incest. Or basically it's Bluebeard but with a murderous sister.
This is a common trope. The only thing Del Toro does differently is he has the brother and sister in love, and incestuous, and he kind of focuses on the sister's love for the brother - having her state at the end, that love makes monsters of us all.
The difficulty with this film is honestly the difficulty with all of Del Toro's films - he's more interested in his lovable monsters than the human characters. Also he tends to go for visual style over characterization or plot.
At any rate, it's not a scary film - it's more of a romantic gothic film? But in the vein of Dragonwyck not Jane Eyre.
Some nice visual imagery though.
[Available on Netflix, everywhere else you have to spend money for it.]
2. The Offer - via Paramount Plus. This is a series about the making of The Godfather. The principle characters are Al Ruddy (portrayed by Miles Teller - who took the role from Arnie Hammer, gee, guess why?), Robert Evans (Mathew Goode), Bettye McCart (Juno Temple), Mario Puzo, Francis Fort Coppla, and a producer portrayed by Burn Gorman.
It's okay. It's pretty much Paramount Studios and Hollywood during the late 1960s early 70s. Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra (who hated The Godfather), Mia Farrow, Ali McGraw, and various others pop up. And it focuses on the difficulties of getting a movie made, and producing it. The focus or central characters are the producers.
3. Star Trek : Strange New Worlds - it has almost the same credits music and entry signature as the Original Trek - with Pike making it up and giving voice to it. This is basically Star Trek or the voyages of the Enterprise with Christopher Pike, before James T. Kirk took over his crew.
It has Uhura, Spock, and Lt. Samuel Kirk. I like the cast. Also Ethan Peck makes a great Spock.
First episode was interesting, and there's some tension in the series - due to Pike's vision on Discovery of his horrific death and paralysis. (Which most Star Trek fans, or anyone who has seen the Star Trek episode "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" - that is referenced in Star Trek : Discovery, and shows Pike's fate. It's a disturbing episode in the original canon, and I'd love it if they were to undo it.) Anyhow Pike fears this ending, and his fear is affecting some of his decision making, until one of his officers gives him an epiphany of sorts - "those who fear death are more likely to live longer and survive longer than those who don't. If you can't see your death or imagine it, the quicker it will happen."
Also the episode references the classic film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with the Enterprise playing a role that is similar to the aliens in the classic film.
3. Picard - I made the colossal mistake of watching the first episdoe of S2 (which is easy to do on these streaming channels which assume you've seen the first season already, I hadn't.) So I was confused by it.
I kept thinking - okay who are these characters and why are they doing whatever it is that they are doing? Also, why is Picard so messed up? And why did Q show up.
I just have to watch S1 first to understand it, apparently.
S2 is playing games with time travel and alternate timelines. I get the feeling Picard is playing into the temporal wars that are referenced in Star Trek Discovery.
What I like about the Star Trek franchise - and why I prefer it to the Star Wars franchise - is it kind of branched out more and created new characters, while at the same time building upon the old ones. Also it has managed to resolve and complete its character arcs in a satisfying fashion. With all of the original actors involved. We get all of Lt. Spock's history, including his back story (in Discovery and Strange New Worlds), all of Kirk's, all of Picard's, pretty everyones. And they weren't afraid to branch out and character new characters.
Add to all of the above? Trak is consistent, and explains the inconsistencies well.
Star Wars franchise - only works well when it veers completely away from the Skywalker/Solo clan. Mandalorian and Rogue One were for the most part pretty good. But the films that center on that clan with the exception of the first three films, and maybe Force Awakens, are a mess. As are the series.
Trek in sharp contrast has for the most part been fairly consistent. And rewarded long-time viewers with satisfying endings for their favs.
***
On the book front - I downloaded a lot of free gothic romances to the Kindle. There were four or five of them - rec'd by a blogger who hunted for modern writers of gothic romance that were good. The three that cost something - I ignored, one was Dragonwyck by Anya Seton (moustache twirling sociopathic love interest/villain and simpering, somewhat stupid, damsel in distress - with a young doctor who saves her - kind of a dumb version of Crimson Peak - hard pass), and the other was Jane (basically Jane Eyre with a Reclusive Rock Star - screamed New Adult, and hard pass), there was also one that was clearly the beginning of a mystery series and featured a serial killer (another hard pass).
Finished "Stitch in Time" - which Crimson Peak kind of reminded me of, except I liked Stitch better. Felt Stitch was a touch less cliche. Although both were problematic in that they followed common tropes. And Stitch felt a touch sexist, misogynistic in its trope. I know the author thought she was being clever with the twist, but I'd have gone the way I originally thought she was going - to be honest. This had the same problem that Crimson Peak had (without the incest, and the brother isn't nasty and is older, and rather sane). Stitch also focused more on the romantic and less on the horrific.
Will state that I agree with many of the reviewers in that Stich is among the few time travel stories that actually worked for me. Mainly because the heroine is not permitted much past the hero, so can't affect the timeline easily. Okay worked for the most part - it didn't bug me the way most of these time travel stories do.
Off to bed. Hopefully I won't wake up five times in the night like I have the last few nights. The disrupted sleep is resulting in irritability and increased tiredness.
Didn't do much today outside of robot vacuum, and watch television. It was hot. I did make it to the grocery store and back - mainly for lunch items, and got a sick sinus headache for my efforts.
***
Television
1. Crimson Peak by Guillimoro Del Toro (whose name I can't spell). It stars Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Waswachowski, Jim Beaver, and Charlie Hunam. Hiddleston and Chastain pretty much own the movie.
It kind of reminds me of Dragonwyck, except with a murderous sister and incest. Or basically it's Bluebeard but with a murderous sister.
This is a common trope. The only thing Del Toro does differently is he has the brother and sister in love, and incestuous, and he kind of focuses on the sister's love for the brother - having her state at the end, that love makes monsters of us all.
The difficulty with this film is honestly the difficulty with all of Del Toro's films - he's more interested in his lovable monsters than the human characters. Also he tends to go for visual style over characterization or plot.
At any rate, it's not a scary film - it's more of a romantic gothic film? But in the vein of Dragonwyck not Jane Eyre.
Some nice visual imagery though.
[Available on Netflix, everywhere else you have to spend money for it.]
2. The Offer - via Paramount Plus. This is a series about the making of The Godfather. The principle characters are Al Ruddy (portrayed by Miles Teller - who took the role from Arnie Hammer, gee, guess why?), Robert Evans (Mathew Goode), Bettye McCart (Juno Temple), Mario Puzo, Francis Fort Coppla, and a producer portrayed by Burn Gorman.
It's okay. It's pretty much Paramount Studios and Hollywood during the late 1960s early 70s. Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra (who hated The Godfather), Mia Farrow, Ali McGraw, and various others pop up. And it focuses on the difficulties of getting a movie made, and producing it. The focus or central characters are the producers.
3. Star Trek : Strange New Worlds - it has almost the same credits music and entry signature as the Original Trek - with Pike making it up and giving voice to it. This is basically Star Trek or the voyages of the Enterprise with Christopher Pike, before James T. Kirk took over his crew.
It has Uhura, Spock, and Lt. Samuel Kirk. I like the cast. Also Ethan Peck makes a great Spock.
First episode was interesting, and there's some tension in the series - due to Pike's vision on Discovery of his horrific death and paralysis. (Which most Star Trek fans, or anyone who has seen the Star Trek episode "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" - that is referenced in Star Trek : Discovery, and shows Pike's fate. It's a disturbing episode in the original canon, and I'd love it if they were to undo it.) Anyhow Pike fears this ending, and his fear is affecting some of his decision making, until one of his officers gives him an epiphany of sorts - "those who fear death are more likely to live longer and survive longer than those who don't. If you can't see your death or imagine it, the quicker it will happen."
Also the episode references the classic film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with the Enterprise playing a role that is similar to the aliens in the classic film.
3. Picard - I made the colossal mistake of watching the first episdoe of S2 (which is easy to do on these streaming channels which assume you've seen the first season already, I hadn't.) So I was confused by it.
I kept thinking - okay who are these characters and why are they doing whatever it is that they are doing? Also, why is Picard so messed up? And why did Q show up.
I just have to watch S1 first to understand it, apparently.
S2 is playing games with time travel and alternate timelines. I get the feeling Picard is playing into the temporal wars that are referenced in Star Trek Discovery.
What I like about the Star Trek franchise - and why I prefer it to the Star Wars franchise - is it kind of branched out more and created new characters, while at the same time building upon the old ones. Also it has managed to resolve and complete its character arcs in a satisfying fashion. With all of the original actors involved. We get all of Lt. Spock's history, including his back story (in Discovery and Strange New Worlds), all of Kirk's, all of Picard's, pretty everyones. And they weren't afraid to branch out and character new characters.
Add to all of the above? Trak is consistent, and explains the inconsistencies well.
Star Wars franchise - only works well when it veers completely away from the Skywalker/Solo clan. Mandalorian and Rogue One were for the most part pretty good. But the films that center on that clan with the exception of the first three films, and maybe Force Awakens, are a mess. As are the series.
Trek in sharp contrast has for the most part been fairly consistent. And rewarded long-time viewers with satisfying endings for their favs.
***
On the book front - I downloaded a lot of free gothic romances to the Kindle. There were four or five of them - rec'd by a blogger who hunted for modern writers of gothic romance that were good. The three that cost something - I ignored, one was Dragonwyck by Anya Seton (moustache twirling sociopathic love interest/villain and simpering, somewhat stupid, damsel in distress - with a young doctor who saves her - kind of a dumb version of Crimson Peak - hard pass), and the other was Jane (basically Jane Eyre with a Reclusive Rock Star - screamed New Adult, and hard pass), there was also one that was clearly the beginning of a mystery series and featured a serial killer (another hard pass).
Finished "Stitch in Time" - which Crimson Peak kind of reminded me of, except I liked Stitch better. Felt Stitch was a touch less cliche. Although both were problematic in that they followed common tropes. And Stitch felt a touch sexist, misogynistic in its trope. I know the author thought she was being clever with the twist, but I'd have gone the way I originally thought she was going - to be honest. This had the same problem that Crimson Peak had (without the incest, and the brother isn't nasty and is older, and rather sane). Stitch also focused more on the romantic and less on the horrific.
Will state that I agree with many of the reviewers in that Stich is among the few time travel stories that actually worked for me. Mainly because the heroine is not permitted much past the hero, so can't affect the timeline easily. Okay worked for the most part - it didn't bug me the way most of these time travel stories do.
Off to bed. Hopefully I won't wake up five times in the night like I have the last few nights. The disrupted sleep is resulting in irritability and increased tiredness.
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