Category Archives: Television

Scary Season #2: Squid Game (2 episodes in)

 

The new Netflix sensation, from South Korea, is Squid Game a television series where desperate people play games from childhood with failure meaning their deaths and a promise of great financial reward.

There certainly are a lot of varied and interesting film and tv projects coming out of South Korea from the Academy Award winning film Parasite to perhaps the best zombie movie ever produced Train to Busan the creative cloud from that peninsula has been fruitful. Squid Game promises tension, suspense, and graphic violence with the right amount of social commentary blended into the story.

Two Episodes into the 9 we seem to have settled on to five principal characters:

Seong Gi-hun: A gambling addict and petty thief whose irresponsibility has cost him his daughter and threatens his mother’s health.

Cho Sang-woo: Primary schoolmate of Gi-hun. His family and the neighborhood believe that Sang-woo escape the poverty of their neighborhood by a college education and business success, but embezzlement and fraud has placed him deeply in debt.

Kang sae-byeok: A young woman who escape North Korea with her younger brother and is now desperate for fund to smuggle her parent into South Korea.

Abdul Ali: A Pakistani worker who has been exploited by an unscrupulous employer and has a wife and child to support.

Jang Deok-su: A mid-level gangster on the run from his criminal gang because of stolen funds to feed to gambling debts to foreign casinos.

Of these five characters I have the most sympathy for Sae-Byeok and Ali who seem to have the least responsibility for their dire plights. Gi-hun was the character we met first but his constant whining, refusal to take responsibility, and stealing from his mother’s bank account made the character wholly unlikeable.

That said Squid Game is a series centered on character and though the violence perpetrated is graphic and on-screen the central question is how far will these people go for cash and how much responsibility does the system bear for their plights? The production values are high with the series displaying talent in front and behind the camera. If graphic violence is not a dealbreaker for you then Squid Game on Netflix is worth a shot.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

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Another Reason What the GOT Ending Doesn’t Work

 

When HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones ended after 8 seasons many fans were disappointed. After leaving the source material behind because they had simply run out of novel to adapt the series changed in tone and pacing with the vast distances now seemingly crossed quickly with ease, the complex social/political dynamic reduced to dispatched plot points, and a final resolution so rushed it failed to build to the emotional punch required and instead felt to many as a disrespect of one of the story’s most beloved characters. (How’s that for summing it up without spoiling?)

I would argue an additional trouble came from the sequencing of the plotlines. Two massing concurrently running plots were, How to Deal with the Army of the Dead and Who is going to take the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms?

The Army of the Dead seek to extinguish all life. The Iron Throne while consequential is a lesser issue. If everyone is dead no one is going to sit on that throne and whoever sits on that throne is only going to be there for a few decades and can be removed by revolt if needed. A bad person sitting on the throne is a resolvable issue being dead cannot be fixed. No matter how you slice it the Army of the Dead is the much more important issue. It is the issue the series resolved first.

Once the Army of the Dead is defeated and life preserved in the world the issue of the throne just doesn’t carry the same weight. Mind you they didn’t treat the Throne Issue as a denouement, something to resolve as the story ended but rather of the final six episodes of season eight half are after the more serious issue has been solved. Hours and Hours dealing with badly with a lesser problem. It just one more reason why the series left the rail and crashed.

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Foundation

 

Last Friday Apple TV+ premiered David S. Goyer’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s classic SF series of novel starting with Foundation.

Confession: I have never read the novels upon which this series is based. I have read a few novels and more short fiction from Asimov’s, but I always found his fiction too dry, the character to flat to be fully engaging. Asimov’s fiction tended towards Ideas and Puzzles with his characters there to push plot points forward to solve the puzzle or give voice to the idea. Only on Asimov story stands out in my memory with any sort of emotional weight and that is the short story Liar from the collection I, Robot. With his love of logic problems and flat characters to me it is not surprising that Asimov is best known for robot stories of artificial intelligences.

Foundation is the story of a collapse of a Galactic Empire ushering in a barbarous dark age of endless war and strife as civilization vanishes from the galaxy. One man, Hari Seldon, through the development of his science Psychohistory, which reduced human history and civilization to data and equations and can prediction with unerring accuracy the movement and actions of population but is utterly blind on the individual level, sees the coming fall and strives to shorten it by establishing The Foundation that will help rebuild civilization after the collapse.

The Series opens with a young brilliant mathematician, Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), who comes from a world of religious zealotry, arriving to work with Seldon (Jared Harris). She is perhaps the only other mathematician in the galaxy that is skilled and talented enough to fully understand the complex equations of Psychohistory. The emperor, a trio of clones of different ages, (played by Terrance Mann, Lee Pace, and Cassian Bilton is descending order of age) sees Seldon and his following as a threat to the stability of the Empire. Even as the social fabric unravels and the empire faces unprecedented threats its focus is on enemies and not the coming darkness.

Showrunner Goyer has stated that to tell the full story of Foundation and the thousands of years it will encompass he hopes to have the series run for eight seasons. Only time and audience numbers will tell if he can avoid the collapse of his how personal empire before the story is complete.

Foundation streams on Apple TV+.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

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A Heretical Opinion on The Babylon 5 Re-Boot

 

From 1993 thru its conclusion in 1998 I watched J. Michael Straczynski’s (JMS) sci-fi saga Babylon 5. The series followed the events on the last of the Babylon stations conceived and constructed in the aftermath of a devastating stellar war as various races tried to form a lasting peace amid a struggle between light and dark, order and chaos, that had lasted eons. For many American the series was their introduction into serious long form television where the entire run of the show was meant to tell one large grand story, something that in today’s era of prestige television is not only common but expected.

With the flowering of prestige television is perhaps no surprise that the studio with the rights to Babylon 5, Warner Brothers, and who has a streaming service needing content, HBO Max, has announced its intent to reboot the franchise sitting in its vaults, even bring back the show’s original creator and writer JMS, to helm it once more.

Full disclosure I was fan, as I stated I watched the entire run of the series, cosplayed as a character at WorldCon, and even conceived of a dark episode with a writing partner but I think it would be prudent, wise, and in the show’s best interest if JMS this time refrained from writing nearly the entire series, nearly every script, himself, and turned that duty over to others.

JMS created a grand and fascinating setting, his characters have deep and conflicted inner lives, he possesses a rare talent, the ability to fully realize characters that are diametrically opposed to his own thinking without turning them into strawman arguments. He should show-run any reboot.

However, JMS has some glaring weaknesses as a writer. His dialog can be blunt and lacking subtly. Perhaps more importantly his handling of exposition is clumsy. During the series’ run I often referred to his ‘Exposition truck’ because of how often and blatantly the unfolding story would stop while characters ran us over with terrible, truly awful, exposition. Then once we had been left dead in the road from this writing hit-and-run, the script would gamely try to get momentum back into the story.

Because of mistreatment and disrespect by the people making feature films talented writers with tremendous gifts have been moving to television and we are so rich for it. JMS should seize this talent for his series and relinquish any scripting crafting duties himself.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

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Series Review: Reservation Dogs

 

From filmmakers Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo Reservation Dogs is a dramatic comedy focused on 4 Native American teenagers, their life on a reservation in Oklahoma, and their deep desire to escape to golden California.

Still in mourning from the passing of a friend a year prior to the start of the series the four friends engage in crimes to fund their California dreaming escape plan. The plan is upset by the arrival of a new teenage gang and interpersonal conflicts between the series’ protagonists.

With equal measures of ironic comedy and dramatic intensity centered on tribal life and identity Reservation Dogs is neither farce nor tragedy but rather a distorted mirror of reality. The shows wisely presents native folklore and theology neither as noble savage truth nor as ignorant superstition but with the same messy complexity that often accompanies faith, tradition, and the viewpoints of previous generations that teenagers so often disregard.

Season one has just concluded with the next already greenlit by the network. Reservation Dogs airs on FX and streams on Hulu.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

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Series Review: Marvel’s What If …?

 

 

Among the Marvel Cinematic Universe programing produced and released on Disney+, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Solider, and Loki, Marvel’s What If …? is the only animated entry. Centered on alternate version of established characters and stories What If …? is anthology series with each episode a stand-alone and unique entry. Episode one explored an alternate universe where Agent Peggy Carter received the Super Solider treatments instead of Steve Rogers and the next episode brought us a version of The Guardians of the Galaxy where T’Challa (The Black Panther) was abducted as a child instead of Peter Quill creating a very different team of heroes that included a reformed Thanos.

I have been mildly entertained by the series so far but it is the third episode that in my opinion is so far the best. Titled What If .. Earth lost its Mightiest Heroes? the episode focuses on Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, having a very bad week as an unknown force or assassin murders all of his potential recruits for the yet formed Avengers. Where the preceding two episodes drew nearly all of their entertainment value from the novelty of the changes, Captain Carter instead of Captain America the stories were not that engaging nor that challenging. This episode moves with a proper mystery and a central character that engages the viewer as they struggle to find and requisite answer.

Marvel’s What If …? utilizes as voice talent many of the stars from the MCU, Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as fan favorite Phil Coulson, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, but some of the beloved actors are conspicuous in their absence with the replacement voice talent quite obvious. I do not know animation well enough to say exactly what style the series is produced in but the animation loos great and has a consistent style across episodes.

While I doubt Marvel’s What If …? is likely to become anyone’s favorite element of the vast MCU it does make for a pleasant and enjoyable half-hour of relaxed television viewing.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

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Quick Hits

 

Just a few unrelated thoughts and observations this morning.

 

COVID-19: Well, this is fucked. We could have been well on the way to controlling the pandemic in the US and then turning our considerable resources to helping the rest of the world, but no, our fascist-adjacent party insists on throwing their tantrum modeled upon their orange god-king and screwing it up for everyone.

 

New Novel: I’ve started act break work on my new novel about alien ‘non-contact.’ I’m hoping within a week to have an outline and to be ready for actual scene writing.

 

Marvel’s What if …: the new series an anthology of animated alternate versions of MCU stories, the premier being what is Agent Carter got the super solider serum instead of Steve. It worked but I wasn’t blown away.

 

 

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Crossing The Bridge

 

Last night my sweetie-wife and I finished the fourth and final season of the Swedish/Danish television series The Bridge.

As a season and as a series it reached a satisfying conclusion wrapping up the various threads of both the current multiple murder investigation that drove the season’s plot and the long running character arcs.

Looking back over all four seasons with the exception of a misstep in virology late in season two the series maintained an exceptional level of skill in story, character, and production. The MVP of the show remained from episode one through the final scene Sofia Helin’s portrayal of Swedish homicide detective Saga Noren. Helin’s skills as an actor are tremendous. She fully inhabits Saga and never misses when she’s required to communicate her character’s inner thoughts and doubts non-verbally. Her costars are all competent and talented actors, but it is always clear that Helin is the shows center and its star.

The concept of the series, cross border investigations driven in part by a transnational bridge proved too tempting not to be duplicated and the series spawned reinterpretations set along six national divides including the US and Mexico.

When my sweetie-wife first wanted to watch this series, it was not available on any of the streaming services, and she purchased the UK Blu-ray release as we own a region free Blu-ray player. Now the original series is available on Amazon prime and if you have even a passing interest in Nordic Noir, I can’t recommend the series enough.

 

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A Pair of Micro Reviews

Messiah of Evil

This is a 1973 independent horror movie that managed to scrap up enough money for a day or two’s work from Elisha Cook Jr but not enough to a competent screenplay. Marianna Hill plays Arletty a young woman who comes to a seaside community in search of her artist father who has gone silent. She teams up with a womanizer and his harem of two who also are seeking her father. A sinister force seems to inhabit the town and gruesome murders result. Despite a decent set-up the screenplay is clumsy, the cinematography is bland, and the acting uninspired stretching the film’s 90-minute run time into tedium. Messiah of Evilis currently streaming on Shudder.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations

Kevin’s Smith’s revisioning of the second-rate animated series that couldn’t bother to produce actual names for character but referred to them solely by the story function is smarter and had more emotional depth than it deserves. I have watched just the premier episode but already there have been surprising twists and honest emotional reactions from characters discovering that their most loved and trusted companions have been lying to them for years. A special call out needs to be given to Sarah Michell Geller’s vocal work as Teela who is shaping up to the be the series most important viewpoint character.

This is currently streaming on Netflix

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Movie Review: G. I. Joe: Snake Eyes

 

When the 80s animated television series G.I. Joe, in reality a 30-minute toy commercial masquerading as entertainment in a recently deregulated space, originally aired I was too old for its key demographic but young enough to enjoy the campy, winking-at-the-camera, fun the show presented. Stalwart heroes and arch-villains can be a hell of a lot of fun in the right context and mindset.

It’s really no surprise that in 2009 I went to and thoroughly enjoyed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the first live action attempt to bring the franchise to the silvered screen. That film took liberties with the source material even losing The Baroness’, one of Cobra’s lead villains, delightfully euro-trash accent. That film’s sequel looked half-hearted, and I skipped it.

Now, twelve years later, studios are again interested in reviving the franchise and have started with an origin story for one of the show’s most popular characters, the ninja Snake Eyes.

Henry Golding, a talented and charismatic Malaysian actor, plays the titular character Snake Eyes. After being orphaned by the murder of his enigmatic father Golding’s Snake Eyes grows to
adulthood as an underground cage fighter until he is recruited by a mysterious patron who promises to deliver his father’s murderer in return for Snake Eyes services as a spy and combatant.

Snake Eyes becomes entangled in a deadly contest within an ancient ninja clan, the Arashikage and is soon torn between his thirst for revenge, his growing bond with the members of the clan, and the realization that forces far greater than his personal grudges are at play forcing him into irrevocable choices that will not only decide his fate but nearly everyone’s around him.

G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes is an enjoyable cartoon of a movie. It is not a film to be taken seriously, though the stakes and emotions are played straight, and the actors involved give the characters real emotional weight. As to be expected there are a lot of ‘set pieces’ or action and martial arts fighting which are marred by an editing that is a little too quick robbing the audiences of stunt performances that need to be fully seen to be fully enjoyed. The films greatest failure comes in the movie’s final act as we follow several groups of character though the near continuous fight for resolution. The fact that it is near continuous is not the issue with fights and the action but rather that each group doesn’t possess a clear goal defined to the audience. In Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Solider we also follow different characters through a very action-packed final act, but for each set of characters we understand exactly what they are trying to achieve. The Falcon must get the chips into the right slots to realign that craft’s targeting system, Black Widow and Fury have to infiltrate and subvert to command level of SHIELD, now controlled by Hydra, and Captain America must not only get the chips to the right slots like same but must find a way to save his friend Bucky, now the Winter Solider, from Hydra’s brainwashing. BY know their goal the audience knows when the characters have wins that bring them closer and losses that set them back on their heels. In G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes most of the character groups do not have well defined goals so the fights carry less weight, and we are never sure how big any particular win or loss matters and as such are less invested in them.

That said if you enjoy action, martial arts, and stories of betrayal and redemption served with melted cheese then G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes may be a movie for you.

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