Trawling Through The Thrift Stores with Joseph Finn

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  It's snowy as heck here in Chicago, MLB is still in a lockout and the Landover NFL team has chosen a new team name that is both lame and is part of the NFL's weird fetish for the US military.  Rants over, let's talk about my finds of the week!

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Brian DePalma is kind of a difficult director for me.  Many people have said over the years that he's aped the works of Alfred Hitchcock and I'd be as annoyed as anyone else at that if well, it's not completely untrue.  DePalma has his own style, but it's so clearly influence by Hitchcock.  But is that a bad thing?  Certainly not, if you are going to specialize in thrillers you can do far worse as an influence.  

What I do have a serious problem with DePalma is that he can be weird about woman in his movies.  Body Double, I firmly believe, is a sexist movie.  Carrie can be very good at times but I think misses a decent amount of the points that Tabitha King brought to Stephen's novel.  And geez, Femme Fatale. There's a move that wastes Rebecca Romjin on male gaze nonsense.

But Blow Out is one where DePalma gets it right.  Nancy Allen plays, for once in a DePalma movie, a well-rounded and interesting character in a fantastic thriller plot about a possible assassination captured on audio tape that may or may not exist.  (It's directly based on Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, about a photographer who may have accidentally captured a murder on film.)  With Allen, John Travolta and John Lithgow, this is a really taut thriller that is very worth your time.

Blow Out is available for purchase and rental at the usual places.

And hey, check out Blow-Up!  It's stylish and creepy and fun.  It's in the Criterion Collection and currently is also available for sale and rent at the usual places.

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Jeff Greenfield is a halfway decent political commentator, even if he's still stuck in the "both sides have good points" that hasn't been true since about 1970.  But he's also at times a very funny and acerbic fiction writer and this is a novel I've always quite loved.  Two days after a Presidential general election, the Republican whose won...dies.  (In a stupid accident based on a badly designed campaign stop.). Now, ask yourself...who is going to be President?

No, seriously, who is going to be President?  This is after the general election but months before the electors meet to actually elect the President.  Is it the winning Vice President?  Can the RNC simply meet to nominate the VP winner to the Presidential slot?  Does the second-place Democrat candidate have any place in this?  It's a weird, weird, blind spot in the Constitution and Greenfield has some wicked fun playing with the idea.

Because naturally, everything goes nuts.  This came out in 1995, when the Internet was barely a thing, but Greenfield even then knew it was enough of a thing that it would come into play along with the big ones of the time, like talk radio shows and cable news and letter columns.  I can only imagine this scenario in a world of Twitter and Facebook and TikTok; Greenfield is very good at both the humor and the horror of the situation.  (Also, this is a reminder I need to check out his books on alternate histories of the USA, a subject I find fascinating.)

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Time for schlock!

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.  Really, if that title doesn't get you a little intrigued for how this could be fantastic junk, I don't know what I can tell you.  Jeremy Rennet and Gemma Arterton are having a ton of fun as the titular siblings, now grown up and dedicating themselves to, well, witch hunting.    It's so...wonderfully dumb in all the right ways. Crossbows and witches and shotguns and for some reason a diabetes subplot, I love this sort of silliness.  (Really, if you ever saw the grim slog that was Van Helsing, this is what that movie should have aspired to be.)

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is streaming on Hulu, Paramount+ and the various Epix platforms as well as being available for rent and sale.

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My recommendation of the week is, kind of unsurprisingly, Peacemaker on HBOMax.  I caught up over the weekend and goodness, this is a show that knows what it is and is reveling in it's actiony disgustingness, both in the violence and in how Peacemaker is a pretty awful person who might actually be trying to be better.  It's funny, it's gross, the music choices from James Gunn are kind of amazing (there's an actual discussion of Hanoi Rocks that had me cackling) and it's a very, very fun cast.

And seriously, these credits. These are credits I will never skip.

(Fun story about the song here; it's from a Finnish glam-metal group named Wig Wam, and they literally were dropped from their representation a few days before Peacemaker premiered due to COVID making it impossible for anyone to tour. Now they have a song that's charting in the US, new representation and the possibility of playing over here for the first time.  They have a fun, "we're doing music that was passe a decade before we even formed" sound.)

What's To Watch? - Jan 28 - Fathers and Stuns

 

     Another pressing week nearly behind me, expecting to be mostly on the edge of a winter storm today into Saturday. Southeast and East of us are expecting much heavier amounts, with the latest calls for coastal areas and up into New England to be facing a "bomb cyclone" of a snowstorm. Here we roll into the final weekend of January, the first twelfth of 2022 soon to be behind us.

     While it appeared a couple weeks ago, it wasn't until this past weekend that I got around to watching the series-capping Ray Donovan: The Movie (Showtime, 1h 40m). I did a preview set-up for it about mid-way through my post for the 14th.

 

     That the final episode of the series aired almost exactly two years earlier, and I skipped my own recommendation of at least rewatching that one to help get me back into the groove of the chaos the Donovan clan was dealing with as of that season-ender, left me initially a little disoriented as the movie

began. That it starts very near the end of the complete story, then variously unfolds both the story that's happened in the present, and one decades in the past when a teenage Ray got his start as a fixer, and made a critical decision concerning his father, Mickey, didn't help my sense of being at sea much. It was past the mid-point of the movie when I finally felt the ground beneath my feet again, with all of the key points refreshed in memory.
     Overall I'll rate it a success, and a story-wrapping finis to arguably the two most key characters in the series. In terms of a human, much less a moral, message, specifically concerning Ray's and Mickey's characters, their actions, and justifications... I'd be interested in talking that through with any other fans of the show once they've watched this series-capper.
     I will say I'm mildly amazed when I read that someone was surprised by the dramatic final plot turn,

though, as it seemed telegraphed a good 40 minutes before the end. I assure you, I'm not one of those  who seem to be in competition with the filmmaker, making a point of pride out of not being fooled or surprised. I generally sit back and enjoy the ride, trying to take it as it comes. This just seemed to have such an obvious dramatic path that it seeing it coming was nearly as simple as predicting the route of a train after watching much of the track laid down. Still, part of that was that it was believably true to the characters, particularly one who'd been so recently traumatized.
     I don't know that Ray Donovan is a series I'm likely to soon go back and rewatch, but I could easily see me doing that at some point. That decision's made easier by knowing that, in the end, we do get a fairly complete life story arc for Ray. A second run through would help place it all more firmly, and hopefully do so without revealing any false leads and mistakes along the way.

    Five episodes in to Peacemaker (HBO Max) and I not only haven't skipped the opening credits dance number, I've rolled back and replayed it once or twice a few times. There are many nice touches in this, all the way down to the little, uncertain, two-step adjustment by Eagly at the very end.

     As for the show itself, it's inane, violent, occasionally obscene fun, they're clearly enjoying themselves, and that's the type of infectious I welcome.
     The titular character was created in 1966, for one of the also-ran comics companies that has come and gone, Charlton Comics. DC (home of Superman, Batman, etc.) bought their IP inventory out years later, though they've only made sparing use of Peacemaker himself. Probably the biggest splash the character made pre-2021 was very indirectly, as Alan Moore used him (along with various of the then newly-acquired properties that DC now owned but didn't know what to do with) as a conceptual template for one of the Watchmen. In a big stretch, that became The Comedian.

     As originally conceived, Peacemaker is a walking, thematic contradiction: a pacifist who loves peace so much he's committed to using force to bring it about. In this DC screen version (set up in 2021's Suicide Squad, where the character was introduced) they just went straight in with a character whose truly awful father raised him as a weapon. Unfortunately, that results in someone who's more parody than human being, a social misfit, which really seems to work for series titular lead, pro wrestler turned actor John Cena, with his hypertrophied, Stretch Armstrong physique.
     In the series we get to explore the details of that along the way, and as we see what a cold, hard, racist, radical-Right bastard his old man (played with a wonderful, hard edge by Robert Patrick) is, we gain some sympathy for Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker. We realize that in contrast to his father, Chris is a much better human being than we should have reason to expect. He's just still chasing the approval of a thoroughly awful father. Much of the hook, for me, is seeing the glimpses of the undeveloped human being, and seeing if and how it connects with and is encouraged by the same in the small band of misfits assembled for this mission. What largely remains to be seen is how far they'll really take the story, as a more satisfying journey of growth would mean diminishing the joke. We know they're going to reel some of this back in, because the popularity of the character is based largely on his behavior, and that includes a great deal of extreme actions, casually taken.
     I haven't reached out to any of my old associates in DC fandom for a reaction to how it's being handled. I'd expect what's being done with secondary character Adrian Chase/Vigilante to be more of an issue for them, as Peacemaker was never really a big DC thing, while that version of Vigilante was loosely akin to DC's version of The Punisher. Nearly all of the '80s comics version's aspects have been radically changed for this screen version, really leaving little more than the names (Adrian Chase/Vigilante), costume, and a mission to confront crime with an excess of firepower. In this tale, we see that Chase is also a character born of bullying abuse, trying to fit a toxically macho ideal, also with the remnants of the abused human being within seeking to fit in and find human connections. Agendas set by supposed adults behind the larger game end up being the real poison pill, so in that respect there's a bitter floor of reality beneath the comic book trappings.
     There are three more episodes to go.

     Speaking of inane levels of violence, and oddly enough continuing an unplanned father and sons theme that's strong in each of the previous two items, this past Saturday HBO debuted Nobody (2021, R, 92m)
     Bob Odenkirk (perhaps best known these days as Saul Goodman, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) stars as a seemingly unremarkable, ordinary, cautious family man, Hutch Mansell, who has allowed himself to be marginalized. His life seems to be a numbing routine of home, exercise and work, with him surrounded by more overtly dominant people. His marriage is strained, and few seem to judge him as anyone of much consequence. A home burglary turned robbery finds him taking a nonviolent path, allowing the masked couple to leave with their petty haul, creating more friction both at home, with his deeply disappointed son, and to the disapproval and barely-concealed mockery of seemingly everyone else, from neighbors to police to co-workers. Even those who tell him he did the right thing for the sake of his family's safety can't help but follow it up with what they would have done had it been their home and family.
     As you may expect, it makes for roughly the first half hour to be a somewhat wearing wind-up, before a final straw is applied to his resolve's back. After that, we begin to see his mask slip.

    Written by Derek Kolstad, the creator of the John Wick franchise, once the violence starts it only expands and intensifies. We not only get to see what the man is capable of, but gradually get his backstory.

     The violence, in large part the punishment the main character not only doles out but takes, soon becomes absurd, so it's not long before we realize there's virtually no ceiling on this violent fantasy outing. Sure, there's blood and fleshy trauma, but none of it is going to do more than lightly, momentarily inconvenience our self-avowed "nobody." The sooner you settle in to the idea that no act of common sense will be allowed to stop this runaway train, the better you'll enjoy it.
     The cast includes Connie Nielsen as Hutch's wife, Christopher Lloyd as his father, living in modest retirement in an assisted living community, Aleksei Serebryakov as the big, bad Russian boss (the piece's main heavy), and rapper/actor/filmmaker NZA in another key role.
     Oh! There is a mid-credits and a post-credits scene.
     No signs so far (at least not in Odenkirk's imdb credit listings) of a greenlit sequel, though Kolstad is reportedly working on a script. As Odenkirk will turn 60 this year, well... it would be an interesting age to be breaking out as an action star.

    This Sunday, Showtime airs the first of a four-part exploration and discussion of Bill Cosby, who he was to so many people, who he turned out to be, and where that leaves the many, many people for whom he had once been a comedy, cultural and social movement icon - especially to the African American community, though it was clear he (the public persona) was almost universally embraced. It's writer/director W. Kamau Bell's We Need To Talk About Cosby.

     Circa 1987, I was in the last job I had before disappearing into the world of geotechnical labs. I was working for a chain video rental store, the deceptively-named West Coast Video (being founded very much on the East Coast), and Cosby's 1983 stand-up (well, it was mostly him sitting in a chair, center of an otherwise empty stage - only getting up occasionally for comic emphasis) special Bill Cosby: Himself, was something that would often get put into the store's VCR. There it would play on the multiple, ceiling-mounted tv's. The store had multiple copies of it, still, by '87, so along with it being

something with broad entertainment value, yet familiar enough that playing it casually wouldn't constitute spoiling anything, there was also some degree of a game in doing so. Inevitably, some of the browsers would be steered by it over to the Comedy section, and add that to their rentals, and it would be a countdown to see when someone, unable to find a copy, would come up to ask and end up renting the copy we were playing. After all, that's what we were there to do.
     Certainly, I understand how many people have found they can no longer look and listen to the man, but I can't just forget how nearly everyone found his routines (much of what was done in that special ended up being mined for sitcom material in his wildly successful family sitcom) funny, and the man himself charming. He was idealized as an exemplar for African Americans, including his decades-long advocacy for higher education, with plenty of specific nods to his own alma mater, Temple U. I'll drop a copy of that special here, from YouTube, as a viewing option. This one appears to be the full special, and has the original audio. Just don't put the captions on unless you read Polish.

     I'm going to be interested to see how the documentary series plays out, as at least a couple

generations of African Americans had this wholesome, yet hip figure welcomed into their homes via tv, and offered as an example for life. Reconciling that, and deciding whether the man's profound moral failings behind the scenes should be allowed to nullify the entertainment and the good he did in that role, remains the big question. None of this is meant to excuse his actions, but is part of the larger question of whether or not people can (and some may even ask if they should) deconstruct public figures, to separate the good from the bad, and keep what is worthwhile. Much as with various literary figures who held loathesome views on race and religion, it strikes me as a ridiculous waste to allow that facet to automatically nullify the other work they did. We will rarely, if ever, find head to toe paragons. Certainly, though, it's not as if I'm characterizing Cosby's behavior as minor moral shortcomings. Ultimately it's going to be an individual choice as to whether engage his legacy in a compartmentalized way, connecting with and embracing the good, or treat the rot as reason to throw it all away.

     Changing subjects, this past week HBO premiered the latest from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, as he turns his attention to issues of power and class-stratified society in the United States of the late 19th and early 20th century, as a sudden, new wave of brazenly conspicuous, wealth-driven power stepped in and very publicly redefined being rich. It's the 9-part dramatic series The Gilded Age.

     Based on some early reviews, and knowing what does and doesn't work well for me, I've decided to let at least a few episodes build up before giving it a go. The early setting and character introductions are likely to work better for me if I have the option to allow the story momentum to propel me, rather than deal with introductions and set-up in isolation, then waiting another week so I can ask myself "so who are these people again?"

     I'll catch up some other new and returning items next week. If you're in the path of the more extreme elements of this weekend's expected weather, may you be adequately stocked, your electricity and

cable/Internet keep flowing, and you have the freedom to be able to stay put, to ride it out in relatively comfort and safety. With Groundhog Day coming up next Wednesday I'd casually suggest watching Harold Ramis' 1993 Bill Murray/Andi MacDowell classic - all the more so if this weekend sees you snowed in - but I see that it's almost completely walled off by Starz, unless one wants to rent or buy it via Amazon, or buy a hard copy.
     It's an intersting subject, not only as the successful comedy it is, but both in its increasingly dark concept (which was almost entirely scrubbed out in the development of it as a comedy) and development by Danny Rubin, and how a clash over emphasizing the philosophical elements (Murray's stance) and the comedic ones (Ramis) in the script during filming effectively ended the men's friendship, and certainly their working partnership. The rift was strong and bitter enough that they were out of contact until shortly before Ramis' death. I know too many of us have had similar rifts with old friends and family members, especially in recent years, over social and political matters.
     That last-minute, seasonal detour out of the way -- see you in February! - Mike

What To Watch? - Jan 14 - Recollections, Rebirths and Rescues

 

     Two weeks into the new year, and I've no more idea what to make of it than I did much of 2021. For good or ill, at least part of the time we get to climb into our electronic cocoons and stream shows and movies, new and old.
     My personal, starting focus today will be the final episode of The Expanse, arriving today on Amazon Prime. I'll be watching that as soon as my time is once again my own, whenever that'll be, on Friday. (Post-viewing notes are in green) Solid finish -- or, more accurately, resting point. While the series on Prime is at an end, I know they intend to continue to story in some form. Would I have liked to see more - a longer season six? Sure. Still, with respect to the main conflict that dominated the final two seasons, we got a good resolution. As good a resolution as one can get in any realistic scenario where everyone doesn't die. We're left with much uncertainty, and more than one real cliffhanger with regards to the new frontier, but especially for the characters we're been invested in over the bulk of the series, we're at a good plateau. A good point to let it ride for a while, and maybe have us catch up on how things pan out after a few years. I'm going to miss not having a confirmed, new season on the way, though.

     This week on Disney+, we reached the third episode of the Star Wars series, The Book of Boba

Fett. Another home run by Jon Favreau (as ever, IMHO, as a self-confessed casual Star Wars fan), this series is bringing us three timelines of origin for Boba Fett, one (the most lightly trod so far) from his childhood, as the only clone Jango Fett rose as his son, another immediately post-Return of the Jedi, as he escaped the Sarlac, was stripped of everything, and had to work his way back up, and of his later path, fully re-armored, establishing himself as the official crime lord, the Daimyo, on Tattooine, which includes a growing band of recruits he wins over.
     I've been enjoying it from the start, though I've seen grumblers who apparently only want a sizzle reel of top-form, mystery man Boba kicking ass, apparently utterly unmindful of how monumentally boring that would be for a main character in the series. No, instead we're getting to know the man beneath the armor, someone who has seen and known what it's been like to be powerless, to be seen as a thing - be it a commodity, a tool, or a weapon - and has quietly resolved to not do that to anyone else. He is determined to build his new position on a foundation of respect, rather than the fear that his opponents and competitors rely upon.
     While I can sympathize with the (apparently) many, or at least more vocal fans who are finding the absence of a mysterious, ass-kicking bad-ass to be pablum, I'm looking forward to the next installment so far.

     A non-spoilery, behind-the-scenes Easter egg of sorts (I'm abusing the term a little here) is that as the new Daimyo on Tattooine, Boba now has a sort of court protocol droid, 8D8, and I was immediately taken by the voice. It's a quality voice and delivery, with only a little of the effect coming from an electronic robotization of it. It has a proper dignity and a subtle edge of menace, reminding me obliquely of (mostly) voice actor Paul Frees, and what actor James Mason could deliver - without doing an impersonation of either. It turns out to be the work of English, (mostly) comedic actor Matt Berry. Matt is known most broadly, I expect, as the vampire Lazlo Cravensworth on the tv version of  the always fun What We Do In the Shadows, was supporting character Douglas Reynholm on the series The IT Crowd (from not long after the point when that series got good - the first four episodes are abysmally moronic, so don't judge the show on its start), and for voice work in the animated series Disenchantment, and Toast of London.

   Ricky Gervais has an interestingly mixed reputation. Many have long since written him off as a bitter, snarky, cynical little man who makes fun of people's beliefs, and/or as the insensitive, self-deluded David Brent character in the original, U.K. version of The Office. (I know a few people who simply won't look at his work in anything based on some part of that.) Others have been drawn in by the sensitive side of his interests and projects, ranging from protection of animals to sentimental series such as Derek (two seasons, then a completing special back in 2014 - often and increasingly treacly, but effectively so) and After Life which is concluding as of today, as season 3 arrives on Netflix.
     After Life follows a misanthropic man in the wake of his beloved wife's death by cancer, where she recorded a series of videos to help him seek out the social help he'll need to build a rounded life in her absence.

    I enjoyed the first two series (6 episodes each, released in March 2019 and late April 2020, so we've been waiting a while -- thanks, COVID-19), and am looking forward to this. All are available on Netflix.

    A horror series loosely based on a podcast of the same name, Archive 81, also lands on Netflix today. An archivist takes an assignment to fix damaged videotapes, and is drawn into a 25 year-old investigation of a dangerous cult. It's a partially "found footage" item with ample cheats, as we get to see the documentarian filming the footage. Granted, I guess that was how they did it with part of The Blair Witch Project, so why not? The 8-episode series will unfold in two time frames, with the 1994 investigation by Melody Pendras, and the contemporary work by archivist Dan Turner as he's drawn into the mystery. James Wan serves as executive producer, but I've no clear idea what he provided aside from the gravitas of his name for promotional purposes in the supernatural horror community.

 Rounding out the new Netflix offerings today, we have a special, featuring three stories, by three different directors, all done in stop-motion animation. Creepy, but promising. It's The House (1h 37m).

     Yesterday, on HBO Max, a Suicide Squad (2021) spin-off launched with the action comedy series Peacemaker.
     John Cena reprises his role from last year, with James Gunn back to write all eight episodes and direct five of them. Peacemaker is the embodiment of toxic masculinity, a technically proficient dealer of violence and destruction, but emotionally stunted. This series is set to explore the character's origins along with following subsequent missions. The first three episodes dropped Thursday, and the remaining five will appear each successive Thursday. Here's the Red Band trailer, which in this case mainly means they're not filtering out the profanity.

    I'm curious to see how this plays out, with him being the central character. So much will depend on the supporting cast to balance things out. I'm expecting the brow here to be more uni- than high-. ...and so it pretty much is. Special note that the along with profanity, there's ample nudity, sex, and graphic violence. I roll through most of it barely noting it, but I know these things make a difference to some. This certainly isn't some Disney+ super-action piece, and children shouldn't be anywhere near it.
  That said, the packet of the first three episodes is an often playful mix, with musical touches... which is pretty much a James Gunn standard move. So far the series has been giving us some insight into how Chris Smith/Peacemaker came to be the profoundly messed up person he is. We see more of his internal struggle, and once we meet his profoundly racist, xenophobic father (played by Robert Patrick) we understand a bit better. I've no idea how far they'll want to take any road to redemption for him, in what's essentially a violent action comedy series, but it's not as if this sort of character's going to be fixed quickly or easily. As mentioned above, from here through February `7th it'll be a new episode each Thursday.
      Here's the opening credits dance number for each episode, showing the cast and bringing the whimsy.

     Back over to Disney+, two days ago, the least-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe release so farfinally arrived: The Eternals (2021 PG-13   2h 37m).
     During these plague years, this was the easiest one for me to let wait until it came to me. I was never fond of the comics source material, all the way back to when Jack Kirby brought it to Marvel in 1976. I thought then, and maintain now, that the Marvel Universe didn't need this "ancient astronauts" mess shoehorned into their continuity, much less another pantheon of inscrutable, cosmic, space giants returning to potentially pass Doomsday judgement. Unfortunately, those in editorial power disagreed, and the interweaving began primarily with Roy Thomas' work over in issues of Thor in 1978. Other characters' histories were retroactively changed to make them Eternals... and Hell, only comics nerds care about any of this. There's no reason to put you through that here. Let it suffice to say I've never cared for, nor had much use for, The Eternals.
     However, they're intellectual property held currently by the House of Mouse, and are now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so here we are, and here's the trailer for the film.

     I can't see any of this clearly due to the personal history with the source material, so I can't yet tease that out and just see the events of the film as their own thing. To be bored with a film while watching the trailer isn't a good sign, though. I expect I'll at least find some good character interaction moments - the MCU has yet to fully let me down - but I'm in no current rush to get to this, especially as I'm all but certain the central threat is going to be horrible nonsense.
     Moving on.

     On Showtime, fans of Liev Schreiber's "fixer" Ray Donovan, which had a run of seven seasons, are today getting a series finale via Ray Donovan: The Movie.
     A slightly shorter seventh season (10 episodes rather than the standard 12) aired its final episode roughly two years ago, with Showtime announcing a couple weeks later that that was the end of the series. That that was a surprise to the fans was one thing, but that it was also a surprise to the people in and behind the show was wholly another, as they hadn't approached that season as a final one. Season six closed at what could have been a credible exit point, but seven ended largely in chaos.
     Pressure from the fans and from people on the show speaking out through various media resulted in Showtime authorizing a film to help tie up the various loose ends, and provide more definitive background on key bits of pre-show history for Ray and key members of his clan. The announcement was made a little over a year following the cancellation announcement, and now the film's finally here. I'm likely going to rewatch at least the final episode of season seven ahead of this, to better bring myself up to speed.

     Meanwhile, over on HBO Max, I recently started to watch a Norwegian series where people from various eras, going back to prehistory, begin to appear in waves in the present. The people appear in flashes of light, in bodies of water, and the energy involved has short-term disruptive effects on electrical power

and computer technology in the area. After us seeing the dawning, puzzling evidence of the new reality posed by the first wave, the show jumps ahead several years to a point where it's just part of daily life.
    The phenomenon remains unexplained, but presents an ongoing, pressing issue as society has to at least attempt to integrate those open to such things, and otherwise is presented with something analogous to dealing with the functionally mentally ill. Police and social assistance agencies have buckled under the strain.
     Secondary social impacts include views held by those of different eras gaining some resonance and traction with some in contemporary society. While the phenomenon is a global matter, the show is based in and centered on Oslo, which more than has its own hands full, so we're focused on what's happening there. The clusters of time-displaced appear to be coming from the Stone Age, the Viking Age, and the 19th century. The show is Beforeigners, and it has just recently finished its second, six-episode season. Here's the trailer for the first season.

     As mentioned above, I've only just recently started this, and so am still in the first season, deliberately avoiding looking into too much about the series so as to avoid spoiling the remaining episodes. As best I can tell, so far nothing official's been said about a third season. Presumably they're waiting to see how much of an audience it comes to pull, as exclusive content for their streaming service. (This was the first series set up by HBO Europe, and so is bearing the extra burden of being a test case for whether or not this is the best use of funds, or if they should do more as Netflix has and just look for international shows to buy out and import.)
     The show has multiple layers, and aside from the crime procedural aspects (the show's male lead is a police detective whose life has been upended by the new arrivals, while his young partner is the first time-shifted person in that area to go through the police academy) that lend greater urgency, it's the conflicts and meshing of the beliefs, mores and cultures of these various timelines, and the influence of those time-displaced people on current society, that's generally of much greater interest.
     There's a fun segment where two warrior women, who in their time had been shield-bearers for those who worshiped Odin, drunkenly mock the idea that Christianity, formed around the iconography of a bloodied, physically-broken god (in their view) has become the culturally dominant religion.

     The next two weeks' posts will be themed, so today, while I'm talking about new/upcoming items, I'll include some for later in the month.
     January 21st Netflix will have the first half of the fourth and final season of the Justin Bateman crime drama Ozark. In season one, Bateman played a partner in a business where, unbeknownst to him, his partner was in up to his neck in business with organized crime. Mistakes were made, the partner was killed, and the innocent partner had to quickly negotiate terms to keep from being killed. (That's all pretty much the opening episode set-up arc, as I recall.) I watched season one however far back it was that that was the only part around, and while I liked it enough to finish that season I wasn't immediately in the mood for season two... so I have no idea where the story's gotten by this point. I'm dropping the season four, part A, trailer here in case you're up on the series and looking forward to it, but I'm not going to watch it just yet.

     Arriving on Syfy starting January 26th, is season two of Alan Tudyk's sci-fi crime procedural comedy Resident Alien. I wasn't an immediate fan of the show in the first season, but it quickly grew on me. This preview piece is more of a behind-the-scenes set-up, and so treats the events of season one as written and known, so, fair warning there if you haven't watched any of it. If you have cable, and they provide the Syfy channel, then you can sign in at Syfy's website and watch the first season there. If you don't then it's available for purchase on Amazon, and behind their subscription paywall on Peacock. (I enjoy the show, but I wouldn't see myself paying something extra for it.)

     Off on January 28th, Netflix will present season one of All of Us Are Dead, a Korean zombie series. At this point my initial reflex, upon reading just that much, was that I wasn't looking for more zombie action just now, but the trailer's caught my attention. Highly energetic! Looks as if it could be fun, and if nothing else it'll remind me that I'm well and truly waaaaaaaaay too old and slow for a fast-zombie apocalypse. It's still fun to watch from over here.

     
     Closing with a trippy piece I first saw at least six years ago, it's the complete 1939 The Wizard of

Oz -- with the film chopped up and reshuffled (with the help of some apps) to be presented in alphabetical order. It starts with every instance of someone saying "A" in the film, laid out in chronological order, then does the same with every instance of someone yelling "Aaa!" in surprise or fear, and so on, and so on. The titles/credits were snipped and resorted so they would be in alphabetical order, too, and so this is of Oz The Wizard.
     Years ago this used to be on YouTube (and it may yet lurk there, under some other name to avoid narcs), but currently I'm only seeing it on Vimeo, so with Blogger's structure it seems I can only just provide you with a link (it should pop out on its own screen when you click on it):  Of Oz the Wizard.
     Being drunk, high, or punchy from lack of sleep may be critical to the entertainment experience. Some I've shown this to over the years have quickly hated it. I've found it to be something I'll find a little mechanical and even tedious one moment, but then suddenly hilarious the next as it riffs through a chain of sounds, with varying voices and inflections, some spoken, some sung, some munchkin. Because the film itself is so familiar to most of us, there's something about this that works through all of the disjointed resorting, pulling us through the story. Looping us through large chunks of the film, via unique slices, again and again.
     Seriously, that's far more than enough for this week. Between what's above and various items from the past several Friday posts, there should be more to watch than you have conscious time for.
     Take care, feel free to let me know if you watched any of these (for good or ill), and see you back here next week with (probably) part one of a two-part theme! - Mike