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What I’m Watching: December, 2022

What I’m Watching: December, 2022

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Last week, I spent 5,000 words talking about Dark Winds and the Tony Hillerman series it is adapted from. I even watched it twice – as I said, it’s a good series: just not good Hillerman. Recommended.

I continue to look forward to Tulsa King every Sunday. That may be the best show out there right now. I talked about that in the November post.

I did a series of posts on The Rings of Power – it was a ‘meh’ series. Better than The Shanarra Chronicles, not as good as The Wheel of Time. For over a half-billion dollars, it should have been better than fan fiction.

First half of season six of The Rookie was fine: though the new boot is easily the worst character in the history of the show. Season one of the spin-off show, The Rookie: Feds, was okay.

My son and I are watching Lethal Weapon: I’m not totally crazy about Damon Wayans in the role, but he and Clayne Crawford work well together. I think Crawford is the key to the show. I know there was a cast change after season two, so I’m leery. But overall, it’s a fun buddy cop show.

Moving on.

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The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Dark Winds – Good Show, Bad Hillerman

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Dark Winds – Good Show, Bad Hillerman

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So, I wrote a three-part series, covering about 5,000 words, on Tony Hillerman and his Navajo Tribal Police series. I said this at the end of the third one: “Somewhere down the line, there will be a post about the four movies (and several failed attempts at such) made from these books.”

Back in July of 2021, I wrote this essay, optimistically excited about AMC’s upcoming series based on Hillerman’s books.

The six-episode series aired back in June, but I just got around to watching it. So, this seems like a good time to write a fourth-installment in my Hillerman series, talking about Dark Winds.

If you want to know more about Hillerman and the books, click on the link above. You can find all three essays. I’m a HUUUUGE fan of his books.

I am not a fan of the continuation novels written by his daughter, Anne.

Dark Winds is set in the seventies, on the reservation in Four Corners country. That’s where Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee police procedurals take place. Joe Leaphorn is the boss of this Navajo Tribal Police sub-station. Bernie Manuelito is his number two. Jim Chee is a young officer newly assigned there. These are the three main characters in the books,and in the series.

THE STORY

Season One’s story is based on Listening Woman; the third book in the series. They use enough of the basics to recognize the source material – though they definitely change things up a fair amount. And Hillerman didn’t create Chee until book four. Or Bernie until book six. But it makes sense to have all three in the series: it all works. Listening Woman is a good novel, and I think, the best of the first three. So, a good choice to start the series with. They also worked in elements from book four, People of Darkness, which is one of my favorites. Nice!

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Goth Chick News: Predator Meets The Dirty Dozen Meets Werewolves? Sure, Why Not?

Goth Chick News: Predator Meets The Dirty Dozen Meets Werewolves? Sure, Why Not?

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I’ve often observed here that horror, like all forms of pop culture, moves in trends. Generally, this means an ebb and flow between the various sub-cultures of monsters. For example, 2010 saw the beginning of zombies rise in popularity with the premier of The Walking Dead, just as the Twilight movies with angsty vampires, were winding down in 2012. Since then, we’ve been through witches, clowns, ghosts/evil spirits and more traditional vampires. The odd thing about these trends is that, like black nail polish, werewolves have never been so much of a trend, as a staple of the horror genre which occasionally hits the mainstream.

Werewolves in film over the last decade tended to be in two categories; either as part of a larger story (ala Underworld, Hemlock Grove and Wednesday) or as the solo subject of indie films (The Cursed and The Forrest Hills). As a dog lover myself I find this kind of sad, and wish werewolves would get to be the stars of contemporary big-budget films like short-lived but glorious days of the early 80’s which brought us American Werewolf in London and The Howling (1981), and The Company of Wolves (1984).

Sigh…

Well, until then we will have to be content with the bones we are thrown from the small budget production houses, and this brings me to today’s news.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: The Princess Bride Redeems the ‘80s

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: The Princess Bride Redeems the ‘80s

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The Princess Bride (USA, 1987)

George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg: we may love their movies, but those guys have a lot to answer for. Their early fantasy action blockbusters, especially the Star Wars series, were such global mega-hits that they spawned countless imitators making noisy, busy, and sadly shallow films that flooded the theaters from the late ‘70s throughout the ‘80s. Everyone was chasing the golden youth market that was supposedly hooked on broad, colorful action enhanced by flashy special effects — and this pursuit infected not just Hollywood, but European and Asian studios as well.

There were some worthwhile films that followed that formula, of course — Excalibur, Time Bandits, Highlander — but in general, we got an endless series of loud actioners bloated by chase scenes, slo-mo heroic leaps, and large explosions (so many explosions). But then, in 1987, along came The Princess Bride, a small miracle of a movie with brains, heart, courage, sly wit and sharp dialogue, a film that made it possible to forget all about Red Sonja. And suddenly, the ‘80s didn’t look so bad after all.

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Talking The Rings of Power: Numenor

Talking The Rings of Power: Numenor

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Sticking with my assessment that it’s better than The Shannara Chronicles, but not as good as Wheel of Time, it’s back to The Rings of Power.

Previously, I visited the sad story of Miriel (Tar-Miriel). Tolkien speculated on a couple back-stories to her marriage to Ar-Pharazon, but dropped all of them. Click on over and check that one out. He had some neat ideas.

I will say that I think that Numenor is one of the two strongest points in the show. It helps offset the fan-fiction level plotting and all the harfoot clutter.

THE GOOD

Numenor is one of my favorite things in The Silmarillion. Not surprisingly, The Rings of Power has been a bit free with adapting it. But overall, I think Numenor is one of the highlights of the show, and they could have done a lot worse.

Visually, Numenor is stunning. It was a great island empire in The Silmarillion, and they did a terrific job of conveying the splendor of Armenolos, the capital city. As Halbrand and Galadriel arrive on Elendil’s ship, the city is unveiled in majestic fashion. The big CGI budget absolutely pays off.

The Argonath – two giant statues of Isildur and Anarion, on the River Anduin – were a highlight of Peter Jackson’s movies. They stand, with their hands out in a gesture of defiance from the folk of Gondor.

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Goth Chick News: I Need a Thing

Goth Chick News: I Need a Thing

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Appropriately, Netflix launched its new mega-hit series Wednesday on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This was brilliant marketing even though you might have suspected this gothic, Tim Burton creation would have been better suited for release in October. Instead, a late November release capitalized on the fact that most of us would be in some sort of carb coma Thanksgiving weekend, unable to move anything but the finger it would take to operate the TV remote. We would, therefore, be more than happy to roll up on the couch and binge-watch.

And much as it pains me to say it, the marketers were right.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday enjoyed the biggest ever opening week for an English language series in Netflix history, overtaking the previous record set by ratings behemoth Stranger Things. Wednesday racked up a staggering 341.2 million hours of viewing globally last week, beating the previous 335 million hours set by Stranger Things season 4.

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Cinema of Swords: For the Horde!

Cinema of Swords: For the Horde!

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The Golden Horde (USA, 1951)

Huns and Mongols, the mounted hordes who swept out of Central Asia into eastern and central Europe in the Middle Ages, made a lasting impact on the psyche of the folk of the lands they invaded, all the way down the 20th century—as shown by the fact that Allied propaganda during World War I successfully branded their German opponents as “the Huns.” Invoking the Mongol Horde was a reliable source of terror in mid-century movies from Russia to Italy to Hollywood, as we see in the films covered in this week’s article. All three suffer from the casual racism of the time in which they were made, but it’s better to see that and note it than to pretend it never happened or doesn’t matter. History is always seen through the lens of the time it’s viewed from, and we learn interesting lessons from its distortions.

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What I’m Watching: November 2022

What I’m Watching: November 2022

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Still reading and writing about Numenor, and Khazad-dum, for upcoming essays, so Talking The Rings of Power takes the week off. The Downfall of Numenor, the new book put together by Brian Sibley, is pretty good. The narrative flow works, and Alan Lee’s sketches are really nice. If you liked his Sketchbooks for The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, you’ll definitely like the volume and quality of these sketches.

And, I switched gears a little bit and I pulled Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun off my shelf. I’d not read any of his ‘epic poem’ books before. The lecture in the front, from one of his Oxford classes, was quite interesting.

So, it’s another What I’ve Been Watching. And along with some stuff with my son, I’ve been jumping around – good and bad.

TULSA KING

Gonna start with a brand new show. Episode two aired just last night, and I haven’t even seen it yet. Sylvester Stallone is a NY gangster who just finishes a 25-year prison term in the show’s opening scene. He ‘took one for the team,’ as it were. And he’s rewarded by being sent off to set up a mob operation in Tulsa. Which is basically like being banished to Siberia. I really didn’t spoil anything for you. This is the opening setup of the show.

Stallone is TERRIFIC in the part. I had not expectations either way, and he hits a grand slam. He’s a NYC lifetime mob guy, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yeah… There is a ton of funny in this show. Not stupid, Adam Sandler ‘funny.’ But humor within the context of Stallone taking over the town.

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Goth Chick News: Winnie-the-Pooh Has Had It with You Kids…

Goth Chick News: Winnie-the-Pooh Has Had It with You Kids…

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It was 1926 when author A. A. Milne (1882-1956), wrote the children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh followed two years later by The House at Pooh Corner. Now, as we approach the 100-year anniversary of the creation of the cuddly, inspiring bear of our youth and his little pink sidekick, two things have happened. First, according to US copyright law, Milne’s creations became public domain when they turned 95 years old and two, Milne is spinning in his grave like a rotisserie ham.

Though Pooh and friends were officially licensed by the Walt Disney Company in 1961, resulting in films and merchandising, all that went straight out the window earlier this year. A British, indie-film production company called Jagged Edge pounced on the newly instated public domain decree to reimaging all the characters in a wholly different and definitely “adult” way.

Welcome to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

And no, this isn’t a joke.

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Talking The Rings of Power: Harfoots :-(

Talking The Rings of Power: Harfoots :-(

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I eagerly tuned in a couple weeks ago to watch the Georgia – Tennessee game. Having beaten Alabama in one of the most exciting games of the season, the Vols were ready to establish themselves as the new kid on the block and hit the College Football Playoff like Mt. Vesuvius exploding. Yeah… I’ve always liked the phrase, “The moment was not too big for him.” This was the biggest moment in Tennessee football since Tee Martin took them to the 1998 national championship. I liked Martin and I wish the Steelers had kept him longer as a backup QB after drafting him.

Anywhoo…the moment was WAAAAY took big for Hedron Hooker (and the rest of the Volunteers). That game was over midway through the first quarter. Tennessee simply was not ready to deal with a focused Georgia team, on the road. They got spanked. I’ve got over a thousand words on Numenor for this series. But I still can’t get it shaped and dialed in. So far, Numenor is too big for me. So, I will keep working on it (the reading alone is taking hours) for another week.

Which leaves me on Sunday morning searching for a new topic. I’m gonna get the harfoot thing out of the way. Following the proper format, THE GOOD was going to be that they killed a harfoot in the season finale.

THE BAD was everything else about them being in the series.

My hardback copy of the Silmarillion is 311 pages (including Tables). The book proper ends on page 304. And the ONLY reference to hobbits in the ENTIRE book is on page 303. That’s it, except that it continues to the first paragraph of page 304. Harfoots and hobbits had nothing to do with the First and Second Ages. But here they are, dead in the middle of the Rings of Power. For those of us who don’t like hobbits, their presence is the worst part of the show. And TOTALLY unnecessary.

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