Month: July 2023
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City on Fire, greedy villains and loving families
City on Fire is a complex series with mystery and suspense that presents itself as edgy and dark. It’s ultimately about family. Interconnected plot lines all resolve around family bonds and fractured families.
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Creamerie, comedy from New Zealand
Creamerie, from New Zealand, begins with the idea that a virus has killed off all (okay, not all) the men. It’s billed as a comedy, but I found it more of a genre jumble. Throw everything in and see what sticks, add plenty of pop culture homage scenes, put women in charge of dystopia and…
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Wellmania, a crazy journey to health
Wellmania, an Australian comedy series, was written by, directed by, and stars women. Liv (Celeste Barber) lives in the US where she’s a well known food writer. She heads home to Sydney for a weekend to celebrate her best friend’s birthday. Getting back to NYC and her blossoming career is harder than you’d expect.
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SisterS, surprise, you have a sister
SisterS was written by Sarah Goldberg and Susan Stanley for themselves. It’s a comedy about a Canadian woman and an Irish woman who discover in their 30s that they are half sisters. There are so many things named Sisters, but this one has a capital S at the end. So, you know, distinctive.
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The Lost King, “What a feeling”
The Lost King is based on a true story about a British woman named Philippa Langley who became obsessed with finding the 500 year old grave of King Richard III (1452-1485). Sally Hawkins plays Philippa Langley with verve and enthusiasm.
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I Joined Mastodon
In searching for a replacement for Twitter now that it’s become home to a toxic boss, I settled on replacing it with Mastodon. So far I’m liking it there, although I don’t have much of a following yet. If you join Mastodon, too, I hope you’ll look me up there. @OldAintDead@mastodon.sdf.org
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Survival of the Thickest, Michelle Buteau goes for it all
Survival of the Thickest (a terrible title, by the way) takes on several themes and story arcs. To get through them all in 8 half hour episodes is quite the feat from Michelle Buteau, who wrote the series based on her own book of essays. There are minor spoilers ahead.
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God’s Crooked Lines (Los renglones torcidos de Dios)
God’s Crooked Lines (Los renglones torcidos de Dios), a psycholgical thriller from Spain, stars the always excellent Bárbara Lennie as a woman who enters a mental hospital undercover to investigate a murder.
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Class of ’09, fighting crime with artificial intelligence
Class of ’09 is set inside the crime fighting world of the FBI. But the implications of this cautionary tale apply beyond the FBI to all systems and institutions that use artificial intelligence (AI) as the answer to decision making.
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80 for Brady lets #EldersRock to the max
80 for Brady is a cute romp with Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin having a great time together. A certain NFL player named Tom Brady is involved in this story about some elderly football fans.