Fringe

By Wendy

You gotta love the "stop" button.

When I graduated from college, I made myself a promise to never again finish a book unless I absolutely wanted to--a promise I have kept over and over again. 

And I've always been willing to walk out of shows at intermission, because I don't want to waste my time after I've already wasted my money.

But for some reason, in the world of streaming, I found myself finishing seasons and series of shows even when they were no longer worth my time. Now I'm pleased to announce that I've broken that bad habit. There is too much to see and read and do to spend any time finishing up a show just because I started it.

Fringe is a show I might have kept up with in the past. It stars Anna Torv, an Australian actor whose work I've enjoyed a great deal. It also stars Joshua Jackson, who isn't particularly good, but he can be enjoyable and he's nice to look at. The third lead, John Noble, is tasked with playing a very annoying man, and he's altogether too good at it.

The storyline: Torv is FBI. Weird stuff has been happening. Noble is a mad scientist sentenced to life in an asylum for criminals after a lab explosion that killed his assistant. Torv knows that Noble has information that will help her on her case, but only a family member can access him. She tracks down Jackson, Noble's son, who is of course estranged from him and doesn't want to get involved. But, blah, blah, blah, they end up working together at Noble's old lab at some university (Yale, maybe?), where every single episode goes like this:

• Something weird happens: a plane full of dead people, a baby who grows to old age in minutes, all sorts of bizarre deaths
• Torv gets the case
• Noble posits some bizarre explanation
• Jackson pooh-poohs the suggestion in derisive terms
• Noble turns out to be right
• Noble--whose memory is erratic at best--realizes that the phenomenon in question may be the result of his own earlier research

In terms of character "development," Torv is stubborn, Jackson is cynical and stubborn, Noble is weird, brilliant, and stubborn.

The show does have moments. My favorite may be when a bunch of bank robbers somehow temporarily soften the material of a wall so that they can walk through it. When one of them gets delayed leaving the vault, he ends up stuck with his back half in one room, his front half in the other, and his middle at one with the wall. Pretty cool (though not for him, of course).

Overall, however, the joys are far outweighed by the tedious predictability, and what a pleasure it was to just press "stop"!

Round-Up

By Wendy

Animal Kingdom: Mediocre Australian movie where a teenager, J, has to move in with his grandmother after his mother ODs on heroin. His uncles are career criminals, and one's a total lunatic. J gets sucked into crime because to say no to the lunatic uncle is dangerous. The teenager barely talks, and his family barely talks to him. Periodically, they ask him if he's okay, but they know he isn't--and don't actually care. I watched it because I like the actress Jacki Weaver, and she got an Oscar nod for this performance, but I didn't think she was particularly good.

1899. The standard description of this TV series is that it's about a bunch of immigrants on a boat. That's accurate, but it's accurate like "Dorothy Gale goes on a trip and meets some people" is accurate. I loved 1899. Found it fascinating, spooky, odd, and very well-done. I was bummed to see that Netflix didn't renew it for a second season, because it was clearly heading in an interesting direction.

Pine Gap. Australian TV show in which a bunch of Australian spies have to navigate dealing with their official ally, the US, versus their largest trading partner, China, while both countries bully them. Pretty good.

Secret City. Australian TV show in which a bunch of Australian politicians have to navigate dealing with their official ally, the US, versus their largest trading partner, China, while both countries bully them. I guess it's an issue in Australia! Pretty good. Jacki Weaver is very good in this one, and the lead, Anna Torv, is excellent. She comes across as Cate Blanchett, if Blanchett were a regular human with warmth.

Give Unto Others. Donna Leon's 31st entry in the Brunetti series, and it's bad. I guess 31 is a lot to ask.

All I Did Was Shoot My Man. Not one of Walter Mosley's best, but still well worth reading, as his books always are. A reforming bad guy tries to undo some of the wrong he's done in the past, but it ain't easy. Is it even possible?

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Jan/Feb 2023. An anthology of mystery-type short stories, many of them good. I love this series--four issues a year, cheap paper, some terrible writing, some excellent, and old-fashioned charm (or the charm of being old-fashioned).

Heist and Checkmate

By Wendy

Just posting to remember I saw these, so I never accidentally watch them again.

Heist: the heist is only a small part--more of it is robbers on a bus. It's mediocre but Jeffrey Dean Morgan is worth watching, as always. By the way, this is the 2015 Heist, not the 2001 movie or the TV show. And have you noticed that heist is a weird word? 

Checkmate: bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Some idiots rob a bank. A priest does assassinations for hire. The devil plays chess. Danny Glover gets a paycheck. 

She Said

By Wendy

The story of the two New York Times reporters who covered the Harvey Weinstein story, She Said is well-written, well-acted, and deeply upsetting.

The reporters are both married women with kids, and the movie does an excellent job of showing the emotional cost of spending so many months on such an ugly story.

I'm so glad to have lived into an era where two women reporters are not an anomaly--or a miracle! I much prefer Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan to Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. 

Tenet

 Lame

Kaleidoscope

By Wendy

The new Netflix heist series, Kaleidoscope, has an interesting twist: rather than being numbered, each episode is named after a color and viewers are encouraged to watch in any order than appeals to them (although it is recommended that you watch White--the day of the heist--last). The episodes are described by their time period: three weeks before the heist, the day after the heist, etc. A Google search reveals many discussions of how to choose an order: ie, chronologically, following the order on Netflix, or various options that that the writers believe have something to offer. 

The underlying idea is that each order offers a unique experience as the viewer learns information in a different order and perhaps therefore has a different sense of how the heist goes, who is trustworthy, who is working with who, and so on. I personally watched in almost the order Netflix has, with one exception (I wanted to see what had happened 25 years earlier.)

Here's the thing: you can only watch the show for the first time once. After that, even if you switch the order, you will already know what you know, so you can't be led into a different experience. 

BTW, the show is fairly good. The heist is interesting but has holes you could drive a fleet of trucks through. The show has some good performances, some intriguing characters, and some beautiful women (and some combos thereof). It also has some bad performances and really, really annoying characters.

I'm glad I watched it but don't consider it a must-see.

Love Is News

By Wendy

This 1937 romantic comedy, starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche, has an interesting premise. Loretta Young is a famous millionaire who is constantly hounded by the press--in particular, reporter Tyrone Power. To give him a taste of his own medicine, she announces that they are engaged, so that he too will lose his freedom and privacy and sanity. 

They don't do as much with the premise as I would like, and much of the film is dumb. But it's interesting, quick, and short, and Power and Young are excellent at looking deep in each other's eyes and being gorgeous.

The Maltese Falcon

 

By Wendy

If I were forced to choose an all-time favorite film, it might well be The Maltese Falcon. From the compelling story to the fabulous characters to the gorgeous black-and-white photography, the movie is a complete pleasure to me. I'm not saying it's perfect, but, for me, it's perfectly entertaining.

I think it also rates so highly to me because I've loved it forever. I don't remember ever seeing it for the first time--it's always been in my life. I figure I've seen it at least 20 times! As much as I adore many new films, a film that's been with me my whole life holds a special place.