The feds are worse than the narcos in Ozark #Ozark #Netflix

What would you not do to save your family? Would you agree to go launder drug money in the sleepy lakeside town of Ozark for a Mexican cartel? Would you lie to the FBI because you were already complicit? Would you start killing if it then turned out you were treading on the toes of local poppy-growers and about to start a narcowar? What would you not do?

It all starts small for the humble accountant from Chicago Marty Byrde (played excellently by Jason Bateman), whose business partner has been skimming from the cartel. Marty only avoids being executed with some very quick talking and fast thinking. He convinces the cartel that he can increase their profits if they let him launder money down in the south. He’s given 24hrs to uproot his whole family and relocate to Ozark. He then has one month to clean $8m – which proves to be far more difficult than he made it sound. But his troubles are only just beginning…

I’ll stop on the plot there, to avoid spoilers. Besides, as you might glean from the above, this brilliantly dark Netflix series (actually, there are two full seasons already available) is about how ‘good’ people can be led into dark deeds by making a series of small and apparently trivial compromises. It is also very much about how the small lies that people tell (ostensibly to protect others) are actually born from a selfish place and inevitably end up hurting people far more than they protect them.

Some might find Ozark too dark, brutal or lacking in a ‘moral centre’, but for me the show rings true. Nothing is black and white. Everything is morally grey. This is today’s world or, if not the whole world, then definitely Trump’s America. The show is satirical, funny, tragic, delightful, surreal and terrifying all at the same time.

Things happen that seem random… except they’re not. The events always come from decisions made by people. People sometimes make their decisions in good faith, only then to realise they’ve made a mistake. Other people make their decisions in deliberate bad faith. Who tends to win out?

The random events reveal themselves to have been planned throughout. There is genius at work in the writing of Ozark. The twists and turns are surprising, shocking, awe-inspiring and disorienting. We question reality and hold tighter and tighter as we feel it slipping through our fingers. Insanity and the loss of control are but moments away. We dare not look away in case we miss something vital to sense and survival. Utterly compelling. Go watch it. It scores 9.5 out of 10 from me! (Not 10, because I’m scared what that would mean.)

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An interview with fantasy author A J Dalton! #fantasy #writing #authorinterview

The interview is on the Serious Editorial website here: https://siriuseditorial.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/q-a-with-fantasy-author-aj-dalton/

Killing Eve coming to the UK #KillingEve

BBC America released the tv series Killing Eve in the US back in April 2018. It went down an absolute storm and will be released in the UK on the BBC this autumn. A second series has already been commissioned. What’s all the fuss about? Well, quite a few things actually.

First off, it’s a mix of spy-thriller and detective show. There’s also plenty of unexpected and quirky humour – enough to keep us off-balance, grounded and frequently delighted. The main character of Eve is played by Sandra Oh (of Grey’s Anatomy fame) and she’s on the trail of a Russian female-serial-killer-for-hire. The female leads become obsessed with each other in a fascinating manner – hating each other as much as they are intrigued by each other. The weird but refreshing thing for the viewer is that we feel a conflicted loyalty for the two women throughout (we feel sympathy for the killer in that she had a terrible upbringing and is still being ‘used’ by her ‘handlers’). We await their confrontation with as much dread as bated breath. There are surprising plot twists aplenty, but they all make sense and never harm the credibility of the whole piece (unlike in a show like Sherlock).

Killing Eve does of course have a strong feminist outlook (as the Biblical reference in the title suggests), but the show is never preachy or high-handed about it. It never lets its message get in the way of good old-fashioned entertainment. Hats off to the writer Phoebe Waller Bridge (who also wrote BBC3’s Fleabag).

I enjoyed the series immensely and score it a 9 out of 10. Watch out for it!

‘Astrophysics for people in a hurry’ #astrophysics #sciencefiction @neiltyson

This short book (can’t be more than 40K words) by the American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will tell you all you need to know to impress anyone anywhere anytime. Anywhen. Honestly.

Don’t know your ‘dark matter’ from your ‘dark energy’? (Really? Sheesh. You need to get out more.) Then Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is for you. Always vaguely understood neutrinos and pulsars but not well enough to explain it convincingly to anyone? Then spend just a few minutes reading one of the short chapters and you’re away.

Scared of maths and equations? Don’t be. This book is written in a very accessible style with very down-to-earth examples (literally) that make the larger concepts easy to understand and also easy to remember. And there are delightful flashes of humour too and references to science fiction movies to stop things from being either too dull or too geeky.

And there’s even more. The book also somehow manages to weave in the history of all astrophysics to boot! And philosophical implications. And the final chapter is as thought-provoking as it is enlightening and inspiring. Neil deGrasse Tyson, I doff my cap to you. (And I have quite a fine cap, truth be told.)

The Frankenstein Chronicles are well worth a watch #Frankenstein

The first series of the Frankenstein Chronicles was actually made back in 2015, but it was aired on an obscure ITV channel, so never really got the audience it deserved. It has now been launched on Netflix and is apparently doing so well that there is talk of a third series being commissioned. So what’s the show all about?

Sean Bean plays detective John Marlott in the London of 1827. He is tasked by the Home Secretary Robert Peel with clearing up a series of grisly murders that are apparently inspired the novel Frankenstein. Someone is trying to stitch several dead bodies together in order to reanimate a corpse via the science of ‘galvanism’? Grave robbers become suspects because of their access to the dead… and then so do various notorious surgeons.

In the course of his investigations, Marlott interviews the poet William Blake and the writer of the ubiquitous novel (Mary Shelley). All the while, he is dogged by the journalist Boz (the young Charles Dickens). Fact and fiction merge in this series, as do reality and dream, to create an immersive and disorienting psychological landscape. It is properly dark and gothic.

Each of the two series currently available on Netflix is comprised of six one-hour episodes. What that means is that the narrative is brisk throughout, without any duff or drifting episodes. And because proceedings are brisk, plot twists come as sudden and genuine revelations. The finale of series 1 is awesome.

The Frankenstein Chronicles perhaps represent what the Penny Dreadful show was trying to achieve. The Frankenstein Chronicles are far more successful and artistically accomplished, however. And Sean Bean carries the show superbly, as do the supporting cast (particularly the black policeman Nightgale, played by Richie Campbell). If you like gothic detective fare I strongly recommend this series to you. In being set before the Victorian era, it also offers something fresh and different in its visuals and setting. It’s a 9 out of 10 from me.

A personal plea from the Troll King of Norway… #Trolls

Dear humans!
– For too long my kind has been misunderstood and shunned, simply because we are different from you (also you’re probably a little bit scared of us, which is as it should be!).
– For too long our name has been taken in vain and used to describe those who are rude and cowardly (it’s mainly the cowardly bit we have an issue with here)!
– For too long you have misrepresented us. We do NOT eat humans (well, not much anyway). And our hygiene is just as good as the cows and goats with which you consort. Yet you never invite us to any of your parties.

This mistreatment must end. It MUST. It makes many trolls so angry that they lose control of their tempers and go on a rampage, but that is YOUR fault.
I appeal to you therefore to get ejukatid about us trolls. Do the following things at once:
1. Choose a human who can read and have them obtain a copy of our sacred text The Book of Orm.
2. Then make them (maybe entice them with goat meat) begin to spread the word about how nice trolls are, and how all humans (even the less tasty ones) should stop avoiding us. They can spread the word by writing a review on amazon if they don’t have war drums they can play.
3. Then force them (maybe entice them with even more goat meat, especially if you can get hold those dispicable Billy Goats Gruff) to choose another person who can read so that they too can obtain a copy of The Book of Orm.
4. Send this message to other humans – cos all these words took a lot of effort and have given me a headache.

You must do this as otherwise the trolls will get angry and start rampaging, and that will be your fault, puny human!
Love
King Orm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Orm-J-Dalton/dp/1909845779…

Why the critics are wrong: review of The Circle #TheCircle #EmmaWatson #DaveEggers #JohnBoyega #moviereview #TomHanks

So, the movie of The Circle (adapted from the popular Dave Eggers book) got really panned and hammered by the critics (and some audiences) when it was released last year. It scored 43% on Metacritic and a measly 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, it was so universally trashed that I didn’t go and see it at the cinema, despite my initial inclinations to do so and my partner having enjoyed the novel immensely.

I love a bit of speculative future, near-future or cyber-thriller stuff. Indeed, we don’t get as much of it as I would like… because, apparently, such films go out of date very quickly, end up looking quaint and simply do not have enough of a ‘long-tail’ audience (people watching it even several years after it is made). Hollywood, according to what I have read, has really backed away from the real-world techno-thriller genre. In fact, there are so few films in this genre nowadays, that when I was idly looking for something to watch on Netflix, there was pretty much only The Circle available. Ironic, huh?

‘Can it really be as bad as all that?’ I wondered to myself. I mean, it stars Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Karen Gillan and John Boyega, to name but a few. And it’s based on a cult novel. So I decided to watch this tale of a young woman deciding to work for the world’s biggest social media company (very Facebook, obviously), where all she has to do is ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ content, answer user questions… and share information about her own life. Indeed, she has to share more and more about herself, and receives poor performance ratings in her work if she doesn’t continue to share. Not sharing is considered to be a form of secrecy, lying and theft. Those who do not start sharing everything (who do not go ‘fully transparent’) are considered to be criminal or up to no good. A bit predictably, we then come to learn that the Circle has sinister intentions, wanting universal surveillance and control of the population. It does it in the name of a single-access and global democracy movement/goal – making it an entirely hypocritical or immoral organisation.

The movie, given how both Cambridge Analytica and Russia used Facebook to effect the US elections and the Brexit vote, has particular resonance today. Yes, it might feel slightly ‘after the fact’ now (out of date), but it also feels authentic and prescient. At moments, it is a bit expository and patronising in how it explains arguments for and against social media. But, at the same time, it riffs convincingly on the popularist style used by the likes of Steve Jobs (exposing how likeability is used to manipulate us all) and on the positivity that is so demanded by Amercian culture (exposing how it ‘forces’ people to endorse things they do not necessarily agree with). This movie, like the novel, very much understands how social media prioritises ‘style over substance’ in order to keep us off-balance. It very much understands, and is largely successful in describing, the world we live in today and the dangerous direction in which we are heading. Legislation needs to be brought in now if we are to be properly safeguarded (from ourselves and those with an agenda that is not too philanthropic, let’s say).

So, the film has intelligent content, even if it slightly struggles to adapt the text-driven nature of its original novel. Indeed, if the film had been shown more respect and paid more attention when it came out, we may not have ended up in the current mess. We wouldn’t have had to witness Zuckerberg apologising to government committees with admissions that ‘We got it wrong’ and ‘We were naive’.

Why then did the critics and certain audiences slam the film so badly when it came out? Because they wanted to hate it, that’s why. They wanted to reject the message of the film. They were in denial about what was going on in the world. They had already been manipulated by social media companies just like the Circle. Spoooooky!

That final irony, for me, says there is something valuable and worthwhile about the movie of The Circle. It is fun and fluffy, but it is also a touch thought-provoking and deliberately dissatisfying. Don’t let the critics tell you what to think. Fight them! Anyway, it scores a 7.5 out of 10 from me.