‘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.)

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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.

Luke Cage 2 great until the appearance of the Mighty Cheese Fist! And I wanna try Bushmaster rum! #LukeCageSeason2 #Bushmaster

The first season of Luke Cage was flawed (a lot of very macho and repetitive fighting) but pretty much worked. The second season builds on the first season, reducing the amount of fighting but making the fights that happen more meaningful, and strengthening the female roles. The second season also works hard to add more intellectual content – and, apart from the odd misfire, succeeds. There are the usual themes of debating the true nature of a hero, of how the children inherit the sins of the father, and so on, but then there are some surprising issues raised, such as the relative social status of different shades of black, of the new nature of the American Dream, and of the superior value of a benevolent dictatorship. There’s even bisexual representation, which is extremely rare (the ‘B’ in LGBTQ is traditionally ignored and treated with suspicion).

Don’t get me wrong, season 2 still has some significant issues. There is far too much navel-gazing (reciting umpteen cliches, platitudes, aphorisms, addages and non-sensical mantras), the contrived ‘row’ between Luke and his girlfriend (all done in mixed metaphor, DIY psychobabble and American pseudo-Christian-speak) will have you groaning and reaching for the fast forward button, the attempt to involve Instagram etc to ‘be down with the kids’ will have you cringing, and the appearance of the Mighty Cheesey Fist completely ruins episode 10 (a tragedy for me, cos I always loved the Iron  Fist comics and am still devastated by what they’ve done to him on the small screen).

Yet the Bushmaster baddie (played superbly well by Mustafa Shakir) is a genuine challenge to Luke’s ominipotence and introduces some refreshingly different Jamaican mythos, politics, gang culture and patois. There are great, complex and intriguing female roles – Alfre Woodard as the Queen of gangsters is chilling and utterly convincing. The soundtrack, with regular appearances of both legendary and upcoming black musical artists, is banging. And this season actually succeeds in doing something ‘new’ (where the second season of Jessica Jones tried but failed), something new within the wider superhero genre, not just within the Marvel tv and film world. The second season of Luke Cage had an unpredictable ending which actually made me reflect back on all the other episodes and ‘see’ things differently. What Luke represents at the end of the season does break the mould. I genuinely look forward to the third season – if it can build on season 2 (in the way season 2 has built on season 1) then we should be in for something very special.

There are some duff episodes along the way (episodes 2 and 3 spring to mind), but they are worth getting thru. The RumPunch Massacre is truly something shocking. Watch for it. And I wanna try drinking Bushmaster rum!

Review of Westworld Season 2 – Even some of the hosts give up: and they have far better endurance than most humans! #westworld

[No spoilers] So, the finale of season 2 of Westworld has now aired. Do we finally get some answers? Do we get to make some sense of all the cryptic references, apparently random events and frustrating dislocation within this series? Well, yes, we do get some answers, resolution and satisfaction, as it happens. But do any of us still care? How many of us have remained bothered enough to make it all the way to the end? (Even some of the hosts/androids simply give up, and they have far better endurance than most humans.)

If you recall season 1, it was centred around human characters who become morally challenged and compromised by the freedom that Westworld gave them to enact all their darkest fantasies. Their true selves (ids) were revealed – and it was fascinatingly monstrous. The moral dilemmas that the opening season presented kept us engaged (sometimes emotionally and sometimes in a problem-solving way). We cared, even though we were often appalled.

Season 2, however, centres around the hosts/androids (particularly Delores) as they seek to overthrow their human masters. Unfortunately, season 2 simply doesn’t have the same moral dilemmas as season 1 to keep us engaged. The hosts really do not have any credible internal conflicts. I personally found it extremely difficult to care about these avenging androids. And then season 2 kept messing with the chronology so much that there wasn’t any clear sense of the story progressing. It wasn’t intriguing – it was simply annoying and often nonsensical.

I kept watching though, because it was clear that the makers were working so hard on trying to do something interesting. I persevered, against my better judgement. I waded through stodgy episode after episode (although the special FX were always a diverting spectacle). Then we got to episodes 7 and 8 and I thought aha! Finally! Decent standalone stories that are as bitter-sweet as they are thought-provoking. But then episode 9 returned to the same old tosh as before. And the finale (10) was a double-header that my partner was asking me to switch off after 30mins. I’m kinda glad I kept at it. But only kinda.

When all’s said and done, season 2 doesn’t really stand up to close scrutiny. It cheats on the philosophy – it’s all a bit ‘cod’ and just doesn’t hang together. It cheats on the continuity – there ARE paradoxes and contradictions that occur as a result. And it cheats on the plot – time and again we follow a loose thread that goes nowhere. It felt like episodes or character storylines were being written by different people with different visions of what should be going on – if that had been done in a more self-aware way, that might have introduced an interesting meta-theme to proceedings, but actually there were already too many themes interfering with the central arc.

How to sum up then? Hmm. I’m not sure. Season 2 is even more flawed than season 1. Where I could forgive the first season for its shortcomings, I’m really not sure about the second season. Sadly, I’d only score the second season 6.5 out of 10. But maybe the test of time will change that. Certainly, critics and fan forums score it higher than me at the mo.

Ghost Wars offers a few thrills and chills

If you haven’t heard of the Ghost Wars series, you may wanna give it a look on Netflix. The opening episodes are tightly plotted and scripted and there are some nice ideas that verge on the original. Plus, Meatloaf has a decent role in the show!

The scenario. A young misfit (whose mum was a medium and spoke to ghosts when she was alive) decides to leave town to escape the bullies he’s suffered all his life. Yet a number of ‘accidents’ mean he can’t get away. He begins to suspect he’s supernaturally trapped in the town… and so is everyone else. The hauntings in the town progressively become worse and then the ghosts start killing everyone!

It seems Death’s Door has been opened – but how and by whom? More importantly, how the hell do the townsfolk get it closed again? Are they being punished for their earthly sins? Do they need to confess and make amends somehow to put an end to their problems? The local priest is clueless, which doesn’t help.

The main scenario is strong and carries us through the first half of the series effortlessly. The show loses its way a little in the second half, continuity suffers and they should have probably cut a few episodes. But all in all, there are enough reveals and twists to keep things entertaining enough. Certainly one to consider on a rainy afternoon. It scores 7.5 out 10 from me, although some episodes are better than that.