What I Watched: Season two of the Night Agent, sort of. I made it through two episodes before the spies-duplicity-fisticuffs-shootouts-rinse-repeat bored me to tears. Keitel watched it through, but again only sort of, as he fast-forwarded or jumped to the last 15 minutes of each remaining episode.
The Night Agent started life as a determined little underdog. Uncool, old-fashioned and on the wrong side of Netflix’s tendency to hype some shows while leaving others unloved, it had to fight its way into the streaming platform’s most-viewed section and critics’ best-of-2023 lists, which it did simply by being a sturdily constructed, twist-packed conspiracy thriller. Once viewers switched it on, they couldn’t switch it off . . .
. . . It concerns Night Action, an awkwardly named arm of the American intelligence services that is so secret it doesn’t officially exist. When we met him, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) was its most junior employee, answering the landline phone that rang in the White House basement when an agent needed assistance. By the end of the first season, Peter’s courage, hand-to-hand combat skills and, most of all, his unswerving, country-serving, square-jawed moral code had seen him single-handedly foil a presidential assassination plot. These dynamics are different but, once it gets back up to speed, The Night Agent is the same show, endearingly unpretentious and focused purely on a narrative that has no frills, but no fat on it either. As the body count rises and the heroics required of Peter again start to seem impossible, it gets the job done.
What I Read: Two inter-related series by Pandora Pine, the Cold Case Psychic series (I’m on book 19 of 32) and the Haunted Souls Series, (I’m on book 14 of 23). She has no website, only socials.
Blurb for Dead Speak book one Cold Case Psychic Series:
Demoted to the cold case squad after shooting a suspect in the line of duty, Detective Ronan O’Mara knows that his career with the Boston Police Department is hanging by a thread. His first assignment is the case of Michael Frye, a five-year-old boy who has been missing for seven years. With no new leads or witnesses to interview, Ronan has to start from scratch to solve this mystery. When he sees a handsome local psychic on television, Ronan figures he’s got nothing to lose in enlisting the man’s help to find Michael. Psychic Tennyson Grimm is riding high after helping South Shore cops find a missing child. He’s even being courted by the Reality Show Network about a program showcasing his abilities. He has no idea that his midday appointment with a customer, who instead turns out to be a police detective, is going to change the course of his life and his career. Will working together to bring Michael’s killer to justice seal their fledgling bond, or will unexpected revelations in the case tear them apart forever?
Blurb for Ghost of Himself, book one Haunted Souls series:
When a reclusive psychic shows up looking for Jude Byrne in his adopted hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, the private investigator’s walls go up instantly. Psychic or not, this mysterious man knows secrets about Jude’s past that are better left buried in the New Mexico desert. Stranger still is the personality change that comes over the flirty P.I. after he meets the newcomer. Psychic Copeland Forbes is a man on the edge. The once popular and well-respected medium has lived in seclusion since an attack by a former student has shaken his confidence in his abilities. Sickened by an ailment no doctor can diagnose, he travels from his home in Louisiana to seek out the one man he believes he can help him, if the rumors are true. Faced with an enemy possessing powers greater than either man has ever faced alone, will Jude and Copeland decide to work together to defeat this dark magick? Or will both men continue on as they are now, ghosts of themselves?
What I Listened To: Doves – Cold Dreaming; My First Time – Man of Ill Repute; and bdrmm – Infinity Peaking:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I started watching Peaky Blinders, which somehow stayed off my radar. The first two episodes at least are a ton of fun in a maximalist way. Sort of The Sopranos set in 1920 Birmingham.
I’m not completely sure it’s sustainable over six seasons, but I’m hopeful.
…don’t think I went the distance…but it did have a strong start & a hell of a cast…if you get to season 2 tom hardy shows up, too
I’ve watched Peaky Blinders since it began and it doesn’t disappoint until a cast member passed away IRL. Other than Adrian Brody, Tommy’s adversaries have been fantastic. Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy are my favorite on screen bromance (maybe tied with Tennant and Sheen).
I love the look of it. The giant mills and rows of worker housing remind me of a lot the architecture around here.
…I made it through the night agent…it was sort halfway between the kind of relaxing where more of your brain isn’t required than when you just sit around doing nothing…&…curiosity?
…like…you want your old formula but the last show ended in a way that makes that hard…call it a matrix-protagonist-issue…ok
…so…86 the girlfriend…then feint like you didn’t buy only as a misdirect for how entirely nothing in the whole show happens that isn’t about everyone’s focus being the main guy
…but how to repeat the fish-out-of-water live interest who just happens to be the tech equivalent of “a wizard did it”?
…eh…nobody really cares…just have it be super unrealistic…everything else is so it should fit right in
…season 2 of the recruit reminded me that while not as fun as patriot the same sort of thing but with a higher misanthrope index is actually pretty funny…but I can’t quite tell if that’s me recommending that or not?
Yeah, “magical hacker girlfriend” bugged me a LOT more this season. I felt like she was introduced pretty organically in season 1 so okay, but this time they had to plot-hammer her into place.
I enjoyed the first season of Night Agent just fine, but, like you, this one bored me to the point that I’ve only watched the first couple of episodes. I’m still undecided as to whether to finish it or not. Maybe I’ll use the Keitel method.
I watched The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl on Disney+. Lion King is one of my favorite Broadway shows, and this concert leaned really heavily into the Broadway show cast and productions.
I had forgotten the coverage earlier this year when it was filmed and Northwest, Kanye’s and Kim’s 10 yr old, got the nepobaby treatment to perform “I Just Can’t Wait to be King.” I ahhh fast-forwarded that one about 10 seconds in. Major middle school talent show energy where someone really hasn’t practiced enough to be on stage. At all.
During the curtain call at the end, Jennifer Hudson had an expression for a moment that was like she was just over it, which was odd. Then I realized she had to stand next to Northwest for it and I guess she probably was annoyed about it all.
It’s gotta be tough to be an EGOT and stand there and pretend somebody’s untrained kid is delivering a world-class performance.
Oh, 100%
Also with Northwest’s performance, there was clearly a lack of practice beforehand. Like bad enough to not be a good talent, and kids/adults often have unrealistic views of their own abilities. But just fucking learn the blocking, etc. Show some basic respect for the performance. And I don’t hold that against a 10 yr old, that mentality comes from the parents and handlers.
That’s what I found so irritating about “Letterkenny.” It’s absolutely hilarious but it seems like almost every episode has a Quentin Tarantino-level fist-fight. Why? Are rural Ontarions that pugilistic? Canadians like seeing this, in the same way the Brits like seeing men wearing women’s clothing? Although “Kids in the Hall” (Canadian) had a lot of cross-dressing. And we had “Tootsie” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
I’ve only worn women’s clothing once. A group of my male friends decided to attend a Halloween party as the female side of a wedding party. Because I was so huge I was deputized to be the mother of the bride. At the bridal shop I learned I was a size 24! In continental Europe that translates to an American size 6 or something, but that’s kind of startling to us Yanks! And I have witnessed this. BH doesn’t travel to Europe necessarily for the food or the art or the culture in general, he goes for the clothes shopping. And many of the stores have nothing in his size (he’s tall and muscular) but many are willing to take custom orders if we can come back in three weeks.
I believe the European sizing is based on actual centimeter size of waistbands etc in women’s clothing. Kind of like how men’s US jeans sizes are waist and inseam inches, but women’s US jeans sizes are a free-for-all of uselessness and guessing. I remember reading that with women’s pants sizes in the US, you’re supposed to be able to add 20 to the size and get your waist in inches. Maybe that’s true for the smaller end of the sizes, but definitely not even close to true for my jeans and my waist!
…a guy I knew at uni dressed up as a woman in our first year…or more accurately bought & wore a charity shop dress & some trainers with those weird platform soles…with a full beard
…there were free drinks for “the ladies” at the night we were going to…& the staff thought he’d worked hard enough & looked stupid enough to qualify for the widow-twanky-drinks-for-free loophole
…& I went to a wedding one time where one of the groomsmen was a girl who would have been offended to be made a bridesmaid…& arguably looked better in the suit than the guys in matching outfits managed to
…so that story is playing cut & paste with memories like hume was right about how we don’t imagine stuff that we’ve never seen so much as take say, wings from a bird & an ordinary horse & say we can imagine flying horses?
As someone who grew up in rural Ontario near the actual Letterkenny (actually Listowel Ontario) and recently punched his harrasser at work, the answer is yes but not at that level of frequency or skill.
I suspect it is a joke as to how many goobers imagine themselves to fight like Muhammed Ali (believe me they can’t) much like how rural Murricans imagine they can shoot like Delta Force operators.
Did you see the St. Patrick’s Day episode? Wowie kazowie.
No. I’m not a regular watcher of Letterkenny.
To be fair, St Patty’s day is probably the most violent day on the calendar here. Drunks get their “Irish” up. I’ve seen more fights on March 17th (even here in Toronto) than at a hockey game.
“To be fair?” I’ll spare you the Letterkenny link.
Why watch The Night Agent when The Recruit is also available? Or is it just as terrible? I remember watching their first seasons back to back and much preferring The Recruit.
I’ll have to check it out. I don’t remember why I started Night Agent. I mean, season 1 wasn’t terrible and it kept my attention, but I agree with you, it’s not top-flight entertainment.
I’ve started to watch season 2 of The Recruit. So far so good. Much better than Night Agent.
I watched a Netflix doc series called Tacos on actual Mexican Tacos in the US.
I started craving the Tijuana style tacos I had in SD with the masa tortillas, pork carved right off the rotisserie and the authentic guac. Mostly I watched the show drooling at the food.
Recommended.
Instead of watching The Recruit, I’ve been playing Civ7 every waking hour…somehow I’ve got more waking hours thanks to that game.
I finally finished Onyx Storm and it was amateur fantasy hour. I recommend ditching the series. The scope of the work expanded into multiple nations and religions but it was all pretty hollow. There were random waste of time side quests that should have been edited out. The author only attempted to flesh out the supporting characters as an afterthought (literally at the end of the book). I expected spicy romance and was served a plot of addiction and abstinence. I feel like publishers pushed the author to create a more substantial series so that they could potentially get a movie or TV series deal but she was out of her element.
…if you’ve got better things to do feel free not to…but there’s a thing you might be able to give me a steer on?
…one of netflix’s anime-for-foreigners efforts is a thing that to some extent is flipping a script of sorts…instead of sad lonely boy gets sucked into violent game-world & must battle his way to being adored by various adorable types…you have a gamer girl with zero IRL interest in boys trapped in a gamed version of her real life by a “wizard” who thinks forcing dating-sim scenarios will turn her into a blissful romantic…that’s the carrot…the stick is he’s banned her 3 favorite things (chocolate, games & her cat – though that might be reverse order) & rigged it so her folks move out & leave her living alone as a high school student
…she decides she’s going to somehow force the wizard to quit it by not falling for anyone…he called his “game” romantic thriller so she calls herself (& thus the show) romantic killer…seems like “romance” would have worked better in translation or whatever…but that’s my problem, I guess…it might be in the language sense or the cultural reference points…but I watched a few episodes of it & couldn’t decide if it was amusingly subversive or made me vicariously mad on behalf of…mostly japanese girls but sort of anyone who watched it
…so if you’re at a loose end between civ sessions & fancy telling me if you think it’s more jane austen or austin powers from your point of view it might scratch a mental itch for me?
That one has been on list forever. I think way back when it first aired, I watched 3min of it (maybe even just the intro credits) and gave up. If it’s produced by a team of women like CLAMP then I would give it a chance (one day). If not, it’s probably more Austin Powers than Jane Austen. I haven’t looked into it. Might do so now.
Not a big update but a friend of mine, who loves anime, said that she doesn’t remember any details but did enjoy watching it.
…thank you…much obliged
@hammerzeitgeist you inspired the games section of Friday Free for All! And I appreciate the follow up on the book – I am so time poor that I am not looking for mediocre filler. (Yes, filler is dead to me.) So thank you kindly!
I’ve been watching lots of basketball & late night comedy but not much else. Trying to cut down on my news consumption, especially around my wife. Except if I see this woman talking, I have to listen as we all should…
Listening to some psychobilly…
My wife is really into this Nordic Noir stuff, so we watched some Norwegian show called “For Life”. It’s OK, but damn it’s so gloomy over there (and I don’t mean the weather).
i watched 2 seasons of mashle and generally enjoyed it
its pretty good fun for an overpowered but dumb as rocks protagonist with a good heart story….lot of hogwarts vibes too
and listening to bennett
who is kinda becoming a favourite of mine amongst the current edm crowd
I hope I am watching Finland beat Sweden but won’t know before at least 15 minutes more of hockey.
@myopicprophet thanks for reminding me about scandinavia and the world btw…. didnt even realize that webcomic dropped out of my regular rotation
https://satwcomic.com/