What I Will Be Watching: The last season (4) of Vienna Blood. Here is a review from The I Paper, headlined “Vienna Blood saved the best ’til last. Shame the first three series were so dull.” Whereas, on the other end of the scale, the Killing Times disliked it “A disappointment on all levels then, in no way the fault of the performers who struggle with an unworthy script. Let’s hope that if we return again to Vienna, it will indeed have a bit more blood in its veins.” Here is the link to that review:
If you have enjoyed the previous adventures of Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) and Doctor Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) in 1900s Vienna, you will know what to expect: murky alleyways contrasting with the glitter of high society, vicious crimes, police corruption and a smattering of historical authenticity. along with some insightful psychology used to crack the case. Well, all that is here, but something’s missing – like about six episodes. Strangely (and disappointingly) this season consists of only two episodes of 90 minutes each, a two-parter that delves deeply into European politics, but perhaps not deeply enough into characterization, let alone psychology.
What I Read: The Driver of Serpents (The Blessed & Possessed Book 1) by Jay Requard. I did not love this book, and I should have, as it is a gritty urban fantasy. Perhaps if I’d had a Catholic upbringing the religious placements would have made more sense. The world it is built in is dirty, ugly, mean, booze and drug soaked (not in a fun party fashion) and full of betrayal and cruelty with a very flawed hero I struggled to like. I suspect it too closely resembles reality for my escapist reading tastes. Here is the blurb:
St. Patrick has seen better days. The reincarnation of Ireland’s patron saint and your favorite screw-up’s reason to drink in March has quit the Vatican again, tired of serving as one of their exclusive exorcists amid the constant corruption. Well and pissed, he gets on a plane…And goes to New York, of all the dreadful places. But the call to serve never ends, and on a dark trail of clues given to him by a strange demon, St. Patrick must navigate the city from the booze-soaked bowels to its glittering heights, uncovering a conspiracy that stretches back before Creation. To stop it he must rescue the last Nephilim. Locked and loaded with action-soaked comedy, The Driver of Serpents is the Urban Fantasy debut of a war between the forces of heaven and Perdition, archangels and demons, God, and the rest… and one Irishman already tired of it! For fans of The Iron Druid Chronicles, Dogma, and Constantine, prepare for hell in this unholy thrill ride!
What I Listened To: The Kid – Somebody’s Child; Ezra Furman – Jump Out; Divorce – Jet Show; And Dope Lemon – Sugarcat:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
…anyone watched “the residence” on netflix?
…might not be to everyone’s taste & it’s sort of a bunch of things at the same time…but if it makes sense it’s part “locked” room mystery…part whodunnit…part satire…part excuse for the one lady who’s the detective to enjoyably condescend to a series of powerful men
…anyway…I enjoyed that quite a lot, really?
…uhh…probably should have specified…the residence is “as in the white house”…the death is a below stairs person & the lady detective is of the “possibly on some sort of spectrum but they don’t get too specific” variety…so the room is the size of the white house with the assembled folks who came for the australian state dinner event…the cast is pretty great & it’s fun…which too much lately isn’t…so…would recommend?
Watched and enjoyed!
I haven’t watched it yet but it looks good!
I liked it! Darn, now I gotta watch something else because that was going to be on my next Brain Drain.
Still reading “Careless People”
I really want to punch most of the FB execs. No understanding of real world consequences.
Fucking irresponsible/immature/ignorant assholes. It’s bytes and code till someone dies then suddenly they’re running for the hills.
I watched most of The Passion of the Christ last night, for the first time. I’m sorry, but it was utter, clownishly overblown, rubbish.
So exactly as you expected it to be?
Finally finished Daredevil: Born Again only to find out that it’s basically the first half of a longer storyline that we won’t see for a year. I’m really starting to hate that.
…I was wondering about that…the stuff I remember being most of the born again arc still didn’t seem to have kicked off when I was halfway through & I’d been thinking maybe I needed to find it & reread it because apparently I was confused about what happened in it…but it sounds like probably I do after all?
The most notable thing we’ve been watching is Dope Thief, which is really good. Other than that it’s been mostly Acorn and Mhz shows. I peeked in on The Studio, but it’s – I don’t know – we’ll see later.
I watched Bad Influence on Netflix this week. It’s a documentary series about this psycho momager of a youtube influencer child star (who started at like age 9 and is currently 17ish and still producing content).
I will say I understand now why a few years ago I read that a fuckton on gen alpha think youtube influencer is a career choice they want.
This momager assembled “the squad” of other kids to exploit to basically be the supporting cast for her daughter’s life.
I understand that the parents of the other kids weren’t media savvy or understood how youtube worked etc etc, but there were so many fucking red flags that I’m like, why would you think that’s okay for your kid to be involved with? Like 12 hour days, being up until 1am etc when they’re preteens, all sorts of things that even if you don’t understand how they’re financially profiting off your kids, you should be like nah my kid needs a sleep schedule and to go to school. Momager also wouldn’t let any other kid’s parent be around the house during filming. Massive red flag!!!
I watched Bryansplinter’s Ring cam