What I Watched: Season 10 of Father Brown. It is mindless, comfort-viewing entertainment, with characters that do not stray from their lane. There is a season 11 coming in January. You know the plot: parish murder, posh and plebian folks mix, the police bumble, and the good Father solves the crime and frees the unjustly accused. Father Brown is news to no one, but here is a good season ten introduction.
Here’s a fun five-minute look at the actors
What I Read: K.B. Spangler’s five-book Rachel Peng series. This reminds me a bit of MurderBot by Martha Wells. I found it interesting that first four books were published between 2013-2016, while book five came out in late June of this year. Here is the Amazon blurb:
Rachel Peng misses the Army. Her old life in Criminal Investigation Command hadn’t been easy, but she had enjoyed it. Now, as the first cyborg liaison to the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police, Rachel is usually either bored senseless or is fighting off harassment from her coworkers. When she and her partner, Detective Raul Santino, stumble into a murder investigation with ties to Rachel and the other cyborgs, she realizes their many enemies will not allow them to quietly pick up the pieces of their lives.
What I Listened To: Phantom Youth – Afterworld; Temple Haze x narou – If I Could Be Yours; and The Black Delta Movement – Fourth Pass Over The Graveyard.
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I saw Ford vs. Ferarri, about Ford’s campaign to build a car that could win the 24 hour race at Le Mans.
It’s very entertaining and mostly involves Matt Damon and Christian Bale chewing up the scenery as the designer and driver for Ford. Tons of details are obviously left on the side of the road — Ferarri is barely a presence in the movie, and it’s not really clear why they’re so great. I’m not a racing fan and I’m sure there are tons of technical inaccuracies, but it’s fun to watch — tons of popping colors and great editing, and the plot never drags.
I also watched the first episode of Swedish Dicks which Farscy mentioned. It’s looking like a pretty funny buddy hangout comedy, as Peter Stormare’s beaten down PI connects with Johan Glans (ha!) as a down on his luck DJ. It’s on Freevee.
I’m planning on starting it soon.
I thought Ford v Ferrari was a good movie, too! It held my attention really well.
That being said, my background knowledge is basically that both those car companies exist and a cursory awareness that Le Mans exists. So perhaps it’s one of those things where I cringe watching movies with archaeology because it’s so so wrong most of the time, but for gearheads.
i want to weigh in with my gearhead opinion
i really do….but i havent seent the movie yet 🙁
i really want to…
have you seent rush?
my gearhead opinion says that one is a good one
That one was so well done! Very well casted too.
What I watched: I went through all of the old episodes of Night Court. The show, for the most part, still holds up. I would say it’s only real weakness was (and is) the After School Special tone of the “lesson learned” at the end of each episode. But it was still funny as hell and then I was able to watch the reboot, which is pretty much on par with the original. The only thing I would like them to change with the reboot is to have two bailiffs. The banter from the sidelines is a great ingredient of which they are depriving themselves.
What I listened to: The Jondo Trio
…I’m fairly sure it’s been knocking about for a bit but I just recently tried “jury duty”…the premise is that one guy actually thinks he’s turned up to serve jury duty but literally every one else is in on the fact he’s the only person who isn’t a paid actor
…haven’t bothered to find out if the real guy is real or the whole thing is 100% faux-real…but james marsden plays himself & I may be only a couple or three episodes in but for that alone I’d say it was worth a shot?
…saw the end of amazon’s jack ryan…which was pretty solid overall…think at this point I’m going to just wait & binge season 2 of strange new worlds (the capt. pike star trek) but heard they have some sort of “crossover” episode thing with at least one character from the lower decks cartoon so it seems like a fair bet it’s still the most fun star trek seems to have got in live action?
…but I’m also behind with secret invasion…& can’t for the life of me remember the film I saw that I meant to not forget about when the time came…but…maybe it’ll come back to me?
Saw Hell Or High Water on Netflix. It was a good intelligent actioner. Only if movies were this well done.
I could sympathize with the Chris Pine character because I hate banks too. I am with the one I am with because I dislike it the least. I am not sure if I hate one bank enough to go on a bank robbing spree, but I understand it.
I was amused by the writers view of Tejas gun culture between the semi-frail old man shooting up the town and the various ammosexuals going out in a blaze of stupidity trying to play hero.
Also rewatched Edge of Forever or “Watch Tom Cruise die a couple of hundred times, but not as gruesome/funny as the Manga”. It could have been really fucking stupid, but it wasn’t. It makes for a decent movie. One thing I don’t mind about later Cruise films is that he doesn’t get involved with his leading lady (in the film) unlike his earlier work. There are hints there, but nothing that makes you groan by shoving in a romantic interest where none should have been. Emily Blunt plays Rita very well.
The plot can be summed up as Groundhog day meets Aliens (and it isn’t as dumb as it sounds.)
Stuck in a time loop… Hot Tub Time Machine. I enjoyed it because it was stupid and everyone’s fantasy of doing things better. The ending was all too predictable though and kinda dampened things for me. It always ends with everything going too well with perfect relationship, wealth etc and zero advanced personal growth.
I would not be sobbing uncontrollably like Craig Robinson if I were naked with Jessica Pare in a bathtub.
I read this years and years ago and it still holds up. It might just be that he’s a horrible actor when it comes to romance and chemistry, although I thought he and Cameron Diaz had good chemistry in Knight and Day.
https://slate.com/culture/2016/10/the-best-place-for-women-in-action-movies-is-next-to-tom-cruise.html
I think I read that article, but never saw any of the movies till now (shows how far behind I am in pop culture.)
I am not against a love interest in a movie, but I don’t like them when it seems shoe horned in.
It’s hard to decide which bank to hate the most. They’re all so horrible. Fuck Galen Weston and his President’s Choice, though. Bigly.
My current hate list:
1 Royal
2 TD
3 BMO
3.1 Preznit’s Choice (I’m glad I cancelled. Fucking Westons.)
3.2 Bank of NS
4 CIBC
I second this list.
i watched black mirror : joan is awful
mostly coz rips been on about ai for a while now and i heard that episode sorta kinda deals with that
came to the conclusion that black mirror will probably not be great for my mental health
so now i want to watch the rest of the 6 seasons
and i fucking love salma hayek
didnt read anything
and listening to passcode
wonderful stuff
I watched Deadloch on Prime. Have we already talked about it here? Apologies if we have. It’s an Australian comedy/drama police procedural. There’s a serial killer loose in the small town of Deadloch in Tasmania. Dulcie, the rational town constable, is aided in the investigation by the stereotypical loose cannon, big city detective, Eddie. The twist is that Eddie is a woman. It’s a good mystery and addresses a lot of social issues- homophobia, indigenous rights, and domestic violence. I liked it overall and there are some genuinely funny moments but I found Eddie’s character annoying for the first half of the series.
I read Horse by Geraldine Brooks. The novel is about legacies. Specifically the legacy of horse racing and breeding, chattel slavery, art, and how they impacted each other, told by various people at different places in time. It’s very ambitious and well researched but lacks passion. I was wary of reading it as it was written by a white woman from Australia. She tries but ultimately fails to convey the bitterness of being enslaved. The horse racing industry like many things in the US was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved people who were largely discarded after Reconstruction. It’s an important story but should have been left to a Black author. Brooks would have done better to write a non fiction account of the great racehorse Lexington instead. It’s been optioned for a film and I hope they hire Black writers who will do the story justice.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to your tunes yet @Elliecoo but I will! I listened to a band that was recommended to me – Pearl and the Oysters. It has a nice summery cool jazz sort of vibe. Pleasant enough but not really my thing.
Paraiso
My book club read Horse and agree with your assessment.
I watching Unknown: Cave of Bones on Netflix about a paleontological excavation in South Africa for a nonhuman hominid about 250k years ago. Really well done!
I read What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo. I don’t know if I mentioned it last Saturday or if I finished it last weekend? Sorry if redundant. About c-PTSD from severe child abuse and a lot about intergenerational trauma and how being first generation Asian immigrant meant a lot got overlooked (like the schools were oblivious because she got good grades, that sort of thing). Really really good read. She’s done work for NPR and other public radio so she’s got a helluva good voice for writing.
Ooh What My Bones Know sounds interesting! Getting a copy now.
I’ve been rereading the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. It’s a seven book space opera. Book six was just published. There’s also a graphic novel.
Book one is like the Hunger Games meets Ender’s Game. I loved the series when I first read it but book one fails the Bechdel test hard. Book two does slightly better which isn’t saying much. I’ve grown less accommodating to sexism in sci-fi over the years. I have a terrible memory and am hoping the female characters are developed beyond their martyrdom and fridging “value”.
I’m watching the newish season of Party Down.
There are some legit LOLs in every episode and Jennifer Garner and Tyrel Jackson Williams are wonderful additions to the cast. The best addition however is Zoe Chao as this avant garde chef and her wacky ideas for food.