What's To Watch? - Apr 28-May4 - Pursuits, Human and Otherwise

 

    The final days of April this weekend, here in Eastern PA nature seems intent on holding to those showers. Trying to keep a glass half full perspective on another damp weekend, I've plenty to do indoors and it appears I'll be given another weekend's excuse for not starting on those yard chores. If I want the glass to be full, I can just leave it on a windowsill.

     Arriving yesterday on Netflix, just under two years since season one, is the eight-episode second season of Sweet Tooth. (I'd first mentioned the series back in early June of 2021.)
     An adaptation of a 40-issue comics series of the same name, written and drawn by Jeff Lemire back in 2009-12. It tells of an event that comes to be known as The Great Crumble, a decade before the main events of this series, where a pandemic comes close to wiping out mankind, while at the same time some children begin to be born as human-animal hybrids. These two things overlap strongly enough that many people not only equate the deadly illness with the strange, new children, many essentially blame the living children for the virus that killed their loved ones. The resulting xenophobic backlash makes for an exceedingly cruel world these often horned, hoofed, and or furry kids face.
     Season one introduced us to all that, and most specifically to Gus, a half-human, half-deer boy whose father swept him away as an infant to a remote forest refuge, raising him in careful isolation from a disintegrating society, from a cruel world grown crueler over its loss and fear. His adventure in being introduced to the world via a quest to find a specific someone, took him and a companion far in season one.
     The over-saturation of bleak, post-apocalyptic scenarios in pop culture saw those adapting this series to the screen to take a lighter tone than the comic, at least in season one. Indications are that season two is darker, yet manages to continue to thread a needle and keep it accessible for a broader audience.
     Here's the trailer for this new season.

     Netflix announced the order for season two the month after the series premiered back in mid-2021. Ideally, if viewership for this new season is strong enough, we'll get a similar announcement for a third season before too long. I'm not sure where this second season comes to rest.

     For true crime aficionados, also arrived on Thursday is a 4-episode Danish serial killer series based on a Danish case - reminding us that hospitals are a psychopath-attractive hunting ground around the world. Not to be confused with various other movies and shows of the same or nearly the same name and theme, it's The Nurse (2023)

     As is often the case with the trailers for international items on Netflix, posted to YouTube, they're presented in their native language with English subtitles. Knowing both that that's very off-putting to some people, I want to remind all that one has a variety of options when it comes to streaming it there.

     One of last Friday's arrivals over on Amazon Prime that slipped by last week is a 6-part miniseries based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name: Dead Ringers. A psychological thriller drama, both are based on the 1977 novel Twins. Whereas Jeremy Irons played the pair of identical twin gynecologists in the '88 film, this new series stars Rachel Weiscz as gender-flipped versions of the characters.

     Also landing on Prime this past Friday, and similarly getting by without mention then, is a documentary on celebrated and successful author Judy Blume. With an output that was predominantly targeted at and appealing to girls and young women, Blume's one of those authors I've been peripherally familiar with all my life. She was an important cultural and literary voice for my contemporaries, particularly as she broke ground in having her characters deal with the changes puberty were bringing to them, and related matters that many considered taboo, including the reality that teen sex was fairly normal behavior. As her career continued, the ages of the characters she centered on continued to rise, too. Again, I'm reminded how closely the girls of my generation tracked alongside Blume's publishing career, including how her 1975 book Forever normalized teen sex, having been written in response to her 13 year-old daughter's wish that she could read a story that involved teens having sex where they don't subsequently die.
     It's Judy Blume Forever (97 min)

     I'm primarily interested in watching it to both hear her reactions to where U.S. society appears to be these days with respect to women's rights issues, and perhaps the xenophobia of the "culture wars." I'm also very interested to hear testimonials from the many people for whom Blume's work was a formative, supportive influence.

     While over on Amazon Prime, today the first two episodes of a 6-part spy-fi series arrives. More broadly it's referenced as a science fiction action thriller series created by David Weir (Hunters, and Solos on Amazon, Invasion over on Apple tv+), with the Russo Brothers as executive producers. It's about a global, spy agency, Citadel, facing a massive threat as they're not only hit hard, but the memories of their agents have been erased, leaving them to rely on more deeply-set knowledge and skill to read the signs and clues and recover who they were. So, honestly, something of a set-up for a first person shooter game.
     Early indications are that it may be rather all over the place, leaving it unclear as to who the audience is meant to be. A perhaps too widely cast net, trying to haul in a big enough audience to support a new franchise. Word is that they've sunk $300 million into this, though that appears to include various regional language satellite shows set in the Italian Alps, India, Spain and Mexico, with Indian and Italian shows reportedly already deeply into the works. Amazon gave the nod to season two back in March, which hopefully is more a vote of confidence based on what they'd seen coming together, and less a desperate doubling down on a bet they'd already pumped more money into than they can afford to lose.
     Either way, starring Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra, and Stanley Tucci, it's the arrival of Citadel

     Two episodes dropped this week, with the remaining four appearing through May 26th. (Man, the end of May continues to see a pile-up of season-closers.)

     Just last night, Nick (one of my sons) and I went out to see a movie for the first time in a while. He'd brought it up earlier in the week, and Thursday night looked like a good window for it. The movie was the fifth and latest official film in the Evil Dead series, Evil Dead Rise (2023 R  97 minutes)

     It's the same, core concept - an ancient tome, made from human flesh and inked in human blood, contains ancient evils, and a recitation of key passages unleashes said evils which then proceed to possess the bodies of nearby unfortunates. How much is due to the nudging of the evil force, including an individual's susceptibility to it, and how much is the terrible consequence of poorly-managed curiosity, we're never quite sure.
     The work of writer and director (handling both on this project), Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin, it's a fresh start for the core concept, including bringing for the first time from a wilderness setting to an urban one. (Small note: Once the scene shifts to the city, it's set in Los Angeles, but the film was shot in New Zealand, then edited back in the writer/director's home country of Ireland.)
     Leaning far more on practical (physical, tangible) effects instead of digital ones, I was not surprised to learn that they used over 1,717 gallons of fake blood during the production. It's everywhere once things get going.

     As solid as it was visually, and in the performances, especially as the small cast has teens and even a pre-teen, I was particularly taken by the use of sound. The voices of the possessed were very effective, in their way more frightening than the visual threats.
     Multiple nods and playful callbacks to earlier films in the series (and even a Kubrick nod they couldn't help themselves from indulging in), and particularly to Bruce Campbell's Ash character, but we do not see Ash anywhere during this film. His voice does chime in during as a background element in a recording, and I read that for one gruesome bit in the film involving an eyeball, Campbell contributed a soundclip by loudly and furiously devouring an apple as quickly as he could. There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes, btw., so only stay through the credits if you want to see the full credits.
     Released in the U.S. just one week ago, the take from the opening weekend  was already approaching three times the budget, with an overall positive critical and audience reception, so I'm expecting to see more from this series, and separated by mere years, not decades.

     This week - just yesterday - saw the death, at the age of 79, of Jerry Springer.
     Born in 1944, of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, he first drew breath in the tunnels of the London Underground at Highgate during an air raid, his parents took him to the U.S. in 1949, where he was raised. Impressed with Senator John F. Kennedy as far back ad 1956, he was politically active and came to serve as a political advisor to Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 campaign. A graduate of Tulane, he practiced law, and was even a full partner in a firm from 1973 to 1985. He made a run for Congress in 1970, and while failing to unseat the incumbent did surprisingly well in a strongly Republican district, taking 45% of the vote. An Army reservist at the time, he was called to active duty three days after announcing his candidacy.
     An Ohio resident, he spend most of the '70s as a member of the Cincinnati City Council, with a brief period where he resigned after admitting that he solicited a prostitute. He ran again the following year, however, and won re-election in a landslide. During these years he had a one year term as mayor -- the single-year limitation due to a political power-sharing system in place there.
     An already regionally-established as a primarily political reporter and commentator, his eponymous show debuted in 1991, though then it was just a politically-oriented talk show.  Early in 1994, though, the show was revamped to grow the audience by leaning into tabloid style sensationalism, generally having guests on to confront or be confronted by others over a variety of touchy subjects. It's for this that most of the world came to know Jerry Springer.
     From the '90s on he did some acting here and there, too, including starring as a fictionalized version of his tabloid tv persona in a bomb of a motion picture: Ringmaster (1998  R  90 minutes) which I'm mostly only noting here because it's there on Tubi, free to watch, save for the cost of the precious time you'll never get back.

     With a clear statement that one thins has absolutely nothing to do with the other, but is a calendar association popping for me in my trick memory, upon seeing that this film was released on November 25, 1998, I immediately remembered that that was the same day we lost comedian Flip Wilson. Again, just one of those coincidences, but I can't help but note that that was a particular bad trade. That the next day was Thanksgiving had to have helped at least a little.

     A busy, scrambled week, that's all I have time for now. Next Friday we'll be five days deep into May, and hopefully the better for it. - Mike