My Favorite Things This Week #113
š The Friday High 5: Sterling K. Brown, Pirate Droids, and Penis Powers
Paradise
Vibe: This Is Us meets Lost with a smidge of Silo.
Deets: My fav Sterling K. Brown stars in this 8-episode mystery/drama about the assassination of the President in an idyllic, small town America that is not what it seems. Paradise employs a time-hopping narrative that showrunner Dan Fogelman perfected on This Is Us. Itās beautifully done but comes at the expense of forward momentum. Iām at the halfway point, so canāt yet vouch for the results. But itās a strange marriage of genre and form.
Case in point: Our heroās quest to have an important question answered in episode 3 is repeatedly deterred by backwards-looking conversations until the very end of the episode. That these detours are fascinating is beside the point. Little frustrating.
Streaming on Hulu.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Vibe: You have eyesādoes this look like a good movie?
Deets: The third film of the X-Men: First Class saga/setup. This time around we get some actual mutants we know and care about, opposed to the interchangeable nobodies Professor X recruited the first time around. Apocalypse is not a great movie. It has its moments but overall is meh. It does include a gratuitous Wolverine cameo that is pretty satisfying.
In the wake of revisiting this, I started thinking about the line between the good X-Men movies and the bad. Every time, itās when the movie loses sight of the characters in favor of all their fancy powers. Apocalypseāthe filmās big badāisnāt actually a character. Heās literally a grab bag of assorted powers heās accumulated. Itās not who he is so much as what he can do. Itās so boring and uninteresting.
That he looks like the result of a White Walker / Blue Man Group orgy doesnāt help.
Skeleton Crew
Vibe: Star Wars dips its toe in the Hook kiddie pool and finds the water just fine.
Deets: God bless Jude Law.
The kids are all pretty greatāexcept Wim, not at all a fanābut Skeleton Crew noticeably goes up a notch when Law is on-screen. He totally works as a character of morally-ambiguous nature. And he elevates the performances of the kids. Put him in all the Star Wars!
Star Wars + Pirates is so obvious, itās hard to believe we havenāt gotten there before. Skeleton Crew is worth watching if you like your Star Wars a little more heartwarming. Or if youāve ever wanted to see a droid with a peg leg and pirate accent.
Streaming on Disney+.
Steve Jobs
Vibe: Everything youāve heard about Jobs is true.
Deets: The first quarter of this book leaves little doubt that Jobs was an enormous jerk. But even with its unsympathetic protagonist, Steve Jobs is a riveting read. Apart from the inside look at the formation of Apple, Iām finding the book challenges me to be more, or better.
Hereās Jobs talking about his purpose:
"We all have a short period of time on this earth. We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we're going to be here, nor do I, but my feeling is I've got to accomplish a lot of these things while I'm young."
The Boys: Season 3
Vibe: Captain America gets the Bucky Barnes treatment, plus gratuitous penises.
Deets: So many penises! Thereās an exploding penis, and random background penises, and one dude whose power seems to be a ridiculously long, trunk-like penis (so gross). But apart from all the dicks, the story continues to develop along interesting paths. And not just in how the showās Aquaman has a thing for sexing octopi.
I am getting more than a little tired of Hughieās whole deal though. So much whining. If this season was going to have so many dicks, they couldāve at least slapped Hughie with one of them.
Really enjoying how much the show is leaning into the political subtext of our time. The satire would be funny if it wasnāt so damn real.
Streaming on Prime Video.
Good Links
The Ringer debates The Rise of the Sith: I love Van Lathan, but if you gotta keep referring back to ancillary books and lore, the movie is just not that good.
Mental illness as a brand: great read about how empathy has been commoditized, told through the lens of a miniseries.
The amount of work it takes to (not) sell a script in Hollywood: I enjoy living vicariously through Coleās misadventures.
Bernie offers hope as America crumbles: why was this guy never President?
I am working on the Boys.
Don't know yet. Oooh, I am disappointed about XMen, but will see it anyway, because I am all things XMen.
I've been ŵatching The Pitt on Max, one of the best things to come along in a long time. I worked in a Medical Center ER, and this is a real as it gets. Noah Wylie is in it š
Great cast too.
Thanks.
I know the question about Sanders was rhetorical, but the reality is that those in power are/were comfy and see him as a threat. Shame, really.