The new Murderbot TV series on Apple TV is disappointing. Nothing was changed to appeal to “Modern Audiences”, and after three episodes, it sticks pretty close to the books by Martha Wells. Murderbot suffers from poor casting and a lack of understanding of the source material.
The Youtube algorithm suggested this video, and it’s fascinating.
I’m out of anything new to watch, so I went to a Korean TV series I’ve been sitting on for a while.
It’s your standard zombie outbreak centered on the situation at the high school, but man, Koreans go hard. When the zombie horde finally breaks into a classroom, they go charging in like a bunch of hornets. Some keep going, and crash through the window and plummet to the ground.
It’s different. But it’s dubbed in English, so not too different.
Sparkidemus makes an appearance for Good Friday.
After watching a few episodes of The Chosen, Sparky decided that the pharisees were dicks, but Nicodemus seemed like a decent guy.
Actor Richard Chamberlain just passed away at 90 years old.
Chamberlain was trying to be an American Peter O’Toole. He was a little much. Chamberlain started out as the lead character in a medical drama, Dr. Kildare, in 1961, then bounced around doing TV movies and being a guest star on other TV shows. He kind of settled on mini-series.
He seemed kind of cheesy, so I knew what he was in, but don’t recall ever watching any of it.
Falling Skies is okay. Not great science fiction, but good. The special effects are convincing, but there isn’t much of it. Most of the action takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. I haven’t watch much of The Walking Dead, but it’s along that line. The good guys are fighting the monsters in addition to a few bad guys. The best thing about it is the series runs to completion, wrapping up the story.
It’s tricky recommending Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that’s a shame, because it’s a great TV show.
BrainDead is the TV show to watch right now.
This show aired in 2016, just as Trump was locking down the Republican presidential primary in 2016. It is political satire done as horror science fiction. It’s all played as a light comedy.
The horror/science fiction premise is that alien bugs come to Earth in a meteorite, and infect people by climbing into their skulls. The bugs eat part of the brain and can control the person. Nothing is very graphic, and even when someone’s head explodes, it is in a cartoonish way. When a person is in thrall to the bugs, they act pretty similar, but with different objectives. The alien bugs have strengths and weaknesses, so the horror/sci fi works well.
The political satire comes in because this occurs in Washington, D.C. as politicians are infected. The show doesn’t have a Left/Right agenda. The message is that politicians are unprincipled cynics more interested in winning power without an obvious ideology. A governmental shutdown occurs, with both sides trying to get funding for their interests in order to come to an agreement.
Interestingly, the action all takes place amongst the House and Senate, along with federal agencies. No president is explicitly revealed, but background visuals suggest it’s Trump even though it was produced while the presidential primaries were underway.
BrainDead has a great cast, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead portraying an assistant to her senator brother who is investigating the alien bug infection. It’s a light, fun TV show for a time when everyone is all serious and hyper-engaged with the recent presidential election. I’d give it a 8/10. It’s currently showing on Amazon Prime.
Looking for analysis and commentary on the recent election, I stumbled on Megyn Kelly on Youtube. When she was a journalist for ABC or Fox, she was attractive and engaging, but not that different than anyone else. She was managed by the network, like everyone else.
Now that she is running her own show, she has become one of my favorites. Megyn is smart and well-connected, and has the freedom to cover what interests her. She is much more animated, making casual. At 54 years-old, she looks great. Megyn brings to mind the Audrey Hepburn quote, “I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.”
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