TV Review: 1923

I watched and thoroughly enjoyed 1883 a few weeks ago, so it felt only natural to move from that right on to 1923. It’s basically the second season of the show, although it jumps ahead forty years. Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren star as the latest Dutton family members, now trying to shepherd the family through turbulent times as their now-successful ranch faces pressure from new threats. It’s not nearly as much as a western, though it still has strong western tropes. (Just mixed with more of a 1920s vibe.)

Did it hold up to the earlier show?

Well, in some ways yes, and in some ways no.

At its heart, it’s a strong show. The conflicts are really solid, and the characters are well executed. If it weren’t for one (big) plot line, I’d be recommending it right next to 1883. But in this case, the show dips into areas that are just too unsavory for me to give a thumbs up.

This might not be a hang up for some people, but it’s a pet peeve of mine for sure. Specifically, Timothy Dalton plays the role of an evil banker. A man wholly focused on himself. He doesn’t care what he has to do to other people to get his way. Fine. Every show needs a big bad guy. But in an effort to show us just how much of a big bad guy he is, the writers show us (repeatedly) that’s he’s a sexual sadist. Casually depicting violence on women just for the sake of establishing that someone’s a nasty person is something I think we can just do without. (Game of Thrones did the same thing with Joffrey. We get it. He was awful. We don’t need to see him killing women for sport for us to get that point.) It’s not like those scenes have anything else to do with the show.

So I can’t really recommend it to anyone in good faith. If I give a show a thumbs up, I have to be able to stand by the recommendation. If this trope sounds like something you’d be fine with (or you want to just skip the scenes each time they come up (it’s very easy to see them coming), then the show would probably be dandy. But as is, if you enjoyed 1883, I’d be hesitant to jump into 1923 without knowing what you’re getting into first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Television Review: 1883

I’d heard a lot about Yellowstone. “Soap opera for cowboys,” is the description that came up most often, with some people really loving it, and some people not being fans at all. This intrigued me (I am, after all, a big Downton Abbey fan, and I’m under no illusions that it’s anything but a soap opera for history buffs), but I was still hesitant to commit to the show. However, there was a miniseries that takes place 150 years before Yellowstone: 1883. Not only was it very well reviewed by just about everyone, but it’s a western, and as we all know, I’m a sucker for westerns.

Denisa and I finished it a few days ago, and we both really enjoyed it.

Mind you, this is not a show to watch if you want to feel good about life. Basically, it’s “all the awful things that might happen to a pioneer wagon train, and then a few more.” It centers around a group of German and Slavic immigrants who dream of making it to Oregon. The only problem? They went the complete wrong way about it. They know nothing of the journey. They’re starting late, and from the wrong part of the country. They’re clueless when it comes to survival.

Any guesses how it’s going to turn out for them?

The one good decision they make is hiring a leader who knows what he’s about. Sam Elliott does a tremendous job of portraying Captain Shea Brennan, an old veteran of just about anything you could think of. He in turn hires on the Daggett family (ancestors of the folks on Yellowstone, or so I’m led to believe), played by real life couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Honestly, I was skeptical they’d hired two country music stars to play leading roles, but they really hit above their weight class in the show, as well.

Overall, it’s a riveting look at how things might have been back then. There’s none of the polish and idealism that you’d get in earlier westerns. It feels like the prairie is just filled with a slew of cutthroats and thieves, and the only want to get anything done is to shoot people. Sometimes twice. (As I’m currently writing a western, it was very interesting to see them go over some of the same obstacles I’ve thrown at my protagonist. I’m not certain how accurate 1883 is, but it certainly gives the feel of being accurate, if that makes any sense.)

It’s only 10 episodes long, and it packs a lot into those ten episodes. It’s rated TVMA for a whole ton of violence. These pioneers didn’t go easy, and the show doesn’t go easy on portraying those deaths. It didn’t really roll around in the violence, though, if that makes any sense. (Though I could have done without the amputation scene . . .)

All in all, I gave it a 9/10. If you like westerns or history from that time period, it’s definitely worth your time, and even if you don’t, I’d still give it a shot. I liked it enough that we went straight into 1923, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. If the series keep being as strong as these, I’m almost definitely going to end up giving Yellowstone a try, as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

2022 Media Review

2022 is come and gone now, and I wanted to take some time as I usually do to go over the best (and worst) of what I read and watched. All told, I made my goal of 52 books for the year. I watched 27 television shows in their entirety, and I watched 103 movies. I gave books an average rating of 7.74 and movies and television an average of 7.59, indicating I generally stop reading things I don’t like more than I stop watching stuff I don’t like. Those averages are honestly a bit on the high side, though at the same time, I generally only watch and read things that look like they’ll appeal to me, so maybe that makes a bit more sense.

With that stated, here are the highlights:

Books

I gave 6 books a perfect 10/10:

• Eye of the World: I know The Wheel of Time isn’t for everyone, but it is very much for me. I’ve reread this book more times than I can remember, and I still love it. I still remember seeing it for the first time on the library shelf, and how hooked I was as I started reading it. I waited for this series to be finished for years and years. So happy it ended well.
• The Gathering Storm: Brandon’s first Wheel of Time book was such a breath of fresh air. He managed to do what seemed impossible: seamlessly edge his way into a long standing series successfully. And for a series that had seemed for a long time to be wandering somewhat, he gave a real sense that this was going to have an end, and it was going to be a good one.
• Memory of Light: The final book of Wheel of Time. Absolutely fantastic. Big pay offs left and right for fans of the series, and a conclusion that felt right.
• The Princess Bride: Another reread, this time with Daniela. The book is fantastic. Right up my alley.
• A Prayer for Owen Meany: My second time through this one as well, meaning up until October, I hadn’t had a single new 10/10. Still, this is a lovely book. So well written, with such vivid characters. My friend Sue pointed me toward it back in college, and it still is wonderful.
• Lonesome Dove: The last book I read last year was a real doozy. Talk about a tour de force. I don’t care if you don’t like westerns, if you like literature, I have a hard time thinking you wouldn’t like this book. Great plot. Great characters. Great prose. Well worth your time.

I only gave one book a 9.5/10. Lord of Chaos, another Wheel of Time book. Go figure.

I gave 6 books a 9/10

• Fires of Heaven: Wheel of Time strikes again. It was a fun way to start the year off, let’s just say.
• Harriet the Spy: Finally got around to reading this one, and it was such a pleasant surprise. I knew nothing about it going in. I just assumed it would be about a young girl who’s a spy. I was wrong. 🙂
• Fifteen Lives of Henry August: This was a great surprise. A fantastic premise, and well-executed.
• The Godfather: It’s clear why it had such an influence on movies. Not a complicated read, but very visceral.
• Gwendy’s Button Box: Really more of a novella, but I still counted it. I’m always a sucker for Stephen King.
• Slade House: A very fun, creepy book. This was a fast read for me. I read it in a day.

What were the worst books I read? I usually hold back from naming them, but I’ll actually go public with one this time. Crossroads of Twilight got a 4/10 from me, despite being a Wheel of Time book. It seemed like an experiment to me: could Robert Jordan write a whole book that only tracks a few days in the lives of his characters? Yes, he could. No, it wasn’t interesting. It felt like a one-off TV episode. Blarg. Other than that, I gave two books a 5/10. One was the third book of a series that started off great, by an author I really enjoy, but it just couldn’t sustain itself. The other was a classic science fiction novel that I had a very hard time connecting with.

TV Seasons

Only two shows got a perfect score from me this year. Both fantastic.

• The U.S. and the Holocaust: There are few TV shows that I would recommend to watch just to become a better person. This is one.
• The English: Fantastic. Beautiful and brutal to watch. So well acted. I loved the whole thing.

I gave no seasons a 9.5/10.

I gave 7 seasons a 9/10:

• Gilded Age 1: Historical drama in time period that’s often overlooked, and just so happened to be in a time period close to one I’ve researched for writing. Very well done. American Downton Abbey, though more adult.
• Peacemaker 1: Over the top ridiculous. I watched it while I had COVID, and it made COVID that much more bearable. Definitely not for everyone, but I thought it was very funny. The opening sequence each episode was perfect.
• Severance 1: Great premise, lots of great mysteries, and a fair number of them explained in the first season instead of being kicked off for later seasons. I’m looking forward to the next season.
• Stranger Things 4: Did just what I wanted it to. I love this show.
• House of the Dragon 1: Does a great job extending the Game of Thrones universe while dialing way down on the fantasy elements.
• The Devil’s Hour 1: Intricately plotted, with a premise that only makes more sense the more you find out about it. Very worthwhile.
• Wednesday 1: I just blogged about this.

Movies

Five movies got a perfect score. Only one of them was a first time watch.

• Return of the King: Still a fantastic movie. The end.
• Groundhog Day: Yes, this will appear on my list every year. Kind of appropriate, and self-explanatory.
• Shawshank Redemption: Again, I don’t feel like this needs an explanation.
• Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes: I watched it twice within a week. The second time wasn’t as amazing as the first, but I was still wowed by how they pulled off an entire plot around the ability to see two minutes into the future.
• Back to the Future: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is a perfect movie. Perfect cast. Perfect plot. Perfect soundtrack. Chef’s kiss.

I gave 2 movies a 9.5/10:

• Encanto: Delightful, and the soundtrack only got better with time.
• West Side Story: Spielberg’s new version was amazing. Different than the original, but in a very good way. It felt less like a musical, and more like a movie, if that makes sense.

I gave 17 movies a 9/10:

• The Two Towers: No explanation needed.
• The Party: This Peter Sellers movie is hilarious, but I have a hard time recommending it to people, because he does brownface the whole time, playing the role of an Indian for comedic effect. I would argue that he uses it to show a person who feels completely out of place, but it could have been done without the ethnicity change, and that’s disappointing.
• Free Guy: This had no right being as good as it was. It felt like it should have been a throw away video game movie, but it ended up being smart and tons of fun.
• Turning Red: A fun movie that got more people upset than I would expect, showing people will get upset about lots of things that are surprising these days. (I’m probably included in that statement, though this movie did not upset me.)
• Moneyball: Fun look at baseball, statistics, and human nature.
• The Breakfast Club: Not perfect, but still a great slice of life of high school, and still relevant today, even if there are pieces of it that haven’t aged well.
• Joe vs. the Volcano: My personal favorite Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan pairing.
• RRR: Jaw dropping action scenes. Musical numbers. Crazy plot. This one was a real experience.
• Fitzwilly: Dick Van Dyke as a thieving butler trying to make enough money to fund his boss’s charitable work? How can you not watch this?
• A Beautiful Mind: Yup. Still great.
• The Wedding Singer: It’s not highbrow cinema, but it’s still fun.
• The Map of Tiny Perfect Things: Time loop romantic-comedy? How can it go wrong with me?
• Everything Everywhere All at Once: I think this one suffered from being too hyped up before I watched it. I still really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t left amazed. But definitely should be watched.
• Shop Around the Corner: Classic.
• Dunkirk: I liked it more the second time than I did the first, when the timey-wimey didn’t completely make sense to me.
• The Hudsucker Proxy: I love the Coen Bros. This is an oft-forgotten gem.
• Glass Onion: People keep comparing it to Knives Out, saying it’s worse. I really enjoyed it, and I liked it even more once I realized that the entire answer to the mystery really had been on screen the whole time. No sneaky cuts to not show things. If you’d been paying attention all along, there was no mystery at all.

How about the worst things I watched?

• On Stranger Tides got a 5/10. It was a Pirate’s movie too far.
• Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows also got a 5/10. A Sherlock movie too far.
• Wayne’s World got a 5/10. Not nearly as good as I remembered
• Christmas Story Christmas was another 5/10. Should have been better. Wasn’t.
• The King’s Man got a 4/10. Unnecessary and stupid prequel to an action series, though it had a few good sequences.
• Mortal Kombat (the new one) was another 4/10. Just plain stupid, even if it had some good effects.
• Obi Wan Kenobi 1 got a 4/10. It was the chosen one. It was said that it would destroy the doubters, not encourage them. Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness. Lies. All lies.
• Alone 8 was a 4/10. I’ve never seen the struggle to survive seem so boring.
• The Eagle got a 3/10. Historical action movie about Roman soldiers. Avoid.
• The live action Pinocchio got a 3/10. Waste of time.
• Under the Banner of Heaven got a 1/10. Awful awful awful, and worse because they kept trying to insist it was an accurate portrayal of what happened.

All told, it was a good year. I like looking back and seeing the highlights like this. Anything stand out to you (good or bad) from what you read or watched last year?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Television Review: Wednesday

It’s been a bit since I finished watching the first season of Wednesday, but I’m just catching up with a lot of things now that we’re in the new year, and this show was good enough that I wanted to be sure to point it out to people, even if it seems to me like everyone and their brother has already heard about it. (Often things I take for granted end up being very wrong. You can feel like everyone’s seen or done something, only to find out a lot of people haven’t.)

The latest adaptation of the Addams Family franchise is on Netflix and focuses on Wednesday Addams and her time off at a magical school for the gifted. Yes, it has strong Harry Potter vibes, but that’s to be expected any time you’ve got “magic” and “school” in the same sentence. The show is significantly different than the Potter franchise, even if some of the same elements are shared.

I loved the whole season, up until the last episode, at which point I just really liked it. More on that in a moment, because I don’t want to get into spoilers just yet.

Wednesday carries the show. She’s a delightful character to root for, and she’s played perfectly by Jenna Ortega. The whole style of the show is strong throughout: the settings, costumes, makeup, etc all come together to give it a wonderfully creepy vibe. But time and time again, I enjoyed watching Wednesday be cool and confident in even the worst of circumstances. She didn’t get scared. She didn’t panic. She just was extremely capable. (In that way, she almost reminded me of James Bond. She knew what she could do, and she did it. Bravo.)

The effects are great as well. Thing is delightfully disturbing, and the callbacks to the original show are always welcome and a lot of fun. True, there’s also a fair bit of “teenage television show” running throughout the series, but . . . it’s a show about a teenager, on television? To me, that’s like complaining my mint chocolate chip ice cream has chocolate chips in it.

In the end, I gave it a 9/10, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next season. (It’s already been renewed, thankfully.) It’s creepy, and not for young kids, but teens on up should all have a lot of fun with it.

With that all out of the way, I want to address some of my gripes with the last episode. These will contain spoilers, so I’m giving you fair warning.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

Still with me? Great. As I said in my review, I loved how capable Wednesday was throughout the show. But then we get to the last episode, and everything changed. She stopped being capable. She ended up messing up again and again, and she had to rely on other people to step in to fix things. The Big Bad guy shows up (and starts using evil magic so he can . . . destroy all the evil magic he doesn’t like???), and Wednesday doesn’t do anything special to beat him. She even fails in her sword fight with him. For a show with a teen protagonist, having her not actually be the real hero just felt very, very wrong. Especially when she’s been giving off the “I can do anything” vibe all along.

I get it. She was up against a real big problem. But as a creator, you need to take the time to figure out how your main character can defeat that problem without relying on a whole slew of lucky breaks.

I still loved the show, and I still look forward to the next season, but I’m hoping they back Wednesday up better next time. Show us why she’s so confident, and why she’s right to be that way. Here’s hoping . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Television Review: 1899

Would you look at that? I finished another TV show a week or so after finishing a different one. That’s usually a very good sign that I enjoyed it, and I very much did this time, but that comes with some caveats.

The first season of 1899 is on Netflix. It’s follows a group of people on an Atlantic cruise ship from London to New York City in (you guessed it) 1899. The group (generally) doesn’t know each other, and most of them are from different countries. (The show has Spanish, Cantonese, Dutch, German, French, and English on a very regular basis. The characters often don’t understand each other, but subtitles are given for everything, so the audience knows what everyone is saying.) The ship encounters its sister ship in the middle of the Atlantic, four months after that ship had disappeared. Mystery and intrigue ensue.

The show is from the same folks who did Dark, which I really enjoyed. (If you haven’t seen that series, you should definitely check it out, if you like science fiction and time travel. Great stuff.) The same sort of unraveling mystery premise is at work in 1899, and this is very much the first season of the show. That means it does a fantastic job of asking lots of questions, setting lots of riddles, and answering those questions with even bigger questions. If you loved Lost and the experience of watching Lost unfold over the years, then this show is for you. If Lost infuriated you, probably avoid this.

Of course, since I have no idea what the answers to the show’s questions are, it’s hard for me to really say one way or the other if it’ll all pay off. When people found Lost’s answers, many didn’t like them, and thus didn’t like the show. (I personally enjoyed the answers, even though I wish we’d gotten more of them.) On the other hand, Dark was able to ask big questions and deliver on answers, so I’m optimistic for 1899’s future.

It’s got some language and steamy scenes, but nothing in the ballpark of an HBO show. Denisa and I both enjoyed it, and now we’re both impatient for the next season. (That’s the Catch 22 of shows like this. On the one hand, it would be nice just to watch it all at once, and never have to wait. On the other, if enough people don’t watch the first season, then we’ll never get a second season at all . . .)

It’s 8 episodes, and it moves quickly. Very bingeable. Give it a shot. 8/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.