I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(him) or Toasty attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad. That dog in the fiery house bad.
What I Am/Have Been Watching is the self-admitted state of typically Toast (not him), spending too much time in front of the TV. Sure, the Great Pause is winding down (culturally if not virally) but habits have been formed, doors have been locked and going outside is soooo pre-2019. The weird thing of late is not committing to movies. Sure, we add them to Watch List, we Download them, we say, "Let's watch xxx instead of TV tonight," but then we just either re-watch something classic or I find something else to download.
One Episode is segment in which we talk about shows we have watched one episode of (and sometimes more). We would like to watch less volume and more quality Television but that involves wading through a bevvy of meh to get to the good stuff. Sometimes we find gems which, for one reason or another, we don't (or haven't yet) watched another episode of.
Of course, this is inspired by Kent's last post along the same topic. And stealing some of his format.
Stranger Things, S4-P1, 2022 - Netflix
So, when we last left our intrepid heroes, some of the ST Kids, and Joyce, were moving away from Hawkins, Indiana, for their own protection, relocating to California. Eleven had lost her powers, Hopper had been "killed" in the last ditch effort to shut down the crack to the Upside Down created by the Russians hiding underneath the Hawkins Mall, and Max had lost her brother Billy to the fleshy step-child of The Thing monster they called the Mind Flayer. The kids had saved Hawkins, and likely the world again.
When we pick up only months later, boy have the kids shot up! Growth spurts galore! Things are tense. Eleven is still powerless, cruelly bullied in her new California town. Nancy and Jonathan are suffering the LDR blues, and impending university choices. The D&D group is somewhat mystified by Lucas becoming a member of the Hawkins High basketball team, and his new found "popularity" but they have found new compadres in The Hellfire Club, the school's D&D club, DMed by brash, intense metalhead Eddie Munson. The World of Greyhawk came out in 1983, so it's appropriate the villain in Eddie's campaign is Vecna, the one-eyed, one handed lich wizard.
Then, of course, weird shit starts happening. The Upside Down's influence on Hawkins never goes away fully. This time, it feels more like classic possession horror movies, wherein an invisible otherworldly force frightens, and eventually kills local kids in absolutely horrific ways. And Eddie the DM is suspect prime.
Meanwhile Joyce learns that Hopper survived, grabs Murray, and drops everything to head to Russia to save him. The California Kids get dragged back into the secret government experiments & conspiracy and competing agencies full on attack the Byers house, giving us Road Trip! And Eleven folded back into the lab with creepy Dr. Brenner -- is he trying to resurrect her powers to save the world, as he and Dr. Owens claim, or does he have his own agenda (well, DUH!).
This is the first time since the first season they did a good job tying all the disparate sub-plots together. In S2 and 3 I didn't care so much about some stories, just wanting the focus to shift back to the main plot. But this time, each and every sub-plot was served up in admirable fashion, even if it had to harken back to S1 patterns.
And the character growth! Not just in physical dimensions but maturity, even if a few were short-shrifted. Nancy takes charge, without the need for Jonathan's support. Steve & Robin have the perfect relationship built on their mutual relationship woes. The D&D Kids are getting somewhat blasé about having to save the world yet again, and dialing in Eddie the DM is handled perfectly. Max has PTSD, but finds solace and strength in Kate Bush. Much of the background cast is once again pushed back to the background, which I prefer. Let the stars shine.
The BBEG and perhaps even the Upside Down itself begin to tie back to Eleven herself, and ... well, I cannot wait for the rest of the season!
That Dirty Black Bag, 2022 - AMC+
Whatever. <inner 90s girl flipping of hand>
Westerns. I have mentioned before, my self-considered atypical attraction to Westerns. But that interest has a simple origin story, in that one summer in The Country (rural family land), I was out of books to read and found someone's old western pulp-style paperback, probably a Zane Grey. I was struck much the pulp aspect aligned with the Robert E Howard Conan stories I was also reading at the time. The world was dark & gritty, the heroes grim, and the situations dire. A new fascination was born.
TDBB begins with a bounty hunter (Douglas Booth, Jupiter Ascending) killing and beheading a man. "A head weighs less than a body," he intones. Meanwhile a corrupt sheriff (Dominic Cooper, World of Warcraft) tightens his grip on Greenvale, a dry, dusty town that hasn't seen rain in years. Meanwhile Farmer Steve (Christian Cooke, Witches of East End) stands up to the land baron (Paterson Joseph, The Leftovers) that wants what remains of his farmstead, while hiding a secret -- there is GOLD in them there hills!
This is spaghetti western, shot in Spain, Morocco, and Italy! The angles are skewed, the violence is high and every character growls out his lines. The gruesome violence seems on-par with 2022, a little over the top.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 2022 - Paramount+
I started this series commenting (to whomever would listen) extensively on how steeped in nostalgia it is. I mean, think about it, how can a series that showcases the actual starship from The Original Series not be? But this is not a TOS reboot, as its Pike, not Kirk, so this gets set in the years before Pike is confined to a badly designed wheelchair enclosure. In fact, the entire show is set up around that impending doom, as it begins with Pike being coaxed out of his self-imposed exile, one he took to wrestle with the visions of the future we all know about.
Once he has shaved the beard, and styled the coif, we are back on the nostalgic, stylish, anachronistic Enterprise bridge meeting his new crew. And thus began my reservations. Security Officer La'an Noonien-Singh (Christine Chong, Halo: Nightfall) a descendent of Khan (KHAAAAN!!), and bearer of a most horrific backstory; Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush, Home and Away); cadet Nyota Uhuru (Celia Rose Gooding) who is pretty much playing the Hoshi Sato character from Star Trek: Enterprise, in that she is a genius (GENIUS!) with languages; and background Lieutenant Sam Kirk (Dan Jeanotte, Good Witch).
I am not mentioning the rest of the non-nostalgic bridge crew, just because. So, steeped in that "LOOK ! STUFF YOU KNOW !" mindset, I my reservations shouted loudly. Sure, Mount was spectacular, and the rest of the cast was pretty darn tootin' (sorry, still thinking about Westerns) good as well, but how much would it just rest on its laurels and harken back to TOS ? A whole damn lot, actually, but it turns out that is exactly what we needed. The episodic nature of much of pre-Discovery Star Trek is very welcoming here, with just enough edge to feel fresh. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Fuller attempt to do something fresh(er) with Star Trek but apparently nobody else did, as they immediately kicked him out and then kicked out all coherence in later seasons. All the fresh went rancid pretty quickly in Discovery and yes, that leaves me bitter. And feeling tentative about Strange New Worlds.
But six episodes in, I am surprisingly optimistic.
But it may just be the coif.
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