May reads

 Only eight this month.

• 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.  This volume of short stories is a re-read.  Hill is, I think, as good at spooky short stories as his dad is.
• The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.  And I think this one may be a re-read too, although I sure didn't think I had read it ... until I started it.  Brutal, heart-rending novel about a family on vacation and the dangerous home invaders who insist that one of them (the family) must choose to die in order to avoid the impending apocalypse.  Like, immediately.
• Sign Here by Claudia Lux (that must be a pen name, right?).  A mid-level desk jockey in Hell is on the verge of a promotion if he can just manage to get the right humans to sell their souls.  Uneven in tone, clever concept.
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman.  I really liked this one, character-driven and realistic, with nary a witch, warlock or dragon in sight.  Ellis and Michael meet as boys and grow up together.  Neither's life turns out quite as they thought but it turns out that chosen family is sometimes the very best family.
• Elemental Forces is another horror short story collection by various authors.  Mixed bag, much like the anthology movies I have such a weakness for.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.  The first book in the series, impoverished Feyre kills a wolf to help support her family.  The wolf is a faerie in disguise, however, and Feyre is whisked away to atone.  Her captor is, of course, tall and handsome and tormented.
• Time's Mouth by Edan Lepucki.  Set in mystical California, this book has multiple generations, a women-centric cult and time travel of a sort.  Each section is from a different character's POV; I liked Opal's best.
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik.  I may have read this one before - parts seemed awfully familiar - but this is great fun.  A boarding school for sorcerors where the school itself is actively trying to kill its students and the narrator is resisting turning into a world-destroying dark mage.  Funny, snarky, gory and immediately engaging.  The second in the series will be my first book ready in June.

Thirteenth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #17 Nightbreed (1990)

 The very first thing I wrote down whilst watching Nightbreed: "I don't know what this movie is about but just from the pre-opening credits sequence, I am HERE FOR IT."  And the male lead, Craig Sheffer, looked super-familiar [from A River Runs Through It, I guess].

Aaron Boone (Sheffer) is a troubled young man, tormented by dreams of monsters and Midian, the city those monsters live in.  He's been in therapy for a while and has made great progress, with a solid job and a solid girlfriend, and he hasn't had the dreams for years.  And then his former therapist (played creepily by David Cronenberg) calls him up and says that he thinks Boone is responsible for the brutal slayings of six families over the last ten months.  Panicked, Boone runs and, after a chance meeting with a crazy person in the hospital, makes his way to Midian.  Which is real.  And populated by real monsters, who are generally nice people, just trying to live their lives, in hiding from humans who have persecuted them throughout history.  Boone's arrival draws unwanted attention, however, and soon Midian is wracked by conflict, within and without.

Clive Barker's follow-up to Hellraiser, directed by Barker himself and based on his book Cabal, Nightbreed is more dark fantasy, never really scary (although I did jump a couple of times) but with a fair amount of violence and gore.  It's a bit cheesy and kind of incoherent (likely from the studio's interference and insistence on changes from Barker's original vision) but the monster make-up, prosthetics and puppets are incredible.  I don't know that I'll make the effort to track down the recently released Director's Cut, which is reported to be closer to what Barker intended, but I'm definitely glad I added Nightbreed to this year's watchlist.

Watchlist, late summer edition

 We're gearing up for the Thirteenth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series so I guess I should do an update on the general watchiness around here.

• Umbrella Academy 3 - Gosh, I just love this show.  Super entertaining, dark-ish but not too dark, how can you not love bickering pseudohero siblings?
• Stranger Things 4 - What can you say about this juggernaut?  I didn't love how everyone was separated for the most part, and the ending seemed rushed, but again, super entertaining.  And Kate Bush getting the global love she always should have had.
• The Mandalorian - Love the theme music, love Pedro Pascal, love baby Yoda.  Not over the moon with this series but a very strong entry into the Star Wars universe.
• Sex Education - Binged however many seasons are currently on Netflix (three, I think).  Really liked this one, thought the cast was charming and well-put together.
• Ms. Marvel - Talk about a charming and well-put together cast!  I binged through this one quickly and thought it was great fun.  Love how colorful and young it was; enjoyed and learned a lot from the peeks into Pakistani culture.  Great show.
• So You Think You Can Dance - This competition show is back after a couple years away, "updated" for a younger audience which means that one of the judges is now Jojo Siwa (whoever the hell she is).  I really like watching the dances but the show was shortened and so it seemed like there was much less actual performance than in seasons past.  The judges were annoying (other than tWitch) and almost never gave any actual criticism / placing too much importance on "feeling the character."  Yeah, but you also got to point your damn toes.
• Sandman - I love the comics (and need to reread them) and thought this live action version was damn good.  Looked expensive, though, and I'm hearing rumors that Netflix won't sign on for a second season.  That would be a shame because there's still so many stories to be told there.

Mr. Mouse and I are also up to speed on all the Better Call Saul on Netflix; we're ready to dive into S2 of Only Murders in the Building, S2 of Reservation Dogs and S5 of Cobra Kai.

Also, I got a new laptop with a different touchpad and am on a learning curve with it - so no links to shows right now.  Y'all know how to google things, don't you?

Next up: the first scary movie of spooky season.  (I hate myself for using "spooky season.")

Watchlist, late spring edition

 Since the end of March (that's really not that long and I haven't accomplished all that much, tbh):

• Russian Doll S2 - Not as mind-blowing as the first season, which was so unexpected and original, but still vastly superior to most of what's out there.  Adore Natasha Lyonne.

• Moon Knight - Liked it, wanted to love it but didn't.  Kind of dark and gloomy.  Oscar Isaac's English accent was distracting and I wanted much more of Layla, Egyptian Superhero.

• Eternals - Meh.  Felt like a missed opportunity.  Cast too big to get to know, CGI distracting.

• Happy Endings - Finished it.  Seems like it went out with a whimper, rather than a bang.

• Sweet Tooth - Really quite liked this one, having gone into it with no expectations or knowledge of the source material.  Hope it gets a second season because the ending just seemed abrupt.

Currently: almost done with The Mandalorian and am into S3 of Sex Education.  Looking forward very much to S3 of Umbrella Academy (I just rewatched S2 in anticipation) and She Hulk, Attorney at Law.

Watchlist

 Hey, y'all!  Shockingly, I thought I'd check in and update this little blog with what I've watching for the last 35 days - instead of waiting a whole eleven months.  I have been diligently working through my watchlists, finishing languishing series and plowing through whole new ones.  This is what I've done since Halloween:

• Finished The 100.  I really liked the first three or so seasons but it really started dragging towards the end.  I do try to be a completist, however, and so I finished the last season.
• Finished the last season of Lucifer when the episodes were released.  When I started this show way back when I thought it was dumb, then I gave it a second chance and quite like it.  It was time for it to wrap up, though.
• Watched S1 of Reservation Dogs.  That was great and Mr. Mouse even watched it with me and enjoyed it.  Looking forward to S2.
• Got caught up on The Great British Baking Show when the most recent series was released on Netflix.  This show makes me so happy - everyone is so wholesome (although I am not a huge fan of Matt, sorry) and it's just a balm for the soul to watch.
• Watched S1 of Y: The Last Man.  I'm hearing that this may not be renewed which is too bad.  I didn't love it (could Yorick be more annoying?  I know, I have the comics, he's supposed to be) but there's so much story left to be told.  Strong cast.
• Started and am keeping up with The Wheel of Time.  I loved those books and own volumes 1-12  (Brandon Sanderson was the wrong person to finish it out - don't get me started) so I was intrigued to see how the show would be.  Again, I don't love it but it's getting better as it goes on.
• Got caught up by watching S5 of The Expanse.  This is a terrific sci fi show based on fantastic books.  I think it's getting one more season?
• Started a rewatch of the original Cowboy Bebop and have watched the first couple of episodes of the live action one.  Don't love the live action version but John Cho is certainly giving it his whole heart.  Needs more Ein!
• Watched Squid Game.  Loved it.  Hear they're making a S2 and think that's a bad idea.
• Watched Arcane only because Lindsey Stirling mentioned doing some violin work for it.  I know nothing about the game it's taken from but I really liked it lot.  Looking forward to more episodes.

Next on the list: I was going to start Wentworth (Australian prison drama, highly recommended by a friend) but I think I'm going to do Hellbound first.  I do love Korean horror and this has gotten good reviews.

What are you/have you been watching?

Where the hell have I been?

Apparently I needed to take a l o n g break after October!  I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been consuming, mostly needing to turn my brain off and just veg in front of a screen of late.  I've watched a bunch of stuff, including:

• Batwoman which I rather like, just like I like the other Arrowverse shows (Legends of Tomorrow is my favorite, I think).  Like the others, Batwoman will have some growing pains but even the first season is improving as it goes.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths - since I was doing Batwoman, I figured I'd watch the Crisis episodes too, even though I haven't kept up with any of those shows besides Legends.  I'm a little in the dark as to Arrow - adult daughter from the future? - but I think I've figured everything else out.
• At the repeated urging of a high school friend, I've started Lucifer.  My friend says it has supplanted Buffy as his favorite show (!!!) so I'm giving it a go.  Tom Ellis is certainly charming, and I think it's getting better as it goes along, but I'm not 100% sold yet.
• I'm catching up on Legion episodes on Hulu too.  I never half know what's going on at any given time but it sure is pretty to look at.
• With this Hulu subscription, I've watched the first two Castle Rock seasons.  These are mixed, with some parts being very strong and others just ... meh.  I think S2 was better than S1, in large part because Lizzy Caplan (as Annie Wilkes pre-Misery) is SO AWESOME.  I also appreciate the fact that no one really tries to do a Maine accent (Tim Robbins skirts along the edge but never commits, thankfully) because I just don't think anyone who isn't a Mainer can do it.
• I've just started The Witcher, knowing nothing about the books or the games going in.  Reviews say that this show definitely gets better as it goes along, which is good because E1 was borderline incomprehensible.  I'm not sure I'm ever going to accept that godawful wig Henry Cavill wears, though.
• Finally, I watched The Shape of Water.  I'm a huge Guillermo del Toro fan but ... this movie won an Oscar for Best Picture?  Really?  Where was the plot (aside from being Beauty and the Beast)?  Pan's Labyrinth is a way, way, way better movie on all fronts.

New goal

Not only have I utterly failed in my easily-attainable goal to watch one movie a month (just one!) to post here, I completely neglected to post ANYTHING for the month of May.  Not cool, man.  My excuse is that I've just been so caught up in watching television series.  I got through the Scooby Doo episode of Supernatural, I've started the guilty pleasure that is Pretty Little Liars, I've been getting caught up on the most recent Netflix-able season of Legends of Tomorrow, I'm two episodes deep into S5 of Black Mirror.  It doesn't end there either:  the final season of Jessica Jones starts in just a couple days,  S4 of Veronica Mars is just around the corner and I haven't even gotten to start in on Good Omens yet, much to my chagrin.  Golden age of television indeed (give or take Supernatural and PLL).

So I am therefore resetting my goal to this: I want to read all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series by the end of the summer.  I've ready several of those books already, randomly, but this time I'm going chronologically.  I've finished the first four - The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and Mort.  I think I can attain this goal.  These are quick books for me to read - I just need to keep going to the library.

Other books I've read:  Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, a wonderful collection of short stories that cannot be kept to one genre, instead incorporating horror, comedy, feminism and fantasy; and The Troop by Nick Cutter, a body horror/zombie-ish/Lord of the Flies mash-up that's good enough to have a Stephen King blurb on the front cover.

Ninth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #3 Something Wicked This Way Comes

I read Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, not too long ago and enjoyed it quite a lot.  And then I watched Disney's 1983 movie version and felt a little let down.  I suppose that I should have known when the Disney logo popped up that this wasn't going to be all I hoped.

In broad strokes, in October a sinister carnival arrives in a small Midwestern town.  It's run by Mr. Dark and his assistants, Mr. Cooger and a fortune-teller.  Through their machinations, some townsfolk are overcome and transformed.  Two boys, Will Holloway (blond/a good boy) and Jim Nightshade (brunette/attracted to the dark side) come up against Mr. Dark and his baddies, and with the help of Will's father, finally send the evil carnival on its way.

The book was wonderfully done, with developed characters and truly spooky sequences.  The movie, however, falls flat on nearly all front.  The characters are thin, the dialogue awkward and the child actors are truly terrible.  The special effects are pretty poor for Disney, even for early 1980s.  Mr. Dark (played by Jonathan Pryce) doesn't get much screen time and he's just not that scary.  I get that there's only so much horror you will get with a Disney flick, I do.  But really, I would re-title this one as "Something Disappointing This Way Comes."  It does have a pretty great poster though:

Mini book review: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King

Sleeping Beauties is a 2017 collaboration between horror master Stephen King and his son.  No, not Joe Hill, pretty famous in his own right, but Owen King, who still relies on the family name.  This ponderous book follows what happens in small town Appalachia - standing in for the world - when a pandemic brings down all the women.  When a female human falls asleep, she does not wake up and becomes wrapped in a cocoon.  When the men try to take the cocoons off, the sleepers attack, violently and mindlessly - so it's better to leave them wrapped up.  A very few women stave off sleep - the insomniacs, or those with access to amphetamines or cocaine - but for the most part, the men of the world are adrift.  And that does not go well.  Oh!  And there's a supernatural woman - goddess or witch, perhaps - who has ushered in this state of things.  Some of the men want to protect her.  Some of the men don't.

I'm sounding pretty flip here but I did like Sleeping Beauties reasonably well.  It reads largely like a Stephen King book (so I wonder how much collaboration the co-authors did), with its detailed, intricate world-building and knowledge of small town life.  It's also a fairly political novel: King is liberal and it is clearly pro-feminist, as well numerous digs at the current administration.  Lots of the characters (and there are LOTS of characters) are pretty thinly sketched, including Evie, the goddess/witch, and one would think that she would be more developed, being so intrinsic to the story and all.  I wouldn't put it up with King's best works by a long shot but would put it lower-middle of the pack.

A few thoughts on Supernatural

To be completely honest, I haven't been missing television at all (although this poor little blog certainly has) in the wake of having given up cable.  I think of all the shows I used to DVR (Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, iZombie, Legion, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Gotham, The Walking Dead, RuPaul's Drag Race, Better Call Saul, Fargo, Last Man on Earth (R.I.P.), Preacher ... and I'm sure there are more but I can't remember them now) and I really don't miss any of them.  Maybe Drag Race and Preacher.  And Legion.

Not even those, really.  Not too much - because I've been plowing through Supernatural as fast as I can at 2-3 episodes a night after Mr. Mouse goes to bed.  In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't start watching it right when it first aired: two years after Buffy ended, surely I needed to get a supernatural show to fill the gap.  I didn't, though, for whatever reason, and I am surely enjoying it now, having just started S5.  It's definitely testosterone-heavy (all the cool girls, be they good or evil, do seem to get killed off) but Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki as the brothers Winchester are charming as hell, and there is definitely a subversive sense of humor running through the show's veins.  I can't believe it is the longest running genre television show - just renewed for its fourteenth season!  What that means for me, however, is that I've got a lot of episodes ahead of me and that makes me happy.

A couple of itty-bitty book reviews

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman.  I usually LOVE Neil Gaiman.  I love his world-building and the intelligence of the language he uses.  I also love mythology.  When I was a kid, I would take out all the mythology books in my grade school library; I especially liked Greek, Egyptian and Norse, reading the myths and stories over and over again.  Perhaps that's why I didn't love Gaiman's 2017 Norse Mythology: I already knew all the stories he told, so none of it was new.  I also didn't feel like his voice came through at all, which would have freshened the myths up a bit.  For people who don't know the old stories about Thor, Loki, Odin, Baldur, Freya and the rest, this is a nice, accessible introduction.  But for me, it was a bit of a waste of time.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove  by Karen Russell.  This one, a short story collection by the author of Swamplandia (which I know I've read but apparently didn't review here), was not a waste of time.  Each story is touched with a bit of fantasy - vampires, human silkworms, American presidents reincarnated as horses - and each is very different from the other.  Some agreed with me more than others but all were very original, building specific, interesting worlds in just a few pages.  Lots of fun, that one.

Mini movie review: Kong: Skull Island

I'm not going to lie to you: 2017 has been a rough year.  I mean, I have had it exceedingly easy compared to most people.  But I have been anxious/unhappy/frustrated/sad/angry under our country's current administration.  I have needed to escape in pop culture that has no connection with current events, the more fantastical the better.  That's how I found myself watching Kong: Skull Island the other day. 

I liked Peter Jackson's King Kong film, finding myself appreciating and connecting with Andy Serkis's Kong.  This iteration does not have that personal connection: Kong disappears from the screen for long periods of time and when he is onscreen, he is all rampaging warrior.  His posture is strange: upright, like a human; but there is no personality peering out of those big brown eyes this time.  Still, K:SI is hugely entertaining.  And as has been said, sometimes you don't know you needed to see a gas-mask-wearing Tom Hiddleston slicing mutant pterodactyls with a samurai sword until you see a gas-mask-wearing Tom Hiddleston slicing mutant pterodactyls with a samurai sword.  Escape accomplished.

 

Trying to keep up

This blog seems abandoned but in actuality I am circling the wagons for the upcoming Seventh Annual Friend Mouse Speaks Scarelicious October Movie Series.  BUT ALSO, there's just so much I want to be watching on Netflix right now (as opposed to crap horror movies).  Like more Farscape and needing to start Galavant and Luke Cage is about to drop and I know nothing about Easy other than it looks like it's got a fantastic cast and OMIGOD the last season of Penny Dreadful is available now ...

It's too much.  There's too much.  I clearly need to quit my job, never go outside again and just consume as much visual media as I possibly can.

Mini movie review: The Neverending Story

So ... that was not quite what I had hoped for or expected.  The Neverending Story is a classic (?) early 80s children's fantasy movie, based on the first half of the German YA novel of the same name by Michael Ende.  Ende was so disappointed with how the movie came out that he tried to get the name of it changed, so as not to continue to be associated with it, but it was too late and the rights had been locked down.  This rather makes me want to check out the book - in translation, of course, as my German is rusty nonexistent.

The Neverending Story is a framework piece, with the overarching story about young Bastian, a bullied boy, mourning the death of his mother, who obtains a fantasy book, The Neverending Story, which not only immediately captures his imagination but also draws him in, literally.  The story-within-the-story is a quest by young Atreau who must find a cure for the young Empress so that she can save their land of Fantasia from the Nothing, which is swallowing and obliterating it.  After travelling 10,000 miles with the help of some gnomes and Falcor the luckdragon, all to no avail in the end, Atreau and the Empress must call upon Bastian to help save them.

The creature effects are pretty rudimentary, especially when compared to similar films like The Dark Crystal.  But I liked the creatures - I love practical effects and am willing to forgive a lot.  But this movie is sooooooooooo sloooooooooow, even at only 90 minutes long.  The creatures talk slowly, there are pointless scenes and there are an awful lot of gazing off into the distance and/or moving through space with nothing happening shots.  Slow.  The other thing I struggled with was how bad the child actors were.  I can't really fault the Empress as she didn't get a lot to do.  But Atreau is pretty awful and any time he was called upon to express any kind of intense emotion, he shouted.  There was a lot of shouting.

I suspect that if I'd seen this movie as a little kid, I would have liked it a lot.  Seeing The Neverending Story as an adult, however, didn't do the movie any favors.  Next time I have a craving for early 80s fantasy with lots of creatures, I'm going for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth or Time Bandits.

Mini book review: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

In Depression Era Chicago, a not very nice man named Harper Curtis stumbles into a derelict-seeming house.  The House (for it is a House, not just a house) is different on the inside: in a room upstairs, there are trophies taken from women that Harper will kill.  The House has a listing of these "shining girls," and whenever Harper opens the front door, the House delivers him to a different time between 1929 and 1993 so he can locate these girls and snuff out their light.  Although he starts awkwardly, he quickly becomes quite good at these vicious, seemingly untraceable murders as he bounces back and forth through time.  But in 1989, Kirby Mizrachi manages to escape Harper's knife, despite her belly and throat being slashed.  And because she manages to escape, she systematically begins to track down her would-be murderer.

Time travel stories are always tough but despite a couple of passages that I had to read and re-read to figure out who was sticking what knife into whom, The Shining Girls is pretty successful.  It's very violent - the descriptions of Harper's attacks are detailed and extremely bloody - but also very convincing.  The amount of research Lauren Beukes did to create the Chicagos of the various times must have been staggering.  The characters, including all of the victims, are fleshed out and real, interesting, sympathetic; the only one who gets short shrift is Harper but he's such a horrible person that I really didn't want to get to know him better.  I recently had a rare rainy Sunday when I didn't have to do anything, so I sat down and read The Shining Girls all in one go.  If that's not a recommendation for a book, I don't know what is.

PS - I have also read Beukes's Broken Monsters and liked that too, but it's a weirder book and didn't connect with me quite so well.  Don't know why I didn't review that here.

Here:  link to links to buy the book.

Mini movie review: Only Lovers Left Alive

I don't think I've ever seen a Jim Jarmusch film before so I can't speak to how Only Lovers Left Alive stacks up against the rest of his library.  But I can say that if you were looking for a romantic movie to watch on Valentine's Day (before diving into the misery that is The Walking Dead (recap coming soon)), this was a good one.  More atmospheric than plot-driven, OLLA follows Adam and Eve, two super-cool, effortlessly chic vampires, still completely in love with each other after centuries of marriage.  Eve, played with alien elegance by the otherworldly Tilda Swinton, is living in Tangiers when the movie begins, in a flat filled with ancient books and beautiful fabrics.  She occasionally socializes with her dear old friend, Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt), who is still writing five centuries later and is still indignant about William Shakespeare's fame.  Her husband Adam (Tom Hiddleston), however, is hiding out in a decaying mansion in a decaying Detroit, collecting beautiful, rare guitars and making beautiful, melancholy music.

As I mentioned above, there's not much plot: Eve goes to Detroit to visit Adam; her little "sister" - at most, Eve says, they are related "by blood" - Ava (Mia Wasikowska) shows up and wrecks some slight havoc; Adam and Eve return to Tangiers.  Usually I like a lot of plot in my movies.  But this moody, funny movie is wonderful.  Yes, Adam and Eve are vampires and they do drink blood, but they drink it out of tiny cordial glasses, getting stoned off each sip.  What these creatures of the night are about is culture through the ages - science, literature, music, art.  They listen to vinyl and play chess, there are stacks of leather-bound books everywhere.  Adam and Eve are deeply in love with each other and, as much as Adam might bitch about how the "zombies" (humans) are ruining the planet, they are still in love with the fact that art is still being created in the world.

Bits and pieces

Things do fall off around here when I don't have a regular recapping gig, don't they?  Plus schedules tend to get out of whack around the holidays and everyone is flitting about, hither and thither.  Mr. Mouse and I haven't done too much hither and thither-ing, luckily, and our holiday plans are contentedly at-home.  We just finished watching the second season of Fargo, which is the one of the few scripted shows we watch together (Better Call Saul will be the next, when it returns in February).  If you haven't been watching Fargo (or Better Call Saul, or Justified, for that matter), you really should.  This second season had a much higher body count than the also-excellent S1; it was also funnier and just full to bursting with a talented cast.

I also recently watched Jessica Jones which I absolutely loved.  I had thought to say something profound about it, but sites like the A.V. Club and The Mary Sue are full of well-written recaps and articles; just google it and you'll find oceans of discussion.  It isn't easy to watch with its discussion of sexual, emotional and psychological abuse, but it is an important discussion.  Krysten Ritter is phenomenal in the title role, ably portraying the complex, damaged Jessica.  If the only thing you've seen David Tennant in is Doctor Who, you're in for a shock:  he is charming, yes, but also terrifying as the sociopathic, abusive victim.  The rest of the cast is really good too and it's refreshing to have most of the major players be women.

In stark (pun intended) contrast to Marvel's strong, grounded Netflix offerings is Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I watched it last night and, as much as I love Joss Whedon's work, this one left me underwhelmed.  And exhausted, frankly, from all the CGI battles.  After watching the more realistic fights and stuntwork in both Jessica Jones and Daredevil, the AoU CGI just left me cold.  I appreciated the small character moments and humor - Natasha and Bruce; Hawkeye getting some actual lines; everyone giving Captain America a hard time for being an old fogy - but it all just seemed overstuffed and a bit frantic.  I will say that James Spader knocked it out of the park with his Ultron voice work.

What's next around here?  I'm watching S2 of Sherlock and also the Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who, and next up in my DVD queue is the remainder of S4 of Game of Thrones (so far behind!).  I just finished S2 of Penny Dreadful which I ADORE and am anxious to continue on with S3.  There's always something - and I'm always up for suggestions.

Mini book review The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

I think the most important question is: how has it taken me this long to read The Golden Compass, the first book in His Dark Materials, a beloved YA fantasy series by Philip Pullman.  I suppose it's because it came out in 1995 and I was just a few years out of college at that point, not spending much of my time reading YA fantasy.  But now that I am much, much older, I am happy to have discovered the series.

The Golden Compass follows young Lyra Belacqua and her shape-shifting daemon Pantalaimon as they discover that the world is much bigger and more complicated than they were led to believe.  At first ensconced among the aged academics at Jordan College, Lyra has run wild for the first twelve years of her life.  But children have started disappearing in the town and strange deals are being struck behind the College's closed doors, and Lyra soon finds herself at the center of it.

There is a lot of world-building on which to come up to speed quickly here, daemons (an animal familiar, bonded to every person at birth, which can shapeshift until its human partner reaches puberty at which point the daemon settles into its truest form) and armored polar bears and canal-dwelling gypsies and hot air balloons and treacherous relatives and dead children and the Northern Lights.  I got sucked in quickly, my interest only fading slightly towards the very end when it was apparent that things were winding towards the next book in the series.  Lyra is an interesting, imperfect protagonist - I am looking forward to seeing what she gets up to next.

True Blood episode recap S6E10 "Radioactive"

After the funeral, Sookie and Alcide take a walk.  His hair (a wig, I'm hoping) is atrocious.  [My dvd then gets stuck so I've fast-forwarded and the next scene is this:]  When they get to Bill and Jessica's, the freed vampires, all still completely high on Bill's/Lilith's/Warlow's blood, are swing-dancing in the front yard, pulling off their clothes and throwing them on a bonfire and generally fucking like bunnies.  Sookie sees Jason being fed on by Violet and runs to see him.  Violet is initially defensive and very jealous but then, when she understands that Sookie is Jason's sister, plants a soul kiss on her.  Jason:  "Uh, Sook?  This is Violet.  She's European."  Sookie makes the rounds, with both Pam and Tara hugging her and glad to see her.  But Sookie has some melancholy to her because in her head, she's saying goodbye as a human before she goes to Warlow.  Bill, watching her from inside the mansion, realizes this and feels bad about it.

Sookie returns to the faerie realm where Warlow is just finishing putting together the most sparkly, flowery May pole you've ever seen.  There's some stupid faerie ceremony to wed the two of them, he explains, but she interrupts, saying that she'd maybe like to postpone their wedding/her transformation, and maybe they could just date a while first, get to know one another.  Like flipping a switch, Warlow turns on her [This character is so inconsistent: first he was all evil and scary, then he was all in love and flowery, and now he's all scary again?  So annoying].  He hits her across the face, grabs her by the throat and ties her to the damn May pole, growling, "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?"

Back at Bill's, vampires are HILARIOUSLY playing volleyball to "Wishing Well" by Belly - because everyone knows vampires love 1990s alt-pop.  Tara notices Pam, sulking to one side, mood obviously changed.  Pam is going after Eric and Tara is pissed off but can't do anything to stop her.  Pam tells her to take care of Willa (who is so oblivious that she hasn't noticed Eric is gone) and flies way as Tara growls, "You guys are the worst fuckin' makers."  In the house, Jessica finds Bill who is SO SAD to learn that since he was so far drained, he lost all of Lilith's blood and its accompanying powers: "I feel like Bill again.'  He's also sad about Sookie and tells Jess about the deal Sookie made to save the vampires.  Jessica is all, stop moping around and go save her then, for chrissakes.  He is such a twat.

A little bit later, Bill, Jessica, Jason and Violet discuss how to save Sookie.  But because she and Warlow are on that other plane, they need another faerie to get them there - and the only other faerie in Bon Temps is Andy's daughter Adalind.  While Bill releases that scientist he had captive in the basement (glamouring him so he won't remember and giving him a big bag of money for his trouble) Jason and Violet go to the Bellefleurs.  Andy is completely against the idea, of course,  but Adalind stands up to her dad and says that she wants to help Sookie.  So Andy and Jason arm themselves with lots of silver UV light bullets and wooden stakes and everyone traipses off to the cemetery.

Blah blah blah.  Warlow is yapping to the captive Sookie.  I DON'T CARE.  And when night has fallen in the real world, he fangs up and bites her.  In the real world, Bill, Jason, Jess, Andy, Violet and Adalind get to the cemetery.  Adalind doesn't know how to use her faerie magic to transport them ("I'm two weeks old!").  Bill muses that fear is what usually rouses a fae's power and Violet's all, why didn't you say so?  She fangs up and gets in Adalind's face, shrieking at her to use her power; terrified, Adalind does, bringing them all into the faerie world.  Bill and Warlow fight while the rest of them rescue Sookie who is unconscious from the blood loss.  They transfer back to Bon Temps, going back to the Stackhouse house.  Jason and Violet revive Sookie while Andy hides Adalind in the basement safe room.  Bill and Warlow transfer back over to the real world, continuing the fight there.  Warlow easily overpowers pretty much everybody, locking them all down with Adalind while he goes after Sookie.  She, meanwhile, has woken up and is hiding in the bathroom.  He corners her there, Jason staggering up the stairs after him.  Just before all is lost THANK GOODNESS Niall (remember him? stuck in that hell dimension so he can be a deus ex machina?) comes out of the portal in the bathroom and grabs Warlow so Jason can stake him.  (I would think that it would take more than a simple wooden stake to kill a 5,500 year old vampire.  But what do I know?  In any case, what an utter waste of a villain.)  Sookie and Jason pulls Niall out of the portal, saving him.  There's a downside to killing Warlow: his magical blood dissipates, leaving all the vampires who used to be able to walk in the sun back the way they were.  This is a problem, especially for Eric who was sunbathing naked on a glacier in Sweden.  He screams and catches fire.  Note: I refuse to believe that Eric is dead.  I also appreciated the full frontal nudity, however brief.

SIX MONTHS LATER

Bill has written a book about Lilith and Hep V and what the former Governor did.  And he goes on a book tour, trying to mend vampire/human relations.  Back in Bon Temps, Sookie and Alcide (who has gotten a haircut, thank god) have shacked up.  Also, Jason and Violet are still together.  She has made him give her oral sex for the last 170 days with no reciprocation.  He's wondering when he gets his turn.  Not yet, says Violet.

What else has happened?  Sam is now the mayor of Bon Temps and has sold Merlotte's to Arlene, who has renamed it Bellefleur's.  And roving bands of Hep V infected vampires are throughout Louisiana, attacking small towns.  The town calls a meeting at one of the churches, taking blood samples from all the humans to see if any of them are carriers for Hep V (which doesn't harm humans but can be transmitted).  The reason for the meeting: Sam and Bill, with the local churches' support, think that the best way to protect the townsfolk is to pair each of them up with an uninfected vampire.  The vampire gets clean blood to feed on (since Tru Blood is still no good) and the human gets protected by their vampire.

Some of the townsfolk think this is a terrible idea but some are amenable and attend a BBQ at Bellefleur's Bar & Grill later that night.  Vampires and humans get paired off (Tara's mom makes amends with her estranged vampire daughter by offering to be her food, for example).  Jessica, noticing that Andy and Adalind are not in attendance, goes to their home and offers her protection, without using them for food.  Andy doesn't want to have anything to do with the vampire who killed his other three half-fae daughters but Jessica is not dissuaded, standing guard long after he has closed the door in her face.

Alcide and Sookie get their blood tests back - clean, of course - but neither is interested in pairing off with a vampire.  As they head for home, Bill shows up and, holy hell, we're all back into let's-save-Sookie mode.  Bill thinks she should hook up with him for protection because she's so delicious; Alcide is all growly and says he can protect her himself.  EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS HER OWN FAERIE MAGIC.  Then, both Bill and Alcide sniff the air: a huge swarm of infected vampires is converging on the party at Bellefleur's.

This?  This is how you end the season?  After a strong E9, you finish with this crap?  Aaaarrrggghhh.  This show pisses me off so much.

Previously on True Blood / next time on True Blood

True Blood episode recap S6E9 "Life Matters"

Home stretch, y'all.  This episode, and then one more episode and then - eventually, I certainly don't want to rush into anything - one more season.  

Sookie feeds her own blood to Warlow, trying to save his life after Eric has all but drained him.  Bill's all, I need what blood he has left and we had a deal.  Sookie: Well, Eric just came and fucked our deal in the ass.  She points out that right now, Eric has more of Warlow's blood in him than Warlow does, so maybe Bill should just go deal with Eric directly.  Then she zaps him with her light, sending him out of the faerie realm.  He's annoyed but zooms off, back to the vamp camp.  At the vamp camp, meanwhile, it's full daylight and Eric, bursting at the seams with Warlow blood, surveys the armed guards.

Terry's funeral is just getting underway.  Sookie bids Warlow farewell (ah, so that's why she's all dressed up in a black dress) but before she goes, he asks her if she still intends to join with him.  She says that she always keeps her promises and leaves the faerie realm, re-materializing right in the cemetery where, amazingly, no one notices.  She takes a seat near Mrs. Fortenberry, saving a seat for Jason and a little dismayed when he never shows.  Alcide comes to pay his respects and she definitely takes notice of him.  Perhaps her promise will be tested.

Vamp camp.  By the time Bill gets there, Eric has gone underground after ripping dozens of the guards to shreds.  There are heads and severed limbs and viscera everywhere.  Downstairs, Eric finds a particularly sadistic doctor, the one who injected Nora with the Hep V, and casually rips his genitals right off his body.  GROSS.  Eric then continues to saunter through the compound, releasing the vampires in the Gen. Pop. pens, instructing them to go kill their captors.

Funeral.  After the preacher speaks - and he knew Terry pretty well, knowing that above all, Terry valued and believed in family - he invites others to speak as well.

Vamp camp.  Bill is tracking Eric but not catching him.  He finds the de-penised doctor, bleeding out on the floor.  The man begs for Bill to kill him.  Bill asks if he'd done anything to Jessica and the doctor whimpers yes, so Bill stomps on his head.  GROSS.  So far, just twelve minutes in, this episode is pretty much the bloodiest and nastiest episode I can recall in this whole series.

Funeral.  Andy speaks first, talking about how Terry disappeared into Fort Bellefleur - their childhood forest hideout - when he got back from the war.  We get a flashback and see the shell-shocked Terry, trying to make sense of his life back stateside, and Andy, trying to help his cousin, offering to find him a job.

Vamp camp.  As Bill stalks through the corridors, he sees vampires torturing humans in the same ways they had themselves been tortured.  When Eric releases some of the female vampires, he finds a woozy Jason who has been heavily fed upon.  Eric feeds Jason some of his blood, reviving him, so that Jason can guide him around the compound.  After the two of them walk by, Sarah Newlin drags herself out from under a pile of corpses where she has been hiding.  She runs quickly the other way.

Funeral.  Sam speaks, saying that Terry was one of the best employees and one of the best and most loyal friends he's ever had.  Flashback to Sam offering Terry a job as a cook, and the two of them and Andy going fishing together.  When Terry reels in a huge catfish, he tells Andy to throw it back, saying that every life matters.  And we have the episode title, woohoo!

Vamp camp.  Eric pauses long enough to catch up Pam's former therapist.  The man is ballsy enough to sneer that he will die a happy man since he "fucked [Eric's] progeny."  Eric immediately goes cold, snatching the protective contacts out of the therapist's eyes; thus glamoured, the therapist confirms that he traded sex with Pam for her release from solitary.  Eric relaxes a little and says that he's not going to kill him: he's going to bring him to Pam and let her kill him.  That scares the therapist somewhat.

Funeral.  Lafayette is next, relating a story about his first day working with Terry.  Flashback in which Terry spaces out and ruins a batch of fries.  He straightens up, though, and tells Lafayette that he wants to be good at this job and asks for him.  Lafayette looks deep in his eyes and sees something there.  He drops some of his usual snark and teaches him how to use the Fryolator.  After him, Terry's cousin Portia talks about being kids with Terry.  The preacher is ready to call Arlene up at this point, but Sookie hears Arlene's panicky thoughts: "I can't do this, I'm not ready, I'm not ready to say goodbye!"  Sookie walks up to the podium, giving Arlene a slight reprieve.  Then she comes out to the assembled people, saying that she's a telepath and, as such, she has a slightly different insight into Terry.  She - and we get a flashback - tells Arlene about the first night both Terry and Arlene worked together: Sookie read Terry's thoughts and heard that he was in love with Arlene from the first time he met her and he never stopped.  "Not too many people can say that they were loved like that.  But you can, Arlene."

Vamp camp.  Bill still hasn't found Eric but he has found a guard who is still alive.  He forces the guard to take him to the white room.  Meanwhile, Sarah Newlin is climbing up to the top of the building, breathily chanting the Lord's Prayer as she turns the wheel that opens the window into the white room.  But when she looks down into the now sun-filled room, she is horrified to find Bill there, spreadeagled with all the captive vampires sucking his blood from his arms, legs and throat.  Except for Steve Newlin, who can't seem to get in there.  Eric, Jason and the therapist show up.  While Jason guards the therapist, Eric grabs Steve Newlin, snarling that he has been around when everyone he loves has died.  He holds Steve by the throat and thrusts him into the sunlight; before Steve bursts into flame, he throws his head back, sees Sarah peeking down at him and cries, "I loved you ... Jason Stackhouse!"  After all the vampires have consumed enough Bill-blood to be protected from the sun, they start to flit around, dizzy and high from the blood.  Eric tells Pam that he saved the therapist for her.  She grins, "You take such good care of me," before baring her fangs and burying them in the therapist.

Funeral.  It's Arlene's time at the podium and she says that part of why she and Terry worked so well was because they took turns freaking out and taking care of each other.  Flashback:  the night their baby was born, Mikey wouldn't latch onto her breast and, not having slept, Arlene was beside herself.  But Terry was calm, encouraging her to take slow breaths.  She calmed down, and then the baby calmed down, and then the baby began to feed, and all was well.

Vamp camp.  Pam, Tara, Jessica, Willa, Violet, James and all the other vampires, still high, wander out of the compound, leaving the drained Bill on the floor.  He looks bad.  Topside, Jason grabs Sarah Newlin before she can get away.  And this scene is a bit tonally off, not only because we all know Jason is never going to kill Sarah, but it's just awkward.  Anyway, after a bit, Jason lets her go and she drives away, half-hysterical.

Funeral.  Big John (another of the cooks at Merlotte's) sings a lovely old gospel song, "Life Matters."  Pretty much everyone is in tears by the time he finishes.

Vamp camp.  As all the other vampires frolick in the sun, Eric systematically destroys the pallets of contaminated Tru Blood.  The rest of them think that looks like fun and join in.  And across the world (I guess Eric has made some phone calls?) vampires attack the delivery trucks and destroy the tainted Tru Blood shipments.  Back at the compound, Lilith's bloody merkin minions have come for Bill.  But Jessica comes to herself enough to rush back down to where he is lying, James at her side.  She feeds him some of her blood, still coursing with residual Warlow-ness, enough to revive him.

Funeral.  The Marines give a 21-gun salute, play "Taps" and fold the flag draped over Terry's coffin, handing it to Arlene.  She is actually at peace with this, thinking that she thinks even Terry would have appreciated the ceremony.  Sookie hears her and smiles a little, glad for her friend.

Vamp camp.  Jessica and James bring Bill up into the sunlight and all the vampires walk off in slow motion, some applauding him and thanking him for saving them.  Violet scoops up Jason, to his slight dismay.  Pam looks for Eric and finds him, standing apart from everyone.  They stare into each other's eyes.  He looks sad.  She says, "Don't you dare leave me" but he flies away as she gasps with pain.

The A.V. Club has a good recap/review of this episode in which they talk about the juxtaposition of Terry's funeral, as an example of "true human frailty done right," with Eric's bloody, over the top rampage through the humans in the vamp camp.  I see their point, I do.  And on my second viewing of it, I appreciated the funeral part more.  But the shallow part of me just can't get past the fact that we just spent half an episode on the funeral of a very minor character in a show with a superfluity of characters.  Still, it was a lovely send-off for Terry.

Previously on True Blood / next time on True Blood