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Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House is a long, re-imagining of the Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name. It’s a haunted house show, but actually the majority of the show is in flashback. The family all moved out of the haunted house years later... but events all lead them back to Hill House.
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MIDNIGHT MASS
netflix.com
From the creator of
The Haunting of Hill House and
The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan’s
Midnight Mass came out just in time for Halloween, on
Netflix.
Flanagan and his crew, including music by
The Newton Brothers,
Andy Grush and
Taylor Newton Stewart, all of whom have worked with Flanagan since his 2013 film
Oculus (a film that I love and own on Bluray).
I feel if I talk about the story of
Midnight Mass, it may be “spoilers”, but I don’t think it would ruin anything if I were to mention or identify the evil forces in the story. I think part of the enjoyment is that the story will slowly reveal what is behind all the “miracles”, so it is a bit of a mystery. However, I still don’t think you won’t enjoy it if I told you what it is about.
Like Flanagan’s previous shows, it’s really not about the ghost or the evil thing… it’s all about the characters. And he does this many of the characters on the isolated Crockett Island.
Riley Flynn is our main character, he returns to his hometown after spending years in prison for killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident. His character is haunted by this dead woman, and you always see her with flashing police light when the show shows his vision. Riley’s childhood sweetheart, Erin Greene, is also back on the island. Greene left the island, but found herself back, leaving her abusive husband, when she got pregnant.
Other characters that we follow are Father Paul Hill, the young, new priest at St. Patrick's Church, he holds a secret, which we will find out midway in the show, and Bev Keane, the overly zealous believer at St. Patrick’s Church. I don’t care what anyone says, Keane is the most evil character on the island… even though she doesn’t believe she’s evil.
The thing is, if you love the two previous
Haunting shows, you’ll really love
Midnight Mass. Everyone has long, long, long dialogues and monologues, but they are all delivered with such passion and sadness, that it’s hard to look away. You’ll cry, especially hearing Flynn’s last speech and his confession of love for Greene. It’s simply heart breaking.
If you hated
Haunting for its slow burn, then I don’t think you can handle
Midnight Mass. If you can survive the pilot (which doesn’t even hint at what the show is about), you might get a chance to enjoy it… but if slowness isn’t your thing, you won’t like
Midnight Mass.
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The Hunger Games
Film update: I just saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire at the dollar theater. We saw this at the New Hope Cinema Grill, for about $12, you can get meal and a film, which isn't bad.
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SQUID GAME
netflix.com
If you haven’t heard,
Squid Game is
Netflix’s blockbuster television show. Everyone, at least over 111 million, is watching this South Korean drama/thriller.
The show creator and director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, wrote the story, originally called “Round 6”, in 2009 and tried to get companies to fund the project. No one was interested, until finally in 2019, Netflix agreed to pay for it, as part of their foreign programming offerings.
This show is about desperate contestants in a game of death. Immediately, people will notice how similar it is to other films before it, like
Battle Royale or
The Hunger Games… except the contestants in Squid Game, they all want to play (they are not forced) for a chance to win.
The large cast of characters includes our main character Seong Gi-hun, player #456, who signed up for the deadly game to settle his gambling debts. Cho Sang-woo, player #218), is wanted by the police for embezzling billions of dollars… and who is also Gi-hun’s childhood friend.
Kang Sae-byeok, player #067, is a North Korean defector, trying to get money to bring her mother and brother across the border.
The protagonist in the story is a gangster named Jang Deok-su, player #101, who will do anything, kill anyone, in order to win the game. There are many other characters, but those are the main ones that I followed closely.
The most interesting thing about the television series is that is is very gripping and tense. I love how the story will unfold in directions that I didn’t see coming… but it made sense in the context of the film.
Anyway, in the end, the winner of the game received about 40 billion dollars.
The ending of the show is pretty good… although I felt like the show creator left some things open so there might be a second season of Squid Game. I hope not, I personally think that the story should just end with Episode 9, I don’t need a continuation of this story.
I can see another show, in this same universe, that takes place in a different country. After all, in the show, the V.I.P.’s talked about how they liked the Korean Games the best, suggesting that there are other games in other countries. With that… I wouldn’t mind seeing a deadly game of tic-tac-toe or hopscotch.
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Apple TV+
I’ve been enjoying the new American drama series called The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+. The television series was developed by Neil Cross and Tom Bissell and based on the 1981 novel by Paul Theroux.
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SEE
apple.com
Apple TV’s
See is a post-apocalyptic science fiction television show about a world where humans lost the ability to see.
It stars Jason Momoa, who was a big draw for me to watch it, but ultimately, I just felt the whole concept is just silly.
The story is about this sightless world, with its own rules, the Kane clan wanted to destroy all those who can see… putting our hero, Baba Voss (played by Jason Momoa) and his children in danger. Soon enough, Voss’ tribe is destroyed and they are on the run.
The second season just ended, setting up some things for season three (which was renewed by Apple).
Personally speaking, they should just end the series with the final episode in Season 2. The big battle was very good, and I felt it should just end in a high note.
Before I talk about the bad things in
See, I wanted to point out the one good thing the show has: it’s blind fight scenes. Because no one can see, the way they battle is just very interesting. For example, lots of low shots and misdirection. Visually, it looks so cool, because no one with vision will fight like this.
And that brings me to the terrible things about the show. Everyone is beautiful, like they have hairdressers and they wear makeup. Why would anyone look good when everyone is blind ? While we’re at it, why are there windows in houses ? Why are there flowers in vases ???? It just doesn’t make sense. In a visionless word, to me, there shouldn’t really be fire on torches or people wearing uniforms! I guess, realistically, if no one can see, wouldn’t you just walk around naked? Maybe I’m just overthinking it, but this whole sightless concept is just dumb.
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