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Dexter Goes

Dexter: Original Sin Read More Dexter How do mess up Dexter twice?!!??? Universally, everybody hated the final Dexter Season 8. No one was satisified with the last season, especially the “Lumberjack” ending. After ten years, Showtime said …

Dexter: Original Sin
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You guys know I love Dexter, but I hated the original ending. Everybody hated the “Lumberjack” ending of Season Eight. So the showrunners said, they were going to fix that ending by giving us a true ending with Dexter: New Blood. What they did was actually made it WORST!!! The ending of New Blood was that so awful, that it made me absolutely hate Dexter. What a horrible show.

Can Dexter be redeemed? Maybe! There’s still hope! The brand new Dexter: Original Sin, the prequel, just aired on December 13, 2024, on Paramount+ with Showtime. I am hoping, no, I am praying the show is good. Please let the show have a good story.

If you are new to Dexter, this show was based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay, about a serial killer who kills other serial killers. By Season 2 or 3, Dexter stopped using the novels and spun into its own television storyline. The early seasons were all very good, but starting with Season 6, and later, the stories were all awful. I felt like they ran out of material or ideas.

Anyway, the new prequel introduces a brand-new cast of actors, playing all the characters that we remembered and love: Debra, Angel, even horny Asian creep Masuka!! I smiled when I saw these familiar characters but played by different (younger) actors.

So far, only the pilot is available, and it is off to a very good start. I thought it was going to be a slow grind to his first kill - but right off the bat, by the end of the episode, Dexter already drew the first blood. At this pace, I am very interested in seeing where the rest of the series takes us. I am on board for the ride.

I think Patrick Gibson (who was in the OA) as Dexter was a great cast. Christian Slater (famous for Heathers and Pump Up the Volume … and recently in Mr. Robot) plays Dexter’s dad, Harry, who introduced Dexter to his code… and it seems like Slater might play a bigger role in this Original Sin series.

I even like fowl-mouth Debra (played by Molly Brown), and I hope she has a bigger role.

The only returning actor, as far as I can tell, is Michael C. Hall, who is now the narrator of the inner voice of Dexter.

Again, I am really, really, really hoping they stick the landing on this new series.

Come of Age (Deluxe) by Princess Goes Read More Dexter Dexter: Okay, I love season 1-3. This final season 8 was absolutely the worst. It was such, such, such a disappointing ending that it neglect all good things about Dexter. Absolutely a terrible season to end on. …

Princess Goes
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Speaking of Michael C. Hall (the actor who plays Dexter), did you know he is in a band called Princess Goes? Yes, he writes and sings in Princess Goes, alongside keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen (Blondie, Cyndie Lauper) and drummer Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers, Morningwood)… and their second album Come Of Age is out now on SO In De Goot Recordings.

Earlier in September, the band shared the deluxe version of Come of Age, that had an additional five alternative versions of songs from the album. About the new alternative version, the band tells us, “In the late spring of ’24 we left our routines, and the comfort of our own recording studio in downtown NYC and flew to Asheville, North Carolina to record at a studio called Echo Mountain, (which, by the way, is in an old church). Since one of us currently lives in Asheville it made sense to switch it up and work down there. We really loved our stay in beautiful Asheville and hopefully it showed in the music we made at Echo Mountain.”

Shortly after the recording and release of their album, Hurricane Helene devastated the town of Asheville, so the band felt compelled to help the communities with a charity fundraising for BeLoved Asheville.

Since Hall is now involved in Dexter: Original Sin (and if the series is successful), we may not see Princess Goes for a while… but maybe during the off season, we might see the band on tour again. Let’s hope!

Read more Television.

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Countdown to Halloween

Read More Hellraiser Some commonly seen t-shirts were Nightbreed and Hellraiser, which I thought were cool, since I have always thought Clive Barker is genius. Also, this year they had music as part of the show. …

October is the month of horror, as we countdown to Halloween.

Hellraiser (2022)
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The first really good horror film to come out this year is the new Hellraiser film, exclusive to Hulu. The 2022 Hellraiser film based on and re-imagined Clive Barker’s Hellbound Heart novella. Barker, himself, wrote and directed the original Hellraiser film in 1987, which set a new standard for horror films.

Instead of just another sequel, like so many of the other Hellraiser films, this new Hulu version created new rules and lore on the Lemarchand’s puzzle box… namely that the box can cut you with hidden blades to feed the box. Once you are marked, the Cenobites will appear to destroy you. The other new rule is that if you solve the box’s six configuration, you are granted with an audience with the Cenobite’s god Leviathan.

I like the new additions to Clive Barker’s original story, and I think it is fresh and exciting to get new ideas to this franchise. I didn’t even mind that Pinhead is now played by a woman. We’ve had different actors played Pinhead in the past, so it’s not out of the realm of possibly to replace the original Pinhead played by Doug Bradley. There’s also a new Chatterer, a new Angelique, and some new Cenobites that I’ve never seen before.

Next to Hellraiser and Hellraiser II: Hellbound, this new 2022 Hellraiser is worthy of the title.

Note: When I first heard that Hulu was making a Hellraiser film, I immediately thought it was a television show. To me, that made a lot sense, to treat the franchise as a regular television program. For example, you can have a death every episode, as the box travel from hand to hand. You can tell so much different stories, based on the box. The comic book did a good job in telling different stories in that universe… and a television show could have the same structure.

Read More Let the Right One In I will admit to having reservations about the American re-make of Let the Right One In, called Let Me In. I mean, if you ever saw the 2008 Swedish film (based on the 2004 best-selling book "Låt den rätte komma in" …

Let The Right One In (2022)
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I’ve never read the original book, but I am a fan of the 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In. I even thought the American re-make of the film, titled Let Me In (2010), starring Chloë Grace Moretz, was not bad and it told a more cohesive story.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s about vampire child who befriends a 12-year-old boy. The way the story is told, it’s not really a horror film, but more like a weird love story.

The new Showtime television series, Let the Right One In, is loosely based on the book. Right away, they made all sorts of changes to the novel, like changing the race of the 12-year-old boy. Eli the vampire girl, they made her Spanish. Her father (perhaps?) is Lebanese, and the whole story takes place in America. They also introduce this secondary story about how they are trying to solve the vampire problem by hunting down and killing the original vampire. There’s also another family with a vampire child. I don’t think these new storylines … I think they did this so they can stretch out the story in a new directions. Again, I haven’t read the novel, so I don’t know how true they are to the story, but I suspect these new ideas were created for the television show.

While it’s too early to judge the series, right now, I am not loving this new TV show. The only exception is that they cast Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter) as Claire Logan. I love Gummer when she was in Mr Robot, so I love seeing her in Let the Right One In.

Read More Werewolves In my final installment of Halloween treats, I'm going to compile some songs about Werewolves. I actually had a lot more Halloween-related posts I wanted to do, but lately I have not been home. …

Werewolf by Night (2022)
disneyplus.com

Based on the Marvel Comics of the same title, Werewolf by Night is the latest horror film from Disney Plus.

This might be the first of the new type of Marvel’s Horror titles, which will likely to include Blade, Son of Satan, and other Supernatural horror in their back catalog.

While I understand the film maker’s decision, I actually did not like watching Werewolf by Night as a Black & White (with some splashes of red) film. I think the B&W made it look hokey and cheesy. Like it is a bad Roger Corman film… and perhaps that is what they were going for.

The one redeeming thing about Werewolf by Night is that they introduced Man-Thing, which is one of my favorite “Swampy” creatures (with Swamp Thing and The Heap in that same family).

Description:

On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader. In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster. Inspired by horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, the chilling special aims to evoke a sense of dread and the macabre, with plenty of suspense and scares along the way as we explore a new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Psycho Killer, better run, run, run away

Read More Crime Drama While I’ve enjoyed and intrigued by the early episodes of Clarice, I have to admit that the show is running in circles right now. The show suffers from two major problems: the COVID pandemic …

Read more Television.

YOU
netflix.com

The third season of You recently aired on Netflix and it got everyone talking about the series. So I decided to check out the first season (which originally aired on Lifetime).

The story is about this weird stalker, Joe, and his obsession with this girl, Guinevere Beck (who just goes by “Beck”). The majority of the show is seen through Joe’s eyes… in his eyes, he’s not doing anything wrong. He thinks he’s protecting Beck, but, in truth, he’s really a serial killer.

The Beck character is really an awful person, she is living this lie, her life is a mess, she has terrible friends, I’m not entirely sure why Joe was so obsessed with her. I guess love’s in the eye of the beholder.

The show reminds me a little of Dexter, a serial killer who kills other serial killers. Dexter’s father taught him his “code” and it’s that principle that makes Dexter who he is. In You, Joe also has a code, taught by the bookstore owner at an early age.

Part of the reason why the first season is so good is that it’s full of twists of turns. You never really know what the truth is and what is a lie. The other part is that it’s based on Caroline Kepnes’s You novel.

Since Kepnes wrote two other books, Hidden Bodies and You Love Me, I’m hoping Season 2 and 3 should be good too.

Read More Dexter Dexter: Okay, I love season 1-3. This final season 8 was absolutely the worst. It was such, such, such a disappointing ending that it neglect all good things about Dexter. Absolutely a terrible season to end on. …

DEXTER: NEW BLOOD
sho.com

Do you remember how I absolutely hated the final season to Dexter? I guess everybody hated the final season, so the show producers is going to do a do-over. The fresh start will be called Dexter: New Blood, and it will air on Showtime on November 7th, 2021. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see new Dexter content… especially, if it’s good. I guess we’ll find out this November.

If you don’t remember Season 8, which originally aired in 2013, the writers wrote him into a corner. Deb, Dexter’s step-sister, falls in love with him, which is so weird. What were the writers thinking?

In the end, Dexter disappears in a hurricane. The epilogue shows Dexter, working as a lumberjack. I thought New Blood was going to continue that storyline… but apparently this upcoming series will be totally different.

Star Michael C Hall explained the lumberjack thing was received negatively, so they decided New Blood was going to take a different direction. In fact, they don’t even want to call the new series Season 9.

Watching the trailer on YouTube, you see that Deb is back. She died in Season 8, sorry spoilers, so it looks like maybe she’s replaced Dexter’s dad as the new Dark Passenger. The trailer also shows Dexter’s son, so this should be quite interesting (although I don’t really like kid actors).

I hope Dexter: New Blood is good… and if it is, it will save the series for me, since Season 8 ended on such a bad note.

Read More Scream Also, I was sad to learn that horror legend Wes Craven passed away last Sunday (August 30th). As you know, I actually own a lot of his films, including Last House on the Left (not shown, but I own it on DVD), Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. …

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
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I’m just going to say it, I Know What You Did Last Summer television show from Amazon Prime is absolute trash. Just terrible. I know I’m not the audience for it, it’s meant for teenagers.

The movie I Know What You Did Last Summer was loosely based on the novel of the same name, but it definitely had similar vibe to Wes Craven’s Scream (both movie scripts were written by Kevin Williamson).

While the television series shares the same premise of the movie about a group of friends who accidentally killed someone in a car accident. Instead of going to the police, they decided to get rid of the body and keep this secret. A year later, after returning from college, the group of friends are stalked by someone who knows their terrible secret. The killer would write things like, “I know what you did last summer”, hence the title… the tv series is very different in its approach. I think it’s more based on the book, and I can’t tell if it’s the acting or the film making… but it is just not a good story.

Again, I think I’m just not the right audience for this show.

Rotten Tomatoes has less than 50% rating, some citing “the show's many plot holes and unsatisfying twists.”

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

TV: Penny Dreadful, Outlander, and Westworld

Read more Television.

Read More Television The pilot does an incredible job of setting the tone and style of the show. This was a police procedural crime drama with two parallel storylines: Detective Bosch on trial for the murder of an alleged serial …

PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS
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We first talked about Penny Dreadful in April 2014 and was excited about the television show and its concept of fictional characters like Frankenstein and Dorian Grey being in the same universe. I liked the show enough to buy the first two seasons on Bluray.

Instead of continuing the Penny Dreadful series, the showrunner and creator John Logan decided to do a spinoff show called Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

The new show has nothing to do with the original Penny Dreadful series, so I’m wondering why bother keeping the name in the first place. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels instead focus on Mexican folklore and based in Los Angeles during the late 1930s.

Even though critics praises the new series, I found it really hard to watch the pilot and really understand the story.

About The Series

1938 Los Angeles is a time and place deeply infused with social and political tension. When a grisly murder shocks the city, Detective Tiago Vega and his partner Lewis Michener become embroiled in an epic story that reflects the rich history of Los Angeles: from the building of the city's first freeways and its deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, to the dangerous espionage actions of the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism. Before long, Tiago and his family are grappling with powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart.

On another Showtime note, their fan-favorite series Outlander concluded on Mother’s Day (May 10). The series started off incredibly strong, and deservingly-so as the concept of a woman trapped in 17th century Scotland.

As the series continues, leaving Scotland and going to France and then America… it just felt like the later seasons were a completely different show.

While I will always love the first season of Outlander, I’m afraid I can’t recommend the later Seasons to anyone else.

I did tune in to watching the series finale, despite not having watched Outlander Season 3 to 5. I think if I had watched the entire show from beginning to ending, that I would’ve felt more strongly or satisfied by some of the character’s deaths.

Read More Westworld He recently worked on HBO’s Westworld, with bits from that score heard during the countdown to the main show starting. …

WESTWORLD
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HBO has been struggling to find its new hit show since Game of Thrones ended (and it ended badly). Westworld potentially could have been the next-Game of Thrones, but unfortunately Season 2 of Westworld was not good.

What was compelling about the first Season of Westworld was the mystery of who’s a robot and who’s human. It was fun to guess and it was fun to see if we were right. Unfortunately, Season 2 decided to set itself in Samurai World and had a complicated three timeline story that ultimately wasn’t exciting or worthwhile.

Again, Westworld returned with Season 3, and again, the story is completely different from the original show. In Season 3, some robots escaped the park and is in the human world. Despite the Cyperpunkiness of it all, I found it hard to really like the show. I think it’s just the storyline.

If you were interested in checking out Westworld, I highly recommend Season 1 and just avoid the later Seasons.

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