News and commentary: progress in work
If you’re browsing your Netflix account for something to watch over the July 4th holiday weekend, Adam Sandler is starring in a new direct-to-video comedy alongside Jennifer Aniston. Murder Mystery is the latest movie offering from the exclusive deal between his Happy Madison Productions and the online streaming service.
Content consumers wary of any film or TV series branded as a Netflix original may understandably hesitate about adding The Highwaymen to their watch list. The Highwaymen chronicles the events after the government hires legendary retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) in 1934 to essentially do an OO7 on violent celebrity gangsters/folk heroes Bonnie and Clyde. The no-nonsense Hamer brings another Ranger colleague out of retirement for the road trip pursuit.
The one-season Egyptian television series Disappearance (original name Ekhtefa) by writer/directer Ayman Medhat is currently streaming on Netflix. According to the Netflix summary, “A university lecturer in Russia returns to Egypt after her husband’s sudden disappearance, uncovering further mysteries the more she investigates.”
Content consumers wary of any film or TV series branded as an Amazon Prime Original or Netflix Original may have those feelings justified by White Dragon, an eight-episode mystery drama from the U.K. currently streaming on the retail giant’s video platform. Although the Hong Kong backdrop — both the skyline and the street level — is beautiful, and you’ll appreciate the cinematography especially if you’ve visited there before, the series narrative puts the “drag” in dragon. You may even be sorely tempted to bail as early as episode one when the main character unbelievably can’t figure out how to obtain a phone charging cable in Hong Kong of all places!
Nothing says Christmas like a kick-ass crime drama, right? Over the holidays, you might be scrolling through the Netflix menu — or another streaming platform — trying to find something, anything to watch that looks interesting. This is otherwise known as first-world problems.
Z Nation mercied: Over the weekend, disappointing news emerged that the Syfy channel decided to cancel the zombie apocalypse series Z Nation, ending its five-season run effective with the December 28 finale episode.
“I give you mercy” is Z Nation’s signature catchphrase when one of the principals puts an about-to-turn victim out of his or her misery. In this context, mercy has also become a verb.
Now in Season 5, the quirky and campy series which some have described as a horror comedy is a far more entertaining flesh-eater opus than The Walking Dead. The latter, now in its 9th season on AMC, could be a dead show walking as its viewership continues to drastically decay.
Former fans apparently don’t even want to hate-watch the show anymore. According to Deadline Hollywood, “the future is increasingly bleak” for TWD as a result of the ratings hitting all-time lows since its October debut.
The action-packed and lower budget Z Nation is simply a lot more fun to watch than TWD, given the latter’s mostly dour characters with their repetitive, tedious moralizing about zombie apocalypse ethics, a narrative that treads water for episodes in succession, inexplicable and absurd plot developments, and self-righteous characters who ping-pong from pacifism to stone-cold killers and then back to pacifism. Then there is the disproportionate face-time for a peripheral character who you know won’t be alive at the end of the episode.
Despite ongoing hand-to-hand combat with zombies, it was only in TWD Season 8, moreover,that the show revealed that a survivor might get sick from being covered in zombie blood or guts.
The departure of stars Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan (who play Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee, respectively) isn’t helping matters any. It also calls into serious question why the showrunners decided to kill off Carl, Rick Grimes’ TV son (Chandler Riggs) who was poised to become the next-generation leader of the survivors. [AMC subsequently announced that it was planning several original Rick Grimes-focused movies for the TWD universe.]
With that in mind, TWD has received criticism online for too much chat and not enough splat.
Filmed in Washington state, the “cheesy” Z Nation has featured the following that you will never see on Georgia-based The Walking Dead: a giant zombie-killing cheese wheel, zombies on Viagra, zombie pole dancers, the iconic Liberty Bell in Philadelphia pulverizing zombies, a communicative zombie named “grandpa,” Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin as an autograph-signing zombie, a struggle with a drug cartel which trafficked in “Z weed,” and the birth of a zombie-human hybrid zombaby, who aged after a very rapid, apocalyptic growth spurt, and who was played by several different actresses.
Is Z Nation‘s tone getting too serious?
The television series Money Heist (which originally aired in Spai as La Casa de Papel – “The House of Paper”) is currently streaming on Netflix with subtitles. Be advised that you’ll have to power through 22 episodes of the show created by Alex Pina which has excellent production values until you reach the end of the two-season saga.
In its 1Q 2018 report to shareholders, the streaming service indicated that Money Heist “was the most watched non-English series on Netflix ever.”
The character-driven, entertaining, and twisty plot, albeit with various predictable elements, admittedly gets you hooked immediately.
Spoilers Follow
That said, the annoying contrivances are beyond belief to the point that you may be tempted to throw your remote at the TV screen even if you aren’t taking sides between cops and robbers or if you are rooting for the robbers for political or ideological reasons (see below). The only reasonable conclusion is that the latter was the intent of the showrunners.
There may be even a political component. “If the ticking time-bomb approach isn’t gripping enough for you, the top-notch direction, writing, and smart symbolism (a little socialism versus capitalism, anyone?) are all points in the series’ favor,” the New York Post‘s “Decider” section claimed.
The basic premise of Money Heist, which seems to have received lots of positive reviews including a Rotten Tomatoes 88-percent average audience score, revolves around a passive-aggressive, detail-oriented mastermind called The Professor who recruits eight hardened crooks to break into the Royal Mint of Spain, a caper that they spend five months game-planning at a secluded estate.
An Ambitious Scheme
You’ll quickly realize, even before it’s revealed, that the caper goes beyond just a grab and go for the cash on hand inside but actually a far more ambitious scheme (suggested by the title) to loot $2.4 billion euros and which prompts a hostage situation with cops surrounding the Madrid facility.
Each episode includes key flashbacks to the planning mode as well as each bandit’s backstory.
As the events move forward, each of the characters face conflicting loyalties.
The crafty Professor runs the operation from the outside, and the engaging robbers in Salvador Dali masks go by city code names, Berlin (the George Clooney doppelganger who leads the group after they break in to the Mint), Tokyo, Nairobi, Moscow, Denver, Rio, Helsinki, and Oslo.
money heist 10/10 !! pic.twitter.com/RoQsGmaCfY
— nArDy (@narrddy) September 26, 2018
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Alvaro Morte does a stellar job in the role of The Professor with the amazing ability to go from a benign or confident demeanor to abject horror within seconds.
Reminiscent of Walter White from Breaking Bad, he also mind-games all of the police investigators with alacrity. You could say that while he is playing chess, the ability of the cops In Money Heist doesn’t even rise to the checkers level.
With a big assist from the aforementioned very-slow-to-catch-on law enforcement, he is able to outwit and manipulate the police at almost every turn in the standoff and throw them off the trail. The other crew members, such as sultry Tokyo (Ursula Corbero), who narrates the opus, give strong performances too, as do the entire ensemble, including other actors in supporting cast, such as the hostages, that you get to know as the plot unfolds. Alba Flores (Nairobi) and Paco Tous (Moscow) are also standout performers.
Hide the Cheese?
Itziar Ituno plays the gullible, neurotic National Police Inspector Raquel Murillo, “the most qualified officer to handle a hostage situation,” who — apart from occasional flashes of insight — completely bungles the police response. She also allows The Professor to worm his way into her personal life under his alter ego Salva, with predictable results.
The cat-and-mouse game between The Professor and the inspector has a simultaneously predictable and unbelievable resolution.
If you begin to watch it.. you can't stop 💛😉 #MoneyHeist #lacasadepapel #lacasadicarta #enjoyablesurprise #Netflix #TVseries #mymix1and2season #bellaciao #excellentcast #action #funny #love #family #brilliant #strong #watchitandenjoy 👋 pic.twitter.com/tjl421PJaH
Set in an apparently mythical barbershop, Whitlock claimed that the NBA superstar who joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent made a fool of himself in something akin to a minstrel show and fake news.
He described the “inauthentic” presentation as a “profane, primitive, and privileged” look inside the fantasy world of black millionaires sipping goblets of wine in an environment which is far removed from reality.
The host of Speak for Yourself, Whitlock is one of the very few commentators in sports journalism, at least on television, who articulates a different view from the groupthink of the politically correct blue-check Twitter cohort.
Watch the FS1 video clips below and draw your own conclusions.
Whitlock: Profanity-laced 'The Shop' diminishes LeBron's brand & reputation. pic.twitter.com/kDXLn5Jc7b
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) August 29, 2018
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Dahntay: LeBron's new show "The Shop" was indicative of black barbershops in today's culture. @dahntay1 pic.twitter.com/V74VkCl1PC
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