Just a few months this week

Prologue

As always, this is an intentionally browseable set of weeknotes regarding things I “beheld” over the previous “week”¹.

These “weeknotes” support two purposes - recommendations to the handful of people who read it, and also giving me somewhere to look if I’m trying to remember if I watched something or not.

My exploration of Hugo Themes² is still something I need to properly work through, so there will be a Table of Contents around here somewhere, you can use that to navigate to whatever catches your eye.

So, it having been a mere three months for this “week”, rather than a couple of years or so, what have I enjoyed recently…

Wake Up Dead Man

The third film in the Knives Out series. Very contemporary whodunits of a sort.

I was particularly taken with the characters in this one, and with this kind of film attracting the level of actor who usually carry a movie on their own, “just” as part of an ensemble cast, the standard of acting is top notch. The film is a weird drama set in an isolated parish near New York, but it feels like it could be set within an English village. Some of the characters aren’t subtle, but they’ve all got depth, are internally coherent, and there’s enough here for you to grab onto. They feel like they’ve been brought together and a plot happened, rather than a plot happened and then some characters were written to fill in the gaps.

As the third in the series… you don’t need to have seen the other two, but if you have you’ll know if this is for you or not. Also, if you somehow haven’t seen the first two - I don’t think you need to have watched them to enjoy this, but it might help.

The Amazing Digital Circus

This is written in response to watching the latest episode of this very occasional series, if you’re interested to catch it on Netflix or YouTube.

Surprisingly similar to Wake Up Dead Man in a way - in that the emphasis is on the characters, and the mystery of why they are where they are, and who they were on the outside. But apart from that this is very, very different - I’m not quite sure how to describe it, a dark adult animated series about a small group trapped in a digital location - but about as far away as you could get from similar ideas, such as Tron or the Matrix.

The trailer will tell you whether it’s for you or not, you’ll find it here.

The War Between Land And Sea

A spin-off of Doctor Who, detailing a crisis faced by UNIT ( the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, a military organisation dedicated to defending Earth from extraterrestrial and paranormal threats ), a recurring organisation in the series. The premise - a race of dormant sentient sea creatures awakens on the Earth, and acts against humanity’s actions towards them, is thought provoking and full of potential… but I felt it was underused, or under-considered.

For example, the writer of this series is known for “fridging”³ characters rather than giving them more intricate or complex peril to deal with, which meant that this series had a higher body count than I thought it deserves, even though it has “war” in the title.

But still, this was enjoyable - with some standout performances - but was barely publicised, which didn’t give it a good shot at attracting viewers. Broadcasting it as two double episodes and a single episode finale across three Sundays felt like a decision made because the BBC didn’t know what to do with it. If you’re not a Doctor Who fan I think it’s still an interesting watch, just to see where they took the idea.

Cyrano

Yet another interpretation of the story of Cyrano de Bergerac which kind of felt as though it was “done”. But this ended up being a fantastic and fantastical film, outstanding performances really sold the idea - reminiscent of Anna Karenina from my last post in that anything with a hint of a musical or magical realism works for me when it’s convincingly leaned into… and if it works, I’m swept away. Recommended watching, but it expires on iPlayer the night I’m writing this, so find it on your favourite streaming services.

John Wick 4

A fitting end (probably) to this film franchise, in a way. As good as the other films, and very much along the same lines as previous outings. I assume you know the franchise by now, a global underground of assassins and one man’s battle to survive his tenure with them. One thing to highlight if you’re a fan, and haven’t seen this yet, is that maybe the film was longer and looser than it could have been - which feels like the last ( both “most recent” and “final one of the franchise” ) Mission Impossible - it felt like the creative team behind it knew that this was the last chance to include any of their favourite ideas, so included them all. Although also, to be fair, I watched it on a relaxed Boxing Day, with a couple of short breaks.

To give away something of a spoiler… I would have liked to have seen Wick take on “The Table”, how to manoeuvre in and around such systems always interests me, especially to subvert them from the inside, when the system itself is so arcane and complex you just know that every variation of the rules, or every action of the system’s constituent parts, hasn’t been determined.

The Night Manager - first series

A very British spy thriller. Incredibly well acted - outstanding performances from the cast, from the surprising range of the leads to the ability of the co-stars and smaller roles to do so much with so little. Well, the range of the leads isn’t surprising really, considering Hiddleston, Colman, and Laurie are involved - but still sometimes I catch myself afterwards recalling their other roles.

I enjoyed the relatively slow pace of this - I wonder if this was an intentional choice, or a sign that it was made before creatives were overly concerned about their viewers “second screening”? This first series having been made in 2016.

Recommended watching, should be on iPlayer if you’re in the UK.

The Night Manager - second series

Do watch the first series first.

Otherwise…. oh. Overall - I liked it, but I just liked it. Because it’s so well liked, and because so much is dependent on the plot and its twists and turns, I’m hesitant to post anything - if you enjoyed the first series then, just, I think you should watch this too - but be mindful that a third series has been planned before the second was filmed. And in a vague way it felt “off”, but maybe that was because I came to it soon after finally watching the first series.

Damsel

A very 2024, very Netflix, fantasy film. It’s a pretty good film. I mean, that covers it really - at the time of writing it seems to have middling scores on all the movie review sites, which I think is fair. Its set in a fantastical world where a kingdom can be saved by a princess marrying the prince from a distant land, but all is not as it seems. It tries to be a subversion of more traditional fairy tales… which works in parts, but the emphasis on that aspect seems variable rather than subtle.

Competent performances all round, and it rattles along nicely, the effects and scenery are spectacular - but for us very much “that was enjoyable enough” rather than “wow”. If you intend to watch it then don’t watch the trailer though - if a modern fantasy film, of swords and dragons, is for you, do jump straight in.

The War of the Worlds

Not any of the modern movies - which I must watch at some point - but the original book by HG Wells. Well, in a way, I read a recent edition designed for academic use, so this came with some annotations, and also included historical corrections from later editions, and modernised punctuation.

What an interesting read - I’m familiar with the story, and of course there’s no “peril” here, it’s a first person narrative being told from the viewpoint of a survivor. But still, a stimulating read and engaging read too - I think this was partly because the honesty of the central character came through strongly, therefore I didn’t doubt or rethink the narrator’s point of view at any point; and I’m somewhat familiar with London and the England it was set in. Also I don’t have the analytical skills to figure out why… not while reading and enjoying the book anyway… but it was an easy read. In my current situation it’s very difficult to read during the day, so I tend to read in bed - I thought I’d been too online and damaged my ability to read, but actually I think I was just trying to read the wrong thing - books that were “worthy” rather than well written fiction books or books I was naturally interested in. For whatever reason this was a real page turner, and its short chapters made it easy to go through, in the best “just a few more pages, then I’ll go to sleep” way.

New Tactical Games With Dice And Cards

A useful book by famous game designer Reiner Knizia. Full of ideas on mechanics to use in simple dice or card games, with the minimum of pieces required.

It was good to see Knizia’s “working” on some of his ideas, although this is clearly based in an interest in those mechanics, rather than in an interest in the phenomenon he’s using for themes, such as electoral processes. I’m more interested in what mechanics will emulate real world processes rather than this more abstract approach, but this was still a good read, if only to see what can be achieved with a set of rules and a few dice or a pack of cards.

King Knight

Lovely film about Thorn, leader of a small Wiccan cult in present-day California, and his journey when it’s revealed that he’s lied to his life partner and fellow cult members, and must deal with the consequences. As is usually the case the trailer will tell you if this is for you or not in a couple of minutes. I found it laugh out loud funny, and - to steal a phrase from the trailer - “uncommonly endearing”.

The Traitors UK - series four

Just a hasty mention as I realised as I hadn’t written anything down on this. Considering my interest in game design I wonder if I should say a lot more on it - but great choices in casting and mechanics and editing, this shows no sign of slowing down as a franchise.

Talamasca: The Secret Order

Set in the same “universe” as Interview With A Vampire - the recent TV series. You don’t need to have watched that to understand this really, but it might help. And, as expected with anything featuring vampires, occasionally blood and gore features very prominently.

Well acted, everybody was professional and believable. Which is always needed for anything with fantastical themes. Which is also something I find myself typing over and over - but I think that says more about the quality of what I spend my time on, and what my partner finds us to watch, more than it being true of the genre. Something that really caught my eye, the evocative use of locations, but I don’t know London well enough to know if the alleged locations worked, or the travel between them ( apparently Manchester stands in for London a lot of the time ), but they all seemed to have right fit.

And it’s full of “likeable enough” characters, enough that you can empathise with them even if they make decisions you hopefully wouldn’t make for ethical reasons, rather than they make clearly poor decisions for the sake of the plot. But this series fits in with Interview with the Vampire in that it’s all a bit grim, and there’s nothing as clear as the goodies and baddies. Of course the series is all the better for it.

The plot and intrigue is especially good, we’re not usually surprised by how things turn out, but this is particularly well thought through. As I’m sure I say every other post, I’m always interested in how fantastical powers or situations would play out, especially in a kind of “hidden world”, and Talamasca doesn’t disappoint.

The Seattle Seahawks 2025 season

Sports is just art being created for you live, a set of enjoyable narratives to engross yourself in for a while. You get the most out of it by involving yourself with the characters, and following their lows and highs, but feeding off the drama regardless of whether they win or lose.

And from a deceptively uninspiring start the Seahawks provided us an ending which, appropriately, one commentator described as “NFL poetry” - defeating divisional rivals twice in the playoffs, and then seeing off the New England Patriots, and old wound, in the Super Bowl. Arguably the match wasn’t that entertaining if you weren’t a Seahawks fan - but a comprehensive victory, and an incredibly well played game, topped off a similarly fun season.

Over the last decade the Patriots have more victories, but I do wonder if the Seahawks have given us better characters, and better stories?

I really enjoyed this one, we’ll see what next year brings….

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