The Harder They Fall

Netflix Original

A stacked cast and a smart script makes The Harder They Fall one of my favorite movies of 2021. Not many westerns are made these days so as a genre picture, it stands out from the crowd even further.

The Harder They Fall is about Nat Love. His mother and father are killed in front of him by the pistols of the notorious gang leader, Rufus Buck, when he’s a young boy. When the story picks up years later, Nat is an outlaw and a bounty hunter. When he finds out that Buck has been rescued from being a prisoner by his Crimson Hood gang, Nat turns to his own Love Gang to go after him and stop him once and for all.

This movie doesn’t do anything new for the genre. It’s got the same stakes: revenge and a lot of money at stake. It’s a fusion of modern cinema aesthetics (it looks super slick and clean, the action scenes are very rambunctious with a camera eager to fly around to catch everything), with some throwback mixes of Spaghetti Westerns and Blackspoitation films. This is the kind of movie that I’m sure Quentin Tarantino liked and will appear on his best of the year list. So while it doesn’t do anything that new, it does everything really well.

The revenge story is set up from the first scene and that leads to a great reveal at the end. Every character that shows up gets a great intro and later, their time to shine. The cast is really big, some of the biggest and best Black actors in the business right there. They each fit a great role in the story and stand out in their line delivery and costumes. Everyone looks different and has their own quirks. In just 2 hours I got a good feel for everyone and when their death came about, it felt meaningful. That’s a great achievement from the pages to the screen. There are a ton of great lines and plenty of memorable scenarios. The script pulls out every kind of emotion to set up and follow through with scenes that keep everyone in motion. Sadness and sorrow, anger and opportunity, excitement, suspense, danger, relief, compassion, greed, morals, and companionship.

I’ve never heard of director Jeymes Samuel, he’s done some work in the industry in the music department before this. He met the right contacts doing that because he got his shot to make this movie in a big way. There was a serious budget for this movie, it all shows up on the screen. He directed the hell out of this and despite using modern music for a movie that is set a hundred years ago, I think those choices work really well. I had so much fun watching this. I was engaged from start to finish and I liked every character. The sides are drawn as good vs evil, or maybe not so bad vs evil. The bad guys are cool and are more than just bad for being the sake of being bad, there’s depth and reasoning behind what they do. So much right happened with this movie that the entire production team needs to work together again. I highly recommend The Harder They Fall as it’s from an exciting new filmmaker that could bring us more great movies.

Running on Ice

NY Rangers

17-5-3

Last night, the Colorado Avalanche stopped the Rangers 7 game winning streak. It’s been a crazy stretch since the middle of November that saw the Rangers come together as a team. This streak was the longest since the 2015 season and put them near the top of the entire league and right underneath the Capitals for first place in the Metro division (the Caps were losing in OT which meant they lost ground slower to the Rangers, who were constantly winning, by getting one point instead of none by losing in regulation).

There’s been great concern since Igor got hurt (groin) a week ago. Georgiev played the last 15 minutes of that game and stopped all 9 shots to maintain the shutout against San Jose. He started the next two games and won those games as well, boosting is meager stats. Last night was a back to back so Adam Huska took over the net for his first NHL game. It was a trial by fire.

A 7-3 loss, the worst game since the shutout under the heels of Calgary. Were the Rangers simply too tired from the late game in Chicago the night before? Probably. Whatever it was, the team defense was horrible after the first period (ending 2-1 Rangers). It’s the kind of game where a lot went wrong and Colorado is a fast team that can and will take advantage of any mistakes their opponent makes. That’s basically what happened. With such a long streak, one loss isn’t a big deal. Have to sweep this one under the rug and move on. At least Nils got his first NHL goal, which was fantastic. It’s a busy schedule all the way up to Christmas…Buffalo tomorrow which shouldn’t be a problem and Colorado again next week (first game against Arizona too, which has to be a blowout by the Rangers).

Onward and upward!

Brand New Cherry Flavor

Netflix Original

Revenge is a dangerous road to travel.

Set in 1990s Los Angeles, Lisa Nova comes to town with her short film under her belt looking to make it big as a movie director. She meets movie producer Lou Burke who thinks her short is something special. The quality of her short film shows that she has a lot of talent and he makes a deal with her to start her Hollywood career. Not long after the ink is dry on the contract, Lou steals her project to turn her short into a feature-length film. A furious Lisa then runs into one more terrible person called Boro. Boro sees this young, strong, angry woman as a tool, not a person. She offers Lisa revenge and Lisa is eager for her help.

Brand New Cherry Flavor is nuts. That’s the easiest way to explain the whole show. By the end of the first episode, you know this is a revenge tale. What you don’t know is how far down the mouth of madness you’ll see Boro take Lisa. Boro is a witch, and what Lisa doesn’t recognize until it’s too late is that Boro also has an agenda. She isn’t being helped. she’s being exploited. And that’s after Lisa is exploited by a scum bag movie producer, so Lisa’s anger blinds her. Any rational thought is thrown out the window until it’s too late to stop (spells have very strict rules). Even faced with doing things that are far from normal, Lisa continues down the rabbit hole Boro opened. The first side effect of Boro’s spell is an alarming one that no one could ever see coming: vomiting kittens. By that I mean Lisa gives birth to kittens by painfully throwing up. Kittens that Boro then comes to collect for…her own use. If there is an upside, it’s only one cat at a time.

Regurgitating kittens isn’t the craziest thing that happens either. Spirits/demons, assassins, zombies, body horror, and assorted scorned people also come into play.

The intriguing thing about New Cherry is that everyone gets their own backstory that makes you reconsider how you view them. Lisa isn’t as innocent as she looks. She’s got her own out-of-bounds reason that she shows up in LA on her own. Lou is set in his ways, doing anything he wants to leverage his place in the industry. It’s brought him great success, so why would he stop? Roy is a huge movie star that’s trying to stay a huge movie star. Behind the scenes, he’s a mess, but his Hollywood image portrays a man who has everything going for him…and there is something about Lisa that draws him back to her one crazy event after another. I guess helping to dispose of a body is a great relationship builder.

Take these people (and a few more, I’m leaving quite a few out), introduce a witch who is a master at pulling strings, and watch as their lives turn into a complete nightmare. Revenge rarely goes well and the force of destruction often ends up much larger than ever thought possible.

In terms of overall storytelling, New Cherry hits all the staples of the genre. What it lacks in originality, it picks up in wild scenarios that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Half the time you’ll wonder what’s going to happen next, if anything could be more shocking than what you just saw, and if anyone is going to survive. New Cherry isn’t for everyone, it’s very adult and frequently gruesome, the special effects are really well done–they look real. If you can handle the insanity, you’re in for a wild ride.

Midnight Mass

Netflix Original

Director/Writer/Producer Mike Flannagan is Netflix’s go-to guy for horror. This is his 3rd show for the platform and it again shows off his carefully crafted takes in the genre.

Midnight Mass is about a small, isolated island community in the US (I’m not sure where–there are no distinctive accents I picked up on). The kind where you take off and never come back when you turn 18 or you live there forever. There are only a few hundred people who live there so the families who stay tend to have roots that go way back. There’s comfort in the community, its slow pace, the simple way of life, and its tiny parish.

We first meet Riley Flynn, who comes back home after spending 5 years in prison for drunk driving and killing a young woman. He has to start his life over and has no other place to go. At the same time, a new priest named Father Paul comes to take over the parish from the Father who has fallen sick and is getting treatment on the mainland. Riley’s traumatized by what he did and his family has been coping with the public judgment they’ve received since he’s been away. His younger brother wants things to go back to normal, his mother tries to make that happen, and his father is the most outwardly ashamed of his son. Riley has a lot of questions and doubts about himself, but when he discovers his first girlfriend has moved back recently, he’s able to reconnect with her and open up in ways he can’t with other people.

At the church, Father Paul is welcomed with open arms by Bev Keane, a devout believer in Christ who has worked under the previous Father for years. She’s full of faith and ready to cast judgment on anyone in her line of sight. Shortly after Riley and Paul arrive, strange things start to happen on the island, which is quickly followed by miracles. The miracles are attributed to Father Paul and this creates a fervent renewal of faith in the community, one Bev is ecstatic to see and is eager to foster.

Midnight Mass is a slow burn. That helps and hurts the show. Riley is set up first and that’s done really well. His integration back into his family is awkward and painful, as is his dealings with guilt and shame. Father Paul is more of a mystery: where did he come from and how much does he know about what’s going on? Instead of getting intense right away, Mike Flannigan plants the seeds at the very start–something is off here, quite a few people are dealing with their own trauma and the community has its own scars and divisions bubbling about. There’s more here than just Riley and the side eyes he gets. Paul’s introduction is odd and there’s something off with him. He’s a charming guy and Bev is such a powerful and cunning presence that she often takes attention from him. As each episode oozes along, crumbs are dropped down, gathered up and it all comes together in beautiful chaos.

Knowing anything more than that will ruin things too much. It’s not a scary show. It’s unsettling and creepy. There’s a constant and growing feeling of paranoia and dread that occasionally fades away, only to come back with a new understanding that makes you think this isn’t going to end well. The escalation of horror and intensity is really well done. But I wouldn’t call it horror until the end, it’s much more driven by drama. Religion takes center stage from the very beginning and the growing secret of the bizarre events drives the story.

My biggest problem with the show is that it feels too long. Some episodes could use a few minutes cut out. There might be enough to cut to make this a tighter story by cutting it back by an entire episode. There are a lot of monologues that feel like sermons even when it’s not taking place in a church. Since the show is so steeped in Christianity (if you’ve attended mass before I’m sure you’ll get some flashbacks) that isn’t too surprising. As the monologues start to increase in number, I couldn’t shake the feeling of “how much is this necessary?” But, it doesn’t feel out of place and the biggest and most important ideas in the show come from these moments. That said, it can feel like the characters aren’t talking any longer, the writer behind the words becomes the speaker. That’s a disappointment as it takes away from being engaged with what’s being said and comes off as overwriting.

But the positive side of this is that the payoffs are awesome. When stuff happens in Midnight Mass, it pops off. There is some absolute mayhem at the end of this story that combines with fantastic plot beats and character arcs that are completely satisfying. The last 2 episodes in particular are phenomenal. For everything moment I didn’t like, I saw something that I did—and more–and that’s what kept me engaged and coming back for the next episode. I just had to know what was going on and how it was going to end. For me, these keystones in storytelling are really strong.

My final praise is aimed at the cast. Strong and believable performances from everyone, the highlight for me being Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish, and Hamish Linklater. Everyone gets their moments to shine in this dark and brooding tale. I got attached to a few characters and their path between faith and organized religion is the most personal and unique aspect of the show. Can it be a little stuffy and slow? Yes. But it’s ambitious and doesn’t pull any punches so I think Midnight Mass succeeds in conveying complex ideas that will make you think about it for a while.

Still Teaming

NY Rangers

10-4-3

A solid four-win streak that ended with a 2-1 loss to Toronto.

A few days off from the beating Calgary dished out worked well. Talking and working on the issues that are a problem made the team play more like a team. There was a tangible difference from game to game. Much better vision on the ice, fewer high risk plays for no benefit, more shots on goal. Face-off wins even went up. Points were scored and dished out over more players. Kappo Kakko now has two goals and an assist, Hunt and Gautier have their first goals. Chytil is back on the ice and is playing well. Blais suffered a season-ending ACL tear, which damages the depth of the team exposing the need for a really good RW even more (the bungling of Vitali Kravtsov looks even worse now).

Toronto was a big test and it was a good game. Toronto was just the better team for more minutes. The Rangers had a bad first period, picked it up in the 2nd, and had a really strong 3rd. Toronto is currently a tough nut to crack, one of the highest face-off percentages and top special teams. Both proved to be advantages in Thursday’s game.

In the NHL you can’t play well for 20-30 minutes. You have to show up for all 60 and avoid penalties. Buffalo is next and that is an expected Rangers win. It’ll be a disaster if they don’t and they can’t take Buffalo’s bad record for granted, they’ve upset a few teams this season and are ready to pounce on any team that doesn’t show up at puck drop.

The nagging problem at RW is going to be an issue likely until a trade is made. Or maybe change the first line, switching Kreider to RW and pulling Lafrenière up to LW and Goodrow to the second line. It was tried for a little while but I don’t think the amount of time given in this experiment was reasonable as Laffy could simply need more time to be able to take off. With his talent, it feels like he should be given that space and confidence to progress. It could make a huge difference.

I See A Team Over There

NY Rangers

5-2-1

Last Monday the Rangers got trounced 5-1 by Calgary. It was the Washington game all over again. The Rangers were slow, not working as a team, turnovers all over the place, and bad special teams. The all-stars on the team didn’t do anything. Calgary is playing really well, currently one of the best in the league. You can’t be sloppy against teams like that.

Four days later the Rangers showed up at the Garden. Columbus isn’t a team to take lightly, their goalie is one of the best between the pipes right now. After a bumpy first 5 minutes, the Rangers took control and never let up.

4-0 Rangers. Igor Shesterkin’s third career shut out, first of this season. He’s been playing very well and the team in front of him finally put the pieces together to match his efforts. The difference in this 60 minutes? The Rangers played as a team.

Much better discipline with 3 penalties against. The Penalty Kill lines were perfect. The Power Play lines got 3 chances and scored twice. Huge improvement. Passes were way more careful and thoughtful so turnovers didn’t become an issue (something like 20 vs Calgary). They were fast and took all the smart chances to hit. Panarin- 3 assists, Fox- 2 assists, Kreider- 2 goals. Strome opened the night with a blistering goal with Nils Lundkvist getting his first NHL point. Panarin looks like he’s about to hit his stride, whether that’s a timing issue or he had more room to move because their offense was so much better is debatable. Mika didn’t get a point but he was a threat and contributed to the win in every period. He just needs to pop off too. Every goal was special (the pass Fox made to Laffy from behind the net was nuts). I think almost every stat was in the Rangers’ favor at the final horn.

The Rangers can be a scary team when they are firing on all cylinders. There’s more depth now which means scoring chances can come from every line. There are a lot of guys who can score that need to be covered, and teams are wary of that. It’s not just the first line that needs the best defense lines anymore. Lesser teams are going to get overwhelmed and the better teams have more to pay attention to. Last night the Rangers were the team we’ve been waiting for. Can they keep this focus and energy together? It looks like the new coaching system is starting to settle in. The real test is coming in the next month. If more elements coalesce in that time like they are expected to, by this time in November the Rangers could be a monstrous team on the ice. Those stats will likely be what we can expect through the rest of the season.

Next: First game ever against the Seattle Kraken.

A Bumpy Beginning

NY Rangers

1-1-1

Not the kind of start you want for a season. Soundly beaten by Washington, a dumb overtime loss to Dallas, and a closer than necessary win against Montreal.

It felt like there was a lot of wind in the Rangers sails coming into the season and getting a 5-1 drubbing by Washington stopped those good vibes. The first half was competitive, and then it all fell apart. The seasons long problem of too many penalties reared its head and you can’t do that against Washington. Georgiev getting worked like that isn’t going to help him get out of last season’s rut and made the whole team look bad.

The Dallas game was a better contest that slipped away, another old problem where the Rangers can’t close out a game. They did rally to push it to overtime so the effort was there at least. That game was more a letdown than a second crushing blow.

Montreal had a lot to prove last night, the first home game in more than a year and the added pressure of not going 0-3 to start the season. So they came out hot as anticipated and the Rangers handled it well. Penalty kill teams did their job at the start and then Montreal went nuts on the penalties, which the Rangers turned into a goal. Good for this to happen in favor of the Rangers instead of the other way around for once. Montreal did keep it close and this was largely a contest of goaltending. Plenty of robberies on both sides and Shesterkin was the one who managed to keep it on lockdown. Lafreniere got the bonus of his family being in the stands for his game-winning goal. Brilliant rush and pass from Mika made for a hell of a highlight-reel goal.

It feels like after this game the team is starting to gel better. Kreider has 3 goals in 3 games, which is incredible. Very few are as good at deflecting in goals as he is. If he can keep this up–and not disappear like he usually does for giant stretches of time–he’ll continue to be a huge PITA in front of the net and slap away any discussion that he got too generous of a contract extension.

Mika has been more noticeable than Panarin so far. Mika is an all-star and now he has an all-star contract. He’s making waves on assists, he almost had a breakaway goal with 2 guys chasing after him. He’s just goal-shy now, whiffing on an odd amount of one-timer shots. That’s weird to see. Last year he was doing that because it took him weeks to shake off the effects of covid. Now we’re just waiting on Panarin to hit his stride.

Of the new players on the team, I’m most impressed with Ryan Reaves. He’s incredibly fast for his size, he hits anything that moves, and he pounces on every opportunity to be a playmaker. Kakko and Lafreniere have been moved up on the lines and getting a lot more ice time. Kakko looks much stronger, he had a productive off-season. He got hurt last night with an upper body injury and he’ll be off the ice for a week. Hopefully no longer than that. We’ll see if Morgan Barron can get some traction in his absence.

A bumpy start for sure but nothing to panic over. Still a lot of promise.

Malignant

Movies

I was really worried about Malignant after the opening scene. It did not give me a good first impression. Bad acting, bizarre directing choices, and a soundtrack that doesn’t fit. This is a James Wan joint and he loves action and horror, so I settled in to see if he could turn this around. Aside from the soundtrack, the movie ended up winning me over.

After establishing that some kind of dangerous monster in a hospital is the big bad of the movie, we are introduced to Madison. She’s pregnant and her husband sucks. Some serious supernatural stuff happens to them in their home and we’re off to figure out what’s happening. Like many successful suspense/horror movies, Malignant hinges on deception and perspective to keep the audience on their toes. Madison keeps getting visions of people getting killed, with the monster soon directly contacting her. She doesn’t know what’s going on and her sanity is quickly questioned. But when it’s proven that her visions are actually happening in real life, she becomes a suspect. The unraveling of what’s happening–and whether you can trust Madison or not–is the best part of the movie and is done quite well. The last act of the movie is a lot of fun as all hell breaks loose.

Thankfully the bad acting goes away quickly. There’s nothing as ham-fisted and goofy in the actor’s line delivery after the opening scene. I like James Wan as a director. He’s not a fan of static camera placement and always looks for a way to move the camera around a scene in new and interesting ways. Usually, this works. In the opening quarter of the movie, there is a fantastic sequence of Madison running through her house in fear with the camera moving across the ceiling. It looks like you are looking down at a dollhouse with a live person inside of it, going from room to room and then up the stairs. As the walls fly by, sometimes those wipes are used for the camera to zoom closer or further away from her. It’s a really wild visual…I’m not too sure how it was accomplished.

Other times, the direction is heavy-handed, like in the first scene where the whole production looks like the movie was made in the early 2000s (what is with Madison and Sydney’s bangs? They must be terrible wigs. Drove me nuts). Really fast camera movement and editing that looks like it’s trying to be “Xtreme!” but looks more amateurish (a lot like how director Darren Lynn Bousman made his Saw movies look like a music video). One moment that sticks out to me is during the final action scene where someone fires a shotgun and it hits the desk instead of the target. A gigantic hole is made and the camera zooms in on it as the shot is fired. The sudden camera movement sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s distracting and not needed. You are behind the character with the gun, you see the muzzle flash, hear the loud boom, and see the gigantic hole in the desk. There’s no question of what’s happening in front of you, there’s no point in shoving it into the audience’s face. That action scene is fast and wild as it is, more is less in these situations.

The other negative is I never felt like the soundtrack ever fits the tone or theme of what I was watching. It’s a weird, lazy-sounding hybrid of metal and electronic music that more often felt like a distraction than an enhancement.

Back to the good stuff. The movie’s pacing is very good. The ratcheting of the stakes of what is happening and the peril that comes with it keeps the movie from getting stale. Every scene brings new information and the level of carnage is uncorked for the end. For an R rated horror movie, I thought they were pulling punches in the gore department at the start. I think they did so to get keep the mayhem for the last quarter of the movie.

The monster is also very inventive. It moves really weirdly and that’s always off-putting. That’s actually a curse and a blessing because at certain points the movement can make the monster look goofy. It’s so odd it can look funny and it makes you wonder why it’s moving the way it does. But the blessing side of that is you’re not too sure what you’re looking at or where it could have come from. That’s effective monster design and when you get the whole story, you get a great payoff. It’s a mean bugger too, so that’s always fun (the voice feels way too close to what the Scream franchise did though). The origin of the monster, how it comes out to hunt, and how it’s dealt with are all satisfying as well.

The special effects are really good as well. Very little comes off as cheap looking or too ‘off’, so it’s easy to suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. The melting and reforming room effect is a particular stand out.

For any seasoned horror fan, there’s nothing scary here. Scaredy cats will jump in fright a few times as there’s some spooky and grizzly stuff from start to finish. I like how the movie goes from suspense to ghost story, to body horror, and then action film pretty effortlessly. After the other horror movies James Wan has directed, I can see why this script caught his eye.

It’s about 105 minutes long, which is the perfect length for a Halloween treat.

Cruella

Movies

I didn’t find out about this movie until the trailer came out and had the same reaction as most people. Are they going to try and turn Cruella into a sympathetic character? The woman who is all about skinning dogs for a coat? Who asked for this?

Turns out, I did, and I just didn’t know it.

Cruella tells the story of how a young girl named Estella becomes one of Disney’s most iconic film villains, Cruella de Vile. The movie begins in 60s England with Estella around the age of twelve years old. She’s a rebellious and strong-willed kid. She pushes up against authority at school and does not hesitate to defend herself against anyone who crosses her. Catherine, her single mother, does everything she can to give Estella a proper upbringing. When Estella crosses a line at school and gets kicked out, their forced to move to London to go to another school and Catherine reaches out to The Baroness for help. She’s a superstar in the fashion world; Catherine used to work for her as a maid. Partly due to Estella sneaking around The Baroness’ posh party, all hell breaks loose and Catherine is killed in an accident involving the Baranoess’ dalmatians.

Frightened and traumatized from seeing her mother killed, Estella runs away. She stows away in the back of a truck and on her first morning alone, she finds Jasper and Horace stealing for their own survival. She tags along with them, becoming a potent thieving crew. They come up with inventive ways to rip people off and with the sowing skills she first picked up from her mother, Estella creates all of their costumes for disguise.

The bulk of the movie moves ten years ahead where Estella yearns to do more with her life. Her and the boys basically scrape by with each successful theft they pull off and she is clearly very talented in fashion. Her friends end up getting her a proper job that could get her foot in the door to becoming a fashion designer where Estella ends up working under The Baroness.

The movie blasts off from there, with Estella working her ass off for The Baroness who turns out to also be a thief. None of her designs are her own, she just takes from the dozen or so designers who work under her. Never one for authority, Estella rages against the machine, creating Cruella as an alter ego to dethrone The Baroness.

I can’t believe how good this movie is. It’s just mad. The production is off the charts good. The casting is great, the soundtrack is awesome, the direction is incredibly active and creative. It’s punk, goth, and glam mashed together in surprising ways. The action pieces (pretty much all chase scenes) are awesome and the way Cruella keeps upstaging The Baroness is nothing short of brilliant. You will not believe what is possible with a garbage truck until you see this movie. It’s part of one of the best montages ever made.

This movie basically presents Cruella as an anti-hero. It skirts a lot of extremes in what I think are smart ways. This is a pretty family-friendly movie, but it gets pretty dark and intense. The Cruella personality doesn’t suddenly appear. That part of Estella is shown under the surface from the very start. She is a product of her environment. Her dislike of dalmatians makes sense from her trauma and there’s a twist to that part of the story that changes her perspective (and the audience) further. You never see her hurt a dog, she makes a joke about it that foreshadows 101 Dalmatians. The major arc of the movie is watching Estella steadily being worn away. Jasper and Horace see it happening. They don’t like it and they tell her that and try and get her to pull back from the edge that she keeps running up to with The Baroness. She gets more extreme as she’s driven by the overpowering emotions of abandonment, vengeance, and justice. Ultimately, her goal is to get what she’s fairly earned instead of someone ripping it away from her.

This movie is so fresh and unique that I have to remind myself that it’s from Disney. The script is brilliant, I commend the writers for it. The twists are great, the metamorphosis of Estella is satisfying and surprisingly well told. It’s directed by Craig Gillespie, whose last movie was the great I, Tonya. The man knows his craft. Come to think of it, this movie has a lot of parallels with I, Tonya.

Highly recommended.

Animal Kingdom- Season 5

TV

Airs on TNT

I was turned on to Animal Kingdom a year or so ago by a friend. It was a little bit before season 4 aired and I liked the show so much I ran through the first three episodes fast enough to catch season 4 as it aired.

In short, Animal Kingdom is about the Cody crime family that lives in Oceanside, California. Janine “Smurf” Cody runs the enterprise with ruthless efficiency. She’s a career criminal, starting in the late 70s, raising her two kids while running from the law as she does multiple heists with her crew.

Starting with season 4, the show gives a glimpse of those early days with flashbacks that weave in and out of the present day story with her adult children and teenage grandson.

This show hooked me because it’s about a messed up crime family pulling heists. I’m a sucker for a well-told story in this genre and the show consistently delivers. Smurf steers this family around, her three kids, one adopted son, and her orphaned grandson toeing the line. Of course, questions are asked, deals go bad, the cops (and the feds) come sniffing around, threatening the Cody family’s way of life.

Season 5 is different because the order of the family changes. With Smurf no longer calling the shots, the boys are forced to communicate more and work together differently. A lot of family secrets are floating around and without the threat of the almighty Smurf around, competition and allies look at the Cody’s differently.

This was probably the worst season as the pacing feels slower. More time is given over to late 70s-early 80s Smurf to show how she started her criminal empire…and did no favors to her son and daughter. The present day story focuses more on the internal strife of the boys than ever. Pope has to go find himself so his journey leaves his family behind for about a quarter of the season. There’s a challenge of changing leadership and a ton of resentment of how Smurf seemed to favor J, her grandson, over any of her kids that have been her tools their entire lives. Plus, she screwed them all on the way out so the pressure for them to keep their heads above water never lets up. That leads to a lot of risk taking (a hallmark of the show) with interesting heists and two rouge cops strutting around.

While I say it’s the worst season, it’s still a great show and there are plenty of great moments in this season. It took a long time for the boys to come together, but that isn’t surprising. If they only spent 2-3 episodes on such heavy material, it would’ve felt rushed and unsatisfying. Each man is coming from a different angle and they all have their own problems to deal with (which come back to the family). I was expecting a messier season finale, but the set ups for the final season are massive. There are a ton of plot lines in the air and the challenge will be to address them all. Thirteen episodes do give a lot of room and I’m wondering how much more flashbacks we’re in store for. I’m looking forward to watching next year. The identity of the show and characters are well established, it’s just a question of who is going to survive and what condition they will be in at the end. Can any of the Codys be happy?

What are you writing?

Life

I published The Darkest Winter three years ago and I’m not entirely sure where that time went. I quickly came up with two sequel ideas to make it a trilogy but the basic ideas never went anywhere. Book 2 felt like it was going to be difficult to make original and interesting. It would cover a lot of the same scenarios as TDW. The third, while pretty separate from Book 2, would take the series in a different, larger picture idea set years later. None of it felt interesting to me every time I tried expanding the concepts. Then Covid-19 lockdown happened and writing about miserable things fell completely by the wayside.

That led to a new concept about how to stop terrorism based on religious zealotry. A major real-world thing, obviously. I like my concept but cannot break the story. I have the very beginning but making the story plausible is a major mountain to climb. All sorts of action sequences are possible but so much can go wrong that I haven’t been able to make the basics of the story work well enough to make it more than a short story or what I’m really afraid of, simply a more elaborate outline that ends up going nowhere because nothing is fleshed out.

I’ve written a few short stories, most of them I like a lot. I could do some editing to make each one stronger, but my favorite is ultimately Harry Potter fan fiction. I can’t do anything with that. But it was a valuable exercise. It’s about 40 pages long and I took some concepts that aren’t talked about much in the books to explore. I like my original characters, there are a ton of deep cut Potter references, but again, it isn’t mine. I really like fantasy but I don’t know if it fits me well enough to keep going with. I did have a lot of fun writing this, but I’m using concepts that were made by someone else, which was inspired by tons of other work. Can I bring something new to the table? I keep coming back to that idea in everything I write. If I do anything with this story, I’d have to strip it bare to my concepts and make a totally different world. Would it be worth reading and investing in? I keep running into that idea and it’s holding me back. Like if I can’t make a new genre, I shouldn’t bother. That’s a ridiculous thing to think of as all art is built on the art that comes before it.

But I now have a new idea that I like a lot. It’s about ghosts and humans, something that veers into the Beatlejuice headspace. While the concepts aren’t new, I think the angle is. I’ve written the start of it, but I’m going to rewrite it because the perspective doesn’t work. I’m also doing research to get ideas going. I want this to be weird and funny, an approach I want to ape from author Simon Rich. Right now I have no clue of what the end is and the rest is just a jumble of ideas that don’t point me to a story arc yet. The difference between this and my other ideas is that this feels like I can find a path to follow and see where it goes.

Michaela Coel – Emmy for Best Writing in a Television Limited Series or Movie

TV

For I May Destroy You on HBO. It’s her show based on events that happened to her. Writer, producer, director. To say her future is bright is an understatement. Her acceptance speech aimed mostly at writers is powerful and poignant.

Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn’t comfortable. I dare you — in a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to in turn feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success — do not be afraid to disappear from it, from us for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence. ….I dedicate this story to every single survivor of sexual assault.

Emmy awards ceremony Sept 19, 2021