War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Movies

I loved Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. War caps what I consider one of the best film trilogies ever made.

It’s two years after the events of Dawn and Caesar, along with his remaining people are holed up in the woods. Caught in a never-ending tide of battle, the human’s keep coming in and attacking. After winning a fight (if you can call it that) Caesar sends four prisoners of war back to their leader, The Colonel, with a message: leave us alone and no one has to die. The apes are exhausted and scared, they just want to live on their own in peace. This faction of humans has a different idea.

Caesar has been deeply traumatized by the events of Dawn. The battle with his brother, Koba, took a massive toll on his mind. Koba could not let his hatred go and the results were devastating. When the Colonel sneaks into the apes home and kills Caesar’s wife and eldest son, he finds himself fighting the same demons that consumed Koba. Caesar swears revenge and puts his life, along with the lives of his people, right in the path of all out war.

Complex, engaging, emotional, and riveting. All of it can be found in War for the Planet of the Apes. Brilliant, mature storytelling bolstered by cutting-edge visual effects make this series one of my absolute favorites.

The growth of Caesar as a character through each film is a fantastic journey to follow. From an ape to a leader, one who leads by positive example for the betterment of his people, is really inspiring. The VFX are second to none, from frame one I never saw the apes (who are in 98% of the screentime) as anything but sentient beings on camera. Just look at the eyes of these amazing creations shows a production team far ahead of many of their peers.

Caesar is just the tip of the fantastic characters as everyone around him is a fantastic and believable character. I love Maurice. He’s the right-hand man, confidant, advisor, and friend that everyone should have. The Colonel is far more than a trite villain, he has valid reasons for doing what he does. Everything he does is horrible making him a fantastic antagonist to root against. His backstory adds so much to make him more than a cardboard cut out with a gun, something many movies get nowhere close to.

I found War to be a harrowing story from start to finish. I rolled through every emotion possible and by the end, I was completely blown away. I think this series that started in 2011 hasn’t gotten its fair share of attention. More people need to watch this and you absolutely need to start with Rise to get the full experience. While War (and the other two films) can stand as their own confined stories, you’ll be missing out on a lot of the meaning and purpose of this story. Please check these movies out, I really think they are some of the best works Hollywood has put out in the past twenty years.

I’ve become a huge fan of Matt Reeves because of this (directed War and Dawn, as well as co-wrote War) and knowing that he’s working on the next Batman film has me completely stoked.

The Shape of Water

Movies

Set in the 1960s, Elisa works in a secret research facility as a janitor. Elisa is a rather lonely person. Mute, her communication abilities are limited to those who take the time to learn how to sign. Her only friends are her next-door neighbor, Giles, and her co-worker, Zelda. She goes about her days in a routine, but it’s clear that she yearns for more. One day a mysterious specimen from South America is brought into the facility. It’s a large, fish-like being, and Elisa quickly finds out that this creature is far from a dumb animal that the handlers think he is. It’s an intelligent being that can communicate and understand her.

The Shape of Water is a fairy tale made for adults. Leave it to master director Guillermo del Toro to make a story like this work. It’s a tough idea to sell, a woman falling in love with a fish man. It’s so weird but I think it works because of the careful steps that are taken to get to the end.

Elisa’s character is set up well right away. We get a good idea of her wants and needs in the first few minutes and we get to see what space in this world she occupies. The characters of Giles and Zelda are strong ones, filling in the gaps of communication and feelings for the viewer.

The creature is frightening at first, one that is totally foreign to the above-ground world. But in time, as Elisa gets closer, so does the audience. It’s slow at first, how all good courtships go. Every day, Elisa makes hard boiled eggs and her first outreach to him is to offer him one. And that leads to the first communication: she signs “egg” as she gives it to him. From there she goes to visit him whenever she can, keeping their meetings as secret as she can. When the life of this creature she deeply cares about is threatened, she goes to great lengths to save him.

This movie got way more adult that I thought it ever would. There’s cursing, violence, nudity…this movie doesn’t hold back its punches. del Toro wanted to make a complete movie about love and yes, she does have sex with the creature. It’s all done rather beautifully and nothing explicit is shown, but you know exactly what’s going on. It’s a believable relationship and Giles and Zelda are used as guidance in understanding Elisa’s actions. They don’t judge her and the scene with Elisa begging Giles for his help to save the creature is one of the most effective parts of the movie.

The cast and production go a long way to make this world seem so real. Fantastic acting and the work done to make Doug Jones into the creature is absolutely top of the line. Lots of prosthetic make up make the creature a real presence and subtle CG augmentation puts that final touch of life into him. It’s a good trick, designing the creature to share strong male human traits while making him look completely foreign.

Guillermo del Toro often makes decisive movies. You either dig ’em or you don’t. Everyone agrees that they always look gorgeous but wether you go along for the ride is another question. I think this is one of del Toro’s strongest movies. It’s a take on the surreal, but one that revolves around one of our most powerful emotions and universal need: love.

It (2017)

Movies

I think I read Stephen King’s IT twenty years ago or so. It’s probably in the top three of his most well known novels. It’s a massive and weird book and the TV mini-series (1990) did it’s best to adapt the tome. So twenty seven years later Pennywise is given another crack at turning Derry, Maine into an all you can ear buffet.

In 1988, a lot of kids start disappearing in the small town of Derry. On of those kids is Georgie, little brother of Bill Denbrough. He was last seen next to a storm drain during a big rain storm. His body is never found leaving the Denbrough’s with a lot of questions. Bill thinks he could have been swept into the storm drain but no one will listen to him. When his friends help him try to find Georgia in the summer of ’89, the rag tag group of kids discover that a shape shifting monster lives under their home town.

Some (wise) choices have been made with this take, moving the story from the 50s to the 80s being the most obvious. I don’t remember all the details but watching this brought up a lot of memories so I think the movie is succesfull in hitting all the most important parts of the book. It focuses soley on The Losers Club when they’re kids, there’s no time jumping to adulthood. That keeps the direction of the story clean and straight forward.

The casting of IT is absolutley perfect. In a movie that is 99% kids, the whole film rides on the finding the right actors. All seven of The Losers is spot on. They’re believable, they act the hell out of every scene. They all have a legit chemistry with each other so that makes their friendship on screen come across as geniune. Friendship is what the movie is about so that’s insanely important for this project to work. Right down to the small moments, like when they are shooting quick insults at each other (Richie and Eddie are hilarous) are really endearing. The joy, sadness, and fear that the kids get whipped through feels real. Jackson Scott, the kid who plays Georgie, is adorable. He’s the quintecential little brother and when IT pulls him into the sewer as he sceams for his big brother’s help is absolutley heart breaking.

So is IT scary? A shape shifting monster is something to behold, but it depends. If you are scared of clowns, yeah. It’s nuts. Otherwise, not really. They got me once in the garage scene. There’s some really wild imagery and great set ups. Pennywise in the sewer talking to Georgie is riveting. It’s brilliantly shot (as is much of the movie) and Bill Skarsgard’s choice of voice is fantastic. It’s this childish…meanace that’s hard to forget. Pennywise looks striking so the voice completes the movie monster. A big reason why I liked this was because it’s very Nightmare on Elm Street. Pennywise knows it’s victims fears and it dredges them up in fantastic and horrible ways. The creativity for when IT goes after each kid is awesome. I found the problem to be that (much like the NOES remake) the filmmakers relied on the same scare tactic too much. Pennywise feeds on fear and they make it very clear that IT loves scaring people. Probably more than actually eating them. There’s this glee to it that’s a great monster character trait but it gets undercut by the constant bum rushing IT does. I think in every scene Pennywise is in, they had Skarsgard do the “shake your head while you run and we’ll speed it up in post” thing. That’s effective two or three times until it gets routine and dumb.

That grip asise, I thought IT was a ton of fun. Really looking forward to Chapter Two.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Movies

I remember seeing the ads for this and later seeing this up for nomination for the Academy Awards. Considering that endorsement it caught my interest and I went into this not knowing what to expect. A film that lives on it’s interesting characters and propped up by it’s terrific cast, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a thought provoking piece.

Seven months after her daughter’s murder, Mildred (Frances McDormand) is still looking for justice. In order to put pressure on the local police, she pays for three billboards to publicly shame them. It works…sorta. The move certainly gets attention and Mildred find that she gets little support from her community. The police are certaintly none too pleased.

When the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. The story basically just ends and on first impression, I felt ripped off, left in a lurch. There’s no closure and what’s shown in that last scene has a lot of implications. Ending at two hours or so, there was definetly more story to tell.

After thinking on it for a few days I’ve realised that the story of Three Billboards had been told. This movie is very much a slice of life. A mother still in mourning, her family broken apart. Her ex-husband is no help, nothing more than another source of stress. Her son has been devestated and she struggles to keep her relationship with him. Mildred is angry. Knowing that her daughter’s killer is still out there is infuriating. She feels she has to do something or her anguish is going to eat her alive.

I think this movie is a good reflection on life. Everything doesn’t work out. Sometimes the pit you get shoved into doesn’t get filled in and the rescue ladder that gets put down for you isn’t long enough. You have to find a way to claw your way up and the marks you get in doing so don’t completely heal. Life isn’t fair and people are flawed.

Mildred feels like the police have given up, or worse, don’t care about the case. Police Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) explains to her why the investigation stalled and they are very good reasons. But that’s not good enough for Mildred. Her daughter is gone, the killer is out there, and she’s still furious.

Willoughby also has his own problems he’s dealing with in his own life. Terrible and unfair things happen to everyone. Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) is his own problem. The guy is a terrible person and has a lot of growing up to do.

Through the course of the movie, Mildred wades through pushback the entire way. Some people stand by her side and she ends up pushing some of them away with her own shortsighted and arrogant behavior. Dixon isn’t the only one who lashes out at whomever is nearest.

I think at it’s strongest moments, Three Billboards tries to show that we’re all messed up people. By upbringing or circumstance, your world view can skew to see things a certain way. When you make up your mind on something, it can be easy to dismiss the facts around you. Anger can make you do stupid and bad things. It might seem like the right (and justified) thing to do at the time, but afterwards you’ve changed who you are and that has consequences. But we’re all people. And people can change, the possibility is there for everyone. That change isn’t immediate though and it takes a lot of work. You have to listen to other people sometimes.

The movie ends on a twisted note. One of darkness that may or may not play out. A road has been chosen but the chance to stop, go a different route, or turn back is there. Your choices make you who you are.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Movies

Peter Parker is alive and well!

Spider-Man has had quite a few movies in the past decade or so and this one is the start (ignoring Captain America: Civil War) of a new run with a new cast and crew. Put simply, this is a great movie.

A large part of how good Homecoming is the casting. Tom Holland as Peter is perfect. He’s awesome and adorable. We finally have someone playing a high school student who is actually the appropriate age. This kid is basically ripped right out of the comic pages, he’s got the perfect attitude and line delivery for Peter and Spider-Man. Tony Stark is used just right (I was afraid he’d be used too much and overshadow the main character) and gadzooks they made The Vulture cool! Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery is more or less a collection of people wearing animal costumes and they’re pretty goofy. Brilliant move getting Michael Keaton to play the part.

The plot is terrific too. It sidesteps Spider-Man’s origin story and gets right into Peter’s struggle of being a kid with superpowers. His awkward balance of social life, school, and his desire to fight crime while he waits for Stark to “bring him up” to the big leagues. He’s learning with every step he takes and it’s a joy to watch.

This movie puts Spider-Man in the MCU so the story can play off of everything that’s happened. Peter was a little kid during The Avengers movie so he’s grown up in a world where these heroes have made a name for themselves. Peter was there for the invasion and he admires The Avengers. And with that event comes the idea of what happens when the superheroes leave? There’s all of this cleanup and trauma to a place so how do we deal with that? One of the things is the scrappers who come in to clean up after the fights. All that tech from other worlds is just left behind smoldering in the streets. Adrian Toomes (Vulture) makes a company to clean it up and when he gets the boot when the feds push him out of his job, he decides to pivot his business. I’ll keep skimming everything I can and make weapons out of this tech to sell. He manages to keep this business secret for awhile but when his employees get a little too loosey goosey with the tech, it catches Spider-Man’s attention.

It’s a nice and condensed story that’s easy to follow. The whole world isn’t at stake (yet), but Peter’s world is. It’s a personal story wrapped in homemade webbing with great comedy and action to keep it humming along.

The movie looks great in every way and Spider-Man is realized really well. The big thing that makes him stand out from other heroes is how agile he is. With the benefit of being super strong as well, what he can physically do is much different than anyone else and that makes for some big action set pieces that are really creative and unique.

Like this a lot, it might be my favorite MCU movie (I’d have to watch Captain America 2 again to be sure). This Tom Holland kid has a bright future!

The Darkest Winter Update 5

Life

It’s been way too long since I’ve done a book update but here’s the major milestone: I finished editing yesterday. My first book is content complete. My editor has it now so the bulk of the work is now up to him.

I finished it a week later than I intended due to my computer failing. But that’s all in the past now and I leaned into the work and got it done. I actually finished my main edits just before the computer broke, I was about to do the final pass to catch typos, continuity errors and change anything else I didn’t “like.” It takes a long time to go over 90,000 words.

So, I’m pretty stoked. I’m done writing on this project. It’s taken a long time and I’m ready to let it go. I’ve found that as I’ve gone through it for the last time that I get these waves of bi-polar thought. I suddenly think it’s stupid and that no one is going to like it and then I swing the other way and think everything is the way I want it. And that’s the truth. Going through it this last time, I really like what I’ve written. It’s kinda weird and obnoxious to say it, but I wrote some great shit. I often found that I was impressed with myself, how well some things come off. This is the story I wanted to tell.

So now the last half of writing a book kicks into gear:  getting it ready for you. Another typo check, type setting, get the cover done and put together a launch promo push. I’m behind schedule, I was hoping to have this done in the middle of the month but that’s not going to happen. I’m aiming for early July. I think The Darkest Winter is a great summer read and I really want to get it out there ASAP.

I’ll update as each chunk gets finished.

The Americans S6E10 <> Series Finale

TV

START

Wow.

I’ve been thinking about the finale since last night. I wasn’t sure about it because it wasn’t what I expected. That’s pretty brilliant. It was much quieter and subtle than I ever imagined. With how things have come together, and being the end of a spy series, I think the natural (and cliched) route to take for the writers would be tons of action and carnage.

What happened was the most important threads coming to a close in a dramatic and suspenseful way. A body count wasn’t necessary to get the point across. In fact, with so much death this season, the finale being made like this makes it much stronger.

I’ve been debating on how much spoiler talk to write here and I’m just going to the basic reveals because it’s impossible not to. This has to be watched to be fully appreciated so please do before reading any further.

The entire episode is the escape. Philip and Elizabeth are basically caught, their entire network exposed. So the tough choices come first: the kids.

I knew Henry was going to be left behind. There is no way they could have escaped with him and he’d be devastated on finding out why they were headed for Canada. Plus, they’d never get there in time. The kid is still being abandoned so it’s not like either choice made for a better outcome.

They go pick up Paige and that talk pretty much happened the way I thought it would.

There are a few showstopper scenes and those need to be discussed for all their brilliance. I can’t do these scenes justice in words so again, they must be watched to get all the context, substance, and sublime acting.

Stan follows his hunches and we finally get the confrontation scene. Alone in that parking garage, a lot goes down. I had no idea how this scene was going to end until it went to commercial. So brilliant. The Jennings trying to lie their way out of it and Stan’s sheer anger at all of it. He pulls a gun on Philip and the way he calls him a “fucking piece of shit” was riveting. Every single beat of this conversation was meticulous and brilliant. Philip imploring that despite everything, they were real friends. Paige doing her best to protect her family (she was quick to defend Henry, that he did, in fact, know nothing). Through the honest answers that had to come out, they still lied to try and push the scales in their favor. Any mention of murder (Sofia and Gennadi in particular) denied in shock. Philip did a hell of a lot to rationalize what he did (I thought what I was doing was right and when it all turned on me I stopped…and I went on to ruin my business).

There have been a lot of brutal scenes in The Americans, most of them violent. In this episode, devoid of any violence, the last phone call with Henry will sit with fans forever. That was one of the worst things to watch. Elizabeth and Philip trying to get their love across to him in the most restrained and careful way. Paige getting so upset that she couldn’t do it. The whole time, Henry not knowing this is the last time he will talk to them and simply wanting to get back to his friends playing ping pong. Ping pong! All of this going down and his greatest concern is ping pong!

The Jennings’ final meal in the United States: McDonald’s. Perfect. The shot with Philip leaving with the food and he sees the family of 4 eating together at a table. Perfect.

The riviting train sequence to get to Canada. They are all sitting seperately on the train and with each check of the fake passport the stomach clenches. The train starts to move, they’ve made it…and then they see Paige. She’s on the platform and the only thing they can do is watch their daughter glide by them. In the end, Paige choses to leave her parents. So shocked, Philip breaks protocol to sit with Elizabeth.

The very end. Arkady is there to pick them up. What life they have now is uncertain, but they make it back home. The stirring last words. Philip: It feels strange to be here. Elizabeth (in Russian): We’ll get used to it. All they have is each other now. Their bond is what kept them both alive and got them home, but I question if their marriage can survive this.

So much comes together in this finale it’s hard to articulate it all. Stan and the Jennings on opposite sides, there because of nationalism (patriotism is probably the better word) that closely match.  When it comes down it it, it’s Philip and Elizabeth’s love that gets them caught. Father Andrei was the only one to see them without disguises when he marries them which is how they get IDed.

Stan’s whole ordeal is fascinating. The betrayal he feels is so strong you can practically taste it. Philip and Paige’s pleas to take care of Henry and he ends up doing it. On the way out of the parking garage, Elizabeth doesn’t try to make a break for it. She could have totally run him over but she stops to let him choose let them go. Again, he puts his personal relationships above his professional duties. And he gets left with one more monster: Philip tells him that Renee might be like them, but he doesn’t know for sure. So is his wife an enemy? What does he do with that information? Philip can’t tell so how can he? That last shot of Renee is, you guessed it, perfect. For years we’ve been wondering about Renee and the show leaves us with the characters themselves wondering the same thing. She seemed to come in at a very convenient time, so suspicious that Philip picked up on it. But he never got any information that proved anything. He had to tell Stan to leave all his cards on the table, give Stan a chance not to be blindsided again.

The biggest success of The Americans is how they made anti-heroes. Philip and Elizabeth did horrible things. They are without a doubt criminals and deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison. And through it all, I became completely attached to these characters. I knew they shouldn’t get away with it but I wanted them to! Yes, they get out of the US alive but it cost them everything. The had to abandon one of their children. The other abandoned them. They lost their family and are back in a place they haven’t been to in decades. A place they really don’t know anymore. All the work they did, the pain they caused and went through, was for nothing. Elizabeth’s entire self worth was turned against her. She ended up not working for her country, but for a small rebel sect that perverted her work to get what they wanted. The shock that hit her and Philip when Stan told them Oleg’s message home didn’t go through. Any sense of purpose and redemption was relying on the message that Gorbachev was being set up. That could truly be the end of their home and any chance of peace.  The only success for rhe Jennings is getting to the Soviet Union to stop the Gorbachev plot.

I think The Americans will be remembered as one of the best TV shows. Strong from start to finish. Their story is over but they live on. Odds are they never see their kids again. I’m not sure what Paige is going to do. She’s definitely going to be questioned by the FBI but I don’t think she ended up doing enough to be implicated in anything. I imagine she’ll turn her back on everything Elizabeth taught her. Henry will be more or less adopted by Stan and I think he’d end up legally changing to Stan’s last name out of anger and relief from the tainted Jennings name.

I think Dennis will stick to his word and nothing major will happen to Father Andrei. Oleg is screwed. You can add his life to the pile of destruction. He stood up for his country and does not get rewarded for it in any way.

It’s been a hell of a ride and I’m happy it came to a close on top.  It’ll be great to revisit this show and experience it all again. If anyone asks me for a show to watch, The Americans will be the first one I recommend.

The Stanley Cup Finals

NY Rangers

We’re finally at the end! Vegas worked over Winnipeg and Washington kicked it into high gear to dominate the last two game to move on. Washington has worked much harder than Vegas to get to this point (I think Vegas only played 15 games) so they are going to have to dig into their reserves to keep up the energy that’s going to be needed to win.

As the first game proved, these teams are evenly matched. It was a fast and furious contest from start to finish with multiple lead changes. While the final score was 6-4 Vegas, it was close the entire game. Vegas got the final goal and Washington just couldn’t find one more opening. The sixth goal was an empty net with about 3 seconds left so it was a non-factor.

I’m expecting 7 games, 6 if Vegas can keep this incredible momentum up. I expect Washington to be their toughest test and I’d like to see Washington win. No matter what a team will be getting their first Stanley Cup so that’s fantastic.

 

The Americans S6E09

TV

Jennings, Elizabeth

The walls are closing in.

I’d imagine that for a real spy, this episode was a living nightmare to watch. We’ve reached the point where the only choice for Elizabeth and Philip is to run. Without the kids.

Let’s condense this down to the nitty-gritty. The FBI is following all the right leads and Stan can’t let go of his Jennings hunch. Looking into the church brought Father Viktor in for questioning and he was quick to name drop Father Andrei so they go look for him…at the same time he requested to meet with Elizabeth but Philip went instead because Elizabeth had to go keep an eye on Nesterenko.

Stan brings his Jennings suspicions to Dennis who doesn’t believe him. While he thinks Stan has the wrong idea he doesn’t do anything to convince Stan otherwise. With the dirt they’ve been getting lately, I think Dennis is simply happy with all the progress they have been making so he sees no real reason to fall down the rabbit hole with Stan. Stan talks to the only possible rabbit he could know: Pastor Tim! In a rather cryptic conversation, Tim keeps his vow of confidence and gives Stan no information to follow up on.

Elizabeth’s hunch that Nesterenko is a marked target turns out to be right. She intercepts an assassination attempt (Tatiana!?) in public, in broad daylight. She power walks her way out of there but she’s clearly rattled and goes to Claudia to tell her. If stopping that murder wasn’t enough of a clue, Elizabeth comes right out and says it to Claudia: I’ve chosen my side and it isn’t yours anymore. Claudia manages not to outwardly freak out, it’s more of an inside, boiling kind of rage. I got the clear impression that she’s more disappointed in Elizabeth than anything else. She turns to shame Elizabeth pretty quickly: all of your work his has been for nothing and you’ve ruined it all and I thought I knew you after all of these years. Even when our relationship was at it’s worse, I knew I could depend on you to get the mission done. Elizabeth has a quick answer: If you knew me, you’d know never to lie to me. Claudia has no alternative but to run so this might be the last time we see her.

Speaking of lies, not long after getting chewed out by Claudia, Elizabeth gets round two from Paige. She’s been seeing the college kid she likes and Jackson showed up at a party. He’s all screwed up and the story Paige gets second-hand fits the honeypot scenario she read in one of the books earlier the season. You know, the one where Elizabeth lied to her about that stuff being made up to sell books. So the lies come flying back into her face, in her own kitchen no less. Paige straight up confronts her about her being the woman who seduced Jackson and Elizabeth does a really poor job of lying to Paige. I guess she’s so exhausted that her defenses are barely functioning now. So Paige doesn’t believe her and completely flips out. In the middle of the brutal dressing down, Elizabeth gets fed up and just gets steamrolled as she tries to defend her work. “I should have done what Harry did and gotten as far away as possible from here.” The battle between Elizabeth and Claudia is heavily mirrored here, but with Elizabeth switching roles. The Jennings household is in shambles. And it gets worse.

Oleg gets caught red-handed with a dead drop and then–

Philip meets with Father Andrei in a park and it goes okay until the reason why Andrei wanted to meet. He got word that Father Viktor is meeting with the FBI. Is that a problem? Philip gets really worried and starts glancing around for tails. So when is this guy meeting with the FBI? Now. Philip goes on code red alert! “I’ve been really careful.” Not careful enough dude! Philip hurridly tells him he’s got to book a flight out of the USA immediately and takes off. On his way out of the park, Philip notices he has multiple tails and he has to run for his life. He manages to lose them and he calls home to deliver a coded message to Elizabeth: Our cover is blown. She grabs the bug out bag with clothes, weapons, passports, and money.

We are down to the wire and I am dreading the end. There is no way for Elizabeth and Philip to stay in the US. I don’t know if either of them will get out alive and I have my doubts who could make it alone at this point. Henry is at school, they can’t get to him and what would they tell him? They could get to Paige or at least get word to her but I have no idea what she could or would do. If Renee is a sleeper I can see the end like this: she does nothing. She lets things happen and the final moments of the show we see her get in contact with her handlers. Their big illegal network might have just collapsed, but Renee could be the genesis of the next cell. After all, she does have her FBI interview coming up. She’s an older version of what Elizabeth wanted Paige to become.

Burned by her loyalty to her homeland, I don’t think Elizabeth is going to make it. If the scenario presents herself, she will sacrifice herself for her only other love: her husband.

And Down Goes Frazier!

Life

My 10 year old Dell computer died Tuesday morning and I am now talking to you with a new rig I picked from Microcenter today. I have a lot to organize and this whole thing has put me 2 days behind schedule. Editing of the book is nearly done (I did not lose my documents, I have them backed up!) and I’ll write up my The Americans recap tomorrow.

Biggest bummer so far is that I think I destroyed my Chrome sync so I lost all of my bookmarks. I think I have just about all of my passwords written down though so this isn’t a total disaster. I think it’ll be a few days until I get this set up feeling like mine. It’s fast as hell, that’s for sure (in large part thanks to the solid state HDD).

More soon(ish).

The Americans S6E08

TV

The Summit

Elizabeth takes center stage in one of the most riveting episodes and we get a huge character pivot.

Right away, we get down to business. Philip admits to Elizabeth that he’s been informing on her (he doesn’t reveal that it’s Oleg). It goes about as well as you think it would. Elizabeth is furious that Philip has been lying to her. It was at this moment I realized the full scope of the emotional shift that happened when Philip left the spy game.

More than losing a co-worker (so to speak), they each lost someone they could talk to. A big theme of the show has been how brutal espionage is. It’s utterly lonely in that you can’t really trust anyone, you lie to everyone, and you have to sacrifice anything resembling a normal life. Your life, whether that be death or no freedom because you will never be let out of prison, is constantly at risk. Elizabeth and Philip always had each other since they’ve been in the US. More than just a husband and wife role, they literally could talk to each other about anything because they were a working team. The only other people they could talk to (and never be completely open to like they could be with each other) was their handlers and the occasional fellow operative on a mission. Without that link, there is no one they can be honest with. This change meant they were either withholding information from each other or outright lying. That’s poison.

And it got worse when Philip tried explaining himself. “I want you to think…like a human being.” “I’m not a human being?!” A brutal insult Philip didn’t intend but came out like a razor blade. Their facial reactions to each other tell it all. It’s one of the most brilliant acting scenes between these two and the way it’s shot, you barely see them on screen at the same time. It’s a harsh reminder of their ideological, emotional, and physical separation.

Moving on, Elizabeth goes to the Haskard’s for her phony nurse duty. She’s still desperate to get information on what’s being said at the summit (which is now happening) so her main goal is to get a bug in Glenn’s briefcase. But as all things have gone for Elizabeth this season, disaster strikes. Glenn tried to let his ailing wife go, giving her a super dose of morphine he’s been saving for awhile. It doesn’t work and she’s suffering even more. Elizabeth’s body count is so high already, we’ve seen her do crazy stuff recently and her killing Erica is one of the most brain searingly intense scenes in the series. Glenn is done with work, there’s no point in bugging his briefcase. Elizabeth settles for taking pictures of some documents she has and Glenn tells her to take one of Erica’s paintings. She takes one of the larger canvases.

In the first major Elizabeth character battle, she debates what to do with the painting. She’s been totally dismissive of art (as talked about in the first few episodes of this season) and Erica did manage to open Elizabeth’s mind up. She takes the canvas off the frame and prepares to burn it. It’s evidence of where she’s been. She wrestles with herself (I can’t accurately describe how good of an actor Keri Russell is, so I won’t even try. You have to witness it) and decides to stash it away. As she walks away her soldier mind clicks back into place and takes over. She pulls the canvas back out lays it out and lights it up without a second thought. With that avenue of intel shut, she has to move on so she sets her sights on using intern Jackson.

In another reoccurring theme this season, Elizabeth remains reckless because she’s under the gun time-wise. (Sidenote: Philip is taking risks too. He rents a Russian movie and watches it in the living room. Considering the scene a while back with Elizabeth bringing him some food from the homeland, this is shocking.) She has to get a recorder into the room at the State Department where her mark, Nesterenko (the Soviet negotiator her people think may be a traitor) will be having a meeting. Elizabeth honeypots this kid into doing what she wants, putting a recorder into the meeting room using an okay excuse (my client needs this box of paperwork and I can’t get it there because all this stuff happened, would you do me a favor?) that’s really not a good plan. It’s risky. She has to roll the dice. Jackson does it and later on, when he comes back out with the box, he looks like he’s seen a ghost. He found the recording device hidden in the box because things didn’t line up with what she said. Elizabeth is caught off guard but recovers pretty fast, telling him this is how business is done in Washington. He doesn’t buy it. This throws us into character battle #2. Again to all of Keri Russell’s credit, we watch Elizabeth internally debate on how she’s going to kill this kid. It’s another event that has spiraled out her control and she has to do something. She lets him go. I thought for sure he was dead. I’m sure he thought he was dead when she grabbed his arm to keep him from getting out of the car. He’s petrified and she rolls the dice that he won’t tell anyone out of fear that he’ll get into serious trouble for doing so super shady stuff in the State Department for someone who he now knows isn’t legit. If she didn’t have to kill Erica, I wonder if he would have let him go. The weight keeps getting heavier on Elizabeth’s shoulders and it’s eating her alive.

Meanwhile, Philip is a walking bummer. He’s frowning so much now it looks like his face is melting. He tries to talk to Henry at school and he isn’t around to take his call. He goes to buy a new suit and he looks miserable. He can’t enjoy buying stuff anymore (especially since he has no money). On a pity parade he goes to Stavo’s apartment to apologize to him for firing him because the business is tanking. Stavo’s isn’t moved by what Philip says and instead lets Philip know he’s an even bigger failure than he ever thought. Stavo’s has worked for Philip for years and noticed all the shady secrecy he and Elizabeth have done in their office all that time. He’s loyal though and never told (never even considered it!) anyone. Philip is a fantastic spy but it turns out he’s been sloppy the whole time. His secret really isn’t that secret. That’s a rude awakening. As a side note, in the “previously on” section at the start of the episode, they showed Philip in the van with Harvest when he dies and Philip is looking at the cyanide neckless around Harvest’s neck. I think Philip took it. So now he and Elizabeth have one. Philip is really worried about what’s coming.

And the Jennings’ are still in the dark about another thing they should be worried about: Stan. He’s still suspicious and doing his groundwork to see what he can dig up. He goes to meet an old contact, and I didn’t recognize him so I had to look him up (Curtis, I think. From a few years ago). This guy met Elizabeth when she was working over another guy. There was fall out and Stan kept Curtis out of serious trouble. Stan shows him a picture of Elizabeth to see if he recognizes her and while he doesn’t confirm anything he says some things take keeps Stan from letting it go. While Renee gets a job interview at the FBI (thanks Dennis! And is she a Soviet operative? I honestly have no idea. They keep her so murky there’s no definitive answer aside from saying “yes” because why else does she keep popping up?) Stan is obsessed with the Jennings. Getting ready for bed, he’s staring out his window trying to catch a glimpse of anything (Elizabeth is coming home late again, hmmm.)

Back to the Plot A of the show, while Jackson turned out to be a short-lived asset, she did get a recording out it. She hears Nesterenko discussing what the Soviet Union (Gorbachev) wants and it’s clear he isn’t a traitor. When Elizabeth hands off the tape to Claudia, she’s told to “take care of” Nesterenko. This strikes Elizabeth as strange (me too) as Claudia, and no one they work with have heard the recorded discussion. Elizabeth bails on the assassination attempt (holy animal, was that dangerous) she goes to confront Claudia about things not adding up.

And here comes the pivot! Elizabeth hasn’t been working for the state in some time. Claudia has co-opted Elizabeth to basically work on behalf of a small, rouge sect back home. No matter what Elizabeth found out, they were going to burn Nesterenko, ruin Gorbachev, and alter Elizabeth’s reports if need be to make the rationale to get away with a coup d’etat. Elizabeth hates lies and this is like the ultimate. Perverting her work and beliefs! Being used like this makes her furious. She’s done horrible things since meeting that military guy in Mexico and it was all pointless.

Elizabeth goes home and tells Philip she wants to talk to the contact he’s been passing her info to. He’s shocked and she tells him about Claudia’s deceit. While this may put Elizabeth and Philip on the same side, I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive him for being a snitch. Meeting Oleg will be difficult, he’ll be able to get the info into his hands by the early morning. While Elizabeth deals with this, she tells him he should handle the communication from Father Andrei (he’s the one that married them. He has the most info on them outside of probably Claudia). That seems like an easy meet up but they don’t know that the FBI has been sniffing around Russian Orthodox priests for a few weeks.

The Jennings’ are dangerously close to being caught. Only 2 episodes remaining.

 

2018 NHL Playoffs Round 3

Movies

I forgot to put this up a few days ago! We’re down to the final 4.

We’re guaranteed a new Champion this season and we have quite the selection. I’ll always lean towards the east coast and right now my favorite is the Washington Capitals. They’ve been red hot for years and have kicked themselves in the head for years so they are overdue. It’s been 20 years since the team made it this far and they’ve never won the Cup. I vote for Tampa solely for all the ex-Rangers on the team. Tampa Bay hasn’t won the Cup since 2004 so that’s a long enough time for a team to pounce!

I have no affinity toward Vegas aside for the fact that they’ve done so incredibly well in their inaugural season. But it’s their first season, they have plenty of time to hold the Cup. A Canadian team hasn’t won the Cup in a very long time and Winnipeg, in this franchise form, has never made it all the way. Of the West, I’d like them over Vegas. Winnipeg started strong but Vegas has put their skate down firmly these past 2 games to take the lead 2-1. I’d be surprised if any of these series went less than 6 games. Incredible talent is on the ice every night.