Worst Severance Ever!

This past Friday, we received episode 8 of the second season of Severance. I don’t have to reflect for too long to be able to say this was the worst episode of Severance we have ever seen.

Why didn’t I like it?

I think it was this whole idea that Harmony Cobel invented the entire severance process. I don’t know what the point of that was. The severance process seems extremely complicated and intricate. It made sense to me that only a giant corporation with the resources of Lumon would be able to makesomething like this a reality. The concept that a single individual (from Saltlick) was able to convieve of this thing… I don’t like it.

Overall this was kind of a nothing episode. There was maybe 10 minutes worth of plot advancement delivered in a 40 minute episode. It just wasn’t good.

I loved Severance season 1. Since season 2 started I have been skeptical of the plotting. I have lost faith that the show is taking me on a satisfying journey. The revelation that all of the severance concepts we know from the show were contained in a notebook from the mind of Mrs. Cobel further undermines my confidence. I hope season 2 finishes strong, but I am not feeling great after episode 8.

Gimme All That Goggins

This past week I finished reading The Last Unicorn. I don’t typically read fantasy, but this book was highly rated and available on Libby through my local library. Quick read — suprisingly full of existential angst for a book about unicorns and wizards I liked the melancholy vibe.

Next up was We Solve Murders ¹. I’m a big fan of the Thursday Murder Club book series, and this one is just as fun. I’m already halfway through and loving it.

Of course, I had to catch the episode of Severance on Apple TV+. I also watched the first 2 episodes of The White Lotus Season 3. I really enjoy both shows, but — hot take — The White Lotus is better. It has such an interesting vibe and style. It nails that weird, heightened energy of being on vacation.

When you are on vacation there is this weird excited energy to everything. You’ve stepped out of your normal routing. You feel like a different person. You look at everything with a little more positivity. The show captures that feeling. I like it. It is fun to watch.

I liked the first two seasons², but I wasn’t hyped for them the way I am for Season 3. The reason? Walton Goggins. I think he makes everything better³. He would have been fascinating in either of the first two seasons. His character in this one is a bit of a buzzkill so far, but I’m excited to see where it goes.

Also, today marks the return of one of my favorite Netflix series—Full Swing. I love golf! As long as Netflix keeps making this show, I’ll keep my account active and (probably) won’t share my password. Haven’t had time to start it yet, but I’ll definitely be done by the weekend.

Another thing on my radar: the new Peacock documentary Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy. A couple of years ago, I read his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, finishing it just weeks before he passed. No idea if the documentary is any good, but I’ll definitely be watching.

I think that wraps it up this week. Remember not to use too many big words. Perchance you may colloquially employ…

1: Again, on Libby through my library.

2: I definitely preferred the first season over the second.

3: Justified might be one of my favorite series of all time.

Back on the Severed Floor

This week I watched almost all of the first season of Dexter. I had tried to watch it a long time ago and it didn’t take. I found it pretty easy to get into this time around. I have already moved onto season 2. It is a show where the brain can be turned off and you can kinda just let it wash over you.

Instead of watching an obscure show from the mid-2000’s I had considered binge watching the first season of Severance while I am in the midst of watching the second season. I still may do it.

It has been awesome to watch the new episode of Severance on Apple TV+ every Friday. The show has great writing and looks amazing. This season has been all about vibe… hasn’t been a lot of plot to hang onto. It lacks a feeling of forward momentum. I don’t remember the first season feeling sluggish, but I also binge-watched that. The ability to watch all episodes at once really changes one’s perception of the pace of the show. I’m surprised Severance has managed to become so widely popular. It is easy to see how viewers could get bored with the pace.

With Severance there are some really large-scale questions that need to be answered. We still don’t really know where it is going or what story it is trying to tell. There are a lot of interesting ideas to explore. I have latched onto the overall concept of the work persona vs the home persona. I believe we all create separate personalities to suit work life and home life. This doesn’t mean we are different people, but we accentuate different aspects of our personality depending on the situation.

Severance is making that disconnect literal. I think it is clever how they have conceived of a way to have the workers inhabit the same physical bodies but have created completely different identities. It is interesting that the innies and outies have awareness of one another, but no shared knowledge. What would it be like to be an innie? That is wild to me.

The concept of Mark S.’s re-integration is going to be interesting for us to see how those separate personas try to coexist with one another… if that is in fact what is going to happen. Mark S. is going to have to figure out how to be like all of the workers who go to a corporate job every day. Mark S’s situation is more complicated, but I think it will be compelling to see him deal with that challenge.

I have worked at a corporation for almost 20 years. My sense is that over time I have been able to be more of my authentic self during the workday. I have proven my knowledge and quality of work. I have formed relationships with people This has created an environment of confidence and safety to be myself at my job. I think of it as a positive that my work-self and home-self have merged more into the same person.

The other interpretation would be that my work-self has grown and come to define more of my “true” identity. Work has consumed so much of my time and mental capacity that my home-self has morphed to be more like my work self. That explanation feels less positive. I suppose they both are true to some extent. It is very easy to think about attributes of my own “innie” & “outie”. I can identify how they are the same and how they are different. I typically come away from the show thinking myself.

I am seeing a lot of speculation online about what it all means. What are they doing with the numbers? What is Cold Harbor? Why are there goats? Are they cloning people?

I do think we will get answers to some of those questions. However, I have felt that the point of the show is that these office workers are sitting at their desks for hours a day doing something completely banal and meaningless. Something they don’t understand the value of. That is the joke. That is the commentary on corporate America. If everything they are doing has some grand meaning it will undermine the message in my mind.

I am not expecting to get a satisfying ending to this story.

Dexter Season 1

This week I watched the entire first season of Dexter. I had never watched an episode up to this point. 

I liked the show. I was engaged right away. It was interesting and fun. I also think it was really silly. There were a lot of plot contrivances to make the story work. It wasn't as "prestige" as I expected it to be. I suppose all that doesn't matter when you have a compelling character, decent writing, and an interesting story. 

It seemed a lot older than I expected. I mean, it is old... I guess the last 19 years have gone by a lot faster than I realized. I thought the show would look more modern. I recently watched the first couple seasons of The Wire. On that show I expected the age. Even though they came out only 4 years apart, I think of Dexter as a much more modern show. 

The mid 2000's were the heyday for shows like CSI and Criminal Minds. When I started watching Dexter I immediately felt like I was watching one of those shows. It has more blood, nudity, and bad language... but overall Dexter felt a lot more similar to a prime-time crime procedural than I expected. This surprised me the most. I thought it would do more to elevate itself. 

I am planning to keep watching. I've heard it gets better. I'm interested to see what they do with the character now that the back-story has been told. Those plot mechanics to get that story told is what made things awkward. I expect there to be more freedom going forward. 

Carry-On Movie Review

Most evenings these days we turn on Netflix and find a Christmas movie to watch. I had the remote last night so I got to decide. I didn’t realize it was the premeire day for “Carry-On”. It was classified as a Christmas movie and looked a little more exciting that most of the movies we’ve been watching.  

I enjoyed “Carry-On”. It kept me engaged and entertained. It got a little silly at times, but overall it was good. It reminded me of old-school action-thrillers I watched as a kid. The premise of the movie had a lot of promise. Actors were solid. The story didn’t live up to what it could have been in my opinion. 

I don’t need a lot of plot complexity to have fun with an action movie. I do need to have what is being presented to me make sense in the world where it exists. It wasn’t that things didn’t make sense… it just felt more dumb than what it needed to be. 

I like Taron Edgerton as our hero and Jason Bateman as the villian. They had good performances, but things got really messy at the end and I didn’t think the story gave them much to work with in the 3rd act. 

It is interesting to think about how one would react when they are faced with variations of the trolley problem. In this instance Edgerton has to choose beween his pregnant girlfriend and a plane full of 250 that he doesn’t know. It doesn’t turn out to be quite that straight-forward, but that is the essence of it. 

“Carry-On” is a worthwhile watch. It is a type of movie we don’t see very often these days. I don’t think it is extremely well executed. It mostly squanders the opportunity to be a great modern entry into the genre. 

Challengers

I streamed “Challengers” on Prime Video. I don’t think it is a bad movie, but I didn’t like it at all. Seemed like it wanted to be a serious and dramatic film, but it didn’t work. 

The movie is about 3 young tennis players that form a love triangle. We follow them through a 15 year period of their lives. The entire way it all felt very silly to me. I think the story is silly. The characters come across as very one-note. This is a combination of the plot itself and the performances by the actors. I like Zendaya, but I don’t think she was cut out for this role. Mostly she just made weird faces to indicate drama was happening.

I did like how the movie revealed information about the relationship between the characters. It doled it out in a way that you shifted who you were rooting for. But in the end I felt apathetic toward all of them. 

As I watched, I kept asking myself whether I thought the movie wanted me to take it seriously. I could never tell. I did get invested in seeing how it all ended… and I was not dissapointed. And, I got a clear answer. The very last sequence made me laugh. 

This movie has been reviewed quite negatively. But, it performed well in the theater. I suppose if you advertise Zendaya in a threesome you will get some interest. I mean, there are a couple sexy parts… but don’t watch it expecting a hot movie. It is not. If it was trying to be, it failed at that too. There is no romance or passion in this movie at all. In fact, the dialog of the movie points out the fact they are always talking about tennis, even when they are about to get it on. 

If you have Prime I would probably recommend watching “Challengers”. It is well made. It is interesting. I wasn’t bored by it. But, I don’t think it is a very good movie, and I don’t think it has much of a point. I’d be interested to hear what others think. 

The filmmaker has an interesting style. We watch tennis matches through the POV of the ball. I didn’t like that, but I did like the 90’s techno synth soundtrack. It plays over most of the tennis matches as well as the fights along the way. I also like how Applebee’s was prominently featured as a date spot. It took me back. 

Trap

Trap is a preposterous movie. It isn’t terrible, but it cannot be taken seriously at all. I only knew of its
existence because it was featured on How Did This Get Made & The Flop House. I figured I had to watch it so I’d be able to listen to those episodes of my favorite podcasts.  

As I write this Trap is available to stream on Max. It is written and directed by M. Knight Shyamalan. It stars Josh Hartnett and Shyamalan’s daughter (Saleka Shyamalan). Shamalan’s daughter is trying to launch a singing career, and that is the only explanation I can think of for why this movie was conceived and created. 

The premise of the movie is that there is a concert of an artist that teen girls love. We are following a father & daughter who are attending this concert as a reward for her good grades. There are police everywhere and we quickly find out the concert is a trap set for a serial killer the police knew would be attending… and that serial killer is the sweet father we have been following. 

There are a lot of plot inconsistencies and silliness in this movie. At times it is enjoyable, at others it is cringe-inducing. 

I got interested in this movie from the beginning. Even though the concert trap was a ridiculous idea from the jump, I enjoyed watching this guy try to figure out how he was going to escape. The first half was totally watchable. The second half was real dumb. While Josh Hartnett stuck it out to the bitter end, the 2nd half of the movie prominently features Saleka Shyamalan, and she is real bad at acting out her father’s idiotic plot. 

The movie also stars Hayley Mills in the role of FBI profiler who conveniently provides exposition over the walkie-talkies for most of the movie. Haley Mills famously played the twins in the movie “Parent Trap”, which I have to assume is a joke. This movie is about a parent who is trapped. It is all very dumb. 

This is a bad movie, but it is entertaining. I wasn’t bored. It is the type of film you watch with a group of friends and make fun of. 

Purdue vs Alabama

I feel the need to come out of hiding to write about Purdue basketball. Friday night the Boilers played #2 Alabama at Mackey Arena and came away with the win. It was a really fun game to watch. It was close for most of the way and had a little bit of everything. 

So what… Purdue got a non-conference home win? What’s the big deal? 

I think all of Purdue nation was feeling a little unsure about this season. We have enjoyed watching Zach Edey dominate the last couple of years. He is gone now. We knew Purdue was still a solid team, but nobody was sure what to expect. 

I feel like Purdue got off to a shaky start this year. They never looked bad (even if the exhibition loss to Creighton), but they also didn’t look comfortable. The pieces of the team weren’t really fitting together. I have nothing against Will Berg, but I didn’t really understand why he was in starting lineup in early games. Painter seemed dead-set on starting a 7-footer, so we then saw Daniel Jacobsen tip a couple games. I was feeling okay with that, but things still didn’t seem like they were meshing. 

Unfortunately Jacobsen broke his leg and went out for the year. This will give him a medical redshirt and a chance to put on some lbs. Berg was back in the starting lineup vs Alabama. It made sense. Alabama is a big team. It didn’t look very good for Purdue on paper. I was expecting to see Purdue get their first non-conference regular season loss in a couple of years. The Purdue team just didn’t seem like they were ready to win a big game… even at Mackey. The last 2 years Purdue came out of the gate playing great basketball. I thought this year was going to be one where they started slow, looked unorganized, and learned to play together as the year progressed. 

Berg lasted all of 2 minutes before getting into foul trouble. Painter went with the smaller lineup. Purdue played center by committee, but ultimately TKR put in the most time at the 5. It worked and the team looked more in sync than they have all year. 

Even so, Purdue still found themselves down by 6 with a little over 10 minutes left in the 2nd half. Freshman CJ Cox turned the game around with 3 consecutive 3-points to put Purdue ahead and completely changed the momentum of the game. As a Purdue fan it was also reassuring to see really solid performances from Miles Colvin & Camden Heide in the win. 

I thought this year was going to be a struggle. That might be a pessimistic take for a Purdue fan to have, but I expected it, and I was here to suffer through it. Now (much like the last 2 years) Purdue got a big win in November, and they got my excitement going for another great season. 

Beating Alabama was a big win! I am not trying to take anything away from it. I have watched the game 3 times and I can only hope the rest of the season is just as enjoyable. However, I am trying to temper my excitement. It was great to see that Purdue is still good enough to compete against the best teams in the country. I think I doubted that. I shouldn’t have.

Purdue plays Marquette tomorrow night away from Mackey Arena. That game should be a good judge of where Purdue is at. How will they respond after a big win? How will they perform away from home against a good Marquette team? I still have questions. 

 

The Bear Season 3

I really liked the first 2 seasons of The Bear. The third season was a letdown. I like the characters and the vibe. That was present in this new season. While there were some great moments, overall it felt like it was spinning its wheels. 

What I didn’t like…

Over the last 2 seasons it felt like Carmy & Richie has made a lot of progress. At the beginning of season 3 they seemed to regress and I didn’t understand it at all. Early on there was a scene where they said “fuck you” to one another like little children. The issue between them was never explained and never resolved. I didn’t get it. 

In general Carmy seemed to have made so much progress. He was a pain in the ass, but the show did a great job of showing why the people around him respected him so much. Even though he was intense, we also saw his humanity. The last season ended with a challenging situation that we expected to set him back. That happened. But then this entire season he switched back into dickhead mode and never changed. This made season 3 feel like a part-one, rather than a full season itself. 

I hated the moment where the show got a lot of chef’s together to talk about why they loved cooking so much. It just felt like we got so little character progression this season. I was really hoping for a strong finish. Then we have a ton of time allocated to listening to real-life chefs talk about why they love cooking. I get it, but I didn’t like it. 

What I liked….

There was still a lot to like about this show. It has great characters and a great aesthetic. I especially enjoyed the episode on Tina’s job search. I enjoyed the Ice Chips episode. Interestingly both of those episodes had nothing to do with the plot of season 3. 

Fallout on Amazon Prime

This week I watched the first season of Fallout on Amazon Prime. I've never played any of the video games and I didn't know anything about the characters or plot going in. I can't speak to anything on how similar or different the show is from the games. 

I enjoyed the show enough to watch it in its entirety in just a few days. Walton Goggins as "The Ghoul" is the best character by far. From the beginning I wanted to know more about his story. I like how the show used the entire season to unveil it. It kept me engaged the entire way. 

The rest of the show was... fine. I enjoyed the humor. The story is good. The other characters were not great in my opinion. It has interesting grey areas and heroes becoming villains becoming heroes. That all makes the show interesting. However, for me it all felt a bit silly. The character and performance of Walton Goggins is at another level, and the rest of the show does not rise to that level. 

Overall a solid watch. I liked what I got, but still wanted a more. Fallout has been picked up for another season and I will definitely be watching when it comes out.