Happy Winter Solstice 2022!
1899 Season 1 Episode 1: The Ship Recap
Opening voiceover, sounds like Maura, our main character (Emily Beecham): The brain is wider than the sky, For put them side by side, The one the other will contain, With ease and you beside. The brain is deeper than the sea, for hold them, blue to blue, The one the other will absorb, as sponges buckets do.
Images: first person perspective of flying through clouds in the sky, then we view snowy, barren ground; flash to open sea; flash to rocky mountains and valleys, with castle or old stone mansion; flash to ocean with ship; flash to craggy, cold, barren land with black pyramid; back to sea, which is choppy and opens into the watery vortex from the trailers.
We rush through the swirling whirlpool-vortex and come out in a mental hospital housed in the old stone building we saw from the air. We can probably assume it’s 1899, given the title of the show, but it could be anytime with wall sconces for lighting. Maura runs down the hall wearing only a hospital gown. She sees a man (Anton Lesser) standing in shadow at the end of the hall. He watches impassively as burly orderlies drag her away. She yells to him, “Father? I…I know what I’ve seen. I’m not crazy! What did you do to my brother? Where is my brother? He was on the Prometheus. He found out what you were doing on these ships. Why don’t I remember? What have you done to my memory? I’m not crazy!”
The door slams on her room, #1011, locking her inside. Her father steps partially out of the shadows and whispers, “Wake up.”
Continue reading “1899 Season 1 Episode 1: The Ship Recap”The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7: No Man’s Land Recap
In episode 7, June and Serena are on the run in No Man’s Land as Serena’s labor intensifies. Flashbacks show a birth both women attended in Gilead shortly after June was placed with the Waterfords.
June’s never ending, terrible, no good, very bad day continues.
Recap
Serena points the gun at the front of the car and tells June to drive. June does, but questions where Serena wants her to go and what Wheeler’s men did with Luke. Serena has another contraction and accidentally pulls the trigger, firing a shot through the windshield. She immediately starts apologizing, but June has had enough and stops the car.
She jogs away from the car as Serena tells her she’s not going to shoot her and tries to follow in the car. On her next contraction, she drives off the road and gets stuck in mud. June runs deeper into the forest, then stops and reconsiders.
This season’s motif of June, lost in the No Man’s Land Forest with a companion and in danger, continues. First she was with Moira, then Luke, now Serena. In the forest, June finds clearings, empty old buildings, inhabitants who live off the grid in odd buildings and other strange sights, such as the dead rapist, but whenever she enters it’s much more difficult than expected to get out. The only times she gets in and out safely are when Nick is involved. That might make him her protector or it might make him the Big Bad Wolf who’s in charge of the forest- or both.
Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7: No Man’s Land Recap”The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 6: Together Recap
Episode 6 picks up soon after the previous episode left off, with June and Luke in a prison van, on their way to an undisclosed location in No Man’s Land. Serena discovers that her morning doctor’s appointment will take place in the Wheeler’s attic, in a birthing suite they’ve furnished with the latest technology. Just to make sure she and the baby remain completely safe and in their clutches. Aunt Lydia finds out that Esther is three weeks pregnant, revealing Commander Putnam raped her when they were alone together at Fred’s wake. Outraged, Lydia takes the scandal to Commander Lawrence, who brings Nick in help handle the out of control Commander.
Recap
June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are cuffed (should we say “ziptied” now?) for the long van ride to their captors’ detention center. Luke moans in distress and tries to break the zipties. June instructs him that it’s not worth wasting his energy this way, when there’s no chance of escape. When he asks if the kidnappers are from Gilead, she explains that it’s not likely, since the van has a disinfectant smell and Gilead shuns such strong chemicals.
Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 6: Together Recap”The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 5: Fairytale Recap
During episode 5 June and Luke go bowling in No Man’s Land, while Serena meets Commander Mr Wheeler and spars with Warren and Joseph. The message of the episode: Life is a fairytale, but one written by the Brothers Grimm, not by Walt Disney.
A few moments from the “Previously” stand out: Moira’s line delivery when she tells June that Hannah wont become a wife under any circumstances is so heartfelt; the tears in Luke’s eyes combined with the anger in his voice at the end of his meeting with Serena- she pushed all of his buttons after knowing him for less than an hour in total; the way Serena leans into Ezra as he escorts her out of the Information Center when they hear the gunshot- she’s looking for a man she can rely on; and Mrs Ryan Wheeler’s crazy eyes when she looks up at Serena as she caresses the baby in her womb- no way is she letting Serena keep that child.
Recap
The episode begins with one of June’s (Elisabeth Moss) iconic flashbacks to toddler Hannah (Jordana Blake) at the aquarium, a memory that both sustained and haunted June throughout her time in Gilead. The end of the flashback rewinds, then June wakes up to her phone buzzing. She was dreaming. The rewind was an expression of her fear that Hannah’s memories of her childhood with June and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are disappearing and being replaced by memories of childhood in Gilead with the MacKenzies. By extension, she’s worried about the way Gilead is shaping Hannah as a person.
Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 5: Fairytale Recap”Midnight, Texas Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap
Happy Halloween! I’m going to rewatch season 1 of Midnight, Texas, so for fun I’ll try to write some quick recaps. Let’s see how far into the season I get. I recapped season 2 as it aired.
Midnight, Texas is a 2 season show that aired from 2017-18, currently streaming on Peacock, which is loosely based on the 3 book series by Charlaine Harris. The books take place in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse universe with a couple of minor character crossovers, but the show didn’t acknowledge the connection. It originally ran on the NBC broadcast network, so it’s also much tamer than True Blood, but it’s still an hour long dramedy about supernaturals finding refuge in a small town in the southern US.
The main character of Midnight, Texas is Manfred Bernardo (Francois Arnaud), a medium from a long line of mediums, who was raised by his recently deceased grandmother and is still close to her ghost. Said ghost now dwells in the RV where they lived as they traveled the country, working their trade. Manfred is on the run from a business deal gone wrong, so Grandma Xylda (Joanne Camp) counsels him to hole up in her old haunt of Midnight, a town where supernaturals are safe to be themselves and everyone has a secret.
Continue reading “Midnight, Texas Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap”Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episode 2: …After the Phantoms of Your Former Self Recap
Episode 2 picks up where the pilot left off, not long after Lestat finishes turning Louis into a vampire. Lestat spends the rest of the night cleaning up bodies and giving Louis his first lessons on how to live as a vampire. In the months and years that follow, Louis attempts to juggle being a vampire and maintaining his human lifestyle, with continued input from Lestat. As their lives become more entangled and their power dynamic more complicated, it leads to a more volatile relationship between maker and fledgling vampire.
Recap
On Day 2 of the interviews, Daniel (Eric Bogosian) examines a painting in the dining room while he waits for Louis (Jacob Anderson). Rashid (Assad Zaman) enters and tells him the work is by Venetian artist Marius de Romanus, an obscure painter with few surviving pieces who was a contemporary of 16th century painter Tintoretto. He explains that Louis “covets the rare.”
Daniel doesn’t pause to consider whether his Pulitzer Prize and previous Interview with the Vampire experience make him rare enough to collect.
Continue reading “Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episode 2: …After the Phantoms of Your Former Self Recap”Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episode 1: In Throes of Increasing Wonder… Recap
This is a spoiler-filled recap of season 1 episode 1 of the AMC TV series Interview with the Vampire. My review of episodes 1 and 2 (with minimal spoilers) is HERE.
Interview with the Vampire is based on Anne Rice’s 1976 novel of the same name and follows the misadventures and twisted affections of two vampires, Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt. Louis narrates the tale via the framing device of the titular interview, given to ageing investigative journalist Daniel Molloy. The series alternates between their discussion in the present day and depictions of the past as Louis describes it.
Present day Louis lives in a customized penthouse in Dubai with a staff of devoted servants and a fabulous art collection. Now that they are both older and wiser, he invites Daniel to visit and have a second go at the disappointing interview they did together almost 50 years ago.
Louis begins the new version of his story in 1910, when he was the human owner of several brothels in New Orleans, which he maintained in order to support his elderly mother, engaged sister and mentally ill, religion-obsessed brother in the style they’d enjoyed while his father was alive. He was a Black Creole business owner in the Jim Crow south, which meant his business options were strictly limited. He’d kept from his family how close they’d already been to financial ruin when his father died a few years earlier.
Louis had to alter the way the family made its money because their sugar plantations (changed from indigo plantations in the book) no longer supported them due to restrictions imposed by the racist Jim Crow laws. Rather than accept the truth, his family believed that he preferred the low life and fast money of the red-light district and had willingly chosen this life over their genteel lifestyle.
As the story begins, the vampire Lestat arrives in town, fresh off the boat from France, and discovers New Orleans is a town that very much suits his tastes.
And that Louis is a man who very much suits his tastes.
Continue reading “Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episode 1: In Throes of Increasing Wonder… Recap”Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2: Review
The updated TV series adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel “Interview with the Vampire” and its many sequels is finally here. I’m trying to find ways to sound like a grown up about it, but I first read the novel when I was 16 and that girl needs to gush and scream for a minute: Aaaaahh!!! It’s so good!!! I love it!!! Louis and Lestat are perfect! They are the people I’ve always imagined and interact in the ways I envisioned when I read the books over and over. They have so much chemistry. And it’s gorgeous, so lush and beautiful to listen to and watch. ❤️❤️❤️
Okay. Moving on. Now for a more adult review.
Continue reading “Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2: Review”Severance Season 1 Episode 7: Defiant Jazz Recap
Episode 7 continues Mark’s meeting with Reghabi, the Lumon employee who helped Petey reintegrate. The meeting spirals out of control and Mark leaves in a hurry, with an upgraded Lumon key card in his pocket. The next morning, Harmony helps Devon with her breastfeeding issues, then sticks around to chat over tea. Helly earns a Music Dance Experience reward for the progress she’s made in refining her current file. When Milchick attempts to get the entire team involved in the party, Dylan’s emotions from the night before become an issue.
This episode is the set up for the finale, which takes place over episodes 8 and 9. As such, the pace and the reveals pick up even more. In past recaps, I’ve talked about the Johnstown flood in relation to Kier City’s geography and Lumon’s potential corporate history. The season is also paced, both in action and reveals, like a dam slowly losing its structural integrity, until it bursts and the reservoir behind it inundates the city below.
Continue reading “Severance Season 1 Episode 7: Defiant Jazz Recap”
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