Doctor Who: An Update

Here's a quick update on Doctor Who. You can read earlier reports from nearly a decade ago here and here. Back then I was just starting the Clara episodes (Series 7), and Matt Smith had been around quite awhile.

Since then, I've loved practically all the Matt Smith episodes. And also the Impossible Girl (Clara).

Series 8 brought in the next doctor: Peter Capaldi -- again, strong episodes. I figured they needed to bring in an older-looking guy to explain River Song's comment about him being old. Heheheh! And talk about some really awesome plot twists with River and company! And possibly some of the best episodes. My favorite so far being the one where Capaldi is stuck in a time/loop castle with an awesome ending.

And then a fun exit for River Song and Clara -- will they be back?

Series 11 brought in our first female Doctor: Jodie Whittaker. She does an awesome job, but the quality of the episodes just dropped like a rock. It was almost as if the writers decided, "Now that we have a woman, we've cracked the 'political' suit and we can hit everyone with uber political episodes."

Though I loved Jodie's performance, and even Missy's character (the female Master), I always despise when writers sacrifice plot for politics. The episodes in Series 11 were thus hit and miss -- some good episodes among some bad ringers. It was good enough to keep me pushing through to the end of the season, and I seem to remember a decent closer, though I can't for the life of me remember what happened.

I do remember the worst episode: the one with the spiders. It was by all measures -- just bad. MST3000 bad. It featured one of the worst American caricatures I've ever seen -- "I love guns -- give me a gun. Let's kill everything. I'm going to become President of the US and destroy everything." I'm pretty sure they were going for some kind of Donald Trump. Maybe he wrote the episode? The plot was just so convoluted - designed to set up some really poorly done political statement. 

Series 11 was overall so bad that I'm taking a break. I just have no desire to start Series 12 (the last one currently available), but I know one day I'll do it -- I haven't written off the show yet. Though I want to yell: "Give Jodie something good to work with like you did with Christopher, David, Matt, and Peter!" To give her crap is, I think, the worst insult one could give a woman Doctor. She can handle it -- just bring back the good writing you did for 10 series. You can still have the politics -- just introduce it organically and don't sacrifice the plot.

And there you have it ... we'll eventually see what comes next ... 

COSMOS: The Original Book

In an earlier blog post, I explained how Carl Sagan's COSMOS changed my life. And now years later, I gave the book another read-through, and this a review of that book.

After finishing this recent read-through, I'm now pretty sure that in the early 80s when I received the original, I had not ever read through the entire book. I had only looked at all the many pictures that existed in that first hardbound edition. And the pictures had reminded me of the 13 episodes I had watched of the partner TV show: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. So, it turns out, it was really the TV show that changed my life, and not the book.

The book, itself, is slightly different from the show -- maybe about 70% overlap, but then another 30% of stuff I hadn't heard before. The show also has some of my favorite pieces that are missing in the book.

Overall, Sagan's book is well-organized -- 13 chapters. He begins by defining the word Cosmos. It is the order in which we live -- our universe -- the opposite of chaos. He then describes our place in the whole. He explores how our understanding of the Cosmos changed throughout time, including our advances in knowledge and setbacks (he doesn't seem to like Pythagoras that well). He explores our planets, detailing our missions to explore them. He describes our own planet and how we need to take care of it. He muses on the possibility of life around other stars and how we may eventually meet others. He discusses a lot about how evolutional forces helped to shape our existence -- how it took billions of years to build what we have now. He explains how everything we see in space is a time machine back into the past.

And he finishes it all with the most chilling chapter: "Who Speaks for Earth?" If we are to survive, we must come together, but due to the "reptile" inner brains we have, we also have the disposition to destroy ourselves. He urges that we need to learn how to use our "mammal" outer brains to overcome our instincts to destroy, and then persevere into the future.

I, for one, am optimistic that we will figure it all out and survive this destructive period, even though these last few years have been very unsettling -- if Carl Sagan was worried in the late 70s, he would certainly be alarmed to see how worse off we are today -- how bad actors have used the internet to brainwash many unknowing victims to embrace their destructive natures and increase hate. Something I'm actively fighting, but not gaining much traction yet. Carl Sagan and others have inspired me to push our world as much as I can in the right direction -- as large as that world is.

There are definitely parts where I disagree with the man. For example, Sagan spends a few pages talking about how letting teenagers have unlimited sex would lead to more peaceful people as adults (based on the research of neuropsychologist James W. Prescott) -- and I'm all: "Say what? This is interesting but you're certainly spending a lot of time on this one." So -- he's not perfect, and sometimes he'll drift on some strange tangent.

Also, some parts are a little dated, but we can't really fault him on that.

However, more often than not, I find myself agreeing with him, and so I strongly recommend this book. 5 stars out of 5. There's a lot of history I didn't know before, and he made it all interesting. There are very deep concepts that make me think, and maybe it can get your brain working as well. So -- give it a try.

Cobra Kai: Cheesy Goodness

Here's another new guilty pleasure of mine: Cobra Kai, a continuation of the original Karate Kid movies from the 80s.

If you've seen the first movie, you may remember the battle between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. Johnny was a member of the ruthless dojo Cobra Kai, and Daniel took up with Mr. Miyagi. While Johnny took advantage and cheated, Daniel was just trying to make it through high school and overcome bullying. It all came to a head when they battled in the All Valley Karate Championships.

34 years later, Johnny Lawrence is a big wash-up, and Daniel LaRusso is running a lucrative auto dealership. When Johnny decides to bring back Cobra Kai, it rocks the entire community. Even Daniel decides to get involved -- doing everything in his power to stop a terrible dojo from coming back.

The show is surprisingly good -- even with it relying on 80's references up the whazoo and really cheezy plot twists. Most everything is organic. Nothing is black and white. Practically all characters are believable and likable. The dialogue is strong (most of the time). And the villains are also fun to hate. Boo -- villains!

However, there remain a few spots of convoluted plot twists and a couple of not-quite-organic character developments -- particularly in the third season. But in the heat of the moment, it's hard for me not to mind so much.

My one main complaint is -- what's up with all the language (F-bombs and related words)? There are some shows where that kind of speech fits perfectly, but The Karate Kid? Just like Star Trek, Designated Survivor, and The Tick, these cuss words just feel out of place. In those universes it feels cliche, inorganic, forced, and distracting. As such, it took me a couple of years to get into this show -- but then VidAngel came along and it was goodbye to the bad language. It's very difficult for me to recommend this show to most of my "family" friends unless you combine it with VidAngel (look it up if interested). And for me, the show became much more enjoyable.

I enjoyed reliving the Karate Kid moments, all the fun fights, all the plot twists, the cute romances, the 80's music and references. I can't wait to see what comes next in Season 4, but we'll have to wait until the last quarter of 2021.

Cowboy Bebop -- Anime with Style

Earlier this year I came across Cowboy Bebop, the original anime from 1998, and I fell in love. It's pretty short, so it was easy to get through all 26 half-hour episodes relatively fast. It also has one of the coolest introductions for an anime.

As it looks and sounds, it's a Western set in space. Spike is a bounty hunter traveling with Jet, going after anyone with a price on their head. Along the way, they come across baddies, corrupt police, syndicates, musicians, ex-girlfriends, and anyone else you'd expect to find in a typical Western. But this is set in the future when we have partially terraformed several planets and moons, and have set up a really cool gate system that allows everyone to instantly transport to different locations in our solar system.

The music is phenomenal in many of the episodes, covering a wide variety of different styles. Even the titles of each episode make some kind of musical reference.

The plots range from the insanely funny to outright heartbreaking -- and lots of action, plot twists, and rich characters. The bad guys are all interesting -- there's even a Joker/Penguin dude who may give you nightmares. And there's even half of a Wilhelm Scream if you can find it.

I recommend the English dub version rather than the Japanese with subtitles version, because the dub version really is better. Plus -- and get this -- I'm not sure how many people realized, but in the English version, it seems the sound technicians tried to match the reverb with the space in which the characters were speaking. Or maybe I was just imagining it.

The ending seemed to come a little abruptly, but it was very satisfying. It was as if they could have kept on building the world and providing more back story, but eventually it had to come to an end.

Netflix has a live-action version coming shortly, and it better not suck. It probably has no chance to live up to the original, but -- hey -- I'll give it a try.

This anime is a little on the adult side -- just be warned -- it's not really for little kids. But give it a try -- I enjoyed all the energy, story, and organic flow. Highly recommended.

A Quiet Place Part II

 

The long awaited sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, has finally arrived. I think it was supposed to be released last year, but was delayed due to the pandemic. And now that it's come out, it has enjoyed the highest grossing domestic weekend since the pandemic began -- possibly a sign that people will again return to theaters.

I would have never guessed that the funny guy from The Office would ever turn out to be a surprisingly good writer and director. He continues his good work with this sequel, which picks up immediately after the first movie.

To jog your memory, the Earth has been invaded by aliens who can only find you by sound. As long as you're quiet, you survive.

As a result, this movie was so quiet, I could hear the music and some sounds from the theater one room over. Strangely, it seemed to add to the suspense. So funny. We also had some people in the theater who just had to make noise during the movie, and my first thought was, "Shhh! You're going to get us all killed."

Overall, the suspense was good. Some of the jump scares were actually effective, and not stupid. The effects were good -- the aliens believable, though by the end of the movie, I think my brain started to pick up on some of the alien patterns -- some artifact of the AI or the animation -- something that made them look less real.

Though, I did notice the usual classical tropes -- like Chekov's gun, and some dramatic coincidences. I was able to overlook most of these as I was having too much fun getting sucked up into the movie. And it delivered exactly what I was expecting.

So, go catch the movie as soon as you can, and have fun!