The OA pt 2

After watching the entire first season of the show “The OA”, I wasn’t sure exactly how to interpret the ending. So, me being me, I went and did a little research on it. I guess I should add in a little spoiler alert, as I didn’t pick up a clear moral or lesson until the very end. In the show, The OA educates her new found friends on her life and where she had been the past few years of being missing. Towards the end, the friends she’s made begin to question if she was really telling the truth about her experiences. Though, in the end, they decided to believe her and ended up saving a lot of people in their school. While this may sound a little cheesy, I feel as though the OA was meant to show to teach how to unquestionably be able to trust people, no matter how crazy something may seem. The OA’s friends, towards the end of her story, the people that had been helping her along the way and listening to her story began to find holes in her story, and think that she might be crazy and she made the whole thing up. Some believe her therapist planted evidence at her house to make everyone think for sure that she based her story off of many others. So, eventually, her friends stop believing in her and leave her side. However, the OA starts having dreams that lead her to believe something terrible is going to happen. She’s trying to figure it out in order to save others, but at first it simply confuses her. A month passes, and the OA comes to realize what is about to happen. After a school shooter goes to the school all her new friends attended, they all came together to perform the movements she had taught to them. In the end, they aid in saving the majority of their school, and the OA potentially dies in the open fire. In the end, they realize all they had to do was put some faith into her and her story. The show demonstrates how some people may not seem logical, they may not seem trustworthy, and maybe even a little crazy. However, sometimes people just need a little faith, and good things could come their way, and tragedy can be prevented. While, in the end, the OA may have perished, she still was able to save the many by gaining friends and showing them how to help others.  

Stranger Things

Dad,

It took me a long time to decide which show I wanted to write about this week, because I knew you’d be reading it. As I sat there pondering, a recommendation came to me from the last place I ever expected to receive one: in our basement talking with Luke Shawhan. He thought I would enjoy Stranger Things. I had been avoiding hopping on this bandwagon for so long, but I finally caved and decided to watch this show that had captivated all of my peers (and apparently Mr. Shawhan).

I’m going to give you a quick plot summary that I pulled from Wikipedia, because there was honestly so much going on that I couldn’t think of a good way to summarize it: “Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, during the early 1980s. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy, but secretly does experiments into the paranormal and supernatural, including those that involve human test subjects. These start to affect the unknowing residents of Hawkins in calamitous ways.”

You know better than anyone that science fiction has never been my favorite genre. I avoid it at all costs, occasionally to your chagrin (think Star Trek). But as I watched this new show, there were a couple of moments that made me think that maybe, just maybe, science fiction isn’t the worst thing in the world.

First, I was really captivated by the number of plot lines that the show was following. It seemed like each character has his or her own detailed background and mystery to solve, which is relatively unique to this show. As I was watching a few of these plot lines unfold and become even more intertwined, I noticed that I wanted to watch more episodes in order to find the answers to questions that I had. I think that by making this show as detailed as it is, the creators ran a risk. If they made it simpler to follow, I don’t think they would be able to keep their audience captivated and hungry for more. But if they made it too difficult to follow, the audience would most likely find the show mentally exhausting and thus not an enjoyable thing to watch. In my opinion, Stranger Things has managed to find the perfect balance between complex and entertaining.

The second thing about the show that really interested me was the use of children as main characters. Normally, a science fiction show involving language and “scary” content would have mostly adult actors, but the main actors in Stranger Things are children. These kids do an incredible job of portraying material that is difficult to grasp, and I wish I was friends with all of them in real life. Regardless of acting ability though, I would like to ask the creators of the show why they chose to use children. Maybe it allows them to interest their audience in a way that most other shows can’t? Maybe they wanted to make the events that occur in the show even less relatable by having an age gap between the actors and the audience? Whatever the reason, the use of child actors has a profound effect on the show as a whole.

There are honestly a lot of other things that make this show an oddity, but for sake of your time and my word count, I think I’m going to conclude with those thoughts for today. Let me know what you think of these observations!

With love from your favorite daughter,

Anna

3%

Hey friend! It’s Caroline from the past! I’m writing about some interesting aspects of my life for you, so you can know me that much better. For now, I wanted to write about my current favorite movie and tv genre, sci-fi. I’ve watched a lot of different shows, but (as of now) I wanted to tell you about the latest one I watched. Before the latest, I watched the OA (and then finishing the first season because I fell in love). I started to want to watch more sci-fi. I’m really into the genre as you know, but after that show I wanted even more. I began scrolling through Netflix Originals, as of what had been released in October of 2017, looking for something that would suffice. Something not too long, that fit my genre request, and would be fun to watch. I finally found one that looked appealing, a show called “3%”. It looked like it had a minimal concept, only one season, and it was a dystopian, a subgenre that I also enjoy. I began watching, until I ran into a minor issue: I chose Netflix’s first Brazilian production, filmed entirely in Portuguese. So, I decided to try something that’s usually a pet peeve of mine, and I watched the whole thing with English dubs over it. I’m not sure if I’ll continue watching foreign shows with English dubs, I guess you’ll know if I have or not. I will say, it sometimes distracted from my experience, which is obviously not the fault of the show, and is a result of my own ignorance. However, this is a show I did enjoy watching, I got hooked very easily, and I’d highly recommend watching. That being said, if you can enjoy it in it’s parent language, then I think you’ll have that much better of a viewing experience.

3%, as I said, is a dystopian sci-fi filmed in Brazil. People are living in a community full of poverty and despair, known as The Inland. Once someone turns 20, they may try their luck, skill, and merit in the Process, where only 3% of candidates will be welcomed into the utopian community on the Offshore. It’s assumed the show takes place sometime in the future, and I can only hope that the future isn’t like this show. In most shows like this, you’d expect the main protagonists to be the successors and the antagonist to fall short. However, this show is full of twists that I feel make this show worth watching. And, while I want to talk about these twists, I’ll add in a potential spoiler alert. In the first episode, we’re introduced to multiple characters that are presumably the protagonists that we will follow to their success on the Offshore. In the first “test” they take, however, half of these characters are cut. One goes so far as to commit suicide out of despair. It’s here we realize no one is safe from the Process. I feel that’s one of the main things that helped me to stay hooked, that I never knew who would be cut, and it helped immerse the viewer even more. I hope we can enjoy some shows together, let me know! And if you watch this show, definitely tell me about how you liked it. Maybe there will be more than 1 season by the time you see it.

A Message from The OA

This week I decided to take on The OA. After hearing a ton of people talk about it, I decided to give it a try. People have told me it was a little difficult to follow, and a great deal happens all at once, so I imagined it would be a good idea to write about why people should watch, even if it is a little more perplexing. Towards the end of the pilot, the OA begins to tell her story to the people she recruited to help her. She must convince them that they can trust her, and opens up to them so they will help her on her journey. So, for my blog post this week, rather than me tell you, the reader, why watching the show is in fact worth the watch despite it being quite a wild ride, I decided to let the OA speak for herself, and gain the trust and guidance of the opposition, as to why you should go with her on her journey, despite it being quite the mystery at first.

Thank you for finding my post. That means you are here because you’re considering helping me. It is crucial I get to the border. Please, don’t click away. I need your help.

I know that this might sound insane, I know you may not want to trust me right now, I know my story is unlike one that you’ve ever heard of before, and my reasons might sound unearthly, but I am the OA and I need your help. I need to tell you why I am worth helping and following.

I am unlike anyone you’ve met in your life. I know that that is a longshot statement to say, but I believe it to be true. Have you ever sympathized with a friend going through hardships? They’re quite easy to help, as you know them, you trust them, you want the best for them. And in the end, you know that they’d do the same for you. Well, have you sympathized with a stranger before? I know, it isn’t as easy to do. I know, that is who I am to you right now. But if you come on this journey with me, I can be your friend, and I will repay you in more ways than you could ever imagine. I know that someone like you can begin to trust me, and find it in your heart to help me on my way.

While trusting me is the first big step, I can’t have you quit on me along the way. The road to my success will be difficult and somewhat confusing, and I will always need the most courageous and strong people to aid me. That is why I have chosen you. There’s countless stories you have yet to hear, to be able to hear my tales I’m sure will excite you! There’s so much more to me, and my life. Or, should I say my many lives. I’m sure if you continue on with me, you will not be disappointed.

I will respect your story if this journey is not for you, or if you are unsure you will be able to keep up. But I strongly encourage you to try, and to believe that you may understand who I am and what I must achieve. So, if you choose to stay with me, I’d like for you to close your eyes, and see what I see.

The Discovery: A Scientific Take on the Afterlife

The Discovery is a 2017 science fiction mystery romance film directed by Charlie McDowell and stars Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), Rooney Mara (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Jesse Plemons (Black Mass), and the iconic Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). The film is about Jason Segel's Will, a neurologist who is trying to cope in a suicidal world following Redford's Thomas scientific discovery of an afterlife. Additionally, the film follows Thomas as he tries to figure out exactly what this afterlife entails.
Being a christian myself, I found this idea to be quite interesting and have in a way been looking forward to watching the film and then being able to talk about it. I was curious how the film would approach the topic and if it would try to give an actual proposition about the afterlife.
Now that I have seen the film, I can say that the film is a thought provoking, well made film that unfortunately is too flawed to create what could have been a terrific sci-fi masterpiece. The major problem with the film is the romance subplot. Rooney Mara's Isla slowly becomes involved in Will as they sprout a romance, and while this subplot could work, I don't feel like the overall structure of the film supported this subplot. Most of the runtime is intensely focused on trying to find out what the afterlife entails. Whenever the romance plot pops up, it feels forced and completely out of place. A subplot involving Will and Isla trying to disprove this afterlife also pops up towards the end of the film, similarly feeling out of place. If this was the main plot and had been developed from the beginning of the film, then it would have worked and probably well. The problem is that the subplot starts around the hour mark with only forty minutes of runtime left. For an hour, the audience is led to believe that this afterlife is real, and then all of a sudden it comes into question? To make matters worse, the afterlife turns out to be real, rendering the subplot dead on arrival and completely unnecessary. The ending also was rushed and forced. It seemed like the writers wanted to have a thrilling ending that would in turn reveal exactly what the afterlife is. What actually unfolded was a crammed ending. It did show what the afterlife was, however I think it was super predictable and should have been taken in a completely different direction.
While it might sound like I didn't like the film, it quite frankly really was good despite its problems, because almost everything else about the film is solid if not great. The acting was very solid all around, especially from Redford and Segel. All of the characters were incredibly well developed, leaving them feeling three dimensional. In this case, I think that the praise should go both to the actors and the writers. The film is also incredibly well paced. Never in its entirety does the film ever feel long or boring. The cinematography was also very solid. Most of it is filmed with slow camera panning and a healthy mixture of close ups and medium shots. To me, this helps keep the tone of the film as feeling mysterious and sort of depressing.
The highest of praises that I can give this film as it was incredibly thought inducing. Even though I am a christian, I don't necessarily know exactly what heaven or hell are like. The interesting angle the film takes is one that isn't necessarily religious. Having never been an atheist, I always assumed that they didn't believe in any sort of afterlife. This film, however, introduces one that may very well be an afterlife without a God. Even though I personally don't agree with that notion, I can still understand and respect it. I think that this should have been explored deeper than it was, however I think it is a good idea not to answer all questions in a movie like this. It's just unfortunate that this was something that wasn't addressed. The film also introduces ideas of what an afterlife could be like that I would never have thought of, such as ones that involve parallel universes.
The sad thing about the film is that it could have been great, but instead is just a very ambitious solid one. I think the writers had a million and one great ideas for the film and decided to try and fit them all into the film. If the film had only focused on a few of the stronger ideas present in the film, I think it could have been the next Arrival. I still recommend the film for anyone who wants to watch a thoughtful sci-fi that tackles maybe the most sought out question in the history of this world: is there an afterlife?

Sense8

This week I took on Sense8, a seemingly sci-fi with a broad array of characters with different backgrounds, locations, races, etc.. The beginning serves as a shock factor, as we witness a woman kill herself, leaving us with so many unanswered questions. Out of all the pilots I’ve watched thus far, this one has definitely left me feeling the most intrigued.

I say this show is seemingly sci-fi as I’m not 100% sure where this show truly falls yet. I’ve seen plenty of other shows where, after the first episode, I’m not sure what sort of show I’m watching, or what genre it could be, but this one I feel does that right. I often get confused watching shows, deciding whether or not it should be a comedy, action, or whatever else. While I will say this show is not in a certain category for me (yet) I feel like it does it right. I left the episode feeling like the creators wanted it to be up for interpretation, and that you had to come back to find out more, what course it would take, where the characters would end up.

The characters had such a great impact on the show, that even if I barely know their names, where they’re from, or what their background is, all of them gave so much that I wanted to know them more. I wanted to follow them and learn more about them, cheer them on even if they were doing so pretty illegal stuff. Each of them had such a compelling story, and I can’t wait to see how they all connect with each other. They all contribute to the mystery factor of the show. Towards the end of the episode, Riley and Will are shown interacting with each other, despite being in completely different countries at the time. We never get an explanation as to how Riley ended up in America, and it’s left to a point where we want to know more.

Lastly, I was captivated by the cinematography as a whole. Having recently read this chapter, there is a lot to be commented on. The usage of color and overall tone varied from scene to scene. I felt as though this was used to reflect the character and their emotions and background. For example, when we first meet Nomi and Amanita, they make usage of the colors at pride. They’re shown as happy and loving. Meanwhile, as we first meet Angelica, she’s laying in the dark, very little color reflecting her, and even the soundtrack reflects her as it’s horrific and negative. Each character comes with a different background, personality, and story, and the creators seem to want to showcase it through their scene design.

Sense8 has a lot thrown at you all at once, and the pilot leaves viewers with so many unanswered questions. Therefore, I would recommend this show, especially if you need something to binge watch. I definitely would like to continue watching this series, as I have already become pretty enveloped in these characters!

On the OA

After being recommended by multiple people to watch The OA I have finally given in and watched the premier episode. After finishing the episode I can definitely say the the story writers have done a fantastic job of opening up questions about the characters like OA and Steve, as well as to build up these characters without giving too many details.

iBoy

After Tom got a shot in his head, some of his smart phone fragments have been embedded in his head. This gave him the ability of hacking any electron simply by his thought. He could not live in a normal way again, and his decided to be a hacker named iBoy, who tried to carry out revenge and end the crime.

The director set up the film with a proper environment. Characters lived in old blocks. Old blocks was a symbol of poor and crimes in many movies. There was noisy and screaming when the main character Tom was sitting in front of his laptop at the very beginning of the film. This shadowed the unpeaceful of the block.

The main actor acted pretty well to portray Tom’s character. In the beginning, Tom always walked with his head down, which indicated he was not strong and kind of coward. When he came to visit Lucy, the girl who he liked, he found someone was carrying out a crime on her. He choice to leave, which might be a correct decision when facing with criminals with gun.

After he recovered from the gunshot, he came to visit Lucy. In the elevator, he met with his classmate Eugene. Eugene was chewing gum and holding a toothpick in his mouth.He leaked his back on the wall with his head aslant and mouth up. He talked to Tom with a tone of sarcasm and smile unkindly. Eugene had an unfriendly appearance which was a reflection of his inner side.  Tom was not dare to say much whenever he met with Eugene and other people who raped Lucy. His speechless reflected his cowardice.

Lucy was a nice and kind girl in the movie. She had a confident and happy smile before she was raped. She conveyed a outgoing school girls to the audience. Even after the crime, she still presented her beautiful smile to Tom and never blamed for Tom’s leaving . But her eyes were not as bright as they used to be. She used her eyes to deliver her sadness to the audience. When she was carrying a gun against rapers, who grew up with her, she changed her facial expression to a determined looking. But her kindness stopped her from killing these people.  

The director used low angles and high angles shot throughout the movie to depict the character. The director used low angles shot when Tom was standing in somewhere, watching the criminals, and using his special ability. The low angle shot made Tom strong and powerful. Eugene had supervisors. In his supervisor's’ house, Tom found a lot of drug. Tom hided these drugs in rapers’ house and called the police. In the scenes of catching people who had drugs in house, the director used high angles shot. Shooting from the sky, Eugene and other people ran like rat in the street. The high angles shot made them weaker.

In all, I think this movie was a good example for me to study the acting. These characters were vivid, and the performers’ performances were good.

Black Mirror

Black Mirror is a Netflix series that numerous people within the past year have raved to me about. The first time that I heard about it was from a coworker last fall. He had been discussing the program with a magnificent excitement, describing it as something that would “freak you out” and make you think deeply about what you see and how it compares to today’s society. It seemed interesting enough, but I just never got around to watching it on my own.

I have found that the best way to describe Black Mirror to those who haven’t yet seen it, is to compare it to the Twilight Zone. The show is a modern collection of science fiction tales, depicting possible realities mainly involving technology and how it could possibly affect the way we communicate with each other and the environment.

For this blog post, I viewed two episodes of the show - one coming from the end of season 1, and one from the beginning of season 3. The episode from season 3 told the story of a man who travels to Europe for a vacation from the stress of his life. He frequently ignores calls from his mother as he leaves the country. While in Europe, he runs out of money and decides to participate in the testing of a new gaming software for compensation. The episode from season one presented the story of a couple whose marriage is collapsing due to fears of cheating. Evidence is presented in an interesting way because many people in that world have chips in the sides of their heads that record all of their memories and stores them to be reviewed on demand at a later date. Both episodes were phenomenally well done because of three main contributing factors.

The first thing I would like to address is the acting. The quality of acting in shows and movies is such an imperative aspect of production. Great acting is at the core of quality pieces of cinema, and without it, there’s hardly any point in fantastical graphics or master editing. There’s so many occasions where I’ll sit down to watch a movie and the acting is so bad, I feel meta. In my opinion, a great viewing experience is characterised by moving you from the real world and placing you into the world that you’re viewing. Black Mirror is one of those shows that creates an undeniably convincing and immersive experience through the skill of the actors.

That being said, the acting alone is not all of what makes the show exceptional. The graphics used within the show makes the show leap off of the screen, engulfing the viewer in what is being shown. The graphics are a complement to the acting, not a main selling point. There’s a broad, dramatic range of light used throughout the episodes that works with the overall tone of the show. Some shows and movies adopt a certain hue that filters each scene. For example, in the movie production of Twilight (2008), each scene appeared to be tinted dark green. While many scenes in black mirror have a dark color scheme, there is not a particular hue present in each scene.

The final factor that contributes to the quality of the program is the use of computer technology that we have today to depict non-existent technology. The various gizmos and gadgets illustrated in the show are so realistic and make the show even more believable because they are not much more advanced than the machinery that we have today.

I would recommend Black Mirror to anyone who is a fan of the Twilight Zone, Ripley’s Believe it or Not or even people who were once fans of R.L Stine or Anthony Horowitz. Like me. I was once a fan of R.L Stine and Anthony Horowitz. I would also recommend the show to anyone who is paranoid that smartphones will one day control our lives and destroy the universe.

The OA

I’ve heard many things about The OA. Some love it, some hate it, most recommend it, and yet I had no particular desire to watch this show. I tend to stay away from science fiction thrillers, as I find myself constantly analyzing the probability of the show’s situation rather than actually enjoying the show. But, in the spirit of trying new things, I pressed play, and prepared to be underwhelmed. That definitely wasn’t the most optimistic outlook, but it was honest.

For the first thirty minutes of episode one, I was in a state of utter confusion. Who is this girl? What happened to her? Where did her scars come from? Are they a metaphor for some deep truth to be revealed in a later episode? I knew nothing, and unsurprisingly, I felt nothing. But by this point my interest was peaked, so I decided to at least finish the first episode.

Let’s just say one episode turned into two, and then into three. I found myself captivated by a show that shouldn’t be captivating, at least not to me. I wanted to watch more and more, but after three episodes, I was mentally exhausted. The expertly woven plot covered my mind like a thick blanket. Even now, several days after completing those episodes, I randomly draw ties between seemingly unrelated details.

In my opinion, that’s where the true value of the show lies: in the details. I could use the platform of this blog to draw conclusions about the innovative filming techniques, or about the use of colloquial language in the script. But I’d rather talk about the details that make this show worth watching.

The dramatic difference in the length of Prairie’s hair, before and after the incident. The depiction of another dimension, framed with stars in groups like you’ve never even imagined. The diverse group of confidants that play such an important, but quiet, part in the story: they remind me that sometimes, all you need is someone to listen. The light that refuses to leave Prairie’s eyes, even when she can no longer see what light is.

These are the details that kept me watching. I found myself unable to turn away, for I feared that every distraction would cost me a detail, and I’d be one step further from piecing it all together.

Clearly, this show was not dreamt up overnight. Even from the pilot episode, the complexity of the plot is overwhelming. Normally, I don’t enjoy shows that are so mentally taxing to watch, but something about this one keeps me coming back for more. Maybe I feel some connection to the plot, or I want to see the heroine of the story get her life back on track. Whatever the reason, I know that I will continue to watch.

Maybe Prairie will find her long lost love. Maybe, she won’t, but she’ll rediscover herself in the process. Maybe she doesn’t reach any sort of resolution, and continues to exist in a state of mental instability. Here’s the catch: I don’t think I really have a preference. I don’t want the story to end, I just want it to develop. Do you remember that old cliche, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”? I’m beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, it could be true.

Stranger Things

This week, I decided to finally sit down and watch Stranger Things, the extremely popular sci-fi drama starring Winona Ryder and break out star Millie Bobby Brown. In this show, we're taken for a ride from our real world, into the “Upside Down”, following a diverse set of characters of all age groups and personalities. I enjoyed watching the pilot episode so much that I kept going through the series. With a name like "Stranger Things", it seemingly has such a simple concept, a story about some strange things. Yet, when you dive deeper into it, you see that the name takes on a whole other meaning. When you think you've seen the strangest, there will always be stranger things that you may not be able to see, or even be aware of. With that, I was drawn into the weird concept and story of the show.

While watching, one of the main cinematic tools used in this show is the use of location. There may be minor spoilers ahead, so here is your first and last warning. Our story sets in the small fictitious town of Hawkins, Indiana, a seemingly quiet and ordinary town, in the mid 1980s. One of the more stranger things that occurs in the town is the existence of the Upside Down, a dark world that seems to parallel the town of Hawkins. Some points are more parallel than others. Will, kidnapped into the upside down, learns how to communicate with his mother through lights she hangs around her house. This puts an emphasis on the parallel worlds of Hawkins and the Upside Down. In the same sense Will’s mother first didn’t know if he was alive, to believing he was there and that it was possible to bring him home, viewers are able to figure out the mystery alongside the characters. Two of the other characters, Will’s older brother Jonathan and friend Nancy, eventually find a way into the upside down through a tree in the woods surrounding Hawkins. From an audience perspective, it causes us to be anxious for our characters, in that we know something they don’t, that there is a way out.

In addition, I found it interesting how we’re taken back to the 80s to set the story. The characters aren’t able to just text friends letting them know they’re safe, they can’t search up why strange things are happening. The kids in the show use walkie talkies for messages and are constantly worrying about their friends. Winona Ryder was one of the biggest names to be cast in the show, probably on purpose as she had been such a huge 80s star. All aspects help to enforce the idea of living in the past and add an exciting element for 80s movies fans, like myself.

Stranger Things I believe to be such a great show, as it has small elements from every genre: horror, thriller, sci-fi, and a little romance. That said, there is something in it for everyone, as long as you don’t mind being hit with the next stranger thing.