The Events in the Series are Unfortunate

In the Netflix Original A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Mark Hudis, is a black drama comedy about the lives of three orphans. Their parents died in a house fire, or so we think, leaving them to travel to live with wacky relatives. The first relative they move in with is Count Olaf, who strictly wants to be their guardian to gain their fortune. Eventually they escape from Count Olaf, but he is persistent in obtaining their fortune.

The series was made based off of the book series. The books were always entertaining to read, mostly due to the events in each book being so wild. Having something from your childhood remade as an adult is exciting because you can relive through the good old times. I read these books in middle school and everyone in my class, including the grades both above and below mine, loved them. It was written by Lemony Snicket, who absolutely brought the characters to life. The three children each have a special quality that helps them in each book, or in this case episode. Violet is a distinguished inventor, Klaus is an intellectual prodigy, and baby Sunny has teeth that can chew through anything. Each of their talents comes in handy at different points in episodes. They are incredibly gifted and work their way out of a great deal of delicate situations.

 Besides the children, just about every single character had some foolish trait or interest that made everything so interesting. The way that people would die in the books were also wacky. The best parts of the series however are all the different figures that Count Olaf disguises himself as. The entire time watching we, the audience, can tell Count Olaf when we see him. Sometimes the disguises are ingenious and other times they are so unmistakable that you think to yourself, "Oh, come on!" The children also catch on to him awfully fast, the best giveaway being his tattoo of an eye on his ankle. However the adults in the series never catch onto it and do not believe the children. This leads to massive entertainment on how the children are going to expose him and save the day.

One of the overarching themes in the series is to keep pushing on, no matter how much life tries to keep you down, you can drive through it. The children go through a giant, life-changing tragedy, yet they do not sit around and grieve. At any point they could decide to give in to Count Olaf but they fight through it. Granted, it is a fictional book it gives a source of inspiration. There are times where life can be quite difficult and as more piles on the harder it can be. But keeping your head up and knowing that it will eventually be better is the best way to endure life.

If you have not read the book series watching this might be a little confusing at first. I would fully recommend reading the books; then, watching the series. The books are not terribly long and given enough time you could finish a book in a couple of days. If you have time, I would suggest giving it a chance and doing it soon because the next season comes out in March.

Black Mirror

I think that the Netflix Original Black Mirror is the best show on Netflix. It is a science fiction series with no continuous story line. It is full of thrilling and unpredictable episodes that are very entertaining. Many of these episodes are an hour or more, so in a sense it's like the episodes are movies because of the length and quality of the movie. This dystopian series shows the advancements in technology and the faults it can bring to society. All of these obscure attributes make this show one of the best ever made.

One of my favorite episodes is called “Playtest” it is about a man who went on a trip around the world. He visited countries like Italy, Australia and France. On his last stop before he went back home to America he was looking for a job to get more money for his trip. He used an app to find a job and came across a post to test out a new gaming system. He took the job and told a girl he had met about it. She asked him if he could take some pictures of it for her. So he went to the gaming company headquarters and was told to keep his phone off. He was testing out a game and when the worker left the room he took his phone out and took pictures of the gaming system. This proves to be his downfall because he tests out another gaming system where he is put into the game and can feel and experience everything that happens. This gaming system taps into your mind and finds out your biggest fears. Since he had his phone on it interferes with the game and many tragic events occur.

Another one of my favorite episodes is called “The Entire History of You”. It takes place in a world where most people have these advanced chips in there head right behind one of there ears. The device is called a grain and it keeps track of all the persons memories. People can look back through their memories and analyze what they have experienced. The main character of this episode is a man named Liam who suspects his wife is having an affair with one of her past boyfriends named Jonas. He goes on a drinking bender and wakes up to realize he had crashed his car. He looks back in his memories and he saw that he went to Jonas’s house and confronted him about his wife. He made Jonas delete all of his memories of his wife. While doing this Liam saw Jonas’s memories and realize that they were having an affair.

This show is not for everyone though. One episode is about a princess that gets kidnapped and the only way the kidnapper will return her is if the prime minister has sex with a pig on live tv. Even though this is a weird episode that I did not enjoy, I like that about the because it is very unpredictable. This show always keeps me on my toes and I really enjoy that about it.

Mindhunter

This week I watched the first episode of Mindhunter. This show takes place in the late 1970’s and it follows a young FBI agent, Holden Ford. He works in the hostage negotiation department and teaches classes about it to students in the agency. He struggles with keeping the attention of his students, as they don’t find value in what he has to say. After Holden personally encounters a hostage situation where a man takes off his clothes and claims that he is invisible, his interest is sparked. He wants to learn more about human behavior, specifically deviancy. Holden believes that this is something that is extremely important to be able to better understand the criminal motive, but the people around him don’t feel the same way.

The main overarching theme of the first episode is why do we behave the way we do? This is the question that Ford is on a quest to find the answer to the entire episode. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are now faced with the possibility of never understanding a criminal’s motive. It’s no longer out of lust or greed but now seems entirely random. Ford desires to dive further into criminal psychology to find the answers he is looking for. He is repetitively disregarded by fellow agents and other law enforcement agencies. Ford is far ahead of his time, and everyone around him believes there are many more important things to be focusing on. Towards the end of the episode he travels to Fairfield, Iowa to speak to their local police department about serial killers and their motives. He speaks about Charles Manson, and rationalizes that maybe Manson did what he did because of his abusive childhood, or the amount of time he was institutionalized. The audience is in complete dismay that he would even suggest that there was a rational reason for Manson’s killings. Many of the local officers speak up and say that they believe that crazy people are just crazy and that Charles Manson was just “born that way.”

In the last few moments, Bill, Ford’s coworker that he traveled to Iowa with says, “Let me tell you something about abhorrent behavior, Ford. It’s f**king abhorrent. If we understood it, we’d be abhorrent, too.” This quote is jarring and begs so many questions. It completely encases the theme of this entire episode, Ford’s journey to understand human behavior. This brought me to the question of, do we even completely understand deviance today? First off, how do we define deviance? Yes, we have a dictionary definition of deviance, but there is not a concrete way to label something as deviant behavior. It is more of a socially defined construct, rather than a concrete label. We make up what is “deviant” and what is not.  Just because you deviate from a norm or break a law does that make you a horrible person? Politicians and big business’ break the law every day and we do nothing about it. Yes, the criminals in this show have done some terrible things, don’t get me wrong, but some of them are misunderstood. I don’t believe anyone is born with a predisposition to kill another human being. Often times they do not know how to check their aggression and how to express feelings, because of past trauma and a troubled childhood. This show is very interesting, and I think I will continue to watch it to figure out how we stumbled upon methods of criminal behavior and profiling.

Character, Symbolism, and Struggle

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of anorexia nervosa

This week I watched the Netflix original movie To the Bone. I was first drawn into this movie when looking through the Netflix originals list; when I saw the trailer.The trailer fascinated and captivated me, leading me to watch the movie. The movie follows a young woman, named Ellen, on her journey seeking treatment for anorexia nervosa. The movie shows her struggle with thoughts of inadequacy, isolation, along with many other struggles as she struggles with her illness. Overall, minus a few hiccups, I greatly enjoyed this movie. The three aspects that most grabbed my attention becoming the sources of my enjoyment were character portrayal, the symbolism used in almost every scene, and connections to my own life experiences.

I have always been a great supporter of the idea that characters are what makes a film great, for they are the basis of any narrative and prove to be one of the most intriguing parts of a film (at least to general audiences). To the Bone does a great job of creating complex characters with a depth rarely seen in most movies. The characters in this movie have complex motivations and struggles, beyond common two dimensional characters. Susan, Ellen’s stepmother, shows this well. As a character, Susan, portrays many stereotypes associated with the bright, bubbly mother stereotype. She is always talking, carries no filter in what she says or how she says it, and is a bit of a gossip. That being said, though, she breaks the mold usually assigned to this kind of character by being shown as a loving and caring mom to Ellen, doing anything she can to get Ellen the help she needs and filling a void left by her mother and her mother’s wife. So while being defined as a stereotypical mother in many aspects, the film breaks this mold by reaching a conclusion not commonly associated with the stereotype. This proves to be true for almost every character in the film from the main characters of Ellen, Lucas, and Ellen’s family to the other women Ellen lives with while seeking treatment. One of the ways these characters are portrayed are through the use of costuming.

To the Bone used a large amount of symbolism to further describe characters, emotions, and even Ellen’s state of health. Symbolism, as used in this movie, added a large amount of depth to the movie and individual scenes. The most prominent example of this can be seen with the depiction of Ellen. Throughout the movie the costuming and makeup used by Lily Collins in her portrayal of Ellen reflects the status of Ellen’s mental and physical health. In many scenes where Ellen creates strong relationships, she is dressed in bright clothes and has makeup that brings out her features making her look more attractive. Contrary though, in scenes where Ellen takes a step back, her clothes become drab and layered. The makeup used in these scenes adds dark circles to Ellen’s eyes and make Ellen’s face look more angular or thin. This detail also extends to other characters and even set design with particular locations being used for positive or negative events based on their design. These details as they are used, greatly increase the emotions and realistic tone the movie tries to convey. 

The emotion in To the Bone also really resonated with me. This stems from my own experiences of anorexia nervosa, with one of my best friends in middle school suffering from the illness. My friend lost an extreme amount of weight in just a couple of months. Following this she suffered from heart issues, that led her to be hospitalized for a few months as she gained weight and went through counseling. It was also revealed that her eating habits had aggravated a pre-existing disposition to celiac that my friend now has to spend her entire life with. This, of course, was a very difficult time for those around this friend, including her friends. This is part of why the film struck me so hard. The film portrays the struggle between the person who is suffering from the illness and those around them extremely well. From showing the impacts Ellen’s has had on her family, to showing how Ellen’s family has impacted her and her mental state. The film perfectly balances the emotion and reality that comes with this form of struggle. 

To the Bone, overall, is a magnificent piece of film. It creates meaningful characters with depth and complexity, shown with a variety a detail and emotion, I have not seen in most films. So while the film may have some flaws, like its ending, I found the film proves to be an enlightening endeavor into the complexity of illness and recovery.

When Comedians Become Friends

Jerry Seinfeld’s new show, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, is a show that, for someone who loves hanging out with friends, charmingly captures the friendships between Jerry Seinfeld and the comedians that he invites on the show to catch up over coffee and a car ride. While the guests on the show are undoubtedly some of the funniest people in the entertainment business today, the true genius of the show lies in the way that it is staged, or not staged at all. That is to say that the show’s laid back, unscripted, and tightly filmed nature gives the audience an up close and personal view of these interactions, allowing the viewer to tag along as if they are also a guest on the show, and to laugh with the comedians rather than at them.


The laid back nature of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is a refreshing and simultaneously surprising change of pace from the nature of most comedy series. While others may feel forced or stiff because of their perfect production, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee feels fun and loose because of its imperfect filming: conversation flows wherever it wants to, without regard to a punchline or a laugh-track; random fan interactions with the comedians show a more real side of some of our favorite comedians; unexpected twists throughout the episode draw laughs from the comedians and viewers alike. It is this rare, raw, roots-of-comedy element of the show that keeps everyone interested in what is going on.


While the laid back nature of the show can keep viewers wondering what will happen next, the unscripted nature of Seinfeld’s interactions with others gives a depth to the characters behind the characters and allows the audience to feel comfortable and as if they are a part of the conversation. Whereas most contemporary comedy is largely written out before its performance, whether live or not, the interactions between comedians are a true give and take, and there is real time for learning about others, and enjoying it.


Finally, the tightly shot filmography of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee places the viewer within arm’s reach of some of the biggest stars in television: sharing a car ride with Alec Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld to downtown NYC and then listening as Baldwin recounts his interactions with other famous people; going for a boat ride with Stephen Colbert and Seinfeld and then sitting down in a nice cafe and hearing him talk about his career; taking a stroll down the street with Seth Meyer and Seinfeld in a small town and gaining an understanding of his comedic background and his personal life--it is these things that make the show so captivating and easy to follow along with, and it is one of the biggest contributors to the show’s familiar and inviting feel, which leaves audiences wanting more and aching from sustained laughter.





In conclusion, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, while superficially being a show about friendship and fun times between comedians, is a show that--through its use of laid back, unscripted, and tightly filmed shooting--allows the audience members to grow closer to their favorite comedians and laugh with them instead of at them.

An Anthem to Spectacle: Black Mirror S:1 E:1

**SPOILER FREE**

The integral episode of Netflix’s original series Black Mirror is called “National Anthem.” It follows a man named Michael Callow. This Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is awoken in the wee hours of the morning to a phone call. We learn, with Callow, that a princess, Princess Susannah, has been kidnapped by an unknown actor. In order to insure her safe release the Prime Minister is given a simple task. He must “... have full, unsimulated sexual intercourse with a pig” as demanded in the YouTube video created by the kidnapper. In the 44 minute episode we are taken all over London to observe how people all over the city are reacting to the outrageous and sadistically hilarious demands.


Through the use of sub-plots and some impressive character development, the director and writers of this episode cover all levels of human interaction. We are shown how Michael Callow’s relationship with his wife is strained as the events unfold and she reads some crude internet comments about her and her husband’s sex life. We see the reactions of various government figures. Downing Street is thrown into disarray while various members of the government attempt to rescue Princess Susannah. The episode even plays with the large scale implications of this scenario through the news cycle over the course of the episode and the silence that befall the city in the final, climactic minutes towards the end. These levels explored by “National Anthem” are an interesting philosophical lesson about spectacle in the modern age.


Black Mirror is obsessed with screens (of course getting its name from the “black mirror” referring to our electronic screens). Nearly every scene of “National Anthem” contains someone watching a television. This this idea of spectacle is not entirely fiction and points out something, more true to life than we would like to admit. The broadcast spectacle of “National Anthem” practically paralyzed an entire city. Within the government the merit of sex with a pig is always referenced in tandem with public opinion. One of Callow’s advisors saying to the Prime Minister: “Strong undercut of sympathy. Ever poll indicates public understanding. Disgust with the captor, outrage at the whole thing. But not at you.”


“National Anthem” to me is an amazingly accurate interpretation of what may very well happen in our reality if such a scenario was to play out. Much of the acting outside of the main characters leaves much to be desired. In particular the UKN plotline adds an interesting layer to the overarching story, but the performances given my the members of the press are lack-luster to say the least. Rory Kinnear is fantastic to watch in his role as Michael Callow, and shows an impressive range of emotion throughout the episode. The directing and writing have their flaws with some odd phrasing and delivery, but that could just be my limited knowledge of English vernacular. The motivation of each character is clear and justified by the story, and the suspense of each pivotal scene is palpable.


This is a capturing first entry in the science fiction anthology series. It is daring from start to finish, without question. If you long for a return of something similar to The Twilight Zone this may be the show you’re looking for. Black Mirror with hopefully bring the same chops in the next episode: “Fifteen Million Merits.”





Citations:





“National Anthem.” Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker, directed by Otto Bathurst, starring Rory Kinnear season 1, episode 1, Netflix, 2010

The Best Movie of 2017

The Netflix Original movie Mudbound is a period piece that takes place during WWII. I like this film because it is a very emotional movie and it also surprised me from time to time. The movie is about two men who return home to Mississippi from the war. Jamie McAllen is a white man who befriends Ronsel Jackson who is black. During this time period this was very rare especially in Mississippi which was a very racist state. Also this is unexpected and looked down upon because Jamie’s father is a member of the Klu Klux Klan.


Throughout this movie Jamie and Ronsel start to hang out while drinking alcohol. They have to hide the fact that they are friends because it wouldn’t go over well with Jamie's father. They find themselves telling each other emotional stories about the war. They would also relate their post traumatic stress disorder experiences to each other. Ronsel told Jamie about this beautiful girl he met while in the war. He also tells Jamie that he got her pregnant and how he wants to go back to France to be with her. They form this brother-like relationship that is very fulfilling to see. This bond that is formed is a really key element in this movie because it makes the audience more emotionally attached to the characters.


Another big factor in why I like this movie is because of the antagonist in this movie. He is Jamie's father and throughout the whole movie is being racist towards Ronsel’s family that works on his farm. He is a very hateful man who is a member of the Klu Klux Klan. During this movie he finds out about Jamie and Ronsels relationship. Him and other members of the Klu Klux Klan kidnap Ronsel and torture him and make Jamie watch. The Klu Klux Klan members made Jamie pick weather Ronsel’s tongue or testicles would be cut off. The film adds suspense by not showing the audience what decision was made until the end of the movie. Jamie was devastated while this was happening. He then kills his father while he was sleeping. I like this part about the movie because it represents revenge and justice for Ronsel who was almost beaten to death. If Jamie didn’t kill his father the movie would've felt incomplete.


The movie comes together really well at the end when Ronsel returns to France to be with his girlfriend and son. He embraces his son for the first time. Tears of joy come down his face and it is assumed that since he didn’t say any words that his tongue was cut out. I really liked the ending to this movie because it was a very happy ending. Ronsel got to go to a place where he loved someone and he wasn’t harrassed for the color of his skin.





Another reason I like this movie is because of the cast. There are some pretty big actors in this movie such as Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund. With $10 million director Dee Rees did an excellent time.

I Would Definitely Stay: Episodes 1-4 of Stranger Things

  The poster child of the Netflix originals is the show Stranger Things. Part of the appeal is nostalgia; like Happy Days before it, the show is set in the childhood of the now middle-aged crowd. This group looks fondly at this period in their lives, a sentiment reflected in the warm yellow-tinted lighting and the soundtrack of 1980's Top 40. Another part of Stranger Things' appeal is the variety of elements to attract a variety of viewers. While some may find the teenaged love triangle charming, others may be more fond of the camaraderie between the boys or the overlying mystery.

     For such a good show, it does have some flaws. One element that I believe is lacking, while this may be intentional, is the characterization. Mike's parents are meddling yet ineffective, Hopper is the bored and jaded hometown police officer and the boys are far too nosy for their own good. Despite this, some characters stand out as very genuine in their roles.  Winona Ryder's character, Joyce Byers, is so over the top as the hysterical mother that the wrong person would make her seem like she was chewing the scenery. However Ryder's portrayal makes the viewer feel for her every second she is on screen, even if her actions are as ridiculous as talking to a ball of Christmas lights. Another character that stands out is Eleven played by Millie Bobbie Brown. Many child actors are stiff and awkward, yet Brown says so much with her facial expressions and body language that one can hardly notice that she says only a handful of words in the first four episodes. It is possible that the reason that there are so many cliches in the show to begin with is setting up for character development. While I do not see the main children changing very much, it is possible that the sheriff will become a more open and tolerating person, a development I believe we see the seeds of this development when he questions whether or not the corpse in the morgue is real. The possible destruction of these archetypes is intriguing and I think this will keep me watching the show.

     Another flaw was is the occasional emotional cop-out. For example, at the end of episode 3 Will Byer's body is found. At the end of episode 4, the body is found to be fake and status quo is re-established. I personally had to go back through and see if anything else major had happened in the episode, and at this point, I feel like the episode was just filler. While some character development did happen with Hopper and a relationship between Jonathan and Nancy began to blossom, I believe these moments could have easily been placed in another episode without much conflict. The discovery that Will might be alive would have elicited more emotion if the reveal had happened a few episodes later when it would have had more impact on the plot. All in all though, I think that Stranger Things is worthy of the hype it has received and I am glad to have watched it.

"Suicide Revealed"

Conspiracies, especially government conspiracies, are a common base topic for documentaries and docuseries. The Netflix original docuseries Wormwood focuses on the top secret 1950’s CIA experimentation of using LSD as a truth-serum during the heat of the cold war. The producers used many film techniques including multiple frames, the grainy quality of old film, and a mix of flashback story scenes and current interview style scenes. But almost most importantly I saw that the show relied quite a bit on long scenes of silence. In a show with prolonged silences, I noticed right away that what was spoken was incredibly important. There were several words that were repeated numerous times, through visuals across the screen, cut-scenes, and in just general dialogue throughout the episode. From the very beginning where a scene including “my father died” was replayed three times and the word “father” flashed across the frame at least three times, I knew there couldn’t be a coincidence. Other highly emphasized phrases were, “massive,” “suicide,” “atrocity,” “accident,” “truth,” “apology,” and “revealed.”
The episode opens with main narrator Eric Olson telling the story of the morning he was told his father was dead. He talks in great length about how much importance his father’s boss placed on the jump or fall being an accident. That sets the repetition for the episode up. We see the words “fall” and “jumped” flash by in newspaper clippings, medical reports, and just handwritten. The amount of emphasis we immediately see with these words already leads us to think that these aren’t necessarily true. Eric also states that that was the only explanation he got for most of his youth. I believe that the minimalistic dialogue paired with repetition for emphasis helps play up the point the documentary is trying to make. The government said nothing but accident, accident, accident for twenty years. Then when they were caught red-handed they said nothing but sorry.
Another often repeated word in this episode is “truth.” When Eric uses it, it is always in the context of wanting to find out the truth. We hear “truth” a few times in the flashbacks also referring to finding out the truth, except through the illegal means of slipping scientist LSD as a test. In the present setting of the episode we see truth as just a battle of the Olson’s trying to find it and the government trying to hide it.
Had we not had these emphasized phrases throughout the episode, a lot of crucial points could have been lost to the other unusual film techniques. The flashback scenes were shot in dark lightening and often unbalanced to show the effects the LSD was having on the scientists’ minds on our actual screen. I could have been completely focused on those visual elements and missed the critical points. I believe it was absolutely important to repeat how hard the CIA, and the whole government, tried to hide the actual truth of what happened to Frank Olson with their own grainy version of the truth. 

Is It Really the End of the F***ing World?

The End of the F***cking World is a Netflix Original show that I decided to watch per my roommate’s request. Of course, being the person that I am, I had to do a little research on the show itself. From what I found The End of the F***cking World is a dark-comedy drama that was originally based on a comic series by Charles S. Forsman. It follows two teenagers, one who believes he is a serial killer, and a rebellious classmate trying to escape her toxic home life. So wow, after reading all of that I was ready to write my feelings about the first episode.
Okay, so first off this show is a train wreck. I hated watching it, but at the same time I could not stop. There was something about the show that kept me clicking next episode, even though I knew it would bring me nothing but stress. “Episode 1” was only 18 minutes, and boy did they really jam pack a lot of stress within that time. Now the very first line of the show was, “I’m James, I’m 17, and I’m pretty sure I’m a psychopath”. Now I am not a huge fan of the character James. I mean, come on, he killed a cat. A CAT. I almost stopped watching the show then but I persisted. James also has no sense of humor so wow we would not be friends.
After a few minutes of hating James, we meet Alyssa. I actually really liked her in the beginning because she seemed poetic about life and I felt really bad for her as she has a very bad home life. Boy could I have been more wrong. She is so aggressive and forward and everything she does stresses me out. She is full of hormones and teenage angst and decides that she is going to fall in love with James.
The whole time they are together James is trying to kill her while she is using him as her rebellious pawn. So of course if two people are in love they go on dates. James took Alyssa to this diner and I’m not even kidding I was cringing during this whole scene. It seems like it is going to be normal at first but I was once again wrong. Alyssa being Alyssa decides to smart mouth back to the waitress and uses profanity. The waitress was having none of it. This fuels Alyssa so she takes it up a notch and ends up getting them kicked out of the diner. Classic Alyssa. She even goes on to say that she worries that she ruins things. Spoiler alert: you do. Something about watching unmannerly people just stresses me out.
As the episode draws to a close I thought nothing climactic could happen. Once again I was wrong. Alyssa is back at home with her mother and the stepfather that she hates. He goes to talk to her and flat out tells her that she should do the family a favor and run away. He then puts his arm around her waist and tells her she can look good when she tries. Her mother was watching the whole time and did not do anything to stop him. I did feel bad for Alyssa at this point. As her adrenaline was rushing she went to see James and requested that they run away together. This was really shaping up to be a Bonnie and Clyde story. The episode ends with James stealing his father’s car and them running away.
Throughout the first episode I was on a roller coaster of emotions. I would go from feeling bad for Alyssa to flat out hating her for acting so brash but throughout the whole 18 minutes I could not stop watching. No matter how stressed I got I always wanted to know what happened next. I have a huge love-hate relationship with this show and you bet your bottom dollar I am going to watch the rest of the season, no matter how stressful it will be.