Isis

Went back to the start and watched the very first episode of Morse. It hasn't aged well in many ways. Sure, it's of its time (1987) and there were a lot of grim and grimy old men in detective roles on TV, being lazy and unprofessional, looking scruffy and being generally creepy to women in a low key way. The worst thing had to be that he was living in absolute squalor in some awful chintz-upholstered nightmare of a house. In Endeavour we see him living alone in a reasonably minamilist fashion but he looks COOL AND CLASSY while he's doing it. The Morse from Endeavour would never have a chintz sofa! Also struggling to work out the age of Morse in both Morse and Endeavour - because I think there are meant to be about 10 years between the two iterations at the close of one and the start of the other. Yet, John Thaw looks waaaay older than Shaun Evans for someone who is 10 years older. Watched the one hour doc Morse and the last Endeavour and that was a nice little coda to the series. I had no idea that Shaun Evans had one of those intense, posh sounding scouse accents or that the actress playing Joan Thursday was Glaswegian. In other news I am still hooked on Daisy Jones and the Six.

Endeavour has finished. Went out with a bang, I would say. It's tempting to re-watch the original Morse but I think it will be a disappointment after this. Sorry, but the acting is better in Endeavour. Also, Morse is not an especially nice person and the older he gets, the more miserable and depressing he gets. That said:

I have a confession to make. I watched the first three episodes of Daisy Jones and I actually want to keep watching it, mostly because I have read the books and want to see how the story goes on screen. But I must say that the music which the people in the show make is largely AWFUL so far. I forward through those bits. I guess that is kind of the point that the music they make early on isn't very good and they get better as the show goes on?

I was semi excited about this being made after I read the book. But then as with many other adaptations I have lost interest even before it airs (Altered Carbon is another one, I think I only managed one episode of that). I have downloaded the first episode of this and I will probably watch it at some point but I can easily imagine it not being much good and losing interest after one or two episodes.

Read a worrying review of this (Luther) at the weekend which seemed to be saying that the 'threat' wasn't explicit enough, and that the audience needed it to be more graphic in order to take it seriously. It was not a well-written review overall and this specific point just made it seem really vulture-ish, like give me more torture porn... Also I watched Everything Everwhere All At Once and I did not enjoy it that much maybe like 7/10. Had I been watching it on my own I might have turned it off after the first ten minutes - that part was busy as fuck and I cannot abide the Church of Busy. It's a 'clever' film I guess, but I just found it a bit needy and so sickly sweet that it made my teeth hurt. I didn't hate it but I definitely did not love it.

Endeavour is back on Sunday night. Last one ever though.

Watched this odd little Italian film called 7 Women & a Murder on Netflix. It was a harmless, moderately charming film which was occasionally funny (but probably a lot less funny than it was meant to be). Sort of a mash up of an olde worlde farce and Knives Out I guess. But it didn't have all that much depth or acting quality to it. Anyway I am sick and it passed the time. We've also been watching Meet, Marry, Murder which is SUPER triggering and depressing for anyone with experience of domestic violence. It is absolutely rage-inducing. The other negative thing about it is the constantly re-used still shots in each episode. Like, they take these exterior shots of the house where a murder happened and then show the same shot of a guy wearing baggy jeans walking down the road seven or eight times. Holy filler, Batman, it is awful. They use the same black and white video of a guy drinking out of a Stella glass in both a US and a UK episode while talking about a husband with a drinking problem. Why are they making things seem banal when they are talking about such horrifying things? So odd. The episode that tipped me over the edge was one where a man killed his wife after telling his mates 'I'm going home to kill my wife' and the landlady at the local pub (also the wife of the murderer's best mate) said WE WERE ALL SO SHOCKED AND SURPRISED when he killed his wife. Even though she said on camera in this episode that she had been told a first-hand account of the murderer picking his wife up by the throat... Oh no, you didn't know anything about him being violent, did you? I see that very little has changed and people still want to pretend that they don't see domestic violence even when it is happening under their nose. This landlady was literally saying on camera what a great bloke this murderer was. Honestly, women, you have to shift for yourselves here - never assume that anyone else is going to help you even if they know you're a victim of domestic violence. They would rather look the other way and not rock the boat. Anyway, if you want to absolutely FUME then definitely watch Meet, Marry, Murder, which has a ridiculous 28 flipping episodes in its first season.

As someone who automatically watches the EE without giving it a second's thought this is an interesting question you pose. There are pros and cons to both the TE and the EE. For me FOTR is the best film, it's a single linear narrative - so adding in some extra stuff that's nice doesn't do it any harm and the Lorien scenes are nice. The extras for TTT are maybe the best addition as you get some A&A backstory plus some more Faramir stuff. The ROTK gives us the most awful scene in the trilogy (Gandalf and the Witch King), that stupid pirate scene, (is the stupid drinking game scene is in this one as well?), the HoH which was ok but could have been MUCH better, the MoS which again was ok but could have been better. The only one that was nearly good was the Saruman death scene - generally good but I cannot stand that bit where Gimli wants Legolas to shoot Saruman or the bit where Gandalf is like 'please tell us Sauron's secrets!' URGH Still watching Lockwood & Co - spotted one of our friends as an extra last night, which was nice. I am starting to get the ick from the romantic vibes angle though. Really hope they start sending that in a better direction as whatever is happening so far is not working for me. We also watched a documentary about the making of The Exorcist on iplayer. It's called Fear of God I think it was made for the 25th anniversary of the release of the film. It was a Mark Kermode doc from the late 90's and it is almost entertaining in its own right just for that vibe - the director, especially. It's a bunch of interviews with all the cast and production team. I've never been big into The Exorcist. In fact, I have only seen it once and turned it off before the end because I was bored. The reason we watched this is that Mark Kermode was interviewed on a great podcast called Talking Scared (which is about horror literature) and for a Halloween special they interviewed Mark Kermode about his favourite book to film horror adaptatiopns and that was great. I think my own problem with The Exorcist is that it was billed as this terrifying horror film yet it isn't really like any other type of 'classic horror' - it's more complicated than that. But I was expected something more straightforward so I didn't really engage with it. I feel like I will watch it again after this.

We are a couple of eps into this. It does have promise and it has a few genuinely funny moments. But it has that problem, which I think of as "EMOTING", where I don't actually feel very much in the way of emotion while I am watching a scene which is intended to carry some emotional weight. They (actors, writers, directors) clearly think they are giving us emotional scenes but it feels so heavy handed. I mean, I don't necessarily wish to pick on this series in particular as I do see it fairly often in shows. You know how when a film or show gets it right and you can't feel the effort that's gone into it and you almost forget that you're watching something that's being 'acted' and it genuinely moves you? Well, I get that less and less often these days and life is short and I often give up on shows because I get tired of actors really hamming it up and staring at each other's faces with these long pauses in between dialogue. Christ, it's painful sometimes. It just turns me right off. Like, can they not tell how wooden it looks?

Here's a little snippet of Falstaff; a little snippet of Henry. I have just finally got around to watching Alias Grace after it sat in my watchlist for five years. I thought it was brilliant, totally captivating and hard to look away from the screen. There aren't that many shows which make me feel that way, these days. It's only six episodes. Would highly recommend if anyone else has had it in their watchlist since it came out. Some good fun with regional British accents to be had as well, if you're that way inclined.

I think it's my least favourite Paul Tremblay novel. But tbf he's written some great books. I will probably see this - in support of horror adaptations from authors I like.

There was a brilliant version at the Globe in about 2010 with Jamie Parker and Roger Allam as Henry and Falstaff (they did V I & II and V). It was definitely recorded as we liked it so much we watched it again when it was on Channel 4 a few years later. I'll see if I can find a clip for you to wash away the scent of Kit Harrington.

Watched a horror film called Mandrake at the weekend, (ostensibly) set in northern Ireland. It was good - a slow burn, quietly horrible, horror film. From the blurb I was expecting it to be a bit more ambiguous than it was. Didn't give me any nightmares.

Finally got to the end of The Rig. Only six episodes but it was an effort. I feel bad for Iain Glen, Mark Addy and the other familiar man whose name I am blanking on (actually he probably got the best material out of the three of them). Everywhere you looked this series was lacking something - writing, effects, dialogue, production, direction. Yet the most irritating part of all was the character who worked for the big bad oil company who was meant to be a geologist and described herself as 'NOT a microbiologst' early on, who ended up spouting some bacteriology theories that I only learned about on my master's in microbiology. The practical microbiology on show was so painful I had to look away. Do not watch. However, this show was really fascinating in terms of puzzling over how shows this disappointing get made at all. Like, how many eyes looked on this and went, 'yeah, this is great'?

The headphones! I've watched some more now and I hope it turns out to have a satisfying conclusion. I will keep watching. But I have another complaint - the way sex is used as a sort of punctuation to scenes and storylines. It's boring - both because it is predictable but also done in an unimaginative way. There are lots of ways to use sex to say something about a character or story and what they've done here is dull.