Why McEwan's Sweet Tooth is big cheat.

Look, I am a sucker for meta-fiction, and I dig spy stories.  But this book is just a mess.  Sure, McEwan can write a nice sentence.  His prose is efficient.  But the characters, especially the lead Serena, are plain and boring.  The meta-textual twists in the plot don't feel organic like, say, in Gone Girl. And the same pomo games don't illuminate the themes like in Crying of Lot 49 or American Pastoral.  By the end, the book felt like a cheat.

Why I will give HBO's True Detective a chance

The last thing we need is another show about serial killers.  The Following is fucking wretched, a true pox on the screen for people who think they are following a deep TV show but are too lazy to watch The Fall or The Wire. It and its whole brand of sexist-female-cruelty and double-back plotting should be banned. (I am also looking at you, old-person-show The Mentalist, with your idiotic 'Red John" nonsense.) Hannibal is pretty amazing, but that quality is against all odds. The actual serial killer stuff is pretty lame plot-wise, but the performances are lovely.  And, most of all, Bryan Fuller, who makes Hannibal--and who was behind underrated shows like Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, as well as a cool Munsters remake--is a true visual genius.  If the plot to Hannibal was two dudes playing chess and it was written/shot by Fuller, it would still be pretty good.

HBO's True Detective follows a similar path to potential glory.  Matthew McConaughey is straight-up amazing in quiet performance.  He is simply riveting. I cannot take my eyes off him, even if he still looks a little thin from that AIDs movie.  And, as Matty wanders off in pretension, old Woody smacks him down with earthy common sense. Woody basically says "stop all this bullshit."  The dynamic is great.

The murder stuff is a big blah.  The visual image of the first victim, with the crown and such, was pretty cool. But, honestly, they could just start speaking Danish when they rattle off stuff about the murder plot. It makes as much sense as timey-wimey bullshit on Dr. Who or that Cylon nonsense on BSG. Who cares?  The real mystery is how McConaughey went from the cool, if svelte, looking cop above to the boozie drunkard here:

I'll stick around for that character issue, and for the great performances of these two actors. But, if the sexist violence gets too dumb or, well, misogynistic...or if the women just find themselves stuck in the nag/harpy role of unimaginative modern TV... well, I will probably still watch. But I will disappointed.  So far, I am giving True Detective a chance.

Why This Space?

As I fail to keep time in a bottle and my summer babes become winter babes, I noticed that I consume a ton of popular (and non-popular) culture, but it often just flies by. I see a movie, think about it, and see another. Soon I cannot remember if Amy Adams was scissoring someone in American Hustle, or was that in some other movie?   Top of the Lake, The Fall, Broadchurch, Hit or Miss ... all really good BBC TV shows that kind of blend together in my head.  (Top of the Lake is the best one, but they are all good.)  By the end of the year I forgot how much I liked Orphan is the New Black. Oh, wait, I mean Orphan Black.  (And, for that matter, Orange is the New Black.) Damn, Under the Dome was shitty. Man, that My Bloody Valentine record was great. So was Drake's.  I loved The Interestings, barely remember Gone Girl, misunderstood Alice Munro, read Saunders too quickly, and so etc.  Why am I watching Walking Dead?  I don't know.

Anyway, here, I hope to quickly jot down my thoughts on things as I experience them. I do not aim to be too thoughtful, unless I sit down and decide to right a kind of "think piece."  But since I am pretty lazy, that might not happen at all.

So, this place is for me to keep track of stuff.  The entries will be short. They will try to be my thoughts before  read anybody's else's thoughts.  But this place is mostly for me. I'd like to remember, say, that I thought You're Next was pretty neat, and why.  (It was pretty neat, right?)  Why did I hate Gravity?  Why did I hate Life of Pi?  Why did I love Kacey Musgraves?  Haim?  Or whatever.

If others dig what I say, great. If not... delete it when I die.  :)

J