Actually, maybe it's cooler that I just stumbled across it as fait accompli tv.
In any case, the other night Netflix dropped a four part miniseries adaptation of Lord of the Flies, which is my absolute favorite novel of all time!
It's only four hour long episodes, so I've been forcing myself to only watch one a night and tonight is episode three. So far it's been absolutely 100% note perfect. The child actors are great, they're actually sticking to the novel instead of making stupid changes, it's just been wonderful.
Well, wonderful as an adaptation of a novel I really love. Several sequences have been more intense and uncomfortable than I ever imagined they'd dare to let them be, which is exactly what the source material needs.
I'm loving it.
An Honest Fangirl: I had seen that Netflix was adapting it, but didn't realize that it had been released! Netflix actually (finally) locked me out of the account that I was sharing with the rest of my family, and I've been too stubborn to get my own, so I've been missing their latest releases.
I'm glad that the child actors are good. That feels especially critical for Lord of the Flies.
Mikey Heinrich: They're all perfect. My only complaint is that Roger looks too much like Jack and i keep confusing them. But that's kind of on brand for Roger I suppose. Simon (Ike Talbut) is particularly good.
Billie Doux: Why didn't anyone tell me about For All Mankind? It's been a long time since I've immediately loved a series the way I love this one. Season five is currently airing and at the rate I'm watching, I might even catch up by the finale. I'll have to do season reviews. If I'd found it sooner, I'd have to do episode reviews.
What I find the most enjoyable is that For All Mankind is basically an alternate reality where women become a major part of the space race. In other words, For All Womankind.
Mark Greig: I haven't see For All Mankind, but I am curious about the spin-off series, Star City, because of my fascination with the Soviet era and their space program.
Billie Doux: Yeah, Star City is definitely on my list.
Victoria Grossack: I was a little under the weather this week, and tired of reality, so I indulged in very light fare: 27 Dresses and I've been trying out the Young Sheldon spinoff, Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage. The latter is quite pleasant and there's actually a lot of material to work with.
I also had to stop watching Veronica Mars. It's not available in my current market, so I only got through two seasons and a few from season three. However, I read ahead in the reviews and was ridiculously upset (these characters are NOT REAL) by what happens at the end of season four. I'm serious, it took me days to get over it. I can see from the reactions of other viewers that I am not alone.
Billie Doux: I was super upset too, Victoria. I think Rob Thomas didn't read the room and wound up killing his own creation.
Panda: On Veronica Mars – I totally get why certain fans would be upset about what happened if they were super attached to specific characters. I’ve been there (The 100 springs to mind…), but I feel very strongly that VM is worth far more than just one specific character. I’d go so far as to say that the father/daughter dynamic is way more important. I would have loved to have seen more, honestly, but I’m okay with where it left off.
Morella: I've been behind on stuff since our IT department, in its infinite wisdom, went from decent to puritanical with the sites we can see at work, so they blocked dangerous sites like BoardGameGeek, Doux Reviews, my local humane society, and other bastions of evil. My Outer Limits DVD set arrived yesterday though, and the Twilight Zone will be here soon.
Mark Greig: After owning the omnibus for years, I finally got around to reading Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, which made me realise that I never got around to watching the final season of the TV show. The streaming service that showed it here stopped after season three and no one else picked it up. We have HBO Max here now and I see that has it, but it has been so long since I last saw it, and there's so many other things currently in my watchlist I really need to get to, that I just have no drive now to finish it. This is why I hate long gaps between season, kills all enthusiasm, and makes me so sad that it has become the norm for anything that isn't a network procedural.
Mikey Heinrich: If it helps, the fourth season of Doom Patrol is SO good! I'd be down for a rewatch.
Mothra: I am out of town this whole month, but I'm still limping toward the finish line of The Handmaid's Tale. At the tail end of season five, I'm finding myself much more interested in Serena than June. That's not the end of the world, because Serena's story re-hooked me just when I thought I might drop the series entirely. (I love Elisabeth Moss, but... enough with the eye-twitching closeups already.)
I'm also really happy that I invested in a DVD player after years of streaming. The extras on the Game of Thrones discs are already returning on that investment in a big way. I almost wish all the credit sequences featured the child actors singing along with the theme, which is on one of the commentary tracks.
An Honest Fangirl: And that wraps it up for us! Over to you, readers. What are you watching? Anything that no one has told you about?
I just finished Phantom Lawyer on Netflix. It's Korean, so has a very different vibe. It's about a lawyer who can see ghosts. It's fun and touching. For any Austen fans, The Other Bennet Sister just started on Britbox. Three episodes have been released already and the rest will come out weekly. Episode 1 dragged a bit, but after that it became quite enjoyable. It centers around Mary Bennett, the fairly ignored sister in the book.
ReplyDeleteI broke my toe (gravity and a rogue water bottle colluded to ruin my weekend), so I'm watching cheesy things with low stakes.
ReplyDeleteI just finished Remarkably Bright Creatures, the movie about Sally Field and an octopus that just premiered on Netflix. It's remarkably schmaltzy and I'm a little embarrassed about how much I enjoyed it, even though I think it gets octopuses very wrong.
The octopus was voice, though, by Alfred Molina, which was nice.
An improbable return of Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback has delighted me for the past few weeks with its 3rd season and as far as comfort TV goes (despite navigating bleak waters like AI) it has easily become my favorite show of the year. And recent years. It just ended with its 8th episode and I will miss it greatly ;-; But thanks for existing. Seriously it was surreal how this show for the 2nd time took a decades-long break and was able to claw its way back. Super charming, not cringe-comedy at all despite what it might feel like. There's a lot of heart to the main character
ReplyDeleteI finished Twin Peaks: The Return and have gone back to Killjoys, Season 2 which is...somewhat differently paced.
ReplyDeleteI am heavily invested in reading YA books right now, because I am on the librarians' committee that is preparing the list for our upcoming state book award nominees. Just finished a really interesting debut novel by Katie Bernet. The title is Beth Is Dead, and it is a reimagining (?) of Little Women, so the characters are familiar and have the same names, but, it is set in the present day (with a dual timeline in the recent past) and the plot revolves around the murder of Beth March. I almost hate that I've already read it, because I am slogging through the books I'm reading now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just finished the second season of Dead Loch and I loved it. It wrapped up well, thankfully, because it looks like it won't be back for a third season.
review the testaments pls
ReplyDeletelisam, someone very well could decide to review The Testaments. I'm afraid it won't be me. I never finished The Handmaid's Tale. The current administration made it too much for me. :)
DeleteAlthough I haven't finished watching The Handmaids Tale, I'm very curious about the Testaments. Aunt Lydia is one of the main characters in the Testaments and her backstory is very different in the book from what was shown in the Handmaid's Tale. It's going to be tricky to fit TV Aunt Lydia into the same plot line.
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