Once again we are back with the weekly post where I answer the question no one is asking,
"What the heck is Dave-El watching on TV?"
"What the heck is Dave-El watching on TV?"
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness
This sequel to the 2018 series The Alienist picks up a year later. It's 1897 and tensions between classes are at fever pitch and it's not just the dividing lines between those who have more than enough and those who have too little. the women's suffrage movement is in full swing, demanding that women have the right to vote, for their voices to be heard ans respected.
Sitting in an electric chair at the intersection of the inequities of wealth and of gender is Martha Napp, an unwed mother convicted by a jury of men of killing her infant child.
There's a large gathering of women outside the prison in protest who do not think justice has been done.
There's also a large contingent of police officers with billy clubs at the ready to beat back any such protests.
Yes, this story is set in 1897, not 2020.
We the viewers at home know Martha is innocent. On the night of her baby's disappearance, we see Martha is quite anxious to know what has become of her child while we can clearly see Dr. Markoe, the director of the hospital, is up to no good.
We the viewers at home can only watch helplessly as the last restraint is fastened and the infernal chair that Martha Napp sits upon is charged up. I must admit cowardice as I hit the fast forward button through what happens next.
The narrative picks up with the disappearance of a second, infant, kidnapped out of the high-end mansion on 5th Ave, where the Spanish consulate general resides with his wife.
As if the Spanish consulate general doesn't have enough on his plate what with the United States determined to start a war with Spain over pretexts inflated or outright fabricated. The bloodlust for war with Spain is being stirred up by newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst.
Hearst doesn't give one single god damn about Martha Napp, the possible injustice of an innocent woman being put to death or the inequities in the system towards the poor and towards women that make such injustice. Social injustice doesn't sell newspapers. War sells newspapers.
As Hearst puts it, "That’s what the common man wants to read over his grits. The United States standing up to bullies.”
Into this mess of murder, deception, social unrest and the looming clouds of war enter our intrepid heroes.
Batman: Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the titular “alienist” (the Victorian term for psychiatrist).
Robin: John Schuyler Moore, New York Times cartoonist and society man-about-town, now a reporter for the Times.
Batgirl: Sara Howard, the first woman to become a police investigator in New York, now heading up her own detective agency. Being a female private detective in 1897 is impressive but mostly her client base is wealthy women who just know the servants are stealing the silver ware. Well, it pays the bills (those beautiful coordinated ensembles that Sara sports during the day are paid for somehow) but Howard's interests lie elsewhere.
She is still determined to vindicate Martha Napp, even after her execution. And her services have been secured by the Spanish consulate general's wife to find and retrieve and her abducted baby. The tense political situation (which will lead to the Spanish American War a year later) leaves the distraught mother convinced that they will receive no help from the NYPD.
While the TV series is called "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness", the book by Caleb Carr on which this is based doesn't factor in Dr. Laszlo Kreizler very early or often. Since the TV series has "The Alienist" in the title, Kreizler is shoe-horned in to justify having the TV series named after him. Kreizler is still a poor master of his own social skills and remains very much a man of this late Victorian era. Especially in regards to his interactions with women, he can still cause offense when none is intended.
John Moore is now a reporter with the New York Times, using his position to champion for social justice on behalf of the poor and downtrodden. However, he still remains in the orbit of high society, inexplicably engaged to Violet Hayworth, Hearst's god daughter. If we expected after Kreizler gave Moore that ring, John would've put it on Sara Howard's finger, well, that didn't happen. Apparently John did ask her and she said no. Since we find out that Moore's wealthy and generous grandmother has died, it is possible that John, described by Lazlo as a "virtuous man", is getting married for the money.
If anyone is the star of "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness" other than the Alienist, it's Sara Howard. For all the horrors both real and metaphorical she is forced to confront, Howard remains a veritable placid lake. After working her way through a male dominated police force and now a male dominated profession of private detective, Sara Howard has to keep herself in check, lest she be dismissed as merely an emotional or hysterical woman. It is an accusation that comes her way when she dares to offer one last protest before the switch is thrown for Martha Napp's execution.
Scenes at the hospital with desperate, lonely women giving birth are filled with blood and metaphysical horror. This hospital not only has women who are poor and indigent but it is also a dumping ground for the mistresses who have become inconveniently pregnant by their wealthy married paramours. The inequities of wealth and of gender continue to loom large over this distressing narrative.
"The Alienist: Angel of Darkness" can be a hard show to watch. the violence can be harsh and brutal.
But I find this view of life in the latter days of the 19th century fascinating. The dichotomy of the expanding modern world of electric lights and telephones sitting next to horse drawn carriages. In a sense, it's like watching people pretend to be civilized.
And in a world racked by murder, horror and injustice, it may well be that civilization is a pretense.
No, I'm not sure if I'm talking about 1897 or 2020.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Just a quick pop in to confirm I've begun the 3rd season. Midge absolutely kills at a USO show. More on season 3 next time.
While I'm in the Amazon Prime neighborhood, I'm also catching up on another series.
This sequel to the 2018 series The Alienist picks up a year later. It's 1897 and tensions between classes are at fever pitch and it's not just the dividing lines between those who have more than enough and those who have too little. the women's suffrage movement is in full swing, demanding that women have the right to vote, for their voices to be heard ans respected.
Sitting in an electric chair at the intersection of the inequities of wealth and of gender is Martha Napp, an unwed mother convicted by a jury of men of killing her infant child.
There's a large gathering of women outside the prison in protest who do not think justice has been done.
There's also a large contingent of police officers with billy clubs at the ready to beat back any such protests.
Yes, this story is set in 1897, not 2020.
We the viewers at home know Martha is innocent. On the night of her baby's disappearance, we see Martha is quite anxious to know what has become of her child while we can clearly see Dr. Markoe, the director of the hospital, is up to no good.
We the viewers at home can only watch helplessly as the last restraint is fastened and the infernal chair that Martha Napp sits upon is charged up. I must admit cowardice as I hit the fast forward button through what happens next.
The narrative picks up with the disappearance of a second, infant, kidnapped out of the high-end mansion on 5th Ave, where the Spanish consulate general resides with his wife.
As if the Spanish consulate general doesn't have enough on his plate what with the United States determined to start a war with Spain over pretexts inflated or outright fabricated. The bloodlust for war with Spain is being stirred up by newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst.
Hearst doesn't give one single god damn about Martha Napp, the possible injustice of an innocent woman being put to death or the inequities in the system towards the poor and towards women that make such injustice. Social injustice doesn't sell newspapers. War sells newspapers.
As Hearst puts it, "That’s what the common man wants to read over his grits. The United States standing up to bullies.”
Into this mess of murder, deception, social unrest and the looming clouds of war enter our intrepid heroes.
Batman: Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the titular “alienist” (the Victorian term for psychiatrist).
Robin: John Schuyler Moore, New York Times cartoonist and society man-about-town, now a reporter for the Times.
Batgirl: Sara Howard, the first woman to become a police investigator in New York, now heading up her own detective agency. Being a female private detective in 1897 is impressive but mostly her client base is wealthy women who just know the servants are stealing the silver ware. Well, it pays the bills (those beautiful coordinated ensembles that Sara sports during the day are paid for somehow) but Howard's interests lie elsewhere.
She is still determined to vindicate Martha Napp, even after her execution. And her services have been secured by the Spanish consulate general's wife to find and retrieve and her abducted baby. The tense political situation (which will lead to the Spanish American War a year later) leaves the distraught mother convinced that they will receive no help from the NYPD.
While the TV series is called "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness", the book by Caleb Carr on which this is based doesn't factor in Dr. Laszlo Kreizler very early or often. Since the TV series has "The Alienist" in the title, Kreizler is shoe-horned in to justify having the TV series named after him. Kreizler is still a poor master of his own social skills and remains very much a man of this late Victorian era. Especially in regards to his interactions with women, he can still cause offense when none is intended.
John Moore is now a reporter with the New York Times, using his position to champion for social justice on behalf of the poor and downtrodden. However, he still remains in the orbit of high society, inexplicably engaged to Violet Hayworth, Hearst's god daughter. If we expected after Kreizler gave Moore that ring, John would've put it on Sara Howard's finger, well, that didn't happen. Apparently John did ask her and she said no. Since we find out that Moore's wealthy and generous grandmother has died, it is possible that John, described by Lazlo as a "virtuous man", is getting married for the money.
If anyone is the star of "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness" other than the Alienist, it's Sara Howard. For all the horrors both real and metaphorical she is forced to confront, Howard remains a veritable placid lake. After working her way through a male dominated police force and now a male dominated profession of private detective, Sara Howard has to keep herself in check, lest she be dismissed as merely an emotional or hysterical woman. It is an accusation that comes her way when she dares to offer one last protest before the switch is thrown for Martha Napp's execution.
Scenes at the hospital with desperate, lonely women giving birth are filled with blood and metaphysical horror. This hospital not only has women who are poor and indigent but it is also a dumping ground for the mistresses who have become inconveniently pregnant by their wealthy married paramours. The inequities of wealth and of gender continue to loom large over this distressing narrative.
"The Alienist: Angel of Darkness" can be a hard show to watch. the violence can be harsh and brutal.
But I find this view of life in the latter days of the 19th century fascinating. The dichotomy of the expanding modern world of electric lights and telephones sitting next to horse drawn carriages. In a sense, it's like watching people pretend to be civilized.
And in a world racked by murder, horror and injustice, it may well be that civilization is a pretense.
No, I'm not sure if I'm talking about 1897 or 2020.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Just a quick pop in to confirm I've begun the 3rd season. Midge absolutely kills at a USO show. More on season 3 next time.
While I'm in the Amazon Prime neighborhood, I'm also catching up on another series.
Fleabag
For a show that is ostensibly a comedy, Fleabag is not an easy show to watch.
I mean, I get why this show and it's creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge have been shown so much award show love. There are genuine laughs in this show but at it's center is a character who is on a downward spiral of despair, failure, self-loathing and other depressing words. The character of "Fleabag" can perhaps be summed up by erstwhile boyfriend Harry: "Don't make me hate you. Loving you's painful enough."
Or as Fleabag puts it herself:
"I have a horrible feeling that I'm a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman."
And she appears to be right about that.
Fleabag is a British TV series based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one-woman show first performed in 2013. While she is referred to as "Fleabag" in reviews and commentary, due to the title of the show, she is never given a name on camera.
Fleabag shreds the fourth wall, providing asides, commentary and exposition. Sometimes this fourth wall breaking is non verbal as Fleabag makes eye contact with the camera to shrug, smirk or roll her eyes.
Jeopardy
This past week, Jeopardy ran episodes from the first ten years of the show including the first one hosted by Alex Trebek. Alex seemed a tad more excitable than the more calm, laid back elder statesman of television that he has become. We get to see Alex Trebek in classic form with a halo of curly hair on his head and that mustache. Even after Trebek lost the curls and the 'stache, Will Ferell was still playing him with the same hair in the classic Celebrity Jeopardy sketches on SNL.
These episodes feature cheesy graphics and music that sounds composed on a Casio keyboard in someone's bedroom in 1984.
This flashback to the 1980's included the 2nd episode which ended with a Final Jeopardy three way tie of ....zero! All three contestants bet the farm and got the question wrong. Ain't nobody coming back from that one.
That's all for now. Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya, I'm trying to watch some TV here.
For a show that is ostensibly a comedy, Fleabag is not an easy show to watch.
I mean, I get why this show and it's creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge have been shown so much award show love. There are genuine laughs in this show but at it's center is a character who is on a downward spiral of despair, failure, self-loathing and other depressing words. The character of "Fleabag" can perhaps be summed up by erstwhile boyfriend Harry: "Don't make me hate you. Loving you's painful enough."
Or as Fleabag puts it herself:
"I have a horrible feeling that I'm a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman."
And she appears to be right about that.
Fleabag is a British TV series based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one-woman show first performed in 2013. While she is referred to as "Fleabag" in reviews and commentary, due to the title of the show, she is never given a name on camera.
Fleabag shreds the fourth wall, providing asides, commentary and exposition. Sometimes this fourth wall breaking is non verbal as Fleabag makes eye contact with the camera to shrug, smirk or roll her eyes.
Jeopardy
This past week, Jeopardy ran episodes from the first ten years of the show including the first one hosted by Alex Trebek. Alex seemed a tad more excitable than the more calm, laid back elder statesman of television that he has become. We get to see Alex Trebek in classic form with a halo of curly hair on his head and that mustache. Even after Trebek lost the curls and the 'stache, Will Ferell was still playing him with the same hair in the classic Celebrity Jeopardy sketches on SNL.
These episodes feature cheesy graphics and music that sounds composed on a Casio keyboard in someone's bedroom in 1984.
This flashback to the 1980's included the 2nd episode which ended with a Final Jeopardy three way tie of ....zero! All three contestants bet the farm and got the question wrong. Ain't nobody coming back from that one.
That's all for now. Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya, I'm trying to watch some TV here.
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