The Other Black Girl
During the final season of Riverdale Ashleigh Murray returned for one episode as Josie McCoy. She hadn't been a regular since season three when she fled to the short-lived Katy Keene. Her channeling of Eartha Kitt on Rivderdale was phenomenal. It was wonderful to see an actor who had been so overlooked on the show to come back and do a defining episode. So I looked up what else she's been up to and that's when I first heard about The Other Black Girl. A show that quickly was added to my calendar when I watched the first trailer. A show that after I watched a single episode I knew I'd be binging. If you took Severance, You, and The White Lotus, put them in a blender and came out with the smoothest most wonderfully unique concoction ever, that would be The Other Black Girl. This show isn't just horror, it's about identity and connection and community and, above all, books and what they mean to us. Our heroine for all time, Nella, got a job at Wagner Books, because back in the eighties they published Burning Heart by Diana Gordon. Burning Heart was the first book to make Nella feel seen and that's what she wants to do for other little black girls like herself. The book's editor, Kendra Rae Phillips, is who Nella wants to be, as she walks past her photograph everyday in the halls of Wagner Books. And yes, she took a selfie with the picture. But something strange happened to Kendra Rae, as we see in gloriously retro eighties publishing flashbacks, seriously, look at that spot-on retro publishing logo. Something strange that is starting to happen to Nella. But Nella thinks she finally has an ally. Someone on her side. There is finally another black girl in the office, Hazel. Though, of course, Hazel has ulterior motives, and as each revelation comes to Nella we see it on her expressive face. Sinclair Daniel is an actress to watch. She's going to be big if there's any justice in this world. As for those revelations? Well, she shouldn't have put so much faith in Diana Gordon, because Diana has been up to no good. She's basically created a pod people cult of young black women. I mean, the goal of her "organization" is noble, the raising up of black women, it's just the execution that makes it go all cultish. And the thing I love about that is she falls prey to what aliens always misunderstand about humans time and time again in science fiction. They don't understand that out pain and our trauma are what make us human. So to have a human create a "shortcut" to acceptance by removing rage and emotion to make a more pliable and therefore socially acceptable and upwardly mobile black woman is horrendous. An author is to mine the very depth of the human experience, and Diana wrote a seminal book, which I kind of wish was real, and yet, she is completely and totally out of touch. And I want to see her face her own ignorance. I don't know what I'll do if we don't get a second season. Because now that Nella is "undercover" at Wagner Books, I need to see how that mobile and flexible face pulls off pod person. Also I need more of her BFF Malaika played by Brittany Adebumola. I just need more of all of this. Now. Saldy The Other Black Girl was cancelled on May 10th. A day that will live in infamy.
The Princess Bride is my favorite film of all time. Yes, there are other contenders; Clue, Vertigo, L.A. Confidential, but when it comes down to it, there really is no choice, it's The Princess Bride. It has been since the moment I first watched it during the summer of 1988 heatwave while I hide from the sun in my bedroom with all the shades drawn and watched movies all day. Therefore when something is recommended to fans of The Princess Bride as being "like" it I am wary. I mean, first, how can you match perfection? Second, I do not think you mean what you think you mean. But I will forgive everyone who labeled My Lady Jane as like The Princess Bride for the simple fact that for the first time ever I agree. And not just because they totally recreate the scene when Fezzik catches Princess Buttercup when she jumps out the window. Because honestly that didn't quite work, but it was a clever idea. The two are obviously greatly different, one dealing with the real history of Lady Jane Grey warped and the other being more Ruritanian romance than anything else, but the same vein of humor and heart runs through both. I first heard of My Lady Jane because it was part of a YA subscription box I got. Here's the thing about me and subscription boxes... We're not the best match. I like to curate my reading for long periods of time in advance so just having a random book show up is cool, but I can guarantee you it will be years before I read it. So it wasn't on my radar. In fact, like many people bemoaned when it was unjustly cancelled, they had no idea that My Lady Jane had become a series. I thankfully was not in the dark because I follow Rob Brydon on social media. In fact before I looked into who else starred in this show I knew I was going to watch it because Rob Brydon is in it. It's Rob Brydon in Tudor England, how could I not? He has a codpiece. And there are many codpiece jokes. So if that alone doesn't sell you, I'm sorry I don't think we can be friends. Throw in Anna Chancellor, Jim Broadbent, Dominic Cooper, Kevin Eldon, Edward Bluemel, and the plummy tones of Oliver Chris and I was watching it the night it dropped and paying the extra to watch it ad free. And the first episode was a totally ride, but also eye-opening. While I knew this was an alternative history, I totally didn't know it was also a fantasy, so I was quite shocked when people turned into animals. Yeah, that guy totally turned into a bear in a bar. It's chaotic and classic! But you know what? It worked. Everything about this worked. I mean, it's hard for me to explain things I love. I can detail everything that a show gets wrong, but when a show it right it just sings. I can point to Noel Fielding's horrible show, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, and say that My Lady Jane is actually the show he wanted to make but failed miserably. The jokes were flat, the delivery bad, and it didn't ground itself. Back to My Lady Jane... I usually hate anachronistic music in shows to the point where I'm yelling at the television, and yet, I want the soundtrack for this show. The song choice and humor, damn. Several times I laughed out loud when I realized what was about to play because it fed into my memories and complemented what was happening in the story. "Nights in White Satin" was beyond genius! Then there's the chemistry. Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel should always star together. You were rooting for this princess and her steed, because of course her husband turns into a horse and he married her for her brain. I mean, there's just so many funny moments that turn everything on their head. And yet, somehow it all works, the warped history, everything, it works. But the cherry on the top of the cake is Oliver Chris as the narrator. His unctuouse voice smarmily and knowingly narrating the show gives it that extra connection to The Princess Bride. It's us viewers and how we're reacting as we're watching, commenting on cliffhangers and gasp-worthy moments. We all are Oliver Chris, and he is us, and why am I not getting a second season? I mean, come on. Do have have to get the ghost of Peter Falk to wander into the Amazon offices and subtly mumble, that he had one more thing he had to do, get a second season of My Lady Jane made? Oh, and stop anyone from ever rebooting The Princess Bride. So I guess that's two more things...
Celebrating All Creatures Great and Small: For the Love of the Yorkshire Dales by All Creatures Great and Small 
Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino
Superhero fatigue is real. I honestly want to know if there's someone out there who has watched all of the almost forty movies out there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and loved every single one. Because I sure as hell haven't. There were ones I liked and enjoyed, but there are literally only three that I can watch over and over. They're Captain America: The First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, if you were interested to know. The thing that amazes me most is that Marvel takes actors I really like and makes them almost unwatchable. Seriously, what is that accent Benedict Cumberbatch is using? And as for Paul Rudd's Ant-Man? I'd rather watch his CoBro. But the actor and character criminally underutilized is Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Therefore I couldn't at first bring myself to actually watch Loki, we shall ignore the fact that I actually didn't get Disney+ until long after it started. Yes, Marvel seems to have a far better handle on their television properties, but for every win like Agent Carter, there's a massive loss. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D anyone? How did that show last seven seasons? I don't know if I got beyond season two it was so bad. Tom Hiddleston has been in seven movies as the God of Mischief and they just never knew what to do with this character and his glorious purpose. Well, his glorious purpose was this show. A show that's written almost as a play. Loki is notorious for monologuing, but by teaming him up with Owen Wilson's Mobius he has someone perfectly dispositioned to play off of and chew the scenery with. This show makes Marvel more cerebral. You actually have to think versus mindlessly enjoy. It's multilayered and deals with Loki's true purpose, his villainy, and his possible redemption. There's a Wizard of Oz quality to the first season's arc, to the reveal of the Kang behind the curtain. And that's where we start to encounter a possible problem, Kang. Not just that Loki was what jump-started Phase Four which begins Marvel's Multiverse Saga which is built around Kang, but they felt a need to link it into the greater mythos. Therefore Loki suffers a bit because it feels like it's serving the Multiverse versus just serving itself. And lets not even get into the problem that is Jonathan Majors. All this means is going into season two the stakes were even higher, especially given how disappointing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania performed and how depressing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was. But the thing about how Loki is written is, for the most part, it doesn't make sense until the end. It's this big puzzle and they know where every single piece is going to slot and you have to just have faith. And episode three, "1893," really tried my faith. Aside from the fact they somehow actually made The World's Columbian Exposition boring and obviously didn't know where Wisconsin was, we are NORTH of Illinois not "across the lake" not that that matters seeing as that boat was going south and would be shortly in Indiana, but they really failed the female stars of the show. A trend that was consistent throughout this season. Sylvie was almost a nonentity, and as for Renslayer? Her and Miss Minutes should talk to their agents. But then the ending happened. The most perfect episode that rested completely on the shoulders of Tom Hiddleston. Loki's "Glorious Purpose" was revealed and he was redeemed, and who knows, he might not just have saved all timelines he might have saved the MCU. Rarely is an ending so perfect that I don't want more. It's a compliment to this show, the cast, and the writers, that I don't want more. Take a bow, you've earned it. Bonus points if it's in a seventies tux.
When I was growing up there wasn't this glut of television. Miniseries were special events. Everyone, and I mean everyone, would watch them. When Roots aired over 100 million people tuned in, accounting for 85% of all homes with a television in the United States. But there was a miniseries up there with Roots, always talked about in the same reverential tones, and that was Shōgun. Airing three years after Roots in 1980. While it didn't break the records Roots did, it came in a close second and lead to other prestige adaptations, from North and South to The Thorn Birds. Starring Richard Chamberlain, also of The Thorn Birds fame, as John Blackthorne, the show was well received in the United States, but less so in Japan. There was a lack of authenticity in their eyes, despite being filmed in Japan. And this was a valid complaint. I mean only now, over forty years later, are television shows taking the time and effort to actually be historically accurate and culturally sensitive. I'm not trying to slag off the original, I'm just saying that our understanding, our desire to do better, means that shows are now more culturally aware. And I think that is what made people connect to this new adaptation so strongly. It didn't feel like a television show, it felt like a window into the past. And, I really don't know how they did it, but they became the show everyone was talking about. This new adaptation of Shōgun recaptured the fervor of the original! It was a special event that everyone was talking about and which rightfully swept the Emmy Awards with eighteen awards, setting a record for most awards won by a show in a single season. For me though, it took me awhile to get into the show. And no, it's not because over 70% of the show is subtitled, which just adds to its authenticity, it's because the character who brings us into this world, John Blackthorne, this time played by Cosmo Jarvis, was a bit of an asshole. He's too belligerent and in your face. It's the connection with the other characters, and in particular Anna Sawai as Mariko, that finally give you the in into this world. Although my Dad would totally disagree, after five minutes he would have been willing to lay down his life for Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga. In fact he had forgotten the original miniseries so I had to look up to make sure Lord Toranaga didn't die because he "couldn't have handled that." So, I guess all types of people connected to this show in all different ways. But for me what really got me loving this show is oddly something really stupid. Do you remember the Jennifer Love Hewitt show Ghost Whisperer? I mean, it wasn't that good of a show and the best thing about it was the opening credits... I mean, the logic of the show never quite worked but what always annoyed me was when Jennifer Love Hewitt's character, Melinda Gordon, was passing on the messages of the dead to their loved ones she edited what they said. She always paraphrased and pissed me off. I know it's because it was usually the guest actor of the week, I still can't believe Colin Firth's little brother Jonathan was one, and said guest actor would have a big speech and obviously you don't want to have Melinda repeat it verbatim, but it still pissed me off. This person came back from the dead to pass on this message and you can't bother to pass it on properly? Fuck you ghost whisperer. Which brings me to Mariko acting as John Blackthorne's interpreter. She is perfect. She repeats everything, she translates everything, and somehow it isn't repetitive, it just makes you satisfied at a job well done. Like a perfect line of poetry, it brings you peace.
We Are the Beasts by Gigi Griffis
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
The Intruders by Louise Jensen
Pretty Dead Things by Lilian West
The Birdcage Library by Freya Berry
No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt
UPROAR!: Staire, Scandal and Printmakers in Georgian London by Alice Loxton
Of all the shows my friends and I have watched on our Thursday Night Teleparties since the pandemic started The Umbrella Academy is easily my favorite. Each week I'd patiently wait for the next episode, and let me tell you, there's something about spending that prolonged time with them that makes the show hit so differently than if you binge it. They became my family, a wonderfully fucked up family of ex-childhood superheroes and their continued efforts to thwart the apocalypse that just seems to follow them wherever and whenever they go. The dark humor, the dancing, I was in love with all of it. Until the end. And let's acknowledge upfront, there was no way that the seven Hargreeves siblings and Lila were going to get a happy ending. This isn't the world that they live in. Time and time again they clawed their way to some sort of happiness only to have it brutally taken away. Their deaths were a given. I mean for most of the show one of them actually was dead. So I'm not arguing that ending, I'm arguing how they got there. And I probably should have said spoiler alert, they all die... Now I'm in no way blaming the actors and their spectacular work, it's the writers who let them down. In fact, the ending of season three, with the universe being rebooted would have been a preferable ending to this, whatever this was. Because it seemed like the writers weren't serving the characters, they were serving themselves. They had all these little ideas they'd been kicking around for years and decided to shoehorn them into the overall arc at the expense of the greater story. Why else would we have Klaus wasted on a storyline where he gets pimped out and has a ghost possess him to have sex with his ex? A job he does just to get the drugs. Oh, and he's also buried alive and rescued by a ghost dog, but again, how does this serve the overall story? It doesn't. Nor does Luther being a stripper or Diego working at the CIA or finally having Lila and Five be together. This season started strong because the family was together. But as soon as they separated them they started chipping away at what makes this show work. Their bickering and their badass skills are what brings them together. Also, they weren't paying attention to their own rules. Marigold, AKA what made them them, was a name Harlan gave to his powers. IT WAS NOT THE UNIVERSAL TERM! It was Harlan's term! But then again, they end with a big old plothole; a grandfather paradox. If the Hargreeves don't exist how do their children? It breaks the rules! I just wanted Five to pop in after the credits and be like, actually... This isn't how it happened. At this point you're thinking, damn, she hated this season, why did she rate it in her top ten adaptations of the year? Because I love me my Hargreeves. That's why. This might have ended on a whimper instead of a bang, though the end did kind of start with a bang, Ben and Jennifer sex joke! But it's still one of the best shows out there. It was clever, it was unique, and I want more. I'd be willing to totally forget this season ever happened in fact... But this season did give us something. Closure on why Luther was on the moon and Ben's death. We actually learned how Ben died, and it was way more brutal than you could ever have imagined. And then he died again with the worst CGI I've ever seen that is some horrific tribute to Junji Ito and Kaju. Though I'll let that go. I'll let it all go. So what if I had no emotional connection to this Ben. I at least got to see Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman get down to Cher. Something I imagine is a typical Saturday night for them.
When I first watched The Haunting of Hill House I realized that for the first time an adaptation got the source material. Not that it was actually a direct adaptation of Shirley Jackson's work. It was reinterpreted and remolded and what Mike Flanagan did was create a series that is in the spirit of the original and a loving tribute to it while being its own thing. It was the start of his Netflix empire, the Flanaverse. And the start of his "house" series. Because audiences adored The Haunting of Hill House and were demanding more. More of Mike Flanagan's unique take on classic literature. More spooky tales in amazing structures. They got their wish two years later with 
The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Right by Suzanne Allain
Murder in Season by Mary Winters
Schemes and Scandals by Kelley Armstrong
The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong
The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen
A Five Letter Word for Love by Amy James
The Rivals by Jane Pek
I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman
The Party by Natasha Preston
Havoc by Christopher Bollen
Alter Ego by Alex Segura
Cult of the Lamb Volume 1: The First Verse by Alex Paknadel and Troy Little
OK, I know what you're thinking. Ahsoka Tano didn't get her start in books, she made her first appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated film that came out in 2008. And you know what, I'm not denying that. That is 100% the truth. But here's the thing, there is a rather famous character on her show that got their start in literature. I'm talking about Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn first appeared in the retconned 1991 book Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn before being brought back into the official canon during the third season of Star Wars Rebels, another Dave Filoni creation. Since then Zahn has been brought back to write canonical Thrawn books, but the original Thrawn Trilogy holds a special place in my heart. Heir to the Empire is the book that made me a reader. Yes, there were other books I loved before Heir to the Empire, and authors who are to this day favorites, but nothing galvanized my love of reading like Heir to the Empire. It took my obsessive love of Star Wars to a whole new level. And the villain trying to take control in the power vacuum left by the destruction of the Empire was Thrawn. Therefore to finally see him in live action was a dream come true. And to have him played by one of the Mikkelsens? Damn. And yes, I know he did the voice in the cartoon, but he didn't just have the voice, he had the look, so to bring him back was perfect. So for me, Ahsoka was about bringing my love of Star Wars back to the beginning. And that's how the show feels to me. It feels like a true Star Wars story. I should make it clear, that unlike some people in the fandom, I have loved all the live action shows for one reason or another, but this, this had the magic I felt back when I was addicted to the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. The atmosphere of this big and glorious universe to explore with the swoosh of a lightsaber every so often. I really was content just wandering the worlds of that game as a tourist and miss the ability to do so greatly. But Ahsoka has filled that void. Just a little. Though I can see the complaints people have that it feels like they've been dropped into season five of a long-running show, because technically that is the truth. They hit the big plot points, but to get everything you need to watch six season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and four seasons of Star Wars Rebels. Which I'm sure some people are hesitant to do. Especially if they are those people who look down on animation. But for me, all this show needed to do was keep my love of Star Wars alive, and it did more than that. It deepened it. Those shots of Anakin/Darth Vader in the World Between Worlds was a defining moment for all of Star Wars. It is an image that will live rent free in my head. Forever. As will many other moments, from finally seeing the Witches of Dathomir in live action, to Eman Esfandi being so perfect as Ezra that you could see in a moment why someone would undertake a dangerous journey just to rescue him, to that spirit of adventure that Lucas embraced in the eighties coming back into his oeuvre, and finally, to Ray Stevenson standing on the statue of the Mortis Gods in a very Tolkienesque moment. But in the end, all I have to say is more! I want to see what happens next. I need to know what role Anakin has to play. I need some Witch battles. I need it all.
Dashiell Hammett is known for some of the greatest and most memorable detectives though he only wrote five novels. There's Nick and Nora Charles, and of course, Sam Spade. Though perhaps these characters are now known more for their big screen presence. William Powell and Myrna Loy were so popular they made six films from one book, one short story, and an idea by Hammett, although he refused to work on the final three films. And one can't think of Sam Spade without thinking of Humphrey Bogart. Which is exactly what this production wants. This is Clive Owen humbling stepping into the shoes of his hero. Because if there's one thing you need to know about Clive Owen, he is a Humphrey Bogart acolyte. And I don't think this show would be so successful without that devotion, without that love, that reverence, of the character and the man. As he stated in an interview with Stephen Colbert, he'd listen to Humphrey Bogart deliver his dialogue on a loop. Continually studying his delivery. Which he poured into the role of a lifetime. Even if Lauren Bacall might disagree because she loved him in Croupier. Yet one amazing performance doesn't necessarily equal a wonderful television show. To do that you need to not just have the right actor, but the right vision behind that camera, as well as the right story. Because without the right story, well, it's just characters wandering aimlessly around. And here we have Sam Spade arriving in France with a package that needs to be delivered. That package is a young girl. Instead of successfully completing the job he finds a life for himself. Over the next ten years he is married and widowed. He keeps an eye on the girl who lives at a convent because Teresa's purported father Philippe is a bad man. France is trying to find it's way in the world after World War II and the wounds left by Nazis collaborators. What's more the Algerian War is barely over and that could change based on the appearance of one young boy. This young boy is a lightning road, bringing the religious, the avaricious, and several countries into conflict in the small town of Bozouls. Fun fact, the late great actor Richard Belzer lived there in real life and seeing as this show was created by Tom Fontana of Homicide: Life of the Street fame, I don't think that's a coincidence. Back to Sam Spade.... All he wants is his life to return to normal and he'll do whatever that takes, in his laconic way. His wry observations and outlook on life coupled with his friendship with Teresa give the show a Paper Moon vibe with a strong stylistic helping from Lolita. This is French New Wave Noir, something I didn't realize I needed in my life until now. Now that I have it, I want more. Seriously, can we get another season? I mean, I think we deserve as much Sam Spade as we got of Nick and Nora Charles. And while the ending here might have seemed a tad rushed and confusing with Alfre Woodard subbing in for Hercule Poirot, it was better than anything Nick and Nora Charles ever got involved in. So six seasons and a movie. OK?
I Haven't Been Entirely Honest with You by Miranda Hart
Not For the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher
Madrigals and Mayhem by Elizabeth Penney
Murder at Glenloch Hill by Clara McKenna
A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie
Darkly by Marisha Pessl
Designing Worlds by Tim Burton
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen edited by Ellen Datlow
The Complete Harrow County by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
