Wisting

tags: Nordic series, police procedural

🥚 goose egg

from IMDB

Homicide detective William Wisting struggles with the two toughest cases of his career. His serial killer investigation crosses paths with his journalist daughter's news story, putting her in grave danger. When Wisting is accused of evidence tampering in a former case, his entire career is in jeopardy.

10 episodes, 40 - 45 minutes 

I like a few Nordic Noir movies and TV series and enjoyed the original Wallander but all the subsequent police procedural series coming from that region seem to be clones of Wallander. This latest series is the most boring yet and all the characters look like they are "acting". I read that this series is the most expensive series co-produced by 3 European countries. They should have spent the money on a good script and competent director. Cinematography alone won't carry a lousy story with sub par actors. It tries to be noir but I see it as a noir wannabe.

The actor playing the main character Wisting is ugly as sin with no charisma whatsoever and the series is partially ruined by the idiot daughter. This [grieving] father-daughter theme is done to death already and somebody should put an end to it. 

I could probably have ignored the annoying daughter but the story of an American serial killer in Norway with American FBI characters helping the police turned it into another pointless American-style woke police show. So I dropped it like a hot potato. Carrie-Ann Moss of The Matrix as one of the FBI agents is a lousy actress and she is not aging well. She's never been easy on the eyes but here she looks like a haggard grandma in need of a day in the spa. The obligatory black actor as the other FBI agent is not a good actor as well. 

Not recommended. You'll be wasting money or borrows from Hoopla.

Ravens Of Eternity

Recommended reading for sci-fi space opera fans via Amazon Kindle Vella - Ravens of Eternity

tags: mecha, series, space opera, space battles, strong female lead

from Amazon Kindle Vella

A young woman is reborn anew inside Bellum Aeterna, a mecha VRMMO embroiled in galactic warfare, and must rise above the failings of her old life or be lost forever. As she ascends, a spreading darkness threatens to tear her galaxy apart.

Read the serialized story here.

I am a fan of sci-fi space operas and have read and own several books. Although I prefer already finished books and am not into serialized stories, I like it and will continue reading not just because this series is written by my son 😉😉😉 but I find it an interesting read.

The Bride Of Lammermoor

tags: classics, gothic, historical fiction, romance, Scotland, tragedy

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

This is a story of national change and personal tragedy. For Lucy Ashton and Edgar Ravenswood, acts of heroism are thwarted and love is doomed by social, political and historical division. This edition restores the action to the years of uncertainty and political flux before the Union of Scotland and England in 1707.

The opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti is based on this tragic story, a la Romeo and Juliet, of 17 year old Lucy Ashton and 20 year old Edgar Ravenswood, The Bride Of Lammermoor written by Sir Walter Scott. Scott has said that the story is based on a true story which is included in the book as a Preface. The true story is as interesting and tragic as the fictional novel. The book is short at 350+ pages and will be worth your time reading. I was surprised that the doomed story of Lucy and Edgar does not take up the whole book, just a part of it, but essential to the narrative. 

Watch the opera first, then read the book, read the true story last. 

**************************************************************************

The aria il dolce suono became one of the more popular soprano arias

after the release of the movie The Fifth Element. The aria is performed by the character Plavalaguna, sung by Albanian soprano Inva Mula Tchako. Inva Mula has the perfect voice for the aria. 

The Diva Dance 

Major Grom: Plague Doctor

tags: action, Netflix streaming, revenge, Russian movie, super hero

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

When a masked vigilante’s killing spree throws a city into chaos, a renegade detective and his rookie partner are the only ones who can stop it.

The movie is an adaptation of a Russian comic book super hero. It is loaded with clichés and borrows from other comic book super heroes like Batman. I liked it regardless of its length. Cinematography is very good. Most important no "woke" Hollywood nonsense. Just good vs evil action movie. I hope there will be a sequel.

Note: The title at first confused me and I thought Major Grom is the Plague Doctor. Major Grom is a cop and the Plague Doctor is Major Grom's brilliant but insane vengeful foe.

Highly recommended.

The Tomorrow War

Tags: aliens, Amazon original, streaming, horror, sci-fi, time travel

⭐

from Amazon

Time travelers arrive from 2051 to deliver an urgent message: 30 years in the future mankind is losing war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians to be transported to the future and join the fight.

Just say NO to this rubbish disguised as a movie which is blah and has nothing new to offer in this genre. Dreadful in everything - acting, script, CGI. I tried to watch the whole thing but couldn't continue torturing myself. 

Amazon streaming has been coming out with original programming but I never found a single movie or series that is appealing to me. This is the first movie that made me click on it because it's Sci-Fi and Chris Pratt is on it. Chris Pratt is a lousy lousy lousy actor. He can only do Star Lord and nothing else.

IMHO foreign language Sci-Fi movies and TV series are superior to this Hollywood produced wokest movie yet and I was scratching my head thinking why Chris Pratt signed up for this. Maybe he has career suicidal tendencies or was given tons of cash. Wrong move Chris. I hope he chooses a better project next time.

Do yourself a favor - skip this nonsense and keep your IQ points as a bonus. Re-watch Edge Of Tomorrow instead. You'll thank me.

The Hidden Palace

tags: fantasy, favorites, golem, historical fiction, jinni

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Chava is a golem, a woman made of clay, able to hear the thoughts and longings of the people around her and compelled by her nature to help them. Ahmad is a jinni, a perpetually restless and free-spirited creature of fire, imprisoned in the shape of a man. Fearing they’ll be exposed as monsters, these magical beings hide their true selves and pretend to be human—just two more immigrants in the bustling world of 1900s Manhattan. Having encountered each other under calamitous circumstances, Chava and Ahmad’s lives are now entwined—but they’re not yet certain of what they mean to each other.

Each has unwittingly affected the humans around them. Park Avenue heiress Sophia Winston, whose brief encounter with Ahmad left her with a strange illness that makes her shiver with cold, travels to the Middle East to seek a cure. There she meets a tempestuous female jinni who’s been banished from her tribe. Back in New York, in a tenement on the Lower East Side, a little girl named Kreindel helps her rabbi father build a golem they name Yossele—not knowing that she’s about to be sent to an orphanage uptown, where the hulking Yossele will become her only friend and protector.

Spanning the tumultuous years from the turn of the twentieth century to the beginning of World War I, The Hidden Palace follows these lives and others as they collide and interweave. Can Chava and Ahmad find their places in the human world while remaining true to each other? Or will their opposing natures and desires eventually tear them apart—especially once they encounter, thrillingly, other beings like themselves?

I waited 8 long years for this sequel to one of my favorite fantasy novels and it is worth the wait. Chava and Ahmad spend their time bickering and start doing things separately. When Ahmad's only friend and business partner Arbeely dies, he holes himself up in their building for more than 3 years forging and constructing a 4 story steel spiral staircase with glass landings. He doesn't go out and nobody has seen him nor the inside of his building, the neighbors are getting worried.

Chava leaves the bakery where she teaches newly hired bakers. When the people around her who don't know she is a golem notice that she doesn't age, she leaves the bakery and attends college. She changes her name to Charlotte Levy and starts working as a teacher at the Asylum for Hebrew Orphans. 

Highly recommended for fans of the first book, The Golem And The Jinni.

Silver Skates

tags: fairy tale, Netflix streaming, romance, Russian

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

On the frozen rivers and canals of St. Petersburg, a petty thief on skates warms the heart of an aristocrat's daughter as forces try to keep them apart.

The description from Netflix is a bit lacking and inaccurate. This Russian movie is a fairy tale with a twist - it is a rich girl, poor boy romance instead of the usual beautiful princess rescued by a handsome prince. Matvey, the poor boy, works delivering pastry using his antique pair of skates but gets fired through no fault of his. His father is a lamplighter who is sick with consumption.

The setting is at the turn of the 19th century and the frozen St. Petersburg is transformed into a pretty Winter Wonderland where people go to walk about and shop. A group of pickpockets skates around and deftly dispossesses the unsuspecting people of their treasures including pocket watches and billfolds. The leader, who reminds me of The Artful Dodger, drops a watch while being pursued by a gendarme. . Matvey tries to return it to him not knowing he stole it. He gets recruited to the group to earn money for his father's hospital treatment. 

He meets the aristocrat's daughter, Alice, on a dare from his new friends. They meet again at St. Petersburg while he was busy "working". Alice befriends him for her own reasons. As the story progresses, one needs to suspend disbelief but it is a fairy tale after all. Besides, I'm sure you'll love the superb cinematography and lush costumes, and the scenes of the skating thieves are beautiful to watch. 

Language is mostly in Russian, some English, and French. Russian and French dialog have English subtitles, English has none. There are subtitles in CC English.

 

The Beast Must Die

tags: British movie, horror, mystery, werewolf

⭐⭐⭐⭐

A millionaire big game hunter gathers six people at his remote English mansion, announcing that he suspects one of them is a werewolf.

I have the DVD of this 1974 British movie but I can't find it. It is streaming on Amazon. IMHO it is cheesy because of its 70s soundtrack, leatherette outfit of the main lead, his stiff acting, and the goofy looking werewolf, but is good enough to grant a 4 star since I enjoyed it very much. Two familiar faces among the guests are Peter Cushing and Michael Gambon.

The story is a mystery but instead of whodunnit, the question is, who is the werewolf among the 5 guests and the hosts, 7 people in all. Tom is a big game hunter and millionaire who wants the biggest of them all - bagging a werewolf. He invites 4 people whom he suspects of being a werewolf, to his mansion in England where he and his wife live. The 5th guest is the wife of one of the guests, a concert pianist played by Michael Gambon. The wives are friends and so she is included in the party. The set up feels like an Agatha Christie mystery mixed with cabin in the woods slasher horror movie where you are waiting who gets killed first. Only 2 people survived.

At the start of the movie viewers are invited to guess who the werewolf is and there is a 30-second break just a few minutes before the end of the movie for the viewers to do exactly that. It is not easy to pinpoint the werewolf although I guessed correctly after the silver bullet test.

Watch it on Amazon streaming.

Katla

Katla streaming on Netflix

8 episodes, 40 - 50 minutes

In Icelandic with English subtitles 

tags: drama, fantasy, Iceland, mystery, science fiction, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

A year after Katla's eruption, the shattered survivors are still grappling with the aftermath. Suddenly, an ash-caked woman appears on the glacier.

The drama mystery series from Iceland, although not a crime mystery, reminds me of the Welsh crime drama series Hinterland and the Russian movie How I Ended This Summer for its beautiful but bleak scenery. The mystery of the naked woman covered in ashes emerging on the glacier is captivating right from episode 1. More ash-caked people emerge. Fascinating watch.

Highly recommended.

On Episode 5, the little boy who died 3 years earlier appears as one of the ash-caked creatures but his father knows he is not his real son. The mother runs away with him and on the road realizes he is not who he is so she abandons him in the middle of the road. On Episode 6, he is shown looking at a downed small airplane. With his outfit -blue coat over light colored sweater and pajama pants, and his boots - he looks like the Little Prince. Then he starts talking to the dying sheep. Definitely an allusion to The Little Prince novel and maybe a clue as to his origin. 

Spoilers

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver Mystery Series

from GoodReads

Patricia Wentworth--born Dora Amy Elles--was a British crime fiction writer. She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.

Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.

I've read a few Miss Silver mystery novels many years ago. Recently, all the 32 Miss Silver book series became available to borrow, eBook or Kindle, from the library. I started reading them from the beginning and have so far finished 10 books. I have given them 3 up to 5 stars.

Miss Silver doesn't always "solve" the mystery. She doesn't even appear until over halfway into the novel unlike Agatha Christie's Poirot or Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael or Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey. Readers might not like Wentworth's Miss Silver but I do like her quiet character over Miss Marple, and the stories that are more focused on the protagonists and antagonists are always interesting.

I read these in order the past few months. They are short novels, between 300 to 400 pages. Look for them in Hoopla if your local library has the service. These novels are a better reads than the latest books Amazon is giving for free. The Amazon First Reads for 2020 and up to the present are all dull and not worth a second of your time.

1. Grey Mask

2. The Case Is Closed 

3. Lonesome Road 

4. In The Balance 

5. The Chinese Shawl 

6. Miss Silver Deals With Death 

7. The Clock Strikes Twelve 

8. The Key 

9. She Came Back 

10. Pilgrim's Rest