American Eagle Jeans Ad

I never knew nor heard of the actress Sydney Sweeney because I turned off regular TV and most Hollywood produced movies and series for almost 20 years already. Her advertisement for American Eagle jeans triggered many people and calling the ad as Nazi propaganda. It is a play on the words genes and jeans.

I had to see for myself what the "controversy" is about and didn't find any "white supremacy"  message and decided the people triggered are just envious of this actress. If I were younger I'd buy that pair of jeans she's selling. 👖

Thankfully there are still sane people who don't agree with the triggered group.

 

 

Dunkin" Donuts also released a "triggering" ad with a young white blue-eyed actor. Let the fools cry on TikTok. I have ignored this actor's series on Amazon, The Summer I Turned Pretty, but now I'm adding it to my list. 😉

I have been wishing for beautiful people to come back on TV and movies and at last my wish has been partially fulfilled even if it is just advertisement. It's a step in the right direction because I am tired of watching fat ugly tattooed with questionable gender people on my TV screen. Beauty is back!

View at your own risk. May require eye bleach. LOL

Untamed

tags: murder mystery, Netflix series

⭐out of 5

From IMDB

A National Parks Service agent investigates a brutal death at Yosemite National Park.

Pros

> good not great cinematography because it was mostly filmed in Canada, not Yosemite

> there are only 6 less than an hour episodes

Cons 

> lousy script and story

> really bad acting; the raspy voice of both Eric Bana and Sam Neill is hard on the ears 

> all the characters are annoying specially the male and female leads

> clichés galore: alcoholic main character, troubled ex-wife, abusive ex partner of female lead (female lead character and her story is totally unnecessary; remove the character and the narrative will move along without her), uncooperative co workers, drugs (there's always drugs snuck in every Hollywood production)

> as predictable as the sun rising from the east, I guessed early on who is the despicable one.

> items introduced that don't help with the investigations and simply abandoned without explanation, example - the gold leaf tattoo on the dead girl.

- turned into almost slapstick comedy when the lead male ran out of bullets but was saved by the belle. 🙄

Not recommended

Blood Ties

tags: Jo Nesbø, mystery, sequel, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐out of 5

Blood Ties is the second of 2 thriller book series by Jo Nesbø, The first is The Kingdom which I rated 5 stars out of 5

From Goodreads

By all accounts, Carl and Roy Opgard are doing quite well for themselves. Or at least they’re doing as well as can be expected in a small town like Os. Carl manages the area’s swanky and successful spa and hotel, while Roy runs a nearby gas station and harbors grand plans to build it out into an entire amusement park complete with a roller coaster. But when news breaks about a new highway to be built nearby, bypassing Os and leaving the town cut-off and isolated, it’s clear that something has to be done . . . even if the methods are bound to be dirty. Fortunately, Carl and Roy have experience with just that kind of work.

Meanwhile, the town sheriff has gotten his hands on new technology that will enable him to take a deeper look at a slate of unsolved murders from years past—including that of his own father. And just as the sheriff reopens his investigation, the death toll begins to climb. It’s like Roy says about his roller “Once it’s rolling, it’s too late to get off.”

I enjoyed the book although I was not too keen on the on and off romance going on with Roy and his woman, or rather young girl, because he is much much older than she is. 

The sequel is twistier than the first book and with more vile people who deserve their violent end. It is still a great read from Jo Nesbø who can write a really bloody novel with plenty of humor.

Highly recommended for fans of Nordic noir and Jo Nesbø.

Happy Independence Day!

Love In Chains

;

Tags: Amazon streaming, period drama, soap opera, Ukraine

24 episodes

Katerina Verbitskaya was raised as a noble lady with her godmother Anna Chervinskaya but for the whole world she was only the property of Peter Chervinsky. She falls in love with the nobleman Alexey Kosach who knows nothing about her origin. On the way to freedom and love, the serf maid will have to overcome a lot of trials.

I was watching this period drama from Ukraine then Amazon started inserting ads which is not fine to me. I stopped watching and removed my whole watch list and didn't tune in to Amazon streaming for over a year. I noticed that the ads were removed from some of their shows so I resumed watching this series. 

The series is poorly written.. All the young actors, men and women, sound like they are reading their lines. The actress playing the lead, Katya is not even that pretty for 2 men to fight over. The other girl who plays her friend, Natalia is so awkward. She acts like she's in a High School play, very amateurish. I was only able to tolerate 3 episodes. I proceeded to read the synopses from episode 4 all the way to episode 23 then I watched the last episode 24. I like period dramas from Russia and Ukraine but this one is terrible and boring. The love polygon (chain) is done to death and with very little entertainment IMHO. 

Not recommended.

KPop Demon Hunters

tags:animation, demon hunters, fantasy, Kpop, Netflix

When K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira, and Zoey aren’t selling out stadiums, they’re using their secret identities as demon hunters to protect their fans from ever-present supernatural danger. Together, they must face their biggest threat — an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise.

From Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), comes a fiercely fun and action-packed KPop odyssey featuring brand-new, original songs. Also featuring a new, original song performed by Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Chaeyoung of TWICE.

What??? Animated movie with KPop bands. The songs are kinda catchy. Not bad for KPop fans.

The Dinner Table Detective

 

tags: Amazon streaming, anime, 

The series is ridiculous but funny. A pair of affluent girl and boy solve murders with help from the girl's butler. *The butler actually solves the mysteries*. Both detectives are over the top just like a typical anime. 

In Japanese and a few other languages. Also dubbed in English and other languages.

Tommy And Tuppence Classic Collection

 

tags: Agatha Christie, classics, detective, thriller

 The Tommy and Tuppence Classic Collection by Agatha Christie brings together some of her best work featuring the beloved sleuthing couple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. This collection includes the novel The Secret Adversary, where the dynamic duo first launches into the world of espionage and private detection. Here, they stumble upon a case involving political intrigue and a missing young woman named Jane Finn, setting the stage for their future exploits. Christie crafts a thrilling introduction to the world of Tommy and Tuppence, showcasing their blend of wit, courage, and teamwork.

Following The Secret Adversary, the collection offers Partners in Crime, a series of engaging short stories where Tommy and Tuppence take over the "Blunt's International Detective Agency." As part of their detective roleplay, they adopt the personas of famous fictional detectives while solving various cases. This adds a humorous element to the narrative, as the duo navigates each mystery with charm and humor. Key stories include The Case of the Missing Lady, Blindman's Buff, The Man in the Mist, The Crackler, and The Sunningdale Mystery. Each tale challenges them with new situations-from missing persons to mysterious deaths, and even elaborate swindles.

Christie's unique blend of suspense, humor, and the subtle interplay between Tommy and Tuppence's personalities keeps readers enthralled. Illustrated scenes add an extra layer of engagement, bringing to life the amusing, suspenseful, and sometimes romantic moments in the duo's detective career. Through Christie's storytelling, readers are immersed in the contrasting energies of Tommy's logical mind and Tuppence's quick wit and spontaneity.

For fans of light-hearted mysteries with a mix of adventure, romance, and classic Christie twists, this collection serves as a compelling journey into the detective escapades of Tommy and Tuppence. The Tommy and Tuppence Classic Collection captures Christie's mastery in creating engaging mysteries while portraying the charm of one of her most memorable sleuthing pairs.

 Novel

The Secret Adversary

Short stories

A Fairy in the Flat
A Pot of Tea
The Affair of the Pink Pearl
The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger
Finessing the King
The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper
The Case of the Missing Lady
Blindman’s Buff
The Man in the Mist
The Crackler
The Sunningdale Mystery
The House of Lurking Death
The Unbreakable Alibi
The Clergyman's Daughter
The Red House
The Ambassador's Boots
The Man Who Was No. 16

The novel is very short at less than 300 pages and the short stories are really short. I like the novel and stories and also the 2015 TV series. There's an older TV show in black and white but I have yet to find where to watch them. 

Gabriel's Moon

tags: espionage, mystery, the early 60s

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐out of 5

From Goodreads

In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War.

When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals. As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story.

The short novel got me interested again in espionage fiction. 32 year old Gabriel Dax, the accidental spy, is sometimes annoyingly naive, has loose lips, and randy. I forgive him because he suffered a trauma when he was 6 years old and he can't recall exactly what happened that day.

His older brother occasionally uses him as a courier and he unknowingly delivers spy stuff wherever he was asked to go. He never suspects his brother maybe because he is a bit dim. He becomes a "spy" and a useful idiot when the enigmatic Faith Green asked him to fetch a piece of artwork from a famous Spanish artist in Cadiz, Spain. He couldn't say no to the woman as though he is hypnotized. It's just him being randy. Once in a while he has flashes of brilliance when necessary.

The book has lots of humor, not the satirical John le Carré kind, just some light funny stuff. It has equal amount of suspense but not much mind-numbing action which is why I like it. William Boyd is a great storyteller.

Highly recommended for William Boyd readers.  

Towards Zero

tags: Agatha Christie, mystery, Superintendent Battle

⭐⭐⭐⭐out of five

An elderly widow is murdered at a clifftop seaside house...What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a houseparty gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head. It's all part of a carefully laid plan - for murder...

Agatha Christie's Superintendent Battle solves a complicated murder where almost all the characters are suspects. 3 out of my 4 guesses were incorrect. I was tricked! 

Superintendent Battle is on the first part of the novel to handle his daughter's case at school and does not appear again until about 62% into the book but his presence is always striking even when he remembered Poirot and his daughter in his examination of the murder scene and evidence. Great mystery from Agatha Christie where the current and ex wives of a famous tennis player spend a tense week in the same house. Unexpected romance happened at the end of the short book. Very entertaining. 

Highly recommended.