Adventures in TV Land

As you probably noticed, I don't have a habit of watching TV - it was something I would do when on vacation between two ship assignments - however, this January I caught a bad Flu or whatever it is and was forced to sit home quietly for a while, together with my equally infected flatmate. So what to do, we started watching TV and to his biggest despair, I discovered that I prefer to move on between different programs instead of being faithfully glued to one thing in particular. Binge-watching something that goes on for several seasons feels like a big undertaking and if left to my own decisions, it would just be short youtube clips about the life in frozen Yakutsk (which delights me) however this time it was watching together, so I am at the moment balancing several things simultaneously.

"The Last of Us" is the latest HBO sensation and it was so heavily promoted & advertised that I just could not resist having a look. Not one, but two actors from "Game of Thrones" are involved here and so far they are both main characters - the series are based on a famous video game and apparently it was created with a huge budget, that makes it something like producing a full scale Hollywood movie - not being familiar with the video game, I approached it without any previous knowledge about the plot and so far it was quite gripping, though after only two episodes I started to feel unusual fatigue. Not only that the story covers fairly routine plot (survivors of something apocalyptic roam trough the ruins of civilisation and are fighting mutants & zombies) but two main characters are so far not very simpatico and its difficult to follow something where I don't care about main actors. I like Pedro Pascal but so far he is just very traumatised and scarred person, while teenage Bella Ramsey is perpetually angry and foul-mouthed to such degree that I almost wish she gets eliminated. While visually impressive, series have a distinct feeling of déjà vu because I have seen this kind of setting before - from 1962. "The Day of the Triffids" to 1964. "The Last Man on Earth", ultra creepy 1971. "The Omega Man"  to 2002. "28 Days Later" and its sequel "28 Weeks Later", not to mention "The Walking Dead" - the main positive thing here is that HBO shows only one episode per week, which actually creates motivation to continue watching it.

While I am on HBO, I got somehow convinced to check out old, classic 2001 TV series "Six Feet Under" that earlier escaped my attention, probably because it coincided with my sailing years - it was impossible to follow anything while I worked on a ships without internet - now, when I say "old" its only old from current perspective, because I am actually serious fan of 1930s and 1940s movies so something from 2001 does not really count as "old" but its been two decades since than. Its about bereaved family of undertakers, or perhaps not really undertakers but owners of funeral home - they are selling funeral arrangements, cremations, coffins, preparing mutilated bodies for viewing, etc - to my biggest surprise, it turned out surprisingly watchable and it has enough off-the-wall unexpected dark humour AND likeable characters to keep me watching, I gulped the whole first season with greatest pleasure. So far my favourite character is mother (Frances Conroy) whom I remember playing The Angel of Death in "American Horror Story" - here she is a sweet, slightly eccentric widow who has a delightful innocence about her and I love watching her. 

Her daughter in a series is a very young Lauren Ambrose who is currently starring in M. Night Shyamalan produced TV series "Servant" and before you know it, I started watching that one as well. Its a very unusual story but I expect that from Shyamalan, about young couple dealing with the loss of the baby and as a therapy they accepted to treat a lifelike doll as the real child - to such degree that they even engage nanny (hence, servant) to live with them. But the doll is creepy and the nanny is creepy and both parents appear slightly unhinged so this actually turned out quite gripping and compulsive - each episode is only 30 minutes long, which makes for a very effective watching and so far I did not get bored yet. The only complain I have is a character of Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley in Harry Potter movies) who is constantly either opening the wine bottles or pouring himself drink in every single scene, to the point that it became tedious - you already know when he comes on a scene that he will gobble some wine and that puts me off. Otherwise a very good series. 

What I enjoy the most is something I stumbled upon completely accidentally, as it should be: an Australian detective series "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" set in 1920s Melbourne. It feels like a homage to all the classic Agatha Christie characters and the main focus here is glamorous private detective Miss Fisher (played with confidence by excellent Essie Davis) who in each episode solves another latest problem, while prying around and basically annoying police detective (Nathan Page) who is reluctantly forced to accept her assistance. None of the series above have such a feel-good atmosphere as this one, which is maybe surprising considering its about crime and murders but its done in a such lovely manner that there is nothing specially upsetting or gruesome about it - stories are fairly standard and almost generic, costumes and locations are joy to watch, characters are likeable and each episode ends with bad guys being arrested or punished. Strange to say, but its almost a comfort watching, comparable to "Midsomer Murders", "Miss Marple" or "Murder, She Wrote" - so far, I am genuinely enjoying this one the most. 

Evening of Istanbul Cabaret music

 

Lo and behold, looks like Covid and lockdowns are finally completely behind us and now we are all able to participate in crowded social gatherings, without forced vaccinations, etc. I had recently moved to another neighbourhood and must mention how excited and thrilled I am here - after living in the heart of Red Light District and than in the generic suburbs, now this is the very first time I am in a genuine residential area with regular people, regular shops and a nice, vibrant atmosphere. It also happened that there is a local theatre/cafe here just around the corner called Podium Mozaiek where a good friend performed as a part of Tombaz Ensemble - the stars have aligned and I thought why not, its near my new home and a perfect Saturday night evening.

I cannot describe how happy I am that after years of sailing and nomadic lifestyle I have finally found my home here in this wonderful, cosmopolitan and  colourful city with so many varieties - the best example was last night, where evening was all about 1930s music from Istanbul but the audience was mixed between ex patriots and curious locals, who just like me, wanted to experience something different. The ensemble itself is a five-member multicultural group of Turkish, Romanian, Greek and Dutch musicians who play both traditional and classical instruments. The singer Meral Ari introduced almost every song with a little story (which, surprisingly, I almost completely understood even thought it was in Dutch) and the evening was all about glorious music from Istanbul - reflecting various influences like operetta, tango and cabaret - also in different languages, including Greek, Turkish, Armenian, etc. 

The ideal getaway

 

Yes, it is photo shopped but I don't mind.

Just a fabulous idea.

"Triangle of Sadness" by Ruben Östlund (2022)

This was recommended to me and I thought it might be a good idea to see it as my first visit to cinema in 2022. Recently I have been busy with work & moving to another address but now everything seems to have been settled and I can go back to my regular hobbies like movies and books. For this movie I purposely avoided any online information and just wanted to approach it as tabula rasa with no preconception of what critics think (it turned out the movie won Palme d'Or in Cannes). 

"Triangle of Sadness" ended up being delightful black comedy and social satire. It actually consist of three different parts, like three chapters linked by the same protagonists: in the first part we meet two young privileged people (Carl and Yaya) who live in their own bubble, where modelling, fashion and online followers is all that matters. Clearly, it is completely unreal and unrelated to most of us who don't make our living from photo shoots and being influencers but for this couple this is reality and we see it as they constantly pose for the phone cameras, which takes a large part of their time. Whatever they do, when they are sunbathing or having a dinner, mobile phone camera is clicking all the time. It is not even clear do they love each other or do they simply think they look good together for Instagram. The second chapter finds them on a luxury yacht designed to cater for elderly, wealthy guests where staff and the crew is bowing to all their wishes and ridiculous whims. There is a clean-cut, caucasian crew that serves and works around the yacht and Asian staff that works downstairs - the way wealthy guests treat everybody is just appalling but perhaps even more unsettling is how servers allow themselves to be bossed around for the prospect of good tip. The third part of the movie finds them stranded on a desert island, where the roles are suddenly reversed and moneyed guests don't have any privilege anymore because its only one person who knows how to catch the fish and make fire - a housekeeper Abigail (excellent Filipina actress Dolly de Leon) who now imposes her own rules. 

It was very original and unusual movie, so much that I left the cinema wondering out loud "why was this recommended to me?" but of course next day, when the impressions settled, I spoke excitedly about it and explained how interesting it was. Yes, it won Palme d'Or but this is never guaranteed commercial success and it might signal it will appeal to selected audience - be that as it may, obviously I am fan of arthouse movies and to me this was far more interesting social satire than 2019. Korean Oscar winner "Parasite" which irritated me - this one was closer to my sensibilities, I found it funny and fascinating (yes, some people are like this, posing and pouting for the phone cameras non stop), not to mention my experience of working on a cruise ships where guests are mostly entitled and unreasonable indeed. At the start of the movie the head of staff (Paula) drills her staff how to obey any of their guests wishes and they can never say "no" - this reminded me so much of my work experience with cruise guests who would often get out of their way just to bother and irritate staff with irrational demands. It was very funny and amusing, casting also helped because only Woody Harrelson is very well-known, everybody else was relatively unknown - this really helps in making the movie convincing. Unfortunately, the actress who played Yaya (Charlbi Dean) died soon afterwards from some freak bacterial infection so she never experienced its international success.