Tag: television

Monday Morning Movie Review: The Strain (2014-2017)

The Portly Politico6 Comments

Today I’m taking a bit of a departure from my usual reviews.  Instead, I’m going to review a television series, although one with a cinematic quality and a Hollywood director attached:  The Strain (2014-2017).

The Strain is about a group of creatures that resemble a zombie-vampire hybrid called the strigoi (also called “strigs” and “munchers” in the show).  These creatures are filled with parasitic worms that they pass onto their victims.  Even one worm will multiply rapidly inside a host body, although the full transformation into a strigoi takes a few days.

The strigoi in the show are under the control of The Master, an ancient, powerful strigoi who has almost limitless power over his minions:  he can see through their eyes; he can speak through their mouths; he can command them to attack (or not to do so); and he can give some strigoi greater or lesser degrees of autonomy and/or their original personalities.  The Master can also transfer himself (in the form of a red parasitic worm among thousands of white ones) to other bodies, and can give humans “The White”—a white substance that, in the right doses, grants humans incredibly renewed health and an extended lifespan.

There are strigoi not under The Master’s control, but the show never clearly explains why.  One strigoi, The Born, is the vengeful offspring of The Master and a human.  There are also The Ancients, a set of which reside in New York City (the “New World Ancients”), and a set that reside in the Old World.  The New World Ancients are portrayed as vampiric husks, existing in a state of stasis and complacency.  All of these strigoi are at odds with The Master.

A plucky band of humans, led by the elderly Jewish pawnbroker Abraham Setrakian, also fight against The Master, to degrees that grow increasingly desperate as the show progresses and their numbers dwindle.  Setrakian is a Holocaust survivor, and his archnemesis is Thomas Eichhorst, the chief lieutenant of The Master.  Eichhorst was the commander of the concentration camp where Setrakian was held captive, and the two share a lethal bond that, I would argue, is the best part of the show.  The decades-long duel between them is fascinating viewing.

So, what of the show itself?  I have mixed feelings about it, to be sure.  Over the course of its four seasons, I found much about the show that I found tedious and boring.  Season 3, particularly, got bogged down in side stories, but the finale almost made the ride worth it.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: In the Flesh (2013-2014)

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Today’s movie is not a movie, but rather a two-season miniseries that aired on the BBC from 2013-2014.  In the Flesh consists of nine total episodes (three in season one, six in season two), and aired during the Silver Age of Zombie Films (during the great revival of the genre, when it seemed that zombie films, like their subject matter, were inescapable).

In the Flesh introduces a bit of a twist to the traditional zombie formula:  it takes place after a zombie uprising, known as “The Rising,” took place, and a treatment—not a cure—for zombification has been found.  With a daily dose of medicine, former zombies (called “the Risen” or, derogatorily, “rotters”) can live as humans.  That said, they are not human—they cannot eat or drink food without getting violently ill, for example—and can revert to their “rabid” state if they miss a dose—or if they take an illicit street drug called “Blue Oblivion” that, for some reason, a quasi-terrorist organization called the “Undead Liberation Army” (ULA) distributes to its fanatical members.

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Guest Post: photog of OCF: The Honeymooners – Complete Series Review – Overview

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Back when I was getting into blogging again, I forged an unshakeable alliance with photog, the proprietor of the blog Orion’s Cold Fire.  We used to cross-post on each other’s blogs a tad more frequently, but have not done so in awhile.

So I was thrilled when good ol’ photog reached out about the possibility of doing so.  At the time of writing, I’m still brainstorming what I will submit to him, but by the time you read this post, I’ll have done so (God Willing)!  Indeed, I imagine my post on his blog will publish in roughly the same timeframe as his submission here.

photog has a softness for classic television.  For example, in 2019 he did an episode-by-episode review of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), which is probably one of my favorite events in blogging history.  He did the same episode-by-episode reviews for Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969).  If you’re a fan of sci-fi and weird fiction, photog is your man.

He is continuing that fondness for 1950s and 1960s television with this complete series review of another classic, this time a comedy.  With that, here is photog of Orion’s Cold Fire with a complete series review of The Honeymooners (1955-1956):

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Myersvision: The Last of Us (TV Series)

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Dear old Audre Myers e-mailed Ponty and me a couple of Sundays ago recommending the HBO Max series The Last of Us, based (albeit, I suspect, somewhat loosely) on the video game of the same name.  I’ve never played either of the two TLoU games, but I am quite familiar with the controversy surrounding the sequel, which went fully woke.  It is a classic scenario:  a hugely successful cultural phenomenon gets hijacked—willingly or otherwise—by the Cultural Marxists and becomes a pitiful version of its former self.  The Cult Marxists hope to trade on the popularity of the intellectual property or franchise by shoehorning their bizarre beliefs into it, thereby reaching a massive audience before everyone sours on it.

It’s a fundamentally vampiric, parasitic relationship:  the healthy host rapidly loses whatever cultural cache it enjoyed, becoming an insufferable, withered husk of its former self.

I was not surprised in the slightest that Ponty reacted so negatively to Audre’s request that one of us review the show.  As an avid gamer who (it seems) enjoyed The Last of Us video game and despised its woke sequel, I knew the suggestion would touch a nerve.  Poor Audre had no idea; I hope Ponty wasn’t too hard on her!

So, I proposed that Audre write a review.  I’ll check out the show when I’m able, but she is the queen of television reviews around here.

With that, here is Audre Myers’s review of the television series The Last of Us:

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Lazy Sunday CXXXV: Best Myersvision Posts of 2023

The Portly Politico2 Comments

After giving Ponty some love last week, I decided to do one more edition of Lazy Sunday highlighting the best-performing guest posts of 2023.  This time around, it is our dear Audre Myers, author of the Myersvision series of posts, enjoying the limelight.

Again, the usual notes:  these are not necessarily the best posts qualitatively—although they are quite excellent, as is all of Audre’s writing—but merely the Myersvision posts with the highest views.  Note that all of Audre’s writing deserves more clicks and views, so get to it!

  • “Myersvision: Hoarders” (55 views) – Audre’s review of the A&E series Hoarders, which is such a sad but fascinating show.
  • “Myersvision: ‘Ode to the PB&J’” (51 views) – Ponty somehow does not like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I asked Audre to set our boy straight with this bit of whimsical doggerel.
  • “Myersvision: Theme Music” (35 views) – When she’s not waxing lyrical about sandwiches, Audre praises the great television theme music of our age.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Myersvision: The Great British Baking Show

The Portly Politico2 Comments

We all have our comfort foods.  Mine are probably mashed potatoes and my Mom’s meatloaf, or perhaps her barbecue chicken.  She also makes an incredible chicken casserole.  Pretty much anything she cooks or bakes is comfort food, I suppose.

But what happens when comfort foods collide with comfort television?  That’s the case with Audre Myers‘s review of a beloved Netflix series.

I won’t spoil the scones any further.  Here’s Audre on The Great British Baking Show:

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Lazy Sunday CXXI: Myersvision, Part VIII

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Our senior correspondent Audre Myers has been a source of encouragement for yours portly lately, so it seemed appropriate to return to retrospectives of her contributions to this site.  She’s been delivering the goods lately:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Myersvision: Hoarders

The Portly Politico12 Comments

What’s the opposite of Bigfoot, a hairy loner that lives in the woods and avoids people (but loves grainy, out-of-focus trail cams)?  Probably not pathological hoarders, but maybe that’s close:  they can’t get away from their meddling relations and the government, which imperiously demands their children not live in homes covered in old Chinese newspapers and rat feces. The gall!

Unlike our elusive, hirsute woodland friend, these folks have the opportunity to bask in the limelight—of shame.  If reality television serves any useful social function (debatable), it’s that it occasionally shames mentally-scarred weirdos, making the rest of feel better about ourselves in the process.

At least, I always suspected that was the point of shows with hoarders and morbidly obese people (I wonder how big—no pun intended—of an overlap there is between those disorders?) was for us to shake our heads and thank God we aren’t as screwed up as those people.  As Audre Myers gently implies here, we’re all screwed up (true), and but for the Grace of God, we’d be holding onto broken baseball bats and takeout flyers.

I also can’t criticize Hoarding Americans too much, as my natural inclinations towards packrattery and a weird holdover Depression/Recession Era mentality make me loathe to waste anything—or to let too much go.  I’m especially that way with books, so when I successfully donated a massive cardboard box of old books to the local library, I took it as a good sign that I am not a hoarder, just a slob.  Shew!

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We all need grace and compassion—even the hoarders.

With that, here is Audre’s review of the A&E series Hoarders:

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Lazy Sunday CCII: Myersvision, Part IV

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The retrospective of our favorite senior correspondent Audre Myers continues with three more editions of her Myersvision posts.  Surprisingly, none of these posts have anything to do with Bigfoot, although one of them is, perhaps, the most controversial hot take Audrey’s ever committed to digital paper:

  • “Myersvision: Million Pound Menu” – Audre’s review of Million Pound Menu, a show in which small-time investors preview hopeful restauranteurs looking for a few quid.  The “Pound” referred to is the English pound sterling, not the weight, so there’s no excessive eating in this show (d’oh!).
  • “Myersvision: Shaun of the Dead (2004)” – Audre’s review of 2004’s Shaun of the Dead is perhaps the most Boomery of Boomer hot takes to what is, objectively, one of the best films ever made.  Well, at least, it’s pretty good, but Audre disagrees.  As I did at the time, I’m chalking her distaste for the film up to a difference in generations and genders, although Ponty was a bit more vigorous in his disagreement.
  • “Myersvision: Theme Music” – All about great television theme songs, with plenty of clips.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Ponty’s Pen: Stranger Things Series Review

The Portly Politico20 Comments

We’re pro-spooky stuff here at The Portly Politico, and perhaps the greatest example of syncretic spookiness is the Netflix series Stranger Things, an amalgamation of 1980s nostalgia, John Carpenter, Stephen King, and every other significant sci-fi horror franchise of that glorious decade (and beyond).

Talk about a lightning-in-a-bottle cultural phenomenon.  The series is the kind that is profoundly a product of the age of streaming, yet it hearkens back to the horror miniseries of the 1980s and 1990s—rich, multi-episode arcs; tight story construction; and satisfying pay-offs that reward loyal viewing.  I also appreciate that the show doesn’t overstay its welcome with bloated seasons.  The Duffer Brothers tell the story they want to tell without stretching their material thin.

Ponty sent me this epic review of the first four seasons of the show (the fifth and, it seems, final season is coming soon), and it’s surely his reviewing magnum opus.  Audre Myers wrote her own review of the series last year, which overlaps somewhat with Ponty’s, but they both bring different insights into the show.

I don’t have much left to add that Ponty hasn’t said better.  With that, here is Ponty’s series review of Stranger Things:

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