I Love A Gal With A Headband!!

 Caught up a couple of shows and movies this week and was reminded that, among the many things I love, I have a particular weakness for a pretty girl wearing a headband/hairband in her hair, and whether it be someone like sassy Sophie Thatcher in the sci-fi slasher COMPANION (as the robotic made-to-order girlfriend Iris):

…or svelte Dichen Lachman in the cerebral epic SEVERANCE (as the icy and pensive Miss Casey), that headpiece accessory will always be the kryptonite that reduces me to a simpering fool! 

MY! Don't BOTH of them look Fetching as HELL?!!!

Maybe it’s growing up in the 70’s where it seemed EVERY girl I liked was wearing them or (far more likely) the massive crush I had on Scooby Doo’s Daphne, but it’s a look I just LOVE and it was great to see two such examples this week!

PS: Both the film Companion and the Apple+ series Severance are great and are highly recommended!!! Check 'em out, yo!

SEVERANCE Continues to Enthrall!!!!

 Season Two of the brain-stimulating Apple+ series SEVERANCE is underway and BETTER than EVER! Episode two was just chock filled with compelling scenarios and new ideas, but it was THIS scene with Helena (herself shockingly revealed as the DAUGHTER of the enemy just last season!) that really made the episode for me!!!

 Without giving away any spoilers, the EYES say it ALL! Britt Lower is just FANTASTIC as Helly/Helena, conveying SO MUCH without a single word!!!

This is gonna be a GREAT freakin’ SEASON!!!!!

Jodie Foster Still Sleuthin' After All These Years

Caught the compelling first episode of the new Jodie Foster-led True Detective series TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY, dealing with a mysterious disappearance of an entire crew at a remote research station in Alaska tinged with supernatural elements.

Afterwards, I went online to read up on it, and while there, came across a photo of Jodie, Julia Roberts and Winona Ryder from 1989 with the general reaction of "Oh my, look how YOUNG they all were"! True enough, but it was then I remembered that I had seen Jodie Foster a LOT earlier than that: in fact, some 46+ YEARS ago!

As a 70's kid I was constantly in the theaters checking out the latest family flicks, and among the slew of movies I saw in 1977 was a film about a group of treasure-hunting kids looking for a fortune in a huge manor called CANDLESHOE, led by none other than Jodie Foster herself!

This was the first movie I'd seen with Foster- true, she had made her mark the year before with "Freaky Friday", however I had missed that one (and didn't get to see it til it made its way to "The Wonderful World Of Disney" on TV years later), so to me, this is THE Jodie Foster I always thought of when hearing her name!

As time went on, I remember the scandal about her when Hinkley shot Reagan, the buzz when she was nominated for The Accused, but it wasn't until Silence of The Lambs, I guess, when she finally became the STAR we think of nowadays. 

From there she became such a respected Actress and Director that over time that childhood image of her disappeared! It was only today that that image of her as the intrepid Casey came back to my mind, taking me away to that magical time of childhood wonder once again!

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HBO's  TRUE DETECTIVE : NIGHT COUNTRY airs Sundays and promises to be one SURREAL trip!

An Intriguing New Sci-Fi Series: "Severance"

 Was greatly recommended by my friends that I should catch the new Apple TV+ Series "Severance" and at two episodes in, it is a barrage of compelling situations and set-ups that has me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out just WHAT is happening!

Was told to go in blind without any prior knowledge of the show, and it has been delicious trying to piece together  what is happening by the minute clues they give us...VERY excited to see where this one goes!!!

Binging on "The Good Place'

Got the first two seasons of the wonderful NBC comedy drama "The Good Place" on DVD and blasted through BOTH of 'em in a week, just in time to begin watching its Season Three premiere which started last night!

Such a great little show about a self-professed "Arizona Trashbag" named Eleanor Shellstrop (played by the highly delectable Kristen Bell) who dies and is accidentally sent to Heaven instead of Hell and her exploits as she does her very best to keep her true badness a secret as she attempts to become a person worthy of "the Good Place"!

Everyone is great in the show, including William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye, an Ethics Professor determined to help Eleanor find her "nice" self, Manny Jacinto as a rapper-masquerading as a monk named Jianyu, Angelic AI Assistant Janet played by D'Arcy Carden, and Cheers veteran Ted Danson as Michael, the Good Place's cheery overseer.

Ooooh, and special mention MUST be made of Jameela Jamil as the lusciously curvy spoiled and self-centered socialite Tahani Al-Jamil who became my favorite character from the very first episode and has remained my biggest motivation for keeping up with the awesome show!

Just finished watching the first episode of Season Three on the NBC streaming site, and I had to laugh realizing this is the first ACTUAL Television show I've been interested in enough to watch one by one, weekly, as it airs!usually I wait for shows like this to come out on DVD and then jsut binge 'em, but I love the Good Place too much to wait!!!!

So far, this show has kept me on my toes guessing just WHERE each episode is going to lead!!! Such a FUN, innovative series!!!

Checking out the FX Series "The Americans"

My friend Kashi piqued my curiosity with her description of “The Americans”, and on the off chance it might be something I wanted to watch, I checked out a clip on youtube to see if it grabbed me. The clip I saw DID interest me, sadly, it was a clip from season 3 of Mom Elizabeth ordering daughter Paige to spy on some priest, so the surprise of the kids finding out that their parents are Russian Spies was spoiled for me, LOL.

So anyway, I was intrigued enought that when I saw someone on ebay selling a set of Seasons 1-3 on DVD for 25 bucks, I bought it. I have to say that at first, the show did not grab me the way I hoped. By the middle, I was really losing interest and was thinking I was going to pass on the rest of the series. But the last three episodes of season one REALLY blew me away, so much so that I went to Amazon and ordered seasons 4 and 5!

I think I didn’t like the writing of the first half episodes:

For example, when FBI agent Stan Beeman moves in next door, I liked how Elizabeth and Phillip acted, instead of acting guarded, they were very friendly and outgoing. And when Stan wants to borrow jumper cables, instead of hiding the car from him, he invites Stan into the garage and even opens the trunk in front of him.

So I was bugged when Stan tells his wife, “something’s fishy about that couple”, like, What??? They didn’t do anything to warrant suspicion and I hate when he says he has “instinct”. 

And when his FBI boss tells him “the Russians could be anyone”, he thinks “OH DAMN, IT’S MY NEIGHBORS I GOTTA BREAK IN THEY’RE KEEPING THE PRISONER IN THEIR TRUNK”, I’m like who in HELL would come to that conclusion just becasue they have the same kind of car?

I alos noticed that each episode’s writer had a different idea of what kind of personailty Elizabeth should have, so in some episodes, she was romantic and wanted the marriage to work, in others she was a strong soviet agent, nonetheless, it always seemed like they were writing reasons for marital squabbles to fill the show up and after the 5th episode I was getting irritated.

And those episodes where the head of FBI announces that they are going to kidnap and kill any KGB agents they find, I was like WTF! This is like a 4th grader wrote this, this is liek reading comics! If they’re just gonna kill anyone they want, what’s the point of ANY intricate sleuthing, spying, etc? Just go out and shoot everyone.

I was ready to give up watching, but two things kept me interested in the show: 

One: I really love the Russian girl Nina, out of all of the show’s characters, she seems the most complex and multi-layered. Her character was the one that grew the most in the first season, and the season’s finale where she confesses to the Russian Boss that she is the mole and becomes a double agent was AWESOME! 

Two: The fake romance and marriage between Phillip and FBI secretary Martha Hanson. I always liked wherever the story went to this subplot. I really liked the Martha character (am I crazy to think that this lady is sexy???LOL), sadly I once again shot myself in the foot when I went online to look up  “actress that plays Martha in the Americans”, and the first article that came up said “ACTRESS ALISON WRIGHT TALKS ABOUT HER CHARACTER MARTHA HANSEN’S DEATH IN THE AMERICANS”

D’OHHHHHH!

Anyway, So by episode 10 I was pretty much watching on autopilot, and then…the last three episodes of Seasons 1 came on, and DAMN! these were so awesome, it was what I was hoping to see from the beginning: Tense cat-and-mouse games between the KGB and the FBI, awesome spy action and a great car-chase, and even fat old KGB Lady Claudia shows she’s badass by tazing that guy and slitting his throat. And like I mentioned before, the turning of Nina into a double agent was like the coolest turn ever, NOW I’m invested and can’t WAIT to dig into Season two!

What I'm Watching Now: Orphan Black

The Versatile Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning

 A few weeks ago, someone on reddit's sub-reddit r/pics uploaded this striking picture (below) for the BBC America show "Orphan Black", and when another person explained that all 4 girls in the photo were the SAME actress playing four different CLONES, I was SUDDENLY intrigued! I'd seen the DVD sets for both Orphan Black Seasons One and Two at Costco, and for a mere $12.99 apiece, I didn't think it'd hurt to pick it up and check it out!

As Orphan Black begins, we are introduced to  derelict girl named Sarah Manning who has just arrived back in town, only to see a professional-looking woman that looks JUST like her commit suicide by jumping off the platform into a running train.

Sarah Manning meets her Double Beth Childs

A Destitute Beth Childs just before her leap

Quickly getting over the shock, the streetwise girl snatches up the woman's purse and belongings, intending to steal her checks and raid her bank account. With the help of her brother Felix, (a fabulously gay raver and an admitted scene-stealer!), they manage to trick the cops into thinking that the jumper was the derelict Sarah Manning, and thus Sarah assumes the role of Beth.

Meeting up with Brother Felix (Jordan Gavaris)

"This Beth Looks Just Like Me"

"Holy Crap- What are You gonna Do!"

But once stepping into the role of this woman, she finds that this Beth Childs was a police investigator whose last case may have the key to events directly impacting Sarah...

Becoming Police Investigator Elizabeth Childs

On the case with partner Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard)

 Under the guise of the Police Investigator, Sarah-Beth finds the reason that she and Beth look so similar may have a more sinister reason than pure coincidence, and as she delves deeper, she makes contact with other women connected with the case.

Looking over the evidence with Felix

  The next duplicate "Beth" meets is a desperate German girl named Katja who reaches out to her. Apparently, she and the real Beth were working together to gather evidence to expose some criminal activity. Unfortunately, Katja is taken out of the game before she can explain anything more to the confused Sarah.

Contact with Katja Obinger

Her brief interaction with Katja leads Beth to the super-brainy Cosima Neihaus, a scientist student working out the blood connections between all of them, the girl who acts as the level-headed and rational "thinker" for them. It is she who finally explains to Sarah that they are all clones in someone's weird experiment- and their mission is to find out who and why!

Dreadlocked Genius Cosima Neihaus

Time seems to be of the essence as not only are there sinister agents and corporate employees after them, there is another clone out there named Helena (A Russian Girl) who is actually out to terminate her fellow doubles!

The Psychotic Helena

But by FAR my favorite character HAS to be the clone Alison Hendrix, a suburban Soccer-Mom with a husband and two children- having lived and almost Stepford-Wives existence, she is everything Sarah is not- Prim and proper and OH! So BITCHY!

Soccer Mom Alison Hendrix

Already Butting Heads

The Highly Strung Suburban Mom!

Reluctantly Cooperating with Sarah.

Alison is SO freaking funny- sooo uptight and fastidious, everything she does in her prissy style makes you laugh, and the scenes with her and Felix have to be the best! Ahaha, I tell you, Desperate Housewives ain't got NOTHIN on THESE TWO!

Alison Bonding with Felix

Dealing with the Neighbors, LOL

At the end of Season One we are introduced to a fifth clone, that of the super high power-executive Rachel Duncan, and unlike Cosima, Alison and Sarah who are banding together to get answers,, THIS woman may well be the direct LEADER of their ENEMIES! A VERY sleek and icy-cool character, a femme-fatale, if you wish!

Rachel Duncan

I gotta say, while there may be some flaws with the story (a lot of the time I'm frustrated watching the show, thinking, why in the world are they doing THAT?!), watching actress Tatiana Maslany playing all these different characters is SUCH a JOY to behold- so awesome, she really shape-shifts into the roles, and some, (especially Allison and Rachel) are so convincing I sometimes start believing they are ACTUALLY played by different actresses!

Sarah, Alison and Cosima meet up

I was just getting started on Season Two of the series when  I had lunch with a friend who, when I gushed to him about how much I was loving Orphan Black, told me "Didn't that show just get cancelled?"!  I paled and yelped out, "What!!! NO WAY! I was JUST getting INTO THAT ONE!" Once home, however,  I ran online to read up on the show's status...and whaddaya know, just DAYS before our lunch, it was announced that Orphan Black had gotten picked up for a Fourth Season! WHEW!

Right now I'm halfway through Season Two, and am trying to pace myself slowly because I know that the DVD set for Season Three doesn't come out for a few more months....months I will be on pins and needles waiting!!!