Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Years and Years ... what a great dystopian TV show!!

It's been a while since I've been bowled over by a show or movie. Bowled over enough to write about it. Bowled over into an overwhelm of emotion. And holy crap did Years and Years do that!! I do wish for a little more... hmm... emphasis on the climax I might say? The denouement was amazing and satisfying and completed the story so perfectly, but it might've been too long? Coz like there were bigger climaxes in some of the episodes! And the story and scenes were there for a big climax, it just didn't feel as if they were used big enough. Which might be coz I feel they didnt crescendo the theme music as loudly over it like in other episodes.

WHICH brings me to one of the most powerful aspects of this show!! The theme song I'm gonna call it. Holy moly!! So utterly devastingly amazing!! Check it out here although that's not as intense a version as some of the ones in the show itself I feel. The soundtrack was composed by Murray Gold and it is simply brilliant!! I'm gonna quote one of the youtube comments coz they nailed it! "I've never heard a song that is so full of hope yet so hopeless, so happy yet so sad and so insane and terrifying as this song." Insane and terrifying yet also happy and hopeful!?!? THAT is why it's so incredible! And the intensity of those emotions that it triggers... holy fuck!! And it was always played on these hugely revealing, impactful scenes!

SPOILERS COMING UP .....



And then story and the characters and the acting!! So insanely incredible! I've never seen Emma Thompson play such a hammy, Trump-like character, but god was she the right choice! That moment when she tells Stephen she could be killed if she doesn't do what shes supposed to?! Her eyes! Omg her eyes!! All the thoughts and emotions contained in them!! That's why you use Emma Thompson!! Holy fuck! And the acting from all of them is insane off-the-charts good!! And the characters so perfectly crafted!! Just wow! 

And I loved Daniel and his relationship with Viktor!! When Daniel died, I sobbed and sobbed! Not a good choice of a show to watch when I'm feeling sad and missing my dead father extra badly, coz I just got overwhelmed with the sadness! :(

And finally I need to talk about how realistic and so extremely well told this dystopia was!! When you read 1984 in modern times you can't help but dismiss it coz that particular dystopia couldn't happen given our current world. So this show made me realize you need updated dystopias! Ones that show us how easily that terrible world could happen in our current times! When people ask me why I think privacy and civil liberties are important, I just say go read or watch some scifi... you'll get your warnings. We could lose our freedoms so easily.

So yeah... Years and Years was soooo incredibly realistic!! You can see all of that happening so easily!! Trump set the path, and just thank god he didn't get re-elected. And I might be thankful to covid, coz I wonder if he would've if the pandemic hadn't hit!?

And most other dystopias, for example another Brit show Utopia comes to mind, aren't realistic enough to scare so they just feel like an exercise in depressing. Years and Years is depressing for a good reason!! And is juxtaposed with happy moments which is what real life is like! So the message of this show is so powerful, yet wrapped around a story and characters you reallly care about and totally captivate you! What a superbly crafted show!!

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well I'm done. Thank god. And the ending was as unfulfilling as expected. But I'm hard-pressed to pin point why exactly I hated it. Main thing is I was just soooo not engaged!! :( Maybe coz I couldn't get behind any of the characters. Maybe coz it often felt like he was over-explaining things like why they'd lost their horses, or the unnecessarily complicated magic system. So it was such a chore to read it. A painful chore. But I loved Weeks' Night Angel series so much I wanted to at least finish this one book. To see if it got more enjoyable. It did not. sigh. :(

The magic system is fascinating, the use of all the colours of light was a great idea, especially with each colour having its own properties. But it felt really silly that they have all this power, yet can only craft objects with it that they then have to use mundanely, like physically throwing fireballs, and pedalling a magic boat!?

And then he spent way too much time explaining it! I don't need to learn how to draft light, just need to read about what happens! These books remind me of Tolkien... the author spent way too much time developing their world so they can't stop talking about it, at the expense of story!

And Kip's constant inner monologue of self-criticism was exhausting. And I hate to criticize that coz I have that going on in my head too. But I read books, especially scif/fantasy, to ESCAPE those thoughts!! Not read them on the page. :(

The Night Angel series definitely had the feel of a new writer, but it was fun, and the story was so great and engaging! This one the story is amazing, great complexity, characters, world, but the book was soooo not engaging. It's like he matured as a writer but only in some areas?! Anyways, I'm disappointed. :( I love you Brent Weeks but this series is not for me.

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