the winter king

I've watched a lot of things in the last year and wrote some thoughts down about them but then never got around to posting them until now... So after the cut, thoughts on Foundation, The Winter King, Invasion, Class of '09 and The Last of Us. I have more tv shows that probably get posted at some point!

I've never managed to read the books - originally I couldn't get into the writing, but also on my last try maybe 5 years ago, I noticed it was all men all the time :/ Which killed the rest of my interest in reading it. At some point I got so that if there aren't any major, important women characters in a work, I likely skip it.

Luckly they fixed that in the tv series and I'm enjoying Foundation the tv show very much! I'm so glad they've made the changes they've made! Ten episodes of both seasons went by so fast and I'm impatiently looking forward to the 3rd season. I hope the shows gets to do all planned 8 seasons. One of the reasons I enjoy is that the story is different from I've seen a lot before, as well as the spaceships etc. The series looks wonderful and all the acting is good.

I'm also very pleased that a noted Finnish actor plays one of the main roles of Foundation: Laura Birn plays Demerzel and she does it very well. Laura Birn is one the most recognized and appreciated current actors here in Finland. it's so very rare to see a Finnish actor in non-Finnish productions! It was a huge thing when a Finnish actor played a corpse in an early episode of the original CSI, that's how rare it used to be. Mostly I've seen them play bit parts as evil henchmen. This is the first time I remember seeing a Finnish actor playing a big, meaty role in sweeping, expensive, critically acclaimed foreign production. I'm sure there must be others but I can't think one no matter how I try! It's just a pity that Laura Birn's major role has been mostly ignored by the media here in Finland as far as I can tell - I think it's because Foundation is a scifi tv series which is traditionally seen as less worthy of attention, and because I don't think the series has aired here on any actual tv channel, only on pay-streaming.

I wish season 3 was here already! I can't wait!

- the tv series is based on the book series Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
- the mythic saga of King Arthur written as a mixture of historical fiction and Arthurian legend
- I was excited to check this out because of the time period (about 500-600 AD) and because I enjoyed The Last Kingdom tv series which is based on the same author's another series of books.
- I love historical dramas but I'm kind of bored with the Tudor era and the 1700-1899 eras because I've seen dozens and dozens of movies and tv series taking place then. So I'm looking forward to another era of English history! Myth or not.

- Iain De Caestecker, who was good in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., plays Arthur the supposed main character. It's fun seeing him in a different role! Only so far (two episodes in) he's been it very little. Add: episode 3 was better, he had the typical amounf of screen time for a main character!
- I don't care at all for the little self-inserty blondie boy who is apparently the POV character in the books instead of Arthur; he's had very much screen time so far doing absolutely nothing interesting. He's boring boring boring... edging on irritating. And I hate how his hair is styled, half off his face and half hanging limply on his face anyway. And the actor can't act worth a damn and worse, the character hasn't been fun to watch so far. Also I find his claims that he's good at fighting and it is his destiny in the 3rd episode completely ridiculous - we haven't seen anything of the like from him! He's only ever mooning after Nimue.
- There's been several weird filming choices on the technical side of things. Lots of weirdly framed close-ups, and at least one scene where the little blondie boy is hiding from enemy trackers who are close in a forest behind a rock or a tree or a bush or something, and the camera is showing him in the way that only one eye is visible in a corner while the rest of the shot is towards the empty forest behind him. The one eye is in focus and the rest of the shot, where the camera is looking at, the empty forest, is blurry and out of focus. So many weird choices.
- I like the sets and locations. I'm not sure about the costuming, particularly the womens'. Mens' on the other hand just seem generic early middle ages leather armor.
- I like the political machinations and glimmers of strategic planning Arthur is showing, much more so than any battles scenes etc. Could do less with the little blondie boys "plot" which is hanging around without reason whenever something happens. Apparently he doesn't have any work to do because he can always be where important things are happening.
- Interested to see how the story goes but not terribly excited so far. I'm sticking more become of the historical era it's taking place in for now than anything else.
- Arthur feels like a cipher. We're in episode 6 and I can't tell what he thinks, what motivates him, what does he desire? He acts like he does everything reluctantly and only because things fall on him. But what does he want? In The Last King, the tv series based on books by the same author, the main character Uhtred's desires and motivations were never in question: he wants his home, the Bebanburg fortress, back, which was stolen from him by his uncle when Uhtred was a child. This was the motivation and the founding desire behind everything he did throughout the entire tv series. Arthur on the other hand, doesn't seem to have desires at all! And the same can be said for the little blond boy (Darfel?) - he wants to please his Lord but that's it.
- another thing is I don't feel like there's much of a deep emotional connection between Arthur and any other character. Arthur had to kill one of his, I guess, friends - it's just we'd never really seen that friendship because Arthur was absent much of the first few eps. The friend on the other hand was portrayed as a greedy, blood-thirsty, bulging crazy-eyes man and I mostly was neutral about him. So I at least didn't feel anything when Arthur had to kill him in a duel (to punish him for his crime) and all the characters acted like it was devastating because Arthur had to kill his friend. Just not feeling it.
- in episode 6, the little blondie boy's hair is half cut off, now it reminds me so much of Richard Dean Anderson's hair-do in the 1980s tv series McGyver only terribly over-grown in the back! LOL
- and enter Guinevere! Love her shaved hair-do although the dyed blond color is ridiculous. Arthur and she fall in love literally in the first and only 5 minutes they talk and a little eye fucking across the room the next day and it all feels entirely fake. But Arthur betrays his oath to marry the daughter of one the other Kings and marries Guinevere instead... I think they eloped too, I remember right.
- I found the other King's daughter, Arthur's original bride, a much more interesting and dynamic character! I hope Guinevere gets to be and do interesting stuff, but right now I'm disappointed comparing her to the legend.
- I thought the other King, the one whose daughter Arthur was going to marry but betrayed his oath and whose name I can't remember, I thought he didn't seem like one to take insult and betrayal lying down, and I was right. The very next episode Arthur's bishop and Arthur sister Morgan paid the price (they'd apparently been in love for years, I guess). I can't see this ending up in anything but war and tragedy.
- in Avalon, religious fanatics on both sides are setting up for war.
- Arthur doesn't seem very smart - first betraying his oath to marry another King's daughter, and then letting a religious fanatic setup up his church on another religous fanatic's land, only like 50 meters apart it seemed.

 ...My hate for the little blondie boy could be irrational... maybe take the complains I have of him with a grain of salt...

Apparently this has been cancelled.

- Opening theme by Max Richter completely ripped off from The Leftovers. That put the show on a huge minus for me before it even started.
- Such weird pacing. Some episodes are okay and interesting, and then the next episode (usually focusing on an another group of characters) is boring, just treading water and nothing interesting happens plot or character wise.
- Enver Gjokaj joins the cast in season 2 - that alone is almost enough reason to watch the show.
- I planning to keep watching, although about every other episode the show can just barely keep my interest. But it's scifi and I give scifi a lot of leeway, and I'm curious enough about everything to see more!

Interesting watching the US willingly chain itself under an FBI crime predicting AI which has started taking over and making decisions without input from humans. And mostly people are okay with it except for some of the main characters (and some nameless people behind a US senator) who are now starting to question it. There are four main characters from the FBI class of 2009, and two of them are in love with a one of the other two main characters for some explicable reason. Because that main character is emotionally unavailable and so bland that I can't see what those two who are in love with her see in her at all!

The fourth main character is the one who pushes the AI into power, and his judgment is completely impaired by history of trauma - first experiencing violence, prejudice and abuse for all his life for being a POC man, and then that trauma is compounded on by an attack on his wife because he himself as an FBI agent and on the whole of FBI when the J. Edgar Hoover building is blown up by domestic terrorists. So he ushers AI into power. There are some who think it's a bad idea, but green lights it anyway.

There is also a fifth character from that 09 class who has shown up twice I think - a scene or two in the pilot, and a minute or two in this and last week's episode. But he's kinda treated like we should know and care about him just as much as the other four even though the show doesn't follow him at all and I'm not sure we even know he's name. When he showed up in last week's episode I first even had no idea who he was supposed to be until I remembered there had been this blond guy in the same class that had exchanged like three sentences with the some of the other main characters so I guess this is that guy? It's just weird what they're (not) doing with him.

It's entertaining to watch and the episodes go quickly by. I have this weird feeling I'm possibly watching the beginning Skynet and the Terminators....

I'd never heard of the game this is based on and I know nothing of what's in store, but zombie apocalypse is right up my alley and Anna Torv, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey starring made me want to check it out, no question about it!

This is really, really good - I was deeply invested in the characters and the world by the end of episode 1 and the rest of the episodes further immersed me with the characters and the story. But boy this is not a show to keep expecting the core characters to live. Wow. On the other hand, I love it - one of the complaints I have with action/adventure/apocalypse/disaster movies/tv shows is that nothing kills the core characters despite the getting in situations that would kill anyone else a hundred times over so much so that it gets totally unbelievable the longer the show goes on. But this show seems to be shaping up to be like The Last Kingdom in that regard - everybody dies. But I also love that characters that are in it for a single episode are written with the same attention as the main characters as if they matter and are along for the ride for the entire series even though they get killed off in one episode. Makes them feel like real persons, with fears and loves and aspirations instead of red-shirts who are just there to die.

The Last Of Us is a surprisingly quiet show. Somewhere around episode 6, I come to the conclusion that this isn't a zombie show - rather than killing zombies and simply trying to survive the first few days and months of the zombie apocalypse, it's about living in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, when 20 years have passed and new small communities and pockets of society have formed and this is the new normal. What its like to live in that world, what it requires and exploration of trauma and toll it takes on the society, a person and personal relationships. I'm really into that, it's something I've always been interested in and disappointed when movies and tv shows end when the adjusting and rebuilding of life as it is now starts. Very much looking forward to season 2!