Some Stuff I've Been Watching

Luke Cage Season 1




I binge watched this while the missus was away. Love how most of the cast is black, and how it is set in Harlem. This is one helluva cool show. The music and cultural orientation is superb. It's America, but not as they like to show it. The master plan from Marvel is to get Luke Cage integrated with the Daredevil and Jessica Jones characters who are also on Netflix, which is going to be pretty darn cool.

What can I say? I'm sold.

'Black Mirror' Seasons 1 & 2




This is a remarkable series. Out of 7 episodes across 2 seasons, there have been a couple lame episodes, but the others are bristling with nihilist contempt that comes from a deeply wounded soul. The writer Charlie Brooker is one scary soul. It's not for the faint-hearted, nor is it for the morally self-righteous. This series works its backside off to make people uncomfortable with their default positions. It's a tour de force of carving up the casual hypocrisy in our po-mo society. Maybe it has arrived a little too late, but it also has a lot of dystopian cyberpunk cool about it as well.

That episode with Jon Hamm was a corker, but there have been several others that have been breath taking. I'll write more about all this once I get through Season 3.

Jason Bourne




This is the fourth instalment with Matt Damon, fifth in the series overall. Everything looks tired in it. The best action bit might be the Vegas car case towards the end. Otherwise, there's really not much to write home about. There are really no new areas to explore with the character or the setting, so the film gets tired really quickly. It's one of those films where you know some characters are good, the others not so good simply by the casting choice. When it gets telegraphed this much, you're all in on the ride for the action bits and there's nearly not enough of that. Unless they radically alter the milieu, this series is looking spent.