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KarinStrata
Reviews
Dead Ringers: One (2023)
Interesting alternative take
I'm a huge Cronenberg fan, and I love the original. But this remake takes a completely novel stance: it shifts the perspective by changing the gender of the protagonasts, thereby changing the whole narrative. While the story is still told by way of the twins, this time they are twin female gynaecologists, and that changes everything.
Motherhood and pregnancies are no longer an abstract medical issue for aloof specialists; those matters become quite personal, while simultaneously being embedded in a social context. Hence, the original story is changed from a psychological one about symbiotic, co-dependant siblings to one about those same siblings in a social, often sexist context - whilst retaining the bizarre, and sometimes pathological relation between the twins.
This new, female oriented context provides a fresh take on the relation between Beverly and Elliot. It's much more complicated than it was in the Cronenberg version, more nuanced, less psychological, and eventually, even more messed up. And merely by having two female protagonists instead of two males, the problems that they encounter and their ongoing discussions add a new social dimension to the story.
Also: many kudos to Rachel Weisz. Well done, milady.
Foundation: The Mathematician's Ghost (2021)
I'm quite lost - and about to give up on this series
Haven't read the books, and I'm trying to follow the story as it is presented - but honestly, I'm quite lost. Due to all the time jumps I have no clue where we're at.
Characters carefully set up in episode 1 and 2 are suddenly long dead in episode 3. Why in heaven's name would you give a back story to Gaal in ep 1 when she's already history and has left the stage in ep 3? Then, in ep 3, we get new, unexplained enemies on top of it all, while the main plot is still jumping all over the place.
I was very much looking forward to this series, but it's a major disappoitnment. The writers seem to be more concerned with the visuals than they are with the story - or they asume that the story is k ow to the audience, which is a major error.
The Good Fight: The One Where Diane and Liz Topple Democracy (2019)
Loved Diane's speech in court
Her terse speech in court about the importance of reliable counting of votes was just perfect, and it somehow managed to both encapsulate her anger at gerrymandering and voter harassment on the one hand, and flipping votes by the resistance on the other. Well done, really.
But can we please, pretty please, with sugar, salt and mayo on top, get rid of Blum? he's ruining it.
The Good Fight: The One with Lucca Becoming a Meme (2019)
Well done, really well done!
The writers could have confined themselves to the 'mothering while black' item, which in itself would have been a great reflection on how white people call the police to report black people for idiotic reasons - thereby often endangering the safety of said black people. But the episode organically developed that phenomenon into a broader issue.
Lucca's question during the board meeting - 'How come that all black people present know the actual names of black people shot by the police, while the white people present are only familiar with the circumstances of their death, yet not with their names?' - was truly insightful. She showed them that there was a lack of interest and involvement. It's not necessarily racism, as Marissa assumed, but Lucca rightfully questioned their engagement, a lack of feeling personally affected.
And then the episode seagued organically into matters of hiring, salaries, opportunities and prioritising certain 'values' of employees, which, power structures and the assignment of values being what they are, tend to favour white people.
Also, I loved the part about the underground resistance and the country singer: it showed that you need to curb yourself, even while working for a greater cause. Never throw your comrades, bystanders or innocent people under the bus for your cause, however worthy that cause might be. If you do, you betray all that you stand for.
The best episode of the season so far.