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scotchfields · 4 years

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Galbraith, Friedman, and the Televised Argument

I recently subjected myself to an entire season of the all-but-forgotten 1977 BBC documentary series The Age of Uncertainty, a drab early version of the now ubiquitous “television documentary”. Filled to the brim with stiff academic talk, thick cigarette smoke, hokey animation, and silly references to the New Wave, The Age of Uncertainty is a neat little time capsule. It was written, produced, and hosted by Canadian-American economist and sensation John Kenneth Galbraith, more than once dubbed “sexiest man alive,” and also remembered as a profoundly radical and influential public economist. Adopting a similar style to earlier television documentaries like Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man and Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, Galbraith had a big budget, plenty of important names attached, and complete creative control over the show’s content. With the BBC’s backing, and embracing a tongue-and-cheek, at times fiery style, Galbraith launched the first major attempt at a television documentary covering economics.

And in this modern viewer’s hindsight, the result was a complete and utter trainwreck. The Age of Uncertainty is not only boring as fuck – it ranks among the snooziest programs I have ever laid my eyes upon. For all of Galbraith’s sophistication, all of his finesse, the man’s slow monotone tests absolute limits of sustained attention to even the most passionate audience. Still, The Age of Uncertainty is worth talking about, even if it is probably not worth watching. In our day of Netflix, Kanopy, Hulu, HBOGo, et cetera, the television documentary has become a staple of living room background ambience. The Age of Uncertainty was at the apex of the format, brandishing some of its worst and best characteristics. The Age of Uncertainty also spurred unprecedented amounts of debate and rebuttal from public intellectuals. It proved, if anything, that television documentaries could matter in the real world.

Over the course of twelve episodes and three one-hour special interviews, The Age of Uncertainty explores the history of economic thought since the 18th century. Special attention is paid to the ways in which ideas shape institutions, and how history has been fundamentally altered by different notions about how the economy functions. In framing economic thought as profoundly institutional, Galbraith hopes to break down the barriers of academic discourse that, in his view, make economics needlessly complex to ordinary people. By the end of the final episode, Galbraith develops his thesis: markets, far from an abstract, complex concept, actually affect day-to-day material realities, and thus should be put under greater public, democratic control. Galbraith’s argument, rooted in an explicitly neo-Keynesian, left-of-center ideological background, connects form with content. He attempts to use accessible language, along with various methods of viewer-friendly visual storytelling, to reject free-market economics, and to propose an economic order more oriented around human need and participation. Galbraith’s use of animation, skit acting, expensive sets, and various other techniques are hit-or-miss, but do reveal the ideologies informing Galbraith and his opponents, and help us understand the relationship between an economist and the public.

Before exploring the content of the show, it’s important to understand Galbraith’s position within the economics discipline and his views on academia more generally. Indeed Galbraith’s lofty ambition in creating The Age of Uncertainty, and his more implicit desire for audience resonance and participation, both stemmed from his unique relationship to the academy. Galbraith was a recognized and even self-admitted heterodox economist, who tended to break from mainstream economic thinking on a number of important questions. Most notably, Galbraith tended to reject economics as reducible to a set of concrete laws. Human behavior, in Galbraith’s view, was a product of the institutions, communities, and cultures from which it developed, rather than any process reducible to mathematical models. As a result, Galbraith tended to reject many core economic precepts, such as the tendency towards perfect competition in markets. Economic historian Alexandre Chirat has written extensively about Galbraith’s relationship to the economic mainstream, explaining:

“Heterodox economists — and, more specifically, institutionalists — have always dealt with power in economics more than others. Whereas textbooks economists find this notion disappointing at best, Galbraith thinks, as Bertrand Russell, that power is a fundamental concept in social sciences. According to him, “in eliding power — in making economics a non-political subject — neoclassical theory, by the same process, destroys its relation with the real world.” In other words, it destroys its raison d‘être… It is exactly because of the introduction of power in his analysis that Galbraith gives up on orthodox postulates, on one hand, and deals with the power of economists, on the other.” [2]

Chirat sees Galbraith’s power analysis as the core motive that undergirds his entire worldview. In particular, Chirat brings up Galbraith’s interest in three crucial power dynamics: the sovereignty of the consumer, the sovereignty of the citizen, and the maximization of profits. These three factors, which Galbraith sees as largely ignored by the economic mainstream, introduce elements of uncertainty to economic decisionmaking on a massive scale. Chirat considers Galbraith’s mutli-faceted power analysis as veering towards disciplines like political economy or even social theory, especially in its consideration of “socially-constructed” understandings. “Considering power in economics,” Chirat argues, “leads Galbraith to reflect on the role — and, therefore, the power — of economists.” For Galbraith, the very way academics think about issue areas like education, healthcare, and immigration determines real-world outcomes. Such a self-reflexive notion – breaking down the ideologies that form how decisionmakers think about the economy – leads Galbraith to a “pluralism regarding social purpose.” For Galbraith, “the economy” is not and ought not be synonymous with “public welfare.”

Galbraith’s heterodox economic views are expressed in both the content and form of The Age of Uncertainty. Firstly, with regard to content, the scope of Galbraith’s historical analysis seems to fit his ideological background. Galbraith makes clear the connection between “ideas,” or the economic orthodoxy that he so opposed, and lived, material realities. The history of modern society, in his view, was little more than the net outcome of ideas adopted and ideas rejected. One example comes with Episode 2, “The Morals and Manners of High Capitalism,” an episode almost singularly concerned with the rise of robber barons, and the ideology of “Social Darwinism” that permitted their existence. Galbraith says that “a strong and even dominant current of social thought in the last century set the rich apart and held that they were, indeed, a superior caste.” This current of social thought, Galbraith explains, “protected wealth,” as no entity “could interfere with the essential process” of wealth concentration. Social Darwinism, in Galbraith’s view, is an idea like any other, depending “a little on economics,” a little on “theology,” and mostly on a notion of “biology.” But this simple concept had immense power in the shaping of Western society in the 19th century, justifying the stratified social system under which nations existed. Galbraith goes on in the episode to discuss Thorstein Veblen, Norweigan-American economist and Galbraith’s “main influences.” Veblen’s ideas about “conspicuous consumption,” Galbraith argues, had the effect of beating back the trend of Social Darwinism, and targeting criticism towards the wealthy. Ideas, then, can work both ways.

In fact much of Galbraith’s analysis, from the early days of industrialization in England to the modern, postwar Keynesian period, is concerned with the nature of ideas about wealth, poverty, and inequality. He is especially concerned with how ideas are adopted, and how power relationships impact perception of ideas. In Episode 7, “The Mandarin Revolution,” Galbraith talks about the origin of the Keynesian idea, and the ways in which it fundamentally transformed society. “Keynes,” Galbraith says, “had a solution without a revolution… [When] Washington was cool to Keynes… he captured the United States by way of the universities.” Galbraith discusses how the older generation of economists roundly rejected Keynes’ ideas, while younger economists were quick to adopt them. Eventually, Keynesianism became ubiquitous, and as a result, human welfare improved. During his discussion of Nazi Germany’s response to the Great Depression, Galbraith is sure to invoke this skepticism of “mainstream” academic thought. “The Nazis were not given to books,” he writes. “Their reaction was to circumstance, and that served them better than the sound economists served Britain and the United States.” He discusses how the German motivation to borrow and spend money on public works like the Autobahn massively reduced unemployment. In the end it was nothing short of an economic miracle, where the Germans recovered from the Great Depression much faster than their peers.

In examining the ideological content of The Age of Uncertainty, Galbraith’s analysis should also be contextualized within the historical moment of the Cold War. In particular, Galbraith seems intent on understanding both sides of the conflict, and perhaps even arriving at some sort of a consensus between the two models. One of Galbraith’s main policy ideas, after all, he termed “new socialism,” and involved the extension of various aspects of centralized planning in the United States. While preserving a market-based framework, Galbraith’s “new socialism” adopted elements from the Soviet system regarding medicine, public utilities, and the industrial sector. The twelfth episode of The Age of Uncertainty captures Galbraith’s attitude towards these two poles of capitalism and communism, concluding with a somber warning about the horrors of nuclear warfare and the common humanity shared by Americans and Soviets. “The Russians are no less perceptive, no less life-enhancing, no more inclined to a death wish than we are,” he explains. “That, indeed, is the highest purpose of politics in both countries, one that far transcends differences in economic of political systems.” While this quote digresses slightly from my point about Galbraith’s search for capitalist and socialist consensus, it still captures his attitude towards the Cold War quite effectively. Galbraith, in final analysis, viewed both systems as having merit. The “great uncertainty” of the show’s title, after all, refers to Galbraith’s view of the ideal economic system as basically undiscovered.

The Age of Uncertainty’s visual style compliments Galbraith’s ideological message by twisting and contorting the traditional science-documentary format. In doing so, Galbraith attempts to break down the barriers between audience and expert that he feels needlessly complicate economics for ordinary people. The ultimate goal, then, is to demystify economics, uncovering the ways in which free-market economic ideas create their own logic and embed themselves within society. For one, The Age of Uncertainty employs animation to visually articulate Galbraith’s lectures. In the first episode, “The Prophets and Promise of Classical Capitalism,” Galbraith notes how the computer “can be made to reach back in time,” before revealing an elaborate metaphor for serfdom using an animated village. In the animation, buildings represent individual power and status, with a castle atop a hill equalling the state, a less ornate castle representing the landlords, and small houses representing agrarian villagers. The animation is arranged in the form of a pyramid, with the poor villagers at the bottom and houses slowly increasing in size as they move up the hill. The point of the animation, Galbraith explains, is to convey the strict nature of precapitalist society, wherein peasants were locked into their position at the bottom of the pyramid. The animation, however, is rather difficult to understand at first, as the various buildings don’t have obvious meanings. This invites a degree of ambiguity on behalf of the audience. If Galbraith’s goal is to connect on a human level with his audience, his visual materials should probably be more explicit.

The Age of Uncertainty also takes advantage of grand, expensive sets. In the fourth episode, “The Colonial Idea,” Galbraith tries to convey the turbulent and brutal nature of 19th century European politics with a massive, life-sized map of Europe painted on the floor. Atop each country stands a soldier, played by a real actor, dressed in a military uniform appropriate for his particular country and weilding a sword. The actors, apparently representing the military of their respective countries, take turns clashing swords with one another in an almost rhythmic, dance-like fashion. The scene is clearly meant to portray 19th century Europe as rife with aimless, nonstop bloodshed, but mostly comes across as silly and cheesy. Only several minutes later in the episode, Galbraith discusses British Empire, and in particular the 1947 partition of India. Outlining the chaos and bloodshed that occurred in the subcontinent, Galbraith uses what appears to be real archival footage of mass migration and human displacement. Spliced into the archival footage, though, are scenes of actors clashing swords. The juxtaposition of real, tragic archival footage with more obviously fake scenes filmed on set, both following the comical “map of Europe” scene, seems rather tone-deaf.

The public reception to these visual techniques, and The Age of Uncertainty at large, was mixed at best. Some critics dismissed Galbraith’s lectures as overly complex, despite his efforts to use relatively simple language. Others favored his speaking style and appreciated his command of language. The main criticism of the show, though, focused on the sets and animations. Critics tended to dismiss the visual style of the show, which rather than aiding understanding, actually “distracted” them from Galbraith’s message. The Historian Angus Burgin has written about the reception to The Age of Uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic:

The extravagant and self-conscious visuals in The Age of Uncertainty seemed to have done little to make Galbraith’s arguments more rhetorically compelling for his audience. In America, George Stigler (1977) wrote that the documentary had fulfilled his “fears about the effective use of television” as a medium for economics, as Galbraith “made no observable attempt to use visual methods to illuminate ideas”: in England, one observer noted that Galbraith’s visuals seemed as though they had been “mischievously” devised by a conservative think tank “to distract attention from his message.” Silent reenactments and composed dances, it seemed, were a disruptive complement to Galbraith’s narrations; in a series on the social sciences, viewers manifested a preference for visual economy rather than excess.

Criticism was also directed towards the ideological content of The Age of Uncertainty. For the most part, ideological criticisms were divided along partisan lines. Prominent figures like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, for example, dismissed The Age of Uncertainty as left-wing propaganda. Notably, the American economist Milton Friedman released a ten part series entitled Free to Choose: A Personal Statement as a direct response to Galbraith’s program. Released in 1980, Free to Choose features a loosely similar style to The Age of Uncertainty, with Friedman narrating a variety of historical case studies of economic thought and policy. The main difference is Friedman’s focus on an explicitly political agenda. In contrast to Galbraith’s chronological, step-by-step history, Friedman organizes his program based on specific, hot-button policy topics. Episode titles range from “What's Wrong with Our Schools?,” to “Who Protects the Worker?,” to “How to Cure Inflation.” Where Galbraith maintains a pretense of objectivity, Friedman openly confesses his biases, and essentially outlines how the free market is the solution to the problem of each episode. At the end of each episode, Friedman engages in a debate with a prominent expert on the opposing side of the issue. Friedman’s debating style and overall charisma were praised.

Burgin has written about the relative success of Free to Choose compared to The Age of Uncertainty. Overall, he attributes Galbraith’s failure to a few main elements: Galbraith’s “stiffness,” the “cheesy” production techniques, and perhaps most importantly, the lack of a strong “unifying” theme to encapsulate Galbraith’s ideas. On the latter, Burgin sees Friedman’s message as concise enough to resonate with audiences in a single sentence: the free market works. He explains how Friedman’s charm was based around this simplicity:

“At the center of his appeal, however, lay the force of the market metaphor. While Friedman’s rhetoric aligned well with the requirements of late twentieth century modes of transmission, Galbraith never found a way to distill his views in such simple and broadly applicable terms. As one journalist wrote before the release of either documentary, to be an “economic superstar” it was necessary to arrive at a ‘fixed view of the world, learn to state it forcefully and cast unremitting scorn on those who disagree.’”

Burgin expands:

“Galbraith, as one might expect, was horrified by Friedman’s means of persuasion. He found the arguments Friedman adopted “simplistic” and perhaps even “purely rhetorical,” relying “almost wholly on passionate assertion and emotional response” (Galbraith 1981b). He marveled at the “radicalism” of economic ideas in the early 1980s, labeling himself a dispositional “conservative” by comparison.”

Burgin’s analysis of the problems that plagued The Age of Uncertainty helps to explain much of why the show failed to gain traction. In addition, his comparison with Free to Choose, a more critically and commercially popular program, helps to underscore the public’s lack of interest in Galbraith’s lecturing style. However, Burgin’s analysis is incomplete insofar as it fails to consider what the proper role of an economist should actually be. Perhaps Friedman is better at concisely communicating his ideas to the public, but is this necessarily better for the public? What is the proper relationship between an expert economist and their audience?

These questions have been debated constantly by economists for decades. It might be useful to view the debate in the context of television history. Galbraith, as evidenced by his show, clearly favored some role for economists in connecting with audiences and ensuring that their ideas received a wide public hearing. However, his “horrified” response to Friedman’s rhetorical style also suggests that he opposed any oversimplification of complex ideas. The scholar George Stigler, cited by Angus Burgin, agrees with Galbraith. Like Galbraith, he sees the economist as needing to straddle a line between maintaining authority and fulfilling a social need. In turn, he sees economists as inherently in conflict with vested interests – be it corporations, or labor unions – who seek to manipulate the public agenda through more sly, unscrupulous tactics. For Stigler, though, the economist ought never sacrifice personal integrity, as academic truth will win out in the end.

One contrasting view on the role of economists, particularly relevant to The Age of Uncertainty, comes from economist Samuel Bowles in his essay “Economists as Servants of Power.” Like Galbraith, Bowles sees economics as inherently political from the outset. In particular, both are interested in how “social constructions” of power shape material realities. However, Bowles takes the discussion further by exploring how the state apparatus, monied interests, and professional economists feed off of one another, and in turn develop ideas symbiotically. Bowles argues that experts, in their close proximity to power, either “figure out ways to ameliorate social conditions which run the risk of being politically explosive,” or outright “obfuscate the roots of inequality and hierarchy,” which in turn “constricts the range of policy alternatives.” As a result, Bowles argues that economists should drop all pretenses of being apolitical, and should assume more activist roles in pursuit of egalitarianism. In short, Bowles not only believes that economists should consider both how power shapes the world, but also that economists’ priorities are shaped by power. The conclusions are significant. While Free to Choose connected Friedman with the public on the surface level of his rhetoric, deeper down, his methodologies were still informed by his close relationships with institutions of power like the Republican Party, the US Treasury Department, think tanks like the Hoover Institution. Thus, in reality, Friedman’s conclusions were actually developed at a distance from the public.

Over the course of twelve episodes and three one-hour special interviews, The Age of Uncertainty explores the history of economic thought since the 18th century. Galbriath’s ultimate objective, which forms the entire trajectory of the show, is perhaps best conveyed in the opening chapter of The Age of Uncertainty’s accompanying book. “What people believe about the workings of markets and their relationships to the state,” Galbraith argues, “shapes history through the laws that are enacted or discarded.” In framing economic thought this way, Galbraith hopes to demonstrate the close proximity of “economics,” broadly understood, to real peoples’ lives. In turn, he hopes to make the economics discipline more participatory and open.

Galbraith’s argument, rooted in an explicitly neo-Keynesian, left-of-center ideological background, rejects mainstream economic thought, viewing power, institutions, and outright “social constructions” by academics and policymakers as crucial in human decisionmaking. A variety of techniques, including animation, skit acting, are used to make this case. These techniques had a mixed reception among critics and audiences, mostly coming off as stiff and tone-deaf. Especially compared to the more charismatic, plainly rhetorical style of Milton Friedman, Galbraith largely failed to fully involve the public the way he wanted, and to connect economic ideas with lived realities. However, the notion of involvement with the public is complex. As scholars like Samuel Bowles have argued, there are different ways in which an economist can be “close” to the public. More important than an easily-accessible communication style is a research methodology that invites participation from various stakeholders from throughout society. In this sense, Galbraith’s desire for a more participatory economics discipline, and one that connects ideas with the material world, might be the more authentically “public” style after all.

Theodore Molina

1 Angus Burgin, Age of Certainty: Galbraith, Friedman, and the Public Life of Economic Ideas

2 Chirat, Alexandre. “When Galbraith Frightened Conservatives: Power in Economics, Economists' Power, and Scientificity.” Journal of Economic Issues 52, no. 1 (2018): 32

3 Chirat, 33

4 Chirat, 35

5 Galbraith, 45

6 Galbraith, 213

7 Galbraith, 342

8 Chirat, 31

9 Burgin, Angus. Age of Certainty: Galbraith, Friedman, and the Public Life of Economic Ideas. In: Tiago Mata/Steven G. Medema (eds.), The Economist as Public Intellectual (= History of Political Economy, annual supplement), Durham 2013. 51

10 Burgin, 50

11 Burgin, 30

12 Bowles, Samuel. "Economists as Servants of Power." The American Economic Review 64, no. 2 (1974): 129-32.

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dramyhsturgis · 5 years

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Halloween Countdown 2019, Day 12

It’s film time! Every year about this time I think about good Halloween films (not necessarily horror movies, and definitely not lame slasher pictures, but suspenseful, atmospheric films that put a chill up the spine) that are “off the beaten path” – that is, films that are independent, foreign, direct to DVD or VOD, or somehow under promoted, and thus might easily slip under the proverbial radar. Not the classics. Not the usual suspects.

I’ve already made a separate post in the past with recommendations of Anton Yelchin’s Halloween-friendly films, so I won’t repeat those here.

Now I have a few new recommendations to add to my list, based on this past year’s viewing. (We accessed nearly all of these via Netflix or Amazon streaming.) Here they are in reverse chronological order:

The Hole in the Ground (2019): This spooky little Irish film links a little boy’s strange behavior to a mysterious sinkhole in the Irish countryside. We automatically try any horror film with James Cosmo in the cast, and as usual, this one did not disappoint. Bleak, claustrophobic, and chilling.

Us (2019): Jordan Peele’s latest wasn’t exactly under the radar, but wow, it was *good*!

Clovehitch Killer (2018): Set and filmed in Kentucky, this film follows a teen’s gradual realization that his father (an amazingly, disturbingly convincing Dylan McDermott) is the local area’s still-at-large serial killer. We loved this one!

The Devil’s Doorway (2018): I’ll start by quoting IndieWire: “The film’s director, Aislinn Clarke, is the first women to helm a horror film in her native Northern Ireland. But apart from making history, Clarke also chose to mine one of Ireland’s darkest chapters for her debut: the Magdalene Laundries, where young women were sentenced to life sentences of hard labor for ‘loose morals’ for nearly 250 years.” This found-footage horror film is one of my favorites of the year, despite (or because of) how wrenching it was to watch. It’s a perfect example of how the genre has the power to raise questions as well as deliver scares.

Down A Dark Hall (2018): This U.S.-Spanish film is based on the supernatural horror novel of the same name by Lois Duncan, and it rises above its trite girl-sent-to-creepy-boarding-school origins to offer something stylish and clever. We weren’t expecting much from this and ended up really enjoying it.

I Still See You (2018): Not great but not bad, either, this is an adaptation of the teen-centric Break My Heart 1000 Times by Daniel Waters. After a tragic explosion at a top-secret laboratory, the dead victims appear daily as ghostly "remnants” repeating the everyday actions of their lives -- except for the remnant who wants to either warn or harm the film’s young heroine.

The Little Stranger (2018): I quite liked this claustrobic and disturbing character study, whereas my better half found it to be more style than substance. Either way, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, and Charlotte Rampling wandering around a disintegrating house is as Gothic as it gets.

Our House (2018): After his parents die in a car crash, science genius Ethan drops out of college to care for his younger siblings but keeps experimenting in the family garage. His latest invention may do more than he expects, however... such as establish contact with the dead. It won’t win any awards, but it’s worth watching if you like a little science fiction twist to your horror.

The Lodgers (2017): This is a standout, unlike any of the others we watched this year. Highly recommended. Gothic, dreamlike (or nightmarish), Lovecraftian to the core. I don’t want to say too much, so I’ll just quote the official description: “In this Gothic supernatural thriller, a family curse confines orphan twins Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) to their home as punishment for their ancestors’ sins. Bound to rules derived from a childhood nursery rhyme, they must never let any outsiders into the house, be in their rooms before midnight, and never be separated. Breaking the rules would let the wrath of ‘The Lodgers’ who prowl the corridors at night.”

Prodigy (2017): A psychologist and a genius girl engage in a life-and-death battle of wits. This tense, smart film is a perfect example of how little expensive sets or flashy effects (or the lack thereof) matter as long a filmmaker has a quality script and solid cast of actors. Also, here’s further proof that kids are always creepy.

Jessabelle (2014): Sarah Snook doesn’t get nearly enough appreciation for her acting, and I was delighted to see her in this atmospheric film that ticks all the boxes of the Southern (specifically Louisiana) Gothic. Joelle Carter’s turn as Jessie’s dead-from-a-brain-tumor mother speaking to her through old videotapes also deserves special mention. Well worth watching.

Wind Chill (2007): A woman student (’the girl’) at a Pennsylvania university uses the campus ride share board to find a ride home (”the guy”) for Christmas. You won’t hear “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” the same way again. Not the best of this bunch, but worth a peek.

Dark Water (2005): This is the U.S. remake of the Japanese film of the same name, and it stars Jennifer Connelly, Tim Roth, and John C. Reilly. It’s definitely spooky enough in its own right, but it’s downright terrifying if you know anything about the case of Elisa Lam. Highly recommended.

Below are recommendations from previous years.

Here are my 2018 recommendations:

Cargo (2018): This Australian post-zombie-apocalypse story is a haunting study of family and sacrifice. Martin Freeman is always worth watching, and Simone Landers is fantastic. The film offers compelling depictions of both humanity on the raggedy edge of tragedy and the perseverance of Indigenous Australians.

Searching (2018): I was so stoked about this film that I saw in the theater, and it didn’t disappoint. Smartly written and tightly plotted, this missing-family-member tale takes twists and turns that echo the best of Hitchcock. John Cho is brilliant. While the story is all about cyberspace and social media, technology is not demonized; it makes both the dilemma and its solution possible. Humans are the source of the scary stuff – and the redeeming stuff. This is one of my favorite films of the year.

Winchester (2018): Helen Mirren is the haunted Sarah Winchester in the iconic Winchester House in 1906. Don’t overthink this. It’s spooky. It’s Helen Mirren. You’re welcome.

Ghost Stories (2017): This looks like a debunker/skeptic-investigating-unsolved-mysteries anthology film, with each “file” offering a story within a story, but then it goes somewhere else, deeper and darker. This is not the best film we saw this year, but I was fascinated, all the same.

Marrowbone (2017): This (English-language) Spanish psychological horror film is another standout we strongly recommend. I plan to use this in class the next time I offer my Gothic course. Rose flees Britain with her four children and tries to disappear into her secluded, dilapidated family home in the rural United States. Then she dies, leaving her children on their own to continue hiding from… what? As the mystery unfolds, this film goes from haunting to unforgettable. I will be rewatching this one again and again.

The Ritual (2017): The film is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Adam Nevill. The Scandinavian wilderness is the real star here, and it delivers a pervasive sense of doom as the reunited college pals, after the tragic loss of their mutual friend, hike their way straight into ancient Scandinavian mythology. Part Lovecraft, part Wicker Man, part guilt-and-redemption morality tale.

I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House (2016): The live-in nurse suspects her elderly employer’s house may be haunted. This sounds trite, but my husband and I agree that this quiet, elegant, slow-burn masterpiece is one of the best films we’ve seen in a good while. (The film’s director, Osgood Perkins, is the son of Anthony Perkins.) Don’t miss this film.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016): This is director André Ovredal’s first English-language film. What you might assume is a gorefest subverts expectations nicely to become a claustrophobic piece that operates on suggestion more than effects. Father-and-son coroners examine the body of an unidentified woman, and as the autopsy unfolds, so does the sinister supernatural mystery. Did I mention Brian Cox is the father? That’s why we gave this a chance, and we’re glad we did!

Train to Busan (2016): Huge thanks to Ryan for this great recommendation. This South Korean film proves that the secret to an engrossing zombie apocalypse story isn’t zombie-related special effects, but rather compelling characters, their relationships, and their struggles to survive and avoid zombiedom. I think I may have held my breath through at least half of this fast-paced and moving film.

Backtrack (2015): This Australian film is part horror, part mystery, and part dark night of the soul for the psychotherapist protagonist (Adrian Brody), who suffers from nightmares and visions as he mourns his dead daughter. Did I mention there’s a ghost train? And Sam Neill? This won’t change your life, but it’s definitely worth watching.

The House of the Devil (2009): This is a loving tribute to 1980s horror, especially babysitter and “Satanic panic” tales. It was even shot with 16mm film to give the movie a retro look. If you are of a certain age (as I am), this may put a goofy grin on your face (as it did for me).

The Reaping (2007): This is one of the weakest films on this list, but Hilary Swank, Idris Elba, David Morse, and Stephen Rea are all solid in whatever roles they take, and the over-the-top, “What hath God wrought?” nature of the Biblical plagues visiting the Louisiana bayou pushes it to the boundary of so-bad-it’s-good territory.

Here are my other top recommendations from recent years:

Dig Two Graves (2017): This award-winning indie has big-budget quality thanks to several factors: it was executive produced by actor and director Larry Fessenden, its crew was selected by the Independent Filmmaker Project, and the production involved the Southern Illinois University film department and the community of the film’s Southern Illinois location. We tend to give anything with Ted Levine a chance, and the gamble certainly paid off with this small-town U.S. suspense thriller. It tells the story of a young girl’s obsession with the death of her brother, taking her on a nightmarish journey where she must a face a deadly proposition to bring him back. The title refers to an ancient Chinese proverb: “When you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves!” Recommended!

Get Out (2017): I know, I know, this is hardly “under the radar.” But it deserves its reputation and success, and I wanted to take the opportunity to say so.

The Girl with All the Gifts (2017): This is also not “under the radar” but worth an emphatic recommendation.

Little Evil (2017): I have a low tolerance for comedies in general, and especially for comedies that laugh at genres I love. On the other hand, I need little persuasion to believe that one of the scariest things on the planet is a kid! Little Evil is such a loving, clever, and knowledgeable send-up of the “evil child” trope that it won me over.

Abbattoir (2016): This dark and imaginative U.S. film follows a real estate reporter as he investigates a mysterious old man who is assembling a haunted house constructed from rooms in which people have died. It’s not a great film, but it has its moments.

Dark Signal (2016): This British film, set in Wales, covers two different but linked tales. In one, a radio DJ and her engineer (Torchwood’s Gareth David-Lloyd) invite a psychic to be their special guest on their very last broadcast, and in the other, a listener of the show is haunted by the victim of a serial killer. Effective atmosphere and chills.

Lavender (2016): This is an imperfect film, but it earns points with me for creepy rural “American Gothic” atmosphere. After losing her memory, Jane visits her childhood home at the suggestion of her psychiatrist – the home where the rest of her family was massacred. She begins to see unexplained things and strange clues within her photos that suggest she may be responsible for the deaths.

The Boy (2016): Although it has its moments of predictability, on the whole this one satisfies. Greta is a young American woman who escapes an abusive relationship by getting a temporary job as a nanny for a British family. When she arrives at the parents’ home, they introduce her to their son, Brahms. Brahms is a porcelain doll who is treated like the living child he replaced after the real Brahms’ childhood tragedy. Things get really weird from there in a mostly satisfying “this is how you go crazy” kind of way. Not perfect, but worth seeing.

The Forest (2016): Natalie Dormer stars as twins in this supernatural thriller about one sister searching for the other, who is presumably lost in Japan’s Aokigahara Forest. My husband and I are on the same page about films about 95% of the time, but this is the one on which our opinions diverged this year. He found this to be trite and mostly short on substance. I was looking mostly for the chilling atmosphere of the so-called Suicide Forest and the acute sense of vulnerability that comes with being alone in an emergency in a foreign country, so I didn’t mind the movie’s (over)reliance on this, and I found the ending twist related to the twins’ backstory to be effective. Your mileage may vary.

Sacrifice (2016): If Rupert Graves is in it, then I watch it, no exceptions. That’s just how I roll. He stars opposite Radha Mitchell here in an adaptation of the novel Sacrifice by Sharon Bolton. Set in the Shetland Islands, this horror film fits in the Wicker Man category of ancient rites surviving intact in remote locales, and it effectively captures a nightmarish scenario: men using women to have sons and then, according to their old traditions, yielding them up as a kind of human sacrifice. Mitchell and Graves relocate to the Shetlands, where Mitchell’s character unearths a “bog body” of a woman who had recently given birth and then been murdered in a ritualistic fashion. Mitchell and Joanne Crawford, portraying a local police sergeant, drive the investigation to bring justice to this woman, and in the process find their own lives at risk. The film has its flaws, but it’s refreshing to see a genuinely spooky film with a genuinely feminist bent, and all of the leads are compelling in their roles. The scenic locations provide atmospheric settings for the eerie goings-on.

The Veil (2016): Twenty-five years after members of Heaven’s Veil, a religious cult, commit suicide, a documentary filmmaker contacts the sole survivor to film a work about what really happened. A Fangoria review describes the premise as the idea “that Jim Jones could have been right,” and that pretty much sums it up. The film doesn’t quite live up to such an ambitious premise, but the whole “investigating the cult after the fact” aspect, on site and with found footage, is so downright disturbing that this supernatural thriller still works well enough in the goosebumps department. Or to put it another way, the film radiates a sense of wrongness – in part, no doubt, because it skirts so closely around tragic real-life events – that it sticks with you.

They’re Watching (2016): This is a film in the blood-soaked horror comedy oeuvre, which is not usually the way I roll, but I found this more palatable than most. The crew of an American home improvement TV show goes to Moldova to film a segment about an American woman who is transforming a run-down, isolated dwelling into an artist’s haven, only to discover that the locals consider her (not without reason!) to be a witch. This isn’t going to win any awards, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and its parody aspects are on point.

Amnesiac (2015): This tells the story of a man who wakes up in bed suffering from memory loss after being in an accident, only to begin to suspect that his caretaker, who claims to be his wife, may not be his real wife and may not have his best interests at heart. Wes Bentley won me over as the bewildered protagonist, and good heavens, Kate Bosworth as the “wife” really brought the chills. Stylish, understated, and slow-burn spooky.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2015): Between you and me, this is the scariest film I’ve seen in ages. I’m sure the twists are common knowledge by now, but just in case they aren’t, I won’t say anything except this is absolutely ideal for the Halloween season – or anytime you want your brain turned inside out and goosebumps on your skin. Hats off to John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher Jr. for bringing the tense, claustrophobic script to vivid life. You need to see this!

Estranged (2015): January is forced to return home after six years traveling abroad, because a near-fatal accident has left her temporarily wheelchair bound and depleted of her long-term memory. At the mercy of those who claim to be her loved ones, isolated from outside help, she tries to discover the truth about her past and her present. This is smarter and more complex than we expected it to be, very Gothic in tone and execution.

Krampus (2015): This irreverent horror film, in which a boy who is having a bad Christmas accidentally summons an old-world Christmas demon to wreak havoc, is not for everyone, but if you’re like me, and you’d trade Christmas for Halloween any day of the week, it’s a lot of fun. Think of it as the evil Mirror Universe version of It’s A Wonderful Life.

The Reconstruction of William Zero (2015): A geneticist who wakes up from an accident with only fragments of his memory must relearn who he is from his twin brother. But the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that he may be wrong about who he thinks he is – and who he thinks his twin is. Variety review compared this sad tale of human cloning and human frailty to a story by H.G. Wells, and that sounds about right. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a good example of thoughtful indie science fiction.

The Similars (Los Parecidos) (2015): If you love the weird, if you are a fan of The Twilight Zone, then you owe it to yourself to see this wonderfully original Mexican movie immediately. We watched this on a lark, and it became one of our favorite films of the year. A group of people are trapped by a hurricane at a bus station around the time of the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968. As the passengers wait for a bus to arrive, they are horrified to find that everyone’s face is changing to match. Why? Don’t miss this!

They Look Like People (2015): The longer we watched this indie psychological thriller, the more we liked it. It builds and builds and builds. It stars MacLeod Andrews as a man who believes that humanity is being secretly taken over by evil creatures (think of a slow and simmering episode of The X-Files in which Mulder or Scully never manage to arrive on the scene), and it won a special jury award at the Slamdance Film Festival.

The Visit (2015): This is a found footage horror film written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I know that Shyamalan can be hit or miss, but this was much more of a hit. A brother and sister are sent for their vacation to visit their grandparents, which is a gesture of reconciliation, as the family has been estranged. While there, the siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents’ disturbing behavior. The kids are compelling, and their isolation is palpable. The twist, when it comes, it terrific.

The Witch (2015): This film is like watching a colonial American nightmare come to life (which is not for everyone, but definitely was for me). The production team worked extensively with English and American texts and museums, and they consulted with experts on seventeenth-century English agriculture as well to bring early reports and imaginative depictions of witchcraft alive in a gritty, realistic setting. I’ve read some of the texts that inspired the film, such as those referenced in and created by the witch trials, and I was transported and enthralled by this dark and disturbing work. It rations its moments of gruesomeness for absolute impact and relies heavily on suggestion, underscoring the choking paranoia and claustrophobia of the Puritan existence. Not for those faint of heart or short of attention span.

Stonehearst Asylum (2014) Based on a tale by Edgar Allan Poe and starring Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, and Kate Beckinsale… need I say more? In the words of Film Journal International, “While the film lacks the macabre humor of the original story, it does an excellent job of conveying the creeping horror of Victorian medicine.” Delicious.

As Above, So Below (2014) I know I’m in the minority here, but I really loved this film. A trip by urban explorers into the Parisian catacombs becomes a journey of alchemical transformation. Okay, this had me at “Parisian catacombs,” but I was delightfully surprised by characters actually being smart in a crisis, having meaningful backstories, and seeking redemption along the way.

Housebound (2014) This New Zealand horror comedy about a woman under house arrest in what may be a haunted house was a morbidly pleasant trip, alternately wacky and spooky.

The Incident (El Incidente) (2014): This fascinating Mexican film follows two parallel stories about characters trapped in illogical endless spaces – two brothers and a detective locked on an infinite staircase, and a family locked on an infinite road – for a very, very long time. This is psychologically, if not physically, a real (and powerful) trip.

Cut Bank (2014) This small-town murder thriller may err on the predictable side, but outstanding performances by the likes of Bruce Dern, John Malkovich, Billy Bob Thornton, and Liam Hemsworth make it memorable.

Oculus (2014): We watched this for Longmire’s Katee Sackhoff and Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan. We ended up agreeing it was one of our favorite movies of the year. A young woman is convinced that an antique mirror is responsible for the death and misfortune her family has suffered. This is beautifully crafted horror.

Alien Abduction (2014): This is the film I mentioned in my post about the Brown Mountain Lights. It’s a found-footage film done right, with scenes that reminded us of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, The Blair Witch Project, and The X-Files. Its restraint in showing very little of the aliens is a strength. Be sure to watch through the credits!

Europa Report (2013): For my money, this is the best science fiction film of the last year. Gravitycan’t begin to compare. This recounts the fictional story of the first crewed mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Despite a disastrous technical failure that loses all communications with Earth mission control and a series of dangerous crises, the international crew continues their mission to Europa and encounters a baffling mystery. All SF fans must see this.

The Happy House (2013): It’s the bed and breakfast you always dreaded - and that’s on a good day. This is not a good day. This quirky, clever serial-killer comedy works unexpectedly well thanks to its dark, restrained script and compelling characters.

The House at the End of Time (2013) This Venezuelan horror-suspense film is a must see. I don’t want to spoil it in any way. This may be my favorite pick from 2015. You want to see this. You do.

Haunter (2013): This Canadian film is about teenager stuck in a time loop that is not quite the same with each revolution. She must uncover the truth, but her actions have consequences for herself and others. This one really surprised us (in a good way). Shiver inducing and well worth watching.

How I Live Now (2013): Ably adapted from the award-winning novel by Meg Rosoff (which I really liked), this dreamlike film follows fifteen-year-old American Daisy, who is sent to stay with cousins on a remote farm in the United Kingdom just before the outbreak of a fictional third world war. I don’t know why this haunting apocalyptic work didn’t receive more attention, because it deserved it.

Jug Face (2013): This wins the original premise award. There’s no way to describe the film that doesn’t sound bizarre, but it’s unexpectedly compelling. A teen girl who is pregnant with her brother’s child tries to escape from a backwoods community, only to discover that her people have determined that she must sacrifice herself to a creature in a pit. (Be warned about the subject of miscarriage.)

The Numbers Station (2013): This is a British-American action thriller about a burned-out CIA black ops agent (John Cusack) assigned to protect the code operator at a secret American numbers station somewhere in the British countryside. I suspect the poor reception this received is because it’s more quiet, melancholy, and introspective than the run-of-the-mill action-mystery. Of course, that’s why we liked it.

Mama (2013): This is a Spanish-Canadian treat based on the Argentine Muschietti’s Mamá, a 2008 Spanish-language short film of the same name. Young children can be disturbing. Young children abandoned in the woods for several years and raised by a (territorial and possessive) spirit can be doubly so.

Dark Skies (2013): This wasn’t the very best spooky film we saw this past year, but it was far, far better than I’d anticipated, and it scratched that “alien abduction” itch of mine that’s been troubling me ever since The X-Files left the small and big screens.

Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013): This stand-alone story works independently of its prequel. It’s not an unproblematic film, but if you have a taste for Southern Gothic, it’s worth a look.

House Hunting, also released as The Wrong House (2013): What a surprise this psychological horror film was! Quite the mind game. Home-shopping families visit an empty farmhouse… and the house keeps them there.

After (2012) When two bus crash survivors awake to discover that they are the only people left in their town, they work together to unravel the truth behind the strange events. A bit saccharine, but worth seeing.

Citadel (2012) I’m still not sure what I think about this Irish psychological horror film, but months later I’m still thinking about it, so that’s noteworthy in itself. I’m now horrified of high rises for an all new reason.

Extracted (2012): This thought-provoking indie SF film considers a scientist whose consciousness becomes trapped in the mind of a convict who volunteered to be a part of an experimental procedure. This is another cerebral tale well worth seeing.

Last Kind Words (2012): Brad Dourif movies are always a part of Halloween, or at least they should be. Seventeen-year-old Eli has just moved with his family deep into the backwoods of Kentucky to work on the isolated farm of a local recluse. Inexplicably drawn into the strange forest that lies beyond the farm, Eli encounters the beautiful, sweet, and mysterious Amanda, seemingly the perfect girl. But with the discovery of decaying bodies hanging from the trees, he realizes that the forest - and Amanda - are harboring some very dark secrets. If a horror film can be called lovely, it’s this one.

Resolution (2012): Two long-time friends end up in a remote cabin, and I dare not say more. This subtle Lovecraftian film hinges on great characterization and suggestions of an unseen force that “manipulates reality to create interesting stories.” Don’t expect solid answers to the mysteries of this tale. This is a personal favorite.

The Wall (2012): This elegant Austrian-German film haunted me for a good long while. A woman visits with friends at their hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps. Left alone while her friends walk to a nearby village, the woman soon discovers she is cut off from all human contact by a mysterious invisible wall. With her friends’ loyal dog Lynx as her companion, she lives the next three years in isolation looking after her animals. Understated and affecting.

The Tall Man (2012): I love it when a film goes in a direction I didn’t foresee, and this French-Canadian mystery-thriller one did it again and again. In a small, poverty-stricken former mining town, children are disappearing on a regular basis. The abductions are blamed on a local legend called the “Tall Man.” One of the standout favorites of the year for me, this one asks some uncomfortable and thought-provoking questions that keep you thinking long after the film is over.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012): This little Canadian film serves up some effective atmosphere. An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon he comes to suspect that his mother’s oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message. Vanessa Redgrave’s voice-overs as the late mother add depth to the spooky visuals.

In the Dark Half (2012): This was the first of three micro-budget movies to be made in Bristol, UK under the iFeatures scheme. Despite its humble beginnings, this is an absolutely riveting and deeply soulful work. Young Jessica Barden gives a particularly brilliant performance. Bad things are happening in a run-down working-class town, where a young woman is convinced that something nasty is out to get her. But she’s also struggling with conflicting feelings toward her hard-drinking neighbor, whose son mysteriously died while she was babysitting him. One of my favorites from this year.

Sinister (2012): After moving to a new town, a true-crime writer discovers a cache of videotapes depicting brutal murders that took place in the very house he just bought. As he tries to solve the mystery behind the crimes, a sinister force threatens his own family. I’m sort of breaking my own rules here, as this wasn’t an under-the-radar film, but merely hearing the music for this movie creeps me out!

Paranorman (2012): Okay, this wasn’t exactly an off-the-beaten-path film either, but it’s so wonderful, I had to list it. A perfect “feel-good” movie for Halloween!

The Awakening (2011): If I had to recommend one new(ish) film for this season, this would be it. Gorgeously done from start to finish. In post-World War I England, a boarding school haunted by a boy’s ghost calls on Florence Cathcart, who disproves hoaxes for a living. But Cathcart senses something truly strange about the school, leading her to question her belief in the rational.

Whisperer in Darkness (2011): You can’t go wrong with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s adaptations of Lovecraft’s stories. This is a “talkie” instead of a silent film (like the HPLHS’s Call of Cthulhu, and it works well.

Sound of My Voice (2011): Wow. I mean, wow. This is high on my list of favorite viewing from this year. In this psychological thriller, journalists Peter and Lorna undergo an elaborate preparation process in order to infiltrate a cult, leading from a desolate road to an unmarked location, but the mystery only deepens when their blindfolds are removed. This is a smart, chilling film with just the right touch of cerebral science fiction.

Ghost from the Machine (2010): After his parents die, Cody, an inventor, becomes obsessed with finding a way to contact them once again. Tom, a local scientist who lost his wife, becomes interested in the project and helps Cody. Together, they discover that Cody’s invention can cause ghosts momentarily to reappear as flesh and blood. What follows is a dark and moving study of human nature.

True Nature (2010): This is another film that really surprised me, to my delight. This tells the story of a family reunited when their college-age daughter is found after a year-long disappearance. With no memory of what happened to her, she soon discovers that her very presence threatens to expose the secrets and fragile lies by which her family has lived.

Womb (2010): This stark, minimalist, quietly haunting film stars Eva Green and Matt (“Eleven”) Smith, both of whom turn in subtle performances. A woman’s consuming love forces her to bear the clone of her dead beloved. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision. I found this to be wrenching, disturbing, and darkly beautiful. Full disclosure, though: my husband found it to have more style than substance.

Extraordinary Tales (2013): Several of my students recommended this to me, and I’m grateful that they did! This is an anthology film comprised of five different animated adaptations of Poe’s stories, namely “The Fall of the House of Usher” narrated by Christopher Lee, “The Tell-Tale Heart” narrated by Bela Lugosi, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” narrated by Julian Sands, “The Pit and the Pendulum” narrated by Guillermo del Toro, and “The Masque of the Red Death” – my favorite – which is eerily and beautifully silent. Despite uneven narration quality, due to the age of some of the audio recordings, this is terrific fun for Poe fans.

These Final Hours (2013): Wow, this one unexpectedly blew us away. A meteor has collided with Earth in the North Atlantic, and that leaves about twelve hours before the final global firestorm reaches Western Australia. In Perth, bad boy James leaves his pregnant girlfriend to try to drown his fear at “the party to end all parties,” but his life abruptly changes when he comes across a young girl being attacked. This is a delicate and powerful story of character growth and redemption in the face of the biggest horror of all: the end of all things. Highly recommended.

Woman in Black (2012): This one isn’t “off the beaten path” by any means, but I enjoyed it so much I’m noting it anyway. It’s a rare example of a film adaptation that changes the ending of its source text and in fact improves the story.

Another Earth (2011): On the night of the discovery of a duplicate planet in the solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. This is one of my very favorite films of 2012.

Absentia (2011): A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband. This is my other top favorite of 2012.

Exit Humanity (2011): A young man struggles to survive in the aftermath of a deadly undead outbreak during the American Civil War. This is a period zombie film with a heart and a brain. There’s zombie-related gore, but it serves the purpose of the story.

Cabin in the Woods (2011): Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods. Joss Whedon wrote this, and that’s probably enough said right there. This turns all the classic horror tropes upside down.

Hobo with a Shotgun (2011): In this satirical film, a homeless vigilante played by Rutger Hauer blows away “crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags” with his trusty pump-action shotgun. Warnings for gore and adult content. This is a dark and wry tongue-halfway-but-only-halfway-in-cheek dystopia.

Some Guy Who Kills People (2011): This is a horror-comedy about a small town loser fresh out of an asylum who seeks revenge on those he deems responsible for ruining his life. Unexpectedly poignant and character-driven.

The Last Exorcism (2010): A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew. I was unexpectedly enthralled with this; it twisted and turned in directions I didn’t anticipate, and its ending is straight out of a Lovecraft story. Highly recommended. Note(!!!): The 2013 sequel is a terrible mess. Don’t waste your time.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010): “Good old boys” Tucker and Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are attacked by a group of preppy college kids. This is ridiculously clever as it plays into and subverts classic horror scenarios. I laughed out loud.

YellowBrickRoad (2010): In 1940, the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire walked up a winding mountain trail, leaving everything behind. In 2008, the first official expedition into the wilderness attempts to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar. There’s gore here, but far more psychological horror. The premise would’ve made a fine Twilight Zone episode. My husband felt the ending was a disappointing cop-out, but I give it props for originality.

The dark fantasy Black Death (2010): Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people who are immune to the sickness in a small village, allegedly made so by “witchcraft.” What follows is a dark fable that considers evil and love, loyalty and death, faith and fate. Excellent turns by Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, and a strong supporting cast really bring this to life (pun intended), and I was more than pleasantly surprised by the atmospheric eeriness and thoughtful tragedy of this film. As Alan Jones from Film4’s “FrightFest” said about the film, “This intelligent original represents a commendable break from the genre norm and is one of the most powerful films made about God, the godless and what the Devil truly represents.”

Color Out of Space (2010): This is an absolutely brilliant adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” set in Germany. We thought this was amazing. Beautiful visual storytelling. Even if you’re not one for subtitled films, do give this a try, especially if you know and appreciate the source material.

Dorian Gray (2009): I don’t believe this was ever widely released in theaters in the U.S. I thought it was quite well done, true to the spirit if not the letter of Oscar Wilde’s story, admirably restrained with the special effects, and graced by compelling performances by Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Rachel Hurd-Wood. It’s perfect for the Halloween season, to my way of thinking.

The Brøken (2008): This understated doppleganger film plays out much like a modern-day Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Quiet and disturbing, and I mean that in a good way.

The Burrowers (2008): This is a brilliant independent science fiction/horror Western that was short on cheap gore and long on psychological terror (just the way I like it), and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Highly recommended.

You can’t miss the brilliant, quirky, lovingly satirical films of Larry Blamire (thanks to marthawells for the recommendation), which are “must see” material, including The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004) and its sequel The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2009), as well as the standalone films Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007) and Dark and Stormy Night (2009) - I simply can’t praise these enough.

The Lazarus Project (2008): A former criminal gets a second chance at life and mysteriously ends up working at a psychiatric hospital where nothing is at it seems. Terrific psychological piece. I don’t know why this didn’t receive more attention and praise.

Painted Skin (2008): This Hong Kong/China production is not the easiest film to find with English subtitles, but it is well worth the effort. Set sometime in the late Qin or early Han dynasty in China, a fox spirit consumes human hearts to maintain her youth and beauty. She falls in love with her human rescuer, however, who already has a wife he adores. This is a beautiful and bittersweet film about love, sacrifice, and deadly magic, with a haunting score… and Donnie Yen. Win, win, win!

Another well worth watching is the Finnish historical fantasy/horror/morality play Sauna (2008 - thanks to mr_earbrass for the recommendation).

We also quite liked the surreal dark fantasy Franklyn (2008), as well as

the chilling, true crime-inspired Borderland (2007),

the Spanish science fiction thriller Timecrimes (2007),

the moody, Lovecraft-inspired Cthulhu (2007),

the gorgeous, silent Lovecraft adaptation The Call of Cthulhu (2005),

the U.S. Civil War-era dark fantasy/horror Dead Birds (2004),

the dystopian psychological thriller Final (2001),

Imprint (2007): Can you hear their cries? Shayla Stonefeather, a Native American attorney prosecuting a Lakota teen in a controversial murder trial, returns to the reservation to say goodbye to her dying father. After the teen is killed, she hears ghostly voices and sees strange visions that cause her to re-examine beliefs she thought she left behind. This is a solid independent film with a gifted Native cast.

Wicked Little Things (2006): This is a film about the Appalachian children who died in a mine coming back to haunt the mine-owner’s descendants. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, no real surprises. What sets this apart is beautifully atmospheric shots of the woods and a spectacular sense of place. Visually memorable.

House of Voices, also released as Saint Ange (2004): This French-Romanian film is a sophisticated mind game that kept me utterly fascinated and glued to the screen. A young cleaning woman is dispatched to tend to a crumbling orphanage called Saint Ange that houses only one child. While going about her duties, the new housekeeper begins to witness supernatural occurrences, causing her sole co-worker, a cook, to question her sanity. Whatever you expect this to be, I guarantee it will surprise you.

Breaking Dawn (2004) No, this is not that Breaking Dawn. This is cerebral little film that rewards careful watching. Dawn is a young medical student is charged with uncovering the murder of a mental patient’s mother. Or is she? Well crafted and satisfying. And spooky.

Below (2002): This is a World War II-era horror film that makes great use of the claustrophobia of submarines to create a chilling mood, very atmospheric. If you like Star Trek’s Bruce Greenwood (and who doesn’t?), you’ll want to see this.

and Last Night (1998): (Thanks to penfold_x for the rec!) In Toronto, a group of friends and family prepares for the fast-approaching end of the world. This apocalyptic film starts out like a dark comedy but ends much more like a serious drama. It won three Genie Awards, including a Best Actress for Sandra Oh, and I see why. She really shines here, and her last scene is stuck in my head. If you like to ponder how you would spend your very last – and the world’s very last – night, try this.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Okay, you’re turn: what under-the-radar, off-the-beaten-path, Halloween-friendly films do you recommend?

#halloween #halloween countdown 2019 #halloween films #horror films #films

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (semi-stream of consciousness) Thoughts Part 3: Spider-Miles and his Amazing Friends/Foes

Apologies for not getting this out sooner. I’ve been/still am unwell so I was physically too energy drained to crank it out.

For this outing we’re going to discuss the characters not named Miles Morales. Spoilers ahead.

As I have said before, Miles might be the primary protagonist but he is not the sole one.

Alongside him we have the Peter Parker who died (who, in what is surely a Clone Saga reference, is blonde), the older washed up Peter Parker, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir and Peni Parker with her SP//dr mech...with a cameo by Spider-Man 2099 and 1960s Spider-Man.

Going up against them are Kingpin, Prowler/Aaron Davis, Doctor Octopus/Olivia Octavius, Tombstone, Scorpion and Green Goblin with cameos by the Lizard/Spider-Gwen’s Peter Parker and some versions of Doc Ock and a reference to Electro. Honestly there were probably more villains too I just missed them because this movie is such a feast for the eyes that you need to see it more than once to take everything in. For example my friend caught a Ditko reference I missed.

I already gushed about how impressive it is that the movie balanced so many characters so lets not go over that again beyond saying that it is honestly mind blowing that us Spidey fans got all THOSE villains (some of whom have never been on film before) in this movie and what is essentially a Carolin Trainer Doc Ock reference rendered as a really cool villainess.

For real Olivia ‘Liv’ Octavius was bad ass. If Kingpin was the Big Bad she was his ‘Dragon’ to use TV Tropes terminology. Her design was unique to Molina’s Doc Ock and her unveiling was one of the movies best twists that I really didn’t see coming. Also Aunt May seemed to know her which means in my headcanon they were like old friends and had tea together sometimes. It is also worth of note she is technically one of the relatively few Marvel movie villainesses.

Sticking with the villains for now Tombstone and Green Goblin were the least interesting. Goblin here existed essentially to serve as reference and honour to the Death of Spider-Man arc from the Ultimate comics as he is very much involved in Blonde Peter’s death and dies himself. Tombstone was just...Tombstone. He was just Fisk’s bodyguard and nothing else. Still the fact that there even exists a Spider-Man movie WITH Tombstone in it is something of a marvel. Scorpion is elevated somewhat beyond Tombstone and Goblin by virtue of his interesting redesign and the quirk that he speaks Spanish, thus connecting him to Miles. Whilst the movie doesn’t use it’s relatively even hero and villain count to just pair the characters off, it should be said that Tombstone and Scorpion do exist specifically to give Noir, Ham and Peni something to do in the second and third act climaxes.

This is not a detriment to the movie though. Although this is an ensemble movie, it is Miles movie primarily, Peter and Gwen’s secondarily and the other Spider-Heroes’ behind them. This point is accentuated when we are given their origins simultaneously in a three panel sequence. It is understood that these three characters are to be regarded somewhat collectively, sort of like the Warriors Three from Thor.

Getting back to the villains though, I have little to say on Prowler I didn’t cover last time. All I will add is that his visuals are very cool. Even though he is based upon Ultimate Prowler his look is more 616 Prowler influenced, but imagine if instead of a misguided antagonist he was a scary slightly Spawn inspired villain. So he was totally bad ass.

However hats must go off to Kingpin. He was the main and best villain of this story. It is funny this year has been oddly Kingpin focused in terms of Marvel content.

He was brought back superbly for Daredevil season 3. He was a notable figure in the PS4 Spidey game. He was the main villain of the PS4 prequel novel. He got a lot of play in Daredevil and Spider-Man comics where he was the mayor and he is now serving as a Marvel movie villain for the second time. For me personally I complimented all this by checking out Daredevil Born Again and Last Rites, two very Kingpin centric stories.

As far as his portrayal here is concerned, the central conceit of the movie again creates a potential get out of jail scenario for any direction the writers want to take with the characters. This is an AU version of Kingpin and so is at liberty to deviate wildly from the 616 version as Liv Octavius did.

How interestingly what we wind up with is an interesting rendition of Kingpin who’s deviations from his canon counterpart’s personality are relatively minor and his overall portrayal is different more in where it places the emphasis as opposed to what the specific traits of his personality are.

Comics Kingpin is defined by his cold controlled and sophisticated demeanour hiding a thuggish, cruel and raging temper beneath the surface. He is the boss of bosses, the biggest criminal ever in more way than one.

Spider-Verse Kingpin is a little more ‘street’ in his dialogue and vocal performance than we might be used to with classic Kingpin and ever so slightly more prone to making jokes, but beyond that his personality is very similar. Essentially he is Kingpin with a bit more Tony Soprano injected into him. The idea of his calm exterior hiding a cruel raging monster beneath is very well realized though via his gimmick of clicking his pen as a kind of stress ball to maintain his temper and his beating Spider-Man to death with his bare hands. Not to mention his flying into raging bull mode at the climax of the movie when things go all wrong.

Where the key deviation lies for this rendition of Wilson Fisk though lies in his motivation for the movie. Whilst various stories in comics and other media depict Kingpin’s motivation to simply rid his criminal empire of one superhero or another, or else further expand and secure that empire, Spider-Verse Kingpin is all about his family. The entire reason he is investigating parallel universes is in order to find alternate living versions of his dead wife Vanessa and son Richard. They died fleeing him in horror upon witnessing him fighting Blonde Spidey, so Wilson feels guilty and heartbroken over their deaths.

What is ingenious about this take upon Kingpin is that you could entirely see his canon counterpart doing something like this and it serves to add a note of sympathy to him in spite of his directly murdering Spider-Man and Miles’ uncle. Whilst it is perhaps not as nuanced or multilayered as the Netflix Kingpin, it still serves to make him more than a two-dimensional, black and white gangster. So as a villain he is simple, yet effective.

Kingpin, like all the Spider-Heroes sans Miles, also has a backstory flashback sequence that explains his history with his family. These are strategically placed throughout the movie and are reminiscent of the origin sequences from the Suicide Squad movie. However what worked so poorly there works magnificently here.

These origin sequences do much more than simply drop exposition for each character. Putting aside how the movie does enough to build up and endear us to most of the characters who get such sequences, the sequences are actually in aid of conveying to the audience the primary conceit of the film, that of alternate realities.

And the best way to convey this idea is to prevent the familiar with deliberate changes.

What I mean by this is that the movie sets up these origin sequences in deliberate contrast to one another and signposts this fact with repeated dialogue and visual cues in each sequence. This even applies for Kingpin as the visuals of his origin sequence are evoked for the climax wherein he briefly does see flashes of his wife and son from other realities.

As far as the Spider-Heroes are concerned though, the first of these sequences is at the top of the movie with the background information for Blonde Spidey.

This helps immediately hint that the world we are watching is both similar to yet different to the ones we might be familiar with, noticeably the world of this Spider-Man is more similar to our own as Blonde Spidey (surely a Ben Reilly reference unto himself) is a beloved and highly merchandised celebrity. Even the iconic upside down kiss with Mary Jane occurs for him with MJ upside down. A fun little in joke for the audience, or sly easing in of the idea that this Spider-Man is not the one we know?

A little of both probably, but that one scene illustrates what I mean because the second origin sequence we get is about the older Spider-Man. Like I said it plays itself in deliberate contrast to the Blonde Spider-Man, retaining the same narrative/dialogue structure within the short vignette to convey for us how this Spidey is different and thus develop his character. E.g. he is older and yet less successful, he is underappreciated and in bad shape and his marriage to MJ (whom he shares a more traditional upside down kiss with, see what I mean, it slyly hints this Spidey is more like the ones we recognize) has ended in sad divorce and he is a wreck.

Further origin sequences repeat for Spider-Gwen (she is similar to her comic counterpart, but her hang up is distancing herself from her friends), Noir, Peni and Ham.

As I said before Noir, Peni and Ham have their origin sequences play out simultaneously on the screen. This cements their lesser status within the movie compared to the other protagonists.

Collectively the sequences not only use the individual Spider-Heroes to mutually develop and build up each character on the most basic level to the audience (Spider-Man but a Looney Tune pig, Spider-Man but if he was a drummer Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man but if he was Humphrey Bogart, Spider-Man but if he was an anime girl from a mech anime, etc) but also serves to hold the audiences hand as it gets them to accept the conceit of parallel universes.

Of course the concept is first broached at the start of the movie where Blonde Spider-Man’s origin sequence concludes with him declaring himself the one and only Spider-Man (a sentiment echoed in other origin sequences too) and is then immediately followed by Miles’ introduction. We also have the topic raised in Miles classroom.

When combined with the other origin sequences, this opening obviously challenges the audiences idea that there could only ever be one Spider-Man and that it would have to be Peter Parker (a fair presumption, most audience members would be unaware of any other Spider-Heroes). This I think is part of the ingeniousness (forgive my repetition of the term but it is true) of featuring the two Peters in this movie.

See both Peter Parkers are as much positioned as deliberate deviations from the norm general audiences would expect as Spider-Ham or Spider-Gwen. Whilst one Peter is blonde and a successful married celebrity with essentially his own Spider-Cave, another is the oldest on screen Peter Parker we’ve ever had, pot-bellied and a divorcee. Outside of some video games and two 20 year old cartoons general audiences have never even seen a married Spider-Man so presenting not just one but two, and one of whom is post-marriage to boot, is a brilliant way to sell ‘this isn’t the Spider-Man you know’.

But these Spider-Men ARE Peter Parker. So if there can be versions of the Parker Spidey audiences are familiar with that are so different to what they know, the idea of Peter Parker but an anime girl or a 1930s noir character or a cartoon pig becomes easier to accept as does Gwen Stacy (whom audiences ARE familiar with from the recent Marc Webb movies) as ‘Spider-Man’ becomes yet easier to accept.

All of which build to what is second half of the question the start of the movie raises.

The question is partially ‘Does Peter Parker have to be the one and only Spider-Man’ (obviously not there are alternate versions of him as well as Gwen Stacy in the role) and, perhaps more poignantly, partially ‘Can Miles be Spider-Man’.

And this is the the most important purpose that the origin sequences serve. They are all building towards the climax of the movie which bookeneds the start wherein it is at last Miles turn to relay his own origin, allowing the movie to put to rest the question it raised at the start and cement in the audience’s minds that YES, this kid can and now IS Spider-Man.

As Stan Lee said, part of the appeal of Spider-Man is that under that costume anyone can imagine themselves to be Spider-Man. This movie embodies that message, embeds it into itself and in that sense serves the fundamental ethos of Spider-Man or him being the relatable everyman, even whilst Peter himself is not the heart of this movie.

And it did all that via having comic book style flashback exposition dumps!!!!!!!

I might have said this before or elsewhere but this is the most ‘comic book’ comic book movie I’ve ever seen! As in it is a movie that looks like and plays out like a comic book!

And just like the best comic books and comic book movies it always remembers that these stories are someone’s first so whilst it presumes a certain amount of foreknowledge (like you know who Spider-Man is) it leaves nothing to chance and organically walks you through everything you need to know. Again, those origin sequences by being placed in contrast to one another walks audiences gently through the massive concept of multiverses which no other theatrical comic book film before this to my knowledge has ever touched (sorry DC..).

Sticking with the Spider-Heroes for a moment, what should be understood is that the characterization of them is all geared towards the needs of the specific story being told, which obviously has Miles at the heart of it.

What I mean by this is that whilst the movie doesn’t give you the most detailed or faithful rendition of Spider-Gwen or Spider-Man: Noir ever they are the right takes for the movie’s story, for selling the concept of parallel universes and Miles development.

Blonde Spidey is not just hyper successful in order to contrast with Old Spidey. His success and competency (his brief action scene is incredibly impressive) is designed to also contrast to Miles inexperience and to sell him as almost a Superman/Captain America figure within Miles’ world. His death is mourned as the passing of a great and revered hero, a national day of mourning and even made me tear up a bit. This is done to accentuate the guilt Miles feels and the burden Miles feels to live up to his dying wish and shadow, the latter of which could fuel a potential sequel. His specific death scene itself is played as very different from the Ultimate comics. There his death was the grand finale (we thought) to the saga of a hero we’d been following and gave him a fittingly grand death. In the movie since his death is primarily the launch pad for Miles’ journey it is less grand, even cruel in how quick, blunt and undignified it is.

Old Spidey’s failure is not undertaken because the filmmakers believe Spider-Man is or should be some abject loser or failure, as I and others have feared. It is a direction taken because it gives him an arc for the movie. His hang up is wrapped up with his divorce from Mary Jane. But refreshingly for comic fans their separation occurred because MJ wanted children and he couldn’t bring himself to go there. It is through his tutelage of Miles (and hilarious confession to Blonde Spidey’s widow, a reflection of his student’s poor attempt to woo Gwen earlier) that he works through his issues and gets his happy ending of reuniting with his MJ. He thus has an arc intertwined with Miles even as he serves as his reluctant and somewhat haphazard mentor. If you think about it, having a version of Spider-Man more akin to the ‘default’ version would have made for a boring and underwhelming movie as far as Miles and Peter’s relationship is concerned. In this dynamic though master and student mutually grow.

Moreover his arc is interesting on a meta level as his pot belly somewhat resembled Tobey Maguire in some infamous and unflattering post-Spider-Man 3 images and Peter and MJ having a child and divorcing were in fact concepts toyed with for the aborted Spider-Man 4. All of which lends credence to the idea that Old Spider-man could very well be the actual Maguire Spider-Man. Indeed Maguire was apparently considered to be cast for this Spider-Man.

Between them Blonde and Old Peter represent something of the best and worst case scenarios for the ‘standard’ Spider-Man that broadly exists in the popular consciousness of general audiences.

Also one of these two Peter Parkers is explicitly Jewish. They have a Jewish wedding with Mary Jane which is a lovely touch as both his creators were Jewish and it has often been said the character embodies certain characteristics that recognizable within Jewish culture.

Spider-Gwen is changed into being more snarky than her earliest comics depicted her mostly because she has to be a more in control and experienced counterpoint to the in experienced Miles, serving as the subtextual second-in-command of the team. Her character’s conceit of being distant from her friends was something sort of present in her comics but is played as her central emotional problem in this movie that is also worked out through the course of teaming up with others. Additionally the film, seeking to connect her and Miles romantically (perhaps unnecessarily, but it is a sweet enough young romance nevertheless, helped by their similar age for a change) draws a parallel between how both her and Miles lost a Peter Parker. Parker in her universe was the Lizard as in the comics which further helps sell the idea of ‘Spider-Man’ being flexible.

The other Spider-Heroes are again, bodies to pad out the team and all of them are geared towards comic relief which helps balance out the team and movie over all, even if it goes against how Peni and Noir were originally characterized in their solo outings. But again this isn’t a solo outing, it is a team outing centred around Miles.

And the key thing to note here, as I noted in previous instalments is that all these other Spider-Heroes NEEDED to be in here and (to a lesser or greater extent) needed their own arcs because Miles was not going to hold the movie all on his own.

As for the other characters not much to say really. Miles parents are done well though his Dad gets more focus, a biproduct think of the movie focussing upon his brother Aaron. Aunt May has a small but lovely role as the keeper of Blonde Peter’s legacy. There is a touching scene which adapted Spider-Men better than the actual story. In the comic book 616 Peter meets Ultimate May in the relatively recent aftermath of Ultimate Peter’s death. In the movie, apart from Blonde Peter being older (meaning more years with Peter), Old Peter has also lost his Aunt May meaning the moment is much more emotionally packed as bereaved aunt and nephew reunite.

Then there is Mary Jane. Again a small role and she is somewhat relegated to a motivator than her own character but in a movie this packed where the heart isn’t Peter Parker you can understand why. You do feel bad that every (good) character in this movie got a happy ending or at least a happy final scene except her...well sort of. She is just left as the widow of Blonde Spidey but she gets a nice scene where she reunites with Old Peter. So ONE version of MJ has a happy last scene.

I will say this, the movie treated the character with respect. It is MJ who delivers her husband’s eulogy that prompts Miles into action and sums up the message of anyone being Spider-Man. It is made clear MJ was not the root of her split with Peter because ‘she couldn’t handle it’ or some shit like that. So whilst the movie didn’t give her much to do it also didn’t punch down on her or disrespect her legacy the way Homecoming did. And if nothing else how cool was it that we got not one but TWO Peter/MJ marriages on screen in a major motion picture. Take that Marvel!

But I cannot talk about the characters in this movie without talking about the three best cameos in any comic book movie.

The first was the surprise post-credits sequence where Spider-Man 2099 showed up! Of all Spider-Heroes he was the one I wanted most to show up. I love Mayday of course but I never deluded myself she could show up and in fact Old Peter’s story opens up that possibility for her more down the line.

2099 shocked me (how appropriate) and I thought we were going to get some nice sequel bait. That was until that was subverted for the second cameo that made me and my friend split our sides with laugher.

1960s cartoon Spider-Man, specifically with him and 2099 recalling the ‘Spider-Man pointing at himself meme’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is how you integrate a meme right!!!!!!

They even paid the 1960s show homage by referring to it as going back to the beginning since the 1960s show was in fact the first time Spider-Man was ever adapted into animation.

The third and best cameo goes to the Stan Lee appearance.

I am not ashamed to tell you dear readers that when I saw Stan Lee, even a cartoon version of him, saying in his own voice that he was friends with Spider-Man and will miss him I genuinely cried a little.

Even seeing the grave of Blonde Spider-Man shortly afterwards, a scene I’d already seen as the after credits scene for Venom, hit me hard and felt very different in a post-Stan Lee world.

And of course there was that ending title card crediting Lee and Ditko. Beautiful, no other word for it.

And given the movie’s fundamental message I can think of no more fitting way to honour the fathers of Spider-Man.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Best Korean Dramas on Netflix to Watch Right Now

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South Korea is one of the world’s biggest exporters of popular culture. From K-pop to K-dramas, Parasite to BTS, the East Asian country knows how to reach an international audience. Korean TV, especially K-dramas, have long been of interest to western markets, but it’s no longer just the Korean diaspora or romance drama fans underserved by western markets checking out K-dramas, international watchers of Korean dramas have become much more “mainstream” in the last few years, especially with Netflix’s increased focus and investment in the region.

Netflix has played a major role in this expansion of Korean TV into the global market. The streamer has not only scooped up an impressive backlog of Korean originals as a global distributor, but, since 2016, has been investing in the Korean TV industry at the production level. At the beginning of 2021, Netflix released an official statement announcing the leasing of two production facilities outside of Seoul, citing the move as “another important example of our continued commitment to investing in Korea’s creative ecosystem.” According to the release, from 2015 to 2020, Netflix invested over 700 million dollars in Korean content. The company also has multi-year content partnerships with CJ ENM/Studio Dragon and JTBC.

Suffice to say, Netflix has a solid Korean TV section, filled with some of the best K-dramas around, both new and old. If you’re new to the world of Korean TV or if you’re simply looking for your next watch, why not try out one of the following…

Crash Landing On You (2019)

The absolute top secret love story of a chaebol heiress who made an emergency landing in North Korea because of a paragliding accident and a North Korean special officer who falls in love with her and who is hiding and protecting her.

If you’re at all tapped into the K-drama scene, then you have at least heard of Crash Landing on You if not binged it multiple times. An original production from Netflix, Crash Landing On You pairs rom-com and character drama elements with an exploration of the cultural pain inherent in the separation between North and South Korea. With charismatic and vulnerable performances from veteran K-drama leads Son Ye-jin as South Korean heiress Yoon Se-ri and Hyun Bin as North Korean soldier Ri Jeong-hyeok; some gorgeous production values; and a memorably melodramatic soundtrack, Crash Landing On You is a whirlwind action-romance that was one of the best shows of 2020, full stop.

Kingdom (2019-present)

In a kingdom defeated by corruption and famine, a mysterious plague spreads to turn the infected into monsters. The crown prince, framed for treason and desperate to save his people, sets out on a journey to unveil what evil lurks in the dark.

If you prefer your TV more horror-driven, Korean TV has some notable shows for you. One of the most internationally popular is Kingdom, a historical zombie drama about a 17th century crown prince who has to fight against a mysterious plague of flesh-eating zombies that threatens to overtake his kingdom. Most K-dramas are structured to tell their entire story in one season, but Kingdom has already had two seasons with a third on the way, as well as a one-off special that just premiered on Netflix called Kingdom: Ashin of the North. If you’re looking to get into a longer-running K-drama that favors horror over romance, this could be the one for you.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)

Desperate to escape from his emotional baggage and the heavy responsibility he’s had all his life, a psychiatric ward worker begins to heal with help from the unexpected—a woman who writes fairy tales but doesn’t believe in them.

There’s still a taboo around addressing mental illness in Korea, which is one of the many reasons why this 2020 drama about Gang-tae, a young man who is a caregiver at a psychiatric hospital, and Moon-young, a children’s author living with antisocial personality disorder, made such a splash. While the romance at its center is great, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay really shines in its exploration of Gang-tae’s relationship with his brother, Sang-tae, who is on the autism spectrum. In a press conference promoting the show (via Metro Style), Sang-tae actor Oh Jung-se said of the character: “If you meet someone like Sang-tae, who is on the autism spectrum, on the street, I think it would be nice if people could think ‘I would like to be with that person’ instead of ‘I would like to help that person.’”

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Unassuming high school girl Jan-di stands up to — and eventually falls for — a spoiled rich kid who belongs to the school’s most powerful clique.

A K-drama classic, Boys Over Flowers follows working class student Geum Jan-di as she arrives at the elite Shinhwa High School on scholarship, only to meet and be unimpressed by a group of privileged boys known collectively as F4 who rule the school. The drama follows Jan-di as she goes from bullying target of F4 leader Jun-pyo to the object of his obsession. It’s a classic enemies-to-lovers set-up, and one that while cliche, is still worth a watch over a decade later.

Itaewon Class (2020)

On the vibrant streets of Itaewon, something is about to shake up the local food scene. Going up against the most powerful conglomerate in the industry, underdog Park Sae-ro-yi and his band of determined misfits seek to take over Itaewon and turn their ambitious dreams into reality.

Korean TV knows how to melodrama, and this story of revenge and romance set in Seoul’s popular Itaewon area leans into intense catharsis. Itaewon Class follows Park Sae-Ro-Yi, the owner of an up-and-coming Itaewon restaurant called DanBam that becomes a refuge for a group of social outcasts. Together, they work to take down the same business mogul responsible for the death of Sae-Ro-Yi’s father years earlier. Itaewon Class was extremely popular both in South Korea and internationally, and featured the first transgender character in a mainstream K-drama. Added bonus: the Itaewon Class soundtrack includes an original song from BTS’ V.

Mr Sunshine (2018)

In 1905, a Korean American U.S. marine officer returns to his homeland on a diplomatic assignment. Coping with his painful past in Korea as an orphaned servant boy, he finds himself in a complicated relationship with an aristocrat’s daughter.

If you’re into historically-driven period drama, then check out the beautifully-shot Mr. Sunshine. The K-drama is set in the late 19th and early 20th century in Hanseong, the city that would become Seoul and follows activists fighting for Korea’s independence. The story follows Go Ae-shin, an orphaned noblewoman who trains to be a sniper in the Righteous Army, the civilian militia that fought against the occupying Japanese forces, and Eugene Choi, a man who escaped slavery in Korea to become a U.S. marine, only to return to his homeland where he falls in love with Ae-shin. The series uses real-life history, including Shinmiyangyo, the Spanish-American War, the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, the Russo-Japanese War, Gojong’s forced abdication, and the Battle of Namdaemun as a backdrop for its epic story.

Signal (2016)

A cold-case profiler in 2015 and a detective in 1989 work together to solve a series of related murders spanning three decades using a special walkie-talkie to communicate with each other.

This premise has been used a lot—from 2000 Dennis Quaid/Jim Caviezel thriller Frequency to the 2016 CW TV adaptation of the same name—and for good reason. An analog device allows two people to communicate across time, and they must work to solve a murder together. It not only makes for compelling character drama, as two people become closer but are separated by years, but also is a fresh twist on the serial killer narrative. In K-drama Signal, the analog device is a walkie-talkie, and the characters on either temporal side of it are contemporary criminal profiler Park Hae-young and 1989-based Detective Cha Soo-hyun. If you’re looking for a good crime thriller, Signal could be it.

Hospital Playlist (2020-present)

Friends since undergrad school, five doctors remain close and share a love for music while working at the same hospital.

Like Kingdom, Hospital Playlist is the rare K-drama that tells its story across multiple seasons. The hospital drama is currently airing its second season weekly on Netflix, continuing its story about a group of doctors in their 40s who have been best friends since medical school. A true ensemble drama, Hospital Playlist is perfect for fans of Grey’s Anatomy but feels unique in its centering of a friend-group with a such a long history.

Vincenzo (2021)

If you just watched the dramatic opening of Vincenzo, set in Italy days after the death of a mafia boss, you might think you’re in for a self-serious organized crime drama. But the Netflix K-drama quickly shifts into a story much more tonally complex. Part romance, part drama, part action thriller, Vincenzo has something for everyone. It follows Vincenzo (Space Sweepers‘ Song Joong-ki), a Korean lawyer raised by an Italian mafia family who must flee the country following his father’s death. As part of his plan of escape, Vincenzo travels to Korea to recover a stash of hidden gold under an old apartment building set for demolition by a corrupt corporation called the Babel Group. Because of this dilemma, Vincenzo becomes unlikely allies with the group of eccentric citizens who live in the building, as well as with a passionate and moral lawyer who has a vendetta against the Babel Group for his own reasons.

The “Reply” Series (2012-2016)

Take a nostalgic trip back to the late 1980s through the lives of five families and their five teenage kids living in a small neighborhood in Seoul.

The Reply series is one of the most popular cable dramas in Korean TV history. It launched in 2012 with Reply 1997 before continuing with Reply 1994 in 2013 and Reply 1988 in 2015. The ambitiously-structured series follows a group of friends and their kids, telling the story in present-day in addition to flashbacks. Featuring a fun soundtrack, as well as some incredibly performances, the Reply series is well worth a watch for anyone who loves character drama with a nostalgic twist.

Prison Playbook (2017)

With only days before his major league baseball debut, pitcher Kim Je-hyeok unexpectedly lands himself behind bars. He must learn to navigate his new world with its own rules if he wants to survive.

Prison Playbook is much more slow-paced than many of the selections on the list, but this character drama is worth the dedication. Though it’s often touted as a “black comedy,” it’s much more tonally light than that suggests, despite the subject matter. The story follows baseball pitcher Kim Je Hyeok, who is incarcerated days before his major league debut for assaulting the attempted rapist of his sister. It follows his life within prison, along with the lives of some of the other inmates and guards, including his old best friend, Lt. Lee Joon Ho, who is a correctors officer. Created by Lee Woo-jung, who also made the aforementioned Reply series, Prison Playbook is one of the most popular K-dramas in Korean cable history ever.

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Sweet Home (2020)

As humans turn into savage monsters, one troubled teenager and his neighbors fight to survive and to hold onto their humanity.

It’s been well-documented that Song Kang is a K-drama darling. The actor has appeared in many a romantic K-drama, including Netflix’s Nevertheless and Love Alarm. Sweet Home, however, is his rare horror appearance, and it’s well worth a watch just to see Song in a completely different context. Of course, this apocalyptic horror story has other qualities too, and holds the honor of being the first Korean series to enter the U.S. Netflix Top Ten. Based on a Naver (aka Korean Google) webcomic of the same name, Sweet Home follows Cha Hyun-soo (Song), a high school student who moves into an apartment building after the deaths of his parents, only to discover that the building also happens to be the home of a species of monsters set on world domination.

Nevertheless (2021)

Speaking of Song Kang… At the time of this writing, Netflix is currently airing Nevertheless, the latest K-drama to star the 27-year-old actor. The romantic drama stars Han So-hee as Yoo Na-bi, university art student who no longer believes in love following discovering her boyfriend has been cheating on her. When she meets Song’s Park Jae-eon, she is immediately intrigued. Though the two share an immediate attraction, they resist entering into a relationship due to their respective uncertainties about love. Based on a popular webcomic of the same name, Nevertheless feels unique in its treatment of modern dating life in Korea, depicting some of the more realistic, often internal struggles of what its like to date in your 20s.

Memories of the Alhambra (2018)

If you’re looking for another K-drama starring Crash Landing on You‘s Hyun Bin (and of course you are), then look no further than Memories of the Alhambra, a 2018 K-drama with an absolutely batshit (read: amazing) premise. Hyun stars as Yoo Jin-woo, a CEO who travels to Spain in search of the creator of an AR game set in the Spanish medieval fortress Alhambra. Once there, Jin-woo is pulled into a reality-bending mystery with life-or-death stakes and some unpredictable twists that I don’t want to spoil for you.

Romance is a Bonus Book (2019)

A gifted writer who’s the youngest editor-in-chief ever at his publishing company gets enmeshed in the life of a former copywriter desperate for a job.

Ostensibly based on the TV series Younger, Romance is a Bonus Book is a rom-com set in the publishing industry world. It follows single mom Kang Dan Yi as she struggles to reenter the workforce following her divorce. When he lies about her background to get a job, her life becomes tangled up with childhood friend and publishing phenom Cha Eun Ho.

I began watching this series to see how it compared to the U.S. version of the show, of which I am a fan. Honestly, these two series have only the most superficial details of their plots in common, which is par for the course in many adaptations. Romance is a Bonus Book is much more romance-centric than Younger, which balances the love life of its central protagonist with the many other relationships and concerns she has in her life. But that isn’t a bad thing. They are two very different shows with their own interests and strengths, but if you’re a fan of both rom-coms and the publishing industry, then both Romance is a Bonus Book and Younger are worth a watch.

What is your favorite K-drama on Netflix? And what upcoming Netflix K-dramas are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below?

The post The Best Korean Dramas on Netflix to Watch Right Now appeared first on Den of Geek.

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your-dietician · 3 years

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India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

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India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

(Bloomberg) — Thirty years ago, on a summer evening in late July, India liberalized its Soviet-style economy in a transformation that eventually pulled about 300 million out of poverty, fueling one of the biggest wealth creations in history.

Then came the world’s fastest coronavirus surge which left overflowing hospitals turning away the dying and crematorium smoke darkening city skies.

Years, and perhaps decades, of progress have been unwound in months, as many Indians who had clawed their way out of poverty face grim job prospects and carry heavy debt loads wracked up to get themselves and loved ones through the pandemic. The devastation has highlighted just how much poor health care and infrastructure — often neglected in the boom after liberalization — are holding back the nation and its people.

More than 200 million have gone back to earning less than minimum wage, or $5, a day, the Bangalore-based Azim Premji University calculates. The middle class, the engine of the consumer economy, shrank by 32 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Institute. That means India will be regressing on vital fronts just as its global importance is growing.

This decade, India is expected to become the world’s most populated nation, taking that mantle from China, which for years drove global growth. But the Indian economy is grappling with big threats even as it becomes home to the kind of young, working-age population that drove lengthy booms in other nations.

“We’re talking about a decade of lost opportunities and setback,” said Arvind Subramanian, a fellow at Brown University and a former chief economic advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. “Unless there are some big reforms and fundamental changes in the way economic policy is done, you’re not going to be anywhere close to what we saw in the boom years. A lot needs to happen in order to get back to the 7%, 8% growth that we desperately need.”

Even before the pandemic, cracks had begun to emerge. Modi came to power in 2014 amid voter frustration over scandals and policy paralysis that had contributed to bad loans at banks and threatened to derail Indian growth. Yet, the economy has faced other hurdles in recent years including Modi’s 2016 cash ban, which roiled the informal sector, and a hurriedly implemented new tax system.

Story continues

Modi had pledged to turn India into a $5 trillion economy by 2025, but the pandemic is set to push that back by years. The International Monetary Fund expects India to grow 6.9% in the next fiscal year that starts in April 2022, lower than the more than 8% needed long term to reach Modi’s ambitious target and create jobs for the millions entering the work force.

Jim O’Neill, chairman of Chatham House in London — who coined the term BRICs to describe the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China while serving as a top Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist — is these days cautious on India, largely because the government hasn’t made many of the long-term structural changes he believes are needed for it to reach its full potential.

When still at Goldman Sachs, O’Neill says he presented a paper to Modi in 2013, before he became prime minister, recommending 10 things that would allow the Indian economy to be 40 times larger by 2050. The list included making substantial improvements to areas like infrastructure, education, introducing better public-private partnerships in areas like healthcare, further liberalizing financial markets and working on environmental issues. Modi hasn’t fully pursued these ideas, O’Neill said.

“India��s got these fantastic demographics, which should have given it the potential to be rising a lot more strongly, possibly at the same kind of double digit rates China enjoyed for a long time,” O’Neill said. Yet “the Indian system seems to quite often smother itself, as we’ve seen sadly a few times during the Covid pandemic,” he said.

A government spokesperson didn’t respond to request for comment, but the Modi administration has in recent weeks acknowledged the need for longer term changes. “If we are looking at getting growth — of 8%-10% — back on a sustainable path, we have to think about not just a current revival,” Sanjeev Sanyal, the government’s principal economic adviser, said at the India Global Forum on June 30. Structural changes are needed and to that end the government is constantly opening up new sectors of the economy, he said.

Once the fastest-growing major economy, India saw its biggest ever contraction last year — shrinking more than 7% — after a stringent nationwide lockdown. Just when the economy started showing some momentum, another wave of infections hit the nation. This year, the central bank expects India to grow at 9.5%, sharply lower than the double-digit rebound many had earlier expected. That estimate is heavily boosted by the comparison with the sharp contraction of the previous year, and many economists expect it could be pared even further.

Foreign direct investment surged 19% last year, but even that remains lower as a percentage of GDP compared with countries like Singapore and Vietnam. And a big portion of the foreign investment went to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s digital platforms.

Some experts, including former central bank head Duvvuri Subbarao, have warned of a K-shaped recovery for India, where the rich get richer and poor get poorer. “Growing inequalities are not just a moral issue,” said Subbarao. “They can erode consumption and hurt our long-term growth prospects.”

The of the two richest men in Asia – Ambani and ports magnate Gautam Adani — are Indians, and their net worth has surged as stocks rallied on the back of cheap liquidity worldwide and tax cuts for companies even as economic growth slumped. Meanwhile, overall Indian wealth — or the value of financial and real assets owned by households minus debts — fell by $594 billion, or 4.4%, in 2020, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

Thirty years ago, India was forced to remake its economy. A mammoth trade deficit and plunging foreign exchange reserves necessitated a loan from the International Monetary Fund. On July 24, 1991, then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, announced major steps to cut tariffs and encourage trade, essentially opening up the economy to the outside world.

In the boom that followed liberalization, growth crossed 8%. Technology giants like Infosys were born and start-ups worth billions are now mushrooming in Bangalore. A new middle class emerged that watched Netflix and shopped online on Amazon. In the south, the Wistron factory won special economic benefits to assemble Apple iPhones. India became the world’s biggest supplier of generic medicines and the Serum Institute of India became the world’s biggest vaccine maker. An Indian exchange now handles the world’s highest number of derivatives contracts.

Yet there were signs that India wasn’t hitting its full potential. Average GDP growth of 6.2% over 30 years has been lower than China’s 9.2% and even lagged Vietnam’s 6.7%. For years, Indians have been living shorter lives and are now earning less on average than people in smaller nations like Bangladesh.

Vast inequities developed. Researchers have found wealthier people in urban areas and from upper castes were taller in India, a sign of development favoring groups that were already advantaged. The percentage of women joining the workforce fell from 30.3% in 1991 to about 21% in 2019, according to data from the International Labor Organization. India’s government spent less than 2% of GDP on healthcare before the pandemic.

“Had the healthcare system not been so neglected for so long, India would have been prepared to face the Covid-19 crisis,” said Jean Dreze, the Belgian-born Indian economist and a lecturer at Delhi University. “Had India built a more robust social security system, the humanitarian toll of the crisis would not have been so catastrophic.”

Unlike the old guard in 1991, Modi has turned the economy more inward, focusing on self-reliance and homegrown companies. Despite championing free trade in global forums, he’s raised tariffs on goods including electronics and medical equipment, partly reflecting global trends.

Some of those decisions came back to haunt India when citizens struggled to import life-saving products like oxygen concentrators during the pandemic. Top scientists wrote to Modi, asking him to reverse protectionist duties imposed on key items needed to study the coronavirus and its variants including the delta one, which now threatens the globe.

After pledging to contribute to global vaccine programs, the Modi government slowed exports of Covid-19 shots, derailing the inoculation program of a World Health Organization-backed initiative.

“India’s ambition of being seen as a major player on the world stage has taken a substantial hit as the pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses in the capacity and competence of its government,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

The key question for global investors now is whether India will get old before Indians get rich. Netflix is counting on India for its next 100 million customers. Bezos is pouring billions of dollars — and even braving Indian courts — to battle India’s richest man Ambani for a slice of the only open retail market with more than a billion people.“The pandemic has set us back hugely, and we were already on a growth downswing when it happened,” said Indira Rajaraman, an economist and a former member of the Reserve Bank of India’s board. “Going forward it all depends on how cleverly we design the way we come out of these doldrums.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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soc90210-blog · 5 years

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WEEK 11: “‘This is Your Face on Meth’: The Punitive Spectacle of ‘White Trash’ in the Rural War on Drugs”, Linnemann & Wall (2013)

Week’s theme: Visual Sociology

Linnemann, T. & Wall, T. (2013). “‘This is Your Face on Meth’: The Punitive Spectacle of ‘White Trash’ in the Rural War on Drugs”. Theoretical Criminology, 17(3), 315–334.

This week’s theme of visual sociology finds its eroded teeth in Linnemann & Wall’s (2013) text entitled “‘This is your face on meth’: The punitive spectacle of ‘white trash’ in the rural war on drugs” — an article that deploys a sociological analytic to the mugshot-using anti-methamphetamine media campaign, “Faces of Meth” (FOM). Though more so within the niche of visual criminology, the authors situate this sensational campaign as a “pedagogical policing program” that works to curb meth use via graphic “before meth” and “after meth” images of the faces of white meth users (p. 317). It must be noted that the pair are by no means concerned with investigating the actual effectiveness of these fear-based deterrent endeavours, seeking instead to attend to how such mugshots are largely structured by a pre-existing social weariness contouring the “‘white trash figure” — one who embodies both the dominance and precariousness of whiteness as a social position. The graphic visual of scabbed over skin, hollowed out bones and decaying teeth weaponized, here, by rural America-based police departments (e.g. by deputy Brian King) is unpacked by the pair, cognizant of how a pedagogical policing rhetoric of “See what will happen if you use meth?” cuts across these mugshots. The criminalized individual, presented here as having undergone a visceral extreme meth makeover, becomes a commodified penal spectacle — one that people can enjoyably consume from the comforts of their own homes via news segments or safety ingest in their vehicles as they pass by shock-laden billboards showcasing before-versus-after meth mouth mugshots. Attention is herein allocated to problematizing the way in which such images almost become voyeuristic schadenfreude fed to spectators by news media and entertainment outlets (see: most Netflix documentaries, news headlines, Youtube trending pages) reimagining crime and punishment as eye candy that is appetizing the more chaotic and horrendous it is. Offered alongside the images on the FOM website — a program run by the Oregan-based Multnomah County Sheriff's Office that curates mug shots of individuals booked with a history of meth use for the purpose of detering potential users (particularly young children and teenagers) with graphic images of the decay seemingly caused by the drug herein — are testimonies speaking to the affective shock stemming from these scared-straight photographic tactics. Such a feeling of photo-induced fear rears its (meth-)head in the words of one high school student who divulged their disgust with those pictured, for they explained: “Showing us … that photo of those people that are major meth heads will make us kids not want to try that drug because, just looking at those people’s appearances is not how anyone would want to look like, or how they act either. I think that having this sort of thing really makes people see it and go ‘eewww, how nasty’ and taking them away from the thought of even thinking about trying it” Interestingly, the authors throw a logical wrench in the program’s calculated side-by-side placement of two mugshots done to create a illustrative cause and effect narrative that meth will lead to bodily destruction and decay. Here, Linneman and Wall specifically do so by questioning: 1) the durations between mugshots (pointing to the reality that many users’ chronic meth use for ranges from as little as three months to just over two years, effectively insinuating that the photos were purposefully selected to convey the zombie trope), as well as 2) the likelihood that those selected by FOM use meth exclusively, making it a questionable strategy at best to name these images the ‘faces of meth’ or the ‘face’ of any other drug for that matter. The article finds its greatest strength in what lies beyond the frame of the mugshot — in the racialized social commentary it seeks to re-perpetuate in the form of visual imagery centralizing the white, rural, downwardly mobile individual. With meth being dubbed the “white man’s crack”, Linnemann & Wall (2013) discuss how white users of meth are uniquely abjected and are fashioned into corporeal, and moral spectacles for the consumption of other citizens encouraged to recognize them as examples of socially disposable whites who failed to navigate society despite being bestowed with white privilege. FOM, thus, serves not only to humiliate them by voyeuristically putting them on display, but by dually arousing a vindictive response in white middle class spectators who feel a cognitive dissonance between their prosocial selves and their unkempt, rural, meth-consuming antisocial counterparts who are “wasting there lives away”. For Linnemann & Wall (2013), such a cognitive dissonance manifests itself in the form of the white middle class entity questioning “Why would people do this to themselves?” — read herein as “Why would these individuals defile their white bodies and gave up the esteemed value of white privilege that is not afforded to everyone?”. It is this anomisty-inducing notion of one throwing their racial advantage to the wayside — one that people of colour will never be able to enjoy — that seemingly justifies the individuals herein being made a corporeal and visual spectacle. At its heart, all of this speaks perfectly to the sheer strengths of visual sociology, for it showcases how images — by virtue of their ability to graphically show and not show — are rife with racial, socioeconomic, cultural meanings designed to exalt certain people at the expense of others, often in ways that are taken for granted. Whilst the graphic images of FOM does not relate specifically to my project on gentrification, it would be generative to think about how visual sociology can and should be incorporated into my research, particularly given the old but gold aphorism “A picture is worth a thousand words”. If I were to adopt such a methodological approach, it would take the form of either photo-voice analyses (providing participants with cameras so they may photograph places within their gentrifying neighbourhoods that they consider vital or architecturally sentimental), or the use of Google Maps to track how gentrification occurs over the course of several years. Ultimately, for such a week concerned with the topic of visual sociology, Linnemann & Wall’s (2013) article proves to be a theoretical manna from heaven — finding visual image in mugshots adorned with blistered skin and decayed-teeth paraded by police departments used herein by the theorists to analyze the exhibitionistic, pedagogical policing program that is FOM. Thus, the good: the authours produce a highly engaging analysis of such a sensationalized campaign that stretches our thinking to see how FOM is a racialized exemplar of the spectacle of crime and punishment in late modernity. The bad: Linnemann & Wall’s work itself cannot be not directly applied to my research on gentrification. The takeaway: a sociological analyses of photographs has the potential to be immensely rigorous should researchers challenge their aversion toward incorporating illustrative content and confront their tendency to orbit almost exclusively around texts, as the former is shot through with untapped theoretical potential that merits unravelling.

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alexander-mormont12 · 5 years

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TV shows that became unwatchable with age

Looper Staff

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, and sometimes, it turns out that the TV shows you used to love actually weren't worthy—and when we no longer see them through the warped lens of memory, it becomes clear that they don't stand up. Not all television is built to last, and here are a few old shows that have served their purpose and should never be rerun again.

Doctor Who

Before you get too upset, let's be clear: we're talking about the original, pre-modern version of Doctor Who. While much of the series' continuity and long-running themes were established during the days of Hartnell, Baker, and McCoy, it's difficult to sit through a three- or four-hour story arc with rubber monsters and a floundering Doctor. Sure, some of it has a bit of value for the ridiculous alien costumes alone, but for viewers accustomed to modern production values during an era in which television has risen to an art form, the camp and general plot-holery make the show hard to endure. Vintage Who barely stands up against Star Trek, and that's some serious camp. Just sit down and watch "Time and the Rani." If you make it out alive, you've probably used up one of your regenerations.

Daria

Many kids of the '90s look back on their grungy years of sarcastic indifference with a bit of regret, but at the time, nothing was cooler than casual nihilism. Emblematic of that attitude was Daria, the Beavis and Butthead spinoff that focused on the duo's smart, seemingly utterly indifferent classmate. At the time, it was relatable animation for people who were stuck between being kids and being adults. In retrospect, we know that Daria's unrelenting 'tude was an obstacle to valuable life experiences, and it can be hard to watch today—not to mention that every other character in the show is obviously a terribly broad caricature of high school stereotypes. And it seemed so real at the time.

Scrubs

At its best, Scrubs offered an entertaining comedy counterpoint to the glut of medical dramas on television. And there was even a time when Zach Braff's Dr. John Dorian was a sympathetic character whose everyday trials and heart of bronze was kinda worth watching… but as the show progressed, Dorian became less and less likable—and less insightful during his endless monologues. Finally, Braff left the show partway through the ninth season, leaving it to limp awkwardly to an anticlimactic conclusion.

Full House

If you were like most kids in the late '80s, you were probably parked in front of ABC's family-friendly TGIF block every Friday night. And your parents probably hated every second of it, because a little bit of Steve Urkel's insatiable lust for cheese goes a really, really long way—and Full House's saccharine morality and terrible puns were always hard to stomach. A hundred terrible catchphrases later, we're reminded just how awkward and unfunny the original show was, especially now that the series' continuation, Fuller House, has been given a second season on Netflix.

Married... with Children

Pushing against the borders of television decency was a pretty risky thing to do back in the days of Married… with Children, and no one pushed harder than Fox's original hit sitcom. That level of borderline-repulsive sass was something different in the '80s and '90s, but watching the exploits of Al Bundy now, it's clear that the program was pretty much an equal mix of embarrassingly easy fat jokes and sex jokes… and nothing else. Seeing what Ed O'Neill and Katey Sagal are truly capable of as actors just makes the broad, lowbrow junk of Married more embarrassing to watch. While it has a place in TV history, it should probably just stay there.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

It's really hard to imagine a time when Hercules was seriously considered a watchable TV show, but six seasons can't be wrong. While the sword-and-sorcery adventure was one of the more popular syndicated TV shows of its era, its villain-of-the-week formula, grating soundtrack, and widespread overacting haven't withstood the test of time. TV audiences have come to expect a sense of continuity in a multi-season TV show, but Hercules completely ignored the linear flow of time and just did whatever, whenever, including rewriting the characters' own stories multiple times without any regard for the past. Once you have Herc witnessing the birth of Jesus, you've gone too far. At least we had Xena…and who needs a plot when you have Lucy Lawless?

Rugrats

It may be sacrilege to disparage any classic Nicktoon, but a show that once seemed like a clever look at the world through the eyes of infants has lost a lot of its charm—not least because it's hard to look past the constant baby talk and the grossly negligent parents. Angela never gets the discipline she needs to straighten out, everyone just keeps on having more babies, and anyone could have guessed that Chuckie would still be just as awkward in the show's unnecessary continuation, All Grown Up! Until someone comes along to animate the characters as balding, overweight 30-somethings struggling with depression and mortgages, we should probably just stick with Doug.

How I Met Your Mother

It's a sitcom about a dad who keeps his kids on a couch for nine years while he tells them, in great detail, about all of his greatest sexual conquests. The show's titular question was barely even answered by the end of the series, and in retrospect, the circuitous non-conclusion to the story fatally undermines How I Met Your Mother's replay value. (The forced in-jokes and cloying humor don't help, either.) Now that the nine-year nightmare's spell has been broken, we can live our lives again. Avoid the reruns; go forth and be free.

Highlander: The Series

Although the production value of Highlander: The Series was widely praised by critics at the time, television fantasy has come a long way since the 1990s. In an age when HBO spends as much as $10 million per episode to create Game of Thrones and audiences are used to seeing big screen quality on their TVs, the CBS show based on the film of the same name now looks terribly dated—and its problems go deeper than aesthetics. What at that time seemed like a sprawling epic has revealed itself as little more than a series of formulaic hourlong confrontations, pitting Duncan MacLeod (clansman and pupil of his movie namesake Connor) against one disposable immortal after another. Worse still, British actor Adrian Paul's performance is nowhere near the bar established by Christopher Lambert in the 1986 movie, lacking the rough edges and cool wit of the original Highlander.

The A-Team

The dramatic increase in TV production budgets over recent years has led to audiences expecting a certain amount of realism, and this is especially true when it comes to violence. As series like The Walking Dead continue to push boundaries, shows made in the days before a man could reduce another man's head to bloody mush with a baseball bat on primetime television begin to look awfully tame. The A-Team falls under this umbrella, a show on which thousands of mags of ammo are used on a weekly basis and remarkably, nobody ever dies. The longer the show went, the more ridiculous it became, getting to the point that a helicopter crashing into a mountainside and falling to the ground in a fireball caused little more than a scratch. Re-watching The A-Team today is guaranteed to awaken a bloodlust that you probably didn't know you had.

Saved by the Bell

While '90s spinoffs Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class have always been nigh-on unwatchable, the original show was once considered essential children's television. Digging out the NBC high school sitcom for your kids to watch today isn't advisable, however, as many of the lessons are painfully dated. The episode "The Mamas and the Papas" makes for particularly cringeworthy viewing, pairing the kids up in an effort to teach them about married life. The tone of the episode is summed up by A.C. Slater's definition of a "women's movement" (when she puts on something cute and moves into the kitchen). It also becomes apparent over the course of the show's four seasons that Zack Morris has a severe gambling problem, with every other episode involving Preppy making some kind of bet at the expense of his friends.

Xena: Warrior Princess

New Zealand-made cult series Xena: Warrior Princess is mainly remembered for the way it challenged female stereotypes and the discussions that raged over its supposedly lesbian subtext, though two aspects of the campy classic that largely escaped criticism at the time were its questionable production values and clumsy directing. This was always a show that asked you to suspend your belief for its duration, but watching it now, it's hard not to notice the multitude of reused extras and recycled sets. The tonal shifts also take some readjusting, with moments of dark violence randomly giving way to full-on musical numbers that make less sense than the show's version of ancient Greece, which is inexplicably rife with American slang. While Aphrodite's Valley-girl persona used to feel like a welcome quirk in a show built around them, in reality it's just one of the many things about Xena that give it a distinctive B-movie feel.

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writeforsoreeyes · 6 years

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This Month’s Reads: January

In an effort to remember more of what I read, I’ve decided to track properly this year and record my thoughts in brief. Thus, here are This Month’s Reads.

highlights: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, The Ghost Bride, They Both Die at the End, and a lot of comics

[image description: the covers for the books listed below]

Heart of Gold vol 1 (Eli Baum & Viv Tanner) Dunant is a faith healer. Ionel is a pianist losing his sight. Every week Ionel attends Mass hoping to be cured, but Dunant turns him away. Meanwhile, a series of strange deaths casts a shadow over this gorgeously illustrated tale.

While not much especially romantic occurs, our two leads are clearly leaning on the edge of something. Ionel is intrigued by the priest, both due to his own needs and Dunant’s lonely aura. Dunant confesses his innermost doubts to Ionel inadvertently, leading to some interesting discussions of faith. Those discussions and the art’s tender beauty were the highlights for me. The pacing was slow for my tastes and some scenes felt like they could’ve been edited or cut to avoid repetition.

I Hear the Sunspot vol 1-3 (Yuki Fumino, translator: Stephen Kohler)/ A brash college student named Taichi meets fellow student Kouhei by chance. Kouhei’s good looks attract attention, but he feels isolated due to his hearing loss. Taichi begins taking notes for Kouhei in exchange for lunch and a slow burn romance ensues.

This is one of my favorite manga from recent years, so I always reread the previous volumes when a new one comes out. Truly, the series improves with each volume. With the expanding cast, the mangaka explores different perspectives on and experiences with deafness. Volume 3 introduces Ryu, who is Deaf and lives life quite happily without hearing-- in contrast to Kouhei, who fears losing his remaining hearing.

[image description: the covers for the books listed below]

Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) I read Little Women for the first time during a young adult literature class in college. I must confess that I remembered very little of the plot, so reading it again was like starting entirely new. I forgot how funny it can be! The moral lessons for the most part still apply today, though I disagreed somewhat with a few of them.

The most intriguing and frustrating thing for me is Jo March, who reads to me as very much queer, though what flavor is debatable. My personal interpretation (and I’ll admit that I’m projecting) is that Jo is transmasculine and somewhere on the ace spectrum. And, personally, I believe the author was some flavor of queer as well.

Only the Ring Finger Knows (Satoru Kannagi & Hotaru Odagiri, translator: Sachiko Sato) This month’s BL LookBack!

Versailles of the Dead vol 1 (Kumiko Suekane, translator: Jocelyne Allen) I know very little about French history, so I have no idea how faithful this tale is to actual events. However, I don’t think the actual Marie Antoinette was her twin brother, possibly possessed by a demon. Likewise, I’m quite certain there were no zombies rampaging France.

Usually zombie stories and historical dramas don’t interest me. But I have a weakness for crossdressing plots, despite them usually being problematic. Surprisingly, this registered fairly low on the problematic scale-- so far. And while I wasn’t exactly riveted, it was compelling enough to persuade me to preorder the second volume. I hope this receives an anime adaptation because it could be quite spooky under the right director.

Coyote vol 1 (Ranmaru Zariya, translator: Christine Dashiell) It took me several attempts to finish this BL because the first chapter put me off. As expected of “werewolf in heat” erotica, there’s some dubious consent issues. However, once I finally got past that first chapter, the dramatic plot lured me in.

Werewolves are half-forgotten by the general populace, but certain groups still hold a grudge against them-- including the Galland mafia family, which our human lead “Marleen” is set to take over soon despite personally having no issue with werewolves. Meanwhile, our werewolf lead Coyote accepts a job to kill the Galland heir, not realizing it’s the very man he’s fallen in love with. Overall, the story has its fair share of objectionable issues, but I’m compelled enough to keep reading for now.

[image description: the covers for the books listed below]

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (Michelle McNamara) I think that if a person were going to only read one true crime book ever, this one would be a good pick. The actual true crime element of the book is great. The writer excels at bringing the people to life-- the victims, the cops, the witnesses, even the unknown killer. She has a real knack for adding just enough evocative detail to paint a picture without sensationalizing.

However, what I find most compelling is how thoughtfully she examines her own motivations and actions-- and thus those of the reader as well. What is it about true crime that attracts people? And how can we pick apart these real life tragedies while respecting human life?

The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang) Frances is a seamstress working hard for a pittance and dreaming of grander things. Her designs catch the attention of Prince Sebastian, who is in need of both a dressmaker and a secretkeeper. The two become friends, often making a splash around town with Sebastian dressed up as the glamorous Lady Crystallia. However, some secrets can’t be kept forever.

This comic has been on my to-read list for a while based solely on the cute cover and title. It was indeed cute (I especially loved the comedic off-model panels) but the story went deeper and was more rewarding than I anticipated. However, content warning for a character being outed in a humiliating manner; it’s more intense than you might expect for comic like this.

Life Outside the Circle (H-P Lehkonen) Artist Sami leaves big city Helsinki for remote, rural Finland. There he meets his new neighbor Juha and Juha’s young daughter Maiju. Culture shock and romance ensues.

I had the good fortune to meet the cartoonist at TCAF 2018. I enjoyed the book I picked up from him there, as well as the queer Finnish comics panel he moderated. So I figured I’d check out more of his work and he didn’t disappoint-- this comic had plenty of genuine humor, heart-warming moments, and realistic angst. I especially appreciate the blasé approach to Sami being transgender; it’s just one of his traits and while it does influence some things in the story, overall it’s not that important.

The Ghost Bride (Yangsze Choo) An early contender for favorite book of 2019 appears! This book has it all: romance, spooky thrills, adventures in other realms, wit, plenty of food, and an upcoming Netflix miniseries!

Our hero is Li Lan, who has attracted the unwanted romantic attention of local rich boy Lim Tian Ching. Not only is he rude and selfish, he’s also dead! As Li Lan struggles to ward off Lim Tian Ching’s invasive spirit, she becomes more and more drawn into the world of the ghosts-- as well as the secrets of the Lim family and her own. I loved all the rich detail, both for the real life historical setting and the fantasy settings. Highly recommended and I’m very excited for the TV series as well.

[image description: the covers for the books listed below]

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun vol 10 (Izumi Tsubaki, translator: Leighann Harvey) Another volume of Nozaki-kun, another plea from me for another season of the anime, please! Not to say that the manga isn’t good-- it’s great-- but this is a case of the anime being better, in my opinion.

Anyway, the rom-com misadventures of Nozaki, Chiyo, and the crew continues. Relationship development continues to be slow, which is no issue for me since that’s hardly what I’m reading for. (That said, Kashima and Hori seem like they might be on the verge of becoming a couple? Maybe?) Since I read Nozaki as aroace, I’m pleased to report that he remains as aroace-seeming as ever. Poor Chiyo, however, is crushing on him harder than before, to the extent that it’s starting to become kind of creepy.

The Other Dress (Emmy Engberts) This month’s transreading!

They Both Die at the End (Adam Silvera) I’m well aware that I’m in the minority here, but I actually enjoy reading major character death when it’s done well. “Enjoy” might be the wrong word; what I mean to say is that I appreciate the experience of being moved so powerfully by a work of fiction.

My main concern going into They Both Die at the End was that the deaths would feel cheap. After we get to know the main characters (who are young and healthy) so well and they’ve been through so much together, what kind of death could possibly feel authentic and “worth it” to the reader? I won’t spoil the end for anyone, but I thought the author came through strongly. Thoughtful and emotional with intriguing world building.

#this month's reads

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anthonybialy · 6 years

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Making, Faking History With Trump

We've never had a president this bad, claim people who don't remember what they had for lunch. I blame social media for three-second attention spans like I do for everything else, including Bud Light ads. Donald Trump's historical status as a villain is apparently not even something worth debating. Like everything else these days, disagreeing with liberals makes you monstrous. I'm glad we had this discussion.

It's easier to accuse the executive bête noire of bragging about ignorance if you're ignoring how he's an ordinary oaf. He's supposedly destroying the nation with his broad condemnations and clumsy gestures, which means we have to circumvent the Constitution to thwart him.

Those who think being forced to buy crummy insurance embodies American values uncannily found a new excuse for violating national boundaries. It's good they're at least bothering to pretend to care about them. The refusal to obey the nation's rulebook makes them just like him. That common ground would be more reassuring if it didn't mean so many were unable to look longer than a Netflix binge into the past.

Those who think history is unique to this moment claim that it's Trump who's knows nothing. To be fair, their charge is vaguely accurate in its way. Trying to enact prosperity through tariffs that were proven to cause agony early last century may not break the pattern this time. But his doltishness doesn't mean that his critics know what they're saying or doing. Both sides can be simultaneously wrong, as we've been trying to explain since the last presidential election gave us the best example ever.

Let's not pretend we're special. Our most self-righteous fellow citizens are pretending these are extraordinary times for the worst reasons. Life seems awfully comfortable under a brutal regime that shoves dissenters into camps. The oppressed get to wear their handmaid's costumes while never explaining why it’s only cosplay.

All this fainting in the name of personal victimhood makes them feel important, and what else is a president for than to make a difference in the lives of individuals? The resistance struggles for a noble cause just like all those subjects of folk songs from yesteryear. I didn't add that hippie junk to my SiriusXM favorites.

First, you need a president worth resisting. Yes, the present guy is a far better candidate to yell at than to hold the job. But you can take a few shifts off to spend time with your family, or at least try to start one. Far too many resistance loners look for tendencies to fit what they've already concluded. Those fitting facts into shaky theories are the same people who think they're pro-science.

I'm just now outraged how children are separated from parents and border agents use teargas. These abuses of power are so horrific that they're just like the ones committed during the previous presidency. It's fun to get journalistic updates from six years ago following the media's sabbatical. You try being critical of Barack Obama's perfection if you're so unbiased.

The urgent need for panic protocol coincidentally justifies freaking out, according to freak-outers. Self-righteous behavior is part of the rescue operation. Acting like a lunatic is not merely justified if the president is about to make America the Fourth Reich: it's a moral imperative to draw attention to his monstrous crimes by throwing the most obnoxious fit possible. Be as unparalleled as his noxious term.

Don't treat him as special. For one, it's exactly what he wants. You'd think people who spend every waking moment thinking of how the president personally offends them would have gained some insight into his personality. Trump's only skill is making his enemies fume like the true troll he is. He's just a fame-seeking charlatan who makes up principles as he goes along based on whatever he thinks will make him popular. Hmmm: that doesn't sound like he has integrity at all. Still, flipping out that a politician is scuzzy gives the supposed outsider president too much credit.

Those who never have downtime expect the rest of us to be impressed by commitment to the cause. Constantly remaining at Threat Level Midnight explains why they always need naps. It's exhausting pretending this crude presidency is unprecedented, just like it's arrogant to think the Founders didn't account for a vainglorious buffoon.

Note how contemporary shriekers were big fans of the pinko cipher who preceded the incumbent yet didn't fret about the violation of standards. The same ones who've concluded the Bill of Rights is flawed because we're allowed to have modern guns and use hate speech think we must burn the document in order to save it. When you don't know what happened before, everything seems like an emergency now.

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drinkinginformation2018 · 6 years

Text

Tasting Room By Lot18 Reviews

Lot 18 Tasting Room bad wine.

It has always been my notion that an enterprise whose dreams are to satisfy their client’s needs, to serve their patron’s social interests, and to function their enterprise in an honest, moral, and open manner was sure to be greater a success than the ones which do no longer.

Indeed, there are many studies, now not to say real-global examples of this being the case.In the instant case, we have a business, which does no longer aspire to these desires.

In reality, every conversation to us coming from Lot18/Tasting Room thus far genuinely shows that their enterprise version is wholly committed to garnering the maximum profits feasible, with none regard to customer needs, pursuits, and without a lot notion given to moral issues, openness or honesty.

First, let me begin via declaring factually that I have made several attempts, with the aid of various way, to cancel my Tasting Room Wine Club Reviews. That this has been admitted to using the agency should be evidence enough that something of their enterprise operation is amiss. However, that isn't all that is wrong.

The very day I acquired the notice through electronic mail from Lot18 indicating that my ‘cargo changed into prepared’ become the very same day I sent another electronic mail soliciting for cancellation of my club. I had previously despatched an electronic mail request, as recounted by their workforce: (email photograph connected)

Tasting Room by Lot18 Wine club reviews

With all the wine clubs obtainable it could be hard to come to a decision. Happily, Wine Turtle is right here that will help you wade through the many options and find the membership it's first-rate for you.

What each club has it is selling points, and those things that detract from it, however, as with most things, human beings can also disagree on which might be the attractive and unattractive capabilities of a club.

We're going via the large golf equipment and giving you an in-depth appearance so you can locate the quality membership for you whether you are ordering for yourself or as a present.

Tasting Room with the aid of Lot18 is a wine membership this is pretty tons unbeatable irrespective of what you are searching out in the association - from the start of the experience thru the deliveries.

The club starts by using sending the member a small box with six mini bottles of wine. The wines on this first shipment cowl a broad spectrum of patterns, mouth feels aromas and flavors.

Individuals flavor alongside an online video, following easy instructions. Contributors click their alternatives, and a profile of their possibilities is built and used to devise their shipments each month.

About Tasting Room by way of Lot 18 reviews

Tasting Room by way of Lot18 makes a specialty of excessive first-rate wine that contributors will like primarily based on their tasting profile. Four instances a year they receive twelve individual bottles decided on for the member.

The wines are excessively high, possibly well worth more than the in step with bottle breakdown. They recognize wine and palettes and also offer a few terrific education.

Tasting Room with the aid of Lot 18 – Wine Subscription reviews

A few days in the past I posted about how the Tasting Room by Lot 18 extended the states that they deliver to for their wine subscriptions. I used to be SO enthusiastic about their growth because Pennsylvania turned into on the list! I suppose I signed up for this subscription inside minutes of announcing the brand new nation listing!

youtube

A bit history on how the Tasting Room works:

You sign up and get a Tasting box (what I’m reviewing). It fees $nine.95 with free shipping.

You acquire six mini wine bottles to taste and supply feedback on. (FYI this box ships u.s.a.and you should sign for it).

You rate the wines on their web page, and that they customize wine choices for you.

In a few weeks, they deliver you a case of 12 wines (6 distinctive forms of 2 bottles every) based on your wine profile. This primary case is $84.99 with free shipping – $7.08 a bottle. (This pricing is a 50% off bargain from the same old rate).

In three months your subsequent case ships at the same old charge of $149.99 plus $19.ninety-nine transport. ($14.16 a bottle).

you may usually cancel every time – just electronic mail or name.

First-class Wine membership transport carrier: Tasting Room with the aid of Lot18

Melissa Kay

In vino veritas – Latin, for, “In wine, there is a reality." And the fact is instructed, whether or not we are eating a stinky bite of cheese, a piping-hot dish of spaghetti carbonara, or in maximum instances, anything's in the fridge, we need a respectable glass (or plastic cup) of wine to go along with it.

We're not wine snobs, but we want a decent lens to percentage with pals. Here's every other little bit of truth: it is first-class to examine at the least a bit of which wines pair high-quality with our favorite foods.

Would not it make you feel higher to have even just a little extra knowledge approximately wine? K, but wherein to begin? This is wherein Tasting Room comes in.

Too many journeys to the liquor save, and you will begin to seem a little Charlie Sheen-ish. It is why wine clubs or subscription offerings have emerged as any such fantastic alternative.

At the same time as there is a gaggle of options online, there may be no question as to that is my favorite. Enhance a glass to Tasting Room by using Lot18.

Based in 2013, Tasting Room stands out from the percent – first and main because it is not a “club" as all of the others are. Tasting Room is a customized service catered in your precise alternatives, and you honestly get to flavor wine that will help you decide which grape sorts, patterns, and areas you like.

No other online carrier lets you flavor first. At the same time as different clubs ship you the wines they suppose you may need, handiest Tasting Room is going the extra mile to study – and ship you – wines you will love. It's basically like Netflix for wine.

WSJ Wine club: offers two primary plans: their Discovery membership at $149.ninety nine for 12 wines, or their gold standard club at $239 for a case of tiny-production releases. There seems to be only one shipping alternative of 12 bottles introduced quarterly.

#winetasting #tastey food #drinking info

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etechwire-blog · 6 years

Text

Spider-Man PS4 release date, news and features

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/spider-man-ps4-release-date-news-and-features/

Spider-Man PS4 release date, news and features

Games based on superheros have a pretty patchy history. Before Rocksteady blew us all away with the Batman Arkham games, superhero titles usually felt like cheap experiences rushed out to cash in on fan excitement surrounding an accompanying movie.

The exception was Spider-Man 2, a Treyarch-developed tie in to the movie of the same name, which, for the first time, put us into the shoes of the legendary web-slinger in a fully open-world New York.

With such an amazing legacy to live up to, who could blame us for being excited when at E3 2016 Sony announced a new Spider-Man game was in development from Insomniac Games, the development studio behind the Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Sunset Overdrive and Spyro the Dragon games?

[Update: E3 2018 and the PlayStation Showcase brought us some brand new Spider-Man footage just a few months ahead of the game’s release. The footage is a who’s who of villains, with Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, Vulture, and Mr Negative all making appearances to really punish Spider-Man. Not only does the footage give us a good look at combat, it really showcases the traversal mechanics. Spidey moves fluidly both on foot and through the air. It’s clear that the game is very cinematic, moving fluidly between gameplay and cutscenes. Watch it for yourself below:]

Cut to the chase

What is it? A new Spiderman game from the studio behind Ratchet and Clank and Spyro the Dragon series

When’s it out? September 7 2018

What can I play it on? PS4

Spider-Man PS4 Trailers

The most recent trailer came with the announcement of Spider-Man’s release date. You can watch for yourself below:

Paris Games Week in 2017 saw another trailer and it gave us a much better look at the game’s story than we’ve ever seen before. Giving us our first look at Peter Parker without the Spider-Man costume and showing well-known characters like Mary Jane, King Pin and even Miles Morales it’s well worth a watch. You can see it for yourself below:

At E3 2017 Sony showed off a second trailer for the game, which gives us a more in-depth look at the game’s combat and story.

At the previous year’s E3 Sony announced the game with an impressive reveal trailer. Features shown off in this first trailer include a city with internal, as well as external, areas to explore, vehicle-based missions (for Spidey’s enemies, not the man himself, thank god), and a whole load of web-based fighting.

Spider-Man release date

Sony has now confirmed that Spider-Man for PS4 will be released on September 7 2018.

Spider-Man PS4 Features

Read on for the few details that have been released so far.

Development is coming on well

Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games has posted an update on the current state of the game to Twitter to bring in 2018. It’s a small update, but a sweet one, as it tells excited players that the game is now far enough into development that it’s being tested by the whole studio. This is pretty promising given the only release date we have for the game so far is 2018.

Day 2 of a studio-wide #SpiderManPS4 playtest is underway. Yes, this is our official job! #gamedev pic.twitter.com/gVBpQtHtoVJanuary 5, 2018

Ratchet and Clank Engine

Just after E3 2016 Insomniac confirmed that the game would be running on the same engine as the recently-released Ratchet and Clank remake for the PS4.

The news was confirmed by the official Insomniac Games twitter account, although it also stated that the development team has been iterating on the engine since.

The PS4 version of Ratchet and Clank is one of the console’s best looking titles, so we think its engine being used to power the new Spider-Man game is no bad thing.

Heh, Rachel. We always iterate our engine between games. We don’t have more than one though.June 27, 2016

Not based on Spider-Man: Homecoming

Although the game being released this year coincides nicely with the return of Spidey to the big screen with Spider-Man: Homecoming, the game’s creative director, Bryan Intihar, has confirmed that the game will not be tied into the movie.

The news was confirmed in a post on the official US PlayStation blog which said that, “Nope, this isn’t the same Spider-Man you’ve met before, nor is our game based on the upcoming movie.”

While it’s a shame that we won’t be web-slinging through the streets of NYC as Tom Holland, we can’t help but think this has the potential to be a good thing for the game, as its developers will be free to forge their own path without having to stick to the plot, characters, and themes of the movie.

In a recent behind-the-scenes look at the game shown at D23, Insomniac said that the game will actually be more inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, featuring an older, 23 year old hero.

A more seasoned Peter Parker

In the same blog post, Intihar said that the game will feature “a more seasoned Peter Parker who’s more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City.”

At this year’s D23 it was revealed that in this game Peter would be 23 years old and more experienced as Spider-Man.

Rather than sitting through yet another Spidey origins story, we’re going to jump right into the fun gameplay stuff. According to Insomniac, the game will more fully explore how Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s worlds collide in an attempt to tell a human story as well as a superhero story.

While it’s always satisfying to see the downtrodden nerd get blessed with super-powers, this isn’t necessarily fun from a gameplay perspective.

Hopefully this direction will allow players to jump right in with a fully powered-up superhero, and get to the good stuff right away.

So what is the story?

In the trailer shown at Paris Games Week 2017 we got our best look at the game’s story yet. Though the game is separate from the movie universe, the Peter Parker in the trailer does look remarkably like Tom Holland. It seems that William Fisk (or Kingpin as he’s more well-known as) is locked up, resulting in less crime and a Peter more at ease with his life.

Suddenly, a new villainous faction run by Mr Negative appears to cause problems while Norman Osborn makes a play for the Mayor’s office. The trailer also gives us a glimpse of Aunt May and a redhead who we assume must be Mary Jane.

Miles mystery

Interestingly, Miles Morales appears to play a much larger role than we initially thought given that Peter introduces him to Aunt May and tells her he’ll be helping out. Miles Morales is also someone who takes up the role of Spider-Man in the comics universe so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of help he offers Peter. Certainly his appearance suggests that this Spider-Man game will be breaking some new story ground.

An open world

We know this game is going to feature an open world and we really can’t wait to swing around it. One of the most satisfying things about previous open world Spider-Man games was being able to see New York from the web slinger’s point of view and we’re looking forward to seeing what the latest gaming engines can do here.

According to Insomniac this is the biggest game map they’ve created and will be even bigger than their Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive map, Sunset City.

Quick-time events

From the trailer shown at E3 2017 it looks as though the game will make use of quick-time events for its more action-packed moments. We’re not fans of how these can take away control from the player, but we won’t know the effect for sure until we try out the game for ourselves.

What we want to see

With so little solid information released about the game, we can’t help but speculate as to what direction Spider-Man’s first PS4 outing might take. None of this is in any way confirmed, but we’d love to see these features make their way into the new game.

A friendly Spider-Man

Spider-Man has always been one of Marvel’s lighter-hearted heroes. He’s a quippy, funny, teenager who’s almost, almost, more concerned about his grades than the fate of the world.

While past games and movies have included gun-toting villains, we hope the new game doesn’t stray too close to the real world. We want colourful bad-guys with bombastic plans, not the gritty realism of the Nolan Batman films.

This isn’t an excuse to shy away from having an impactful story, but if it could stop short of a Logan-esque bleak-fest then we’d be very grateful.

A neighbourhood Spider-Man

Related to the previous point is that we’d like to see Spider-Man stay true to his roots as a neighborhood superhero, rather than the more globe-trotting heroes seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As far as we’re concerned, the Spider-Man 2 game was at its best when Parker was doing something as simple as retrieving a child’s balloon. He’s a character that’s motivated by trying to clean up the city he loves, rather than grander ambitions like trying to save the world.

We’re reassured that the game won’t be related to the Homecoming film which seems to tie Spidey more into the wider Marvel Universe, and hopefully this will mean that Insomniac are free to focus on the New York setting rather than worrying about the rest of the Avengers.

A wide cast of supporting characters

Not being related to the movie should also allow Insomniac to explore Spider-Man’s ecclectic cast of villains, which range from the Sinister Six, to Venom, Doctor Octopus and Kingpin.

However, with Disney owning the rights to most of the Marvel Universe and Sony owning the rights to Spider-Man’s corner of it, it’s difficult to know exactly how much of the Marvel IP Insomiac has access to.

There has been a lot of crossover between Spider-Man and Daredevil in the comics, with Peter Parker even donning Daredevil’s suit to act as a decoy on one occasion, but with the Daredevil license currently being used by Netflix for an original series it’s not clear whether the character is up for grabs in the game.

There are lots of unknowns at this point, but it’s definitely a case of ‘the more the merrier’ when it comes to Spider-Man’s supporting cast.

E3 is the world’s largest exhibition for the games industry, stuffed full of the latest and greatest games and gaming hardware. TechRadar will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated E3 2018 hub to see all the latest news from the show.

#date #features #news #PS4 #release #SpiderMan

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monkeyandelf · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Buzz News from Monkey & Elf |

New Post has been published on https://www.monkeyandelf.com/spider-man-ps4-release-date-news-and-features/

Spider-Man PS4 release date, news and features

Update: At the PlayStation Experience this year Insomniac Games showcased a video that explains what Spider-Man means to the studio and what players can expect from the game's villains.

A large chunk of the video focuses on the Jekyll and Hyde-inspired villain Martin Li/Mr Negative who will be Spider-Man's central foe in the game. You can watch this video for yourself below:

Read on to see all the latest news from the game.

Original article continues below…

The exception was Spider-Man 2, a Treyarch-developed tie in to the movie of the same name, which for the first time put us into the shoes of the legendary web-slinger in a fully open-world New York.

Cut to the chase

What is it? A new Spiderman game from the studio behind Ratchet and Clank and Spyro the Dragon series

When’s it out? 2018

What can I play it on? PS4

Spider-Man PS4 Trailers

The most recent trailer for the game was shown at Paris Games Week in 2017 and it gave us a much better look at the game's story than we've ever seen before. Giving us our first look at Peter Parker without the Spider-Man costume and showing well-known characters like Mary Jane, King Pin and even Miles Morales it's well worth a watch. You can see it for yourself below:

At E3 2017 Sony showed off a second trailer for the game, which gives us a more in-depth look at the game's combat and story.

At the previous year's E3 Sony announced the game with an impressive reveal trailer. Features shown off in this first trailer include a city with internal, as well as external, areas to explore, vehicle-based missions (for Spidey’s enemies, not the man himself, thank god), and a whole load of web-based fighting.

Spider-Man release date

An official release date is yet to be confirmed but at the very least we know we're not going to see this game until 2018.

Spider-Man PS4 Features

At the moment, details on the new game are thin on the ground, with both Insomniac and Sony remaining tight-lipped on many of the game’s key details. Read on for the few details that have been released so far.

Ratchet and Clank Engine

Just after E3 2016 Insomniac confirmed that the game would be running on the same engine as the recently-released Ratchet and Clank remake for the PS4.

The news was confirmed by the official Insomniac Games twitter account, although it also stated that the development team has been iterating on the engine since.

The PS4 version of Ratchet and Clank is one of the console’s best looking titles, so we think its engine being used to power the new Spider-Man game is no bad thing.

Not based on Spider-Man: Homecoming

The news was confirmed in a post on the official US PlayStation blog which said that, “Nope, this isn’t the same Spider-Man you’ve met before, nor is our game based on the upcoming movie.”

In a recent behind-the-scenes look at the game shown at D23, Insomniac said that the game will actually be more inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, featuring an older, 23 year old hero.

A more seasoned Peter Parker

In the same blog post, Intihar said that the game will feature “a more seasoned Peter Parker who’s more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City.”

At this year's D23 it was revealed that in this game Peter would be 23 years old and more experienced as Spider-Man.

Rather than sitting through yet another Spidey origins story, we're going to jump right into the fun gameplay stuff. According to Insomniac, the game will more fully explore how Peter Parker and Spider-Man's worlds collide in an attempt to tell a human story as well as a superhero story.

While it’s always satisfying to see the downtrodden nerd get blessed with super-powers, this isn’t necessarily fun from a gameplay perspective.

Hopefully this direction will allow players to jump right in with a fully powered-up superhero, and get to the good stuff right away.

So what is the story?

In the trailer shown at Paris Games Week 2017 we got our best look at the game's story yet. Though the game is separate from the movie universe, the Peter Parker in the trailer does look remarkably like Tom Holland. It seems that William Fisk (or Kingpin as he's more well-known as) is locked up, resulting in less crime and a Peter more at ease with his life.

Suddenly, a new villainous faction run by Mr Negative appears to cause problems while Norman Osborn makes a play for the Mayor's office. The trailer also gives us a glimpse of Aunt May and a redhead who we assume must be Mary Jane.

Miles mystery

Interestingly, Miles Morales appears to play a much larger role than we initially thought given that Peter introduces him to Aunt May and tells her he'll be helping out. Miles Morales is also someone who takes up the role of Spider-Man in the comics universe so it'll be interesting to see what kind of help he offers Peter. Certainly his appearance suggests that this Spider-Man game will be breaking some new story ground.

An open world

We know this game is going to feature an open world and we really can't wait to swing around it. One of the most satisfying things about previous open world Spider-Man games was being able to see New York from the web slinger's point of view and we're looking forward to seeing what the latest gaming engines can do here.

According to Insomniac this is the biggest game map they've created and will be even bigger than their Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive map, Sunset City.

Quick-time events

From the trailer shown at E3 2017 it looks as though the game will make use of quick-time events for its more action-packed moments. We're not fans of how these can take away control from the player, but we won't know the effect for sure until we try out the game for ourselves.

What we want to see

A friendly Spider-Man

Spider-Man has always been one of Marvel’s lighter-hearted heroes. He’s a quippy, funny, teenager who’s almost, almost, more concerned about his grades than the fate of the world.

This isn’t an excuse to shy away from having an impactful story, but if it could stop short of a Logan-esque bleak-fest then we’d be very grateful.

A neighbourhood Spider-Man

A wide cast of supporting characters

Not being related to the movie should also allow Insomniac to explore Spider-Man’s ecclectic cast of villains, which range from the Sinister Six, to Venom, Doctor Octopus and Kingpin.

There are lots of unknowns at this point, but it’s definitely a case of ‘the more the merrier’ when it comes to Spider-Man’s supporting cast.

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