#review pt 1

[booksanstime]

Bigolas Dickolas and the Time War

The other day I was feeling rather out of it, so I decided to pick some media to immerse myself in. Some media to make me feel something sharp and intense, to get catharsis. I landed around reading a few books, all I will get to talking about in due time, but I surprisingly started with the book I didn’t initially plan on reading. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I will start with giving a short review on the book that is spoiler free and then go more into detail on my actual feelings. Spoiler Free Review- Nothing. I really can’t say much. It made me cry, it made me look up quite a few things, and after I was done reading it I was blown away, but I truly feel no information is the best way to go in. For those who want some idea of what you’re getting yourself into, I will say to just read the synopsis on the back of the book, but not the reviews, and be prepared for a possibly challenging read(it can be verbose). The back of the book reads: “In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading”       So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretched through the vast reaches of time and space.       Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common--save that they’re the best, and they’re alone.       Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?       A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole time and space.” One other thing. I don’t want to say too much, but it is also a good read if ya want something remotely queer for pride month, and it’s only 198 pages long. Now, onto not caring about spoilers, ---warning!! spoilers ahead and some unfiltered thoughts--- This book fucking took me by the throat and made me look directly into it’s eyes on every fucking page. I swear, the moment I started reading I did not stop once until I had read it all. I had to take a moment to sip some water, perform some standard body maintenance, but outside of that, I didn’t put the book down until I was done. And then when I was done, I laid down for a moment, and then reread certain lines and paragraphs and phrases again. The next day I was still going back to it, so much so I decided to reread the first bit (while not emotionally prepared to reread the whole book yet) and it had me losing my mind and recommending it to everybody I know. This Is How You Lose the Time War fucking hit like a school bus on a college campus. It’s everything my friends and I joke that we need, would be a pain to actually live through, but I’m sure half of us would not complain to have. Reading this book was, in a way, exhausting. The journey the authors took us through, the tragedy, the love, the longing, it wore on me. It was incredibly engaging and profound, yes.. but it still was a trip, a roller-coaster of emotions, and I don’t do well with heights. It may take me many more days before I feel like I can read it again, but rest assured I will, because I am absolutely certain it is worth at least another read. Like a video game where each play around you unlock new things, new aspects of the story that can lead you to the true end you couldn’t get the first go around. But I guess it’s slightly different than that. This book is more so a Möbius strip, as the last letter from Blue reads. This book is about a war and a love that, “stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.” Everything happening from the beginning of the book is happening later in the book as well, but I digress, I should go into more specifics. This books is about two people on opposing sides of a war. Red and Blue, code-names (though we don’t learn their actual names). They have a fierce and intense rivalry, while having respect for one another at the same time. They both weave and manipulate the past to try to make their respective futures possible, to make their very existences possible. They may just be the grunts for their respective futuristic matriarchs, but they are the best in their field and constantly at each others throats, while never outright sabotaging one another. And while constantly communicating through an effort akin to growing strawberries for a loved one (a painstaking thing to grow), the two rivals painstakingly weave time to leave messages for one another. Taunting each other. Blue saying they’ll turn Red to their side, to Garden. Both enjoying the company at some point of simply each other’s messages in their memories, as both Garden and the Agency keep close tabs on them and they could not simply keep a message, a letter, around. And at some point, from the intellectual back and forth from two people on opposite sides of a war, they fall in love. Blue takes a heavy wound when Garden sends her to kill a younger version of Red, a wound she will carry in every form she takes. Red is taken aback and professes she no longer sees Blue as the enemy, that she wishes to talk to her more. Blue and Red weave messages through time, in bee stings and dragonflies. In seeds and teas and then.. Red confesses her love. Blue dies at the hands of Red and the Agency, and then Red tears through time and space to bring her back. To Be Continued... >>

[thecrownnetflixuk]

Goodbye to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt

Pt 1 of The Crown S6 Will Stand as the Definitive Dramatised Version of Diana & Dodi’s Final Days

Review (& gifs) by L.L @The Crown TV

Having seen Pt 1 of The Crown S6 before its official release, I can understand why Netflix decided to split the final season. The first 4 episodes are almost exclusively dedicated to the events surrounding the tragic deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

It's first-rate drama, but it's not always an easy watch. The series does have some lighter moments too, but it makes sense for The Crown to take a short pause before moving forward in December.

To be clear, Diana and Dodi's car crash is not portrayed in a voyeuristic way. We don't see the moment of impact; hearing it is traumatic enough. Diana's body is not shown. The show doesn't delve into what caused the accident. This is still The Crown, not CSI Paris.

Kudos to Peter Morgan and his research team who somehow scrutinised all reports of Diana and Dodi's final days and managed to turn no doubt conflicting accounts and opinions into 4 brilliantly dramatised episodes which feel like a definitive screen version.

I prefer the sharpened pace of S6 after a disjointed S5. All the cast seem more comfortable in their respective roles ... except ... Dominic West is a great actor, his grief and regret is so believable in these episodes, but for me, West's natural charm and roguishness still doesn't fit well with Charles. Perhaps Camilla would disagree!

There are no such issues with Diana. It's a difficult task playing an icon hunted by the paparazzi, but Elizabeth Debicki radiates the right emotional intelligence and effortless star quality of the princess. In fact, Debicki's empathetic and assured performance largely carries these pivotal episodes and tops her earlier impressive work in S5.

Warning - long read: more detailed spoilers ahead! GO & WATCH THE EPISODES FIRST (NOW ON NETFLIX)

Interview/images: courtesy of Netflix & Elizabeth Debicki.

The final season of The Crown begins in Paris with a bold flash forward to a dog-walker who witnesses the crash at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. It's a jarring change of tone after S5, but effective.

From the start, we know where this story is headed. But first, it's back to Diana on her summer hols, impertinent rodents scurrying in the palace and Charles getting grumpy over the Queen not showing up for Camilla's birthday. Reassuringly, it's royal business as usual.

^ Happy 50th, Camilla. I'm with the Queen about this pair; still not quite on board.

Enter Dodi Fayed, who could not be more different to his overbearing father. Khalid Abdalla infuses the shy son-of-a-billionaire with an engaging soulfulness which contradicts Dodi's two-timing behaviour.

Dodi starts out romancing his fiancée, Kelly Fisher (Erin Richards), but after being bullied into it by his father Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi pursues Princess Diana. For a while, Dodi juggles both women, before redeeming himself and confessing the truth to Diana.

^ Diana & Dodi. This time, it's Diana herself who ends up not quite on board this ship.

BAFTA nominee Salim Daw is a force of nature as a magnificently Machiavellian Mohamed Al-Fayed. Daw's performance, along with Elizabeth Debicki's note-perfect Diana, is a standout in S6.

Those who had concerns that The Crown was too generous towards the real Al-Fayed in S5 have no such worries about S6. By episode 3, Mohamed almost crosses into arch villain territory, bribing Dodi into marrying Diana to get British citizenship and raise his social status.

^ Mohamed Al-Fayed. Give him a cat & he'd be the perfect future Bond villain.

It's a controversial post-death chat with a 'ghost' which (nearly) absolves The Crown's Mohamed. Salim Daw is tremendously genuine during his imagined conversation with Dodi, sobbing for forgiveness. Too little, too late, but we feel his real pain about the loss of his son.

Before watching these episodes, the idea of Ghost!Dodi and Diana in the show did seem off-putting. Confession: I didn’t make it through the surrealistic film ‘Spencer’, where Diana talks to the ghost of Anne Boleyn (although Kristen Stewart seemed well cast in her role.)

Now that I've actually seen the 'ghost' scenes in The Crown, they don't feel ghoulish or disrespectful. Following the crash, both Charles (Dominic West) and Imelda Staunton’s Queen have small conversations with Diana, as though the princess is still with them.

You could take that to mean they’ve gone full royal-bats-in-the-belfry, but as a person who recently lost my dad, I talk to the dead all the time. It’s often what happens when you lose somebody you love. To see this depicted on The Crown felt honest. And human.

^ Wassup, Betty? Just chillin', chatting w/dead Di* (*not dialogue from The Crown)

As the show wades through the aftermath of the crash, dealing with public sorrow, funerals and grief-stricken young William and Harry, it becomes heartbreaking. However, The Crown does handle heavy subject matter very well, as shown in episodes such as ‘Aberfan.’

With a golden jubilee coming up, hopefully Pt 2 of this final season will be more uplifting, and feature more scenes with Imelda Staunton as Elizabeth II. When we do see the Queen in Pt 1, her intonation is superb. There’s continuity too, with Staunton merging Claire Foy’s vulnerability and regality with Olivia Colman’s steely durability.

I'm no ardent monarchist, but now that we've said goodbye to Diana, I can't imagine that The Crown would end without paying tribute to another Queen of Hearts who reigned for over 70 years.

THE CROWN S6 PT 2:-premieres on Netflix | Thurs 14th Dec 2023

N.B: These are just my (humble) opinions at this point in time. No offence is intended. Agreement = lovely; not compulsory. Disagreement = happens; kindly coexist. Ta!

[shameboree]

“ive never had a hyperfixation ever in my life” i say having been neurotically obsessed w prions and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies since i was actually for real 6 years old. i think about protein misfolding once a day at MINIMUM. blorbos come and go but prions are Literally forever

[theloneliestblackgirlblog]

SOOOOOOOO I decided to reread the entire Hunger Games trilogy as an adult and then write about it. Thanks to everyone who commented on my question about Katniss loving Peeta. I agree with most of the points. I do think she does just not in the way we’re used to. Wrote about all of that and more. Check it out!

[squishymochithethird]

trying to carve out an entire calendar month of free time to rewatch the entire quinton reviews nickelodeon series

[the-ace-with-spades]

I love it when you go to a GP and the receptionist (with no medical training) tells you it's probably tonsillitis (it's fucking not) after hearing your chief complaint and instead of getting you to an appointment, refers you to the pharmacy so the pharmacist can prescribe you antibiotics.

Surprise suprise, pharmacist tells you it's not tonsillitis and she can't prescribe you anything but paracetamol and rest.

It keeps getting worse and two days later you go from treating patients at A&E to being a patient at A&E because your airway closes on you and you can't fucking breathe

[soft-persephone]

Rebel Moon Review (Spoilers)

As Soon as the girl made the flower crown for the robot, I knew I was going to love the movie.

Zack Snyder just has a visually creative atmosphere that resonates with my soul. The look of this movie, just moves me so much emotionally.

It kinda dragged with all of Korra’s back story moments, but I understand this is a part one movie. However, they did look nice, so I’m not that mad at them.

Charlie Hunam’s accent deserves the same amount of uproar and criticism as Oscar Isaac’s British one. Because, why?

I love the emotion of this movie as well as the world world hopping. Each one and each character is just as dynamic as the last and so is the score.

Zack Snyder should just give up on adapting things and create his own thing because they are truly beautiful on their own. He doesn’t need to be wrapped up in those politics and discourses.

I just love everything about this movie and I can’t wait for the next one.

[tumblasha]

tv review: crashing (netflix uk series)

overall rating: ★★★★/5

so a few weeks ago, i was having a solo trip around boston and my uber driver (from chattanooga, tennessee!) told me about how he and his daughter love phoebe waller bridge. naturally i mentioned that i loved her too, and he told me to watch crashing on netflix!!

it was v good. v short and a good sitcom! i laughed at all these funny british (and one french) ppl just figuring life out the best they could

synopsis: some young people (lots of 30 y/os and an older 50-ish y/o man) live *communally* in an abandoned hospital. there's some tensions between a currently-engaged man named anthony and his childhood friend lulu (phoebe <3) who's a very ... strong ... flirter and kinda makes people uncomfortable (in a funny-to-watch way)

v nice and funny and easy to binge-watch but minus one star for this scene where a man spits alc in her mouth and then kisses her (if i had to see it, so do u)

[musicalthought]

album review; the boyz's [phantasy] pt. 1 christmas in august (2023)

♡ fav song: fantasize & fire eyes

♡ least fave song: light house

♡ overall: 7.8/10

♡ requested by @the-strange-world - thank you for requesting!

♡ What a cute mini! Although I was missing the “Christmas” in August aspect, the summery-ness stands out no problem. I do wish the title, Lip Gloss, stood out a bit more, but the remaining b-sides (Fantasize & Fire Eyes in particular) make up for it. I’m still reeling from the synth in Fire Eyes, which absolutely blew me away!

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW:

WICKED AND RUTHLESS (Nash and Haisley pt 1) (Wicked Lovers: Soldiers for Hire 9) by #ShaylaBlack at The Reading Cafe:

'The premise is dramatic and intriguing; the romance is provocative ; the characters are dynamic, and determined'

https://www.thereadingcafe.com/wicked-and-ruthless-nash-haisley-1-by-shayla-black-review/

[gracelandmp3]

it’s so funny that dta is on storygraph . im not logging that

[kevin-day-is-bi]

Embarking on watching all the Batman movies pt 1: Batman (1989)

I genuinely enjoy the Michael Keaton Batman movies, even tho it has the Joker in it and I consider him to be a rather overdone villain. It's a good Joker, and while I'm slightly displeased they gave him a backstory, I like the things they changed and they didn't get rid of his core Joker-ness. I love Vicki Vale in it, and every time we see Bruce Wayne he's being an absolute whore which is fantastic and comic accurate. I wish we had more women, as Batman comics even in the 80s had plenty of women to choose from.

6.5/10. The supporting characters were sometimes a little weak, and considering Batman comics are sort of famous for their side characters, it meant it felt a little hollow.

[daclub5]

STP PT 1 Year In Review #2023 Happy!? New Year #2024

[jaytheinfinite]

🔴Live #TheLastofUsPart1 PS5 Gameplay Walkthrough Part 15-20

[jjspina]

I am thinking about doing another MG/PT series!

As if I don’t have enough irons in the fire, I am now thinking about creating a new MG/PT similar to my Davey & Derek Junior Detectives Series and Abby & Holly series. Of course, it won’t be the same but just similar in that it will be for middle-school and preteens to enjoy. It is still a thought going around in my head but nothing on paper yet. My goal in writing for MG/PT/YA is to encourage…

[emacrow]

Danny the universal immortal babysitter. Pt 1

Danny had to have a side hobby during his after his debut as King of ghost zone, and he can't get a job in amity park without everyone trying to make it easy for him. Sam suggested babysitting.

Danny finds out he has a good knack for caring for kids pretty easily, from humans, to ghosts, to monsters and demons, then it became more weirder over the years as the new kids he began to babysit throughout other universe has powers which he helped them control easily like the Kent's without any problems starting as he have the kid leash backpack strap ready for the young toddler all for free of course when he has endless amount of richness in the ghost zone.

Until his newest assignment was the Bruce Wayne's son who seem to have a history of blacklist review from the babysitters themselves that this kid is the devil in disguise..

Danny laugh a bit considering the devil himself is pretty much a chill dude in Los Angolos..

The kid can't be that bad right?

New post