I saw an ad for the second season of this show and I watched the trailer. It being a Netflix trailer, it did a great job of not actually conveying much about what the show is actually about. So I had to do further research.
"You" is a thriller-y show about a guy who's... who has some violent/murderous/dark tendencies but also happens to be quite handsome and charming when necessary. Just like any good serial killer... I surmised that this show might end up including a murder element.
Since I'm always looking at people and thinking they look like other people, the actor who plays the main character (who is quite good looking, wow!) looks like a combination of John Mayer and Hugh Dancy. And/or he looks sort of like Ted Bundy, or rather, Zac Efron's recent portrayal of Ted Bundy... Coincidentally, in retrospect, I think he also looks like some guy in one of my classes who I never spoke to (alas! And he seemed decently intelligent too... [this is why I'm going to be an old maid...]).
I've only watched the first episode now, but I'll probably watch further until I get tired of the show, perhaps. It seems captivating enough for me to keep watching. I still haven't gotten to watching the season one finale of Ozark, much less start on season two...
It does have a bit of a scripted feel to it, in that there are elements of it that seem quite predictable, and some of the characters don't seem to have much depth, but it was still an enjoyable watch. There's heavy monologuing via voiceover by the main character, which is sort of an interesting element; I can't really think of any other shows I've seen that feature that. Grey's Anatomy or Station 19 might be the closest, but the VO monologues in those shows serve as bookends to the episodes, not peppered in throughout.
The main character is rather judgmental and cynical and misanthropic -- the misanthropy is very House-esque, I thought. Since I also can be judgmental and cynical at times, I can relate to the guy being like that. He also has stalkerish tendencies, as do I (to some extent: I love people-watching and occasionally give in to doing very mildly stalkerish things, but nothing on the level of sneaking into someone's house and looking through their stuff).
Anyways, I still have the rest of the first season to watch at some point and there's going to be a second season coming out later this week. Such timing! But so far, this show seems decently watchable.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Postsecret review 16
It's been awhile since I've done one of these, but I looked at the current secrets and they seem rather interesting, so here are my comments!
"Sometimes, when I'm extremely bored (like I was at this wedding), I like to imagine that I've already reached the end of my life and there I begged God for just a few more hours. He agreed. And sent me here. It makes a big difference." [over a photo from a wedding] This is an interesting/unusual idea and mildly quaint too...
"I don't care how smart, educated or successful you are: if you're an adult obsessed with Disney I think you're creepy." I can more or less agree with this, although I'm not sure I'd personally use the word creepy to describe it... juvenile is a more accurate term, to me.
"I have devoted my life helping others... But no matter how many lives I save, I cannot forget the faces of those I couldn't. Some memories never fade..." [with a ballpoint pen sketch of a firefighter's helmet marked "Killeen FD Firefighter 292" and the word "PTSD"] Grim.
"I don't like telling people to call the suicide hotline because when I needed them they were busy." Also grim.
"I used to put people in jail for drugs, and then go in the bathroom to do my drugs." What a twist!
"I have never told my husband, I had a child before we got togeter" [sic] Ooh, secrets... also coincidentally, related to some recent reading I did.
"Actually I wasn't on a business trip. I was in the psych ward." Also twisty.
"This is what I fantasize about. I'm a guy." [over a photo of a romantic wedding scene with bride and groom kissing in front of a church] That's cute and even somewhat sweet.
"Alcohol has now officially taken over my life." Also grim... I hope I don't become an alcoholic or a drug addict. I kind of wonder how one becomes an alcoholic... many people are able to drink without it becoming a problem, but for those who it is a problem for, why is that so? How does it happen?
"I don't think people truly appreciate what troops do for us until someone in their life becomes a part of it all." I suppose I can understand this. However, I happened to read something recently about the military committing atrocities in the Middle East, so that's one of the things they do (or at least, have done), under the guise of protecting freedom... I think we should abolish the military.
"At our nation's capitol [sic], in our national history museum all of the souvenirs are made in a different country!" This is an interesting observation. I'm not really sure if it counts as a secret, but still, interesting observation. I also wonder if it's completely factual. Perhaps the statement is an exaggeration and there are some souvenirs for sale that are made in the US... next time I'm there, I'll try to remember and check. Obligatory mention that I don't appreciate security theater but I'll have to remember to leave my scissors at home if I decide to go to the national history museum...
"I'm starting to think these nut-jobs might actually be onto something" [over a brochure {?} that says "Attend Scientology Sunday Service"] That's something else! I do wonder how one comes to believe that the Scientologists might actually be onto something....
"I wish I were fat so I could be a Torrid model. I think they're gorgeous." [over a photo of what presumably is a Torrid model] Well, this is different...
"Sometimes, when I'm extremely bored (like I was at this wedding), I like to imagine that I've already reached the end of my life and there I begged God for just a few more hours. He agreed. And sent me here. It makes a big difference." [over a photo from a wedding] This is an interesting/unusual idea and mildly quaint too...
"I don't care how smart, educated or successful you are: if you're an adult obsessed with Disney I think you're creepy." I can more or less agree with this, although I'm not sure I'd personally use the word creepy to describe it... juvenile is a more accurate term, to me.
"I have devoted my life helping others... But no matter how many lives I save, I cannot forget the faces of those I couldn't. Some memories never fade..." [with a ballpoint pen sketch of a firefighter's helmet marked "Killeen FD Firefighter 292" and the word "PTSD"] Grim.
"I don't like telling people to call the suicide hotline because when I needed them they were busy." Also grim.
"I used to put people in jail for drugs, and then go in the bathroom to do my drugs." What a twist!
"I have never told my husband, I had a child before we got togeter" [sic] Ooh, secrets... also coincidentally, related to some recent reading I did.
"Actually I wasn't on a business trip. I was in the psych ward." Also twisty.
"This is what I fantasize about. I'm a guy." [over a photo of a romantic wedding scene with bride and groom kissing in front of a church] That's cute and even somewhat sweet.
"Alcohol has now officially taken over my life." Also grim... I hope I don't become an alcoholic or a drug addict. I kind of wonder how one becomes an alcoholic... many people are able to drink without it becoming a problem, but for those who it is a problem for, why is that so? How does it happen?
"I don't think people truly appreciate what troops do for us until someone in their life becomes a part of it all." I suppose I can understand this. However, I happened to read something recently about the military committing atrocities in the Middle East, so that's one of the things they do (or at least, have done), under the guise of protecting freedom... I think we should abolish the military.
"At our nation's capitol [sic], in our national history museum all of the souvenirs are made in a different country!" This is an interesting observation. I'm not really sure if it counts as a secret, but still, interesting observation. I also wonder if it's completely factual. Perhaps the statement is an exaggeration and there are some souvenirs for sale that are made in the US... next time I'm there, I'll try to remember and check. Obligatory mention that I don't appreciate security theater but I'll have to remember to leave my scissors at home if I decide to go to the national history museum...
"I'm starting to think these nut-jobs might actually be onto something" [over a brochure {?} that says "Attend Scientology Sunday Service"] That's something else! I do wonder how one comes to believe that the Scientologists might actually be onto something....
"I wish I were fat so I could be a Torrid model. I think they're gorgeous." [over a photo of what presumably is a Torrid model] Well, this is different...
Book review: Run Away by Harlan Coben
I was looking at the books in Costco when I happened upon this one and decided to take a peek at it. It had a rather gripping writing style, so I started reading it and was able to finish it in one afternoon/evening -- over the span of maybe 4-ish hours of reading time. It was a pretty zippy read.
The premise of Run Away is that a man's daughter has gone missing and he wants to find her. She happens to be a drug addict. There are lots of twisty plot twists in this novel, which keep the suspense dialed up. I found them to be well-placed and not too unbelievable.
It was set very contemporarily; lots of instances of particularly modern technology and culture/issues. Stuff that people living 2019 would be familiar with. That was interesting, as I don't think I've really read any other books (recently, at least) that have been set in a time period so up-to-the-moment.
It had hints of Prisoners, the Millenium trilogy and Netflix's show Ozark, even. Prisoners for the family/mystery of child's disappearance element, Ozark for the happy/somewhat wealthy [ie definitely upper middle class, if not more] family disrupted by unfortunate events/getting involved with something shady, and Millenium trilogy because of the mystery/thriller genre.
It reminded me of Millenium,** but flashier (more dramatic, I suppose, and the writing style itself as well), if you will. Millenium was more of a slow burn and more measured in style (although still quite good!). Stieg Larsson's writing style had more of a focus on various background context information and minute details. The writing style also had a bit more of a terse tone.*
If you like twisty suspenseful stuff with a dose of murder and mystery that involves particularly contemporary issues in its plot, this would probably be an enjoyable read. It's not high literature, but it's probably at least a step or so above romance novels...
At the end, there was a short acknowledgment section where the author thanked a series of people for donating to charities, and in return he used their names for characters in the book. I found that somewhat interesting, since I don't think I've read any acknowledgments that mention something like that before. I personally could not write a fictional book and use the names of people I actually know or even know of. I'd think too much about the actual person with the name I used for a character while writing the book. I would need characters to be as blank of slates as possible, so they can't have names that I already have strong impressions/associations of because they're names of people I know (of). I also wouldn't use names of people I actually know personally, unless I was purposefully including/writing a (probably relatively minor) character based on them.
There was a particular plot element that led me to wonder about a theoretical scenario, which I don't want to reveal too casually here. Spoilers to follow: //If you had a kid, yet never saw the kid grow up (and therefore did not know what exactly they looked like), would you be able to recognize them if you happened to randomly see them in public somewhere when they were grown? Suppose you know who the other parent is and what they (in this case, father, but I suppose it could go the other way too) looked like as well. Generally speaking, people tend to have a decently strong familial resemblance to others they're biologically related to. Look at the Kennedy family or really most other families out there. Siblings tend to resemble each other and children tend to resemble their parents at least to some degree. Therefore, I'd think that someone might possibly be able to recognize a theoretical long lost child, but who knows... I tried looking up about this kind of thing, but didn't quite find what I had hoped. In any case, it's certainly an interesting thing to ponder.***
**digression/tangent: I've read a few other mystery/thriller/crime novels by Scandinavian authors in hopes I'd find one on par with Stieg Larsson's work, but I never really did. Not that the ones I read were horribly bad, they just weren't Millenium trilogy levels of spectacular.
***additional tangent: I also have wondered in the past about how common it is for someone to move back into a home they lived in previously. Not in the sense of moving back in with one's parents, but living in a given home, moving somewhere else, then eventually ending up moving back to the original home after it's had a period of having different residents than the original person mentioned initially. I looked up about this before and did manage to find one case where a family had regretted selling their home, and then was able to buy it back and move back into it maybe a year (not terribly long) after they had initially sold it. [further tangent: there's a line in Smile Like You Mean It that's vaguely related to this concept]
*I had to go look up the difference between tone and voice. Voice is more akin to a given person's idiolect -- phrases or quirks of their writing or speech. Words they tend to use or don't use. Their pattern(s) of writing or speech, basically. Voice can vary depending on the context -- I have a particular voice I write this blog in, yet I have a different, more buttoned-up voice if I'm writing a News Article.
Tone is more of something like... angry. Or happy. Lighthearted. Sarcastic. Sad. Enthusiastic. Appreciative. Formal. And so on. It has more to do with how writing/speech comes across to others.
Further reading from Grammarly's blog: Tone vs. Voice and more specifically on Tone
author's note: although I'm aware that AP Style instructs that titles of compositions are in quotation marks, I didn't feel like using those conventions here.
The premise of Run Away is that a man's daughter has gone missing and he wants to find her. She happens to be a drug addict. There are lots of twisty plot twists in this novel, which keep the suspense dialed up. I found them to be well-placed and not too unbelievable.
It was set very contemporarily; lots of instances of particularly modern technology and culture/issues. Stuff that people living 2019 would be familiar with. That was interesting, as I don't think I've really read any other books (recently, at least) that have been set in a time period so up-to-the-moment.
It had hints of Prisoners, the Millenium trilogy and Netflix's show Ozark, even. Prisoners for the family/mystery of child's disappearance element, Ozark for the happy/somewhat wealthy [ie definitely upper middle class, if not more] family disrupted by unfortunate events/getting involved with something shady, and Millenium trilogy because of the mystery/thriller genre.
It reminded me of Millenium,** but flashier (more dramatic, I suppose, and the writing style itself as well), if you will. Millenium was more of a slow burn and more measured in style (although still quite good!). Stieg Larsson's writing style had more of a focus on various background context information and minute details. The writing style also had a bit more of a terse tone.*
If you like twisty suspenseful stuff with a dose of murder and mystery that involves particularly contemporary issues in its plot, this would probably be an enjoyable read. It's not high literature, but it's probably at least a step or so above romance novels...
At the end, there was a short acknowledgment section where the author thanked a series of people for donating to charities, and in return he used their names for characters in the book. I found that somewhat interesting, since I don't think I've read any acknowledgments that mention something like that before. I personally could not write a fictional book and use the names of people I actually know or even know of. I'd think too much about the actual person with the name I used for a character while writing the book. I would need characters to be as blank of slates as possible, so they can't have names that I already have strong impressions/associations of because they're names of people I know (of). I also wouldn't use names of people I actually know personally, unless I was purposefully including/writing a (probably relatively minor) character based on them.
There was a particular plot element that led me to wonder about a theoretical scenario, which I don't want to reveal too casually here. Spoilers to follow: //If you had a kid, yet never saw the kid grow up (and therefore did not know what exactly they looked like), would you be able to recognize them if you happened to randomly see them in public somewhere when they were grown? Suppose you know who the other parent is and what they (in this case, father, but I suppose it could go the other way too) looked like as well. Generally speaking, people tend to have a decently strong familial resemblance to others they're biologically related to. Look at the Kennedy family or really most other families out there. Siblings tend to resemble each other and children tend to resemble their parents at least to some degree. Therefore, I'd think that someone might possibly be able to recognize a theoretical long lost child, but who knows... I tried looking up about this kind of thing, but didn't quite find what I had hoped. In any case, it's certainly an interesting thing to ponder.***
**digression/tangent: I've read a few other mystery/thriller/crime novels by Scandinavian authors in hopes I'd find one on par with Stieg Larsson's work, but I never really did. Not that the ones I read were horribly bad, they just weren't Millenium trilogy levels of spectacular.
***additional tangent: I also have wondered in the past about how common it is for someone to move back into a home they lived in previously. Not in the sense of moving back in with one's parents, but living in a given home, moving somewhere else, then eventually ending up moving back to the original home after it's had a period of having different residents than the original person mentioned initially. I looked up about this before and did manage to find one case where a family had regretted selling their home, and then was able to buy it back and move back into it maybe a year (not terribly long) after they had initially sold it. [further tangent: there's a line in Smile Like You Mean It that's vaguely related to this concept]
*I had to go look up the difference between tone and voice. Voice is more akin to a given person's idiolect -- phrases or quirks of their writing or speech. Words they tend to use or don't use. Their pattern(s) of writing or speech, basically. Voice can vary depending on the context -- I have a particular voice I write this blog in, yet I have a different, more buttoned-up voice if I'm writing a News Article.
Tone is more of something like... angry. Or happy. Lighthearted. Sarcastic. Sad. Enthusiastic. Appreciative. Formal. And so on. It has more to do with how writing/speech comes across to others.
Further reading from Grammarly's blog: Tone vs. Voice and more specifically on Tone
author's note: although I'm aware that AP Style instructs that titles of compositions are in quotation marks, I didn't feel like using those conventions here.
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