No Saints, Just Sinners
Black Sails 3.5
Today’s bad decision: You always walk away with the money. So what if you have to change your name. She’s somewhat smart. You aren’t, Rackham.
Flint, meanwhile, allies with the marooner queen…who is the wife of Mr. Scott. He’s going to create a force to throw the British out of Nassau…and possibly the entire Caribbean. We know how well that is going to go. But there are worse plans.
Meanwhile, bad decision number two: The new governor trusts Max.
We all know not to trust Max.
I’m not sure Max should trust Max. She’s playing every side off against each other and sooner or later that will come back to bite her.
Meanwhile, don’t trust Max.
Review: Sinners
Sinners starts with Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) walking into his hometown church bloodstained and traumatized.
This immediately tells the viewer that this is a movie very aware of the tropes of the genre, but unafraid to both subvert and joyously embrace them.
If Sinners was an “ordinary” vampire movie, Sammie would stand for Samantha. Yet, Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore actually is written as the Final Girl at every level other than gender.
And that’s not the only thing that keeps this from being an “ordinary” vampire movie. Set in segregated 1930s Mississippi, Sinners is unashamedly Black and unafraid to juxtapose supernatural horror with the horror of a sharecropper’s existence in a way which highlights both.
On top of that, Coogler uses superposition in beautiful ways. And this movie is worth watching for the blues-infused soundtrack alone. The “power of rock and roll” is twisted and subverted and granted to both sides.
Michael B. Jordan plays twins…and it’s done so seamlessly you repeatedly forget one actor is playing both characters.
No, this movie isn’t flawless; one of the tropes crosses over into a deus ex machina. But it comes dangerously close. Every part of this film is visually lovely…even when it’s at its most horrific. And audibly lovely too…if this movie doesn’t get an Oscar nod for both soundtrack and visual effects, I’ll start accusing people of racism.
Now, this is a vampire horror movie. They spend a lot of money on fake blood. If you can’t handle that kind of thing…then you should probably skip it.
But this is the latest fantastic example of African-American horror as a subgenre. May there be much more.
Doctor Who 2.8 “The Reality War”
Russell T. Davies, you beautiful bastard. You actually (almost) pulled it off.
Rumors of cancellation. Rumors of regeneration. Lots of rumors and the second one turned out to be true. (The cancellation rumors are still swirling, but this does not feel like cancellation chicken).
Is Billie Piper actually 16? Is something even weirder going on?
They’re still claiming no decision has been made about the future of the show. But the second rule of Doctor Who after “the Doctor lies” is “the showrunner lies.”
It is possible the show will move off of Disney Plus. But I feel that’s actually unlikely. I think that everyone has been having fun letting everyone think that something bad is happening, up to and including #RIPDoctorWho.
Certainly, Piper’s return says…something.
This is also the first time we see the Doctor intentionally regenerate (other Time Lords have been shown to have this capability).
Oh, and all retcons are now canon. It’s timey wimey. You might remember something that didn’t happen. Especially, for whatever reason, if your name is Ruby Sunday.
It just means time itself shifted somewhere. A little paradox that makes the past different but doesn’t always change what happened to you. Unless it does.
Honestly, that makes so much sense.
So…I expect an announcement on the future of the show this week. I don’t think it’s true that decisions haven’t been made.
And I’m very excited about what comes next. Gatwa was a great Doctor, but he also has a great career…he’s David Tennant all over again, and I expect to see him do even more great things