Escapes & Adventures - Video Distractions Friday, by Mike N.

    Among the offerings I was aware of, but hadn't made the time to escape to until this past weekend, is Undone (Amazon Prime). The first season (eight episodes, each 22 to 23 minutes long, so roughly 3 hours total) landed this past September 13th, and received universally positive reviews, prompting Amazon to greenlight a second season.
   In it we meet Alma (Rosa Salazar) following her surviving a car crash. Her perceptions of time and reality begin to radically shift, with her long-dead father Jacob (Bob Odenkirk), not only acting as her guide, but leading her into an investigation of the circumstances of his death... and considerably more.

  I see it's referenced as a "comedy-drama," which I suppose hits the marks. The story is a drama, the comedy coming from the foibles of and relationships between several of the characters.
  It's billed as Amazon's "first original animated series," and while there's certainly animation work involved it may be significant to some that it's a rotoscope project. Live actors were filmed, then animators worked over the images, providing a distinct effect. Here we get the natural movements of the actors, but with a surface fluidity that works for some viewers while I'm sure at least initially distracting others. I've found that I take to the effect fairly quickly, and before long - save for when special visual effects are being invoked - came to take it in as normal. I suspect that modern audiences, now steeped in cgi work to depict almost any occurrence, may take to it more easily than some of us older people did. Who knows, though, the cartoon elements may be even more of a distraction to people who've grown up with all manner of creatures and feat made seemingly real.

  Because of the way the way the story unfolds there may be some question of whether we're seeing events as they're happening, or sometimes merely as the main character believes them to be. Issues of possible mental illness are an increasing theme as the show progresses, though my impression is that there are too many scenes and revelations to explain without there being some truth to the idea that time can be rewound, revisited and even altered, and that some version of Alma's dead father persists.
  That the series was renewed for a second season was important in how or even if I were to decide to write about it here, because this first season does leave the viewer hanging with it's final scene. Had it been in question whether or not we'd be seeing more I'd have at least led with that warning, just relegated the show to a quick reference, or even just sat on the piece until word of a second season came along.
  As it stands, I enjoyed the trip and am looking forward to seeing what the second season brings.

  Revisiting Witcher (Netflix), since my December 27th report on a first pass of the first episode, I gradually found myself pulled in. A sword and sorcery tale set in some distant land. A tale of magic and hard choices, of alliances and treacheries, and of destinies and rising above one's origins. All with wonderful scenery, solid effects, and a varied cast.
  Starring Henry Cavil in the lead role of the monster-hunting mutate, Geralt of Rivia, the show's executive producer and showrunner is Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, whose credits include writing and production during both the second season of Daredevil, and for another big Netflix adaptation hit, The Umbrella Academy.

 The named lands and lineages are still a weak spot for me in these things, as on the one hand I don't tend to hold onto the introductions of many of the characters when they're given - the characters have to become interesting to me first before I pay them that level of attention - and I'm not so great with faces sometimes, too. I also need a great deal of narrative reinforcement -- or maybe a return to a time when I'd be watching something with someone else, so I could wait, am I supposed to know who this is? moments), as we're seeing some of these characters over the course of decades. Still, enough of it got through to catch and maintain what passes as my interest.

occasionally toss out an "is that..?" question. As it is, I'm sure I was being quite dense through much of it, failing to appreciate in many instances who I was watching do what  (more than a few
  As season two was given a nod five weeks before this first season appeared, I was able to watch it knowing we will be seeing more of the story. Granted, while no date's been set, we know we likely won't be seeing that until sometime in 2021. We do get at least some degree of closure on several story arcs by the times the final credits roll, but it's clear that there's potentially a great deal more to come, as between full novels and related short stories there are seven books by Andrzei Sapkowski this series is potentially drawing on.

  Finally, I'll close with Dracula (Netflix, and on BBC One in the U.K.), which slipped in with the new year.
   Here we have another attempted adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, in this case helmed by Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat, the pair responsible for the highly-successful Sherlock series. Told initially from the perspective of Jonathan Harker, recounting his tale to Sister Abigail in a Hungarian convent in 1897, where he has been brought to recuperate after making his escape from Dracula's castle. Harker is in a horribly depleted state, bald, aged well beyond his years, and looking, at best, like a concentration camp survivor.
  The series is split into three, 90-minute pieces, and by the end of the third gives us a complete story - so no worries that they're trying to make an ongoing series out of this. (Thou, I guess to cover potential bases if the reaction is positive enough, this is referenced as "season one.") Over its course we get a good sense

of how much of a self-serving monster Dracula is. How much of this is simply the man he always was - a 16th century titled warlord is likely to stride the Earth with an enlarged sense of entitlement and a belief that all else is here for his use - and how much might represent a loss of his soul, is open for interpretation.
  Dracula, played by Claes Bang, initially presents as a very old man, but as the days pass he becomes younger and more vital (while Harker becomes older and increasingly disheveled), and seemed to me to be channeling James Mason in a combination of refined charm and self-amused menace. In the first part they seemed to repeatedly flirt with taking Dracula himself just over the line into parody or light comedy, but they rein that in before long.

  The addition of Sister Agatha (we eventually learn her family name is Van Helsing) as the skeptically-minded nun is a good one. She approaches the situation with an almost unflappable calm, and mental skillset reminiscent of Sherlock's, combined with more of a sense of worldliness. We learn that her calling was much more a combination of wishing to pursue truths, and an awareness of the extreme limitations on a woman's options, particularly in the 19th century, than it was of any true call to the sisterhood. She did not hear God's voice, but she dearly wished to.
   Each of the three parts has a distinct setting and cast of characters, with only Dracula and Sister Agatha being common to all three parts. The middle one, set almost entirely aboard the Demeter, was likely my favorite both in terms of setting and characters.
   Some fun is had with Dracula's abilities - though by the second part they grow to be more fully magical - including us learning both the mechanics of the undead and how blood, and so vitality, is not the only thing Dracula absorbs from his victims.
   As for any potential viewer advisories: Blood, other sticky fluids, general rot and decay, and plenty of flies are all part of the mix, so adjust proximity to meals according to how such things may affect you. There's also some degree of sexual role fluidity involved, as Dracula's nature and the nature of his bond with those he feeds on has long become his deepest form of intimacy. Consequently, gender's not a major factor for him. Effectively shut away with peasants for centuries, he craves more interesting and varied company.
  I didn't come to the series with high expectations, but ended up enjoying it.
   That's as much as I have time for this week.           - Mike N.

Shows and movies hit on in previous posts:

 Sept. 20th: Mindhunter (Netflix)

     Sept. 27th: What's The Matter With Helen, The French Connection, and Frenzy. (Early '70s R-rated movies I saw with my mom)

     Oct. 3rd:    Preacher (AMC), Stumptown (ABC), Sunnyside (NBC), The Good Place (NBC), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime).

     Oct. 11th:  Joker (still in theaters), and In The Tall Grass (Netflix)

     Oct. 18th:  El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)

     Oct. 25th: Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)

     Nov. 1st:   Watchmen (HBO series), The Kominsky Method (Netflix)

     Nov. 8th:   Seconds (1966 movie, currently available as part of Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 15th: Dr. Sleep (current theatrical release, but probably not for long), Horace and Pete (2016 web-produced series, currently on Hulu)
     Nov. 22nd: NOS4A2 (AMC, now on Hulu) and Man In The High Castle (Amazon Prime)

     Nov. 29th: The Irishman (Netflix), The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum (both on Disney+), light touches on Watchmen (HBO) and Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  Dec, 6th: The Booth At the End (Amazon Prime), and Us (HBO).

Dec 13th:  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Feed (Amazon Prime), 6 Underground (Netflix movie).

  Dec 20th:A Christmas Carol (FX), The Expanse (Amazon Prime), Killing Eve (BBC America)
  Dec 27th: Lost In Space season 2, and first impressions of The Witcher, both on Netflix.
  Jan. 3rd: Black Mirror (Netflix) and Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime).

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