Introduction
Welcome to the July newsletter. I’ve got a ton of updates to share today from the professional to what I’ve been watching. I’ve seen some new things, played some different games, and been keeping quite busy. I’ll be sharing some insights about films and shows as well as a totally out of the blue discovery about ADUs.
Then we’ll dive into the What If this time, which is about the movie Aliens. All around, it’s a pretty packed newsletter so let’s dive right in.
Movies
I have quite a few movies to watch, but for reasons you’ll see under ‘shows’, you’ll understand why I haven’t caught them yet. Coming soon to this newsletter: Immaculate, The First Omen, Lisa Frankenstein, Lovely Dark and Deep (just a horror movie. Keep it clean), and Stop Motion. Until then, there are two films I’ve watched since then that deserve a chat.
Ghost Busters Frozen Empire
The follow up to Afterlife was enjoyable. I liked it, though if I’m very critical, I could say that it feels a little glossed over. There are HUGE implications about what’s going on and it’s all wrapped up rather neatly. They don’t spend a lot of time building. This will be a criticism for the other film as well (ironically, both the originals came out in 1984).
Everyone in the movie did a good job. I didn’t know some of the characters by name (the new folks), and that seemed odd. But it helps reflect the fact that it all around felt too truncated and short. Honestly, I think the movie would’ve been better as a 4 part mini series. Or even 6 parts. Then it could’ve spent some time on the investigation of the problem rather than the crazy solution.
As a spectacle, it was great. As a bit of nostalgia, also good. It’s a little sad that we keep coming back to these franchises only to draw attention to how old the original actors are, but I guess I understand. I didn’t necessarily need to go there myself. Though this didn’t detract from the experience and I still recommend it.
Beverly Hills Cop Axel F
Straight to Netflix, and I don’t think that was necessary. Eddie Murphy did a fantastic job revisiting the character. As I said above, it feels a bit truncated and glossed over. It does the job of an action comedy, and it felt mature in a good way. They also don’t even try to make it a mystery at all. It’s clear what’s going on and who is doing it from the very beginning.
There’s not much to say about this other than if you have Netflix, you should just watch it. It’s a fun experience all around.
Two side notes. The first is about Axel F specifically: Eddie Murphy is a vampire. He looked amazing.
The second is about both this and Ghost Busters. The first Ghost Busters was an hour and forty-five minutes. Frozen Empire was just shy of two hours long. It feels like more happened in the first one than the new one. This also true of Axel F (Original Beverly Hills Cop was one hour and forty-five minutes. Axel F was also one hour and fifty five minutes).
Seems funny that two 1984 sequels got to be the same length as their originals. Also, I think Frozen Empire lacked focus in a lot of ways where Axel F had to dedicate time to a relationship subplot. Therefore, both ended up missing out on the number of events they could’ve stuck in there. This made the investigation side of each movie feel thin.
Shows
I finished three shows, though one of them is madness and I’ll save it for the bottom. Two ended their newest seasons and we were able to catch up and finish. Let’s jump right in.
Doctor Who
The final two episodes are one long story. All around, I liked the season. There are some episodes that I found annoying. More so than the worst of the worst shows, but they were only specific parts. Mostly, it’s just more Doctor Who. However, that’s not always a good thing. And the final two episodes did what most of them do: resolve the situation quickly and simply.
Part of the problem with that is not only the fact we know it will happen, but the lack of peril makes the success far less interesting. They have a handful of specific ways they solve problems in Doctor Who. Sadly, I think more characters need to be put to rest more often to give the show a sense of urgency.
But if they want it to be light entertainment with lots of quips and total nonsense technical commentary, then they succeeded. I’d watch the next season. It’s no worse than some of the other things I’ve seen. The funny thing is though, I don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend it to anyone. There’s a LOT of cringe…and it’s cringe I’ve built up a resistance against from the original series.
Without that, this show might be way too silly for some people. And I’d understand.
Interview with the Vampire
The second season of Interview with the Vampire has ended. And it was good. I don’t care about the books, but if you do, then you might be mad. They’ve changed a lot. The third season promises to be The Vampire Lestat. I suppose we’ll see how that goes. It has been renewed.
I think they’ve managed to fix some things, and make others a little odd. I liked Claudia, which is different cause normally she’s annoying AF for me. All around, this one I would recommend EXCEPT to people who are -absolute- purists about the book. If that’s you, don’t even start. Because they go VERY far afield.
Otherwise, season 2 meanders a bit, but all around, it’s a good story and solid vampire fiction.
Suits
Oh boy. Suits is a legal drama-comedy released on USA. You probably already know that. It had a major resurgence in popularity thanks to Netflix, which led to a brand new series coming out (Suits LA). The spinoff isn’t done yet, but it’s coming soon. The show proved to be catnip for me, and I binged it in less than 5 weeks.
Yep. All of it. It was both fun. And not. The show has so many problems, it would need an entire newsletter to go over them all. Legal Eagle Lawyered the pilot and the characters would’ve been disbarred and likely in prison. The show creator was an investment banker turned writer. It was originally going to be investment bankers then changed to lawyers.
Obviously, I enjoyed the show if I finished it that quickly. I’ve never binged an entire series before. There was something about it, it’s like comfort food. One of the main actors even calls it a guilty pleasure. He straight up said ‘this isn’t changing lives, but it’s good to watch between the shows that make an impact’.
I agree for the most part. The show suffers from drama for the sake of drama. Which basically means every single character lies for no reason at all. They’ll lie when the truth is easier and actually even good. The lying becomes such a problem that I started to be able to quote the apology scenes as they happened.
Because a lot of these scripts became copy and paste. Even when they stretched stories over multiple episodes, as a viewer you’d be like ‘Yep, and now he’s going to go…there we go and then he’s going to lie…uh huh. Got it. Next up, he’s got to fail…okay. But oh crap, he’s got a blue folder so…yeah, there we go. Positive resolution’.
If there’s not enough peril in Ghost Busters, there’s NONE in Suits. And no amount of dramatic music or baffled expressions from the actors can instill in me an ounce of concern for their plights. Because after three seasons of them getting away with everything, it’s just a matter of how many baffled looks they have to give the camera before the ‘cunning’ solution presents itself.
A Redit post summed up the episodes: problem mounts for 41 minutes. In the last 4 minutes, someone throws a blue folder on a table and says ‘it’s done’. Credits roll. And sometimes, it’s that easy. In fact, there were times I wondered if I fell asleep because they’d be like ‘I talked to so and so and we did x, y and z, and now we’re all good.
Maybe we would’ve liked to see that drama instead of hear someone complain about not getting the respect they deserve? The writer’s focus in the show was never consistent. And all around, these high powered, wealthy attorneys act more like high school students than adults. Which ultimately, looking back, is fairly insulting to the audience.
But no matter how much I complain, I’m the idiot who watched the whole thing faster than things I loved so my criticisms end. I don’t necessarily recommend Suits. There’s just too much about it that would drive a sane person crazy (I’m probably writing this from an asylum right now and don’t realize it).
Unless you seriously want some soap opera action but can’t do the big ones, I’d steer clear.
Games
Only one game to bring up this time since the only thing I’ve been doing on the video game front is playing Destiny 2.
Teatime Adventures by Snowbright Studios
It’s like Redwall meets Shakespeare and Hathaway. The books are gorgeous with incredible illustrations. The basic concept is that all these anthropomorphic animals get into random adventures whether it’s finding the ingredients for biscuits, investigating strange lights at a building, or throwing a party for a friend. Maybe it’s also like My Little Pony.
In any event, it’s super cute, and I’d recommend at least having a look at the artwork. I’m impressed.
My Work
So much to talk about here.
Malevolence: Real Life
This is a new comic series where I take small scenes that don’t fit in larger narratives and share them. The first episode involves Nina and Esther having a private showing of a movie at the theater. Another involves a date between Connie and Morgan. They’re not long, and they generally cut straight to the point. Some are funny, some are romantic. They offer a view into the characters for context, backstory, and just plain fun.
These will be coming out to Tapastic every Monday, but I’m also sharing them on Patreon much quicker (as they are finished). Check them out and subscribe!
Malevolence: Haunted Souls
Season 1 of the Malevolence comic can be found in Audio Format as well. Now, I’ve done it as a novel. I’m 1/3rd of the way done, and I should finish it in the near future. I’d call it the director’s cut of the comic, with a lot more detail and more conversation. So far, I’m pretty happy with it. I’ll be releasing it as soon as it’s done so this is something to look forward to soon.
Malevolence: The Curse of Carter’s Grove
The next installment will be 80,000 words (4 parts). I need to do some audio recording so we can have the audio book out shortly after. But look forward to that coming soon as well.
The Carnival of the Poison Rose Musical Audio Drama
I finished the script for an audio drama version of our old CD. I’m super excited about this. It has a lot of new music while reimagining several of the original songs. I have to cast this one, but before then, I’ll record the whole thing with me pretty much doing all the parts. Then we can get the right people to step in to help.
Very VERY big project. I look forward to it.
Avalon Nights Re-release
This is also coming soon. The audio book is done. Once we do some corrections to the novel proper, we’ll be ready to go. Look forward to this also in the near future.
Hypedomes
This is totally out of the normal conversation topic, but we discovered these hypedome things. They’re like ADUs but they make you feel like you’re living in a bubble. They can be clear or different colors, and some of them are quite large (150 square feet). You can supposedly assemble them in 5 or 6 hours (the video online showed it took people 2 days) and they can act as a bedroom, an office, or whatever else you want.
They’re not insanely expensive, but with the bells and whistles to make them truly viable for what they offer, it would be around $10k. I think they’re pretty intriguing but for a few things: 1) they don’t seem super secure to me, so you wouldn’t necessarily want to leave anything super valuable in them. 2) Without the extensive extras, it wouldn’t be viable during the extreme cold or extreme heat. You can add windows and heating, but without those, it would be pretty miserable which would cut down on wanting to leave things of value in them. 3) You have to connect power to them, which may or may not be a big deal to you depending on your DIY capabilities (or budget).
I think they’re neat, but kind of impractical. They claim they don’t generally require a permit to install—probably true. But without a solid base, which you can buy from them (then you have to level the ground and stuff) they’d be pointless. All around, they’re fun to look at. If you have thought about an ADU or you’re curious about them, take a look. They’re fun to see.
What If
Aliens. The sequel to Alien has been a favorite for many people for years. But while the story can be boiled down to people dying for corporate greed, there’s also the fact that some people should have had more self-preservation. I struggle to believe the marines would’ve gone into the facility the way they did in many respects.
If they have the technology to travel the stars the way they do, and can put someone in hyper-sleep that keeps them alive for 57 years, then I’m pretty sure they would’ve been able to determine that most of the colonists were dead. And even if they weren’t, they’d see that they were messed up.
Furthermore, since space travel took so long that the marines were all in hyper-sleep, NO colonist should have been alive when they arrived. By the time the corporation found out they lost contact, they should’ve known it was over. While yes, it only took 3 weeks to make it this time, they had to prep the team, find them, get them on a ship…a month was more than enough time for all the people to be incubation chambers.
Newt’s survival was cute and all, but a full month + of running around in trash…I just don’t buy it. Yes, it’s heroic. And sure, I can appreciate why people would WANT that to work…but I’m pretty sure she should’ve been right down in the hatchery with the rest. Or just dead. And even if she would’ve been picked up on a scan, I don’t see the marines making a special (dangerous) trip to save a single person.
Unless they hoped to get information. But we know a couple things: 1) The corporation wanted the data for study so…everyone was expendable. Sad for them that it meant their representative had to be ripped up too. 2) The corporation knew about the aliens and basically sent the expedition to die. Sure, they might have THOUGHT they’d live, but really the goal was to put Bishop in a position to get what they wanted.
Which begs the question of why they didn’t just send a ship with four androids to do the work? There’d be no chance of anyone coming out alive and complaining or raising a stink. And even if they needed some ‘eyes on the ground’, they picked the wrong people. The marines turned on them pretty fast once they were in a position of kill or be killed.
Let’s say the corporation did NOT believe in the aliens and genuinely cared about the colonists (they didn’t). There were a number of concerns to face. Disease probably being the most realistic threat. But the marines don’t even really cover their faces. Some of them have exposed skin. Going down to deal with some kind of unknown threat, they go completely unprepared.
If the corporation had been remotely competent rather than just a shadowy bunch of nonsense sending characters off to die messily for box office numbers, they would’ve done the above. A crew of synthetic life forms overseen by a group of shady sociopathic corporate guys. They would’ve sent them down to gather their samples, then collected the insurance money for the wrecked place.
Instead, they lost a group of supposedly highly trained marines, a high paid executive, 157 colonists, a bunch of equipment, the entire complex, and they STILL didn’t get what they were after. If you continue on to the third Alien movie, which I don’t know why you would…but still, even the survivors don’t end up getting back to provide information.
So to sum up: what if the corporation cared about their objective? They would’ve done things differently, not used marines, Ripley would’ve continued working at the dock, and eventually, aliens would’ve broken free from a lab in orbit and killed the human race on Earth. Cheery, but at least vaguely probable.
Conclusion
Thank you for checking out this newsletter! If you liked this content, and you want more, please send to your friends, subscribe, or comment. I’m happy to take requests to focus on something more or less. I hope you have a fantastic July. I’ll see you again in August!