Being Human: Chasers

After watching Being Human UK on Hulu I was so sad to see it end. I liked this show so much, even after the entire cast changed, although I definitely preferred the original cast. It was so exciting to find the book series based on the original cast, so I've been ordering them each one at a time to make the experience last as long as possible. I don't order the next book in the series until I'm finished with the previous book. Not only does it make the experience last longer, but it gives me something to look forward to as I await the arrival of the next book. 

Mark Michalowski does a great job in keeping the characters true to their TV images. Chasers centers mostly on George, but Annie and Mitchell's reactions and support figure largely in the story as well. Mitchell and Annie had some situations to work out in the story also and it was great to be reading about the paranormaly unique flatmates once again as they helped each other avoid making life decisions that they might have regretted.

It's bittersweet that I am now finished reading Chasers and am well into the third and final book in the series, Bad Blood.

Fear the Walking Dead: Season One

This show started out slower than The Walking Dead because there wasn't that sense of urgency, confusion and terror that Rick's experience after waking up from his coma caused. When Fear the Walking Dead begins, we viewers are already seasoned pros and watch with confident knowledge of the what the future has in store for these people as the cast sits by cluelessly waiting for the government to solve this temporary inconvenience. By the season's end, the cast has been kicked in the face with the horrific reality that they're on their own in a cruel, bloodthirsty world.

At first, I didn't care for any of the characters in this show. They're either annoying and selfish or bossy know-it-alls. But a couple of them have grown on me in their ability to except and adapt to their drastically changed lives. As our marketing and advertising corporations are always drilling into us, the world is made for the young. Fear the Walking Dead also favors youth as the younger generation seems to be handling this upturned world much better and more logically than the adults. 

I'm thinking after all the adults are killed off Chris and Alicia repopulate the world in a new spin off of this spin off.

The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

Within a dark gloomy atmosphere, there were some cool visual effects using light and color, such as the bright flames as the witch hunters stormed the witch queen's dark lair under the craggy, ominous tree. The street scene where Dolan 37 (Elijah Wood) was standing glowed with the reflection of lights from signs. Any place belonging to the church was warmly lit where the outside world and the mysterious places where witches or dark magic were present were dark and gloomy.

Vin Diesel isn't the greatest actor in the world, but I think even he was subdued and bland as Kaulder, the witch hunter who is unable to die. He's not immortal because of his destiny or his calling, but because he was cursed by the witch queen with eternal life. It's not like he's immortal in order to protect the world from witches throughout eternity. That would have been cool. He's immortal because of an affliction beyond his control. I think I was hoping for Riddick: The Last Witch Hunter.

The story itself held promise to me. I liked witch Chloe's (Rose Leslie) dream walking ability. That's a pretty cool talent which came in handy along with her other related skills and knowledge. It was cool that after centuries of living, Kaulder found a way to keep the dark witches from destroying humanity without having to kill them all by working in cooperation with the witches council to round up the trouble makers and lock them up instead of working against them.

Even though this partnership seems to have been in place for a long time, when he enters Chloe's night club for witches, the witches scatter and run in fear as though he were going to start randomly killing whoever he could catch. The portrayal of witches could have been a lot better, not only in that case but the fact that the witches were kind of ditzy and inept, except for Chloe. Why did the witch queen, the most powerful witch on earth, also have to be purely evil and ugly? When it seemed there are plenty of decent responsible witches such as the witches on the council, why is the most powerful witch an evil one?

The Boy (2016)

If you like horror movies that make you jump out of your skin at regular intervals, you won't like this movie. But if you like a creepy, strange movie with gothic settings in the present day with a surprise twist at the end, The Boy will fit the bill. 

I couldn't help but find a similarity to Dark Shadows as the movie opens with the newly hired nanny/governess (Lauren Cohan) traveling to a remote 19th century country estate to meet the family she is to work for. Once she arrives, she  meets the fussy lady of the house who addresses her as "Miss Evans." Miss Winters would have been even cooler, but Miss Evans is good too!

Miss Evans chuckles out loud to the dismay of her employers when she is introduced to her charge, who turns out to be a life-size doll of an 8 year old boy named Brahms. She's given a list of rules and a detailed schedule that she is sternly told to follow to the letter each day.

I won't spoil it, but it gets even weirder and creepier until the explosive twist at the end. Very different and very entertaining.