Posts Tagged ‘Mystery’
1899, A No-spoiler Review
If you liked the television series LOST and you’re a fan of Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese (creators of DARK) you will want to log into to your Netflix account and start streaming 1899 now. With that said, I give warning, a second season was not renewed. For some, this will be a reason not to watch. However, I wonder if buzz about the show might result in the approval of a second season. I hope so because I really want to understand this world that falls into the category of mystery/paranormal/science fiction.
First, the short review
4 Reasons to Watch the series, 1899
- Excellent production overall, with creepy settings and period costumes
- Well-acted by a diversity of performers, many of whom are new to the American audience, though a few starred in DARK
- Lots of tension and mystery
- Claustrophobic and isolating setting. Ocean-going vessel all alone on the open seas (well…sort of alone)
A Longer Review
1899 is free to Netflix subscribers. Eight episodes make up the first season. I rate it R for sexual content and some violence.
Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese bring to the screen this mind-twisting mystery with a style that broods and draws in its audience. That style will be familiar to fans of Odar and Friese’s imaginative work in the time-travel story, DARK.
1899 opens with the main character, Maura Franklin-Singleton, played by Emily Beecham, waking from a nightmare. The viewer quickly learns that Maura is living in another century. The title of the series is a helpful reference point as are the period costumes. Maura is also aboard an ocean liner with hundreds of other passengers, on its way to America from Europe. She appears to be traveling alone.
From the first moment of the longer narrative arc, confusion about reality is introduced to the viewer through the character of Maura. Her nightmare before waking is a terrifying scene in what seems to be a sanitorium for the mentally ill. She is strapped into a chair and given an injection while the command WAKE UP jolts her out of sleep and into the “real” world. The audience, along with Maura, sense the nightmare holds a degree of reality as she views the red marks on her wrists, where in the nightmare, she was strapped to the chair. She quickly covers those up with her long, victorian sleeves, and heads to the ship’s upper-class dining hall. To add drama to this ship’s community at large, there is a large portion of underclass people living below deck for the duration of the cruise.
Waking from a dream becomes a thread throughout the story as other characters, some of her fellow travelers, experience dreaming and waking to the same command, WAKE UP. The stories of these characters are slowly woven together into a climax that truly surprises.
DARK: Don’t Miss this German-made Television Series, A No Spoiler Review
Louis Hoffman as Jonas Kahnwald
Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, co-creators of DARK, sold their masterful production to Netflix sometime in 2016-17. It began streaming in December 1, 2017. Rated PG-13 (a couple of sex scenes more than graphic violence). This series is dubbed in English. It’s done well, you’ll likely not notice after watching for a few minutes.
Here are 5 reasons to check out DARK…
- DARK is part mystery, part scifi and part thriller…in a similar way that Stranger Things draws in the viewer, so does this tale.
- Yet…DARK is smarter than Stranger Things. Throw in human angst, religion, time travel, Goethe and Nietzche and you’ve got a jumble of ideas that provoke.
- Perfect for binge-watching over Christmas vacay.
- The casting was done well and there are a number of brilliant performances, including those of the child actors.
- If you like a good soundtrack, this one is pitch perfect, utterly creepy and poignant.
Longer Review:
Black holes are considered to be the hellmouths of the universe. Those who fall inside disappear. Forever. But where to? What lies behind a black hole? Along with things, do space and time also vanish there? Or would space and time be tied together and be part of an endless cycle? What if everything that came from the past were influenced by the future?
H.G. Tannhaus
There are a number of reasons why DARK has been compared to Stranger Things. For one, it features a small town where an unnatural mystery is unfolding within its boundaries. Secondly, a couple of the main characters are policemen and youth are important to the story. DARK is “dark” and may not have the charm of the funny and sweet tween friendships at the heart of Stranger Things, but it does take on the isolation and claustrophobia of small town life. It features a number of disaffected teens and adults, not often friendly toward one another, all living in Winden.
Winden is the fictional German town where a tunnel under a nuclear power plant holds mystery. The story opens with the suicide of one of the town’s people in current time and unravels from there. Tidbits of the mystery are revealed. Various families and their histories who live in Winden are revealed. Within a few episodes, the audience begins to see the tangled mess. Not only are these folks relationally connected, they are connected by a society of time travelers. By the end of the first season, fate, individual choice and the agency of those who understand the dynamics around time travel, will continue to hinder or help Winden restore some semblance of order to their community.
The first season was much acclaimed and the second did not disappoint. A third season is under production as I write. I can’t speak highly enough of DARK, the story, the performances, the music and visuals. There is much artistry in this production and it is a welcome reality for story consumers to see another brilliant tale come from a place beyond Hollywoodland.
Congrats to these producers and I look forward to viewing and reviewing season 3.
AUTHORITY, Book Review
Book 2 of The Southern Reach Trilogy
AUTHORITY, by Jeff VanderMeer, A Book Review Without Spoilers.
First, A Little Data About this Book Review
- I listened to the novel via Audible and felt it was difficult to follow and a little boring, this after loving the Audible version of ANNIHILATION.
- AUTHORITY is the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. ANNIHILATION being the first, ACCEPTANCE is the third
- I have not yet read ACCEPTANCE, but have been told by a trusted scifi-reading friend that the trilogy is worth reading overall
The Short Review.
I Give this Book a Semi-Enthusiastic yes. Read AUTHORITY for these reasons:
- The story maintains the overall tension as introduced in the first novel.
- It may not resolve completely, but the novel reveals enough enticing details to make the reading worthwhile.
- The narrator character is the protagonist and insists on being called Control. Though I’m not fond of him, he establishes a relevant relationship to someone who has survived Area X.
- The writing itself, as is consistent with ANNIHILATION, has lovely moments.
Longer Review
So…if AUTHORITY was a stand alone novel, I might not write a stellar review and I would give up on reading any other VanderMeer novels, but since I loved ANNIHILATION so much, I will read on. If you’re curious about my review of the first Southern Reach novel, click here for the ANNIHILATION REVIEW
In AUTHORITY, the narrator is a male who calls himself Control. His birth name is John Rodriguez. He is the new director of the Southern Reach. In an early introduction, he insists that his colleagues call him Control. I realize the title of this novel is AUTHORITY and that the book is much about who has authority in the confusing situation that is taking place in and around Area X. This was another reason I was annoyed by John Rodriguez’s moniker. It felt like the author was trying to make me think in a certain direction and less about a person. I didn’t like that.
Control seems like a weirdo, socially. I was not fond of his narrative voice, nor his behaviors or leadership. Control does not compel me. I feel a distance from this character that I think I’m supposed to feel compassion for. Since the story is being told by him, in the first person, I can’t get away from him. I would have stopped listening had I not been told by a friend that the final book and the whole arc of the three books make sense when you finish them.
Despite me not feeling a connection to this narrator character, I can see why author, VanderMeer, changes perspective in this book. He wants the reader to receive another view into Area X. That which is mysterious and difficult to describe, much less understand in Area X, is seen from another angle in this novel. Control provides the US military/intelligence/bureaucratic angle as well as some recent history.
Given that the reader knows the content of ANNIHILATION, that Area X has consumed a number military and government expeditions, the background is helpful to the larger story.
But, for me, the main silver lining around this new narrator was that the reader finally received a physical description of the narrator and protagonist from the previous book.
“The biologist’s hair had been long and dark brown, almost black, before they’d shaved it off. She had dark, thick eyebrows, green eyes, a slight, slightly off-center nose (broken once, falling on rocks), and high cheekbones that spoke to the strong Asian heritage on one side of her family…”
This description does make me bummed about the filmmakers of ANNIHILATION casting the biologist for the cinematic story as a white woman (Natalie Portman) with zero (or near zero) Asian heritage. Bummed for many mixed-race actresses out there who did not get this part.
I will listen to the next book, AUTHORITY, on Audible. I hope to enjoy it more than this middle novel.
Click here to buy ANNIHILATION, Bk 1 of The Southern Reach Trilogy
Click here to buy AUTHORITY, Bk 2 of the Southern Reach Trilogy
Click here to buy ACCEPTANCE, Bk 3 of The Southern Reach Trilogy