Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 09/20/24
O Blah Dee, O Blah Dah edition
It’s been one of those up and down weeks here at the bunker, with some fairly simple tasks on the HoneyDo List that kept being interrupted by the logistics of life in that eternal struggle between what you want to do and what you need to do, often with an expiration date attached. Despite these mundane peccadillos, I found myself buoyed and cheered by a number of people who reached out to me through various means to tell me how much they were enjoying the ebook edition of Blood & Thunder. As that will very likely be the book mentioned in my eventual obituary, I never get tired of hearing from people how much they enjoyed the book, found it illuminating, changed their minds, or deepened their curiosity about Our Favorite Author.
Joltin’ Johnny Lucas
I’ve mentioned my oldest, closest friend/big brother from another mother John Lucas before, but this time I wanted to point you in the direction of his Patreon, located here: Joltin’ Johnny Lucas on Patreon. If you’re a Texas Indy Comics alumni, you probably know John already, but just in case you don’t, he’s a fantastic artist and storyteller. His Patreon is pretty simple; he’s drawing comics, covers, convention sketches, etc. and talking about his process. He’s pretty good about sharing his works-in-progress, and if you join at the intermediate tier, you will occasionally get such fine pieces of artwork as this in the mail.
Lucas also does some live sketching and inking, which is a fantastic look at his process and also a chance to say hey and try to distract him with chitchat (spoiler: it rarely works; Lucas is a black belt at tuning out my yammering so he can draw dinosaurs and stuff). If you’d like to follow him, you can do so from Xitter, the FaceBook, and of course, his Patreon page.
Southern Fried Cthulhu is Live
Everyone had a great time buying the ebook version of Blood & Thunder, so let’s give this one a shot, as well. You may remember that I was one of the authors featured in this gonzo anthology. Good news! Southern Fried Cthulhu is ready for purchase, in an affordable epub edition and also as a physical copy. I really like my story, “Off the Eatin’ Path,” and I hope you will dig it, as well. I reread it the other day and, make no mistake about it, my authorial voice is well and truly represented. I wrote the story as if I was a columnist for Texas Monthly. Well, maybe the Austin Chronicle.
October is about to hit us, and then it’s Spooky Season. I know many of you like to partake in reading horror novels and stories. Please consider this as one of your Halloween selections.
Weekly Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review
Note: once more we are operating outside of our own mandate as the following reviews are not written with three episodes in the can, but rather, one and two, respectively. We will reserve the right to do a follow-up review of the whole series/season if the shows don’t deliver on the promise of the early episodes.
The Penguin (HBO)
Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, in this new crime drama produced by and with input from Matt Reeves, the man behind the 2022 Pattenson Batman movie.
Set right after the events in The Batman (2022), the first episode starts with the crime families in disarray and Oswald trying to make a power play amidst the uncertainty.
It would be extremely disingenuous to even suggest that The Penguin is some kind of genre-breaking, transcendent thing. The relationship between Gotham’s mob families has been beaten to death in the past three and a half decades. Mob movies and TV shows are a dime a dozen. About all they can bring to a project like this is talent, and the ability to make good choices. Mission accomplished.
Ferrell’s performance in The Batman was like watching a cool magic trick you couldn’t figure out. How did that make-up look so good, so close up? Where did that accent come from? And now, instead of him stealing a few scenes, we get six or eight episodes of Oz doing what he does best? Yes, please, and thank you.
Ferrell is mesmerizing; seriously, I don’t know how he does it. He deserves every award he will inevitably be nominated for. Granted, the make-up is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, but the camera in the first episode goes in for a number of really tight close-ups and I swear, I can almost see sweat coming out of the pores on his scarred and pockmarked face. He’s got several lengthy scenes with Rhenzy Feliz, a young man who reminds me over and over again of a very young Forest Whitaker
This gangster-based mini-series hits HBO at an auspicious time as they are also premiering a two-part documentary on David Chase and the making of The Sopranos, a reminder that HBO has been quietly claiming the top dog spot in grimdark police procedurals and crime stories ever since the first episode hit, over two decades ago, and literally changed television forever. It’s great timing because it’s nearly-impossible to not think about James Gandolfini when watching Colin Ferrell in the role of one of Batman’s silliest villains.
A lot can go wrong in an eight-part mini-series, but so far, The Penguin is off to a grand start. A lot happens, most of it setting up the story, but it doesn’t feel rushed or forced. It’s nice, too, to see Penguin get his due; it has taken three decades to make him into a serious villain instead of a quacking buffoon, and if that sounds cool to you, by all means, give the first episode a try.
Agatha All Along (Disney)
Agatha Harkness, free of the prison imposed on her by the Scarlet Witch, assembles a coven with the intention of reclaiming her magic and making everyone who thwarted her pay dearly, if she can stay alive and avoid the Salem Seven.
Katheryn Hahn’s breakout portrayal of Agatha Harkness in WandaVision (2021) was evidently a surprise for all concerned, but you know Disney won’t leave any money on the table, so here we go with this spin-off that we didn’t know we wanted, but we also really needed. This is one of those What You See is What You Get shows. Any trailer you watch will make it clear that this is a show with five women and a gay man in the front and center of it all, and they are all witches trying to do a bunch of witchy things. If anyone has a problem with that, I’ve got no sympathy for you; you knew what this was when you decided to watch it.
Agatha All Along follows much of the same aesthetic as WandaVision—I can’t say anything else about it, but trust me, you’ll “get it” within the first 30 seconds of the show. After that, there’s a big shift into Allegory Land, the most obvious of which is the multitude of Wizard of Oz nods, which will likely become crystal clear by the third episode. Everything is also something else. And given that there’s some residual reality-bending things going on in the first two episodes, there’s no time to be overly-clever. It’s nice to watch a show and get all of the references without needing a study group afterwards.
One of the best things about this show is the strong pacing. We are two episodes in and none of it feels like wasted space. Also, I’m impressed with the acting, which is exaggerated, but not over-the-top. In particular, Hahn and fellow Parks and Recreation alum Aubrey Plaza have great chemistry in every scene. In my head, they are telling each other Amy Pohler stories between takes.
It’s not clear how “scary” the show will be, even though it’s clearly timed to coincide with Halloween Season. I think if you’re a fan of WandaVision, you’ll love where this is going, who they bring back, and of course, the original song about the Witches’ Road. It’s not as catchy as “Agatha All Along,” but they can’t all be number 1 hits, right?
I mentioned the point about What You See is What You Get to point out that so far, I’ve not seen any reviews bashing Marvel for being “woke” and doing a show about “women and witches,” or any of that hot buttered nonsense. That’s not to say it isn’t out there, only that it hasn’t been so widespread. I’m really tired of that particular meta-commentary, especially since it’s singularly unhelpful. Personally, I’m fully engaged with Agatha All Along, and I’m curious to see what’s at the end of this particular journey.
I think Colin Ferrell deserves some kind of award just for that Penguin walk he does.