A Sea of Ink

Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE SEASON TWO. More specifically, we’ve had season two since August, but I binged the first eleven episodes in a week and then couldn’t bring myself to watch the last one. (I didn’t want it to be over!) So I procrastinated watching the season finale until the end of October. Because, let’s be real— it took three years to get season two out there; who knows how long we’ll have to wait for season three? The show has definitely changed since the first episode, in both good ways and not-so-good. Some brief thoughts: The “scratchy”? cinematography for the first couple (?) of episodes was distracting and didn’t lend much to the overall experience. I mostly was wondering what the heck was wrong with their camera. I miss the simplicity of season one; this season is much darker and more intense. The simplicity was part of what made season one so light-hearted, witty, and fun. I disliked how the main plot line changed; it became too complex and soap ope...

A Very Secret Service, or, Au service de la France, is one little-known but brilliant offering currently available for streaming on Netflix. Paris, 1960: wide-eyed but excited André Merlaux is recruited to become a secret agent and thrown, with little to no instruction, into the fast-paced and often confusing world of "the service". In this satirical spy parody, full of dry but hilarious comedy, lovable, innocent Merlaux encounters a cast of amusing and unique characters, and stumbles into an unexpected plot much deeper and more sinister than he could have ever anticipated. Not only are the actors' performances excellent, but so are the well-written script and high-quality visual elements. With its fun and engaging plot, enriched by the historical backdrop of Cold War Paris, A Very Secret Service will have you both laughing out loud and perched on the edge of your seat, then waiting anxiously for more. There have appeared rumors that Season 2 could be coming to Ne...

*SPOILER-FREE!* I definitely binge-watched this series way back in January or February, but haven't been ready to really review until now. THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD!!! From a book-to-screen standpoint, a remake-of-a-movie standpoint, and even just looking at it as a stand-alone series, THIS SHOW IS GREAT. One of the greatest flaws in the production of the 2004 film based on the Lemony Snicket books was the attempt to make the story realistic. The plot is not meant to be taken seriously. Although the point of the series is that it is "unfortunate," in the books it is done in such a way that it is still entertaining. Snicket is a quirky, fourth-wall-breaking author, and the problem with the movie was that it was dark, and serious, and tried to be Gothic and sad. The TV series adaptation, however, captured perfectly the feeling of the books. Where the movie neglected the character of the narrator, omitting the numerous vocabulary lessons and quirky foreshadowing which i...

Wow. Just...wow. What a ride. Starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson,  Poldark  is a BBC television dramatization of the Poldark book series by Winston Graham. A young Cornish man named Ross Poldark (played by Turner) leaves his family, friends, significant other, and ancestral home to fight alongside the British in the American Revolutionary War. Following a head injury, Ross's family in Cornwall loses contact with him, and he is presumed dead. When he returns home, he finds his father passed away, his former sweetheart engaged to his cousin, and his inheritance in shambles-- an estate and copper mine riddled with debts and picked clean of funds. However, Ross is no ordinary man. He is determined to rebuild his life in Cornwall, all the while striving to improve the lower classes' quality of life and help the less fortunate, much to the confusion of his wealthy peers. The first season covers the plot of the first two Poldark books. A second season recently ai...