Posted by jukkahoo
Whirlwind, I tell you. Life, work, everything.
The beer of the day is Norwegian Wheat Beer White Dog. Based on medieval Belgian brewing tradition and made by Lervig aktiebryggeri. And it tastes like...
But first the nose. Fresh, citrusy, dry, sweet(?). Very nice, not at all like most of the witbeers you'll readily get from tap here in Finland. Taste is dryish, very wheaty and light, leaving a lingering aftertaste that goes on for quite some time. There's yeast all right.
I like this, wouldn't mind having this on tap at some sf-friendly pub in Museokatu...
I'm going to write about two series, since couple of last ones have been about movies and there's this missed "episode", thanks to City council and their xmas party. Now, these two have nothing in common, but here goes.
Alien Nation was a motion picture with James Caan as the rough and tough cop, who was being partnered with one of the newcomers, an alien named Sam Francisco. Which is the biggest gripe I have with this show. In the series he is called George (which is okay, since Sikes thinks that Sam Francisco is a silly name and how about if I call you George? Great!), even officially. Hells bells! His name is SAMUEL! Mandy Patinkin is SAMUEL Francisco. Aaaaaarggghhh!!!!
The again, as come-ups go, Sam's reply is glorious: "It is like your name... Sykes. I'm sure it doesn't bother you at all that it sounds like "ss'ai k'ss," two words in my language which mean "excrement" and "cranium. [...] Shithead."
Where was I?
Yes. Newcomers. A bunch of aliens who landed on Earth, former slaves of some evil aliens, who look exactly like them. And are now living in cognito among the populace. Plotting evil stuff. As aliens go, newcomers are frienfdly and capable of learning things at very high speed, making them better than people at some many things. Or at least as good.
This is a buddy series, laced with humour and action. A classic of the sort. The series goes more into the relationships we humans have with the newcomers. Some episodes have really simple basic premises, but the writers managed to deal with those ideas in a way that transform this simple series into something far more than the sum of its parts. It isn't as good as I'd like it to be, but as someone who saw it way back then and thought of it as OK, and having seen it again now, I'm finding this very interesting and entertaining piece of late 80's SF.
The series ends with lots of things undone and there are a number of tv-films which I haven't seen, so there's more where that came from for me!
Alien Nation is a lot more "norman" police procedural than straight-up SF, but that gives it some additional advantage as well. These are normal situations and having these aliens among us as a norm, while racial tensions being out there, gives this some kind of... honesty I really appreciate. And it is really funny.
The Fades was a six-episode BBC production from 2011. We have this teenage boy, whose having these apocalyptic nightmares about the end of the World. Which then promptly starts to happen.
[This is moment when I accidentally pour the rest of my beer on my keyboard.]
Starring the male geek from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and special agent Tucker from Johnny English 2, with lovely Natalie Dormer from nigh everything and that cute Scottish/Chinese girl from Kick-Asses, The Fades was really interesting take on creatures of the unknown. Fades are ghosts, somewhere there on the edge of our vision, not evil per se, but could become such. Then there's angelics, men and women who fight the fades with intention of giving them eternal peace in glorious light. It gets muddled and religiously baffling, but the script writing is good and with some excellent acting, Fades was a really tight little series that should've gotten renewed. It got BAFTA for best drama series in 2012.
Do yourself a favour and have a looksee.
Here's your arbitrary link of the day. Tired of all the same old, same old at Netflix, Viaplay, Hulu etc? Try Mubi.
Comments