The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
The documents showed that, contrary to false claims by the Biden
administration, NATO troops are on the ground in Ukraine, NATO is
directly involved in the war, and the Ukrainian military is in a far
worse position than presented by news reports.
These documents have exposed not only the US government, but the New York Times and Washington Post, as liars.
In
turn, the major US media outlets have responded by upholding, in
principle, the right of the US government to lie to the public.
Ava and C.I. weren't too jazzed about this week and C.I. even warned on Saturday that she was blown away by a shot (pneumonia shot) and wasn't sure she'd be able to rally on Sunday. But they did and took on one of the worst programs NETFLIX has ever offered.
We're not going to repost is because AEI is a bunch of right-wing liars. But they just released a video about the Iraq War. Where's the video from THE NATION? Or any of the other left outlets?
This is how their lies get supported. We move on to other topics and the right-wing issues one lie after another, year after year, and people start to believe it.
By refusing to address the Iraq War, THE NATION et al are conceding the debate.
ROLLING STONE's Chris Vogner is calling NETFLIX's OBSESSED "the kinkiest" drama the streamer has ever had. In making that declaration, he confesses to much more than just lack of information.
GRACE: Can you imagine me in a three-way?
[Will and Karen laugh]
KAREN:
Honey, I can barely imagine you in a two-way.
GRACE:
Come on, I mean, it's not outside the realm of possibility.
WILL:
Grace, I can see me in a three-way. I can see Karen in a three-way.
KAREN:
Oh, honey, every night with Stan is a three-way: me, him, and Johnny Walker Black. Just the three of us.
WILL:
But you're-you're just not that girl.
KAREN:
[laughs] No way. No how.
GRACE:
Hey, I have been know to get a little crazy in the boudoir. Some might even call me . . . kinky.
[Will and Karen laugh hysterically]
GRACE: Hey!
WILL:
Sweetheart, people who are truly kinky never use the word "kinky."
KAREN:
And who the hell says "boudoir"? "Hey, hey, look at me. I'm kinky, and I'm in the boudoir."
"People who are truly kinky never use the word 'kinky'." If it's worth saying, it's probably already been said on WILL & GRACE (Season 3, episode 6, "Love Plus One" written by Richard Rosenstock). "People who are truly kinky never use the word 'kinky'."
People could describe OBSESSED as sad. As pathetic. As tired. As non-compelling. There are numerous terms that describe this hideous series.
Jay Farrow (Rish Shah) complains at one point, "Anna, I haven't even met your mother!"
It's bad acting, it's bad writing, it's bad nirvana for connoisseurs of truly rotten garbage.
You might not get why the audience is howling so let's back up a moment. Jay hasn't met Anna's mother. But Anna has met Jay's father. She's met him and then some.
Richard Amitage plays Jay's father William. He and Anna (Charlie Murphy) have met, their pelvises have met, their privates have met. If you're wondering, yes, Jay's parents are married. Mom Ingrid is played by (Indira Varma).
At the start of the 90s, this material made for a bad book. Then it was turned into a 'thriller' that flopped, Louis Malle's DAMAGE which barely scraped up $7.5 million in North America. Overwrought and tedious, someone felt it was perfect for a Greek Opera -- those with that feeling weren't consumers of opera.
Now the garbage has been turned into a streaming trash.
For a project to work, you have to care about the characters. But William has everything -- including a loving wife -- and he's willing to sleep with this woman -- have an ongoing affair with her while she's seeing his son. And Anna? She not only repeatedly sleeps with William but accepts Jay's marriage proposal.
Who are these people?
Not anyone you'd want to know.
They hump each other repeatedly in one unconvincing scene after another. Armitage conveys more passion when he's alone sniffing a pillow for scent and jerking off and humping the mattress. If the sex scenes are bad -- and they are -- what's worse is the post-coital scenes as the shot tries for clever angles to frame Armitage in such a way that you don't see his flaccid penis.
You watch appalled at what you are seeing. You're disgusted not pulled in.
If he wants to cheat on his wife, get a divorce -- or at least find a woman who's not engaged to your son. And what kind of person sleeps with a man's father and also agrees to marry the man?
This is beyond stupid. Where do they think this ends?
As the four-part series winds down, William shows up at Jay's bachelor party and tells his son, the one he's cucking, "I just want you to be happy."
How?
But you know when he says it, everything's about to get worse. And it does, as it finally and slowly dawns on Jay. He rushes to Anna's place, running up several flights of stairs, unable to speak to him mother that he's called on his phone. He gets to Anna's door and it's locked. He knocks the door down and sees his father taking a blind folded Anna from behind. He backs up and falls over the railing, several flights to his death. His father, nude, rushes down the stairs to embrace his dead son.
Charlie Murphy is lousy in this -- it's hard to imagine any actress being able to pull off the role of Anna. But Charlie Murphy reaches new lows in acting and it's because she never reacts in any way that seems remotely human. True, she was blind folded when Jay burst in. But even with the blind fold off, Murphy makes the choice to not react.
The man who proposed to her, that she was going to marry the next day, is dead. Is dead and dead because he discovered her having sex with his father. And she's blank and emotionless.
As the final episode winds down, we're supposed to feel sorry for Anna and William. Details are piled on, Anna's father molested her -- and did so with her mother's knowledge! Who cares? None of that justifies what she did or brings Jay back to life. On what would have been her honeymoon, she comes on to a stranger until his wife shows up and then she's grinding against a strange man on the beach before later slapping him. None of it matters.
None of it redeems these characters.
Instead, we're left nodding along with Ingrid whose last words to her husband are, "You should have killed yourself."
We're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. Kat's "3 books to skip" Bertill Nordahl's CAT SEVENS, CARLY SIMON AND LEONARD COHEN AND ALL
THE OTHERS, David Redford's NEIL& JONI: 2 LIVES, 21 ALBUMS and Ellen Sanders' ROCK AND ROLL
WOMENHOOD: CASS ELLIOT, GRACE SLICK, LINDA RONSTADT, FANNY AND MORE. So, which book did you loathe the most?
Kat: Probably Nordahl's book since it was in Danish.
You got it to read about Carly Simon?
Kat: Yes.
You missed nothing. It's 11 sentences on Carly -- one of which is a quote from "You're So Vain" -- the clouds in my coffee line. It also has a factual error crediting BOYS IN THE TREES to 1976. Her 1976 album is ANOTHER PASSENGER. BOYS IN THE TREES is released in 1978.
Kat: Thanks. With her photo on the cover and her name listed second, I would've thought it had a great deal on Carly. Now I know.
Let's move over to Ellen Sanders who was a semi-popular music writer in the 60s and 70s. She was no Ellen Willis, she was no Lillian Roxon, she as no Patricia Kennealy-Morrison. As her place in history is overlooked, she's been repacking her old stuff with no real context or anything of interest which is actually dragging down her legacy. , Trina's "Ellen Sander's The Lifestyle That Classic Rock Unleashed" covered a collection earlier this year and when we spoke with Trina ["Books (Trina, Ava and C.I.)"], Trina contrasted her with Ellen Willis and others and stated, "They wrote with passion and they made the music come alive. Her
tired writing is dead on arrival and how can you cover the music of the
sixties and be so damn boring?"
Kat: I love Cass Elliot and we could all use more coverage of what she gifted the world of music with. But Ellen Sanders appears to have no idea of what that was. She's just the name of someone famous that Ellen briefly interviewed. Same with Grace Slick. It's boring as hell. And it's tired and recycled. And she considers herself a feminist -- then and now -- but you didn't get published in CREEM, for example, back then without sporting sexism. I can't imagine that she's so busy today that she couldn't find time to provide context for these pieces, to provide overviews on these artists.
That still leaves David Redford's book on Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
Kat: I don't get it. They're both singer-songwriters. They're both born in Canada. They both had polio. But if you're writing a book about music, there's no reason to compare them. Neil Young is not -- and has never been -- as mature as Joni. His outlook is that of a child, largely to this day. Joni was an old soul when she started out. She's an incredible one of a kind guitar player. He knows how to strum. She writes deep, perceptive songs over and over. He writes fluff the bulk of the time and every now and then stumbles upon a "Helpless." Now if I hold Neil up to his true peers, he's a very strong artist. But Joni's not his true peer. Joni is a one-of-a-kind, once-every-hundred-years artist. Compare him to David Crosby, et all and Neil is pretty amazing. But he's not -- and never will be -- the male equivalent of Joni.
And when you know the history of US imperialism and its destruction of people's movements around the world, you learn how much and how easily EVERY SINGLE US OFFICIAL WILL LIE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST COUNTRIES TO JUSTIFY AN INVASION!
"Crispy Calamari in the Kitchen"
-- Trina reviews AIR FRYER COOKBOOK FOR BEGINNERS: EFFORTLESSLY GRILL,
ROAST AND BAKE HOMEMADE MEALS: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS WITH
QUICK, TASTY & HEALTHY RECIPES.
"Vincent Price and Universal"
-- Marcia reviews John L. Flynn's 75 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL MONSTERS and
Vincent Price's I LIKE WHAT I KNOW: A VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
"3 books to skip" -- Kat reviews Bertill Nordahl's CAT SEVENS, CARLY SIMON AND LEONARD COHEN AND ALL
THE OTHERS, David Redford's NEIL& JONI: 2 LIVES, 21 ALBUMS and Ellen Sanders' ROCK AND ROLL
WOMENHOOD: CASS ELLIOT, GRACE SLICK, LINDA RONSTADT, FANNY AND MORE.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
