SEVERANCE | SPACE FORCE | THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL | TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 18/02/2022
Hi there! I hope you guys had a great week and are ready to enjoy your weekend. This week’s newsletter has some thoughts on a really good series called SEVERANCE. It is impressive how Apple TV+ keeps making some great content but unfortunately, almost anyone talks about it. They deserve more love. I also talk about the second season of SPACE FORCE which is not perfect but it is a massive improvement upon the first one. Amazon Prime’s THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL is also back with its fourth season and even though I only had early access to two episodes, I share my thoughts on them as well. If you are into gory horror flicks Netflix got you covered with the new TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. There is also a playlist with five songs I listened to last week.
QUICK THOUGHTS
SPACE FORCE's first season was a major disappointment for me, despite a star-studded cast that included Steve Carell and John Malkovich, and all that Netflix money I had no fun watching it. But I'm pleased to inform you that the series improves on its original promise in Season 2, which drops all episodes today, February 18. General Mark Naird (Steve Carell) now has much less respect and resources than he had when he initially took over the command. SPACE FORCE became a more consistent and dynamic series as a result of making the characters more underdogs than they previously were. Some. unnecessary and tired Trump era mockery and boring subplots have been dropped in favor of a stronger emphasis on the basic cast, allowing the show to present itself as the more straightforward and true workplace comedy it always had the ambition to be. Overall, SPACE FORCE still isn’t a perfect comedy but I had more fun watching the show this time around and I hope they get another season to have a chance to improve even more.
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL Season 4 picks up right after the conclusion of Season 3. And last season's ending seemed to imply that this new phase of the series would take Midge into the show's most unpleasant territory yet, with the protagonist facing actual repercussions for her actions. However, the first two episodes of the new season do not show Midge facing the consequences we had hoped for. Midge and Susie's plan to return to the top is basically to find a way for her to say whatever she wants on stage, which is exactly what put her in trouble in the first place. There's still a lot of charm in THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL. It's still a flashy, entertaining show with strong performers and stunning sets, and amazing production design. And because only the first two episodes were available in advance to me, I will give the show the benefit of the doubt. After all, things may change in future episodes. But, for the time being, this season appears to be doing exactly the same that most critics complained about the last one. Which is being more concerned with style than substance.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE so, after many, many sequels, we now have a Netflix attempt to reboot this classic horror franchise. The original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is one of my all-time favorite horror movies so I was intrigued about this new movie but at the same time, I had very low expectations about it. And I’m glad I didn’t get too excited because TCM 2022 is nothing special. Basically, Leatherface reappears after almost 50 years in hiding to torment a group of ambitious influencers who inadvertently travel to his meticulously guarded environment in a remote Texas city. Basically, this reboot brings nothing new to the table. There are some brutal-looking kills and a lot of body parts flying around. Which made me wonder how Leatherface pulled those out because he is like 80 years old now. But Anyway, if you are really into gruesome horror flicks you may like this. Otherwise, avoid it.
SEVERANCE
SEVERANCE is a new Apple TV+ series produced and directed by Ben Stiller. The series stars Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and John Turturro and is set at Lumen Industries, a mystery corporation whose employees have chosen to undergo a controversial "severance" treatment that turns the work/life balance into reality and separates their lives in two.
I loved the blend of dark comedy and satire, as well as the thriller and suspense that the show has. The sinister tone is also a great deal of fun. The cast is consistently excellent, and Ben Stiller does a fantastic job of immersing us in the huge yet bleak grounds of Lumon. The cinematography of SEVERANCE is breathtaking and the scenes shot in the office remind me a lot of Kubrik’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The show has a sluggish beginning but it gradually progresses to a steady pace. I’m not going to spoil anything, but SEVERANCE really starts to get interesting when the employees find evidence that things at their workplace are not as they appear, and that the severance procedure is more devious than they've been told.
The premise of SEVERANCE is fantastic. And it works well as an excellent conspiracy thriller and an alarmingly plausible piece of science fiction. The series has a multitude of different qualities such as a workplace psychological mystery, really good dark comedy, and a strange and disturbing universe. It takes a while to get going but once it does, it is mind-bending and throws some interesting concepts.
Top 5 Songs
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.