In 1537 King Henry VIII ordered the disillusion of the Catholic monasteries of England. These religious sites were a hotbed of resistance to his formation of the Anglian faith and also a rich and tempting target to be looted. Enter Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s principal counsellor, and the man who Henry has tasked to takedown these monasteries. In turn, Cromwell delegates this task to two men, his own henchman Jack Barak and a hunchback lawyer, Matthew Shardlake.
These character’s stories, form the basis for the Shardlake historical mystery novels of C. J. Sansom (who died just last week). His first novel, Disillusion, has been adapted into a TV miniseries. I binged this new four-part series last night. It stars Arthur Hughes as Shardlake, Sean Bean as Cromwell and Anthony Boyle as Barak. This tale is reminiscent of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Where two outsiders enter an entrenched medieval Catholic monastery that has become steeped in both suspicion and murder.
The murder-mystery biz is so saturated that any new entry requires a hook to distinguish itself from all of the rest. In Shardlake Samson made his protagonist handicapped. In the TV series this is ably handled by the fact that Hughes is also disabled. The TV series is well crafted and looks authentic, having been recently filmed in Romania. The photo with this post is like the first victim in this story, who was beheaded. This disembodied wooden head of Henry VIII is on display in the Tower. It was part of a mannequin that was made to fit the king’s armor.
We are more than a year late to this party, but tonight we shall wrap season one of Bridgerton, by viewership Netflix’s most successful program ever. Better late than ever, because in less than two months, season two will drop. Season one is based on the first book in the Bridgerton series by author Julia Quinn. The main characters in this series are the eight Bridgerton children, named A-H in birth order: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth. This first season centers on Daphne and covers her coming out. The story is set in London’s Regency period, but unlike any Jane Austin novel, this tale has a decidedly contemporary feel. Foremost in this regard with respect to the casting of people of color not only as members of the servant class, but also as members of the ruling class. This change from history is blithely explained with mad King George III’s wife who was rumored to have Moorish blood. Created by the SoCal based production company Shondaland, led by Shonda Grimes, this is not your usual British period drama. One nice touch is that Julie Andrews narrates the show, voicing the gossipy Lady Whistledown, who publishes a regularly appearing scandal sheet that both incense the story’s aristocracy and keeps the show’s viewers abreast of its multifaceted storyline.
The Half Of It, new on Netflix, is a delightful Rom-Com with a twist. Written and directed by Alice Wu, it stars Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) as a shy and lonely, straight-A high school senior, who is isolated in backwater Squahamish, WA. Living down by the railroad tracks, with her widowed signalman father, has earned her the derisive nickname Ellie Choo-Choo. Treated as a foreigner in the only place she has even known leads to her mercenary practice of penning their essays for cash, “Ten dollars for three pages.” “If you don’t get an A, then you don’t pay.”
She is only a minor character, Ellie’s English teacher Mrs. Geselschap (Becky Ann Baker), but she steals every scene that she is in, as in this bit of dialogue, where she discloses to Ellie that she knows all about her paper writing business.
Mrs. Geselschap: Six different takes on Plato. Impressive. Ellie Chu: Just the one. Mrs. Geselschap: That’s what I tell the bartender. Ellie Chu: How come you never turn me in? Mrs. Geselschap: And have to read the actual essays they’d write?
She sees a spark in Ellie and tries to convince her to attend Grinnell College in the fall, where she too had graduated. Ellie will have none of it, explaining her intentions to remain in Squahamish, attend a local second rate institution and care for her father. This leads to an exchange between the two about the merits of Grinnell, Hell-quahamish and what constitues success in life that cuminates with Geselschap telling Ellie, “Everyone fears God in this town. But do you know who God fears? The Teachers’ Union.”
Enter Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), a school jock who asks for Ellie’s help in writing a love letter to fellow classmate Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire). What evolves is a real Cyrano de Bergerac love triangle. Initially, she rejects his request, “Get a thesaurus. Use spell-check. Good luck, Romeo.” Eventually though they team up to win Aster’s heart. What begins with written letters, soon moves on to texting, allowing Ellie to in real time save Paul and Aster’s first and very nearly last date, “In love, one always starts by deceiving oneself, it ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”
No love triangle can remain stable for long and this one eventually has its Jerry Springer moment that lays a hilarious Easter egg of sorts, but not before its two initial bonds are joined by others. Aster and Ellie share a conversation and a jump cut sequence where they collaborate on a graffiti wall mural. Aster tells Ellie that, “The difference between a good painting and a great painting is typically five strokes. And those strokes are usually the boldest strokes in the painting.” To which Ellie eventually responds with, “Love is being willing to ruin your good painting for the chance at a great one.” High school is a time in life that is full of great opportunity and to paraphrase Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks, great opportunity gives birth to great moments. This film is full of great moments and I hope you soon have the opportunity to enjoy it too.
Mysteries, secrets and clues were part and parcel of the young adult book series, Nancy Drew. First published in 1930, it was produced as the female counterpart to the already established Hardy Boys. The pictured first ~thirty volumes of this series are most likely reprints that were produced in the sixties. A total of 175 Nancy Drew books were written. Later volumes, printed in the eighties featured pairings of Nancy Drew with the Hardy Boys. I’m surprised that it took them so long to find the opposite sex, as great as detectives that they all were. We found this particular collection gracing the shelves of the eclectic Stewarts Point store.
I’ve never read any Nancy Drew, but I did read a few of the Hardy Boys books. Anne read Nancy Drew. Speaking from ignorance then, I imagine that the two mystery series were similar in many ways. They shared the same publisher, were produced by a series of authors (Carolyn Keene is a pseudonym) and were created contemporaneously, with the Hardy Boys beginning only three years before Nancy Drew started. Both series have evolved over time, with earlier volumes being rewritten and new books continually added. The books have also branched out into movies and TV. The latest incarnation of the Nancy Drew franchise is scheduled to stream next month on the CW. Here is a link to its trailer. The girl has come a long way since 1930.
Dan in NYC is working for a video production company that is making a series of infomercials for the History Channel. This series is about historic US-20 and is called Stories from the Longest Road. The first episode that he worked on was Kehl’s Maple Syrup, which is located in upstate New York, somewhere between Buffalo and Rochester. This series will include vignettes from coast-to-coast, along the road’s length. I’ve included the YouTube version of this video above. An ad may play before Dan’s ad plays, which is powered by RAM Trucks.
