Impulse – season 1

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

Because I HATE advertising, I subscribe to YouTube Premium for about $10 / month.

Included in that bundle is YouTube Music. I downloaded about 100 favourite songs so I can listen offline on the rare occasion I want music rather than podcasts and audio books.

It includes “YouTube Original” TV and movies, a sad collection of things you’d never want to watch. Google has ALL the money so I’m surprised they don’t buy some streaming platforms and compete against Disney, Netflix and the rest.

BUT their only remaining scripted series is Cobra Kai.

However, I tried Impulse, a science fiction drama streaming television series based on the 2013 Steven Gould novel.

Excellent.

It’s part SciFi, part female teen coming-of-age drama.

16-year-old Henrietta “Henry” Coles who discovers she has the ability to teleport but has no control over her destination. …

The main plot gets more complex as it turns out there are others with her superpower. And they come looking for Henry.

Madelaine Hasson plays the strong, unlikable lead character.

The cast is all good, but I particularly like Enuka Okuma as Anna Hulce. A good cop in a very bad situation.

And Daniel Maslany as Townes Linderman, an autistic student.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

I also watched the second and final season — but don’t recommend it.

One highlight, however, of season two is Callum Keith Rennie as Nikolai, another with Henry’s powers who’s trying to help(?) her.

And Townes gets a girlfriend.

Kimbra MOCKS Traditional Female Gender Roles

On By Rick McIn ethics, happiness, music, things getting betterLeave a comment

Are little girls still brainwashed to dream about marriage in 2022?

Women who DECIDE to marry and have kids should do so. But it shouldn’t be a cultural expectation.

Kimbra is now age-31. Not married. No kids.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Mercy by David Baldacci

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The 4th book in the Atlee Pine series.

Atlee is a badass FBI agent obsessed with finding her twin sister, Mercy, who was abducted at the age of six and never seen again.

… Mercy left at least one dead body behind before fleeing her captors years before.

Atlee has no idea if her sister is still alive, and if so, how she has been surviving all this time. When the truth is finally revealed …

Amazon

This ain’t literature. But it kept me going.

I appreciated Mercy turning out to be an uneducated 6 foot tall MMA fighter.

What’s Love Got to Do with It

On By Rick McIn musicLeave a comment

Ron recommended this remake of the classic Tina Turner 1984 hit.

At the 1985 Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

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Connelly‘s latest book is set during the pandemic starting New Year’s Eve 2020 in Los Angeles.

It’s the 4th featuring Renée Ballard, the female badass surfing successor to Harry Bosch who has a secondary role. This is the 23rd Bosch book.

Like Bosch, Renée’s a talented, hard working — undisciplined — investigator.

Also reckless.

The book is Bosch so it’s good. But I haven’t been won over by Renée in the way I’ve always like Harry.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Raised by Wolves – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Raised by Wolves is an American science fiction drama launched September 2020.

… “two androids—Father and Mother—tasked with raising human children on Kepler-22b after the Earth was destroyed by a great religious war. …

Great casting.

Unfortunately, all the human embryos they brought with them did not survive — except one.

It looked bad.

BUT a large ship of human refugees arrives. Led by a priesthood, it’s the theocracy that destroyed Earth.

The androids were programmed to start the new seed civilization based on science. Conflict results, of course.

If you like SciFi, I recommend it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

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Like everyone, I admired Hawkin’s 2015 blockbuster “The Girl on a Train”.

It was part of the new-to-me at the time sub-genre of murder mysteries where female authors write the story from mostly a female point of view. Gillian Flynn-like books.

Hawkins is smart. Studied at Oxford.

Her 2021 book is smart. And there are some similarities to Girl on a Train:

  • story told from the viewpoint of multiple unreliable characters
  • mostly female perspective
  • story unfolds jumping forward and backward in time

Daniel Sutherland is murdered on his Narrowboat on a canal. And damned if I could guess which of the many unlikely killers did the deed. It kept me guessing right to the end.

It had something to do with a domestic tragedy long ago where a young boy fell to his death from a balcony. But what?

I recommend this book. But the complexities were a bit much for me. I liked Girl on a Train better.

To see how a good author develops a novel, click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.