That’s Entertainment

Word for the day:

Escapism
     noun
the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy.


As you know, I’m in a near constant hunt for distracting fun shit to read or watch. We all need a vacation from this harsh, bloody existence—even those of us who aren’t fighting our own bodies and/or minds for control ON TOP OF witnessing the Republi/Fascists plot and scheme out loud democracy’s destruction.

In TeeVee Land, Jen discovered the most amazing show—What We Do in the Shadows. It’s billed as comedy horror, fantasy AND a mockumentary. Like This is Spinal Tap but for vampires, werewolves and a the like.

Nandor the Relentless, Laszlo, Nadja (all traditional vampire types), Colin (a cube style office worker, energy vampire and day-walker) and Guillermo (Nandor’s human familiar/servant) all live in a HUGE old Victorian on Staten Island (of all places). Almost all the sets are bottomlessly dark—consistent with the hard lighting seen in film noir and shot-on-the-go documentaries. One of the plusses of dimly lit teevee show scenes is that the set designer, who’s usually on a slim budget, doesn’t need to spend as much to flesh things out. Also, dark = moody, deep and dangerous, right?

The sets (particularly those in office spaces and out on the street) and lighting look like they’ve been done on the wickedly cheap side but, I think, that’s at least some of the goal. It works. In the Shadows looks and feels like a documentary.

While the show’s main actors are, to me, unknowns, there are tons of guest appearances by Hollywood bigs like Mark fucking Hamill, Tilda Swinton, Paul Reubens, Danny Trejo, Wesley Snipes, Sofia Coppola, Jim Jarmusch (!!!) and more. They’re all, clearly, having a blast. It’s hilarious!

The show's writing is abso-fucking-stellar, as are all the actors. Yes, I’m feeling a bit addicted. Each episode is a quick 22-30 minutes long. Jen’s rationing me to a miserly two eps at a time. In doing this, I’ll still have escapist hoopla to watch next week. Thank Bast one of us is thinking ahead!

I saw an ad for a Wolverine/Deadpool movie. Should I be embarrassed that I really want to see it? I love Deadpool’s humor. Wolverine’s serious, not a jokester though. Will this movie be witty or just all big special effects fight scenes with shit exploding everywhere? Is this a Marvel Universe Odd Couple? Is Deadpool Oscar and Wolverine, Felix?

Maybe I should be just a little concerned about my escapism proclivities?

I’m disappointed but unsurprised to hear the allegations about Neil Gaiman. “Disgusted” is probably a more accurate descriptor. Hey, I can be both unsurprised AND disgusted, right? I’ll still watch Good Omens season two when it comes out. While he was half the writing team for the original book, he’s not the whole ball of wax for the teevee show. Apart from that, I don’t think I can get past the utter skeevy-osity and my supreme loathing to see or read any of his other work.

The best I can say is “At least he wasn’t, as far as we know, raping 13 year olds (who looked just like his own daughter) like the adjudicated Republi/Fascist rapist candidate for president Von ShitzenPantz and his best buddy Epstein.”

If you can’t trust the writer of modern fairy tales to be a better human than a soul-sucking, horrifically bigoted, mysogynistic, lying sack of malignant narcissism, who can you trust?