Flavours of the Month: May 2019...

An incredible true story, the end of an era, and a return to Celebrityville are just some of what's been setting the tone of my May 2019...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

LOOKS:

Chernobyl - the Sky Original/HBO five-part miniseries about the events surrounding the worst nuclear disaster in human history: the meltdown, or more accurately the explosion, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on 26th of April 1986. Written by Craig Mazin, the underlying theme of truth vs lies still carries weight today, perhaps moreso than ever. Meanwhile, the recreation of events - told with stony faced horror and honesty - paint a bleak picture, but also one of heroic sacrifice in order to prevent an apocalyptic disaster. Utterly gripping.

I Think You Should Leave - a six-part Netflix sketch comedy show co-created by Tim Robinson (The Detroiters). As with all sketch shows it's hit & miss with each viewer's hits and misses differing from the next, but when it hits, it had me in stitches, particularly with Robinson's gift for bizarre over-reactions and absurdities.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 - yes, there are some fair criticisms to make: the battle tactics of The Battle of Winterfell left something to be desired (as did the choppy editing), while a little more time in each episode to assess an issue or two in a touch more depth would possibly have helped ground a few twists, but the over-reaction of those who 'hated' the final season was nothing short of pathetic (grand sweeping statements such as "it was trash" are patently false, utterly subjective, and beyond dismissive). If one considers the last two seasons as the third act of the entire story that is A Song Of Ice and Fire, the pacing makes sense as it's all about payoff and conclusion. The biggest twist - which any viewer with a modicum of attention could have figured out ahead of time - also made sense as the seeds of it were laid from the very first season. Perhaps there was a bit too much 'power fantasy' attached to said character, which obscured the truth of an inevitable tyrant, but they did exactly as they had promised from the get-go.

Veep: Season 7 - the sublime political satire draws to a close, with the cost of office proving to be a high price indeed. Considering the current state of politics over the last 2 to 3 years, the nonsense surrounding Selena Myer et al feels suddenly all-too-real, but how the show addresses certain big events (collusion, MeToo, political idiocy and pandering candidates) is as on-point as ever.

Fargo: Season 2 - a re-watch of Noah Hawley's superb crime drama that is rich with Minnesota wit.

What We Do In The Shadows: Season 1 - hundreds of years ago a group of vampires set sail for the New World (America) tasked with taking it over. Today, they've managed to get as far as a couple of streets on Staten Island. This spin-off from Taika Waititi's docu-comedy certainly lives up to the lofty standards of the source material.

Monty Python: Almost The Truth (Lawyer's Cut) - six part documentary series covering Monty Python's Flying Circus from the members' early days, through the TV show's original run, and the movies.


SOUNDS:

Misfits "Walk Among Us", "Earth A.D."

The Black Angels "Death Song", "Passover", "Directions To See A Ghost", "Phosphene Dream", "Indigo Meadow"

Alice Cooper "Spark In The Dark: The Best Of"

Chromatics/Johnny Jewel "Windswept"

Diego Stocco "Chernobyl Diaries OST"

Airbourne "Breakin' Outta Hell"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Tigress of Celebrityville - right now I'm seeking representation for "Murder at the Grindhouse", and that got me thinking about one of my other stories. Previously known as "Sleb", I have returned to my tale of an embattled car crash celebrity to re-write it. Going through it all line-by-line, changing the existing present tense into past tense is not one of the biggest tasks but a detailed chore in itself. Naturally, a writer is always improving, and so I've been looking to build upon what was already there and explore new depths and angles on the text in addition to adding some more finesse to the prose.