Manifest 1x01 Pilot

Manifest was hands down my most anticipated new series of the fall season, partly because its premise sounded very intriguing but more importantly because it stars Josh Dallas –the first of my main OUAT crew to be back on the screen (unfortunately, Rebecca Mader’s Like Family and Ginnifer Goodwin’s Steps didn’t get picked up, although apparently the latter still has some chance next season). I’ve read many opinions about the premiere before I watched it, indeed some before it even aired. Naurally, most people immediately latched onto the similarities with Lost – disappearing plane and all that – but opinions varied as to whether it could become a great success like its predecessor, or if it’s gonna be another one and done series with an interesting idea that it will ultimately fail to build on. As for me, I don’t form opinions before I’ve actually seen the thing. I’m old-fashioned that way. That said, when one commenter desribed the premiere as „This Is Us on a plane”, I was surprised: surely this implies that the show will focus more on family relationships and the personal drama ensuing from people returning after having been presumend dead for five years, instead of the actual mystery behind said disappearance? An unexpected development, but then again, Lost was so great in the first place because somehow it managed to focus on both and never made a big deal about it.

You 1x03 Maybe

Things were heating up on You quite a bit this week, both literally and metaphorically. I was right when I said Beck would fall for Joe if only he asked her out on a date like a normal person. He did, and she had. The problem is, Beck kept putting him at arm’s length because she had fallen for him. She had no problem going on meaningless Tinder dates and having sex with all the guys she met, but with Joe she didn’t want to rush into anything because she likes him. It’s the kind of logic I see a lot on American TV and one I am absolutely unable to relate to. This whole culture of dating multiple people at the same time and being unable to decide whether you want to be exclusive or not is completely alien to me, but hey. It’s just TV. In any case, even if Beck took the simple route and just started dating Joe like she clealy wants to, there’d be obstacles galore.

American Horror Story 8x01-02

This is going to be my first year of watching American Horror Story as it airs live, as I’ve only just recently caught up on all the previous seasons, but even I could tell that this summer there was a louder buzz around the upcoming storyline than usual. It’s pretty easy to guess why: this is going to be the show’s first ever crossover season, bringing together characters from Murder House and Coven, and fans are excited! Everybody from Connie „not seen since season 1” Britton to Frances Conroy to Jessica Freakin’ Lange is back, and that spells something huge, undoubtedly. But what it might also spell is confusion, since most of these people are reprising previous roles as well as playing new ones, and while I know it’s not unprecedented for some of them to play multiple characters in the same season, it’s never happened on this scale before. So it’s either gonna be amazing or a colossal clusterfuck, it can really go either way when it comes to AHS.

A History of France - John Julius Norwich (2018)

As a keen student of English history, it was inevitable that I would keep bumping into French kings, dukes, and other notables during my studies, and the more books I read about the same topics, the more the same Fenchmen kept popping up. The problem was, I had a hard time placing them in relation to each other, and remembering which Philip or Louis or Henri was present during which conflict with England. So while I eventually built up a cursory knowledge of some eras of French history, I know precious little about others. Basically, my knowledge consists of bigger chunks from 1066 to Catherine de Medici, and after that only a few tiny snippets about the Revolution, Napoleon, and the two World Wars. I decided a while ago to read a complete history of France to fill in the rest, and when I found out that John Julius Norwich (whose Four Princes I read and loved) was coming out with one this year, I knew it was the one for me.

You 1x01 Pilot

Usually when I start a new show, I give it 3-4 episodes before I decide whether to keep watching it or not. If I still don’t care about the story or any of the characters after four episodes, it’s time to let go. But every once in a while there comes a series premiere which grabs me by the shoulders, pulls me close and whispers „I’m amazing… you need me in your life” into my ear. Of course, there’s always a chance of deterioration of quality as the season continues, but as a general rule of thumb if I love the premiere, I’m gonna love the rest of the show as well. So chances are I’m gonna love You! It’s definitely my favourite new series of the season so far, and I can easily see it being in my top ten come the end of December.
 

Top Ten Tuesday 09.18. - Books on My Fall 2018 TBR

This is going to be my first Top Ten Tuesday entry, and I’m excited! I was trying long and hard to think of some theme to make it special, but in the end I settled for the most obvious one: books published in fall 2018. That’s about as vague as you can get so there’s really a little bit of everything in here: fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, history, a bit of humour... now that I think about it, it’s a pretty good overview of my reading tastes in general! So without further ado, the top ten books I’m looking forward to read this fall are...

1. I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life – Anne Bogel

Reading has been an integral part of my life, not to mention my nr. 1 hobby, ever since I was about four years old, so I have a feeling I’m gonna find this book insanely relatable

2. Small Spaces – Katherine Arden

I loved the first two books in Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy, and while I eagerly await the conclusion of Vasya’s journey, I got myself pretty psyched up for her upcoming children’s horror story.

3. Bridge of Clay – Markus Zusak

His first novel since The Book Thief, which is one of my personal favourites, so there was never any question about whether I’m gonna read this or not.

4. My Squirrel Days – Ellie Kemper

I don’t know much about Ellie Kemper as a person, but I LOVE Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and if her book proves just half as funny and  adorable as an average Kimmy episode, it’s gonna be great. 

5. Phoenix Unbound – Grace Draven

Grace Draven created one of my all-time favourite romantic pairings in her Wraith Kings series, and now she’s back with another unique fantasy romance that I’m expecting to love.

6. Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates – Eric Jay Dolin

Pirates! ...yeah, that’s pretty much it.

7. The Clockmaker's Daughter – Kate Morton

I’m a sucker for novels dealing with related events set in multiple time periods, and this one seems particularly interesting from the blurb.

8. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein – Kiersten White

Who knew I ever neeed a book about the childhood of Elizabeth Lavenza, or a retelling of Frankenstein from her point of view? I didn’t, but I soon as I found out about its existence, I was sold.

9. How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts – Ruth Goodman

That title pretty much sells the book I think. 

10. An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason - Virginia Boecker

And finally, another Elizabethan adventure that promises to be both fun, romantic, and possibly educational.

+1. Blood’s Revolution – Angus Donald

I’m putting this in the ’+1’ position because it doesn’t even have a cover yet and right now I’m not convinced it’s actually coming out this October, but the first book in the series was one of my favourite historical fiction novels ever, and I know that if and when the sequel comes out, I’ll be here for it.

So there you have it! Please tell me what you think in the comments! Have you read any of these books? What other books along similar lines can you recommend to me? What are you planning to read this fall? What do you want for Christmas? Aren't kittens just the absolute best?

...Please just talk to me.

Mayans M.C. 1x01 Perro/Oc

I have a confession to make: I’ve only ever seen the first five episodes of Sons of Anarchy. It’s not that I didn’t like it – although the part where a dude’s full back tattoo was literally fried off his back had lasting impressions on me, and not in a good way – I guess I was just never in the mood for it ever again. That sounds weird, I know, but it’s the truth. For this reason, I wasn’t interested in its spinoff at all either. Then I found out that Sarah Bolger was going to be in it, and as a one-time OUAT guest star I liked, I felt obligated to check out her newest role. But am I really going to get into a show I potentially won’t even understand or like just because of a single actor? … Well yeah, of course I am, it wouldn’t be the first time. So yesterday as I was bracing myself for the episode, I did one last IMDb check, and it turns out she’s not the only one I know in it! Danny Pino, aka Scotty Valens from Cold Case (remember Cold Case? It was such a good series) also stars, and so does Maurice Compte, who played one of my favourite characters in Narcos, Colonel Carrillo. What’s more, apparently not a single member of the main cast ever appeared on Sons on Anarchy, like… not even once. That’s probably not good news for SoA fans who were hoping to see some of their favourites appear here full-time (if they’re still alive, that is), but it was what finally sold me on the series. I’m aware that I’ll probably miss a bunch of in-jokes and easter eggs and the like, but from the premiere I got the feeling that it will mostly be an independent story only tangentially related to SoA, and I’m more than fine with that.

2018-19 Fall TV Season Preview

After a seemingly very short but sometimes excrutiatingly hot summer, fall is now upon us. Days are getting shorter, leaves are turning beautiful colours, and people in Western countries are getting ready for Halloween while us in Hungary brace ourselves for the annual awakening of smartasses crying „Halloween is a dumb American holiday, TRUE Hungarians celebrate All Saints’ Day!” That’s always so much fun.

But more importantly, fall means most of our favourite TV series are coming back, with proper, long, beautiful seasons, instead of that ten episode summer nonsense. If you’re a big-time TV addict like me, you probably have a good idea of your seasonal schedule by now, and I figured since it’s going to be one of the main concerns of this blog, I’ll go into a bit of detail about mine. Yay!

The Purge 1x01 What Is America?

 

I’ve never seen any of The Purge movies but I know enough about them to have come to the conclusion that they’re essentially a questionably executed pretty interesting idea, done over and over again. A 12 hour period when every and all crime is legal, and for some reason all anybody can think about is murder? Please. I have more faith in people than that. Most of us would probably do stuff that would be actually beneficial for us in the long run, like rescue animals from kill shelters, or loot a bookstore. Am I just really naive? Maybe. Probably. The point is, I don’t know anything about the bigger mythology of the franchise, if such a thing even exists, which means I’ll probably miss tons of references and such in the TV series, at least until I finally bring myself to watch the movies.

One Dollar 1x01-02

Literally the only thing I knew about One Dollar when I decided to watch its first episode was that it features several characters who at one point each possess the titular one dollar bill, and who all end up being connected to a murder committed in their small town. This was enough for me to be interested – I like it when a series tries to distinguish itself from the thousands of other murder investigation shows in some way, and the one dollar method seemed like a particularly clever idea.

Melmoth - Sarah Perry (2018)