Grigory Rasputin

So far from the book I can't see how they can reconcile the next installments. Dumbed down and glamorised. Poor direction of Helen Mirren (too curt, quite rude characterisation). Pierce Brosnan was poorly cast and excruciatingly bad acting. The setting was overworked and over the top. I doubt there're any retirement villages like that anywhere in the world that an ex-vicar, ex-nurse, ex-union, etc. could afford or even want to live in. Where's the cyprus connection? Where's the farm? How will Bogdan be a part of the future stories if he's been nicked? A travesty of lazy film making that completely undermines the world created by Osman. Very disappointed. Do it again but do it properly next time ya twonks!

The Thursday Murder Club

32 likes

Okay but... Alternates between broadbrush narrative and hyper detail, which feels strange. Seems like JR is the only human with intelligence. Everyone else is a clown unless they're a military police superstar. In my own personal experience with a good number of MPs, I didn't meet any with more than very basic abilities and sense. The lassie gets hot and dirty with JR within just a couple of days, but by the end it turns out she was already in a relationship with her colleague and rides into the sunset with him instead of JR. The end is a bit anticlimactic. Shoot the villain from far distance, chase the guy in a van with a helicopter and evaporate him in an explosion. Meh... The single most annoying thing throughout the book (seems like every other sentence) is that spoken phrases end with "right?" from multiple speakers. Was that way of talking so prevalent in the early 90s? I don't remember it like that. I hope later books by Child don't use this style, right? Lazy writing, proofreading and editing.

Die Trying

Acting was pretty good across the board, but why screw about with a true story. Why get the nationality of the protagonist wrong? Why make her marital status wrong? Why have her married to an African immigrant? Why is the real hero portrayed by an Asian woman when the far more powerful story around the first woman constable was a massive step forward in women's emancipation? Modern wokism trumping other, arguably even more important change. Producers and casting directors should hang their heads.

Wicked Little Letters

American Primeval

1 like

Infinity's End

Whilst this book in itself is a nicely illustrated depiction of a normal little boy growing through a stage in life where pretence and acting out are common and to be encouraged, it has acquired a different meaning in current (2023) gender politics. People of the age of Julian are quite suggestible and it is irresponsible to assert that Julian is gender confused when all any child of that age wants to do is dress up and pretend. Making this quaint story ore that that is just plain wrong. That's not to say that some young people who dress up do actually have gender identity thoughts, but it is the minority, and encouraging gender diversity at that age is damaging to the individual and society. So, a nice quaint story of normal behaviour misrepresented as a gender identity driver.

Julián Is a Mermaid