The Last Ship

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The Last Ship

Network:

TNT

Starring:

Eric Dane

Rhona Mitra

Adam Baldwin

Plot:

The crew of a naval destroyer is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic kills off most of the earth’s population.

Pilot Review:

I didn’t know much about this show going in, just that a ship was involved. I saw part of an ad for it while my husband was watching NASCAR and it was enough to pique my interest.

Now having watched the pilot episode I’m looking forward to more. The basics are a US Navy ship on a secret mission that even the Captain didn’t know the full extent of comes out of radio silence after four months to find out the world is being decimated by a disease. Turns out the two scientists on his ship have been working on finding a cure and they think they might have found the missing link.

The first episode mainly deals with the ship finding out that the world is screwed and more than likely their families are dead. It also sets up future conflicts fairly well with an attack made by who they think are Russians. Of course there’s also a spy because there seems to always be with these sorts of things.

There’s already been a romantic relationship teased between two lieutenants, hopefully it doesn’t play a huge part and at least they don’t appear to be married. There’s also some tension between the Captain and his XO. It will be interesting to see how this story develops and just how much will be seen of the world outside the ship.

 

Falling Skies Seasons 1-3

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Falling Skies Seasons 1-3

Network:

TNT

Starring:

Noah Wyle

Will Patton

Drew Roy

Plot:

Survivors of an alien attack on earth gather together to fight for their lives and fight back.

Review:

I like aliens and a future setting but I’m kind of overloaded on a dystopian future. I’d much prefer a Star Trek future where shit actually looks like it gets better. If you act like the world is going to become a more shitty place to live it probably will. The power of positive thought?

Anyway. At least initially I haven’t noticed much consistency in the world. One episode when a kid with a thing on his back is woken up he can’t remember his dad but when the main character’s kid wakes up his first words are “Dad.” Doesn’t seem consistent.

The first season of a show is a lot of times the weakest. Right until the last one that is.

Second season picked up when they finally made it to Charleston but that was only a few episodes. Overall it was better than the first but still nothing much.

Third season is set seven months after the ending of the second. Noah Wyle’s character is now the president, his woman is about to give birth, and his oldest son is now in a wheelchair. The last we’d seen of him he was infected with some alien thing that seemed to control his mind? It wasn’t clear, or at least not clear to me.

The third season was definitely the best. I think the show really hit it’s stride when they arrive at Charleston. There are quite a number of characters they follow, and sometimes that can be a bit jittery as they bounce around from one to the other, but for the most part they’ve done a really good job of making me care about them.

I really liked the introduction of the new aliens in season three and the ending of the season was great. The new season starts June 22nd at 10:00 pm EST on TNT, so tonight.

Philomena (2013)

Judi Dench in Philomena

Director:

Stephen Frears

Starring:

Judi Dench

Steve Coogan

Plot:

A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman’s search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.

Review:

I knew this movie would make me cry but for whatever reason I wanted to watch it. Possibly because I was hoping for a very sappy happy ending. I did not get that ending, but oh well. It was still a sweet movie, though it could potentially make you hate nuns.

Seriously, having not been raised catholic I’ve formed the opinion, based on this movie, nuns suck.

Anyway, I could never do what Philomena did in the end and the fact that she seemed genuine in her decision is mind boggling.

3/5

True Love

truelove

True Love (Nantucket Bride Trilogy): By Jude Deveraux

Plot:

Set on the magical Massachusetts island, True Love introduces characters from a new generation of Montgomery-Taggerts, the beloved family from Deveraux’s classic novels. Just as Alix Madsen is finishing up architectural school, Adelaide Kingsley dies and wills her, for one year, the use of a charming nineteenth-century Nantucket house. The elderly woman’s relationship to the Madsen family is a mystery to the spirited Alix—fresh from a romantic breakup—but for reasons of her own Alix accepts the quirky bequest, in part because it gives her time to plan her best friend’s storybook wedding. But unseen forces move behind the scenes, creaking Kingsley House’s ancient floorboards. It seems that Adelaide Kingsley had a rather specific task for Alix: to solve the strange disappearance of one of the Kingsley women, Valentina, more than two hundred years ago. If that wasn’t troubling enough, Alix must deal with the arrogant (and extremely good-looking) architect Jared Montgomery, who is living in the property’s guesthouse. Unbeknown to Alix, Jared has been charged with looking after her while she lives on the island—an easy task for him, considering the undeniable chemistry between the two. But Jared harbors secrets of his own, which, if revealed, may drive a wedge between the pair. With a glorious Nantucket wedding on the horizon, sparks fly, and the ghosts of the past begin to reveal themselves—some of them literally. Finding their lives inextricably entwined with the turbulent fortunes of their ancestors, Alix and Jared discover that only by righting the wrongs of the past can they hope to be together

Review:

I almost didn’t make it out of the prologue. I thought she made the men say things in a way no man would ever speak. Then she threw me a curveball and I was back in the game.

Overall I like the story and I’m looking forward to the sequel. I did think her men were a little bit too feminine in how they spoke, but I could have just read too much Eve Langlais and Kristen Ashley.

I was actually really happy with this book. The last two Jude Deveraux books I read (Secrets and Lavender Morning) I really didn’t like, which made me sad because I love Jude Deveraux. I was afraid she’d entered a new phase in her writing that I was really not going to like, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case now.

It did surprise me that she’s doing a trilogy because I only remembered one other one she’d written and it wasn’t like a normal romance trilogy. Looking at her bibliography I saw that she wrote another trilogy fairly recently so I guess it’s her new way to do things. Nora Roberts has worked this way for a while so maybe she decided to try her hand at it.

I’m happy to see Deveraux back to writing the romance I love her for and I’m really looking forward to book two.

3.75/5

August: Osage County (2013)

august osage county

Director:

John Wells

Starring:

Meryl Streep

Julia Roberts

Chris Cooper

Ewan McGregor

Margo Martindale

Benedict Cumberbatch

Plot:

A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.

Review:

I’m not even sure I should review this movie. After watching it I’m not positive what it is I was watching, which makes me feel stupid. It seemed to be about a family that each had their own individual issues coming together and dealing with their family issues. There was nothing positive. I learned nothing, except maybe how not to act or that I do not want a family like theirs. It was a pretty depressing movie and the ending was just Julia Robert’s character looking out across Oklahoma.

Wtf?

Seriously I do not understand movies/plays/books that are like this. I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something. I ended up reading the Wikipedia entry for the play and feel like I might have either missed some scenes in the movie or they were just not there, but it still didn’t make sense. Why am I supposed to like this? Seriously if someone wants to tell me I’d love to know.

Fair warning, even with an explanation I probably won’t like it.

1/5