Visiting "Bly Manor"

Minor spoilers ahead.

Created by Mike Flanagan and the same team that did "The Haunting of Hill House," "The Haunting of Bly Manor" offers a very different style of horror compared to its predecessor.  Where "Hill House" was a more typical supernatural program full of shocks and tension, "Bly Manor" is a sadder, more empathetic kind of ghost story about a group of people who are all being haunted by different things.  It may have several actors in common, and some of the same storytelling sensibilities, but I don't think it's aimed at quite the same audience either.

"Bly Manor" loosely follows the broad outlines of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw."  An old woman in the present day (Carla Gugino) tells the story of an American au pair, Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti), who is hired by a London businessman, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas), to look after his orphaned niece and nephew, Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) and Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth).  The children have not only lost their parents, but also their previous nanny, Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif), who died under mysterious circumstances.  The children live at the remote country estate of Bly Manor, staffed by the housekeeper, Hannah (T'Nia Miller), the cook, Owen (Rahul Kohli), and the groundskeeper, Jamie (Amelia Eve).  We soon learn that Bly is also haunted by various ghosts, including the faceless Lady in the Lake (Kate Siegel). 

"Bly Manor" mostly follows the same structure as "Hill House," in that each episode features a different POV character or set of characters, and many of the stories are told in different overlapping time frames.  Strange occurrences or behavior in one episode are often explained a few installments later from someone else's POV.  Some of these episodes are much better than others, but all together the pace of the series tends to be slower and more melancholy.  There are fewer jump scares and less action outside the last few episodes.  Instead, you can easily view the series as a collection of tragic character pieces.  The inhabitants of Bly Manor are put in supernatural situations that act as allegories for grief, terminal illness, trauma, guilt, and all manner of relationship issues.  There are maybe two characters who could be seen as truly malicious, while the rest are all terribly sympathetic people trying to process hefty emotional baggage.  

So, no doubt some fans of "Hill House" are going to be disappointed with "Bly Manor."  However, if you like moody Gothic chillers and can put up with some melodrama, "Bly Manor" is a very satisfying watch.  It's shamelessly manipulative, and little Flora is a walking pile of twee, but in a way that's part of the series' charm.  Of course the children have a dollhouse full of creepy little dolls representing all the characters in the show.  Of course Uncle Henry's sinister ex-valet Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is lurking around the place.  No points for guessing the housekeeper's terrible secret, which is blatantly telegraphed from the very first episode.  However, I like how the show treats its characters with great empathy and care.  Several of the show's apparitions turn out to not have a supernatural origin at all, which might seem like a cheat, but is appropriate for the more character-focused stories.

Production values are about on par with "Hill House," and all the performances are strong, though I do appreciate the effort to have more diverse faces in the mix this time.  There's a fabulously creepy opening credits sequence, and some good use of special effects.  My major quibbles with "Bly Manor" mostly have to do with a few clumsy story choices.  For instance, there's a big, pivotal episode that goes into the past of Bly Manor near the end of the season, which works very well as a standalone story.  However, it doesn't have nearly the effect that it should because the prior episodes don't set up the POV character very well.  Other storylines and plot elements are mysteriously dropped after a few episodes, and there are several characters I wish had gotten more time and attention.    

It also doesn't help that there have been such a glut of ghost stories lately, that some of the concepts used in "Bly Manor" feel awfully derivative.  I think the series would have gotten a much better reception if it had been released a few years earlier.  Still, I continue to enjoy Mike Flanagan's work and have high hopes for his next project, "Midnight Mass."  Hopefully some time away from the ghosts will do him some good.

---

"The Devil All the Time" and "Blow the Man Down"

You have to admire a film like "The Devil All the Time" for committing so hard to being a thoroughly uncomfortable piece of work, even though it's not always successful. Directed by Antonio Campos, who also co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Paulo Campos, it tells the story of a group of characters in the post-War American midwest, mostly from small rural communities in Ohio and West Virginia.  Terrible things happen to them, thanks to tribalism, religion, and poverty, and cycles of violence are shown to progress from one generation to the next. 

What's notable about "The Devil All the Time" is that it gives several up-and-coming actors a chance to sink their teeth into some high octane melodrama.  At first, our central character is Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgård), who returns from WWII and marries Charlotte (Haley Bennett).  We also meet two other couples, the evangelical preacher Roy (Harry Melling) and his wife Helen (Mia Wasikowska), and a photographer named Carl (Jason Clarke) who marries Sandy (Riley Keough), the sister of a police officer, Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan).  Eventually the story shifts to focus on Willard and Charlotte's son Arvin (Tom Holland) and Roy and Helen's daughter Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) when they're teenagers.  Finally, the most colorful and memorable performance of the lot belongs to Robert Pattinson, playing the scumbag Reverend Teagarden.

Based on a novel by Donald Ray Pollock, who also serves as the film's garrulous narrator, this is not a viewing experience that I would recommend to most people.  It's a lengthy family epic that has a lot of brutal violence against women, and forces the viewer to spend a lot of time with some really reprehensible people.  Campos is very good at making every frame feel suitably miserable and desperate, often soaking in the depressive atmosphere.  Some of the most upsetting material features no violence at all, such as Reverend Teagarden's antics with a plate of chicken livers.  On the other hand, I did enjoy many of the performances and I appreciated that the filmmakers followed every piece of this miserable history through to the end.  While the oppressive darkness of the film is relentless and sometimes over-the-top, neither does it feel implausible or out of place.  Clearly it's not a film for everyone, and I can't say I enjoyed it, but I respect everything it took to get it made.  

Now, for a story about violence in an insular community of a different stripe, I can heartily recommend "Blow the Man Down."  This is a film noir that takes place in a New England fishing village, and nearly all the major players are women.  Directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, the story follows the Connolly sisters Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) who are dealing with the aftermath of their mother's death.  Mary Beth accidentally kills a man named Gorski (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), which gets them tangled up in a different murder, and the machinations of the town madam, Enid Devlin (Margo Martindale).  Other characters include a trio of local matrons (June Squibb, Annette O'Toole, and Marceline Hugot), the suspicious Officer Coletti (Skipp Sudduth), and one of Enid's employees, Alexis (Gayle Rankin)

I take so much joy from watching actresses who are usually playing moms and grandmas essentially in the mobster roles of your usual detective murder mystery.  Secret dealings are couched in very feminine terms, but are still deadly serious.  Tonally, we're often operating in the realm of the Coen brothers, or perhaps Martin McDonagh.  There's a Greek chorus of fisherman, who sing sea shanties during the act breaks, and one confrontation is sparked by a dress code violation.  During the second act, where Officer Coletti is going around conducting interviews, one of the matrons totally stonewalls him, and sends him off with a nice slice of pie.  However, the Connolly sisters are more grounded, realistic heroines who are easy to root for and empathize with.      

"Blow the Man Down" is low budget and takes a while to get going.  However, once all the pieces are on the board, the tension and thrills are executed beautifully.  I have a few quibbles with technical shortcomings, common to the efforts of first-time directors, but the film was really a great surprise and a significant mood-lifter after sitting through "The Devil All the Time."  I hope it finds a bigger audience.   

---

The "Game of Thrones" Aftermath

So, eighteen months after the final episode of "Game of Thrones," there's been the expected dropoff in fandom activity.  HBO is still busy trying to put together a prequel series - the latest attempt, "House of the Dragon," will feature Paddy Considine as an early Targaryen warrior.  George R.R. Martin is still working on the sixth "Song of Ice and Fire" book, as he has been for nearly a decade now.  The actors have all been busy.  In fact, it's been a running joke that you can't have a British prestige project without at least one "Game of Thrones" or "Downton Abbey" alum in the cast.  Nonetheless, there's a very palpable feeling that the wider culture is done with "Game of Thrones." 

"Game of Thrones" was a huge piece of pop culture for most of the 2010s, one of the last few programs that everyone knew about and used as a point of reference.  This was remarkable given that it was R-rated, aired on premium cable, and featured complicated storylines juggling dozens of different players.  Characters like Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister became iconic.  Hype for the final season reached new heights in 2019, but to say that expectations weren't met is an understatement.  There's no question that the finale was ambitious, featuring several feature length installments, but the final six episodes were marred by technical glitches, rushed storylines, and some downright bad writing.  It was a ratings winner, but a total disaster on every other level.  Many of the fans placed the blame on showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for trying to rush the franchise to a premature conclusion.   The reaction to these episodes was so poisonous, Benioff and Weiss skipped Comic-Con that year, and it's widely believed that they lost their "Star Wars" project in part because of the fallout.        

In the wider culture, "Game of Thrones" disappeared.  Nobody references it anymore, except in mostly disparaging terms.  Knowing the lackluster fates of the major characters really seems to have killed all the enthusiasm for the franchise.  You can see its influence all over the pop culture landscape, but it's a challenge to find much true enthusiasm for the show anymore.  Suddenly, "A Game of Thrones" feels very much like a product of its era, the 2010s, which are behind us.  Now we're stuck in the 2020s, where everything turned out awful, and it's difficult to be optimistic about anything.  It's telling that over the summer when every remotely nostalgic piece of media was doing Zoom reunions, "Game of Thrones" was noticeably missing.    

This is the age of franchises, and several are experiencing a similar kind of ebb.  There's a third "Fantastic Beasts" movie in the works that nobody much cares about, and J.K. Rowling really needs to get off social media.  Amazon is trying to put together a "Lord of the Rings" series, though there are doubts about how successful they'll be without Peter Jackson and company involved.  After tons of hype and fuss, the "Star Wars" cinematic series is currently kaput, and the franchise's best hope lies with "The Mandalorian" and other Disney+ shows.  However, these are all series that have weathered decades of ups and downs already. 

What stands out about the "Game of Thrones" situation is that the franchise hit the skids so quickly, and nearly everyone was caught off guard.  The final season of the show was supposed to be a franchise high point, something that could fuel future spinoffs and ancillary projects.  HBO and all their various subsidiaries invested heavily in its success through advertising partnerships, merchandise, and related media coverage.  And it's telling that in spite of the disastrous finale,  HBO went ahead with the development of those spinoffs.  Frankly, the series was so huge, and the potential financial rewards are so great, it would be silly of them not to try and capitalize off any remaining goodwill that the fans might have.  

So, it's safe to say "Game of Thrones" will be back in some capacity, even if "House of the Dragon" doesn't get off the ground.  Eventually Martin will finish another book, or someone will finish it for him.  All those millions of fans will get nostalgic for the show in a decade or two, and maybe look back on it in a more forgiving light.  Someday, someone will try and reboot "Game of Thrones," and try to get the ending right next time.  As "Star Wars" has proven, once you've been a major success, it provides lots of  incentive to give a franchise no end of second chances.         

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss may be out of luck, but "Game of Thrones" is going to be around for a very long time.

---

"The Boys," Year Two

Spoilers ahead for the first season.

The second season of "The Boys" is a different beast than the first.  The show is now a proven success and trying to pace itself, setting up storylines and conflicts that we're going to see play out over a longer timeline.  This means that the show is less about exploring the disturbing world of "The Boys," and more about getting the show's various factions to fight with each other - with mixed results.  Sure, we still get plenty of blood and guts and gore, but there are fewer truly nasty shocks, and the writing has a tendency to maintain the status quo.  The good guys and baddies are pretty well sorted out now, and though certain characters flirt with crossing the line, in the end everybody does the right (or wrong) thing.  

For instance, the unlikely romance and alliance between Hughie and Starlight continues, despite the constant threat of death or capture hanging over them.  The Boys are wanted fugitives, and Starlight has a Vought tracking chip in her, but the lovebirds keep hanging out in public places together and somehow keep getting away with it.  There are some good arcs for Billy Butcher and Queen Maeve, who both have to wrestle with big moral questions, but most of the other characters' subplots are pretty unsatisfying.  There's a lot of Homelander this year, for instance, but we see very little new from him, despite so much time spent on the discovery of his son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), being raised in secret by Billy's wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten).  He gets a couple of good scenes trying to bond with the kid, but in the end he's exactly the monster we already know he is.  We learn more backstory for characters like Kimiko and Frenchie, but it doesn't really illuminate much or change anything for them.

However, this season does feature one great new character, Stormfront (Aya Cash), who joins the Seven's roster.  Initially she seems very likeable, not letting Homelnder steamroller her, and rolling her eyes at the Vought marketing efforts.  Learning more and more about her over the course of the season is very rewarding and includes some great reveals.  We also get to meet an ex-Seven member, Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore), a pyrokinetic with a long history of problematic behavior.  Among the normies, the people with the real power behind the scenes are becoming more visible: Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and the Scientology-like Church of the Collective leader Adana (Goran Visnijc).  The Deep spends a lot of time with the Church of the Collective trying to reform himself, which yields some good comedy.  However, the show's best comic relief is the neurotic Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), who becomes the Seven's handler.  I hope the show gives her more to do next season.

 

And really, what I think put more of a damper on this year was the certainty that there was going to be a next season.  Suddenly, the stakes were so much smaller and the wild swings turned out to be not so wild after all.  Now that the shock of watching superheroes behaving like psychopaths has worn off, the show is slowly finding its way into the groove of a more typical action adventure program.  Nobody important is going to die.  Vought can never truly be brought down.  Butcher and Homelander are destined to hate each other, but we're never going to see them truly fight to the death the way they want to.  However, along the way there are still some absurdly violent R-rated fights, plenty of pitch-black satire (did someone say superhero porn?), and not-so-subtle commentary on current events.  

And this is all very enjoyable on its own terms.  There are some great action set pieces, some truly disgusting stunts, and I like that the show keeps pushing at boundaries big and small.  Stormfront explaining the power of internet fanatics, and Maeve's sexuality being co-opted for a marketing campaign strike a nerve in a good way.  I highly doubt that "The Boys" is ever going to be as good as its first season again, but it's good enough that I'll keep watching for the foreseeable future.  

---

Quick Thoughts on "Muppets Now" and "Star Trek: Lower Decks"

I'm not going to have access to Disney+ or CBS All Access for a few months, so it's going to be a while before I have a chance to really dig into these shows, but I wanted to at least put down a few initial thoughts on the latest Muppets and "Star Trek" series.  

"Muppets Now" returns to the Muppets' sketch comedy roots.  The gimmick is that Scooter is put in charge of piecing together a new series from sketches that are submitted by the various muppets to his E-mail inbox.  These include the Swedish Chef celebrity cooking show "Økėÿ Døkęÿ Køøkïñ," a "Lifestyle With Miss Piggy" segment, "Muppet Labs Field Tests" with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, and a game show hosted by Pepe the Prawn.  All the various Muppets crossover in various segments, and there are lots of guest stars like RuPaul and Danny Trejo to bounce off of.  

This is a much less ambitious, smaller scale Muppet program than the recent ABC "The Muppets" sitcom or even their last variety show, "Muppets Tonight."  However, I like this stripped down approach.  The sketches are quick and simple.  The jokes are absurd and plentiful.  The Swedish Chef is easily the most consistently successful, satirizing the celebrity cooking show format by horribly abusing the culinary arts.  Some are less so, like Pepe's game show, where the rules change at a whim.  The gags are very repetitive, so I wouldn't recommend bingeing this.  However, it's perfect for kids, or for nostalgic adults who want a weekly dose of Muppet nonsense. 

I have my personal quibbles, of course.  Matt Vogel took over as the main Kermit the Frog performer, and he's still got some work to do on the voice.  Also, I find it very curious that the show doesn't feature musical numbers at all - which have always been such a big part of the Muppet brand.  There isn't even  a theme song. Rowlf the Dog, alas, remains AWOL.  While I'm glad that the Disney+ push for more content has given the Muppets more time in the spotlight, it's also pretty clear that they're not putting many resources behind this.  

Now, on to "Star Trek: Lower Decks," which is much more promising.  It's essentially what happens when you let one of the showrunners of "Rick and Morty," in this case Mike McMahan, make his own "Star Trek" animated show.  The series follows four ensigns, aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos, described as one of Starfleet's "least important ships."  There's Boimler (Jack Quaid), the rule-spouting, ambitious one with no actual practical experience.  There's Mariner (Tawny Newsome), the troublemaker who prefers to fly by the seat of her pants, and has a very colorful history.  There's Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), who is getting used to new cyborg implants and slowly cozying up to Tendi (Noël Wells), a green Orion ensign who works in Med Bay.

The humor is very rapid, very visual, and nerdy as anything.  Like "The Orville," "Lower Decks" was made by people who clearly love "Star Trek" down to its bolts, and are comfortable playing in this universe.  Unlike "The Orville," the R-rated content rarely involves toilet humor or locker room banter.  There are plenty of references, but they tend to stay in-universe.  "Lower Decks" is also a bit sweeter and more focused on its characters.  The romance is played straight.  The camaraderie is very solid.  For all the mishaps of the Cerritos crew, and the focus on the less glamorous parts of space travel, the portrayal of Starfleet is still very positive.  There's a nice balance maintained between the cynicism and the idealism.  

So far, the production values have been pretty good.  Animation allows for things that live action doesn't, so we get to see far more aliens, more action setpieces, and more instances of gooey carnage.  You can definitely see some DNA from "Rick and Morty," but the aesthetics remain firmly "Star Trek," down to the opening credits sequence which parodies its live action counterparts.  The cast is a lot of fun, with Tawny Newsome being the standout as the enthusiastically insubordinate Mariner.  

I'll be happily finishing off the whole season of this the next time I get a chance, and you'll likely see a more extensive writeup for it somewhere down the line.

---

On Turning Forty and Staying Optimistic

Well, we've survived 2020, "Venture Bros." has been cancelled after seventeen years, and I'm turning forty in a week.  It's time to gaze at the ol' navel again.

I've spent the past quarter century now being a movie obsessive, tracking projects and various filmmakers over multiple years, watching thousands of movies and television shows, and also maintaining a life, job, and relationships in the meantime.  I've been around long enough now to see the media business undergo massive, sweeping changes, and also to see the careers of so many artists and filmmakers rise and fall.  I've literally been watching some actors like Elizabeth Moss onscreen since they were kids.  Especially as I've been digging so hard into the films of previous decades lately, I've been getting a more macroscopic look at the industry over time, and how quickly standards and mores keep changing.  Everything really does go in cycles, but nobody ultimately knows anything.

I find myself getting more cynical about film in some respects.  It's harder to get excited about future projects when I've seen so many holy grail productions like "Ender's Game," "John Carter," "The Dark Tower," and "Justice League," all go sideways.  I still do get hyped up for some of the big blockbusters every year, but I tend to remember the hype and fuss around these movies more than the movies themselves.  Every single one of my filmmaking idols has disappointed me eventually.  The once untouchable Steven Spielberg is slowly running out of steam, and all the '90s superstars who once looked so invincible have proven to be fallible human beings.  It's totally commonplace for great, prolific artists to be largely forgotten over time, or to be discarded as hopelessly out of date.  Though it's hard to argue with its aims, cancel culture has been pretty brutal this year.  I have no idea if I'll ever be able to admit to enjoying Woody Allen movies again.  

And yet, every year brings no shortage of surprises and new discoveries.  For every "Game of Thrones" that has crash landed, there's been a "Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse" that got me to love a superhero I'd long ago assumed was not for me.  For every crummy "It: Chapter 2," there's been a "Doctor Sleep."  For every Zack Snyder's "Watchmen," there's been a Damon Lindelof's "Watchmen."  I've learned to be wary of nostalgia, and especially Disney's endless assembly line of reboots and retreads.  Often, they're just another reminder that everyone is getting old.  However, I love it when familiar properties strike out in a new direction.  I love it when known talents figure out how to reinvent themselves.  Somehow Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron are major action stars again.  Somehow musicals are in again.

It helps that I have my own kids now, who I'm doing my best not to influence too much in their viewing choices, except to steer them away from obvious problematic media.  Through them, I've been happily reintroduced to cartoons and puppets and the joys of a good sing-along video.  They provide me a strong, constant reminder that just because a piece of media is not for me - jaded forty-year-old Miz Media Mommy - doesn't mean it's not perfectly good for someone else.  And they keep me honest about the fact that getting older means that I'm steadily exiting the mainstream.  I find myself getting fewer current cultural references, being out of the loop, and often way behind on trending topics.  And that's perfectly okay.  I have no desire to be in my teens or twenties again.

I've also found it to be true that certain media hits you differently at different ages.  I'm looking forward to revisiting some of the shows and films I once wrote off as boring.  And for every new reference that I don't get, I've found myself noticing older references that I missed the first time - I just saw Robert Altman's "Pret-a-Porter," which was obvious quoting the striptease from Vittorio DeSica's "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow."  There's so much media out there - and still so much I've yet to see - I can't imagine that I'll ever run out of the good stuff.  

Here's to a new year and the oncoming tidal wave of post-COVID media.  And here's to my forties, which I hope will be as weird and wonderful as my thirties were.  

---

My Most Anticipated Television and Web Series of 2021

Usually at the beginning of a new calendar year, I write up a funny post about the movies that I expect will be bad, and that you probably won't see further mention of on this blog.  Since last year, however, the movie business has found itself in dire straits, and it just feels rude to pile on the jibes in these dark COVID times, even if it is just for fun.  

However, there's plenty of media still in the works and being readied for mass consumption, so my TV and web series anticipation post is all ready to go.  Keep in mind that with television it's always more tricky to predict release dates because the production timelines are so different.  Last year's post included the "Cowboy Bebop" and "The Wheel of Time" series, which are still nowhere in sight.  I fully expect that some of the titles below won't show up on our screens until 2022 or later.

Also, keep in mind that I'm an unrepentant genre nerd. 

"Lord of the Rings" (Amazon Prime) - I've been wrestling with this one for ages.   The new series is expected to take place well before the timelines of "The Hobbit" or the "Lord of Rings" trilogy,  but isn't actually based on any of Tolkein's material like "The Silmarillion."  Best case scenario is that we end up with an original story that happens to take place in this universe, like "The Mandalorian."  More likely, however, we end up with another drawn-out prequel narrative that is way too beholden to the previous adaptations.  In any case, it'll be fun seeing how this all plays out.

"What If…?" (Disney+) - Of all the Marvel series in the works, this is the one that has piqued my interest the most.  I love animation, and I'm totally onboard with the idea of a wide open anthology series remixing the Marvel universe every week.  What would have happened if Peggy Carter took the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers?  What if Thanos was a chill dude?  The series will surely be less wild and wacky than I want it to be, but the possibilities are endless.  

 

"The Nevers" (HBO) - I am aware of how problematic Joss Whedon has become over the past few years, but I can't help being excited for his return to serialized television.  A good chunk of the Mutant Enemy gang is back, including Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie.  Also, the show is a period sci-fi drama about a bunch of Victorian women with superpowers.  And it's got Olivia Williams, Pip Torrens, and Nick Frost in the cast.  How could I not?

"The Sandman" (Netflix) - It's not too likely we'll see this before the end of the year, but Netflix has already got the marketing machine going pretty hard, so you never know.  I have been a fan of this property for a very long time, and I've been following developments very closely over the last few years.  Whether the final product turns out well or not, I'm very excited that it's finally happening and the "Sandman" series is something that will exist soon.    

"Station Eleven" (HBO Max) -  So, a post-apocalyptic show might be a little too on-the-nose right now, especially one that takes place in the aftermath of a global pandemic of swine flu.  This one, however, is based on a well-received 2014 novel, stars Mackenzie Davis and Himesh Patel, and will be directed by Donald Glover's frequent collaborator in visual madness, Hiro Murai.  I think that's at least worth some consideration.   

"Nine Perfect Strangers" (Hulu) - The latest David E. Kelley miniseries, based on a Liane Moriarty novel.  The cast is star-studded, lead by Nicole Kidman as the Russian resort director of an exclusive health retreat called Tranquillum.  The book got mixed reviews, but is full of eccentric characters for actors like Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, and Samara Weaving to play.  Jonathan Levine is directing the whole shebang. 

"Foundation" (Apple+) - I still have a free trial of Apple TV pending, and I'm probably going to use it for this series.  Based on Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels, which I vaguely remember reading in high school, the show will feature Jared Harris as Hari Seldon, and Lee Pace as, (I kid you not) the Emperor of the Galaxy.  Will this redeem showrunner David Goyer in the eyes of nerddom at last?  I don't know.  Let's find out!

---