The Mist by Stephen King

When a dangerous storm rolls into town, all the residents can think about is the insurance claims they'll have to make and clearing away the debris. What they don't realise is that that the storm will quickly become the least of their worries. It's not long before 80 people find themselves trapped in a grocery store, unable to leave because something primordial and dangerous is living in the mist.  As the claustrophobia threatens to consume them, they must decide whether or not to take their chances with the outside world or get carried away with the hysteria. 

The Mist is a typical Stephen King horror/suspense story.  Everyone has been in the kind of fog where you can only see a few feet away.  It's never a comforting feeling to have darkness descend, particularly in a world that has become accustomed to electricity and convenience. In this case, the mist hides deadly creatures who few humans as prey. 

I must admit to picking up The Mist because we are currently recapping and reviewing the television show. I believe it's always important to be familiar with the source material when possible. From the very beginning, even before we are introduced to the mist as hiding real danger, the story feels anachronistic for something published in 2007.  Cell phones may not have completely decimated people's use of payphones yet but making a call for ten cents most certainly wasn't possible. 

We meet several characters who are stuck together in the supermarket but the story is told entirely from the perspective of David.  David is an artist, father and husband.  David's one of the first to believe in the danger the mist poses because he's given hard evidence that the world they knew is gone.  Even as the evidence mounts that they are in mortal danger, not everyone in the store is willing to believe.  David's neighbour, who tagged along with him to the market to pick up a few things steadfastly believes that this is all one big prank on him and goes into denial. Norton simply cannot reconcile what he knows to be true. 

The people stranded in the supermarket fall into three categories: 

• people like David who accept with difficulty the world as it's presented to them
• people like Norton, who are determined to imagine that what they are seeing isn't real and that they aren't in any mortal danger
• people like Mrs. Carmody, who has a complete mental break and goes down a dangerous path of superstition and fear.

It's easy to identify with the fears of all of the characters and put yourself in their place.  I don't know however if I would find Mrs.Carmody, who starts going on about human sacrifice all that appealing, no matter how scared I happened to be.

Orphan Black, Season Five, Episode Six: Manacled Slim Wrists

I know that fans of Orphan Black were freaking out when Krystal appeared on their screen.  It's fair to say that outside of the original seistras that Krystal is the favourite clone of many. For me however, Krystal is an irritant at best who took away screen time for Felix Helena and Allison, who I am far more interested in. With so little time left in the series, it feels a shame to waste it on the clone for which I have the least patience and interest. 

Krystal 

Krystal hasn't changed much since we last saw her. She's presently hard at work with her roommate Bree on V Blog about the corruption in big cosmetics. Who's surprised that this is how Krystal had been occupying her time? 

Today's lesson involves using straws as curlers and as to be expected, it doesn't end well. When Bree starts to remove the straws, a heap of her hair comes with it. Yeah, I'm not impressed that the Black chick got her hair messed up while the ever so White Krystal stayed looking on point. Dear white people, stop messing with our hair. 

Krystal immediately assumes that Bree has been poisoned and decides that to invoke clone club. Krystal's assertions are blown off as nonsense by both Art and Sarah, until her interactions with Blue Zone Cosmetics , a company recently purchased by Dyad, is revealed. Effectively, the writers have retroactively made Krystal right about Neolution to jam her irrelevant, irritating character into the plot. 

Now they need to find out if Dyad is interested in Blue Zone Cosmetics because of  LIN28A. The plan is for Sarah to masquerade as Krystal to pump information from Blue Zone Cosmetics CEO Len.  At this point in the story, I started getting excited for another round of clone playing a clone but alas, it was not to be. 

Of course, Krystal being Krystal, just had to wreck a perfectly good plan by deciding that she didn't want anyone, "particularly that Australian girl" (read: Sarah) messing with her source. I suppose Art and Sarah should be thankful that Krystal set up surveillance for them to listen in and see what's happening when she meets with Len. 

The word subtle seems not to be in Krystal's vocabulary.  Despite being told not to make out with Len, she jumps on him passionately.  When Art and Sarah ask her to bring up Dyad, shes broaches the subject like an elephant entering a china shop. Len of course claims ignorance as to Dyad's true goals.

It's The 13th Doctor and We're Still Waiting

But times change and so must I. We all change, when you think about it.
We are all different people all through our lives and that's okay, that's good you've got to keep moving so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.
I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember when The Doctor was me...

                                                                       ---The Doctor

Like many Whovians, I sat through a tennis match I wasn’t interested in yesterday in order to watch the live announcement on who the 13th Doctor would be.  The speculation began the moment that Peter Capaldi announced that he was leaving this iconic role. Naturally, everyone had opinions as several names were bandied about.  Some of the names in rotation were: Kris Marshall, Natalie Dormer, Alexander Siddig, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sacha Dhawan, Cyril Nri etc.  When it came to the casting, the central question always seemed to be would the Doctor remain a man, as he has been for over fifty years, or would he follow Missy’s lead and become a woman?  

When it came to conversations about a male Doctor, the challenge seemed to be about whether or not the Doctor would be of colour or be yet another incarnation of straight, cisgender white masculinity.  Naturally, the traditionalists spit their damn dummy out at the very idea that the Doctor might no longer be white, even if they were relieved that he could potentially stay male. This of course is the problem with toxic fandom, of which Whovians are only a part of.  Think about the character of the Doctor. He sweeps in when things are at their most desperate and he saves the day.  The Doctor is always the smartest one in the room, the first to solve the puzzle and if necessary, the one to cast judgement and lay down the law.  No wonder people continue to see the Doctor as male - he is the perfect example of our patriarchal power structure.  

The majority of heads of state are male, the majority of judges are male, the majority of police officer are also male.  These are positions of authority which are responsible for laying down the law, figuring out what went wrong and assigning punishment. For as much as I love the Doctor, he is a cop, politician (president of the world) and finally judge. How could any being embodying these roles and not be considered male, when women are still very much outliers in these careers despite the gains of feminism?  Because this bullshit has gone on so long, it reads as traditional; the problem is that no one wants to think about what these damn traditions are based in because to do would be to admit the toxicity not just of a fandom we gleefully participate in but a deep rooted rot in our system.

Even though the series has spent some considerable effort explaining gender through the perspective of Time Lords and actually portrayed two Time Lords changing gender from male to female, traditionalists simply could not, nay would not consider a woman in the role of Doctor.  Even as I write this, there are people across the globe pouting, shaking their fists and spitting their dummies out en masse. Some even having the nerve to question why their disapproval of a female Doctor makes them sexist. There is always controversy when a new Doctor is cast. Many were not happy when a relatively unknown Matt Smith was cast as the 11th Doctor; however, by the time he left, many (though I am not part of that group) came to consider Matt Smith as their favourite Doctor (these people are wrong, of course). It’s hardly surprising now that Peter Capaldi is leaving that those who found him to be old, grumpy and just plain too mean to be the Doctor are now all up in their feelings, blowing through boxes of Kleenex, expressing their sorrow at losing him. This is the cycle of how Whovians mourn the loss of one Doctor and prepare for the arrival of a new one. Certainly, no one expected near universal praise for the casting of Jodie Whittaker, but to base that disapproval solely on her gender, rather than, say, her previous work, is SEXIST.  In fact it’s undeniable SEXISM.

Wynonna Earp, Season 2, Episode 6: Whiskey Lullaby

Time to return to the big bads - the veiled ghostly women who have possessed Mercedes and her sister and got Tucker The Worst to run around and do their bidding in exchange for “a girl”

These are known as “the Widows” and they want to break those seals and unleash evilness.

The problem for them is finding the last seals which aren’t where they should be any more since Bobo moved them (one goes into a church and ends up killing a priest looking for it) and they’re working to a time line: they’ve only got so long to find the seals. They also reference their husband (one man) who gives them gifts, Constance the Stone Witch (who Doc killed) and Juan Carlo so ALL THE STORYLINES

Ultimately they need more time. To that end they send Tucker with a gun and a magic-immunity charm to an old man called Hypnose who is being tended by his daughter Poppy

To the main gang!

Wynonna is pregnant as we found out last episode. And Waverley and her are pegging Doc as the father which is a bit of an issue with Dolls coming back and the big romance brewing there. Wynonna and Doc had a great friends-with-benefits-maybe-more thing going on but she and Dolls had the love-you-hate-you-drama-will-they-won’t-they which is Tvlandia’s ULTIMATE ROMANCE.

Waverley hovers around fluffing and fussing about not drinking caffein and generally threatening to reveal the secret to all and complaining that it’s not fair to Doc and Dolls not to tell them to which Wynonna has this line:

“Tough shit. It’s my decision who to tell and when and it’s my situation and no-one gets to decide how to handle it by me. Stop pushing me and stop judging me.”

ALL HAIL WYNONNA

Waverley backs off, acknowledging her issues. SHe has issues with Nicole anyway as Nicole is unsure how much of their relationship was tentacle demon and not - Waverley reinforces them and they have make up sex. And while they don’t show sex, this tv series is increasingly not flinching away from Waverley and Nicole’s affection

Dolls and Doc catch up with Dolls’ ex boss to figure out what has happened to Black Badge- apparently Black badge was never a government agency, doesn’t want to spend resources on a fight they can’t win, has utterly written off the ghost river triangle and is pulling out. They do give Dolls a picture of one of the Widows so he knows what he’s facing

Ok, I don’t know how far the writers have followed this through, but this implies that we’re not facing a world ending threat or a major country devastating threat or clearly more widespread: if there was then the idea of “not being worth the investment” would be ridiculous.

They return to explain this to everyone and everyone questions what this means. I’m here for Jeremy asking “wait, are we fired, do I get a reference, who pays us” sadly no-one answers this question but it’s a point. Who is paying the bills? Money and livelihood matter guys!

Wynonna shuts down speculation with “hey I have a gun and kill monsters, so let’s do this!”

So world building addressed, we have a Widow kill a priest and a blood stained nun come to the police station to say

“My boss was killed”

To which Wynonna replies without missing a beat:

“God really is dead”.

If you didn’t laugh you’re… probably a better person than me.

Anyway this leads the gang to realise that the seal is on consecrated ground so Jeremy does the research thing. While he does that Wynonna goes to a coffee shop with Dolls on a sortadate and Dolls is clearly trying to take their relationship to the next level and she’s all awkward because of the pregnancy

And the 13th Doctor Is.....

It's official, the BBC has announced that the new Doctor is English actress Jodie Whittaker.  Joddie is the first woman to be cast in the iconic role as Doctor Who. Each time a new Doctor is cast Whovians wring their hands and carry on and I suspect that this will be amplified by Chris Chibnall's selection. There will of course be the sexist whose heads explode about the fact that the Doctor is now a woman, even though it's been thoroughly shown on Doctor Who that Timelords do in fact shift their gender when they regenerate. The conversation will probably be polarized between those who want to keep the White man's club and those who are anxious to see a real shift.

We've written countless times about the fact that Doctor Who tends to benefit from the diversity of its spinoffs even if Doctor Who itself hasn't really been all that inclusive.  The casting of Jodie Whittaker is a step in the right direction.  Whittaker has set herself a tough task ahead because while no new incarnation is free of criticism, it's quite certain that hers will be absolutely laced with misogyny regardless of how good she performs in the role, or the work that the writers give her to do. 

To be clear, I'm going to miss Peter Capaldi a lot. I think that he's been an excellent Doctor and completely compelling to watch but it's time to say goodbye. Just like Doctor's we've come to love before he will be remembered for his unique approach to this role and thanked for giving the world angry eyebrows. As we move forward into a new incarnation, I hope that we can embrace the new and give Whittaker a real chance to embody this role.  I hope that we can be everything that the Doctor has always wanted humanity to be. 

Killjoys, Season 3, Episode 3: The Hullen Have Eyes

Also known as the episode where Paul realises he’s been spelling Hullen wrong for so many reviews

So Johnny is back which means he has to be reinstated as part of the RAC which means interview with Banyon-designated-evil-lady-who-Dutch-hates. She is super angry about all the RAC agents who went missing, including Johnny. Johnny objects that he went AWOL for personal reqasons afvter Pawter died and it had nothing to do with any kind of RAC issue.

Baynon isn’t buying that but hey she’ll run with it if Johnny is willing to spy on Dutch and implicate her on the AWOLs. Johnny is clearly not having that. He has a counter proposal: why is she making an enemy of the one agent who came back when he could be their poster boy

Banyon: I thought you were the funny one

Johnny: I multi-task

He has the best lines. She also tells him to remove the finger banger- which he displays to her (it’s on his middle finger). Still he does have it removed and rejoins the crew

He also meets Zeph, he’s not a huge fan, there’s definite nerd competition going on here; she has an organic specialty she doesn’t, but he’s not here to be replaced or out-alpha nerded so lots of conflict follows.

Their mission of the week is a weird Hollen ship that has arrived on Lethe, now they need to get on board and figure out what’s going on with it. Nerding follows and they track it to a specific point of origin. This involves a little awkwardness with Johnny fitting back into the group dynamic - and him being nerdy and careful before they set off while Dutch just pushes D’avin’s hand onto the button

“I skipped to the fun part, you know you wanted me to.”

Yes, yes Dutch we did.

They arrive at a cold forested world and Dutch and D’avin get off to investigate. There they discover background radiation and regular solar flares that fry people and destroy eye sight so it’s best not to hang around. There’s also a creepy old fashioned town dating back 100 years that was protected by a radiation shield but isn’t any more. There’s a hologram in the middle of the town that basically tries to teach people basic things like smiling

This town is a Hollen training camp, it exists to train empathyless Hollen on how to take basic human interaction.

At which point a solar flare arrives, the ship’s automatic safety features make it flee to orbit complete with nerds) leaving Dutch and D’avin to run around with their eyes clothes, have their guns taken by creepy capering people and trying to hide in a building. There they’re met by a woman with her eyes sewn shut (something she calls a blessing) leads them to the basement tunnels which is another huge complex… where they’re captured, held at gun point and thrown in cages.

Meanwhile with Johnny teaching Zeph about the need to keep calm and focus in a crisis (a definite contrast between lab experience vs field experience) as well as emphasising how much nerds save the day. Sure, the warriors charge in, but it’s the nerds who come up with the solutions - and nerds gotta nerd when the shit hits the fan

The Mist, Season One, Episode Four: Pequod

The cast of The Mist continues to be large and very much separated.  Kevin, Adrian, Mia and Brian make a break from the church.  Kevin trips over the body of a young boy on the way.  The foursome pile into a car and Mia attempts to hotwire it but the car doesn't turn over.  This enrages Kevin, and he accuses Mia of not knowing what she is doing but Mia asserts that something is absolutely wrong.  After a little discussion, they decide to make another break for it run on foot through the mist to a garage.

The Garage

A quick search of the garage reveals no other usable vehicles. A light at the end of the tunnel appears when a car actually pulls up. Clay hops out of the car wearing a gas mask and immediately points his gun at the foursome, who quickly raise their hands.  Clay makes his way inside and apologises for pulling out his gun. Clay is a bit frantic and he pulls out a picture of his son who is missing to find out if the foursome has seen him. Of course, the kid turns out be the body that Kevin tripped over in their escape from the church.  Kevin looks at the picture and lies and says that he hasn't seen him. Following his lead, the others lie as well, as they make weird eye contact displaying confusion over their communal untruth. Clay is absolutely determined to find his son and explains he's been out looking for him for quite some time.

When Clay heads into another room, Mia immediately confronts Kevin about encouraging everyone to lie.  Kevin explains that he was just trying to save Clay the pain of learning about his dead son.  Mia quickly moves on to point out to Kevin that they are going to need Clay's car, or for Clay to give them a lift, if they are going to get to the mall.  An irritated Kevin promises to handle it. 

When Kevin does approach Clay, he learns that Clay is driving a bug out vehicle - one made to function in disasters.  Kevin asks for a lift to the mall, saying that this is where his family is. At this point, Clay only has a little bit of gas left and he wants to reserve it for his search for his son. Clay expresses his regret but makes it clear that his top priority is searching for his son.  Kevin asks him to think about it over night.

The next morning, Clay is looking at a map trying to figure out where to search next when Kevin approaches. Once again, Clay turns Kevin down to prioritise his search for his son. Unable to take it anymore, Mia reveals that Clay's son is dead, causing Clay to go into complete denial. Clay reasonably suggests that he is only being told this because they want his car and that if his child were really dead, they would have told him the day before. A nervous Clay grabs his gun again as the foursome cautiously approach.  It's Brian who ends up on the attack and the two men struggle for the gun. Kevin pulls out his own gun and Mia and Adrian call out for him to shoot.  Brian does manage to get the gun away from Clay but not before being shot in the thigh. The foursome move immediately to offer Brian whatever medical care they can, tying off the wound and applying pressure.  Mia says that if they don't get Brian to a hospital that he is going to die and this is enough for Clay to decide to hand over his car. The foursome load up and instead of going with them, Clay chooses to stay behind and take his chances in the mist to keep searching for his son. 

The Church

Father Romanov is not doing well trapped in the church with his parishioners. It's clear he feels that this might be the end of days, despite the fact that this is not how Revelations describes it. His fear that this is the end causes Father Romanov to start praying for Nathalie's soul.  Following through on her statement that the God she saw didn't belong to Father Romanov, Nathalie reads the diary of an old priest looking for a record of an event like this happening before. When Nathalie starts to talk about nature killing 6 people May 12, 1860, it's clear that Father Romanov is upset. Father Romanov offers to talk about church history and insists that if Nathalie really wants answers that she'll turn to the bible.

Father Romanov gathers everyone in the church and starts to talk to them about his concern for their immortal soul. Everyone gathers to listen except Nathalie, who is to busy looking for a sign.  When Nathalie finds a spider, she squeals happily. Before anyone can kill the spider, Nathalie slips it into a jar, referring to it as God and thanking it for making it's presence known. 

Father Romanov turns to Police chief Connor Heisel about the agitation he feels regarding Nathalie's actions.  Instead of doing the expected thing and getting all tough guy, Connor talks about cutting Nathalie some slack because everyone is tense and she's grieving.

Zoo, Season 3, Episode 3: Ten Years Gone

The group is slowly coming together - but it looks like it won’t be all harmonious

After Isaac was taken last episode, Dariela calls the police while Abraham charges after the soldiers

Wait… what? Dariela is a soldier. Abraham is a doctor . He may be the size of the average building, but she’s still the warrior.

Anyway, the police nicely inform Dariela that kidnapping of children for experimenting on is totally legal and the president totally approves (nah I’m not leaping on a Trump joke, it’s too easy). Abraham is pushed back by a whole load of soldiers and is forced to come home

To find Deriela with a guy called Jonah. Am I supposed to recognise Jonah? Was he around the Earthquake sloths and immortal jellyfish? Whatever. Either way, Dariela and Jonah had an affair and when they ended it, Dariela promised not to see him again. And she’s been sending research to Jonah who sent it to Umbrella Reiden which led to Isaac being captured. Because that was a great idea

Abraham is made of RAGE, fairly understandable. Honestly I don’t see the need for this - you have enough angst here without throwing a huge wedge between Dariela and Abraham, especially since Dariella was a late introduced character who hasn’t been as well developed yet (and spent a lot of time being more almost an antagonist - so extra antagonism, yay!). Abe and Dariela have a whole scene where Abe seethes and can’t even look at her. This is not going to be fun

They try to rescue their son with Jonah’s help and end up grabbing a completely different boy - at least they reunite him with his parents, only for the soldiers to rekidnap them - and then pay a visit to Abraham and Dariela to make them an evil offer: they’ll give them Isaac back if they deliver Clem to evil Leanne. Apparently Clem has stolen some shinies from Leanne and she wants them back. Probably the T-virus.

Abraham also wants to cure human sterility as then there would be no reason to kidnap kids - and for that he needs the new wooly rhino hybrid sample so he calls Jackson to send up some new supplies

To Jackson! Jackson and Logan argue over where their priorities should be - Logan wants to take down Abigail, Jackson’s terrorist sister while Jackson wants to get the new sample. He wins and they go wandering only to find a giant burrowing vultures

Ok, were the Shepherds high when they designed these hybrids? I mean who says “let’s make super birds! THAT DIG!” because winged creatures are totally enhanced with tunnelling abilities. Oh Zoo stop drinking and writing.