Another pretty light month.

Movies, Shows, etc

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
An amazing five-part documentary about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It is a balance of archival footage and interviews with people who lived through the worst years of the conflict. One of the most moving aspects of the series was seeing these people interviewed in the 2020s and then again in newsreels from 30 or 40 years ago, in a moment of grief when a loved one had been killed. It was also fascinating to see how some of them have changed their views while a few, it seemed, had not. Which seems baffling to me, a non-religious person who lives in a society where we generally don’t kill people because they might pray to the same god in a different way. I know there was more to the conflict that religion, but that was the biggest dividing point between the Republicans and Unionists.

A

Arrival
The inspiration for these monthly posts came from Jason Kottke, who began doing his own periodic media posts awhile back. In his most recent he mentioned that he re-watched this, and it is one of his all time favorites. This was my first time watching it. It is the kind of sci-fi I can get into, where it’s more speculative than world building. Also dig the little clues that first-time viewers will miss but become apparent as the story wraps up. I may have to go back and re-watch it at some point to track those moments.

A-

Reservation Dogs, season three
A fitting finale season for an extraordinary show. Episode nine, “Elora’s Dad,” is on my list of best shows of the year. I’ve said this before, but this program was a true gift to viewers.

A

Barry, season four
Hmmm. A pretty bizarre final season for another one of the best shows of recent years. There were still plenty of moments that shared the dark humor of the first three seasons. But this one had too many connective moments in between that didn’t work, which kept it from being great. Of course that was because the bar was set so high by seasons one-through-three.

B

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Key & Peele
I spent a lot of time last month watching random sketches from K&P. They never disappointed.

Prince ’91 Special Olympics Rehearsal
What a wonderful piece of music history.

El Estepario Siberiano
A friend bombarded me with a bunch of this dude’s videos one day. I don’t play drums but he seems pretty bad ass.