Steampunk Granny's Review of Baskets on FX

                                                              

 

I’ve seen the trailers for the new series on FX for Baskets, but until last night, I haven’t had a chance to watch the show featuring Zach Galifianakis, who plays the part of Chip Baskets. Zach not only stars in Baskets, but is the co-creator, executive producer and writer.

Plot

Baskets is a dark comedy about a man who dreams of being a French clown, but after failing to dazzle the French, he moves back home to Bakersfield to work as a rodeo clown. His family’s reaction to his choice of life career is hilarious.

                                                              

Chip has to compete with his siblings while jostling for his mother’s affection. Zach Galifianakis plays a duel role playing Chip and his brother Dale, another loser who promotes his owns business but to tell you the truth, I’m not exactly sure what type of business school this is. Chip is married to Penelope (Sabina Sciubba) a French woman who has no time for Chip and only married him to live in America.

                                                             

There are other characters that are just as enjoyable in their weirdness like Martha Brooks (Martha Kelly) a bottom-of-the-rung insurance agent who becomes Chip’s friend after his scooter accident. She hangs out with the obnoxious Chip even though he is rude with her and uses her. Another character that I love is Christine Baskets (Louie Anderson) mother of Chip and Dale.

Conclusion

I’m not a big fan of Zach Galifianakis, but this series might change my mind. Zach plays his character as snobbish French performer who suffers from the lack of appreciation he so rightly deserves. His attempts at making his job as a rodeo clown seem more in line with the Cirque Du Soleil is downright funny.

                                                        

I’ve only seen the first two episodes, but when I was trying to explain the show to my husband, I said that Baskets reminds me of one of my most favorite comedy series, Seinfeld. Watch it and tell me if you agree.

Fargo S02 E02: Before the Law

                                                        

I’ve already told you my opinion of Fargo and why I think it’s one of the best dramas on television. I’m going to watch this show and do short reviews for all my friends. Enjoy!

Wives

We pick up where we left off on the end of episode one. Poor Ed Blumquist is so in love with his pretty wife that he’s even willing to go against his own conscience and civic duty: don’t call the cops; don’t let anyone know how the car got damaged; clean up the blood; get rid of the body.        

We don’t know much about their marriage except that Ed wasn’t getting any loving between the sheets and, if he did, it was only when he begged for it. Peggy looks like a girl who is comfortable telling lies. She tells Ed, she hit a deer when he heard movement in the garage. She stole toilet paper from her boss. Those lies are going to trip her up. Peggy may think she has everything under control, but she’s out of her league with Mama Gerhardt.                               

Floyd Gerhardt is a smart woman, certainly smarter than the three boys she gave birth to. She is very involved with her husband’s business and I’m guessing she knows the location of several bodies. She’s tough. With hubby out of commission because of a stroke, Floyd has to keep on top of things and that means speaking to her business associates and the Kansas City Mafia who wants to take over.                                        

Her son, Dodd, has no respect for women. He should move to Iran.  He has a bad temper and even disrespects his 19-year-old daughter, saying she’s too young to learn the family business. Floyd, bless her heart, reminds Dodd that girls grow up to be women who change little boys’ diapers. The meaning is not lost on Dodd.

Kansas City Mafia

Mike Milligan and the Kitchen brothers have to be both one of the funniest and scariest killers I’ve ever seen on the screen. Mike (Bokeem Woodbine) is a smooth talking young man, but his smooth tongue only softens the intended threats.
                                                           

 
Maybe, it’s the way Mike smiles as he’s handing out options that show just how dangerous this man is. His encounter with Sheriff Larson is outright scary, but luckily Larson understands what the smile means. I love Mike’s Afro hairstyle and disco clothing. The Kitchen brothers, who are obviously twins, never speak. They don’t have to. They’re busy scaring you to death with their silence and big guns.

Conclusion

While Ed puts his butchering skills to work making Rye-burger-meat, Lou stops at the Waffle Hut with his cancer-stricken wife, Betsy and little Molly, who is already proving to be a good observer. She finds a balloon that leads to mom finding Rye’s gun; the gun that killed the people at the Waffle Hut.          

The gun has Rye’s prints on it. Now, we have three separate teams looking for Rye. Lou and Hank the story’s protagonists are like sitting ducks in a pond filled with sharks, but they are smart law men who take their time putting the clues together.

This show, even with the gore and horror of dealing with gangsters, is easy on the mind. The scenery is a stunning contrast to the blood that drips on the floor of the butcher shop as Ed, his mind numb and probably regretting his choice of life partner, grinds Rye into the industrial size meat grinder. What I’m especially enjoying about this season is the use of the split-screen that shows what each character is doing at that same moment.

Loving Fargo on FX

                                                        

Unlike the big disappointment I had with HBO's True Detective’s second season, Fargo’s second season  on FX hit the ground, running leaving us breathless and in shock. I had the opportunity to watch the first three episodes on Halloween and I’m so happy that I did. On Fargo, we have our bad guys, the good guys and, a few good people who do dumb-ass stuff that makes them just as scary as the bad guys. The acting and script are superb, which makes it such a pleasure to return to good ole Fargo, North Dakota.
                                              

Waiting for Dutch S02 E01

The show opens with a snippet of film called Massacre at Sioux Falls. There are bodies everywhere; those of soldiers and Native Americans alike. Then we jump to a scene of Jimmy Carter speaking on television. It’s 1979 and there is a gas shortage. The Gerhardt family is North Dakota’s version of the Sopranos led by Otto (Michael Hogan), his wife Floyd (Jean Smart) and their three sons, Dodd (Jeffrey Donavan), Bear (Angus Sampson) and Rye (Kieran Culkin). People are afraid of this family and rightly so. They are cold-blooded killers who control trucking distribution for the entire Northern Midwest and, they fear no one, not even the law.

                                                           

 

We also have our good guys Officers Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) and Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) who eventually have to tangle with this crime family when the youngest son gets in trouble. There is one character that carries over from season one and that is Lou Solverson, who in season one played the diner-owning father of Deputy Molly Solverson, originally played by Keith Carradine. In this prequel, Patrick Wilson is playing the younger version of Lou when he was a Minnesota State Trooper who recently returned home from the war in Vietnam.
 

Rye, the youngest of the Gerhardt sons, wants a little more power than he’s given by his brother Dodd but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, especially because Rye owes Dodd money. A trip to Watson’s typewriter store promises some income with a newer self-correcting typewriter, but owner Skip (Mike Bradecich) needs a judge to forgive his case on back taxes in order to get the funding to purchase the stock. If Rye can accomplish changing the judge’s opinion, then he can get the money Skip owes him to pay Dodd. It’s the ultimate shell game.
                                                 

     

When Rye’s plans to talk to the lady judge go very, very wrong (I mean who carry’s bug spray in their purse?) Rye gets into a shootout. Now, this is why Fargo rocks! Once outside the diner, Rye is distracted by a UFO causing him to be hit by a car driven by Peggy Blumquist (Kristin Dunst). Does she stop? Does she call the police or an ambulance? No! She drives home with Rye stuck in her windshield.
                                                         

 

When her husband, Ed (Jesse Plemons) comes home from his job at Bud’s Meat Shop in Luverne, he’s wondering what the racket is in the garage. Peggy lies and says she hit a deer. Surprise! Rye is alive; badly injured, but alive. In an act of self-defense from a knife wielding Rye, Ed is forced to kill Rye.
                                                       

The fact that Peggy calmly drove home and made dinner gives a hint to her character. She’s the most dangerous kind of narcissist and we know from the get go that poor Ed is going to suffer.
 

Conclusion

Fargo did what True Detective didn’t do in their second season. It kept the formula the same. Why change what doesn’t need fixing. With the Coen brothers, Ethan and Joe at the helm and, Noah Hawley as the writer/executive producer/showrunner, Fargo remains an award-winning series.

                                                              

What Peggy doesn’t know is that Otto has had a stroke and the Kansas City Mafia is coming to town to take over the Gerhardt operation by force. The Gerhardt’s are going to be looking for their youngest and so will the police who investigate the diner killings.
                                                     

Her husband has Rye in the freezer for now, but they’ll have to get rid of the body and soon. The ground is frozen solid, so burying the evidence is out of the question. Oh, did I mention that Ed is a butcher?
                                               

The show comes on every Monday at 10 p.m. on FX. Watch it!

Screaming Over Scream Queens

                                                                

 

Holy Hell! I wasn’t sure what to expect from Ryan Murphy’s new scream fest which premiered on FOX last night, but least we forget, Ryan Murphy does know a thing or two about horror already. Murphy is the brains behind American Horror Story on FX. The difference between the shows is Scream Queens is less gore (less than AHS) and more tongue in cheek humor.

                                                        

 

The show is set on a college campus and, everyone who has a pulse knows college campuses are the incubators for slasher films. Emma Roberts, a regular on American Horror Story, is the queen of the sorority house where everyone there is called Chanel followed by a number to designate their rank.

The series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan stars Emma Roberts, Skyler Samuels, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Glen Powell, Oliver Hudson and, last but not least, the original scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis.

                                                    

Jaime Lee Curtis shines as Dean Cathy Munsch. Her sarcastic conversations with Emma Roberts’ Chanel Oberlin drip venom and humor.

                                                                

The pilot revolves around a student, who twenty years earlier delivered a baby before dying and, the killer who is stalking the girls of Kappa Kappa Tau Sorority. 

                                                            

The pilot was kick ass funny with enough scares and twists to make even the most avid horror zombie enjoy the show.  My rating for the show is four stars!

Mr. Robot: New Series on USA

                                                         

 

When I first saw the trailers on television, I thought the main character was a robot. Wow! I love robots, and everyone who knows me, knows that I do and, you can learn why, here. I was able to watch the first episode the other night on Demand, but the show was not about robots.

Mr. Robot is a drama and psychological thriller created by Sam Esmail. The Show is scheduled to premiere on the USA Network on June 24^th. The executive producers are Sam Esmail, Steve Golin and Chad Hamilton.

Plot

Rami Malek plays the part of Elliot, a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot is recruited by and underground group out to destroy the corporation that he and his friend, Angela, work for. Elliot’s job is to protect the E Corporation from hackers, but he’s decided to join forces with a man called Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) to expose and destroy the forces that are ruining the world.  

                                                                      

There is just one itsy bitsy problem, Elliot has problems. He suffers from social anxiety disorder and chronic depression and he is prone to delusions...but does he? The series also stars Portia Doubleday as Angela, Carly Chaikin as Darlene, and Martin Wallstrom as Tyrell Wellick.

Conclusion

Even for a tech challenged granny like me, I was able to follow all the computer speak as Elliot and the other cyber security engineers try to stop hackers from infiltrating multinational corporations.

                                                                  

Cyber-crimes are a real problem for the private and public sectors and, as witnessed with Sony’s run-in with North Korea over the movie The Interview; no one is safe from hackers. Mr. Robot looks like the kind of show I enjoy watching. Check it out

 

Steampunk Granny's Review of 2014:The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

                                                        

This past year was one hell of a wild ride and that was even with the world’s safety belt pulled taunt across its chest. While we made epic strides with medical and science innovations, the circus performances of Global Politics, especially that of the United States Congress, left many of us wishing that we could pack up and move far away...like to another planet.

                                                             

Luckily, there were a bevy of new movies, books, games and music to divert our attention from the wacky stuff that was happening around the globe. Grab hold of your wrecking ball and follow me.

Music

I’m a big fan of Black Keys, Of Monsters and Men, Lorde and anything by Parov Stelar plus my friends at Biff Bam Pop www.biffbampop.com offered a few of their favorites and I will share them.
Thank you Glenn Walker: http://biffbampop.com/2014/12/15/biff-bam-pops-holiday-gift-guide-2014-nothing-has-changed-by-david-bowie/

And, thank you J.P. Fallavollita: http://biffbampop.com/2014/12/31/top-5-albums-of-2014-as-chosen-by-jp-fallavollita/#more-31591

This year, I’ve been listening to the “My Head is an Animal CD by Of Monsters and Men with my favorite song being “Little Talks”
 
This is my favorite Parov Stelar tune. I play this when I’m feeling down and feel lots better after I try to do the dance steps.

I love all the songs by Black Keys, but this is one of my favorites

Lorde has such a great voice and I think this was the song that hooked me. Royals...enjoy

Television

2014 was a good year for Television and not only did the fan favorites like Dr. Who, Grimm, “The Walking Dead”, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Sleepy Hollow, Agents of Shield and Gotham live up to KICK ASS expectations, but we were offered top-notch series like True Detective and Gracepoint, the American remake of BBC’s Broadchurch.  

                                                          

Shows that didn’t make my list of favorites: Under the Dome, The Following, The Goldbergs and Stalker.

Movies

There were some great thought provoking movies out this year and I have so many favorites such as, Maleficent, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Deliver Us from Evil, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Drop, The Draft, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Her, Gravity, Mockingjay part 1 and, one of the best written horror stories this year, The Babadook http://thebabadook.com/home/

                                                             

                                                        

I will say that I have not seen The Interview which stars James Franco and Seth Rogen. Maybe it was because its plot has Franco and Rogen’s characters trying to kill real life North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

                                                           

I’m all for free speech and I abhor censorship of said free speech, but I don’t think it wise to upset a world leader who is very anxious and capable of launching nuclear weapons and hacking into Sony’s stuff. Maybe the studio could have used a fictitious name or country. I will say that friends who saw the movie liked it.

Books

I reviewed a lot of books this year and wrote reviews for those books. I give a 4 star rating for: Jack Flacco’s second book in a series Ranger Martin and the Alien Invasion. It is a fast, fun action story that you can’t put down http://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Martin-Alien-Invasion-Flacco-ebook/dp/B00ONG04IA

                                                         

I reviewed the Reading Glasses Anthology: Stories through an Unpredictable Lens http://tinyurl.com/qbbgonb  You can find out more about Hypothetical Press here: http://www.hypotheticalpress.com/

                                                            

And right now, I am honored and excited to be reviewing Wrapped in Plastic Twin Peaks http://tinyurl.com/lmez3m2 by Andy Burns, our fearless leader and Editor-In-Chief of Biff Bam Pop. I can’t wait to do the review and the interview.

                                                                 

Here is the synopsis: In 1990, avant garde filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet) and acclaimed television writer Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues) teamed up to create a television show that would redefine what the medium could achieve in a one-hour drama.

                                                          

With Twin Peaks, the duo entranced audiences with the seemingly idyllic town, its quirky characters, and a central mystery — who killed Laura Palmer? In a town like Twin Peaks, nothing is as it seems, and in Wrapped in Plastic, pop culture writer Andy Burns uncovers and explores the groundbreaking stylistic and storytelling methods that have made the series one of the most influential and enduring shows of the past 25 years

My Book

I have my book out, Roof Oasis book one of an apocalyptic tale with a twist.

                                                         

   

Think Romeo & Juliet meet The Walking Dead written by Jules Verne http://tinyurl.com/nmdl27e   I'm working on book two Saving Solanda which will be out in the summer of 2015

Conclusion

As far as world news, the lower that rat shit terrorist group called ISIS, the greed of Wall Street, the destruction of the Middle Class, Obama Care, GMO’s and the disgusting and dangerous practice of FRACKING along with the latest outbreak of the contagious Ebola Virus were the big topics around the water coolers and kitchen tables. I send my sympathies to the families who were infected in West Africa and here.

                                                        

I could write about the buffoonery that went on in Congress, but I’m already taking too many pills for acid indigestion as it is. Enough said. Let’s hope that 2015 will find our world leaders using more common sense and our private citizens using fewer guns.

                                                     Happy 2015

Steampunk Granny Chats with Lost Girl's Anna Silk

                                                       

Besides interviewing people for my blog, I also interview people for Biff Bam Pop! I love writing for this amazing Pop Culture Website that was created by Editor-in-Chief, Andy Burns and I love being part of a team of talented, kick ass writers. Over the years, Andy and his associated editor and right hand man, Glenn Walker, have trusted me to review not only the sacred cow of television, "The Walking Dead" but also a host of other series. They have also trusted me to do interviews of popular series stars. I've worked my way up to senior writer for Biff Bam Pop, which only goes to prove that even a tech challenged granny can reach for the stars.

Enjoy my interview of the lovely and talented star of Showcase's hit show, Lost Girl, Anna Silk.

http://biffbampop.com/2014/12/03/steampunk-granny-chats-with-lost-girl-anna-silk/



and...check out the other interviews on my blog to see what other actors, directors, and authors I had the pleasure of chatting with. Thank you, Andy and Glenn for trusting Steampunk Granny to be part of the best team, ever.

http://gilbertcuriosities.blogspot.com/p/interviews-i-have-done.html


www.biffbampop.com

http://biffbampop.com/about/

http://biffbampop.com/category/glenn-walker/

http://biffbampop.com/category/marie-gilbert/

Life With Fred & Lucy, Episode 35: Soap Operas

                                                                 

The other day, I saw something posted on my Cousin Christina’s Facebook page. I didn’t recognize the people in the photo, but she had written in the comment section: 33 years today and how many women married a rapist?

I was puzzled and wondered if my cousin was speaking about the couple in the wedding photo. They looked familiar, but I just couldn’t place them. I haven’t seen my young cousin for many years because she had moved cross country and I assumed it was a member of her extended family especially because the couple looked so damn familiar.
                                                                         

                                                                                

I quickly responded with “What??? Who???” I was shocked to even imagine this happening in our family. Maratea women are strong willed and street smart and we're not prone to allowing anyone to attack us and, live another day. I was definitely curious about the people in her comment. I waited for Christina’s response.

Her quick reply was this: Luke and Laura were on General Hospital 33 years ago. Before they married on the show, they were friends. One day he raped her and they fell in love. It was a scandal on daytime TV at that time.

Luke and Laura from General Hospital? Oh my goodness, my cousin was talking about a soap opera. I don’t watch soap operas, but my mother did and it reminded me of an incident that happened when I was about thirteen years old.

                                                                    

We all worked long hours in the grocery store, but every day and I’m not too sure of the time, my mother would walk the three city blocks to my Aunt Louise’s house to watch their soap operas with "As the World Turns" being their favorite. They did this religiously. We didn’t have any way to tape shows back in the day, so if you wanted to know what was happening with the characters, you had to watch the show when it aired. When my mother returned from these visits, she would then watch the store so that my dad could take a nap. Some days, my mother would come home cursing under her breath, “Stunad or putana.”

“What’s wrong, ma?” I would ask, but she would only shake her head and add, “Don’t you ever do what Edith did!”
                                                  Ruth Warrick as Edith Hughes

                                                                       

“Who’s Edith?” I would ask, but my mother refused to tell me. So there I was wondering what this mysterious Edith did to piss off my mother. How could I keep from walking in Edith’s shoes if I didn’t know what she did or who she was? On the few occasions when my Aunt Louise came over our house to watch the show, my siblings and I, who were normally rowdy by nature, knew better than to bother my mother while she watched her "Soaps". My mother had slippers that acted like heat seeking missiles.  

One day, while I was helping my father put the frozen veggies in the freezer, my mother entered the store crying her eyes out. She had just returned from my Aunt Louise’s house, so right away my dad asks if his sister Louise is okay, but my mother just runs upstairs. “Call Aunt Louise on the phone and see if she’s okay,” my father ordered.

When my aunt answered the phone, she was also crying. “Aunt Louise, daddy wants to know if you’re okay.” I said.

“No, I’m not okay. I can’t believe she died,” my aunt replied.

“Who died?” My aunt said a name, but I didn’t recognize it. Maybe it was one of the second cousins.

“Oh, okay...I’ll tell daddy (blank) died.” Look, I was thirteen and didn’t know how to handle both my mom and favorite aunt crying, so I hung up the phone and went back into the store to tell my father what Aunt Louise had told me.

“I don’t know that person,” my father said as he glanced at the wall clock. It was time for his nap and Lucy was still up in her bedroom crying. We could hear her all the way on the first floor. “Go get your mother and tell her I need to take my nap.” I yelled up the stairway for my mom to come into the store. Fred got cranky when he didn’t get his nap on time.

When my mother entered the store, her eyes were red from all the crying. She started to take care of the customers who were there as my father and I finished putting the frozen food away.  Right before he took off his apron, he asked my mother about the death. “When’s the funeral? I’ll have to shut the store.”

“Oh sure, make fun of me,” my mother snaps back.

                                                                          

“Are you $&%*#% crazy? I need to know when the funeral is so I can make sure I get the milk and bread delivery done earlier in the day.”

My mother wiped her tears, looked Fred in the eye and said, “Real funny, like we can go to Hollywood.”

Fred threw the apron on the freezer and stomped out of the store and headed upstairs for his nap, but he cursed the entire way up the steps. It wasn’t until after dinner when my Aunt Louise and Uncle Jack came over for coffee and to play cards that we all found out who had died.

No one! Yep, that’s right. The person who died or was murdered was only a character on one of my mother’s soaps, but the way my mom and aunt behaved you would have thought it was their best friend.

                                                                      

Needless to say, my father made sure he teased my mom about this for the longest time, which brings me back to my Cousin Christina’s post. I never got in the habit of watching soap operas, but I can understand when people, who do watch them, get upset. These characters come into your home every day, same time, same station and, like it or not, they do become like family and we mourn them when they die or celebrate even if they marry the man who raped them. I guess when you think about it, my mother's addiction to soap operas was no different than my addiction is today for "The Walking Dead". 

Thank you Cousin Christina for reminding me about this funny story.

Steampunk Granny's review of The Knick

                                                                                        
                                                                 

If you’re not faint of heart at the sight of blood and if you don’t mind a few burly ambulance drivers fighting over your body, then I have a show for you to watch. The Knick is going to be a hit show for Cinemax because of the fine acting and script. The series is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackery. The action takes place in New York City and the year is 1900.

 

                                                                          

Dr. Thackery works at the Knickerbocker Hospital, but when he’s not saving patients with limited resources, he’s battling his drug addiction. Hospitals did not have a great reputation in those days and the belief was that when people entered a hospital; they died. It wasn’t for lack of care, but more the lack of sanitation and knowledge that bacteria could destroy the best surgery.

 

                                                                          

Surgery was done in amphitheaters where anyone could sit in the balcony and watch as the surgeons sliced through flesh while giving a blow by blow description on what they were doing …not very sterile. If that isn't enough to put the fear of God and germs into you, there is also a war between ambulance drivers. I kid you not! They are paid by the number of bodies they bring in to be cured. This leads to a lot of gang style fighting...imagine being the poor sucker on the stretcher.

                                                                     

When Thackery refuses to hire a Harvard graduate, Dr. Algernon Edwards (Andre Holland) because the man is African American, Cornelia Robertson (Juliet Rylance) has her powerful father pull the lighting fixtures off the hospital walls. Cornelia is in charge of Social Services and she is against segregation. Thackery backs down and the fixtures are returned, but the show is packed with interesting characters including my favorite, Sister Harriet (Cara Seymour) an Irish Catholic nun who smokes cigarettes and has a snappy answer for any and all idiots who cross her path. I love this nun.

                                                                       

 The clothing, streets scenes, surgical tools, hospital setting is accurately portrayed making the viewer feel that we have just tumbles through a ripple in time and landed on the streets of ole New York…but do be careful of the horse drawn carriage coming your way…the mortality rate is high and you might not make it back home.

                                                                      

This is a great series and I’m giving it a four **** star rating. Watch it.