READING and WATCHING

I stopped buying real books around a decade ago.  I have nevertheless continued reading, several of them/year, but to my iPhone, which also works on my iPad.  It is not the same.  Convenient, but different.

Every so often, one enters a transition, as for example, leaving home to college, or retiring.  Recently, I finished The Three Body Problem (a Chinese novel I'll report on soon), and began reading Eruption. (a novel about a Hawaii volcano).  Also during this period, I finished watching two Netflix series, OA and Zero Day.  Next?  I have a problem, which I'll explain later.

Michal Crichton passed away in 2008, but I noticed this facebook comment by someone named Michael Crichton.  Another kind of transition?

Crichton’s work often examines the dangers of advanced technology spiraling out of human control, a theme that aligns closely with Zero Day’s premise. In Prey, Jurassic Park, Sphere, and The Terminal Man, Crichton examines how scientific advancements can lead to catastrophic consequences. Zero Day presents a scenario where a powerful cyber weapon is exploited beyond its intended use, much like Crichton’s cautionary tales of technology backfiring.

Note that this first Netflix production was not well reviewed by Rotten Tomatoes:

• Zero Day.
• Rotten Tomatoes:  53/53.
• 6 episodes of 45 minutes each.
• Zero Day asks the question on everyone’s mind -- how do we find truth in a world in crisis, one seemingly being torn apart by forces outside our control? And in an era rife with conspiracy theory and subterfuge, how much of those forces are products of our own doing, perhaps even of our own imagining?
• 
  Starred Robert de Niro and Angela Bassett.
• The way I see this, the film was made during the recent presidential campaign, and the creators screwed up.  
• They made a choice, and thought Kamala Harris would beat Donald Trump.
• Angela Basset, who is president in the series, looks like Kamala Harris.
• Just this mistake ruins the relevance of the story.
• So why did I bother to watch it?  

• 
  I had checked RT, and I knew both reviewers and the audience thought the movie was mediocre.
• Robert de Niro was a plus, and Time magazine had a decent review:  Zero Day is a well-built political thriller, with a superb cast and blockbuster production values. It takes pains to establish an atmosphere of division and distrust that mirrors the present. 
• Knowing the above, would I have watched this series?  Probably.  With serious flaws, even a 53/53 production can be redeemable. 

• 
  The OA.
• This series was an easier yes decision.  Read my assessment only last month of Brit Marling, the creator and star ..

• Even though I already have many dozens of series I've already begun and not finished, I was fishing around and The OA caught my attention.
• Brit Marling, creator and main actress.  I remembered her, for I saw a couple of her films more than a dozen years ago.  In 2011, Another Earth:

• 
  Her films get you thinking.
• Decent Rotten Tomatoes reviews:  84/83.

In addition to her role as creator and executive producer of this mind-bending series, Brit Marling also plays the role of Prairie Johnson, a young woman who returns home after a 7-year disappearance. Her sudden return is not the only miraculous occurrence: everyone is shocked to learn that Prairie is no longer blind. While the FBI and her parents are anxious to discuss Prairie's disappearance, she won't talk about what happened during the time that she was missing. Zal Batmanglij, the co-creator and an executive producer of the series, is the director of every episode.

• Brad Pitt was an executive producer.
  
• I'm not giving anything away when I say that OA stands for Original Angel.
• There are two seasons, with 8 episodes each.  Season 1 in 2016 and Season 2 in 2019.
• The running time varies from 31 to 71 minutes.
• Season 1 only got 76/78 scores.
• However, Season 2 earned 92/88 ratings.  
• Started slowly, but I kept watching because I knew it would get better.
• Reviewers have used terms like mind-bending, supernatural, stunning and genius.
• I thought it was far-fetched, sophomoric, whimpy preposterous, a dark Alice in Wonderland, with a lot of zigs and zags.
• Would I recommend this to you?  Yes, but I'm a Brit Marling fan.  There will be no Season 3, although the series finalé ends with a cliffhanging ending, and Season 2 was very highly rated.  So who knows for sure.

As I indicated above, there are too, too many Netflix and Amazon Prime viewing opportunities, especially for various series, many of them with a large number of episodes.  The Korean versions sometime can each be from 70 to 90 minutes long, with 20 chapters in one season.  Season 1 of Vincenzo, for example, has a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 89.  You need to devote 27 hours of your life.  Loved it. Oh, as of six days ago, there will be a Season 2.

I have a list in my computer about series, just on Netflix, awaiting my continuation.  I show them all because this just indicate the madness of opportunities I have in my current life, and the number, as you will see, is extraordinary.  In a way depressing, but I will never watch all of them in my lifetime.

I also have a long list of these series on Amazon Prime.  Amen.

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