Welcome again to We Have Always Live the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Here in the Notes we’ll show you this month’s posting schedule, but first here are some thoughts.
Welcome to Juneish. I say that because, due to the time portal the Kraken entered, we had to send this message out with a bit of guesswork. So we know it arrived in June… just not exactly when in June, so enjoy the chaos, I suppose.
Trust me, you are going to want to watch this!
So in the past I have written about the trials and tribulations about the SyFy network and it seems like an interesting time to briefly revisit things after SyFy’s unfortunate decision to cancel The Expanse (which thankfully was then saved by Amazon, presumably because if you are already spending a billion dollars on a Lord of the Rings series, then why the fuck not just pick up everything… yeah, actually, do that, Amazon). Now look, there is some weird business stuff that led to this cancelation on SyFy’s end–basically, the situation forced way too much of the network’s profits to be based on live viewing numbers, which is not the best idea in 2018–but still, this feels like another shift is happening at SyFy, which is trending more toward comic books and craziness than normal space opera fare, with Krypton being the weird entry that straddles both lines.
All of this started with the release of Happy!, which was hailed as a show that could do for SyFy what Mr. Robot did for USA. Happy! is an audacious and crazy show that has much more in common with the hyperkinetic The Magicians than the equally crazy, but also far more involved The Expanse. SyFy now has a new pathway to success in more obscure comic book adaptations that will really get a chance to shine as TV shows. This seems to be confirmed by SyFy making a Deadly Class show, which is essentially X-Men, if they were all trained to be assassins, and crazy, and one of them wants to kill Ronald Reagan (yeah, this show is going to be bonkers). So we may be looking at the next evolution of the SyFy network. Whether that leads to greater success or ruin remains to be seen.
David
From the depths of the Kraken, here is what we are bringing you this month.
Contributor Henrik M. offers the next in his series about Criminally Underrated Cartoons. This time he is looking at MTV’s Clone High.
Catch of the Week Month:
Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? This is your… Catch of the Week Month.
Kyu: This month I’m recommending The Terror, AMC’s… well, let’s say limited miniseries. AMC claims it’s an anthology show, ala American Horror Story, but with the first season concluding its adaptation of Dan Simmons’ novel of the same title, both showrunners moving on, and even the composer (sadly) dying, it seems clear that The Terror will at most continue on in name only. For all intents and purposes, this is a 10-episode stand-alone adaptation. But is that sort of thing worth your time compared to some 19-season drama you can binge for months? The answer is yes. The Terror may be over soon after it begins, but what a ride.
Properly adapting Simmons’ detailed and horrifically bleak novel of speculation about what supernatural forces may have waylaid the 19th century voyages of British exploration ships Terror and Erebus in their search for the Northwest Passage was always going to be a difficult task. But like many horror stories, especially on television, the creators of The Terror could have taken the easy way out–focusing on gross-out horror, jump scares involving the story’s giant monster, and lame, shallow characterization. Instead, The Terror is actually one of the best produced shows in recent memory. The gorgeously haunting cinematography makes a meal of both cramped ship interiors and chilly Northern vistas, highlighting the folly of the British Empire’s attempt to dominate Nature without understanding it; the writing and performances (particularly Jared Harris, as the grim, alcoholic Captain Crozier, and Adam Nagaitis, as Mr. Hickey, who is more than he seems at first) craft characters of subtlety and depth; and the show’s editing and direction continually surprises, as it leaps forward months at a time or slows to a grim crawl. This is not a happy show–the story of hundreds of men who really did vanish from history, who will almost certainly all die up North, frozen, starving, and hunted, was never going to be happy–but the way it moves beyond just being scary to being truly upsetting and sad is not miserable at all, but deeply affecting. It’s a show about the fatal flaws in British society, and how that society’s men confront their resulting mortality, and it makes those statements with precision and poetry. Memorable, even brilliant, The Terror is not to be missed, for fans of horror or simply fans of damn good television.
That’s it for this month, we’re assuming. Who knows what the time portal will bring? Best to stay within the anti-paradox zones for now–you never know when a sudden retcon will attack.