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.
What sweet hell is this show!? No seriously, someone, tell me!
Taking a break from all this Oscar pandemonium, I wanted to instead talk about a show that has been on my mind a lot lately– October Faction. Not because it is a particularly good show (it is not), and not because it is a particularly bad show (it is not), but instead because it is offensively mediocre. There is literally nothing there. It takes generic monster horror fantasy to a whole new level of generic. Like it feels like eating air. There is nothing too it. So like how does this kind of thing happen? I mean I know how it happened, Netflix needs content, and they don’t care how average it is as long as it is new content they can add to their catalog. But how do these creators so thoroughly create something that is just completely meaningless and painfully routine? The entire first season leads to the actual show that this would be, which is already a problem, but in this case, the show just goes through the motions until it gets there. Like no one has any real character other than Monster Assassin Dad, Monster Assassin Mom, Smart Daughter with magic powers she can’t control, Gay Brother with magic powers he can’t control, Confusingly Mean High School Students, Terrible Grandparent, Generic Secret Organizations, and on and on with more and more depressingly cliche characters. The show is so uninspired it just drains everything from you when you watch it, and I am just utterly perplexed by it. Like, I watch a ton of bad TV shows because I watched basically anything scripted, and this show is just breaking me. Like seriously, where is the risk, where is anything unique whatsoever in this show. I mean I know it is based on a popular comic, but this show offers nothing whatsoever that would make you think that comic is worth reading. Netflix was likely to screw it over no matter what it did so why doesn’t it just try anything interesting? I’ll be honest I don’t even really have any analysis to offer here, I just decided a place to vent so yeah hope you all enjoyed that. Oh and don’t watch October Faction probably, maybe, I don’t even know as it somehow managed to finish at a respectable level even if the start was utterly dreadful. You know what just don’t watch TV for a while. Go watch Parasite instead. You will be much happ– err well satisfied.
-David
From the depths of the Kraken, here is what we are bringing you at some point (hopefully).
Our new wing continues to allow you to reflect on past works of ours whenever you might want, so please enjoy this month’s highlighted works:
In addition to exploring our past Oscarathon coverage, including David’s still evolving Top Ten List for 2019, and loads (and we mean loads) of content examining the past Oscar races, you can also look for two things from David.
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.
David: I am going to do a bit of a throwback to a past recommendation in honor of South Korea finally getting recognition from the Academy with Parasite. So in addition to obviously watching more of the work of Bong Joon-ho. First look no further than last year with Lee Chang-dong‘s Burning, which was one of the many South Korean films that should have been nominated for an Oscar in the past, but what I wanted to focus on is, in general, the work of Park Chan-wook, and specifically The Handmaiden. The Handmaiden was picked as my Best Film of 2016, and one of my Top Ten Films of this past decade. It is a film that is a masterpiece of suspense that blends the erotic and psychological aspects of the film perfectly to create a film full of suspense. Part caper/ part love story/ part tale of vengeance it is an exquisite film that is well worth revisiting. So now that your eyes have been hopefully opened to the wonders of South Korean cinema due to Parasite jump on in to even more. You won’t regret it.
That’s it for this month’s notes. Be wary of the restock that is coming soon, and if you see a copy of yourself let us know because we don’t want to use any of our stock until we have to.