I’d heard all of the raves about Killing Eve last year, but only got around to watching the BBC America series this month. Created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and based on the Codename Villanelle novellas written by Luke Jennings, it stars Sandra Oh as an MI6 operative searching for an assassin played by Jodie Comer. I went in expecting to like it, but was not prepared for just how MUCH I would end up loving the series. It is by turns hilarious and heart-pounding, with amazing performances, sparkling writing, flawless editing, and the most spectacular soundtrack of any TV series I’ve watched in ages. (I stayed up late the night I finished the last episode building a playlist of all of the music from the show in Apple Music, and I’ve had Unloved’s Crash Boom Bang on a constant loop in my head ever since.) The second season is scheduled to begin airing in April, so if you haven’t checked out the first season yet you’ve got more than enough time to catch up and join me in eagerly anticipating what happens next. As for me, I’ll most likely be watching the whole thing again from the beginning in the meantime, because I just can’t get enough of this show.
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The World’s Writing Systems
I have a post on Metafilter to thank for pointing out The World’s Writing Systems. Here’s what the site is for, in its own words:
This web site presents one glyph for each of the world’s writing systems. It is the first step of the Missing Scripts Project, a long-term initiative that aims to identify writing systems which are not yet encoded in the Unicode standard. As of today, there are still 146 scripts not yet encoded in Unicode.
The information can be arranged chronologically, or by region, name, Unicode number, or status, but however it’s sorted the site is packed with interesting data on writing systems and is incredibly aesthetically pleasing.
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The Frankenstein Chronicles
I’m late to the party on this one, I think. The first season of ITV’s The Frankenstein Chronicles was recommended to me by Mike Mignola back at the end of 2017, and when both seasons cropped up on Netflix a few months later I added the series to my watch list, but I didn’t get around to watching any of it until the holidays a few weeks ago. I thought I had a pretty good idea what the series would be about, but I was completely wrong. It was so, SO much more than I had expected.
To avoid spoiling things too much, I’ll just say that The Frankenstein Chronicles is a period-piece horror/mystery story with supernatural/science-fictional elements that makes brilliant use of the era in which it is set, incorporating real historical figures in key roles. (Pointing out just who those historical figures are would spoil the fun so I’ll refrain, though I will say that I kicked myself for not recognizing the pen name of newspaper reporter until after I finished watching the second season finale.) And the story is set in a historical era that I haven’t often seen explored in these sorts of TV shows and movies, late Georgian England (1827 to 1830, specifically) rather than the more familiar Victorian era.
The second season was scripted by a different team of writers than the first, and there is a slight shift in tone, but I found the way that they explore and expand on the way the first season ends deeply satisfying. There are moments of real horror throughout, so it’s not for the squeamish, but the way that real literary history, politics, science, and philosophy are threaded through the narrative was surprisingly sophisticated and well-done, to my tastes. Both seasons are available now on Netflix, and are well worth checking out.
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Disney’s Society of Explorers and Adventurers
Somehow I am only just now learning about the existence of a fictional secret society whose history connects many of the more recent Disney theme park attractions around the world, the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, or S.E.A. for short.
The basic idea is that the personalities behind many of the newer theme park attractions (and retooled versions of existing ones) were all Victorian/Edwardian era members of a centuries’ old society for, well, explorers and adventurers. And the attractions themselves, therefore, are all part of a shared world with a shared history. In essence, the Imagineers have created a canonical version of what many Disney park fans have done themselves over the years when concocting elaborate theories about how the backstories of various rides and attractions might be connected. Haunted mansions and towers of terror, jungle cruises and mountain railroads, it’s all part of one sprawling tapestry. (There’s even a connection to a certain adventuring Nazi-punching archaeologist, whose pilot pal was a member…)
I found some great overviews of the organization online, such as the write-up at the Disney fan wiki, and fell down a deep, deep rabbit hole of fan videos on YouTube, such as the three part series by Offhand Disney.
This may be old news to the rest of you, I know. Most of the pieces I read were written between 2014 and 2017 (though most of the YouTube videos seem to be more recent). But if you’re anything like me and have a weakness for steampunk adventurers, Jules Verne-esque explorers, and monkeys (yes, monkeys), then I have a rabbit hole of theme park awesomeness that just might be up your alley…