Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters

Ok ok... we reached the end of Season 1 and almost nobody who's name we know dies. I mean let's not kid ourselves, the swashing and the buckling and the fact that there MUST be bad guys means that there's going to be a body count - but let's face it.  Here we are in Telanovela-land so it's going to be less gruesome that Star Trek.   Which - ya' know what?  It's fun sometimes to just escape into th...

The Telenovela is blooming in it's full flower - we have secret baby - but even better, it is fake! We have mysterious mothers, promised weddings that were and were not completed, consumation while engaged to be married.  It's all a grand mess. Plus THE OUTFITS and finally Party Food. But wait, there's also the reveal that some of the bad GUYS are bad Girls.  This show has everything, including an...

Greta called it - the whole reason you have a Telenovela wedding is so you can not have a wedding.  Or did she?  This very Telenovela show has lots of tricks up its beautifully tailored sleeves.  And the resolution - or not of this wedding situation, did not see this ending coming. But don’t worry Jamie - the 19th century is here to fight about it.  And all the competing technologies are here to p...

So - are you sure you saw what you saw? Memory construction is a hell of a thing... and we definitely are experiencing a new version of it with video, with rewind... and now with fake video creation. But back in the day when you didn't see anything - and you just got one vivid entertaining newspaper report, what does that do?  Many of us are quite excellent at creating images to go along with a de...

Say in the comments if it's too many locations #locations #toomuch Bust seriously - your 6 eps in to a 10 episode season and you're just going to send this many hares running in the field of story. What Gives? Also - Greta admits she entirely absolutely was guessing and was WRONG. But that's happened before & will most likely happen again. You better start paying some things off in the next fe...

So have you been following along? Now that we have our major players set up - and the relationships are established we can really get the plates spinning: Secret Societies - check Love Triangle - check Twin Brothers - check Mysterious/Nefarious Death - check and a SLAP! - check and check There's some fun close quarters fighting, riding off frantically into the moonlight, and jaw clenching to beat...

Oh you were confused last week?  Well it doesn't get any better this week.  If anything it gets worse... more soupy, more sloppy, more salacious. Greta badly speaks more Spanish - but mainly in the service of the 2! DOS! Zorros issue. Jamie is baffled by the twins issue - not twin Zorros, just regular Telenovella twins. Excitement as we are in New York.  Consternation as a transit across the Panam...

What the Hell is going on?  That's the entire sentiment of this episode. And well, as viewers always trying to figure things out we may have brought it on ourselves. One approach of course is to take one story line and then make it endlessly twisty - each twist more diabolical than the last and it's some of the these post Game of Thrones shows where eventually people just can't care anymore.  The...

This episode is where this show goes mask off and shows it’s Telenovela True Colors. Go watch this episode first on Amazon Prime.  Twists, Turns, Escándalo! & we just sorted out that Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso is Zorro 1.  This series is SO MUCH FUN.   Jamie and Greta are here to absolutely enjoy every last minute of the escapist nonsense.  Ok Ok - not just for the fun of it, but how it shows s...

Catch Season 1 of Zorro on Amazon Prime Video to watch along After watching the movie Zorro - it became clear, we need more of Zorro.  We also need more of the 19th Century Americas... from something other than the USA America perspective. Because, during the 19th century, the Americnan America was a very different shape than the USA we live in now.  There were lots of other nations in those space...

It's Season 2, and we are entering our Super Hero Era! It starts with Zorro. The 19th Century didn't just have rapidly changing food, fashion, fighting and all new ways to do crime - with the rise of the novel as popular entertainment, the crime fighters also changed.  And so did the adventure story. Sure Zorro may have been created in the 20th century, and inspired a rash of 20th century urban he...

The movie WIld WIld West - Great idea, the steam punk era set in a slightly alt (and completely plausible) history.  Props - great.  Cast - all the big names of the day. The excection?  A stinker. But don't worry, you don't have to watch the movie because we did it for you.  And we won't be doing it again.  That aside, there is all the luxe you'd expect of the the mid-19th century, along with the...

Not Depressing or Less Depressing than Expected... Regardless, Letitia Wright kills everyone who does her wrong.  Or at least gets to see them die.  It's a revenge flick, but first with suffering.  And yet strangely, the glory isn't in the gore.  Rather it's in the fight - and coming out the other side.   Want to know what it was really like to travel in a 19th Century Stage Coach in the high cout...

Bass is coming to the end of his trail. And it has to do with the ghost that has taken up residence inside his head - Esau. That insidious speech:  I, the Evil Guy - am not so different from you, The Good Guy who has messed up a bit along the way in the pursuit of good.   The thing where cruel people doing cruel things to make their personal life better is somehow equated with good people trying t...

So you're a good guy.  You know you've made some mistakes along the way - and you SOMEHOW got away with it.  But you've made your way most of the time following the rules, dealing Justice - and bringing folks to Justice, or bringing Justice to folks. But our man Bass - it's all off kilter now.  He's lost his way, and Justice somehow is no longer the way to redemption.  In fact, it seems to be feed...

The 19th Century contains so much of what the modern age is - and we get to see some of the stranger aspects in this episode… The Medicine Show or Carnival with spiritualism, menageries and mountebanks.  And then the merging of the ancient work songs with the modern era - to create the soundtracks we now live with. And of course, the beginnings of traveling to go some place - just to see it.  The...

So is Bass Reeves the inspiration for the Lone Ranger - or not?  Or does it not matter that much in the end. For as much as people like to look back on the past, on the 19th century as simpler times with more direct paths and clearer values...  Turns out it was not.  There were fewer distractions sure, but there were still hard decisions that had to be made, becasue people were just as much out fo...

If you already miss Donald Sutherland, or want to see him in a role where he's doing his best Donald Sutherland, come join us in watching Bass Reeves. David Oyelowo had this story he wanted to make and share... and for some reason Hollywood wasn't ready to do a story that rotated on the axis of a black lead Lawman. But with the success the 19th century stories around  Yellowstone  the same money d...

And now for "Something Fun" Technically not in the 19th C last round... too early And now we blow right by the 19th C and end up in the 20th C. What is WRONG with us?  Well, after all the death and blood, it's time to watch no blood and all the jokes.  Mel Brooks takes on the The Western as an institution, as well as the Hollywood Production codes, which had just been axed in the early 60's to be...

So we've come to the end of Shogun - a story that both haunted and informed us in our younger years.   Racist, Orientalist - as a book, YES!  But this version. as far as I'm concerned redeems the Entire Venture.  And as a 1970's work written by a former prisoner of war during the Japanese Occupation during WW2, writing a book trying to get into the somewhat legendary history of Japan - it did what...

Are Jamie & Greta fighting?  Is Mariko sad about her son no longer being hers - or did she just eat some bad fish, and never really cared?   But at least everyone can agree that Yabushige is the master of the expressive grunt, even if Fuji is the queen of eye-acting.  And we all know what's going to happen to Yabu next ep. Oh yeah... and we will be laughing at Ishido's expense as he steps on a...

I dunno what is up with this episode, but the comparrisons are flying fast and thick.  But what really matters is Greta's synopsis of Romeo & Juliet along with the implication that Toronaga is actually a bit of a Drama Queen and the analysis of Japanese house construction technology. There's the problem with what happens when you do try to go home again, and what happens when going into the tr...

Curious George should have taught us - be wary of the man in the unusual hat.  But we just won't learn. Good stories, expert neeling and why does everyone feel the need to share their relationship woes in the midst of the most tenuous moments? Kilingon revelations & more Zombie Buntaro for all of us to enjoy, As always - you can reach us on the internets. Jamie Lewis ( plagueofstrength.com &am...

Join us to find out WHO IS CORRECT! Jamie says there's no fighting this episode. Greta says there's lots of fighting - you just have to listen for it. And then there's the whole thing where we discuss just how bad the YA Movies of the 1980's & 1990's screwed up the sexes abilities to ya' know... talk to one another. Join us for this, and some music memories. As always - you can reach us on the...

What show can bring you managerial manipulation, whispers of medival animal cruelty, zombie family insights and pheasant fetishization? Shogun of course - and as always with phenominal costumes and nice views of some of the behind the scenes that are required to run the world.  As in... have you ever tried to get rabbit blood out of a bamboo cutting board without Dawn Dish Soap? If any of this sou...