That is what I figured since each episode so far has focused on one of the Crain children. I did not know that Luke and Nellie were actually twins.
Luke has been in the background a lot so far. We knew about him being in recovery for an addiction and stealing from his siblings, but that is about it.
I have to say, this was the first time I thought of Steve as a dick. But watching him at the dinner when Luke brought Joey to his brother’s.
I wasn’t sure of the time frame until we get the scene between Luke and Steve when Luke was stealing his brother’s camera.
I have found Luke to be my favorite character of the show so far. The final line of the episode gave me chills as Luke, because of a twin thing, says that it wasn’t suicide. He could feel it.
It was also very spooky with the bowler hat man following Luke into adulthood, and outside of Hill House. Is it a wonder that Luke became an addict? The scene where the bowler hat man came right up to Luke and it turned into Nellie’s face, leading into the car’s headlights was just amazing. The fact that Luke was so cold and that his legs and arms were stiffening up told us how connected he was to his sister.
I really liked this episode and I felt the most connection to Luke of all of the children so far. His scenes in the Hill House were some of the creepiest of the series so far, with that one where Luke was under the bed being right up there.
I am anxious to see what the show will give us now that Luke knows his twin committed suicide (or did she?).
This week as a good episode. The show focused in on Theo, both as a young girl and an adult, dealing with her ability to see visions when she touched someone.
Her mother called it being “sensitive,” but it was clearly a skill that Theo was not happy about. This is the reason behind the gloves Theo would wear.
We see a plot line involving a little girl named Kelsey who came to see Theo professionally. She spoke about “Mr. Smiley” and she seemed to be so close to Theo that Theo had trouble even reading her. This was a hard plot point as it turned out that Mr. Smiley was Kelsey’s foster father and Theo was able to get him arrested. It was a painful set of scenes.
Not quite as powerful or painful as when Theo went to see the body of Nell. Theo gave a pain-filled cry after she laid her hands on the body.
I am still placing characters, but I think this was the best week yet of knowing who was who. McKenna Grace, who played young Theo, did an exceptional job this episode.
That insect coming out of the mouth of that little dead kitten…. that was horrifying.
The second episode of The Haunting of Hill House was all about death and the after effects for those who were left behind.
Grief is a powerful emotion and this episode really shows the realistic ways people grieve, all mixed with the strange supernatural goings-on surrounding this family.
With Nellie’s suicide being the backdrop of the storytelling, the episode’s focus was on Shirley and her own problems. Shirley insists on preparing Nellie’s body for the funeral, something that everyone around her feels is a bd idea. We get flashbacks to the Hill House when Shirley discovered a group of deserted kittens and tried to help them. However, the kittens were sick and ended up dying (except for the last one, which was taken away by her parents).
We saw several moments when dealing with death, particularly with the idea of an open casket. I have to say that I, personally, hate open caskets. They kept referring to “fixing” the body, but I have never seen an open casket where the body seemed right.
I thought this episode was strong, but I would be lying if I said that the non-linear storytelling isn’t difficult to follow still. I am still trying to understand who is who during these moments. It felt a little better this week, but I know that I was more into the present storyline than I was with the flashbacks because of that.
When that insect crawled out of that kitten’s mouth…. man, that caught me totally off guard.
We start a new series this week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and, in honor of the creepy season, I chose The Haunting of Hill House.
What a great start to this series.
I have to say, I think this series does an admirable job of introducing these characters to the viewers. With so many major characters, it can be difficult to know who is who. Then, not only do we met these people in the present day, but also in flashbacks to the time they lived in Hill House. It could easily be very confusing, but I have to say that the show did a solid job of connecting the characters from the past and the present. It did require my attention though.
The show does an especially good job with Steven, as we see him both as a young boy, the oldest of the kids and his protective nature, and an older man, skeptical and struggling.
Then, Nell and the moment at the end was an amazing shock. When Nell stood in that apartment staring blankly at Steven, I knew what was going on (I mean, when you title the episode “Steven Sees a Ghost” and he hasn’t up to this point, well, it is not rocket science), but it did not make it any less impactful.
The middle two girls are the characters that I got the least from during this episode, and I hope they will come into focus more are the series progresses. Luke is a fascinating character and I feel like I have a good grasp on him even with the limited amount of screen time he received.
The father has clearly been affected dramatically and I feel as if we are going to dive deeper into the mother’s suicide in Hill House.
I am intrigued by the mysterious events that the show has introduced to us and, with the mind of writer-director Mike Flanagan, who also was the force behind Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and The Life of Chuck, I believe this could lead to something special.
This series is loosely based on the novel of the same name from 1959 by Shirley Jackson.
Our fifth series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk ended today with the tenth and final episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country.
I wonder what H.P. Lovecraft would have thought about this series?
I did not see the ending of this show coming. I was very surprised with the death of Atticus in that ceremony, and the victory at the end, bonding Christina from using magic… and all white people… was a cool end.
I especially liked the use of Ji-ah in the finale. I have been wondering the purpose of this character for much of the series and to have that pay off in such a meaningful way makes me feel positive.
Of course, we had the best scene of the series in this episode too. Atticus, Leti, Montrose, Ji-ah, Hippolyta, and Diana were in the car, driving to Ardham, when the song “Sh-Boom” comes on the radio. Diana starts to sing along with the song and, before too long, the entire carload was joining in. It was my favorite moment of the series, giving us a flash of innocence and joy before the final spell.
Couple of things: Ruby’s death off-screen was a bit of a waste, I think, just for the surprise twist of Christina being one step ahead. Then, I am not sure how I feel about Diana crushing Christina’s throat with her bionic arm at the very end.
There felt to be a bunch of dangling threads or things that happened over the course of the show that felt insignificant. Why did Hippolyta have to go on her adventure through time?
Lovecraft Country, for me, was very up and down. Some weeks the show was tremendous, but I do think it lacked a comprehensive vision of what story they wanted to tell. It had some real highs and some lows too, all capsulized in this final epsiode.
Next week, in honor of the month of Halloween, we start the sixth series in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. It will be Netflix’s series, The Haunting of Hill House.
After a short respite on a Friday morning last week, we are back on Sunday morning, BABY!
I went to SiouxperCon last week in South Dakota, which meant that I had to miss a Sunday morning. Instead, I did the Sunday Morning Sidewalk #35 on a Friday morning.
Back on Sunday, I watched the penultimate episode of Lovecraft Country, “Rewind 1921.”
Time travel is always tough, but this trip back to the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was impeccably done. It brought us back around to a scene from the first episode that featured Jackie Robinson and made it make sense with what our current story is.
Atticus, Leti and Montrose travel through the portal to 1921, thanks to the returning Hippolyta, in search of the Book of Names, in order to save Diana. What they find is horror and loss in a brutal manner as the Tulsa race massacre was in full nightmare.
Montrose, especially, had to go through his own personal anguish, as they witnessed his father beating him with a switch. Montrose went to see the death of a boy that he had had feelings for and, all the while, Montrose knew that he could not do anything to change what happened.
To find out that it was Atticus all along who showed up and saved Montrose and George (aka Jackie Robinson) was one of those wild time travel things that brings everything full circle.
It was an emotional, powerful, painful episode looking back at how these characters were affected by this tragic event in American history.
Leti went through it as well, as she found the Book of Names as the house burned down around her, including Dora’s grandmother, who had given her the book just before horrifically burning to death in front of her.
The episode ended with our heroes clearly affected, but back in their own timeline.
I have a feeling that next week’s finale is not going to provide the satisfactory conclusion I hope as I had heard the show left off on a cliffhanger and it has never been renewed. I hope it is a cliffhanger that is designed to create something new and not one to continue this story moving forward.
Yes, I know it is not Sunday. I am going to the SiouxperCon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota this weekend and I will not have access to HBO Max Sunday morning. I did not know what I wanted to do about that. I considered skipping a week and just resuming next Sunday, but instead, I decided to make this one time exception and make it a Friday Morning Sidewalk instead. So this Friday Morning Sidewalk is episode 8 of Lovecraft Country.
In “Jig-A-Bobo”, Lovecraft Country tackled the grief and loss brought about by the real world murder of Emmet Till, lovingly nicknamed Bobo. The show had revealed that Till was best friends with Diana, and his brutal murder struck her hard.
However, in Lovecraft Country style, the grief takes on a whole different manner, supernaturally speaking.
Diana is pursued by some demons that looked like Topsys, the character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin… and they were spooky as hell. Jada Harris does a remarkable job showing Diana’s grief and her fear, both transgressing through.
Then, the ending sequence where the police get their comeuppance is so awesome. The protection spell Atticus and Montrose cast came into being in a different way than any of them anticipated. That monster that just ripped through the cops was utterly crazy. When that one cop went flying through the air, it was damn satisfying.
I’m not sure what the scene where Christina hires someone to attack her just like Emmet Till was meant to show. It really felt like a major weak spot in an otherwise strong episode.
I do like Ruby’s development through this episode. Her face off with Leti, who has her own little interaction with Christina this episode that made her invulnerable, felt like it was way overdue.
The arrival of Ji-ah seemed to be unimportant too. Not sure why she arrived and I am not sure why that was important. Leti’s anger felt misplaced.
Only two more episodes remaining. I hope everyone has a great Sunday morning on a Friday day!
This week’s Lovecraft Country focuses on that comment, and we get an episode centered around Hippolyta.
This was a wild, sci-fi romp through alternate dimensions and spiritual encounters. Hippolyta finds herself dancing on a stage with Josephine Baker in Paris, a warrior woman training in what appeared to be Africa (reminded me very much of the movie, The Woman King) and back in bed with George (with Courtney B. Vance returning to the role).
It was a journey of self-discovery for Hippolyta as she is able to work through her grief and anger over the events that she had gone through in the series.
Of course, before she had been pulled into the portal by this strange machine, she had shot and killed a police officer who was going to kill her after catching her in this place. Atticus showed up and helped out, sending another officer through the portal. However, the dead officer’s body was lying on top of Diana’s comic book, leading us to think bad things are coming for the young girl.
We also discover that Atticus had gone through a portal as well. We do not know where he had gone, but he returned with a paperback book entitled Lovecraft Country written by George Freeman.
Other items from this episode:
The show has been implying that Leti is pregnant. I am curious to see how that will play into the narrative.
Emmet Till is referenced in this episode as a friend of Diana.
Atticus learns the truth that his father Montrose was gay. He did not take it well. In fact, Atticus’s response using the f-slur was one of the most shocking moments of the episode. It is a term that we don’t hear much anymore, but would have been more common during this time frame. It was still very hard to hear coming from our protagonist’s mouth.
Ruby and her relationship with Christina is bizarre and could lead to Ruby betraying her sister.
This was a strong episode of Lovecraft Country, which built on the idea of the power of women, much like last week’s episode featuring Ji-ah.
There are just three more episodes of Lovecraft Country remaining. Because next weekend I am going to attend SiouxperCon 2025 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk will be poster this coming Friday, September 19th.
Whereas I was a little own after last episode, “Meet Me in Daegu” was one of my favorite episodes of the series so far. We find ourselves in Korea in 1949.
I did not know what the character of Ji-Ah was involved in this story. I knew there was some kind of connection to Atticus, but I had no idea that Ji-Ah was possessed by a spirit known as a kumiho, a nine-tailed fox that can transform into a beautiful woman. To be fair, how could I have guessed?
The one issue I had was the subtitles for the Korean was written in a yellow color and it was difficult to read.
After that, I was enthralled by the relationship between Ji-Ah and Atticus. The complication of Atticus being involved in the torture and death of Ji-Ah’s best friend was an intriguing addition. Yet, I believed that they were able to overcome the hatred and the vengeance.
The idea of a kumiho is fascinating and the execution of the sex scenes and the kumiho was shocking and scary. When those tails go into the men’s eyes, I jumped a little.
I am curious to see how Ji-Ah fits into this story moving forward.
I’m not sure how I am feeling about Lovecraft Country after the first five episodes. We are half way through and I am not sure what this show’s overarching story is about.
This episode focused more on Ruby and Montrose than it did on anything else. I have to say that Ruby’s story was gross as it seemed to embrace some body horror (of which I am not a fan) as she gruesomely transforms between her natural self and that of a white woman. Blood and floppy skin everywhere.
Meanwhile, we learn that the hidden issue with Montrose is that he is gay and it is the 1950s where you simply cannot be out of the closet.
I started out confused as Atticus beat the crap out of Montrose at the beginning, because, fact is, I had not remembered the ending to episode four. I had to go back and re-read what I had written about it last week.
Another revelation fell into Ruby’s story this week as we discover William, who had taken Ruby last week for sex on the staircase, is actually Christiana, transformed into William just as Ruby had transformed into a white woman. Bizarre.
How does all this work together to further our story? Unclear at this point. Atticus, between sexual encounters with Leti, was working on a translation for some of the pages, and he deciphered one word at the end of the episode… “DIE.” This caused him to call his former flame, Ji-ah, and ask her how she knew. What does any of that mean?
The show continued to have scenes that were extremely uncomfortable to watch… and I am not just talking about the scenes of body horror or creatures. The scenes with the white people treating the blacks the way they did were just as difficult to watch as anything on the show. I do wish there was at least one white character that was not a total racist piece of garbage.
There are ten total episodes and we are currently half way through the one and only season. I hope things start to come together in the narrative soon. It does feel very disjointed.
Lovecraft Country took a trip to Boston and found themselves in an Indiana Jones movie. Or perhaps The goonies instead. I mean, that sure could have been One Eyed Willy’s ship at the end.
This series has been fascinating so far as it seems to be shifting each week, between horror genre tropes and, this week, action/adventure movies.
It ended with a shocking moment too with Montrose’s apparent murder of the mysterious woman/siren that they found in One Eyed Willy’s location. I am not sure the purpose of any of this, but I am definitely intrigued to see where it goes next.
Another wild moment is the seduction of Ruby by the not-dead henchman of Christina Braithwhite, William. He had seemed to be killed when the mansion was destroyed in episode two, but William obviously made it out.
The whole, what I was calling the ‘Leap of Faith’ section of the episode was tense and had some pretty funny quips from our three adventurers trying to get across the gigantic cavern by walking a teeny tiny little board. This board tends to disintegrate as they are on it. It also has a swinging axe (‘Only the penitent man shall pass…’) and a locked door that they needed to open. These seemed to come straight from Last Crusade, if not directly, at least in honor.
Episode 4 was nicely paced and kept me on guard. I am not sure what is next, but I am excited to see where the next step takes me.
Atticus, Leti and Montrose are back in Chicago after the death of George and things are stressed.
They have given a story about the cruel sheriff killing George, covering up the truth of his death.
Leti purchased a house that she wanted to fix up as a way to give a safe zone for other black people.
Atticus is trying to find purpose in his life, not sure what he should do.
The white neighbors are causing trouble, setting up their cars to honk their horns consistently.
This episode felt like a self-contained episode featuring a haunted house, and I enjoyed this one more than I did the crammed in feeling from last week. Plus, there were some really creepy moments with the ghosts in the cellar. And that elevator moment with the white neighbor… brutal.
This felt like a pause within the story and it is going to pick back up to the story as Christina Braithwhite is back and in Chicago, showing off her control of Atticus.
Good episode for week three of Lovecraft Country, the thirtieth installment of Sunday Morning Sidewalk.
I really enjoyed episode one last week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk featuring Lovecraft Country. Unfortunately, this week’s episode felt like I was watching the show in fast forward. So much happened and there was a super ton of exposition and it felt like the flow of this was way off whack.
I am not sure exactly was was real and what had happened. There is a secret society based on Adam from the Garden of Eden. Leti died, but comes back. Atticus turned out to be a descendent of the founder of this secret society. Leti and George forgot everything about the night before and then a little bit later, remembered everything that had happened. They all had weird delusions in their rooms with people from their past although Leti’s delusion was having sex with Atticus who turned out to have a snake as his penis. Tony Goldwyn showed up having what looked like parts of his liver removed to serve for dinner. Then he turned to stone and got crushed in the last act of the episode. The castle collapsed into the ground. They found Montrose but the episode ended with George succumbing to his gunshot wound he got from Tony Goldwyn.
As I said, this was insane.
It all felt so rushed that it diluted what should have been a powerful moment at the end of the episode… the death of George. I am not sure if this is a final death or if he will be coming back like Leti did. Montrose’s arrival was also bizarre as he just dragged himself out of the ground in handcuffs.
Oh and it kicked off with the theme song from The Jeffersons.
I found this episodes too packed with stuff that could have been spread out over several episodes. I am not sure what is coming next, but the pacing was just such a problem for me. I do like the characters and the setting, but everything was just flying at such a pace that I was not able to engage as much as I would have liked.
What a kick off to the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. The only problem is I now have to wait until next Sunday to watch the next episode.
Lovecraft Country was a series that was on HBO, a horror, historical fantasy, drama that centered around the writings of author H.P. Lovecraft.
Starring Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance and Jonathan Majors, the show had one heck of a debut episode.
Majors played Atticus “Tic” Freeman, a young man who had served in the Korean War. He returned to his home in Chicago when he found out that his father had gone missing.
Going by his uncle George Freeman’s home, Atticus shared a letter that his father had sent him about Ardham, Massachusetts. With a little investiagtion, Atticus discovered this city was in the middle of Devon County, which was an area where H.P. Lovecraft had supposedly set many of his horror tales.
George writes for a black guide book (much like the movie Green Book) so Atticus, George and Letitia “Leti” Lewis, an old friend who was hitching a ride to her brother’s home, took off to this county.
They stopped for some food, only to be chased away by gun toting yokels who did not want black people eating in their diner. This was a tense and anxiety-filled scene as the locals shot at them with rifles. It is amazing that such hatred exists in the United States that there are people who think this kind of behavior was ever okay.
A mysterious silver sedan caused the yokel’s car to flip over and a enigmatic white woman came out from the car. Atticus had heard that his father had left Chicago in a silver sedan, so everything seemed to be tying together.
In Devon County, the trio was in the woods looking for an access road, when the racist sheriff came upon them. He told them that they were in a sundown county where any blacks out after sundown would be considered dangerous and he would have to do something about it. What followed was a real tense, horrific scene where Atticus desperately tried to get their car across the county line before the sun went down, unable to speed because the sheriff followed behind, waiting to pull them over for any infraction.
Making the county line, they came to a police roadblock, realizing that the race to the border was irrelevant. As they were face down and about to be lynched, monsters came from the woods and began attacking the cops. These creatures were shoggoths, monsters found in Lovecraft work.
In the end, Atticus, George and Leti found themselves at a mansion in the woods, where they are greeted kindly by a white at the door.
The scene with the shoggoths and the cops was really intense and bloody. You had no idea what was going to happen, although it was awesome to see that racist piece of crap sheriff get his during the scene.
The episode started with a dream Atticus was having involving UFOs, monsters and what looked like Cthulhu. Of course, there was also Jackie Robinson(?). I was in immediately. I love the air of mystery and the unexpected nature of the show. I can’t wait to see where this goes from here.
Building the horrors of segregation into a story with J.P. Lovecraft’s work at the center is ironic, considering Lovecraft was known to be a racist himself. Tying that all together creates a powerful dynamic that will help drive this story, hopefully through the rest of the series. There are plenty of secrets floating around (who was that that Atticus called in South Korea?) and these add such a great color to the plot.
Next Sunday can’t get here soon enough. I was a little nervous about committing to Lovecraft Country for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk as there were ten episodes, which will encompass over two months to finish. At this point, I am thrilled with the choice.
The A & E documentary KISStory Part two is the story of the rock band Kiss, in the second part of their careers.
I still feel as if there are some things missing without Ace Frehley and Peter Criss’s actual involvement in the documentary. Any time Peter or Ace is heard in the doc, it is from archival footage or interviews and the doc started off with a message saying that they chose not to participate and they “do not endorse the views of this program.” That meant that this doc was from the POV of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. I am truly curious how the story might differ.
This part of the doc started off with the band in some internal trouble, though they tried to force their way through it.
HOT TAKE: The Elder is my favorite Kiss album.
However, I may be the only one as the concept album seemed to be mentioned as one of the big mistakes of the group.
Peter Criss left the band, apparently after a concert where he was messing with the timing of the songs. That is one of the main functions of the drummer, and I could understand the feeling of betrayal that would bring up.
Ace Frehley was gone too, not long after Peter, leaving Kiss struggling with new musicians and characters from the band. They no longer had the Catman or the Spaceman in the group.
The doc showed the historic moment on MTV where KISS, for the first time, revealed themselves without the make-up and followed the band as it became another 1980s hair band.
The MTV Unplugged series was the first place where Peter and Ace returned for some songs, giving the idea that there could be a reunion at some point. The reunion tour was huge business and seemed to be a success at the start. However, the same demons that had pulled them apart in the late 70s apparently remained at this time. It was portrayed that Peter was upset over money and the perceived secondary status in the band behind Gene and Paul. I wish I had his official POV to see how accurate that was. Ace appeared to not be one who could handle the fame at the level KISS had reached.
I found myself with so much more respect for guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, who were in the band and were removed when Ace and Peter returned. That felt tough, but they were total professionals. Tommy was even brought back in to help Peter and Ace get back to their levels of performance, and he wound up doing much of the tour manager duties.
It was a tough section involving the drummer who had replaced Peter in Kiss came up. Eric Carr came into the group and wound up dying form cancer. Paul and Gene told the story of Eric begging them to play on the song “God Gave Rock ‘N Roll To You” for the video, a song they recorded for the Bill & Ted Bogus Journey film. Paul’s description of Eric playing on that video was heartbreaking.
Both weeks of this doc ended really quickly, as it felt like something was being cut off.
I enjoyed this as I was always a fan of KISS, especially when I was younger. I was never an obsessed fan and I would be curious to hear what a deep fan thought of this documentary.
With this two-part doc series done, next week we start with a new show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I think the series that will be next is the HBO show, Lovecraft Country.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 