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kevinbgn
Reviews
Shôgun (2024)
very well done so far
As someone who lived in Japan, learned a fair bit of Japanese and is somewhat familiar with Japanese history, this series is a pleasure to watch. I appreciate that most of the dialogue is in Japanese, capturing authentic cultural aspects in detail.
I like that the series doesn't gloss over the violence and difficulties of the feudal era or the power of the samurai class over peasants and farmers. And the series captures the European colonial powers' efforts to subjugate Japan, using religion as a weapon of influence. The series I hope will show how Japan, uniquely, was mostly able to rebuff and contain those efforts, absorbing technology and knowledge for their own purposes while modernizing rapidly.
Så var det jul igjen (2023)
Meet the Fockers, Norway edition
Similar plot and story with a Norwegian angle, perhaps. If you're not Norwegian or familiar with the culture, many of the jokes will be lost on you. As an American with a Norwegian wife whose lived in Norway for 14 years, I could relate to Jashan somewhat. Of course everything is a bit exaggerated but that's comedy. Of course the cultural differences are played up but it's based on some real things too.
Fitting into a new family even without the challenges of a cross cultural element can be challenging. And holidays are good fodder for odd food and strange traditions.
This story even had the ex component which was also a theme in Meet the Fockers.
All in all, we enjoyed it.
Billy the Kid (2022)
Authentic Historical Drama
If you're looking for a highly glamorized Western and larger-than-life film about the legend of Billy the Kid, this series is not for you.
Instead, this series is a high quality, entertaining historical drama of the time. In my view, Billy the Kid as depicted is a bit of the everyman of immigrant stories and fairly accurately portrays the lawlessness and chaotic forces at play in the early West and Southwest.
My own great-great-great grandfather was a Union war veteran, partially disabled from war injuries, who eventually traveled out West to the wild-west mining town of Elko, Nevada with hopes of improving his fortunes. Within 2 years he died there somehow (unsurprising in a place averaging a murder a day at the time) and his wife died of tuberculosis (consumption) leaving my great-great grandfather a 15-year old orphan there.
In this series we see Irish and other immigrants lured out West on inflated promises of jobs, milk and honey but finding instead poverty, disease, endless toil in dangerous jobs for exploitative wages; Mexicans scratching out an existence in American Texas and New Mexico a scant 30 years after the territory was seized/annexed by the U. S.; Chinese immigrants literaly doing the dirty work while facing constant discrimination and a status of non-personhood; Native Americans still on the move and dangerous (for settlers) as their lands are stolen, treaties endlessly broken and way of life quickly vanishing. The U. S. Army garrisons of course (though we haven't seen much of them so far in this series except as a corrupt, indirect sponsor of cattle rustling) was a heavy presence in these areas at the time. All of these groups are manipulated and preyed upon by essentially white warlords and corrupt and collusive rings of banksters who, far from scrutiny, were the only law that mattered. There was no one to appeal to as these "rings" utilized structures of power going all the way up to Washington, D. C.
Billy the Kid never had much of a chance. His entire family died of illness and he was orphaned at 15 without money, opportunity or much of anything. He acquired the skills necessary to survival at the time including riding, roping and lassoing, gun slinging, gambling, and a bit of petty thievery. The series depicts his journey from innocence, to small-time criminal, to accidental murderer, to gang member and killer to eventually nationally-renowned outlaw. And the series portrays how his infamy grew out of proportion to his actual character and deeds.
I expect many will find parts of it boring or "slow." I, however, found it very interesting and well done. I'm looking forward to season 2.