Author Archives: Bob Evans

Series Review: Mobland

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On April 1st I reviewed the first episode of the Paramount+ television series Mobland. Last night my sweetie-wife and I completed the first season, and I can now talk about it as a whole.

Paramount+

In the show two crime organizations, the Harrigans, an Irish family and the Stevensons, an East-London family are on the brink of war over control of the fentanyl trade in London. Conrad and Maeve Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren) are the elder parents that rule their family

with ruthlessness and manipulation. We see less of Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell) as the Harrigans are the focus of the series, mainly through the eyes of their primary fixer and enforcer Harry de Souza (Tom Hardy). The Stevensons and the Harrigans inevitably go to war, the principal focus of the season, with only one family slated for survival.

 

The series presents a bewildering collection of characters associated with Harry, his family, and the Harrigans, often with their own subplots and schemes that interact with the war that breaks out between the criminal gangs. In my opinion there are too many of these side characters and stories, some of which I still cannot accurately describe in plot or in importance.

That said, I enjoyed Mobland and was quite pleased that the conflict between the Harrigans and the Stevensons concluded at the end of season one. Enough plot threads lay unresolved that the series can continue while still presenting a complete tale in its first season. The acting was generally brilliant, and I am sure Brosnan thoroughly enjoyed playing a right bastard of a character.

All ten episodes of the first season are now streaming on Paramount+.

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Grotesque and Un-American

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This Saturday, June 14, 2025, Washington, D.C. the capital of the United States, will witness an insulting parade of military machinery not unlike the displays seen from the Union of Soviet

Pathe

Socialist Republics to flatter and fluff the ego of a malignant narcissist. Oh, officially, this is a celebration of the United States Army, established on this date in 1775. (Well, actually that was the Continental Army, which was disbanded, and the U.S. Army was established June 2, 1784.) This unseemly projection of power which actually signals a deep and crippling weakness is all about the most unfit man to ever serve in any post of the United States, Trump, as that date is also his birthday.

How do I know this, beyond the simple fact that this man’s desperate neediness makes it manifestly clear to any objective observer?

We had no parade on March 27th in celebration of the founding of the U.S. Navy, nor is one planned or even discussed for October 13th the anniversary of the founding of the Continental navy. The same is true for July 11th or November 10th, the founding dates for the Marine Corps. No party for those services which do not share a date with the weak man’s birthday.

The office of president is currently occupied by a greed, vain, immoral man who has surrounded himself with grifter, kooks, and bootlickers, and our nation and the entire world will suffer for years to come because of it.

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Movie Review: The Phoenician Scheme

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Full disclosure, I cannot count myself among those who adore writer/director Wes Anderson, but neither am I repelled by his unique content. Including this film, I have seen four of his thirteen feature films with 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel my favorite.

The Phoenician Scheme, like Asteroid City, is set in a fictional version of the mid-twentieth century.

Focus Features

The story centers on Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio de Toro) a ruthless capitalist engaged in the final phases of funding a massive infrastructure project while dodging assassination attempts and sabotage operations from a shadowy collective. With his funding now facing a shortfall due to the collective, Korda crisscrosses the globe with his estranged daughter and nun Sister Liesel (Mia Threapleton) and his administrative assistant and entomology tutor Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera) in hopes of convincing his backers to cover the financial deficit. Along the way, Korda deals with continuing assassination attempts, communist rebels, life after death mysteries, and the source of his daughter’s estrangement.

 

The plot, thin as it is, serves as a framework allowing Anderson to essentially present half a dozen or so vignettes centered on each financial backer with each segment preceded by a title card indicating the remaining outstanding percentages that Korda must cover if the project is to be saved. This film is not concerned with the mechanics of plot but is wholly a vehicle to Anderson’s unique style and voice. If you are familiar with Anderson’s films, the center-heavy composition, the horizontally sliding camera movements, the artificial dialog, then you are already familiar with this film. For better or for worse, depending upon your tastes, The Phoenician Scheme lives in the same artistic environment as Asteroid City.

The Phoenician Scheme is primarily a comedy and as such it succeeds at that objective. While I laughed out loud a few times, snickered much more often, and smiled quite a bit, it is not a riot of a comedy. Comedy, like horror, is a genre heavily dependent on the idiosyncratic response of the viewer. If you have enjoyed Anderson’s previous work then you are likely to enjoy this film, if his previous movies did not work for you then it is perhaps best if you find another film to watch.

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Why Cal in Titanic is a Terrible Character

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James Cameron, the filmmaker behind some of the most commercially successful movies of all time is a fantastically capable director and technician but as a writer I feel he is at best mediocre. An example of this is the character Caledon, Cal, Hockley (Billy Zane) from Cameron’s box office monster Titanic.

20th Century Fox

In the film, in case the plot, beyond the sinking of the vessel, escaped you, Rose (Kate Winslet) is engaged to wed Cal as a desperate maneuver to save her family following the death of her father who left them with crushing debts. This plan is crushed by Rose meeting Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) with a love that turns out to be as doomed as the ship itself. Cal becomes the villain of the story, desperate to possess Rose, framing Jack for theft and chasing him around the sinking liner in the film’s final act.

At no point in the script does Cal display any trait or act that can even be close to being considered as noble or even fair minded. He is cruel and abusive to Rose, treats her as property, appears wholly uninterested in events that nearly took her life, and when she does leave him for Jack his only real concern and emotional involvement is about the loss of money due to the McGuffin jewel she has unwittingly taken with her.

With Cal depicted this despicably there is absolutely no tension in Rose’s relationship. She faces no serious choice, and it is doubtful that any audience member thought for a moment that she needed to honor her commitment to him. There is nothing, not even the prospect of financial ruin, that could generate any sense that she should do anything but flee from this monster of character, written with such little depth that he is better suited to some poorly animated cartoon where he can have a mustache to twirl. At no point in the entire film is Cal ever right. He proclaims, in blasphemous terms, the ship unsinkable and is of course too dull and stupid to see the emotional power of art. Even with Rose’s financial disaster, one that is purely hypothetical in terms of screentime, it is inconceivable that she would bind herself to this man. There are many rich bachelors in the world, and one does not need to choose an abuser, one who is abusive prior to the wedding, for salvation. Cal’s poorly constructed nature as a character seriously erodes all credibility in the story itself, making it into melodrama instead of drama.

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Christmas in June: The Ice House

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During the 1970s the BBC ran a series A Ghost Story for Christmas where short horror films, often but not always focused on ghost and spirits were aired during the holidays. The series was revived decades later. Last night my sweetie-wife and I watched the final episode of the original 70s run, The Ice House.

BBC

Paul, (John Stride) emotionally vulnerable following his divorce, has checked into a health spa and retreat in the English countryside. The facility, owned and operated by Clovis (Geoffrey Burridge) and Jessica (Elizabeth Romily), brother and sister who radiate not only an unnatural relationship with each other but a deeply uncanny intimidating presence. The pair show Paul the establishment’s ice house, a structure that predates modern conveniences, and the strange flowering vine that grows on it. The vine releases a strangely intoxicating scent and blooms with red and white flowers, colors mirrored by the siblings. Repeatedly Paul is drawn to the building until he discovers the unnatural nature of Clovis and Jessica.

Given the budgetary and public broadcast standards of the time A Ghost Story for Christmascould never delve into explicit and transgressive horror but instead relied upon mood and suggestion of things unseen to convey its payload. In some cases, this produced dull and lifeless pieces that are best used to cure insomnia and at other times disturbing stories that echoed in one’s mind well after the credits had run.

While it is not generally well reviewed, I found The Ice House to be effective in delivering a short story vibe with atmosphere and dread. Burridge and Romilly perform admirably, always oozing with threat and malice while delivering dialog that is quite the opposite. The characters are as cold to the suffering and deaths of other people as the materials stored in the titular building. It is sad that Romilly’s career never found the stardom that I think this performance promised, she possesses a mere 12 IMDB credits and it is tragic that AIDS robbed us of Burridge. The Ice House is a credit to both of them and their talents.

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Querying; the Bad and the Good

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Querying, for those who do not know, is the process of sending an introductory letter along with samples pages from a project and often a full synopsis of the novel to agents seeking representation. Agent representation is pretty much essential if one is pursuing traditional publication versus going the self-published route. (Nothing wrong with self-published, a number of terrific novels have come out that way, but it is far more work as the writer adds graphic design and other jobs to their already full plate. It is not for everyone.)

I have two novels that I am currently in the query process, both horror stories, one folk/cosmic, the other a take on werewolves in an isolated Rocky Mountain town. The querying process is quite a test of endurance.

Agents, when they are open to queries, receive hundreds per month and as such their passes when they decline to explore representation further are fast form letters sent impersonally. I hold no ill-will over such procedures, reading and passing on submissions is work that generates zero income, they do it for the same reason the writer is submitting it, the hope, the dream, of finding that perfect match that leads to a great and wonderful future.

The standard form nature of an agent passing leads writers to engage in ‘rejectomancy,’ trying to divine meaning from the impersonal response. It is possible but of a very limited scope.

I mentioned that agents get hundreds of submissions. Far more than they would desire but it is the nature of the beast. They have absolutely no need, inclination, or motivation to invite even more, so if the form actually does invite further submissions, that does tell you something. Sadly, it doesn’t tell you why that particular work got the pass, if it was the concept, it the agent has something close to it already out to publishers, or if the subject just didn’t ‘click’ with the agent. What I can surmise is that it was not the actual writing competence. They have no time to waste hoping someone shows improvement. So, if you get one of those, though the pass hurts, rejoice that your writing did not actually suck.

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Screw Canon

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Canon, a rule, regulation, or dogma decreed by a church, is often used in fiction to declare which elements of backstory and non-depicted events are part of the fiction’s reality. These days, particularly with the Star Wars franchise I see the term lore used much more often but in the same manner, those events or concepts that are considered part of the franchise’s universe versus theories generated by fandom without any official standing.

Debates about events that are perceived as ‘canon’ can generate intense, personal, and often bitter arguments, particularly online. Personally, I care very little for when canon is violated if it is done in the service of a better story, if it is done because that institutional knowledge is lost from the creative team and the story simply stumbled into something that conflicts with earlier narrative for no real reason, that’s sloppy writing but it generates no anger in me.

Star Trek V forgetting that Jim Kirk had an actual brother, Sam, is such a case, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds exploring Spock, T’pring, and Christine while shattering ‘canon’ is such interesting character work that I am perfectly happy with it. I can still watch the episode of the original series Amok Time and the seasons of Strange New Worlds with equal enjoyment.

Canon as backstory is good and nice but it should not serve as a straitjacket and when something better comes along it should not prohibit its utilization.

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Series Review: Manhunt

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Adapted from the book Manhunt: The 12-day chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson, the Apple TV series centers on Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) as he navigates the complex political and logistical battlefield is trying to apprehend John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of President Lincoln.

Apple TV

The story utilizes flashbacks to explore Stanton’s relationship with Lincoln, Lincoln’s plan for the post-war period, and some of the intolerable cruelty visited upon the enslaved of the south. Menzies is engaging as Stanton, displaying a quiet obsession as he pursues Booth while many for varied reasons seems open to the concept of simply letting the killers vanish into history.

Anthony Boyle as Booth plays the man as a person determined to live in glory as a hero while showing that under the surface the man roiled with jealousy for a level of fame denied to him.

I am about halfway through the 7-episode adaptation. The production values are quite high, something that seems standard for Apple TV productions. They are willing to spend the cash required to make each series have the look and feel of first-rate feature films, be that far future such as Foundation or Murderbot, period such as this, or contemporary like Slow Horses.

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Loyalty, Obedience, and Subservience

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Over the weekend the news broke that the administration pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman as the head of NASA. Isaacman, a billionaire like so many in Trump’s cabinet, was a pilot, a civilian astronaut, entrepreneur, and a person committed to crewed space exploration. Even with the budget cuts proposed, there were many in the space flight community that had been thrilled for Isaacman to have been nominated as NASA Administrator and among the grifters, charlatans, addicts, and conspiracy nuts already serving in vital posts of this government Isaacman represented a rare competent pick. The action of Trump 86’ing the nomination really should have come as no surprise.

From White House spokesperson Houston “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon.”

Many have described that as meaning that Isaacman was not sufficiently ‘loyal’ to Trump personally, but I do not feel that loyal is the correct word here.

Loyalty is inspired not commanded. A person feels loyalty as a spontaneous emotional reaction to the person or ideal that provoked it. A person acting out of loyalty wants to perform the services to the subject of their admiration. To not be of service creates emotional wounds that the person would likely carry for the rest of their lives. Loyalty is generated within the person who acts upon it not from any external source or order.

Obedience is commanded. It derives from external authority. The captain of a naval ship orders a sailor to perform a legal action, and the person complies because to not do so invites unpleasant consequences. Compliance is imposed by exterior forces with the person acting selecting the least painful course.

Subservience, which is what Trump demands, is abasement of one’s own will, wants, and desires to another. Subservience comes not from an inspiration born of admiration nor from a legal authority but the self-destruction of one’s ego, the corruption of one’s soul to please another from a desire for either selfish reward or terror of the consequences of disobedience.

It would appear that Isaacman refused to sink to subservience and has been cast out of Trump’s circle which at least saves the man from verbally prostrating himself in public meetings mouthing endless exaggerated claims to sooth the fragile ego of the man-baby currently occupying our highest office.

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Life Has No Factory Reset

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It’s not uncommon when a relationship has become terribly strained and stressed for one of the parties involved to suggest that they ‘start over’ but such a step, short of a fantastical memory wipe, is impossible. We carry our histories inside us and the weight of all the past words and actions press us inevitably forward. This is also true outside of the romantic realm.

There are some current and former members of the Republican Party who long for a return to the party that they remember, often this is from a very distinct and fenced off recollection of the party, usually centered on the ‘Reagan Revolution’ discarding the party before that time. Such dreams are pure fantasy. The population, both inside and outside the party, carries the history of all the words and actions and hurt that has been visited upon this nation and this world by the GOP of the last quarter century. You cannot unwind history. This is not a malfunctioning iPhone that can be restored to factory settings and reloaded with fresh applications.

The people killed and injured by handing the nation’s health systems over to a conspiratorial nutjob cannot be made whole again. The international relations cannot be mended with mere words. The brilliant minds denied entry or chased away will remember their treatment for decades and will remain wary.

A startling fact I learned this morning is the number of physicians looking to leave this country. Over the same period in 2024, 71 doctors applied to become licensed in Canada, for 2025 that number rose to 615! Now we are the subject of a global ‘brain drain’.

If a massive health event were to take the principal instigator of our nation’s pains from this mortal coil the damage will have already been done. The dark period of rebuilding and constructing of a new Republican Party would be shortened but not eliminated. There are terrible times ahead and the next century may not be America’s.

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