The Cutprice Guignol

Ah, M. Night Shayamalan. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings towards the director whose name is synonymous with “twist ending that makes you slap your forehead in annoyance that you didn’t get it in the first place and/or because it’s totally shit”, but I really don’t- I really like him. Well, I’m not defending The Last Airbender or The Happening, but I have a serious soft spot for even some of his more maligned movies like Lady in the Water and The Village. Hell, I even liked his last movie, The Visit, a very competent found-footage horror that was actually-whisper it- scary. Not to mention, of course, the handful of bonafide brilliant movies he has under his belt- The Sixth Sense (obviously), Unbreakable, and Signs. He’s a director I’m always interested in, because he seems to operate slightly outside the Hollywood standard, for better or for worse.

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Well, talk about your game of two halves.

I still think Vikings is a great show. It’s just that it’s doing some major restructuring in the final quarter of this season, and sometimes I can see the dust and debris strewn about a little too obviously, you know?

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Yes, I’m back-considering last week’s review constituted me reviewing a third of the entire series, I figured that I might as well swing back into action and take a look at the rest of this season of Sherlock, too. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s outing, The Lying Detective.

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This year is already being written into the history books as one where we lost more greats than we can count; David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, amongst many, many others who meant a great deal to a huge number of people. And, of course, there is a sadness that comes with the passing of anyone, especially people who came to hold this sacred place of respect and admiration and joy in the minds of so many of us. But when the news came through an hour or so ago that Carrie Fisher had passed away at sixty, for the first time this year, I felt it; I remembered that feeling, the one that comes when you lose someone who you’ve never met but has meant an almost absurd amount to you over the course of your life.

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Trigger warning for graphic discussion of sexual assault and rape.

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