PT Brainum: Blog

Avenue 5

Avenue 5 is a tv series that aired on HBO January to March 2020. It's a 30 minute sci-fi 'comedy' with 9 episodes. It stars Hugh Laurie (the guy from the TV drama House, and the excellent comedy Jeeves and Wooster).

I have 'comedy' in quotes because I never actually laughed out loud, but the final episode of the season got a couple chuckles from me. I think this is referred to as Cerebral Comedy. It is also full of acerbic wit, funny characters, and an intriguing look at the friction found between competent people and the guys in charge. Additionally it is profanity loaded, but funny not in what is said, but how it's worded. Something that the creator of the show (Armando Ianucci) is known for. The episodes are not stand alone like a situation comedy, and it's better to watch it as a long movie than as individual episodes over several days.

With that said, it was only 9, 30 minute episodes, and it was totally binge worthy. Hugh Laurie is a fantastic actor, and the premise is interesting. In fact the whole thing keeps you guessing as to what's going to happen next, the entire time. For TV that's an accomplishment all by itself.

The series takes place in the relatively near future (40 years?) on the Avenue 5, an interplanetary space cruise ship, on its 8 week maiden voyage. The captain Ryan Clark, 'the hero who saved Avenue 3', is played by Hugh Laurie. During the first episode an accident occurs that shifts the projected orbit of the ship, injuring passengers, some severely, and killing one crew member. The result is that their planned slingshot maneuver in the outer solar system is irrecoverably damaged, and the new return time is now several years.

I just realized this is Gillian's Island in space!

What does make this funny are the small comments about various other disasters in comparison. 'worse than when Google folded', 'as bad as when the Pacific became toxic', and other comments such as, 'remember when we had cows?'

The comedy also revolves (orbits?) around the few competent crew members, the mission control back on Earth which is 26 light minutes distant, and the series of increasingly difficult decisions that creates increasingly mind boggling results.

It's these little things that make the show enjoyable to watch. But be warned it's a slow reveal as to who is actually what, and able to do whom. I'm looking forward to season 2, as yet unannounced.

Spoiler warning:

During the series the situation continues to go from bad to worse, we learn the captain is actually just a figurehead actor who is good at making passengers feel confident, and the initial fatality was the head engineer and actual captain of the ship. Then it's revealed that unbeknownst to the captain, the bridge crew are also all actors, and the ship is actually mostly automated, with a few engineers who work out of sight running it.

Additionally, as a passenger, is the owner of the company, Herman Judd (played by Josh Gad), a barely literate, but with huge social media presence, idiot, who's underlings arranged everything this way because he ordered the ship to have a good looking bridge crew.

Also on board is Spike Martin (played by Ethan Phillips, who you might remember as Neelix from ST Voyager), who is a retired astronaut on board to provide education seminars to the kids. He was one of the first 30 astronauts to land on Mars (actually number 30, but the first Canadian!).

If you don't have HBO, then you can find it here after you start up your most powerful ad blocker: https://projectfreetv.fun/series/avenue-5/

I wouldn't try torrenting it, or anything else, it's not secure or private. I'm not advocating piracy, but I've heard that the dmca doesn't apply to streaming. Not a lawyer, you're responsible for your own ass, like usual.

The Boys

'The Boys' is a Prime Video TV series from Amazon. It is full of profanity, sex, blood, & gore earning it's MA (Mature Audience 18+) rating. Also, it's fantastic, full of dark humor and excellent storytelling. The concept is similar to Watchman if you are familiar with that movie/comic, but as a comedy. A hilariously dark and bloody comedy.

I'll endeavor not to provide any spoilers, but it generally takes place in our world, where like our world, every person is their own brand of asshole. The exception is that in this world the last half decade or so has seen the appearance of Supers. Those that go into the hero business seem to work for one company, Vought, who manages them, promotes them, and generally considers them a product that they sell via advertisements, endorsements, and action movies. Their top team 'The Seven' work out of their main office, while the rest work out of smaller offices across the country.

It's a dark comedy because these Supers, like regular people, are flawed but unlike regular people, are unbound by the rules of society. The Boys of the title is a group of people who are out, for various reasons of their own, but primarily revenge, are out to make these indestructible icons pay for the crimes they have committed.

The cast is excellent, the acting perfect, the scripts unique and perfectly executed. Even during the slow scenes the cinematography is beautiful.

The little scenes of these characters in daily life, mixed with the monstrosity of the evil displayed is so perfectly balanced that I was kept guessing who the real bad guys are the entire time, that coupled with the great music, the perfect comedic timing, and cinematography, well it's just a sheer joy to watch.

Season 1 was 8 episodes, about an hour each. It was released in July 2019. Season 2 is expected to begin September 4th 2020.

Cast: Karl Urban, Elisabeth Shue, Erin Moriarty, Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, Nathan Mitchell, Laz Alonso, Jack Quaid, Karen Fukuhara, Tomer Kapon
Creator: Eric Kripke, from the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Things I didn't like: The usual Hollywood 'gay is ok!' trope seemed tacked on as some sort of lame boilerplate agenda. I don't know if I'm just tired of hearing it, or it's just that it really did feel tacked on for no good reason.
The explicit nudity is nearly all guys. Yes, naked invisible men too, yet we see little to none of any naked ladies. I guess Game of Thrones spoiled me.

Spoilers may be (definitely are) below:

My favorite super character is the pseudo Aquaman known as 'The Deep'. He begins with what seems to be the true villain of the series, yet ends up as simply the adorkable misfit. And yeah, he gets his too.

Karl Urban is fantastic, it took me an episode to figure out he played Dr McCoy on the Star Trek reboot. He was great in that too. He pays a 'no fucks given' character to the T, the final scene leaves so many questions that I'm looking forward to seeing them answered in season 2 this September.

If you don't have Prime, then you can find it here after you start up your most powerful ad blocker: https://projectfreetv.fun/series/the-boys/

I wouldn't try torrenting it, or anything else, it's not secure or private. I'm not advocating piracy, but I've heard that the dmca doesn't apply to streaming. Not a lawyer, you're responsible for your own ass, like usual.

So I watch a lot of TV. I've been thinking about writing a few reviews about some of my favorite things, hopefully brining attention to stuff you might have missed. Is this something you might be interested in reading?
PT

I started this series many years ago, simply doing research, combining events, technologies, and letting my mind imagine perfect choices. It began with two thoughts, grief over my father's Alzheimer's diagnosis, as I contemplated the years I spent with him in Oklahoma as a child.
The second event was my contemplation of the do over stories. It seemed that as soon as the main character changed anything, all his memories would be increasingly less helpful. It led me to try to imagine what knowing the results of actions would be like, and finally what would be required for a human to have true foreknowledge, a sort of Omniscience.
I finally began writing the story December of 2018. It went well, and I'm very pleased with the results. After part 4 or so I had an editor and that helped immensely.
While writing part 8, my father died. Suddenly I couldn't write anymore. It was a struggle to finish that section, and it's not as long as I had intended. I did my best to give it a good ending, at least for now.
Yes there is more story, John's not dead, just off on a new adventure elsewhere. Someday i hope to tell that story.
First though I'd like to go back, recompile all 8 parts, into a single combined story, adding new material, particularly dialog, which I find difficult to write, and breaking the parts into chapters.
I'll let you know when I start that project, but it'll be a while. Next up will be a re edited version of micro gates, I've got stuff for a sequel, but not a good plot for it yet.
Thanks for your votes, comments, and error reports. It's been a great five months, and i really appreciate everything all my readers had to say.
PT Brainum

I've renamed part 7 to better reflect that it is both part 7 and part 8. Just waiting on old rotorhead to finish the edit of 8 so i can post it. I've also adjusted the table of contents to better reflect this.
PT