a drastic decision to laugh about.

1922, Black Lightning & Gag Concert 
pop culture dailies 009

Yeah, this is a bit unexpected pairing between properties in the different part of the spectrum ...

1922

The legendary novelist have his properties being adapted seemingly year after year in the 80's and 90's but it petered out at the start of the century since they couldn't find a major successful adaptation among the crowd. With that being said, 2017 is a (mostly) triumphant year comparatively that started with a stumble but then recovered mightily and then some! The Dark Tower was a failure in trying to shorten an epic tale into just under two hours summarized version but It was a success by streamlining the storyline and focus on the kid aspect first and foremost. That were the polar opposite reception at the box office while the television counterpart in Spike TV's the Mist and the Audience Network's Mr. Mercedes were the exact opposite as well. Netflix has been venturing into the silver screen industry with varying degrees of success as of late but last year's effort adapting the master's works in Gerald's Game and 1922 have been proven to be fruitful. While the former took some liberties to the benefit of the end product, the latter is a simple, contained horror storyline being told expertly by Zak Hilditch, the screenwriter and director, effectively laying out the Midwestern world of the early 19th century and the main cast that we could relate to and in the end empathize with. Thomas Jane came back to effectively save his face after the travesty of Dreamcatcher and led the film from start to finish with the charm of a gruff southern gentleman and the menace of a man with determination. The great pacing slowly tell the story of a man in conflict that made a big decision and having to live with the consequences and the following guilt haunted him to no end. Effective build of atmosphere and use of voiceover narrative of the main protagonist, letting us into his train of thoughts and state of mind throughout his unfortunate life. It's a nice fitting punctuation of how good last year has been for Stephen King's adaptations, let's hope this year will keep the momentum going!

Black Lightning s01e02 the Book of Hope

If you aren't aware of the direction this particular show is going by the time you've finished watching the pilot, you are not paying attention at all and by the end of this second episode, they have made it pretty clear that this is a superhero series that is unlike any others, for better or for worse (certainly the former for me!). I didn't point out the name of the superhero itself before but it should be known that these racially sensitive superheroes (just like Marvel's Black Panther ... they certainly won't use the most inappropriate Man-Ape now) came out in the 70's (and even before that!), basing the names on the colour of their skin just for the sake of diversifying without any conscious effort to change the stigma! As people change their dated perspective to be more mindful of others and how we treat and commentate on them especially the minorities, this wave of positivity going across and constant throughout the industry (to the dismay of the racist and close-minded few), the DC television department decided to embrace the origin and use the opportunity as a platform to carve a poignant commentary of the real life situations that African American have to face day to day. you might think that this is not the time or place for this kind of political approach but actually it couldn't have been the perfect time for such a show and on the best platform since superhero properties are all the rage currently. Speaking of which, this particular episode does not revolve mostly on the title namesake but instead the everyday life of those who have been affected directly or tangentially by the actions of the seemingly returning neighbourhood hero, or much more lethal the lack thereof. The CW shows do not shy away from using death as a viable threat to their superheroes but it is not as heavy of an implication when it is resulted from a situation that could very much happen in real life, not by a millionaire moonlighting as a masked vigilante with bow and arrows or could be reverted by travelling through time by running through time. With his offspring started to understand her power, the main protagonist took a major step to put on the suit for real this time to save his district the way his principal counterpart couldn't ... in contrast, his arch enemy Tobias Whale took matters into his own hands although it's still remains to be seen if their paths would cross with each other sooner or later.

Gag Concert fifth week of 2018

They said comedy is universal and it would come across any culture and language if you could comprehend the basic tenants of their approach in telling jokes to the audiences, understanding the intention hence connecting to the basis of their comedy that's unique to them. I used to like to watch the local comedy competition, Maharaja Lawak, whereby they would have a lot of sketches unique to each individual performer and even though it's been years since I watch it, I get my fill with Gag Concert which I continue to tune in ever since the first time I came across it. Watching it through the veneer of the English language translating the original Korean language, I know not all of the nuances of the comedy would come across (especially if I want to do a second translation into my mother tongue which is the Malay language although that won't be necessary since I use Engish everyday anyway) but I was entertained from start to finish nonetheless since their comedy is mostly situation-based and physical-based, aside from the a few language-based instances. I've seen comedians come and go throughout the run I've been tuning into but whether or not the recent return of the seniors would help them to cultivate the younger and up-and-comers and develop their characters and most importantly their brand of humour, that's still up in the air but it definitely add more credibility and finessed diversity to the program. Oh, my favourite sketch is certainly the Nonsense Talk Festival! I'm not if that's the correct name, but it doesn't matter, I'm just talking nonsense!

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Well, that's all folks! Thank you for your time and please do come back for my future posts! :-)