My Cultural Life - Sects and Drugs

What's Up? 

I get it that some people want to label Keir Starmer as the worst PM of modern times, but this appears to be based on his support of Israel and the banning of certain rights to protest and yes, this is awful and not what you'd expect of a Labour PM, but does that really make him the worst?

The economy is in a better place, some of the policies the Tories brought in have gone and we're in a dialogue with the EU about making life a bit easier for people and businesses - none of this would have happened under the Tories or will happen if Reform get in.

A friend of mine claimed what Starmer has done trumps [ahem] being responsible for taking us out of the EU (Cameron); Crashing the economy (Truss), or being responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, taking the piss out of the nation while partying when the nation mourned the death of the then monarch's husband and being a fat, blonde, posh cunt (Johnson). We know (or at least most of us with a brain) that Israel's government is an evil, almost Nazi-like entity and supporting that is horrendous, but we have many politicians, the media and hosts of very rich people who also try and hide the truth of what that horrid country has done to its neighbours for over 70 years; singling Starmer out for just perpetuating this seems harsh and a little biased.

That said, good riddance to bad rubbish and be careful what to expect from the vaguely left of centre Andy Burnham. He is also a huge supporter of Israel (because they buy UK politicians like a kid buys sweets) and would still be classed as right of the party if this was 10 years ago. He needs to do some radical things, which will likely mean borrowing money, which will attract the ire of the media even if things start to look better for the average person. The media and the Establishment seem to relish the idea of having a corrupt authoritarian limited company running the country; presumably they want to see how far their 'social experiment' can destroy lives before consigning the Essex Fuhrer to the history books.

As the country swelters, forget about this nonsense from right wing politicians about having another General Election (oh the hypocrisy) and just hope that enough positive things are achieved over the next three years to stop the UK's march into fascism and even more despair. Just remember how bad Brexit has turned out for this country and remember that it was originally all the idea of the frog-faced cunt who wants to be the next PM...

Super Drug

If this week's film and TV consumption ends up being light on content, it's probably because we spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday watching the 2021 Hulu series Dopesick, about the heinous drug oxycontin. As someone who was prescribed this in 2014 after I slipped a disc, I can testify that it's a vile and horrific drug and I only used it for about four days and then spent almost two weeks to kick it out of my system. However, this eight-part mini-series follows the trail from 1996 up to when the DEA finally managed to nail the company for misleading the medical profession and the rest of the world with outlandish claims that were totally unfounded.

This is a superb series that examines the case from different angles over multiple timelines; featuring people such as Michael Keaton, Kaitlin Dever, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, Will Poulter, and Michael Stuhlbarg, it highlights the injustice and the lengths a pharmaceutical company went to make money, risk lives and give backhanders to stay beyond the reach of the law. It is one of the best mini-series I have ever watched and you should track it down.

Dragon Force

I've got to be honest, there's a degree of habit involved when watching House of the Dragon, I'm just not that into it, but I feel I have to stick with it and I'm not even sure why. That said, season three's opening episode was one of those parts that will have people talking because it was almost an hour of relentless stuff happening and the usual Game of Thrones type shocks and things going wrong. I've lost track of some of the peripheral characters; there was a woman warrior in it I had no recollection of whatsoever and those shocks I mentioned no longer have any real shock value. What happens over the next seven weeks will no doubt have newspapers and reviewers chatting incessantly about it, but to what ultimate goal? I feel this 'genre' of TV show might well be on the verge of outstaying its welcome and I'm not really expecting anything unexpected. The dragons are good fun though, until one of them goes a bit rogue... 

Super Spy

The football continues, so to avoid the England match (a dull 0-0 I was informed), we opted to start watching the first series of Jack Ryan (of which there are four seasons and a badly received feature film) starring John Krasinski. My initial impression was how young the lead looked, given his high profile film appearances in recent years. The first series follows CIA analyst and data cruncher Jack Ryan as he navigates the first week of his new boss, a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder, having been dumped into a sideways job after he screwed up on active duty in Pakistan (it might also be because he's a Muslim). One thing is apparent from the get go is that Jack - an ex-marine - is more suited to being an action hero than a desk jockey, although the latter comes in handy as he's on the trail of a new 'Bin Laden' who has been one step ahead of the CIA until Jack comes along. 

He Can Fix Cars

We like a good Jaysun Stayfum film, but I can't recall ever seeing one, at least not since the turn of the century, so expectations weren't very high when we finally got around to watching The Mechanic, a movie that felt as though half of it had been left on the cutting room floor. Stayfum plays Arthur Bishop, a hitman, who has to do a job he doesn't fancy and feels so guilty he takes on the victim's feckless son as his apprentice. The next thing you know the two of them are tracking own his employers with a rubbish truck and a bus. It was 93 minutes long; it could easily have been 113 minutes long and given us some back story, some context, some character development; but what it ended up being was facile and somewhat pointless. 4/10

What's Up Next?

Yes, that's it. A very shallow week and we have a shedload of stuff to watch over the next few days - The Bear, the finale of Welcome to Wrexham, the latest Sugar and maybe start watching Star City, so maybe now the weather has cooled off we can spend more time in front of the box, avoiding football. I also have my first solo quiz night next Friday, so I might be self-indulgent and talk a little about that.

As usual blah blah blah...