S2:E17 Des, Black Narcissus

01/14/21 • 59 min

Three and done!
We have 2 perfect short binges this week, a true-crime drama, Des, and a remake of a classic film from a classic novel, Black Narcissus. Both are intense dramas with strong performances, dark humor touches.
Des - A friendly serial killer
Now playing on AMC+ with Prime or Sundance Now with Prime, Des is a three-part true story based on the book Killing for Company by Brian Masters.
It stars David Tennet, Daniel Mays, and Jason Watkins.
In 1983 Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen is arrested after the discovery of human remains that were blocking a drain near his London home. Ironically, the plumbing complaints came from Nilsen himself! (and other tenants.) Upon opening a drain cover at the side of the house, the plumber discovered the drain was packed with a flesh-like substance and numerous small bones of unknown origin. Once the police determined the "flesh-like" substance was, in fact, human flesh, and the little bones were, in fact, human bones, the police questioned Dennis Nilson, who nonchalantly confessed.
Chameleon actor David Tennant is chilling and kinda funny as the matter-of-fact Nilson.
Nilson was one of the most infamous serial killers in UK history. known as the ‘kindly killer.' A former cop who spent 5 years murdering young men he met on the streets of Soho from 1978 to 1983. His victims were often homeless or drug-addicted and often grateful for this stranger’s apparent generosity. Nilsen had murdered a total of fifteen men over a period of five years, making him Britain’s most prolific serial killer of the time.
DCI Peter Jay, a homicide detective, is played by Daniel Mays, who is becoming one of our favs. Keep an eye on Daniel Mays; we think he's about to break out!
Black Narcissus
Currently showing (free) on the FX site and available on FX and HULU, Black Narcissus is a 3 part series with a long pedigree. The source material is the controversial 1939 novel by Rumer Godden and adapted by British TV writer Amanda Coe. The new version also sits in the shadow of the classic version by Michael Powell and starring Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar, Sabu, and a very young Jean Simmons
The new version is more explicit than the 1947 film but sticks close to the original. It stars Gemma Arterton, Alessandro Nivola, Aisling Franciosi, Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg in her final TV role. Travis likes the limited series better. Elaine prefers the film. Let us know what you think in our Facebook group!

Previous Episode

S2:E16 Imposters, The Stand

Bye Bye 2020
We still have a long road ahead, but it felt good to put 2020 behind us.
It was just the two of us this year (duh), but we did get cookies from Ritchie Cunningham and Oprah, some cool gifts from fam and friends, added new ornaments to the blue tree, and ate and ate and ate!
SEE MORE PIX, VIDEO, AND CONTENT ON OUR WEBSITE
Impostors
We watched a LOT of movies. Mostly older movies we had missed the first time around or hadn't seen in a long time. But, we did start binging one show. Imposters! It's "dramedy" about the long con, kind of like The Sting, only not so light and kinda like Grifters, but not so incestuous!
Imposters stars Inbar Lavi, Rob Heaps, Parker Young, Marianne Rendón, Stephen Bishop, Katherine LaNasa, Mel Harris, the always great Mary Kay Place, Ray Proscia, and Uma Thurman.
But the most exciting surprise for us was a major character, Brian Benben, who plays Max!!!!
Both of us were huge Dream On fans, and we were surprised when we looked up Brian Benben; it was barely mentioned. We can't find it anywhere (legally), but we will keep searching and pestering HBO MAX on Twitter.
UPDATE: Travis found Season 2: The Second Greatest Story Ever Told
With David Bowie as a Sir Roland Moorecock. Full episode!! (on our website)
Enjoy! And, if you like Dream On as much as we do, let us know, and we'll keep searching!
Hit us up at:
Twitter or join our Facebook Group!The Stand
We're three episodes in, four by the time you listen to the show. How do you think they are doing? This was one of the series we were most excited about all year. We've talked about it in previous episodes and put a huge link at the bottom of every page to help you get a free trial of CBS All Access too.
This week we finally dive in and discuss casting, time jumps, and give lots of love to Greg Kinnear! He is a stand out on The Stand!

Next Episode

S2:18 WandaVision, Servant

It's Family Time!
This week we were introduced to two extraordinarily trippy, mysterious families in WandaVision and Servant.
But first.Congratulations U.S.A.!!! By the time you listen to this week's episode, our long national nightmare will be over! And though it may take us years to clean up the mess, we have hope, the audacity of hope. WandaVision
Yes, you read that right. Travis and Elaine dipped our toes into the Marvel Universe! And the water was warm!! Of course, we soon found out that WandaVision is a complete departure from anything Marvel had done before. So?? All we know is that so far, we love it!
We won't go into the multiple Easter Eggs that link back to Marvel. Even we know the "Stark" brand is a callback to Ironman etc etc. But, we did love some of the cool little bits from the classic TV that WandaVision is built around.

In episode 1
We loved the nod to the famous (3) The Dick Van Dyke Show openings. Here's a video (on our website) where Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) falls, sidesteps, and then sidesteps and trips over the ottoman.
In episode 2
This time around, WandaVision revisits the classic Bewitched!
Here is the pilot episode of the original. We set it to cartoon Samantha, flying. (on our website)
At the end of WandaVision episode 2, the show goes from black and white to color. In 1966, after 2 seasons in black and white, Bewitched (and nearly everything else on TV) went to "Living Color!"
But, what really got us was the dark undertones. The feelings of dread. The Truman Show style pullback at the end of the episodes. If we're lucky, WandaVision will wind up in the realm of David Lynch's Blue Velvet suburbia rather than homage or, worse, a retread of the classic sitcoms. We feel a dark vibe even in the first two episodes and the trailer(s) back it up. We have our fingers crossed for WandaVisioServant
We got lucky with this one. And by lucky, I mean we never heard of it until this week when it launched season 2. And even luckier that so far it has us hooked!
There are so many twists and turns in this one that we didn't want to spoil any little thing.
Let's talk about the cast. We're thrilled to see Lauren Ambrose as meaty a role as Dorothy. She's gone through a long spate of back luck (Torchwood, The X-Files reboot.) We loved her so much in Six Feet Under. We hope to see A LOT more of her moving forward.
For more fun content go to travisandelaine.com