I Really Wanted To Love The Strain

I have stated my adoration with Guillermo del Toro before, I think I fell in love with his work even before I knew I loved film. Even though I have an obsession for him I put off watching the 2014 adaptation of his co-written novel, The Strain. I did still purchase the season one DVD when it was released and ever since then it has been gathering dust sitting atop my shelf, but the summertime slump in television got to me so I picked it up and binged. I almost loved it for a while there.

The Strain follows Dr. Ephram Goodweather (Corey Stoll), a doctor for the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and prevention), and his merry band of misfits as they fight a growing strain of a vampire virus that it sweeping over New York. Eph's group includes colleagues Jim Kent (Sean Astin) and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) who have made the discovery of the virus with him and are attempting to find a cure for it. Others adopted into the fold include Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand), a rat catcher with an admiration for dynamite, and hacker Dutch Velders (Ruda Gedmintas) who inadvertently aided the vampires to take over New York and has now switched over to the good side. The group are aided in their quest by the ever watchable Professor Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley), a holocaust survivor who has an in depth knowledge of the virus and has a long standing grudge against patient zero and the loyal servant that aids him, Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammal).

Any Human Heart: Mini-Series Vs. Novel

*Spoilers for for the novel and the mini-series of Any Human Heart*

I recently professed my new but undying love for the novel Any Human Heart which is a compilation of fictional journals by Logan Mountstuart, a novel that proved that "every life if both ordinary and extraordinary". I had purchased the mini-series prior to the novel and it's been sitting on my shelf gathering a large amount of dust and after reading the novel I was quite happy for it to gather even more. Although I was aware that there was some critical acclaim for the series I was afraid that my love for the novel would make my opinion about the series biased, I would feel that the series paled in comparison. I had nothing to fear.

I recently had a birthday and rather than be fun and celebrate I decided to take a few days off of work to stay at home. I planned on it being a lazy few days where I'd accomplish something which I love, mass procrastination. It was not to be, I saw a light shining on the DVD and for some reason I couldn't resist. I popped it in the player and sat atop my bed for several hours ingesting the mini-series in one binge watch session. I've already lived with Mountstuart, loved with him, grieved with him and died with him so what impact could the mini-series really have for me? I feared that it would dilute the events that happened in the novel but it didn't, it opened my eyes a little more.

The Man in the High Castle: TV series Vs. Novel

I have recently taken up reading again and one of the novels that I tackled was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, originally published in 1962. I was unaware of the the writer but unbeknownst to me I was well aware of his work because adaptations of his bibliography boast the likes of Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau as well as many others. The were a couple of reasons that I chose this novel, one of which was the fact that I wanted to spend £20 on Amazon to get free delivery, the other being the Amazon Instant Video adaptation of the book which I devoured over the course of a couple of weeks.

I fell in love with the series during the first episode, the alternate universe truly captured me. The Man in the High Castle TV series followed what life would be like if the USA had lost against the Nazi's and Japanese, leading them to divide the country and ruling over their respective territories. The US is now a society where fascism is rife and conformity is the key to the citizens survival, denouncing their faiths, loved ones and in some cases their whole personalities. The setting is intriguing and daring because of peoples sensitivity towards the wars. What makes this a riveting tale is the uprising against the totalitarian governments, with members getting inspired by videos which are depicting an alternate lifestyle where the US won the wars. The members of the resistance strive to collect as many of these videos as they can on behalf of a man known only as "The Man in the High Castle" in the belief that these videos mean something and could somehow change the world.

Spoiler Or Not A Spoiler, That Is The Question

I recently wrote about The Night Manager that aired in the UK earlier this year and it's starting up on the other side of the pond so I decided to investigate what the Americans think of it. When I say investigate what I mean is that I was procrastinating at work and wandered onto IMDB. I didn't end up getting much information about their thoughts and feelings towards the series but what I did witness was a lot of people complaining about the amount of spoilers on the boards. I've had this discussion with friends extensively in the past and actually wrote about it a little in regards to Game Of Thrones, but can you really call information about something that has aired/been released a spoiler?

In the past regions have had to wait months/years for foreign television shows/films and we've come a long way since then, sometimes we only have to wait a day after the country of origin airs it. It may not seem like a long time but that's still an extra day for the episode to be spoiled with memes, message boards, friends Facebook posts etc. but do you have a right to get mad because it's spoiled the episode for you? In short, no. When an episode/film/book has aired or has been released all the information is out there and no longer a spoiler. It may not feel fair that you don't have access as early as others to eliminate the reveals you wanted to wait for but sometimes it can be avoided so the threat of spoilage can be diminished.

Any Human Heart Makes Me Realise I Have One

*I'll try not to spoil anything because I actually want you to go and read it*

Short stories, poems, novels, the back of a cereal box. It didn't matter what it was, I used to devour them over and over again. I even used to spend my Saturdays at the library, not for the internet but for the numerous books they had at hand. I don't quite know what happened, some say I got lazy, some say it was the fact that we no longer needed dial up so I had the freedom of going onto the internet whenever I liked. I think it's because the literature that seemed the most popular seemed completely awful. No, it didn't just seem completely awful, it was completely awful. Up until a couple of years ago the last books I had read for pleasure were the Harry Potter series and even though they had a fantastic story line even I can admit they weren't the best written books.

I love watching television and films and this whole blog is proof of that, but I also loved having stories play out in my head. I enjoyed inferring meanings from writing and building up my own version of the characters from the information given. I missed just sitting back in a quiet room reading a book for a few hours, I got more satisfaction out of it than staring at a glaring screen under my duvet. Fortunately I have an Amazon account, unfortunately I don't know when to stop buying so I now have a lot more books than I had six months ago and I'm almost finished with them. Up until a few months ago I would have said my favourite book was The Great Gatsby and why wouldn't it be? It's set in my favourite era and although the novel is short and the story line isn't too complex there is so much to it. It has some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen in a novel and so vivid, I still haven't watched the film because it feels like I have already watched it all.

I never thought The Great Gatsby would be displaced in my heart but then Any Human Heart by William Boyd came along. Any Human Heart is a compilation of fictional journals and an early quote from it has stuck with me: