I started The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen not knowing what to expect. I had read only a brief, enigmatic description of the plot and seen an image of the gorgeous cover art. Reading the opening scene soon assured me of Hansen’s talent. She accomplishes a great deal quickly without making the prose or plot too caught up in exposition. She introduces her protagonist and one of many narrators, Beet MacNeill, as well as some of her family while executing major plot points that will reverberate throughout the book. Hansen clearly knew her story intimately and had planned its opening with exceptional care.
This attention to detail and elegant construction of plot remains consistent throughout the novel. The story progresses along two timelines, one moving forward in time in 1950 and one moving ever further back in time, even to pre-historic human history. While in the 1950 timeline Hansen switches between established character narrators, in the past timeline many of the narrators are tangentially connected to her primary characters or even one-off characters we never encounter again after their narration concludes. Hansen handles these techniques admirably, keeping the focus of the past timeline more on plot events and establishing a pattern of supernatural occurrences than on the narrators themselves. Hansen clearly trusts the intelligence of her readers in order to be able to connect the dots between the pattern established in the past and ongoing events in the 1950 timeline. My one complaint about these timelines was that were one or two too many repetitions in the past timeline that did not contribute much to the supernatural mythology with which Hansen was working because the events had already been depicted several times.
In addition to the well-planned structure, I loved Hansen’s ability to blend her historical setting of Prince Edward Island with the mythology of the sea and the Scotch heritage of some of the island’s inhabitants. So many YA novels are either realism or fantasy that The Coming Storm’s use of both genres felt fresh and innovative.
Photo courtesy The Canadian Encyclopedia
Finally, Hansen’s writing style and characters offer ample reading incentive of their own. The characters of Beet’s world are a delight. They range from her supernatural-story loving best friend (how convenient for a posse attempting to fight demonic influences 😊), the town’s otherworldly librarian, and a boy visiting from Boston for the summer. What’s more, Beet’s love of music and the sea are expressed through gorgeous prose describing these passions.
If your last literary visit to Prince Edward Island was reading Anne of Green Gables or one of its sequels, it’s time to return and see it afresh through The Coming Storm.
As spring rainstorms give way to humidity and mosquitoes, my thoughts turn to mystery and murder, particularly the PBS kind. I know that summer has truly begun when the network’s mystery lineup begins.
This year Grantchester kicks off the PBS summer mystery season on Sunday, June 14th at 9pm. Based on a series of books by James Runcie, the TV series has retained the original premise of a vicar and police detective solving crime in the quintessential British village of Grantchester. (It does not retain all the books’ original characters as last season saw vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton) replaced by Will Davenport (Tom Brittney).)
Grantchester’s mysteries tend to veer away from violence and gore and towards moral quandaries, ideal thematic ground for a policeman and minister. Despite its cozy trappings of fifties conformity, Grantchester consistently looks more critically at life in this decade by depicting gay characters, women working outside the home, and couples’ marital troubles.
Five seasons in Grantchester contains a fair amount of serialized storytelling as opposed to being a straight procedural. However, it’s not so complex that new viewers should be put off from joining the congregation. The excellent supporting cast make the show’s character work equally as compelling as its mysteries (sometimes more so). Of particular note are Leonard, a fellow clergy member, played to perfection by Al Weaver, Mrs. Maguire (Tessa Peake-Jones), the vicarage’s housekeeper, and Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth), the detective’s much-too-good-for-him wife.
Far from a mindless escape from reality, Grantchester takes you to a different time and place with plenty to consider. Tune in and let me know what you think!
Well, here we all still are three weeks into a quarantine with the end too far away to contemplate and still retain sanity. Although I’m finding things to occupy my time, I’ve entered a state of brain fog. I’m fairly certain that Jeopardy and People magazine’s crossword are all that’s keeping my little gray cells from going on strike.
With full kudos to those who feel equipped to tackle Gravity’s Rainbow and the like right now, I find myself seeking the pop culture equivalent of a mug of tea. One sector of TV that helps accomplish that is food programming.
Girl Meets Farm, Food Network, Sundays at 11 am EST, streaming on foodnetwork.com
Molly Yeh’s cooking show presents a delightful take on modern Midwest cuisine. Rather than whipping up entrees dictated by gourmet trends in a kitchen the size of an entire apartment, Yeh cooks family dinners in a modest kitchen on she and her husband’s farm. Her casseroles and desserts will remind you of your grandparents’ cooking (if you were lucky enough to have foodie grandparents) in the best way possible. Yeh also often features her take on the Chinese and Jewish cuisine she grew up eating with her family.
The show’s ability to evoke the cozy domesticity of previous generations while avoiding hackneyed Stepford Wives stereotypes is rare. Yeh’s excitement and energy come across as genuine rather than manufactured and represent a new generation of millennial home cooks.
Last week, I made her taco hot dish for my quarantine crew. It was a) elegantly simple b) featured easy-to-find ingredients (even with quarantine-era grocery supplies) and c) completely delicious.
Somewhere South, PBS, Fridays at 9 pm EST, streaming on pbs.org
Vivian Howard, best known for A Chef’s Life, writes and hosts a new PBS show about the cultural connections forged through food. Each episode focuses on a single dish. For example, last week Howard explored many different kinds of hand pies.
What impressed me most about the show was Howard’s inclusive version of today’s American South. The first episode moved from sweet, fruit-based hand pies like applejacks to pepperoni rolls created by Italian-American immigrants in West Virginia to various kinds of empanadas made by Latinx home cooks and chefs across the South. My favorite section featured three generations of a family making turcos, a Mexican-inspired South Texas empanada, and explaining the complex roots of their family and this dish. Warning: this show will make you hungry! Have some snacks ready!
The Big Family Cooking Showdown, streaming on Netflix
Featuring a cooking tournament among everyday British families, The Big Family Cooking Showdown highlights home cooks’ talent and passion for food. Early episodes feature two family teams competing in three challenges with only one team moving forward. My favorite part about the initial round is that instead of cooking only on the set (a gorgeous converted barn) the families must prepare and serve a meal to the judges in their own home. Teams that make it into the semi-finals then face all new challenges like a dessert round where judges select the dish they must make. Bonus points: the show is co-hosted by Nadiya Hussain, a Great British Baking Show winner!
In addition to the typical cooking show fare of recipe chat and food history, you get the added bonuses of a house tour and family drama. There is some sniping among families and between teams early on but that decreases as the competition progresses. If quarantine’s got you tired of your own family togetherness, swap it out for someone else’s family dynamics!
(Disclaimer: Season two of this show ditched everything I loved about it. I didn’t finish more than one episode of the second season.)
Finding myself with some extra time on my hands, I sat down to write and . . . didn’t really know what to say. Offering pop culture reviews or recommendations just felt too insignificant in light of everything happening with COVID-19. After the first week of quarantine, though, I noticed how much I enjoyed seeing everyone’s lists of what they’re distracting themselves with right now.
So, in that spirit, (with a smidge of “what else do I have going on right now?” thrown in) below are some podcasts I enjoyed over the past week.
In times of stress I try to avoid being alone with my thoughts too much. Having a funny, reassuring, or just different, voice can help minimize anxious spiraling thoughts. Podcasts are excellent for adding another voice in your head because you can multitask while listening and the blessing of headphones means you don’t have to subject other members of your quarantine posse to your listening choices.
Staying In is made directly in response to COVID-19 but is done so with humor and rationality as opposed to abject panic (deep breaths, everyone). In addition, money raised by the podcast’s ads will help those impacted by COVID-19. Kumail Nanjiani is a comedian and actor and, his wife, Emily V. Gordon is a former therapist and writer. (They co-wrote the film The Big Sick and Nanjiani starred in it.) The podcast gives advice and coping mechanisms for working from home and quarantining with loved ones (both things the couple has experience with as they explain in the first episode). I’ve always enjoyed this couple’s sense of humor and their tips, coupled with a warm and funny tone, delighted me.
Unlocking Us with Brené Brown
Unlocking Us was supposed to launch at South by Southwest last week but, luckily, is still being released on podcast streaming apps. Brené Brown is a research professor who reached mainstream audiences with books like Rising Strong and Braving the Wilderness as well as her TED Talk on vulnerability.
In the podcast, Brown plans to “reflect the universal experiences of being human, from the bravest to the most brokenhearted.” Her first episode is just Brown talking directly to the audience (although it seems most episodes will feature interviews). The first episode also reflects on COVID-19, but puts it within the framework of how scary and vulnerable it is to experience something for the first time. What I love about Brown’s work is that she explains concepts she’s learned through research and then illustrates them with interesting, funny stories from her own life. Although overall more serious than Staying In, Unlocking Us provides ideas you can dig into and potentially use to navigate the weird days we’re currently experiencing.
I Said No Gifts!
Comedian Bridger Winegar hosts a conversation between himself and another comedian based on the (faux) premise that he’s forbidden them to bring a gift. Inevitably, (at least in the two episodes currently available) the guest does bring a gift which Winegar unwraps and they discuss. They also answer listeners’ gift-related questions. This podcast is much more ramble-y than Unlocking Us (particularly because the gift talk and questions only constitutes about fifty percent of the run time) so if you prefer a more structured conversation this may not be for you. However, I found both episodes to be laugh out loud, entertaining distractions.
What’s got you distracted in a good way this week?
Growing up, I did not have cable television (except for when my family stayed in hotels). So the advent of Fall TV meant that there were actually new shows to watch on television every evening of the week (and not just on PBS)! Now we live in a blessed age where approximately three shows a day drop onto streaming platforms and even broadcast networks have started programming more seasonal offerings outside of the traditional September to May schedule. The result is that we’ll all likely have ten shows still on our watch lists when we ascend to the Great Big Couch in the Sky. As an avowed pop culture addict, I wouldn’t choose to live any other way. Still, I look forward every year to seeing what new offerings network television has to offer, creating a schedule of what I want to check out, and determining what I’m willing to commit to (at least for a few more weeks).
Admittedly, there were not a huge amount of shows that
intrigued me enough to watch even the pilot this year. (Optimist’s Translation:
more time to watch streaming shows as they drop throughout the fall and
winter.) That being said, I test drove the police procedural Prodigal Son
that premiered last week.
The premise of Prodigal Son is that Malcom
Bright (Tom Payne) is both a criminal profiler and the son of Dr. Martin Whitly
(Michael Sheen), a serial killer known as the Surgeon who was captured and
incarcerated in the late 1990s. The pilot episode sees Bright working as a
consultant to an NYPD case only to discover that the case is a copycat of four
murders his father committed years ago.
Familiar territory? Yes, and that is one of the show’s
biggest potential pitfalls. A detective/profiler/forensic pathologist with a
personal connection to a killer/landmark case/crime is a trope mystery lovers
have seen before in television, movies, and books. However, the police
procedural format as a whole is not particularly new either and that doesn’t
stop viewers from enjoying interesting characters and unusual cases. More
episodes should help shed light on whether the writers are able to find new
perspectives on these tropes or fail to make them work with these characters
and within the particular environment they’ve created in Prodigal Son.
My other biggest concern with this show is that it too
often uses shock factor to elicit viewers’ emotion rather than relying on the strength
of the writing and acting without layering on gore. For example, the show’s
opening scene depicts Bright entering a butchering process plant that has a
series of severed heads preserved in jars in the background. Obviously, that is
a horrifying concept. However, on screen I couldn’t help but think they looked
like cheap Halloween masks in jars filled with goop. It certainly didn’t scare
me; it just seemed hokey. Similarly, later, the director uses a tight closeup
of Bright’s face screaming, eyes bugged out, after he has a nightmare about his
father. This kind of in-your-face, “isn’t this scaaary?” tactic definitely
backfired for me (and I’d wager for many other viewers as well). Rather than
letting the storytelling and filmmaking stand on its own in evoking reactions
from viewers it seems like the creators are smashing the “break open only in
case of emergency” toolbox too frequently.
The show’s house style is fairly stark, relying on
low-key lighting and heavy shadows and filters that seem to leach almost all
color from the screen. A very minimalist color palette of creams, grays, and
blacks only enhances this effect. Many shots also used shallow focus, meaning
only part of the image is in focus and the rest remains blurry. To be fair, this
cinematographic choice may be trying to illustrate how much viewers don’t know.
We only know a little bit of the history between Bright and his dad and we know
about it primarily from Bright’s perspective. However, I found the frequent use
of shallow focus a bit distracting because it was so pervasive.
Now, what I really liked about the show were the
actors and performances. Michael Sheen’s Dr. Whitly/Surgeon was truly creepy
and seemed to hint at layers of characterization that will (hopefully) develop
over the course of the season. The show also did a good job of using him enough
to establish his backstory and relationship with Bright without letting him
overly dominate the story.
In addition, there are a trio of treasures playing
supporting characters that I hope to see more of in the coming weeks. First, certified
National Treasure Lou Diamond Phillips plays Gil Arroyo, an NYPD cop with a connection
to Bright that’s explained at the end of the pilot. We don’t learn much about
his character in the pilot other than his trust in Bright but I always enjoy
Phillips. He also serves as a more grounded character compared to the
heightened Bright and Whitly and their strange father-son relationship. Second,
the show features Gilmore Girls treasure Keiko Agena who played Lane in
the beloved coming-of-age series. Here, she’s Dr. Edrisa Tanaka, a forensic
pathologist who nervously geeks out over identifying wounds with Bright,
injecting a nice bit of comedy into an otherwise grim show. Finally, Scandal
treasure Bellamy Young, who played Mellie Grant in the political drama, now
plays Jessica Whitly, the mother of Malcom Bright and wife of serial killer
Malcolm Whitly. In the pilot she appears like an aristocratic society mother,
almost as if Edith Wharton’s matriarchs were revamped for the 21st
century. Still, Young’s performance hints at the trauma below the character’s
shiny superficiality and I hope the show will explore that as it progresses.
Verdict: I’m not yet ready to hit the “record series”
button on my DVR. However, I was intrigued enough by the setup and the actors
to keep watching for several more weeks to see how the story develops.
Wired Wordsmith 