What We Are Watching Vol. 18: November 2021

If you’re already a streaming fan, you’ve certainly heard of Netflix’s Squid Game by now. It’s their most popular title having displaced Bridgerton with over 142 million households watching it in its first four weeks of availability.

The plot is fairly simple: A group of people at the end of their financial ropes take part in a series of children’s games. The winners will split a huge cash prize while the losers are eliminated, as in completely and irrevocably. The group starts out with 456 players and each one has a significant personal stake in the game’s outcome.

Of course, the story delves much deeper than that. There are several sub-plots like the police detective who infiltrates the game facility, the VIPs who arrive to watch the game, the identity of the people behind the game, and of course, the Survivor-like atmosphere. If you’re a fan of that CBS show, you’ll see a lot of parallels. I won’t spoil the plot by delving into the details but suffice it to say, Squid Game is not just a torture/horror/gore flick. While there is plenty of that going on, the story is strangely compelling.

I learned about the show through the tremendous coverage it received in the press. Violent horror is not my usual thing, but I finally decided to give it a try. I was hooked by the end of the first episode. The language overdub takes a bit of getting used to. The original is in Korean, and the voiceovers are reasonably well done.

This is definitely not something for family viewing. The violence is realistically portrayed and quite gruesome. Save this one for late-night viewing after the kids are in bed. There is one brief sex scene and a few f-bombs.

Video quality is superb. Originally shot in 4K, the picture is tack sharp. Dolby Vision adds a nice depth with detailed shadows and bright highlights. The color palette is a bit subdued, well saturated, but rife with dark shades. The green uniforms worn by the players are particularly lush while most backgrounds are neutral. There is a bit of film grain that looks to have been digitally added which enhances the show’s atmosphere.

The Dolby Atmos encode is clean and clear with plenty of volume and presence. The surround and height channels are used sparingly, and the low frequencies are mainly there to enhance dialog which is very clear and balanced. Music is equal parts effect and lyric. You’ll hear Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto and Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz a lot. Some interesting choral effects are used to create suspense.

Squid Game may not be for everyone, but it is a refreshing change from the constant barrage of remakes, reboots, comic books, superheroes, and other derivatives coming from today’s film and TV creators. While the story is not unique, it’s something I haven’t seen in a while.

Foundation takes place 12,000 years in mankind’s future, a future so distant that humans have forgotten that they once inhabited a single planet. The Galactic Empire spans 25 million worlds and is ruled by a single Emperor from the central planet of Trantor. Mathematician Hari Seldon rises to the attention of Emperor Cleon when he announces his discovery of a way to predict future events based on large-scale patterns of human behavior, a science he calls “psychohistory.” Rather than executing Seldon and making him a martyr to his large group of followers, he exiles all of them to a planet in the farthest reaches of the Empire called Terminus. There, they prepare for the coming fall, hoping to shorten the inevitable dark times from 10,000 years to just 1,000.

This brief synopsis barely scratches the surface of Isaac Asimov’s epic Foundation series which was first published in 1951. By 1988, it had grown to seven full-length novels covering a vast span of future history. Apple’s version begins with the third book, Foundation. It is important to take seriously the words that appear on the screen at the start of the first episode “Based on the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.” If you’re looking for a faithful and complete teleplay, this is not it. The books are far too complex and encompassing to be told in just eleven hours. But there is enjoyment here, nonetheless.

The main characters are portrayed as you’d expect. But the story is more a subset of the whole rather than a rapid-fire presentation like the 1984 film Dune. This is a great way to please both those who have read the books and those who haven’t. The depictions of Trantor truly convey its grand scale and 40 billion inhabitants. Humans as a space-faring race are made completely believable as people talk about travel between worlds the way we do about driving to another city. Technology is also completely believable. Remember that this is a vision of the future conceived by a man living in the 1940s. Many of the things Asimov could only imagine are completely realized today.

My greatest impression of the show, now that I’m nine episodes in, is its beauty. It is truly a feast for the eyes and ears, presented in Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos sound. Even if you have almost no interest in science fiction, it’s a treat to watch. Color is natural for the most part while each world has its own distinct palette. Let’s just say it’s how you would imagine it to be. Audio is equally mesmerizing and enveloping, and every channel is used to maximum effect. Dialog is clear and full in the center, music and action occupy the mains, and ambient effects trickle from the surrounds. Flying objects move about the room in every direction including overhead. The subwoofer will get a workout as well when large ships rumble into orbit or explosions rock the landscape.

It’s hard not to keep waxing on about this series. I hope Apple will continue to make new seasons because it is truly one of the most enjoyable and well-made science fiction shows I’ve seen a quite some time.

What I found cool was the fact that Bly Manor doesn’t exist. The entire exterior is done digitally but is so real looking that you would never know it. And instead of England, it was shot in Canada somewhere. Anyway, high production values and excellent acting (even by the children) made this a fun binge-watch, though the repeat viewing option is on the low side.

Kurt Russell is tremendous and once again shows you why he is underrated by Hollywood and has been acting since he was a little kid (a Disney Wunderkind). Though this is a crazy movie, it is just believable enough to make you uneasy whenever a truck passes you on the highway.

Not to give too much away, a ghost masked killer is murdering teens (mostly girls) and the town is powerless to stop him. Plenty of clues point to various town folk, but Campbell’s character is particularly distressed because her mother was raped and murdered a few years prior and the killer could be the same. The movie pokes fun at the teen slasher genre, but it has some intense scenes interspersed with humor as well. I know the movie has been lampooned and parodied to death, but it was a fun watch. The picture quality is excellent with inky shadows and brilliant colors with intense highlights. If you are a fan of Craven’s work, get this 4K upgrade and Scream again and again.