“The View From Jackie’s Head #13”
It took me two months to watch the fifth season of “House of Cards.” It wasn’t that I was too busy to watch; it was that it was too bring to watch. Yes, after four seasons the highly touted Netflix series finally ran out of steam. I knew when I was watching season 4 it had begun to drag. So when I started season 5 I was a little leery about the whole thing.
The story of Frank (Kevin Spacey) and Claire (Robin Wright) Underwood and their political actions has just become too much. They have done every dirty trick in the book and do some of them again in season 5. What was once daring and inventive now plays out as dull and repetitive. Oh and then there is the new rule of if you don’t like em kill em. And yes I know there was murder in earlier seasons but not this rampant.
I hate to see it all end like this since I was a big fan at the start of the show. But like “Bloodline” it has boxed itself into a plot that cannot be resuscitated. I certainly hope “Longmire” doesn’t let me down in its upcoming last season. Plus I still have high hopes for the second season of “Goliath” and am still amazed at now well they handle “Bosch.”
A few weeks ago I found out the Daniel Silva series of books featuring Israeli super agent Gabriel Allon has been sold to television. Now that should be a wham bam show – if they do it right. Silva is a producer so I hope he can hold their feet to the fire and get it done right. I am currently in the middle of Silva’s latest novel HOUSE OF SPIES and it is one of his best. I love everything about the way he writes and he brightens my summer each and every year.
Speaking of books, I wish I had the time to read all the good books, or what looks to be good books, that come my way. I usually have ten to fifteen books a week sent to me for possible review. I review one book a week so that means there are nine to fourteen I don’t get to read. And if they don’t make my “read” list when they first come out then there are no retakes.
One book I missed when it came out is Joe Formichella’s WAFFLE HOUSE RULES. It is a slim book that really appealed to me. Joe told me it is “my homage to Fairhope, warts and all.” I dropped my reading of HOUE OF LIES just long enough to read a couple of chapters of Joe’s story and it is solidly good writing and so entertaining. I will get back to it some day as I have been to Fairhope, Alabama and have experienced the wonderful world of art and artists who live there.
Even as I complain about having no time to do all the things I like to do I am bemoaning the fact that movie such as “The Hero,” “The Book of Henry” and “My Cousin Rachel” have not played in my area. I recently requested a DVD of the film “Norman” (out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital July 11) because I wanted to see this magnificent performance by Richards Gere.
Starting in October I will probably get some of the movies I missed as we critics are sent DVD’s of movies the studios want to be considered for awards and Top Ten lists. That makes for fun times in the Coper household. Still I wish my area (middle Georgia) got the chance to see the “little movies” or better described “independent films” that come out all during the year and don’t get wide releases.
But who am I to complain when I still read a book a week, see three or four movies a week, watch as much television as I can squeeze in, and love it all. I hope all of you have lives as great as mine cause I am one happy man.
Jackie K Cooper
