#fanbolt

The Staircase miniseries, created by Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn, is a mesmerizing crime drama based on the true-crime docu-series of the same name directed by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (performed in the series by Vincent Vermignon).

On December 9th, 2001, Kathleen Peterson (Toni Colette) was found dead at the bottom of her home’s main staircase in Durham, NC. The police, prosecutors, and some of Kathleen’s family believe her husband, charismatic crime novelist Michael Peterson (Colin Firth), bludgeoned her to death. Most of Michael’s family band together to support him. A French filmmaking team documents Michael’s journey through the United States Justice System. Will the filmmakers get too sucked into the novelist’s orbit to produce an unbiased docu-series?

The crime drama creators bring Kathleen to the center of her murder through flashbacks. Firth exhibits his true mastery as an actor while inhabiting Michael Peterson while The Staircase grapples with the complexities of a blended American family and the justice system. The miniseries is worth a watch for true crime enthusiasts even if they haven’t seen a single episode of the docu-series.

Humanizing the Kathleen Peterson

The Staircase’s creative team humanizes Kathleen by revealing her personality through flashbacks. Multiple sequences make clear that Kathleen loves her three daughters, Caitlin Atwar (Olivia DeJonge), Margaret Ratliff (Sophie Turner), and Martha Ratliff (Odessa Young). She is truly dedicated to both her biological and adopted daughters. Michael and Kathleen’s marriage contains cracks, but they still have fun together. The miniseries show Kathleen’s stressful though accomplished work life. The executive works hard to balance her domestic duties and high-level job, which leaves her utterly exhausted.

Kathleen’s actions prove her to be a profoundly empathic and generous spirit. The immediate aftermath of her death reveals how she was greatly loved by everybody, from her stepson Todd Peterson (Patrick Schwarzenegger) to her sister Candance Hunt Zamperini (Rosemarie DeWitt). Even those family members and friends who side with Michael mourn Kathleen’s death. There are times when Michael appears to be devasted by her passing.

Nobody can pretend that a beloved human being didn’t die. Crime dramas based on real murders should honor the victims, which The Staircase does successfully. The casting of Toni Collette as Kathleen guaranteed an award-winning performance.

Colin Firth Inhabiting Michael Peterson

All the actors in The Staircase bring their characters to life in a truly emotionally powerful way, but Firth steals every scene. The famous British actor has one of the trickiest roles because most of the audience has witnessed ten docu-series episodes centered around the charming Michael, who has a distinctive voice. Firth invokes Michael’s unique accent without sounding like a caricature of the novelist. The actor naturally utilizes some of Michael’s gestures without seeming forced. Firth’s genuine charisma enables him to inhabit Michael’s public charming persona.

But Firth can also capture Michael when his mask drops. He can quickly switch from a sweet family man to a controlling father. He also brings a sense of vulnerability to the role. Michael can’t neatly fit into this miniseries’s protagonist or antagonist box. The novelist is somewhere in the middle, neither the hero nor the story’s villain.

The Blended Family

The Peterson-Ratliff-Atwater clan seems like the perfect modern American family in many ways. These two parents have successfully blended their children to form a new family. “911?” contains a sequence showing the family having dinner together. Michael notes that while their family is not perfect, they “always stick together.” There is a sense that it’s the Peterson-Ratliff-Atwater clan against the world. Nobody shares internal conflicts outside the immediate family.

There are all supremely close to one another and have even established traditions. Kathleen and Michael share sage advice with their adult children, who celebrate their whole family. Several family members toast Martha, starting her first year at college. All three daughters are established to be very close. After Kathleen dies, Margaret, Caitlin, and Martha sleep in the same bed. Biological siblings Todd and Clayton Peterson (Dane DeHaan) stay strong for their little sisters.

Though quickly, the series shows fractures in their happy family facade. Flashbacks reveal that Kathleen and Clayton don’t enjoy each other’s company because of the young man’s past legal problems. Caitlin struggles to deal with the holes in her stepfather’s story about how Kathleen died. Michael adopted Margaret and Martha when they were toddlers, so they feel a sense of loyalty to him that gets in the way of their bond with the suspicious Caitlin.

Kathleen and Michael’s relationship appears toxic because of his secrets and her essentially financially supporting the whole family by herself. Michael’s irrational temper dampens his ability to form close bonds with all his children. Once the miniseries digs below the surface level, it’s clear that Michael Peterson’s secretive cruel behavior poisoned this blended family.

Troubling Justice System

The Staircase miniseries doesn’t paint the representatives of the justice system as angels either. Prosecutors Freda Black (Parker Poser) and David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) hate Michael even before he murders his wife. Flashforwards in the miniseries imply that some of their expert witnesses didn’t do everything by the book. David and Freda rely on faulty evidence to make their case, not digging too deeply because they decided he was guilty before any investigation. The prosecutors use horrific imagery to manipulate Kathleen’s biological family to turn on Michael before having all the facts. Neither Michael nor the prosecutors are depicted as the “white hats” of the story.

Last Thoughts on The Staircase Miniseries

This review is based on the first five episodes of The Staircase miniseries. True crime fans will love this engaging limited series that explores all aspects of the docu-series, including turning the camera on the French documentary team.

https://www.fanbolt.com/113000/a-discovery-of-witches-season-2-review-upholding-shadow-of-the-nights-spirit/

‘A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES’ SEASON 2 REVIEW: UPHOLDING SHADOW OF THE NIGHT’S SPIRIT

Spoilers Below.

A Discovery of Witches Season Two, written by Kate Brooke, Tom Farrelly, Charles James, and Sarah Dollard, keeps the All Souls Trilogy second book’s spirit while creating something unique, leaving viewers desperate to see more.

Season 2 is directly based on Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness. British Vampire Matthew Clairmont and American witch Diana Bishop travel back to Elizabethan London to hide from the Congregation. Meanwhile, in the present, their families try to find a way to make sure the couple is safe. Matthew and Diana need to find the Book of Life to stop daemons, vampires, and witches from dying out.

Diana is a true feminist hero. Since her parents died, she has refused to embrace her witch nature. Instead, she dove into the world of history. She is a historian who studies alchemy and science. Even the little spells that Diana’s Aunts, Sarah Bishop and Emily Mather, taught her as a child were significant failures.

Last season, Diana discovered that her father, Stephen Proctor bound her powers to protect his daughter from the greedy witch Peter Knox. When she started to fall in love with Matthew, her abilities began to manifest. After fellow witch Satu accidentally broke the binding spell, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Emily still struggled to teach her spells.

In Season 2, Diana realizes she can’t learn spells because she is a “weaver.” Weavers are a subset of witches that can create their own spells, but they can’t do anything magical if the spell is created by somebody else. In Elizabethan England, weaver elder Goody Alsop teaches Diana the ten knots that allow her to develop spells and summon her familiar firedrake Corra. By fully embracing her witch nature, Diana takes back control of her life.

Last season, Diana needed protection because her powers only came out during dire situations. Now she refuses to let Matthew be her “protector.” The couple forms a true partnership.

When Diana and Matthew visit his father, the ancient vampire Phillipe de Clermont in Sept-Tours (France), the witch is tested multiple times. Phillipe brings the witch Monsieur Andre Champier to Diana while she is reading in his library. Champier is drawn to Sept-Tours because he can sense her great power. He tries to break into Diana’s head to steal all her memories. Diana’s mind flashes to images of her saving Matthew’s life and when she accidentally summoned witch wind at the Bodleian Library.

Champier realizes a vampire drank from her. She screams in pain when the male witch tries to remove her memories. Matthew hears her screams. He runs faster than light to Diana’s aid. When he enters the room, she summons one of his daggers. Diana stabs Champier in the heart, proving that she doesn’t need anybody’s protection. Phillipe now knows that the Clairmont family can trust his son’s great love with their secrets because Diana won’t let herself be compromised.

Matthew forgives himself and realizes that he is worthy of love. His vampire mother a.k.a. sire, Ysabeau de Clermont, is a blood rage carrier. This genetic disease causes loss of control and violent impulses triggered by strong negative emotions like rage. Over the centuries, Matthew has gained control of his blood rage. But when he is forced back to the Elizabethan court as Matthew Roydon, the vampire’s homicidal tendencies are re-awoken.

Roydon is a spy for the British royal court, cruel inquisitor, and Phillipe’s executioner. He kills the Scottish witch Thomas Caldwell to save him from further torture. Elizabeth II is afraid that Caldwell and all the other witches are no longer loyal to the British Crown. Matthew remains haunted by the fact that he mercifully killed his father Phillipe during World War Two. Nazi witches tortured Phillipe to the point of permeant physical and mental damage. Seeing his father again is painful for Matthew because he has never forgiven himself. Guilt brings the blood rage bubbling up to the surface when Phillipe tries to get Matthew to tell him his future. Matthew’s father won’t stop beating him with a sword until he becomes a raging animal. The son refuses to tell Phillipe anything.

Diana’s acceptance of everything Matthew is, including the blood rage, allows the two to mate and marry. Mating makes Matthew overly protective of Diana, but the two creatures create a true partnership.

Season 2 leaves viewers with a small mystery for the final installment of A Discovery of Witches. The show changes several details from the original text Shadow of the Night. One of the more minor changes is that Mary Sidney commissions two small portraitures of Matthew and Diana as gifts in the book. Matthew orders the portraitures for their adopted son Jack Blackfriars, a former street urchin in the television show. Before traveling to Sept-Tours, the couple leaves the paintings with Jack to comfort him. During modern times, Marcus Whitmore (Matthew’s vampire son) tries to buy the portraitures from an auction house, but they are stolen before he picks them up.

Meanwhile, treacherous vampire Domenico has been tracking a series of murders in Oxford, Cambridge. A vampire commits these murders in a blood rage. From the third book in the trilogy, The Book of Life, I know that Father Hubbard turns Jack into a vampire when he is a young man. In the present day, Hubbard’s sire Benjamin Fuchs tricks Jack into killing humans in a failed attempt to sire vampires and controls the young man by dangling Matthew in front of him. Jack’s extreme blood rage makes him easy to manipulate.

https://www.fanbolt.com/113575/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-review-compassionate-society-that-kicks-ass/

Spoilers Below

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier miniseries, created by Malcolm Spellman and directed by Kari Skogland, perfectly blends social justice with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The miniseries is not as stylistically revolutionary as WandaVision, but it also charts significant character shifts for the two main characters. Bucky Barnes heals from the PTSD he has suffered from due to his years as an assassin, and Sam Wilson wrestles with what it means for a Black man to carry the shield and embraces his new role as Captain America. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the perfect MCU television show for the times we are currently in with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

The only issue I have with the miniseries is that it feels like I’m watching a multi-episode MCU movie instead of something revolutionary like WandaVision. There is a lot of action and fast-paced edits. The only real difference between the show and the MCU movies is that The Falcon and Winter Soldier spend some time dealing with domestic storylines. The villains are more multi-faceted. We spend a lot of time getting to know Karli Morgenthau’s belief system and her reasons for forming The Flag Smashers. I even felt sympathy for Karli when Sharon finally kills her.

The director of WandaVision, Matt Shakman, said that Disney Plus was initially planning to release The Falcon and the Winter Soldier before WandaVision. It was supposed to act as a transitional show taking the MCU from the silver screen to the digital realm. However, the pandemic paused the production, so Spellman’s miniseries had to move its release date further down the line. I think The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s episodes being released during the George Floyd case makes a lot more sense, so I think the timing worked out well.

Sam Wilson’s story arc is the most vital part of the series because there is real character growth and a gratifying ending. At the start of the series, Sam feels uncomfortable even looking at the Captain America shield. He donates the shield to the Smithsonian for an exhibit honoring his best friend, Steve Rogers. He is still the Falcon but working as a military contractor overseas. A case involving the Flag-Smashers, a terrorist group against returning to the Pre-Blip world, catches his eye. Sam is horrified when he realizes the government replaced his friend with a White, blue-eyed stranger named John Walker.

Sam meets Isaiah Bradley, the second American super-soldier, locked up by the United States military for experimentation because he is a Black man. Sam doesn’t feel comfortable with Walker as Captain America but can’t imagine wearing the symbol of a country that always treats him as a second-class citizen. As a Black man, Sam feels conflicted.

Even back home in Louisiana, Sam has to deal with the racism from a loan officer who refuses to help him and his sister Sarah save their family’s commercial fishing boat. Even using “The Falcon” moniker doesn’t give Sam the leverage to receive the loan. The loan officer wants some pictures with Sam and freaks out over meeting an Avenger but can’t allow a Black family to have the tools to save their business.

Sam’s time trying to stop the Flag-Smashers and attempting to break through to the revolutionary Karli gives him time to realize that he has what it takes to be Captain America. Captain America represents protection, compassion, and the ability to speak truth to power, so the United States can indeed be the country where everybody has equal opportunity to thrive. Sam morphs into his version of Captain America and opens the eyes of the Global Repatriation Council. The council realizes that they have the power to see the issues through the eyes of the ninety-nine percent of the population who are suffering and not just go with the easiest choice of sending everybody back to their original countries. The people left behind in the “Blip” don’t need to suffer to elevate those who were gone for five years.

Bucky, the Winter Soldier, finally deals with his trauma and guilt from being an assassin when both Sokovian Terrorist Helmut Zemo and Hydra brainwashed him. At the start of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky is at his lowest point. He has nothing but his guilt to sit with. There are no wars to fight. Bucky can’t sleep anywhere but on the floor. Even on the floor, he has nightmares. The Winter Soldier is lying to his therapist about how he is trying to redeem himself. He uses spycraft and violence to bring everybody involved in Hydra to justice instead of finding redemption by helping those who he hurt.

Bucky befriends one of the victim’s fathers, Yori, but doesn’t mention anything about his son RJ Nakajima. Bucky selfishly doesn’t want to lose one of his few friends.

When Bucky sees John holding the Captain America Shield, he is angry with Sam. He can’t understand how conflicted Sam is over becoming Captain America. Bucky’s reluctant team up with The Falcon allows him to ignore his issues temporarily. But even then, the Winter Soldier has to face his past because they need Zemo’s assistance to hunt down the Flag-Smashers.

During the last episode, Sam counsels Bucky. The Winter Soldier realizes he needs to give closure to one of his victims instead of trying to make himself feel better by punishing his enemies. Bucky sleeps through the night for the first time and visits Yori. He tells the father that he killed RJ as the Winter Soldier. Bucky loses his friend but gives Yori the closure he has been waiting for for years.

https://www.fanbolt.com/113689/line-of-duty-season-6-episode-1-recap-innocent-or-guilty/

Spoilers Below

In Line of Duty Season Six Episode One, directed by David Nettheim, DI Kate Fleming is working under the suspicious DCI Joanne “Jo” Davidson. The latter comes under AC-12’s attention when PS Farida Jatri reports Jo to DS Steve Arnott.

Before season six, Kate left AC-12. She works at the Hillside Lane Station as a member of the Murder Investigation Team under Jo. Ted lost the trust of some of his bosses because of the bribery charges. Steve wants to move departments for more chances at promotion.

Season Six starts with DS Christopher Lomax delivering a lead for the murder of Gail Vella to Jo from a CHIS, a.k.a. informant about a possible murder suspect. A suspect using the alias Ross Turner killed Gail. Jo asks her superior lazy DSU, Ian Buckell, for direct surveillance or an arrest, but he wants more evidence to back up the word of a male prostitute, a.k.a. the CHIS.

The following day Jo meets up with the whole “Operation Lighthouse” team investigating Gail’s murder. All of the team members will arm up to arrest Ross Turner in his Beechwood House flat. The surveillance team has captured some blurry photographs of a man peeking out of the flat. Sadly, the CHIS ran away, meaning he can’t verify the occupant as Ross.

The convoy picks up their weapons from the armory and rushes off. As they speed to the apartments, Jo notices something strange in the corner of one of the store-line streets. Kate tries to talk her into calling the possible crime in, but she refuses. Jo orders the convoy to stop. A minute later, a bunch of masked robbers runs out of a gambling shop. Three of the robbers are killed during the struggle to arrest them. Farida notices how young all of the criminals appear. The convoy is delayed while Jo contacts the station to send out replacements. Kate is given authority over the robbery crime scene while Jo continues their mission.

When the convoy finally arrives, the surveillance team doesn’t see any movement in the flat. Thankfully the murder investigation officers secure the arrest of the person suspected to be Ross. The suspect turns out to be Terry Boyle, a man with down syndrome who has been in past seasons of Line of Duty. In those seasons, Terry has been exploited by an organized crime group.

After the arrest, Kate, Chris, and Jo meet up for a debrief. Terry confirmed that his name was Ross, but only after being prompted by Chris. Kate is not sure that somebody with learning disabilities could even execute somebody. Jo agrees that the suspect is not their man if it’s an execution murder, but it’s possible that “Ross” is an obsessed fan who killed Gail out of passion.

Meanwhile, back in AC-12, Farida meets up with Steve to discuss how she thinks that Jo is crooked because she delayed the arrest of Ross. She also believes that a man with down syndrome can’t keep a murder of a high-profile reporter under wraps for over a year. Ted refuses to authorize a formal investigation until Steve finds evidence to back up Farida’s claims.

“Operation Lighthouse” is cleared to interview ” Ross” with his solicitor and an appropriate adult. They learn that his real name is Terry, and he doesn’t live at the Beechwood House flat. Though he does call Gail “a nice lady.”

Kate checks in with the forensic team, who is at Terry’s flat in Dorton Villas. The apartment has been cleaned thoroughly with bleach. However, there are a bunch of press clippings photos of Gail on his kitchen wall. Kate reports back to Jo about how nobody at the Dorton Villas complex knew the man who lived at the flat well and gave a vague description of him that could fit several people. They need the CHIS to confirm that Terry is the suspect, but the police handler refuses to give out his address.

Steve finds out some bizarre facts about the case, like how the robbers have wafer-thin rap sheets. He is frustrated that he can’t get a hold of Farida to fill in the blanks. Meanwhile, Ian drills into Jo for not being able to say Terry is their man. He wants to go home. Jo and Ian may be part of a conspiracy since she mentions something about wanting the case to go a certain way.

On the other hand, Jo could be utterly innocent since she seems genuinely upset when Kate tells her that a mess up in the paperwork calling for direct authority instead of intrusive authority led the surveillance team to stop watching the flat for a while. Meaning that Jo and Kate can’t be sure if Terry was in the flat that whole time or if there was somebody else there who left. However, earlier, Jo did ask Ian for direct, not intrusive, authority.

Later, the team learns the CHIS died, meaning they still can’t be sure of Terry’s guilt or innocence.

Jo and Chris conduct a second interview with Terry to confront him about two significant pieces of evidence. The forensic team found fingerprints of a man named Carl Banks in the flat, but Terry won’t say anything. The other major piece of evidence is that his semen was found on photographs of Gail. Jo and Chris are forced to end the interview when Terry freaks out.

Kate meets up with Steve in his car. He asks Kate if she is willing to be an informant. Kate tells Steve that she has to think about it since she likes her new team. Meanwhile, she tells Steve about finding Carl’s fingerprints. That fact gets him permission from Ted to start a formal investigation into Jo’s misconduct.

https://www.fanbolt.com/112362/chilling-adventures-of-sabrina-season-4-review-mixed-bag/

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season Four, developed by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, ends on a bitter-sweet note. I am a big fan of the series, but this is not a fantastic final season.

Aguirre-Sacasa keeps the same unique timeless horror 1950’s, Victorian-era mixed in with the present-day aesthetics. The characters like Sabrina Spellman and her aunts are entirely in character, but there are many problems with the plot and some new characters. Having two “Sabrinas” doesn’t work, which is an enormous problem since most stories are about the two teenagers.

Sabrina Morningstar and Sabrina Spellman are too similar to one another. These two Sabrina’s are supposed to be the opposite sides of the same coin. For most of the season, the story is focused on Spellman, but Morningstar still plays an important part. However, all the character differences are superficial. For example, Morningstar wears a red headband while Spellman wears a black one. Morningstar is the Queen of Hell and Spellman is a Greendale teen witch.

In “The Endless” (episode 7), when Sabrina Morningstar tries to end the Eldritch Terrors in the alternative Sitcom world, it doesn’t feel like I’m watching a unique character. She acts the same as Sabrina Spellman would in every scene. The only difference is that Morningstar doesn’t know anything about the Eldritch Terrors. When Morningstar re-enters the “normal universe” dead, it’s hard to feel sad when Spellman is still around. If Aguirre-Sacasa wants the audience to be invested in both characters, the two Sabrinas need distinctive personalities and looks.

One of the other major problems is how Nick Scratch’s suicide is treated in Season Four. Sabrina Spellman sacrifices her life to close the void that would erase everybody’s existence. The last episode ends with Sabrina in the afterlife looking up at a painting. Nick comes up to her, saying he killed himself by swimming in the ocean of despair.

At first, Sabrina is upset, but he comforts his girlfriend by saying they have eternity to be together. First, I have the minor problem of how Sabrina and Nick spend most of the season apart, and neither seems sad about the breakup. Nick is dating Prudence. Sabrina seems more upset about feeling isolated from her friends than not being with Nick.

However, the largest issue is with the moral implications of showing such a rosy view of suicide. Now, based on the rise of teen suicide after Thirteen Reasons Why Season One showed Hannah killing herself, it’s good that it didn’t show Nick’s death. However, there should be some representation of the horrors of suicide. There are no scenes of Nick’s depression following Sabrina’s death or the after-effects of his death on his friends or family. We never imagine the life Nick could have lived. Sabrina bends to the idea of his suicide being positive rather quickly.

The ending shows a rosy view of teens committing suicide for true love. Two teenagers being together in death is Romeo and Julietesque. Nick’s death is in bad taste, especially since part of the show’s significant demographic is teenagers prone to seeing the world in dramatic black and white ways.

One of my favorite parts of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season Four is the romance between Aunt Zelda Spellman and Mambo Marie LeFleur. LeFleur spends a lot of her time at the Spellman house or the Academy of the Unseen Arts, where Aunt Zelda is the High Priestess of Hecate. The two women support one another and sometimes are seen kissing. Their romance is in Season Four’s background, but it’s shown as being at the same level as Aunt Hilda’s marriage with Dr. Cerebus. LeFleur sits at the family dinner table after Hilda’s wedding ceremony.

Sadly, LeFleur turns out to be Baron Samedi, the loa of the dead. He leads the “returned” back to the afterlife. Samedi can’t come back. Aunt Zelda feels betrayed by Samedi, who lied about everything. He demonstrates his love for Zelda by leaving her familiar Vinegar Tom behind and promising to wait for her in the afterlife. I’m a little frustrated that the only same-sex female couple in the show turned out to be heterosexual, but it’s still a sweet love story.

The Spellman family dynamics carry the show. The relationships between Sabrina, Aunt Zelda, Aunt Hilda, and Ambrose are consistent throughout the series. The scene demonstrating their dynamics the most effective is when Aunt Zelda and Aunt Hilda learn that Sabrina split herself in two during season three. Zelda yells at Sabrina for lying to them. She asks Sabrina if anybody else in this realm knows the truth. Sabrina reluctantly admits that Ambrose knew about the Queen of Hell. Zelda calls for Ambrose. Suddenly she is questioning Ambrose about why he didn’t tell her about the two “Sabrinas.”

Sabrina tries to stand up for her cousin by saying she made him keep the secret. Zelda teases Ambrose about how he, as a grown witch in his hundreds, let a teenage girl bully him. The aunt doesn’t take this argument seriously. Sabrina shrugs, implying she did force him. It’s a funny but dramatic scene that shows everybody’s personalities. I will miss seeing more of the Spellman family.