The season had its moments, but wow, that was a real downer for the way it ended. Still somehow not as dark as the previous season which is just weird. Some of the funniest episodes were in this season, but it took a turn for the dark with the Fred/Eliria episode.

This month I deviated from my usual consumption by watching short films and reading short stories. The 12 short films were mostly on the National Film Registry. The 4 short stories were by William Sansom.
The short films were interesting from a historical aspect. The most enjoyable was Meshes of the Afternoon. The Hindenberg newsreel was disturbing. As was the Betty Boop animated short (which I had not expected.)

In addition, this month I listened to 9 albums, watched 5 movies, and finished 2 seasons of Angel on DVD. I have been reading Middlemarch all month, but have not finished it yet.

Music:
Two CDs stood out among the others. Neither have gotten very much attention. One was Dreaming in Romance Languages by Catie Curtis. The other is And it’s Come to This by Seven Nations. The former had a sort of folk-rock sound, very easy to listen to. The latter was rock with an Irish influence.

Movies:
All the films I saw this month were memorable from Juno for being an atypical teen pregnancy story to Audition for having the hardest-to-watch torture scene ever.

Pretty bland.

The darkest season so far. I didn’t think it could get much darker than season three, but it did.

Spoilers below

I loved the exploration of “what really is evil?” And how all the characters realized that everything from the start had been choreographed by the power that wanted to end the world with um, world peace. Just great stuff.

But I hope next season is a little lighter…

This soundtrack had too much dialogue from the movie throughout. But I’m a sucker for the Yaz song, so it was still worth it.

Nice album. Particularly liked the tracks Red Light and Dark Weather.

Great piece. While it was experimental and surreal, it was still engaging and accessible.

Seemed like it might have been the first music video…

This short is also known at C-Jam Blues for those looking for it.

Season three went in such a darker place than the first two seasons. Actually, I thought season two was dark until I watched this one. Man, could things get any worse for the characters?

I have mixed feeling about this one. While in theory I think it was rather brilliant, the execution was disappointing. I love the idea of illustrating the evolution of a relationship through one element (here it’s sex) rather than the traditional, boy meets girl format.

The other thing the film had going for it (theoretically) was its attempt to show sex as mundane, rather than the glitzy and romanticized way that Hollywood usually portrays it.

However, the shoddy way it’s filmed ruined it for me. It looks more like a home video than a real production. And the casting, which I imagine would have been difficult given what was being asked, was horrible. The female lead in particular was impossible to hear and usually just mumbling. Too bad, in the hands of the right director this film could have been amazing.