Here at home we have a TV schedule of lunchtime with "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and suppertime/evening wading through "Dirillis: Ertrugrul" or "Resurrection: Ertugrul".
I've always had quite mixed feelings about watching TV....ESPECIALLY series of any kind. I was so proud of never watching a single episode of "Dallas". Now, we're both fairly hooked on both these series....and the mixed feelings still exist...in spades. First, let me say that when I watch about anything on, say, Netflix...but particularly something war/spy/violence related, I am stunned at the end when all the suggestions for my further viewing pleasure come up and I'm overwhelmed with titles of movies I've never heard of but untold billions of dollars have been spent on to produce. Now I need to shut my brain down a bit or I start segueing into arguments with my anti-Semite brother about whether it's the Jews or just the greedy wealthy who are screwing up the world, or into the book about the end of capitalism which says that theater (movies, TV, etc.) is a serious weapon of the Rontier (spelling/ renter) class to keep us distracted from noticing all the shit they're pulling. But I digress.
Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime) is about a Jewish girl whose husband cheats on her and it frees her up to be a stand-up comedian. As much as I don't like the portrayal of snobbish anyone, the idea that gross consumerism is normal life, or the implication that this represents real life in any way.....this series has grown on me. Mrs. Maisel's stints on stage do tend to be pretty funny, if pretty cynical. What really bothers me quite a lot is at the production level as there seem to be enough extras in each episode to make "The Bible" blush with embarrassment. Case in point...hiring a midget to run through the scene for 2 seconds. And they take over pretty significant public spaces to shoot scenes, use around 50 locations with every episode. Old cars, old juke boxes, old everything are freely plopped into every scene. The wardrobe budget likely exceeds the take of most movies. With Jewish parents playing mostly slapstick roles, the producers manage to make it pretty palatable. Still, I can't help feeling a bit embarrassed myself for liking it. It doesn't help much that I have somewhat of an opinion that Jewish people control a lot of the movie business. I don't want to feel anti-Semitsh, but it's hard to condone what seems like insane spending for entertainment.
Now Ertugrul, (Netflix) on the other hand, is based on Turkish history. It's entirely sub-titled, often with poor translations that are sometimes left on the screen for so short a time you have to keep hitting the "back 10 seconds" button either to interpret or simply see what was said. Season 1 alone was 76 - 45 minute episodes and subsequent seasons go over 100 episodes. As Christians, we tend to get the Crusader side of the equation, but the Turkish nomad side has the crusaders as sneaky bastards who will stop at nothing to see the Nomads destroyed and open the way for the next Crusade. Dealing with the Crusaders is season 1. Now we're about 1/3 into season 2 where they're facing the Mongol advance troops who are setting up supply and spy networks to weaken the Muslim locals. The drawbacks on this one are, at least, less wasteful. Way too much slow-mo....gets funny after awhile, pacing almost as slow as a soap-opera (not that I've ever watched one for long), lots of sword play but not too much gratuitous violence or blood-letting...so maybe that's not a drawback. One sidekick of the hero is a rather goofy Alp (nomad fighting guy) who tends to get excited about the idea of killing infidels with his two sword style. He's good comic relief where little exists otherwise (OK, none exists otherwise)....but the drawback that's coming a bit to light is that his killing of infidels, while it's aimed now at the invading Mongol hordes, is rather a bit too similar to modern Islamic extremist activity and often repeats the idea that Islam is bringing light to the world and needs to replace all other religions. Another questionable bit...there's a fair amount of magical thinking going on with the character we call "Angel-guy" when he has predictive dreams and calls on God to heal, protect, etc.... and it works. Interesting that today, Turkey is tending to suppress the nomadic Kurds....not sure what that means in the big picture-show.
So there you have it....the influence of religion on modern entertainment. The effing Jews open a big can of worms by taking gods from the local, mostly harmless level, to One Big God who knows all, sees all, and plays favorites. Then the Christians come along and try to get everyone in on the act...no favorites here...we can all be hobos on the freight train to heaven (ever hear that song ?)...but we don't especially like Jews...at least in Europe, for a few centuries. And on to the Muslims who really complicate things by picking out the parts of the Bible they like best and the guy they like best and just going with that ....but lately, even they can't agree.
I wonder why Mrs Maisel was
made....to introduce the world to modern Judaism ? Strictly
entertainment ? I guess to look for 'why' may be to look for
conspiracy. But so much money ?
Nuff said.
Nuff said.
