Drama Llama

A few days ago I started reading Harlan Coben’s  The Stranger. a friend had given me the crime thriller in anticipation of Richard Armitage starring in the Netflix adaptation, but I never got around to reading it. I watched the Netflix television series when it was originally released but I found it too chaotic, like a slippery fish that I just couldn’t hold on to. so when I started reading the book on a whim, I was not expecting much, just hoping that maybe the story would be more enjoyable to follow in written form. surprisingly, I couldn’t put it down!

so it’s true? you cheated on fanfiction with a real book. and liked it.

I vaguely remembered the plot and the key players from the television series, so I already knew ‘who done it’ in the end but as it went along, I thought maybe I was misremembering because there were a lot of things that were different. a lot. the most glaring being the absence of the alpacas. not that I lamented this discrepancy, because it was essentially that whole tangent that turned me off the series, but did I mix up that whole teens getting high in the woods and decapitating an alpaca and then hiding it in the closet scenario? was that a Black Mirror episode?

first rule of rural life: what happens at the bonfire, stays at the bonfire

When I finished the novel (in 2 days) my immediate reaction was that it made so much more sense! I then googled the ‘series vs the book’ to see if my memory was playing tricks on me (it wasn’t). I learned that the author wanted to switch things up in the tv version so that the book readers wouldn’t have it all figured out already. maybe viewers found all the switch ups exciting, and the story did have to be drawn out due to the series format instead of a one-time telling in movie form, but I think the book version worked better. all the drama of the high school subplot and the connection through Adam’s dad concerning the real estate war and the identity of the stranger, not to mention the revelation of why Adam’s older client didn’t want to move out of his house; it was just too much. I preferred the more straight forward explanations of the book.

me, waiting for the plot to find me

I also learned that the author’s young daughter is responsible for the whole alpaca sideshow. and now that makes more sense too.

I’d like to read other Harlan Coben books but don’t know which one to try next. Richard Armitage is set to appear in an adaptation of Stay Close; should I read that one or try some others first?

but when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell, you don’t know oh oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful…

1-2-3-4 Come on Baby, Say You Love Me

Now that the Marvel Sci-Fi television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has wrapped up it’s final season, I’ve started a rewatch from the beginning. so much happens over the show’s seven seasons that starting over is almost like watching it again for the first time! I’m falling in love with the characters all over again, especially the first one that grabbed me and never let me go: Grant Ward

When you first meet Grant Ward, he’s the quintessential ‘hero’ character, one of the top agents on director Phil Coulson’s team for the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. when they take in a highly skilled computer hacker named Skye, Ward becomes her training officer and you start to see his military-like demeanor shift and soften as he develops feelings for her. that Ward melts me, but things aren’t what they seem.

Grant Ward goes through a few different transformations over his 4 season arc and although some are nicer than others, I love them all. Brett Dalton does such a good job portraying 3 different versions of the same character (along with a whole other character that’s still Grant but not) the different emotions that you come to recognize in his eyes in relation to each, just reels me in and steals my attention in each and every episode that he is in. and he’s not hard to look at either, so there’s that too.

 

That’s the spoiler-free summary. the not-so-spoiler-free summary…

 

First, Grant was the highly skilled special agent, then it came to light that he was spying for the rival organization known as Hydra. he didn’t believe in their mission so much as he was just proving his loyalty to his mentor, John Garrett. enter Ward number 2: now he’s Hydra, under Garrett’s command. those soft brown eyes aren’t as soft anymore, but he’s more of an everyday man than regimented soldier.

somewhere along the way he gets captured by his former S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and held captive in a high tech cell. everyone on the team despises him now. Skye hates him because not only did he betray the team but she feels played by him, like his feelings for her were false and only a means to an end. Ward claims this isn’t true, that he never lied to her, just skirted the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping Grant to pump him for information about Hydra, which he offers up as long as it’s Skye who does the questioning. he promises her he will never to lie to her, but she doesn’t believe him.

after he escapes S.H.I.E.L.D. captivity, he orchestrates an opportunity for Skye to be reunited with her long lost father, who she thinks is a psychopath, so she’s not exactly grateful for the opportunity. things don’t exactly go as planned, and when everything breaks out into chaos around them, Grant tries to usher Skye to safety but she doesn’t trust him. so much so, that she shoots him and leaves him to bleed to death. he recovers with the help of a Hydra castoff, and a twisted love affair develops between them.

Grant makes it his mission for his new girlfriend to get revenge on those who wronged her, while also taking it upon himself to rebuild the fallen Hydra organization. this Grant is not nice, at all, but he exudes power and confidence, which can be enticing. a bunch of stuff happens and then Grant Ward is no more.

…until an ancient alien inhabits his body and wreaks havoc, while trying to recruit help on his quest to conquer the world. this Grant, also known as ‘Hive’, is an odd mix of scary and mesmerizing. he’s clearly the bad guy, so you don’t want him to win but he doesn’t put up with bullshit from anyone, so you never know who he’s going to turn on.

Hive is calculating and he actually has some integrity, of his own kind, which you can begrudgingly respect. this Grant is very different from the former two. he’s poised, dominant, and seemingly all powerful. forgive me, but I was actually rooting for him a lot of the time! I think it had something to do with the Matrix-like outfit that he wore. this Grant, is also eventually snuffed out.

Grant Ward number 4 (Hive wasn’t really Grant, he just used his body and retained his memories to cruelly taunt those who once cared about Grant) appears in a computer simulation called the Framework. this Grant isn’t technically real, just part of a computer program, but he’s a combination of the first two versions, which confuses the S.H.I.E.L.D. team who used to care for him but then grew to despise him. he redeems the memory of Grant in the end and so everything comes full circle.

I don’t have enough praise for the way the actor portrays all of these versions, subtly giving them differences by the emotion in his eyes or the stance of his body. I checked IMDb to see what else Brett Dalton has been in and surprisingly, he’s gone the Hallmark Channel movie route. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen a Hallmark Channel movie. I may have to change that.

(interesting tidbit: Brett has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale)

Fictional Crush Challenge

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

I saw this challenge  over on teapoweredcrafting, where Rachel devoted short posts to each of her 10 character crushes. I’m afraid I’d lose interest before I reached day 10, so I’m going to put them all in one post instead…

 

⭐ Mister Rogers from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

when I was very young I used to claim that Mister Rogers was my boyfriend. he was nice, understanding, and never condescending. as far as first boyfriends go, he was a catch!

 

⭐ Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties

another childhood crush. Alex stood by his convictions, even if they were the complete opposite of those held by everyone around him. I could definitely relate to being the rule-following-outcast of a liberal household.

 

⭐ Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye

Holden doesn’t like phony people, he thinks they’re crumbly. he does like ducks though, and those little rainbow splashes that gasoline leaks leave on the road. he’d also like to save little kids from the confusion and hassle of adulthood. Holden Caulfield is my fictional soul mate.

 

⭐ Byron Sully from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman

he shuns society and the lies it sells, is best friends with Cheyenne Indians and has adopted their way of life, and he isn’t intimidated by strong intelligent women. I’m not crazy about the long hair but it is very well kept (and it looks so soft!)

 

⭐ Fox Mulder from The X-Files

he doesn’t believe anything is as it seems, even when he sees it with his own eyes. he is open to any and every possibility. he’s constantly questioning things, and his passion is the weird & unusual.

 

⭐ Steve from Blue’s Clues

full disclosure here, folks! yes, I had a crush on Steve when my son was a toddler. but a man who asked for my opinion all the time and actually waited for my answers, AND was always telling me what a good job I was doing? of course I was drawn to that! he wasn’t very smart though.

Steve, trying to think without sitting in his Thinking Chair. this is gonna take awhile.

 

⭐ Edward Cullen from Twilight

he’s good looking, he smells divine, is a bit uptight and moody but has a wonderful family that can be very playful. he’s smart, drives a Volvo during the week but an Aston Martin on the weekends, and he thinks you’re the best thing EVER. he also struggles not to suck you dry of blood and life, but nobody’s perfect.

 

⭐ Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds

really really smart but sweetly naive when it comes to human emotions. also, he wears a pistol on his hip like he’s from the wild west.

 

⭐ Cyrus Lupo from Law & Order

a NYPD Homicide detective who is taking night school classes to become a lawyer. I’m going to skip over the sales pitch and just get right to the point: his voice is like melted chocolate. and he’s not hard to look at either.

 

⭐ Malcolm Bright Whitly from Prodigal Son

smart, cynical, dry sense of humor, but just a little bit crazy. like, has to be chained to his bed at night so he doesn’t accidentally throw himself out the window kind of crazy. but he’s very nice and very patient, especially with his highly dysfunctional family (his dad is a serial killer, but just delightful!) Malcolm is my current television crush and I heart him. hard.

 

in conclusion, I seem to like nice men who are smart, humorously cynical, and a tad unstable. clothing style: Geek Chic

because you thought I made it through a whole post without any Hayden.

Twenty-Five

~Acting Age Comparison~

when Factory Girl was released in 2006, Hayden Christensen was 25 years old.

Billy Quinn, folk singing love interest of Factory Girl’s Edie Sedgewick, is a complicated character for me because I don’t want to like him but I do. the way he chastises Edie about her friendship with Andy, poking fun at the things that are important to her because he thinks his way of viewing things is better, both irritates and intrigues me.

there is chemistry, they have fun together and they connect intimately, but it just isn’t enough. the way he ends things with her, so abruptly, angers me but I can’t help to respect him for it. he knew she was a mess emotionally, and he knew their societal views clashed too harshly, better to get out before they got in too deep. I think I was just hoping he’d save her somehow, but he didn’t want to traverse the mine field that was her life; I shouldn’t fault him for knowing his own limitations.

the conflict I feel towards the character, in large part stems from the way Hayden portrays him: he gives him heart. while Billy may express his thoughts in a condescending way, I can feel the authenticity of them, and as arrogant as his outward actions appear, I’m shown glimpses underneath of the passionate poet who longs to change the world. all of this is conveyed through his eyes, his smirk, the curved set of his shoulders, and the prideful lift of his chin.

 

when the second season of Stranger Things was released in 2017, Joe Keery was 25 years old.

so far in these age comparison posts I’ve tried to stick to movie releases, disregarding television series/miniseries and made for tv movies, but the connection I kept making for Hayden’s portrayal of Billy Quinn was the bad boy that infuriated with his arrogance but also endeared with his boyish heart- and that also describes Steve Harrington from Stranger Things. 

in season one, Steve was a popular jock who kept his status by bullying the creepy kid who was pulling at his girlfriend’s heartstrings. in season two, he’s knocked down a few pegs and starts to let the underlying softness come through, by befriending the younger boys and graciously accepting his girlfriend’s need to move on from their relationship. the arrogance is still there but it’s become more endearing than irritating. this character growth was due entirely to Joe Keery. the writers tweaked their vision of Steve after seeing the way audiences reacted to Joe and the inherent innocence he brought to the designated bad guy.

 

If an actor can tap into the humanity of a character, show relatable struggles as they make the lines of good vs bad less distinguishable, that is something that will earn my praise. when I see myself in a character who frustrates and confuses me but I still like them, I find a certain level of reassurance in that.

Play Me a Memory

look what I found! or rather, look what one of those industrious young fans on Twitter found, and so then I went to YouTube to sift through all 20 episodes before I found the correct one. the hover preview thing you can do with your cursor is a wonderful function.

(the video is cued to start when he plays a fast bluesy number, and then after a short bit of dialogue, he plays something more traditional)

so this is Hayden, playing the piano in an episode of Higher Ground (yes, Star Wars fans, that really is the name of the show), which was a teen soap opera series he was part of in 2000. he plays the piano at two different parts in this episode. the one above, which is hella impressive, in my opinion. and the simpler, but quite lovely, one below.

“I love it when you play.” I do, indeed.