The Flight Attendant (Season 1)

 

The Flight Attendant appeared on my radar because of Kaley Cuoco. I always liked her character Penny on The Big Bang Theory, and so when I discovered this show in which she stars, I became intrigued. Of course I had no idea what it was about, so I did a little homework to learn about the plot. Kaley plays Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant who spends an evening with one of her passengers (Alex Sokolov) in Bangkok, only to wake up the next morning to discover that he had been murdered. Instead of doing the logical thing and going to the police, she instead avoids the authorities, going on a mission to find out who killed Alex, proving her innocence along the way.

The first season was 8 episodes long, and 3-4 episodes were spent setting up characters and a complicated plot. This includes explaining Cassie's background, complicated with troubles with alcohol that began as a kid. Her best friend Annie, who is a lawyer and conveniently has access to all kinds of information with her lawyer connections, and her boyfriend Max, who also conveniently is a hacker and can access lots of information to help with Cassie's case. I found Annie's character to be a little annoying. There were other character introductions as well, such as the FBI agents and Alex Sokolov's family. The point being, these episodes, which were in the middle of the season, were somewhat slow paced. I think they could have condensed this to two episodes to keep the pace of the show a bit quicker. 

The first episode, which introduces Cassie and the murder of Alex Sokolov, was good. As were the final 2-3 episodes of the season, which wrapped up a complicated murder mystery plot with a few surprise twists that I did not expect. The show featured a lot of flashback/hallucination scenes that at first I was iffy about, but as the season progressed I got used to them. I think they were a decent way to show the psychological distress Cassie was going through with her new friend being murdered next to her. This distress is compounded by the fragile nature of her psyche from her childhood trauma.

The show overall was OK. It had moments of dark humor, and a few twists to keep the plot interesting. I think it could have been two episodes shorter and been just as good. I'm on the fence for season two. A CIA agent is on Cassie's flight crew, spying on one of her co-flight attendants who is sharing proprietary information to the North Korean government. In the process of figuring out who killed Alex Sokolov, the CIA agent's cover is blown, and he invites her to join the CIA doing side gigs, which forms the basis of season 2. We shall see. I have HBO Max for another month with nothing pressing that I want to watch on the service. On the other hand, I have a couple of other shows in my queue that I wouldn't mind beginning.

Chicago Marathon (Virtual)

 

I recently finished the Chicago Marathon virtually. That makes three marathons in the past year, the other two being the London Marathon and the Boston Marathon. I don't run the entire marathon in one session, and would never say that I've run a full marathon. Instead, they are broken up into 5-6 sessions that are 4-5 miles per session. Each session takes me about an hour to complete, so I run at a relatively light steady pace. Regardless, I think it is pretty neat to be able to say that I experienced the course and scenery that the marathon has to offer. 

Out of the three marathons, I prefer the Chicago and London Marathons over the Boston Marathon. The entire course in those marathons is in the city, whereas the Boston Marathon starts beyond the suburbs and slowly makes its way into the city. Also, the Chicago and London Marathons are flat, whereas the Boston Marathon has some hills so is a bit tougher. I will say, of the three marathons, the Boston Marathon has the loudest and most enthusiastic fans, which is cool.

City Journal: London - We Have A Problem

 

I haven't published a City Journal post in several months. After re-zoning several areas from medium to high density zones, allowing high-rise buildings, I took a break from the game for a bit. I have recently picked the game up again, and have been working on south London and have since moved to southeast London. While my city has grown (the population is up to 3.8 million people), nothing substantial has happened to post about. I was planning my next City Journal post to be about the London underground, but that won't be finished in my city until I am finished developing the entire region. I played the game this morning to develop the southeast area of Sidcup when I discovered a problem. 

I was looking to develop a highway extension that would go right through a portion of London city center. When I entered central London, a window appeared stating the city used plugins that were no longer supported. In order to make London appear as real as possible (see above), I have downloaded buildings that don't come with the game from a site called Simtropolis. Sites like the Shard, Westminster Palace, etc. appear in my game because of these plugins. These structures have now been replaced with giant packages in my city (see below).

This is only part of the problem, however. Most of the areas in my city do not use these plugins, and I can deal with the packages or can replace them with other structures. The bigger problem involves another plugin that I use but you can't see. It is a bank plugin that gives me $50,000,000 whenever I want. This plugin is what allows me to develop at such a rapid pace. I can play the game the "correct" way, and develop my cities in such a way that they naturally make money. However, it would take me considerably longer to develop a region as big as London than it already does, and I've been working on this region for a couple of years at this point. Essentially, my funds have dried.

This game is around 20 years old, and this isn't the first time it has broken. There have been times when I couldn't even play the game because of certain updates. The mod community and their plugins have been one of my favorite parts of this game, and one of the reasons why I continue to play it despite its age. I will have to check Simtropolis for an explanation or hopefully an update. I can deal with not being able to place specific buildings in my city. If I can't easily make money, however, it may be game over for Sim City.

The White Lotus (Season 2)

 

I just about gave up on the second season of The White Lotus. I didn't like the characters on this season as much as I did season 1, and I generally wasn't as interested in what was going on. As I was about to give up on the season, the plot pace picked up, and I think the last half of the season was overall very good. Now knowing how the season ends, I suspect I could rewatch the first half of the season and pick up on several subtle actions that I missed initially that would point to what occurred in the final episode. After "the gays" referred to Tonya as the star of the opera, and it was revealed that the star of the opera dies, I knew the writing was on the wall for poor Tonya. The question is Quentin just a friend of Greg's (uncle Rico), or are they lovers? Like a lot of other aspects of this show, a lot of questions remain. But it makes for good television.

It was good seeing Michael Imperioli again. I haven't seen him in anything since the Sopranos. I also enjoyed F. Murray Abraham's perverted old man character. I always enjoyed his work on Mythic Quest as well. There was a time when I thought Albie and the escort would be the dead bodies. Luckily that didn't occur. The escort played this family like a fiddle, and her friend the pianist both came out on top, which was nice to see considering they aren't one of the rich elite. In general, I didn't enjoy this family dynamic as well as the Mossbacher family.

I found the Ethan/Harper & Cam/Daphne dynamic a bit frustrating as well. A lot of awkwardness here, and in general didn't enjoy their scenes as much as the newlywed scenes from season 1. I was pretty certain Ethan did not kill Cam, considering Daphne seemed completely fine (ignorantly bliss) in the opening/final scene of the show.

Despite not enjoying the characters as much, the ending of this season was much more spectacular than season 1. It was a very ornate plot to kill Tonya to get her money, which kept me guessing up to the penultimate episode.

Star Wars - Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

 

The events of this book take place immediately following the Rebel Alliance's successful destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope.  Iden Versio, a TIE fighter pilot stationed on the Death Star, survives the explosion as she was flying in her TIE at the time. Her father, a powerful Imperial military commander, realizes the Rebel Alliance is growing in strength following the attack on the Death Star. In response, he creates Inferno Squad, a group of Imperial military members who go undercover to infiltrate the Dreamers, a group of extreme rebels following in the steps of Saw Gerrera. Of course, difficult decisions have to be made to keep their cover, including injuring and killing other Imperial members. After learning that the Dreamer's informant is a former Governor and his step-daughter, the book concludes with Inferno Squad killing the remaining members of the Dreamers and beginning their next mission.

Of interest, the book is associated with the 2017 video game Star Wars: Battlefront II. The events of the book take place prior to the events of the game. I've never played the game but it is on my radar after reading the book. 

Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

Sarah and I were in the process of rewatching the Seinfeld series whenever we got access to HBO Max. I decided to take that opportunity to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm again. Curb is about Larry David's fictional life, and Larry is the co-creator of Seinfeld, so the two shows have very similar vibes. The show has like 10 seasons, but is one of those shows where I've seen the first couple of seasons a handful of times but nothing beyond. I'm hoping to be able to get a bit further into the series this time around. 

Last night we watched episode S2E2 - Thor, that has possibly the funniest 3 minutes I have ever seen on television. Earlier in the episode, Larry makes a comment to Wanda Sykes about her ass. When he returns home, he gets grilled from his wife about the comment, then Wanda shows up and grills him. It is one of the most memorable TV scenes I've ever seen.

The White Lotus (Season 1)

 

The White Lotus is a show about a resort hotel chain of the same name, its employees, and the guests who vacation there. Season 2 just finished and people were talking about it on Twitter, so I decided to give it a watch. Otherwise I had never heard of the show and had no idea what to expect. It's a dark comedy and drama, where each episode follows the day in the lives of the guests and hotel workers. The first season is only 6 episodes, so the events on the show last a week. One of the interesting parts of this show is that most of the characters are generally unlikeable. As tensions rise throughout the week, it is difficult to know who to root for, creating at times some awkward scenarios. 

Armond and Belinda are the two hotel employees worth mentioning. Belinda is the spa manager, and she is the most likable person on the show. Surrounded by privileged white people, she gets excited when Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge - "The core of the onion!") begins discussing plans for Belinda to open her own spa. Of course, Tanya reneges on her offer in the end.  Armond is the hotel manager, who puts up with all the crazy guests, doing so with a smile. He's one of my favorite characters on the show. He is a recovering addict, however, and in a few short days the guests drive him off the wagon, where he becomes self-destructive. 

The Mossbacher family is an interesting dynamic. Mom is a powerful tech CEO, who can't let go of her job and hovers around the hotel rearranging furniture so that the background looks good on her conference calls. Dad (Steve Zahn) goes through two crisis on the trip. First, he was worried when his "balls swelled" that he had testicular cancer, then relieved when he found out he didn't have cancer. Secondly, he thought his dad died of cancer, only to learn he died from AIDS which he got from a homosexual relationship. This knowledge causes him to spiral, even admitting to his son that he had an affair and bought his mom $75k bracelets as a make-up gift. Daughter Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) isn't overly likable, but does provide some of the best comedic relief on the show ("Grandpa could've been butch" she says). Her friend Paula, who is on the trip with them, becomes increasingly frustrated with the Mossbacher family, and their privileged ways. So much so that she convinces one of the hotel employees to steal the mom's $75k bracelets. The poor son, Quinn (who is the third most likable person on the show), is forced to sleep on a lounge chair on the beach because Olivia and Paula won't let him sleep in the living room of their hotel suite with them. He becomes fascinated by the island life, and at the last minute bolts from the airport, deciding to stay in Hawaii. 

Finally, we have the Patton family, newlyweds on their honeymoon. Shane is wealthy and privileged, and he is the least unlikeable of all the characters in my book. They booked the Pineapple Room, but when they were placed in a different room, he converts his trip from a honeymoon to mission "Get the Pineapple Room". This causes him to tangle with hotel manager Armond, contributing to Armond's relapse and the eventual tragic ending of the week-long trip. Throughout Shane's obsession with Armond and the Pineapple Room, not only does he ignore his wife Rachel (Alexandra Daddario, the second most likable character on the show), he criticizes her lack of success as a writer and is clueless to her wants, treating her like a trophy wife. As if this weren't bad enough, at one point his mom shows up (on their honeymoon!!), doubling down on her misery. She begins having serious doubts about their new marriage, and I thought she was going to leave him. Sadly, at the end of the season she is still with him.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the music. It is awesomely intense and does a great job expressing the mood of the show. The general appearance of the show, along with the music, is great. The show does a good job expressing the beauty of the area surrounding the tension of the hotel guests.