My Thoughts On And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None (based on the novel by Agatha Christie)
2015, 3 episodes
Set in 1939
Link to the score

Reasons for watching: Not because it's Agatha Christie. While I enjoy *most* of her novels. This one is near the bottom for me. I just don't like it. So why did I watch? Short answer: Aidan Turner. Long answer: LOOK AT THE CAST. If you've seen any period dramas or BBC dramas over the past few decades, you'll recognize most of the cast.

Three I recognize from Bleak House. Charles Dance. Anna Maxwell Martin. Burn Gorman. (Mr. Tulkinghorn, Esther, and Guppy)

Toby Stephens was in the 2006 Jane Eyre. Aidan Turner was in the Hobbit movies and Poldark. Miranda Richardson was in Belle, Testament of Youth, The Young Victoria, Merlin, Enchanted April).

Spoiler-Free Section. The premise is ten strangers are invited to an island for a house party. Opening scenes show the letters of invitation being typed. Viewers see them traveling to the island. Eight of the ten arriving by boat all at the same time. The host for this house party is mysteriously absent. But they continue on with dinner all the same. After dinner, a record is played. The contents of the record are shocking and scandalous....

Content Advisory?!?! I was disappointed with this one. This one had a good bit of profanity. Including the f-word. And it was all so unnecessary. You expect BLOOD AND VIOLENCE from Agatha Christie but not foul language. This one also had drug use, drinking, smoking, and sex. So all around I'd say if you're looking for a 'clean' miniseries, this one is probably one to skip.

Worth watching? It depends on what you like in a movie. If you love blood, gore, violence, creepy, thriller type movies that are dark and ultimately depressing....then yes.

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This one had me shouting at the TV. What was I yelling, you ask, DON'T TRUST MR. TULKINGHORN. Now I don't blame most of the strangers for not knowing what was going on. But two of them KNEW MR. TULKINGHORN was bad news already. There is no excuse for Guppy and Esther. 


© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

George's Marvelous Medicine

George's Marvelous Medicine. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1981. 89 pages. [Source: Library]

This was my first time to read George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl. My expectations were perhaps a little too high? I'm not sure. I do know that I didn't care for it as much as I'd hoped.

The premise. George HATES his grandmother who lives with them. Every Saturday, he's left to tend to his Grandmother while his mother goes out to do errands. He has to remember to give her her medicine. As I said, he hates, hates, hates her. And it's more mutual than not. The Grandma is depicted as being rude, snappish, unkind, mean. So the premise. One Saturday he decides to substitute a medicine of his own making for her real medicine. I'd say about 90% of his ingredients would have warning labels on them that they are not to be taken internally, that they are dangerous, poisonous. In they all go. George is reckless in his mixing to say the least.

Will Grandma still be breathing by the final page of this one? That would be a NO. Did George's medicine kill her? Essentially yes. Do all the characters rejoice at her death? Again the answer is YES. It is the celebration of recklessness, carelessness and shortsightedness that bothers me. The way George's father WANTS him to make more, more, more so that he can FEED it to all the farm animals and thereby introduce it to the POPULATION. (George's father doesn't think about that at all. That what you feed chickens and cows and pigs MATTER.) I think there are real-life cases where this kind of wacky science has been encouraged and applauded.

Dahl's silliness--wackiness--is fun in other books. This one that essentially ended up in murder with no consequences, in fact ending up with a PARTY of sorts, really unsettled me.


© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

30 Days of Books: #21

 I saw this at The Written World--a blog I've been following for most of the time I've been blogging--and I thought I'd join in the fun. I believe the most recent recurrence of this is from Jenni Elyse's blog.

Today's prompt: Your favorite book from your childhood

Favorite picture book that was read to me: UMBRELLA by Taro Yashima.

Favorite learning-to-read book: Ann Likes Red by Dorothy Z. Seymour

Favorite chapter book: Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary



© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1970. 96 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Down in the valley there were three farms.

Premise/plot: Three farmers join together to hunt down and kill a fox that has been stealing from them. Farmer Boggis. Farmer Bunce. Farmer Bean. One raises chickens. One raises ducks and geese. One raises turkeys and apples. The story is told from the fox's perspective. Mr. Fox leaves his hole nightly to provide food for his wife, Mrs. Fox, and his four "small Foxes." Because Mr. Fox is great at what he does--fantastic even--all is well for a while until the farmers decide to camp outside his hole and WAIT FOR HIM.

My thoughts: I love this book. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Why didn't I ever read this one as a kid?!?! This one is short, but short in a just-right way. Each chapter is packed with delight. I would definitely recommend this one!  

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

30 Days of Books #20

I saw this at The Written World--a blog I've been following for most of the time I've been blogging--and I thought I'd join in the fun. I believe the most recent recurrence of this is from Jenni Elyse's blog.

Today's prompt: Your favorite romance book

How about several?

Much Ado About Nothing. William Shakespeare. 1599/2004. SparkNotes. 256 pages. [Source: Bought]
Persuasion. Jane Austen 1818/1992. Knopf Doubleday. 304 pages. [Source: Bought]

Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte. 1847.  300 pages. [Source: Own]

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews