The Perfect Couple: The Perfect Series

So, the family and I spend a lot of time on Cape Cod, and have been loving it for decades.  The Perfect Couple takes place in nearby Nantucket, and the shots of the water and the sand and those wind-blown weathered wooden fences look so much like those on the Cape I felt like I was back there again, and it was still the summer.  Hey, for all I know, those scenes were shot on the Cape.  How could I not love this series?

And the lead actors, Nicole Kidman as Greer and Liev Schreiber as her husband Tag, top-notch any time, were especially outstanding in this scenic murder mystery adapted from Elin Hilderbrand's novel (which I haven't read), so well plotted, with so many nearly convincing suspects, that this novel could have been written by Agatha Christie.

The supporting actors, most of who I haven't seen on the screen before, were excellent as well.  Here are some of my favorite scenes and characters:

[And there may be spoilers ahead ...]

• Eve Hewson as Amelia Sacks, half of the imperfect couple, was perfectly convincing in her combination of almost sultry and deeply vulnerable.
• Schreiber as Tag, when he tells Merritt (pregnant with his baby) that having a baby is the most beautiful thing a man and woman can do, as prelude to his telling her he doesn't want her to have it, is a truly memorable scene of repulsive personal betrayal.  Schreiber as Tag is also noteworthy when he bursts in and deconstructs Greer's book launch.  (Greer being an author is something else I identified with -- here's a video of my most recent event. Note a bit of the tribulations at the end of the introduction.)
• I also got a kick out of Donna Lynne Champlin's gruff, Rosie O'Donnell kind of police detective, and her interaction with Michael Beach (whom I have seen a lot of over the years) as her de facto partner in the murder investigation was a fine piece of police repartee.
• Ishaan Khatter as Shooter Dival was the most tempting of the false leads (he wasn't the shooter and indeed the murder victim wasn't shot), and his relationship with Amelia gave rise to one of the best lines in the series, "the girl on the B train," which come to think of it would make a good title for any novel, short story, movie, or TV series (Irwin Shaw certainly would've liked it).
  
• Back to Dan Carter, my favorite relationship in the series -- maybe the closest to the perfect couple -- was Carter's daughter Chloe (not Zoey!) and her shared feelings with Will, the youngest Winbury. After she's told by her father to stay away from Will -- Dan's understandably worried that the Winbury family is connected to the murder -- she leaves Will a note on a napkin, "you're cute". Hey, a little sweetness goes a long way in a story like this. (Will is also key to figuring out who the killer is, but I'm not going to drop any more spoilers.)

Anyway, I defy anyone who hasn't read the book to identify the killer before the ending, and I highly recommend this Netflix short series, especially if you've just returned from Cape Cod to the big city and its B train.

Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundy

Another standout episode of Hightown - 1.3 - in which dirty laundry figures prominently.  Not the Don Henley song (which is also excellent), but Krista's suitcase, filled with it, which Jackie and a reluctant Junior retrieve.

This first leads to Jackie telling Junior not to call them "panties" - she prefers "underwear" (my wife agrees with Jackie, I'm with Junior) - and then to a silver lining discovered by Jackie in the suitcase, a list that leads her to some connection Krista has, or business she was doing, in Wareham, just off-Cape.

We pass by Wareham - that is, my wife and I - every time we drive up to the Cape, and never knew it could play a role in Jackie getting to the bottom of Sherry Henry's murder.   And, actually, so far, at this point, she's making better progress than Ray, who is progressing only with sleeping with Frankie's wife Renee, and only because Frankie asked her aka ordered her to do.  The only hope for Ray, if this keeps going this way, is that Renee falls in love with him and tells him what's really going on.  That's possible, but not very likely, because Renee has to be very afraid of Frankie, not to mention Renee needing above all else to protect her little boy.

It's a suitably tense, frightening situation that never lets up, and is always on the verge of getting much worse when Osito is on the scene.   There's something about him that's genuinely unsettling, which means that Atkins Estimond who plays the role, and I've never seen him before, deserves a lot of credit for a fine performance.  If he keeps this up, he could enter the pantheon of memorable villains.

As I said after seeing the debut episode, Hightown is way at the top of new cop shows, and thus aptly named, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun

Outer Banks: Top Notch Waves and Intrigue

As I mentioned in my review a couple of weeks ago of the first episode of Hightown, I'm always up for a TV series or movie that takes place in a sea town on the East Coast of the United States.  But with the lockdown keeping me and family from going up to Cape Cod, it's especially good to see those Atlantic waves splashing around a narrative.

So, I would've likely liked Outer Banks, which takes place on the string of islands off the North Carolina coast, in any case.  But by the time the 10-episode first season of the series concluded on Netflix, which my wife and I binged the past two nights, I found myself riveted to the screen and loving it.

Outer Banks actually starts off just ok, not great, a mildly diverting story of teenage shenanigans, rivalries, and romance on one of those islands.  But there's a dark undercurrent from the beginning - the father of one the lead players, John B, has been missing for months - which soon turns into a powerful story of parent-child relationships and edge-of-your-seat pursuit of lost treasure with all manner of plausible, sharply focused heroes and villains.

The acting was also surprisingly excellent - surprising, because I didn't know most of the actors.  I did know and liked Charles Esten from Nashville, and he brings to Outer Banks an unexpected range.  Chase Stokes was excellent as John B, as was Madelyn Cline as his girlfriend Sarah.  The two were very impressive in portraying a relationship that progressed from dissing to flirting to running for their lives.  The supporting cast was also top-notch, with especially notable performances by Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, and Madison Bailey.  But everyone in this vibrant cast made an impression on me, and I'll be looking for them from now on when I coast through Netflix and Prime Video.

I won't say anything more about the plot - because I don't want to give anything away - except that you can always distinguish a well-written narrative from the others in that surprises in the well-written narrative seem thoroughly plausible when you think of them in retrospect.  Outer Banks has a lot of large and small moving pieces, which are brought together perfectly in the end.  Hey, it's not as good as jumping in the cool waves off Cape Cod Bay, but I'll take it.

Ten Things You May Not Have Known about Sierra Waters

from Sierra Waters' MySpace blog...

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Tags, Colors and Flavors and Love
Category: Blogging
post by Sierra Water

Lance Strate tagged me.

I confess to not knowing much about tagging in the first decade of the 21st century. But it’s been explained to me that I’m required to list 10 unknown things about me, and then tag 10 other people ... so here goes. (And I’ve got to admit that this should be fun...)

1. My favorite color is sunset orange and my favorite flavor is peach-mango.

2. I cry every time I hear the Beatles’ singing "Real Love," because it was recorded with John Lennon’s voice, years after he was killed, and the Beatles added their voices and instruments to the record. Someday, after I finish my work in Alexandria, I may try to do something about this.

3. Numbers and poetry and harmonies make my heart beat faster.

4. I’ve recently realized that a cuddle with the right person can be almost as good as making love. Actually, I know I’ve always known that, but I didn’t take the time to admit it.

5. I think of Sea Street in Quivett Neck on the Cape as "the town that time forgot." I sometimes walk there, alone, late in the moonlight. You can say hello to me there, if ever you see me.

6. With one exception, I prefer 21st century men over ancient men in bed. On the other hand, ancient women ... :)

7. Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, had a lot more style and substance than is admitted in most histories.

8. Falernian wine tastes so fine it makes my eyes water with joy.

9. So far, I have not been able to travel to any time in the future past the end of the 21st century - I’m not sure why.

10. I discovered that the Millennium Club in New York City was known, in an alternate reality, as the Ce-- no, I better not make this public.

Ok - I hope I haven’t revealed too much above, or transgressed any early 21st line of publicly courteous discourse.

And here are my [Sierra Waters'] ten taggees:


Becca Imako ... SciFi Fanatic ... Big God Network ...

Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore ... Sarah Beth Durst ...

Timetravel_0 ... Angelica Waters ... Chris Dickerson (Cisco) ...

Adventures in SciFi Publishing ... Larry: Poet Surfer

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more about Sierra Waters...



The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book


Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Provincetown

Cape Cod's the most beautiful place on Earth. And, though I haven't been off this planet as yet, I suspect the Cape would be hard to beat out in the cosmos, too. We go there every year. We just returned from a splendid month on the bay.

Part of the charm of the Cape is that it has both ocean and bay shores. The ocean has waves to rival Maine's. The bay is peaceful, with sunrises setting in the water and not to be believed.

The bay and the ocean merge in Provincetown, at the very tip of the Cape. It's the tip of a magic wand, but the spells it casts are its bounty of restaurants, galleries, bed-and-breakfast places in Provincetown - all in addition to the shores, of course.

There's so much to do in Provincetown - whether watching whales on a boat off the shore, or dining on the finest tuna, cod, or clams you ever tasted in your life - that it always helps to have a menu of opportunities before you get there. That's where http://www.provincetownlive.net comes in handy - you can get there on the web, or via http://ptownlive.net on the cell phone. It has 75 listings for restaurants alone ... (yeah, I love that seafood).

So give yourself a treat. Take a drive, take a fast ferry from Boston, get yourself to Provincetown. And before you do, or even while you're on the way, check out what's in store for you at provincetownlive.net - hey, the whales were really in fine form in June!

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