A whodunnit-themed blournal post…
Ahoy, ahoy.
I’ve mostly been trying to distract myself from all the chaos unfolding right now. Not gonna lie, it hasn’t exactly been fun, but I did finally get around to watching Wake Up Dead Man, the new Benoit Blanc mystery. As with Knives Out and Glass Onion, it’s a delightfully fun, twist-filled and playful whodunnit with a great ensemble cast of entertainingly loathsome characters and Daniel Craig stealing the show once again as the iconic Benoit Blanc, but I also love the story and themes in this outing. It still has some of that satirical bent of its predecessors but I also love how it sensitively tackles the topic of faith. It argues that faith can be a force for good in the world while also ruthlessly critiquing the grifters who use faith and exploit believers for their own selfish purposes. Definitely recommended if you liked the previous films and if you love yourself a good whodunnit. Say what you will about Rian Johnson but I think he’s an absolute pro when it comes to stories like these. His knack for subverting or, at the very least, playing with audiences’ expectations works wonders with the Benoit Blanc movies.
Speaking of whodunnits, I also have a soft spot for The Traitors. I started watching the new season on New Years’ Day and I’m really loving it so far. I feel like I’m the type of guy who should hate reality shows and yeah, some of them I am not a fan of at all, but I’ve always had a soft spot for game shows. I loved shows like The Weakest Link and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when I was a kid, and what I love about The Traitors is how it applies the “whodunnit” subgenre to a game show setting. You got contestants having to work together to figure out who’s trying to bump them off and it just makes for some damn fun television.
So, yeah… that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing over the past few days when I’m not fretting about the state of the world or going out to take photos as a way to distract myself… Speaking of which, I have updated the “daily photo” page for today so feel free to check that one out. It’s a bit too dark and I’ll try and see if I can fix that. I’m still using the DSLR camera like I said I would, but for whatever reason, some of the photos tend to come out a lot darker than anticipated. I’ll see what I can do with that. Fingers crossed.
Peace out.
