Five times I have started viewing Task, the HBO series, and five times I only manage to watch a few minutes before I seek something else. Today, I see the following and ask myself what I am missing.
I know I can be weird to some people — well, maybe to a lot of people — but I think I could recognize the greatest if I saw and heard it. I wonder if it’s the critics or others who are leading people to watch something that isn’t great, but that they’re led to believe is?
I will bite and promise that I will force myself. I am about 20 minutes into episode two. A week or two ago, I read the following, which is behind a paywall. I subscribe to the New York Times.
The New York Times article claimed that it rivaled Yellowstone, the series, only in a world that I will never dwell in.
The article states that the show takes us to a reality that we don’t contemplate, which is why voters have shifted to voting for Trump. I call that bullshit. If one wants to escape to another reality, read a book. A movie gives no time to reflect on what is happening. I will provide an example from when I read The Count of Monte Cristo, which I consider the ultimate revenge story.
In the video below, one sees what happens and is guided by the movie; one does not have time to reflect on what may have been going on in Edmond’s mind. I still recall reading the book as a teenager. When I got to that part, I could imagine myself being in that bag as I was being thrown into the ocean. The movie, which I have seen twice, did no such thing; there was no time, as the film quickly takes you elsewhere.
There are a few movies that invite reflection; one such classic is The Last of the Mohicans. I first came across this classic in a comic book. Back in those days, we had comic books like those. I read the book long before the movie came out.
Want to read about rural America? Read Truman Copte’s In Cold Blood. Not some bullshit stuff like what JD Vance wrote.
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