Tag / HBO

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Midseason Review – Sundays

With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.

9:00

SEAL Team – The fifth season starts on CBS for a month of episodes before being banished to the Paramount+ streaming service.

Well, I managed to watch the three or four episodes that aired before the show headed off to Paramount+. I’m sure I’ll catch up on the rest the next time I score a short-term subscription to that service.

Now, let’s see what interesting tidbits are coming this spring:

Euphoria – The long delayed second season finally started two weeks back on HBO.

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Book 50 (of 52) – The Case Of The Gilded Lily

The Case Of The Gilded Lily – Erle Stanley Gardner

When a blackmailer is found dead in a motor lodge, Perry Mason tries to stay a step ahead of the police while trying to determine if his client, or his client’s wife, were responsible.  After his client is arrested, Perry, along with Della Street and Paul Drake, have to get to the bottom of the case: who killed the blackmailer, who was his partner, and who is framing his client and his wife.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Gilded Lily, originally published in 1956, is the 50th entry in his Perry Mason series, the sixth of six novels re-released last year in conjunction with the new adaptation on HBO, and the fifth that I’ve read this year. This was not the best entry in this series that I’ve read, but does spend plenty of time in court, where Perry Mason and Hamilton Burger are much more adversarial than they are in the classic TV series.  I look forward to seeing the TV adaptation from the Raymond Burr version of the show, the 34th episode of its first season, so I can compare the filmed version with the original.

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Book 46 (of 52) – Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

A junior high school teacher finds himself alone in another solar system, looking to find the solution to a seemingly alien infestation that is dimming the sun and will destroy life on Earth.  An encounter with another ship, and another species, trying to do the same leads to an unlikely friendship and, eventually, the cure for both of their worlds.  But when nature shows itself to be a force worth reckoning with, will he sacrifice his friend to ensure Earth’s survival?  Or potentially doom his home world to help save his friend and an alien civilization?

Andy Weir’s latest, Project Hail Mary, is the second of his three novels that I’ve read this year.  I was worried at first that this was going to follow a very similar general plotline, of a lone man stranded far from Earth left to devise ways to stay alive, but the introduction of the alien species and the resulting friendship between the two was a nice twist away from what had been done before.  Weir is now 2 for 2 with me, and I may just have to track down that third novel sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, I will anxiously await the film adaptation, although there’s probably enough here for a limited series on HBO or Netflix or something.

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Prolific Authors – 9 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 60 books from 54 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we continue with the two authors I’ve read 9 times.

Michael Jan Friedman

Known primarily for licensed works, Friedman first entered my world in 1990, thanks to a trio of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels.  There were another two in 1992 and then he reappeared in 1996 with another trio of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman tie-ins.  That was it until he reappeared on my radar earlier this year, with yet another Next Gen entry.

Erle Stanley Gardner

I’ve been aware of Gardner as the creator of Perry Mason for years, but had never read any of his work until 2015, when Hard Case Crime released the first of their republishing of his Cool and Lam series, written under the penname A.A. Fair.  Since that time, five entries of the series have been released.  Thanks to the new HBO interpretation of Perry Mason, a number of those books have been republished as well, four of which I’ve read over the past 2 years.

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Book 38 (of 52) – The Case Of The Dubious Bridegroom

The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom – Erle Stanley Gardner

When Perry Mason catches a woman on the fire escape outside of his office, he becomes entangled with the a businessman whose first wife is trying to steal his company out from under him as payback for his getting a Mexican divorce and quickie re-marriage.  When she turns up dead, Perry has to defend his client for both bigamy and murder, unless he can figure out who the true killer is.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom, originally published in 1949, is the 33rd entry in his Perry Mason series and the third of six novels re-released last year in conjunction with the new adaptation on HBO.  Things were going along well, until the abrupt ending, where Perry figured out what really happened.  Rather than him showing it in court, which is what usually happens in the TV show, it just ended, with the trial still happening and without a definitive ending.  I look forward to seeing the TV adaptation from the Raymond Burr version of the show, released during its second season, so I can compare the filmed version with the original.

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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #3

6 years ago, we first counted down the then Top 100 artists in my iTunes library.  Since that time, I’ve successfully managed to migrate my music collection to a new PC with the stats intact and expanded the count down to the Top 200.  It’s been 3 years, so I figured it was time to take yet another look at my Top 200 artists, based on the number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2021.

Today, we have our final entry from a comedian with the artist I first “discovered” in 1989 with his role as Rufus in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure followed by an HBO comedy special the following year, George Carlin.

 

#3: George Carlin
iTunes stats: 1718 plays
Previous ranking: #5

A 239% increase for the 117 tracks from 8 different albums bumps the deceased comedy legend up two slots.  Averaging nearly 15 plays per track, many of these tracks, mostly from 1992’s Jammin’ In New York and 2001’s Complaints and Grievances, are used as background noise as I try to fall asleep away from home.  Like our previous comedian entries, I’ve enjoyed Carlin’s work in other mediums as well, whether it was television, movies, or the written word.  Sadly, I never got the opportunity to see him perform live.

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Book 26 (of 52) – The Case Of The Lonely Heiress

Erle Stanley Gardner – The Case of the Lonely Heiress

When a publisher comes to him to investigate a woman who has placed a questionable ad in his magazine, Perry Mason gets himself involved in a contested will and, ultimately, a murder case.  When his new client is charged with the murder of the one witness threatening to scuttle her claims on an inheritance, he needs to figure out who the real killer is without putting his own neck on the line.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Lonely Heiress, originally published in 1948, is the 31st entry in his Perry Mason series and the second of six novels re-released last year in conjunction with the new adaptation on HBO.  While this tale wasn’t my favorite of what I’ve read so far, it was adapted for an episode of the Raymond Burr version of the show during its first season, so I’d like to catch that sometime soon and compare the filmed version with the original.

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Post Mortem – Run

Run, starring Merritt Weaver and Domhnall Gleeson, debuted in April, about a woman who leaves her family behind to meet up with a college boyfriend after 17 years when she receives a text.  However, HBO didn’t see a lot of stamina for the show and announced they were ending it in July, shortly after the first season finished airing.  I can’t really say that I was left waiting for more.  I mean, I could, but that would be a lie.

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Book 14 (of 52) – The Case of the Terrified Typist

The Case Of The Terrified Typist – Erle Stanley Gardner

When a temp typist goes missing, Perry Mason finds himself drawn into a mystery involving a multi-national diamond company, a jewel heist, a dead smuggler, and, ultimately, a client who refuses to cooperate.  When Perry’s client is found guilty of murder, he comes up with a unique way to get out from underneath the verdict, keeping his record clean.

The Case of the Terrified Typist is the 49th entry in Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series and the fifth of six novels rereleased last year in conjunction with the new HBO adaptation.  This story was adapted for an episode of the Raymond Burr version of the show during its first season, so I’d like to catch that sometime soon and compare the filmed version with the original.

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Book 2 (of 52) – The Case Of The Lazy Lover

The Case Of The Lazy Lover – Erle Stanley Gardner

When 2 separate checks arrive at Perry Mason’s office from a woman he has never met and with no explanation as to what they are for, the lawyer gets dragged into an investigation, searching for the woman and trying to find out why she has hired him.  When her husband winds up dead and she is charged with the crime, Perry has to find out what really happened in order to set his client free.

The Case of the Lazy Lover is the 30th entry in Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series and is much closer to what would eventually show up on screen in the 1950s series than in the first entry, which was the only other one I had read.  Because of this, I managed to hear Raymond Burr’s voice in my head as I read the book, which I’m sure helped to enrich my experience.  Turns out that this story was adapted for an episode of the show during its first season, so I’d like to catch that sometime soon and compare the filmed version with the original.

Thanks to the new HBO series, a number of the old Perry Mason novels have been republished.  This is the only one I have picked up to date, but I’ll have my eyes open for more.