Silo

This one is from Apple. They do such an incredible job

seeming to devote as much energy to detail as they do to their

attractive products. Their projects have become must have  in my

library or at least viewing experience. 

It is set in the future in an underground community. The inhabitants

are controlled by fear and split into categories based on roles that

have been created over the years. 

In my view it really is about fear of the unknown and how one group

with a little knowledge can exert influence over another.

It is a story about different groups trying to navigate spaces within

which they have lived in for extended periods of time.

I see people who live in villages and that are told that there is

nothing out there in the world. I see people who have cult like beliefs

that are devoted to one teacher and his teachings. People who are stuck

and know nothing else outside their beliefs.   

I see myself afraid to venture out because of fears some true some

untrue. 

All this takes place and is recorded with others watching and learning

and extending their perception of your fears and taking on what you

fear for themselves. There is a vicious cycle of activity as one person

helps extend the ideas and beliefs of the extended group. 

In the society that exists there are those at the absolute top who are

the mayor, judge and head of security. Then you have workers at

different levels most crucial of which is are those who run the

generator. You could argue that this is at the heart of the Silo-power

in the Electrical Sense and Power in form of Control. 

There is also a classification of information as we are seeing in our

days with the idea of censorship. Electronics and certain images are

perceived as contraband. The city is also a mystery with plenty to

offer for those who are curious. Conspiracy theorists will enjoy

watching another production about Agartha i think it is called which

posits a very different view of the Earth as we know it. 

Common does an incredible job as a villain. I must say when certain

actors are type cast as villains and you suddenly see them as heroes, 

it makes for quite an adjustment. A great example of this is Danny

Glover who interestingly features with common in another project. He is

another one who needs to be mentioned amongst the greats. 

Lioness-Special Ops

Here is another Gem. Found this on Instagram. A conversation between

the lead actress and a host where she was talking about the movie. It

starts of in a foreign city with a US Intelligence Operative having a

phone  call with an asset. Let me stop there. In a forum that is

increasing in use in Uganda, we recently started to talk about the

possibility of a decline of the major western powers. We are talking

ofcourse about the US and UK. I had this and other ideas in mind when i

started to locate Eastern or Asian Podcasts. To my surprise, there were

quite a number but the hosts had either British Accents or American

Ones. With all likelihood, these guys were probably educated in the

West and had all their contacts especially investors based in the US

and UK. The decline might be taking place, but we are stuck with

culture and language. We watch the movies and have adopted the language

that these western countries use. 

Which brings me back to Assets. So this is a term that is used to

describe someone that you use to help give you information from your

adversary. 

It is refreshing to see Zoe Saldana playing the role of a soldier

juggling both an active role in the field and behind the desk. She is

aslo raising daughters and navigating a relationship with a man in the

medical profession. We used the rerm refreshing for a reference to

Saldana because most of her roles in the past have been for creatures

from other planets. i wrote about this before but i was not the first

one to notice this disparity. We tended to feel like her abilities were

underutilized by casting her as a non-human. But a role is a role and

the creative work that she has done representing the mythical creatures

in a strange planet is remarkable (Avatar). 

She got my attention as did Amndla Sandberg (later featured in THUG-The

Hate You Give) who played the younger daughter of Brazilian Kingpin

seeking to get out of a network that  wants him dead (Colombiana). The

svelt Zoe grows up to be an attractive but highly skilled assasin who

goes to great lengths to avenge her father. 

So lioness revolves around this team that seeks to deal with American

adversaries with a covert team of about 6 specialists. 

It is about relationships that are forged between the members of this

team, the higher ups, government and the white house, business

interests connected to the husband of Zoe's character team leader and

Zoe's Character's family. 

She is trying to manage the team, raise a family, work on her marriage,

develop a relationship with a female soldier she needs to send into the

abyss and deal with the fallout from those who are a pay grade above

her. 

It is difficult to understand if the relationship between Hollywood and

Government is healthy but it feels like some parts of this series are

Government's attempt to try to help citizens understand some of the

dilemmas that are faced when writing policy and making money for the

economy.   

The Inmate

This is a story that i was attracted to after renewing my subscription

to Netflix. I had been off for a while but was keep to find some

material that was not easy to come by. 

The stories told behind prison have become successful partly because of

projects like Prison Break. But you could argue that classics such as

Escape from Alkatraz or Papillon were probably trendsetters for this

genre. 

This one is set in Mexico with a facility that houses mainly former

gang members. Most of the information that we get from these shows

splits the traditional maximum security prison into racial group which

are further subdivided into gangs. There is a hierarchy that manages

these complex networks and that has its minions all the way out into

the streets of the capital of the world. With this infrastructure, drug

lords are able to run their cartels effectively from behind bars. 

This one is different though. The whole prison seems more like a tented

camp. Separated between five groups. The Nazis, The Union Group and The

Group that has the privilege of actually being housed in decent enough

dwellings in the prison run by an older man, the guards and then a

select community of effeminate men. At the top or at least in admin

there is the leadership core made up of the warden and his assistant

and a team of support staff which includes a Counselor/Human Rights

observer. 

Our hero is introduced onto the scene and has to navigate through this

maze of personalities. A few things stood out to me. I may not have

watched the series that run on one of the networks a while back but for

what others told me, the women were often at the heart of the power

structure of these crime families. You really have to look out for the

crucial role of two actors in this series. The Warden and Santito. The

warden comes across as conniving but somehow leaves you hoping that he

succeeds. He quotes from notable authors and poets, cheats, steals,

always looking for a great deal all this time while supported by his

loyal and attractive side kick. Santito on the other hand is a complex

mix of shattered and broken as well as intelligent. He is looking for

friendship but is no sucker. He is desperately trying to find approval

while at the same time seemingly in charge of his own faculties. He is

gentle while also being capable of harming those he encounters.      

There are lessons about leadership from each of those that are on top

of their respective ladders. Then there are lessons from those who are

leading without necessarily having a team at their side. 

Ignacio Serricchio as Lázaro Mendoza / Dante Pardo

Ana Claudia Talancón as Frida Villarreal

Flavio Medina as Jorge Peniche

Luis Felipe Tovar as Mariano Tavares

David Chocarro as Juan Pablo 'Santito'

Mariana Seoane as Roxana Castañeda

Guy Ecker as John Morris

Isabella Castillo as Linda Morris

Under The Dome

I stumbled across this gem while on one of the social media channels. I

guess i was interested in the idea of a dome. If you are in the Middle

East, then you have probably heard of the Iron Dome. It is An Israeli

Defense System against Missiles. Then there was a discussion about a

system that was discussed in the Reagan Years but that one was referred

to as Star Wars. It is hard therefore to see the distinction between

life and art but these two are mingling with each other in profound

ways. There is also the Simpsons which many feel like has been

predicting the future. There is an episode in the animated show where

an actual dome descends or appears on the city.

The Dome was written by Stephen King...no surprise. My first

interaction with his work was with Shawshank Redemption. An amazing 

project with great story telling. There was so much to learn about

patience, diligence, planning and the importance of skills. It has

tragic moments and others of triumph. There is an interesting insights

into the concern shared by many about just how much rehabilitation

takes place in traditional prison systems. In our days we have heard of

the Prison Industrial Complex (slightly less popular than the Military

Industrial Complex), and its effects on the minorities in the US. One

of the characters after so many appearances before the Parole Board and

rejections finally just expresses his exhaustion after trying to give

the standard answers. There are explorations of life after so many

years behind bars and how difficult the men that have been in the

system find it to adjust to regular life. 

Other works based on books by Stephen King are a little too frightening

for me but it is great to see the adoption and use of the series model

where you spread out the experience to last longer. 

While it is not always possible to see into the writer's mind, i had a

mainly spiritual lens while viewing this work. Without trying to ruin

the process for those of you who have not seen this work, the dome

seems to have some spiritual significance. It reminds me of the domes

that are used to represent most sites that many view as Holy. There are

also quite a number of theorists who claim that we are under a dome and

that most of the stories about  lunar exploration are really just

mythical. At times it feels like the dome represents God's dominion (i

think that the word dominion comes from the word dome). Is this why

some staunch believers in male contraception are against Condoms?

Because of the shape that is used and what that represents? I don't

know. There is also an egg that is connected to the dome which is

interesting because the egg presents quite a lot of mystery. We are

still having difficulty deciding what came first. Is it the egg or is

it the chicken? 

Is the Dome a reference to a struggle between adherents to the Judeo

Christian Beliefs? The most complex relationship to explore in what we

know of a the Old Testament is that of the chosen people and their God

who was at one time friend and at another foe.  

Then there are the challenges of resource scarcity as the community

begins to struggle with a limit on what they can make use of. First it

is food, then fuel and then a series of issues concerning the weather.

The community is also forced to deal with security and production as

well as registration both of populations and weapons. Suddenly the

parts of the population that were responsible for agriculture see

themselves increase in importance and value. 

There is also a question about the nature of the Dome. Is it a

representation of God? Is it conscious? Is it access to an alternate

universe?      

Dean Norris from Breaking Bad plays the role of Big Jim. While Natalie Martinez

from I-land plays a sherrif’s deputy. Alexandar Koch is the ever emotional 

Junior who is pulled back and forth by a manipulative father.