Better than Us

I like the idea that different countires can contribute to the entertainment culture of the world by providing their takes on subjects such as Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. The first film i watched regarding this subject was with Will Smith-I Robot. It was on that fateful flight back from the US of A. In the show, there is a slight glitch in the system of an already well integrated Robot culture where these machines have taken their place in the hierarchy of developing as active assistance and companions. The glitch causes them to rebel and thw character of Will Smith is forced to go on the offensive. 

There have been quite a number of writers who have been responsible for the pursuit of these forms of development and good number of them are Russian…but many of you are more equipped to identify them than i am. 

Let me show you a few books from a champion of science education in Uganda and Africa (soon)-Solomon Benge of Fundibots. 

We have the same idea in areas such as space and the pursuit of new territories. For that we have Star Trek and Star Wars to thank. 

Whether those who have developed technologies after watching these shows are guilty of some sort of “theft” is an idea for another day. But the questions they raise and the ideas presented are worth exploring. 

This show is set in Russia in a time when it is profitable to create robots which help humans. Everything does not go as planned when this lucrative industry is overtaken by a new automaton with unexpected abilities. 

On one side you have activists who wish to restore order on another you have a company that wants to keep things as they are. Then you have a family caught in between and the robot they are starting to like (which is also dealing with complex questions of its own). There laws that are supposed to govern all robots-as created by Isaac Asimov (A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law) also come into play as the ‘device’ begins to ask troubling questions about its own reality and being. 

There is an interesting conversation is the show when the lady of the owners of the robot try to convince it to dress in a more appropriate manner. The robot is designed to please those whom it is programed to meet and those with whom it makes first contact (which reminds me of what happens when some animals such as ducks and spiders are hatched and immediately ‘bond’ with humans or whatever creature they come across. The lady is slightly intimidated by the robot because it appears more attractive and has many more skills and abilities than she has. She is not really trying to help the robot but using its willingness to learn as a trap to confuse it. 

The Robot called Arisa then approaches the man (Georgy) and asks a very poignant quesiton What must a woman dress like to be loved? 

Do you know how many people are stuck and struggling with this question? How many so called humans depend on the words and affections of others? Do you know hoe many men are in gyms doing weights and women in Salons having their hair done out of a hope that they can be loved a little more. 

Even if the path towards the creation of humanoids is still fraught with a number of difficulties, how many of us are living in this robotic reality? I think this show explores this and many other subjects. But that’s just me. 

Here is a review of two other interesting shows you might enjoy 

https://intersectionawards.blogspot.com/2024/05/dune-i-and-ii.html

https://intersectionawards.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-peripheral.html

Dune I and II

To be fair, I watched the first part of Dune quite a while ago and was not keen to rewatch it. There was so much hype about the second part that I was afraid I would have to watch the first part again to make sense of the second part. The film is essentially about 6 things. 

A vast desert territory, a spice trade, an oppressive ruling class, a resistance and a set of mysterious underground creatures. 

If you want to appreciate the architecture in the movie I suggest that you follow (damileearch) on Instagram for her masterful reviews of the structures that have made their way into our films. 

You could describe it as a coming of age tale about a young prince who must make his way into the desert as he learns about himself and those around him with the hope of finally making his way back home. Did we mention the lack of water which makes this landscape so inhabitable? 

The spices we mentioned earlier seem to relate back to an age in the past where the spice trade dominated a certain stage in world history while the lack of water seems somewhat prophetic as many have predicted a time when nations will go to war for this precious resource. 

I suppose I was a little less interested in the two parts until I realized that Zendaya of Spider-Man fame was part of the cast. Her role in the Euphoria Series though, is what captured my attention as have some portrayals of her with lead character and their unmatched chemistry. 

The second part is therefore in my view a little more attention getting at least if you are interested in the complexities of romance interwoven with interesting takes on religion with mention of The Mahdi. In this regard the film seems to point to certain parts of Islam and the struggle to find redemption in one person on one hand and that to find unity or belief in the whole. It is here that the protagonist splits with his love interest and this is what makes the second part so captivating. Ah I fear I have revealed a little too much. There are several moments in the two parts of this film that tackle the topic of acceptance and the struggle to fit in. I think on the whole there was a lot to learn. 

The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie is a master at his game. If there is anyone who has revived British Cinema, I think he single-handedly has. His choice of characters (at least the casting director’s choice of the same), location, use of language (scriptwriter), score, and the additional touch of notes in yellow comic like font to serve as an explainer for the cockney accent is inspiring. There are a few parts in the limited series that felt like a reference to Peaky Blinders. The use of different class systems to varying kinds of crime families especially the cultural ones. Russians, American, Filipinos, South Americans, Romani and the very captivating God fearing group that see themselves as a sort of representation of the God head! 

This show is an exploration of the inheritance and family dynamics’s history that come into play. It is a look into generational wealth and its management and the complex ethical questions that many face with regards to legacy. It is also about leadership and strategy and respect. It is about honor and transition and the value of a lived life. It demonstrates the challenges that people face when they make decisions out of anger and half truths. 

Here is a selection of Guy Ritchie’s work. 

Billion Dollar Code

Here is a Netflix series loosely based on facts that is a useful guide in the technicalities that are in place when dealing with the subject of Intellectual Property. In the first section where we tackled Intellectual Property and Technology, we shared in the last part of the conversation a section where we recommend a film. Billion Dollar Code is a useful guide when dealing with this subject. It is told in about four parts. It presents a useful picture into the history of East Germany right after the wall came down and the optimism and idealism that was in the air as well as the creativity that emerged during this age. It is a story of the conversion of Art into Technology and an exploration of how relationships form and can fragment when massive amounts of money are made. It also illustrates the major benefits that were derived from Hacker Communities. The deeper and more technical question though is about the importance of Patents and the need to be aware of the limitations of Patent Law in your country or region. The series also helps you to make sense of the challenges of patenting Software especially code. Even if we are in a time when many are encouraged to make use of code snippets with the existence of sites built with the exclusive purpose of sharing code, a lot of care needs to be taken by developers as they create and seek to patent code. The other interesting discussion is about the cost of Patent Attorneys and the ability of bigger companies to exploit smaller ones with great innovations. The other useful idea that we see in this show is the importance of having technical lawyers in the field of Patent Law to fight on behalf of Software Developers. 

The ability of the film to go back and forth in history and present the two main characters and the challenges they faced is presented well. There is also a subtle mention about mental health and reconciliation. Perhaps another great idea that I found in the show was the fact that sometimes ideas can be born before their time. 

Mayor of Kingstown

Season 1 

These guys are incredible. If I were to make a comparison, I would place this series on the same level as the Ozarks. Both make great use of the landscape in which they are shot. As has been done often the landscape becomes a character within itself.  There is an explanation about the landscape and the lives under which the complex characters in this series find themselves and that is found in the last episode of the second season. It is narrated by Micheal McClusky himself. He talks about the resource rich Island that cannot afford to make full use of its resources and has to depend on the Prison Industrial Complex (not his words but derived from an idea that has found its way into modern thinking). All the lives that are involved in this compelling tale revolve around this conundrum. And at the heart of this is one family that has inherited the ungainly task of keeping peace in a world run from the bottom up made up of Mexicans, The Aryan Brotherhood, Crips, Bloods, Feds, Prison Guards, Wardens, States and Gangs. 

Season one is really just an intro into the family and its dynamics. The matriarch is the pillar of the family and struggles to keep them sane in the horror of a lifestyle that they have chosen. If she is judgmental in Season One, she will learn to be a little more understanding in Season 2. 

He dialogues though are a thing of beauty. She features in quite a number of scenes playing the role of lecturer in an all women’s hospital. In one scene she describes the relationship between Original Nation’s People and their Dogs (you have to watch it to appreciate it). In another she dissects the challenges that many of us are faced with-making room for others in times of conflict. 

The season is full of sorrow, camaraderie and brotherhood. It is a play on the lives of men and women and the decisions they have to make to survive. It is a study in the things we will often do to one another as we attempt to survive in a cruel world. It is about addiction and numbing pain. It is about how hard it is to be free from your past and how often many of us will walk right back into the arms of our oppresors. It is a study in leadership dynamics and the lengths that men will go through to maintain the bonds that bind them together and thin line that splits us between what we know to be the law and the realities that present themselves. It is refreshing to see some characters from Prison Break reprise roles with a little more maturity and growth. And yes the music is also really great. 

Mayor of Kingstown Season S1E7

Speech or Lecture by Teacher 

I think today, maybe we'll talk about human evolution. Or the lack of it. To think about the evolution of man, it's always a good idea to remember that we're all animals. And the rules which govern the lives of lions, of wolves, of our closest relatives, the primates, are no different than the rules which govern our lives. We are in constant competition with each other, competition to breed, to eat, to seek water and shelter. Only man cannot survive without a tribe. Empathy exists to ensure the survival of our offspring. Morality, whatever that may mean, exists to govern the behavior of the members within the tribe in hopes that the tribe does not destroy itself. But now, all these tribes live close together, and we must find a way to see all humankind as one species, not as a collection of tribes. Our survival depends upon this. The age of competition is ended. The age of cooperation is here. If we do not find a way to cooperate, to extend that empathy to all humankind, then we will be the axe that chops our own roots. We will be the arbiters of our own extinction. 

Read more at: https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=1116&t=49491

Season 2 

The second season is as captivating as the first. Very few presentations that I have seen keep me on the edge as this one. I keep trying to reason with Bunny as he plays the Role of King and Mike as he does the mediator thing. Bunny takes on so much as does Mike and the other leaders of the gangs. The racial undertones and the decision each one has to make to keep the peace. The delicate balance that each group strives to make. The ability of the prisoners to function and run their operations. The hierarchical nature of the leadership and navigation of geographies (no go areas for different groups). The choice of cast especially the detectives is also amazing. It is really scary to think how well these men play the role of cops. I would not want to run into them in real life. In an age of pranks, these guys could do a lot of damage! It is hard to decide who the villains are in this series. The show (writers and director) does a great job leaving the viewer to question the morals of each character. There are valid questions about the rehabilitative nature of the prison system. Questions about wages and exploitation. There is a look into the capital punishment. This appears in the first season. The site of three phones on the wall and the nervousness with which the audience has to wait for a call from the governor for a stay in execution! The choice of lights and tones in the prison. Everything about this scene is amazing. 

Tyler Perry’s Ruthless

This series by the wealthy actor responsible for the old wise cracking grandma called Madia appeared to me while I was looking through my social media (Twitter). I have someone I follow who simply recommends films or series that they have watched. Sometimes people ask questions after seeing clips. The same approach is used on Facebook. I have since suggested that maybe this is another form of the influencer movement except this one is designed to promote movie studios and productions companies. 

The clips that were presented were quite racy and the general suggestion is that only a mature audience should watch this series. 

Authors and poets have for a long time used erotica at strategic moments of their narrative to place important pieces of information for their audiences. There is no shortage of risqué scenes. At the start, dialogue and script feels quite exhausting (but that’s just me). Dive in a little more and you will see the struggles of a group of men and some of different ages and backgrounds stuck in a strict religious movement with nowhere to go. The creators of this story also help weave into the series an examination of the life of the man at the helm of this cult. You find yourself feeling a sense of pity for a visibly cruel man. The choice of dress for the members of this cult movement feels a little too close to a religion that I will not mention :) Perhaps the writers penned something to help us approach belief with a little caution. Perhaps they sought to help us understand our tendencies to reroute our divine passions into sexual ones. Maybe they wanted us to understand the dynamics of leadership and race and culture. Also present in this work is the examination of life for different age groups and sexes. The elder mothers and the younger women, the men closest to the highest and the other men. The fear or apparent loathing for women that the cult leader tends to display. 

Underneath all this drama there are great discussion to be had about the lives of those in uniform and especially those who chose to go undercover (an idea which has been explored quite a lot in the movies). 

Perhaps the most interesting character is the dominant female who learns to make use of her past life (on the street) something she feels is long gone as she attempts to deal with her male captors. 

I guess everything is a weapon including your sexuality if you ever find yourself stuck in a similar situation. Is that her message? I will let you decide. 

Fallout

I am yet to come across a show that makes me yearn for an era of music for which I have absolutely no familiarity with. The story starts of with a party. Some guy is playing cowboy accompanied by his daughter but with two friends in the background mocking him. Really sad scene with a high school like vibe to it. Really just a dad trying to hustle while his buddies ridicule him. 

Sometime in the sixties or thereabouts, you have in the house a group of wives watching an old TV set with a disturbing news story playing before their eyes. 

Then the audience is taken outside to witness a conversations between father and daughter. Daughter asks father about the tell tale signs of a nuclear explosion making reference to the cloud and the thumbs up sign. Apparently, the use of the thumb is a sign that helps you determine if the cloud you are seeing will be of a life threatening nature. From this scene the whole show is now set. You go back and forth watching people living in the aftermath of the big event in a subterranean refuge built and marketed and seemingly planned ages before. You are then taken through the lives of those who survived after almost two hundred years as they waited for the effects of the Nuclear Bomb to subside. Hence the title Fallout. 

There are different communities. Those who live underground and those who live on the top. There is a resistance and there are those who are fighting against them. There is truth and there is an alternative. There is a young lady who must navigate both these worlds. Watch as she adapts and how what she deals with shapes her life. The use of dark humor with a mix of well planned tracks makes for interesting viewing. The music is used in a sense as one would use chapters for different parts of a book. Quentin Tarantino tends to like using titles for parts of his movies, Fallout does the same except with the use of music. At first it seemed like there was a little too much to deal with with all the characters that were seemingly unrelated, but after a while it starts to make sense. Perhaps the most interesting suggestions in the series is a suggestion by one of the people in the early parts of the resistance that when the government subcontracts defense in the hands of private contractors who have profit at the heart of their operations, then war and destruction become inevitable and can even be encouraged.