Links and Updates

This may be one of the last Links and Updates I do for a while, as I’m currently enjoying a complete media blackout. I’m not going to any of my usual pop-culture websites, am avoiding all news coverage, and only scroll a little way down my Tumblr dashboard.

Basically, I’ve given myself permission not to care about the world for a little while. And a part of me would feel guilty for sticking my head in the sand, were it not for the fact that not caring about anything means that you don’t actually care about anything. It’s been quite liberating actually, and if World War III starts, I’m sure someone will let me know.

Here are some links and trailers and upcoming projects to finish off the year...

For the first time since the BBC’s Robin Hood ended in 2009, we’re getting a brand-new Robin Hood television show. (Yes, there has been stuff like YouTube’s Sherwood and the Canadian series Robyn Hood, but those are better described as modern re-imaginings than adaptations). It sounds fairly promising, and I particularly liked the statement on how Marian will be “infiltrating the power at court.” Spy!Marian is my favourite kind of Marian, and it would seem she’s getting equal billing with Robin this time around.

Also intriguing is that Robin is described as “a Saxon forester’s son” while Marian is “the daughter of a Norman lord,” and that it’s set “following the Norman invasion of England.” The Norman/Saxon conflict isn’t one that’s been used in any Robin Hood adaptations for a long time, and there’s no mention of King Richard or the Crusades either. It would appear this take on the legends may be set much earlier in history than what we’re used to...

Enola Holmes 3 has now seemed to have been officially and incontrovertibly confirmed... maybe. Look, I’ve been burned so many times that I can’t believe this is true until a promo with actual footage hits.

But I’m tentatively hopeful. There was plenty of material left to cover from the end of the second movie, most significantly involving the arrival of Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Moriarty and Himesh Patel as Watson. Now I’m just hoping that they can retain this cast, especially given there’s been a much longer hiatus between movies #2 and #3 than there was between #1 and #2. You know how I feel about recasting, so fingers crossed that the Enola Holmes franchise (of all things!) can retain its continuity.

And after what feels like forever, we’re finally getting glimpses of the second season of Andor, as in this preview for what’s on offer in 2025 at Disney+. There’s also a leaked teaser out there somewhere, but the quality is poor, and everything else on YouTube is just A.I. generated junk. When are we getting something real?

Andor reminded me that the best shows/films/books out there are the ones you want to study in the attempt to glean what it is about them that makes them so rewarding: how the plot and characters are intertwined, the way the themes are woven through the narrative, how the dialogue isn’t comprised of witty banter or obvious exposition, but instead sounds like actual conversations shared by real people.

I am genuinely excited about watching the next season – I’ve got that feeling of an expanding balloon in your chest that has things wriggling in it. In fact, I haven’t felt this amped about something for ages – not since The Force Awakens, which in hindsight, was a big mistake. But it’s a nice feeling while it lasts.

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Those three projects are literally the only things I’m looking forward to at the moment. Everything else just feels like part of what this Polygon article describes as “the slop era” in which content is “meant to be consumed, not examined, critiqued, or unpacked. This includes the ‘no thoughts, head empty’ ritual of lying in bed, staring blankly at an endless stream of short videos as your thumb occasionally twitches like a rat hitting the button for its dopamine snack.” It’s not a pretty picture.

(Heck, even the things I’m excited for are technically a remake, a sequel and a prequel to a prequel).

In depressing publishing news, I’ve unfortunately been made aware of a book that is literally titled Enemies to Lovers (just in case you weren’t sure if stories were now just nicely-packaged fanfic tropes), a retelling of Little Women in which Jo and Laurie get together (which is imaginatively called Jo & Laurie) and whatever the heck this is:

In honour of its tenth anniversary, we get this stop-motion short of Over the Garden Wall, which is just as quirky and random as the show itself:

This trailer for Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld looks like a lot of fun, though I doubt I’ll get the chance to see it any time soon...

The next Knives Out film will be called Wake Up Dead Man:

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Although my Women of the Year Retrospective and Recommendations for 2024 are forthcoming, there won’t be any Top Twelve Moments in Television/Film post for this year... simply because I didn’t see enough worth writing about. The only scene that felt like a genuinely worthy entry on such a list was Gambit’s sacrifice in X-Men ’97, and that will keep until 2025 (I give myself some wriggle room when it comes to exactly what year these lists come from).

Until then, have a Merry Christmas!