Podcast Review: “You’re Wrong About” with Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall

I found this podcast on Audible.com, and it’s included with my membership plan. Each episode focuses on modern-day scandals that have been misconstrued either by media or in the public imagination or memory. The two commentators, Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall, are 30-something millenials obsessed with pop culture. Their snarky commentary tickles me. Generally speaking, each episode involves educating the listener on research compiled by one of the hosts in regards to a popular a scandal. For instance, Sarah Marshall, who is obsessed with the Tonya Harding case, has read many articles on Tonya Harding as well as Tonya’s own book. Marshall then presents what she thinks are little-known pieces of info about the Harding/Kerrigan scandal of the 1990s.

Some criticize the hosts for not giving a more in-depth look at each case. However, I don’t go into each episode expecting a PhD-level dissertation. It’s mostly a talk show in which the hosts give their own viewpoints and cultural criticism, which is mixed in with some research on the topic.

Just a few of the episodes I’ve enjoyed so far are listed below:

—Tonya Harding. In this one, Sarah takes up for Tonya and basically says the part we got wrong is that Tonya was unfairly maligned due to people perceiving her as “white trash.”

—Kitty Genovese and “Bystander Apathy.” The hosts explain bystander apathy. They also discuss the 1964 New York Times article that unfairly blamed bystanders in New York for not acting upon witnessing a woman’s death.

—Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown. In this one, Marshall criticizes Dan Quayle for maligning Murphy Brown for having a baby out of wedlock.

—The Wardrobe Malfunction. Hobbes explains the scandal and fallout related to Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s boob to a television audience at the 2004 Super Bowl.

—Halloween Special! Ed Gein and Slasher Movies. Marshall presents her research on Ed Gein and explains how his story influenced the slasher genre of horror movies.

—Urban Legends Spectacular. The hosts discuss popular urban legends and how those legends are often linked to society’s own fears about crime and boogeymen.

—Jeffrey Dahmer. Show focuses on Dahmer’s crimes as well as mistakes in policing that allowed him to hide in plain sight.

The podcast usually presents a new issue every week or so. I look forward to more.

March 12, 2021 0

Girl Talk #10: Falling in Like

I first read this book in middle school. Before I started re-reading it this past weekend, I could still recall one detail: Allison walks into an event and feels others staring at her and judging her. She thinks to herself, “I was proud to be there with Billy.”

The fact that I can recall this tiny bit of a scene is a huge compliment to the author. For many books, especially those I read 20+ years ago, I’m unable to evoke any memories at all. Girl Talk is one of those series that I can still recall specific details about.

In this one, Allison volunteers to tutor a fellow student named Billy Dixon who struggles in school. At first, Allison shows reticence to work with him after witnessing him yelling at another student in the lunchroom. In their first tutoring session, she notices that he’s very smart. He can multiply fractions in his head, and he even corrects her on a math mistake. Problem is, he corrects her in a hateful, “you’re a terrible tutor” way, and she cries.

Rather than run away, Allison becomes determined to help Billy, whom she sees as smart but lacking in discipline. As they continue working together she asks him over to her house to study. While the two of them read a story with Allison’s little brother Charlie, Allison notices that Billy makes several reading mistakes. Allison’s mama, a former teacher, later tells her that Billy may have a reading disorder. Allison realizes his difficulty with reading is probably the reason he gets so testy with her when they study English together.

Sam’s group of guy friends challenges Allison and her friends to a bowling competition. Allison, having never bowled before, worries about the competition. On the bowling night, they see Billy at the bowing alley, which has the clever moniker Lois Lane’s. After watching her bowl several gutter balls, Billy comes over to Allison and coaches her on how to hold the ball and when to release it. Greg Loggins notices that Allison begins to bowl better after the pointers from Billy, and he accuses them of cheating and gets belligerent about it. In a previous book, I believe Greg was the one who behaved obnoxiously during the 7th grade trip to Eagle Mountain. 😟

Allison finally bowls a strike, and when she turns to celebrate it with Billy, he’s gone. He probably bails due to Greg’s behavior. However, this feels slightly out of character for Billy, who doesn’t appear to scare easily in earlier scenes.

Billy asks Allison on a date. She feels excited but nervous because this will be her first date. The girls try to coach her on what to say during the date, but they just wind up giggling a lot.

Allison goes over to Billy’s house to convince him to take the reading test, which is important because it will determine if he has a disorder. His front yard needs mowing. The front porch sags. Inside, dirty dishes are piled up and Allison itches to clean the place. Allison implies to the reader that the house is so dirty because Billy has no mom (his mom died years ago), though she doesn’t mention where his father is or even think that a man could possibly run a household effectively without a woman. 😬

Anyway, Alison finds Billy in the basement with several older boys. They’re shooting pool, but when Allison comes in the boys begin to flirt with her. Allison is obviously uncomfortable about being cooped up in a windowless space with bad boys. How do we know these are bad boys? Because they wear ripped jeans and one of them refers to Allison’s teacher as a hag. Allison tries to talk with Billy, but he doesn’t come sit by her and he gives her the cold shoulder. Billy clearly feels jealous that all the guys want Allison, and his response is to stand there sulking while they flirt with her. She flees the basement and Billy follows her upstairs. She begins to cry as she runs from the house, ignoring Billy as he calls her name.

Later, Billy phones to apologize for his jerk behavior. One thing I notice about several of the boys in Acorn Falls is that they have fragile egos and often misbehave when jealous of another guy. We saw this in book #2 when Katie tries out for the hockey team and Scottie feels threatened by having a girl on the team, so his response is to physically hurt her on the ice as a way to soothe his ego. Later, when Michel moves to town in Mixed Feelings, Scottie feels jealous that Katie might like Michel, so Scottie snaps at Katie and treats her like crap. And what about Sabs and Nick? In book one, Nick assumes Sabs is flirting with another guy, so he uninvites her to the school dance. Sabs, Katie, and now Allison in this book, all easily forgive these boys’ insecure behaviors. 😟

Billy takes the test and discovers he does have a learning disorder. We assume that he’s able to get help and improve his grades. However all of that is pretty glossed over and the last part of the book focuses on the date, which includes dinner at the burger joint in town and attending the movie at the junior high. When Allison and Billy walk into the restaurant together, Stacy Hansen watches them obnoxiously, but Allison holds her head high. Billy holds her hand and later puts his arm around her at the restaurant as they sit with Billy’s group of older boys. Allison feels good knowing that Billy is “public” about the fact that he likes her. Maybe this is why adult me remembered the scene so many years after having read it the first time. Adolescent me must’ve envied that feeling Allison has. It’s a feeling of confidence that comes from knowing that someone cares about you and wants to show everyone. Sweet.

Here’s the cover. Allison looks bored or fed up. Billy looks tortured.

Last time I said Here Comes the Bride was my favorite book of the series. Falling in Like gives it stiff competition. In fact, I may have to change my mind and call this one my new favorite. 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

March 12, 2021 0

The Sixth Man by Andre Iguodala

I know I’ve mentioned my love of memoir before, but I’ve failed to mention that I particularly enjoy sports memoirs. Add Andre Iguodala’s book The Sixth Man to the list of ones I’ve read recently. I, of course, listened to the audiobook, as per usual these days.

Iguodala writes about growing up with a mother who taught him tough love in a town (Springfield, IL) haunted by its ugly, racist past. He goes on to play basketball professionally and becomes quite successful.

My favorite part? When he describes being heckled by a fan who says things like, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Why’s this guy shooting? He’s only averaging 30% from the field!” That line cracked me up. Not only was the fan astute enough to know the player’s stats, but obnoxious enough to scream them aloud. That section of the book also surprised me because I’d never stopped to think about how much heckling hurts a player’s feelings. I’ve seen pro women’s tennis players react to being heckled. (One cried a few years back.) But for whatever reason I never imagined pro male players could be sensitive to criticism. I guess I thought they were made of steel or something. Boy, was I wrong. Iguodala makes it known that the heckling and the criticism from the press did get to him. He channeled negativity into something positive by motivating himself to work harder and prove his worth.

Iguodala doesn’t shy away from politics and money. He talks about the frustrations of being traded. He even describes how pissed he was when he made the comment, “I do what mastah say,” after being asked about his plans before a big game. As Iguodala’s book shows us, even wealthy blacks face racism, and being an athlete gives you a platform to shed light on important issues in our country, such as racism and class privilege.

March 8, 2021 0

Girl Talk #16: Here Comes the Bride

Of the Girl Talk books I’ve reviewed so far, this is probably the best one. Katie is surprised when her mother announces her engagement to Michel Beauvais’s father, Jean Paul Beauvais. This feels pretty sudden to me. I mean, they only started dating five books ago. Katie, of course, feels shocked and blindsided by the news. When she finds out she’ll be captain of next year’s hockey team, she’s bursting to tell her mom, but Mama Campbell, preoccupied with wedding details, ignores Katie.

The subplot involves the girls preparing for a 1960s-themed dance at school. They raid Sabs’s mom’s old boxes of clothes looking for outfits to wear. I enjoyed hearing them exclaim over hip-hugger pants and go-go boots. Later, Katie goes through clothes her own mom has stowed away in the attic. She learns that her mom was a hippie. Katie also begins to feel better about her mother marrying Jean Paul, and this comes after she has a heart-to-heart with her mom. They discuss the things they miss about Katie’s dad. One of my favorite things about this book was that Katie and her mom talked through some of the stress of a new family dynamic. Though Katie’s misgivings about her mother marrying someone who isn’t her father dissipate too quickly, I still enjoyed her chat with her mother. I think it’s because I’ve been interested in changing family dynamics in novels since forever. They fascinate me. How will the new siblings get along? How will the parents handle being stepparents?

Katie’s extended family members come to stay overnight with the Campbells the day before the wedding. I know that current of energy in a home that comes from having family all around and feeling everyone’s excitement as you await something special. When the wedding day finally arrives, Katie and Michel march in together. The other details are pretty banal. The bride and groom kiss. Sabs cries. Yadda yadda yadda.

Aside from Katie’s heart-to-heart with her mom, my other favorite part of this book comes at the dance. Katie dances with Scottie Silver, and Michel rudely cuts in. When Katie berates Michel for being so rude, he basically tells her that Scottie is a player and says he wants to protect Katie from Scottie since Katie is his sister now. Haha. I’m actually on Michel’s side. I’ve disliked Scottie ever since he abused Katie in book two when she tried out for the hockey team. But Katie doesn’t get it. She even admits she knows that Scottie goes out with a lot of girls. Ugh, Katie! When will you learn, sis? Sabs tells Katie that she better get used to Michel acting like a brother and looking out for her. A minute later when Stacey calls Michel immature, Katie takes up for him and warns Stacey not to talk smack about her brother. Though that whole conversation was corny as heck, I liked it. Love to see people standing up for one another. Of all the boys we have met so far in the Girl Talk books I’ve reviewed, Michel is easily the one with the most boyfriend potential. He’s handsome, bilingual, athletic, and a reasonable person. Mr. Perfect.

See you next time.

March 1, 2021 0

Big Sky, Episode 8: The End Is Near

This episode picks up right where the previous one left off. Guns drawn, Jenny and Cassie check the Legarskis’ house in search of Ronald. Cassie startles when she sees a life-size cutout of Rick Legarski in an upstairs bedroom. Though Jenny and Cassie appear to be hot on Ronald’s heels, they have no such luck of finding him. Ronald escapes through an upstairs window and the women find only the raised window and a white curtain blowing in the breeze.

I like the actors on this show, but at times the storyline doesn’t live up to the acting. For instance, why is Ronald able to hide in plain sight in this rural Montana town? I’m from a rural town in Georgia, and there’s no way my fellow townsfolk wouldn’t piece together who I am if given a photo of me. Yep, that’s right. Ronald’s picture is featured prominently in the local paper. You mean to tell me no one notices or recognizes him from a drawing that looks exactly like him? Oh, that’s right, a young boy named Erik, possibly age 10-12, recognizes Ronald when he delivers a newspaper to Ronald’s house. First of all, I wasn’t aware that kids had paper routes anymore, though that’s just probably my own ignorance. Secondly, no way would I let my son deliver papers all over town and even out on country backroads. Though I know that depraved men like Ronald exist much more rarely than crime shows would have us believe, I still wouldn’t risk it by letting my son ride around on a bike delivering papers to strangers.

Anyway, young Erik, the only person who recognizes Ronald’s face in the paper, takes Ronald’s picture and then he’s immediately grabbed when Ronald sneaks up on him from behind. Ronald puts Erik in a cage in the basement of the house Ronald shares with his recently murdered mother. In fact, mommy dearest’s corpse is also stored in one corner of this same basement.

Another dumb thing that happens is that Ronald answers his doorbell. Imagine seeing your picture in the paper, knowing the cops are searching for you, and then answering the friggin’ doorbell just like it’s any regular day. The man at the door is Ronald’s mother’s priest. How do we know? He just so happens to be wearing a white collar and carrying a bible. Ronald shouldn’t let this priest into the house. After all, he has a kidnapped boy in the basement who is able to make plenty of noise despite the masking tape on his mouth. And, of course, Ronald should be suspicious that our man of God may have seen him in the newspaper.

Regardless of how risky it all is, Ronald lets the priest into the living room. The man of the cloth tries to counsel Ronald about the “prurient” urges/desires that Ronald’s mother had confided to the priest about Ronald. But Ronald won’t listen to the minister. Instead, Ronald accuses the man of trying to drown him during his baptism years before. Jeez, Ronald. He’s sounding crazier and crazier. Earlier in this episode he even mocked his mother’s voice while cleaning the kitchen. “We keep a clean house,” he said, mimicking his mother’s nagging tone.

Anyway, the priest hears Erik screaming in the basement after Erik notices the mother’s corpse in the corner of the basement. Ronald makes some lame excuse about his dog and how he has to go down to the basement to check on it. Rather than showing the priest out of the house, Ronald leaves the priest in the living room and goes down to the basement. The priest follows him down there and sees the boy in the cage. He tries to sneak back upstairs, but then he’s immediately chased by Ronald. A fight ensues. I felt hopeful that the priest might even get the best of Ronald, but no such luck. All of Ronald’s experience committing violent acts is too much for our priest. Ronald drowns the man in the kitchen dishwater and flings his body down the stairs to the basement. I’m always amazed at the strength of bad guys in shows and movies. Is it really possible for an average-sized man to have the strength to throw a larger man down a flight of stairs, even if that man is already dead?

Before he got kidnapped by Ronald, Erik texted his mother that he recognized the man from the paper, though he doesn’t give more details. His mom goes to the PI office after Erik doesn’t come home on time. Denise calls police, and they piece together that the trucker must be someone on Erik’s paper route. Thus, again, they’re close to catching the culprit.

Cassie sneaks into Legarski’s hospital room to see if he recognizes her. She takes off her mask and hair covering. He looks blankly at her. Later, he asks if he shot her with an arrow. Cassie later tells Jenny that she doesn’t feel that Legarski is running a scam. She seriously believes he doesn’t remember her. I don’t know what to believe. Legarski could be totally faking.

No one wears face coverings on this show, which is set in Helena, and people don’t appear to be socially distancing either. In an earlier episode, the pandemic was mentioned, so I know the show takes place during the present day. Perhaps Montana doesn’t have many Covid cases. Only about half the folks you see here in Tennessee wear masks, but it would definitely be strange to not see anyone wearing them at all.

The episode ends with Erik getting his hands on a staple gun and a taser. He shoots a couple of staples into Ronald’s head and tasers Ronald. Still, the boy is no closer to escaping. Ronald, infuriated, begins to pour gasoline all over the basement. Yikes.

Stay tuned.

February 24, 2021 0

Big Sky, Episode 7: I Fall to Pieces

In these past few episodes there’ve been a lot of wasted scenes between Ronald and his mother. Most involve him yelling at her as she reminds him of things he already knows, such as, “Legarski may use you as leverage to make a plea deal,” etc. In this episode we have two such scenes–one in the kitchen as he yells at her over cereal, and a second one in which he’s listening to metal/rock in his truck cab and she comes tapping on the window and asks to chat. Finally, Mama tells Ronald that she’ll call the police and turn him in. He grabs her and snaps her neck. He then proceeds to lay her lifeless body into a living room chair.

That whole scene enraged me. His mother, who knows her son better than anyone, should not have confronted him with this. By that point he had already grabbed her around the throat one time before and left his hand mark on her neck. Plus, she knows he’s a kidnapper and frequently refers to him as a sexual pervert. He’s not the sort of guy you want to anger. She should’ve waited until after he left the house and then called the police to warn them that he was headed to Legarski’s house to look for incriminating evidence and to possibly kill Merilee. But nope, she confronts her psycho son and gets her neck snapped. Ugh.

Jerri is afraid that Ronald is coming to get her. She sleeps with a baseball bat facing the door to her house. Can you blame her? She goes to see Jenny and Cassie to show them the note he left her. They all agree that Jerri should go stay at a friend’s house, so she goes to stay with the waitress from the restaurant she frequents. The waitress’s husband is a burly guy with a gun, so Jerri feels safer. A good piece of dialogue comes from Cassie this week when she tells Jenny that they should put an American flag in the yard of the waitress with whom Jerri is staying. When Jenny asks why, Cassie basically tells her that the American flag is usually seen at houses where people observe their Second Amendment rights. Haha.

The most annoying dialogue comes from Legarski’s doctor, who gives a press conference during which he divulges stuff no real-life doctor should or would tell the press. He basically violates every privacy clause in the HIPPA handbook. Legarski’s lawyer calls the doctor out on his violation of doctor/patient confidentiality, and then she tells the doctor a story about how bullies threatened to stick a chick up her butt when she was a child. She says she bit off the chick’s head in response and spit it in the bullies’ faces. Strange story. Even stranger lawyer. She hangs around the hospital and talks to Rick and his wife. Seems she would have other things to do. Lawyers are usually pretty busy, at least that’s my impression of them. Legarski, whose dialogue this week includes phrases like, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!” tells his lawyer that she’s stout and that it’s hard for stout women to find a husband. Not only is this woman no stouter than his own wife, but she’s not stout at all. Plus, all kinds of women find husbands. Around the globe, thousands of stout women are being loved long time right now by their men and their women. I get that the writers want to make it obvious that Rick’s mind is gone, and I get that the dialogue is supposed to be funny, but I’m not buying his act. I get the feeling he remembers a lot but pretends not to. For starters, when he first awakens, he asks his wife, “Who shot me?” but then later he claims he doesn’t remember being shot. If he can’t remember being shot, then how does he know someone shot him?

Ronald has attempted to disguise himself by coloring his hair a darker shade of brown. He looks the exact same, except for the hair. Worst. Disguise. Ever. He already has a nondescript face. If I were him, I’d just grow some facial hair and leave town.

This is completely irrelevant to anything that happens this week, but I love Ronald’s mother’s house. It’s painted one of my favorite shades of blue, and it has a wide front porch. So peaceful-looking.

His mother wears old-fashioned dresses, the kind with full skirts that would look tres chic with a petticoat beneath them. She probably bakes a killer apple pie with a homemade crust.

Grace helps out police by taking them to the place in the woods where Legarski killed the fisherman. They recover his body, and she identifies him. She also goes to the hospital and identifies Legarski, though he doesn’t seem to recognize her. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was faking it, though.

The episode ends with Ronald going to see Merilee. He’s there to search for the hidden compartment in the house where Legarski hides his evidence of their crimes. He finds a compartment in an upstairs wall by punching a hole into it. (wtf?!) Meanwhile, Merilee, unsuspecting, is making tea for two in the downstairs kitchen after sending Ronald upstairs alone to use the restroom. Why couldn’t they just have at least one downstairs bathroom like regular folks? Anyway, Jenny and Cassie show up and show Merilee a composite sketch the kidnapped trio helped police make. The sketch looks exactly like Ronald, and wide-eyed Merilee tells them that he’s upstairs.

End episode.

See you again soon!

February 18, 2021 0

Big Sky, Episode 6: The Wolves Are Always out for Blood

This was the first episode back after the winter hiatus. If you remember correctly from back in December, Cassie returned to the bar and found Legarski there with the kidnapped trio. She puts a bullet in Legarski’s head. He falls down, presumably dead, after muttering his catch phrase: “My, my, my.”

In this new episode, Legarski is somehow not dead. He’s hospitalized with a brain injury and unconscious, but clinging to life. His wife, Merilee, played by the wonderful Brooke Smith, is clueless about her husband’s criminal activities. Cops literally rip up the boards in her house looking for evidence of her husband’s crimes. Merilee’s also clueless as as to who her husband’s partner could be, and even though she’s danced with Ronald, she knows him by a different name.

Ronald speaks openly with his mother about his involvement in the kidnappings. He tells her that Legarski’s wife doesn’t know his identity. Still, Mama has her doubts. She’s afraid her son will go down. I think she should turn him in. I would. He deserves a looong prison sentence. Ronald, rather than fleeing the scene, paints the exterior of his long-haul truck cab blue and still hangs around his mother’s house. Not sure what he thinks he could accomplish by hanging around. One of his kidnap victims lives locally and could easily identify him, and if Legarski remembers anything he could–and probably would–implicate Ronald. Plus, Ronald’s mother keeps reminding him that the cops know Legarski’s accomplice is a trucker. Ronald responds by telling her he has to get into Legarski’s house and find whatever evidence would incriminate Ronald. Not sure why he thinks he could find evidence after the police have already searched the place, but I guess the writers wanted a reason to keep Ronald hanging around Helena, Montana.

The cops uncover Cody’s vehicle with his body inside. Jenny falls to the ground, grief-stricken. Cassie is upset, too, of course; however, she at first appears more upset about shooting Legarski than about Cody’s death.

Cody’s memorial service includes a sad speech from Jenny and lots of tears. Later, Jenny and Cassie vow to team up “just for this case.” I like their partnership, and if the show is extended past this first season, I’d like to see them together going after more bad guys associated with this trafficking ring. They don’t seem to have distinct personalities, though. Both women are tomboys who wear jeans and big belt buckles, and if we were to go through each woman’s closet, we’d find leather jackets and more than one cowboy hat.

Jerri returns home to find that someone has left a note outside her trailer that says, “You don’t learn,” which was something Ronald had said to her after tasering her during the hostage horror. Earlier in the episode he sat in his pickup outside a restaurant and took pictures of her. Creepy.

Legarski’s eye pops open at the end of the episode. Stay tuned…

February 18, 2021 0

Memoirs by Kiese Laymon, Bakari Sellers, and Sally Field

I’m reading a lot of memoir lately. There’s something wonderful and exciting about hearing a person’s story in their own voice. Last year, I taught Heavy by Kiese Laymon in my nonfiction workshop. It’s one of the best books I read last year. Perhaps the thing I like best about it is that Kiese Laymon reads the audiobook himself. You get to hear his country, black Southern accent and how he pronounces words like “nan” and “scrimps” in his own dialect. Not everyone is a good reader for their own work, (or any work for that matter), but he’s a spectacular reader. He has great inflection and puts just the right amount of emotion in his voice. The story is mostly about his growing up years in Mississippi. Laymon has a mother who instilled in him the importance of education, and yet I hesitate to call her wonderful because she’s also angry and abusive toward him. Laymon’s title is a double entendre. He writes about heavy subjects, such as racism and poverty, but the memoir also focuses on how physically heavy he becomes as a result of his eating disorder. This book forced me to think about the ways in which people abuse and neglect their own bodies as a result of life problems or low self-esteem.

Bakari Sellers’s book, My Vanishing Country is another story about a country boy who achieves a lot through hard work and education. I think it’d be interesting to teach Laymon and Sellers alongside each other. Sellers became a lawyer and a politician at a young age, and his story is definitely inspiring. However, what I liked best about it was that he educated me on the Orangeburg Massacre, a Civil Rights era killing of protestors by police officers. This massacre is one I’d never heard of before. Three people died, and many more were injured when police opened fire on a large group of unarmed protestors.

Sally Field’s memoir, In Pieces, is a bit longer than it needs to be. I feel she spends too much time on her childhood. I haven’t heard quite all of the book yet, but I’ve heard enough to recommend it. She reads it herself and has a controlled voice that handles even sensitive subject matter with a quiet confidence. Field details her childhood and how she comes from a family of actors. She is sexually abused by her stepfather, which I think makes her vulnerable and lacking in self-confidence. It was surprising to learn that she often feared being an out-of-work actress. She’s made so many films and television series that I always thought of her as someone who has had constant work. Field basically says that in her early career she was typecast as an actress who was not to be taken seriously due to her role in The Flying Nun. I’m not old enough to remember that television series and it wasn’t in syndication when I was growing up. I’ve only seen her in serious roles, so it’s hard to imagine she was cast differently in her early career. One thing that didn’t surprise me was when she tells of a sleazy director who makes her take off her top and kiss him as part of her audition for a role. Later, he comes to her for sex while working with her on the film. Such a slimy story, but it’s not a surprising one, given what we’ve all heard and read about the Me, Too movement and how it’s exposed so many powerful men in Hollywood. Overall, in her book Sally Field comes across as more lonely than anything else. She also constantly desires approval from others. Like Kiese Laymon, Sally Field also suffers from an eating disorder. I bought this audiobook of hers because she’s one of my all-time favorite actresses. I loved her in Norma Rae, which is a favorite movie of mine.

January 31, 2021 1

Big Sky, Episode 5: “A Good Day to Die”

Crazy Legarski starts off this episode creeping up the staircase with a hammer in his hand. He pauses in the bedroom over his sleeping wife, looking ominously down at her. We see his disturbing fantasy of bashing her head in, but then she awakens perfectly fine to ask, “What are you doing?”Legarski responds by commenting on how she has danced with another man and how it drives him crazy to think about. Then, he blames himself for the fact that she went out dancing.

I think the writers are trying to make Legarski a complex character. He’s not just some monster killing for sport. He actually seems contrite and upset about his wrongdoings, and yet he never turns himself in to the police.

We’re given a flashback to a time when trucker guy was getting blown by a woman, Sage, in his truck. Legarski pulls him over and lectures him on “falling victim to the evil” that Sage offers him. The lecture is sooo bad. It’s like a Fox News show rhetoric. Legarski tells trucker guy that they can set Sage off on a better path. I guess the scene is supposed to show us Legarski rationalizes human trafficking by telling himself he’s doing these women a favor by selling them.

Cassie and Jenny convince local police to ambush Legarski at the compound. But joke’s on them. Trucker guy has already removed the kidnapped girls before Cassie and Jenny arrive with the police. Legarski gets the last laugh for the time being.

Trucker guy takes the girls to the abandoned bar and holds them there. He cleans them up, and it’s implied that they’re about to be sold elsewhere. Legarski shows up and reveals that after this job he’ll officially quit the kidnapping/trafficking business. Legarski also tells trucker guy that his wife went dancing the previous night. This again makes me wonder what trucker guy is up to. What’s he gain from dancing with Legarski’s wife? Maybe he feels some satisfaction by knowing he could possibly seduce her if he wanted. Both men are despicable, but at least Legarski knows his actions are despicable and wants to stop. Trucker guy comes across as a true misogynist, and this show kinda explains his behavior by writing a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. In this episode, he even grabs Mama Dearest around the throat after she mentions that kidnapping those girls somehow fits in line with his “prurient urges,” and then accuses him of being a sexual predator. What prurient urges? Also, how does his mother know about said urges? Has she witnessed something? Later, trucker guy tells his mama that his “business partner” kidnapped the girls. This makes me wonder just how long Mama will wait before contacting the police.

Psycho trucker guy goes to see Legarski’s wife at her craft business again. She tells him she’s married, which he knows already, of course. He kisses her, and she responds as if she likes it. Not sure where that storyline is going. Will he use her to take revenge on her husband somehow?

Cassie goes to the abandoned bar after being told by Legarski’s wife that Legarski is a creature of habit. In the bar, she finds him with the girls, who are gagged and tied up. Cassie, standing atop the staircase, has a standoff with Legarski as he calls up to her from the bottom of the stairs. She puts a bullet in his head and he falls over right after uttering his catch phrase: “My, my, my.”

This was the winter finale episode of the series, which means we’ll have to wait a while to see what happens next. I wonder if the writers intended this to be a miniseries or a full show with multiple seasons. Killing off Legarski and finding the missing girls so soon makes me wonder where the show could possibly go from here. Maybe it’ll take Cassie a while to track down trucker Ronald and bring him to justice.

Big Sky returns on January 26, 2021.

January 16, 2021 0

Big Sky, Episode 4: “Unfinished Business”

This episode was a dud compared to episode three. I think it’s the weakest episode of the series thus far. Here’s the important stuff:

–Ronald has a weird moment in which he dumps his cereal on his mother’s head, just like a spoiled toddler. Rather than smack his face, Mama asks him if he has anything to do with the missing girls.

–Rick Legarski hears about the missing girls on the radio as he’s driving. This isn’t the first time he’s heard about them in the media. And. He. Is. Livid. He calls Ronald in a teeth-gritting furor and commands him to meet at the abandoned bar where they do their illegal business. Legarski looks more than a little triggered when Ronald says his mother is suspicious. Legarski goes so far as to reach down for his service weapon, as though he’s considering killing his idiot crime partner. He doesn’t, of course.

–Back in the bunker, the girls are worried about Grace, whose leg looks infected. She’s in pain and has a fever. Ronald stops by and douses the leg with peroxide. Later, Legarski stops by to inject her with some medicine. We’re led to believe that her injury improves and that she’s no longer in danger of dying from infection.

–Cassie goes to the sheriff to ask for help keeping an eye on Legarski. The sheriff calls Legarski in for a private chat. As they talk, Legarski at first tries to sweet talk the sheriff and change the topic to take the focus off himself, and when that doesn’t work he plays the race card. This is something people don’t talk much about. People of color are often accused of playing the card, but white people do it sometimes too. During his race card rant, Legarski says the sheriff is doing a back flip in his rush to investigate him just because Cassie is black and made the complaint. Legarski claims it’s “open season on the badge.” He says anyone who claims blue lives matter is painted as a bigot (which is kinda true in many cases), but rather than gain him any leeway or sympathy from the sheriff, Legarski’s speech just makes him look angry and belligerent.

–Cassie and Jenny go to the truck stop after viewing the parking lot footage from the night Jerrie was kidnapped. Cassie plays lookout while Jenny, dressed as a hooker in over-the-knee boots, goes up to a random trucker and tries to get a DNA sample from some items in his truck. The trucker, who’s already made her scrub herself down with sanitizer and even squirt her mouth with some liquid because he wants him a clean hooker, gets suspicious of Jenny. They end up brawling in the parking lot. She punches him down, and he reaches for his gun just as Cassie jumps out with her gun and shouts him down. It was like a scene from Charlie’s Angels or something.

–Ronald goes to see Merilee, Legarski’s wife, at the quilt shop she runs. He buys a quilt and convinces her to go to an old-fashioned dance hall to meet him. That night, we see Merilee step into the dance hall–which is full of old folks, one of whom is spiking the punch bowl–and lose her courage and bail on him. Ronald chases Merilee out to the parking lot and convinces her to dance. They have a good time, though why they do is still uncertain. He’s pretty boring. Perhaps Merilee is just lonely. She is, after all, married to a psychopath, but then again Ronald is also a psychopath. Does she just happen to attract psychos, or is Ronald deliberately targeting Legarski’s wife for some reason? Not sure where the writers are going with this storyline. I mean, Ronald has to know Merilee is Rick’s wife. How many women named Merilee could possibly live in this small rural town?

–Cassie and Jenny tail Legarski to the place in the woods where the girls are being kept. At one point, they’re standing super close to the bunker and the girls are shouting for help from underground, but Cassie and Jenny can’t hear them.

My fave quote from this episode comes from Merrilee to Ronald after he calls her beautiful while buying a quilt from her:

“Ah, it’s still the same price. We’ve discontinued the flattery discount.”

I’m hoping next week’s episode will be more thrilling.

December 17, 2020 0