rander-88123 Reviews

Rebus (2024– )

Remember Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant?"

[8/10 · 22 May 2024]

This is the Scottish version. A detective, not that old which is a surprise, who appears (ep.1) is forced to straddle the line between legitimate and bent. But he's no angel himself. He's getting it on with his ex-boss's (who is now in a wheelchair) wife. In the first ep., he slugs his loser brother-in-law onto a coffee table, part alienates his daughter (he and his wife are divorced and she's got a rich, nice-guy husband). This is familiar ground, the hard-bitten detective, but it's a nice change from the by-the-book people Brit detectives have been devolving into since the mid-1990s. He has a new partner, female, Asian of course. It remains to be seen how she'll flesh-out. Anyway, the accents are thick Scottish so Americans will have a time understanding it, but then I hear people leave CC on 50% of the time now (how can people watch TV like that??!) so they'll muddle through once it hits the U. S. There are some decent scenes of Edinburgh, upper class and lower.

Poor Things (2023)

If David Lynch and Tim Burton re-did Warhol's "Flesh for Frankenstein."

[8/10 · 19 May 2024]

This movie is beyond that. Imagine if you took a crazed 1980s horror movie and added Oscar calibre performances? I went into this thinking it would be a straight-forward horror/scifi. What it is, is a horror movie with more sex in it than a 1970's Italian giallo movie.

Willam DaFoe gives a fantastic performance as a straight-laced version of Dr. Frankenstein, a consummate scientist, interested in only experimentation, logic and truth. Emma Stone, equally as good as DaFoe plays a woman who wasn't happy with her life who is changed in a way you would not believe. Mark Ruffalo is over the top as a Victorian libertine (though this isn't quite Victorian England to be SURE!) who become quickly enamoured of Stone.

The rest of the cast is very good as well. Check-out the disorienting cinematography and what I believe is the use of early 19th century Petzval camera lenses (based on the interesting out of focus areas in some shots) in some scenes. I'd love to know what they actually used to shoot this, in addition of course to the computer FX work.

In any case, it's well worth seeing especially for the dialog and story-line.

Dark Matter (2024– )

Reasonable approach to fictionalized work on quantum world

[7/10 · 9 May 2024]

I think that for what it is, is pretty good. While I'd like to see more science in shows like this, to give the audience a grounding into what the multi-verse is, sans nancy-boy superheroes. In this case, the concept is dealt with in a superficial way (to ep. 3) but hopefully it clarifies as we go on. As for the people... It rarely ceases to amaze. Why is it things play out in these type of TV shows as they never would in real-life? I'm not talking about the scifi concept, that's usually very basically dealt with, sometimes it's interesting, but the actions of humans in these things rarely if ever ring true. Ask yourself, would YOU behave the way people did here? A true scientist would more than anything be fascinated by what had transpired, they would be elated that something had happened. Instead, the reactions are fear, overwrought emotion, it just does not ring true. Do you fly off the handle at the least confusing conflict? Even in a traumatic situation you would probably have the presence of MIND to ask people to explain before you went haywire. But supposed IQ's of the protagonists aside, they act like lab-rats with just as little intelligence. Dialog makes little sense, doesn't lead anywhere as quickly as it could, just facilitates dragging out and laying the groundwork for the implausible situations we always see. At the very beginning, rather than ask the guy questions about his experience, they start peppering a clearly disoriented person with questions! They should have let HIM ask the questions and patiently answered them and explained what was done. If they are going to tackle some of the concepts in quantum mechanics, they need to stop catering solely to the mouth-breathers in the audience.

The Day After (1983 TV Movie)

"Threads" it ain't. But it's not too bad

[7/10 · 20 April 2024]

Just to diverge, "Threads" was a genius British production dealing with the reasons for and results of a nuclear war over an estimated 15 year time-frame. It was so harrowing some critics reported being traumatized for weeks.

"The Day After" is a more sanitized version of nuclear war yet it stands on its own feet pretty well. My only gripe is that I'd have replaced some of the speechifying by people like Robards with a substantially more involved intro showing why the war broke out in the first place, more dialog from politicians, military people. Also, using actual people from Lawrence, Kansas in it sounds ok, but they are not actors and it shows.

The movie begins with intros to the people of Lawrence; farmers, doctors and the like. All salt-of-the-Earth middle Americans. Also, footage of air force personnel going through their day of processes to make sure they are ready for any eventuality. It comes off as quite realistic.

The lead-up to the eventual nuclear exchange lacks the intensity it should have. The news (likely) would be dominated by things like skirmishes with conventional weapons/troops by the (the other side) Russians and Americans/Europeans. Instead, what leads to the eventual confrontation are things more or less culled from Sir General Sir John Hackett's popular fictional novel of the time, "The Third World War." In it, Hackett thought that strife in Russia and the Communist Eastern Block would help to precipitate the war, riots in East Germany, and the like. There are briefly mentioned incidents like this in the film, which lead to confrontations between Russia and the West, leading to individual atomic bombings and eventually a full-on exchange. All told more or less though the observations and actions of the people in Lawrence. Unfortunately, this also limits the movie's national and international scope, which would have been very interesting to observe, in my opinion. In-truth, a really thorough telling of a nuclear war would have to be done as at least a mini-series on TV or even a full season program.

The special effects are middlin but acceptable for the time I guess. Well within the TV censorship at the time. You don't see people blown to bits or ripped to shreds by glass shards traveling 800mph (which would happen). Instead, people are "x-rayed" as skeletons and "Star Trek" style vaporized as if by phasers. The intent is there.

The reaction of the people I buy. They try to carry on after the bombing, doing what would be expected of those in an emergency like that. No feral mobs are roaming a wasteland. Civilization as such is preserved. I think that is a reasonable representation of areas like Kansas and not say inner-city Los Angeles which, if it survived at all would probably devolve like in post-apocalyptic scifi movies. Interestingly, no information about the status of U. S. or Russian forces are given post-bombing, despite there being a (at the time) robust presence of things like ham radio operators in the U. S.

The movie does show the effects of fall-out (which at the time would to be consequential because there were many hardened targets, like ICBM silos) that would need to be hit directly in order to stop them from launching, thus churning up soil which in-turn becomes fall-out. However, the effects on the humans aren't nearly as graphically-depicted as they are in movies like "Threads" and "Testament." A new movie dealing with a nuclear exchange would be different as fall-out would not be as much of a problem since most blasts would be air-bursts designed to hobble populations. Plus, there are only a fifth of the number of nuclear weapons that existed in 1984 today and there are (that we know of) no more huge H-bombs in the megaton or more range because they were deemed militarily obsolete in the 1990s.

At the end, the toll is beginning to show on people like Robards who has been worked off his feet as a doctor and is sick from radiation exposure.

So, "The Day After" is an entertaining movie, though dated, about the effects of a nuclear war and is quite watchable.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (2024– )

Well, it's not bad but it needs smoothing out and a fact-checker

[7/10 · 16 March 2024]

Northern Ontario accent on detective? Not likely. They mentioned assisted death - More Western countries do it now. Captain has some disease? She looks like a bulge-eyed alien. Fast talking in parts; like a millennial directed it, but the jiggling camera is out of the 90s. At first I thought it was just because they were on a boat, but it kept going. Detective doesn't ask questions, he makes closed-ended statments. Crooks can just stand there and say nothing! The usual evil Russian villains! Thankfully, not expanded on. Typical red herring black suspect shown, briefly, but of course, he wasn't the villain(s). Fake university was referenced. Lots of villains came from real ones, like University of Toronto. "Guelph regional police?!" Guelph Police Service!! All the cop plods are white, all the higher ranks, the techs, the crown attorney (our DA) are black. It's 'cause they filmed it on the Earth on the opposite side of the sun from us. People still referencing newspapers?? Are they kidding? NO one does. But it moved along. "High-level criminals." Translated: Mostly white and relatable to the audience. But if any American watching is interested in Toronto's actual criminals, go to Google, type in, "Toronto's most-wanted" and go to the first link...

Constellation (2024– )

People with ADD, do not attempt to watch this

[8/10 · 10 March 2024]

Have the attention span of a gnat? Don't bother. This, like other shows that have incorporated quantum physics and other dimensionalities into their plots have not fared well with the singing shows or even "Star Wars" show fans because it does take a little bit of concentration to appreciate it. The show isn't really new. The premise concerns the idea of things being altered, at least from the perception of particular participants in the goings on of the space program. The idea that the dice rolls of quantum mechanics can impact the so-called "real world" of humans and have macro-effects instead of just sub-atomic ones. The main characters are an astronaut who comes back to Earth feeling displaced and a Nobel-laureate scientist who insists something has happened with an experiment he built. Of course, the old saw about "no one believing them and they can't prove it" comes into play, you can go all the way back to the 1960's show, "The Invaders" for that one as well. Where the show is interesting is when it at least tries to explain to the audience the workings of quantum mechanics. Perhaps the producers thought some might find it as fascinating in its otherworldliness as it is to them? The show is interesting, I applaud the producers for trying to show people that world, much as (shockingly) the producers of "The Big Bang Theory" did.

I Am Number Four (2011)

I really hate alien rifles..

[3/10 · 25 February 2024]

Why? Because who would want a laser blaster that fires projectiles SO slowly you can dodge them? You see this ALL the time in scifi. Give me an AR-15 firing bullets at 2800fps, much more effective. Meanwhile, the movie is a paint-by-numbers teen is alien, slap-dash effort. While the effects are reasonable (and what effects aren't today, except perhaps for "giant shark vs. Croctopus" type movies?) there are no real humans around to support them. The male alien-teen hero is merely acceptable. His human girlfriend is a block of wood. The hot Aussie alien girl isn't in it long enough. Poor Timothy Olyphant just looks haunted, as if he's being cursed for being in this kind of movie. The bullying football teen who inexplicably does a 180 degree personality switch is one of the few good characters. Cliches abound (the loyal dog, the death of the mentor, the human nerd the alien teen befriends, the local cop, the quarterback bully and his crew, the cheesy "heroic" music) and the saddest part (for the makers, not the audience) is that they clearly wrote this as if a sequel might happen, which of course it didn't. I guess the worst part, as always, is that they wasted a perfectly acceptable budget on this thing which could have gone to something decent.

Tracker (2024– )

Sophomoric writing and the usual, unbelievable ethnic characters

[6/10 · 21 February 2024]

First of all, you don't emit charm by talking to local law of small towns like a clown. Nor does your (Chinese, or whatever) lawyer start off with a small-town cop by insulting another (kind of) small-town as being "beneath" (unspoken but implied) her. I do like the main character's to-the-point approach to asking for the reward, I'm sure we've had our fill of detectives working "pro-bono" for some sob-story case. Of course, you have a minority (not Chinese) tech expert. Hollywood, by giving minorities high-prestige jobs, the producers can show them less but still have them on the show. Kill two birds with one stone that way. The plot concept is fine, it's been done before, but no harm done.

All Creatures Great and Small (2020– )

New show not as riveting as the 70's version, but it's ok.

[7/10 · 25 December 2023]

This show is an "ok" show, it is not as good as the 1970s version. Why? Because it lacks the energy, the realism, the grubbiness (lots more down in the muck veterinarian work in the original) and the supporting characters are not a patch on the original. The original show had the Ms. Palfrey and her spoiled dog, used to much greater effect. The fact the vets catered to her every whim (almost) because she was a great tipper with her $$$ basket gifts from Herrods. The rich, ultra-talented horse vet who kept drinking James under the table. A MYRIAD of well-fleshed out supporting characters, especially the local farmers who were a true spectrum of society. In the original, James, Siegfried and Tristan were also larger than life, all fitting their clearly different characters. Plus, you got to see how clever methods were devised to save animals in the days before antibiotics. The new show, the characters are more one dimensional, lacking the emotional drive the originals had. Siegfried ranting at the lazy Tristan that if he failed his (exams for being a vet) again, he's "out, sacked!" Shows these day see-saw between too emotional and unemotional and this new show really is the latter.

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Insidious: The Red Bore

[4/10 · 30 September 2023]

This movie could have been an hour long ep. Of "The Outer Limits" except it wasn't good enough for that series. The story is that daddy and the kid were hypnotized to get rid of a year's worth of memories that were too traumatizing to deal with. As if psychiatry could ever produce a result that specific!! Of course, 10 years later, moody kid goes off to art school (which costs a fortune) and doesn't even offer daddy a note of thanks. Cue moody, entitled late teen. For a while in the middle, Watson becomes almost a footnote as the kid starts having dreams about events he should have forgotten and deals with an truly obnoxious, unlikable college (briefly) roommate. Kid's art is a gateway to the "other side" and soon he and the father are enmeshed with the evil souls once again though the father is at home. There is a scene where daddy, who thinks he may have a brain tumour freaks out in an MRI machine. How OFTEN have we seen this cliche in TV and movies?? TOO often, even if the father's reason for going nuts in the machine isn't claustrophobia. Honestly, I can't even say how they overcome the evil in this one, either I was too bored by then, or really NOTHING HAPPENED!! If it were not for the decent actors, this would rate a 2.

Silo (2023– )

"Planet of the Apes" meets "1984"

[8/10 · 5 July 2023]

This is Planet of the Apes, only the humans are apes. The outside of the silo is the "forbidden zone." The Judicial Branch of government is the religious rulers of the ape Earth. People are kept in state of 1984-style conformity by their rulers, which are like "The Law Givers" on the ape-Earth. It's well-done, it'll educate people who don't know the other two stories.

Basic premise is there are people who are too inquisitive for their own good, violating the law by looking for and thinking about "artifacts" from times before the silo. No one except for a few has a clue what lies beyond, or what did lie beyond. The stories centres around a woman who was an engineer but who takes up the mantle of sheriff in order to find some answers. The limited view offered of the outside shows a wasteland, your typical post-apocalyptic or "modern-day Afghanistan-looking" wasteland where people who venture out die before they get 100 yards. However, you can see the stars from their slit windows and that has at least one person noting their motions, even though the person hasn't a clue as to what a star really is. Keeping people utterly ignorant, much as internet censors try to do today. An enjoyable if bleak presentation.

BlackBerry (2023)

The company went down but not out

[7/10 · 2 July 2023]

Were you ignorant of the company, you'd think the end of the movie meant that Blackberry disappeared from the world. It didn't, it's producing security software more or less in-line with the fact they once had the most secure communications device extant. The movie is a bit old-school with the "The Office" use of cameras that jiggle and loose centering. The problem is that although it does a good job of showing the skeleton of what happened to the company, there is simply too much to say in the time-frame allowed. Also, silly changes to reality like them being investigated by the SEC (American) as opposed to Canadian tax officials was not needed, even to appeal to a U. S. audience. The characters in the movie are true to life, more or less as is the "Google-inspired" lazy work environment shown. The final phone shown, a full-screen model like Android and Apple phones (the Storm) was a flop probably not because of Chinese manufacturing but of a rush to market with a sub-standard product. The whole is likely no better than the parts used. I wonder if they've done a movie on Nokia like this?

Lucky Hank (2023– )

We've seen it all before. "Animal House" did it better

[5/10 · 25 April 2023]

Remember Donald Sutherland as the "don't give a damn" professor in "Animal House?" He summed it up on one sentence. This is that, only with 1/2 the wit. Another tedious, smug liberal story about smug liberals in an English department at a backwater university. For a group that avidly supports the liberal-arts, liberals display utter cynicism when it comes to showing what that world is like. The professor tells a student (who compared himself to Chaucer) that he has no writing talent, because he's in a school with other mediocre students and a mediocre (him) professor. Then things go from there. What undercurrent I get from this is that the world of true intellect has not included them, that medicine, the sciences and technology draw the best students today and it subconsciously drives them slowly mad. So they make TV shows and movies like this, one pretty much the same as the next. Pity.

The Last of Us (2023– )

Very good show that a few here don't quite get

[8/10 · 15 March 2023]

It may or may not follow the game, not being a gamer, I don't know, nor do I care. But, it does provide a reasonably accurate portrayal of what it would be like living in a world turned upside down by a pandemic. It's realistic because some of our politicians during the covid pandemic acted like they wanted such a scenario. But the action is very good and measured, the dialog is fine, when you consider the characters are just average people. Some people didn't get the isolated episodes, but it's clear the show is setting up for a long run so it can afford to be methodical in how it is presented. If you really want non-stop action, there are plenty of short, self-contained movies gear for you.

Redemption (I) (2022)

Worthless mystery series should be bypassed (SPOILERS)

[3/10 · 29 December 2022]

High-ranking cop from Liverpool gets news that her daughter, estranged for 20 years or so has been found dead of suicide in a park in Dublin. So she immediately arranges a transfer to the Dublin police department. So easy. She goes to Dublin, views the daughter's body, gets info from the cops there. Then, she goes to her daughter's house and looks around, only to be confronted by her daughter's 2 children who INEXPLICABLY were never picked up at school or TOLD about the mother's death by the police!! Ridiculous! A co-worker (in Dublin) tells the woman she's gay, out of the blue, for no reason. The son asks if he can bring his boyfriend to funeral. Tick that gay acknowledgement box!! Meanwhile, because conveniently, her daughter's death dovetails with the woman's own investigation from Liverpool over deadly drugs, she's effectively working on her daughter's "case" even though her death was ruled a suicide.

I won't be watching any more of this rubbish.

The Lazarus Project (2022–2023)

Brilliant, exciting and clever scifi

[9/10 · 16 December 2022]

It's very difficult to review this program without spoilers. A relatively mild-mannered programmer of business applications becomes a secret agent in a mind-bending organization that "saves" the world from "extinction events." How they do it is a spoiler. But this show is fascinating, if you speculate about how it might all work. I don't know why the American programmers continue to simply retread every cop show and medical series and seemingly don't have the will or the smarts to come up with something like this. The characters are all well-drawn and the mix of scifi, action and a mercifully-small amount of dry humour is worth watching.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Dead Ball (2022) Season 24, Episode 7

Absolutely RIDICULOUS episode

[1/10 · 11 November 2022]

This show.sometimes has very good writing. This episode did not. Can you imagine the police, finding out a man's best friend raped his daughter then ASKING him to confront the rapist while wearing wire?! Why not just give the guy a gun too? TERRIBLE concept, and it would NEVER be done by police in real-life. There is a difference between decent crime writing and a craven attempt to sensationalize a plot with an implausible scene like that. I realize that the hunt for ratings is a battle in today's TV environment, but don't.foist this kind of absurdity on people, make the writers WORK harder to produce better product.

CSI: Vegas (2021–2024)

A tired, cheapjack shadow of its former self

[4/10 · 22 October 2022]

CSI was a show that revolutionized the cop procedural. Stylish, fast-paced and well-acted. Then came this resurrection. Terrible acting (the Willow's character sometimes sounds literally like she's reading off a cue-card, she sure doesn't want to be there, no wonder Petersen only came in for ep. 1). Ethnic characters introduced not for their competence, but because they are ethnic. Now, (as of ep. 4) they have a weirdo in the new girl because all these types of shows post-original CSI have to have an oddball in the tech pool. The 4th ep. Of this season was without doubt some of the worst TV I've seen in a long time. Over-done emotionalism, non-professionalism, script-read acting, ridiculous, convoluted but not intelligent scripting. The absolute opposite of the original show.

The Peripheral (2022)

Actually, an effective scifi for a change

[9/10 · 21 October 2022]

It's refreshing to see a scifi show and escape the fantasy programming that permeates superhero and supernatural shows that dominate TV's alternate realities.

It's a good show. The characters are well-developed, and that's a trick when the action begins fairly fast, which is usually a sign that they are catering to the short attention-span crowd. To believe characters in their roles and be entertained early-on is a very good sign that the show is worth continued watching.

Moretz, Raynor and Goree are all very good. Also, it's nice it's set in the South, which is happening more and more on TV with fewer shows being stuck in the Rust Belt/L. A. and New York. It also hints at where VR may be going, even if we don't see it in our lifetimes.

Fall (I) (2022)

They could have gotten down EASILY, without help. Here is how:

[7/10 · 1 October 2022]

Two millenials decide to break the law and climb a 2000ft radio tower. They're rock climbers, one of whom lost her husband in a fall. I'm not going to delve into the technical matters, like how a tower in that condition hadn't been taken down. Anyway, they manage to get to the top, a platform 2000ft up, but just as they do, the rusty old ladder falls of the tower leaving them stranded. Then some harrowing action happens as they try to get help. But here is the horrifying part: They could have gotten down EASILY without help. How? They could have looped their 50ft of rope around the tower central pole and (each on either side of the tower) shimmied down it. Hydro linemen, forest workers do it ALL THE TIME. Even if one fell, they would have been stopped as the rope tautened against the tower and the other climber. So all the drama was avoidable.

Vampire Academy (2022)

I expected worse, it could get better

[6/10 · 16 September 2022]

This is no "Vampire Diaries" with its outstanding characters, or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" which is the benchmark. This is aimed primarily at teens, despite the dry-humping and use of the F-word which seems unfortunately to have replaced female nudity in "adultish" dramas. The story concerns 3 types of vampires, upper class, rulers, lower-class protectors and the actual dead vampires which are savages. The upper-class and protectors can go out in the sun, (you see no one drink much blood in the 1st ep) and can get killed by things like bombs. The editing is tight, owing to the attention-span of the intended audience, but that's ok, though I'm not fan of quick-cut fight scenes. All the "alive" vampires live in a large enclave and two girls (one upper-class, one lower) are friends going to the Vampire Academy. But circumstances force the old (Chinese) queen to name the upper class girl her heir. If you can stand the teen pop music (it really reduces the gravitas of a situation to have some sissy crooning to synth-track, whatever happened to hard-driving rock or classical music for this stuff?) the ep. Moves along pretty well. We'll see how this evolves.

Devil in Ohio (2022)

If Harlequin had a formula for suspense movies, this would be it

[4/10 · 5 September 2022]

EVERY possible cliche and woke checkbox checked.

-Mother is a successful psychiatrist, male daddy is a flop developer.

-They have two daughters PLUS a Chinese adoptee!

-Younger (outcast) sister has a (wait for it!) gay male friend.

-Older daughter is a b---- who won't let odd younger daughter eat lunch with her and her friends.

-Younger daughter is leered at by black student who looks at least three years her senior.

-Younger daughter is an outcast and you can tell because...she has a hobby! She's an amateur photographer!! SEE, if you aren't glued to a cellphone 24/7 (and can't even change a tire) you are not a modern, normal teen.

-Mommy semi-adopts (temporarily) a stray teen girl who came from a cult. Because "she feels responsible." -No one eats breakfast (except daddy), because like all liberals and people with liberal-arts careers, they are "too important" to be idle.

Cue the plates heaped with uneaten food, even though the state of fitness of the true average American would suggest reality is not that.

First strained, contrived dinner scene, and I'm out.

Tom Swift (2022)

Stick to designing running shoes, "Tom."

[1/10 · 16 June 2022]

How a network that went from "The Vampire Diaries" to this f------- trash is beyond me.

Flamboyant fop (daddy's disgrace) assumes control when his stern father gets blow-up (or should have been) taking a trip to Saturn. Tom's an engineer and designed the propulsion of the ship by finding something in a meteorite. Pure nonsense. The ship was designed like a fighter plane, no doubt so it could "cut through" all that atmosphere in outer space...! The show's science is ridiculous, laughable. Tom would be more at home working at a fashion magazine that being a 'lectrical engineer" as Lionel might have put it in an ep. Of "All in the Family." But FEAR not! Running shoes ARE featured!!

The show is truly awful and an insult to black people. It's like the Cosby show, sci-fantasy style.

Law & Order (1990– )

Old L&O gooood. New L&O BAAAADDDD!

[4/10 · 21 May 2022]

The old Law & Order was generally well-acted, well-written and compelling to watch. The formula was somewhat new, and it played very well, the relatively mild liberalism of the prosecutor never came off as dictatorial. The new version is kind of the opposite. You've got a black cop who still acts like he's on the comedy show, "Blackish." A guy from a former action series completely out of his depth in this. An over-earnest prosecutor and an assistant who couldn't act if he life depended on it. Every week is a new woke lesson in left-wing civics. It's a lecture, from mediocre minds, preachy. Not entertaining. I don't see this show going for much longer unless it is a pride thing for NBC.

The Dry (2022– )

Should always know what you are in for...

[6/10 · 17 May 2022]

In point of fact, people interested in the mundane lives of the average Joe will probably like this, but for the most part to me it's a bore. Drunks, jealous people, Brit TV (and American) pushing the "gay with the heart of gold" agenda. Just not interesting. Story concerns an alky, second-rate artist returning to her family to bury their grandmother. The first episode has one of those barbaric open-casket wakes some cultures celebrate. I just found it creepy. The thing that bugs me most though is that people in these things just do not make "real" conversation. Everything seems like a put-on, to hide whatever it is the people are really thinking about.