Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Friday, March 18, 2022

DVD/TV Series Review: House of Cards Trilogy

 


This is the series that essentially served as the source material for the American series starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. If you have watched the US version and then watch this, you will definitely see things that influenced the US series, as well as things that the US series changed a lot.

The BBC series spanned three seasons, all very short (just 4 episodes per season) that ran from 1990 to 1995. It starred Ian Richardson as Frances Urquhart, a whip for the conservative party in Britain's House of Commons, who maneuvers his way into being elected Prime Minister. Like Spacey's Frank Underwood, he will do whatever it takes to get and then hold power. The first season really deals with Francis' rise to power, and the political maneuvering it took to get there. The second season is about Francis' feud with the new King of England as if Elizabeth was no longer going to be queen in 1993, and the third season is about Francis' downfall.

For those who get the complete series on DVD, there are four discs total. Each season has its own disc, then there is a fourth disc with bonus material. There are only two bonus features. One is an 8-minute segment from a talk show featuring the writer hearing it from people who were ticked that his fictional king was making fun of Prince Charles. The second is a documentary about the history and functioning of Westminster Abbey, the palace that houses the British Parlament.

Overall, if you are a fan of the US series and watched that first, as probably most people in the US did, it is interesting to watch this to see what is similar and what was changed. For example, the character that would end up as Cory Stoll's character in the US version was totally different, and the storyline with the reporter, played by Susannah Harker in this series and Kate Mara in the US series, was expanded quite a bit in the US series. Some of it is a bit lost in translation if you are not familiar with how the political system in England works, and some of the slang terms used in England will probably make no sense to Americans. That said, it is still enjoyable. Like the US version of the show, there is drug use, and in the third season, some nudity, so it is definitely an adult series. While I cannot say fans of the US series will like it better, or even as much as they like the US version, this is still worth watching.

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