Five things I learned from "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 8

• The show is still great without Malek and Slater (but I am missing B D Wong as White Rose and that cute Scandi couple, the wacky Wellicks).
• Darlene must stop wearing short shorts, she is going to freeze in New York.
• "Danse Macabre" is still a great symphonic poem.
• Angela does great karaoke with Tears for Fears' "Everybody wants to rule the world".
• Dom's obsession with "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion"

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 7 highlights

• Joanna's colour motif is definitely stark white and scarlet.
• Sam Esmail playing with the audience (Elliot's prison switcheroo)
• "Maybe next year..." (Phillip's response to Angela's birthday rebuff)
• "Can you let go of me please?" (Elliot being hugged by the Christian counsellor)
• Don't mess with Leon.

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 6, review

Despite "The Guardian" TV critic's theory about the demise of second seasons of critically acclaimed shows*, this episode proves that Sam Esmail is still full of surprises and "Mr Robot" is still one of the smartest things on television.
The "family road trip" 80's sitcom was inspired, complete with video-format, cheesy credits, laugh track, commercial breaks, back projection and a cameo by Alf.
Things get darker as the sitcom-from-Hell continues.
The middle part of the episode - Angela junior hacker - is more like a caper movie.
Getting a bit sick of Ray. Do we need this subplot?
The final scene with young Elliot and his dad in family car (a nice bookend for this episode) is satisfying as well as quite poignant.



*Anyway, I liked Season 2 of "True Detective". Season 1 was brilliant but got a bit wanky toward the end. Season 2 of "Fargo" maintained the quality of the first season, so the above theory doesn't hold up.

5 Things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 5

• Elliot's recount of his hacking of the public library at 11 years old.
• B.D. Wong (TV's go-to actor for Asian supervillains, see Hugo Strange in "Gotham") has a terrific scene with Dom showing her his treasured wardrobe collection (and clocks).
• Love Dipierro's Kojak-inspired Chupa Chups (she is now my favourite character, certainly the most sympathetic).
• Mrs Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) gets even weirder in this episode (the bit about drugging the underling so he knows the reason for his death, while cradling her baby).
• Creator Sam Esmail demonstrates his directorial prowess with the final shootout scene.

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 4.

• "The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeois" low budget slasher flick.
• The masterful use of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" in the opening scenes.
• Whiterose's elegant boudoir (shades of the French Provincial bedroom in the closing scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey"). For other Asian transvestite hackers, see Cinemax's patchy, but good fun, "Banshee".
• Elliot's fairy tale dream - street dinner party.
• The symmetrical composition of shots in the Court Square subway station and the park during the chess showdown.

70's - 80's film references in Netflix's "Stranger Things" Season 1

• Stephen King's "Stand By Me" (train track scenes, being hassled by older bullies)
• Stephen King's "Firestarter" has a girl with telekinetic powers, likewise King's 1976's adaptation "Carrie".
• Opening titles are a homage to 80's graphics accompanied by John Carpenter-esque electronic music ("Hallowe'en", "Escape from New York")
• The monster is a cross between "Alien" (tube down Will's esophagus) and  John Carpenter's "The Thing". 
• Teenage romance and misfits - John Hughes comedies, take your pick. The Duffer Brothers chose great English alternative music, too. But this is another matter.
• "E.T." - BMX bikes, El(even) is hidden in a bedroom closet, a garden shed, shown Star Wars models by her new friend, a mysterious government agency is pursuing her. She even points (E.T.like) in on scene.
• Film posters on kids' bedroom wall: "'The Evil Dead"
• The monster's shape making a wall elastic-like ("A Nightmare on Elm Street")
• Dustin refers to El as the "weirdo on Maple Street". Am I drawing a long bow with the last one?

My past is now my present - being a carer

1965

2016

Fifty-one years later, I am back living in the family home. My 92 year old dad is living here. He has mobility and incontinence problems so I have taken on the role of carer. When he stays (for respite care, 4 weeks a year) at an aged care facility, he comes home worse than when he was admitted. 
I arrive at his place around 6:30 a.m. and leave before 5 p.m. This means I don't miss "wine o'clock" with my wife. A valuable unwind session.
I have routines in place to ensure he has an easy night - automatic lighting, light dinner set out on his tray before I leave, personal alarm pendant, commode in his bedroom, nighttime Lipitor on bedside table, heater to switch on/off.
If he has a bad day, I'll stay over. Sleeping in the bedroom I slept in 51 years ago. 
I cycle to my father's place. Travelling along the same streets I walked to primary school and high school on. 
I don't know how long this arrangement will last, but at the moment it's working.

Tape on carpet shows way to the bedroom

Things that make my life easier at the moment:
1. Split system heating/cooling with auto on/off timer.
2. My dad's electric tilt/lift chair
3. A Carpet Shampooer
4. "Piss mats" in front of toilet and commode (for bad aims). I cut up old Manchester that has been in the linen press since the 60's and 70's. Disposable. Saves on washing.
5. Netflix - finding TV shows that my dad enjoys - "Fawlty Towers", the  British "House of Cards" Trilogy, "Father Ted", "Doc Martin".

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 3

• Jerome's Coney Island back story
• Eclectic music choice - Dusty Springfield, Willie Nelson
• Phillip Price's occasional channelling of Christopher Walken
• Elliot's rant on religion
• Ganja gran