{"id":1112,"date":"2016-06-21T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2016-06-21T15:05:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:05:11","slug":"ken-and-robin-consume-media-a-mermaid-a-disfigured-anti-hero-and-alien-brainwash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/ken-and-robin-consume-media-a-mermaid-a-disfigured-anti-hero-and-alien-brainwash\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Mermaid, A Disfigured Anti-Hero, and Alien Brainwash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; display: inline\" src=\"http:\/\/kenandrobin.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/themes\/kartas\/images\/filmcan_colour.png\" align=\"left\" \/> <i>Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/kenandrobin\">Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon<\/a>. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we\u2019ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>This week Ken consumed Origins instead of media, and Robin spent the weekend attending the Canadian Writer&#8217;s Summit. Hence a slimmer than usual list of capsule reviews.<\/p>\n<h2>Recommended<\/h2>\n<p>Cooked (TV, US, Netflix, 2016) Ostentatiously beautiful HD photography brings a rich glow to this docuseries adaptation of Michael Pollan\u2019s food book of the same name, with instalments themed around the four elements: fire (meat), water (pot cooking), air (bread) and earth (fermentation.) There must not be much to say about pot cooking, as episode two spends most of its time critiquing the processed food industry\u2019s impact on health and society.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/28KbJMU\">The Face Behind the Mask<\/a> (Film, US, Robert Florey, 1941) Once hope-filled immigrant burned in a hotel fire (Peter Lorre) dons a mask to conceal his disfigured features and turns to masterminding armed robberies. Aside from Lorre\u2019s wonderfully extravagant performance, the genre-blending combination of gothic horror themes in a hardboiled crime setting provides the chief point of interest.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/267Ftuv\">Night Tide<\/a> (Film, US, Curtis Harrington, 1961) Naive sailor (Dennis Hopper) falls for a sideshow mermaid with a dark secret. Lewtonesque weird tale makes atmospheric use of location shooting in and around the Santa Monica amusement pier. Put a copy of Unaussprechlichen Kulten next to the pickled hand on the retired sea captain\u2019s curio shelf, toss in a reference to Dagon, and you\u2019ve got yourself a Mythos movie.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n<p>Simon (Film, US, Marshall Brickman, 1980) Amoral scientific geniuses brainwash flailing psychology prof (Alan Arkin) into believing he\u2019s an alien being. Droll satire skewers futurism and messianic arrogance. To update it to the present you\u2019d only need slicker-looking tech and a scene where Austin Pendleton\u2019s smug chief antagonist gives a TED talk. Solid cast of comic character actors includes Wallace Shawn, Max Wright, Fred Gwynne and Madeline Kahn.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we\u2019ll talk about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiofree","tag-ken-and-robin-consume-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}