The Simple Joy of Hollywood Abroad

"We'll begin with a spin traveling in the world of random Arab television channel creation."

A brief interlude, here, to extoll the pure joy of watching whatever English-language film happens to be on random television channels whilst traveling far afield and especially in the greater Middle East. At home, be it America, Australia, Europe, entertainment is basically infinite. Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Apple. YouTube, Hulu, ChatGPT, etc. et. al.

Ah, but do you remember when we were young and what was on was what was on and we loved it because it was what was on? We weren’t li’l piggy Augustus Gloops back then. We were Charlie Buckets. Happy and pure, overjoyed with even the smallest of visual excitements.

Tonight, Scarlett Johansson’s Ghost in the Shell was the opening feature and what a prescient picture. I imagine you don’t even remember the storyline, you little Gloop. I bet you were scrolling, nine years ago, when, in the near future, humans were augmented with cybernetic improvements such as vision, strength and intelligence. Augmentation developer Hanka Robotics, of course, established a secret project to develop an artificial body, or “shell”, that could integrate a human brain rather than an AI. Mira Killian (ScarJo), the sole survivor of a cyberterrorist attack which killed her parents, was chosen as the test subject after her body was damaged beyond repair. Over the objections of her designer Dr. Ouelet, Hanka Robotics CEO, Cutter, decided to use Killian as a counter-terrorists operative with much hijinks ensuing.

Next came Mad Max Fury Road, and that film was certainly good enough for you to recall but did you study the details? The art? How About a Boy’s Nicholas Hoult stole the show from Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy as the War Boy Nux?

The 10:00 PM showing of Skylines surprised, as I had never even heard of the feature which explored the ten years after the first invasion when Rose led the human fleet against the aliens, now called ‘Harvesters’, aboard the Armada, a mother ship orbiting the Moon. When she broke through enemy lines, she hesitatesd to fire and one of her ships was destroyed. As the aliens prepared to attack Earth, Rose sacrificed another one of her ships, killing thousands but ultimately destroying the Armada. Overcome with guilt, she vanished while humanity rebuilt, coexisting with billions of ‘Pilots’ (hybrid alien-humans) with much hijinks ensuing.

If you’re feeling weighed down by your Gloop existence, come with me to the greater Middle East and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination. We’ll begin with a spin traveling in the world of random Arab television channel creation. What we’ll see will defy explanation.

More tomorrow.