Lately #36: Dept. Q, Celine Song and a galaxy far far away...

Five things to entertain you, and one piece of advice.

On Sundays, we share some of our favourite finds from the week in our Lately newsletter.

Every year we forget that the wind-down to summer is actually more of an acceleration. Add to that how this week we found ourselves watching the late night news wondering if a missile was heading our way (an extended reality of living in the Middle East). Elsewhere though, not missiles, but over 90 private jets have flown into Venice for the Bezos mega-bash.

All this to say that we’re all navigating an incomprehensible world and Gillian and I have tag-teamed on this edition (we’re all juggling). Here’s a run-down of all we’ve loved lately - in case you’re in need of recommendations for a wind-down to the madness!

Yara

Teresa Burns Parkhurst for The New Yorker

1. Something we should all be watching…

I finally got started on Dept. Q - and there were several glaring reasons why I needed to watch it.

First, it’s set in Edinburgh (which was my home for many years). Not the postcard version, but the brooding cobbled streets that seem purpose-built for a Tartan Noir reimagining. The series adapts Jussi Adler-Olsen’s best-selling Danish crime novels, relocating the action from Copenhagen to the Scottish capital. Creator Scott Frank picked Edinburgh the moment he saw it.

Matthew Goode as DCI Morck, beneath Edinburgh Castle.

Second, I have a connection to one of the newcomer actors. My godparents’ grandson, Aron Dochard, plays DC Clark - isn’t he so very, very good? (That distinct hairdo is an impressive wig.) The cast is a class mix of seasoned Scottish icons and new faces, which is great to see.

The show follows DCI Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a detective demoted to a basement office after a tragedy at work. There, he's saddled with cold cases and a team he didn’t ask for (Akram, played by Alexej Manvelov, is one of my favourites in the show and Goode described Leah Byrne as a “stone cold star”). We get the usual crime drama dark secrets and buried trauma, but Dept. Q has layers, atmosphere and a surprising amount of existential dread for a show with carpets this good.

The basement dream team - Arkam, Carl and Rose.

Scott Frank - the American writer behind The Queen’s Gambit and Godless - leads a strong writing team. The storyline has me hooked and I’m invested in these characters, but occasionally the ‘Scottish’ bits have made me cringe. An argument about ‘tatty bye’ and the old England-World-Cup-win grudge … just, no. Maybe it feels more like stereotypes than reality; but then, this is made for global appeal. (If you want Edinburgh with genuine Scottish banter, try Rebus - we talked about it here.)

Production-wise, the show really shines. With Netflix money behind it, it feels cinematic in a way that I’m not used to in Scottish crime dramas! The production designer was Scotsman Grant Montgomery, who also worked on Peaky Blinders, with set decoration by Irish designer Margot Cullen. Even the furniture choices tell stories - have a read of this ELLE article about the interiors on the show.

I’m now on Episode 8 and the cold case they’re unravelling is nothing I would have expected. Don’t tell me what happens!

DC Clark (plus wig) and DC Wilson.

2. A podcast you’ll want to share…

Director Celine Song (Past Lives) is back with another story about love. I haven’t watched Materialists yet, but I did love this discussion with her on the Modern love podcast about how much of a mystery love remains to her despite the stories she writes.

You’ll hear about the moment she fell for husband and fellow director Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers), and about her 6 month stint as a real-life matchmaker!

She also reads this beautiful essay by Louise Rafkin, a relationship columnist, who struggles to find love in her own life. If you don’t have access to the essay it’s worth listening to Celine read it on the podcast episode. Here’s a snippet to entice you:

“At times I feel like an anthropologist on Mars. So many of the people I interview have gut feelings and are hit with lightning bolts and simply “know.” But no matter how many times I hear these stories, and I hear them every week, I have yet to understand.”

3. A list that’s up for discussion…

‘Best of’ lists are always sure to spark debate. This week The New York Times released a list of The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century as voted by 500 influential directors, actors and other notable names in Hollywood.

Let’s be honest, the BEST part of these lists is the fun of disagreeing. Me: ‘What?? How is Past Lives ranked lower than Oceans Eleven and Borat?!’

It also gives a glimpse into the ballots of contributing voters: Brian Cox (I agree Million Dollar Baby should have made the list!), Molly Ringwald (Yes Molly! How did La La Land not make the cut?) and John Lithgow (With you on Silver Linings Playbook, John).

But trust me, the comments section on Instagram is where the fun is at.

4. Something that may surprise you…

There were a lot of announcements and surprises this week in the world of film. Aaron Sorkin is revisiting the story of Facebook with a planned sequel to his 2010 film The Social Network, Pixar is reportedly developing Ratatouille 2 and Dennis Villeneuve has been announced as the director of the new James Bond.

This article in The Guardian about the future Bond director announcement made me laugh:

Perhaps Villeneuve will now get the ultimate corporate blessing of being a last-minute wedding guest at the Bezos wedding in Venice this weekend, precisely the sort of event that tends to feature as a Bond film opening scene, to be disrupted by helicopter attack, explosion, kidnapping etc. Mr Bezos himself needs a white persian cat on his lap to stroke.

It’s a promising sign that Villeneuve cites Casino Royale as his favourite Bond film, don’t you think?

5. Something for a brain break…

The first images from a groundbreaking observatory based in the Andes and named after a trailblazing female astrologer (Vera Rubin) were released recently, and I didn’t want you to miss how mesmerising they are.

The Rubin Observatory, according to its director, is special in that it can “capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined.” In fact, its main objective is to create a movie; an ultra-wide and ultra-high-definition movie of the universe by scanning the entire sky every few nights over 10 years to capture a time-lapse compilation of asteroids, comets, exploding stars, and distant galaxies.

Can we petition for it to start ‘In a galaxy far, far away….’ ?

A glimpse of Vera, who made significant contributions to the understanding of dark matter and yet was snubbed by the Nobel Committee

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A piece of advice:

Director Celine Song on how she chooses creative projects:

“As an artist, the thing that you want the most for your work is for it to be alive. Every new thing you do has to feel completely alive to you. And what works for me always is that there has to be some part of it that is brand new to me. Something that scares me or something that makes me feel like it is going to teach me something. Something that I think is smarter than me. Those are the things that I really hope for in every single project that I do. I don’t want to beat a dead horse.”