My Nanny, My Self: Tully

Tully is a night nanny who arrives at Marlo's house after dark -- like a vampire. Okay, not like a vampire. Like a brownie. Or an elf. Which might explain why Marlo (played by Charlize Theron) never seems to worry too much about shoes.

Tully was played by actress Mackenzie Davis who played the role so well that it seemed a cheat to realize that the real problem with Tully was that -- ah, but that would be telling.

Needless to say, Tully was hardly the first movie I ever saw that argued that motherhood sucked. Indeed, movies and TV shows have been poking fun at the tendency to glamorize motherhood since the days of Lucy Ricardo. But it was the most imaginative such movie that I've seen in quite a while. And it seemed even more amazing when I considered the fact that it was created by writer/director Diablo Cody, a woman I still think of as the author of Candy Girl.

I must confess that I was a bit reluctant to watch this movie. Diablo Cody does not have the best of records when it comes to movies and God knows she has received her share of bad reviews in the past. Moreover, I could not help but wonder prior to watching this movie how many single moms Ms. Cody might have come to know while researching her first book Candy Girl -- moms who undoubtedly had even worse problems than poor Marlo and yet were still considered unworthy of a screenplay.

And yet Tully won me over despite all my misgivings. Granted, I was a bit surprised that the movie's big plot twist wasn't a bit more controversial. And I can't help but wonder whether the movie would have ever been made if it were not for that particular twist. For that matter, how seriously should we take Cody's attempt at a happy ending? Er, that ending was happy, wasn't it?

Perhaps I should just shut up and concentrate on that nice mermaid scene toward the end. After all, mermaids are pretty. Mermaids are nice. Diablo Cody should include more of them in her future projects. But then this movie wasn't really about mermaids. Or was it?

Trailer of the Week: Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Poppins is back! And she looks remarkably like the Angel of Verdun. Plus she has Lin-Manuel Miranda as a co-star. I wonder what he's done lately...

Thoughts About The Omen (1976)

Mrs. Blaylock seems like such a happy person at the beginning of the 1976 version of The Omen. A trifle sad, perhaps, but still she looks like such a nice person.

So what could possibly happen to make her go from this...

...to this?

For that matter, why don't we ever hear about Mr. Blaylock? Is Mrs. Blaylock a widow? A divorced woman? Did Mr. Blaylock ever exist or was he just a figment of Mrs. Blaylock's imagination?

At the very least, Mrs. Blaylock seems to be a far better nanny than her immediate predecessor...

Apart from the whole "killing people to protect the Antichrist" thing.

Show Tune of the Week: "A Very Good Day"

A song that never fails to make me cry. And one that is, of course, dedicated to all the people out there who do the work that others would rather not deal with.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Dexter: “Those Kinds of Things”

At long last the truth about Dexter Morgan is out! He's an atheist. Not that most of us didn't see that coming. But it is interesting to see yet another admitted atheist on the air now that House M.D. has finished its final season.

That said...

A former cast member of The George Lopez Show -- i.e. Aimee Garcia -- is joining the show to play Angel Batista's little sister Jamie -- and Dexter's nanny. (Apparently there is some law in Hollywood that almost every TV show has to have at least one nanny played by a Hispanic actress--perhaps because having a nanny played by Scarlett Johansson would be too unrealistic.)

Lt. LaGuerta is finally getting a promotion, but alas, she did not exactly secure it through honorable means. For shame!

On the plus side, Vince Masuka is actually acquiring some interns this season -- and some smarts to go along with them. However, one of the interns might not be what she seems...

Anyway, in this week's episode, Dexter Morgan goes to his high school reunion in order to avenge a woman who had been nice to him back in high school -- and finds himself to be surprisingly popular. No, that last part was not meant to be a meta-comment on the show's popularity -- though it is tempting to take it that way.

In addition, his sister Debra stops an armed man wearing body armor from shooting up a crowded restaurant. And no, I did not make up that last part. And given that this episode first aired last year, it can't be blamed on recent events.