#14. Geneva, Side-loading & The Mosquito Coast
Happy new year everyone, here’s the first newsletter of 2023!
Geneva
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Just before the end of the year, I went on a day trip to see a friend in Geneva, which also gave me the opportunity to finally try the Léman Express, Geneva’s metropolitan rail service, which extends to Annecy, from where I took it. I have to say that I am quite disappointed, mainly because I had Swiss FLIRT trains both to go and to come back, when I was hoping to have a Regiolis on at least one the of trips. I really don’t like those Stadler trains and the Swiss habit of putting dumb urban rail seating (it’s 4 seats as a square facing each other with no table, I hate it). And also of course because the trip between Annecy and Geneva is an hour and a half when it’s 45 minutes by car, but that’s not their fault it’s because we built a freaking highway instead of a train line. The thing that made me happy, though, was that I was able to ask to visit the driving cab of a Regiolis that was waiting at the platform, and for the first time see what the front of a train looks like!
ICYMI:
Apple & side-loading
It’s almost old news now, but I’d like to come back to something we heard about a few weeks ago: rumors that Apple was going to allow side-loading on iPhones. Side-loading is installing apps from other places than the AppStore, like you can do on Android with alternate stores of .apk files, or what we all do all the time on Mac and Windows when we install apps from the web. On iOS, it’s always been impossible to do that (on a non-jailbreaked device of course), and there are reasons: with Apple controlling every single app that is available (and checking apps individually before they can be installed), the platform is incredibly more secure than if we were able to install anything from anywhere on our iPhones and iPads (and it also brings a ton of money to Apple, obviously). So, here’s my take on that:
Call me a capitalist if you want but on this I have a strong opinion, and it’s not the same as most people on the Left (I believe). No, I don’t see any reason to break the AppStore down. Making it impossible for companies to become monopolistic by buying competitors? Yes. I think most people agree on that, even across the spectrum of socioeconomic beliefs. But breaking up Apple’s own « control » on a platform they built themselves, on products they built and sell, to users who bought them for that reason? That’s just a no for me. Apple invested money in the iPhone and AppStore, got a huge customer base, built a platform with their standards, made it the most profitable OS there is, and now they should just open that up and have competitors have access to all iPhones’ users for free? Stupid.
They say it’s about « choice » for consumers? How about the choice of getting an Android if you don’t care about malwares?? How about the choice of buying a smartphone you know is more secure because the only apps you can install are checked and vetted? It just doesn’t make sense. Just like the USB-C cable law didn’t completely make sense either.
For more on the topic, I’ll recommend this video from Front Page Tech’s Jon Prosser:
The Speaker of the House standoff
I’m not going to write about what happens at the House of Representatives this week, you’ve probably read all about it on social media already. But I’m going to say that it’s one of those moments that are the reason for my deep passion for US politics. It was amazing. And I absolutely don’t regret staying up until 7 on Saturday morning to watch the situation come to an end. That was something to live in real-time. Here’s the thread I wrote while it was happening, for posterity:
Also, they have to vote on the rules tomorrow (Monday, January 8). I have finals this week so I’m not sure I will be able to cover it all like I did last week, but if it gets interesting, you’ll find me talking about it on Twitter :)
Review of The Mosquito Coast, Season 2
The Mosquito Coast is one of those shows on Apple TV+ that haven’t gotten any coverage and no one knows about (that’s the big problem with Apple TV+…). It’s a show about a family who lives off the grid. The first season, which I watched last year a while after it aired, and was surprised to enjoy more than expected, was mostly about them running away from the US (can’t say more without spoiling everything). Season two just finished airing, and the story resolves more about the family and the issues of living off the grid for the children.
My opinion is that this second season is slightly below the first one in terms of pacing and story. I don’t remember having moments when I was watching the first one where I would feel like the tension was wrong, but it happened a couple of times here. What I mean by “wrong tension” is that those moments are way more intense than they should be. Without spoiling anything, let’s say there’s a scene that takes place in the jungle, and they are walking through the trees, and then the camera shows us a huge snake, which the characters haven’t noticed. And with that the music intensifies and the pacing accelerates. What do you expect? That the snake is going to attack them? Yeah, right. Well, no, nothing happens and they’re alright, continue without noticing the snake. There are several moments like that, especially in the first few episodes, and I found it to make the whole experience less good.
But the second season dives much deeper into the characters, as I noted in the first paragraph, and while I really like Dina, played by Logan Polish, I can’t say the same about Charlie, who I find to be poorly written, and mostly useless to the story (except for ONE scene, 15 minutes into the season finale).
Overall, I can’t say it’s a must-watch, but if you’re into shows about living in the jungle, almost survivalism, with a touch of climate activism (sort of) - or into Apple TV+ content like me, it’s worth a try. I’d give the show a 7/10.
Updated review of Avatar: The Way of Water
I watched Avatar: The Way of Water a second time last week (it was in French, I really should have objected and not done that but my family wanted to go… Can we be done one day with stupid voiceovers that RUIN the movie? It all sounds so freaking ridiculous in French, I can’t), and I would like to come back to my original review and update it a bit.
Watching it a second time, you pick up more details and it looks even better than at first. Even more impressive technically. And the 2D glasses system was better (active instead of passive, I don’t know how it works but the 3D looked so much better)
But what you also pick up way more the second time is the flaws… It’s been mentioned by people before me, but yeah, the story is really problematic on many points… When the amazement of the first viewing fades, the problems of the roles of women, very bad representations of manhood and cultural appropriation really can’t be ignored. And I’m afraid we can’t expect Avatar 3 to be better on that point (maybe for the role of fathers, but it’ll have been very badly introduced), because the white savior problem certainly hasn’t been fixed since the first movie 13 years ago.
Recommendations
I recently found the YouTube channel of a creative agency that appears to be big in the field and made the opening videos of a lot of famous shows, including most of my favorite Apple TV+ content, as well as worked on other projects like Netflix’s last update of the “toudoum” (yeah so they’re big, I had never heard of them but I think they’re big). They’re the ones who made the main title for Invasion, which is a feat and has to be acknowledged, as the intro of that show is a hundred times better than the show itself. If you’re not too busy, here’s the link to their videos: https://www.youtube.com/@Imaginaryforces
You probably saw me recommending Hunter Schwarz’s newsletter already, and I hope you’re subscribed to it (it’s about design in politics ;). Here’s one of the latests issues which I found particularly interesting:
Have a good week, and see you soon from Venice!
Clement
Are you a Swiss train? Bc I want to flirt with you