Movies, TV, and books we're into this week

I'm a big fan of novelist Dennis Lehane, and I've read just about everything he's published. The book Shutter Island is probably my least favorite novel he's written. But the movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, is quite good, in a stylized, don't-overthink-it kind of way.It's about a couple of federal agents from Boston who are sent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a patient at one of the state's maximum-security mental hospitals. Said patient seems to have literally disappeared without a trace, from a locked down cell. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo play the two feds, who turn out to much different than they appear on first glance. It's a creepy, moody and suspenseful flick that's a perfect choice for a movie night at home.

Wanting to enjoy a solid horror experience this past weekend had me return to Ridley Scott's world of Alien. The original, starring Sigourney Weaver, is an exceptional movie that everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime.Alien follows the crew of the Nostromo as they investigate an alien distress signal, inadvertently picking up and bringing aboard an extraterrestrial life form with violent and lethal survival instincts.

I have a confession, a dark, disturbing confession. I absolutely adore trashy, cringe-inducing reality TV. As someone with a cognitively exhausting job, nothing is more relaxing to me after clocking off than watching some of the most utterly brain dead TV imaginable. It doesn't get more brain dead than Keeping up with the Kardashians, which is as cringeworthy as it is strangely infectious.The blatantly overplayed reality TV show offers a glimpse into the lives of the Kardashian/Jenner family, notorious for being rich without apparently actually doing a great deal. The only downside is that you may hate yourself for enjoying it.

Blue Planet II is a staggering, award-winning nature documentary build by the BBC Natural History unit, narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough.In Blue Planet II, the BBC shines a spotlight on rarely-documented undersea creatures, as well as strange natural phenomena, including towering geothermal vents and abyssal brine lakes (lakes underwater? what), often in the context of the damage the human race is doing to the oceans. This evocative show is elevated further if you grab it in 4K, offering mind-blowing detail on animals very rarely put on film. (As of this writing, it's on special offer for $30.

Many, if not most, Americans these days have been impacted by what has come to be known as the "opioid epidemic." But most Americans probably don't know exactly how the abuse of pain pills got so bad in the first place, or how it has led to a frightening increase in heroin and fentanyl use across the country, and a related spike in both crime and mortality rates in American cities, towns and rural areas.Beth Macy's impressive book tells these stories in disturbing detail, bringing home the reality of the scope, scale and impact of the problem. The level of knowledge and research that went into the book couldn't be more clear, which for me is what sets it apart. It's an important, necessary read for all Americans these days. And I highly recommend it. I learned a lot, and it answered key questions I didn't even know I had.

Whether or not you agree with the alternative historical and sociological views that Graham Hancock presents in his books, they are undeniably entertaining and provide some sort of explanation for a lot of curiosities that don't seem to line up with conventional history. I read Fingerprints of the Gods more than a decade ago, as well as its follow-up, Magicians of the Gods that clarified and expounded on many of the main points following new anthropological discoveries.In America Before, Hancock focuses on the North and South American continents, which were deemed the "New World" by European settlers. There have been a lot of recent discoveries that suggest these two continents might not be as new as once suspected, especially since there is now evidence of human settlements from more than 130,000 years ago.