The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Thursday, February 20, 2020 — 5

You know those shows that have a season-ending 
cliffhanger that makes you scream to yourself, 
“HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO 
WAIT FOUR MONTHS TO FIND OUT WHAT 
HAPPENS?” Well, it’s been years since the season 
seven finale of “Homeland” and somewhere along 
the way, I stopped caring. 
To 
refresh 
your 
memory, when we last saw 
Carrie Mathison (Claire 
Danes, “A Kid Like Jake”), 
she had spent six months 
undergoing 
intense 
interrogation in Russia 
without her meds to treat 
her 
bipolar 
disorder. 
When 
Saul 
Berenson 
(Mandy 
Patinkin, 
“Criminal 
Minds”) 
negotiated her release, she 
was unable to recognize 
her longtime boss. When 
the new season opens, 
we have already skipped 
through most of Carrie’s 
recovery 
process, 
yet 
the repercussions of her 
imprisonment will be felt 
for weeks to come.
Saul, who now serves as the National Security 
Advisor to the President, is in Qatar trying to 
negotiate a peace agreement with the Taliban that 
would get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. Once 
negotiations break down due to resentment from 
Abdul Qadir G’ulom, Afghanistan’s vice president, 
Saul rushes to grab Carrie from Germany, where 
she’s recovering, because she’s an “old friend” 
of G’ulom’s and, more importantly, Saul’s most 
accomplished agent. No one — except for Saul and 
Carrie — thinks it’s a good idea to put her back in 
the field. With this, the status quo of “Homeland” is 
forcefully reinstated. 
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the nerdy Max 
Piotrowski’s (Maury Sterling, “Girlfriends’ Guide 
to Divorce”) mission to replace a listening device 

by the Pakistan border presents nothing more than 
a convoluted storyline meant to add some gunfire 
to an episode relatively devoid of violence. A more 
optimistic outlook on the season opener’s B-plot is 
that it highlights the instability and danger taking 
place in the region. Regardless, the arc that is being 
set up for the season to come is whether or not the 
United States can see if real peace in the region is 
still on the table.
Unlike other long-
running shows that fail 
to utilize the worlds 
they 
spent 
seasons 
building, “Homeland” 
brings us back to where 
we started: Nearly a 
decade after fans spent 
a 
season 
wrestling 
with whether or not 
al-Qaeda prisoner of 
war Nicholas Brody 
(Damian 
Lewis, 
“Billions”) could be 
trusted, 
the 
same 
tactic is being used to 
create intrigue with 
Carrie. After spending 
seven 
months 
held 
in a Russian prison 
without her medicine, 
it’s very possible that 
Carrie 
could 
have 
given up vital information. Carrie herself isn’t even 
sure what she’s done — she can’t remember 180 
out of the near-210 days spent in imprisonment. As 
Carrie waits for her meeting with G’ulom, she spots 
her Russian captor Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin, 
“The Americans”). Haunted with memories of her 
clinging to Yevgeny and begging him not to leave, 
we’re left wondering if a severe case of Stockholm 
Syndrome caused Carrie to betray her country.
Something feels very right about “Homeland” 
ending with a storyline about Carrie’s bipolar 
disorder possibly being used as an asset by foreign 
enemies. The series truly comes full circle — Carrie, 
who was uncertain if she could trust the man she 
fell for, ends up being unsure if she can even trust 
herself.

‘Homeland’ is finally back 
after two-year hiatus

JUSTIN POLLACK
Daily Arts Writer

TV REVIEW

It’s almost a pity to ground Michael McElroy’s 
words in text when his everyday way of talking 
is so expressive and passionate. The director 
of “Sonnets, Soliloquies, and Soul”’s gesturing 
hands and ever-shifting facial expressions 
engaged me completely in his words, and I 
hadn’t even gotten around to seeing the run-
through of the show yet. We surveyed the 
jumble of actors milling around below from 
the balcony of the Arthur Miller Theater and 
chatted about Shakespeare, soul music and how 
torn apart our world is today.
I have never been a fan of Shakespeare. To 
me, his work has always seemed to be something 
people attest to liking 
to prove their well-read 
character. 
However, 
McElroy’s words – along 
with the passionate, non-
traditional mediums of 
song and modern dance 
with which the piece was 
performed — made the 
bard seem accessible at 
last. 
McElroy got involved 
with 
acting 
in 
high 
school, and was cast in his 
first musical theater piece 
by 
Vincent 
Cardinal, 
director of the Musical 
Theater program at the 
university. He has done 
on 
and 
off 
Broadway 
performances, has been 
nominated for a Tony 
and currently teaches at 
New 
York 
University’s 
Tisch 
program. 
He 
is 
most comfortable as an 
actor and directs only 
because he must find a 
way to express his love 
of creating. Directing is 
a way to help display that 
creativity.
“Sonnets, 
Soliloquies, 
and Soul” takes the work 
of Shakespeare and makes 
it musical, using genres 
such 
as 
soul, 
gospel, 
R&B and pop. It will play in the Arthur Miller 
Theater at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, then 8 
p.m. Friday and Saturday, finishing with a 2 
p.m. matinee on Sunday the 23. McElroy began 
writing the show by sitting down and looking 
at different Shakespeare sonnets, trying to find 
the thread of emotion that connected them. 
Shakespeare used to write for the masses, 
describing the elements that make humans 
tick and creating our concept of humanity as 
we know it. Hundreds of years later, he is still 
relevant; it must be for a reason. 

Then, putting it all together, he asked 
himself, “Where’s that grain of truth in the 
human experience that can be articulated the 
same way but through a different lens?” That 
different lens, he decided, is African American 
music. With that, he sent out requests to friends 
to write a handful of songs for the show, even 
contributing some himself. All songs featured 
are originals intended for this piece. The cast is 
diverse enough in race, ethnicities and gender 
identities to be able to accurately use this music 
to bring across the theme: Love is universal, no 
matter who you are.
The piece is split into different parts. 
Some display the happy sides of the theme 
(“Blossoming Love” and “Eternal Love”). Some 
are sad, such as “Love Loss” or “Rejected 
Love.” “Self Love” sends a badass message 
of 
independence, 
especially directed at 
females. 
The diverse theme is 
reflected through the 
range of the music. The 
audience 
experiences 
everything 
from 
Motown 
group-style 
singing, to soft R&B/
pop, to hip-hop. Lines 
such as “cause baby, 
you are my summer’s 
day” 
makes 
the 
complicated 
language 
in 
Shakespeare 
accessible. The talented 
cast 
members 
make 
direct 
Shakespeare 
quotes feel everyday; 
the warm, casual tone 
makes it welcoming to 
the audience.
McElroy 
aims 
to 
find 
the 
intersection 
between Shakespeare’s 
times and now, mixing 
the classical with the 
modern, 
and 
finding 
the human themes that 
still 
resonate 
today. 
It is fitting that the 
show opens with the 
prologue from Romeo 
And Juliet, as McElroy 
intends for the piece to 
“hold a mirror up to the 
world in which we live.” McElroy resents the 
polarizing “you’re either with us, or against 
us” mentality of the world today. He hopes 
the audience will learn not to focus on their 
differences, and that this show will challenge 
the viewer to broaden their mind. As the 
timelessness of Shakespeare’s themes show, we 
are more alike than we are different.
Sonnets, Soliloquies, and Soul is on Feb. 20, 
7:30 pm, Feb. 21 and 22, 8:00 pm, & Feb. 23, 
2:00 pm at the Arthur Miller Theater. GA: $20, 
Student: $13

‘Sonnets, Soliloquies, and 
Soul’ seeks to open minds

ROSA SOFIA KAMINSKI
For the Daily

The first time I met Lara Jean Covey, I was a 
freshman in high school reading Jenny Han’s newest 
release, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” in an 
armchair at the Barnes and Noble on Washtenaw. I 
distinctly remember swooning at every flirtatious 
scene between Peter and Lara Jean and it really wasn’t 
any different for either of the movies. 
The latest release in the series, “P.S. I Still Love 
You,” follows Lara Jean (Lana Condor, “Alita: Battle 
Angel”) and Peter (Noah Centineo, “Sierra Burgess 
is a Loser”) as they navigate the ups and downs of a 
high school relationship. Addressing everything from 
jealousy to old flames, the film is the epitome of a high 
school romantic comedy. Though the soundtrack is 
much better than anything I ever listened to in high 
school, “P.S. I Still Love You” is still dripping with 
the mortifying characteristics of teenagers convinced 
that they’re in love. And maybe they are, but Lara 
Jean is still a character whose only understanding of 
what “love” is comes from romance novels written by 
ghostwriters trying to make money off of lonely people 
in airports.
This aspect of her character shouldn’t be surprising 
— the films and books are relatively similar, and for how 
much I enjoyed “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” 
once the novel experience of the love letter played out, 
there isn’t much left that makes Lara Jean’s character 
interesting, or Peter’s for that matter. The two live in 
the suburbs of Portland, Peter plays lacrosse and Lara 

Jean doesn’t like to drive in the snow. That’s it. The 
drama that ensues is a result of poor communication 
skills and two people who aren’t confident enough in 
themselves to truly trust one another. 
The introduction of John Ambrose Mcclaren (Jordan 
Fisher, “Grease Live!”) only heightens this mistrust, 
pushing Lara Jean, and the audience, to try and choose 
between the two boys. The fact that she is even able to 
make this choice, though after a considerable amount 
of consideration and drama, is a surprising character 
development for Lara Jean. Frankly, “P.S. I Still Love 
You” focuses on the wrong characters. We know Lara 
Jean and Peter are going to have issues, that’s a fact. It 
wouldn’t be a healthy relationship otherwise. It’s her 
father and Mrs. Rothschild, excuse me, Trina, who 
we want to see. The budding relationship that plays 
out in the background of the film has all the makings 
of another cliché romantic comedy without the 
unnecessary drama of high school. 
Despite its clear lack of understanding for what 
high school actually is, “P.S. I Still Love You” is, for 
lack of a better word, really pretty. The film looks like 
a teenage girl put it through the VSCO C4 filter, but 
she doesn’t know how to use the toggle features of 
the editing app. And it’s perfect. The over-saturated 
warm tones give “P.S. I Still Love You” a nostalgic feel 
that is necessary to enjoy any kind of movie set in high 
school. And while I might have been screaming at the 
fact that Lara Jean paints “PK” on her face on the day 
of Peter’s lacrosse game, at least the rich yellow of the 
school bus was still enjoyable. Beyond the comforting 
colors, “P.S. I Still Love You” also has beautifully 
framed scenes. Particularly, the driving transitions to 
literally anywhere — the drone shots of a 
car driving through a winding road with 
either trees or mountains on the side — 
were prevalent throughout the second 
film and, though a little overused, they 
were incredibly satisfying to watch. 
Both the film and the books read like 
a young girl’s fantasy of the high school 
experience. They take what we expect 
high school to be like, based on movies 
like “Pretty in Pink” and “Sixteen 
Candles,” and turn them into something 
Hollywood considers more “realistic.” 
But it’s not the ’80s, it’s not even the 2010s 
anymore, so why are we still pretending 
anybody has time to break another 
person’s heart in high school? 

EMMA CHANG
Daily Arts Writer

FILM REVIEW

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

“Homeland”
Season 8 Premiere
Showtime
Sundays @ 9:00pm

Review: ‘To All The Boys’ 2

NETFLIX

‘The World Beneath Their 
Feet’ is almost too precise

EMMA DOETTLING
For The Daily

“Mountaineering, madness, and the deadly race to 
the summit of the Himalayas.” The catchphrase on the 
cover of the novel “The World Beneath Their Feet” by 
Scott Ellsworth says it all. 
An epic account of the Great Himalayan Race in 
the years leading up to the Second World War, the 
new novel follows the many successful and failed 
attempts to climb the so called “Achttausender” (the 
world’s highest mountain range, stretching over 8000 
meters into the sky). This elite class of mountains 
consumed the hearts and minds of mountaineers 
all over the world in the mid to late 1930s and sent 
countries scrambling to be the first to send climbers 
to seemingly unreachable peaks. Each team attempted 
the mountain in its own distinct way, and with every 
new chapter, Ellsworth describes a different summit 
attempt and the variations in strategy that the different 
players brought to the game. 
The conditions of the world in the 1930s play an 
important role in the story as well. As the Nazi party 
in Germany gained power, the battle to the top of the 
“Achttausender” became a matter of national pride. 
The Nazi party vied to be the first to ascend the highest 
mountains in order to showcase the superiority of 
their people, while representatives of other countries, 
in turn, strived to bring glory to their home countries. 
The confusion that arose from competing climbers 
and expeditions resulted in a chaotic race to the top 
of the world, and every detail of this complex struggle 
is thoroughly recounted in the pages of “The World 
Beneath Their Feet.” 
The story is beautifully written. Ellsworth describes 
the vast Himalayan mountain stretch with reverence, 
recounting the incredible beauties and horrors that 
the climbers faced there. Through his carefully chosen 
words, the mountains come alive like ancient and 
temperamental beasts, and the mere humans striving 
for the lofty peaks are lowly slaves to their volatile 
whims. His fervent words attest to the humbling 
power of the Himalayas, telling of a “landform so 
vast and impenetrable that it altered the very course 
of history” and “behemoths of rock and ice so large 
they created their own weather systems.” Ellsworth 

describes the uncharted wonders to be found in depths 
of the Himalayas, from hidden paradises to “deadly 
crevasses and towering seracs” to dangers at every 
turn. It is easy to fall under the spell Ellsworth paints 
through his rapturous words in the first few chapters. 
Though beautifully written, it soon becomes clear 
that the story doesn’t have any real direction. It falls 
into a repetitive cycle, where every few pages a new 
expedition is described in unnecessary detail without 
the necessary emotion to compel the reader to keep 
reading. Ellsworth breezes by the death, hardship 
and trials of the human spirit that characterize these 
grueling expeditions with a nonchalant ease, leaving 
us with a novel that describes these events with an 
almost textbook impartiality. “The World Beneath 
Their Feet” is meticulously researched, but the 
level of detail that Ellsworth incorporates about the 
innumerable climbers he discusses makes the novel 
dense and unpleasant to read. The result is a barrage 
of names, dates and purposeless facts that only serve 
to confuse the reader and draw all emotion out of 
the story. Each new climber Ellsworth introduces 
becomes just another faceless individual, lost in the 
sea of dreamers who more often than not do not 
achieve their goals. Then Ellsworth is off to the next 
expedition and the next set of climbers, leaving us with 
no emotional connection to the people who put their 
lives on hold and threw themselves into harm’s way 
just to summit the Himalayan titans. What made them 
do it? Why did they risk everything just to climb these 
monstrous peaks? Ellsworth has no answer for us, only 
more trifling facts about equipment, food and weather 
conditions.
“The World Beneath Their Feet” has potential 
that stretches as high as the towering mountains it 
so lovingly describes, but in the end it falls short. The 
novel drags toward the middle and end, and reading 
it becomes a slow and sluggish process when it could 
have been a moving account of human achievement 
with just a little bit more emotion. Though an avid 
mountaineer may enjoy this novel, it is inaccessible 
to the average person looking for a glimpse into the 
mysterious minds of Himalayan climbers. If you are 
looking for a book about the awe-inspiring realities of 
mountaineering, stick to John Krakauer’s “Into Thin 
Air.”

SHOWTIME

I have never been a fan of 
Shakespeare. To me, his 
work has always seemed to 
be something people attest 
to liking to prove their well-
read character. However, 
McElroy’s words – along 
with the passionate, non-
traditional mediums of 
song and modern dance 
with which the piece was 
performed — made the bard 
seem at last accessible.

BOOKS REVIEW

