Stephen King’s newest novel, 
“Fairy Tale,” follows a teenage boy 
from Illinois named Charlie Reade 
who saves an old man’s life. The 
old man, a stranger named Mr. 
Bowditch, has an aging dog named 
Radar, whom Charlie immediately 
and irrevocably falls in love with. As 

Mr. Bowditch recovers from his life-
threatening injury, Charlie takes 
care of him and his increasingly 
arthritic dog. Mr. Bowditch has a 
weird backyard shed and an even 
weirder amount of solid gold pellets, 
but Charlie takes this all in stride.
Of course, this is King we’re 
talking about. “Fairy Tale” clocks 
in at a whopping 607 pages (not 
surprising for fans of King, who 
are used to page counts of over a 

thousand with his longer novels 
like “The Stand” and “It”), and this 
heartwarming story — boy, dog, old 
man — is only the first 200. Past 
those first couple hundred pages (if 
you get that far), the story starts to 
more closely resemble the strange 
and horrific worlds King is famous 
for. 
It takes King a long time to 
actually get to the meat of the 
story. Two hundred pages with 

the relative mundanity of Sentry, 
Ill. leaves you only 400 or so pages 
to spend in the land of Empis, the 
alternate world that lies at the 
bottom of a winding set of stone 
steps inside that weird shed in Mr. 
Bowditch’s yard. As soon as we 
enter Empis with Charlie, you can’t 
help but wonder why on Earth (get 
it?) we spent so much time in Illinois 
when there was a world with giants, 
talking crickets, curses, reanimated 

skeletons, two moons and magical 
butterflies lurking just beneath our 
feet. King is famous for taking his 
time when it comes to world- and 
character-building in his novels, so 
the beginning of “Fairy Tale” being 
somewhat normal isn’t surprising. 
After all, his novels in the 800-
page range like “Under the Dome” 
and “11/22/63” rely on incredibly 
intricate world-building of places 

recognizable to us — just familiar 
enough that King can then make 
them feel wrong. But spending a 
third of the book recounting a world 
that looks just like ours leaves the 
world of Empis — one we as readers 
are ostensibly much more interested 
in — feeling less fleshed out.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts

The magic of Stephen King’s ‘Fairy Tale’ is there — but is lessened by its 
pacing and ableism

EMILIA FERRANTE
Senior Arts Editor

Twenty-one years after the 
release of “The Lord of the Rings: 
The Fellowship of the Ring” and 
eight years after the conclusion 
of the prequel trilogy, “The 
Hobbit,” Prime Video takes on 
the franchise to deliver another 
adventure into Middle-earth with 
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings 
of Power.” This pre-prequel series 
takes place long before Mr. Frodo 
took the scenic route to Mordor 
— 5,000 years in the past, in the 
Second Age of Middle-earth. 
In this Middle-earth, all is quiet 
and well, yet storm clouds loom 
in the distance. The Elves are 
at the height of their power and 
splendor, enjoying the supposed 
end of a centuries-long war 
against the forces of evil. Sauron 
(yes, the big fiery eye — but this 
time in human form) remains the 
enemy in power but is forced into 
hiding where some believe he is 
conniving to strike again when the 
forces of light are least expecting 
it. Something is brewing in 
Middle-earth — yet many choose 
to look the other way.
The show introduces a new 
palette of characters but brings 

back some familiar faces to 
connect “The Rings of Power” to 
the original trilogy. Among the 
new characters is Arondir (Ismael 
Cruz Córdova, “The Undoing”), a 
classic Western sheriff type, who 
is an Elf soldier stationed on the 
outskirts of the land of Men with 
a forbidden love — a human healer 
Bronwyn 
(Nazanin 
Boniadi, 

“Bombshell”). 
Together 
they 
discover the first hints of Sauron’s 
planned return.
Hundreds of miles away, the 
Harfoots — little forest and field-
dwelling creatures — return our 
beloved hobbits to the screen, with 
the rambunctious Nori (Markella 
Kavenagh, “My First Summer”) 
taking a page out of Bilbo’s book by 

getting in over her head as she deals 
with the arrival of the Stranger 
(Daniel Weyman, “The North 
Water”). The likes of Galadriel 
(Morfydd Clark, “Saint Maud”) 
and Elrond (Robert Aramayo, 
“Behind Her Eyes”) are reprised 
as daring younger versions of their 
regal counterparts in “The Lord 
of the Rings” (LOTR). Despite the 

widespread belief that Sauron’s 
reign of terror is over, Galadriel, 
commander of the Elven Northern 
Armies, 
remains 
vigilant, 
relentlessly 
pursuing 
Sauron 
to the far-reaching corners of 
Middle-earth, searching for a hint 
of his return. Elrond, on the other 
hand, remains his wise and clever 
self as he is tasked with aiding the 
Elven master smith Celebrimbor 
(Charles Edwards, “The Crown”) 
with the construction of a forge 
like no other with “a flame as hot 
as a dragon’s tongue and as pure as 
starlight.” Elrond’s task leads us to 
a place that we have seen before, 
but in a much different fashion: 
Kazad-dum, known in the original 
trilogy as the long-abandoned 
Mines of Moria. Here we are 
introduced to the Dwarf Prince 
Durin (Owain Arthur, “The One 
and Only Ivan”) who, after Elrond 
missed his wedding and the birth 
of his two children over the last 20 
years, is vexed with the elf.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s work is often 
invested 
in 
the 
spectacular: 
magical adventures focused on the 
grand and dire. While the show 
most assuredly offers adventure, 
it is also concerned with the 
more intimate and personal side 
of Middle-earth and its many 
creatures. Durin’s conflict with 

Elrond illustrates the implications 
of a significant difference between 
the different races of Middle-
earth: life span. Although Dwarves 
may live for centuries longer than 
humans, Elves are even more 
invulnerable to the toll of time. 
20 years is the blink of an eye for 
Elrond, but Durin has lived a life 
all without a dear friend paying 
him any mind. The longevity of 
the Elves has been commented 
on in the past, but the personal 
and quite substantial implications 
such a difference entails were 
never properly examined. “The 
Rings of Power” remedies that 
by offering a heartfelt and fresh 
look into the dynamics of such 
interracial differences.
For fans more interested in the 
world-building and the rich lore 
of Tolkien’s work, “The Rings 
of Power” has plenty to offer as 
it gives us a look into the famed 
glory of old Middle-earth. With 
incredible depictions of ancient 
Elven cities styled after the likes 
of Rivendell and the strength 
and beauty of Kazan-dum (that 
sharp-eared 
fans 
may 
recall 
Gimli assured the Fellowship of in 
“LOTR”), “The Rings of Power” is 
a visual masterpiece. 

‘The Rings of Power’: One most expensive season in television 
history to rule them all

This image is from the official trailer for “The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power,” distributed by Prime Video.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 — 5

NOAH LUSK
Daily Arts Writer

‘I Am a Killer’ is your 
new true crime binge

What makes a murderer? When 
you try to imagine someone 
who’s taken another person’s 
life, what kind of person comes 
to mind? Are they merciless 
and cold, or are they remorseful 
and misunderstood? It’s these 
questions that Netflix’s “I Am a 
Killer” invites in its third season.
With its first season airing 
in 2018, “I Am a Killer” takes 
a straightforward approach to 
covering the beloved genre of 
true crime. The documentary 
features interviews with inmates 
serving time on death row and in 
maximum security prisons. The 
inmates share information about 
themselves and their accounts of 
the murders they were convicted 
of. “I Am a Killer” pairs these 
accounts with interviews with 
the 
inmates’ 
families, 
the 
families of the victims, the law 
enforcement involved in the case 
and supplemental information 
such as crime scene shots and 911 
calls. The latest season features 
six such cases. While nothing 
in the documentary is explicitly 
graphic, the no-frills accounts 
of the inmates’ backgrounds and 
the crimes they committed make 
for a harrowing watch.
While “I Am a Killer” allows 
convicted inmates to discuss 
their crimes, it does not absolve 
them of wrongdoing. Instead, 
the evidence presented is meant 
to provoke reflection from the 
viewers. 
Depending 
on 
the 
circumstances of the case, each 
episode opens with a different 
statistic regarding crime in the 
United States. The first episode 

of the third season, “A Question 
of Loyalty,” opens with the 
statistic that while 8,000 people 
are convicted of murder every 
year in the United States, fewer 
than half actually confess to 
their crime. The second episode, 
“Someone Else,” tells us that of 
the more than 135,000 people 
incarcerated for murder in the 
United States, over 25% have 
been diagnosed with a serious 
mental illness. Statistics like 
these in conjunction with the 
various 
differing 
accounts 
presented in the documentary 
cause viewers to think hard about 
the reality of our justice system. 
How many inmates in maximum 
security prisons actually deserve 
to be there? Even though we 
hear Victoria Smith, the inmate 
featured in episode one, say, “I 
just killed my husband,” can 
we believe that’s the truth? On 
the other hand, interviews with 
loved ones of the victims and 
detectives involved in the case 
paint 
a 
truly 
gut-wrenching 
portrait of families suddenly torn 
apart by violent crime. In either 
case, no matter the inmate’s 
story, “I Am a Killer” tells us that 
the consequence of their actions 
is always the same: the death of a 
human being.
Despite the clickbait-y title, 
“I Am a Killer” forgoes the 
sensationalism of murder in 
favor of a careful examination 
of each individual case and its 
relation to the justice system. 
With painstaking detail, the 
documentary interviews those 
on all sides of every case, curating 
an 
objective 
view 
of 
each 
inmate’s story, yet pushing us to 
think more about the nuances 
surrounding everyone’s account.

 SWARA RAMASWAMY
Daily Arts Writer

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Lisa Senzel & Christina Iverson
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/14/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/14/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2022

ACROSS
1 Spanish tennis 
great Nadal, 
familiarly
5 Upgrade, as 
machinery
10 Uncertain
14 Cabbage buy
15 Glazer of “The 
Afterparty”
16 Skating 
commentator 
Lipinski
17 Analogy words
18 Bridal path flower 
piece
19 Stash, as gear
20 Japanese drama
21 Cookbook 
contents
23 Author Rand
24 Genre for 
composer 
Terence 
Blanchard
26 Informal “You’re 
oversharing”
27 Caramel candies
29 Like some 
dangerous 
isotopes
32 Curry of the NBA
34 Bike part
35 Quintet for most 
starfish
38 Prefix for a 
lifesaving “Pen”
39 Not so big
41 Knock
42 Try to hit
44 Tell it like it isn’t
45 Speed skater 
Ohno
47 Act parts
49 Past the point of 
caring
50 Michelle of “Crazy 
Rich Asians”
52 Neighborhood
53 *Secretive email 
option
60 Uncommon
61 Assertion
62 Cookie used as a 
12-Down topping
63 Admit frankly
64 Omit in speech
65 Spreadsheet unit
66 Soaks up the sun
67 Calf-roping event
68 Diet that’s high 
in fats and low 
in carbs, as 
illustrated by 
parts of the 
answers to the 
starred clues

DOWN
1 Safari herbivore
2 Fabulous writer?
3 *Figure often 
depicted with a 
scythe and an 
hourglass
4 Hubbub
5 Ready for 
picking
6 __ college
7 *Pakistani-born 
chef who was 
posthumously 
honored with a 
James Beard 
Award
8 Up the creek
9 Story
10 Part of FWIW
11 *Serious 
software 
problem
12 Dessert from 
16 Handles, 
familiarly
13 Signs of 
boredom
21 “Wicked!”
22 __ Lanka
25 Sidelines cheer
28 Fertility lab cells
30 Maker of the 
Deep Blue chess 
computer
31 Workout top

32 Bodies of water
33 __ fail
36 Timbuktu’s land
37 Predicament
39 Fine horse
40 Black bird
43 “What’s the 
latest?”
46 NBC symbol
48 Abby Wambach’s 
sport
49 Juliet’s cry
51 Winnie-the-Pooh 
greeting

52 Tolerate
53 Sassy kid
54 Chocolate 
__ cake
55 Waffle maker
56 “Kills bugs 
dead!” spray
57 Hockey Hall 
of Famer 
Willie
58 Hit, as with 
snowballs
59 “Seize the day” 
initialism

SUDOKU

WHISPER

“The Daily 
Whisper is just 
yik yak printed 
out.”

“GO BLUE.”

WHISPER

By Susan Gelfand
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/07/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/07/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2022

ACROSS
1 Truism
6 Scrape cover
10 Runs or walks, 
e.g.
14 Subway to the 
Louvre
15 Spanish lake
16 One and only
17 Fuss at the 
mirror
18 Many an Omani
19 Legendary
20 Favorite 
vegetable side 
dish of singer 
Donna?
23 Go out, as the 
tide
26 Sail support
27 Toepick-assisted 
skating leaps
28 More gloomy
30 “Okey-dokey”
31 Favorite leafy 
course of singer 
Al?
34 Decide (to)
37 Contract 
negotiator
38 Family boy
39 Bub
41 Crayola eight-
pack choice
42 Favorite fish 
entree of singer 
Carole?
44 Speaker’s 
platform
46 Candy bar nut
47 Saunters
50 Some ceiling 
fixtures
52 Big __ 
Conference: 
NCAA division 
that includes 
Montana
53 Favorite fruity 
dessert of singer 
Fiona?
56 Shoe inserts
57 Curling __
58 Post-swim wrap
62 Quechua 
speaker
63 Raven’s retreat
64 Connect with
65 Queries
66 Picks up on
67 Like draft beer

DOWN
1 Concert piece
2 Gen __

3 Meteor follower
4 Raw metals
5 __ Valley: puzzle 
game with optical 
illusions
6 Closes with 
force
7 Keyboard symbol 
above 6
8 Food thickener
9 Winter Olympics 
racer
10 Nancy Drew, e.g.
11 Birthstone after 
opal
12 Pernod flavor
13 Help desk pros
21 Red planet
22 Sine __ non: 
essential
23 Mystery writers’ 
award
24 River transport
25 Kennel club 
designation
29 Fox Sports 
MLB reporter 
Rosenthal
30 Yin and __
32 Seller’s caveat
33 Chaney of classic 
horror
34 “Mayans M.C.” 
star Edward 
James __

35 Cheap wine, in 
British slang
36 Jessica of 
“Cocoon”
39 Artificially high 
voice
40 West __: high-
end design 
retailer
42 Smooching
43 Temporary castle 
material
44 River mouth 
formations

45 Affirmative vote
47 Criminal group
48 Debuts
49 Tiny bit
50 Cold coat
51 Many 
godmothers
54 Genealogy 
diagram
55 Meat cut
59 In need of a 
58-Across
60 Due-in hr.
61 Cut (off)

Cover art for “Fairy Tale” owned by Scribner.

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com