[Movies] Sicario (2015) Review

Tobie watches a bunch of movies without me and from time to time he recommends some of them for me in turn. Sicario was one of those movies but the title just seemed so alien to me and thus I never got around to it. To be fair, it wasn't a high priority thing to watch either - just something that he felt was worth watching should I find the time for it.

And so it was on another flight between home and Singapore that I was fortunate enough to encounter it in the plane's in-flight movie library along with the sequel that this movie had apparently merited. I needed to kill time with something and I wasn't too keen on watching a newer movie without Tobie around so this is the route I took.

The movie was surprisingly intense and the main limitation for me was how clear my airplane monitor was as it certainly blurred out some of the finer details of some of the scenes. Still, the movie made for an interesting narrative to get lost in for this particular journey.

[TV] Breaking Bad: Season 5 Review

So our journey of exploring the unique television narrative experience that is Breaking Bad is finally over and it was quite the memorable ride indeed. This fifth and final season is where everything comes to a head and it's both beautiful and tragic all at once. And that's just the nature of the story they crafted for this series.

Five seasons is both a good length for a television series but also a seemingly brief one compared to some of the shows that had longer runs than this one. But what this show achieved was a complete story that ran from beginning to end. And it's not just a story that managed to get a decent ending but a story that was emotionally complex and quite fulfilling.

It didn't feel like it ended before its time. It managed to say all that it needed to say and got its characters to some sort of an ending. But on the whole it's a big reminder that we can't look at things in terms of black or white and in the end it's all just murky gray.

[TV] Amo: Season 1 Review

So Netflix has finally started to include original Philippine content in their library. One such inclusion was the critically-acclaimed Birdshot. Another was the surprising choice of Brillante Mendoza's Amo.

Originally created for TV5, the 13-episode series is a rather controversial look at the current "war on drugs" in the Philippines from man who has been pretty vocal about being pro-administration. Had it remained on local network TV5, we probably would not have paid attention to it.

But now it has a much wider distribution thanks to Netflix and thus this particular take on the supposed drug situation and that has some people squirming in their seats. Duterte's war on drug makes a lot of assumptions about the state of affairs in the Philippines and this show perpetuates them and presents them as the truth, if you buy into the premise of the show.

And while I was not interested in supporting this particular project, I figured that I neded to see it in order to make a proper review with all the facts in hand rather than just rely on other opinions out there. I bit the bullet and watchced the series from start to finish between other tasks.

[Health] A Difference in Opinion

If you pass by the Health section of Google News, you'll notice that one of the top headlines is about the FDA approval of an over-the-counter diet drug. Pray tell, what is this new miracle drug?

It's nothing new - it's just Xenical at half the usual dosage, which means it'll just be 60mg per capsule. As always, the announcement has everyone disagreeing as to if this is really the right thing to do and other implications of such a drug becoming readily available.

Of course when I first read the articles related to the news, I rememebered that Xenical here in the Phillpines is already an over-the-counter drug. Heck, visit the website and it immediately provides pricing information for the leading drug store chain in the country. This isn't for some weak 60mg version - this is for the standard 120mg version which is under such close scrutiny in the US.

What gives? Why the change in handling? You'd think that given how US-centric this country can get at times, one of the most glaring differences between us and them is how we approach health care and drug controls.

Here most antibiotics are practically over-the-counter. I say practically since even if they weren't, many smaller drug stores will be willing to provide you with the stuff anyway. I'm not just talking about the weak stuff like amoxicillin, I'm talking about the really strong drugs like erythromycin and azithromycin.

Our perscriptions are not for closed-loop series of drugs - we get to re-use perscriptions even when they've already been filled. We don't measure out the entire series in individual bottles labelled with the correct dosage and the name of the patient - we give them in little plastic baggies or we cut them out individually.

The Philippine drug industry is able to get away with murder, quite seriously. Household abortionists know exactly what drugs to get, all OTC here in the Philippines, in order to relieve young women of their burden, to speak in blatant euphemisms. I know all this since I used to work in a smaller drug store and was appalled to learn that people actually tried to get those drugs. What was even more shocking still was that they'd eventually get it somewhere.

Does Xenical really help you lose weight? It appears so, if you believe all the testimonials. That's well and good if you can deal with the loose stool, increased risk of cancer and other adverse reactions. Let's not even to the part where we discuss the negative interactions with any blood thinning, diabetes or post-operation drugs being taken in conjunction and how people getting it OTC around here may not know about the side-effects.

I'm happy for you guys in the US - good job, you know have more access to a pretty powerful drug. What's going to be keeping up a bit more these days is the sad reminder of the state of affairs here and how dangerous our drug industry really is.

Related Link"

• TIME.com: Feds Approve OTC Diet Pill