DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
'Strange Angel' Brings Rocket Science with an Edge to CBS All Access
June 14, 2018  | By David Hinckley  | 4 comments
 

Okay, I’m convinced. Jack Parsons was one of the weirdest people, like, ever.

CBS All Access, the network’s pay streaming service, rolls out a series on Thursday called Strange Angel, chronicling the life and career of Parsons, who among other things helped develop modern rocketry.

He also helped spread Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, an occult belief system with deep links to Scientology.

Strange Angel is set in the late 1930s when the young Parsons (Jack Reynor, top, right) is developing primitive rockets with his equally brilliant and slightly less bizarre friend Richard Onsted (Peter Mark Kendall, top, left).

Pooling all their resources to buy parts and fuel, they’re launching a series of flimsy homemade test rockets in the California desert.

These rockets are mostly failing, which is making Richard increasingly nervous and putting a strain on Jack’s marriage to Susan (Bella Heathcote, right). She supports him and his work, but her wealthy family thinks she may be indulging him a little too much.

Jack is convinced the rockets will work once they get the fine-tuning in order – and in retrospect, of course, we viewers realize he’s probably onto something because rockets would play an enormous role in the upcoming world war that looms heavily over Strange Angel.

Jack is, however, anything but the monomaniacal science geek who spends every waking moment obsessing over equations until things click into place. Richard, a Cal Tech student, is that. Jack is not.

Jack prefers to obsess over fantasy novels about great mythical warriors who maximize their human experience by finding ever-greater challenges that in the best-case scenario enables them to stare death in the face.

His latent adventurism explodes into full bloom when a social anarchist named Ernest (Rupert Friend, resurfacing after his death in Homeland) moves in next door.

While Ernest sometimes just climbs the fences at rich people’s houses to swim in their pools, he also leads Jack to a secret and exotic quasi-religious gathering that will become Jack’s gateway drug into the occult world.

Elements of spirituality mingle with sex, among other things, and as one might expect, this will be affecting the course of Jack’s relationship with Susan.

The early Strange Angel episodes, however, focus more on Jack’s rocketry. As Jack explains to a professor he’s trying to impress, he’s been shooting these things off in his backyard since he was a kid, and he’s going to be the one who cracks the code on how they can be propelled high enough to travel around the world or even to the moon.

Strange Angel takes a few liberties with the real life of Jack Parsons, who was killed at the age of 37 when one of his rockets blew up. But he was sufficiently weird that even a partial biography will illustrate both his genius and the highly unusual prism through which he came to see the world.

It takes a while to get the “angel” part of Jack Parsons. The “strange” part, you can’t miss it.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
QIVUU
Type in the verification word shown on the image.
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: 
4 Comments
 
 
We carbide inserts are made of tungsten carbide. A kind of alloy material used to machine resulting in optimum strength and rigidity.
May 31, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
Not only cermet inserts, but we also offer a comprehensive range of tools including special inserts, carbide turning inserts, Vertical milling cutting inserts, Indexable milling inserts, non-standard special-shaped products – and so on. We also produce various kinds of cermet inserts as per request; technical drawing and sample., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Mar 7, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
we proud to offer a magnificent portfolio of the finest and most unique best carbide inserts in the world. Our aim is to surpass your expectations both online and beyond the sale.Welcome to the website! We are reliable provider dedicating to offering our customers a wide range of top quality product., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Mar 1, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
Welcome to our website! You can have a good selection of many different brands on our site, such as products. Even though they are cheap, they had made by the best materials and the best quality. You can have a strong sale-support here! It is free order worldwide! More buy more discounts! Just come and buy them!Every website of us built its reputation not only on the best quality of product For Sale, but also on its outstanding service., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Jan 29, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: