veronica (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aberration) wrote2021-07-20 03:53 pm
aberration) wrote2021-07-20 03:53 pm
the lonesome wail of a lion's roar
Brave (2012) ★★★
WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021) ★★★
The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) ★★
The Fast and the Furious (2001) ★★★
Wreck-It Ralph (2012) ★★★1/2
Monsters University (2013) ★★1/2
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) ★★★
Volcano High (2001?)
Big Hero 6 (2014) ★★★1/2
Ocean's Eleven (2001) ★★★1/2
Bread and Tulips (2000) ★★★1/2
In the Heights (2021) ★★★1/2
Inside Out (2015) ★★★1/2
Luca (2021) ★★★★
The Good Dinosaur (2015) ★★1/2
Zootopia (2016) ★★★1/2
Ultraviolet (2006) ★1/2
Black Widow (2021) ★★★
Moana (2016) ★★★1/2
Thor (2011) ★★
So I finally wrote up my feelings on The Mandalorian season 2 and... they are not happy! This show just keeps reinforcing all my negative feelings about it! And I'm pretty harsh in this so really, really feel free to not read it, I have no desire to harsh anyone's squee (or, for that matter, argue about this very much). But, you know. Here you go. Also pretty minor spoilers for a couple episodes of Star Wars Rebels and also that thing that happens in The Bad Batch. You know. That thing.
After finishing the second season finale of The Mandalorian, we switched to a second season episode of Star Wars Rebels called "Homecoming," as we're planning to do some threading around that episode soon/it's been forever since I first wrote this, I need to write something and then we'll post the thread, lol. Rebels, briefly, is set a few years before the Original Trilogy and is mainly about a small crew of pre-Rebel Alliance rebels going on various missions across the galaxy and you know, stuff happens. In this episode, the crew wants to steal an Imperial carrier ship so that the fighter pilots in their growing squadron will have a place to dock. There's such a carrier over the planet Ryloth, where there's another rebel cell led by Cham Syndulla, a Twi'lek hero of the Clone Wars and father of the crew's ship captain, Hera Syndulla. When the crew meets with Cham Syndulla's cell, Cham tells them that he wants to destroy the carrier rather than let them steal it, as the ship's destruction will send a message to Ryloth about the Empire's vulnerability. Hera and her crew argue that stealing the carrier will help them grow the nascent rebellion against the Empire, which will help people on a broader scale, but Cham and his own cell insist they don't care about the rebellion at large and only care about driving the Empire off Ryloth. Still, Cham ultimately agrees to our crew's plan, but once Hera has gotten everyone aboard the carrier they plan to steal, Cham and his cell turn against the crew and run off to the blow the ship up. The main rebel crew eventually overpowers them and Hera convinces her father to give her plan a chance; the rebels are able to steal the carrier, and destroy another Imperial ship in the process, which does rally many on Ryloth against the Empire. Cham and Hera end the episode resolving some of their different perspectives in how they've chosen to fight the Empire, and more personally, in Cham's willingness to show support for and faith in his daughter.
And I was just so struck by. 'oh. a conflict driven by actual differences in ideology and personal motivations. how. interesting.'
So, anyway, The Mandalorian.
Let's start with a scene near the beginning of the final episode, in which the protagonist and Boba Fett approach Bo-Katan for help. Or, as I call it, 'did a star wars reference generator write this script.'
Mando: I need your help.
Bo-Katan: Not all Mandalorians are bounty hunters. Some of us serve a higher purpose.
Fun Fact! This is how these characters said goodbye when they last saw each other:
So I have to wonder here if the writers/directors read each other's episodes of this show or if it's just like that game where one person writes a sentence and then folds over the paper for the next person.
But. okay. what? Since when does Bo-Katan care that he's a bounty hunter? Why is she sniping at him? What the fuck? Did she "forget" his bravery that fast? The way she responds to him in general in this conversation makes absolutely no sense based on the previous episode. Like, reminder, in that episode she and her companions go OUT OF THEIR WAY to save his ass MULTIPLE TIMES, he's the one who accuses them of not being "real" Mandalorians, and they convince him to work with them. But again, characters in this show just do whatever is convenient for the writers at any point.
Like if you absolutely want to start out with friction between them, even though if you're going to do that you probably should have set it up last time, the main difference between them was that Mando had been brought by a cult or something. But surprise, that bit of backstory never gets any mention here, despite the multiple times ideas of Mandalore and who is Mandalorian and Mandalorian 'culture' is brought up in this episode!
Actually, I want to be clear here, not once is that MAJOR REVEAL about the MAIN CHARACTER'S understanding of his OWN CULTURE brought up again in this ENTIRE SEASON! NOT ONCE, IT NEVER, EVER COMES UP EVER AGAIN. What exactly does that tell you about this show and how it handles characterization? Even when the major characters involved in that reveal RETURNED, fucking seriously!
I mean, guess what, they threw it in there because they were going to be using Bo-Katan and so needed to have a reason as to why their main character acted so differently from every other Mandalorian in the franchise up until this point. That is it, that's fucking it. 'Here you geeks who watched the cartoons, put that on Wookieepedia.' most impressive.
(Sorry, I saw some article that was like 'Here is how The Mandalorian discusses religious fanaticism' and oh my god, you are projecting so fucking hard. There is nothing here.)
So instead of that obvious source of potential conflict between these two Mandalorians, we have Bo-Katan out of nowhere just, mocking him for being a bounty hunter.
Mando: They took the child.
Bo-Katan: Who?
Mando: Moff Gideon
Bo-Katan: You'll never find him.
That's a weird way to handle the guy basically offering to join forces with you to accomplish your ends but we have to have fake conflict in here so okay. Especially when the last thing he did with you WAS HELP YOU TRY TO FIND THIS SPECIFIC GUY seriously again do the writers of this show talk to each other at all or is it just everyone taking turns playing with the life-size action figures.
Boba Fett: We don't need these two. Let's get out of here.
Bo-Katan: You are not a Mandalorian.
Boba Fett: Never said I was.
So Boba Fett doesn't identify as Mandalorian? Wow that sure would be an interesting thing to explore in this table full of Manda-
Kosha Reeves: I didn't know sidekicks were allowed to talk.
wtf???? Another man standing there is a 'sidekick'? Fett's retort at least sort of make sense given that Kosha Reeves is physically smaller than Bo-Katan and he seems to know who Bo-Katan is (I mean, I'm guessing his calling her 'princess' is a reference to whatever royal line she and Satine were part of), but this whole line of conflict is random nonsense????
BF: Well if that isn't calling the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy. Easy there, little one.
KR: You'll be talking through the window of a bacta tank.
Bo-Katan: All right, easy. Save it for the Imps.
M: We have his coordinates.
BK: You can bring me to Moff Gideon?
M: The Moff has a light cruiser. It could be helpful in your effort to regain Mandalore.
BF: You gotta be kidding, Mandalore? The Empire turned that planet to glass.
BK: You are a disgrace to your armor.
So Mando's cult actively believes returning to Mandalore would be bad (like that is a thing I know... I read on Wookiepeedia...) and also Boba Fett just said he wasn't Mandalorian, also it's just. At this point all he's done is stated something that appears to be completely factual, at least from what we know at this point because that's also something that's never been really explained for that matter, and what is the thread of this conversation?
BF: This armor belonged to my father.
BK: Don't you mean your donor?
BF: Careful princess.
BK: You are a clone. I've heard your voice thousands of time.
And... Bo-Katan is anti-clones? Why? She fought alongside clones to regain Mandalore during the Clone Wars! I know it! I know it because of the thing I watched! wtf why is she picking at this, why does she care? Yeah okay I can make up a reason like, the Republic -> Empire shift or she thinks he's a clone who stole the armor from a Mandalorian except no she clearly doesn't because she doesn't actually dispute that he got it from his "father" and also seems to understand that his "father" would be a person who had Mandalorian armor and also doesn't seem to be disputing his "father's" claim to that armor, either. Is she saying a clone can't be a Mandalorian? I don't know, that is not what she says, and again she doesn't push back on the idea that his father was Mandalorian or at least had the armor. Yes, you can make up explanations for this, but nothing is actually happening beyond 'Bo-Katan picks on Boba Fett for being a clone.'
Like, I want my point to be clear here. This back and forth between Bo-Katan and Boba Fett isn't expressing these characters' feelings and motivations or even like RESPONDING TO THINGS BEING SAID IN THIS CONVERSATION, it's just a vehicle to make more references to other Star Wars things. This whole really pretty brief scene drove me completely crazy because aside from the logistical housekeeping of getting Bo-Katan and Kosha on board with rescuing the Child from Gideon, everything else is just like, a Mad-Libs of Star Wars references. It's not about anything other than me as the audience member being like 'oh yeah bounty hunters! Clones! Bacta! I understood that reference!' Instead of just choosing a source of potential conflict between the characters, like different conceptions of Mandalorian identity, which is something that implicates everyone in this conversation AND ALSO WAS A THING YOU ALREADY ESTABLISHED, the dialogue just ping-pongs between 'bounty hunter!' and 'clone!' and whatever like any of that matters or is something anyone has any reason to care about! Which it doesn't and isn't! Mando man must continue to be right and perfect, they decided they needed a brief obstacle for some reason so that's what Bo-Katan does, Star Wars References, bam done.
(and if you want to try to argue otherwise, you'd probably have a stronger case if this entire show wasn't a vehicle to make references to other Star Wars things.)
Anyway, this conversation is then rounded off by Bo-Katan telling Mando that she'll help him so she can get the darksaber and use it to rally Mandalore and leaves out the extremely crucial bit of 'only I can pull the sword out of the stone in order to be crowned King of
(I also pulled up the episode of Rebels where the darksaber appears, and again was struck by how nuanced and grounded Fenn Rau's explanation of it is by comparison: as a symbol of a specific Mandalorian house, House Vizla, that did once rule the planet but then, you know, hadn't for a long time – I'm not going to go into the whole Death Watch thing right now – but that therefore held a cultural cache that could be used as a rallying point for Mandalorians like. That makes sense! And is not magic! I do not get the value of making it into some macguffin. And it's honestly both frustrating and fascinating to me how these cartoons are more nuanced than the media ostensibly made for adults.)
And this conversation so perfectly illustrates what The Mandalorian ultimately is – it's a vehicle to make references to other, better Star Wars properties. And that is it. It makes nothing of its own, its characters are action figures whose goals and motivations change as suits whatever I guess the writers/directors want to reference in any given episode. I was originally going to write "want to do" but the truth is this show rarely actually does anything, it's just thoroughly undramatic. Hey, what if at the end of the episode where the Empire kidnaps baby yoda, the protagonist was left stranded on the planet instead of the two vicious bounty hunters offering him a lift based on some honor code they've suddenly just decided to care about? That might have been dramatic! What if Cara needed more than a single sentence to convince her to abandon those New Republic responsibilities she'd recently adopted? What if the humans and Tusken Raiders had misgivings about working each other that had any consequences? WHAT IF THERE WAS LITERALLY ANY CONFLICT IN THIS SHOW WHATSOEVER?????
I mean for fuck's sake, we can even talk about this with the frog egg fiasco. Pablo Hidalgo bitches about some random fan complaint behind a Twitter lock because that's super classy, but like, there's a point where you can't tell a viewer to care about something in your piece of fiction and then get mad at them for doing that. The episode set up the frog lady's eggs as being very PRECIOUS and IMPORTANT and then baby yoda eats them, it's perfectly natural for a viewer to be like "hey shouldn't there be some kind of consequence to that given that the show just said THESE WERE PRECIOUS AND IMPORTANT." But no apparently frog lady doesn't notice or care because THERE IS NO CONFLICT IN THIS SHOW, nothing matters, now we're going to switch back to The Frog Eggs Are Important for this poignant frog wife and husband moment even though half an hour ago they were being eaten for a joke MAKE UP YOUR MIND JFC.
um.
And you may say "but there IS conflict because he FIGHTS BAD GUYS" and sorry no bad guys that the protagonist will always easily defeat with no struggle, personal or physical, is not conflict. I mean HE HAS LITERAL PLOT ARMOR. THEY CAN'T EVEN SHOOT HIM BECAUSE LITERAL. GODDAMN. PLOT ARMOR. Also I have to love how thoroughly this show latches on to there being exactly 2 types of bad guys and those are aliens and fascists. I know this is sort of just part and parcel with a live-action show where it's just much more difficult to create consistently appearing alien characters compared to animation, but the only aliens the characters interact with for any length of time are the puppet, the blue guy they're all absolute dicks to for some reason I'm supposed to care about for some reason or not I guess, frog lady who again we're supposed to care about until it's funny not to, and um Ahsoka I guess. (And I'm sorry, while I like the steps toward making the Tusken Raiders not irredeemably hostile, making them cannon fodder for tasks that the TWO DUDES WITH JETPACKS COULD HAVE HANDLED PRETTY EASILY is not exactly a lot better.)
And that's it. The show doesn't even deliver on any of the moral ambiguity that's part of its shallow aesthetic – it's never questioned that the people the protagonist hurts are Bad. The only job he's had that the show has questioned is the one he bailed on. (also without consequence since the guild of bounty hunters cared until uh no they didn't anymore – like that's not even an oversimplification, them caring was just abruptly dropped!) And then they pretend they're engaging in that kind of thing when they're actually not at all – the ex-Imperial sniper goes on some rant about how The New Republic And The Empire Are The Same while... driving through an area being terrorized by the Empire. And right before he shoots some Imperial over some Imperial atrocity and like, what the fuck was your point here dude? That both sides are the same except for the thing you specifically are mad about? He talks about how everyone violates their principles but his example for the protagonist is taking off his mask – I'm not saying something like that can't create internal conflict for a character, but it's certainly not something the audience is going to find morally questionable. And at that point I'm not sure how the character is feeling about it anyway because a few episodes ago we learned all those rules were a cult thing anyway, too bad we NEVER BROUGHT THAT UP AGAIN omg. (Not to mention the reason he had to show his face made no sense, that Imperial database has to take a photo of you but not use for authorization purposes? I once lived in a building that used Face ID to let me in the laundry room.) I talked about this on Twitter and pointed out that if they actually wanted to put the protagonist in a morally compromising position, they could have made the people attacking the convoys local civilians who were attacking them because they thought they were Imperials, rather than (alien) pirates blowing them up for no reason, that actively made no sense. But that would have required the protagonist to fight/hurt sympathetic characters in order to save baby yoda, an actually morally ambiguous thing to do. Which they will never do, because perfect manly man must be perfect.
(The rant was also pointless because this isn't two sides having a conversation. This isn't two characters holding opposing viewpoints, Mando doesn't care and doesn't really seem to have any viewpoint other than not giving the baby yoda to the Empire and whatever rules his cult made up, he was apparently willing to take the money of the regime that killed Mandalore before a cute puppet got involved, the only reason these two were ever at odds was because the sniper guy tried to betray/kill him. So yeah I guess it's hard to have character conflict without characters.)
Like the best I can say here is that unlike the first season, they made the protagonist (and antagonists) do even a minimal level of work to achieve their goals instead of them all? having? magic? trackers? somehow? Like the protagonist had to talk to some underground fight club owner to get the information to go to Tatooine, or the Imperials actually had to sneak a tracker on the protagonist's ship. Even signing Cara up with the New Republic, while having no real consequence, did serve a logistical purpose so I guess. thanks for that effort.
So I'm just like. There's basically no consistent character work done – the protagonist likes the baby like that's it that's all I've got. Oh remember that he was an orphan raised by a cult which I guess maybe could be an avenue to some kind of self-discovery but no, or result in him having some flaws or prejudices but nah also no because god forbid any character fuck up and have to learn from it, seriously is this what I'm supposed to want??? And there's no consistent story work being done, and what even new do we learn about this universe? um, that there are frog people, and I guess a Republic prison, and there's a Mandalorian cult but you know nothing else about that never mind, uh. Oh I guess you can go to a rock and talk to any other force user in the galaxy, so, sure. And a by comparison pretty hackneyed version of the darksaber lore that already existed.
And um.
oh did you know Alderaan blew up???????
But, anyway, Luke Skywalker can swoop in and kill a bunch of pointless robots in his legendary perfection before sharing a moment of Perfect Manly Manliness with fellow perfect man Mandalorian before apparently whisking away baby yoda. Wondering how that will go since baby yoda being cute is basically all this show has going for it. I don't know what else to say – this show has no purpose other than giving you that nice nostalgic buzz of [reference to other property]. Nothing that happens necessarily has any effect or consequence – again the show dropped a huge backstory bomb on the main character and then NEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN. (Or remember "Mandalore is a not a race, it's a creed" wow that sure could have been relevant anywhere in this season if they had ever brought that one up again either.) It's kind of amazing to me how this tactic of saying nothing is so effective at getting viewers to just project whatever they want – I saw some fanart of Bo-Katan declaring she was the only true Mandalorian and look, I'm sorry, the only character in this show to express that sentiment WAS THE PROTAGONIST, Bo-Katan never expressed anything like this! The closest is how she talked to Boba Fett and he DIDN'T DISAGREE WITH HER and also as noted before none of that made any sense. And as I discussed above her hostility toward the protagonist made no sense, even in the context of this show alone! I'm not criticizing how they characterized Bo-Katan based on her appearances in other media I'm saying it literally contradicts what happened in a previous episode! I don't! just!
And the bottom line is I can't just consider this 'me not being into this kind of story' - The Bad Batch isn't really what I'd want from a new Star Wars story, but it does the basic work of consistent character motivation, worldbuilding, and consequence. Events that happened earlier in the story matter later, there are specific notions of who these characters are and what's happening in the world, their personal motivations run up against one another. (And when Fennec Shand showed up, it was hard not to think 'wow bold choice to use a character from The Mandalorian to demonstrate how much better of a show this is on every basic level.') These are the basic building blocks of storytelling to me, and it's why The Mandalorian by comparison feels like a carefully constructed artifice of nothing. If you never say anything, you won't upset anyone. I mean, I guess, besides me with this extremely long rant.
Ironic to think though that Gina Carano could have inexplicably been Emmy-nominated right now if she'd just kept her mouth shut.
And... well we've watched a lot of other tv, including finally catching up on Bob's Burgers after I kind of lost it when I left for Mongolia. But briefly, some others have been:
Apple+ (thanks to my phone abruptly dying and my having to buy a new one, yay stimulus)
For All Mankind - This is a Ronald D. Moore-created show about an alternate history where the Soviet Union was the first to put a man on the Moon, reigniting the space race and resulting in considerably more investment in space exploration as a whole. It starts out a little slow, but then episode three adds a lot of women characters and we're good to go. It's not perfect, and there's a second season romance that was just... why. But it's incredibly inventive and visually gorgeous, and yes I am extremely attached to all of the Extremely Flawed RDM characters. The show builds on their relationships in interesting ways, and really makes a point of making the show character driven as much as anything else (even in tiny details – Margot always grabbing for the Tootsie Rolls when she's stressed!). It's also just interesting to see a grounded take on science fiction, based on a fictionalized NASA. That's also not uh, this is hard science fiction the characters will not matter here. I do wish the Soviet Union was depicted in a more dynamic/thorough way but. I just can't expect everything to be The Americans, okay, I know that.
Dickinson - This was the first show I wanted to try on Apple+, and unfortunately it ended up being our only disappointment. The thing is I love the visuals and aesthetic, and am really totally here for the modern tone in a period piece. But honestly for all that it's supposed to be this Very Feminist Thing and etc., the narrative more or less just seems to ping pong around Which Guy Emily Dickinson Is Going To Be Into Now. In theory there's also a serious sapphic love story, but there's not enough of it, you could just go watch Wild Nights with Emily and get a much more satisfying story on that count. Though I guess if this existed in the absence of that movie I might be more tolerant of it not having as much queer content as I think it should be, but. Meh, honestly, the guy love interests are just still so much the focus. There are some other fun elements, when Emily's siblings get to be just outright weird it's pretty great, but then her sister ends up in again het romances I don't care about, and her brother has to be a period-accurate Man Jerk. I guess I just wished it was more what it was nominally supposed to be about than what it actually turned out to be about.
Mythic Quest - An office sitcom about the makers of a major MMORPG game. Started it because I wanted something lighter, ended up a show where the only romance is between two women, the central relationship is an emotionally charged and intimate platonic relationship between a man and a woman (Poppy Li oh my god!!!!!), and a quarantine episode so good I actually felt angry at it for being so good. And Danny Pudi is just an outstanding sitcom villain! I'm really hoping this gets a third season.
Netflix
Master of None (season 3) – We're about halfway through this and it is a very interesting exploration of the undoing of a marriage between two Black women, but it is also extremely depressing and so sometimes it's just. You have to be in the mood. And recently it's been hard to be in the mood for much besides old sitcoms and cartoon musicals. Mmm idk the straight up cottage living is nice though. And both Lena Waithe and Naomi Ackie are very good in it.
Young Royals - This has a title that makes it sound a lot more sexy/silly teen drama than it actually is. The basic premise is that a fictional modern Swedish prince is sent to boarding school where he falls in love with a non-boarder (aka poor) student there (who is also a guy). Rich asshole kids are definitely part of it, but their antics are relatively... realistic? One of the main characters is autistic and has ADHD and I feel like she's portrayed in a very interesting and nuanced way; the actors actually look like teenagers, down to not having airbrushed-clear skin; their interactions are generally awkward and uncertain, even the villainous schemer of the group feels like, well, a foolish rich child. There was also some really interesting use of language - obviously the primary language is Swedish, but the characters often slip into English, with side character who is an American and always speaks English while the others respond to her in Swedish, and the mother of two of the main characters always speaking Spanish with her children when they're at home. So there was a lot more to it than I would have thought from the title, and I guess as opposed to being just straight up rich kid soapy drama, the tone of the show actually felt much more sweet and genuine.
Amazon
The Underground Railroad - WE ARE GOING TO FINISH THIS OKAY WE ARE GOING TO FINISH WATCHING IT. I mean it's Barry Jenkins so that alone means it's a visual masterpiece, it's very well-rendered from the borderline magical realism of the book. Just also. Sometimes hard to step back into the difficult things. But we need to get to William Jackson Harper ahhhh.
Hulu
The Handmaid's Tale - I'd watched the first two seasons of this and then stopped, and finally came back in the most recent four the season because I was very much promised that I'd finally get payoff on what I watched earlier. Which, yeah, I did, pretty much. But mostly I'd like to summarize the Waterfords' plot this season as Guy in Hot Dog Costume.
HBOMax
In Treatment - We only watched season 4 because I wanted to see Uzo Aduba. And it was good! I don't know that I'd want to watch the previous seasons, but I think the setup of the episodes mostly being therapist-patient sessions worked really well both with the show firmly setting it in the pandemic timeline, and with the therapist being a Black woman who deals very frankly with the racial and social realities of her patients. Though I guess Black Lady Therapist is a trope in television right now, but in this case the therapist is the main character, so the patients really end up furthering her story rather than the other way around. And only one of the three patients is white. All of the patients are also very good – Anthony Ramos is honestly completely amazing and plays such a tender, complex character, Quintessa Swindell had great chemistry with Uzo Aduba in playing a character facing a complex nexus of oppression and privilege, and John Benjamin Hickley, well, was a lot of fun to watch being the jerk character he played.
Gossip Girl (the new one) - I don't have any excuse for this. I like Julien and her look and her schemes on top of schemes on top of schemes; I want the blonde girl and the pink-haired guy and the fuckboy to have a threesome; it's hilarious to me that the teacher is such a fucking psychopath and yet I'm also not invested enough to care if the show ever realizes that. The only thing I can care enough to get annoyed with is the occasional strange self-adulation the show has, okay this is not Edith Wharton or Dorothy Parker it is trash and I'm here to be a trash panda who wants to eat trash.
Disney+
The Bad Batch - I mean, this show does the bare minimum work of having consistent and distinct characters with motivations, events that have consequences, and clear worldbuilding. The Bad Batch as a focus isn't what I would be most interested in for a Star Wars story, and I don't agree with all of its choices, but it is at least making choices. And I am genuinely really into the worldbuilding going into depicting the SW universe at this period in time, during the transition from the Republic to the Empire. I just, you know, wish it did that even more. I mostly feel it drags when, really like any SW media for me, it just becomes about making references to other properties without building anything (did I need to know the backstory of the monster Jabba the Hutt feeds his sex slaves to? not particularly). But also Hera Syndulla two-parter, Eleni Syndulla wears earrings that are big loops around her cone ears, my critical thinking skills are shutting down. I'll probably write something about that in particular later.
Those Marvel Shows – I want to write a longer review about all three of these shows together, but the gist is: Wandavision was a gimmick tacked onto a very tired Scarlet Witch narrative; F+WS could have been fine if it had stuck to its better narratives but instead it really jumped into things it couldn't handle, and also had really severe plotting issues including noticeable unforced errors (there's been a ticking clock this entire time AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US UNTIL NOW???); and Loki was generally fine but I have issues with the finale.
And I've been reading a lot of books? Many books? Since I lasted posted? Something like that. And I'm too tired to talk about all of them so I guess here are a few.
The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin – Okay the long and the short is that whatever misgivings I had, or just straight up things happening that aren't what I would have liked to have seen, the worldbuilding in this duology is so incredible that I just sort of. Let it slide. And there are very specific things where I feel like I generally have to temper my expectations, but again, worldbuilding was so amazing that it felt hard to criticize anything I would otherwise criticize.
Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen – I'm on the second book now and already these books just need to have like... even less men, but the world is interesting and honestly most importantly, I am so extremely into the style of breaking up the narration with various alternate sources, and then academic study of these sources which devolves into male academic unsubtle sexism and historians sniping at each other.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang – Outstanding, amazing writing and really fascinating thematic exploration of race and gender in particular.
Dune by Frank Herbert – I guess overall it's one of those things where like, I'm impressed the author created it. But everyone who has ever complained about a Mary Sue while loving Paul Atriedes owes me a personal apology. Also recently
varadia and I were watching some youtube video and the person in it made a reference to Paul killing millions of people and I said "he didn't really kill that many people" and she said "no that's from the later books when he goes on the jihads" and I said "wait he's the emperor why does he need to do that now" and she said "no he has to because of the fremen" and I said "but the fremen just wanted water for their planet" and anyway I'm glad that the new movie I guess is changing "jihad" to "crusade." Maybe. I'm not actually sure which is less racist at this point. There was this episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie where one of the more conservative characters was trying to figure out if "Ice-Slammers" was an offensive name for an all-Muslim curling team and that's about what I'm feeling right now.Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens – This is a contemporaneous account of the imprisonment and torture of suffragettes in the years leading up to the passage of the 19th Amendment, written by Doris Stevens, one of the leading activists of the National Women's Party. The "radical" tactics the NWP suffragettes engaged in most famously included the Silent Sentinels, in which the protestors attempted to maintain a continuous guard at the White House gates holding signs calling for women's enfranchisement and pressuring Woodrow Wilson to publicly endorse a federal amendment extending the vote to women. This book is also pretty clearly a central source for the movie Iron Jawed Angels, which used activist Alice Paul as a protagonist in its depiction of the passage of the 19th Amendment. This being the only HBO made-for-TV movie I have on dvd, it was interesting to see what was incorporated and what was left out from this book – some things like extremely condensing the actual timeline of events, but also things like the relationships between suffragist prisoners and other prisoners, especially along racial lines. The writer was probably... relatively progressive for that time, but it was also definitely the case that the suffragists gained a lot of attention for being Nice, Upper Class White Women Who Shouldn't Be Going to Prison. The movie has a brief sequence involving Ida B. Wells, but neither really goes into the issue of racism among white suffragists. It is also really interesting to see well-known historical figures described in a time before some kind of legacy-narrative has been widely accepted about them - whether it's "Colonel Roosevelt" whom I learned from this was very supportive of enfranchising women, or director of US Food Administration Herbert Hoover who point-blank refused to meet with suffragists, but wrote to assure them that he'd totally supported votes for women all along when he later ran for president.
Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham – After reading this, I don't know if writing can really capture everything that made Veronica Mars entertaining – I felt more like I was missing rather than revisiting the candy-neon pinks and greens and blues of Neptune, like give me all that blue-purple girl noir again please. But the story works. And I really appreciated the closure it provided regarding one of the returning characters.
Do I do things besides watch the TV and read books? Yes I will have you know that my Sims are progressing along nicely and will soon have a fancy farming expansion pack; I play trashy games on my phone; and I'm definitely going to finish this Eirtaé fanfic even if I'm thinking things like 'I should watch Babette's Feast(????) for research.' Or god worse My Dinner with Andre, I'm going to be so mad if I end up watching My Dinner with Andre especially now that I've checked and know it's readily available for me to watch.
And we have also spent non-refundable money for a vacation in December so. If Florida could by any chance get its act together a little more in the next five months that would be. nice.
no subject