Burn Notice

So, in addition to bad TV movies from the 90s, I've also spent the last couple days watching the first seven episodes of Burn Notice.  That's the one about the US spy who who gets a "burn notice" cutting him off from every resource he used to have available, leaving him penniless and without resources wherever they dump him.  And with watchdogs.  Michael Westen ends up dumped in Miami with FBI watchdogs on his tail and what ammounts to orders not to leave, so he teams up with Sam, a retired agent living off rich girlfriends, and Fiona, his trigger happy ex-girlfriend who was also a member of the IRA, to find out why, taking on odd jobs to fix people's problems along the way.  He's also originally from Miami, which means that now he can't escape his mother trying to get him to face family troubles he's been avoiding for fifteen years.

It's enjoyable enough, but I don't really have any investment or love for it.  Bu I can't dislike anything that has Bruce Campbell and Gabrielle Anwar.  But I have two complaints.

The first is the non-stop closeups of bikini clad women.  Yes, this is Miami, and it's meant to give "atmosphere," but unless the attractive young women there outnumber the attractive young men about 200-to-1, they can just have closeups of shirtless men in shorts to balance out the fanservice.

The second is Fiona.  For the record, I like her.  She amuses me.  Especially when she tries to sneak in a few explosions before Michael tells her to behave.  And cocktail bombs. 

But why is she there?  In Miami, not the show.  So, she went to Miami because Michael still had her listed as his contact number.  But why did she stay?  Didn't she have any sort of a life before that?  Contacts?  A job?  Why did she drop everything to just hang out in Miami and chase Michael around?  Where is she living?  It isn't until episode 7 that we learn she's making a bit of money trafficking guns.  Until then, I thought she was sitting around somewhere, twiddling her thumbs while she waited for him to call her for help.  When she wasn't following him everywhere and trying to get in his pants.  Every other character, we know what their deal is, why they're living in Miami, what their goal is, how they spend their time, etc. within a couple scenes.  With Fiona, we don't get a hint of anything until a throwaway scene in episode seven.

And why is she so determined to get back together with Michael?  I get why she came, but why did she stay, and why is she constantly throwing herself at a guy who's always rejecting her?  I'm supposed to root for them, but why should I root for a man who doesn't like part of who she is and wants her to suppress her instincts, and often doesn't seem to want her around, and a woman who doesn't seem to have anything going on except for chasing after him, despite constant rejection?

Granted, I've only seen seven episodes, and there could be a major twist or development there that will make me eat my words, but so far, this seems to be a classic case "kicking butt + love interest = character."  Ideally, female characters will have as much agency, plot and chance to kick butt as male characters.  Ideally, female characters won't be judged as compared to male characters at all.  But this is a perfect example of why I'll take a heroine who can't fight to save her life but has plot and goals over one who can kick butt but doesn't have a story  or agency any day.  Mind you, I'd rather have both.  I just don't care for being told that I'm being given "a strong female character" (one of my least favorite phrases ever) when all I really have is "ooh, badass-just as good as the men!"  I want characters who are treated as equals regardless of gender, not tokens representing a limited idea of what can make one gender "worthy" of being alongside the other.

(no subject)

I swear 147 isn't me!

Did I mention that I blame shoujo and kdramas?

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Sabriel is a student in a boarding school in Ancelstierre, a country similar to 1920s England, but is actually from The Old Kingdom, a country to the north where magic works. Those in Ancelstierre who don’t live near the border, however, don’t believe this, nor do they believe that dangerous spirits ranging from zombies to free elementals run wild in The Old Kingdom. Sabriel knows they exist not only because she’s from there, but also because her father, Terciel, is Abhorsen, a hereditary position responsible for controlling these spirits that surround the Wall between the two countries. When her father is overcome by a new threat, he has his sword and bells sent to Sabriel so she can take up the position of Abhorsen. Sabriel, however, sets out to find her father, accompanied by Moggett, a Free Magic construct in the form of a talking cat who is bound to the Abhorsen-no matter who it is at the time, and is later joined by Touchstone, a young mage who is 200 ears out of his own time.

I liked it, and the characters, but I read the firs half with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. About midway through, I realized what it was: there’s never really any reason to worry about Sabriel. Yes, she goes through a number of difficulties, but there’s never any reason to worry whether or not she’ll come out of them OK. We as the reader know that, more often than not, good will vanquish evil, the lovers will find each other, the heroes will overcome their differences and band together, the detective will learn the identity of the killer, etc. We have a perconceived comfort zone that we adjust to what we think the author will do, and then it's up to the author to shake us out of it, or to give us hope. Sure, sometimes rocks fall and everybody dies, but you can usually tell those are coming. The job of the author is to make you wonder if the hero will make it in time, if s/he is up to the challenge, if the lovers will ever work things out, if the dodgy character will join the good guys or betray them, etc. We may know that there’s a 90% chance things will work out to some degree (the lovers die, but only after saving the world), but we need to worry that there’s a chance it won’t. This is why figuratively punching the reader in the gut isn’t always a bad thing.  (The above, of course, applies to fiction with a Threat. Light and fluffy things have different rules.)

There’s never any chance with Sabriel. She’s calm, confident and skilled. She has the magic weapons and the advisor almost from the start. At one point, Sabriel comments that her father never prepared her for her destiny of Abhorsen, but she never feels unprepared. She has to work throughout her journey, and she doesn’t have it easy, but there’s never a reason to worry about her.  Nix does play with that a bit near the end, but not enough for me. 

The end does, though, play a bit with a fictional trope that I don’t think gets used enough.

( spoilers )

Mind you, this series has been highly recced to me for about two years, so I’m likely subconsciously being more critical than I would be otherwise. In addition, the general consensus from the f-list seems to be that the other two books in the series will be more my thing.

Unrelated: I am so happy I saw a dozen “OMG LJ WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PROFILE CHANGE IT BACK!” posts before looking at my profile. It’s not as bad when you expect something that will make your eyes bleed.

Dorothea Vol 2

This volume dealt mostly with Dorothea’s learning to fit in with the army, and deal with going to war. I’m not sure I like how everything was presented here, but it was interesting. I’m also curious to find out how many of the characters and battles are historical, and how many were made up. I know the Waldensians are based on history, at least.

( spoilers )