Of Swords and Parasols

The third episode of Blindspot was pretty "meh," and agent whatshisface's dialogue was awful. I'm giving it another episode or two, but I lost a lot of my energy for the show this week. OTOH, I really enjoyed the new Minority Report, and am sad that it's apparently doing terrible in the ratings.

This week's Empire was, IMO, a lot better than the first two episodes of the season.

iZombie's season premeire did not impress me much. The Brain of the Week seemed to just be an excuse to make a lot of racist jokes and avoid and consequences or the need to address it because we know "the real Liv" would never say those things. I'm also not really a fan of Major, and it looks like the progression that led to his plotline overpowering everyone else's in the later part of last season is going to be even more prominent this season. Madam Secretary, OTOH, had a very strong premeire.

( spoiler )

Sleepy Hollow was largely enjoyable, but the Betsy Ross scenes made me cringe. It's like they took the problems with Katrina and amplified them, but with a less talented actress. Katrina, IMO, was a character with the potential to be good played by an actress who was good enough that she could have made a well written character great, but wasn't quite good enough to salvage such an inconsistently written character. She was also very much a modern woman in (fake) period clothing, which is, of course, not inherently bad, but so far, Betsy Ross is almost a caricature of the "gutsy period heroine with modern sensibilities" type.  (Granted, we haven't really learned much about her opinions or life yet, but the dialogue and approach are definitely there.) I'm crossing my fingers that they'll get better with her, but the show doesn't really have a good record with women who aren't Abbie and Jenny. (I mean, I liked Reyes a lot, but she wasn't always handled well.  Macey and Cynthia they did a good job with, but forgot all about them for most of season 2.) I do enjoy Pandora, but mostly for Shannyn Sossamon.

That said...

( spoilers )

How to Get Away With Murder is actually stressing me out a bit. I'm so worried about everyone! Also, in the flashforwards, I'm pretty sure Annelise told them to do it, but we'll see. Friendship things in the present still fill me with delight, though. Also, nice to see that my assumption about the murder siblings was right, and Sherri Saum was a nice treat.

1. I know a lot of people dislike Cassandra Clare, and why, but this rant about slutshaming women who have sex, write sex scenes, and enjoy reading sex scenes, and the idea that things meant to entertain teenaged girls is the lowest common denominator has some pretty good bits.

2. Related: What (Straight)Women Want ( no relation to sexist Mel Gibson movies) according to years and years of reading fiction.

3. Via retsuko , a list of anime and manga recs for people who aren't fans of anime and manga that doesn't make my eyes glaze over with boredom.  Most of what I haven't read or watched, I have no interest in reading or watching, and there are other things I'd have on there, but, IMO, it's better than most.

4. I shouldn't start a new kdrama before finishing Ja Myung Go and the telenovelas I've been watching, but I checked out a new sageuk Hwajung out of curiosity. The plot is about Jeongmyung, a Joseon princess who is exiled after her half-brother, Gwanghae, usurps the crown, grows up as a boy, and returns years later as a boy. The first episode focuses mostly of the political and personal circumstances that lead to Gwanghae's coup. (Though really, it's another prince's coup. Played by the same actor who played Mishil's scheming brother in Queen Seon Duk.) Different things I've seen have promoted either Gwanghae or Jeongmyung as the main character. I opt to believe that it's Jeongmyung, with a greater focus on Gwanghae in early episodes because Jeongmyung is a little girl in them, and because Cha Seung Won is a much bigger star than Lee Yoon Hee. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Lee Yeon He in a leading role, as I've only seen her as the younger versions of sageuk women before.

Trailer:





I have pretty much no historical reference for the one.  I know some bits about Gwanghae, but that's it.

5. Is anyone else planning to watch CW's The Messengers? I'm not really sold on the trailer, but I do like JD Pardo, and it has potential. (If nothing else, CW will probably treat him better than Revolution did.)

Trailer:



6. Speaking of CW, I enjoyed this week's iZombie a lot, but suspect I would have been more excited about it if (A) I had ever watch a single scene of Merlin (though I did quite like the actor) or (B) had ever understood why anyone would like Dick "prove you're a man by raping an unconscious girl" Casablancas.  (He never even had "love to hate" or "at least he's amusing" status for me, but I know a lot of people enjoyed him.)

Meanwhile, petition to get protective details for Clive and Ravi. (Liv should be fine.)

7. Rarely written fic is due in 2 weeks. I have 0 words, but a vague idea? I need panic induced adrenaline to set in.

This is under a cut not so much because of spoilers, but because it discusses eating brains, which some people might not particularly want to read about.

( tw for cannibalism but light on spoilers )

Unrelated to the above, but i've watched the first 3 episodes of the new Poldark series, and...eeeeh. Well acted, brautiful scenery, interesting topics, but while I enjoyed the first episode, I was mostly bored by the second and third. I only care at all about Demelza and Verity (and that's at least partly because of my fondness for Eleanor Tomlinson and Ruby Bentall), and am not overly fond of where things seem to be going with either character. Mostly I expected a lot of misery and crushed dreams for both. I'm not sure I'll watch more because I read some spoilers for the books that....did not make me look forward to future plot developments.

I'm now going to go off and feel a bit awkward about the iZombie part of this post.