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A 5 things + 1 post!
Dec. 18th, 2016 08:04 pm1. This season of The Librarians is a little...off? Good, but not quite gelling like the first 2 seasons. I've seen some people say that it's because there's too much Flynn, but there hasn't actually been more Flynn than at this point in the first 2 seasons, it's just that the first 2 seasons had the first 2 episodes of the season as a 2 part arc with Flynn that aired on the same night, and this season only aired the first episode on the first week. I do think, though, that they're trying too hard to make him part of the team even though he's still off doing his own thing. Flynn is best as the LITs' weird uncle who shows up from time to time and is dating their babysitter.
2. Hwarang: The Beginning, which is a Silla sageuk about the founding of the Hwarang, starts tomorrow, and while most of the promotional stuff for it was terrible and had me expecting a decently entertaining but not good drama at best (and that they scheduled it during a sageuk drought on purpose) they longer trailer dropped a few days ago and looks considerably better:
The comedy parts still make me cringe, as did the "flower boy idols IN COSTUME" fanservice, but the actual serious sageuk parts look good, and the romantic plotlines don't look terrible. I mean, if nothing else, it has to at least be better than Moon Lovers ended up being. I hope. Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Sungkyunkwan Scandal come to mind as sageuks that I thought had terrible trailers and promos that ended up being very good, even if it did take me years to get to SKKS (and then the lead actor was charged for raping multple women a few weeks after I did, so that was a thing that happened...)
3. Saimdang: Light's Diary, the sageuk with Lee Young Ae as both the artist Shin Saimdang and a modern art history lecturer who is studying her, is finally coming out at the end of next month. I feel like I've been waiting for that show for years and years, even though it was "only" announced last March. Which isn't as long a wait as some cdramas, but is a long wait for kdramas. That said, I'm bitter anew that the title was changed to Saimdang: Light's Diary. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a good title, but the original title was Shin Saimdang: The Herstory, which was so much better. Alas.
4. I'm reading the first volume of Soul Eater NOT! is a manga series set in the soul Eater universe and is about students at the academy who will eventually fill support roles, a opposed to being monster hunters. I liked the Soul Eater anime but couldn't get into the manga at all. SEN is about three girls who form an awkward romantic and professional triangle and is cute, though not amazing.
5. I haven't seen Moana or Star Wars: Rogue One yet and probably won't until the week between Christmas and New Years, but I haven't been able to fully avoid spoilers for either. I don't mind Moana spoilers, but was hoping to avoid Rogue One spoilers. I haven't really been spoiled for anything I wasn't expecting, though, and it sounds like fandom might be having an even more racist reaction to it than it did to The Force Awakens.
( minor Rogue One spoiler )
6. I mostly like the new laptop I got last month, but the keyboard is terrible. I shouldn't be having to pound the keys on keyboard that isn't even a month old!
2. Hwarang: The Beginning, which is a Silla sageuk about the founding of the Hwarang, starts tomorrow, and while most of the promotional stuff for it was terrible and had me expecting a decently entertaining but not good drama at best (and that they scheduled it during a sageuk drought on purpose) they longer trailer dropped a few days ago and looks considerably better:
The comedy parts still make me cringe, as did the "flower boy idols IN COSTUME" fanservice, but the actual serious sageuk parts look good, and the romantic plotlines don't look terrible. I mean, if nothing else, it has to at least be better than Moon Lovers ended up being. I hope. Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Sungkyunkwan Scandal come to mind as sageuks that I thought had terrible trailers and promos that ended up being very good, even if it did take me years to get to SKKS (and then the lead actor was charged for raping multple women a few weeks after I did, so that was a thing that happened...)
3. Saimdang: Light's Diary, the sageuk with Lee Young Ae as both the artist Shin Saimdang and a modern art history lecturer who is studying her, is finally coming out at the end of next month. I feel like I've been waiting for that show for years and years, even though it was "only" announced last March. Which isn't as long a wait as some cdramas, but is a long wait for kdramas. That said, I'm bitter anew that the title was changed to Saimdang: Light's Diary. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a good title, but the original title was Shin Saimdang: The Herstory, which was so much better. Alas.
4. I'm reading the first volume of Soul Eater NOT! is a manga series set in the soul Eater universe and is about students at the academy who will eventually fill support roles, a opposed to being monster hunters. I liked the Soul Eater anime but couldn't get into the manga at all. SEN is about three girls who form an awkward romantic and professional triangle and is cute, though not amazing.
5. I haven't seen Moana or Star Wars: Rogue One yet and probably won't until the week between Christmas and New Years, but I haven't been able to fully avoid spoilers for either. I don't mind Moana spoilers, but was hoping to avoid Rogue One spoilers. I haven't really been spoiled for anything I wasn't expecting, though, and it sounds like fandom might be having an even more racist reaction to it than it did to The Force Awakens.
( minor Rogue One spoiler )
6. I mostly like the new laptop I got last month, but the keyboard is terrible. I shouldn't be having to pound the keys on keyboard that isn't even a month old!
TeeVee catchup
Dec. 23rd, 2015 05:11 pmI have not died, I've just been on a bit of a culling spree in my apartment. I've also been binging on kdramas, though that really means that I've been alternating between multiple kdramas.
They are:
Oh My Venus: Airing drama that's a romcom about an overweight woman and a hollywood fitness trainer. On paper it's everything wrong with romantic fiction, but in practice, it's actually very very delightful, largely because od Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub. I freely admit that I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't like both leads. There's definitely some fatphobia going on, but not nearly as much as I feared, and they do at least try to avoid the worst of it first by having him decide to help her lose weight not because he thinks fat=yucky, but because she's doing harmful things to her body to try to lose weight. They also attach her weight to an initially-undiagnosed medical condition, which I sideeye because the real world medical profession tends to dismiss a lot of issues as being the result of weight instead of exploring other possibilities, but at least they tried. There's also a secondary romance between a boxer who is So Ji Sub's foster son and an idol who is his fan that is simultaneously hilarious and semi-cute, and offputting because she pretty much stalks him. I'm hoping they move past the stalking soon and they have real conversations, because I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to want them to get together. I haven't seen the most recent episode yet because I'm watching on Hulu and they don't have it yet, but am current otherwise.
My only big "OMG NO NO NO" moment was actually entirely unrelated to the romances and all about someone soing CPR by pressing on the top of the sternum. YOU DON'T PRESS THERE. THE POINT OF CPR IS THAT YOU'RE FORCING THE LUNGS TO WORK BY MAKING THEM PUMP AIR. THE INTERNAL ORGANS ARE ENTIRELY UNAFFECTED IF YOU'RE JUST PUSHING AGAINST UNRELENTING BONE AND CAN'T GET TO THE ORGANS. *medical pet peeve to end all pet peeves*
Yong Pal: About a medical student who secretly provides medical aid for criminals to earn money, and an heiress who is being kept in a coma by her evil brother. (Who actually seems very fond of her in the one flashback we had of them pre-coma? WHAT HAPPENED BESIDES HER RUNNING AWAY TO GET MARRIED TO SOMEONE UNAPPROVED?) I wasn't interested in it but tumblr made it look interesting when it was airing, and I like Kim Tae Hee, who plays the heroine. The actor who played Myong Nong in Soo Baek Hyang plays the evil brother, and I still haven't quite accepted that. It's a Sleeping Beauty story, something they keeps hitting us over the head with. Episode 4 literally begins with "here is our version of Our Hero having fought his way through the wall of brambles (or in this case, absurd levels of corporate hospital security) to get to the sleeping princess, and we'll tell him she's Sleeping Beauty in case anyone in the audience has missed it.' Hopefully, now that he's found her, she'll wake up soon and set out to get her revenge, which is what I signed up for. I had just started episode 4 when I realized I should post about the shows I've been watching.
Jung Yi: Goddess of Fire: Drama based on Baek Pa-sun, a Korean potter during Gwang Hae's reign. (And will have what i'm pretty sure is a 100% historically anachronistic romance with him.) I'm still in the childhood parts, so it's pretty much the teenagers who play kids in all the sageuks running around being adorable dorks and the adults who are in all the sageuks doing Important Political Scheming Things while the importance of pottery and ceramics is drilled into us. So, normal MBC sageuk biodrama stuff. Very delightful so far, though I'm only 3 episodes in.
Queen In Hyun's Man/The Queen and I fantasy series about a scholar/swordsman who served Queen In Hyun accidentally travelling through time and meeting a woman who is playing Queen In Hyun in a drama. This was seemingly universally loved when it was airing and I've neber encountered anyone who didn't like it, but I bounced off the first episode several times ober the last few years. I finally finished the first episode (3 episodes, actually), and I do like it, which I always assumed would be the case if I finished the first episode though I can't say I'm in love with it.
Maids: My favorite so far of the completed dramas I'm watching. An arrogant young noblewoman becomes a servant in her romantic rival's household after her father is accused of treason. Romantic interests are her previous fiance and the head servant of her new household. Said head servant is played by Oh Ji Ho (who is likable cardboard in modern dramas, but does the "stoic and serious sageuk action hero" thing very well) so we know who will be the final love interest even when the current plot makes it seem very implausible. As the title implies ,most of the focus is on female servants, with the politics providing the B plot. I hadn't realized this drama had been completed after the fire/death of a crew member made production stop after the first episode aired last year until I saw it on hulu. It's kind of unrelentingly angsty and depressing so far, but then, I'm only watched 4 episodes.
I also watched the first episodes of the Chinese series Perfect Couple, but it was a little too OTT for me, and the first episode of the Japanese series Atelier. I actually really liked Atelier, but it was a bit confusing hearing Japanese when my brain kept expecting to hear Korean because of all the other shows I'm watching, so I'm saving it for when I've finished a few things.
For US TV:
The Librarians has almost finished its second season. I don't like this season's ongoing plotline as much as I did the first season's, but the entertainment level is just as high, and it's been doing some nice character stuff.
Into the Badlands ended and no second season has been confirmed yet. I really really hope there is one. For better or worse (depending of whether or not you cared about them) I probably won't spew a thousand words about the last 2 episodes, but I have a lot of feelings about how incredibly satisfying Quinn's villainous comeupance was, and about The Widow's dual role as protagonist and antagonist, so I may post about those on tumblr. If there is a season 2, I hope they don't keep locking M.K. up in cages and boxes so much. Just let the poor kid go find his mom already!
I'm watching Jessica Jones and it's going slowly because of the content and because of some of my issues with it (mostly race!fail stuff, but also the fact that I'm apparently not meant to hate the entitled annoying Jessica-hating cop guy) but I do like it. I do really appreciate how the writers were clearly aware of fandom's tendency to woobify villains and went out of their way to give nothing to grab onto for woobification or logical sympathetic interpretations of the character, or any reason to find him interesting in and of himself. I mean, it didn't work, but I really appreciate the effort. Trish (which I always type as "Patsy" first) is my favorite, despite her awful taste in men, and I thought she and Hope were the same character in gifs I saw. Pretty sure the resemblance is deliberate for maximum levels of investment for Jessica.
This reminds me that I really need to post of several dramas I bingewatched over the last few months.
They are:
Oh My Venus: Airing drama that's a romcom about an overweight woman and a hollywood fitness trainer. On paper it's everything wrong with romantic fiction, but in practice, it's actually very very delightful, largely because od Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub. I freely admit that I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't like both leads. There's definitely some fatphobia going on, but not nearly as much as I feared, and they do at least try to avoid the worst of it first by having him decide to help her lose weight not because he thinks fat=yucky, but because she's doing harmful things to her body to try to lose weight. They also attach her weight to an initially-undiagnosed medical condition, which I sideeye because the real world medical profession tends to dismiss a lot of issues as being the result of weight instead of exploring other possibilities, but at least they tried. There's also a secondary romance between a boxer who is So Ji Sub's foster son and an idol who is his fan that is simultaneously hilarious and semi-cute, and offputting because she pretty much stalks him. I'm hoping they move past the stalking soon and they have real conversations, because I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to want them to get together. I haven't seen the most recent episode yet because I'm watching on Hulu and they don't have it yet, but am current otherwise.
My only big "OMG NO NO NO" moment was actually entirely unrelated to the romances and all about someone soing CPR by pressing on the top of the sternum. YOU DON'T PRESS THERE. THE POINT OF CPR IS THAT YOU'RE FORCING THE LUNGS TO WORK BY MAKING THEM PUMP AIR. THE INTERNAL ORGANS ARE ENTIRELY UNAFFECTED IF YOU'RE JUST PUSHING AGAINST UNRELENTING BONE AND CAN'T GET TO THE ORGANS. *medical pet peeve to end all pet peeves*
Yong Pal: About a medical student who secretly provides medical aid for criminals to earn money, and an heiress who is being kept in a coma by her evil brother. (Who actually seems very fond of her in the one flashback we had of them pre-coma? WHAT HAPPENED BESIDES HER RUNNING AWAY TO GET MARRIED TO SOMEONE UNAPPROVED?) I wasn't interested in it but tumblr made it look interesting when it was airing, and I like Kim Tae Hee, who plays the heroine. The actor who played Myong Nong in Soo Baek Hyang plays the evil brother, and I still haven't quite accepted that. It's a Sleeping Beauty story, something they keeps hitting us over the head with. Episode 4 literally begins with "here is our version of Our Hero having fought his way through the wall of brambles (or in this case, absurd levels of corporate hospital security) to get to the sleeping princess, and we'll tell him she's Sleeping Beauty in case anyone in the audience has missed it.' Hopefully, now that he's found her, she'll wake up soon and set out to get her revenge, which is what I signed up for. I had just started episode 4 when I realized I should post about the shows I've been watching.
Jung Yi: Goddess of Fire: Drama based on Baek Pa-sun, a Korean potter during Gwang Hae's reign. (And will have what i'm pretty sure is a 100% historically anachronistic romance with him.) I'm still in the childhood parts, so it's pretty much the teenagers who play kids in all the sageuks running around being adorable dorks and the adults who are in all the sageuks doing Important Political Scheming Things while the importance of pottery and ceramics is drilled into us. So, normal MBC sageuk biodrama stuff. Very delightful so far, though I'm only 3 episodes in.
Queen In Hyun's Man/The Queen and I fantasy series about a scholar/swordsman who served Queen In Hyun accidentally travelling through time and meeting a woman who is playing Queen In Hyun in a drama. This was seemingly universally loved when it was airing and I've neber encountered anyone who didn't like it, but I bounced off the first episode several times ober the last few years. I finally finished the first episode (3 episodes, actually), and I do like it, which I always assumed would be the case if I finished the first episode though I can't say I'm in love with it.
Maids: My favorite so far of the completed dramas I'm watching. An arrogant young noblewoman becomes a servant in her romantic rival's household after her father is accused of treason. Romantic interests are her previous fiance and the head servant of her new household. Said head servant is played by Oh Ji Ho (who is likable cardboard in modern dramas, but does the "stoic and serious sageuk action hero" thing very well) so we know who will be the final love interest even when the current plot makes it seem very implausible. As the title implies ,most of the focus is on female servants, with the politics providing the B plot. I hadn't realized this drama had been completed after the fire/death of a crew member made production stop after the first episode aired last year until I saw it on hulu. It's kind of unrelentingly angsty and depressing so far, but then, I'm only watched 4 episodes.
I also watched the first episodes of the Chinese series Perfect Couple, but it was a little too OTT for me, and the first episode of the Japanese series Atelier. I actually really liked Atelier, but it was a bit confusing hearing Japanese when my brain kept expecting to hear Korean because of all the other shows I'm watching, so I'm saving it for when I've finished a few things.
For US TV:
The Librarians has almost finished its second season. I don't like this season's ongoing plotline as much as I did the first season's, but the entertainment level is just as high, and it's been doing some nice character stuff.
Into the Badlands ended and no second season has been confirmed yet. I really really hope there is one. For better or worse (depending of whether or not you cared about them) I probably won't spew a thousand words about the last 2 episodes, but I have a lot of feelings about how incredibly satisfying Quinn's villainous comeupance was, and about The Widow's dual role as protagonist and antagonist, so I may post about those on tumblr. If there is a season 2, I hope they don't keep locking M.K. up in cages and boxes so much. Just let the poor kid go find his mom already!
I'm watching Jessica Jones and it's going slowly because of the content and because of some of my issues with it (mostly race!fail stuff, but also the fact that I'm apparently not meant to hate the entitled annoying Jessica-hating cop guy) but I do like it. I do really appreciate how the writers were clearly aware of fandom's tendency to woobify villains and went out of their way to give nothing to grab onto for woobification or logical sympathetic interpretations of the character, or any reason to find him interesting in and of himself. I mean, it didn't work, but I really appreciate the effort. Trish (which I always type as "Patsy" first) is my favorite, despite her awful taste in men, and I thought she and Hope were the same character in gifs I saw. Pretty sure the resemblance is deliberate for maximum levels of investment for Jessica.
This reminds me that I really need to post of several dramas I bingewatched over the last few months.
1. The Librarians is back and I hadn't even realized z return date had been set yet.
( spoilers )
2. Supergirl officially started! I watched the pilot when it leaked and it was mostly like I remembered it, though there were a few scenes I remembered being longer before.
( spoilers )
Despite its issues, I really really like it. And sure, it's pretty 101 when it comes to feminism, but let's face it, unlike the bulk of the people criticizing the show for the heavyhanded feminism (and ignoring the ones who are trying to cover for being afraid of girl cooties getting in their superhero shows) the vast majority of people who watch superhero shows and movies don't spend hours a week directly or indirectly consuming information on or discussing feminist theory and intersectionality. And even a lot of those have decently long passages that amount to "it has this thing which is actually a really good thing but I feel compelled to explain why it isn't, or should barely count."
3. Every new episode of Scream Queens makes me hope that i'll finally lose interest in the mystery and save myself from this garbage, but nope.
4. Mark Pellegrino playing Graham Norton's father in Quantico is very weird to me, since the only other thing I've seen either in is Revolution. (Where they both played much more endearing characters.
5. Sleepy Hollow continues to be better than last season, but not as good as season 1.
( spoilers )
6 I've started watching the supernatural fusion sageuk The Scholar Who Walks the Night (AKA, romance between vampire scholar and crossdressing bookseller) now that it's over. It's a bit cheesy (a lot of which, IMO, is the soundtrack. Hard not to compare it to Arang and the Magistrate's excellent soundtrack, as both are supernatural fusion sageuks starring Lee Joon Ki.), but good so far. My problem with it, though, is that the antagonist is SO BORING so far. Part of it is that the actor is...not good. At all. Like, he fails embarassingly at "dangerously evil but sexy" (It takes more than lighting and eyeliner to pull that off.) and I just cringe at all his scenes. I'm apparently meant to believe that he's so dangerous that Lee Joon Ki's vampire scholar hasn't been able to kill him in 120 years of trying. I can only conclude that, all evidence to the contrary, Our Hero is just amazingly incompetent. I mostly want him to quit boring up my screen so more time can be spent on the protagonists and Lee Joon Ki's sidekicks and even the angstmuffin prince. (Who I do like so far, but he has the potential to go very wrong for me.) Everyone else in the show ranges from competent to pretty good as far as acting goes, and then there's Cardboard Guyliner Vampire. The tumblr tag for the show is about 85% him, though, so I guess others felt differently.c
7. I'm watching season 3 of Grand Hotel (aka, the first telenovela I watched back before Hulu and Netflix started carrying any, though only the first season was available then.) and it's the last season. The first episode (well, Netflix's first episode, Netflix breaks the 70-90 minute episodes into 44 minutes, which gets awkward at times) was rather awful, but it got better after that, though it's not as good as the first two seasons were. Largely because Diego's villainy is is almost comical in how over the top and extreme it's become. I keep expecting him to try to twirl his mustache.
( spoilers )
2. Supergirl officially started! I watched the pilot when it leaked and it was mostly like I remembered it, though there were a few scenes I remembered being longer before.
( spoilers )
Despite its issues, I really really like it. And sure, it's pretty 101 when it comes to feminism, but let's face it, unlike the bulk of the people criticizing the show for the heavyhanded feminism (and ignoring the ones who are trying to cover for being afraid of girl cooties getting in their superhero shows) the vast majority of people who watch superhero shows and movies don't spend hours a week directly or indirectly consuming information on or discussing feminist theory and intersectionality. And even a lot of those have decently long passages that amount to "it has this thing which is actually a really good thing but I feel compelled to explain why it isn't, or should barely count."
3. Every new episode of Scream Queens makes me hope that i'll finally lose interest in the mystery and save myself from this garbage, but nope.
4. Mark Pellegrino playing Graham Norton's father in Quantico is very weird to me, since the only other thing I've seen either in is Revolution. (Where they both played much more endearing characters.
5. Sleepy Hollow continues to be better than last season, but not as good as season 1.
( spoilers )
6 I've started watching the supernatural fusion sageuk The Scholar Who Walks the Night (AKA, romance between vampire scholar and crossdressing bookseller) now that it's over. It's a bit cheesy (a lot of which, IMO, is the soundtrack. Hard not to compare it to Arang and the Magistrate's excellent soundtrack, as both are supernatural fusion sageuks starring Lee Joon Ki.), but good so far. My problem with it, though, is that the antagonist is SO BORING so far. Part of it is that the actor is...not good. At all. Like, he fails embarassingly at "dangerously evil but sexy" (It takes more than lighting and eyeliner to pull that off.) and I just cringe at all his scenes. I'm apparently meant to believe that he's so dangerous that Lee Joon Ki's vampire scholar hasn't been able to kill him in 120 years of trying. I can only conclude that, all evidence to the contrary, Our Hero is just amazingly incompetent. I mostly want him to quit boring up my screen so more time can be spent on the protagonists and Lee Joon Ki's sidekicks and even the angstmuffin prince. (Who I do like so far, but he has the potential to go very wrong for me.) Everyone else in the show ranges from competent to pretty good as far as acting goes, and then there's Cardboard Guyliner Vampire. The tumblr tag for the show is about 85% him, though, so I guess others felt differently.c
7. I'm watching season 3 of Grand Hotel (aka, the first telenovela I watched back before Hulu and Netflix started carrying any, though only the first season was available then.) and it's the last season. The first episode (well, Netflix's first episode, Netflix breaks the 70-90 minute episodes into 44 minutes, which gets awkward at times) was rather awful, but it got better after that, though it's not as good as the first two seasons were. Largely because Diego's villainy is is almost comical in how over the top and extreme it's become. I keep expecting him to try to twirl his mustache.
brief TV stuff
Jan. 30th, 2015 04:41 pm1. Galavant decided that instead of the miniseries it advertised itself as, it wanted to be an ongoing series instead, and ended with multiple cliffhangers that resulted in it going out with a sizzle instead of a bang. It had a rough start and some bad patches, but overall, I enjoyed it and hope that it does get a second season.
2. The Librarians OTOH, had an excellent end to the first season, and it ends in a way where we aren't left with dangling plotlines and too many unanswered questions if it doesn't get renewed, but that also doesn't make a second season difficult. Anyone who missed that this is by a lot of the same people who did Leverage.
3. How to Get Away With murder, The 100 and Jane the Virgin have all returned from hiatus, and all remain excellent. Empire is also getting better with every episode, and keeps reassuring me that it knows that Cookie winning (either directly or through Jamal) is the only way this can end in a satisfying way.
4. State of Affairs remains awful, but I keep watching it. Katherine Heigl sometimes looks like she's in actual pain while saying her lines, while Alfre Woodard is sitting there all "I am strong. I am talented. I AM POTUS. I shall conquer this script..."
5. Star Wars: Rebels is still good and is fleshing out the non-Ezra and Kanan characters more. I just grow increasingly fearful that, despite being more kid friendly than The Clone Wars, it's all going to end in blood and tears.
6. Sleepy Hollow is...around, I guess. Aside from the appropriation involved in the Villain of the Week, I enjoyed the latest episode more than I have a number of the episodes this season, but still not as much as I enjoyed season one.
7. Netflix has season 2 of Beauty and the Beast streaming, so i've started watching that from where I left off a while back (Episodes 2.9-onward). I'm really enjoying it, so far, despite the fact that it has the first female character who I've actively disliked in years.
2. The Librarians OTOH, had an excellent end to the first season, and it ends in a way where we aren't left with dangling plotlines and too many unanswered questions if it doesn't get renewed, but that also doesn't make a second season difficult. Anyone who missed that this is by a lot of the same people who did Leverage.
3. How to Get Away With murder, The 100 and Jane the Virgin have all returned from hiatus, and all remain excellent. Empire is also getting better with every episode, and keeps reassuring me that it knows that Cookie winning (either directly or through Jamal) is the only way this can end in a satisfying way.
4. State of Affairs remains awful, but I keep watching it. Katherine Heigl sometimes looks like she's in actual pain while saying her lines, while Alfre Woodard is sitting there all "I am strong. I am talented. I AM POTUS. I shall conquer this script..."
5. Star Wars: Rebels is still good and is fleshing out the non-Ezra and Kanan characters more. I just grow increasingly fearful that, despite being more kid friendly than The Clone Wars, it's all going to end in blood and tears.
6. Sleepy Hollow is...around, I guess. Aside from the appropriation involved in the Villain of the Week, I enjoyed the latest episode more than I have a number of the episodes this season, but still not as much as I enjoyed season one.
7. Netflix has season 2 of Beauty and the Beast streaming, so i've started watching that from where I left off a while back (Episodes 2.9-onward). I'm really enjoying it, so far, despite the fact that it has the first female character who I've actively disliked in years.
various TV stuffs
Jan. 14th, 2015 07:30 pm1. The new anime season is...not dire, but nothing new jumps out at me? There are a couple series I'll check out later as long as friends keep liking them, but it looks like I'm mostly just sticking with Akatsuki no Yona and Shirobako, both of which are carryovers from last season, and then the new season of Kamisama Kiss (which has been very good so far).
2. I have watched all the available episodes of BBC's The Musketeers. When I first read the book as a kid, I was convinced that having sex with/being in love with D'Artagnan meant women died. Not convinced I was wrong about that, but I never have liked the book, though I watch most adaptations that I come across. I like the show? I have problems with some things in it, but when I compare it to the book and my problems with it (particularly the treatment of Milady and Constance) it pretty much comes out golden. I have very mixed feelings about not hating D'Artagnan and Athos, but I can deal with that. i'm also apparently very susceptible to the narrative wanting me to ship things. it goes "you should ship this" and I go "ok" without really thinking it out, and I think I'm ok with it, though I do keep getting distracted by the fact that D'Artagnan's head is almost literally twice the size of Constance's. (That "ok with it" bit might be reconsidered if they start wanting me to ship de Rochefort/Anne.)I also kind of miss the bit in the first season where Constance is the most long suffering woman in existence.
3. On the flipside, I haven't talked about it much here, but I've been watching Queen Seon Deok off and on since April. The first 51 episodes are great and largely consistently improve until the plotline that drove the series comes to it's natural conclusion. And then there's a timeskip, and a lot of characters get personality transplants that rob them of the bulk of their intelligence along the way, and the whole thing is like some horribly OOC fanfic that completely loses everything that gave its OTP any appeal in the first place. I actually put off watching the series for years because, even though a lot of fandom seemed to love the final arc, I could tell from the way they were talking about it that I wouldn't like it, and I was right. Anyway, great series and reaches a natural conclusion with episode 51. Skip the rest and avoid ending up like me, with the last 4 episodes waiting for you for weeks, but unable to force yourself to finish it.
4. Jane the Virgin and The 100 and Madam Secretary were renewed, and Gina Rodriguez rightly won the Golden Globe for Best Actress. Her acceptance speech and its implied criticism of Hollywood and its treatment of latin@s was great.
5. Other celebrities making boobs jokes, rape jokes, North Korea jokes and whatnot were not great.
6. Happyland was cancelled, which makes me very sad, even though I'm still a bit amazed that it ever got made in the first place.
7. State of Affairs really needs to be cancelled, because that's the only thing that will save me from watching it. I keep watching it. It's awful. I can't stop. Help.
8. Galavant and Empire started. Galavant is...I enjoying it, but there's also so much wrong with it, starting with "awareness that something isn't acceptable and assuming your audience knows it does NOT make doing it acceptable, thankyouverymuch" but the latest episode gives me hope that the second half will live up to my expectations. Empire is also good, but I'm watching it almost entirely for Taraji Henson, and with the assumption that the narrative realizes that the only natural conclusion is that her character wins, so I'm not really engaging with it yet in a way where I can formulate thoughts.
9. The 100 comes back next week. I should try to finally post on it? (I talk about it so much on other journals and on twitter that I just...keep not getting to it. It doesn't help that I have a bunch of other posts written that I keep forgetting to actually post.)
10. The Librarians has almost wrapped up its first season (For whatever reason, they're airing the last 4 episodes with 2 episode per Sunday night. I hope the reason doesn't have to do with cancelation.) which has been pretty good. The episodes aired out of order, and while that's made some character arcs inconsistent (but very consistent IN THE RIGHT ORDER) it hasn't affected the quality of the show that much overall. It's very much the Leverage people making a show for people who like things like Warehouse 13, but that's certainly not a bad thing.
2. I have watched all the available episodes of BBC's The Musketeers. When I first read the book as a kid, I was convinced that having sex with/being in love with D'Artagnan meant women died. Not convinced I was wrong about that, but I never have liked the book, though I watch most adaptations that I come across. I like the show? I have problems with some things in it, but when I compare it to the book and my problems with it (particularly the treatment of Milady and Constance) it pretty much comes out golden. I have very mixed feelings about not hating D'Artagnan and Athos, but I can deal with that. i'm also apparently very susceptible to the narrative wanting me to ship things. it goes "you should ship this" and I go "ok" without really thinking it out, and I think I'm ok with it, though I do keep getting distracted by the fact that D'Artagnan's head is almost literally twice the size of Constance's. (That "ok with it" bit might be reconsidered if they start wanting me to ship de Rochefort/Anne.)I also kind of miss the bit in the first season where Constance is the most long suffering woman in existence.
3. On the flipside, I haven't talked about it much here, but I've been watching Queen Seon Deok off and on since April. The first 51 episodes are great and largely consistently improve until the plotline that drove the series comes to it's natural conclusion. And then there's a timeskip, and a lot of characters get personality transplants that rob them of the bulk of their intelligence along the way, and the whole thing is like some horribly OOC fanfic that completely loses everything that gave its OTP any appeal in the first place. I actually put off watching the series for years because, even though a lot of fandom seemed to love the final arc, I could tell from the way they were talking about it that I wouldn't like it, and I was right. Anyway, great series and reaches a natural conclusion with episode 51. Skip the rest and avoid ending up like me, with the last 4 episodes waiting for you for weeks, but unable to force yourself to finish it.
4. Jane the Virgin and The 100 and Madam Secretary were renewed, and Gina Rodriguez rightly won the Golden Globe for Best Actress. Her acceptance speech and its implied criticism of Hollywood and its treatment of latin@s was great.
5. Other celebrities making boobs jokes, rape jokes, North Korea jokes and whatnot were not great.
6. Happyland was cancelled, which makes me very sad, even though I'm still a bit amazed that it ever got made in the first place.
7. State of Affairs really needs to be cancelled, because that's the only thing that will save me from watching it. I keep watching it. It's awful. I can't stop. Help.
8. Galavant and Empire started. Galavant is...I enjoying it, but there's also so much wrong with it, starting with "awareness that something isn't acceptable and assuming your audience knows it does NOT make doing it acceptable, thankyouverymuch" but the latest episode gives me hope that the second half will live up to my expectations. Empire is also good, but I'm watching it almost entirely for Taraji Henson, and with the assumption that the narrative realizes that the only natural conclusion is that her character wins, so I'm not really engaging with it yet in a way where I can formulate thoughts.
9. The 100 comes back next week. I should try to finally post on it? (I talk about it so much on other journals and on twitter that I just...keep not getting to it. It doesn't help that I have a bunch of other posts written that I keep forgetting to actually post.)
10. The Librarians has almost wrapped up its first season (For whatever reason, they're airing the last 4 episodes with 2 episode per Sunday night. I hope the reason doesn't have to do with cancelation.) which has been pretty good. The episodes aired out of order, and while that's made some character arcs inconsistent (but very consistent IN THE RIGHT ORDER) it hasn't affected the quality of the show that much overall. It's very much the Leverage people making a show for people who like things like Warehouse 13, but that's certainly not a bad thing.
everything under the son
Dec. 12th, 2014 03:58 pmI woke up this morning all eager for my 3 day weekend, went to Wal-Mart, started getting the chills, got back home and barely managed to take care of perishable before collapsing. Got up about an hour later and had a 102.2f temperature. Whee! At least I didn't have to call in sick to work? It went up to a littler over 103 but has gone down a bit since, and I've managed to stay mobile for about 15 minutes, so maybe I'll get lucky and whatever it is will pass as quickly as I came down with it.
Anyway, I typed this up a couple days ago and hadn't gotten around to posting, so I'll post it now before collapsing again.
1. Flight Rising is having another open registration window next Monday. I guess it's officially a monthly thing now. As always, I will be giving dragons to friends who join, though possibly not until later in the week, as site competitions this week might wipe me out of all dragons that aren't permanent residents in my lair.
2. Related, your pet dragons can now have PET ROBOTS. Though they were created for the highest difficulty level (so far) in the coliseum, but there are other ways to get them. But I repeat YOUR PET PIXEL DRAGONS CAN HAVE PET PIXEL ROBOTS.
3. The newest version of Return of the Condor Heroes is apparently as awful as one would expect a series advertising itself as choosing to make a rapist adorable to be. (I mean, the rape plot in ROCH has problems all over the place, but at least it doesn't think the rapist is sympathetic or likable or fassscinating, so it has that over quite a few rape plots. And also the bit where the person who was rapes finds out who really raped her and hunts him across half of China and kills him. Which probably won't happen with an "adorable" rapist.) It's ok, my backlog of shows to watch is enormous as it is.
4. Kevin Kostner's comments on racism may not be as blatantly horrific as Kevin Sorbo's, but maybe Hollywood needs to make a rule about past-their-professional-prime actors named Kevin aren't allowed to talk about race in public without someone there to kick them in the shin when they go wrong.
5. I started watching the Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic anime on Netflix a couple weeks ago out of boredom, and really enjoyed it. It's a shounen adventure series very, very loosely based on 1001 Nights (loosely=It uses some names and the settings sometimes look vaguely right). The main characters are Aladdin, a child magician, Ali Baba, a wanderer with A Secret Angsty Past, and Morgianna, a former slave girl with super strength and speed. It does a better job than a lot of shounen with the grander scope of things and handling a coming war between three major countries. Unfortunately, season 2, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic splits up the 3 main characters and separates them from their other friends. Ali Baba and Morgianna are MIA for most of the season (Morgianna is considerably more MIA that Ali Baba, or course...) and most of it is Aladdin learning more about magic in another country. Unfortunately, while I like Aladdin, he's way, way less interesting than Morgianna and Ali Baba (and the other supporting characters who are also mostly MIA), and the 2 friends he makes are nice and all, but the actual kingdom is BORING, as is the characters who (as of ep 20, where I am) appears to be the main antagonist. I mean, I'm still enjoying it, just a lot less than the first season, and hoping that if there's a third season, it'll be better. There are some events that are making things more interesting going on, but it's in conjunction with my caring even less about the magic kingdom and being more annoyed by the antagonist.
6. Madame Secretary is on hiatus, but at least it was given a full season. Maybe State of Affairs will seem less horrible when I'm not also watching a far superior female-lead political thriller show? (I mean Madam Secretary's politics and conspiracy plot are just as awful, but the show itself is much better written, as are the characters and their relationships.
7. I've been reading "cozy mysteries" lately, and I'd really like to know how a genre about multiple murders in a small town over a relatively brief period of time not only came to be called "cozy," but also gained a reputation for being comfort reading. I mean, they are comfort reading, and I should write up my thoughts about why some time, but you have to admit, it's a bit odd. (I suspect Agatha Christie and Rex Stout having had dozens and dozens of such books consistently in print for decades contributes some there. I mean, not just them, but they're the big ones that immediately spring to mind.
8. Taraji Henson's new series starts soon! I deliberately have not watched the preview for Empire, but based on what I've read, I'm hoping that her character is on an epic revenge quest and steal her ex-husband's music empire. *hopes*
9. I watched the pilot of The Librarians (or rather, the first 2 episodes, which were aired together because networks don't like 2 hours pilots anymore and air episodes together and confuse everyone about episode numbering). It was entertaining. Christian Kane looked very confused every time he didn't beat up 10 guys at once and Noah Wylie looked very tired thanks to his day job of fighting off alien invasions (though I'm sure he's happy that he has this lined up if it lasts, since Falling Skies's next season will be the last) And Rebecca Romjin made "WTF?" faces a lot. And, I mean, of course Matt Frewer and John Larroquette are running around being...well, themselves. It VERY much felt like a pilot for a series based on a franchise most people forgot exists, and as others have noted, it seems to want to appeal to Warehouse 13 fans, so it was a bit...off, but I'll watch more.
10. Star Wars: Rebels is on midseason hiatus, and I'm not sure who else is watching, but a few comments:
( spoilery )
Anyway, I typed this up a couple days ago and hadn't gotten around to posting, so I'll post it now before collapsing again.
1. Flight Rising is having another open registration window next Monday. I guess it's officially a monthly thing now. As always, I will be giving dragons to friends who join, though possibly not until later in the week, as site competitions this week might wipe me out of all dragons that aren't permanent residents in my lair.
2. Related, your pet dragons can now have PET ROBOTS. Though they were created for the highest difficulty level (so far) in the coliseum, but there are other ways to get them. But I repeat YOUR PET PIXEL DRAGONS CAN HAVE PET PIXEL ROBOTS.
3. The newest version of Return of the Condor Heroes is apparently as awful as one would expect a series advertising itself as choosing to make a rapist adorable to be. (I mean, the rape plot in ROCH has problems all over the place, but at least it doesn't think the rapist is sympathetic or likable or fassscinating, so it has that over quite a few rape plots. And also the bit where the person who was rapes finds out who really raped her and hunts him across half of China and kills him. Which probably won't happen with an "adorable" rapist.) It's ok, my backlog of shows to watch is enormous as it is.
4. Kevin Kostner's comments on racism may not be as blatantly horrific as Kevin Sorbo's, but maybe Hollywood needs to make a rule about past-their-professional-prime actors named Kevin aren't allowed to talk about race in public without someone there to kick them in the shin when they go wrong.
5. I started watching the Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic anime on Netflix a couple weeks ago out of boredom, and really enjoyed it. It's a shounen adventure series very, very loosely based on 1001 Nights (loosely=It uses some names and the settings sometimes look vaguely right). The main characters are Aladdin, a child magician, Ali Baba, a wanderer with A Secret Angsty Past, and Morgianna, a former slave girl with super strength and speed. It does a better job than a lot of shounen with the grander scope of things and handling a coming war between three major countries. Unfortunately, season 2, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic splits up the 3 main characters and separates them from their other friends. Ali Baba and Morgianna are MIA for most of the season (Morgianna is considerably more MIA that Ali Baba, or course...) and most of it is Aladdin learning more about magic in another country. Unfortunately, while I like Aladdin, he's way, way less interesting than Morgianna and Ali Baba (and the other supporting characters who are also mostly MIA), and the 2 friends he makes are nice and all, but the actual kingdom is BORING, as is the characters who (as of ep 20, where I am) appears to be the main antagonist. I mean, I'm still enjoying it, just a lot less than the first season, and hoping that if there's a third season, it'll be better. There are some events that are making things more interesting going on, but it's in conjunction with my caring even less about the magic kingdom and being more annoyed by the antagonist.
6. Madame Secretary is on hiatus, but at least it was given a full season. Maybe State of Affairs will seem less horrible when I'm not also watching a far superior female-lead political thriller show? (I mean Madam Secretary's politics and conspiracy plot are just as awful, but the show itself is much better written, as are the characters and their relationships.
7. I've been reading "cozy mysteries" lately, and I'd really like to know how a genre about multiple murders in a small town over a relatively brief period of time not only came to be called "cozy," but also gained a reputation for being comfort reading. I mean, they are comfort reading, and I should write up my thoughts about why some time, but you have to admit, it's a bit odd. (I suspect Agatha Christie and Rex Stout having had dozens and dozens of such books consistently in print for decades contributes some there. I mean, not just them, but they're the big ones that immediately spring to mind.
8. Taraji Henson's new series starts soon! I deliberately have not watched the preview for Empire, but based on what I've read, I'm hoping that her character is on an epic revenge quest and steal her ex-husband's music empire. *hopes*
9. I watched the pilot of The Librarians (or rather, the first 2 episodes, which were aired together because networks don't like 2 hours pilots anymore and air episodes together and confuse everyone about episode numbering). It was entertaining. Christian Kane looked very confused every time he didn't beat up 10 guys at once and Noah Wylie looked very tired thanks to his day job of fighting off alien invasions (though I'm sure he's happy that he has this lined up if it lasts, since Falling Skies's next season will be the last) And Rebecca Romjin made "WTF?" faces a lot. And, I mean, of course Matt Frewer and John Larroquette are running around being...well, themselves. It VERY much felt like a pilot for a series based on a franchise most people forgot exists, and as others have noted, it seems to want to appeal to Warehouse 13 fans, so it was a bit...off, but I'll watch more.
10. Star Wars: Rebels is on midseason hiatus, and I'm not sure who else is watching, but a few comments:
( spoilery )
