Sprocket

Turning into a semi-annual tradition, the TV and movie marathons when I Am Not That Sick, I'm Just Too Lazy To Get Off This Couch, Really. Usually followed by a nap.

The Marvels: "what if we make a movie focusing on three women, two of them women of color, but we wrote a plot exactly like every other Marvel movie?" sneezes into hundredth kleenex

Damsel: "what if we made a movie inverting a bunch of tropes, and cast Shoreh Aghdashloo as the dragon voice actor, but we used the Netflix plot formula instead of creativity?" Needed another editing pass to clean up the pacing. Shoreh Aghdashloo was magnificent. sneezes into five hundredth kleenex

Mad Max: Fury Road: "I'm just going to rewatch the night sniping scene, now that I'm cranky about pacing and editing, to see if Fury Road holds up." The night sniping scene does in fact hold up, and I stayed up rewatched the entire movie despite best intentions. The entire movie holds up. A+ will watch on many future occasions.sneezes into even more kleenex

Arcane S2, 2x01 - 2x04: I don't care about any of these people, I'm just here for the outrageously pretty animation and soundtrack work. This is. So. Pretty. sneezes into thousandth kleenex

Wheel of Time S3, 3x01 - 3x05: it's as if someone on the internet said "we are Disappointed there are so many lesbians," and the writing room heard, "you want more lesbians? There's not enough gay love? Or poly? COMING RIGHT UP. Do we have to slide men marrying men into the Rhuidean flashback? Maybe, maybe not... let's do it."

As expected, Shoreh Aghdashloo is killing it as Elaida. I want a redemption arc, or at least the "she's wrong about a lot of stuff but has some points, even if she's making the points all wrong" arc I know is not supported by book canon. Heck, I'd take a really fabulous death scene over book canon. I don't know that I care about book canon all that much, honestly.

Well this has only been sitting in the notes for... ahem.

Transformers: Earthspark: you know, I think the kids are going to be all right.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: literally no one is watching this for Reasons of Quality. We're watching it because it's new canon to bend to our wills.

Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse: we are all watching this for reasons of quality.

Interstellar: leaving aside the science quibbles, I would like this movie much more if Cooper or whatshisname the old scientist guy were genderflipped. It takes away a bit of my irritation with the scene where Murphy dismisses her honors for a lifetime of hard work on space travel as "only because I had your help, dad!" It didn't feel like Team Science, it felt like misattribution of credit. Also, I dislike Spielberg's the Spielberg-like manipulation of my feelings. IT'S SAD I GET IT OKAY. ANNE HATHAWAY SHOULD BE THE PARENT, NOT MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY. EVEN IF MCCONAUGHEY GIVES ME CONTACT FEELS.

Instead I've been watching The Good Wife, which for many years I avoided because of the title. My mistake! It's political maneuvering, with shades of gray, but unlike House of Cards, I'm invested in the characters.

( Blithering about characters, up to about S4. )

I kind of want to do Five People Alicia Florrick Didn't Sleep With (But Perhaps Should Have), but I also... don't? Because more sex doesn't actually solve any of Alicia's problems. What might solve some of Alicia's problems is a social structure that lets her have her political husband and her handsome if feckless lawyer boyfriend on the side, but it doesn't work that way, does it.

It would also be a lot of fun if there were a West Wing crossover, because CJ and Diane would slay me.

It was always doomed to failure, but I was going to avoid investment in the new Star Wars movie as long as possible. Really. I'm still a little bitter about Star Trek: Into Darkness. A little. Okay, more than a little.

However. If there was a franchise Abrams was born to direct, it's Star Wars. Star Wars has all the things Abrams tried to cram into Star Trek that didn't fit with that franchise. And Olivia Dunham basically is a Jedi Knight.

And then someone crossed the steams. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote cantina music for The Force Awakens.

That's it, there goes my detachment. And also Saturday afternoon.

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Plot bunnies, free to good home:

For reasons which were rapidly becoming clear, aliens had kidnapped Philip Broyles. Broyles is an Anaander Mianaai! Fringe/Imperial Radch, crackfic, with a suspicious trace of Jupiter Ascending. If memorial pins are made, Walter's is an enameled white tulip.

Steven Universe / Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin goes to the beach (under protest). Calvin, Steven, Connie, Hobbes and Lion have an adventure. Calvin admits the beach might not be so bad.

It has come to my attention there is at least one Peter Chen movie where the compromised and conflicted lawman allies with the reformed convict, with bonus faked deaths and proclaiming, "and after your fake death I will bring you to justice (though I may have mixed feelings because of my own dark past)."

This might be called relevant to my interests, yes?

A most excellent fangirl Saturday night: Sherlock Holmes (damn, Jude Law, you nearly out-hotted RDJ! How did that happen?) and The Cherryh Odyssey. SH '09 is definitely not your mother's Holmes, but it entertained me for two hours, and I would not be adverse to watching a sequel