sprocket | Entries tagged with tv

I lost a long post about recent media, here's the reconstructed version.

- Finished Arcane S2. Arcane is much better when you are stupid with illness, when I can admire how pretty it is, but do not have the mental capacity to question why the Jinx-and-Vi relationship is getting revisited, or why Caitlin is so Caitlin, or what game mechanism is driving the Vander stuff. Kudos to the show for making Viktor and Jayce the most important relationship in each other's lives in a way that will drive the fandom crazy.

- Finished WoT S3. All of S3 was firing on all cylinders, A+ will rewatch. Since we're not getting S4 and the *finn were introduced in 3x10, clearly the *finn will be involved in correcting anything I want fixed in the state of the world at the end of the season.

- Marathoned The Pitt. It's probably better if you don't do that, because by midway through ep 11 (5 - 6 pm) I had maxed out on the choice to compress untold ER freak incidents and personnel drama into one day. Note there were 4 eps to go.

- Marathoned Andor S2 all in one Saturday. As a prequel to a prequel, Andor had two paths it could go: be terrible or be amazing. S2, like S1 and Rogue One, went with "amazing," other than one plot / story decision which I found incredibly stupid, but it was stupid in the tradition of Star Wars. ( spoilers. )

( Meanwhile in Romances of Andor (tm)... )

- Murderbot 1x01 - 1x08. I have exactly one requirement for the Murderbot show: money must flow to Martha Wells. If viewers find the show resonates with them, that's gravy.

With that in mind, I think the writers or showrunners (or both) are more invested in PresAux naivete and flaws than I am. They're also more interested in Gurathin. It's not hard for me to find stories about emotionally stunted emo male-identifing types. It would be more interesting to me if the show brought that interest in creating deeper background and character arcs to some of my book favorites (Mensah, Pin-Lee, Bharadwaj). My mild annoyance that we're doing this again runs parallel to appreciating that David Dastmalchian seems to be leaning into Gurathin's awkwardness and anti-charisma as hard as he can. Which is why I want every other character to get that sort of writer's room investment.

Ratthi is perfect. No notes.

Murderbot the character is an A+ rendition. Exactly the one in my head? Nope. Based on Alexander Skarsgård's rendition of Murderbot's internal monologue, do I want to learn if he has any interest in recording audiobooks? Heck yes, I bet he'd do good voices.

I am also torn between the cameos in Sanctuary Moon clips, which are awesome, and how cool it would be to see the primary / secondary actors in roles cast against type in Murderbot's media clips. We need more seasons, so I can have both (and money can keep making its way to Martha Wells) ~~and we can start stunt-casting actors who previously appeared on The Expanse for kicks~~.

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.

Me: okay, I have a work week which isn't so bad, then PTO.
Immune system: no, you have two weeks with no hard commitments. It's covid time.

While embracing my status as a virus battle ground, I watched:
- The Last of Us: "wow, Tess really reminds me of Olivia." Yes, that would be thanks to Anna Torv playing Tess. Acceptable alt-pandemic viewing, if one forgives the selective grasp on antibiotics and antifungals. If you take the show on its own premise, it's acceptable.
- due South: s1+ rewatch for Reasons.
- Harold and Maude: 1971 movie, suicidal 20 year old boy falls for 79 year old manic pixie dream girl. Selections filmed in San Francisco. Apparently was a cult classic?
- Nimona: 2023 movie, trans allegories abound.
- Dune 2: 2024 movie featuring swathes of my least favorite part of Dune, the banal evil of the Harkonnens. Expected it to end before the battle of Arrakeen, it didn't. Chani gets 90% of the respect I have to allocate to the people in this movie.

I also have been watching (and rewatching) The Expanse, because I am a known sucker for stuff in space with multi-episode arcs. Just assume I'm scribbling Venn diagrams of Expanse tropes and Babylon 5 tropes in the background.

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.

( Gorgeous animation and expensive soundtrack skinned over a complex yet predictable plot. )

Jayce is boring.

Viktor, Mel Medara, Vi, and Ekko are not boring.

Never played the game, unlikely to start now, because my gameplay stats run toward laughable, but will probably watch the second and third drops when Netflix puts them up. Assuming, with the writer's strike on, they go forward on time.

A+ would watch again, especially now that I know who all these people are.

( Spoiler crackfic idea. )

My pandemic viewing has been Guardian, heavily pimped by

glymr. C-drama deeply involved in the Dashing Roguish Police Chief and the Humble University Professor With A Secret... past? Identity? Entire other life? Which becomes increasingly central to the narrative. Also, there's supernatural powers. The final plot arc and conclusion are a hot mess, but the "spot the trope" action is strong all the way through the series.

I tried to watch The Witcher. I noped out before the end of the first episode. Protagonist's manly stoic angst isn't doing it for me. Some city getting overrun by its enemies isn't doing it for me. If you can't make me care about the tearful parting of the Stern Queen and her granddaughter, this show is not for me.

After much nudging, I've finally gotten started on Nirvana in Fire, a historical C-drama about Imperial Palace plotting. At least, it's all been Imperial Palace plotting so far. And counter-plots. And spur-of-the-moment use of others' plots. And Mei Changsu sort of poking at bloated corruption schemes to see how they explode, so he can turn that into more plotting. Frank "wheels within wheels" Herbert would love this.

My pandemic reading has been a heap of Transformers fic. I wish I had a bit of shame left, but nope, it's just "Barbarian AU, but city!mech!Breakdown accidentally kidnaps barbarian!Knock Out" (sidebar: TF and race issues, wow they're there) and "maybe it's time to reread "Victory Condition", oh, do I have friends I can inflict this on?" and "OKAY FINE maybe I will reread The Brave Shall Heed the Call" and "okay, this 'protagonist crushes on Optimus Prime is a Bit Much, but this one is Just Right," with the occasional Hot Rod being... Hot Rod. *facepalm*

I hope everyone's people are well; and if less than well, are getting the care and support they and you need.

I am fortunate that me and mine have so far dodged the coronavirus bullet.

If you're so moved, let me know how you're doing!

As one does, I scheduled a trip to DC to overlap Capclave, where Martha Wells and Robert Sawyer were guests of honor. Also I had several opportunities to Have Feelings about this year's Hugos at people, as one does.

Other highlights:

1.)

norabombay has spent years trying to suck me into Legends of Tomorrow. Something something DCU, something time-travel, muffled noises about No Really This One Brings The Gay, Really.

Martha Wells during a panel: "...that episode with that guy who was in Lord of the Rings... he played Denethor..."

Me: that is JOHN NOBLE and I am so there.

2.) The hotel staff was not shy about serving mixed drinks that, so help me, were alcohol with some juice in for color.

3.) Getting to catch up with various local folks I have not seen in some time.

There's now proof that if you say "multiverse" I really will watch absolutely anything.

( Never did I think I would say this, but this is a show that would benefit from some characters dropping acid. )

And... I... kind... of... want a Frink-and-Childan noir-ish codependent snippy backbiting forger-and-fence relationship. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in San Francisco.

Frank: You said you sold it for 100,000.
Robert: I did. I did! You got your share.
Frank: *Holds up newspaper* Says in the paper they donated the piece to a museum. Valuation was one hundred *twenty* thousand.
Robert: ...Frank. I... you don't know the value of your work.
Frank: I know you owe me another 12,000 yen.

At some point it comes out that Frank is churning out fakes to fund the resistance, as part of the grand gesture to the Japanese occupation that killed his sister and her kids. Robert's horror at working with an accused Jew (well, Robert would say something less polite). Robert may or may not be slammed against a wall by now. Ahem. Do I trust Frank to do the smart thing, or the self-destructive thing? Ah ha ha did you watch S1.

My fannish energy has been diverted into keeping up at work, which has involved all but literal running between work stations. Instead of making fannish things, I've been sucking down a steady diet of Star Wars fic, Hamilton, and TV, and occasionally reviewing professional and technical basics.

I skipped Sherlock for five years, but this week I broke down and watched "A Study in Pink". There's the occasional clever bit, but wow. Sherlock the TV show exists in an uneasy tension between yearning for Victorian!Sherlock verging on fetish and the awareness the show is set in a modern London. If not quite our London. There's some awkwardness about Teh Gay that... explains a bit about some of the more extreme fan theories. The mystery didn't grab me, and as an origin story, well, I can see what the writers tried to do with Sherlock deducing Watson shot the perp, but by that point I didn't care.

Apparently it gets a little better in other episodes, but then it gets worse, and then there's the holiday special or something. Drugs and Victorian London are involved? Anyway, this isn't high on my to-watch list.

Fannish bestie E. has made the point more than once that Joan sets boundaries and models responsible behavior with her Sherlock, where John and Sherlock enable each other. Now I see it myself.

Desire to cross Sherlock with anything: zilch.

I have also mainlined the first season of Jane the Virgin. It's dancing on the edge of self-aware silliness and just plain silly in a fun brightly colored palette. Some of the romantic plots I could take or leave, and the mystery plot running alongside the Jane plot is Byzantine and so improbable it borders on parody. But I sort of adore Xiomara and Rogelio as the Papagena and Papageno of the show. It's also fun to see the show's dips into seriousness, like the drama around Alba's immigration status.

Jane the Virgin is geographically incompatible with most of my go-to fandoms, but several of those fandoms also have travel options. There's probably a ridiculous Fringe crossover if you hit the comedic element just right. Okay, I just want the look on Olivia's face when Jane tries to explain her life in a nutshell, as related to whatever handwavey case of the week brings Team Fringe into Jane's orbit.

I've also mainlined Steven Universe, which is an adorable kid's short series with occasional narrowly averted destruction of the Earth. Watching SU is like eating potato chips: you say, "oh, one episode is ten minutes, I will watch an ep and then do the thing," and five episodes later the thing is still not done, though the bag of potato chips is definitively finished.

In a tone shift, I salted the SU marathon with the second season of Orange is the New Black.

What should I watch next?

Also, what books are people looking forward to in 2016?