media whoring
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
1) I got the Walking Dead: Survival Instinct game on Tuesday. This is not a smart game, the graphics aren't so hot, and the plot is thin. It's sort of like Oregon Trail meets Dead Island. Honestly I am sort of getting to the point of being tired of zombie apocalypse everything, but I love the Walking Dead comics and the show and the game by Telltale was astoundingly good, so the completest in me had to get this. Plus Amazon was having a good sale on it, and really for $30 I'm more than happy to run around killing zombies while listening to Norman Reedus bitch about the experience. (honestly I wonder how many women got the game solely for the Normal Reedus experience). But all griping aside, the game is FUN. I feel like the last couple games I've played that were big titles (Assassin's Creed III, RE7, Black Ops 2) were more of are chore than fun. I sort of feel like this game epitomizes what is "wrong" with game (or movies or music or book) reviews, in that yeah if you compare it to more recent titles, this game is totally lacking in just about every department. BUT if you are a fan of The Walking Dead, you're going to like this game despite its flaws. The game was essentially marketed with the big selling point being that you get Daryl and Merle's backstory, which seems to be pissing reviewers off. HOWEVER if you are a fan of the whole franchise, learning their backstory actually -is- worthwhile since they aren't in the comics. So yeah, this game is far from perfect, but I think it's fun. Plus I think it's one of the only stealth games I've ever enjoyed (aside from Assassin's Creed multiplayer)
Girls, all I really want is GIRLS
2) Girls
I touched upon the fact that I have a love/hate relationship with the show Girls, and I was talking with a friend about it, which made me want to expound upon the show more. I think we're conditioned to like shows where people have the lives we want, they have the fancy jobs, they're King of the North, they have money, cars, Abbeys, looks, generally speaking we consume entertainment that shows us what we wish we had (with the exception of all the crime shows I guess, as I've never watched them so I have no idea what they offer up, I guess the thrill of the puzzle?) and it's a wonderful and comforting form of escapism.
Girls is just about the polar opposite of that. The first episode of the first season almost turned me off to the show as it seemed like it was a bunch of overly entitled bitches who were basically too dumb to live. The main character, Hannah, is slumpy, kinda gross, very selfish, and relatively ill equipped to deal with having graduated college. Her friends are all caught up in their own levels of self absorption or weird relationships, and the whole thing just seemed very obnoxious. I think it's also because a HUGE plot point of the first episode was Hannah, having graduated from college two years earlier, getting cut off by her parents, who were apparently entirely supporting her achieve her dream of being the voice of her generation. I think I assumed the entire show was going to follow the trajectory of this plucky young artist beating the odds after having been victimized by her parents, who OBVIOUSLY should be supporting her because OBVIOUSLY she's brilliant an awesome since she's the main character of the show. (to be fair, this is also how the show war marketed). I was entirely wrong.
The show, as it progresses, shows you how fucked up all these people are, and doesn't elevate them or their behavior onto a pedestal. At first I was watching the show, loathing Hannah thinking, "who the fuck writes a character like this? what sort of audience likes a character like this?" which slowly transitioned into "oh god, i'm like that sometimes, i was -totally- like that when i was 23" to the point where it's almost uncomfortable. then it slowly settles in that we're not supposed to like these women (or men). they're not living our dreams, this isn't Sex & the City, this is a bunch of 20-somethings caught up in the extended adolescence we now wallow through. None of them are inherently bad people but they also have no idea what they are doing, how to get where they want, are facing the fact that their generation is not going to surpass that of their parents, they've got shitty jobs, college loans, questionable relationships...and i think what makes it so painful to watch is that it's so fucking real.
like hannah makes me incredibly uncomfortable, although my parents didn't bankroll my life, i find a lot of her narcissistic bullshit to be entirely relateable. in the second season, she's dealing with mental illness spurred on by feeling overwhelmed by her responsibilities at her job coupled with a bad breakup, and at one point is talking to a friend and gives this beautiful speech about how when you're a child and you break something, your parents would shoo you away from the area while they cleaned things up and made everything safe, made everything okay again...but now there is no one to help, no one to clean up the mistakes, and she's afraid of cutting herself on the resultant glass. At first you hear this (and a lot of this is thanks to Dunham's delivery) you think "my god, this is so true and sad and poignant" and then you think "wtf kid, you're 24, get a goddamn dustpan and suck it up!" which is around the same time that the person she is talking to (or more likely at) says, "i cut myself on glass all the time", only his delivery isn't sorrowful, it's incredulous that she is so scared or that she -hasn't- cut herself on any proverbial glass yet.
it's a scathing look at how nerfed our existence is now, where we cannot cope with the simplest shit sometimes. hannah retreats into her own world where she swears all she wants is to feel EVERYTHING, and her best friend Jessa copes with things by running away, repeatedly. She goes off and has exotic and fun seeming adventures, but in the end she's just as broken as when she left. The things she is experiencing aren't changing her, they aren't fulfilling her, she's doing it solely for the escape and not the experience.
I also find the way sex is portrayed is really -real- and awkward and cumbersome. There are no gauzy fade aways or simultaneous orgasms. it's awkward and messy and at times downright dispassionate. (one character is so detached from her boyfriend that she starts suggesting that they have sex doggystyle, both to hasten his orgasm and to seemingly remove her from the majority of the experience. Hannah has a pseudo boyfriend where their sexual dynamic is somewhat denigrating, something which makes you uncomfortable until you realize that both characters are totally okay with that dynamic and in fact enjoy it. it's not that her boyfriend wants to make her feel fat/unloved/whatever, it's that he likes to get dirty, something that totally backfires on him when he's with another woman who finds his behavior appalling, after which he tries to adjust his behavior to please his partner (though honestly this is one of the few instances in the show that bothered me. his new lover is pretty direct about what she does and doesn't want, which is awesome really, however since she doesn't want the same things as Adam, it's sort of played of like she might be a bit of a shrew vs being someone who is as actualized in her sexuality as her it.)
so yeah, this is a show that i went from outright hating to absolutely adoring. i'm bummed that the season is over, but winter is coming so i'll have something to entertain myself with again very soon. and can i just say DAMNIT a couple people from the fire community that we know got to perform at the cast party the other night. i need to hone my skills (and also my body, which is a whole other post. maybe tomorrow)
1) I got the Walking Dead: Survival Instinct game on Tuesday. This is not a smart game, the graphics aren't so hot, and the plot is thin. It's sort of like Oregon Trail meets Dead Island. Honestly I am sort of getting to the point of being tired of zombie apocalypse everything, but I love the Walking Dead comics and the show and the game by Telltale was astoundingly good, so the completest in me had to get this. Plus Amazon was having a good sale on it, and really for $30 I'm more than happy to run around killing zombies while listening to Norman Reedus bitch about the experience. (honestly I wonder how many women got the game solely for the Normal Reedus experience). But all griping aside, the game is FUN. I feel like the last couple games I've played that were big titles (Assassin's Creed III, RE7, Black Ops 2) were more of are chore than fun. I sort of feel like this game epitomizes what is "wrong" with game (or movies or music or book) reviews, in that yeah if you compare it to more recent titles, this game is totally lacking in just about every department. BUT if you are a fan of The Walking Dead, you're going to like this game despite its flaws. The game was essentially marketed with the big selling point being that you get Daryl and Merle's backstory, which seems to be pissing reviewers off. HOWEVER if you are a fan of the whole franchise, learning their backstory actually -is- worthwhile since they aren't in the comics. So yeah, this game is far from perfect, but I think it's fun. Plus I think it's one of the only stealth games I've ever enjoyed (aside from Assassin's Creed multiplayer)
Girls, all I really want is GIRLS
2) Girls
I touched upon the fact that I have a love/hate relationship with the show Girls, and I was talking with a friend about it, which made me want to expound upon the show more. I think we're conditioned to like shows where people have the lives we want, they have the fancy jobs, they're King of the North, they have money, cars, Abbeys, looks, generally speaking we consume entertainment that shows us what we wish we had (with the exception of all the crime shows I guess, as I've never watched them so I have no idea what they offer up, I guess the thrill of the puzzle?) and it's a wonderful and comforting form of escapism.
Girls is just about the polar opposite of that. The first episode of the first season almost turned me off to the show as it seemed like it was a bunch of overly entitled bitches who were basically too dumb to live. The main character, Hannah, is slumpy, kinda gross, very selfish, and relatively ill equipped to deal with having graduated college. Her friends are all caught up in their own levels of self absorption or weird relationships, and the whole thing just seemed very obnoxious. I think it's also because a HUGE plot point of the first episode was Hannah, having graduated from college two years earlier, getting cut off by her parents, who were apparently entirely supporting her achieve her dream of being the voice of her generation. I think I assumed the entire show was going to follow the trajectory of this plucky young artist beating the odds after having been victimized by her parents, who OBVIOUSLY should be supporting her because OBVIOUSLY she's brilliant an awesome since she's the main character of the show. (to be fair, this is also how the show war marketed). I was entirely wrong.
The show, as it progresses, shows you how fucked up all these people are, and doesn't elevate them or their behavior onto a pedestal. At first I was watching the show, loathing Hannah thinking, "who the fuck writes a character like this? what sort of audience likes a character like this?" which slowly transitioned into "oh god, i'm like that sometimes, i was -totally- like that when i was 23" to the point where it's almost uncomfortable. then it slowly settles in that we're not supposed to like these women (or men). they're not living our dreams, this isn't Sex & the City, this is a bunch of 20-somethings caught up in the extended adolescence we now wallow through. None of them are inherently bad people but they also have no idea what they are doing, how to get where they want, are facing the fact that their generation is not going to surpass that of their parents, they've got shitty jobs, college loans, questionable relationships...and i think what makes it so painful to watch is that it's so fucking real.
like hannah makes me incredibly uncomfortable, although my parents didn't bankroll my life, i find a lot of her narcissistic bullshit to be entirely relateable. in the second season, she's dealing with mental illness spurred on by feeling overwhelmed by her responsibilities at her job coupled with a bad breakup, and at one point is talking to a friend and gives this beautiful speech about how when you're a child and you break something, your parents would shoo you away from the area while they cleaned things up and made everything safe, made everything okay again...but now there is no one to help, no one to clean up the mistakes, and she's afraid of cutting herself on the resultant glass. At first you hear this (and a lot of this is thanks to Dunham's delivery) you think "my god, this is so true and sad and poignant" and then you think "wtf kid, you're 24, get a goddamn dustpan and suck it up!" which is around the same time that the person she is talking to (or more likely at) says, "i cut myself on glass all the time", only his delivery isn't sorrowful, it's incredulous that she is so scared or that she -hasn't- cut herself on any proverbial glass yet.
it's a scathing look at how nerfed our existence is now, where we cannot cope with the simplest shit sometimes. hannah retreats into her own world where she swears all she wants is to feel EVERYTHING, and her best friend Jessa copes with things by running away, repeatedly. She goes off and has exotic and fun seeming adventures, but in the end she's just as broken as when she left. The things she is experiencing aren't changing her, they aren't fulfilling her, she's doing it solely for the escape and not the experience.
I also find the way sex is portrayed is really -real- and awkward and cumbersome. There are no gauzy fade aways or simultaneous orgasms. it's awkward and messy and at times downright dispassionate. (one character is so detached from her boyfriend that she starts suggesting that they have sex doggystyle, both to hasten his orgasm and to seemingly remove her from the majority of the experience. Hannah has a pseudo boyfriend where their sexual dynamic is somewhat denigrating, something which makes you uncomfortable until you realize that both characters are totally okay with that dynamic and in fact enjoy it. it's not that her boyfriend wants to make her feel fat/unloved/whatever, it's that he likes to get dirty, something that totally backfires on him when he's with another woman who finds his behavior appalling, after which he tries to adjust his behavior to please his partner (though honestly this is one of the few instances in the show that bothered me. his new lover is pretty direct about what she does and doesn't want, which is awesome really, however since she doesn't want the same things as Adam, it's sort of played of like she might be a bit of a shrew vs being someone who is as actualized in her sexuality as her it.)
so yeah, this is a show that i went from outright hating to absolutely adoring. i'm bummed that the season is over, but winter is coming so i'll have something to entertain myself with again very soon. and can i just say DAMNIT a couple people from the fire community that we know got to perform at the cast party the other night. i need to hone my skills (and also my body, which is a whole other post. maybe tomorrow)