Reviews of Stuff
In grad school, I have often found that my brain requires (disturbingly long) periods of inactivity in order to gear up for springing into action. It’s like letting dough “relax” before forming it into loaves. Except with me some times you get loaves - or academic papers- and sometimes you get short stories or songs of questionable musical merit or blog posts of dubious entertainment value. So the dough might be relaxing before being baked, or it might be relaxing before turning into The Blob and eating women who vacuum in high heels. You never know. So what does brain dough do while it relaxes? It tends to watch DVDs and read books. It’s opinionated. And it has recommendations.
Cracker (TV series, 1993, UK)
The premise: an abrasive psychology professor helps a dysfunctional Manchester CID solve crimes.
This is: a tour de force of acting and writing. Robbie Coltrane, Christopher Eccleston, Lorcan Cranitch and Geraldine Somerville are all amazing as the crime-fighting team, but more than any other crime drama I’ve seen, the villains steal the show. They are terrifying, and yet due to the profiling focus of the show and to the amazing quality of the actors who play the villains (Robert Carlyle and John Simm certainly stand out) the villains appear whole and comprehensible. You understand them, even when it makes your stomach turn. The quality of the show tails off at the end, but the early episodes are entirely worth your time - if you feel up to it.
Technical/artistic merit: It’s pretty much all about the technical and art value in this one. If it weren’t well done, why would I put myself through this repeated punch in the kidneys?
Irrealis quotient: Non-existent. This show is made of weird shit - the type you can find in the papers every morning.
Watch this when: you are steady, solid and feeling pretty good. Not when you’re really happy, since it would Ruin. Your. Day. but you should feel like you have an even keel in your head and solid feet beneath you when you watch this show. It is unsettling and potentially unsteadying, you should feel mentally prepared to bounce back.
After you watch this you will never: be able to hear the Liverpool F. C. song quite the same way.
Labyrinth (Film, 1986, US)
The premise: A girl must enter a labyrinth full of possibly malevolent muppets to recover her baby brother from David Bowie.
This is: several of my best quasi-nightmares made flesh and foam-rubber. I’ve seen this several times and only regret that I do not own it. I can’t actually describe it. I think it communicates directly with a part of my brain I don’t have access to while awake. I can’t describe why this is great. It’s like giving parts of my mind a massage.
Technical/artistic merit: Muppets ALWAYS get high technical marks.
Irrealis quotient: High. Very, very high. There’s maybe about fifteen minutes in the real world and then we are down (the rabbit hole) for the count.
Watch this when: whenever, really. But probably not when you’re on drugs. Muppets and drugs don’t mix.
After you watch this you will never: let me babysit your infants.
Thursday Next by Jasper Fford (Book Series, 2001, UK)
The premise: In an alternate reality (or several) a Special Ops officer named Thursday Next investigates crime and generally lives her weird life while jumping in and out of the fictional world.
This is: Mindbending and hilarious. Or Mindbendingly hilarious. Or reverse that. Or. Look. My mom is crazy about these and keeps quoting them and referencing them. These books are so good that they have inspired fandom in my MOM. Jasper Fford creates an alternate reality and does it the only right way. It’s a whole other existence with different rules - but there ARE rules. And he’s never afraid to get mired in the nitty-gritty of world creation, and he still never lets up the pace. If that’s not enough, Mrs. Tiggywinkle is in them. She’s kind of the police. No really. Read it.
Technical/artistic merit: It’s not high literature, but, boy does Fford know his way around a sentence. It’s “clever” in the British sense: it might be thumbing its nose at us all, but we’ll only put up a small fuss because we all know it’s right...
Irrealis quotient: High. The Crimean War lasts into the 1980s and the main character has a pet dodo. And that’s just in the books’ “reality.”
Read this when: whenever really, but particularly when you’re in one of those “middle” moods. Not when you’re so dark you don’t have the patience, and not when you’re so light you don’t have the patience for a book at all.
This goes double if: you are now or have ever been a librarian, bookstore clerk, English major or member of a very liberal church congregation.
Northern Exposure (TV series, 1990, US)
The premise: A small town in Alaska gets a new doctor from New York City. (The premise is really not the point here, people, it’s just a way to get us into town).
This is: utterly charming and quirky. The people in the town are all weird, but weird and believable at the same time. The dialog is funny, and the humor is almost always kind. It would be impossible to do justice to the characters in a short space, since they are not at all one dimensional, but to attempt to reduce them they are a doctor, a pilot, an aspiring Native film director, a secretary (who is extremely wise), an ex beauty pageant queen, a backwoodsman who has sworn off hunting, an astronaut/entrepreneur and an ex-con who is also the town’s only minister and radio DJ.
Technical/artistic merit: Um. It has nice scenery? It’s not a high production value show. You know what? Doesn’t matter. It’s well written and survives on its writing.
Irrealis quotient: Medium and erratic. Some episodes will go by without anything that seems even especially odd. Other episodes someone finds out the person they’re dating is secretly a bear, or the spirit of Federico Fellini possesses someone, so don’t get too comfortable.
Watch this when: you’re down. It will bring you back up. This show is upbeat without ever seeming fake - the patient doesn’t always make it, the marriage proposal isn’t always accepted, everything doesn’t always go back to the way it was before the episode began. It’s not that everything is perfect, but that overall it will be okay and the characters always have spirit and have each other.
If you also like: Due South, The Vicar of Dibley, Ballykissangel, and Sherman Alexie (yes that IS an odd combination of things. Thank you for noticing.)
Slings and Arrows (TV series, 2003, CA):
The premise: Helmed by a somewhat unstable artistic director who is helped (and hindered) by the ghost of the former artistic director, a Shakespeare Festival just tries to put on plays while the administrative staff run in circles attempting to get funding and cause internal political intrigue.
This is: my favorite comedy ever produced. Really, there aren’t many things I care to actually own the DVDs for (rather than Netflixing them). I own all three seasons. Mostly this show is carried by the strength of its characters. The writing is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen, the acting is what you’d expect from a TV show that is just stuffed full of really good Shakespearean veterans and the theatre scenes make me wish that I could see the plays in full, or act under Geoffrey Tennant’s mad tutelage.
Irrealis quotient: Low-medium. There is a ghost, and many of the plots are wildly (really really wildly) improbable. Overall, though, it’s relatively tame for this list.
Watch this when: you’re feeling maybe a little UNstable. It’s remarkably life-affirming for the imperfect, artistic and (as my godmother calls us) “mentally interesting” among us. Geoffrey’s mental instability is neither glossed over nor completely allowed to define the character, and that’s the way I like it.
This goes double if: you act or have any experience working for an arts organization.
Possession by A.S. Byatt (Book, 1990, UK)
The premise: Academics collaborate to investigate the lives of authors whose lives at times eerily mirror their own.
This is: just a really good novel. I found it compelling and awesome. It is absolutely a must read for academics in any field. If you’ve ever felt that when you work, you are connected to, shadowing or breathing in sync with the dead, with those who touched that paper, read that letter, asked that question before, then this. is. your. book.
Technical/artistic merit: I could see the gardens, smell the mildew, touch the wallpaper and the hear the bicycle wheels squeaking. Even though I was reading it on a train.
Irrealis quotient: Low. It’s improbable and eery. It’s also, in many ways a fairy tale (although it calls itself a romance, and these are certainly related concepts). It’s murky and shimmering and takes trips into people’s heads, but it never completely violates the rules of our accepted world.
Read this when: you are ready to sink your teeth in - and you don’t have a huge academic mystery of your own on your desk.
After you read this you will: either remember why you believe in love, but forget why you wanted to be an academic, or remember why you wanted to be an academic, but forget why you believe in humanity.
Cracker (TV series, 1993, UK)
The premise: an abrasive psychology professor helps a dysfunctional Manchester CID solve crimes.
This is: a tour de force of acting and writing. Robbie Coltrane, Christopher Eccleston, Lorcan Cranitch and Geraldine Somerville are all amazing as the crime-fighting team, but more than any other crime drama I’ve seen, the villains steal the show. They are terrifying, and yet due to the profiling focus of the show and to the amazing quality of the actors who play the villains (Robert Carlyle and John Simm certainly stand out) the villains appear whole and comprehensible. You understand them, even when it makes your stomach turn. The quality of the show tails off at the end, but the early episodes are entirely worth your time - if you feel up to it.
Technical/artistic merit: It’s pretty much all about the technical and art value in this one. If it weren’t well done, why would I put myself through this repeated punch in the kidneys?
Irrealis quotient: Non-existent. This show is made of weird shit - the type you can find in the papers every morning.
Watch this when: you are steady, solid and feeling pretty good. Not when you’re really happy, since it would Ruin. Your. Day. but you should feel like you have an even keel in your head and solid feet beneath you when you watch this show. It is unsettling and potentially unsteadying, you should feel mentally prepared to bounce back.
After you watch this you will never: be able to hear the Liverpool F. C. song quite the same way.
Labyrinth (Film, 1986, US)
The premise: A girl must enter a labyrinth full of possibly malevolent muppets to recover her baby brother from David Bowie.
This is: several of my best quasi-nightmares made flesh and foam-rubber. I’ve seen this several times and only regret that I do not own it. I can’t actually describe it. I think it communicates directly with a part of my brain I don’t have access to while awake. I can’t describe why this is great. It’s like giving parts of my mind a massage.
Technical/artistic merit: Muppets ALWAYS get high technical marks.
Irrealis quotient: High. Very, very high. There’s maybe about fifteen minutes in the real world and then we are down (the rabbit hole) for the count.
Watch this when: whenever, really. But probably not when you’re on drugs. Muppets and drugs don’t mix.
After you watch this you will never: let me babysit your infants.
Thursday Next by Jasper Fford (Book Series, 2001, UK)
The premise: In an alternate reality (or several) a Special Ops officer named Thursday Next investigates crime and generally lives her weird life while jumping in and out of the fictional world.
This is: Mindbending and hilarious. Or Mindbendingly hilarious. Or reverse that. Or. Look. My mom is crazy about these and keeps quoting them and referencing them. These books are so good that they have inspired fandom in my MOM. Jasper Fford creates an alternate reality and does it the only right way. It’s a whole other existence with different rules - but there ARE rules. And he’s never afraid to get mired in the nitty-gritty of world creation, and he still never lets up the pace. If that’s not enough, Mrs. Tiggywinkle is in them. She’s kind of the police. No really. Read it.
Technical/artistic merit: It’s not high literature, but, boy does Fford know his way around a sentence. It’s “clever” in the British sense: it might be thumbing its nose at us all, but we’ll only put up a small fuss because we all know it’s right...
Irrealis quotient: High. The Crimean War lasts into the 1980s and the main character has a pet dodo. And that’s just in the books’ “reality.”
Read this when: whenever really, but particularly when you’re in one of those “middle” moods. Not when you’re so dark you don’t have the patience, and not when you’re so light you don’t have the patience for a book at all.
This goes double if: you are now or have ever been a librarian, bookstore clerk, English major or member of a very liberal church congregation.
Northern Exposure (TV series, 1990, US)
The premise: A small town in Alaska gets a new doctor from New York City. (The premise is really not the point here, people, it’s just a way to get us into town).
This is: utterly charming and quirky. The people in the town are all weird, but weird and believable at the same time. The dialog is funny, and the humor is almost always kind. It would be impossible to do justice to the characters in a short space, since they are not at all one dimensional, but to attempt to reduce them they are a doctor, a pilot, an aspiring Native film director, a secretary (who is extremely wise), an ex beauty pageant queen, a backwoodsman who has sworn off hunting, an astronaut/entrepreneur and an ex-con who is also the town’s only minister and radio DJ.
Technical/artistic merit: Um. It has nice scenery? It’s not a high production value show. You know what? Doesn’t matter. It’s well written and survives on its writing.
Irrealis quotient: Medium and erratic. Some episodes will go by without anything that seems even especially odd. Other episodes someone finds out the person they’re dating is secretly a bear, or the spirit of Federico Fellini possesses someone, so don’t get too comfortable.
Watch this when: you’re down. It will bring you back up. This show is upbeat without ever seeming fake - the patient doesn’t always make it, the marriage proposal isn’t always accepted, everything doesn’t always go back to the way it was before the episode began. It’s not that everything is perfect, but that overall it will be okay and the characters always have spirit and have each other.
If you also like: Due South, The Vicar of Dibley, Ballykissangel, and Sherman Alexie (yes that IS an odd combination of things. Thank you for noticing.)
Slings and Arrows (TV series, 2003, CA):
The premise: Helmed by a somewhat unstable artistic director who is helped (and hindered) by the ghost of the former artistic director, a Shakespeare Festival just tries to put on plays while the administrative staff run in circles attempting to get funding and cause internal political intrigue.
This is: my favorite comedy ever produced. Really, there aren’t many things I care to actually own the DVDs for (rather than Netflixing them). I own all three seasons. Mostly this show is carried by the strength of its characters. The writing is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen, the acting is what you’d expect from a TV show that is just stuffed full of really good Shakespearean veterans and the theatre scenes make me wish that I could see the plays in full, or act under Geoffrey Tennant’s mad tutelage.
Irrealis quotient: Low-medium. There is a ghost, and many of the plots are wildly (really really wildly) improbable. Overall, though, it’s relatively tame for this list.
Watch this when: you’re feeling maybe a little UNstable. It’s remarkably life-affirming for the imperfect, artistic and (as my godmother calls us) “mentally interesting” among us. Geoffrey’s mental instability is neither glossed over nor completely allowed to define the character, and that’s the way I like it.
This goes double if: you act or have any experience working for an arts organization.
Possession by A.S. Byatt (Book, 1990, UK)
The premise: Academics collaborate to investigate the lives of authors whose lives at times eerily mirror their own.
This is: just a really good novel. I found it compelling and awesome. It is absolutely a must read for academics in any field. If you’ve ever felt that when you work, you are connected to, shadowing or breathing in sync with the dead, with those who touched that paper, read that letter, asked that question before, then this. is. your. book.
Technical/artistic merit: I could see the gardens, smell the mildew, touch the wallpaper and the hear the bicycle wheels squeaking. Even though I was reading it on a train.
Irrealis quotient: Low. It’s improbable and eery. It’s also, in many ways a fairy tale (although it calls itself a romance, and these are certainly related concepts). It’s murky and shimmering and takes trips into people’s heads, but it never completely violates the rules of our accepted world.
Read this when: you are ready to sink your teeth in - and you don’t have a huge academic mystery of your own on your desk.
After you read this you will: either remember why you believe in love, but forget why you wanted to be an academic, or remember why you wanted to be an academic, but forget why you believe in humanity.