various TV stuffs
1. 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.