if you find yourself lost, dig
Today's poem:
Elsewhere, Mon Amour
by Nick Flynn
Leaning from the platform, waiting for a glimmer
to braid the rails
the eyes of the action hero cut from the poster
all that concrete pressing down
A fine edge gleams around your body
as if it could be contained
The way each finger is licked, dipped in &
rubbed across the gums
until the teeth go away
Even my hands kiss you
A night broken down into grains
If you find yourself lost, dig
a cave in the snow, quickly
you need shelter against the night
A candle could keep you alive
the engine of your lungs
will heat the air around you, someone will
miss you, they will send out dogs
You must be somewhere, right?
***
So the main reason I only watched two episodes of Daredevil this weekend was that I was finishing up The 100. Thank you to everyone who kept saying how good this show is, because that's what made me decide to watch it. If you haven't been convinced yet, let me add my voice to theirs and tell you that you should definitely watch it.
Not only does it have a number of amazing and varied female characters main, recurring, and tertiary (♥INDRA♥), it avoids the 'typical' CW love triangle nonsense, and, most importantly, it follows through on things. If someone makes a terrible decision - and basically everyone on this show has made some terrible decisions, frequently because no better choice was available - the consequences of that decision are played out, to what is usually an emotionally devastating conclusion. It has a really compelling narrative momentum (with a high HSQ) that reminds me of the first season and a half of BSG (plus the miniseries), and tackles some of the same subjects - what makes us human? does humanity deserve to survive? can we avoid making the same mistakes over and over again? - and themes - war, torture, colonialism, genocide, survival, and the exigencies of politics and leadership. and it does it in interesting, sometimes surprising ways.
The acting ranges from okay (some of the kids are not great) to excellent (say what you will about Isaiah Washington, and I have, but good lord, the man can act), and the writing can sometimes be clunky (and sometimes the writers skip over some steps you might wish they hadn't in order to get some characters where they're going, but overall I really like how quickly they burn through plot), but overall, it's entertaining, thought-provoking, and, on occasion, emotionally devastating.
If you've seen both seasons, you should read
coffeeandink's post from yesterday, looking at a particular trope the show plays around with (and she also links to
marina's posts on the show).
I don't really have anything that thoughtful to say, so I'm just going to talk about some of the characters.
Clarke Griffin: Clarke is our main/POV character and she takes a central place in the narrative, one that is usually occupied by a man (or in the case of a YA show/book, a teenage boy), and a lot of the show is about how she deals (and doesn't) with the terrible things that not only happen to her, but which she's chosen to do. Holy crap, I don't know how she recovers from committing genocide against the people of Mount Weather. Sure, Bellamy offers her forgiveness (and how is he going to live with it? He agreed to share the burden, his hand was on the lever too, but I don't know), but she's going to have to live with what she did to save her people. (Though what the hell is she planning to do as she wanders off into self-imposed exile - she has no weapons and no food and I'm pretty sure the Grounders won't be happy to see her/willing to feed her.) I love Clarke but I don't always like her, if that makes sense. I do love how she's like a shark, always trying to move forward, because if she stops, if she thinks about the things she's done, it'll kill her.
Bellamy Blake: I did not like Bellamy much at all in most of season 1 (which, considering my love of siblings who would do anything for each other, is odd, but there it is). He's definitely a short-term thinker and he makes terrible decisions. He's very good at adapting to situations on the fly, but he was not particularly good at being in charge ("do what you want" is not really a great way to run a civilization, which he learned, and also Murphy. I'm holding Murphy against all of them, but I guess he serves a function, since they do some interesting things with him in s2). But once he and Clarke reluctantly team up, they make for really excellent partners. Also, the actor reminds me of Keanu Reeves, so I guess it was inevitable I'd warm to him eventually. His infiltration of Mt. Weather was so great.
Octavia Blake: I like Octavia a lot, for the same reasons Indra chooses to train her - she gets knocked down but she doesn't stay down. I like that they could have made Octavia a rival for Clarke in terms of power or whatever, but instead, she goes her own way (I didn't love how separate her storylines were in the first season, but they did end up tying back into the main narrative).
Lincoln: I like Lincoln (named after the Lincoln memorial where his people go to settle disputes?), that he has the soul of an artist, that he was willing to help Clarke negotiate a truce with Anya (♥ANYA♥), that people keep trying to turn him into a monster and he keeps fighting back and clinging to his humanity. (though the question the show asks repeatedly is, aren't we all monsters? isn't that what humanity is?)
Raven Reyes: FAVORITE. Snarky genius mechanic who is brave and vulnerable and comes through in the clutch. (I was SO UPSET on her behalf when blonde military lady shot down her signal boosting balloon!) Gosh, I love Raven.
Finn: does he have a last name? I don't even know. In the first season, I liked Finn way more than most people seem to, mostly because he seemed like a realistic teenage slacker dude, one who looked at the situation on the ground and wanted to negotiate peace. In the second season, he takes a much darker (and not necessarily in character) turn, which I'm not sure was set up well enough (I mean, MURPHY is the voice of reason? What?) but which has consequences that are AMAZING. I mean, I still wish Clarke had agreed to hand him over in the first place, because there's no way he comes back from massacring a village, but having her try everything to save him and then be the one to kill him was GREAT. (also great, the way she looked at the watch when he handed it back to her. Jesus.) I mean, it's no Buffy kills Angel in Becoming 2, because I never thought Clarke had those kinds of deeper feelings for him, but it was still affecting, mostly because of the impact it has on Clarke, who just really needs a hug. And I love the parallel with her mother, who sacrifices her father (for not nearly as good reasons) and then has to live with the consequences. I especially love that even with everything about him between them, Raven and Clarke still work together and depend on each other.
John Murphy: I'm still pretty sure he needs to die, but teaming him up with Jaha and sending them off into the desert was a really smart decision, I think. He's the skeptic, the realist, to Jaha's apparent visionary (though Jaha is certainly pragmatic enough to send 100 kids down to the surface, probably to their deaths, or kill 300 people to make oxygen last longer on the ark, or toss his own man overboard when being attacked by THE KRAKEN [to be honest, I kind of expected a comment about Jonah there]), and they play off against each other well.
Lexa: I was totally not expecting that betrayal at the end! Holy crap! I was totally shipping it, too! Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal! I also really like how they fake out Jaha and Kane with her while they're prisoners, because they weren't expecting a teenage girl to be the commander (and neither was I; I knew that Clarke kissed a girl, and I knew her name was Lexa, but until the reveal, I didn't know she was the Commander of the Grounders).
I'm sure I could say more, but I've been writing this post for an hour and I have work to do! Oh, one last thing, I have no real strong feelings about Jasper either way, but that actor is totally my fancast for Noah Czerny now.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/741245.html.
people have commented there.
Elsewhere, Mon Amour
by Nick Flynn
Leaning from the platform, waiting for a glimmer
to braid the rails
the eyes of the action hero cut from the poster
all that concrete pressing down
A fine edge gleams around your body
as if it could be contained
The way each finger is licked, dipped in &
rubbed across the gums
until the teeth go away
Even my hands kiss you
A night broken down into grains
If you find yourself lost, dig
a cave in the snow, quickly
you need shelter against the night
A candle could keep you alive
the engine of your lungs
will heat the air around you, someone will
miss you, they will send out dogs
You must be somewhere, right?
***
So the main reason I only watched two episodes of Daredevil this weekend was that I was finishing up The 100. Thank you to everyone who kept saying how good this show is, because that's what made me decide to watch it. If you haven't been convinced yet, let me add my voice to theirs and tell you that you should definitely watch it.
Not only does it have a number of amazing and varied female characters main, recurring, and tertiary (♥INDRA♥), it avoids the 'typical' CW love triangle nonsense, and, most importantly, it follows through on things. If someone makes a terrible decision - and basically everyone on this show has made some terrible decisions, frequently because no better choice was available - the consequences of that decision are played out, to what is usually an emotionally devastating conclusion. It has a really compelling narrative momentum (with a high HSQ) that reminds me of the first season and a half of BSG (plus the miniseries), and tackles some of the same subjects - what makes us human? does humanity deserve to survive? can we avoid making the same mistakes over and over again? - and themes - war, torture, colonialism, genocide, survival, and the exigencies of politics and leadership. and it does it in interesting, sometimes surprising ways.
The acting ranges from okay (some of the kids are not great) to excellent (say what you will about Isaiah Washington, and I have, but good lord, the man can act), and the writing can sometimes be clunky (and sometimes the writers skip over some steps you might wish they hadn't in order to get some characters where they're going, but overall I really like how quickly they burn through plot), but overall, it's entertaining, thought-provoking, and, on occasion, emotionally devastating.
If you've seen both seasons, you should read
coffeeandink's post from yesterday, looking at a particular trope the show plays around with (and she also links to
marina's posts on the show).
I don't really have anything that thoughtful to say, so I'm just going to talk about some of the characters.
Clarke Griffin: Clarke is our main/POV character and she takes a central place in the narrative, one that is usually occupied by a man (or in the case of a YA show/book, a teenage boy), and a lot of the show is about how she deals (and doesn't) with the terrible things that not only happen to her, but which she's chosen to do. Holy crap, I don't know how she recovers from committing genocide against the people of Mount Weather. Sure, Bellamy offers her forgiveness (and how is he going to live with it? He agreed to share the burden, his hand was on the lever too, but I don't know), but she's going to have to live with what she did to save her people. (Though what the hell is she planning to do as she wanders off into self-imposed exile - she has no weapons and no food and I'm pretty sure the Grounders won't be happy to see her/willing to feed her.) I love Clarke but I don't always like her, if that makes sense. I do love how she's like a shark, always trying to move forward, because if she stops, if she thinks about the things she's done, it'll kill her.
Bellamy Blake: I did not like Bellamy much at all in most of season 1 (which, considering my love of siblings who would do anything for each other, is odd, but there it is). He's definitely a short-term thinker and he makes terrible decisions. He's very good at adapting to situations on the fly, but he was not particularly good at being in charge ("do what you want" is not really a great way to run a civilization, which he learned, and also Murphy. I'm holding Murphy against all of them, but I guess he serves a function, since they do some interesting things with him in s2). But once he and Clarke reluctantly team up, they make for really excellent partners. Also, the actor reminds me of Keanu Reeves, so I guess it was inevitable I'd warm to him eventually. His infiltration of Mt. Weather was so great.
Octavia Blake: I like Octavia a lot, for the same reasons Indra chooses to train her - she gets knocked down but she doesn't stay down. I like that they could have made Octavia a rival for Clarke in terms of power or whatever, but instead, she goes her own way (I didn't love how separate her storylines were in the first season, but they did end up tying back into the main narrative).
Lincoln: I like Lincoln (named after the Lincoln memorial where his people go to settle disputes?), that he has the soul of an artist, that he was willing to help Clarke negotiate a truce with Anya (♥ANYA♥), that people keep trying to turn him into a monster and he keeps fighting back and clinging to his humanity. (though the question the show asks repeatedly is, aren't we all monsters? isn't that what humanity is?)
Raven Reyes: FAVORITE. Snarky genius mechanic who is brave and vulnerable and comes through in the clutch. (I was SO UPSET on her behalf when blonde military lady shot down her signal boosting balloon!) Gosh, I love Raven.
Finn: does he have a last name? I don't even know. In the first season, I liked Finn way more than most people seem to, mostly because he seemed like a realistic teenage slacker dude, one who looked at the situation on the ground and wanted to negotiate peace. In the second season, he takes a much darker (and not necessarily in character) turn, which I'm not sure was set up well enough (I mean, MURPHY is the voice of reason? What?) but which has consequences that are AMAZING. I mean, I still wish Clarke had agreed to hand him over in the first place, because there's no way he comes back from massacring a village, but having her try everything to save him and then be the one to kill him was GREAT. (also great, the way she looked at the watch when he handed it back to her. Jesus.) I mean, it's no Buffy kills Angel in Becoming 2, because I never thought Clarke had those kinds of deeper feelings for him, but it was still affecting, mostly because of the impact it has on Clarke, who just really needs a hug. And I love the parallel with her mother, who sacrifices her father (for not nearly as good reasons) and then has to live with the consequences. I especially love that even with everything about him between them, Raven and Clarke still work together and depend on each other.
John Murphy: I'm still pretty sure he needs to die, but teaming him up with Jaha and sending them off into the desert was a really smart decision, I think. He's the skeptic, the realist, to Jaha's apparent visionary (though Jaha is certainly pragmatic enough to send 100 kids down to the surface, probably to their deaths, or kill 300 people to make oxygen last longer on the ark, or toss his own man overboard when being attacked by THE KRAKEN [to be honest, I kind of expected a comment about Jonah there]), and they play off against each other well.
Lexa: I was totally not expecting that betrayal at the end! Holy crap! I was totally shipping it, too! Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal! I also really like how they fake out Jaha and Kane with her while they're prisoners, because they weren't expecting a teenage girl to be the commander (and neither was I; I knew that Clarke kissed a girl, and I knew her name was Lexa, but until the reveal, I didn't know she was the Commander of the Grounders).
I'm sure I could say more, but I've been writing this post for an hour and I have work to do! Oh, one last thing, I have no real strong feelings about Jasper either way, but that actor is totally my fancast for Noah Czerny now.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/741245.html.
people have commented there.