you took it all gracefully on the chin
Lots of family stuff going on right now, my sister and my niece are both in the hospital (for different reasons), my dad is having surgery at the end of the month...it's a lot and I don't want to think about it.
So. TV and books!
The Flash: Enter Zoom
HOLY CRAP BARRY GOT HIS ASS KICKED BUT GOOD. So what's the over/under on Henry Allen being Zoom a la Robert Queen being The Hood on Earth-2? (And is he going to pop up in Star City to bother Ollie now? Actually, I don't care about him, but I wish they could get Moira back. They won't because Susanna Thompson told them no, but I miss Moira. And Walter. But mostly Moira.)
I'm so happy that Linda - both of them! - didn't die! And that Barry was smart enough to cushion her fall so she didn't break her neck when he caught her, like Gwen Stacy. (I feel like this was a very Spidey kind of story, though I guess recently Dick also got 'killed' and exposed on live tv, and Batman got his back broke by Bane in Knightfall (hopefully we'll get a better fill-in Flash than Jean-Paul Valley [I really don't like Jean-Paul Valley] and also the show will use a much better method to heal the injury than "Hang him from a rope" like in TDKR. Ugh that movie was the worst.))
There was a lot to like about this episode even before Zoom showed up, but man, I don't even care that much about Patty but Joe needs to not be shutting her down like that! I love Joe, but what a patriarchal asshole! I mean, it's obviously his main character flaw, given how he treated Iris in s1, but Patty is his partner! While I think she was totally ridiculous in wanting complete transparency, there should be some level of it between partners on the job! And she's trained (and possibly a metahuman herself! I don't know, I still don't trust her, even if she is Barry's love interest in the new 52) so there's none of this "it's safer if she doesn't know!" bs. Not that that is ever safer!
Plus, Cisco and Harry! Hee! Cavanagh manages to be great as a totally different version of Harrison Wells, but even he couldn't sell the "Jesse...Quick" thing. But that's a minor nitpick.
And next week, GRODD!
Say what you will about The Flash, it's a damn entertaining hour of television.
iZombie: Max Wager
Jesus, I love Rob Thomas's episode naming skills. Holy crap that got dark fast! I should expect it from this show by now, but geez, Livingston Dell, I mean, Stacey Boss threatening Peyton might have been the scariest thing the show's done yet, and then Blaine smothers his grandpa - the only person he cares about! - only for it to mean nothing because Major's put his evil dad on ice! Literally! So Major hasn't been killing these dudes? Or he was but then he switched to freezing them? And now he knows the FBI is on his trail and Clive isn't going to let the Meat Cute thing sit. Now the question is whether Bozzio is on the up and up, or if she's working for some larger player (I mean, other than the FBI).
And my other question is, why doesn't Clive take the brain Mrs. Suzuki bought him to Ravi to be examined? Or is he walling them off completely because of their connection to Major? (Also, I groaned when he was like, "Oh, I see, you bone up on basketball to make me look bad!" rather than "Obviously these personality swings are part of your vision thing." Please let him in on the secret! It'd be so much better that way!)
I don't really ship Liv/Major but it was nice to see them happy for a little while, though I didn't think zombieism was a virus - I thought it was caused by Max Rager + tainted Utopium, so I'm not sure what that was about...
So that was a strong night of Tuesday TV!
Wednesday books!
What I've just finished
I talked about the Star Wars comics on their own over the weekend, so I don't have anything to add about today's Darth Vader. It wrapped up one story and I guess set up what's going to happen in Vader Down?
Today's Batman and Robin Eternal, otoh, was much better than last week's, with its terrible Tim backstory. He has not been well served at all by the reboot. It's also really weird to see Jason trying to be a bridge between Dick and Tim. I loved Jason a lot in this issue. Oh, also how he called out Dick on being secretive like Bruce and how that's landed them in the mess they're in now, so Dick picks up Harper and Cass on the way to Prague. I love it when Dick realizes he doesn't have to be like Bruce to get the job done (also Bruce kept that secret to avoid making himself look bad, though I'm sure Dick wouldn't have gotten the wrong impression; otoh, they're all sort of doing it to Bruce right now while he has amnesia, so I guess he's reaping what he sowed.).
But let's talk about the real weirdness of this issue - I realize that I am somewhat obsessive about Bucky, but come the fuck on! That was a straight up homage to his death in the comics! Except Bruce saves Dick instead of falling into the icy waters of the North Atlantic and freezing for seventy years. I honest to god expected a "DICK NO!" from Bruce but of course he wouldn't be that emotive in the field (especially not when he actually rescues his sidekick). It's just an interesting choice given that Dick is now "working in the shadows" as a super spy the way Bucky was in Winter Soldier. Crossover original sidekick BFF!
I did like that Bruce immediately reassured Dick that he was not at fault and that he was not a disappointment. For all that I give him shit about being a terrible Batdad, he did mostly do pretty good with Dick when Dick was younger. (though I still side-eye the shortening of the timeline so Dick is a lot older in his first year as Robin. Timelines, what timelines?)
Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg, which was a slight, sweet historical YA set in Singapore post-WWI.
The Girl with All the Gifts by Mike Carey, which I avoided (much like Cuckoo Song) because I thought it was about vampires. I can unequivocally state that it is not about vampires. (I don't care for vampires, personally.) Other than that, this is a book that people say is best enjoyed unspoiled, so I'll cut for spoilers now. Melanie is a zombie, or a "hungry" in this book's parlance, but an intelligent one who is able to make connections with other people and push down the hunger when it will hurt the person she loves, who is a teacher.
I thought this was a really interesting post-apocalypse and I was really glad that Carey didn't shy away from an ending that felt inevitable (I should have known he wouldn't - he didn't in Lucifer either). A compelling page-turner.
What I'm currently reading
Of course, right after I got The Girl with All the Gifts from the library, two books from my hold list became available. So right now I'm reading The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon by Alex Kershaw, which is the story of the the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon from the 394th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division (say that five times fast!) in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge. It's interesting so far, though I'm still having trouble keeping track of who is who, and there are not enough maps for me (and the software - Overdrive - doesn't allow me to enlarge the maps there are, which sucks; it's also bad at handling endnotes). Anyway. These guys were a young, untested intelligence unit not meant for defending a fixed position, but obviously they got stuck doing so, and they were able to slow the German advance long enough that the Allies could bring more troops to bear. At least that's what I'm getting from the blurb. The German advance has just started at the point I'm at in the book.
What I'm reading next
The other book the library dropped on me was My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, so that's next. I guess I'll see if it lives up to the hype!
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/793577.html.
people have commented there.
So. TV and books!
The Flash: Enter Zoom
HOLY CRAP BARRY GOT HIS ASS KICKED BUT GOOD. So what's the over/under on Henry Allen being Zoom a la Robert Queen being The Hood on Earth-2? (And is he going to pop up in Star City to bother Ollie now? Actually, I don't care about him, but I wish they could get Moira back. They won't because Susanna Thompson told them no, but I miss Moira. And Walter. But mostly Moira.)
I'm so happy that Linda - both of them! - didn't die! And that Barry was smart enough to cushion her fall so she didn't break her neck when he caught her, like Gwen Stacy. (I feel like this was a very Spidey kind of story, though I guess recently Dick also got 'killed' and exposed on live tv, and Batman got his back broke by Bane in Knightfall (hopefully we'll get a better fill-in Flash than Jean-Paul Valley [I really don't like Jean-Paul Valley] and also the show will use a much better method to heal the injury than "Hang him from a rope" like in TDKR. Ugh that movie was the worst.))
There was a lot to like about this episode even before Zoom showed up, but man, I don't even care that much about Patty but Joe needs to not be shutting her down like that! I love Joe, but what a patriarchal asshole! I mean, it's obviously his main character flaw, given how he treated Iris in s1, but Patty is his partner! While I think she was totally ridiculous in wanting complete transparency, there should be some level of it between partners on the job! And she's trained (and possibly a metahuman herself! I don't know, I still don't trust her, even if she is Barry's love interest in the new 52) so there's none of this "it's safer if she doesn't know!" bs. Not that that is ever safer!
Plus, Cisco and Harry! Hee! Cavanagh manages to be great as a totally different version of Harrison Wells, but even he couldn't sell the "Jesse...Quick" thing. But that's a minor nitpick.
And next week, GRODD!
Say what you will about The Flash, it's a damn entertaining hour of television.
iZombie: Max Wager
Jesus, I love Rob Thomas's episode naming skills. Holy crap that got dark fast! I should expect it from this show by now, but geez, Livingston Dell, I mean, Stacey Boss threatening Peyton might have been the scariest thing the show's done yet, and then Blaine smothers his grandpa - the only person he cares about! - only for it to mean nothing because Major's put his evil dad on ice! Literally! So Major hasn't been killing these dudes? Or he was but then he switched to freezing them? And now he knows the FBI is on his trail and Clive isn't going to let the Meat Cute thing sit. Now the question is whether Bozzio is on the up and up, or if she's working for some larger player (I mean, other than the FBI).
And my other question is, why doesn't Clive take the brain Mrs. Suzuki bought him to Ravi to be examined? Or is he walling them off completely because of their connection to Major? (Also, I groaned when he was like, "Oh, I see, you bone up on basketball to make me look bad!" rather than "Obviously these personality swings are part of your vision thing." Please let him in on the secret! It'd be so much better that way!)
I don't really ship Liv/Major but it was nice to see them happy for a little while, though I didn't think zombieism was a virus - I thought it was caused by Max Rager + tainted Utopium, so I'm not sure what that was about...
So that was a strong night of Tuesday TV!
Wednesday books!
What I've just finished
I talked about the Star Wars comics on their own over the weekend, so I don't have anything to add about today's Darth Vader. It wrapped up one story and I guess set up what's going to happen in Vader Down?
Today's Batman and Robin Eternal, otoh, was much better than last week's, with its terrible Tim backstory. He has not been well served at all by the reboot. It's also really weird to see Jason trying to be a bridge between Dick and Tim. I loved Jason a lot in this issue. Oh, also how he called out Dick on being secretive like Bruce and how that's landed them in the mess they're in now, so Dick picks up Harper and Cass on the way to Prague. I love it when Dick realizes he doesn't have to be like Bruce to get the job done (also Bruce kept that secret to avoid making himself look bad, though I'm sure Dick wouldn't have gotten the wrong impression; otoh, they're all sort of doing it to Bruce right now while he has amnesia, so I guess he's reaping what he sowed.).
But let's talk about the real weirdness of this issue - I realize that I am somewhat obsessive about Bucky, but come the fuck on! That was a straight up homage to his death in the comics! Except Bruce saves Dick instead of falling into the icy waters of the North Atlantic and freezing for seventy years. I honest to god expected a "DICK NO!" from Bruce but of course he wouldn't be that emotive in the field (especially not when he actually rescues his sidekick). It's just an interesting choice given that Dick is now "working in the shadows" as a super spy the way Bucky was in Winter Soldier. Crossover original sidekick BFF!
I did like that Bruce immediately reassured Dick that he was not at fault and that he was not a disappointment. For all that I give him shit about being a terrible Batdad, he did mostly do pretty good with Dick when Dick was younger. (though I still side-eye the shortening of the timeline so Dick is a lot older in his first year as Robin. Timelines, what timelines?)
Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg, which was a slight, sweet historical YA set in Singapore post-WWI.
The Girl with All the Gifts by Mike Carey, which I avoided (much like Cuckoo Song) because I thought it was about vampires. I can unequivocally state that it is not about vampires. (I don't care for vampires, personally.) Other than that, this is a book that people say is best enjoyed unspoiled, so I'll cut for spoilers now. Melanie is a zombie, or a "hungry" in this book's parlance, but an intelligent one who is able to make connections with other people and push down the hunger when it will hurt the person she loves, who is a teacher.
I thought this was a really interesting post-apocalypse and I was really glad that Carey didn't shy away from an ending that felt inevitable (I should have known he wouldn't - he didn't in Lucifer either). A compelling page-turner.
What I'm currently reading
Of course, right after I got The Girl with All the Gifts from the library, two books from my hold list became available. So right now I'm reading The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon by Alex Kershaw, which is the story of the the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon from the 394th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division (say that five times fast!) in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge. It's interesting so far, though I'm still having trouble keeping track of who is who, and there are not enough maps for me (and the software - Overdrive - doesn't allow me to enlarge the maps there are, which sucks; it's also bad at handling endnotes). Anyway. These guys were a young, untested intelligence unit not meant for defending a fixed position, but obviously they got stuck doing so, and they were able to slow the German advance long enough that the Allies could bring more troops to bear. At least that's what I'm getting from the blurb. The German advance has just started at the point I'm at in the book.
What I'm reading next
The other book the library dropped on me was My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, so that's next. I guess I'll see if it lives up to the hype!
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/793577.html.
people have commented there.