the sunday night tv blog of happiness
I remember seeing odd bits of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries at Connotations, but I have now actually watched all of season one and I am DELIGHTED.
Miss Phryne Fisher is amazing! I love that she is the ultimate multi-skilled detective - she can fly a plane, she can juggle, she can probably choreograph an underwater dance sequence while stabbing a dude. But she's exceptional in the same way good dude detective characters like her are exceptional - she's still got a tragic backstory, there are REASONS why she can do the things she does. And sometimes they are the focus. I love that; she gets to be vulnerable without being Vulnerable And Thus Finally Being A Real Woman or whatever. It's just part of who she is: Phyrne will have dalliances with pretty men, and she will catch bad guys, and sometimes she has trouble with the traumatic bits of her past. Like a proper protagonist. I love her.
Plus, awesome 20s outfits!
Oh and I adore her love interest. Jack is delightful. I love that the show THROWS her and Jack together not because she needs a man, but because she doesn't: the whole point of Jack and Phryne as a couple is that they don't force each other into a traditional male/female set-up. Jack is respectable, but he's not shockable, and the reason he loves Phyne as much as he VERY FUCKIN CLEARLY DOES is because she is so amazing, not because she needs him. (He might sometimes kind of wish she neeeded him? But really, Phryne being her own independent awesome self is his JAM.) And likewise, Phryne deals so well with Jack because she recognises what is amazing about him - namely, that he really is a nice cop, a good guy, who takes injustice seriously. He doesn't dismiss the problem because it's happening to a lady, or a gay person, or a carnival person. Jack is the guy who knows that it's easy to dismiss the old lady in lockup as a drunk, but doesn't, because that doesn't mean she isn't worthwhile. And Phryne, because she has been poor and a victim of several sorts, appreciates how rare that is.
Actually, the show's power relations generally work for me, I think. Phryne as a victim is allowed to be upset, to find dealing with her own trauma difficult in lots of ways, without being pathetic. It's explicitly clear in the show that women, especially young women, are more likely to be victims, without any of those women being dismissed. They don't quite say that the cops are generally bad at dealing with that, but I'd argue that the plot where Mac gets arrested and also the bit where the other detective guy comes in and is massively awful and incompetent at least implies it. As does the way that Phryne gets flack for detecting, and the ladies she often deals with also get flack for being ladies. It feels very natural actually: that this lady detective specialises in cases about ladies, and lady problems. And poor people problems. And queer people problems. Because those are the people who might not be able to go to the 'regular' detective forces, so they go to Phryne. I love that.
Can I say, I love that there are multiple cases which involve queer people. MULTIPLE! And not just in the Dead Gays way. And, yo, the height of the drama? Involves the ladies telling the men to stay put so they will be safe, and then rushing off to rescue their menfolk! Bwee.
And on that topic, awww, DOT. I love Dot. I love that she is secretly kind of badass, but not at all in Phryne's way. Dot is badass in the way where she will try and try and try and she might be crying her eyes out while she does, but once she gets it into her head that something is the right thing to do, she's not going to give up. Even if that thing is really difficult. I love her. And I love that she is also a total softie who loves sewing and cooking and being sweet and lovely, and that her domestic side is, okay, gently mocked a little, but never meanly: Dot is the fucking BACKBONE of her church bakesale, and that counts. The show specifically points out that it actually counts for a LOT. It's adorable.
In fact, in the first season, pretty much my only problem was the way they dealt with the intersex/trans character. I mean, it's kind of cool that there was one, and that everyone used the correct pronouns for her? But yo, Phryne, you would never have made anyone go and look at someone else's genitalia normally, even for case reasons, because that's not cool for cis people, so that is NOT COOL now. Not cool.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is... well, it is a police procedural, and it's not quite as silly as I thought it was going to be. But it is really, really funny, and heartwarming, and engaging. I am six episodes in and I am just loving it.
Current favourite things...
One, that the show knows Peralta is sometimes an ass, and expects the audience to not always be on his side even though he's the white dude.
Two, that there are so many other people around that Peralta isn't the dominant voice, and those people are actually a decent cross-section of the kind of racial makeup you'd expect in New York. In reality. Like, 'only gay black person in authority on TV I can think of' levels of reality. (I love Holt! I love Holt SO MUCH!)
Three, that one of the ways Peralta's kind-of-an-ass-ishness is used in the show is in connection with all these other people, so they can call him out on it and they all sort of get along anyway because while Peralta can be an ass, he actually is a well-meaning one, and he gets to PROVE that, not just have people say he is. Like
raven said, in her excellent post about it, we know Peralta is capable of respect and kindness because he SHOWS that, in his relationship with Captain Holt and the rest of the team. THE TEAM, PEOPLE. TEAAAAM.
Four, I feel like Rosa needs a point to herself just for being terrifying and awesome. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/130813.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Miss Phryne Fisher is amazing! I love that she is the ultimate multi-skilled detective - she can fly a plane, she can juggle, she can probably choreograph an underwater dance sequence while stabbing a dude. But she's exceptional in the same way good dude detective characters like her are exceptional - she's still got a tragic backstory, there are REASONS why she can do the things she does. And sometimes they are the focus. I love that; she gets to be vulnerable without being Vulnerable And Thus Finally Being A Real Woman or whatever. It's just part of who she is: Phyrne will have dalliances with pretty men, and she will catch bad guys, and sometimes she has trouble with the traumatic bits of her past. Like a proper protagonist. I love her.
Plus, awesome 20s outfits!
Oh and I adore her love interest. Jack is delightful. I love that the show THROWS her and Jack together not because she needs a man, but because she doesn't: the whole point of Jack and Phryne as a couple is that they don't force each other into a traditional male/female set-up. Jack is respectable, but he's not shockable, and the reason he loves Phyne as much as he VERY FUCKIN CLEARLY DOES is because she is so amazing, not because she needs him. (He might sometimes kind of wish she neeeded him? But really, Phryne being her own independent awesome self is his JAM.) And likewise, Phryne deals so well with Jack because she recognises what is amazing about him - namely, that he really is a nice cop, a good guy, who takes injustice seriously. He doesn't dismiss the problem because it's happening to a lady, or a gay person, or a carnival person. Jack is the guy who knows that it's easy to dismiss the old lady in lockup as a drunk, but doesn't, because that doesn't mean she isn't worthwhile. And Phryne, because she has been poor and a victim of several sorts, appreciates how rare that is.
Actually, the show's power relations generally work for me, I think. Phryne as a victim is allowed to be upset, to find dealing with her own trauma difficult in lots of ways, without being pathetic. It's explicitly clear in the show that women, especially young women, are more likely to be victims, without any of those women being dismissed. They don't quite say that the cops are generally bad at dealing with that, but I'd argue that the plot where Mac gets arrested and also the bit where the other detective guy comes in and is massively awful and incompetent at least implies it. As does the way that Phryne gets flack for detecting, and the ladies she often deals with also get flack for being ladies. It feels very natural actually: that this lady detective specialises in cases about ladies, and lady problems. And poor people problems. And queer people problems. Because those are the people who might not be able to go to the 'regular' detective forces, so they go to Phryne. I love that.
Can I say, I love that there are multiple cases which involve queer people. MULTIPLE! And not just in the Dead Gays way. And, yo, the height of the drama? Involves the ladies telling the men to stay put so they will be safe, and then rushing off to rescue their menfolk! Bwee.
And on that topic, awww, DOT. I love Dot. I love that she is secretly kind of badass, but not at all in Phryne's way. Dot is badass in the way where she will try and try and try and she might be crying her eyes out while she does, but once she gets it into her head that something is the right thing to do, she's not going to give up. Even if that thing is really difficult. I love her. And I love that she is also a total softie who loves sewing and cooking and being sweet and lovely, and that her domestic side is, okay, gently mocked a little, but never meanly: Dot is the fucking BACKBONE of her church bakesale, and that counts. The show specifically points out that it actually counts for a LOT. It's adorable.
In fact, in the first season, pretty much my only problem was the way they dealt with the intersex/trans character. I mean, it's kind of cool that there was one, and that everyone used the correct pronouns for her? But yo, Phryne, you would never have made anyone go and look at someone else's genitalia normally, even for case reasons, because that's not cool for cis people, so that is NOT COOL now. Not cool.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is... well, it is a police procedural, and it's not quite as silly as I thought it was going to be. But it is really, really funny, and heartwarming, and engaging. I am six episodes in and I am just loving it.
Current favourite things...
One, that the show knows Peralta is sometimes an ass, and expects the audience to not always be on his side even though he's the white dude.
Two, that there are so many other people around that Peralta isn't the dominant voice, and those people are actually a decent cross-section of the kind of racial makeup you'd expect in New York. In reality. Like, 'only gay black person in authority on TV I can think of' levels of reality. (I love Holt! I love Holt SO MUCH!)
Three, that one of the ways Peralta's kind-of-an-ass-ishness is used in the show is in connection with all these other people, so they can call him out on it and they all sort of get along anyway because while Peralta can be an ass, he actually is a well-meaning one, and he gets to PROVE that, not just have people say he is. Like
raven said, in her excellent post about it, we know Peralta is capable of respect and kindness because he SHOWS that, in his relationship with Captain Holt and the rest of the team. THE TEAM, PEOPLE. TEAAAAM.
Four, I feel like Rosa needs a point to herself just for being terrifying and awesome. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/130813.html. Please comment there using OpenID.