thedeadparrot

It's a great TV show about drag balls in the 1980s that doesn't wallow in misery porn and has a lot of found family feelings and cast trans women of color as their leads. All of the ballroom scenes are fucking fabulous. It explores issues of race, class, gender identity with a lot of nuance.

It's also fun. There's some frothy soap opera drama between two rival mothers of drag houses trying to compete against each other and the family dynamics within both of the drag houses.

Yeah, it cribs liberally from Paris is Burning, but it's still its own distinct thing, and it brought on board a ton of people involved in the ball scene as well as the trans community to help with the writing, so it doesn't feel creepily voyeuristic. It feels like queer POC getting a chance to tell their own stories.

Anyway, highly recommended if any of that sounded interesting to you. It's a world that's really cool and fascinating and that doesn't get a lot of airtime. I had some passing familiarity with the terminology and culture and such from watching Drag Race, but this is about capturing a particular time and place.

I have a lot of feelings about this show, most of them negative. It's so well-made, but it also feels hollow. Maybe that is an apt metaphor, considering the subject matter.

The visuals are gorgeous. The production values are top notch. The acting is great. The writing, for the most part, is even... good? But. But. I kind of still hated it?

My thoughts are pretty scattered, but here are some of them in list form.

( Spoilers ahead. )

Amazing how much media you can consume when you're stuck on planes for 20-some-odd hours. Mostly off the cuff because I should be sleeping right now.

Ancillary Justice

I started this last year during Christmas break but couldn't quite get into it. When I first read it, I was only good at following one storyline at the time, and the present-day stuff was easier to follow, even if it was slower and less interesting. This time around, I was more able to track what was happening in the flashbacks, and the story started pulling together. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly, though I think I'm less enraptured with it than some of the other people I know. Definitely willing to continue reading the series. Not sure when I'll have a chance.

I think my favorite bit of this story was trying to intuit the way the other characters relate to and feel about Breq through Breq's POV.

The gender stuff didn't quite work for me the way it did for a lot of other people. I didn't care about gendering characters because the POV character didn't.

Spy

As advertised, a fun, feminist tweaking of James Bond films. I just wish it was smarter. Jason Statham's casting was inspired, and he got the biggest laughs out of me.

Pitch Perfect 2

Pleasant enough and hits the usual story beats for a sequel to an underdog sports movie. Still feels like it's trying to be Glee, over-the-top offensive humor and all.

Mr. Robot

Only saw the first 4 eps, because those were the only ones available.

This show is interesting to me because I am still trying to figure out if I want to watch the rest of it. It's definitely one of the most accurate shows about computers/technology/hacking that I've seen. It's also definitely a kind of wish fulfilment show for socially awkward nerd-dude hackers.

But it's a lot more nuanced and sharp than it needs to be. It's a show that is incredibly deliberate about the compositions of its shots and calls attention to it. Rami Malek is riveting to watch in his stillnesses, which is always impressive. The Robin Hood story at the center is a lot more complex than it first appears.

The treatment of the women bothers me a lot. With a few exceptions, they're forced to the outside, where things are done to them and they aren't allowed to do anything besides be emotional support for Elliot.

Masters of Sex

Only watched one episode of this (episode 3), and I enjoyed it? There's a lot of stuff tossed into the mix here, and it's serialized enough that I feel like I barely got a taste of it. Even with how up-front it is about its subject matter, it feels more prurient and voyueristic than, say, Sense 8. I think I'll have to give it a few more episodes before I can draw a real conclusion about that.

Just got back from MJ! 'Twas good, especially now that I've embraced my inner BOFQ. I might have a more detailed con report written up later, but for now I'm just relaxing and mentally preparing myself for work again tomorrow.

I guess the biggest sign that it worked is that I just pumped out something close to 2k of words today of this prompt fic (last one!) that has been kicking my ass all week. I am crossing my fingers that I can get through the first draft by the end of tonight, but that may be a futile goal.

Watched the end of Glee as well. I have decided that Glee is basically that drunk person hogging the mic at karaoke. Sloppy and not really coherent and kind of offensive, but every once in a while they manage to hit just the right note. Not entirely convinced that the last two eps overall managed to hit more than one note, but the final number tugged gently at my heartstrings.

Thanks for the good times, show. I'll do my best not to remember the bad.

I wrote a little bit about it already under friendslock, mostly because I don't want to give away too many personal deets, but I wanted to put something up that's a little more public. And longer. And more rambling. You've been warned.

I've written a bunch here before about the fact that I'm Taiwanese, so the fact that this show is not just about an Asian family, but a specifically Tawiwanese family makes it all the more special to me. It's a show centered not just around an Asian-American family, but a specifically Asian-American point of view. The kids are still unformed, I think. Eddie Huang mostly tries to be a gangster. He has younger brothers that he occasionally conflicts with. Their grandmother shows up every once in a while to drop a line in Chinese (It's sometimes hard to understand her Mandarin, and she should be speaking in Taiwanese anyway.) The parents are really where the show shines.

It's easy to dismiss Jessica as a Tiger Mom. She's fierce and unrelenting and freaks out about her kids' grades, but the show goes out of its way to humanize her, so you can see the specific anxieties that drive her behavior. Most shows with Asian parents like that (and yes, Glee, I'm looking at you) don't or can't or won't go to that length to talk about why certain kinds of Asian parents are the way they are. That specificity is important. That subjectivity is something we, as Asian-Americans, don't often get. And you have no idea how many times I've had that exact same conversation with my dad about how my mom is tough on me because she really cares about me.

I like how different the parents are. That's the other thing. So often Asian parents are presented as one unit, dour-faced, saying the same things at different times. Do your homework. You're not allowed to have fun/do art/hang out with friends. Louis and Jessica have arguments about how best to raise their kids. They disagree how to treat the people they meet and talk to and how best to survive in America. They get to be individual people with individual perspectives. It's so refreshing to see it reflected here.

And another thing, growing up Asian in America, you get so few choices and options for identification. You get to be full-Asian, a culture that's almost as alien to you as it is for the other American kids around you (as much as I love A:tLA and co, it fits into this category), or you can be white-American, fully assimilated into a culture that doesn't know how to see or talk about you. Your cousins think you're weird and don't know how to talk right. Try-hard neighboring white people comment on your tan.

Even as there's a rise of Asian-American actors on TV (John Cho, ilu), I think there's a lot of shows that fail to talk about what it means, specifically, to be Asian. They tend to write the characters the way they'd write white characters, and a lot of the specific racial background of the characters gets muddled, confused, fucked up. Even Elementary, which gave us an excellent female Watson, doesn't know how to talk about Joan's race.

Fresh Off the Boat talks about that. It confronts it head-on. I've gotten that comment about my English multiple times growing up. Well, actually, I got the far more bizarre and fucked up 'Do you speak English?' line several times, including as an adult. I could always tell who the telemarketers were when they called our house because they'd butcher my parents' full names or ask for 'Mr. [mom's last name]' (and it's Dr. [mom's last name], fuckhead).

(Sidebar: I wondered, while watching the show, whether or not Eddie Huang's mother actually took on the last name 'Huang' or if it was a TV translation thing or what. It's not traditional for wives to take their husband's family name in Chinese culture, so it was a little strange to see it here.)

I'm definitely hoping for more from this show, overall. There are parts of it that are still shaky, that could be better. The jokes don't always land. Some stuff goes a little too broad. There's a huge dearth of significant female characters outside of Jessica. But I have hope for this show. It's sharp. It's funny. And it's nice, seeing some parts of myself reflected back at me. It's so unfortunately rare.

Legend of Korra has been super great this season, and everyone should get back into it, even if the first or second seasons didn't do it for you. It's really hit its stride, in terms of characterization and storytelling, and it feels a lot more like Avatar: the Last Airbender now that they've moved out of Republic City and into the wider world.

The animation is possibly even more gorgeous than than ever, highlighting the excellent worldbuilding, and the fight scenes are still extremely impressive.

I do find the handling of the adult characters pretty interesting this year. They're taking far more front-and-center roles this year than they would in most kids' TV shows and are far more prominent than anything that happened in A:tLA. They get entire episodes dedicated towards their character arcs.

Anyway, you should totally watch it, especially if you loved A:tLA. It's definitely a new and different thing, but I like what it's becoming.

I liked the first series of Sherlock. I liked it a lot. Maybe I just needed a new fandom at the time or maybe I was more willing to cut the show some slack, but it was my jam. There was a charm and cleverness to it, and it was high on its own fannish joy at playing with the Sherlock mythos. The racism was pretty egregious, and the treatment of female characters was dismissive at best. But all pop culture is about tradeoffs when it comes to social justice things. You make your own peace with it.

The second series of Sherlock was a far different story. The charm seemed to fade into a certain kind of smugness that was present during the first series, but not quite as obvious or annoying. The female characters were shit on more often. Irene Adler was pretty much wasted in favor of a faux edginess that is always grating. The show decided to wallow in its cleverness, just in case we didn't realize how clever it was the first time around. It felt like a bunch of dudes jerking off to how awesome Sherlock is all the time without the care or the thoughtfulness to make an interesting character portrait. My viewings of the show went from 'viewings' to 'hatewatches' very quickly. There were still things to enjoy. Martin Freeman's Watson still remains delightful, and the cinematography is, as always, gorgeous. The gleeful energy of the series still caries through, but I just couldn't let it pull me along.

Elementary, though with plenty of faults of its own, is so much better at the nuanced character work. It doesn't have the energy of Sherlock. I have a hard time following it from week to week, because the procedural nature of the thing can drag it down. But it is a careful show, and watching the relationships and storylines unfold with precision is extremely delightful.

I am still trying to decide whether or not I'm going to watch the next series of Sherlock. I can already tell that the things I hated about the second season are still going to be there if not worse. I know that if I do watch it, my past bitterness will make it difficult for me to move on to what is actually worthwhile. And yet, I still feel an obligation to see it through to the end. I know it's not particularly rational, but I still want to.

I watched the 7 minute minisoide of Sherlock yesterday, and I ended up tuning out about half of it because the circlejerk over Sherlock was back up and running again, but there was still that magic moment of Watson in the room, quiet and alone in his thoughts.

I still don't know if I'm going to watch the next series.

Korra - I'm kind of sick of the 'older mentor figure ends up being horribly misguided' trope in that it is way too much of a pattern right now, but oh well. I am still very much enjoying this season, and I hope to keep enjoying it. It's not perfect. There are still some glaring flaws. But it is still interesting and thoughtful and gorgeous.

Elementary - SO MUCH CITY PORN IN THE PREMIERE. Ugh. I love the way they use New York on the show, and Sherlock's London is so much lovelier than I imagined when writing The City & the City. Also, there was an awesome ratio of tasty character work vs. boringish procedural. Mycroft and Lestrade were both interesting and great.

Glee - Don't talk to me about Glee.

Parks and Rec - Still happy and adorable! I enjoyed their London shenanigans, even if they weren't as amazing as Elementary's London shenanigans. Ron's trip up to Scotland was the best. So much pretty.

Sleepy Hollow - I found the time travel jokes great and the mythology stuff mind numbingly awful. John Cho! I am sad that he's a bad guy, but I am delighted that he has a new show.

Breaking Bad - I have been slowly catching up on this show over the last few years, and I'm only midway through season 3. Ugh. I want to read all the discussions and analysis, but I also don't want to spoil myself too much. I don't think I could say anything about it that hasn't already been said. It's amazing television, but my enjoyment of it is a little cold.

Agents of SHIELD - My thoughts on this show are as follows: Coulson, I love you! I am sick of manic pixie hacker girls. I might have cared a little bit more if J. August Richards was sticking around. This show feels like it was made with a paint-by-numbers kit, and none of the n00bs registers as interesting.

Today was my birthday, and it was super chill and happy. The weather was great, and the company was great, and the food was great.

I also saw the leaked pilot of Elementary. I really enjoyed it, and while there are a bunch of things that I didn't like (Joan's job and former-doctor status, some of the clunkiness of the characterization and the storytelling), I think it's got some great potential to grow into itself after a bunch of episodes. There's a great warmth to the characters that I really love, and I can't wait until they become proper bros!

I really want Elementary to grow its own fandom, but I don't think it will happen. Too bad. I think the clunkiness leaves some great gaps for better writers to fill in.

So I started watching Revenge, and I have to say that it's a whole lot of fun for deeply trashy TV. The main plot is interesting enough, and I really dig Emily/Amanda as a protagonist, and I really dig Victoria as the antagonist. They both get to be highly competent and dangerous, and if the show can keep the intrigue up, their cat-and-mouse game is going to be awesome. I don't think it can last past one season without overstaying its welcome, but so far it's been pacing things nicely.

I am entirely amused by the show's not-Zuckerberg stand-in, Nolan. He's an awesome sidekick character, imo, and I hope they make sure not to fall in love with him too much and give him too much screentime. I think he's best when used sparingly and douchily.

Anyway, this show presses my competence kink and my schadenfreude kink, and I hope it doesn't start sucking. That wouldn't be fun.