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1. Can't decide if watching The Great British Baking Show is torturing myself or comforting myself. (Since I can't eat any of it or make it, on the other hand, it's on tv, so can't do it anyhow. I find cooking shows and demonstrations relaxing.) It's called Great British Baking Show in the US, not Bake-Off, because Pillsbury has trade-marked Bake-Off in the US, and they'd have to pay Pillsbury royalties for its use.
Don't you love Intellectual Property Law?
Oh, speaking of trade-mark law, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of trademarking politically incorrect or offensive trademarks. Such as "The Redskins" - baseball team wanting to copyright their name. (I actually agree with this -- freedom of speech. I think all speech should be permitted. If we prohibit one type, we risk prohibiting others.)
2. I'm putting off watching the second season of Sense8 until the weekend. It's hard to stop watching. That's how compelling it is. Wish it wasn't cancelled, I drug my feet on watching it, because it was and it had allegedly ended on a cliff-hanger.
(So I looked up information on it -- to ensure the Whispers/Will issue was resolved.)
I can see why it was -- very expensive series to produce. $4 Million per episode. And, it took two years for the second season to air after the first. That's a large gap to retain cast and audience. They already had to recast one of the cast members.
It's a shame, because this series is possibly the only sci-fi series on television that has a strong message of love, unity, empathy and kindness behind it. It's also by far the best written and produced. Most sci-fi television series, let's face it, are a bit of a mess. You have to be a bit tolerant of well messy writing, to be a genre television fan.
Hmm...best written and most innovative sci-fi series that I can think of and have watched?
* Farscape
* Star Trek the Next Generation
* Babylon5
* BattleStar Galatica (v.2)
* Lost
And Sense8 is very different from all of them. It really is a unique take on the television serial. Reminds me a little of Game of Thrones in the multiple character point of views and multiple location shots, with a large diverse cast. I'd say it is a lot better than GoT - the writing is more nuanced, it's less violent, the message is more positive, it flips gender and takes more risks.
It is however difficult to rec to people, because of the explicit sexual content and the type of sexual content - group orgies, homosexual sex, and explicit. Didn't bother me, but most of the people I know wouldn't be able to watch it. My parents -- no. My coworkers -- no. Shame. Again I ask the question, why as a culture are we more comfortable with graphic violence, shoot-outs, screaming hate, and fight scenes, then watching two people making love to one another? It boggles my mind that people have no problems watching someone stab someone but can't watch a sex scene, regardless of the genders involved.
Sense8 to be fair has a lot of graphic violence as well. Although it's fairly tame in contrast to the other sci-fi series I've seen. And no where near as violent as well, GoT, Walking Dead, American Gods, Supernatural...so.
I think it took some insane risks. The Wachowskis and the creator of Bab5, wanted to do something no one else had done before. Something that changed the boundaries of television like the Matrix did with film. Which is ambitious. There's 450 scripted television series.
If it weren't for subscription channels like Netflix, Sense8 would never have been made. HBO passed on it, as did Showtime.
3. Character Shipping or rather "Anti-Shipping" in Fandom
There's nothing more off-putting than someone seriously anti-shipping a character you happen to enjoy or find interesting. And people are oddly hypocritical about it. Now, to be fair, I've despised characters on television shows and books that others loved. Although I prefer not to talk about them too much. Also, usually they are supporting or just recurring characters, or I would not be watching the show or reading the book any longer. If the characters don't work for me, I'm gone. Seriously life is too short.
Like on Buffy, I disliked Andrew, which it turned out wasn't a big problem. I could ignore the characters for the most part.
Or on Lost...well there wasn't any characters I disliked. A rarity. Same with BSG, no characters I disliked.
In the X-men? I liked all the characters.
Doctor Who? Can't remember disliking any character intensely.
But the fandom? Oh dear.
Apparently in X-men, the most hated hated character happens to be my favorite. Which is annoying and why I steered clear.
Doctor Who? one of the most despised characters is among my favorites. So steered clear.
Buffy? It was difficult, for the most part I loved all the characters (except for Andrew), and many fans hated at least one of my favorites. And by hated -- they felt the need to rant, and yell about them.
Don't you love Intellectual Property Law?
Oh, speaking of trade-mark law, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of trademarking politically incorrect or offensive trademarks. Such as "The Redskins" - baseball team wanting to copyright their name. (I actually agree with this -- freedom of speech. I think all speech should be permitted. If we prohibit one type, we risk prohibiting others.)
2. I'm putting off watching the second season of Sense8 until the weekend. It's hard to stop watching. That's how compelling it is. Wish it wasn't cancelled, I drug my feet on watching it, because it was and it had allegedly ended on a cliff-hanger.
(So I looked up information on it -- to ensure the Whispers/Will issue was resolved.)
I can see why it was -- very expensive series to produce. $4 Million per episode. And, it took two years for the second season to air after the first. That's a large gap to retain cast and audience. They already had to recast one of the cast members.
It's a shame, because this series is possibly the only sci-fi series on television that has a strong message of love, unity, empathy and kindness behind it. It's also by far the best written and produced. Most sci-fi television series, let's face it, are a bit of a mess. You have to be a bit tolerant of well messy writing, to be a genre television fan.
Hmm...best written and most innovative sci-fi series that I can think of and have watched?
* Farscape
* Star Trek the Next Generation
* Babylon5
* BattleStar Galatica (v.2)
* Lost
And Sense8 is very different from all of them. It really is a unique take on the television serial. Reminds me a little of Game of Thrones in the multiple character point of views and multiple location shots, with a large diverse cast. I'd say it is a lot better than GoT - the writing is more nuanced, it's less violent, the message is more positive, it flips gender and takes more risks.
It is however difficult to rec to people, because of the explicit sexual content and the type of sexual content - group orgies, homosexual sex, and explicit. Didn't bother me, but most of the people I know wouldn't be able to watch it. My parents -- no. My coworkers -- no. Shame. Again I ask the question, why as a culture are we more comfortable with graphic violence, shoot-outs, screaming hate, and fight scenes, then watching two people making love to one another? It boggles my mind that people have no problems watching someone stab someone but can't watch a sex scene, regardless of the genders involved.
Sense8 to be fair has a lot of graphic violence as well. Although it's fairly tame in contrast to the other sci-fi series I've seen. And no where near as violent as well, GoT, Walking Dead, American Gods, Supernatural...so.
I think it took some insane risks. The Wachowskis and the creator of Bab5, wanted to do something no one else had done before. Something that changed the boundaries of television like the Matrix did with film. Which is ambitious. There's 450 scripted television series.
If it weren't for subscription channels like Netflix, Sense8 would never have been made. HBO passed on it, as did Showtime.
3. Character Shipping or rather "Anti-Shipping" in Fandom
There's nothing more off-putting than someone seriously anti-shipping a character you happen to enjoy or find interesting. And people are oddly hypocritical about it. Now, to be fair, I've despised characters on television shows and books that others loved. Although I prefer not to talk about them too much. Also, usually they are supporting or just recurring characters, or I would not be watching the show or reading the book any longer. If the characters don't work for me, I'm gone. Seriously life is too short.
Like on Buffy, I disliked Andrew, which it turned out wasn't a big problem. I could ignore the characters for the most part.
Or on Lost...well there wasn't any characters I disliked. A rarity. Same with BSG, no characters I disliked.
In the X-men? I liked all the characters.
Doctor Who? Can't remember disliking any character intensely.
But the fandom? Oh dear.
Apparently in X-men, the most hated hated character happens to be my favorite. Which is annoying and why I steered clear.
Doctor Who? one of the most despised characters is among my favorites. So steered clear.
Buffy? It was difficult, for the most part I loved all the characters (except for Andrew), and many fans hated at least one of my favorites. And by hated -- they felt the need to rant, and yell about them.
no subject
I agree with you that the fact that the sex shown on the show is more of a tabu than massive and sexualized violence , is a major problem in our societies. The sexualized violence on GoT is fine, because realism, but we can't have someone enjoying sex with multiple people, that would be wrong.
I had this discussion with the co-worker who has loaned me sci-fi books. He hadn't heard of it. So I described it to him, told him that it is hard to rec, because of the explicit sex.
Co-worker: Sounds right up my alley.
Me: There is violence, but not so much, just explicit sex, but it's actually beautifully done. But it is LGBT (he looks puzzled), gay and lesbian..
Co-worker: that doesn't bother me
Me: Me neither. And not really as much violence. It's there but not...as intense.
Co-worker: Oh I'd prefer this, I would rather watch the sex than the violence. I don't understand why people prefer the violence.
Me: Yeah, American Gods and Game of Thrones...with the poked out eyes -
Co-worker: the chopped off heads, the chopped off arms
Me: Being burned alive...but sex?
Co-worker: they can't handle. It makes no sense. None at all. And it's so sad.
The problem I have is we justify sexualized violence and torture on television series as realism, but criticize a show like say Sense8 as being pornographic. My cousin would have her teens watch GoT but not Sense8. And then we turn around and wonder why our culture has so much rape, violence, and bullying? It would be one thing if it was just GoT, but right now almost every critically acclaimed fantasy/adventure series does...GoT, Preacher, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, American Gods, Outlander, The Walking Dead, Daredevil, Alias Jessica Jones, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, the list is endless. I mean, you know there's a problem when you consider Sense8 or Supernatural or Lucifier or the violence in say one of the superhero shows not that big a deal. Because hey, at least you aren't watching someone have their eyes poked out or being beaten to death or gang raped or have their arm chopped off every episode. The television series GoT is more violent, sexually and otherwise than the books were.
It's gotten so bad that I had to stop watching some of these things or don't any longer. It was such a relief to find a science fiction series that didn't have that level of explicit and graphic violence.
no subject
This limits my tv time to when he's asleep and honstly there are so many other things to do that I do not watch tv so much then.
Occasionally I watch an episode of something when he's awake, but stuff with explicit violence is completely out of question. Sense 8 though, that was pretty much unproblematic. The few ugly scenes I could just skip.
I really would have liked to watch American Gods but I never got past episode 3 because I was annoyed by all the blood. It is really getting out of hand. I'm really looking forward to the new Star Trek, and if they manage to turn even that into a bloodfest I will be very angry.