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Entry tags:
Good Place Podcast, Jay & Miles X-Plain, and Guilty Pleasures
1. The Good Place Podcasts with Marc Anthony Jackson
Shawn is the head of the Bad Place. And he recaps each episode, and analyzes all of it, and invites writers and actors to help him. The above one -- has D'Arcy Caden (Janet), and the writers of the episode, Josh Seigal and Dylan Morgan. Must have for D'Arcy Caden fans --- come on, you know who you are. This is my X-mas gift or Hannuakha gift to you -- you can thank me later.
Reminds me of The Succubus Club for Buffy, but much better done. (Caveat, I don't like Podcasts. I can't just listen to something -- I have to interact with it or I get bored and start doing something else at the same time.)
2. The other fun podcasts -- if you are a fan of the X-men, is Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-men, Because Someone Has To .
3. Guilty Pleasures:
These are basically the cultural things that I find deeply comforting and entertaining, and have a life-long weakness for...but they tend to be non-mainstream and most people just don't get.
* X-men comic books and graphic novels ( I fell in love at the age of 18, and never fell out..)
* Romance novels -- specifically historicals
* Superhero television shows and movies and to a degree comics
* Daytime Soap Operas (fell in love as a pre-teen, I blame my mother)
* Japanese Anime
* Musical Theater and Musical films...often based on Musical Theater. (If it's a musical, I'll watch it, even if it is a bad musical)
* Star Wars movies
* Science Fiction/Fantasy novels and television series and films
* Rock Operas..
Shawn is the head of the Bad Place. And he recaps each episode, and analyzes all of it, and invites writers and actors to help him. The above one -- has D'Arcy Caden (Janet), and the writers of the episode, Josh Seigal and Dylan Morgan. Must have for D'Arcy Caden fans --- come on, you know who you are. This is my X-mas gift or Hannuakha gift to you -- you can thank me later.
Reminds me of The Succubus Club for Buffy, but much better done. (Caveat, I don't like Podcasts. I can't just listen to something -- I have to interact with it or I get bored and start doing something else at the same time.)
2. The other fun podcasts -- if you are a fan of the X-men, is Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-men, Because Someone Has To .
3. Guilty Pleasures:
These are basically the cultural things that I find deeply comforting and entertaining, and have a life-long weakness for...but they tend to be non-mainstream and most people just don't get.
* X-men comic books and graphic novels ( I fell in love at the age of 18, and never fell out..)
* Romance novels -- specifically historicals
* Superhero television shows and movies and to a degree comics
* Daytime Soap Operas (fell in love as a pre-teen, I blame my mother)
* Japanese Anime
* Musical Theater and Musical films...often based on Musical Theater. (If it's a musical, I'll watch it, even if it is a bad musical)
* Star Wars movies
* Science Fiction/Fantasy novels and television series and films
* Rock Operas..
no subject
Of course, you know I love romance novels as well. They're pretty hit and miss at the moment, though. It's so hard to get a sense of where quality. Reviews are completely useless with ARC reviews and fake reviews clogging the picture. At least, when publishers had to print books on paper, some editing and vetting was done. Again, the culling has begun, I think. It'll be interesting to see where the industry lands.
Soaps
Then in the 1980s, we were hooked on As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives...and intermittently Y&R. (Search for Tomorrow, Another World, Capital, Edge of Night, Texas, all had been cancelled at this point.)
I love Margo and Tom, also Hal, and Craig and Sierra. On GL? Roger and Holly, also Holly and Fletcher, Blake and Philip, Reva and Josh. On Days? Jack and Jennifer.
Then we got annoyed, and leap-frogged to General Hospital, All My Children and OLTL in the 90s, until it was just GH. (I'm still shipping Carly/Sonny. But the super-couples aren't as evident now as they were in the 90s and early 00s, part of the problem is the series are skewing older and the leads are well over 45.
They just don't have any hot young actors on these series. Sonny is 53, Carly is 47, Laura is in her 50s, Ava is in her late 40s, 50s, Sam/Jason are in their 40s...) I fell hard for Jason/Sam, Carly/Sonny, and Liz/Lucky -- Jonathan Jackson, Maurice Bernard and Steve Burton grabbed me.
The last couple I fell hard for was Leo and Greenlee on AMC (Josh Duhamel was simply electric in his first role; he's never done work that even comes close to what he did as Leo
Oh god yes. I keep following him around, and much like James Marsters and Jonathan Jackson, he disappoints me. Although Jonathan Jackson was good in Nashville.
I loved Leo/Greenlea. I actually liked the actress - she popped up again GH a few years back with Michael Easten (Days of Our Lives, VR5, Total Recall, OLTL, Port Charles, and now GH) on GH. Easten is now paired far better actually with Anna Devane (who I adore.)
I always seem to get sucked in by a couple dynamic and today that's not really the focus for some unknown reason. But, isn't that what soaps should be about? They really seem to be losing the plot at the moment. This taping the show six months in advance is ridiculous. How can they possibly course correct? Madness, I say! Hopefully, they'll survive in one form or another...
Oh, I so agree. They have multiple plots going and some of them just make no sense whatsoever. We have one in which a fifteen year old boy finds out he's had brain cancer for the last ten years out of the blue. The mother kept it a secret from him. Okay. And he gets upset with her about it. And I'm thinking how didn't he know??? Then he tries to divorce his parents, because he wants control over his own treatment, only to find out after he agrees to the treatment that they couldn't have forced him to begin with -- since he needed to sign off on it?
And that's just one example. There are however two or three really interesting plots going on -- so my mother and I are hanging in there. Besides it's fun to watch.
The way they film these series is insane. They film all the episodes and scenes out of order. A character died recently -- the actress filmed two months worth of scenes in two weeks, filming her death scene first. They film 56 weeks worth in 36 weeks, taping upwards of 40-50 scenes a day. It sort of explains a lot. Also gives me a far greater appreciation for the actors.
Re: Soaps
I can't believe how much soap operas "peopled" the landscape of my childhood as well. I still remember whole scenes as if they aired yesterday (some of which were pre-VCR and I only saw them once). Random scenes come to mind unbidden all the time.
My friend's mother used to watch Edge of Night and Love of Life (I think), and I started watching Search for Tomorrow because it aired during lunch (they bused us home for lunch in those days; how extravagant!). IIRC, SFT was a very mature show. And the actors were a cut above the rest. Naturally, it was cancelled early. Hahaha. I loved Capitol! It's a crime that Capitol got replaced by B&B, which has always been horrible. I loved Another World (missed the boat on Texas, though). Great character actors on that show with meaty middle aged roles. And ATWT certainly had a good eye for star material (Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, Anne Heche, Marisa Tomei...). I was so sad when both AW and ATWT were cancelled. Wow, AW ended nearly 20 years ago.
Ahhh! Fletcher on GL! And Ross, loved him too. Rick Bauer's steadiness. *sniff* I loved tuning in to watch characters react to the evil deeds of Roger Thorpe, James Stenbeck and Stefano DiMera (and their more ambiguous counterparts like Craig Montgomery).
My jump to the ABC soaps coincided with yours. I loved early Jason and Liz, Carly and Sonny (Sarah Browne was so amazing in her first run). I've always loved how under control GH writing seems. The arcs break really really well, and they tackle tough issues. The dialogue is generally great. I'm not a big fan of Sam, though. So I've been avoiding the show. I know Rebecca Budig is on GH and sometimes I catch her bits. She's an awesome actress. AMC was also pretty good, but with shorter (and longer) arcs than GH and sometimes the storylines would rapidly veer into the nonsensical for a time.
For sure, the old faves are getting long in the tooth. I find it painful to watch Kristian Alfonso's face these days. She looks so miserable (or frozen by Botox). Shudder. I've no objection to new blood, but they must be paying really poorly because young actors suck big time at acting and their plot lines don't help. Just make them young adults who do simple stuff like drink and drive, fall in love. And the gay characters on Days spend all their time talking about getting married. Every time I tune in, marriage marriage marriage. Way to unsubtle. OTOH, I guess they're catering to their demographics.
I had no idea the shooting schedule was so bad! No wonder the actors' hair always seems the same and their mannerisms... it's like they've got their lines down pat but I kind of feel that the director is pushing them through their scenes too fast. They have no tonal inflection at all. And they look miserable. There is no room for creativity at all. Let them breathe! LOL. I agree. It does give me greater appreciation for the actors.
Re: Soaps
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Marisa Tomei also started on ATWT, as did Richard Thomas and I think Timothy Hutton?
That show had a lot of good actors on it. I really liked the actor who played Roger Thorpe on GL, he got more ambiguous during the 1980s. Then the actor contracted ALS and the show dealt with it poorly. The series went down hill from there -- so I gave up.
Re: Soaps
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I read an interview once with Anthony Geary who portrayed Luke but has long since retired, he said that the new show-runners and directors don't give the actors much room to breath or improvisation, at all. The older ones have a bit more control. Basically they tell them to do this and that, and go. If they don't they get penalized. And they are miserable -- it's why they can't keep the younger actors. The older ones can get away with more -- and sort of ignore the direction and do it. It's good. The writer's let them, because more seasoned. Geary said he had enough sway that he could tell the writer or director to go to hell. But a young actor can't.
It blew my mind. Then when I read that in order to save the show and cut costs, they reduced the shooting schedule, I thought, oh no wonder. The quality has gone down tremendously as a result. There are great episodes here and there of course, but a lot of the plots don't work. The one's that do focus more on the long-established or seasoned characters.
My jump to the ABC soaps coincided with yours. I loved early Jason and Liz, Carly and Sonny (Sarah Browne was so amazing in her first run). I've always loved how under control GH writing seems. The arcs break really really well, and they tackle tough issues. The dialogue is generally great. I'm not a big fan of Sam, though. So I've been avoiding the show.
Hee, I'm the exact opposite on the Sam - Liz scale. So yeah, I get how it would be hard to watch if it focuses too much on a character you despise. I stopped watching the show at different points for similar reasons. (Really not a Luke and Laura fan, and did not like Brenda and Sonny, Liz and Jason or Rick and Liz, Emily and Sonny,...and could not abide the recast of Emily at all. They finally killed her off - so yay!)
And now that I'm thinking about it...I'm picking up on a pattern in my gut response to certain female characters and romance tropes. Apparently there's a romantic trope combined with a female character trope that either pushes my buttons or really does not work for me in romances and stories, and weirdly I share this intense dislike with my mother -- so maybe it is genetic? LOL! I may have to explore this in another post...because it would explain why I can't read a lot of contemporary romance novels and certain contemporary women's fiction.
Sometimes a character trope or romance trope just pushes the buttons in an intense way. I think that may be why there are so many character wars in fandom?
You're bringing people together who are emotionally invested in the characters (particularly in serial fandoms) and they don't necessarily perceive or feel the characters in the same way. Have strong opinions about them. And different characters push their buttons in a visceral way. I remember picking up on it in the Spike vs. Angel Wars. And I saw it online in the Liz vs. Sam wars. Weirdly the actors are friends. LOL!
I know Rebecca Budig is on GH and sometimes I catch her bits. She's an awesome actress.
Not any longer. They got rid of her a year ago. Which annoyed me, because I liked her and she was playing Liz's half-sister.
I loved Capitol! It's a crime that Capitol got replaced by B&B, which has always been horrible.
Agreed! (I was in love with Trey Clegg and his affair with Kelly, when he was supposed to be marrying Sloan. I still vividly remember him kissing Kelly in the rain. ).
B&B - my mother tells me that this is the most incestuous series...everyone in the story has slept with each other. And they are all related. LOL! But it has the people behind Y&R behind it, and they apparently own stock in CBS. Also possibly own Neilsen boxes, because both are always high in the ratings.
Re: Soaps
Re: Sam, my issue may be a Kelly Monaco issue. Heh! I don't think I've ever seen a woman come across as slutty (not sexy or sensual) no matter what she says or does. LOL.
I like Grayson McCouch, but they didn't do go things with him on GH. He was cool as Dusty opposite Peyton List (a Kelly Monaco type but not slutty 100% of the time LOL). Talk about buttons...
If Rebecca left GH a year ago, then I haven't check GH out in longer. Yikes. Is "Todd" from OLTL (another great actor!) still dating Liz?
Fandom wars...they bring out the worst in people. I think there's a lot of wish fulfillment fantasy behind them (as well as psychology, of course). My view is that there's something for everyone out there. Why worry about these things.
B&B definitely rides on someone's or something's coattails. Shudder. Brooke was the only tolerable character back in the day.
Ah, Sloan! Such a strong character. I LOVED how the show ended with her! I get goosebumps just remembering it.
Re: Soaps
Sam, my issue may be a Kelly Monaco issue. Heh! I don't think I've ever seen a woman come across as slutty (not sexy or sensual) no matter what she says or does. LOL.
Interesting -- haven't picked up on that at all. But I also know nothing about the actress who plays her and didn't watch her on Dancing with the Stars. So that probably helps. Hmmm..what do you mean by slutty?
I was going to say it doesn't bother me, but it depends.
I like Grayson McCouch, but they didn't do go things with him on GH. He was cool as Dusty
They tried to pair him with Anna, he lasted half a season, apparently Finnolou Hughes despised working with him, and he finally quit in a huff. He was an asshole. GH is too big a cast and you can't be a diva on that show. Donna Mills tried and didn't last.
Shame I liked him on the show...but he had too much attitude. Soaps are hard to do.
If Rebecca left GH a year ago, then I haven't check GH out in longer. Yikes. Is "Todd" from OLTL (another great actor!) still dating Liz?
Yep. Liz and Frodd are getting married. They work real well together. Howarth is one of the few actors that can work well with kids and animals. He's a bit like Anthony Geary in how he approaches the work -- he can improvise on command.
GH has about five or six really good seasoned vets who have not killed their acting chops with botox. It has a really good cast. There's maybe one or two weak links -- but they are barely on. It wisely focuses on the older bunch or the young adults.
Fandom wars...they bring out the worst in people. I think there's a lot of wish fulfillment fantasy behind them (as well as psychology, of course). My view is that there's something for everyone out there. Why worry about these things.
Most of it is motivated by fear, I think. And a desire for validation. People are afraid the writers will give one group of fans what they want over another. (If the writers are bright -- they'll ignore the fans completely. Because fans tend to often be blind to the overall story thread -- all they see is their ship and their fantasy. And often their fantasy goes against the thread of the story, but they can't see it.)
Re: Soaps
I was stunned by how well Liz and Franco were vibing the few times I tuned in. Just goes to prove you need to mix and match unlikely characters and actors to discover whether they have chemistry. But since they really film scenes with more than two or three people interacting at a time, it's hard to experiment. Actually, I guess they simply don't have the budget or time to experiment.
Nodding re: Anthony Geary. I'm a bit worried about Matthew Ashford's return to Days because he won't be allowed to improvise. Back in 1990, he was ad-libbing in most scenes and it was the only time Missy Reeves' acting came alive.
Ack! Botox. It's so awful. They DO NOT look better with the surgery. I guess HD digital cameras aren't too kind to natural looking 50 and 60-somethings; and it does seem the surgery extends the actresses' (and actors') careers, sometimes by 25 years. Still... Kathryn Hays was wonderful on As the World Turns at all ages, Hillary B. Smith always looked natural, Erica Slezak...and so many more. I don't need the actors to be über beautiful. I need good meaty stories.
Re: Soaps
Yeah, best not to go into the reasons why certain actors irritate you or you don't like them. I don't like David Boreanze for example, and have never been a fan of the actress who plays Erica Kane. It is what it is. Meanwhile I know people online who cannot stand James Marsters, or Laura Wright who plays Carly on GH.
I like Laura Wright's attitude about this -- which is not to care and ignore it. She recently stated in an interview that she doesn't care what people think of her, and she just ignores them or deletes in social media. Smart move.
I don't know, Matt Ashford may get away with it -- Roger Howarth does. He adlibs all the time on GH. They described him as being very similar in style to Geary.
Re: Soaps
I know Botox isn't surgery, but I always speak of it as if it were. It's almost worse than a lift or sculpting because the resulting face looks dead.
Susan Lucci... yeah, she was never a favourite of mine. It does seem that strong personalities, and strong women in particular, seem to rub people all right or all wrong... I will need to examine my own reactions in this perspective.
Matt really had issues during his last stint and was fired. I think the show pretty much ceded to fan pressure to get him back on. The proof will be in the pudding. Meanwhile, I'm watching the episodes in the run-up to his arrival and getting to know all the children of the characters I used to know. Moment of hilarity: Abby/Gabby (split personality) being gaslighted by a woman called...Gabi. It took me a week to figure out she wasn't gaslighting herself. LOL.
Re: Soaps
I think wrinkles give character to a face. But then I don't wrinkle that much, young genes. So, probably shouldn't judge. Also I'm not an actor on television -- and that industry is nasty -- they want everyone to look young and pretty. (I blame soap fans -- who are beyond critical in this respect.)
Days was always a bit on the bizarre side. I tried watching a while back and got lost. LOL. Sammi was in jail protecting her husband, one of the Demara's...who was a hottie...but I couldn't figure out who was who.
Re: Soaps
Romance novels
After talking to spikewriter -- I'm beginning to think a big part of the problem is a lack of editing oversight at the publishing companies. If you don't hire your own line-editor, you are out of luck. Because the publishers aren't doing it any longer. This explains a lot. Because Lisa Keyplas' last book, Hello Stranger! -- could have done with a good line-editor. Someone to tell her -- okay, Lisa, scale back on the sex scenes, and work a bit on your plot and characters.
I've noticed a lot of the older romance novels are better edited. (Maybe not as politically correct...but definitely better edited.)
Writers can't line-edit themselves, and you can't get an amateur to do it. You have to hire a professional line-editor. Someone who knows how to look at it from a copy-edit perspective, structural perspective, and story perspective.
And a lot of people aren't trained to do that -- fans aren't. (I've read enough betaed fanfic to pick up on that.)
That's the one thing I've noticed with the genre books -- is a lack of good editing from the "publishing houses". Also the difficulty with e-books, is the formatting can screw things up. I picked up on that when I self-published. I had to make them fix the e-book, they screwed it up. (I hand-wave a lot of typos and mistakes in e-books, because I know that the transfer can cause issues. It's also why I think e-books shouldn't be more than $5.)
They're pretty hit and miss at the moment, though. It's so hard to get a sense of where quality. Reviews are completely useless with ARC reviews and fake reviews clogging the picture.
Oh, so true. I have a few Laura Kinsale's on tap -- which I may jump to after I finish reading Toni Adymei's YA fantasy, Children of Blood and Bone. Kinsale's good. Also a couple of Courtney Milan's. And another Lisa Keyplas...who I keep wanting to like much more than I do. I think things will even out eventually. Right now there's a content boom -- more content than there are readers. And a lot of it is not very good. I finally stopped rating romance novels on Good Reads.
Re: Romance novels
Without a doubt, I've had more luck with very disciplined indy (I think) writers (Penny Reid, Courtney Milan, Lauren Blakeley, Christina Lauren, Sarina Bowen). I do find that when they try to veer outside their niches, though, that it rarely goes smoothly.
Editors will make a comeback! Bold prediction. ;)
I like Laura Kinsale... Loretta Chase as well. Elisa Braden (another indy I think) has a terrific series out that isn't well publicized at all. Word of mouth, strictly.
Happy reading!
Re: Romance novels
And she's got a huge publisher behind her. Avon is the cream of the crop. There have also been issues with Julia Quinn's work (also Avon, I think). So... fewer editors, eh?
Yeah, I can't read Quinn -- she has lots of problems. So does Jennifer Probst. But they get a lot marketing push.
The big publishing houses put all their money behind promoting and marketing now. The editors are really "acquisitions editors" -- which means they don't edit or work the story, what they focus on is acquiring subsidiary rights, marketing it, finding an audience, and getting as big of one as possible. They've scaled back on line and copy editors. Actually I don't think they employ line editors at all. According to Spikewriter, who is an independently published romance novelist, most of the people she knows who are traditionally published hire their own line-editor and no longer count on the houses to help.
But it's been going in that direction for a while now. I remember when I first came to NYC in the 1990s and had these big dreams of entering the publishing world. What I discovered, made me want to run screaming in the opposite direction. Literally.
Haven't heard of Penny Reid, Lauren Blakeley, Christina Lauren, Sarina Bowen or Elisa Braden -- I may have to check those out.
My go to's have been Loretta Chase (read most of hers), Courtney Milan, Sherry Thomas (until she stopped writing romances and is now writing mysteries),
Eloisa James, Meredith Duran, Elizabeth Hoyt, Laura Kinsale,
Madeline Hunter, Joanne Bourne (I think that's her name -- she writes the Spymaster series), Kerrigyn Byrn (again think that's her name -- writes Victorian Rebels)...also Alisha Rai (hit and miss), Shannon Abe (who is a hit and miss)..
I've been getting all my recs from Smart Bitches. LOL! Prior to that ShipperX (who disappeared from DW to Twitter).
Re: Romance novels
I agree about Alisha Rai being streaky. Madeline Hunter is a fave of mine. I like her older stuff better. It had more backstory. Liz Carlyle is also very good, in a similar vein.
Re: Romance novels
Highlights of Good Place Podcast #36
Must have for D'Arcy Carden fans--come on, you know who you are.
Heh. Yes. Yes, we do.
-- At the start of the podcast, Ted Danson (as Michael) gives us some fun facts: the favorite podcast in the Good Place is Mozart and Jimi Hendrix talking about music; the favorite podcast in the Bad Place is Josef Stalin recapping The Bachelor.
-- When he was running through the plotline of S3 for the actors, Carden could tell Michael Schur had something special in mind for her from the tone of devilish glee in his voice. Her reaction to the pitch for "Janet(s)": "Is there a word that means both 'terrified' and 'honored'?"
-- The entire cast did a full (recorded) run-through of the episode, so Carden could work on the dialogue and blocking on the week off. (Future S3 DVD extra!)
-- The Good Place podcast specializes in fake commercials. This week's entry was for Ugly Mike's Pulled Meat, another Jacksonville nightmare of a restaurant. You could pick out a dozen health code violations from the audio alone.
[Separately, I heard the Nick Offerman Swanson Safe commercial, with Offerman reprising his Parks and Rec character of Ron Swanson. The best part of that one was a court-mandated warning at the end telling people not to be stupid enough to lock yourself in the safe. Yes, we're talking to you, Jason Mendoza.]
-- Janet's boundless void was actually a relatively small stage (40 sq.ft.?) painted bright white, with the connections from the walls to the floors rounded off (i.e., no corners). The illusion was so effective that Carden was terrified of crashing into the walls during the shoot.
-- In his only scene in the void, Danson took one look at the four poles standing in for the four Janets and muttered, "Oh, this is NOT going to be fun." Carden's response was pretty much: Gee, thanks Ted. But Danson did insist that the rest of the cast should be on call in case Carden needed help. Aw. Thanks, Ted!
-- The staging for the big romantic kiss at the end was so complicated that Carden called it "The least romantic thing EVER." At one point, Carden and Kristen Bell laughed in their mouths from the sheer ridiculousness of it all.
-- The scenes with Stephen Merchant (Wernham Hogg represent!) were filmed in the abandoned offices of Countrywide Financial, lending a chilling RW spin to a fanciful tale of bureaucracy run amok. (Well, maybe not "chilling": during the first few days of filming, the air conditioning broke down, and it was over 100 degrees in California.)
-- If you're wondering why Drew Goddard hasn't been in the credits much this year, he was off filming a movie.
-- This episode was supposed to air in January 2019, but Schur convinced NBC to move it before the break, so Carden wouldn't miss out on awards consideration.
-- Marc Anthony Jackson took a sort of pride in the fact that the Soul Squad knew it was time to leave Earth again when Shawn came through the portal. (He is an excellent host, and he has a great voice for audio streaming...)
Re: Highlights of Good Place Podcast #36
Yet, I torture myself with conference calls at my workplace, go figure. Then again conference calls are different -- they require interaction.