Good Place Podcast, Jay & Miles X-Plain, and Guilty Pleasures

[shadowkat]

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..

Comments

Re: Soaps

[shadowkat]

I haven't seen Days since...the 1980s? I have no idea who Chloe is.

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

[sculpturelle]

I know that there are two factions regarding Kelly Monaco. People either love her or hate her. That probably testifies to her having real screen presence and enormous charisma. It just works in reverse on me. LOL. I think I shouldn't describe what bugs me because it's really just a gut, non-sensical reflex on my part.

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

[shadowkat]

Oh, Hillary B. Smith has now had surgery -- she was on GH in a small role and her face does not move. Also the actress who plays Monica. It's a shame, because there are good surgeons out there and bad ones. Botox by the way isn't surgery, it's injections and not as invasive. The guy who used to play Duke Lavery - also had work done -- because his face did not move. But there are good surgeons out there - Meryl Streep has had it -- but she has a good one. Life is not fair.

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

[sculpturelle]

Oh no! Hillary! :(

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

[shadowkat]

I don't like Botox, because too much tends to freeze the face. I have an actress friend who is 70 that got a face-lift, it hasn't really frozen her face, but I think she'd have been better off without it -- you can tell.

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

[shadowkat]

Suzanne Lucci --- I have to admit I didn't like the character she played. I've been told she's lovely, but she and SMG got into a fight. And it resulted in SMG leaving the soap. I think they've since let bygones be bygones...but Lucci was a diva, and part of that whole deal. Geary also was a bit of a Diva on GH. Now, GH doesn't really have one, since Maurice Bernard isn't really diva type and it has the largest cast in daytime with over 75 people.