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shadowkat1. Both The Good Place and the Connors disappointed me these past two weeks. I knew where they were headed of course, but I'm annoyed at the writers for going the predictable route, and basically hitting the reset button.
For me, a story is only interesting if it continues to evolve, and the characters get explored in new ways. Reverting back annoys me.
Well that, and ...
*
While there's some nice sight gags and word gags here...and the philosophy for the most part works, I did not like the S1 set-up. I got bored.
S2 worked, because they pushed out of S1 set up and moved on to other things rather quickly. But S3 seems to be going back there again. And still nothing is being resolved.
They appear to be building a sort of purgatory, where humans get to try to become better, if they fail -- hell, if they don't heaven. Except both hell and heaven appear to be exceedingly annoying.
Ted Danson has saved so many jokes for me...as has Kristen Bell, the guy playing Jason, the one playing Chidi, and Tahani, it's not even funny.
I'm hoping they don't just repeat S1. Because...
They may not. We may get S1, except with Eleanor running things. Eleanor and Michael are a great pairing. They play well off of each other. So we shall see.
*
Damn it. I like Ben and Darlene. I despise David and preferred him with Dominatrix Blue. David is such a putz. That's actually the best description -- a putz. Darlene deserves better -- someone more like her Dad, who has a sardonic sense of humor and is secure with himself. In short, not a putz.
(I don't despise the actor, although he plays a putz on Big Bang Theory as well, just a far more intelligent and clever putz -- you'd have to be in order to keep up with Sheldon.)
I also liked Emilio and Becky...although that could still happen. It's a better story-line, very topical and considering the fan base for the Connors -- well targeted.
I wanted Darlene to move to Chicago with Ben, but I knew she wasn't going to. I knew the moment he asked, that the writers would hunt a way to keep her from going. (I think having David pop up again was lazy writing, but I saw that coming a mile away considering Blue wanted a family and David, well doesn't want another one. He just wants a girlfriend who will beat him up occasionally.) Dammit. They couldn't have them date a while longer and save the whole Chicago move in thing for the second or third season? Ben and Darlene make me laugh. David and Darlene make me want to throw rotten tomatoes at the television set. I don't find them funny, I find them sad. I would fall for Ben. I'd kick David in the gonads. (I have a sinking suspicion Darlene's family would agree with me.)
Only plus side of the episode, and funniest bit was Jackie kicking Mathew Broderick's Peter to the curb. (Ah Ferris, you have not aged well. You look and act like a putz.)
Still loving John Goodman's Dan. But damn, I'm annoyed by how they handled the Ben/Darlene romance.
So typical.
2. My Dad is getting worse. Like the news, I'm trying to ignore it. I can't. I have to call my mother nightly and listen to her tell me about it. It is both insanely painful and weirdly amusing, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the universe apparently has a wicked sense of humor.
Mother: He lied to the doctor and said he only has hallucinations once a month. He has them six times a day.
Me: Oh god.
Mother: He asked me yesterday who was going to manage the house with all the people there, while we're away. I said, what people? There are no people. (My mother hasn't quite gotten the knack of playing along with him yet.)
Me: Okay.
Mother: The other day he introduced me to a neighbor as his sister-in-law. The neighbor said how funny that was, since I looked exactly like his wife, and wondered if maybe they cloned me.
Me: Well, at least they have a sense of humor about it.
Mother: he keeps thinking you're still here. And last night he was snappish and aggravated, he didn't know where he was and wasn't quite sure who I was half the time.
But hey on the bright side? He doesn't have Parkinisons. Just dementia. They've changed his meds again, he doesn't need a catheter, and he's peeing a lot -- too much water retention. His heart was enlarged and there was water retention in his lungs, causing issues with breathing. I don't think he's getting enough oxygen to the brain, and with the meds, urinary tract infections, and now some pneumonia in the lungs...
My mother tells me she's losing him a little at a time and it's really painful. (Yeah, I miss him -- the Dad I could talk to about books, politics, history...he's fading away. It hurts. But it could be much worse -- he's not mean. My Dad has never been mean.) There's nothing I can do of course, except call her daily and talk to her. I wish I had a daughter or a house to talk to her about, like my brother, but I just got work, our soap opera, romance novels we've both read (I rec'd Laura Kinsale to her), and my sense of humor. She can't read anything deeper right now than a fluffy romance novel, where things end well.
I get that. I'm in the same place. I'm back to reading X-men comics, and looking forward to my favorite character's return from the death aka resurrection. What I love about X-men comics, is major characters never stay dead, they always return, and they don't get old or rather they don't get older than 45. Somewhat comforting. Also they fight bad guys and stick up for human rights. Also they are sort of outsiders.
My other comfort is our soap opera, which we've been watching together for over 20 years, give or take. And well, romance novels -- which we both read and discuss.
Hey, some people may get their kicks on Route 66 (my cousin recently visited it), I get mine where I can find them. Especially when life gets inexplicably painful. This, I knew going in, was not going to be an easy year. 2019 is going to make 2016-2018 look like a cakewalk. I know that. So, I've decided to take care of myself. To comfort myself with guilty cultural pleasures, ignore the news as much as possible, take breaks, see doctors, do yoga and meditation daily, and try to partake of things I enjoy as much as possible. And most important of all? To take it one moment at a time, and remind myself constantly that life is made of a myriad of little moments, all of which are temporary and will float past you like little wisps on the wind.
4. Speaking of guilty cultural comforts...and as mentioned, briefly above, I'm a huge X-men Cyclops fan. I think you may have figured that out by now? (If you've been reading this journal since 2012, you must have.) No one else on my flist appears to be - a fan. (I know I asked for fanfic and icons, and the fandom did NOT deliver. Loki and Iron Man, yes. Killing Eve? No problem. Doctor Who? Not a problem. MCU movies...not a problem.
Cyclops, no. Folks? I only like Loki and Iron Man, because I like anything Tom Hiddleston and Robert Downy Jr decide to do. I'd watch those actors read the phone book. The characters...shrug. Can someone please friend me who is a die-hard Cyclops fan? Please? Preferrably someone who agrees with my perspective on the character? So I can have long insane discussions about him? And squee over his return?
The comics fandom universe hates me. {Or just isn't into the X-men comcis and only watches the movies...and television series, because, hello, cheaper.) Or I used up all my fan privileges with Spike.
Oh, well, probably for the best. Sometimes guilty pleasures are best kept to oneself.
Besides fandoms can be weird about characters. I remember getting into weird arguments with Spike shippers. They did not view Spike the same way I did nor like him for the same reasons. I have a feeling I'd have the same problem with Cyclops fans. I tend to like characters that are really complicated, tragic, and deeply flawed. Also with a dry wit, smart, and pro-active.
Anyhow, in case there happens to be someone lurking out there who loves Cyke.
Here's a link to a cool bunch of blog posts that I've been reading that defend the character. I really like the one I just linked to, because it basically provides my argument to the Cyke haters ...and yes, my favorite character has the haters. (Fandom. Sigh. Fandom. Is it possible to love a fictional character in a fandom and not have a bunch of people who hate that character with the same passion? To date? I have not found one character in which this is not the case. Why this is, I don't know. I think it's just par for the course of being human -- there's always going to be someone out there who disagrees vehemently with you on pretty much everything, even if it is something as innocuous as the difference between cream and beige paint.)
And yes the haters love one of my other fav's Wolverine (who well I loved until the character was overexposed and retconned to death and way over done...Wolverine gives whole new meaning to the term woobiefied.) Wolvie and Cyke are to the X-men fandom, what Spike and Angel were to the Buffy fandom. Except I loved both Spike and Angel (for the most part -- Angel gets on my nerves at times.) and both Cyke and Wolverine (for the most part...Wolvie gets on my nerves at times). Angel and Wolverine have a lot in common, both have a Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or Beast thing going for them that gets old at different points.
The fans? Wolvie fans tend to hate Cyke in the fandom, and Cyke fans tend to tolerate Wolvie. (I like both, particularly when they are teamed up.)
In regards to the above link, a lot of the Cyke haters have issues with how he's treated the women in his life. I read the comics, I have no issues. I completely agree with the writer of that post. I didn't like Madelyn Prior that much -- I was rooting for Lee Forester at the time. I thought Maddie was whiny. She knew who Scott was when she married him, yet she keeps trying to turn him into someone else. Does not work. I can see why he left her -- I'd have left her, it was a suffocating relationship. Of course the problem is he has to leave his son as well -- which I found interesting and tragic, considering how he'd been abandoned by multiple fathers. I like the fact he makes horrible but human mistakes.
But the read is fascinating because it points out a few things going on with Marvel at the time that I didn't know about -- which is Claremount didn't know what to do with the original five X-men, so sort of slowly wrote most of them out. Giving Scott a happy ending, or so he thought, with the Jean Clone. And killing Jean off. Then Marvel decided to start a new book with the original five called X-Factor -- which I loved, because Cyclops and Jean were my favorites.
Often, as in any long-running soap opera, the characters lives are dictated by the whims of crazy-ass writers. But good character and story moments were often the result. By seeing characters make horrible mistakes, we can vicariously learn from them. Also, I find it comforting...to see someone screw up and be human.
A bit of back story? Unlike most comic book fans that I've met, I came to my love of the art form late. I did not fall in love with it as a kid. It wasn't that I wasn't exposed. I was. My brother and his friends used to draw comic book superheroes when they were ten years old. The comic books they had were -- I thought -- boring, male centric, and the art crappy. Tintin was probably the best of the bunch, and it was male centric, boring, British and not in a good way, and didn't do a thing for me. (Sorry Tintin fans.) Asterix, which I discovered in France, was just silly -- it did help with my French, however. (It was comic about an ancient Gaul tripping about Rome and fighting Romans...reminded me a bit of the comic strip BC both in style and humor.) But that was it.
Then, my freshman year of college circa 1985 -- I was hanging out in the lounge watching Star Trek. A group of us would watch Star Trek at 3PM every day after class. Then discuss the episodes. We also watched Star Trek Next Generation. One of the people in the lounge, a fellow freshman, Jessica Betterly, was a X-men comic book fan. So we started talking about comic books. I phoo-phooed them at first, until she began to regale me with the history of the X-men. I was enthralled. So one day, we went up to her dorm room and she pulled out her treasure chest. It was a brown box filled with comics, in nice clear plastic cases. Together we'd pull them out and read through them. I was hooked.
She invited me to tag along to the comic book store, and I began to buy my own and search for the older issues...the RA on that wing, Maria Nazarro, who was about 4 feet tall if that, was also a huge comic book fan. And she'd discuss the character arcs with me and the back stories. And there was another gal in the group who collected them -- who I've reunited with on FB. (I don't think she collects them now.)
It opened a new world for me. These were not the male centric, poorly drawn crappy books that my brother was looking at -- these were cool and adult. They had political themes. Dealt with human rights issues. A long story arc. Experimental issues. I fell in love. And I haven't really fallen out. Did go on hiatus at different points -- when I fell in love with something else. Buffy for example, who ironically had Scott's last name, Summers, and was to a degree modeled after him by Joss Whedon, who also based various characters in the Buffyverse on his first loves, the X-men, borrowing heavily from that verse. So it's probably not surprising that I flipped over to Buffy eventually.
I didn't come into it during the Silver Age or 1960s, with the boys club and Marvel Girl, I came into it during the 1980s, and read the 1970s arc -- Dark Phoenix was the first arc that I read, along with books that came directly before and after. Dark Phoenix was the arc that I fell in love with.
And from it, I read Watchmen, Dark Knight, etc. But none of those came close to the X-men. I haunted comic book stores in Overland Park, Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, Colorado Springs, Colorado, London, England, and New York City. It was my treat. My guilty pleasure. And I didn't tell anyone. I hid them in long white boxes, inside pristine clear covers. Until one day I finally gave them all away to my Super (at the old apartment) George Moonpark, the next door neighbor's kid, and a comic book store in Hilton Head, SC. I collect them now digitally, which is easier space wise, and easier to hide.
Much prefer the digital -- it's also easier to read.
I love them like I love chocolate bars, and chocolate mousse, Buffy, daytime soaps, romance novels, fantasy and science fiction. Like I love writing stories, even if I'm the only one to read them. And live theaterical performances, and musicals. I love them the same way some people love football or Doctor Who or collecting baseball cards.
We love what we love. The Universe be dammed. And it's good to love things and people in a world blasting you with hate on a 24/7 news cycle. I'm learning to focus on the love and to...ignore the hate...let it roll on by like an angry thunder cloud threatening rain.
This morning I saw a giant white moon floating in a rapidly lightening blue sky...until it suddenly disappeared. I remember standing there near the subway stop, in the crisp cold air, thinking aloud...wait, where did it ago? Where did it go?
Life is like that full of wonderful things...that disappear, float like sand through fingers, impossible to hold onto. I think because of that...I love the things I can read over and over again, always seeing something new. That don't seemingly disappear...like the moon.
For me, a story is only interesting if it continues to evolve, and the characters get explored in new ways. Reverting back annoys me.
Well that, and ...
*
While there's some nice sight gags and word gags here...and the philosophy for the most part works, I did not like the S1 set-up. I got bored.
S2 worked, because they pushed out of S1 set up and moved on to other things rather quickly. But S3 seems to be going back there again. And still nothing is being resolved.
They appear to be building a sort of purgatory, where humans get to try to become better, if they fail -- hell, if they don't heaven. Except both hell and heaven appear to be exceedingly annoying.
Ted Danson has saved so many jokes for me...as has Kristen Bell, the guy playing Jason, the one playing Chidi, and Tahani, it's not even funny.
I'm hoping they don't just repeat S1. Because...
They may not. We may get S1, except with Eleanor running things. Eleanor and Michael are a great pairing. They play well off of each other. So we shall see.
*
Damn it. I like Ben and Darlene. I despise David and preferred him with Dominatrix Blue. David is such a putz. That's actually the best description -- a putz. Darlene deserves better -- someone more like her Dad, who has a sardonic sense of humor and is secure with himself. In short, not a putz.
(I don't despise the actor, although he plays a putz on Big Bang Theory as well, just a far more intelligent and clever putz -- you'd have to be in order to keep up with Sheldon.)
I also liked Emilio and Becky...although that could still happen. It's a better story-line, very topical and considering the fan base for the Connors -- well targeted.
I wanted Darlene to move to Chicago with Ben, but I knew she wasn't going to. I knew the moment he asked, that the writers would hunt a way to keep her from going. (I think having David pop up again was lazy writing, but I saw that coming a mile away considering Blue wanted a family and David, well doesn't want another one. He just wants a girlfriend who will beat him up occasionally.) Dammit. They couldn't have them date a while longer and save the whole Chicago move in thing for the second or third season? Ben and Darlene make me laugh. David and Darlene make me want to throw rotten tomatoes at the television set. I don't find them funny, I find them sad. I would fall for Ben. I'd kick David in the gonads. (I have a sinking suspicion Darlene's family would agree with me.)
Only plus side of the episode, and funniest bit was Jackie kicking Mathew Broderick's Peter to the curb. (Ah Ferris, you have not aged well. You look and act like a putz.)
Still loving John Goodman's Dan. But damn, I'm annoyed by how they handled the Ben/Darlene romance.
So typical.
2. My Dad is getting worse. Like the news, I'm trying to ignore it. I can't. I have to call my mother nightly and listen to her tell me about it. It is both insanely painful and weirdly amusing, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the universe apparently has a wicked sense of humor.
Mother: He lied to the doctor and said he only has hallucinations once a month. He has them six times a day.
Me: Oh god.
Mother: He asked me yesterday who was going to manage the house with all the people there, while we're away. I said, what people? There are no people. (My mother hasn't quite gotten the knack of playing along with him yet.)
Me: Okay.
Mother: The other day he introduced me to a neighbor as his sister-in-law. The neighbor said how funny that was, since I looked exactly like his wife, and wondered if maybe they cloned me.
Me: Well, at least they have a sense of humor about it.
Mother: he keeps thinking you're still here. And last night he was snappish and aggravated, he didn't know where he was and wasn't quite sure who I was half the time.
But hey on the bright side? He doesn't have Parkinisons. Just dementia. They've changed his meds again, he doesn't need a catheter, and he's peeing a lot -- too much water retention. His heart was enlarged and there was water retention in his lungs, causing issues with breathing. I don't think he's getting enough oxygen to the brain, and with the meds, urinary tract infections, and now some pneumonia in the lungs...
My mother tells me she's losing him a little at a time and it's really painful. (Yeah, I miss him -- the Dad I could talk to about books, politics, history...he's fading away. It hurts. But it could be much worse -- he's not mean. My Dad has never been mean.) There's nothing I can do of course, except call her daily and talk to her. I wish I had a daughter or a house to talk to her about, like my brother, but I just got work, our soap opera, romance novels we've both read (I rec'd Laura Kinsale to her), and my sense of humor. She can't read anything deeper right now than a fluffy romance novel, where things end well.
I get that. I'm in the same place. I'm back to reading X-men comics, and looking forward to my favorite character's return from the death aka resurrection. What I love about X-men comics, is major characters never stay dead, they always return, and they don't get old or rather they don't get older than 45. Somewhat comforting. Also they fight bad guys and stick up for human rights. Also they are sort of outsiders.
My other comfort is our soap opera, which we've been watching together for over 20 years, give or take. And well, romance novels -- which we both read and discuss.
Hey, some people may get their kicks on Route 66 (my cousin recently visited it), I get mine where I can find them. Especially when life gets inexplicably painful. This, I knew going in, was not going to be an easy year. 2019 is going to make 2016-2018 look like a cakewalk. I know that. So, I've decided to take care of myself. To comfort myself with guilty cultural pleasures, ignore the news as much as possible, take breaks, see doctors, do yoga and meditation daily, and try to partake of things I enjoy as much as possible. And most important of all? To take it one moment at a time, and remind myself constantly that life is made of a myriad of little moments, all of which are temporary and will float past you like little wisps on the wind.
4. Speaking of guilty cultural comforts...and as mentioned, briefly above, I'm a huge X-men Cyclops fan. I think you may have figured that out by now? (If you've been reading this journal since 2012, you must have.) No one else on my flist appears to be - a fan. (I know I asked for fanfic and icons, and the fandom did NOT deliver. Loki and Iron Man, yes. Killing Eve? No problem. Doctor Who? Not a problem. MCU movies...not a problem.
Cyclops, no. Folks? I only like Loki and Iron Man, because I like anything Tom Hiddleston and Robert Downy Jr decide to do. I'd watch those actors read the phone book. The characters...shrug. Can someone please friend me who is a die-hard Cyclops fan? Please? Preferrably someone who agrees with my perspective on the character? So I can have long insane discussions about him? And squee over his return?
The comics fandom universe hates me. {Or just isn't into the X-men comcis and only watches the movies...and television series, because, hello, cheaper.) Or I used up all my fan privileges with Spike.
Oh, well, probably for the best. Sometimes guilty pleasures are best kept to oneself.
Besides fandoms can be weird about characters. I remember getting into weird arguments with Spike shippers. They did not view Spike the same way I did nor like him for the same reasons. I have a feeling I'd have the same problem with Cyclops fans. I tend to like characters that are really complicated, tragic, and deeply flawed. Also with a dry wit, smart, and pro-active.
Anyhow, in case there happens to be someone lurking out there who loves Cyke.
Here's a link to a cool bunch of blog posts that I've been reading that defend the character. I really like the one I just linked to, because it basically provides my argument to the Cyke haters ...and yes, my favorite character has the haters. (Fandom. Sigh. Fandom. Is it possible to love a fictional character in a fandom and not have a bunch of people who hate that character with the same passion? To date? I have not found one character in which this is not the case. Why this is, I don't know. I think it's just par for the course of being human -- there's always going to be someone out there who disagrees vehemently with you on pretty much everything, even if it is something as innocuous as the difference between cream and beige paint.)
And yes the haters love one of my other fav's Wolverine (who well I loved until the character was overexposed and retconned to death and way over done...Wolverine gives whole new meaning to the term woobiefied.) Wolvie and Cyke are to the X-men fandom, what Spike and Angel were to the Buffy fandom. Except I loved both Spike and Angel (for the most part -- Angel gets on my nerves at times.) and both Cyke and Wolverine (for the most part...Wolvie gets on my nerves at times). Angel and Wolverine have a lot in common, both have a Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or Beast thing going for them that gets old at different points.
The fans? Wolvie fans tend to hate Cyke in the fandom, and Cyke fans tend to tolerate Wolvie. (I like both, particularly when they are teamed up.)
In regards to the above link, a lot of the Cyke haters have issues with how he's treated the women in his life. I read the comics, I have no issues. I completely agree with the writer of that post. I didn't like Madelyn Prior that much -- I was rooting for Lee Forester at the time. I thought Maddie was whiny. She knew who Scott was when she married him, yet she keeps trying to turn him into someone else. Does not work. I can see why he left her -- I'd have left her, it was a suffocating relationship. Of course the problem is he has to leave his son as well -- which I found interesting and tragic, considering how he'd been abandoned by multiple fathers. I like the fact he makes horrible but human mistakes.
But the read is fascinating because it points out a few things going on with Marvel at the time that I didn't know about -- which is Claremount didn't know what to do with the original five X-men, so sort of slowly wrote most of them out. Giving Scott a happy ending, or so he thought, with the Jean Clone. And killing Jean off. Then Marvel decided to start a new book with the original five called X-Factor -- which I loved, because Cyclops and Jean were my favorites.
Often, as in any long-running soap opera, the characters lives are dictated by the whims of crazy-ass writers. But good character and story moments were often the result. By seeing characters make horrible mistakes, we can vicariously learn from them. Also, I find it comforting...to see someone screw up and be human.
A bit of back story? Unlike most comic book fans that I've met, I came to my love of the art form late. I did not fall in love with it as a kid. It wasn't that I wasn't exposed. I was. My brother and his friends used to draw comic book superheroes when they were ten years old. The comic books they had were -- I thought -- boring, male centric, and the art crappy. Tintin was probably the best of the bunch, and it was male centric, boring, British and not in a good way, and didn't do a thing for me. (Sorry Tintin fans.) Asterix, which I discovered in France, was just silly -- it did help with my French, however. (It was comic about an ancient Gaul tripping about Rome and fighting Romans...reminded me a bit of the comic strip BC both in style and humor.) But that was it.
Then, my freshman year of college circa 1985 -- I was hanging out in the lounge watching Star Trek. A group of us would watch Star Trek at 3PM every day after class. Then discuss the episodes. We also watched Star Trek Next Generation. One of the people in the lounge, a fellow freshman, Jessica Betterly, was a X-men comic book fan. So we started talking about comic books. I phoo-phooed them at first, until she began to regale me with the history of the X-men. I was enthralled. So one day, we went up to her dorm room and she pulled out her treasure chest. It was a brown box filled with comics, in nice clear plastic cases. Together we'd pull them out and read through them. I was hooked.
She invited me to tag along to the comic book store, and I began to buy my own and search for the older issues...the RA on that wing, Maria Nazarro, who was about 4 feet tall if that, was also a huge comic book fan. And she'd discuss the character arcs with me and the back stories. And there was another gal in the group who collected them -- who I've reunited with on FB. (I don't think she collects them now.)
It opened a new world for me. These were not the male centric, poorly drawn crappy books that my brother was looking at -- these were cool and adult. They had political themes. Dealt with human rights issues. A long story arc. Experimental issues. I fell in love. And I haven't really fallen out. Did go on hiatus at different points -- when I fell in love with something else. Buffy for example, who ironically had Scott's last name, Summers, and was to a degree modeled after him by Joss Whedon, who also based various characters in the Buffyverse on his first loves, the X-men, borrowing heavily from that verse. So it's probably not surprising that I flipped over to Buffy eventually.
I didn't come into it during the Silver Age or 1960s, with the boys club and Marvel Girl, I came into it during the 1980s, and read the 1970s arc -- Dark Phoenix was the first arc that I read, along with books that came directly before and after. Dark Phoenix was the arc that I fell in love with.
And from it, I read Watchmen, Dark Knight, etc. But none of those came close to the X-men. I haunted comic book stores in Overland Park, Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, Colorado Springs, Colorado, London, England, and New York City. It was my treat. My guilty pleasure. And I didn't tell anyone. I hid them in long white boxes, inside pristine clear covers. Until one day I finally gave them all away to my Super (at the old apartment) George Moonpark, the next door neighbor's kid, and a comic book store in Hilton Head, SC. I collect them now digitally, which is easier space wise, and easier to hide.
Much prefer the digital -- it's also easier to read.
I love them like I love chocolate bars, and chocolate mousse, Buffy, daytime soaps, romance novels, fantasy and science fiction. Like I love writing stories, even if I'm the only one to read them. And live theaterical performances, and musicals. I love them the same way some people love football or Doctor Who or collecting baseball cards.
We love what we love. The Universe be dammed. And it's good to love things and people in a world blasting you with hate on a 24/7 news cycle. I'm learning to focus on the love and to...ignore the hate...let it roll on by like an angry thunder cloud threatening rain.
This morning I saw a giant white moon floating in a rapidly lightening blue sky...until it suddenly disappeared. I remember standing there near the subway stop, in the crisp cold air, thinking aloud...wait, where did it ago? Where did it go?
Life is like that full of wonderful things...that disappear, float like sand through fingers, impossible to hold onto. I think because of that...I love the things I can read over and over again, always seeing something new. That don't seemingly disappear...like the moon.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-23 05:51 pm (UTC)Strictly on a dramatic level, bringing back David was unnecessary. The collective family crises in the final episode would have been more than enough reason for Darlene to stay in Lanford. But keeping Galecki in the mix is a no-lose for Gilbert and Co. They love him. The audience loves Galecki, too, and with Big Bang Theory ending, he could be around more in a hypothetical Conners season 2. Predictable, yes, but they had to go for it.
(Personally, I'm with Harris. I would've been waving to Lanford on the way to Chicago, yelling, "Later, bitches!")
Peter wasn't just a putz--he was a straight up asshole. A lying, narcicisstic, manipulative asshole. Broderick played him perfectly. His final shot--"Don't let your insecurity ruin your relationship with another man"--was a dagger. Great villain turn from an actor who never plays villains.
But the highlight here was Metcalf finally(!) getting a scene worthy of her talent. Going back to the Lunch Box--"the last place we were happy." (Oh Jackie. I almost lost it there.) Metcalf brought us all the way down, yet somehow ended on a note of hope. She really is that good.
On The Good Place:
Is life just a series of events progressing in a purely linear fashion? Or do we circle around to certain points, like a loop in the Jeremy Bearimy, only at a higher level of understanding?
We're pretty much back to where it all started, but the characters are in much different places. As you said, Eleanor (and the rest of the Soul Squad) are now at least partially running this experiment, and maybe it's their turn to find out how unpredictable and exasperating guinea pigs can be....
Is this new arrangement Purgatory or a Garden of Eden? It already has a snake (Derek).
I have no way of guessing which way Michael Schur is going to zag, but I look forward to getting my mind blown tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-23 06:41 pm (UTC)While I'm this/close to giving up on both shows, much in the same way I finally bailed on Big Bang. We'll see.
The only thing I agree with you on - regarding the Connors is the Jackie/Peter situation. Broderick did a great job with the guy. Now, if they can just get rid of villain number 2, David. Life will be good. Sorry I stopped watching Roseanne when David entered the picture years ago. I liked Glenn Quinn...or Mark, but Darlene's taste in men sucked until Ben.
Good Place? Let's see where it goes...so far underwhelmed.
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Date: 2019-01-24 12:36 pm (UTC)And that would be disappointing.
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Date: 2019-01-24 01:15 pm (UTC)Sigh, the switch of evil Michael for good Michael - can they be any more cliché and predictable? I need to lower my expectations.
See? this is why me and American sitcoms are unmixy things. I get bored very easily. ;-)
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Date: 2019-01-24 07:29 pm (UTC)On a different note - what did you think of the Oscar nominations?
"Who Rigs Every Oscar Night? We Do!"
Date: 2019-01-24 08:51 pm (UTC)Welllll.....
* No Michael B. Jordan?! Seriously?! People were talking about his performance for MONTHS. They gave BP seven noms but skipped Jordan?! WTF?
* Rooting for Spiderverse to win best animated, disappointed that "Sunflower" wasn't picked up for best song. Hearing it all over.
* I find it absolutely hilarious that Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated for Best Picture. It's not a movie--it's the Queen Experience. I mean, I love the band, but come on....
* Still want to see The Favourite at some point, but regardless, will root for Olivia Colman because she is always amazing.
* Blackkklansman and Green Book are both "feel good" movies about battling racism, with Spike Lee's joint having a bit more grit. If Beale Street Could Talk and Sorry to Bother You aren't nearly so optimistic. Guess which two got the nominations?
Re: "Who Rigs Every Oscar Night? We Do!"
Date: 2019-01-25 02:31 am (UTC)I talked to my film buff co-worker about this today. (Think Chidi but with much darker skin). He'd seen some of these films. And I asked what he thought of the nominations. He hadn't looked at them yet -- when he did, he was...befuddled.
He did NOT like Blackkklansman. (Agreed with us on it more or less. That it was too over-the-top, and he did not understand how Adam Driver even got nominated. I got to agree, I don't either.) But he LOVED "If Beale Street Could Talk" and thought the director of that film was robbed. (From what I've heard on the street, Green Book is old school, white liberal feel good, and If Beale Street is great film-making and must see.) He didn't understand how Viggo M got a best actor nod and not the others. And stated, and I thought this was interesting, that if Black Panther and Blackkklansman hadn't gotten a nod -- they'd have probably had a problem, one of those films had to.)
I was amused by his reaction. (As you know, I do not think highly of these awards shows -- they are rigged. I mean hello, they gave Ghandi best picture one year.)
I find it absolutely hilarious that Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated for Best Picture. It's not a movie--it's the Queen Experience. I mean, I love the band, but come on....
Hee Hee. Considering Wales desperately wanted to see it..until she read the reviews and bailed. (She's a HUGE Queen fan). Although my brother loved it, but it is worth bearing in mind that my brother also loved the original Incredible Hulk Movie by Ang Lee (that we saw together way back when), and considers it among the best superhero films ever, and adores Titantic. (So I tend to take my brother's views with a hefty grain of salt.) Apparently the Academy agreed with my brother? Also they love biopics. Walk Through Fire and Ray and Theory of Everything and that Alan Turning biopic all got nominated. (I do not like biopics, I find them boring. Unless there are cool musical numbers to keep me entertained.)
But it amuses me to no end that it is picking up all these awards. Won the Golden Globe.
I probably should see it at some point...although I'm more a fan of some of Queen's songs, than a Queen fan.
No Michael B. Jordan?! Seriously?! People were talking about his performance for MONTHS. They gave BP seven noms but skipped Jordan?! WTF?
He should have gotten the nod over either Adam Driver or Viggo. I'd say superhero flick, and villain, but hey Heath Ledger got the nod in Dark Knight. I don't know why they overlooked him.
disappointed that "Sunflower" wasn't picked up for best song. Hearing it all over.
Hmm...haven't heard it. Should check it out. Shallow is getting a lot of press, I have a feeling it will be Star is Born's sole win like in the Globes.
I'd like to see Vice and the Favorite at some point. Also Bohemian Rhapsody. Don't feel a need to see Green Book (feel like I've seen it before). Would however love to see Into the Spiderverse -- so may hunt for it.
Roma? Rahael loved it. Co-workers were bored by it.
I found the list of movies rather interesting. I pretty much know who will win the acting: Glenn Close (The Wife), Christian Bale (VICE), Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), and Marshala Ali (Green Book), with Shallow for Best Song, Into the Spiderverse for Animated (unless they do something stupid and give it to Ralph Breaks the Internet -- and that animation irritates me, having seen the first one), everything else? I've no clue.
"And the Winner Is...."
Date: 2019-01-25 04:16 pm (UTC)Best Actor - Christian Bale. (Agreed. Impersonating an infamous historical figure plus tons o' makeup? Oscar voters eat that shit up.)
Best Actress - Olivia Colman. (Nobody saw The Wife, and I don't think The Favorite will win anything else, because Weisz and Stone will split the vote.
Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali. (I thought this was Michael B. Jordan's award all year. Shows what I know.)
Best Supporting Actress - Regina King. (Beale Street consolation prize.)
Best Song - "Shallows" (Well, yeah.)
Best Animated Film - Incredibles 2. (Because the Academy loves a winner. And they're lazy. Outside shots: Spiderverse and Isle of Dogs.)
Best Picture: I honestly don't know. Could Roma win best foreign film AND best picture? (I think Cuaron is a lock for best director.). So....Vice? Green Book? A Star is Born? BlacKkklansman? Black Panther? It might be a tossup.
Re: "And the Winner Is...."
Date: 2019-01-25 06:17 pm (UTC)I read John Scalzi's blog after I wrote my response. He used to be a professional film critic and makes some good points.
Best Picture -- he says will either be Roma or Star is Born, mainly because - Green Book has a lot of political issues, Bohemian has Bryan Singer (so political issues as well), Black Panther is a superhero film, Black KKK is well...and Vice political. The Favorite has an outside chance -- it's popularity has waned. (People I know who saw it -- were bored.)
William Dafoe for Best Actor, not Christian Bale (politics and sentimentality - Dafoe hasn't won , Bale has, and Bale pissed people off at the Globes.)
Glenn Close for Best Actress not Olivia Coleman (see #2 - Close has never won and delivered an amazing performance according to actor friends, while Coleman is relatively new.)
Best supporting? He thinks Sam Elliot. (He thinks Green Book may get shut out, negative publicity).
I don't see Incredibles 2 getting it. Sequel. Not that good. (It's admittedly the only one I've seen of the bunch.)
A lot of this is socio-political.