Television and Books...and reviews

1. Television shows...that I need to find time for:

* Good Omens just started on Amazon Prime and is getting good reviews.

* The Americans -- apparently had a great series ender and highly recommended by everyone who saw it. Hmmm...is it still on Netflix? (It's another series that keeps getting rec'd by everyone who shares my taste or has excellent taste. Now if I can just get past the first three episodes...)

* The Deadwood Movie -- not only got good reviews as a satisfying wrap-up to the series, but you don't have to have seen the series to enjoy it. (Hmmm..this is good news, it means I don't have to try and watch the whole series first.)

* Fleabag -- this also keeps getting rec'd. It's like Barry. Everyone who has good taste is raving about it. Now if I can just get past the first couple of episodes..

* The end of Killing Eve S2 (which is apparently controversial and not everyone loved?) -- I need to watch the last three episodes.

Oh..and The Good Fight is coming CBS on Sunday nights -- June 16. I need to remember to inform my mother. This is the legal political satire that is a spin off from The Good Wife by the Kings, and Ridely Scott. It stars Christine Baranski, Gary Cole, among others.

Plus the stuff I already have in my queue. Can we say too many television shows and too little time? And I may try The 100 again -- the icons on fandom icons look intriguing.

2. Making my way through "Where'd You Go Bernadette" -- which is not at all nice to Microsoft. Or Seattle for that matter. I'm amused by both -- since I visited Seattle last year to see my cousin, and I have a co-worker who raves about it and his son working at Microsoft constantly.

There's a heavy feminist theme in it -- about how women are treated in our society and in the workplace. Although I'm not sure if everyone will pick up on it? Co-worker didn't -- she's listening to the audio version, which is admittedly an entirely different experience. The book has a fascinating structure --( vague spoilers in case you want to read it blind )

But how this works as an audio book or a film, which it has been adapted into, is beyond me. The film's second trailer sort of spoiled me on what happens. So if you want to read the book without any plot spoilers? Don't watch the film trailer.
Also, the film trailer spoils you on the entire plot of the film. Which is odd.

As an aside -- why would you spoil the entire plot of a movie in the trailer??

What I told you above is on the book jacket. The marketers of the book spoil you on that. But I tried to hide it just in case.

I think it's very hard to go into content blind nowadays, you can of course, but it's not easy.

The other thing that I'm reading, because why just read one thing at a time? What would be the fun in that? Is Lucifer -- the newer version -- in it Lucifer was attacked by something in the void, and has teamed up with his brother Gabriel, whose lost his heart and blames Lucifer for it, to find the person or persons that killed their father. It's interesting and the art is REALLY good. Also it's heavily into Gaiman's world -- of the Sandman, Dream, Death, etc. I think Gabriel was made mortal though, although how he's walking about without a heart -- I've no clue. Also, weirdly, none of the Angels have sexual organs. So they are naked a lot, but there's no penis to speak of. In short, they look a bit like Naked Ken Dolls, except more interesting and better looking. Maybe Ken was meant to be an Angel -- hence the lack of genitilia? I digress.
( and I sort of continue to digress )

3. Still on books...while reading a guest review of the book Teach ME on Smart Bitches.. I got distracted by this:

This is the teacher that recommended Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and countless other books to me.

Okay, I know this is...how to put it? Unpopular opinion time? Because most of my DW correspondence list, or at least the LJ one loved Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. And I read it on their fannish recommendations.

But.

I don't understand the appeal of this book. The appeal of this novel -- dear friends, is completely and utterly lost on me. But this is true of a lot of hyped books that I've read and writers. Also television series and films. So it's nothing new to have an unpopular opinion...

( Read more... )

I don't know, I just remember being terribly disappointed by Tam Lin, and that could well be because it was hyped up as the best thing ever. This is never good. It's better to go into something with low expectations, less likely to be disappointed in it. It's probably not a good idea to read a book that a fan recommends...at least not until you read a lot of negative review of it first? On Good Reads and Amazon, I will often read the three star reviews. I skip the two and one for the most part, and the five. Mainly because the person tends to be incoherent with glee or incoherent with spite. Three star reviews are more balanced and tend to tell you more about the book and less about the reviewer.

If the book only has five or four star reviews -- I've learned to ignore it. If it only has one or two star? Same. But if it has a little of all of the above? I'm interested -- because the more diverse the responses -- the more interesting the book.

Also, when reading a five star review -- if the reviewer never makes it clear why they like it or can't do it in a manner that is coherent, the review tells you little.

I have a friend who never reads reviews -- she states that they are either rants or filled with spoilers. I love them, but so many people can't write them.