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1. In the Jungle: Inside the Long Hidden Genealogy of The Lion Sleeps Tonight
( excerpt )
2. An innocent man spent 46 years in prison, and made a plan to kill the man who put him there
Not what I thought.
( excerpt )
3. Botanical Sexism Cultivates Home-Grown Allergies?
( excerpt )
4. Television Shows.
*Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist - the second to final episode - wherein I spent almost the entire episode yelling at the writers to kill off frigging Max. I wanted Max hit or run over randomly by a bus. And for Mitch to survive instead. What can I say, I've been irritable lately? Also Max's storyline had ruined a perfectly good show - not to mention any contact who came into contact with the abysmal cesspool of a black hole that is Max. He doesn't die, unfortunately. ( spoilers and rant about the horrible plot cesspool from hell that is Max )
Writers? Ditch Max. Or I'm gone. Life is stressful enough. Assuming of course it comes back next year, which is kind of up in the air at the moment, along with everything else.
The other (non-Max related) stories were good. I'm continuing to enjoy the family dynamics, the friendship between Joan and Zoey is Golden, as are the Mother/Daughter relationship and the chat between Bernadette Petters Dev and Mary Steenburgen's Mother character. Actually the show does female characters and relationships really really well. Men, not so much. Outside of maybe Mo, who identifies as female, so doesn't count. An episode doesn't go by in which I do not want to smack one of the male characters upside the head. That said, they can keep everyone but Max.
* Rosewell, New Mexico - this has gotten really good. And oh, they actually did a threesome sex scene on broadcast television. Has this been done before? It's hard to know. I was astonished by it. Not put off - I'm not a prude. Kinky sex does not bother me at all. (As you all probably already know by now.) Sexual violence, yes, kinky sex, no. As long as it is consensual and everyone's on board and no one is being hurt or tortured - I don't care what they do or who with. Admittedly, since I'm heterosexual and female, I tend to prefer to watch pretty and muscular male bodies going at it, but that's just a personal preference. We all have our preferences. I won't reveal the others - some things should remain private.
I kind of like the fact that Rosewell is exploring gay, lesbian, and bisexuality along with heterosexual relationships.
The characters are likable in this series. They got rid of the annoying characters, and brought in another female character. Liz's sister Rosa, who I prefer to Noah.
(Noah was a villain so that makes sense.)
Also, the relationships are more interesting. I'm starting to wonder though if Maria's mother might be half alien, and if Maria might be too.
Another thing they are playing with rather well is racism, xenophobia, and alienation as themes utilizing the alien metaphors.
It's a much better show than it was last year, and a smarter one. I'm liking it a lot.
*Nancy Drew
Creepy as all get out in places. But also kind of fun. It was a smart move to add ghosts - Nancy Drew always had a kind of spooky aspect to the mysteries, so adding real ghosts to it, is not a bad move. Makes the series a bit darker and more compelling. Also heightens the tension on the mysteries.
* Steven Universe
I watched "The Many Birthdays" episode which was rather clever. Like I said in a previous post - this thing is unlike any cartoon that I've seen. The artwork isn't necessarily stellar - reminds me a little of magna mixed with Rainbow Brite. But it's not bad either - it's kind of charming actually and rather trippy. I can only imagine what watching this would be like if you were really stoned or taking LSD, and I'm not unconvinced the creators weren't on one or the other.
In Many Birthdays, Steven's gem gets affected by his emotions and he starts aging, going from kid, to teen, to man, to old man, to very old man, to dying and back down again. In the meantime, his co-horts realize how much they need him to be well Steven, and how different he is from them - half-human, they aren't human apparently, and what it means to be playful. Half of the fun of this series is having the world building and characterization provided in snippets in various episodes as opposed to being provided in one huge lump up front and then everything else is kind of a morality play - that's the mistake of most cartoons by the way. They give everything away in the first two episodes, so the audience really has no reason to stick with it. One of the reasons I loved the Monkees as a kid - was it was bizarre, I didn't know why they were doing what they were doing and enjoyed trying to figure it out. Felt the same way about Kimba. The television shows that gave it all to me upfront - kind of bored me by the sixth episode.
( excerpt )
2. An innocent man spent 46 years in prison, and made a plan to kill the man who put him there
Not what I thought.
( excerpt )
3. Botanical Sexism Cultivates Home-Grown Allergies?
( excerpt )
4. Television Shows.
*Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist - the second to final episode - wherein I spent almost the entire episode yelling at the writers to kill off frigging Max. I wanted Max hit or run over randomly by a bus. And for Mitch to survive instead. What can I say, I've been irritable lately? Also Max's storyline had ruined a perfectly good show - not to mention any contact who came into contact with the abysmal cesspool of a black hole that is Max. He doesn't die, unfortunately. ( spoilers and rant about the horrible plot cesspool from hell that is Max )
Writers? Ditch Max. Or I'm gone. Life is stressful enough. Assuming of course it comes back next year, which is kind of up in the air at the moment, along with everything else.
The other (non-Max related) stories were good. I'm continuing to enjoy the family dynamics, the friendship between Joan and Zoey is Golden, as are the Mother/Daughter relationship and the chat between Bernadette Petters Dev and Mary Steenburgen's Mother character. Actually the show does female characters and relationships really really well. Men, not so much. Outside of maybe Mo, who identifies as female, so doesn't count. An episode doesn't go by in which I do not want to smack one of the male characters upside the head. That said, they can keep everyone but Max.
* Rosewell, New Mexico - this has gotten really good. And oh, they actually did a threesome sex scene on broadcast television. Has this been done before? It's hard to know. I was astonished by it. Not put off - I'm not a prude. Kinky sex does not bother me at all. (As you all probably already know by now.) Sexual violence, yes, kinky sex, no. As long as it is consensual and everyone's on board and no one is being hurt or tortured - I don't care what they do or who with. Admittedly, since I'm heterosexual and female, I tend to prefer to watch pretty and muscular male bodies going at it, but that's just a personal preference. We all have our preferences. I won't reveal the others - some things should remain private.
I kind of like the fact that Rosewell is exploring gay, lesbian, and bisexuality along with heterosexual relationships.
The characters are likable in this series. They got rid of the annoying characters, and brought in another female character. Liz's sister Rosa, who I prefer to Noah.
(Noah was a villain so that makes sense.)
Also, the relationships are more interesting. I'm starting to wonder though if Maria's mother might be half alien, and if Maria might be too.
Another thing they are playing with rather well is racism, xenophobia, and alienation as themes utilizing the alien metaphors.
It's a much better show than it was last year, and a smarter one. I'm liking it a lot.
*Nancy Drew
Creepy as all get out in places. But also kind of fun. It was a smart move to add ghosts - Nancy Drew always had a kind of spooky aspect to the mysteries, so adding real ghosts to it, is not a bad move. Makes the series a bit darker and more compelling. Also heightens the tension on the mysteries.
* Steven Universe
I watched "The Many Birthdays" episode which was rather clever. Like I said in a previous post - this thing is unlike any cartoon that I've seen. The artwork isn't necessarily stellar - reminds me a little of magna mixed with Rainbow Brite. But it's not bad either - it's kind of charming actually and rather trippy. I can only imagine what watching this would be like if you were really stoned or taking LSD, and I'm not unconvinced the creators weren't on one or the other.
In Many Birthdays, Steven's gem gets affected by his emotions and he starts aging, going from kid, to teen, to man, to old man, to very old man, to dying and back down again. In the meantime, his co-horts realize how much they need him to be well Steven, and how different he is from them - half-human, they aren't human apparently, and what it means to be playful. Half of the fun of this series is having the world building and characterization provided in snippets in various episodes as opposed to being provided in one huge lump up front and then everything else is kind of a morality play - that's the mistake of most cartoons by the way. They give everything away in the first two episodes, so the audience really has no reason to stick with it. One of the reasons I loved the Monkees as a kid - was it was bizarre, I didn't know why they were doing what they were doing and enjoyed trying to figure it out. Felt the same way about Kimba. The television shows that gave it all to me upfront - kind of bored me by the sixth episode.