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Television Round-up

Haven't really been watching much outside of the soap, which I watch for various reasons. People who don't watch soap operas are weirdly judgemental of those that do. Or so, I've discovered.

Former Friend (yet they remain immortal on FB): I can't believe you watch soaps, they are so pedestrian!
Me: Says someone who watches Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Sharknado. [Caveat? I've watched both. Preferred Xenia personally. And after the first Sharknado...there was no point. The joke had worn itself out.]

[*We're no longer friends for mainly external reasons, not that discussion, which happened when we were still close, and co-workers.]

I've never understood it. I also find it highly hypocritical and snooty. I shouldn't have to defend my love of something that is completely harmless to anyone. It's not like I'm watching a reality series - which does harm people. Why would you condemn someone for what they enjoy?

It's okay not to like everything. But we do, I think, need to be careful not to condemn people for liking or loving things we don't? (Granted with the overall caveat that the thing we love doesn't hurt other people.) No matter how frustrating that may be? Watching television, reading books, playing video games, watching movies or playing an RPG - the last time I checked, doesn't hurt anyone. (Well, RPGs might - it most likely depends on the RPG??)

1. KAOS (Netflix series) - stars Jeff Goldblum, and so far is boring as all get out. It's a satire, actually a political satire about the Greek Gods. And unfortunately the Greek Gods have been a tad overdone? ( Read more... )

2. Hacks - S3 - episode 1. HACKS like The Bear is that rare situation comedy that works for me. Mainly because it's more of a dramedy than a sitcom. It's also more a work place comedy/drama that focuses on the actual work. Not just the work environment. In other words, it puts character, plot, then world building. The humor comes from the relatable and often absurd situations, and we laugh with NOT at the characters.
The Good Wife had a similar dynamic.

The first episode of S3 has an excellent sight gag - and it is set up beautifully. ( Read more... )

3. The Perfect Couple (Netflix) - this is a fairly mainstream by the numbers thriller/mystery on Netflix (which has hundreds of them, this one at least is not by Harlan Corben). It also stars Nicole Kidman (with a wee bit too much botox done), Liev Shrieber, and Isabelle Adjani (in a smaller role, also too much botox done - I barely recognized her). The setup is someone is murdered at the wedding of the son of a rich and influential/famous British Mystery/Thriller novelist at her Nantucket home. Who did it?
We find out who was killed at the end of the first episode. ( Read more... )

4. Rings of Power - sticking with it. But unless you've watched the previous season fairly recently, you can get confused. I watched it about eight months ago - so not too bad. But I admittedly got a bit confused at firt.

It's also really violent, and looks like it will be more so. This is about what happened prior to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Ironically these stories were released in reverse order. Lord of the Rings came first, then the Hobbit, then Rings of Power.

Rings of Power in other words is the back story on Lord of the Rings. How the Rings came about, how Modor came into existence, what happened to Dwarf stronghold, and to the other places that were ruins in the Lord of the Rings and long abandoned.

It kind makes me want to watch everything else again.

5. Six Feet Under (NETFLIX) - it has the look taste and feel of a 1990s television series. I forgot a lot of folks were in it. And damn, they looked great in the 1990s. Peter Krause was kind of hot back then. But I didn't make it past the first episode. It's a dysfunctional family drama about death, with everyone screaming at each other. My tolerance for dysfunctional family drama is receding with time. My family isn't that dysfunctional or it is? But not in that way. I just want to slap the people in it and tell them to get their shit together and grow up.

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Flirting with?

Outlander, The Witcher, finishing Scavenger's Reign, Brothers of the Sun, (all Netflix), Succession, The Boy and the Heron (now on HBO Max), Furiosa (also Max), The Civil War (Max), and the Watchers (Max). And oh, Agatha All Along.

I've kind of given up on the Star Wars franchise. Of everything I've seen to date - the only two shows I liked were Andor and The Mandalorian, and really just Andor stood out.

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As I was writing a post on television, I was watching/listening to the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Brooklyn's service on FB. And I'm really enjoying these, well for the most part.

Takeaways from this one:

* When I was younger, I was clever and wanted to change the world, now that I'm older, I'm wise and realize I can only work on changing myself.

Very true. I'm working on myself now. And hopefully I can leave the world better than I entered it?

* Quote from Fred Rogers, the personal hero of our Interim Minister, when Rogers was accepting an Emmy. He looked at the members of the audience, all in their glitz and glamour, and told them - "Someone loved you all into being, I'll give you a minute to think about that someone."

They, the interim minister, is Chinese American, from immigrant parents in California, raised in the disciplines of Taos, Confusicious, and Buddha, but not necessarily together or to that exclusion, and fell in love with Unitarian Universalism, which changed their lives. They chose to become an interim minister to show their love for the faith and to support their colleagues. They are also trans and started testosterone hormones a year or so ago. They use "they/their" pronouns.

I've learned a great deal about the trans community and non-binary/transgender individuals over the past ten years via my church. I think if more people met trans, and understood - life would be easier.

Since my workplace is a NY State Agency, and NY has laws in place protecting Transgender in public and at the workplace, we have annual virtual or web-based training on Gender Equality. But, that doesn't change the prejudices and mindsets of many co-workers. It's why I'm not close friends with them, and while we are friendly, we are not "close". I can't hand-wave their prejudices. And they don't like it when I call them on it, and side-eye me, like I'm from an alien planet.

People, or so I've discovered over time, are fiercely protective of their prejudices. And often not aware of the fact that they are prejudices or that they are being cruel in their insistence of them.

There was a quote I saw on Instagram that resonated with me..and I can no longer find it.

But I found this one...

"Let them be wrong about you. There's nothing to prove."

Then mother called, and I forgot all the other quotes that I saw. Instagram kind of just throws marketing and promotional information at me, along with the type of quotes I used to see in card stores, which alas no longer exist.

Hanging out on a Lazy Summery Saturday in Gardens, Cafes and Bookstores

Hanging out in Gardens and Cafes with a Friend

After the podiatrist appointment yesterday at 9 AM, I got a Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte (note next time I'll do almond milk not coconut milk) and a GF Chocolate Cookie (I wanted a Tahini Chocolate Chip GF cookie, but they gave me the GF double Chocolate Chip Walnut cookie instead. I did not discover this until thirty minutes later when I was sitting at the transit garden and deigned to open it and check it out. At least I knew it was still GF. I'd seen both cookies.) Then met up with Wales at the transit garden. The Transit Garden is a community garden that MTA Real Estate agreed to let the community have to plant a garden, as long as they did it on top of the concrete protecting the subway and tracks below. It makes gardening a bit limiting as a result. While I was sitting there, I listened to them debate on how to best repair their garden.

Man: The MTA can't take it away from us can they?
ME: Oh yes they can.
Man: But it's a public space.
Me: They are a public agency and own it. They can also grab the land adjacent to the tracks under eminent domain, they just do need to compensate the owners at a "fair" price for it. But the garden? That's theirs. Unless they sold it to you, which is unlikely.

After meeting up in the Garden, and sitting for a bit, we went off for Wales to grab breakfast, while I checked out my old digs to see if it was under construction. It's not. The construction is behind it - not directly, about three buildings to the west, behind it. A dry cleaner's is behind it. (Wish the dry cleaners existed in that space when I lived there. It might have and I just ignored it.) The building looks like it is in disrepair. Whoever owns it now, doesn't appear to care about it all that much. The roof is crumbling, the white door is dirty and peeling paint, and it just looks depressing. I'm glad I moved. Then we walked to the park and hung out, chatting, until lunch time rolled around and we had Avocado Toast on GF bread at Planted Cafe. Which used to have CBD, but gave up (you need a license) and is now in the cheaper spa business. They have saunas out back and a cold plunge bath. They also do fascials and sound baths. How they do all this in the backyard, I don't know. It's not that big (I looked). I think they must do it upstairs or below? While waiting for our food, a little girl in a pink princess costume visited us and we chatted for a bit. She was between five and six years of age. Children at that age are friendly, more so than their parents.

Have you ever noticed that animals, cats and dogs, and small children are friendlier than adult humans? Maybe it's the innocence? As we age we become increasingly wary of others.

Wales and I went book store hopping, after hanging out in a couple of small parks in her neighborhood and coffee shops. There are a lot of coffee shops in her neighborhood. So many in fact that we were pondering how they all managed to survive. There cannot possibly be that many coffee drinkers in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
( Wales doesn't like fantasy, but has no issues with horror... )

Book Stores

We went to two book stores.

One was just your run of a mill mainstream book store. Books are Magic is a family owned independent book store with two branches - one on Smith Street and one in Brooklyn Heights. The owner is novelist Emma Straub and her husband Michael Fusco-Straub. My difficulty with it is its too limited in its selection of science fiction and fantasy, also other non-mainstream genres. This is why I tend to buy mostly online now. That and I prefer indie writers to traditionally published writers.

The other was Liz's Book a Bar - a combination book, tea, coffee and wine bar owned by a Black Business Woman. Also it and the other one - contained magna comics, I was impressed. I remember when you couldn't find them. If they were in color, I'd snatch them up. But alas, no, magna is in black and white - and small. I find them hard to see and read as a result. Also you read them backwards, which confuses my brain. It's easier to read them digitally.

At the book stores - Wales went to the mainstream fiction and non-fiction shelves, while I perused the shelf on philosophy, witchcraft, tarot, occult, magic - I was looking for a compendium or encyclopedia of magical and mythological creatures with drawings. I also jumped over to cook books to find Tasty Simple Recipes - or Sugar Free/Gluten Free recipes. Struck out on both. Perused fantasy/science fiction, then mystery/thriller/horror and finally graphic novels.

I perused Lore Olympus - which I'd read about online. All I knew about it was that it was interestingly drawn webtoon - about the Persephone and Hades romance. I liked the use of colors and the art, so that drew my curiosity. And the books are...very pretty. The art is quite lovely. Brilliant colors and an innovative use of color to drive plot and character. I couldn't read it without my reading glasses - the print was too small. And the books were about $19.99 per volume with six volumes. And just no. Took me awhile to locate the price.

At home, I hunted them down on line, it's a Webtoon, and found a few animated or dubbed versions on You Tube. Netflix is apparently doing an actual animated version. And, hmmm, after the first five episodes, I realized, okay, this is problematic, to say the least. Particularly for a young thirty-something female writer/illustrator.

I'll give you the set-up?
( the problematic set-up of the Lore Olympus Series )

So, I'm glad I didn't spend any money on that. Pretty or not, I don't like the trope at all. There are romance tropes that do not work for me, and that is one of them. Shame though, I liked the artwork. The creator is a better artist than writer/story teller. She should stick with the art.

The other book that I considered was "The Dream House" but I can't remember the author's name. Ah found it, and it's on Kindle Unlimited! Score. I can read it for free.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

( a innovative account of a relationship gone bad - about queer domestic violence - utilizing various narrative tropes - the haunted house, erotica, and bildungsroman )

Interesting, it's about domestic violence in a lesbian relationship - and unpacks the stereotypes of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. I don't tend to like memoirs as a genre, mainly because I'm getting one perspective and it's rarely reliable? But this does look interesting.

We had a lovely time, and Wales pointed out the last book to me. Showed it to me and wanted to buy it. (Wales and I are both straight. So our interest in the book has zip to do with sexual orientation and more to do with the description of narrative styles. I didn't realize it was about lesbians until now - the back of the book was difficult to read without reading glasses on.)

After sharing a hug, I journey back home, about six subway stops away and a six block walk away.

Here's a view from one of those subway stations, and the aqueduct the subway journeys over on - that I see each day of Downtown Brooklyn. That alone is worth taking the G train every day to work.

The Emmy's

Watching the Emmys, and realized the following:

1.) looking at the nominations? I've actually watched most of the television series that have won or were nominated. The only ones I didn't see - were
( television series nominated for an emmy that I either haven't seen or haven't seen all of )

ETA: Oh, figured it out - these are for shows that aired in 2023, not shows that aired in 2024. Which means I've seen more than I thought. I saw S2 of Hacks.
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Damn, there are a lot of television shows. I've seen most of them, and there's a ton I haven't seen or didn't see the most recent season of, because no time. It is humanely impossible to see all these television series.

Those were just the ones I hadn't seen. Also I don't watch Late Night - because I get up at 5:45 am in the morning, and have no time to do so. I did years ago, on occasion, when I didn't get up early in the morning, such as in the 20th Century, when it was a big deal.

The ones that I've not seen and want to catch up with?
( Read more... )

2.) I hate insult humor. And 90% of the humor on this is insult humor or at the expense of people.

But there are some bits that are hilarious. Don Levey and his son's bit in the audience, where the father was in the wrong aisle and couldn't read the teleprompter is hilarious.

I like a good sight gag. Getting into the wrong aisle is relatable.

Also, I have to say that Candace Bergen's political joke landed.

"I played Murphy Brown, and was even the target of a Vice President when my character decided to raise her child as a single mother. And I have to say that now, all these years later, a Republican Vice Presidential Candidate will never condemn a woman for having kids on her own."

No, just Single women for not having kids. Worse having cats instead.

3.) Why aren't more fantasy and sci-fi shows nominated.

This year we got two - Fallout (Amazon Prime) and 3 Body Problem (Netflix).
Neither of which I liked all that much. And I only made it through one.

Frigging Emmy's and television industry is run by the mainstream.

Although to be fair, there really weren't any good fantasy series on this year? Animated maybe, but they don't do animated - again why is that? There's a lot of animated series? Is that a separate group?

Oh, I looked it up, they did it already.

Creative Awards - Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program

Non-mainstream creative awards aren't televised.

Who won?

Blue Eye Samurai
"The Tale Of The Ronin And The Bride"

Who was nominated?
( Read more... )

I've seen all of them? ( Read more... )

4. So far, I'm agreeing with the awards. Although I kind of have to see Shogun to determine how I feel about it. It cleaned up on the creative awards, got 25, but not so much in the acting and writing awards.

Hacks got best Comedy Writing. It's really been Hacks and The Bear cleaning up in Comedy. (The only two I like.)

And Slow Horses got best writing in Drama. Best supporting went to Morning Show and I can't remember the other one...

There's too many comedic routines. I really wish they'd just do clips from the series nominated instead, and do what the Grammy's do - advertise the shows, as opposed to make presenters do comedy routines they aren't comfortable doing.

5. My main take away after watching creative arts awards - is how the frigging heck do you give out awards for Arts? I never understood that.
It's so subjective.
( Read more... )

6. They did a presentation of including the Latino actors in the awards, and nominations, along with POC, and transgender.

This year had more than previous years. And more wins. Including the first transgender latino nomination.
( Read more... )

Okay off to bed. I think. I'll tape the rest.