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Mar. 26th, 2012 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Dead tired. Slept poorly last night. I blame The Hunger Games, Good Wife, and chocolate.
Also various travel anxiety dreams.
2. Am behind on my television series reviewing. No time to go in depth like I want to on The Good Wife which was excellent in its depiction of racial politics. If you think the US isn't racist? Watch the Good Wife - it really shows the insidious institutional racism that continues to exist...and why.
The statement that sticks in my mind, is by Tom portrayed subtly by Matthew Perry, the chair of a blue-ribbon panel reviewing a police shooting of an unarmed man, he states to Alicia: "We've always done it this way, it's traditional." Echoed by one of the white judges earlier who tells Alicia: "Don't try to reinvent the wheel, the wheel works just fine. No need to "change" things."
The inability to change. The desire to go back to better times. But the glaring question no one wants to ask - is who was doing well back then? Who benefits from "tradition" and "not reinventing the wheel"? The white male upper class power structure as evidenced in this episode. Alicia realizes how complicated it is - when she's forced to recuse herself because her husband had questioned the cops and potentially helped cover it up, because as Tom states...letting it come out that a white cop shot an unarmed black man, who was trying to help, without informing him they were police...will cause "problems", better to shove it under the rug.
The whole series is about power plays. And this episode showed each one to perfect effect.
This episode deserves a much longer review, but my mind can't quite break it down tonight.
So consider this a snippet.
Once Upon a Time was fascinating. Finally some movement on the Storybrook front. Also an interesting turn by Sebastain Stan as the Mad Hatter. Although Rodger Daltery's cameo was disappointingly brief as the Caterpiller. I did however like the twist on the Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland tale, and who Grace is. Anyone whose read the books, probably caught the twisty references. This too deserves a longer review, but alas no time.
3. Making headway on The Night Circus, which holds the distinction of being amongst the few Young Adult novels I've recently read that isn't stuck in first person pov. But it does jump around a lot, perhaps too much, giving me motion sickness. If it is possible to get motion sickness reading a book - this one accomplishes it. The central connection is the circus, everything else revolves around it.
4. Watching the deft and somewhat draggy Mad Men. It is propelled mainly by edgy and contemplative dialogue, there is no "action" per se. And the story is about the personal life and business of ad men living in the 1960s. The star of the series is the time period which is rendered in minute detail. It also comments on sexism and racism quite well.
Mad Men is another example of satire done well - balancing emotion and satiric edge in a subtle witty manner, without ever sliding into over-kill.
Also various travel anxiety dreams.
2. Am behind on my television series reviewing. No time to go in depth like I want to on The Good Wife which was excellent in its depiction of racial politics. If you think the US isn't racist? Watch the Good Wife - it really shows the insidious institutional racism that continues to exist...and why.
The statement that sticks in my mind, is by Tom portrayed subtly by Matthew Perry, the chair of a blue-ribbon panel reviewing a police shooting of an unarmed man, he states to Alicia: "We've always done it this way, it's traditional." Echoed by one of the white judges earlier who tells Alicia: "Don't try to reinvent the wheel, the wheel works just fine. No need to "change" things."
The inability to change. The desire to go back to better times. But the glaring question no one wants to ask - is who was doing well back then? Who benefits from "tradition" and "not reinventing the wheel"? The white male upper class power structure as evidenced in this episode. Alicia realizes how complicated it is - when she's forced to recuse herself because her husband had questioned the cops and potentially helped cover it up, because as Tom states...letting it come out that a white cop shot an unarmed black man, who was trying to help, without informing him they were police...will cause "problems", better to shove it under the rug.
The whole series is about power plays. And this episode showed each one to perfect effect.
This episode deserves a much longer review, but my mind can't quite break it down tonight.
So consider this a snippet.
Once Upon a Time was fascinating. Finally some movement on the Storybrook front. Also an interesting turn by Sebastain Stan as the Mad Hatter. Although Rodger Daltery's cameo was disappointingly brief as the Caterpiller. I did however like the twist on the Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland tale, and who Grace is. Anyone whose read the books, probably caught the twisty references. This too deserves a longer review, but alas no time.
3. Making headway on The Night Circus, which holds the distinction of being amongst the few Young Adult novels I've recently read that isn't stuck in first person pov. But it does jump around a lot, perhaps too much, giving me motion sickness. If it is possible to get motion sickness reading a book - this one accomplishes it. The central connection is the circus, everything else revolves around it.
4. Watching the deft and somewhat draggy Mad Men. It is propelled mainly by edgy and contemplative dialogue, there is no "action" per se. And the story is about the personal life and business of ad men living in the 1960s. The star of the series is the time period which is rendered in minute detail. It also comments on sexism and racism quite well.
Mad Men is another example of satire done well - balancing emotion and satiric edge in a subtle witty manner, without ever sliding into over-kill.
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Date: 2012-03-27 02:47 am (UTC)Ridiculously so! The jacket the one guy was wearing was the exact plaid of a jacket my brother had. One couch was just like my mom's. The little girl's pajamas. So many things right out of my childhood. They've gotten better doing this. I've never had so many matches when I've watched before.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-27 02:49 pm (UTC)What, you didn't know?
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Date: 2012-03-27 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-27 09:19 pm (UTC)He's in his late 40s, about 46. Or thereabouts. Although wait, still too young to know the 60s. So maybe? That apartment reminded of the Dick Van Dyke Show meets Brady Bunch.
My Dad said the first season was spot-on, it was exactly like his working life back then. He even remembered the bar they went to. He had worked in NYC in the 1960s and 70s.
The series is very good. It is slow but in a good way. Also, I've decided Vincent Karthesier is a brilliant actor - he has somehow managed to make two characters that are whiny and annoying - incredibly sympathetic, interesting and vulnerable. (Pete and Connor) How he does it, I don't know. But I'm impressed.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-27 09:43 pm (UTC)Yes, I'm 49, so very close. TDVD show was very early 60's. Now that the "60s" as they are stereotypically known, Pucci prints, flowing long dresses, like what I remember, is happening, what are we now 64, it seems more and more like my memories. If they have a skinny Christmas tree, they'll be spot on. Their visual styling, best on TV.
I'd call it languorous. They want our eye to wander, like Don's does. Gaze is absolutely important on this show.