rose_griffes

I watched Lupin on Netflix and was charmed by Omar Sy's performance in the leading role. It's worth watching; the acting is good, the visuals thoughtful... I enjoyed it. And unlike some Netflix originals, I can actually see what's going on! (I love The Witcher, but come on! Too visually dark!)

selenak wrote a more detailed review here. FYI, there are only five episodes available so far and they end on a cliffhanger, so be aware going in that there's not a resolution yet. Part two has already been filmed, so... we're just waiting on the whims of Netflix.

Related topic: I saw the trailer for Netflix's adaptation of Shadow and Bone (and the Six of Crows duology thrown in for good measure), and guess what?! IT'S TOO DARK. But everyone looks very pretty and interesting, and I'm excited! Especially since I'm not super-attached to any character or storyline, so an adaptation of a book series with good magical world-building? Let's do it!

AAAAAH, so excited for the season one finale of WandaVision tomorrow!

So. If I were to attempt watching season two of The Mandalorian, should I watch every episode or skip some? Bear in mind that the show isn't a must-watch for me, and I had to skip one episode of season one just to make it through.

I finished The Magicians, season five! And I enjoyed it! The beginning point was a bit rocky, but that was to be expected, given the ending of season four. I wouldn't say it was a perfect ending, but from start to finish there were character arcs and storylines that worked for me as a viewer. Also, I'm glad that the show runners chose a happier finale than they have in the past, since the show was cancelled after they filmed season five. I'd like to know what happens next, but it's not an anxious kind of wanting to know. (Also, a perfect starting place for post-show fic. I'm not planning on writing any, but I would read some.)

---

Seanan McGuire's writing alter-ego, Mira Grant, has another novel in her Newsflesh series: Feedback. It was actually published back in 2016; I just missed it somehow. Not sure that a novel set in a zombie pandemic and presidential election was the thing to read at the moment... hee. Actually, it was fine; having read the other novels several years ago gives the whole thing some distance for me. Also, it's set in the year 2040.

If you like action-adventure stories and don't mind a serving of zombies on the side, these are a good bet. Multiple canon queer characters, too, if that's a motivating factor. The zombie element isn't actually my thing--AT ALL--but McGuire is a talented writer and tireless researcher, so her zombie stories (she also has a trilogy as Mira Grant with a different type of zombie apocalypse) work for me.

Attempting a quick update: my country is on fire.

Not literally. Yet.

I'm going to ignore that and focus on recent media consumption. Still watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season seven, and cackled aloud multiple times during the episode set in the 1980s. The multiple 80s media references were hilarious and spot-on, including the robots with human voices, exaggerated blood splatter accompanying an offscreen death, disembodied digital heads on tv, and Russians with short-cropped blond hair. Oh, and Mack's "tie on the headband" montage! Hee!

Roommate H and I are watching Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptation. It's been a looooong time since I've watched them. H hasn't seen them, so I'm enjoying her newby reactions. The most common one is simply confusion at the many, many names. The Nazgul are the Dark Riders are the Ring Wraiths are the Nine, just for example. She does like them so far, even if she finds them a bit intense at times. Her media choices don't usually include battle scenes, for instance.

Even I'm finding things a bit much at times. I'll need to brace myself for The Return of the King, given that it has moooore battle scenes than the other two movies.

No book update now; I'm re-reading a favorite fanfic instead. Because my country is on not-literal fire and I can't focus.

Not media: I tried this grain-free, dairy-free brownie recipe and liked it. I had my usual reaction to this type of recipe: at first I have to process how it's different from the standard end result, so I don't really know how I feel about the altered product until a few bites later.

Anyway, all of this to say: reasonably tasty and acceptable in texture, but would be even better with some pecans and marshmallows.

( faces on film )

Anyway. Speaking of movies, I haven't yet succumbed to the lures of an HBO Max subscription, even for Wonder Woman 1984. Maybe in a few weeks... it's just really hard to get excited about paying a subscription for another video-on-demand service. I miss the movie experience. (Yes, I'm aware I could have gone to the movie theater to watch it. No, I'm not planning to do that until after there are a lot more people vaccinated for COVID, including myself.)

I watched the first two episode of Bridgerton on Netflix. It's very much a Shonda Rhimes romp: racism is erased, classism and sexism are not. People are pretty, the writing is clever, the costumes are eye-catching. It's frothy, dramatic fun. And then the final stroke of the first episode had me literally cackling with glee. I normally don't think of myself as someone who cares about certain tropes, but when executed well... ( cut for an ep 1 spoiler )

Episode one threw in a couple of random sex scenes; episode two refrained and gave us shirtless men boxing instead. Normally I'm not a fan, but the boxing wasn't filmed to be brutal; it was filmed to frame two incredibly gorgeous shirtless men, so... *shrugs* Alrighty, then. Eye-candy appreciation engaged.

I started watching Carnival Row, a fantasy series on Amazon Prime. I think it's AP's efforts to capitalize on the market for Game of Thrones: so far we have magic, magical creatures, boobs and butts, and warfare.

The writing is heavy-handed and lacking nuance but Orlando Blooom and Cara Delevigne are trying hard to make the best of it. The music is lovely--not strikingly original so far, but very appropriate. The visuals are mostly top-notch, which is enough to push this into "I'll keep watching" territory. Only five episodes left; I've already watched 3.

edited to add: Indira Varma! Jared Harris! They have a top-notch cast for this... too bad the writing hasn't equaled the cast.

It’s been a while since I made a public post, so: books first…

Robin LaFevers’ Igniting Darkness was pretty much perfect as the final story in a five-book series about assassin nuns in Brittany, France. Fictionalized and magic-fied history with a young princess Anne of Brittany trying her best to keep her country from being consumed! The daughters of the old Celtic god of death trying to find a new faith! Swordfights and true love! So many women! I only wish there had been older women whose narratives were invested with the same sympathy as the young protagonists.

Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni is one of those sticky kinds of books: a story that stays with you for a long time after reading it. It’s an immigrant narrative with a twist; I enjoyed it, but at the same time my brain wants to take all of the pieces and pull them apart to investigate each little cog, because it was just that interesting.

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter feels like the female-driven equivalent of a Dresden book by Jim Butcher. I don’t remember the vast majority of the story, even though it’s only been a couple of weeks since I finished reading it. But it was enjoyable enough in the moment. The lead, Jane Yellowrock, is a shape-shifter, and a lot revolves around her own forgotten past—and that includes unanswered questions that, presumably, will get answers later in the series. I’m not in a rush to find out more, though. Much like the Dresden books, I didn’t find this one compelling enough to continue for the moment. Maybe as a library book during a slow week…

Alas for this specific founding father, John Adams was given a snoozy story beginning by biographer David McCullough. I didn’t make it very far before abandoning the book.

Another for the didn’t finish pile: Nobody’s Slave by Tim Vicary. It’s either YA or a children’s book, and the immediate sense of impending doom had me feeling too leery to continue. Let me get to know the character before imperiling him! Also, the prose felt a bit stilted.

---

Streaming media:
So far season two of The Umbrella Academy is enjoyable enough. Not without flaws, but I’m having fun anyway.

I subscribed to Disney+ this month, mostly for Hamilton. Worth the price, although stage plays don’t always translate well to the intimacy and close-ups of the screen. King George III in particular was JUST TOO MUCH for me. Roommate R loved his performance, though, so my feelings are obviously not universal.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s composing chops are real. The whole musical is an amazing accomplishment. I’m less impressed by his singing, but it would be hard to compete with Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr.

(By the way, yes, I've seen a stage production of the musical when it came to a nearby big city.)

Next up is The Mandalorian, I suppose. If I’m going to watch season one before cancelling the Disney+ subscription, I’d better get to it.

Rewatched: The Good Place, season three--with a bit of skipping around. Seasons one and two were the strongest; season three showed a bit more weakness, so I skipped two(?) episodes. But dang, that kiss where Chidi and Eleanor are in Janet's void is still swooningly romantic.

Also rewatched Galavant. I think my favorite moments are those brief bits of self-referential humor, like when they're singing about going to war and how "It's a good day to die", and someone points out that there's still another episode. Also, "This isn't Game of Thrones". Hee.

I do find that reframing (ex? future?) King Richard as The Hero Who Wields the Sword in season two caused a narrative shift that wasn't helpful for characters like Sid. And the writing for Richard has him as such a buffoon that the last-minute heroic transition doesn't really work for me. But all in all, a fun and enjoyable show. Now wondering "Where are they now?" of Joshua Sasse and Karen David.

---

Reread Robin LaFever's His Fair Assassin trilogy, which begins with Grave Mercy. I originally read them as library e-books, but later snagged all three books bundled together and on sale (still as an e-book). So when I got to the point of "I don't want to read this depressing book" (The Round House, by Louise Erdrich--critically acclaimed for a reason, but tackling the topic of rape and tribal lands, and not mid-pandemic fare for me) I switched to LaFever's stories for a change of pace.

Not that these books aren't dark in their own ways--assassin nuns whose backgrounds typically included child abuse (physical, emotional) is definitely its own sort of dark. But also there are gods, romance, magic and, y'know, assassin nuns, so it's ultimately not so weighty.

Anyway. Not as strong in a second read-through. Well... at least the third book. Books one and two both hold up well, but remembering a key element of the romance in the third book made it a bit weirdly comical.

I do really like Sybella, the protagonist in the second book. Nosing around, it appears she's a co-protagonist in a duology set in the same universe, so guess what I'm reading next?

---

Netflix film The Old Guard was very much what I expected from other people's reviews: not exactly a strong film, more like a two-hour TV pilot episode. But nonetheless very enjoyable: strong fight scenes, a good crew of actors, and the premise is promising. Also, it has just enough structural material to be the kind of thing that fandom loves to add some filler to, so at some point I might peek at AO3 to see what's there.

Currently re-reading Meagan Spooner's Sherwood. I'm going to buy a physical copy of the book at some point; right now it's a digital library loan.

Watching Burn Notice for the first time; it's an older show, but ladytharen has been watching it for the first time as well, and her positive reaction persuaded me to give it a try. We agreed that people should have tried pitching us the show by mentioning that there's a lady criminal in it. And there is! Granted, the leading man gets more screen time, but all in all, it's just about perfect for right now: not too stressful, pretty scenery and people, a case of the week (so far, anyway) with a bigger, long-term storyline happening a piece at a time, too.

I'm not watching at a fast pace; it's interesting enough to keep going but I haven't felt like binging it. At least not so far.

To complete this feast of engaging or re-engaging in comfort media, I've been re-reading some of my older posts about Battlestar Galactica. Most of what I wrote was over a decade ago; it really does feel a bit like excavating a time capsule. Especially when I see so many user names in the comments who have disappeared over the years.

(Can you believe that more than a decade after the show ended, people are still out there posting outrageously bad takes about Dualla?! I mean, yeah, you probably can.)

I watched an Amazon Prime miniseries adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse. I remember only a few small details from the novel, so that meant not remembering who the dastardly deed-doer actually was. I did remember the how of the murders, but that was about it. Also, this adaptation took several liberties with the basic storyline.

Plusses: the aesthetics were fantastic. They set the story in the early 60s when it was written and published. The clothes, the makeup and hairstyles, the cars and home decor--all of it was great. The eerie ambiance of the story had an effective impact, with its supernatural overtones.

The acting: I like looking at Rufus Sewell's face while he swans about in a desperate funk because his first wife has died. (This gets established in the opening scene, so I'm not really spoiling anything.) I enjoyed the angst of the next woman in his life, and the too-wealthy family and their fraught friendships.

All of these plusses, and yet: they didn't stick the landing. ( Only slightly more spoilery than everything else I've said. )

I will say this as well: Christie's books sometimes had stark or grim overtones but she usually balanced that with humor and warmth in the personal relationships, or in the detectives on the case. This story was one of her Ariadne Oliver mysteries, but the adaptation has no equivalent character. The personal relationships are altered enough from the book--sacrificed for the moodiness of the story--that it ends up leeching most of the light from the tale.

First a fanfic rec. It's locked on AO3, meaing you'll need an account there to read it. I have eight invitations to join AO3; no need to feel like you have to write fanfic to sign up. Plus, if you have an account (and it's FREE and AD-FREE whether you sign up or not) you can use their bookmarks. They have the option of public or private bookmarks. You can also look back at your reading history, and even delete things from your reading history.

Anyway! The fic rec:
talking in my sleep (7826 words) by rain_sleet_snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Finn/Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Finn & Jannah (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian & Jannah, Finn & Rose Tico
Characters: Finn (Star Wars), Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey, Poe Dameron, Rose Tico, Kaydel Ko Connix, Lando Calrissian, Maz Kanata, Chewbacca, Jannah
Additional Tags: Jedi Finn, General Finn, Post-Canon, Ambiguous Relationships, Exogol, The Force, Force Ghosts, Dreams, dagobah, Jedha, Wobani, Team as Family, stormtroopers - Freeform, Found Family, Original Trilogy as History, Rogue One As History, The Dark Side of the Force, Dark Past, Politics, Author’s Well-Known Fixation on how the Resistance Keeps the Lights On and Ammunition Stocked, Force-Sensitive Finn, Tatooine
Summary: After Exogol, Finn starts having these really weird dreams.

Don't let the pairing listed throw you off; Kylo Ren with anyone gives me mental nausea, but fortunately, that's not what's happening in the story.

---

Side note: The author's stated reason for having her fanfic visible only to registered users is that someone else is now able to profit from the fanfic posted to AO3: this person created an app that mirrors AO3's content... and it has ads and a payable subscription. This goes against AO3's stated purposes. If your fanfic is public on AO3 then this app does display your stories through their platform, and the app creator receives money. (Whether it's profitable to them, I don't know. But it's still money given to someone not affiliated with AO3.)

Changing that setting for your own fic is easy to do: go to edit works, click 'all', then 'edit', then scroll down and change the setting that lets anyone see the fic / lets only registered users see the fic. It took me a minute to get it done.

And again, since my own fic is no longer visible without an AO3 login: I have 8 invitations for accounts there.

---

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back for a seventh season. ( spoilers for 7.01 and 7.02; fair warning that this is not the squee you're looking for )

Related: I'm putting my Hulu subscription on hold before next month's auto-renewal. Now that The Good Place is over, there's not a lot I wanna watch on that platform. I'll probably re-activate it over the summer.

In other streaming platform news--and in other news of "shows that flubbed a leading male character's characterization enough that I'm not sure if I want to keep watching"--there's a new trailer for season four of Stranger Things.

(Interesting how the ability to binge-watch makes weak shows more palatable. I've resorted to binge-watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the majority of every season except season four. Stranger Things might have fallen off of my "to watch" list if I hadn't been able to watch it during one week instead of over eight weeks.)

As long as I'm making this a ridiculously long and meandering post, here's a trailer for a movie that I'll probably be too wimpy to watch, but that features Dev Patel looking gorgeous in period clothes and holding a knife. So. Yeah. (Brief bit of blood splattering, lots of creepy mood music.)