rose_griffes

I've seen 6 out of 8 episodes so far, and...

*insert high-pitched scream*

Amazing that David gave THE MOST ROMANTIC speech we've heard so far.

Tolya and Jesper finally getting some backstory! Woohoo! And all thanks to magic hallucinatory poison gas! Hee.

I am interested to see how an earlier revelation of Mal's true nature (Morozova's descendant, the Firebird in the flesh) is going to play out. If I remember correctly, that detail didn't get revealed until book three in the trilogy. And Alina and Mal figured it out themselves, I think.

Sankta Neyar! Was she in the books as a living character? I don't remember. If not, she makes a great addition.

Too bad we're unlikely to keep Sankta Neyar (within the episodes themselves, that is), given that WE LOST BAGHRA! I like how both of these women were written: not as pleasant older ladies, but as forces to be reckoned with.

The story elements have really pulled together, and so far it feels less forced than the first season. Except that episode six felt like a very natural place to end the season, and yet there are still two more episodes to go? So.

Ok, fine, Shadow and Bone gets a DW tag. Now I'm gonna have to find all of those other entries where I talked about the books or the show and tag them.

Having seen this much of the season, I think it's safe to say that Netflix waiting to renew a third season means two things:
1. There's not going to be a rushed ending of season two.
2. SERIOUSLY, NETFLIX?! They should have green-lit three seasons from the beginning. Or at least after season one was reasonably successful. Less waiting around for new seasons for the audience, less of the cast getting older and changing appearances, more forward momentum for the show...

Bah.

New-to-me html for Dreamwidth: the triangle of spoileriness! more details here. Click on the triangle to see the ‘read more’ stuff.

I’m gonna try it out, so:

Rewatching season one of Shadow & Bone:

Ah yes, the very very YA nature of the show (which comes straight from the S&B books), which is doubly so in the pilot episode. There’s too much crammed together; the show doesn’t necessarily handle its ensemble cast well. On the other hand: I still really enjoyed it. The cast is good, and aesthetically fitting for their roles. Definitely interested in season two.

Could still go for an S&B/Star Wars mashup with Rey as Alina, Finn as Mal, and Kylo Ren as you-know-who.

I started watching the show Lockwood & Co. The show creator, Joe Cornish, is an English comedian who also did the movie Attack the Block.

things I liked

Lucy Lucy Lucy! Good job on getting us to care about her in that pilot episode. The actress does solid work, too. The premise works for me: well-embedded in world building is the mystery of why ghosts started doing… the thing. (I don’t know yet! Maybe it won’t be revealed this season?

Stuff I didn’t like.

The male lead. Meh. Not sure how much is the writing versus the acting versus the actor’s appearance. Also, there’s an element in so many of these YA stories where the premise excludes or denigrates the role of “normal, responsible adult” within the lives of the teens, and OOOF, these teens need an adult. And I get that it’s part of the premise, but it also just gets a bit old, y’know?

(I miss Andor. *sadface* Still working on a second chapter of one of my two Andor fanfics.)

Unrelated to TV: lovely homage to the works of Connie Willis. (No, she’s not dead. In case you were concerned.) The article writer spoils the book Passage in hopes of getting you to read it. I have to concur that it’s her best book, at least for me. SO WONDERFUL! And so connected to the themes she returns to over and over again in her writing.

I'm way overdue a book update, but it will have to wait.

Season two of Bridgerton--to give context, I watched one episode of season one and thought, "Maybe?" And then never watched the rest. But the cast for season two seemed appealing, so I speed-watched the season one finale (lots of fast-forwarding) and moved on.

A lot of the watching was about the clothes. And the older women, who appear to be having a tremendously good time. Lady Featherington was a particular delight for the second half of season two. The younger crowd is less appealing: I find Eloise Bridgerton annoying, Collin insipid, and Anthony is something of a place-holder. I can't even be bothered to have thoughts on the rest of them, much less know their names. The Sharma family pleased me more, at least aesthetically.

So I don't exactly recommend it. It's like cotton candy, which is fun in moderation, but makes a bit of a sticky mess and is utterly forgettable--no strong flavor of its own beyond the sugary sweetness.

Currently rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, because I've only seen it once, and it's a show with solid plotting and character arcs.

Considering subscribing to Apple TV to watch Ted Lasso, Mythic Quest, Severance, Sanditon, and The Morning Show. I haven't seen any of these shows yet, but they piqued my interest in their descriptions, so... Anything else I should try on Apple?

Season two of The Witcher ( spoilers! )

Roommate F has a Disney+ subscription, so I watched the first episode of Hawkeye. The first word I would choose for episode one is "awkward". Getting all of the pieces in place resulted in a pilot episode with many weird coincidences. But I did enjoy it. Hopefully it will improve as I continue the season. I do like Hailee Steinfeld, which is a plus for the show. The actress who plays her mother was interesting as well. Hopefully she'll have plenty of agency within the story, since she was prominent in the pilot.

Netflix has released a second season of Cheer and I've already devoured two episodes. They're very compelling; kudos to the editors. But also, they've tapped into a rather ideal human interest story: the stakes are high at a personal level, but at a world event level? Inconsequential.

Another enjoyable real-person show on Netflix: School of Chocolate, which is led by Amaury Guichon, who makes those viral videos of mind-blowing sculptures made of chocolate. I like the softness of it: no one is kicked off the show from week to week. Instead, contestants who show less skill in a challenge are given two-on-one lessons with Guichon while the other contestants do a team challenge.

As someone who enjoys the occasional post-apocalyptic novel, I found the blurb for Minka Kent's novel The Stillwater Girls to be a bit misleading, which led to some disappointment. The conclusion had too many amazing coincidences for my tastes as well--which is to say, since the first part didn't actually grab me the way it should have, I didn't have much grace for the last part. But it was competent and the main ideas were interesting. Not an anti-rec, but not something I'd push as a favorite.

Still reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric novellas. I'll be sad when I run out.

TV, or rather, streaming entertainment: ( Midnight Mass--a Netflix limited series--the non-spoilery reaction first )

( now the spoilers )

Only Murders in the Building finished its first season on Hulu. Co-worker A and I agreed that it was an over-the-top season finale, but still enjoyable. Roommate H tells me that it has been renewed for a second season; hopefully they wrote that finale with a continuation in mind, given that there are some definite open questions.

I've slowly been making my way through Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix. Just one season, with nine episodes; I've watched eight of them. It would be labeled as a family show; I find it delightful, even though the lead characters are high schoolers. It's not a musical in the sense of Broadway musicals--rather, it's a show that includes a lot of singing (and occasionally dancing). And the songs are good! and the singers are talented! So it's all quite fun, plus a big helping of not-too-scary drama.

Netflix has one season of The Repair Shop available. Having finished that season, I would like to watch more. It's a BBC show with multiple seasons, but I don't know where to access the others.

Got any favorite podcasts? I listen to them to help me fall asleep, so interesting-but-not-riveting podcasts are the right fit. Personally I like Gastropod, which delves into the science and history of food. Wish there were more episodes available.

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.

Roommate H and I moved on from Lord of the Rings (much loved! appreciated by us both!) to the MCU. The first Thor movie went over well; the second one, not as much. We're watching in 30-45 minute chunks most of the time, so we're not done with it yet.

I finished Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season seven--its final season. Thumbs up, although I think anyone who tries to watch that far into the show would need a real connection to the characters. Either that, or watch strictly for the silly, ongoing plot.

The time travel of s7 was fun, for sure.

Having finished that, I've started The Magicians season five, which just showed up on Netflix. I don't know any spoilers this time, so I have no idea where things are going.

One last visual medium mention: I had to explain what rick-rolling is to H, but thankfully the internet provides plenty of humorous examples of it.

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Books! I'm still stuck in romance novel phase. Not a surprise, given that we're still mid-pandemic and the teaching year continues to be a difficult an impossible task. I tried At Your Service by Sandra Antonelli; it's a modern-day romantic mystery. Too much emphasis on mundane tasks without any emotional content. And then I tried Feisty--another contemporary story--by Julia Kent, which had too much emotional content without enough forward momentum. Someone should meld those two authors into one.

So, back to historical romance. I liked two novels by Julie Anne Long; both in her Pennyroyal Green series. Not perfect, but good enough for me to recommend. The two that I liked both had heroines who were lower-class and heroes from the upper-class, so I"m guessing that was a big part of the successful appeal. Makes me wonder if I'll like something by her that doesn't include that element. FYI, How the Marquess Was Won is free with Amazon Prime. This marks the first time I've actually finished one of the "free with Prime" novels, I believe.

( 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.

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.

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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.