the luminous outset became the interminable middle

2021 has been a drawn out blur and I have kept track of nothing. Anything mentioned was strong enough to stick out among the attempts to distract. Thinking on my media consumption for this year, I'd say that I didn't read as much as I wanted, played some fun/great games, contributed a lot of funds to streaming services I don't use enough, and watched some movies. Here's to hoping for 2022...

Games: I did get a XBOX Series S early this year along with Game Pass so I have tried a good amount of games. Out of all of them, Hades has been one of the best experiences entirely. So many people have written about this game, and it has won so many awards, so I don't know what else I can say besides: as someone who is truly terrible at this kind of game, the game teaches you so well and makes failure a ~boon. I love the animation, the music (played the King and the Bull on repeat for months), the voice performances--everything.

Other Games I remember fondly: Boyfriend Dungeon (fun enough, the ending was okay), Scarlet Nexus (yes, I do like fighting flower monstrosities with psychic powers), Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Books: I have not read enough at all.

Movies: tick..tick...Boom! reminded me how much I love Andrew Garfield, surprised me with how restrained it was considering LMM was directing, did make me cry a bit; Spider-man: No Way Home was fun and cute; Dune was such a joy to watch and surpassed my expectations (I have never liked Jason Momoa more); Summer of Soul was a great documentary and concert film.

TV:
Favorites: Squid Game, Word of Honor, Beyond Evil, Station Eleven, Love Life.
Wish I liked more: Wheel of Time (but I will give the 2nd season a try)
Love it now...: Yellowjackets, which makes me love Sundays but I do worry about 5 seasons.

I hope you all have had the best possible year.

(whispers: the real test was not making the first post in 2019, but the second one...)

( Hereditary and Velvet Buzzsaw )

( Little Hours, Ant Man and the Wasp are just fine. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is great but I just don't have much to say )

( High Flying Bird )

So 2017: bust of a year on many levels.

2017 may have been a low point in my reading and film viewing. So far 2018 has started out better, but I remember my annual hot starts that fall into long stretches of no reading.

Onwards:

Reading:

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Watching: I honestly don't watch that much tv on a regular schedule; it's often netflix or not for me unless it's the Good Place, which I watch religiously. Lovesick is still rather charming and a strong romcom, even if I am squinting at nobody being content being single and for the non-monogamous woman the third lead 'fell for' changing her mind and giving a relationship a go; I sort of hope they both realize that she was right and she does enjoy being single while he realizes he wants the relationship and finds someone else who does as well. Antonia Thomas is still gorgeous.

The End of the F***ING world: Sharp, vivid romance that is completely dependent on the actors' chemistry. Short episodes that use every single minute. Hilarious and painful and near perfect. Deals with some heavy topics.

On the movie front: Atomic Blonde was stylish fun but the plot was 'ehhh'.

Movies

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TV

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Hello,

Thank you so much for the story you are going to write for me. I adore all these fandoms in various but equal ways and am looking forward to reading what you write. Below is a list of things I especially like, it is by no means whole, just broad enough in hopes to jumpstart you if you’ve hit a block. Even if what you write is not on this list, it’s not a big deal, this list just skims the surface of some of my absolute favorite tropes. Het, femslash, slash, gen, it is all good to me. Don't stress about this.



( Read more... )

I've barely posted this year, but I did want to at least make this post to look back on what I've consumed this year.

( TV & books )

( Film watched in 2015 )

So what is everyone watching?

I tried and stalled with Fear the Walking Dead, but talk about the latest episodes make me want to pick it back up just to see the end. It is only six episodes.

Out of the new Fall shows I've tried Minority Report (it was ok but nothing made me want to return and the low ratings pretty much mean it isn't long for this tv world), Scream Queens (I keep on forgetting when this is on and hulu is not quick to post episodes; I was not that enthused with the first two episodes--Lea Michele was a highlight and the narcissistic boyfriend was good as well-- something about the humor felt like a tired attempt of sharp edginess that feels just a bit dated). Caught half of The Flash and liked it enough though I still haven't seen the last episodes of last season. Sleepy Hollow was good in a way that was tempting, but it's very hard to completely trust it not to go off the rails; I'm just going to enjoy the good moments while they last.

American Horror Story came on last night. IDK. Visually, it is rather arresting and there were moments but I don't know if I'm sticking around for any more. Some links on AHS latest: a review I mostly agree with and a plea for Ryan Murphy to stop which makes me flash back to Glee fandom and laugh.

Still waiting on Supergirl and Fargo.

Two works by Mark Harris discussing recent US box office trends: Fantastic Four and superheroes in the box office and Four trends from this season. Both are pretty good pieces, though I like the second one more because it's based on actual data--movies that appealed to audiences beyond the coveted young, white male demographic, and had good, targeted marketing (a feature I don't think gets enough attention) worked super well for Universal.

Looking at Bring It On as a very feminist film 15 years (omg my youth!). I miss that era when teen movies were being made of that quality from studios. The Duff maybe has a similar spirit.

BoJack Horseman is back on Netflix for a second season. This one carried on the tone the first developed and I really liked it. Some of the Todd stuff felt like it was a retread but it still worked, just not as well as the other plot lines for the other characters. Here is a post describing its blend of ludicrousness and sadness to great effect.

Linda Holmes on the latest FX show Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll and some of the dominant tropes of this 'Golden Age of Television' and the exhaustion she at with them. Most of this I agree with; it's not so much that the tropes shouldn't exist, but why is it such a battle to see other tropes with a shot or applied beyond the standard character type that they have been?

Why I'm Done Defending Women's Sports works to move beyond the notion of having to defend the existence of women's sports whenever moments like the World Cup happen.

This writer also equated Serena Williams to Muhammad Ali and makes a decent case for it.

Zoo - a summer show on CBS about animals somehow deciding it's time to take it to the humans all at once is odd to watch. Because it's on CBS no gore can be shown so there's a lot of bloodied mouths, menacing groups of cats, and stalking sounds and people screaming at their impending deaths. Some of the dialogue choices are poor and there are definitely stock characters in this. Seeing other actors who were in excellent shows in this really drives home the importance of writing.

Catastrophe - is a hilarious comedy on Amazon and only 6 episodes. The main characters feel like actual adults and it holds its tone so well. There is vomit (ugh why) but the show has been a pleasure to watch. If you've watched enough shows you can play 'spot that actor', which adds another level of fun.

Humans - really good. The robot thing could feel sort of played out but they are coming at it from multiple angles and there are good performances in this. The main robot (the nanny for the family) did this super creepy laugh in the first episode that I just want to hear again. It's only been one episode, but so far so good.