Sunday!
So it’s reached the point where I can’t watch anything even vaguely political without getting into wondering about the politics of the writers. I’m watching Orange Is The New Black on the Netflix and trying to figure out whether there’s a libertarian on the writing staff.
There’s *SOME* hints… the fact that pretty much every single person in a position of power is someone who ought not be in a position of power. The fact that it seems that they want it to seem absurd to us that the hammer of the law came down when it did so long after the crimes had occurred (but before the statute of limitations had expired). The petty politicking over things that are vitally important to the inmates… but then you get a vignette explaining what this or that prisoner actually did to end up there and the majority of vignettes I’ve seen so far have demonstrated the guilt of the various prisoners and, thus, how they deserve to be locked up… but you could get away with any some of that from any political vantagepoint and all of it if you allow different writers with different viewpoints to steer the show on different episodes.
In any case, it’s the perfect show to watch when one is on the road for weeks at a time away from one’s loved ones.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
I watched Allstar Superman, which I thought was just fantastic. I think Revolution is next.
Still trying to read No Cry Sleep Solution. After which, Clancy wants me to read a book on… French parenting.Report
good luck with the sleep training, brah. it’s rough going sometimes.Report
Did you follow the conversation Veronica Dire, myself, and a few others (who I apologize for forgetting) had about OITNB? The show is based on a book based on the real life experiences of the main character. Delve into that (or just find our thread from a few weeks back… I think on my “Curious Casting” post) and you might quickly think differently of the show and its politics.Report
Yes, but I hadn’t watched the show at all when I had originally read your comments.
When it comes to the real life experiences of a person, to the extent that they are attempted to be communicated accurately, it’s easy for me to forgive someone noticing something that polite people would, instead, ignore.
I might suggest giving the show another shot, if only to be surprised at the fact that the main character *DOES* grow.
Oh, and she gives a really good speech during the “Scared Straight” episode. That speech is one of those speeches that lets you forgive a lot.Report
I don’t mind someone saying, “This is my experience and this story should not be seen as representing anyone else’s.”
If the woman-in-question (whose name escapes me) was simply retelling her story, I think I would have found it less problematic. It was when I saw it in conjunction with her political advocacy (which I came to know about before viewing the show and which might have biased me against it) that I found it really unsettling. She wasn’t just telling her story. She was attempting to leverage her story into action but didn’t seem to take the time to educate herself on broader issues. Her comments (such as those shared in that thread) showed a remarkable tone deafness, which she seemed almost proud of.Report
I watched OITNTB based on multiple recommendations from people of color (two of whom are also lesbians; one of whom’s mom has been in jail for many years); I thought the distinctions between racist/classist attitudes on the part of the characters, versus on the part of the show’s narrative perspective, were pretty darn clear to anyone willing to distinguish between the two.
Not that the writers get it right every time; like just about everything on TV (including sports), the show is problematic. What comedy/drama on TV isn’t problematic? It’s addressing the issues, not carefully avoiding ever talking about them. I’d rather a show fish up doing that than not even bother trying.Report
I heard it said that if I can get through the second or third episode, I will start to see the light on the show. But I got about halfway through the first episode and found it so cringe-worthy I couldn’t go on. I should probably give it another chance.Report
1- I forget who mentioned The Call of Cthulu being good last weekend. Anywho i watched in Friday and it was indeed good.
2-I haven’t see OITNB but i don’t think questioning people in power or having a distrust of many people in power is particularly libertarian. Or if it is , then it such a widely shared feeling that is makes it not mean all that much in any specific way. Many people have a vague libertarian sympathy but i doesn’t usually go any farther than that for various reasons.Report
Libertarians mistrust people in power because they have power. Non-libertarians mistrust people in power because they’re the wrong people.Report
Libertarians love people in power (Like Koch). They just hate politicians.Report
Oh yeah. *THAT* is why I did the “no politics” thing.Report
I finally finished 1Q84 a week ago. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a book pull me in harder, and then peter off into something so boring and uneventful the last fifth or so.
Am almost done with Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale, which in a lot of ways is kind-of-sort-of 1Q84 done better. Have also been rereading and rereading Billy Collins’ Aimless Love.
Have spent my watching hours re-viewing last seasons’ Sherlock and Banshee, preparing for the upcoming season premiers.Report
Weird. My wife just finished 1Q84. (I’d never heard of it til she put it on her Kindle.) She literally cursed her way thru it – like repeatedly and vociferously – but also wouldn’t put it down. After she was done she said “You should read it.” I politely reminded her of her own experience and declined.Report
We’ve watched 4 or 5 eps of Orange is the New Black and I think it’s pretty great. Very, very funny, and one or two straight-up villainous characters aside, the show seems to be layering and deepening the characters nicely; not to mention, what other show uses this many different female characters as more than window dressing?
Very impressed thus far.Report
Yeah, normally, I would have assumed “chick show” and figured that I could watch something a little less heavy when it comes to race/class/politics/etc but I find myself fairly interested in the arc. The main character actually grows. That’s interesting.
It should be criticized to the extent that the memoir upon which it’s based is inaccurate but, if the memoir is accurate (and the translation of the memoir is accurate), it’s a brilliant example of criticizing a POV by doing nothing more than presenting it.
Maribou tells me that the person who did this show also did Weeds… and that explains much of the (no) politics of the voice of the show.Report
The fact that it’s from the creator of Weeds concerns me a little, actually. I lost interest in that show quickly. I am hoping it was Showtime executive interference that was to blame.Report
She told me that the “voice” was identical… in the same way that you can tell that Firefly and Buffy have the same writer.
For what that’s worth.Report
I watched it when it was first released, and really enjoyed it. I’m Looking forward to the second season.
Also, it’s based on a woman’s autobiographical book in her time in prison. You could check out her politics.Report
This week I read a lot of things, among them Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders (Boylan), All Our Pretty Songs (McCarry), and My Education (Choi).
Watching? I finished catching up on seasons 4 and 5 of the Big Bang Theory. Haven’t really started something new yet, or returned to anything old.Report
Wait, I also started Downton. Haven’t seen this week’s episode yet although I have been thoroughly spoiled about it.Report
Well, True Detective just sucked me right the heck in.Report
Yup.Report
Except they appear to have watched some Hannibal (the show).
heh…just found this on the AVClub’s review:
True Detective turns out to be an unwieldy contraption built out of spare parts from Justified, Hannibal, and Michael Mann’s complete filmography. There are occasional thrills, but they’re subordinate to the philosophical musing.
SOLD!Report
Me too. That was fun.Report
I bought Hannibal S1 on DVD for my dad. He’s retired and sits around and binge watches TV shows he can get from the library. Hannibal is up his alley so I got it based on the strength of your rec. Thanks!Report
Watched quite a bit this weekend. I am near the end of House of Cards. I would have finished it, but I had internet issues and could not get to Netflix. I also started on Season 3 of Community, after taking a lengthy break from watching it. I squeezed in a couple episodes of the original Batman TV Series.
I also got in a couple of movies, The Three Stooges and eXistenZ. I thought The Three Stooges was really good, but I wish it did not have The Jersey Shore cast involved in it. Not so much because of problems with the show, but simply the fact that it nails the movie specifically to a fad. I am also not any sort of Stooges expert, so I do not have an opinion on how accurately the recreated the characters.
I think someone at Ordinary Times wrote about eXistenZ, and that is where I first heard about it. I really do not have anything interesting to say about it. I liked the movie, and it kept me engaged. There were some disturbing scenes. I largely saw the ending coming.Report
The left tends to be at least as skeptical about law enforcement, the prison system, and abuse of power by both of them as libertarians are, so I wouldn’t conclude writers are libertarian purely on the basis of that.
I watched Wreck-It Ralph the other day and thought it was great. It’s Toy Story for geeks, with creative worldbuilding, a plot with lots of unexpected twists and turns, and some good characters. In retrospect, the folks who were saying it should have won the Best Animated Film Oscar over Brave were right.
(Brave just frustrates me. Pixar does all these fantastic movies getting into the heads of unusual protagonists – toys, fish, robots, rats – and then when people say “you should make a movie with a female protagonist” they go with the most-used plots of all time: Rebellious Princess + Female Character Challenges Gender Conventions, Wants Adventure. It’s generic, and if there’s one thing thing Pixar is not, it’s generic. I feel like – are women that difficult? Are we really more alien to you than robots and animals? Why not do something like your other films, something creative and original, that just happens to have a female protagonist?)Report
“Why not do something like your other films, something creative and original, that just happens to have a female protagonist?”
Good question, but I think the answer is obvious:
If Pixar had dared to make a movie with a protagonist “who just happens to be female,” they would earn no points and leave themselves wide open to criticism for portraying a female protagonist incorrectly.
See: Disney Princesses, all.Report
Of course they’d get credit for it! You can make excellent movies about women whose stories don’t completely revolve around either romantic love (as with earlier Disney princesses) or around problems of sexism (as in Mulan, or Brave) – and Disney’s received great praise for doing that with Frozen. Outside the realm of animated movies, Katniss is a wonderful female character (with a boatload of character flaws) who has many struggles, but the most important ones don’t revolve around being female, and sexism isn’t much of an issue in her world. That’s exactly what people are praising now – stories about good characters who are female, whose stories don’t have to scream Look, This Is a Female Character Battling Sexism.
And the more movies they make with female protagonists, they less they have to worry about claims of “portraying a female protagonist incorrectly”, because then there isn’t just one character with the burden of being the archetype of “this is how Pixar writes female protagonists”. I mean, we’re half the world, it’s not like there’s a shortage of stories to tell.Report