hafital | tv watching

Hello kind friends. I have a rare Saturday morning off from horseback riding lesson so I am here to ramble on about a few of the TV shows I've watched recently. Sometimes I think I watch too much TV and sometimes I think I don't watch enough. Sometimes I talk to friends and I'm staggered with how much more media they consume and sometimes I feel like all I do is consume media myself.

What am I trying to say with that? I have no idea. Probably just a reaction to everything in an undefined way because life is in some weird existential limbo. I've come to just accept that nothing feels exactly right and that's okay. I laugh a lot most days -- like genuine laughter not hysterical laughter lol -- and so there are things in this world that are still hilarious and funny and wonderful and amusing and that's great.

I remind myself that I am actually not literally confined to my apartment. I go running, walking or horseback riding at least once a day, sometimes doing two or three of those things. I have picnics with friends. I drove out to hang out with my best friend recently and that is a blessing.

Yesterday, my mother got the first vaccine (Moderna) shot. We (meaning me, let's be clear) booked the appointment through LA county at Dodger Stadium. It made me REALLY REALLY want to go to a Dodger game. It was such a tease, to be there! To see the stadium. Ugh. It involved us in line in our car for about 3 or 4 hours driving in a very slow line that wound around in tangled circles all over the Dodger Stadium parking lot. It was not unlike that episode of Doctor Who where they're in traffic for eternity. Well, eventually we got to the part where they stuck my mom with a needle. She's had no significant reaction so far, though I haven't yet checked on her today.

Anyway, on to rambling about TV shows.

The Undoing: I do admire suspense shows like this one where you have some kind of murder mystery mixed with family drama which is then offset against the background of a life completely falling apart, slow reveals against the slow unraveling of a person's entire universe. In structure it reminded me of shows like the first season of Bloodline, which keep you hooked all the way through. With both shows, the bad guy is obviously the bad guy but you spend the entire time wondering if they're the bad guy. And then you're like....ah, i knew it.

The Queen's Gambit: This was like a wonderful gourmet meal you had once at a really fancy hotel that you'll always think about as being that one time you ate fancy food, while at the same time it's structured like a sports film where you root for the underdog. In my opinion, it's the kind of rich production and excellent writing that ruins TV because everything else looks shabby now. Like how am I supposed to go back to coach after flying first class?!? It also reminded me that I can't play chess to save my life.

Bridgerton: I had mixed feelings going into this. I've read a few of Quinn's books and I found them forgettable at best, and I am of the opinion that if we're going to start adapting regency romance novels that are not Austen into TV shows (which I am all for) then we should start with Georgette Heyer! Why do we not have several limited series for her novels I do not know. But I watched Bridgerton anyway, and it was okay. I can't fault the performances or the casting. I wasn't all that in love with the two leads, but I did love Queen Charlotte and my favorite character was Penelope but that could just be because the actress is a Derry Girl and Derry Girls win at everything. The costumes were....painful...but amusing? I don't mind too much the historically inaccurate color choices and patterns since it's part of the character choice for the Feathertingtons but probably they should have dialed it back by a lot. If they'd used fabric that draped properly I probably would have forgiven all. And like make sure you don't use zippers in your tall boots. I think if you're going to make all these bold and wonderful historically inaccurate choices you should balance that with accuracy of some kind to give the show some weight. Otherwise it's so silly.

Lovecraft Country: I'm not finished watching yet. It's a gorgeous series. My favorite part, besides the accurate production design, is how they sometimes have these amazing sound recordings of prominent black voices played over whatever scene is happening in the show. I'm not very familiar with Lovecraft, but I like that the characters read books and their love of these stories directly informs all the crazy stuff that is happening in their lives that make no sense, paralleled with the horror of real violence that is not a ghost or a monster but just racist assholes.

Wandavision: The only really fannish show on this list! Obviously it's not finished yet so this is just my impression of the first 5 episodes so far. I am loving it, full stop. It's mysterious and weird and cool, and this considering I'm not much of a Vision fan, though I absolutely love Wanda Maximoff. There are several things I really appreciate --

1) how great is it to see Darcy apart from Jane. Love it. And she's a doctor now. Also it's great to see Agent Woo become more three dimensional. Still mostly providing the humor but if these disney + shows allow for minor characters to flourish I am very happy.

2) sitcoms are like their own art form and watching these actors master that style while then switching to regular drama is fascinating. I mean, a multi-camera show is an entirely different beast. I did a week of work on one once as a featured extra and it's a very strange experience, complete with live studio audience. Anyway, what I find really fascinating is how perfect they get the tone of these sitcom episodes with just a hint of it not being quite right.

3) So far, the pacing of the show has been great. It started out entirely closed within the sitcom reality with just a hint that something was very off, then slightly more in the next ep, then a lot more (the shot of dead Vision was really far more disturbing than I would have realized, in that context), then we expand out of Westview which is like breaking the 4th wall in a big big way. We pull all the way out of the sitcom reality. And now who knows what the hell is happening anymore lol. It's great. I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Also, Pietro! dun Dun DUN.

I would make predictions about what's really happening but I feel i would be wrong. I don't think Wanda is the bad guy, but if it's not Wanda then who. The scene with Norm was disturbing, and he clearly indicated it was someone female that was controlling everything. My gut tells me those commercials have more to do with it. Clearly whatever was happening with Vision's body is a big part, and the Director of SWORD seems like a very bad man.

Also, though I am sad about Maria (and whatever history we don't yet know between Monica, Carol Danvers, and Maria) I love the parallel they have between Monica's loss and Wanda's loss.

Welp, and that's all I have for now. Still watching scary horror films. Much more TV yet to consume. Still driving my way through SPN in the back seat of the impala...more on that later, though true to my contrary nature I find that I like the later seasons of SPN much more than the early ones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.