Monday Media Musings - 10/21/19

[owlmoose]

Arrowverse report: I haven't watched yesterday's Batwoman or Supergirl yet, and I missed posting last Monday because I was on a lake without internet access. I probably won't post in-depth commentary on every single episode going forward, but I am pleased to see that both Arrow and The Flash seem to be focused on the Crisis storyline. Arrow in particular is almost certainly mainly going to be about that, and now I wonder if we're going to see Oliver and Digg jaunting around from AU to AU, visiting old friends and reopening old wounds. But does that mean no Felicity? I really wonder what she's up to, especially future!Felicity.

Big Little Lies, Season One: I think I've mentioned before that I get together with friends to watch TV on a regular basis. Originally, we were watching Game of Thrones, but over the years we expanded into other shows to cover the gaps between GoT seasons and it's become a habit. We finished Season One last night -- actually a rewatch for me; last spring, when I paid for a month of HBO to catch up on a couple GoT episodes that I'd missed, I binged on a few other things as long as I had access, and this was one of them. (The plan was to use my one week free trial, but predictably I forgot to cancel in time.) I recall hearing buzz about Big Little Lies when it first aired, and shortly before my HBO subscription mishap, it was recommended to me by sfbluestocking. I had expected a splashy soap opera with an all-star cast, which I got, but I hadn't been expecting such a thoughtful and sympathetic portrayal of single parenting, blended families, and abusive relationships. The writing is smart, and the acting is fantastic, although with such actors as Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, and Adam Scott, it was difficult to imagine otherwise. (Nicole Kidman also put in a fabulous performance, but she had issues with her American accent slipping that distracted from some key moments. I wish they'd just allowed her to play an Australian -- it would have worked with the plot just fine.) Strong content warnings for rape and abuse -- rape is a significant part of one character's backstory, with (non-graphic) scenes from it shown in flashback, and one romantic relationships is violently abusive (graphic images of both sex and violence).

The show is framed as a murder mystery, of sorts -- we start at the end, right after the murder has been committed, but we don't know who died or who killed them. The rest of the show uses the murder investigation as a framing device, cutting between brief scenes of the detectives in the field and excerpts from police interrogations of many of the minor players. But the bulk of the story goes back several months in time, showing all the circumstances and interpersonal dramas that resulted in a death. A murder that seemed so unlikely at the beginning comes to feel inevitable by the time it actually happens -- and yet in a way I could never have expected. There's a lot of character and relationship growth in development in this story, and I buy all of it, entirely. It was also definitely worth a rewatch, because once you know all the secrets, you can see the seeds of them being planted, and how they affect the characters and their world before the truth comes out.

Untitled Goose Game / Dream Daddy: We played parts of both these games on the houseboat. Untitled Goose Game is exactly the hoot (or honk) that everyone says it is, and I will definitely download and play it for myself at some point. Dream Daddy was also entertaining -- we played through the BBQ, where you meet/reconnect with all the daddies and learn that they are, improbably, all your neighbors. It was cute, and the relationship between the PC dad and his daughter is completely charming, but I wasn't in love with the writing, and for a visual novel I wanted more choices. So I think that one I will chalk up to being not for me.