owlmoose: photo of little owl in a stocking cap (owlhat)

Arrowverse update: I suppose I should just get used to the idea that I mostly won't watch Batwoman or Supergirl the night it airs, so these updates will always be for the week previous. Some details )

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: I saw the first movie of this series in theaters and enjoyed it a ton. The second movie we watched at home and liked it well enough, and I feel similarly about this one: not earth-shaking, but fun, and pretty. But my word was it ever heteronormative, with all the business about the dragons pairing off, and how Hiccup and Astrid need to do their duty and get married, and all the business with Toothless and the light fury (I kept thinking about this Tumblr post about all the problems with her design), and Snotlout flirting obnoxiously with Hiccup's mom and getting rewarded for his efforts. It makes me tired, Internet. So tired. Still, I did enjoy it, and how could I not be heart-warmed by that ending?

El Camino: I have all kinds of conflicted feelings about Breaking Bad as a show and as a fandom, but still there was no way I was missing this movie about the further adventures of Jesse Pinkman. In many ways, Jesse was the heart of that show, so although I was mostly okay with how the series finale left him (let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I shed a tear or two), I appreciated getting closure on his story. I wonder if there will be more Breaking Bad movies? I'll tell you what: I'd watch the heck out of a movie about Skyler.

owlmoose: (hp - a few words)

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 spoilers )

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.) Cutting for length & spoilers. )

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.

owlmoose: (cats - lexi innocent)
Arrowverse: I caught up on Saturday! I focused mainly on The Flash and Arrow, but I also watched the final two episodes of Supergirl and Legends just so the finales could be fresh in my mind (although it turns out that Legends isn't back on until January). The shared world feels like it's starting to fall apart, though. Every single issue that the Earth-1 shows were facing had implications on a global scale: spoilers for all )

Good thing I finished when I did, because it's season premiere week for three of the shows... I haven't decided whether I'm going to write up every single episode as I watch it, but for at least these premieres I think I will, and see how it goes with time and having interesting things to say.

Batwoman series premiere: It became quickly clear that, as an origin story, the pilot goes back in time, prior to when we first met Kate Kane in the 2018 Elseworlds crossover. Overall I suppose this choice makes sense, although it would've been nice to see a CW show take a break from the origin story character introduction. I also wonder how the show will manage to catch up to the Crisis timeframe while also dealing with the potential antagonists introduced in Elseworlds. I guess what I'm saying is that the overall narrative has bitten off quite a lot, and only time will tell whether it's capable of chewing. Big picture aside, the pilot was fine -- it set up what it needed to set up, introduced who it needed to introduce, and left me curious to see what comes next. Not brilliance, but then none of the other CW pilots were, either.

Supergirl S5 premiere: "Pants!"

Okay I do have more to say than that. )
owlmoose: (book - key)
1. I was good and got my flu shot today. We rewarded ourselves with boba tea afterwards. I have only recently discovered boba tea, mostly because I realized I didn't have to have actual boba in it (or any other toppings). It's just a nice sweet milky tea beverage.

2. I'm almost caught up on Arrowverse -- pretty much only the season finales to go. Just in time, too, since Batwoman premieres on Sunday.

3. The downside of all this TV watching is that I'm barely reading right now. But I did go to a reading by Annalee Newitz last Saturday, where they read from The Future of Another Timeline and answered my question about their favorite weird fact learned from book research with the story of Sol Bloom, a politician who initially became famous for his role in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. And this Saturday (tomorrow), I'll be seeing Marie Brennan with [personal profile] forestofglory. So it's not like I'm lacking in things to read once I'm done.
owlmoose: (ffx2 - paine smile)

Late Night: Not perfect, but delightful in many respects. I'll watch Emma Thompson in pretty much anything, and she did not disappoint at all. Mindy Kaling is clearly drawing on her own experiences with being the only woman and/or person of color in the room, and both the script and her performance pulled out many incisive moments. She and Emma Thompson also had excellent chemistry, and that alone could have carried the movie, but they didn't depend on that -- I liked most of the other performances, too, especially Reid Scott as the dudebro who wanted Mindy's job to go his younger brother, and then their relationship grows into one of respect, mostly due to his own personal growth. I felt like neither Mindy's character nor Emma's was forced to gently shepherd him along; instead, he figured it out by himself. I agree with most reviewers that the third act twist was neither necessary nor helpful, but in general I would recommend this one for sure.

Ad Astra: How can a movie about a daring space rescue be this boring? Normally I'm fine with Brad Pitt as an actor, but he gets nothing to work with here: a lifeless script, the science is ridiculous, he makes some decisions that no reasonable human could possibly understand, there's almost no one interesting to play off of, and there are too many closeups where he just sits there and emotes. No intentional humor, the action scenes are more ridiculous than gripping, and not even the tremendous visuals can save it. I even liked Interstellar better than this, and you don't want to get me started on all the problems I have with that. It baffles me that it's gotten such high critical praise.

Arrowverse: I'm a little more than halfway through the most recent seasons of Arrow and The Flash, and now that I'm past the crossover I think I'll stop watching Legends and Supergirl since I've only got about a week left to catch up. Spoilers for both shows. )

owlmoose: (marvel - daisy and mack)
Agents of SHIELD, Season 6: We started watching this season more or less as it aired, then ended up taking a bit of a break from it before finishing it up over the last couple of weeks. Overall it was a pretty decent season, although a distinct step down from its strongest work (my favorite stretches are from S1 after the turn through S2 and most of S4). Though I like Coulson perfectly well, I wish they'd figured out a way to let the character and actor exit gracefully rather than finding excuses to keep bringing him back. I'm far more interested in Daisy, in Mack and Yo-Yo, in May's own journey, and in the workings of SHIELD as a whole. The hard left turn in the finale, and where it's taken them to set up the next season, is pretty interesting. Although I've enjoyed this show, I'm not sorry S7 is its last -- I feel like they've taken most of the characters about as far as they can go, and it no longer feels cohesive with the movie storylines. So I'm ready for it to end.

Arrowverse: I'm now a few episodes into Arrow S7 and The Flash S5. I also rewatched a fair number of Legends and Supergirl S3, although I expect to watch fewer of each going forward because neither of them seems to have many strong ties to the larger 'verse. Spoilers for everything. )
owlmoose: (owlmoose 2)
Basically, just an Arrowverse check-in this week -- I'm about a season and a half from catching up, new seasons start in just about a month, and I'd really like to get there in time.

I've watched about a season in the last two weeks, which puts me around halfway through Arrow S6, The Flash S4, and Legends S3. I'm so glad we seem to be finished with Oliver's flashback storyline -- I got *really* impatient with the Russia business, especially. This season's drama with the team is pretty compelling, although I do wonder how many times Oliver is going to have to re-learn these lessons about not lying to the people he cares about. I'm not sure about the decision to put both Oliver and Barry in legal peril during the same timeframe, especially as it seems fairly obvious that neither one is going to spend the rest of his life in prison. I've now seen the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover storyline three times (once when it initially airs, once when I was watching Legends, and again last weekend), and it all makes a lot more sense now that I'm actually familiar with all the players and their backstories. (The interaction between Sara Lance and Earth-X Quentin, especially, carried a lot more punch. But I still don't quite understand why Barry and Iris invited Mick Rory to their wedding.)

Overpowered villains continue to be an issue, in all three shows (maybe Legends a little less so). Prometheus in Arrow S5 was a big issue in this respect, and DeVoe in Flash S4 even more so. In comparison, Cayden James is better balanced, with Felicity as his obvious foil (and it seems inevitable that he would be played by Michael Emerson -- and with the Legends big bad of this season played by John Noble, not to mention Tony Todd voicing Zoom on Flash a couple of seasons ago, it's like a greatest hits casting of spec fic actors. Hey, does it bother anyone else that Tony Todd and Michael Dorn were both VAs for masked villains that were ultimately played by stock photos of white dude actors? Overall, the Arrowverse shows have decently diverse casts, especially as compared to some other superhero properties, but now I'm wondering if this is A Problem). A good villain is a challenge for the heroes, but it's not so fun to watch people lose and lose and lose only to pull out a win at the last second. There should be some progress, some steps forward, over the span of the season. I feel like Supergirl hits this balance better than the other shows in this 'verse, at least so far.

One other interesting comparison point among these shows is the relationships. I like how solid and stable they've made Barry and Iris, especially when you put them up against Oliver and Felicity, and yet I'm still invested in and enjoying the ship. Who says that steady relationships have to be boring? In fact, I've yet to find myself mad at any of the ships in any of these three shows (unlike Kara/Mon El, the least interesting ship in the history of uninteresting ships, and the fact that two whole seasons of Supergirl are devoted to it is something I will never entirely forgive).
owlmoose: (vm - veronica)
Sorry to Bother You: This should actually have been in the last round-up, which is the problem with skipping a week. Anyway, I had meant to watch this in time to include it in my Hugo voting, but I missed by a few weeks, which is just as well because it probably wouldn't have ranked higher than the movies I included on my ballot. I enjoyed the stellar performances and appreciated the critical commentary on race and labor relations, but it pushed my weirdness tolerances in ways that make it difficult for me to say I truly "liked" it. To say why would involve massive spoilers, so I'll leave it for now, but if you want to talk about the movie more in comments, hit me up!

Veronica Mars, 2014 movie: This movie was the first project I ever backed on Kickstarter (I suppose there are many people who can say that), and of course I saw it in theaters, but I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen it since then. I rewatched it with friends on Saturday in preparation for the new series (we also watched the first two episodes of that, but I'll save those for their own post once I've finished). On a pure fanservice level I enjoy the movie, of course, although it's not 100% for me since I'm not a hardcore Veronica/Logan shipper -- there are things I like about it, and things I don't like, and it really bothers me how unfair Veronica is to all her other love interests. But I also feel like it undoes a fair amount of the show's character development to promote a return to the status quo, and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in Season 4.

Arrowverse: I'm currently about halfway through Arrow S5, The Flash S3, and Legends of Tomorrow S2 -- I watched all of Legends fairly recently, so I'm not watching every episode, just ones that are heavy on the Legion of Doom content. It's nice to have enough context to really understand the character interactions. Regarding Arrow, I'm finding myself less and less interested in Oliver's backstory, to the point where I wish I could fastforward through those scenes, but I realize I'll probably lose too much information if I do. I'm glad the other shows lean much less on the flashback structure. I'm really liking this season of The Flash so far -- I feel like it's hitting its tone and its stride, especially with the addition of HR Wells (I'm quite tickled to realize that Tom Cavanaugh seems to be playing a different variation of the Wells character in every season, and I hope they carry that conceit forward).
owlmoose: (marvel - daisy and mack)
No post last week because I was traveling, but that doesn't mean I was completely away from media! Yay, iPads and hotel room wifi.

Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace: A Critical Role one-shot GM'd by Taliesin Jaffe. I was always fascinated by the Crystal Palace -- if I could go back in time and visit only one building I've studied that no longer exists, that would be high on the list. And although I'm not particularly a fan of Lovecraft-style horror, I did play one Call of Cthulhu campaign back in the day (I chose the author archetype, then bemused the Keeper by making my character a writer of books on organic gardening rather than something more typically horrific), and I'll trust Taliesin to tell me pretty much any story. This tale was suitably entertaining, entrancing, and horrifying without being over the top. I also appreciated how Taliesin called out Lovecraft's problematic ("to say the least") history while encouraging people to look for the value in cosmic horror as a genre. Finally, the costumes and props are stunning. The video can be watched here.

Jane the Virgin, Season 5: I've actually been watching this more or less as it airs. It's now finished, and I'm really quite happy with how it ended. One of the things I've always loved about this show is how well it functions as both a telenovela and a commentary on telenovelas, and the finale might be the perfect example of this. Spoilers through the finale -- although if you're more familiar with telenovela conventions than I was, they might not really be spoilers. )

Arrow, Seasons 3 & 4: I liked the resolution to S3, but S4 got a little bit tiring with the overpowered villains. All of the Arrowverse shows suffer a little bit from "the heroes are hopelessly outgunned by the villain until the very last minute" syndrome, but Darke is a distinct step up from most other past antagonists in that regard.

The Flash, Seasons 1 & 2: I've also watched the first few episodes of Season 3, and I have to say, the effects of time travel are so frustratingly inconsistent, the show gets difficult to follow. Spoilers for S1 and S2 finales as well as the opening of S3 )
owlmoose: (ffx2 - gippal scissors)
I don't miss much about Tumblr, but it was so much easier to meet people in brand new fandoms there. It seems clear that no one currently reading this journal knows or cares much about Arrowverse, and it's a bit of a bummer that I don't really have anyone to chatter at about it. The lack of active communities on DW is one of its biggest downsides. (I haven't wandered over to Tumblr, beyond trawling for Nia/Brainy content a couple of weeks ago, because I'm sure the tags would be chock-a-block with spoilers, and although I know a fair amount of big-picture info from having seen Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and the major crossovers already, there have still been a number of surprises, and I want to preserve as many of them as possible.)

Anyway! Three guesses what I spent my time watching this week.

Arrow, Season 3: I haven't quite finished this yet -- it's harder to watch a season in a week when I'm alternating with another show, and it's going to get even worse when I start filing in selected Legends and Supergirl episodes, but oh well. This season is as compelling as it is frustrating, as it feels like people are going out of their way to hurt each other, think the worst of each others, and avoid communication at the most obtuse moments. Some spoilers. )

The Flash, Season 1: Not quite done with this yet, either -- I think I have three episodes to go in each show. As expected, I'm enjoying the lighter tone of this show -- Barry is cute and fun, much less heavy than Oliver despite his own tragic backstory, and the comic relief (mostly from Cisco and his friendship with Barry) is more frequent and more comic than Arrow's comic relief (primarily Felicity). I'm not quite as invested in the story or the characters yet, but I expect that will come with time. Spoiler cut )
owlmoose: (moose - sign)
Okay, so we're doing this. And I have some questions. I'm now up to Season 3 of Arrow, which is when other shows start appearing. I've found this exhaustive list, which is every episode of every series in chronological order, and while I do have a completionist streak, the idea of tackling the exhaustive list is, well, exhausting. I've watched the first two episodes of Flash S1 and Arrow S3, alternating them as the list suggests.

Two questions: )

Any thoughts are welcome. :) Thanks!
owlmoose: a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, shrouded by fog (golden gate bridge)
Arrow: Season One/Season Two -- Still not bad, and getting better. I wasn't expecting to be nearly so excited when Sara Lance made her first brief appearance in the Season Two premiere, but I was, a big grin immediately spreading across my face. The Lance family drama was probably my favorite part of the season. The overarching plot moves a little slowly, especially when you consider it's really two plots with the flashbacks to the island. Slade was definitely overpowered as a villain, and I got bored with him pretty fast. I have thoughts about how the show played things with Moira Queen. Mixed feelings under the cut. )

Apollo 11: This is a documentary comprised entirely of historical footage, with the exception of some background music and a few graphics. Some of the footage was only discovered in 2017 -- it had been filmed in large format (70mm) and then got lost in an archive. The new footage is from the launch of the rocket and recovery of the astronauts, and it is pretty spectacular -- detailed surfaces, vibrant colors. We had just watched First Man, the Neil Armstrong biopic, a few weeks earlier, so many of the events shown in the documentary were fresh in my mind, but I enjoyed seeing them as they actually played out instead of with narrative twists. The film is presented without narration, which I found a little difficult at first, since I don't have an intimate knowledge of the equipment used in and historical timeline of the launch, but once past the first few minutes, there was historical audio as well, from NASA and news, and that made it much easier to follow.
owlmoose: (cats - tori carrier)

Supergirl, Season 4: As previously mentioned, I finished the season early in the week, but I feel I should have more to say about it than bouncing about a new ship (although I will say it's exciting to have a new ship -- it's been awhile since I've been drawn into one quite so strongly). Cut for spoilers )

I was a little surprised to discover that Kara/Lena is the juggernaut ship for this fandom, but maybe I shouldn't have been because it's the exact friend/enemy dynamic that fandom so often loves, with the bonus hidden identity angst. It's nice to see an f/f ship taking over a fandom, even if it's not my cup of tea (and Nia/Brainy is so often a background ship that it can be hard to find a fic for my own pairing!).

Arrow, Season One: After finishing Supergirl and tearing myself away from rewatching certain scenes multiple times, I came to the reluctant realization that between this, enjoying the annual crossovers, my June binge of Legends of Tomorrow, and how excited I am for Batwoman, I need to just give in and watch the rest of the Arrowverse already. I'm now about halfway through the first season of the originator show, and it's... not terrible, although I look forward to the shift I know is coming, where Oliver has more of a team behind him and Felicity (whom I already know I love from the crossovers) becomes more of a major character. I honestly don't know if I would have stuck with this if I'd started watching when it was new. I'll be glad when this season is done and I can start alternating it with The Flash, which I've heard is more entertaining right out the gate. I do enjoy seeing the very early groundwork being laid for some aspects of Legends.

The Lego Batman Move: This was a rewatch for me -- I saw it in theaters. But we are one of the million or so households that still gets DVDs from Netflix (actually we switched to Blu-Ray a little while ago), and T will often ask for movies that we've already seen and enjoyed. Although it doesn't quite match the surprising awesomeness of the first Lego Movie, it's a lot of fun and might actually be my favorite Batman film, given its focus on the Batfamily and the ways in which Batman is better when he has a team.

owlmoose: A bright blue butterfly (butterfly)
Title: Every Word
Fandom: Supergirl (Arrowverse)
Rating: G
Wordcount: 687
Characters: Nia/Brainy, J'onn J'onzz
Spoilers: For the S4 finale
Notes: Like I said, it was just a matter of time. I was watching the scene referenced below for the *mumble*th time, and realized exactly what moment I wanted to see next.

Also, I have accepted that I just need to watch the rest of the Arrowverse and I'm about halfway through Arrow season one now, so that's a thing.

But for now, the fic.

Summary: Nia reacts to Brainy's confession on Shelley Island.

On AO3

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
678910 1112
13141516171819
2021222324 2526
27282930   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 29th, 2025 04:37 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios