KJ

Better Call Saul, Season 6.5: Possibly the best prequel ever made. It can be a tall order to tell a story whose ending is known from the very beginning, where the ultimate fate of most of the characters is known, and everyone is set on a downward trajectory. But this show confounded my expectations at every turn: in many ways it was the story I expected, but I could never have imagined how it got there. ( Spoilers for the last few episodes )

I thought Breaking Bad was brilliant, but Better Call Saul was so much better. Jimmy/Saul/Gene is a more compelling lead than Walt by far, Rhea Seehorn is brilliant as Kim, and I found the details we learned about the characters and the world fascinating.

Oklahoma!: I've never seen any performance of this classic musical, and since I've found that many such shows haven't aged particularly well (as I've discussed before in my comments about My Fair Lady; other revivals that left me cold included Hello Dolly!, Miss Saigon, and An American in Paris), I wasn't particularly excited by the prospect, until I talked to a couple of coworkers who saw different instances of this same touring production -- one in Washington DC, the other in Nashville -- and they told me how interested it was, how the staging completely changed the meaning of the show without altering a word of the text or a single song lyric. So I approached it with curiosity instead, and while I'm not sure I could say I "enjoyed" it -- it's dark and disturbing in many ways, and some of its more experimental aspects were a bit lost on me -- it was a worthwhile and thought-provoking experience. Instead of a frothy costume period piece, this performance is done in a bare-bones style, set entirely on a stage that looks like a high school gym or the rec room of a community center, but for the shotguns that line the walls. There's no chorus, all the actors and the band are on stage most of the time, and every choice helps highlights the darker aspects of the original story. Dark as it was, I think I would find the traditional light and fluffy version much harder to watch -- presenting some of the things that happen in this story (e.g. bullying, murder, treating women as prizes to be won, show trials) as perfectly find and normal is far more disturbing to me.

Supergirl: Since we resubscribed to Netflix specifically for The Sandman, then canceled it again, and I had never gotten around to finishing this series, I decided I had better wrap it up while I still had access. I had four more episodes to go, and I watched them all today. The pacing of this season was really weird, to the point that I wonder when the cast and crew were told that this would be the final one. Lena's plotline, in particular, felt rushed and out of place, and I wasn't really a fan of it. ( Spoilers for Lena's final arc, and also mentions of Brainy's. )

I did enjoy the final episode overall -- quickly dispensing with the big bads to focus on what Kara and her found family will be up to was the best choice this show could have made. ( Spoiler for the finale. ) But I really think they either could have used one more season if these were really the stories they wanted to tell.

The Sandman, Episode 11: Surprise extra episode! This was kind of a genius move on the part of Netflix and Gaiman's team, to drop a special episode just as the initial buzz for the show was starting to wear off. I had been wondering whether they would adapt any of the anthology stories; it seems the answer is yes, and I think this is a good way of going about it. "Dream of a Thousand Cats" is a fun little self-contained story; "Calliope" is disturbing and difficult, and I'm not sure it's the one I would have chosen to end on, although I suppose it makes sense to set up Orpheus for the next arc. Anyway, given that this is the story they decided to tell, I think they did a good job with it.

Arrowverse update: I'm currently caught up on Supergirl (to Episode 5) and have watched The Flash through Episode 6 (one episode behind as of this writing. I'm not sure how long the main storyline of Supergirl is going to hold my interest. ( Spoilers )

I enjoyed *The Flash"'s recent take on time loops -- I'm a sucker for a good time loop episode, and this one tried some new things I liked.

Soul: I've been aware of the latest Pixar movie for awhile, but T only recently heard about it, and now that we have Disney+, he wanted to watch it. So we did. Enjoyable as a sweet and funny buddy comedy, with some lovely ideas about music and creativity and finding your purpose in life. I'm not usually a jazz person, but I thought the music was wonderful - the main character is a jazz pianist, and Jon Batiste of Late Night with Steven Colbert performed his works (as well as composing most of the original jazz in the score, along with gorgeous ambient tracks by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor). This score definitely earned its Academy Award.

I've skipped a couple of weeks so I'm sure I've forgotten some things. We're watching Better Call Saul and Star Trek: Picard, both of which I'll write more about once we've finished them. I feel like it's been awhile since I've watched a movie. And lots of things are cancelled or on hold right now, which leaves us with...

Arrowverse update: I last wrote about Arrowverse stuff on February 24th, and I think there've been at least a couple episodes of each of the four shows since then. A few thoughts as I look back... I enjoyed the Supergirl episode that riffed on It's a Wonderful Life, and it was a fun use of Mxyzlplk. ( Batwoman and Flash spoiler )

The most recent Legends episode was super cute. I like that there's at least one show on the docket that knows how not to take itself so seriously.

Well I fell really behind on this one. Turns out Mondays work much better for this project when it's the day I have rehearsal... and I'm done with chorus until next September, plus with my new work schedule it might not even work anymore. So either I need to figure out how to better organize my Mondays or pick a different day. Anyway, attempting to reconstruct what I've seen in the last three weeks...

Arrowverse update: Two weeks of shows on this one. The first week was midseason finales, plus getting everything into place for Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the episodes all did what they had to do, some more effectively than others. ( Some spoilers. )

Then last week was the first three Crisis episodes and... well, it's fine. It did my heart a world of good to see Brendan Routh playing Superman again. I adore Tyler Hoechlin in the role, but I will forever have a soft spot for Routh's take on him. And there are other things I'm enjoying, but it's impossible for me to take any of the stakes seriously. ( Major spoilers... although are they, really, when I'm 95% certain every single one of them will be undone? ) I know, I know, it's about the journey. I guess the journey, and the breadth of cameos by other DC actors (only about half of whom I recognize), is supposed to be enough, but for me it isn't quite, not yet. I suppose you could argue that the stakes issue is always a problem with these crossovers -- I never really believed that half of the Arrowverse heroes would be permanently stuck in a Nazi AU either -- but Crisis on Earth-X felt like it had more heft to it in other ways: thematically, in terms of character growth, the power of an interesting what-if story. Crisis on Infinite Earths is more like "let's empty all of the toys out of the toybox for the pure joy of mashing them together." Maybe it will come together better in the end.

The Farewell: I probably had my expectations for this movie set all wrong, because I've only ever seen Awkwafina in comedic roles, and I wasn't prepared to see such a serious turn from her. Still, it was a very well done movie, with strong performances and thoughtful commentary on the culture clash between Chinese-Americans and their families still in China. I also thought the cinematography and editing were lovely.

The Kid Who Would Be King: I'm a sucker for retellings of the King Arthur story, and I found this one appealing, if a little draggy in some places and predictable in others. It's by the same writer and director as Attack the Block, which I still really need to see.

The Good Place, Season 4, Part 1: Oh, this is good. Getting really good. I am not at all certain where it's going to end up, and I love that. But that's one of the hallmarks of The Good Place for me: it almost always zigs when I expected it to zag, in a way that always makes perfect sense. I can't wait to go back and rewatch the whole thing once it's finished. Also, Eleanor and Chidi. Heart eyes everywhere

Orphan Black, rewatch: When I was writing up my best of the decade post, it occurred to me that I never did finish the final season of this show. I'd always meant to rewatch anyway, so I decided it was time. The first season is a perfect gem of a twisty, turny, rabbit hole; the second season is almost as good; but the third season is starting to collapse under its own weight. What keeps me watching, always, is the brilliance of Tatiana Maslany. The rest of the cast is quite strong in general, especially Jordan Gavaris as Felix, but how do you even compare it to Maslany's virtuoso performance? I've never seen its equal.

Arrowverse Update: Just Bats and Supes this week. (Since, as is usual, I'm a little bit behind.) ( Spoilers )

Critical Role: Undeadwood: I've never watched any of the HBO show Deadwood. In fact, I hadn't even realized that it was based on a real place and its characters on real people, until I went looking to see whether Wild Bill Hickock was a historical or legendary figure (historical, although his exploits are almost certainly exaggerated). Since this four-part RPG event was heavily steeped in the setting and characters of Deadwood -- essentially, it's a "zombies attack AU" -- I'm sure I missed many nuances of the bigger picture. But it was still enjoyable as a standalone story, with some fantastic acting and character dynamics. My favorite character was the enigmatic Mrs. Miriam, played by Anjali Bhimani; I'm not familiar with her other work, but I'd love to see more. The game system was an interesting one. Casting spells and a few other things involve playing hands of poker, which is a neat mechanic for a story set in the Wild West.

Arrowverse update: I've only watched the first third or so of this week's Arrow, so no comments on that one yet. I also haven't seen last night's Batwoman or Supergirl yet. ( Spoilers )

Fleabag: This is another show I watched with my friend group. We actually watched the first season last summer, before I started the Monday Media series, and I don't think I wrote about it at the time. We watched the first season in three batches -- Episode One by itself, Episodes Two through Four on another night, and then the last two together -- and although I liked it better as it went along, I didn't quite get why the show has been so beloved. Last night, we watched the entire second season pretty much in one sitting, and I wonder if I would have liked the first season better if we'd done the same. It's also possible that the second season is just superior; it is the one that swept the Emmy Awards, after all. My friend E, who is our TV Night host, said that he sees Fleabag as a show about people who make bad decisions, and I agree with that reading. The second season also did better at telling an overarching story, as compared to the first season, which felt more like a series of vignettes (although they might have felt better connected if we hadn't taken multi-week breaks between them). We also laughed a lot more. Favorite moments include the paintings, the reappearance of the stolen art, and the fox, and I won't say more than that. :)

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. )

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

One of my writing goals for 2019 was to write something about all the media I consume: books, shorter fiction, TV, movies, narrative games, etc. Books have been going pretty well, as has short fiction, but visual media has been pretty much a loss -- except for the MCU rewatch project and a few other films seen in theaters, I've not really managed to do this at all. So when I set my goals for July, one was to start a weekly media round-up post habit. Although I targeted Fridays in that post, for various reasons I decided to try for Monday instead -- not least the excuse to come up with an alliterative column title. :) So, here goes! Goes back to the first week of July.

Spider-Man: Far From Home: After enjoying Homecoming far more than I had thought possible, and seeing Peter Parker as one of the bright lights of Infinity War, seeing Far From Home on opening weekend was a foregone conclusion. Not quite as delightful as Homecoming, but that's a high bar. I appreciated how it dealt with some of the fallout from Infinity War and Endgame, in particular how they affected Peter, Happy, and Aunt May. Ned and MJ continue to be delightful. Do not miss the post-credits scenes of this one, because they blow the MCU wide open in terms of where Phase 4 might go next. ( This is a mega-spoiler so I will cut it. )

Supergirl, Season 4: I watched the first half of the season pretty much as it aired, then fell out of the habit after the annual Arrowverse crossover. Now that the entire season is on Netflix, I picked it back up with Episode 10 and have now watched through Episode 19. The main theme of this season -- anti-alien sentiment being whipped up out of fear and hatred is wrong and bad -- is not remotely subtle, but I suppose subtle is not what we need right now. It is deeply weird to see Bruce Boxleitner playing a xenophobic president who uses anti-alien rhetoric to consolidate his power. (John Sheridan would have come down to Earth and kicked his ass weeks ago.) I adore Nicole Maines as Nia Nal, who I'm pretty sure is the first out trans actress playing an out trans superhero in mainstream media, and the romance they're setting up with her and Brainy is adorable. I only have a few episodes left, so I hope to finish it soon.

...And I'm probably forgetting some things, which is why it's a good idea to write these on a weekly basis. But that's all that comes to mind, so I'll wrap up now. See you next Monday!

Supergirl was renewed for season 2! Hooray! It will be airing on The CW, which seems like a better fit than CBS anyway.

Agent Carter has been cancelled! Boo! So much for my favorite show on television, by like a lot. Also reported today was news that the Bobbie Morse/Lance Hunter spin-off won't be moving forward, leaving Agents of SHIELD as the only Marvel show on ABC.

These two announcements came within hours of each other, so I experienced a bit of whiplash this afternoon. So disappointing. My dreams of a golden age for superhero ladies on television, shattered. Because of course we can't have more than one TV show about female superheroes of entirely different genres, tones, and target audiences. Meanwhile, we can have as many shows about white dudes who kill people but have lots of angsty manpain about it as we want. Goody.