Culture consumed

[lizbee]

A regular feature on the Galactic Suburbia podcast is "Culture Consumed", where they outline and discuss the things they've been watching, reading and listening to of late. I really like the format, so here's what I've been consuming lately.

Listening

I don't really do podcasts much, but I love Galactic Suburbia, which ranges widely from fandom to general Australian pop culture from a local feminist perspective that works hard at intersectionality. There is also cake.

I also don't really listen to albums per se, let alone Beyoncé albums -- I usually find her work very hit and miss, most of the misses being ballads. But Lemonade really is outstanding. For one thing, there's a coherent narrative, which I don't find in many albums, and it all comes together in "Formation" at the end.

Speaking of coherent narratives: Hamilton. I didn't much like it on a first listen -- I think I got as far as "You'll Be Back" -- but I gave it a second go because I was intrigued by all the discussion. Listening to it with the Genius annotations open was great -- but it took the entrance of George Washington to make me fall in love. Turns out I just quit one song too soon on my first attempt.

I have a lot of Issues with its portrayal of women, which I think is a lot less feminist than people give it credit for, but I sure do love it a lot.

Spinning off from there, I've also been listening to a lot of the '80s and '90s hip hop that inspired Hamilton, and from there I keep falling down a TLC/Salt 'n' Pepa spiral, which inevitably leads back to Destiny's Child, Beyoncé and Lemonade.

Reading

It's Hugo's season, and once again, the shortlists are a clusterfuck of right wing trolls. The novels aren't so bad this time, but I may nope out of Best Related Work all together, not only because I'm a bit disappointed that Companion Piece didn't make it, but I'm absolutely heartsick that we don't get to lose to Letters to Tiptree.

But once again, I'm going to read as many of the finalists as I can, review them on No Award, and vote according to merit. I just finished Seveneves, and I'm struggling to come up with a coherent way to talk about it on NA. I might just do the post in three acts: one's really slow, the other is quite interesting until everything suddenly happens offscreen and we hear about it later, and the third is a review of a completely different book all together.

My reward for finishing Seveneves is Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray. It's very good, but what I'm really interested in with regard to the post-OT timeline is Ben Organa Solo and his descent into darkness. Sorry, Tumblr, but I have a serious weakness for characters who grow up in the shadow of their family legacies and either deal with that or fail spectacularly, so the only way Kylo Ren could be more awesome in my eyes is if he was Han and Leia's daughter instead of their son.

Also read lately:

• Vol 1 of Archie 2015, the "reboot" with art by Fiona Staples. I was pretty cynical when I heard this was happening, but it's really good -- I think because it takes the whole Riverdale format seriously, and isn't setting out to be a Dark and Gritty Version. It's still a comic you could give to your kids. And the art and writing are just good, to the point where I may actually have to get the Jughead title as well. (I realised that Mark Waid has written a bunch of stuff I've enjoyed over the years, so I should pay more attention to him.)
• The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks -- another YA/Middle Grade graphic novel, set in a city that has been invaded and colonised so many times, it's original inhabitants no longer have a name for it. This wears its Avatar inspiration overtly -- not only does it have a blurb from Bryan Konietzco, but the cover uses the AtLA font -- but it's a worthy successor. For one thing, unlike a lot of AtLA-inspired works, it's not about white people.
• The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R King -- I sort of fell out of love with this series after Locked Rooms pulled its punches and then God of the Hive looked at all the foreshadowing and set-up of the previous book and went, "Nah, actually I'll ignore all of that and be disappointing and racist instead." But this was outstanding, and I really wish it had come out ten years ago, when I had the fannish drive and energy to really do something with it, fic-wise. It's a massive retcon of not just the previous Russell novels, but also the Doyle canon, and nearly everything about it delighted me. Even the flashbacks to 19th century Australia were great, and I usually find gaping errors in that sort of thing.

Watching

On the insistence of nonelvis and sorryforlaughing , I've been watching The Americans. They were right: it's very, very good. It's sort of my Mad Men, in that every episode features a style of clothing or hair that I've seen on pictures of my mother.

It turns out that America is suddenly doing really good historicals set in the last few decades. Well, not "suddenly", I suppose Mad Men proved it could be done, and then it was just a matter of time until it inspired some really good shows. Between seasons of The Americans, I've watched Show Me A Hero (set in the '80s and '90s, about the court-mandated desegregation of Yonkers) and The People v OJ Simpson, which I started expecting hilarity, and ended having actual feelings about the Kardashians?

Then my MacBook's logicboard exploded, so for about ten days, I was confined to what I could watch via streaming services. Which was fine, it was just in time to binge watch season 2 of Janet King via ABC iView. I quite liked season 2 -- I thought it was better plotted than season 1, and despite the Dead Lesbian Trope that drives it, it also gives us Marta Dusseldorp dealing with trauma by wearing a lot of tank tops, and also a plot about a woman seeking justice for her murdered wife.

I was less impressed that the final episode reveals that the murderer is intersex, which doesn't really affect the plot or motivations, it's just a means to a fake-out. That could have been done differently, guys.

Stuff I watch week to week:

Elementary's season 4 was a mixed bag, and I have some issues with the finale, but it left me shipping Jamie Moriarty/Morland Holmes, and also Sherlock/Lots of Therapy, so that's ... kind of okay.

And Orphan Black's season 4 is great so far, pulling back from the labyrinthine conspiracies of season 3, but still dealing with repercussions from last year's plotlines.



I didn't really love the Alison-and-Donnie-Break-Bad plotline last year, because it was so reckless, and bound to put the other clones in harm's way. That seems to be exactly what's happening now, and plus it's being tied in with the other stories. I'm quite happy about that.

Also, I kept thinking, "It's so good that they brought the actress who played Beth back, she was really outstanding." Um, yeah. Well done, Tatiana Maslany.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I've had those Tatiana Maslany moments.

I feel like this season of Orphan Black has swapped out some of the conspiracy stuff for visceral body horror stuff. Which makes sense given the plot circling back to neolutionists, but caught me by surprise in the first couple of episodes.

[lizbee]

Yeah, same. But I'm really into the reproduction plotlines -- I always have been. (I know it's Frowned Upon, but Weird Alien Pregnancies and stuff is one of my bulletproof narrative kinks.)

[sorryforlaughing]

Almost universally over here, the initial reaction to the idea of an OJ Simpson trial docudrama was "poor taste at best, impending completely miscast trainwreck at worst," and then, after it began airing, "HOW DID YOU GIVE US ACTUAL FEELINGS ABOUT THE KARDASHIANS?" I haven't been watching because I remember the actual trial too well for it not to be upsetting (I was in law school at the time and the nuclear-level racism and misogyny in "discussions" of the case is something I'll never forget), but I'm glad they did something good with it.

ETA: Also, I hadn't heard of Show Me a Hero, it's going on the list.

[lizbee]

You'll like Show Me A Hero, I think. Spoilers, its entire Tumblr presence is Oscar Isaac gifs, the various diverse female characters might as well not exist.

The worst thing The Ppl v OJ did was make me ship Marcia Clark/Chris Darden. BUT THEY'RE SO SHIPPABLE, and both parties, in their books, coyly allude to a mutual attraction that may or may not have gone anywhere. But it's classic het UST in the best possible way -- that never loses sight of the fact that Marcia is a white woman who is not as clued in about racism as she thinks.

[sorryforlaughing]

Don't worry, thanks to fandom's...priorities I had no idea, for instance, that David Harewood was even in The Night Manager so I'm used to any series' actually interesting characters arriving unannounced.

"The worst thing The Ppl v OJ did was make me ship Marcia Clark/Chris Darden. BUT THEY'RE SO SHIPPABLE, and both parties, in their books, coyly allude to a mutual attraction that may or may not have gone anywhere."

Don't worry, there were so very many RL rumors at the time--justifiably or not--that they'd have been remiss not to try and point you in that direction.

[lizbee]

THEY GET DRUNK AND DANCE TO THE RADIO IN HER OFFICE

It's like a masterclass in How To Write Good Het UST.

[nonelvis]

Also, I kept thinking, "It's so good that they brought the actress who played Beth back, she was really outstanding."

actual lols

I'm enjoying S4 more than S3 so far, even though I could live without the body horror. Mostly, I'm just glad to see things refocusing on the female clones.

[lizbee]

I'm glad to see the Castor clones in their rightful place: as boy toys for older women.

I mean, sure, it's kind of weird that Susan raised Ira and is now boning him -- or maybe not literally, since he presumably has the genetic defect that makes Castor clones kill women with their sperm I SEE WHAT YOUR'E DOING THERE, SHOW, IT'S REALLY NOT SUBTLE -- but I'm into it.

*eyedart*

[copracat]

It's been brilliant revisiting Beth from Beth's point of view after everything we've become familiar with.

[lizbee]

Yes! But I'd really like to see more flashbacks of just her and Allison, because they seem to be the most alike of all the clones, in terms of personality -- driven, brittle, enabling each other's substance abuse. (I think Rachel would also have been similar, if she'd had a normal upbringing -- I love how, though each clone is her own woman, they all have at least the potential for common personality traits to arise, given the right circumstances.)

[rj_anderson]

I've been putting off reading MURD as I am a couple of books behind on the Russell series at this point, and also because I... er... keep forgetting I need to catch up on the Russell series. But your review makes me positively excited about reading it.

Also, I love you. You know why. :)

[lizbee]

I was a bit unexcited about MURD, because how interesting could Mrs Hudson's backstory be? VERY, IT TURNS OUT. I was madly in love even before we had the flashback to Tiny!UniversityStudent!Holmes and his outsized nose and complete inability to cope with women and babies and breastfeeding.

[rj_anderson]

Oh man, that description alone is enough to send me into agonies of longing. TINY HOLMES.

[lizbee]

SO GANGLY AND ARROGANT AND FULL OF BLACK AND WHITE MORALITY AND HIGH HANDED OUTRAGE

*ruffles his hair*

ALSO, Branwyn and I have started a betting pool on when Russell is going to murder Mycroft. We estimate 1927.

[rj_anderson]

We estimate 1927.

*snickers*

[lizbee]

WE HAVE ACTUAL REASONING!

- it was the time of the General Strike, and LRK has already written a novel about a shady government type using that as a pretext to institute fascism -- that's Branwyn's theory
- I'm leaning more towards the early 30s, when Britain starts refusing to take Jewish refugees from Germany

THE POINT IS, MYCROFT IS GOING DOWN

HOLMES MAY HAVE SOME FEELINGS

[rj_anderson]

YOUR REASONING PLEASES ME AND I SHOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO YOUR NEWSLETTER

[genarti]

OH WOW. That is a beautiful mental image already. And yessss, Mrs Hudson's backstory. That alone goes a long way to selling me on a book!

I used to be very into Mary Russell back in the day -- I was on an email list for the fandom, and cannot stop thinking of the ones that were out at that point in their four-letter versions, so I just got a tiny glow of nostalgic joy in seeing this new one called MURD in this thread! -- but I haven't read anything since Locked Rooms. (Would that be LOCK?) I'm delighted and cautiously heartened to hear that MURD is so good, though. Maybe I'll check it out! Will I be utterly bewildered for not having read the last few if I do?