Watching and reading
11 Dec 2021 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneI haven't written anything about what I'm watching and reading lately, so.
The only show that's currently coming out regularly that I'm watching is the new . Normally I refuse to watch things one week at a time because I prefer binging so much that I'd rather wait until the end of the season, but when Wax is really curious enough to have watched alone, I'll watch with her. As I watch this, it's quite funny trying to see what I remember from when I read these books. I think I last read one when I was about 13, when I gave up hope that the guy would literally ever finish the series (I was correct) and realized that in terms of never finding out the ending, they spent too much of their page time irritating the shit out of me. As I've seen some other people say elsewhere - includingprincessofgeeks - the books had some great concepts, but the writing itself wasn't by any means the attraction. I don't remember anything negative about narrative voice, but the intricate petty interpersonal plots going back and forth that depend on the point of view characters being incredibly stupid - that's what I remember. I called it "soap-operiffic" at the time. I've never had patience for this type of plot device, all the way from Saturday morning cartoon watching; I lose sympathy for the character too fast as I get more and more exasperated and then I just start hoping with increasing fervor that they'll die so I stop suffering their point of view. I definitely recognize and remember these thoughts about Rand and Perrin, but I think I found Perrin more irritating by the last book I read, whichever that was, six or seven perhaps. I remembered Nynaeve but I mostly remembered ambivalence about her plotline, not actually her character, while in the show I'm reacting with an angry "TOO STUPID TO LIVE" nearly every time she says or does anything at this point. (Not sure whether that's a change in her, me, or both.) I had completely forgotten the existence of the other two, which is an interesting novelty. Obviously, they are both still stupid, in an extremely teenaged way much of the time, but they're slightly less stupid, so maybe that's why. Mat shows the occasional spark of common sense, but on the other hand in other ways he's arguably even more foolish than the others, so maybe I just started hating him earlier and skipped his sections or blotted out the memory from self-preservation. We are now at a point of some danger that waxjism will get too annoyed to continue watching with me, as it's quite hard to refrain from yelling, or at least grumbling, at the screen.
Apart from all that, which I have to regard as a legitimate artistic difference - I mean, as a technique for constructing narratives and a strategy for POV characters and so on - I hate the results and the characters in question, but obviously some people prefer it that way - anyway, apart from that, the most interesting things are the visuals. Some of the real locations are absolutely stunning, and the design of the sets and the places where the CGI isn't quite good enough to not be obviously fake are always interesting. Costume choices continue to be mostly cool, but with some sloppy details that are irritating as fuck, like visible zipper on the back of Moiraine's gown last week and puckering in the fit of it that just absolutely wouldn't happen in a handmade garment tailored to her body. Then on the other hand, the DESIGN of the costumes - not the execution - tends to be occasionally absolutely brilliant, and the artistic director or whoever is combining costume design, set design and photography angles is clearly also fantastic. Sophie Okonedo's costumes were a high point. The hair and makeup continues to be a letdown in comparison (oh, except Sophie's hair, that was also great), and I continue to see no even slightly plausible in-verse spackle to explain it, so you have to just IGNORE it even though it's sometimes frightfully obtrusive. None of this is as funny as the scenes where Egwene and Perrin were hiking across what was supposed to be, I guess, freezing tundra, and they were supposed to be cold, and were directed to shiver and huddle, but she was wearing a "fur" coat unfastened instead of closing it, raising the collar around her neck, and drawing her hands into the sleeves.
All the other shows I have an interest in are between series right now - BBC Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows, Derry Girls and now Ted Lasso. At least Derry Girls' last series was a while ago, so one can hope they may release another soon. I've already seen the new series of the others.
Wax has been watching that semi-prestige astronaut show with the guy from Altered Carbon. I don't know where they spent their money (well - apart from CGI, that must have cost something), but it clearly wasn't on any kind of realism for costumes and hair and makeup, which are irritating enough to make me mad even though I've only seen this over Wax's shoulder as she watches with headphones on. If it was fanfiction, this level of realism would make it impossible for me to rate higher than mediocre. It's like they didn't even try at all.
Also, I don't think I mentioned that I gave up on Foundation after like 5 episodes. (I still see bits of it over Wax's shoulder though, she just watches it with headphones on now.) It's almost entirely original fiction, which I can't really blame them for because the way the Foundation trilogy is written, it's impossible to use it as anything more than a vague outline of a show. Some of the invention is pretty cool in there, but overall, there is too much that's irritating to me instead for me to sit through it for the entertaining parts - if I were judging it as an original work, I mean. But the real killer is that I can't really judge it ONLY as an original work because it IS still a fan work, and it mostly manages to completely exclude all of the things that were appealing about Foundation in the first place (which is quite a feat, because Foundation had plenty that was wrong with it, so like, the things that WERE great about it seem like they should be hard to miss). If those things aren't there, I feel, what is the point? Then it's just an extremely silly and disorganized mess with a lot more budget than dialogue polishing. Well, it's a racially diverse disorganized mess etc etc, that's a point in its favor, but still, not enough.
Last summer we bought some box sets of Father Ted and The Brittas Empire to rewatch, because we figured there was really no hope of ever finding them streaming. But the DVD player was set up in the bedroom, and then we moved it down when Wax's brother and niece were here to watch The Lion King for the kid, and now it's in the corner of the dining room with stuff piled on it, so it's not at all convenient to watch it. I've mostly been watching old episodes of Only Connect lately actually, in between the random things I follow like epicurious's Four Levels and Professional and Home Chef Swap series.
I've made it to book 10 of Foreigner, so that's like halfway. I THINK I've read this one before, but I'm not actually positive. I haven't been reading anything else in between, except the book on Finnish lighting design history I had from the library for the last month, and I just swapped it for a book on Art Nouveau in Finland.
The only show that's currently coming out regularly that I'm watching is the new . Normally I refuse to watch things one week at a time because I prefer binging so much that I'd rather wait until the end of the season, but when Wax is really curious enough to have watched alone, I'll watch with her. As I watch this, it's quite funny trying to see what I remember from when I read these books. I think I last read one when I was about 13, when I gave up hope that the guy would literally ever finish the series (I was correct) and realized that in terms of never finding out the ending, they spent too much of their page time irritating the shit out of me. As I've seen some other people say elsewhere - including
princessofgeeks - the books had some great concepts, but the writing itself wasn't by any means the attraction. I don't remember anything negative about narrative voice, but the intricate petty interpersonal plots going back and forth that depend on the point of view characters being incredibly stupid - that's what I remember. I called it "soap-operiffic" at the time. I've never had patience for this type of plot device, all the way from Saturday morning cartoon watching; I lose sympathy for the character too fast as I get more and more exasperated and then I just start hoping with increasing fervor that they'll die so I stop suffering their point of view. I definitely recognize and remember these thoughts about Rand and Perrin, but I think I found Perrin more irritating by the last book I read, whichever that was, six or seven perhaps. I remembered Nynaeve but I mostly remembered ambivalence about her plotline, not actually her character, while in the show I'm reacting with an angry "TOO STUPID TO LIVE" nearly every time she says or does anything at this point. (Not sure whether that's a change in her, me, or both.) I had completely forgotten the existence of the other two, which is an interesting novelty. Obviously, they are both still stupid, in an extremely teenaged way much of the time, but they're slightly less stupid, so maybe that's why. Mat shows the occasional spark of common sense, but on the other hand in other ways he's arguably even more foolish than the others, so maybe I just started hating him earlier and skipped his sections or blotted out the memory from self-preservation. We are now at a point of some danger that waxjism will get too annoyed to continue watching with me, as it's quite hard to refrain from yelling, or at least grumbling, at the screen. Apart from all that, which I have to regard as a legitimate artistic difference - I mean, as a technique for constructing narratives and a strategy for POV characters and so on - I hate the results and the characters in question, but obviously some people prefer it that way - anyway, apart from that, the most interesting things are the visuals. Some of the real locations are absolutely stunning, and the design of the sets and the places where the CGI isn't quite good enough to not be obviously fake are always interesting. Costume choices continue to be mostly cool, but with some sloppy details that are irritating as fuck, like visible zipper on the back of Moiraine's gown last week and puckering in the fit of it that just absolutely wouldn't happen in a handmade garment tailored to her body. Then on the other hand, the DESIGN of the costumes - not the execution - tends to be occasionally absolutely brilliant, and the artistic director or whoever is combining costume design, set design and photography angles is clearly also fantastic. Sophie Okonedo's costumes were a high point. The hair and makeup continues to be a letdown in comparison (oh, except Sophie's hair, that was also great), and I continue to see no even slightly plausible in-verse spackle to explain it, so you have to just IGNORE it even though it's sometimes frightfully obtrusive. None of this is as funny as the scenes where Egwene and Perrin were hiking across what was supposed to be, I guess, freezing tundra, and they were supposed to be cold, and were directed to shiver and huddle, but she was wearing a "fur" coat unfastened instead of closing it, raising the collar around her neck, and drawing her hands into the sleeves.
All the other shows I have an interest in are between series right now - BBC Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows, Derry Girls and now Ted Lasso. At least Derry Girls' last series was a while ago, so one can hope they may release another soon. I've already seen the new series of the others.
Wax has been watching that semi-prestige astronaut show with the guy from Altered Carbon. I don't know where they spent their money (well - apart from CGI, that must have cost something), but it clearly wasn't on any kind of realism for costumes and hair and makeup, which are irritating enough to make me mad even though I've only seen this over Wax's shoulder as she watches with headphones on. If it was fanfiction, this level of realism would make it impossible for me to rate higher than mediocre. It's like they didn't even try at all.
Also, I don't think I mentioned that I gave up on Foundation after like 5 episodes. (I still see bits of it over Wax's shoulder though, she just watches it with headphones on now.) It's almost entirely original fiction, which I can't really blame them for because the way the Foundation trilogy is written, it's impossible to use it as anything more than a vague outline of a show. Some of the invention is pretty cool in there, but overall, there is too much that's irritating to me instead for me to sit through it for the entertaining parts - if I were judging it as an original work, I mean. But the real killer is that I can't really judge it ONLY as an original work because it IS still a fan work, and it mostly manages to completely exclude all of the things that were appealing about Foundation in the first place (which is quite a feat, because Foundation had plenty that was wrong with it, so like, the things that WERE great about it seem like they should be hard to miss). If those things aren't there, I feel, what is the point? Then it's just an extremely silly and disorganized mess with a lot more budget than dialogue polishing. Well, it's a racially diverse disorganized mess etc etc, that's a point in its favor, but still, not enough.
Last summer we bought some box sets of Father Ted and The Brittas Empire to rewatch, because we figured there was really no hope of ever finding them streaming. But the DVD player was set up in the bedroom, and then we moved it down when Wax's brother and niece were here to watch The Lion King for the kid, and now it's in the corner of the dining room with stuff piled on it, so it's not at all convenient to watch it. I've mostly been watching old episodes of Only Connect lately actually, in between the random things I follow like epicurious's Four Levels and Professional and Home Chef Swap series.
I've made it to book 10 of Foreigner, so that's like halfway. I THINK I've read this one before, but I'm not actually positive. I haven't been reading anything else in between, except the book on Finnish lighting design history I had from the library for the last month, and I just swapped it for a book on Art Nouveau in Finland.
(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 02:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 01:21 pm (UTC)THE PENS CAME
Thank you SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!It's Christmas for me already!
(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 01:30 pm (UTC)As for details... I think everybody's attention concentrates itself on different ones, and they naturally relate to one's interests, which are mostly visual in my case. And historical, to an extent. But fixating on visual details is a habit from long before I engaged with media - I already did it as a small child, from a combination of curiosity hoping to avoid boredom, hypervigilance, and distraction from my typical anxiety about everything when I wasn't at home with my parents. And I used to read her big historical and theatrical costuming book over my mom's shoulder before I was old enough to read or sew, too.
(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 13 Dec 2021 07:05 pm (UTC)