Good TV
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@theonceler I loved the Orville episode with all the beefy action, and Bot and I commented that they handled the whole thing surprisingly well, and hopefully other shows get the clue. The show has really grown on me, when I kinda disliked the first few episodes.
Also great is this and last season of Legends of Tomorrow, yep. Also he's a better Constantine in Legends than in his own series because CW isn't as sissy about his quirks as the other network was.
Also finding ways to block out his crotch or stop him from smoking without being preachy about it have been pretty funny.
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I love the Orville but damn if Star Trek Discovery isn't amazing too.
That's sits just fine with me.
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@highfalutin said in Good TV:
You on Netflix was kind of excellent. Super uncomfortable in the best way to be uncomfortable.
I just finished it. Having read the novel when it was released, I.... have complicated feelings about the show. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. But the book made me deeply uncomfortable with its fascinating portrayal of the narrator and how truly disturbed and delusional he was. The show made me deeply uncomfortable with myself, because despite knowing from the very beginning -- even without being familiar with the book, so no spoilers -- that he's a fucking psycho stalker, I actually really liked him and was kind of rooting for him at the end?
I'm not sure whether that says more about the incredibly fucked up idea of 'romance' we have portrayed in media or about me, but either way, I'm sitting here pretty skeeved out by having thought to myself, "Aww, Joe. You'd be such a great guy if you weren't a violent lunatic." And this is from someone who reacts with an instinctive, visceral anger to the slightest hint of Nice Guy (tm) bullshit after horrible real life experiences growing up.
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello -
@highfalutin said in Good TV:
You on Netflix was kind of excellent. Super uncomfortable in the best way to be uncomfortable.
I just finished it. Having read the novel when it was released, I.... have complicated feelings about the show. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. But the book made me deeply uncomfortable with its fascinating portrayal of the narrator and how truly disturbed and delusional he was. The show made me deeply uncomfortable with myself, because despite knowing from the very beginning -- even without being familiar with the book, so no spoilers -- that he's a fucking psycho stalker, I actually really liked him and was kind of rooting for him at the end?
I'm not sure whether that says more about the incredibly fucked up idea of 'romance' we have portrayed in media or about me, but either way, I'm sitting here pretty skeeved out by having thought to myself, "Aww, Joe. You'd be such a great guy if you weren't a violent lunatic." And this is from someone who reacts with an instinctive, visceral anger to the slightest hint of Nice Guy (tm) bullshit after horrible real life experiences growing up.
Man, exactly this. All of it. When I got a pleasant stomach flutter as Joe was running at a full pelt for Beck's place (accompanied by a straight up grin when he tried to do that romantic "stone tapping on the window" and it broke instead) I was so sickened by my own reactions I almost turned it off.
I found myself rooting for him consistently, and that's insane. I don't know if the credit goes to the actor who portrayed him or the story - probably a combination of the two - but they did a hell of a job. I deeply enjoyed the show. I just don't know what to think about how I responded to the "protagonist."
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@highfalutin said in Good TV:
I just finished it. Having read the novel when it was released, I.... have complicated feelings about the show. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. But the book made me deeply uncomfortable with its fascinating portrayal of the narrator and how truly disturbed and delusional he was. The show made me deeply uncomfortable with myself, because despite knowing from the very beginning -- even without being familiar with the book, so no spoilers -- that he's a fucking psycho stalker, I actually really liked him and was kind of rooting for him at the end?
I'm not sure whether that says more about the incredibly fucked up idea of 'romance' we have portrayed in media or about me, but either way, I'm sitting here pretty skeeved out by having thought to myself, "Aww, Joe. You'd be such a great guy if you weren't a violent lunatic." And this is from someone who reacts with an instinctive, visceral anger to the slightest hint of Nice Guy (tm) bullshit after horrible real life experiences growing up.
Man, exactly this. All of it. When I got a pleasant stomach flutter as Joe was running at a full pelt for Beck's place (accompanied by a straight up grin when he tried to do that romantic "stone tapping on the window" and it broke instead) I was so sickened by my own reactions I almost turned it off.
I found myself rooting for him consistently, and that's insane. I don't know if the credit goes to the actor who portrayed him or the story - probably a combination of the two - but they did a hell of a job. I deeply enjoyed the show. I just don't know what to think about how I responded to the "protagonist."
I honestly feel like a fair portion of that was the actor? I mean, in the novel they do a much better job of portraying just how angry and disgusted he is. Don't get me wrong -- Peach is horrible and her arrogant, classist crap is a big part of it. In the show, it makes you feel bad for Joe; in the novel a lot of it is countered by his internal rage centered on how very little he thinks of them, how he -- the poor, uneducated, working class white man who is just smart and well read -- is so much better than them, and it just sort of clicks in your brain. Like, "Ohh. OHH. He's that guy, the ill-adjusted, socially isolated 'intellectual' white boy that thinks he deserves whatever he wants because he's absorbed this narrative and he's just angry he isn't getting what he's owed and congratulating himself for being such a 'gentleman'." And having existed in the super misogynistic circle that was 90s gaming culture, I was all "I know this guy. I know twenty of these guys and it's terrifying."
The show trades a lot on Penn Badgley's charm and good looks, but if there's one thing that I give it credit for, it's being very keenly aware of that. If you read any of the interviews or tweets or whatever he's made about his views on the show, how looks and charm and whiteness and maleness are so valued in our culture that we skew towards giving Joe the benefit of the doubt even though we know he's a murderer, it's brilliant. It becomes a different kind of horror, one that's as much a send-up of our culture and our complicity in these stories, in the idea of Beck as some sort of prize that Joe's supposed to win for doing everything 'right', a horror with ourselves and our reactions.
I love it. I love it so much. SO MUCH.
A++. Would buy again.
ETA: Having started watching this right after finishing the Ted Bundy tapes -- like, Netflix was all, "Hey, you apparently like shows about violent lunatics that murder women (which I am mentally questioning even as I type this, like maybe I should just go watch Fuller House or something for awhile), you should watch You! You'll like it!", things got.... weird. Like at one point I was examining my reactions to Joe and kind of went "*Ohh, fuck. This is how Bundy got married while he was literally on trial for raping and murdering a twelve year old girl, isn't it?!?!", and it's a whole..... thing to sudden feel a wash of sympathy and pity for Carol Ann Boone.
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@highfalutin said in Good TV:
You on Netflix was kind of excellent. Super uncomfortable in the best way to be uncomfortable.
I just finished it. Having read the novel when it was released, I.... have complicated feelings about the show. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. But the book made me deeply uncomfortable with its fascinating portrayal of the narrator and how truly disturbed and delusional he was. The show made me deeply uncomfortable with myself, because despite knowing from the very beginning -- even without being familiar with the book, so no spoilers -- that he's a fucking psycho stalker, I actually really liked him and was kind of rooting for him at the end?
I'm not sure whether that says more about the incredibly fucked up idea of 'romance' we have portrayed in media or about me, but either way, I'm sitting here pretty skeeved out by having thought to myself, "Aww, Joe. You'd be such a great guy if you weren't a violent lunatic." And this is from someone who reacts with an instinctive, visceral anger to the slightest hint of Nice Guy (tm) bullshit after horrible real life experiences growing up.
IMO, it's kind of the point.
People who are dangerous to you, me, and society at large--stalkers, murderers, etc.--aren't all bad, in the sense that there are a lot of parts of them that are probably good. It's just that they don't really manage to outweigh the bad. He's not a nice guy who jaywalks, or a nice guy who shoplifts, or a nice guy who does a little too much blow and forgets date night.
He's a guy who stalks, murders, imprisons, and has a skewed view on what is appropriate, what boundaries are, and his own entitlement... who is other than ALL OF THAT, usually a nice guy.
If you are only a nice guy for 5% of your existence, you're not a nice guy; you just seem like it.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@coin Yeah, I give a lot of credit to Penn Badgley for responding to people that liked is portrayal of Joe with basically what amounts to "He killed four people. What else is there to say?" when a lot of actors would probably just enjoy the attention.
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello -
@coin Yeah, I give a lot of credit to Penn Badgley for responding to people that liked is portrayal of Joe with basically what amounts to "He killed four people. What else is there to say?" when a lot of actors would probably just enjoy the attention.
Penn was good casting for multiple reasons, first and foremost his usual calm and collected manner of facing inappropriate fans, and second, the whole thematic Gossip Girl connection which had me rollin'.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@coin Yeah, I give a lot of credit to Penn Badgley for responding to people that liked is portrayal of Joe with basically what amounts to "He killed four people. What else is there to say?" when a lot of actors would probably just enjoy the attention.
Penn was good casting for multiple reasons, first and foremost his usual calm and collected manner of facing inappropriate fans, and second, the whole thematic Gossip Girl connection which had me rollin'.
I think I may be the only person on the planet who didn't watch that show, though I considered it after hearing that. Does it hold up, do you think? I already know THE BIG SURPRISE ENDING that supposedly made no sense.
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello -
@coin Yeah, I give a lot of credit to Penn Badgley for responding to people that liked is portrayal of Joe with basically what amounts to "He killed four people. What else is there to say?" when a lot of actors would probably just enjoy the attention.
Penn was good casting for multiple reasons, first and foremost his usual calm and collected manner of facing inappropriate fans, and second, the whole thematic Gossip Girl connection which had me rollin'.
I think I may be the only person on the planet who didn't watch that show, though I considered it after hearing that. Does it hold up, do you think? I already know THE BIG SURPRISE ENDING that supposedly made no sense.
I mean.
sigh
It's Gossip Girl. It's stupid fun. It's classist stupid fun, even. Some of the characters are so great because of how they bend the archetype they're based on, but it's not eactly high brow television. I watched it, I liked it, it's not a judgment. But it's definitely background viewing at this point.
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I FINISHED "YOU" YESTERDAY AND I AM VERY ANGRY ABOUT THE ENDING.
That is all.
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I've been watching Legion.
I wish I didn't know it was connected to X-men. It's so, so good, but I'm so burnt on superhero stuff, I cringe every time they use the word 'mutant' or make an illusion to the comics and I think, "That's right. This is going to get stupid and cheesy and become nothing but one senseless action scene after another." It's really keeping me from enjoying the perfection that is that show.
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I'm watching Deadly Class. It's about teenagers in a school for assassins, set in 1987. It is not anime/animated, but there is a Japanese girl that's the leader of the kids with Yakuza parents, so take that with a grain of salt.
Character A: That ho Brandy was my white whale until I broke through the Mason-Dixon line.
Character B: Wait, Brandy is your girlfriend?
Character A: What the f- Hell no. She's a Nazi, Marcus. That's not girlfriend material.Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras. -
@Pandora I am loving that one. From the writeup, I did not have high hopes, and expected a complete trainwreck. I was very pleased to be wrong.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality Same! It sounded like trash, I was literally looking for something to put me to sleep. Did not expect this to be so good. Also, after a shower and a tie, Marcus is adorable.
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@surreality The first few episodes have been consistently good, too. Sometimes there's a decent pilot, and then it all goes to crap. They didn't fall into that trap thus far, though, so I'm pleased. Interested to see what they do with it.
They capture the cynicism of the era brilliantly, too.
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I love Deadly Class.
I especially loved the third episode where you learn that the two punkers are not as badass as the unassuming homeless kid who had to actually deal with the harsher aspects of being the low-low-lowest class.
Saya and María are great, too.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@Coin Uh... spoilers much! I Only saw the first episode bro!
Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras. -
<zips lips> Watch more! It doesn't get worse.
