Cupid Bow Mouth

My thoughts are so random on this episode. There’s alot of threads being tackled and not all of them jive together. In the last two episodes watching Roswell has felt like watching three different shows all at the same time: there's a murder mystery, a family drama, and a YA high school romance in New Adult-ish clothes (omg, the genre collision). Then there are the B-plots: sexual orientation in the military and immigration politics. Trying to pull the narratives together into a cohesive whole makes for a jarring roller-coaster ride.

So, cowboys ...

Immediately, the title of episode four brings to mind stereotypes of the American Cowboy taming the Wild West. He's (always a He) gallant, tall, laconic, capable, stern, tough, emotionally unavailable, and physical.

Our candidates for cowboy hood are as varied as the stereotype is flat:
Max, Michael, Kyle, Liz, Maria, Isabel, Master Sargent Manes. The problem of this line-up is the problem that the episode posits: Where Have all the Cowboys Gone? The fact is that they are missing. The stereotype is absent in the selection of characters provided. Looking back over the episode, they're knocked off one by one.

Spoilers!!

( There's a reason God put a cage around your heart. )

So, hearts …

So many people’s hearts all over the place.

This show really is about relationships. I’m still not sure how well this is translating. A) I’m watching the original on Hulu and it is SO VERY different and rings all of my nostalgia bells. 2) There are behaviors that resonant, for me, more with what you encounter in a YA scenario than an adult one. Max’s reckless confessions to Liz, showing her all the things like immediately and giving up Isabel and Michael in the process made more sense when they were sixteen year olds than it does in this iteration of the show. BUT!!!!! Those were also all the things that we loved about Max and Liz. The immediate connection, which is definitely being framed here. I do love that in the Pilot, Liz pumps the breaks on the progression of the relationship because she does realize that what she is experiencing via the hand print is may be Max’s feelings and not necessarily her own. That idea gets revisited in Episode 2 and then turned on its head at the end of the episode.

( Spoilers – You know the drill! )

To be fair, I don't know how objective I can be about the CW "reboot" of Roswell. The original series was one of my first fandoms. I wrote my first crappy fanfic about the tragic love affair of Max Evans and Liz Parker. Hulu is streaming the original series, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to do yourself the favor. It's silly and cheesy at times, but it's also the ultimate story of star crossed lovers. Acting is solid (hey, Katherine Hiegl totes got her start here plus there's William Sadler). There's a lot of angst and drama and chemistry between all of the cast ... perfect for a show set in a high school. And, I loved it.

Roswell, New Mexico has fast forwarded the series and the characters are now 10 years out of high school. There's obviously going to be tons of drama and angst, but outside of the political commentary surrounding immigration and illegal aliens (an easy and understandable target given the show's setting and the current political climate). Whether all of those things will work well together filtered through the prism of a story originally crafted around high schoolers remains to be seen. So far Roswell, Mexico is lacking the sweet, easy charm of Roswell, the palpable sense of yearning and loneliness in the beginning, the awesome sense of camraderie and relationship that was demonstrated at jump street.. Still, there are things that this new iteration does right (or at least well):

( Spoilers Behind the Cut )
We'll see hos this grittier, aged up version of Roswell goes. I'm open to it. Why not?

I found myself sitting through the first episode of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale on Sunday afternoon, and in an unexpected confluence of the stars, the following Wednesday I stumbled on a Yale Courses lecture on YouTube about Queer Theory and Gender Performativity which reminded me of my affection for the theories of one Judith Butler. It's an interesting bit of timing that one thing happened and then the other, but definitely fitting as my thoughts upon listening to the lecture immediately had me circling how ideas of gender and sex have been appropriated and re-written in The Handmaid's Tale, and how survival in this universe requires unflagging commitment to performing an identity that has absolutely nothing to do with the individual and everything to do with a prescribed archetype created for the benefit of the top 1% of the population. In other words, it's like real life!

Elizabeth Moss is gold in the performance and the running interior monologue throughout the episode beautifully depicts the duality of June as Offred (reality vs function), offering entre into the world and creating immediate empathy or the character. It also provided quite a bit of backstory quickly and efficiently, highlighted Offred's peril, and ratcheted up the tension while maintaining the calm, orderly yet sinister veneer that Gilead is working so hard to maintain. Without that I never would have made it through the hour and trust me when I say that there were moments when I was ready to call it a day. My commitment to watching THMT flagged considerably at times and I was convinced that I wasn't going to be able to watch this series, except that a wealth of friends advised me that it's worth watching. The advice, offered consistently by everyone: don't try and binge it.
( My name is Offred. I had another name, but it's forbidden now. So many things are forbidden now. )

I'm sure these have probably mostly made the rounds, but because I am SO without cable and because I work like a slave and sleep in the creases, I've just peeped them out. Now, there's buzz for decades about the soon-to-be rebooted Heroes and Powerpuff Girls franchisees. Don't let that get you down, I suppose we need to learn to embrace because re-boots seem to be the word of the hour on quite a bit of media being released in the last half of this year. I tried to skirt a lot of it, but some things a girl just can't not take note of. I don't see any reason to dwell on the things that I'm not interested in, so here's a peek at a few of the things that look good for the fall!

( Read more... )

I forgot, amongst everything else, how devastating Claudia Black played Aeryn Sun in The Choice. In the quiet corners of the episode, watching Aeryn grieve is pretty painful to watch.

Ok, so I'm totally in love with Irisa Nyira. I even love me some Nolan. Or maybe it's just that I love Iris and Nolan together. She is such a broody, angry, lethal teenager and she loves him SO much. And Nolan is pretty much over the moon for Irisa, as well. She's totally he's little girl. When he tells Julie Benz's Mayor Amanda that she's "a good girl," I just about fell off my bed laughing. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth and she'd skin you as soon as look at you. But I love her!

I don't think the Defiance pilot did much outside setting the stage. Plot contrivances were thick on the ground:

1) the death of the "Lawkeeper" opening up a place in this society for a man with the kind of skill set that Our Hero conveniently posses
2) super secret plot to attack the city of unknown and nefarious reasons
3) helpless children
4) betrayal from within
5) Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers

The world of Defiance is a little too sanitized. It's like someone dusted off the Firefly set and put a new coat of paint on it. There are things about this not-so-distant future that are jarring. Not least of which, for some crazy reason, was Julie Benz's heather grey tank top. Everyone seems to dress according to kind and station. Considering the terraforming and the introduction of all different species, I would expect more sort of mingling of fashion and general aesthetic.

But it's just the first episode. Other things I liked:

* Doc Ywell and her snappy condescension
* What little I've seen of Kenya and Amanda's relationship (although Kenya's position as the town madam seems a little too acceptable considering that there's only been about 30 years since the world went to shit. Granted, however, that we're looking at the world through a hybridized township.)
* the languages and the subtitles, although why Datak and Stahma speak English when they're alone makes zeros sense considering that there actually ARE SUBTITLES!
* Julie Benz!

So, we'll see where this goes. I'm in ... for the meantime ...

1. Whoever decided to put Martina Navratilova in that gods-awful psycho net harem outfit should be shot. She's a beautiful woman and you made her look like a joke. So. Not. Cool.

2. William Levy is hot as hell, but he needs to learn how to lighten up and take himself a little less seriously. Teh hotness will only get you so far. I need a little charm, here. Think Giles Marini and Mario Lopez, eh!

3. Okay. Sheri Sheppard for the win because she is just TOO DAMN ADORABLE!!!

4. I expect the British Opera Singer to take this one home. She is GOOD.

5. Do we really need two hours worth of show to tell us who's going home? Really ABC? Srsly?

Ok, so, I kinda don't see the point. The original version is awesome and so far this version doesn't do anything extraordinary with the premise or the characters. Except for Meaghan Rath as Sally (nee Annie), the actors are serviceable in their parts and not especially relevatory. Meaghan Rath, however, and despite her unnecessary name change, is pretty awesome. I might just like her better than Lenora Crichlow.

I still like how the show depicts types of mothers. I still like how the females characters are in possession of the most power and agency. They manipulate the storyline. The men emote. The women kick ass and take over the world. As it should be.

( Have you seen what it's like outside? The sky's bleeding. I came to pray. )