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media update
Aug. 28th, 2023 02:31 pmCongratulations to me, I have just crossed a task off my to-do list which has been hanging over me for months. Unfortunately it is the kind of task which is going to result in a whole set of other tasks springing up where it used to be, but in the meantime, let me update this thing.
Before we left the UK we had a month of Paramount+, which in the UK does not seem to have Lower Decks, but did have Strange New Worlds, so we watched the first season of that with Spartacus. I really enjoyed it! I do like the long plot arcs on Discovery, but this felt cheerful and episodic, and it was nice to see the new takes on the familiar old characters. I particularly like the new Chapel, although I keep expecting her hair to be a slightly different shade, and La'an and of course Uhura, and Number One is great. In fact I am delighted to have so many female characters I like, and who have a lot of time spent on them, in a Star Trek series! And I like all the call-backs to old Star Trek plots, like talking at your enemies until they give up and agree to make peace, or dealing with immature god-tier beings (Spartacus kept saying, "what I am even watching?" and we kept telling him, "this is just what Star Trek used to be like, OK? this kind of thing happens all the time on the Enterprise.") Or suddenly finding out that the Romulans look a lot like Vulcans.
I also am enjoying Spock's ill-fated betrothal. With body-swapping! and Stonn! I feel like the actor is more convincingly Spock-like in this than in Discovery, but it may be the type of narrative, or the lack of facial hair. But every now and then I feel like the Nimoy pastiche really works.
We also watched (without Spartacus) both seasons of Yellowjackets. It was too gorey for me, and just on the edge of being too scary, so I watched a lot of it through my fingers, but I did really enjoy it. It captures a lot of the horror of being a teenage girl, just with explicit murder and cannibalism instead of metaphorical. Also Shauna is what I think used to be called my perfect little cinnamon roll who can do no wrong, except for the fact that LITERALLY EVERYTHING SHE DOES IS WRONG. She is the worst, and I love her. She is even worse than Misty, and that's saying something, because Misty is absolutely terrible, and I love her almost as much.
One thing I like about the show is the way the supernatural element is left ambiguous. There's something there, probably, but also, they are doing all this too themselves. They didn't just bring whatever it is back with them: they brought it there with them, too.
Meanwhile, Spartacus watched all the Harry Potter movies, which he had never seen, and reread the books, which he read years ago and didn't care about, and is now really interested in them. I am pretending to know a lot less about Harry Potter (and especially about Harry Potter fanfiction) than I actually do. Although I think most of what he engages with are video essays about the books? It is all very strange to me, but he seems to be enjoying it.
Before we left the UK we had a month of Paramount+, which in the UK does not seem to have Lower Decks, but did have Strange New Worlds, so we watched the first season of that with Spartacus. I really enjoyed it! I do like the long plot arcs on Discovery, but this felt cheerful and episodic, and it was nice to see the new takes on the familiar old characters. I particularly like the new Chapel, although I keep expecting her hair to be a slightly different shade, and La'an and of course Uhura, and Number One is great. In fact I am delighted to have so many female characters I like, and who have a lot of time spent on them, in a Star Trek series! And I like all the call-backs to old Star Trek plots, like talking at your enemies until they give up and agree to make peace, or dealing with immature god-tier beings (Spartacus kept saying, "what I am even watching?" and we kept telling him, "this is just what Star Trek used to be like, OK? this kind of thing happens all the time on the Enterprise.") Or suddenly finding out that the Romulans look a lot like Vulcans.
I also am enjoying Spock's ill-fated betrothal. With body-swapping! and Stonn! I feel like the actor is more convincingly Spock-like in this than in Discovery, but it may be the type of narrative, or the lack of facial hair. But every now and then I feel like the Nimoy pastiche really works.
We also watched (without Spartacus) both seasons of Yellowjackets. It was too gorey for me, and just on the edge of being too scary, so I watched a lot of it through my fingers, but I did really enjoy it. It captures a lot of the horror of being a teenage girl, just with explicit murder and cannibalism instead of metaphorical. Also Shauna is what I think used to be called my perfect little cinnamon roll who can do no wrong, except for the fact that LITERALLY EVERYTHING SHE DOES IS WRONG. She is the worst, and I love her. She is even worse than Misty, and that's saying something, because Misty is absolutely terrible, and I love her almost as much.
One thing I like about the show is the way the supernatural element is left ambiguous. There's something there, probably, but also, they are doing all this too themselves. They didn't just bring whatever it is back with them: they brought it there with them, too.
Meanwhile, Spartacus watched all the Harry Potter movies, which he had never seen, and reread the books, which he read years ago and didn't care about, and is now really interested in them. I am pretending to know a lot less about Harry Potter (and especially about Harry Potter fanfiction) than I actually do. Although I think most of what he engages with are video essays about the books? It is all very strange to me, but he seems to be enjoying it.
