|
|
Post by Darkness on Feb 19, 2015 1:51:52 GMT
Wolf Hall - adapted from the first two novels of Hilary Mantel's Booker prize winning novels - Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I wanted to read the books but they're massively thick tombes and I don't think I'll ever really get around to them. The entire series is on iPlayer. Have so far watched the first two episodes - it's a bit complicated at first, trying to work out who all the characters are, but I think I'm just about getting into it now. Tis good. Me like.
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Feb 28, 2015 5:38:36 GMT
Wolf Hall dvd out on Monday - yay!
Tonight I watched this week's Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe - "That's all for now. Go away."
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Mar 7, 2015 1:00:47 GMT
Did Peter and Lauren really have to leave Eastenders? I suppose the answer is yes - they were too lovely a couple to stay - their romance, on a slow burn since they were children, finally came to fruition and they got their fairytale ending and got engaged, and went to live in New Zealand. I'll miss them, anyway.  |
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on Apr 7, 2015 0:00:16 GMT
They went to New Zealand!? That's, like, the other side of London, right? Watching Louis Theroux : Transgender Kids Joined it halfway through, and I really feel I needed to see the introduction to this one. I'm glad it's Louis, sensitive yet direct (or clumsily blunt). Some of the parents are surprisingly broadminded.  |
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Apr 17, 2015 21:49:19 GMT
Eastenders and HIGNFY
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Apr 19, 2015 5:29:40 GMT
Jack Dee's Election Helpdesk. A bit like Question Time, but much more fun. |
|
|
|
Post by DAT500 on Apr 21, 2015 21:19:18 GMT
Playing catch up with the second series of Inside No 9, absolutely stunning.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 1, 2015 13:16:54 GMT
Al Murray's Common Sense Message to the UK (FUKP Party Political Broadcast)
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on May 1, 2015 21:43:57 GMT
Friday night is Eastenders and HIGNFY night. |
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 22, 2015 19:13:07 GMT
The news. Ed. Balls.  |
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on May 28, 2015 15:20:37 GMT
I just watched Re-Animator.
I was enjoying the campy awfulness of it, the puppets and the makeup and the tomato ketchup, until the "sexual assault by a corpse" scene. Kind of ruined the whole thing for me.
Fails the sexy lamp test.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 30, 2015 21:17:05 GMT
I think you've managed to some up so much about all sorts of films which somehow reach cult status.  Edit: sum up |
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on May 31, 2015 0:17:24 GMT
But last night I watched Tremors which passed the sexy lamp test and the bechdel test!
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 31, 2015 1:01:46 GMT
Okay, okay. I let it slide first time, but now you're going to have to explain what the "Sexy Lamp Test" is. If that's not too silly, you may then go on to describe how the bechdel test is applied, and whether or not it is of higher merit than a sexy lamp, or a totally different category altogether. |
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 31, 2015 1:02:14 GMT
(Oh God, Tremors)
|
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on May 31, 2015 11:01:14 GMT
I'm working my way through old films on Netflix. This is the explanation.
The Bechdel test is a basic test for whether your film/comic/book/etc. is a piece of misogynist crap. To pass the Bechdel test there must be two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. The point is that it's a really low bar, but most films still fail to pass it.
The sexy lamp test is an even lower bar. You fail the sexy lamp test if you could replace a female character with a sexy lamp and the story still work.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on May 31, 2015 23:16:38 GMT
That's brilliant. For surreal moment I thought the sexy lamp test was something to do with the lamp from Pixar! I feel awkward if I fancy strong female characters, as if somehow I'm missing the point, hard to explain, but I suspect it's to do with many years of crap films, a fear of being manipulated by the obvious (thus reducing me to some sort of meat driven Neanderthal), a sense of a need for cultural correction, after years of watching fellow drama girl-students select monologues from a pitifully small and highly agenderised (gender, geddit) list of plays. I have a slight crush on Dr Weir from Stargate Atlantis. No lamp could replace her! Although the women do sometimes talk about the men, for comic effect, because usually the men are all emotionally stunted and anxious. Sort of related: When someone asked Joss Whedan why he wrote such good female characters, he answered that he would have to as long as that question was still being asked (something like that). But you know all this. Suddenly I feel like my own dad, trying to reason himself out of a prehistoric mindset. |
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on Jun 2, 2015 21:45:48 GMT
I have these conversations with Alex all the time, mostly about female comedians.
"I find her really annoying and not funny, but would I feel that way if she were a man? am I holding her to higher standards? Am I just annoyed that there's a woman on my screen with her shirt buttoned all the way up?"
I was always fond of Captain Janeway.
The "strong female characters" thing is dodgy too - there's a test for that but I can't remember the fun pop culture short hand for it. A "strong" female character does not count if she is just a man with tits/just a man's dom fantasy, if she is "strong" by virtue of having all masculine traits and shedding feminine ones, if she doesn't have emotions and just "kicks ass".
To use Whedonverse examples (though his work is not without its issues) Buffy is a teenage girl superhero, who is incapable of forming close emotional bonds, has a massive superiority complex, plus a victim complex, and cannot show weakness and really sucks at compassion. But she will not let anyone hurt the people she loves, she will not break her moral code, she literally sacrificed herself to save her baby sister and her friends. She is deeply flawed. Like people are. Dawn is a teenage girl living in her sister's shadow who can't make any friends who's just lost her mother who faces danger constantly and then discovers her entire life has been a story. She's insecure and scared and clings to things that make her feel safe and she acts out so she can feel in control but when it comes down to it, she will fight for herself and her family.
Willow.
Inara.
Zoe.
Kaylee. Kaylee's really feminine! She likes her frilly dresses and she wants to go to dances and feel pretty. AND she's a really strong character - she holds court in a room full of men with her personality and expertise, she leaves her father and her home and goes on an adventure, she knows damn well that Simon Tan is not good enough for her (actually I haven't seen Serenity and if they end up together I don't want to know.)
None of them are just men, none of them are implausibly emotionless, none of them are harmful "strong woman tropes"
(As much as I hate Buffy's character... I feel like we're never meant to think she's perfect.)
I forget what my point was.
So often "strong women" are just a connect-the-dots of awfulness. They're a body and outfit pulled straight out of a porno with some stock phrases and a good high kick. Like Buffybot. "I like to hurt bad guys. I look great in this dress. Does Spike want a kiss?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on Jun 9, 2015 10:02:39 GMT
LOL at Buffybot. I'm trying to reread this, but my mind has gone to mush at the mention of Kaylee. This powerful character vs flaws idea is a big thing in roleplaying games now - whereas in the past they were more like quirks, there's whole game mechanics based on balancing lacks with gains. I find it all a bit baffling. We used to just make all that stuff up on the fly. Men with tits. I keep trying to phrase something about looking back from the future about a world without socially aware/compensatory traits in characters ... no wait, male character's who aren't women with willies, ... but my vocab has hit cliff face. I think I'm beginning to understand why there's so much gender bending in fanfics and cosplay. --- Watching StarGate Atlantis. Morning ritual. Can't watch Bones - too gory (and no warnings - I blame CSI) You've got me thinking, like much of scifi, all of the characters in SG:A just exist on a scale between tech-head logical intellectual scientist and warrior hero. The only twist is that the former are actually protagonists, as opposed to just support cast. Intriguingly, all of the characters are emotionally flawed --> leading to humour based on dysfunction - or interesting dialogue. Or something. Oh God I need more coffee. And a direction. |
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Jun 14, 2015 21:22:41 GMT
Sunday night means Antiques Roadshow night! Tis the law!
|
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on Jul 18, 2015 22:35:23 GMT
Heathers.
Heathers Heathers Heathers. I could watch it again right now.
And I want to only dress in Heathers outfits for the rest of my life. Have genuinely spent time on Asos hunting for the required items for Heathers outfits.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on Jul 20, 2015 20:27:50 GMT
You are awesome.
I say this because I am utterly terrified and yet respectful of anyone venerating Heathers. Everyone is a psycho/socio-path!
"Damn, why do I smoke these?"
Bottled water.
|
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on Jul 20, 2015 20:44:34 GMT
It's very.
I just really enjoy it. I'm too tired to really go into why...
It's very nice to look at. And it sounds nice. And they use words nicely and also very not-traditionally which is what teenagers do.
And our female protagonist is so deeply flawed but she wins, and she's right (in the end)
And there's the bit with Veronica's parents, where they're so concerned about all this teenage suicide, but then when Veronica expresses herself they say "oh you'll live".
And the way it cuts right through all the bullshit.
And the clothes are really, really good.
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Jul 21, 2015 2:00:51 GMT
Lucy Worsley's History of the WI.
I think I might have a slight girl crush on her...!
|
|
|
|
Post by Darkness on Aug 29, 2015 7:55:03 GMT
Been watching the new series of Who Do You Think You Are, mainly cos I like the info you get from it about social history, which I'm really interested in.
This week was Derek Jacobi - he wasn't at all 'lovey' - I almost feel a bit short-changed!
|
|
|
|
Post by Count Überquart on Aug 30, 2015 22:38:21 GMT
I just watched Serial Mom.
It was a bit too much even for me.
I feel a bit dirty.
|
|
|
|
Post by DAT500 on Sept 16, 2015 18:53:07 GMT
^ Serial Mom is ace.
I've been enjoying The Last Man on Earth, against my better judgement.
|
|
|
|
Post by Thrin on Jan 10, 2016 19:11:42 GMT
Just finished watching The Man in the High Castle. A bit meh, I suspect the book may be better.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on Jan 11, 2016 15:45:32 GMT
Is it a whole series? I never read the book because it sounded like a one-trick pony to designed to freak Americans out.
|
|
|
|
Post by Goblin King on Jan 11, 2016 15:46:45 GMT
Star Wars Rebels, series one, is very cool. |
|
