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Aug. 8th, 2013 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aseLately I've been hitting the TV marathons harder than usual. First I caught Buffy S5, a season I mostly missed on the first pass, and which for some reason I had thought of as cheerful. Maybe calibration off S6 threw off my expectations? S5 has some excellent episodes - "Fool for Love" and "The Body" come to mind - but it's the excellence of questioning assumptions and making viewers cry.
My other marathon show has been Continuum S1. There is very little questioning of assumptions here. Cop gets caught up in a time-travelling jailbreak from 2077 to 2012, and fights crime and future terrorists in contemporary Vancouver, balancing justice against not breaking the timeline... or has this always been the timeline? Oh, and she's got nifty magic future tech, there's the occasional Betchdel pass, and Terminator has been namechecked. It's not perfect. The Terminator namechecking happened in an episode which was paint-by-the-numbers "your honored ancestors aren't as squeaky-clean as you thought, Ms. Keira Cameron". The writers are pushing a romantic relationship I can't get behind. Some of the directing, and certain chunks of dialog, well... but time travel! The Cameron-Fonnegra buddy-cop relationship! Only slightly magic future tech! Alec! (Alec is Kiera's adorable baby-faced pet geek in 2012, and some kind of shadowy corporate oligarch in 2077. Old!Alec is played by the X-File's Cancer Man; watch this space for OH ALEC NO moments.) Hacker-gamer geeks who just happen to be girls! Canadian actor bingo is played! It's not terrifically bright, or deep, or highbrow, but it keeps me entertained.
Okay, everyone has to stop everything, because it's an FMA:Brotherhood first-time viewing party. With macros and ROT-13 and CAPSLOCK and the episode 10 spoiler, guys, the commentary is kind of awesome.
My fiction reading has been through the floor for... longer than I'd like to think about. It makes me feel better to see that others have recovered from such doldrums. Currently I am failing to read The Emperor of All Maladies in favor of TV, shotgun rereads of old favorites, and an audiobook experiment with Altered Carbon, sci-fi noir with limited redeeming value. Audiobooks don't mix well with most activities other than driving, but find a niche for car trips longer an half an hour.
My other marathon show has been Continuum S1. There is very little questioning of assumptions here. Cop gets caught up in a time-travelling jailbreak from 2077 to 2012, and fights crime and future terrorists in contemporary Vancouver, balancing justice against not breaking the timeline... or has this always been the timeline? Oh, and she's got nifty magic future tech, there's the occasional Betchdel pass, and Terminator has been namechecked. It's not perfect. The Terminator namechecking happened in an episode which was paint-by-the-numbers "your honored ancestors aren't as squeaky-clean as you thought, Ms. Keira Cameron". The writers are pushing a romantic relationship I can't get behind. Some of the directing, and certain chunks of dialog, well... but time travel! The Cameron-Fonnegra buddy-cop relationship! Only slightly magic future tech! Alec! (Alec is Kiera's adorable baby-faced pet geek in 2012, and some kind of shadowy corporate oligarch in 2077. Old!Alec is played by the X-File's Cancer Man; watch this space for OH ALEC NO moments.) Hacker-gamer geeks who just happen to be girls! Canadian actor bingo is played! It's not terrifically bright, or deep, or highbrow, but it keeps me entertained.
Okay, everyone has to stop everything, because it's an FMA:Brotherhood first-time viewing party. With macros and ROT-13 and CAPSLOCK and the episode 10 spoiler, guys, the commentary is kind of awesome.
My fiction reading has been through the floor for... longer than I'd like to think about. It makes me feel better to see that others have recovered from such doldrums. Currently I am failing to read The Emperor of All Maladies in favor of TV, shotgun rereads of old favorites, and an audiobook experiment with Altered Carbon, sci-fi noir with limited redeeming value. Audiobooks don't mix well with most activities other than driving, but find a niche for car trips longer an half an hour.