Things I Watched In March-ish
Sep. 4th, 2023 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI originally wrote this post a couple of months ago, but never got around to posting it, so here it is now.
I was still stuck in a "but how do I ethically enjoy things?" spiral, but also I wanted to enjoy things and be entertained, so I watched things, but I definitely felt myself resisting the pull to get sucked in too deeply. I watched a couple of TV shows, but mostly I watched a lot of movies.
Mum is a British TV show that's billed as a comedy. It's not really funny. I actually wasn't sure about it at first, but it was quiet and British with half-hour episodes, so I kept watching, and I got completely emotionally sucked into it. It's about Cathy, whose husband Dave has just died. Cathy turns 60 in the second season, and most of the other characters are also older: her brother Derek and his partner Pauline, her friend Michael, and Dave's parents Reg and Maureen. The two younger characters are Cathy's son Jason and his girlfriend Kelly. Each episode takes place in just about a half hour on just one day. The first two seasons are each spread out across a year, and the third season takes place over a week.
The structure was so interesting! We get just these snapshots in time that also manage to build some emotional continuity. And each episode has some of the same structures: every episode begins with a cold open that ends with the outside of the house, and then we get the theme music over that. Each episode also ends with a quiet moment and then the theme music as well. (The biggest hazard of this show is that the theme music is Lulu and the Lampshades' "Cups (You're Gonna Miss Me)" and you will get it stuck in your head.)
The other thing that was so interesting to me is that it never gets mean or snarky. Kelly is a ditz who keeps saying the wrong/annoying thing, and I kept expecting Cathy to snap at her, but she doesn't. She's very gentle and kind, and they develop a really lovely relationship.
The show is essentially about grief, and it's also about Cathy and Michael's relationship. The moment we met Michael, I thought, "Oh, he's in love with her," and it goes very slowly and gently. They just barely hold hands at the end of the first season, and they only tell people about it in the third season. Jason is not supportive, and between that and Pauline, who just got divorced from a very rich guy and has some class issues, ordering her around like a servant, Cathy finally snaps in the last episode. She very politely says, "Why don't you go fuck yourself?" when Pauline is rude to her, before going on to help get ready for the party. Then Jason has some things to say about her relationship with Michael. Cathy is very calmly steady in response, but when he leaves, you can see her snap. She takes off her apron, picks up a bag of crisps, two bottles of champagne, and a pair of champagne flutes, and goes outside where the rest of the family is. She takes Michael's hand, and leads him off across the grass as the theme music starts to play. Then we get a moment where the theme music cuts out and we go back to the rest of the family, before the theme music starts again and they continue walking across the grass. It was a really lovely ending.
The Menu is a combination horror movie/pretentious rich people satire that for some reason got a lot of buzz. I liked the text on screen describing each bit as a menu item, but otherwise it's extremely dumb. I think it's supposed to be a bit of a mystery, but the moment we met Margot, I thought, "Oh, she's the final girl" - and I don't even watch horror movies. I don't really want to type as much explanation as I would need to to get across how pretentious but not interesting this is, and my final thought about it is: just watch Glass Onion again.
I have watched a lot of cheap Hallmark movie knockoffs, but only this year did I watch some actual name-brand Hallmark ones. I was very, very surprised by how much better they are than I was expecting. They're cheesy nonsense, but (a) they have better production values than a lot of the cheaper knockoffs and (b) they have in many ways healthier relationship dynamics than I possibly would have thought.
Just Add Romance makes no sense in terms of the cooking competition show the plot hinges around. When they get down to the couple being the last two contestants with the other chefs as their kitchen teams, the other chefs spy on them and pass information back and forth about what they're planning to make. There's a bit where I thought we were going to get a whole thing about them having misunderstandings and being mad at each other. Instead, they insist the production crew leave them alone for a minute and they talk it out. This is not a good movie, but it does involve cooking and one half of the couple is played by Meghann Fahy, who was Sutton on The Bold Type, and I like watching her a lot.
Love Locks is completely cheesy nonsense, but it's cheesy nonsense starring Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell, so it's fun enough.
Autumn Dreams is a they were briefly married and got it annulled but actually the annulment paperwork never got filed so they're still married and now one of them is getting married on Saturday and they have to go to court to get divorced movie. I was very surprised that his rich fiancee (who does not know he's technically still married) was genuinely kind to her, which, honestly, is a low bar that most romcoms don't clear. The main couple is played by Colin Egglesfield, who I most know from The Client List, and Jill Wagner, who is most known to fandom as Kate Argent from Teen Wolf.
All Things Valentine is a they don't know they're arguing on the internet movie. What I loved about it is that he finds out, he fully intends to tell her (like the next time he sees her, not like fifty years down the road), and someone else tells her first. I somewhat recently watched You've Got Mail and was absolutely appalled by it, so this was a much nicer version. Also, the couple is Sarah Rafferty (Donna from Suits) and Sam Page (Richard from The Bold Type), who are both enjoyable to watch.
The Buccaneers is a 1995 miniseries based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, and it is almost exactly what you would expect from a 1995 miniseries based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel. I ended up reading a bit about the contemporary view of it, and I definitely see why people were upset that it was too Hollywood dramatic, but it was overdramatic in a very fun 90s period piece way. The thing I couldn't figure out was if they knew what they were doing with the thing where Nan (played by a very young Carla Gugino) is very clearly into women. I'm not sure they did, but, uh, there's a lot. (I tweeted about it as I watched.) She ultimately goes off to South Africa with a man named Guy. Yes, really.
I had never watched Zootopia before, and I thought it was enough of a cultural touchstone that I should. It has some enjoyable bits, but I can't stop thinking about how the infrastructure of the city makes no sense. No sense! Why would you have separate entrances for smaller beings when they could go in the larger entrances? Why would you have entire swathes of your city too small for a significant portion of your population to access? The movie's racial politics also make no sense, and Judy's ending speech was completely unnecessary.
Den Brother is a Disney Channel original movie from 2010, so you probably know almost everything you need to know about it now. Alex, our protagonist, is a hockey star and kind of a jerk about it. He gets suspended from the team at the same time his sister's Bumble Bee troop is about to be disbanded because they have no den mother. Alex makes them do his chores for badges he makes up. In the end, of course, he gets it together, takes them on an adventure to get all their real badges, helps them sell cookies, and goes with them to the end of year Bumble Bee gathering.
A few very nice things about it:
Obviously Den Brother made me think of Troop Beverly Hills. It holds up pretty well! There are a couple of things that would never fly these days (wearing "Indian" headdresses, the Black girl's stereotypical sassiness), but not as much as you might expect from that era. Plus, the 80s outfits are amazing.
I was still stuck in a "but how do I ethically enjoy things?" spiral, but also I wanted to enjoy things and be entertained, so I watched things, but I definitely felt myself resisting the pull to get sucked in too deeply. I watched a couple of TV shows, but mostly I watched a lot of movies.
Mum is a British TV show that's billed as a comedy. It's not really funny. I actually wasn't sure about it at first, but it was quiet and British with half-hour episodes, so I kept watching, and I got completely emotionally sucked into it. It's about Cathy, whose husband Dave has just died. Cathy turns 60 in the second season, and most of the other characters are also older: her brother Derek and his partner Pauline, her friend Michael, and Dave's parents Reg and Maureen. The two younger characters are Cathy's son Jason and his girlfriend Kelly. Each episode takes place in just about a half hour on just one day. The first two seasons are each spread out across a year, and the third season takes place over a week.
The structure was so interesting! We get just these snapshots in time that also manage to build some emotional continuity. And each episode has some of the same structures: every episode begins with a cold open that ends with the outside of the house, and then we get the theme music over that. Each episode also ends with a quiet moment and then the theme music as well. (The biggest hazard of this show is that the theme music is Lulu and the Lampshades' "Cups (You're Gonna Miss Me)" and you will get it stuck in your head.)
The other thing that was so interesting to me is that it never gets mean or snarky. Kelly is a ditz who keeps saying the wrong/annoying thing, and I kept expecting Cathy to snap at her, but she doesn't. She's very gentle and kind, and they develop a really lovely relationship.
The show is essentially about grief, and it's also about Cathy and Michael's relationship. The moment we met Michael, I thought, "Oh, he's in love with her," and it goes very slowly and gently. They just barely hold hands at the end of the first season, and they only tell people about it in the third season. Jason is not supportive, and between that and Pauline, who just got divorced from a very rich guy and has some class issues, ordering her around like a servant, Cathy finally snaps in the last episode. She very politely says, "Why don't you go fuck yourself?" when Pauline is rude to her, before going on to help get ready for the party. Then Jason has some things to say about her relationship with Michael. Cathy is very calmly steady in response, but when he leaves, you can see her snap. She takes off her apron, picks up a bag of crisps, two bottles of champagne, and a pair of champagne flutes, and goes outside where the rest of the family is. She takes Michael's hand, and leads him off across the grass as the theme music starts to play. Then we get a moment where the theme music cuts out and we go back to the rest of the family, before the theme music starts again and they continue walking across the grass. It was a really lovely ending.
The Menu is a combination horror movie/pretentious rich people satire that for some reason got a lot of buzz. I liked the text on screen describing each bit as a menu item, but otherwise it's extremely dumb. I think it's supposed to be a bit of a mystery, but the moment we met Margot, I thought, "Oh, she's the final girl" - and I don't even watch horror movies. I don't really want to type as much explanation as I would need to to get across how pretentious but not interesting this is, and my final thought about it is: just watch Glass Onion again.
I have watched a lot of cheap Hallmark movie knockoffs, but only this year did I watch some actual name-brand Hallmark ones. I was very, very surprised by how much better they are than I was expecting. They're cheesy nonsense, but (a) they have better production values than a lot of the cheaper knockoffs and (b) they have in many ways healthier relationship dynamics than I possibly would have thought.
Just Add Romance makes no sense in terms of the cooking competition show the plot hinges around. When they get down to the couple being the last two contestants with the other chefs as their kitchen teams, the other chefs spy on them and pass information back and forth about what they're planning to make. There's a bit where I thought we were going to get a whole thing about them having misunderstandings and being mad at each other. Instead, they insist the production crew leave them alone for a minute and they talk it out. This is not a good movie, but it does involve cooking and one half of the couple is played by Meghann Fahy, who was Sutton on The Bold Type, and I like watching her a lot.
Love Locks is completely cheesy nonsense, but it's cheesy nonsense starring Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell, so it's fun enough.
Autumn Dreams is a they were briefly married and got it annulled but actually the annulment paperwork never got filed so they're still married and now one of them is getting married on Saturday and they have to go to court to get divorced movie. I was very surprised that his rich fiancee (who does not know he's technically still married) was genuinely kind to her, which, honestly, is a low bar that most romcoms don't clear. The main couple is played by Colin Egglesfield, who I most know from The Client List, and Jill Wagner, who is most known to fandom as Kate Argent from Teen Wolf.
All Things Valentine is a they don't know they're arguing on the internet movie. What I loved about it is that he finds out, he fully intends to tell her (like the next time he sees her, not like fifty years down the road), and someone else tells her first. I somewhat recently watched You've Got Mail and was absolutely appalled by it, so this was a much nicer version. Also, the couple is Sarah Rafferty (Donna from Suits) and Sam Page (Richard from The Bold Type), who are both enjoyable to watch.
The Buccaneers is a 1995 miniseries based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, and it is almost exactly what you would expect from a 1995 miniseries based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel. I ended up reading a bit about the contemporary view of it, and I definitely see why people were upset that it was too Hollywood dramatic, but it was overdramatic in a very fun 90s period piece way. The thing I couldn't figure out was if they knew what they were doing with the thing where Nan (played by a very young Carla Gugino) is very clearly into women. I'm not sure they did, but, uh, there's a lot. (I tweeted about it as I watched.) She ultimately goes off to South Africa with a man named Guy. Yes, really.
I had never watched Zootopia before, and I thought it was enough of a cultural touchstone that I should. It has some enjoyable bits, but I can't stop thinking about how the infrastructure of the city makes no sense. No sense! Why would you have separate entrances for smaller beings when they could go in the larger entrances? Why would you have entire swathes of your city too small for a significant portion of your population to access? The movie's racial politics also make no sense, and Judy's ending speech was completely unnecessary.
Den Brother is a Disney Channel original movie from 2010, so you probably know almost everything you need to know about it now. Alex, our protagonist, is a hockey star and kind of a jerk about it. He gets suspended from the team at the same time his sister's Bumble Bee troop is about to be disbanded because they have no den mother. Alex makes them do his chores for badges he makes up. In the end, of course, he gets it together, takes them on an adventure to get all their real badges, helps them sell cookies, and goes with them to the end of year Bumble Bee gathering.
A few very nice things about it:
- There is a whole subplot about Ben pretending to be an old lady because officially their den mother needs to be an adult. He has no real issues with the whole makeup/crossdressing aspect of this, and, in fact, ends up on the ice in a hockey game in this outfit.
- Part of the ending plot is that as a junior helper - which the troop can be chaperoned by if they all have signed notes from their parents - he must appear in full uniform. The girl he likes, who is, of course, a junior helper, helps him with a uniform, and he cheerfully changes into the whole uniform, skirt and knee socks included.
- One of the best moments is when they're going to sell cookies and his sister switches her tiara for the official hat. He asks her what she's doing. She tells him she should probably look like a real Bumble Bee girl for this. Alex puts her tiara back on her and tells them that they are all real Bumble Bee girls in their individuality. One of the other girls is a goth with a Bumble Bee hat with a black skull on it. A+ leadership!
- There's a moment when Alex runs into his rival captain and they stare at each other and I thought, "Okay, I would read that." Later, I looked up the actors, and the actor playing Alex grew up to look like this and the rival captain actor grew up to look like this, so, uh, yeah, would read.
Obviously Den Brother made me think of Troop Beverly Hills. It holds up pretty well! There are a couple of things that would never fly these days (wearing "Indian" headdresses, the Black girl's stereotypical sassiness), but not as much as you might expect from that era. Plus, the 80s outfits are amazing.