February Roundup

[kmo]

Not much to see here. I'm still reading Wolf Hall, probably about 4/5ths done. I think this might be a new record for amount of time spent reading a book that wasn't...uh...Ulysses. I actually like the story a great deal, but I think because it's *~*literary fiction*~* and not the type of genre stuff i usually read, i don't get that compulsive "just one more chapter" feeling. Well, that and I've been pretty damn tired lately with the start of the semester and our whopping nine campus visits and all the meetings and politicking and what not. (which, btdubs is a sausage you do *not* want to see get made, at one point my very nice, very kind department chair was going around whipping votes so that it didn't degenerate into utter hair splitting and name calling.) so yeah, i haven't had as much time as i'd like to spend with He, Cromwell.

Speaking of "whipping votes," we finished s2 of House of Cards and it pretty much made for the best valentine's weekend evah because we are those kind of people. We also bought a new dining room table and some truly diva purple brocade chairs, which totally counts as romantic when you are new homo-owners trying to get rid of your old Ikea furniture that is falling apart. But anyway, HoC...oh you don't make too much sense, Evil West Wing, but you're kind of my favorite? I think you just have to accept that this is a show about power, not politics, and not think too hard. Frank and Clair Underwood want power because power exists, and they are willing to potentially destroy the US economy and the democratic party to get it. Also, I love their marriage- they are two of my favorite tropes: marriage of equals and unholy matrimony. I consider myself a pretty moral, compassionate individual, but damn do i really love villains and Machiavellian badassary. A;so- how hot was the Clair/Frank/Meechum threeway? I hope they still get to have hot bodyguard threeways now that they are in the White House. Aaaand, there is already fic of it on AO3- well done, fandom!
 


I've also started watching True Detective on HBO. I'm into it, the narrative structure. This is probably the only thing I have ever really liked Matthew McConaghey in and he gives an incredible performance. Though, I have to say, I'm disappointed that the only women in this series seem to be wives, mistresses, strippers, and murder victims...or some combination thereof. True Detective is supposed to be more like an anthology series- more like American Horror Story I guess- where there is a new detective story every season. I'm really hoping that next season we get a lady detective. Or a lady boss. Or a lady villain. Because while this show explores white American masculinity really well...I am getting tired of every prestige drama being all about the manpain. 

Still on the fence about signing up for rarewomen . I'm thinking I will, but it's probably not best to make this decision when I am exhausted in the middle of the week. Le sigh. 

Comments

[likeadeuce]

I'm with you on True Detective -- both being impressed with the acting and the structure and frustrated by the stuff that's not being done with the female characters. I even think the, "Well, this is a show about masculinity" or "This is the about how these two male characters" see the world is kind of a cop-out because even the recent 'prestige dramas about manpain' that I'm familiar with have done a better job at fleshing out the female characters -- and even things like the background casting in the squadroom (in either 1995 or 2012) are male in a way that jumps out at me relative to other cop shows I've seen, much less to what I suspect would have been reality.

I do feel for Michelle Monaghan who is really trying to work with the nonsense they're giving her.

[kmo]

i just watched the most recent episode after i posted this and Monaghan is doing a great job with the material they've given her- the other women, too, the ones who have lines at all. and you're right, even though The Wire had few female characters, it had some memorable ones who you could root for. Same with The Sopranos. Breaking Bad...eh, i love the show but in the later seasons it really felt more like a conflict between interesting men.

one thing i do like is that they have really deconstructed the anti-hero detective in Hart. i completely loathe him as man who seems to view his wife and daughters as tokens that he is entitled to, rather than people he genuinely needs to invest in. And while Jimmy McNulty was equally self-destructive and checked out at times, the thing with Hart is that he doesn't have Jimmy's genius or his charm to redeem him in any way. But still- i'd rather have some interesting female characters rather than yet another deconstruction of white masculinity.

[likeadeuce]

I haven't gotten that far w/ Breaking Bad yet, though I would say more that TD has been exceptionally bad with women than that other shows have been notably good. I think that show at least has a fair claim to be deconstructing masculinity across the board, whereas TD -- well, it does interesting things w/ Hart's character but I don't think that particularly extends to the rest of the show; McConaughey's great/I certainly wouldn't recast the part/I like the exploration of the two men's relationship but I don't think anything in Cohle's character is particularly about being a white dude (within the universe of the show, as opposed to the way the show is perceived by the audience).

The thing I was actually going to say in my initial comment, though, before I got distracted, is that by this point in the series the 'what about some interesting women, huh??' reaction has been so widespread that the showrunners almost HAVE TO address it with whatever they do next season.

[kmo]

the 'what about some interesting women, huh??' reaction has been so widespread that the showrunners almost HAVE TO address it with whatever they do next season.

i really hope you're right. i'm usually reading the chatter at places like vulture and avclub and so far the reviews have been nothing but glowy...with no mention of some of the gender issues present at all. shameful that Cagney and Lacey made a female detective drama work 30 years ago and people in 2014 can't seem to give it chance.

[likeadeuce]

Hmm, did you see Emily Nussbaum in The New Yorker? Her piece that ran last week was pretty devastating and I've seen a lot of chatter around that (though there's been a weird amount of defense of the show from feminists that I don't quite get. I mean, I like the show a lot more than Nussbaum does, but I wouldn't mount a defense w/r/t gender issues.)

[aptasi]

I know what you meant, but now I'm picturing my dept chair/advisor running around whipping all the old men faculty with an actual whip and I.... I do not know what to do with this image.

[kmo]

lol. it's not completely off the mark...running an academic department is a bit like herding cats.