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Women and Death
Jun. 16th, 2012 05:55 amFinished Cranford! It's a very good show, but it got WAY angstier than I was expecting, and the ratio of angst:happy slipped so far into angst in the second half of the fourth episode that I stopped and looked up a synopsis to see if I could be bothered continuing, before deciding I'd be happier skipping to episode 5 (the final episode), which was mostly happy endings. I just went and watched the second half of episode 4, and it really was too many bad things happening at once, especially since one of the plotlines involved a number of irritating misunderstandings.
Anyway, I'm a sook about angst, and that's my only real complaint. Other than that the characterisation and acting is great and there's some nice subversions of your usual period drama cliches. The main female character (as much as one exists in an ensemble show) stays happily single. This is never in doubt, either, so i don't consider it a spoiler. You could easily read her as aromantic asexual, and the whole show is full of single women defining and controlling their own lives, though there is a moderate amount of pining over lost loves and some silly unattractive spinsters etc. Also, working class people being awesome in the face of classism, woo!
The other show I got out of the library was "The Number One Lady's Detective Agency" and I couldn't finish the first episode. It's one of those twee British murder mystery shows set in a twee little town full of charming characters, except instead of being set in Scotland or whatever it's set in Botswana, with black British actors putting on Botswanian accents. It was really nice seeing black African characters being happy and going about their lives without the story revolving around (or even featuring!) white people, and I really like the main character Precious. That got me to the start of the mystery, but having read the book I knew it was going to get a bit angsty for a bit and decided to stop while everyone was happy. Cranford may have used up my tolerance for angst and death, which was probably not the best state to be in when watching a murder mystery show, but apart from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I have a lowish tolerance for muder-of-the-week shows in general. I may give the show another go sometime when I'm in a better mood for it.
Speaking of which I finished Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries! I really enjoyed it, and the first season makes for a nice satisfying arc (such as it is, the ongoing plot is fairly minimal) It is alas far more racist than it has any need to be :/ (Better than BBC Sherlock, but that's not saying much)
I swear I don't only like shows about white people, it just turned out that way with these particular shows /o\ Anyway, if you're after strong interesting female characters who don't fit the usual cliches of their genre then any of these three shows is worth checking out.
Oh and Cam is watching Breaking Bad and LOVING it. Waaaay too dark for me, but it does sound pretty good if you're interested in the story of a "regular" guy entering the world of drug manufacturing when he needs money for cancer treatment (doesn't that synopsis sound enticing?)
Anyway, I'm a sook about angst, and that's my only real complaint. Other than that the characterisation and acting is great and there's some nice subversions of your usual period drama cliches. The main female character (as much as one exists in an ensemble show) stays happily single. This is never in doubt, either, so i don't consider it a spoiler. You could easily read her as aromantic asexual, and the whole show is full of single women defining and controlling their own lives, though there is a moderate amount of pining over lost loves and some silly unattractive spinsters etc. Also, working class people being awesome in the face of classism, woo!
The other show I got out of the library was "The Number One Lady's Detective Agency" and I couldn't finish the first episode. It's one of those twee British murder mystery shows set in a twee little town full of charming characters, except instead of being set in Scotland or whatever it's set in Botswana, with black British actors putting on Botswanian accents. It was really nice seeing black African characters being happy and going about their lives without the story revolving around (or even featuring!) white people, and I really like the main character Precious. That got me to the start of the mystery, but having read the book I knew it was going to get a bit angsty for a bit and decided to stop while everyone was happy. Cranford may have used up my tolerance for angst and death, which was probably not the best state to be in when watching a murder mystery show, but apart from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I have a lowish tolerance for muder-of-the-week shows in general. I may give the show another go sometime when I'm in a better mood for it.
Speaking of which I finished Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries! I really enjoyed it, and the first season makes for a nice satisfying arc (such as it is, the ongoing plot is fairly minimal) It is alas far more racist than it has any need to be :/ (Better than BBC Sherlock, but that's not saying much)
I swear I don't only like shows about white people, it just turned out that way with these particular shows /o\ Anyway, if you're after strong interesting female characters who don't fit the usual cliches of their genre then any of these three shows is worth checking out.
Oh and Cam is watching Breaking Bad and LOVING it. Waaaay too dark for me, but it does sound pretty good if you're interested in the story of a "regular" guy entering the world of drug manufacturing when he needs money for cancer treatment (doesn't that synopsis sound enticing?)
