Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Tried some new things.

Rectify is a drama about a man who gets out of prison after 20 years on death row. He returns to his small hometown in Georgia and his family of origin.

I watched 2 eps and found this quite thought-provoking but I didn't enjoy it, it was not pleasurable to watch, for me. The show is populated by white straight people. I admit I did not find the main character compelling; he's meant to be strange but his face is so bland like a potato.

Freaks and Geeks comes up on a lot of lists of under-rated TV shows. IDK, it's fine. It has a lot of pre-famous actors. But do I really want to watch a show about high school kids? And again, most of them are white and straight.

Heartland Docs, DVM. Hulu apparently got some of the National Geographic channel stuff, including some vet shows, and I like watching these. However i got very annoyed at the main vet here who hands out antibiotics like candy. I turned it off and went back to my favorite, Dr. Pol, who does not prescribe unnecessary abx.

Never Let Him Go. A sad but interesting documentary series, 4 episodes, on Hulu.

In 1988 a young American mathematician died in Australia. The death was ruled a suicide and never investigated. His brother, Steve Johnson, was never satisfied by this explanation and struggled for decades to get the police to investigate. I got into this story and found it quite gripping. Scott Johnson, the man who died, was gay, and this is likely why the police did not care to investigate his death.

A few things struck me about this story. One is that, Steve Johnson never got over his brother's death. So many crime stories (esp. murder of the week) don't show this kind of thing, the way the tragedy ripples outward, the way it can damage people for the rest of their lives, and the tremendous loss (to his family and to the world) of someone like Scott.

Steve became wealthy in the 90s tech boom and was able to use his money and privilege to pursue this case. He hired an investigative journalist and met with politicians who were courteous and sympathetic. He appeared on TV and was interviewed for articles.

Despite this, many of the police were at best incompetent and rude, and at worst, possibly corrupt. I'm surprised they got some of the cops to be in the film considering how unflattering they appear. One police woman, telling a story about the investigative journalist, literally laughs at him and his efforts. It's shocking-- not so much that she is condescending, cruel, and out of touch, but that she shows that to the camera.

Finally, after decades, a competent investigator was assigned to the case, someone who was professional and dogged, and the family got some answers. Of course there is no happy ending to a murder story. There is some narrative resolution.

The film also mentions that there were many murders of gay men in Sydney during the 1980s and many of those remain unsolved.

I rewatched "Thirteen Lives" last night, which is a masterpiece. I love how I movie that I have already watched can still hold tension and keep me on tenterhooks. What a satisfying movie.

Feeling warmly towards this film's director Ron Howard, I went looking for some more of his recent work; I found a documentary called "We Feed People." It is on Hulu. Despite the name it's a profile of one guy, José Andrés, a famous chef who is now promoting his NGO, a disaster-relief organization that focuses on feeding people. I say promoting because this doc had more the feel of a paid advertisement. I've encountered a few different documentaries like this in my wide-ranging tv watching and they have this oily quality. But I had time to use up so I kept watching for a while.

At about the one hour mark, there is assault and harassment on-camera. Talked about in a general way under the cut.
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Anyways I noped out at this point and put up a note on "Does the Dog die", which is a great resource but some of these obscure things don't have any content notes up for them at all.

I also noped out of "Bottoms", mostly because it is not my genre-- teenage, raunchy sex comedy, and about lesbians, but without the political aspect of "Sex Education," and without the warmth. I mean it's selection bias on my part but I've never known lesbians who are like this, just kind of... mean-spirited. Also the one girl talks extremely quickly and in a way that is not straightforward; I had trouble understanding her dialog.

I made it all the way through Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which was a mediocre story but had good lighting, good cinematography, some humor, and likeable characters.

Impressed with Josh Thomas' "Everything's Gonna Be Okay" (EGBO), I tried out his previous show "Please Like Me" on Hulu. I have mixed feelings and may or may not continue with it.

I enjoy Josh Thomas' awkward gay humor. I'm not as into the premise of this show, which is about a character (also named Josh) taking care of his mother, who has a mental illness, and also about Josh's friends and dating life. In particular, his best friend is someone I find annoying, and there have been a few racist moments in episode 1-5. It doesn't feel as warm as EGBO. I'm going to keep going, though! We'll see.

The other show I checked out this weekend was "The Big Leap," also on Hulu. I absolutely loved this scripted show in a reality-show setting. It's about a group of people who are amateur dancers; they audition for and join a cast that are going to be producing Swan Lake. There are several gay men, a couple of fat women, many Black characters, and people from various class backgrounds. The main producer of the show tries to ramp up the drama in order to make compelling TV, and sometimes he's an ass about it, but mostly the show believes in its characters and likes them. There are 4 episodes currently.

I've been kind of bored and low-energy (probably asthma-related), so I am grateful to have TV to watch. I have been enjoying:
-What we do in the shadows (hulu)
-Ted Lasso (Apple)
-GBBO (netflix)
-TaskMaster (Youtube)
-Sex Education (Netflix)

I finished Reservation Dogs, which is on Hulu, and which I mostly loved, but it has some anti-black racism and some common triggers.

Tonight I finished Brooklyn 99, which I mostly enjoyed but it definitely felt like it was the right time for that show to end, and it was awkward at times because the writers and actors were clearly wrestling with the ethics of having a cop-show comedy.

I'm also caught up on 9-1-1, which is such an over-the-top show that I can't really recommend it, but I enjoy Hen and Chimney. It's annoying when shows like this think they have to go high stakes, major disasters, serial killers, etc, when there is plenty of drama in smaller moments and in realistic scenarios. For instance they had a character having a panic attack for the first time in his life, and that to me was more compelling than yet another natural disaster.

On Friday I went to the International Crane Foundation with a friend. This is basically a zoo, but it is all cranes, and it is focused on conservation. I was impressed by the commitment to accessibility: the paths are all flat and wide, and there are plenty of places to sit. We had a nice time looking at and learning about cranes.

Movies I watched:

Breaking Fast - Hulu

It is just so nice to see a movie that is about an observant Muslim gay man. Mo is living in West Hollywood and is one year post-breakup. He's reluctant to date again but meets Kal on the first night of Ramadan. Kal is a white guy but lived in Jordan when he was young, so knows Arabic. They break fast together and get to know each other over the course of the month. Just a nice romantic queer movie.

School of Rock - Netflix

I had very little memory of this movie, though I probably saw it in 2003 when it came out. What a good time! I love comedies like this that are warm and kind. Sometimes lying makes me anxious in movies, because I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop; this is one of those where Jack Black's character is lying through most of the film. But it's so silly and the stakes are pretty low; when he's found out, it's not that big of a deal. Jack Black's physical comedy skills are impressive, and obviously he's passionate about music.

The trouble with angels - 1966, dir. Ida Lupino. Library DVD.

This was a cute story about 2 mischievous girls at a Catholic boarding school. They are BFFs who are fond of pranks. The story covers their three years at school, and is kind of episodic. I enjoyed that there are very few men in this movie. It's written and directed by women. A little too long at 1 hour 52 min.

Palm Springs - 2020, Hulu.

Really enjoyable time-loop story. Andy Samberg is just ridiculously charming. I like that it started with him already in the time loop. The sunny desert landscape was nice to look at especially during February in Wisconsin.

I'm trying to stay off the computer and phone for back pain reasons, so I'm watching a ton of movies. I want to jot them down so I don't forget.

Netflix:

Not Normal, Wanda Sykes comedy special. I overall enjoyed this a lot. She talks about politics, being married (she's married to a French woman), being a parent, race, and getting older.

Easy A: A fun teen comedy. The main character pretends to be a slut and she observes how her classmates react. Has some very funny moments.

Hulu:
Hearts Beat Loud. I loved this quiet, intimate story about a father whose daughter is about to move away to go to college. He decides to close his record store also. He and his daughter write a few songs together and he has a moment where he thinks they can be a band. The daughter is a queer woman of color. Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersy Clemmons, Toni Collette. The music is good and the story is sweet.

Rocketman. Very creative, colorful, and fun to watch. I liked how Elton John's hit songs were interspersed with important moments in his life. Starring Taron Edgerton and Jamie Bell. Content notes: lots of drugs, a suicide attempt, abuse.

Parasite: Very well done, thought-provoking, disturbing. The first act is way funnier than I expected. It's about a poor family struggling to survive; the (adult) son takes a job as a tutor for a rich family, and he arranges things to get his sister a job in the house too, using false credentials. The scam expands so that their parents are also employed by this rich family. It starts out relatively harmless--they are doing the jobs they were hired for, just using false names and pretending they aren't related to each other. But there's a twist that leads into act 2. This is when things get creepy and the scam starts to go sour. Very beautifully filmed.

Someone Great. Sadly, this was just kind of boring. It's about three friends having a night out. The main character (Gina Rodriguez) has just broken up with her long-term boyfriend because she's going to move across the country. During their night out, she processes this loss and prepares to move on. The two best friends each have minor side-plots; one of them is a Black lesbian and is in a cute relationship. There wasn't anything really objectionable but this movie was pretty forgettable overall.

Library DVDs:

The Favourite. I only half-watched this to be honest. It was very beautiful to look at, but I was not into it. There is so much lying and manipulation going on, that it's nearly impossible to tell what people's real motives are. The people seemed pretty horrible and the Queen seemed mostly to be suffering.

Jumanji: the next level

This is very much in keeping with the previous movie and is similarly delightful. This is a large franchise and I've only seen the 2017 and 2019 ones, but I hope they make a bunch more. It's just such a funny and creative concept: people get magically sucked into a video game and have to survive and figure out how to win the game. They are in avatar bodies that may have little resemblance to their own bodies. The whole cast is back for this one: Jack Black, The Rock, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, plus Awkwafina joins.

The D Train

I don't know what to think about this one. Jack Black plays Dan, a guy planning his high school reunion. He's happily married, has kids and a decent job, but feels like somewhat of a loser, and is lonely for friends. He gets the idea to recruit the most popular classmate to come to the reunion, thinking, well, then everyone will come, and I'll be a hero. He arranges a fake business trip to California to meet up with the popular guy, Oliver, played by James Marsden. They party together for a few nights and eventually have sex. Oliver agrees to come to the reunion. Dan is very confused about his feelings and situation. Eventually his lies blow up in his face, but it all seems to work out ok in the end.

Unfortunately the humor in this relies on embarrassment and awkwardness, which means it's not that fun to watch. I think it does say something interesting, though: Dan has a huge crush on Oliver, but it's a forbidden crush because it's queer, so he can't admit it, and that leads him to act in strange ways, lying to everyone and to himself. I'm not sure straight audiences would pick up on how accurate this is; I'm not sure the movie itself knows how accurate this is. I've personally been there, doing weird things and not truly understanding why.

To have a bisexual or queer awakening is confusing and disruptive and potentially a great source for humor. The movie doesn't address this as directly as it could.

To Dan, sex means love and connection, while to Oliver, sex means a casual good time, and this leads to some of the major conflict in the story. That's also interesting and could have been more directly addressed.

This movie didn't quite work, but I liked it anyways, because it raised these really interesting issues. I particularly liked that good-looking, charming Oliver found Dan attractive, and liked him.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire - 2019 - on Hulu in US
French with English subtitles

Wow! This film is incredible. Marianne, an artist hired to paint a portrait, arrives at a wind-blown island. Her subject is Héloïse, a young woman soon to be married; the portrait is for her betrothed. Héloïse is resistant to marriage, and thus will not sit for a portrait. Thus Marianne pretends to be a walking companion, and studies her subject covertly, until she can finish the painting.

There are just 4 main characters, all of them women; men hardly speak in the film. There is little dialog: this film is very visual, with long shots of womens' faces. The camera holds us in the scene, makes us wait, encourages us to look with Marianne's eyes.

Spoilers below the cut....


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I marathoned through all the available episodes of "911". The 1st and 3rd seasons are on Hulu, and I went to some shady website to watch the 2nd season since the library is not really an option at the moment. This is the original series for which "911 Lonestar" (which I watched previously) is the spinoff.

This is an over-the-top drama with lots of ridiculous situations, but it is largely fun and undemanding, the characters are endearing, and there is a diverse cast. I like that it's about rescues and trying to help people.

In particular, I love the friendship between Athena (Angela Bassett), and Hen (Aisha Hinds). Hen (short for Henrietta) is a married lesbian EMT, and Athena is a cop who is having family drama: her husband has just come out as gay. They are both tremendously good actors, and it's so heartening to see this friendship between two competent black women. Tracie Thoms plays Karen, Hen's wife, who is a PhD-level scientist.

In the first season, Connie Britton plays Abby, a 911 dispatcher, who has an adorable romance with a much younger firefighter. In the second season, there's a new 911 dispatcher played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. All these women are age 40 or older, which is so great!! Some of them play characters who are younger than the actors which is the opposite of how it usually is in Hollywood.

There are a couple of characters with disabilities, played by disabled actors. There's an Asian-American firefighter, and a Latinx one. I particularly love Chimney, played by Kenneth Choi (Morita in the MCU!). He is super charming.

The two white guys on the show are pretty boring, and/or obnoxious, and the writers need to stop with the man pain and women in refrigerators. Bobby, the fire captain, hits all the points on this one: alcoholic, failed to save his family from a fire, has Catholic guilt, keeps secrets. Luckily this is mostly resolved by season 2.

Positives:
--Lesbian and gay characters, characters of color, disabled characters.
--Characters who are good people and try to do the right thing.
--Some humorous moments
--Found/created family at the firehouse
--Pretty quick pacing, although that may be down to the fact that I watched it very quickly. If I was annoyed with a plot line, it usually wrapped up fast and moved onto something else.

Negatives:
--Occasional body horror
--OTT drama both in the characters personal lives, and in the rescue situations.
--Women in Refrigerators / man pain
--A bit of "inspirational disabled kid"
--Super-speed healing for injured characters
--Some fat phobia in one episode

Misc content notes:
--suicide/ self-harm, domestic violence and stalking, blood, cheating, cancer, death, lots of medical things, natural disasters.

Migraining the last couple of days, so trying to take it easy.

I watched the first season of 911 Lone Star on Hulu, which is 10 episodes. This is kind of a bad show in certain ways and I cannot really recommend it BUT it has diversity and good actors. Over the course of the season, it improved somewhat.

Rob Lowe plays a firefighter named Owen Strand who moves from NYC to Austin, TX to rebuild a crew at a station where most of the people died in an explosion. He brings along his adult son, TK, also a firefighter. The first episode has a sequence where he recruits oddballs for his crew, and it's very much like "getting the band together" or assembling a spaceship crew, etc--that kind of trope.

The crew is wonderful: Judd, the only surviving firefighter from the explosion, who needs to be told to go therapy. He has a wonderful wife, Grace, who is black, and is a 911 operator.

Marjan, a young Muslim woman who wears a hijab and leaps into danger.

Paul, a black trans man who is played by same (!), who is just a wonderful person.

Mateo, a probationary firefighter who is a DREAMer and has dyslexia, which has made it hard for him to pass the exam. The captain helps him use the ADA to get an oral version of the exam, and has the crew help him by recording themselves reading the handbooks.

Carlos, a cop, who is a love interest for TK-- hey, an inter-racial gay relationship.

Liv Tyler plays a truly insufferable character named Michelle, who is the head EMT and is super reckless. She has a plot involving searching for her missing sister. At first I hated this plot line, but it got better in the last 2 eps.

Towards the end of the season, they get a firehouse dog!

Good things: Diversity!! Likeable characters, people in queer community with each other. People having identities that are sometimes in front-focus and other times in the background, which is so realistic. Having the main white guy speak positively about things like PTSD was surprisingly moving. People have connections with their intentional family and their biological ones. People care about each other and try to do the right thing.

Bad things: very over-the-top dramatic situations, some of which make no sense whatsoever. Unrealistic medicine, including that TV thing where someone gets seriously injured, but then two episodes later they are totally fine. It bothered me that Liv Tyler's character is out there practicing medicine without a license, and it's presented uncritically.

Content notes: addiction, gun violence, snakes, mental illness. There has been no sexual violence so far. Very little homophobia. There is some transphobia in one episode, exhibited by a guest character.