shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2020-08-29 04:00 pm
shallowness) wrote2020-08-29 04:00 pm
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Today's news and what I watched last night
I woke up to the tragic news of Chadwick Boseman’s passing. So talented and so young. I’m saddened that we won’t see what he would have done with T’Chaila next or all the other projects he could have contributed to, and I’m impressed with what he did achieve over the last four years with his cancer diagnosis.
Mrs. America 1.8 ‘Houston’
This really was Alice-centric, Alice through the Looking Glass at times, but alas, Alice doesn’t even merit her own episode title, although she got a lot of sympathy and Paulson lapped up the episode and gave a great performance.
I may be getting to grips with the credits. I found them too fast-moving initially, but now that I’ve seen so much of what they refer to, and watched them eight times, they are becoming slightly more meaningful and less overwhelming.
The episode centred around the Women’s national conference – and IIRC we only heard a male reporter’s voice once and just saw Phyllis’s bodyguards. We started with Alice saying goodbye to her mother and daughter and driving with Pamela to find her husband’s protection didn’t mean anything in a maelstrom over overbooked hotels. It reminded me of similar experiences I’d had that Alice hadn’t had. Of course, she survived and found her voice a little and a little self-reliance. The episode ended at the start of Phyllis’s successful rally.
At first, Alice’s husband got mentioned ever so much, and the contrast with Pamela’s controlling husband and overburdened life was made. The turning point might have been the conversation with the older lady at the bar, when she started talking about Phyllis. That conversation spoke to Alice’s naivete so much, because hello, she was at a convention where the Eagle Forum’s views were in the minority. It did her good to meet a sincere Christian with different views (exaggerated in the Eucharist while high scene). But she’d worn lavender in all her naivete, too, hadn’t met the women she demonised on such human terms before.
Having said that, Phyllis was mentioned a lot before, the speechmaker to live up to – did Alice have undiagnosed dyslexia, I wondered, as she talked of words getting jumbled up. Her failings as Phyllis’s echo came to the fore over who should mae the speech, or talk to the press. Excellent questions from the lady reporter, and Alice floundered. But we saw the personal cost
And after she took that pill, Phyllis wandered into Alice’s hallucinations and nightmares, the Phyllis who wouldn’t let her use her own voice, although we’ve always seen that Alice has the higher instincts about being against racism, and here, being willing to find common ground.
In contrast, was the presence of Gloria, allowed to be almost glorious, especially the second time Alice, now high, saw her in the corridor, with Donna Summer’s rapturous ‘I Feel Love’ playing. Contrast Gloria complimenting the iconic dress of the strange lady staring at her to Phyllis urging her to fix her face. Contrast too Gloria seeking consensus with Phyllis’s authoritarian streak, which played out in the squabbles over who would deliver the speech, with Rosemary making the most of her position of power.
Most if not all of the women we’ve focused on cameoed at the convention (and some daughters). Especially because we’d seen the struggles to get it all to come together, every glimpse of Bella was satisfying. The trippy scenes worked (perhaps an over-reliance on the primal scream sessions?) as we followed Alice on her long night. The scenes of women singing together were really powerful, dramatising what the conference was about, I suppose – the biggest coming together of women in the US, didn’t they say?
We were left wondering how much Alice had changed. She didn’t rush up to Phyllis, she didn’t seem too happy at Phyllis’s order about her face. She’d seen her limitations but also some of her power, and stepped out of her life for a while. Perhaps the test will be whether she keeps her promise ta back Pamela up.
I thought it did a really good job of creating a microcosm, by following one woman who was at odds with some of the conference’s aims, but getting influenced by them, while struggling with her own internal conflicts. The clips of acual conference footage were just enough for context.
Mrs. America 1.8 ‘Houston’
This really was Alice-centric, Alice through the Looking Glass at times, but alas, Alice doesn’t even merit her own episode title, although she got a lot of sympathy and Paulson lapped up the episode and gave a great performance.
I may be getting to grips with the credits. I found them too fast-moving initially, but now that I’ve seen so much of what they refer to, and watched them eight times, they are becoming slightly more meaningful and less overwhelming.
The episode centred around the Women’s national conference – and IIRC we only heard a male reporter’s voice once and just saw Phyllis’s bodyguards. We started with Alice saying goodbye to her mother and daughter and driving with Pamela to find her husband’s protection didn’t mean anything in a maelstrom over overbooked hotels. It reminded me of similar experiences I’d had that Alice hadn’t had. Of course, she survived and found her voice a little and a little self-reliance. The episode ended at the start of Phyllis’s successful rally.
At first, Alice’s husband got mentioned ever so much, and the contrast with Pamela’s controlling husband and overburdened life was made. The turning point might have been the conversation with the older lady at the bar, when she started talking about Phyllis. That conversation spoke to Alice’s naivete so much, because hello, she was at a convention where the Eagle Forum’s views were in the minority. It did her good to meet a sincere Christian with different views (exaggerated in the Eucharist while high scene). But she’d worn lavender in all her naivete, too, hadn’t met the women she demonised on such human terms before.
Having said that, Phyllis was mentioned a lot before, the speechmaker to live up to – did Alice have undiagnosed dyslexia, I wondered, as she talked of words getting jumbled up. Her failings as Phyllis’s echo came to the fore over who should mae the speech, or talk to the press. Excellent questions from the lady reporter, and Alice floundered. But we saw the personal cost
And after she took that pill, Phyllis wandered into Alice’s hallucinations and nightmares, the Phyllis who wouldn’t let her use her own voice, although we’ve always seen that Alice has the higher instincts about being against racism, and here, being willing to find common ground.
In contrast, was the presence of Gloria, allowed to be almost glorious, especially the second time Alice, now high, saw her in the corridor, with Donna Summer’s rapturous ‘I Feel Love’ playing. Contrast Gloria complimenting the iconic dress of the strange lady staring at her to Phyllis urging her to fix her face. Contrast too Gloria seeking consensus with Phyllis’s authoritarian streak, which played out in the squabbles over who would deliver the speech, with Rosemary making the most of her position of power.
Most if not all of the women we’ve focused on cameoed at the convention (and some daughters). Especially because we’d seen the struggles to get it all to come together, every glimpse of Bella was satisfying. The trippy scenes worked (perhaps an over-reliance on the primal scream sessions?) as we followed Alice on her long night. The scenes of women singing together were really powerful, dramatising what the conference was about, I suppose – the biggest coming together of women in the US, didn’t they say?
We were left wondering how much Alice had changed. She didn’t rush up to Phyllis, she didn’t seem too happy at Phyllis’s order about her face. She’d seen her limitations but also some of her power, and stepped out of her life for a while. Perhaps the test will be whether she keeps her promise ta back Pamela up.
I thought it did a really good job of creating a microcosm, by following one woman who was at odds with some of the conference’s aims, but getting influenced by them, while struggling with her own internal conflicts. The clips of acual conference footage were just enough for context.