shallowness

Years and years ago, when I started a post containing links to all the fanfiction posted here, I dated it somewhere in the far future. That day is now today. I've had to tick the sticky box (because that was beyond me way back when in the early days of getting Dreamwidth) so that it remains the first thing you see.

To the movies!

On streaming: Free Color popped up, made in 2019, but I’d never heard of it before. It’s a sparse thriller that becomes a family drama set in the middle of climate breakdown, and its main character has superpowers. ( Read more... )

At the cinema: Mr. Burton, and I really enjoyed it. I only knew scattered facts about Richard Burton’s life (only finding out how he came to have his surname thanks to promo for this film) and haven’t seen much of his work. ( Read more... )

Been a while, hasn't it? First, I’m giving up on Fallout (just as it gets nominated for an Emmy! Typical.) I basically forced myself to watch the fourth episode, and the balance between gore (and squick) versus plucky survivor Lucy’s journey/quest wasn’t working for me. Not even with the sardonic humour.

Secondly, the recent Strictly news has been dismaying. Graziano is the latest to go, following Giovanni. There may be more. Er, weren’t the producers watching the footage at the time? Presumably through ‘This show is too big to rock the boat’ goggles. Will chaperones (and bringing Aljiaz back) be enough? I feel torn, I have a lot invested in the show, not least the sparkle it brings as autumn settles and turns into winter. I can also grasp that people of different temperaments and backgrounds can take tough talk and treatment from competitive perfectionists differently. So there may be some grey areas. But kicking is not on, and ‘that’s the way I was taught’ is not an argument in favour of abuse, which can be psychological and behavioural. And proper safeguarding is non-negotiable, not even on the most popular show on British TV.

The West Wing

I came across a season 7 DVD boxset cheaply in a charity shop, so I’ll be watching from that from now on.

7.4 Mr Frost

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I watched PoI season 4 on DVD between 2021-22 and should have posted this (well, it would have been an even longer, ramblier version, probably disc by disc) then, but I didn’t. That would have been about seven years after it aired (and about four years after I watched season 3.) ( Overview, what I liked, what I didn't like, etc. )

I reposted a ficlet over the weekend. Home (Smallville) G. Whitney Fordman (background Whitney/Lana, Clark/Lana). 250 words. Summary: Whitney never got to find out who sent him the copy of The Torch.

I’m on holiday and realised I should try to repost some fic here and at AO3 (past experience tells me I might run out of steam before I run out of fic to repost. I’ve been trying to do this since I joined Dreamwidth.) This ficlet is from the time when I was posting way more fic (June 2006), but it’s only been available on my LJ and ff.net. I probably said on the former that, because I was shipping Chloe/Whitney then, in my mind, it was Chloe who sent Whitney the copy of The Torch, but there’s no canonical justification for that, and it would have been a nice gesture for anyone from Smallville to do so.

In other news, Sanditon series 3 will be on ITVX this week! Despite its ridiculousness, there’s no denying I’m invested.

Over the past few weeks, I watched In The Heights (on Amazon Prime), and I enjoyed its energy and dancing a lot, but…there wasn’t really a standout song, and it was probably too long with too much crammed into it. Did it need the framing device AND the timestamp? ( spoiler? )

I loved Everything, Everywhere All At Once. It's a multiverse movie about a Chinese-American mother with a grown daughter and caring for her father living a disappointing life! And, obviously, MICHELLE YEOH stars in it. (I bet everyone doing a fight scene in this film practiced very hard.) I was so impressed by how clear its throughlines were (Ke Huy Quan did a particularly fine job) and delighted by how odd it was ( examples ) It’s surely one of the oddest Oscar-bothering movies ever.

I also watched Dune, and while it is a movie best seen on a big screen, I couldn’t when it was out, and that’s that. I enjoyed it a lot and hope to see part 2 (in the cinema). The production values were immaculate and it did a fairly good job of keeping the plot strands clear given that visions played such a big part. I've always avoided 'Dune' in the past because of a gut reaction to the concept of sand worms. ( spoiler? ) I simultaneously liked how Villeneuve handles communication and thought there were some mumbly bits. If I watch it again, I’m putting on the subtitles (and delighting in the fact that that’s an option for me.)

And then I went and checked and, yeah, Rebecca Ferguson isn't old enough to biologically be Timothee Chalamet's mother. Oscar Isaac is barely old enough to biologically be Timothee Chalamet's father, and even if Chalamet was playing younger than his age and blah de blah far future ageing technologies for the Great Houses, that's just typical Hollywood.

I’ve also just read and really enjoyed ‘From Darkness Into Light’, the follow-up to The Memoirs of Lady Trent. I loved that it wrestled with the implications of the big reveal in ‘In The Sanctuary of Wings’ for the generation after. Audrey was a chip off the old block (i.e. Grandmama Isabella. I could have done with more of her mother.) I enjoyed the narrative device of telling the story via various media – especially the translations (and the footnotes/commentary). Having been slightly disappointed by ‘In The Sanctuary of Wings’ (not the big reveal, but the scaffolding around it, I suppose), I loved how this follow-up expanded the world.

I see that Sanditon has returned to ITV, after appearing first on Britbox, which amused me, because it just highlghts Britbox’s problem. Wouldn’t the target audience rather subscribe to Netflix (or borrow someone’s password) to watch Bridgerton over seeing this earlier, knowing it’s coming to ITV? Anyway, I will get round to watching it and going ‘Jane Austen would never write that!’ although I’m sure it’ll depart even further from what she did write by now. I only hope that ( minor spoiler for s1 )

The Undeclared War ep 1

Someone give Peter Kominsky a prize for reading the signs and portents better than others. ( Read more... )

So I’m probably going to prioritise watching a couple of episodes of this over catching up with Sanditon.

[Edited 27/1/25 for typos.]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back on All4, and its eighth series will be its last. The first made me happy, the second made me a little sad.

8.1 and 8.2

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[Edited for typos 14/1/25.]

Out of Sight is on iPlayer at the moment. I don’t think I’ve watched it since it was first shown on TV (or possibly I rented it out on video. It is about 23 years old.) If my life was cool, I’d want David Holmes to soundtrack it.

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I’ve also started rereading what was known as the Seven Kingdoms trilogy but is now the Graceling realm series, before I turn to my copy of ‘Winterkeep’. It was clearly time, because while I remembered the broad sweep and relationships of ‘Graceling’, I was surprised at the details. ( Read more... )

I’ve started listening to the The West Wing Weekly podcast (h/t vialethe, which I’m finding interesting, Hirishi Hirway’s comments are insightful (and er, we agree on certain things) while Joshua Malina’s are about half the interesting perspective of an actor, half less so, with the guests bringing even more insight. I’m still trying to work out the balance between watching episodes and listening to podcasts. For instance, I drafted this, then listened to the podcast of 1.07, in which Josh Malina makes some reasonable criticisms that I hadn’t picked up of ‘State Dinner’. By the way, I'm sorry if there are typs typos or idiocies, but if I read this through again I will never post it.

So, I wouldn’t say that ‘State Dinner’ and ‘Enemies’ were the best double-bill, and I’d urge leaving a gap between both. ( Read more... )

I’ll try to do this disc by disc, after this post, but a guest asked a question about the characters’ choices at the end of this ep in response to my fic about it, and this seemed like a good opportunity to get my thoughts about Walter and Paige at the end of this episode down.

‘Satellite of Love’

Reaction:

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Waige meta

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Over the weekend, if one uses 'weekend' loosely, I posted Neither Here nor There (Gotham, future fic, Bruce/OFC, Bruce/Selina), which I wrote and edited alongside 'The Business of Walking', although I first started writing ‘Neither…’ later. ( Read more... )

I then posted two drabbles In Her Element (Sky High, Warren/Layla) and I Love You in MPH (ER, Neela/Ray). Both came to mind and were written quite soon after seeing the prompts. ( Read more... )

In the midst of all that, I came across a casting spoiler that ought to bump Gotham higher up the catch-up queue. But the only show I talk about here I've kept up with watching live is Ghosts, because it's on a Monday night and only thirtyish minutes long.

Ghosts 1.6 Getting Out

( spoilers )