Things I'm watching lately

[sholio]

Ted Lasso - Sitcoms aren't normally my thing, sports sitcoms even less so, but this is too adorable not to love: a fish-out-of-water/underdog-sports-team show about an American football coach who is hired to coach a British football (soccer) team in an intentional effort to torpedo it, everyone hates him at first, but ... you know, underdog sports team show, we all know how it goes. It's one of those shows where it's the cast and the writing that really make it zing. The episodes are heartfelt and hilarious, everyone has wonderful chemistry with each other and great comic timing, and the show does especially wonderful things with its female characters considering that there are only two of them; in particular there's a character arc that is one of my absolute favorite kinds that I almost never get to have with female characters and this show does an extremely nice job of it. I also really loved the canon ships. The show is much more grown-up about relationships than I expect from shows of this type, and it was a refreshing change! It's only one 10-episode season so far, but it's been renewed for two more and I'm thoroughly looking forward to them. (It's on Apple+, and you can marathon the whole thing with a free trial if you want to.)

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty - Currently watching this with sheron (we stopped on Ep. 12 last night, I think?). It's really a lot of fun, with exactly the sort of found-family slowly coming together across lines of culture and class thing that appeals to me, and once again with more and better female characters than I was expecting from the bits of promo/fandom-talk I'd seen. (Badass Mongol princess with weaponized whip!) The historical details are also really interesting - I mean, not that I know all that much about the specific era and I recognize that it's historical fiction, not fact. But I think I was expecting it to be entirely focused on the Imperial China court stuff and, although there is a lot of that, there's also a lot of the characters traveling to interesting places and engaging with the social, cultural, and technological flux of that time period - some of the characters are Mongolian immigrants in the Imperial capital, there are firearms and tomatoes and other such things that are new or imported or rare. One of the characters reminds me incredibly of Lt. Shaw from the Benjamin January books and is also super hot. No spoilers past ep. 12, please!

The Magicians - Okay, so a little while back Orion read the books because he saw me rereading them, absolutely LOVED them (which I was totally not expecting; he does read some fantasy - he liked Harry Potter, for example, and loves Dresden Files) but he's much more of a sci-fi guy and this wasn't the sort of thing I would have thought he'd be into. But he devoured them in about 3 days and has been gently prodding me to watch the show with him. I bounced off it before - the show is a really different animal to the books - but we've now watched the first few episodes and (again to my surprise) we're both really enjoying it. The changes from the books are really interesting to me, since I haven't seen a whole lot of the show and what I've seen was mostly in the middle.

Comments

[sovay]

in particular there's a character arc that is one of my absolute favorite kinds that I almost never get to have with female characters

Oh, yeah?

[sholio]

It's basically Ward's arc, minus the evil dad (but substitute an abusive ex-husband instead). Self-destructive corporate jerk who is bad with people treats everyone horribly, due to a mix of emotional damage and having to ruthlessly crush her softer side to succeed in the cutthroat business world. Sweet sunshine people befriend her and give her a reason to get back in touch with the kinder person that she is deep down. I think what really struck me about her is that characters like her - the Devil Wears Prada corporate-shark female archetype - are usually either portrayed in a way that leans into their Boss Bitch attitude as a good thing (instead of something that is destructive both to her and to people around her), or they're one-note antagonists who never really get to develop as people; the closest you typically get to characters like her are ice-queen types who do a complete personality 180 when they fall in love.

But she basically bounces off every rung on the Billionaire Asshole redemption ladder, in a very satisfying way. I don't know if I could single her out as my one favorite on a show that's so full of characters I enjoy, but I absolutely adored every scene she's in. I think another thing that helped me sell her on her is that she's not classically beautiful - she is very attractive, but in a sort of tough-edged way (the actress is massive - I don't know if this picture conveys it, but she's probably 6 feet tall and built like a rather willowy linebacker) which I think helps sell her steamroller personality and also makes her softer moments feel pleasantly incongruous and real.

[kore]

That actress looked SO FAMILIAR, and omfg she was Magdalena in 12 Monkeys! But with dark hair. "Mind yourself." https://projectsplinter.com/2018/04/23/hannah-waddingham

[sovay]

But she basically bounces off every rung on the Billionaire Asshole redemption ladder, in a very satisfying way.

That's extremely cool. The six-foot-tall unconventionally beautiful is also unusual and I approve.

[kore]

The Magicians gets really good! It stays good for a pretty long while, too (opinions are very mixed on the fourth season, with the controversial finale, and a lot of people never bothered with the fifth season, including me). I really liked the diversity in the casting.

[sholio]

We're really enjoying it! I bounced off it before due to what I felt was a sort of mean-spiritedness compared to the books, but for whatever reason I'm not really getting that this time around; I think it helps that Orion is really into it, and it makes a difference watching the show with someone who is getting a lot of delight out of it. I also really appreciate what the show has done to make the early episodes interesting compared to the (BY FAR least interesting) first half of the first book that it more or less corresponds to. So far, aside from always-faves Q and Eliot and Alice (well, and also Plum, but she's not around yet), I am really loving Penny and Kady - Penny is completely reinvented from the books and really great, and I liked Kady even in the scenes I had seen later, but 1000% more now that I'm seeing everything about her from the beginning.

[kore]

I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it! I do think it's one of those shows where watching it with someone really heightens the fun -- I'm not sure why, but T was super not into the concept ("College magicians?") but then he really loved the characterization and found family aspect. I thought a lot of the casting was just perfect (Q! Eliot! Alice! Julia!) and revamping Penny was GENIUS. And Jade Tailor and Summer Bishil are so great, too, as well as Rick Worthy (Simon in BSG!) as Dean Fogg. A lot of people made fun of the show in the first season or so for being goofy or sexed-up, but the cast was great from the beginning. (They all seem like real sweethearts, too -- Arjun Gupta was really supportive and sympathetic to fans after that season four finale.)

[frith_in_thorns]

I enjoyed Sleuth, it was lots of fun! Although I kept wanting more comfort from the hurt/comfort at got - I have apparently been too spoiled by the other cdramas I've watched XD

I'm going to take a wild guess that your fave is Sui Zhou?

[sholio]

I'm going to take a wild guess that your fave is Sui Zhou?

Heee, yes. And also the girls (Dong'er and Duo'erla), at least so far. But it's really the entire ensemble dynamic that I'm most into. INCREDIBLY RANDOM TOMATO-EATING SHEEP!

[frith_in_thorns]

I love how quite a bit of time passes within the course of the show (somewhere between a few months to a couple of years -- I'm unclear!) but they never bother aging up the sheep.

Also stay tuned for a very happy and VERY drugged-up pig later on XD (Only briefly, I hoped it would be another recurring cast member)

I also love everyone. (Tang Fan was actually the one who took longest to grow on me.) Wang Zhi is probably my very favourite but I also adore Dong'er.

[definitely_not_an_alb]

Serious question, re: The Magicians. I haven't read the books and thus can't tell if the plot is the same there and how it was handled, but do you need a (slightly spoiler-y) warning about some graphic sexual violence stuff? I can make it super broad/not reveal any plot, but I’d rather not let anyone else walk into that one blindsided (as I did – not a great experience, and I’d have appreciated a warning back then).

[sholio]

I appreciate the thought, but I'm good! There's a graphic assault in the books (probably the same one) and it's also, in general, not something that I need warnings for. But I do appreciate you thinking of warning me for it!

TBH I was somewhat blindsided by the (fake) sexual assault in the first episode since it's not in the books, but at least it let me know that the show wasn't going to be pulling any punches there.

[stultiloquentia]

Aw, Sleuth. I was sold from the get-go, by Tang Fan's ecstatic foodie soliloquy.

I got distracted by yet another shiny cdrama before I finished, but I'll get back to it soon. It's got a nice little fandom chugging along.

[trobadora]

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty is a lot of fun! I'm especially fond of Wang Zhi, but it's a great group of people.

[sartorias]

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty is a LOT of fun!

Not surprised a guy took to Magicians, as it is very male POV, though quite good. I still haven't finished it yet--I put it down before the climactic run of the third book, but I was enjoying it a lot, and do mean to finish it.

[sheron]

Hahaha, amazing. I really like Sui Zhou but I'm completely impervious to his looks lol But at least the general population of the show agrees with you ;-)

I can't wait for you to discover the rest of the episodes :3

[scioscribe]

I'm still so delighted you liked Ted Lasso! I had such a good time watching it--twice--and it's already become something I quote a lot. It's hard sometimes for me to find optimistic, warm shows that don't feel like they're making things too easy, but this one really, really worked for me.

I also bought these sticker collections.

[schneefink]

Hm, I heard good things about Ted Lasso before, maybe I should check it out :)

[naye]

I really hope you continue enjoying Sleuth! If you do, Skuld has a ton of fic recs at the ready, as it's their current main fandom. I had an absolute blast with it myself.

[alessandriana]

I've also been watching Sleuth with a friend and enjoying it! The mess down in Texas has kind of spiked our efforts lately, as we were watching it via zoom...

[sheron]

one of us! one of us! XD

How far into the show are you? (no spoilers for sholio's sake pls) :-)

[alessandriana]

Hah, we're only on episode 10, so not even as far as you guys!