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michalwu · 6 years

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Best TV series of 2017

Another year past and it’s time for another summary of television. Of course it was terribly hard to choose the best shows like last year, but maybe even harder considering how many new things came up and in how good shape the “old” series came back. So I chose my TOP 10 but also ten another series that was very good and close to be in my rank.

Places 20-11

The Crown, Stranger Things, GLOW, Game of Throne, Anne, Mr Robot, Fargo, Twin Peaks Return, Crazy Ex-Grilfriend, Better Things.

And now my TOP 10

10. American Gods. I’m not sure if I can be impartial about this show. It has many various review but I love Neil Gaiman’s book so much and I couldn’t love this series. Or maybe I could because as a fan I should be very critical about it. Nonetheless this show didn’t dissapointed me and gave a lot more. Great casting and what’s typical for Bryan Fuller it was very stylistic show as it should have been.

9. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She got this place in the last moment because I just watched the show. I was hoping for Gilmore Girls to be on my list this year but Amy Sherman-Palladino didn’t let me down anyway. It’s like a very sweet, colorful and tasty candy from her. Very funny, smart and it shows well those crazy years (especially for women). The biggest adventage is adorable and very likeable main character.

8. Feud: Bette and Joan. Ryan Murphy may dissapoint me with once amazing AHS series but he always give something in return. How could it go wrong? Incredibly interesting true story of two amazing women. Great cast, containing some of my favorite actresses: Lange and Sarandon. Plus Murphy who showed again that he know how to write the female characters and how well he understand them. Of course stylistically this show can blow your mind.

7. Master of None. Aziz came back with season 2 and it may be even better than the first one. This show delivers so many various attractions. Episode in black and white, the best episode about Thanksgiving I ever saw (Angela Bassett was stunning), beautiful Italy and even more beautiful Francesca. Love story in this season is so cute and kind like in oldest movies. I was a big pleasure to watch this season and I hope Aziz will be back.

6. Handmaid’s Tale. This is one of must see in 2017. Beautifly shot and played by very talented cast. The thing I remember most though is Alexsis Bledel and episode three which made me cry like nothing else. Although this version of future is very scary it was a pleasure to get depper and deeper into regime with our main character. Acting is the biggerst virtue of this series and I think the reason of its seccess.

5. Leftovers. It is a very special show. I watched the whole two seasons in last year just before its coming back for finale. The writing is so smart, natural and authenic even though it is such a crazy world the show depicts. It has so many beautiful, scary and heartbreaking moments. I like how this season particulary refers do Bible and how creators play with apocalypse vibe. The finale was tremendously emotional and so subtle in the same way. I will miss this one.

4. Mindhunter. Big positive suprice for me but also considering it is influenced by David Fincher it shouldn’t be at all because I love his movies. Especially I love Zodiak and any movies with familiar topics connected with serial killer cases. And this show have everything to steal my heart. Great cast, interesting characters, stunning music, amazing writing with smooth dialogues and climate of 70s. First season gave us many frightening story and amazing gallery of personalities. Every actor who played killer did a great acting job. There was no big gun action or plot twists but those meetings were enought.

3. Big Little Lies. Another series with remarkable nast of female. But we all know that cast isn’t enough. It’s the story and fascinating characters what make the show great. Cast and acting was rewarded so many times that I can just say that of course I agree with critics. For me the biggest treat in BLL is the director. Jean Marc Valle is one of my favorite creators of last years. I love his work and the way he combines great acting in emotional scenes with beautiful shots and music. He made watching this life of rich housewifes and their children so interesting and fascinating I fell in love with this show.

2. BoJack Horeman. I think it’s the best drama of 2017. The only reason it’s not consider this way is because it’s animated. I will say again that BoJack is the best antihero character that tv ever made. Complicated and depresing life of this horse and his friends get even more fucked up this season but still with grace and great sense of humor creators of show can make it a great comedy. And this season really was depresing considering we get to know BoJack’s family better with very dark past of his mother (the ending with her in eldery institution broke my heart). Plus Princess Carolyn get some more time and fail to become a mother. This kind of drama actually always was the best way to bring comedy so no wonder it work so great in this season. I’d really like for this series to get more appreciations because BoJack realy don’t deserve to be forgotten. I love this horse and I’m glad it came back in such a good shape again.

1. Legion. The biggest suprice and the biggest joy of this year. I love comic book especially Marvel and mutants the most of them all. So imagine my hope and expectations when I found out that amazing Noah Hawley is making a show in the world of X-men and even more about character so crazy, bipolar and strange as LEGION. Well the show is a lot more than I could imagine and hope. The cast is great. Stevens is doing a great job as the madman but he’s not even close to amazing Audrey Plaza (one of my favorite young actress) because she goes in completly nuts places the bring the best...ehmm the worst of Shadow King. Noah Hawley also go crazy with artistic solutions he uses this season. The way camera works, music he chose and characters he made...it’s all so fascinating, creative and CRAZY good! I know I use “c” word a lot but it’s the best one to describe this series. Narrative is really smart and demanding from viewers. Stopping the time, journey in different dimentions, black and white movies, getting lost in memories, even being trapped in silent movie. I really am supriced by complete lack of nominations and awards for this show. Well I guess critics still think that comic based shows and movies are not worth their attention. Too bad because even though comics adaptations in tv really did fail me this year, Legion is the real gem. I can’t wait for next season and I pray that mutants coming back to Marvel won’t affect this magnificent series.

*****

The most important trait of this year ranking is how many of those shows are new. Many great shows came back in good shape (Starnger Thing, Game of Throne) but not good enough to get into best 10.

Another one is lack of my last year numer 1. Why? Unfortunatelly Mozart in the Jungle was not broadcast this year...I have to wait till February.

Biggest disapointments:

1. AHS Cult. Like I said Murphy let me down again with this one. First of all. Stop calling it horror. It’s not horror since season 3. Another flaw is the theme. I get that political situation in USA is a hot topic and going after Trump is a thing now. But it really bores me so much. Trust me, I think Trump stinks but did Ryan had to try win his part in this trend. A large number of nominations for SNL is an example that it can be lucrative but Ryan did it very bad taste for me. Showing in stereotypical way of both sides, characters without brains, boring plot and all of it so predictable. Well he still have two seasons left to fix it or destroy this once great series completly.

2.Iron Fist and Defenders. I have no patience to write about terrible Iron Fist. What really upset me it that Defenders was such a medicore series and in the end so boring and unattractive season to watch. It had Daredevil and Jessica Jones! Still it sucked so much.

3. Friends from College. Great cast for comedy. No comedy at all. The lack of chemistry between the characters killed this series. Too bad because it had potential.

#top10 #2017 #best of 2017 #television #legion #bojack horseman #big little lies #mindhunter #handmade tale #master of none #feud: bette and joan #marvelous mrs maisel #american gods

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Jacqueline Carey Guest Post: Women in Fantasy

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This is a guest post from Jacqueline Carey, author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series. Tor Books is releasing reissues of the epic fantasy series this summer. Kushiel’s Dart and Kushiel’s Chosen are already out, with the reissue or Kushiel’s Avatar set to drop on August 25th.

“Is this a kissing book?”

Everyone who’s seen The Princess Bride, which includes pretty much everyone I know, recognizes that line, uttered by a young Fred Savage to his grandpa, the ever-charming Peter Falk, who’s come to read a story to his grandson. Fred’s nameless character is confined to bed with a nameless childhood illness. Nothing terribly serious, we assume—perhaps a cough and a bit of a fever, not alarmingly high, just high enough that the doctor suggested he stay at home for a few days.

What we don’t discuss is the—apparently—far more terrifying menace to which the young boy has been exposed: Girl cooties.

As a female writer of epic fantasy, this is a phenomenon with which I’m all too familiar, and the same holds true for many of my female colleagues in the genre. A significant portion of the audience consists of male readers, and a significant subset of that readership assumes that epic fantasy written by women must surely be tainted by girl cooties.

Based on personal experience, my take is that this is shorthand for “romance” and that there’s an underlying assumption, consciously or subconsciously, that fantasy written by women must perforce be romance. Of course, romance fantasy does exist, and it’s surely not my intention to denigrate it in any way. The Kushiel’s Legacy series does contain elements of romance—gloriously, unabashedly, sometimes brutally so. And defining genres can be tricky, because sometimes books—often, in my personal opinion, the best books—span a number of them. When I wrote Kushiel’s Avatar, the final volume of the original trilogy, I thought a lot about the dedication that John Steinbeck wrote for East of Eden. According to Steinbeck, his longtime friend and editor came upon him carving a wooden figure, and asked that he make him a box.

“What for?”

“To put things in.”

“What kind of things?”

“Whatever you have.”

Instead of crafting an actual wooden box for his editor, Steinbeck wrote East of Eden, and in the foreword dedicating it to him, he stated, “Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad or evil thoughts and good thoughts—the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation. And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you. And still the box is not full.”

I find that to be profoundly romantic.

It’s a pity that the word “romance” has taken on such a negative connotation for a large swathe of the fantasy-reading audience. Even the young grandson in The Princess Bride relents by the end to admit, “I don’t mind so much, Grandpa.” All the epic fantasy trappings of farm boys and pirates and princesses, swordsmen and giants and feats of derring-do, magic and torture and quests for vengeance, are in that particular box, but above all, true love.

And yet it’s also a movie written, directed, filmed and produced by men, featuring a predominantly male cast and a heroine with zero agency.

Over and over, when I see polls on forums listing the best epic fantasy writers, both historical and current, the same names appear, and they’re almost exclusively male—or to be more specific, cisgender heterosexual white male authors. Not to detract from these authors, many of whom I also enjoy and admire, and who have been influences on my own work, but there are always so many female authors missing from the list. It often seems as though the only two woman writers cited are a) Ursula K. LeGuin, because her influence is too significant to overlook, and b) Robin Hobb, because a lot of readers were misled by her gender-neutral pseudonym.

As a teenager and a young adult, I grew up reading whatever fantasy I could get my hands on—which in the 1970s, 80s and 90s was limited to whatever my local bookstore and library had on its shelves. Many of them were women—Mary Stewart, Anne McCaffery, Patricia McKillip, Julian May, Katherine Kurtz, Katharine Kerr, Kate Elliott. Some of these authors we’ve lost since I discovered their work years ago; others continue to write and publish to this day. When I encounter this absence, it almost feels as though a part of my own formative history has been erased.

And then there’s the issue of female characters, who are far too scarce on the ground in epic fantasy. Readers or viewers whose personal identity is well-represented in the pop culture medium of their choosing can’t fully understand the effect of its absence. It’s like looking in a mirror and having no reflection.

It’s disconcerting.

It’s creepy.

Not so long ago, I made that observation to a male friend regarding a fantasy novel he recommended. It was some 500 pages long, and it had one female character in an otherwise fairly extensive cast. Despite being an intelligent and thoughtful guy, my friend had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief to inhabit a world in which my gender—which comprises at least half the world as we know it—barely existed. Now, if that omission is a deliberate choice on the part of the author, I can respect it. Some narratives operate within a set of constraints for a particular reason.

But the truth is, more often than not in epic fantasy, it’s not deliberate. It’s just an oversight.

In another recent instance, I volunteered to be interviewed by two young women from our local high school who were interested in careers in writing fantasy. They were delightful, and we lingered over coffee to chat after the interview. Both of them cited popular recent fantasy debuts by male authors as current favorites. These were books I happened to have read, and again, books which had essentially one female character with any measurable page time. One existed solely to serve as an unattainable object of desire; the other was killed and subjected to the pseudo-medieval equivalent of getting fridged. In case you weren’t aware, “fridged” is slang for a common trope in which female characters are violently murdered and their bodies are left for the hero to discover in a gruesome manner, which then serves as a traumatic inciting event that drives the hero’s dramatic arc. It’s disturbing that there’s actually a specific term for this, right?

Out of curiosity, I asked these delightful, smart, fantasy-loving young women what they thought about the fact that there were almost no female characters in these books—and they looked blankly at me.

They hadn’t noticed.

Of all the times and ways and angles from which I’ve pondered the lack representation of women in fantasy as both an author and a reader, that may have hit me the hardest. It pains me to know that the absence of women in this genre I love is so prevalent that well into the 21st century, it doesn’t even register. Women in fantasy deserve better. As writers, we deserve the right to publish under female-sounding names without fearing the taint of girl cooties. We deserve to be listed amongst our male counterparts in the legacy of the genre. As readers, women deserve a seat at the table in the realm of the fantastic. We deserve female characters with agency, female characters whose actions affect the narrative. We’re not ghosts, we’re not vampires—we deserve to see our reflections in the mirror. We deserve, at the barest of minimums, a society in which that absence is noticeable. We deserve to be part of the warp and weft of the story’s tapestry, not just a single thread.

The box is vast, and still it is not full. In a genre where there are no limits to the world except the writer’s imagination, women deserve more.

Find out more about Jacqueline Carey’s work at her website. Find out more about Tor Books’s reissues of Kushiel’s Legacy here.

The post Jacqueline Carey Guest Post: Women in Fantasy appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3a3lWE7

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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austenmarriage · 5 years

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New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/1425-2/

Survey of Janeites, Thoughts on the Results

In 2008, the Jane Austen Society of North America took a survey of its membership about Austen’s characters. I’ve come across the results several times. I thought I’d recap them here and offer a few thoughts of my own.

Fully one-third of Janeites read three or more of Austen’s books in a year. Eleven percent read all six every year. By far (53 percent), Pride and Prejudice is the most popular book. Next is Persuasion (28 percent). Though it’s also my second favorite, most of my Janeite friends, plus several academics I respect, prefer Emma. I assume Persuasion carries the day because mature readers like the story of a mature woman having her “second spring.”

From Persuasion it’s a big drop down to Emma at 7 percent. Because of the popularity of the movie(s) made of Sense and Sensibility (especially Emma Thompson’s 1995 version, which set off the current Austen stampede), I was a little short of stunned that this book was so far down the list at 5 percent. I guess readers are more discerning than movie viewers; or, perhaps, the movie overcomes some of the book’s weaknesses.

Dragging their petticoats through the mud are Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey at 4 percent each. I admire a lot of things about MP, especially the large cast of characters, but I don’t think Austen quite pulls off the multiple story lines. I always felt that Northanger was a nice first try, though I’ve gained more respect for it in recent close readings. When Austen gets away from the Gothic schtick, the writing in NA is, to me, better than that in S&S. I suggest that S&S was a more complete story in its original form of a novel-in-letters but that Austen did little in the way of revision beyond converting it to a direct narrative. On the other hand, NA seems much “younger” in some ways and limited by the Gothic framing device. Yet in other places, the writing is far crisper and more advanced than what seems to be the slightly more old-fashioned form in S&S.

Here’s a shock: The favorite heroine was Elizabeth Bennet (58 percent) over Anne Elliot (24 percent). Liz is the only heroine who goes toe to toe with every antagonist. I often wonder why Austen never came back to a similar strong lead character. No one else gets more votes than Elinor Dashwood’s 7 percent. Emma Woodhouse, whom I thought would poll higher, gets only 5 percent. Emma is strong, but she was born into a superior position. I feel a certain bemusement that Fanny Price would slightly outpoll Catherine Moreland, 3 percent to 2 percent. Fanny may have ramrod moral fiber, but Catherine’s a whole lot more interesting. Janeites feel no sympathy for the sensibility-laden Marianne Dashwood at 1 percent.

No surprise, either, for favorite hero: Fitzwilliam Darcy, 51 percent. Given the strong second position of Persuasion, it’s surprising that only 17 percent voted for Frederick Wentworth. I would have picked George Knightley as my leading man, but he polled only 14 percent. I guess a man’s being perceptive, kind, and hard-working doesn’t do it for the ladies (96 percent of survey respondents were female). Henry Tilney manages 10 percent and Colonel Brandon, 5 percent. I like Henry’s sense of humor, but he also does a lot of mansplaining to the ladies. I’m not sure I want to meet the 1 percent each who voted for Edward Ferrars and Edmund Bertram as the leading males. Austen must have liked them, but there’s no reason for anyone else to. I’ll qualify that by pointing out Edmund’s kindness to Fanny early on. But he’s oblivious to her feelings when it matters. His purloining of her horse for Mary Crawford is downright cruel. Edmund seems to marry Fanny because she’s the only female within sight at the end.

In the category of favorite bad boys, the top three were predictable: 33 percent chose Wickham; 28 percent, Willoughby; and 16 percent, Crawford. The rest of the list is puzzling. Frank Churchill, who polled 10 percent, is not a bad boy in the sense of an evil person with superficial charm. He’s an honest charmer and insensitive jerk. Flirting with another woman to disguise an engagement is not in the same league as seducing young women. William Elliot, on the other hand, is manifestly evil, yet he pulled fewer votes at 7 percent. Six percent went for General Tilney, who’s not a charmer or a boy. The General is nasty stuff, but Austen leavens him subtly by showing his continuing grief for his late wife. Catherine Morland misunderstands this as guilt over his having done away with her.

Here’s a survey question I’d have never thought of: Worst Parents. Sir Walter Elliot of Persuasion is the runaway winner at 54 percent. It’s sad to see Mansfield Park get all the other votes: 16 percent for Mr. and Mrs. Price and 15 percent for Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram.

I take exception to the votes against Sir Thomas. He takes in Fanny (and later her sister), he helps her brother get into the Navy and even pays to outfit him. It’s true that Sir Thomas angrily banishes Fanny to Portsmouth for rejecting Henry Crawford. But Sir Thomas doesn’t know she loves Edmund. He fears she is giving up a good man in Crawford and possibly the best offer she may ever receive. He thinks she’s being obstinate when she’s being true to her own beliefs. Fanny’s unpleasant stay at Portsmouth does teach her to appreciate Mansfield Park. Her absence, meanwhile, teaches Sir Thomas to appreciate Fanny.

Another fun category was four comic characters who delight us. P&P brings home the prize here, with Mrs. Bennet at 74 percent and Mr. Collins at 70 percent. The other two were Admiral Croft at 56 percent and Miss Bates at 50.

It’s understandable for Mrs. Bennet to lead the list. Being crass, she’s unintentionally funny. But she has also, I think, received more bad press than she deserves. Austen gives both sides of the story with her synopsis: “She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married.”

Unlike her husband, who seems content with whatever may happen with his brood, Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them settled in a decent home. She lacks the natural joy of Jane or the intelligence and class of Liz, but she’s trying to take care of her children the only way she knows how. We sympathize, even as we chuckle.

Admiral Croft is more than a funny guy. He’s astute enough to let Anne Elliot know that she’ll have another chance at Captain Wentworth: The Admiral’s wife, Sophy, is inviting him to Bath. Scene from the 1995 Persuasion movie directed by Roger Michell.

The Admiral is another puzzler. He has his amusing moments. He can navigate a 74-gun battleship around the world but can’t manage a one-horse gig on a country lane. Yet he is not a comic character. He’s a very wise one. Along, no doubt, with his wife, Sophy, Admiral Croft is a shrewd observer of people. His conversation with Anne Elliot on the streets of Bath is not that of a man oblivious to her situation but one very much aware of her feelings for Wentworth, and his for her. He lets Anne know she’ll get another shot at her man:

“Poor Frederick!” said he at last. “Now he must begin all over again with somebody else. I think we must get him to Bath. Sophy must write, and beg him to come to Bath. Here are pretty girls enough, I am sure. Do not you think, Miss Elliot, we had better try to get him to Bath?”

I have no idea if JASNA plans to update the survey. It’d be interesting to see if the responses have changed significantly over the last decade. About 4,500 people participated, a huge turnout. Janeites love their Austen characters, and love to offer their views on them.

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The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is now complete and available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

#Emma #Emma Thompson #Jane Austen #JASNA #Mansfield Park #Northanger Abbey #Persuasion #Pride and Prejudice #Sense and Sensibility #The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen

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