Heroines

I saw Frozen this weekend, and I like that Disney is genuinely showing feminist fairytales nowadays. Between this and Tangled, girls can have role models and stories where heroines actively save themselves or other people. The scene where Elsa becomes the Snow Queen, free to let her powers run wild, felt positive and empowering, as if she were taking control of her life for the first time. I was glad that the "act of true love" was about the sisters' bond, rather than about than a traditional kiss with the hero. It was fun that they made fun of Anna for wanting to get engaged after only one day. Yep, that's why I wrote Helen Stoner complaining about Julia getting engaged to the half-pay major so quickly in my DIM novel.

Wesley Crusher 2.0

With this week's episode, now I'm completely done with S.H.I.E.L.D. and I figured out why I hate Skye. She's Wesley Crusher all over again. A whiny genius girl who can do no wrong, and always has the correct solution to the problem. Anyone who dares tell her to shut the hell up or tries to kick her off the plane is looked on as a bad guy who betrayed the team. Plus the fact that Skye pretends to be Melinda May is more insulting, because they keep using Melinda May to make Skye look cooler, instead of developing Melinda May in her own right. Skye's an unprofessional, coddled baby and should have been killed off already. Whoever's writing this shit and came up with her stupid "I need to find my parents" backstory needed to be fired a long time ago. Instead of fixing the problem, they're doubling down on the "Look at how awesome Skye is" viewpoint. It's sickening. I signed on for a show starring Coulson, and instead they make everything revolve around her.

I didn't really get a lot of satisfying answers about Coulson's death. Just a lot of angst and horror of seeing him wish he could die. Then the whole thing about Mike Peterson being made into a slave too just makes the story more depressing and not fun. It's so disappointing, and nothing makes sense enough to be worthwhile.

Wonder Woman

I very much enjoyed the ending of Nikita, but am sad that the show is over. I'm glad that many of the actors have new shows already. Too bad Sonya couldn't come back for the finale, but it's understandable. I think that Birkhoff releasing Shadownet so that people can avoid being spied on by the NSA is sure to cause trouble with his NSA father, but I suppose that's why he's retreating to England.

In my search for a new TV heroine, I ran across Wonder Woman, now airing on MeTV. I remember watching reruns of this show when I was a kid in the 1980s, but I only remember the later seasons that weren't set in the 1940s. So watching the show from the beginning, even the campy TV movie that started it, has been very interesting to me. Lynda Carter is so great, and I look forward to seeing when Carolyn Jones will appear as the Amazon Queen. (Carolyn Jones was Morticia on the Addams Family.) Yes, the feminism is somewhat clunky when they talk about Paradise Island, but I do like that there are strong female characters as both heroes and villains. I definitely enjoyed that the first episode featured a boy who loved Sherlock Holmes.

I wish there would be a new Wonder Woman show or movie these days, but all the projects I hear about sound awful and die in development. She seems to be featured in some upcoming comic book movies, but not her own. I was hoping for more from Melinda May's character on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, but that show seems obsessed with the stupid Skye character instead. I'll give the show one more chance so I can learn the secret of Coulson's death, but if that's no good, I might give up the show for good.

Scotland Yard and Adam Worth

On PBS, I watched a special called Secrets of Scotland Yard, which detailed the history of the Metropolitan Police Force from its founding by Robert Peel. I was surprised that the special mentioned some corruption scandals in Scotland Yard, which for instance led to the establishment of the Criminal Investigation Department. Several real life cases are discussed, such as the Crippen murder, Adam Worth, Jack the Ripper, as well as modern cases.

I much preferred this Scotland Yard show to the How Sherlock Changed the World special, which relied too much on BBC Sherlock clips. The Scotland Yard special emphasized that the police were not incompetent before Sherlock Holmes came along. They did do detective work, and were developing new investigation methods all the time. I think that BBC Sherlock, and the special that praised it so, actually do the police a disservice by making it look like the police are incompetent just to make Holmes look superior. As much as I hate Moriarty on Elementary (and will never watch her again), I adore how the NYPD characters are good detectives too, and there are problems with Holmes's style of taking shortcuts. Other people don't just let Holmes do whatever he wants just because he's a genius. They stand up for themselves and point out his bad behavior. There's so much good in this show if it weren't tainted by the stupid "Holmes's nemesis must be a psycho whose crimes are stupid and illogical for any competent criminal, much less a genius mastermind"! Fuck that. I want my real Moriarty back, and my real Irene Adler. Guy Ritchie seems to be the only one giving the real Moriarty (and some cool women to make up for Irene Adler), but I have no idea when he'll do another Holmes movie.