Mrs Sherlock Holmes

Timeless has been sort of weird lately with Wyatt bringing Jessica to the bunker. So, then, she just quits her job to live there with him permanently? Or is she allowed to come and go? Agent Christopher is just letting this security breach happen? Plus, Lucy now is getting close to Flynn. It's a mess.

At least the time travel stuff is still good, now they've figured out how to have four passengers without the weird side effects that Jiya experienced. Pretty deep interaction between Rufus and his mentor Connor during the Delta Blues episode. The next episode coming up features suffragist Alice Paul and Grace Humiston. By sheer coincidence, I have been reading a book about "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" lately, but I haven't finished it yet.

While the book is interesting, I wouldn't recommend it, because it's told in such a haphazard, illogical way. Brad Ricca's book with the very long title isn't just a straightforward biography or a telling of her famous case about Ruth Cruger. It begins with a puzzling "Caveat Emptor" that purports to warn you about the content of the book, but it's so damn vague and pompously worded that you don't understand what he means; is he talking about the horrors of crime, white slavery hysteria, peonage, poverty, etc? I don't know, because he's so self-indulgent.

Then comes a prologue, an anecdote about Arthur Conan Doyle coming to America in 1914 and meeting a detective--no, not Grace Humiston. It's some other guy, and Doyle unwisely makes anti-suffragist remarks to a reporter; he seems to suggest that the suffragists deserve to be lynched. He walks it back later, trying to say that he supports independent, intelligent women, just not them having the right to vote. But then the anecdote just wanders off, to nowhere in particular, not even mentioning how angry suffragists put a bomb in ACD's mail box in 1911. This prologue has no relation to the subsequent chapters, and I don't understand Ricca's logic in including it, if he wasn't going to make a sharper point about ACD in relation to Grace Humiston.

I was hoping we'd get to Grace Humiston soon, but no, Ricca instead opens the main book with the day that Ruth Cruger went missing. I'd be fine with that, but then he abandons the story to tell us an unrelated case. Then later he picks up the Ruth Cruger storyline, then he goes into other cases, then back to Ruth, etc. The book should have been called "A Series of Unrelated True Crime Stories, told out of order". Why couldn't Ricca at least have gone chronologically? What would have been wrong with telling the story of Grace Humiston like a straightforward biography, telling where she was born, was educated, who her first husband was, and her career? Why the back and forth from year to year, case to case, until I'm thoroughly confused? I don't mind time travel in a TV show of course, but Ricca's popping in and out of time is so disordered and random. My God, he doesn't even stop to note when Grace Quackenbos gets remarried and her name becomes Grace Humiston!! ETA: (Not until page 233, in chapter 16!) Fuck this writer. I guess I'll still try to finish the book, because some of the anecdotes are interesting, but I do hope that Timeless handles this woman better.

Diversity

Hank Azaria responded to the Apu controversy with more grace and nuance than the show itself did. I'm glad he had no input on that horrid "Don't have a cow" scene, but it makes me disappointed in the voice actors that did participate. Azaria has repeatedly come across as genuine and sincere, and Al Jean would be better off following Azaria's example if he's looking for the "right" response. He's fine not voicing Apu anymore, and isn't defensive at all. Azaria even suggested adding more inclusion in the writers room, not as tokenism, but as a chance for real change. Everyone should be thinking of diversity in gender and race in Hollywood. It's the only way to combat racism, sexism, and harassment.

Alia Shawkat also commented recently about the Jeffrey Tambor allegations. I'm glad she spoke up, because it was very presumptuous of David Cross to speak like he knew what all the AD cast thought. For a minute I was worried, because the article mentions Jason Bateman as supporting Tambor; however the actual quote was that he loves the man and always would. You can love somebody but be disappointed and shocked by their actions, as Sarah Silverman said of Louis CK. Since he didn't speak any further, I think Bateman knows it's wise not to try to defend the allegations. ETA: Apparently I was SOO wrong about Bateman's response.

Anyway, in the interest of diversity, the Crazy Rich Asians trailer is out, and I love it. I'm more excited and impatient for that than the Infinity War coming out this weekend. I hope it's not just another Joy Luck Club, followed by nothing for years. I have been reading about other Asian projects in Hollywood lately, so maybe this is indeed opening the door to a trend.

Rampage

Meanwhile, there's been more Mulan casting news lately, with more Chinese actors and no whitewashing so far. I hope the story will be good too, but it's a long time to wait.

Also, The Simpsons stepped into the Apu controversy, and it was pretty shitty. Don't misuse Lisa Simpson like that! I love Hank Azaria, but there's no need for him to keep doing this character when he has others. Just because it started long ago, does not excuse it now, and just because it's animated doesn't make it okay either. I mean, fuck it. The Charlie Chan character started out with racist yellowface, but nobody today would DARE to reboot those mysteries in the same way now, in 2018. Get with the fucking times!

Anyway, I saw Rampage yesterday. It's an entertaining popcorn flick, like an attempt to have a King Kong vs Godzilla type movie. I never played the Rampage video game, so I don't care about faithfulness to the source material. However, the beginning part on the space station felt somewhat long, like it's own little mini movie, as did the part where the mercenaries tried to hunt down the Ralph the superwolf. It felt like a weird series of vignettes with characters who got killed off quickly, or who disappeared after only a couple of scenes. (Initially I thought that all the zoo workers were going to help track down George, but no, they were just minor characters at the beginning.) Once we got to the core plot with the main 3 humans and 2 villains, the plot was more straightforward. I do wonder why the mutated alligator Lizzie got so little to do; saving her just for the final battle in Chicago?

SPOILERS

Scandal Dodging

The Syria strikes are frightening, given he did it without Congressional approval and then declared "mission accomplished" with no sense of history. I hope this won't escalate to more, especially whenever he needs a convenient distraction. I mean, the situation has been awful in Syria for years, but when Obama suggested intervening before, Republicans opposed him; so of course they're hypocritically fine with it now.

All this drama in this administration, and still they ignore problems that remain unaddressed like Puerto Rico. It's a fuckin soap opera circus, and I so want it to end.