Final Star War

Well, I went to see Rise of Skywalker because I kept seeing headlines about Rose Tico that made me think they were going to kill her off like they killed off her sister. She's actually alive and well; she just gets little screen time and stays behind at the Resistance base with Leia, Maz Kanata, and others whose names I don't know. Well, at least Rose does come out for the starship battle that apparently took place in a planet's atmosphere, rather than in space, so that nobody needed astronaut suits. It was kind of freaky and yet awesome seeing the people ride horses across the surface of the Star Destroyers. I mean, it's still bad that Rose didn't get to do much, but at least she wasn't pointlessly killed like Captain Phasma, who was hyped so much because of her fancy armor. Being alive, Rose can appear elsewhere I guess.

SPOILERS BELOW

Impeachmas and more

Well, he's officially impeached now, but there's still drama about the upcoming Senate trial. Pelosi is withholding the articles for now, and we know that Moscow Mitch is gonna want to rush it through after the holiday break. We can always hope for something to happen to break the impasse. Are any Republican senators worried about a backlash due to the public popularity of impeachment? Will they vote for witnesses? Even if it's just a sham trial, it will have been worth it to finally take a stand. That's all for next year, anyway. Celebrate the victory we have now, or we'll all be burnt out too soon.

I didn't feel up to watching the Democratic debate last night. I just want the field to narrow, and Tulsi needs to fucking get out of the race after her pathetic "present" vote.

The final Star Wars movie is out this weekend, but I'll probably avoid the crowds for a couple of weeks. Not sure how they'll include Leia one last time, and I hope that Rose Tico will show up, though the reviews have only talked up Rey, Finn, and Poe.

For now, I watched Frozen 2, and it was all right, but I didn't like most of the songs. "Into the Unknown" was good, but "The Next Right Thing" was too long. And did we really need to watch Kristoff do a cheesy music video about being "Lost in the Woods", doubting his love, when it was merely a misunderstanding not an actual argument between him and Anna? I mean, good on the writers trying to get more diverse with the native Enchanted Forest characters based on the Sambi people, but the cross-culture story still felt generic. The Honeymaren scenes were minuscule, barely qualifying her as a new friend, let alone a love interest. They're more acquaintances I guess.

I kept wondering who was the singing voice that Elsa heard. So the voice was the ice river itself, or Elsa's mother, or who? Unclear. And the whole thing about her being the 5th element makes no bloody sense. I hate that "water has a memory" stuff because even though it made for cool ice sculpture moments frozen in time, it reeks of that homeopathic crap about water retaining a memory of the healing stuff that they vastly dilute. I'm grumpy and disappointed.

Midlife Crisis

Well that's the Crisis cliffhanger until the next two episodes in January. It's been underwhelming so far. They claim that the Crisis is urgent and important, yet the heroes split off into mini-groups to do stupid side quests like trying to revive Oliver. They have plenty of time to kill and don't seem in any hurry at all. It's so meandering, slow, and unfocused. The third episode is possibly the best of the lot, but it's still full of people wandering around the ship pursuing their own private agendas, or trekking to Purgatory. Why is the Monitor spending so much time gathering Paragons, or rather delegating the search to some of the heroes, but not all of them? Why didn't he come prepared with all the Paragons before the Crisis started? Why allow heroes to waste time on reviving Oliver? Why not explicitly forbid it and punish them for their selfishness and inability to let go of one man who willingly sacrificed himself? He's apparently been preparing to die his whole last season, and yet they want to drag out his death even more with a futile rebirth? Way to cheapen his death, guys.

Plus all they keep talking about is each Earth dying, but what about other fucking planets like Krypton, Mars, etc? It's supposed to be entire fucking universes dying, not one damn planet! Stupid damn crossovers with too many characters and too little actual work to do. Stop doing these pointless things. Why can't this be over already?

Merry Impeachment

Anyway, it's full steam ahead on impeachment, which is a great Christmas present to America. Some Trumpists are too far gone to change their mind, and yet sometimes they surprise you, like Lindsey Graham not buying the Ukraine conspiracy theories about 2016. If only he would stop bashing the impeachment too. Well, whatever the Senate does afterward, we need to take action now. Elections are coming up next year.

I'm sad that Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, as she was my favorite, tied with Elizabeth Warren. But she had a great response to Trump, saying she'd see him at the trial. Plus I'm sure whoever wins will consider Kamala for VP or Attorney General. But fuck off to the billionaires just now buying into the race. We're trying to cut down the field, not add to it, and nobody needs your centrist, big-business policies. Spend your billions on defeating gerrymandering or something like that.

Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke finally made himself useful in pushing to flip the Texas House seats so that we can be in control of redistricting. People keep wanting him to run for Senate, but we've already got MJ Hegar running for that, so it's good that Beto is helping out Texas as a whole, rather than checking out entirely of the 2020 elections. Let the Texodus of Republicans continue!

Movie business and TV

I found out that AMC theaters doesn't pay its hourly workers overtime pay or holiday pay. There's apparently some legal loophole that entertainment is exempt from federal labor laws. That's horrible, and there's a petition to change that.

Meanwhile, the new Mulan trailer is out, and the discussion of phoenixes makes me crave seeing it all the more. After the black phoenix in Maleficent 2, I'd like to see a proper flame-colored phoenix. The Hong Kong protests resulted in great election results for them, so I don't feel as bad about not boycotting the movie. Maybe I'll feel differently by March.

On TV, Black Lightning finally got a win. The occupation storyline in Freeland has been very frustrating and slow, though I did like Tobias Whale having to argue with Odell and Dr Stewart instead of berating underlings again. The mind-wiped Khalil did horrible stuff, but at least he wasn't stuck in a repetitive story with Tobias again. I'm not sure how the crossover will fit in next week, but we'll see. It's dumb to break up the five nights between December and January. So dumb.

Nancy Drew also took a turn when the writers apparently decided the sheriff should not be an adversary but a partner who is an expert on spirits as well, with a whole trunk of Native gear in his office. Nancy also confronted her father who gave her some story about covering up Lucy's murder out of fear, and then moving to Europe for "the first year of your life" which contradicts prior flashbacks showing Nancy as a toddler, not a baby, witnessing her parents with the trunk containing the bloody dress. It also contradicts what Nick said about the payment being sent through a shell company and not sent the usual way that the Hudsons paid Carson Drew for non-murder lawyering. I like the Scooby gang, but I'm getting frustrated with the show always leaning on supernatural detours instead of proper mysteries. Maybe I'll drop the show.

Rewatches

Well, it's officially December now, and time to rewatch that It's a Wonderful Life to get in a Christmassy mood. There's so much detail packed into every scene, though some parts feel annoying and outdated like the black maid Annie speaking in such a stereotypical way; I suppose it was better than Capra portraying the town as all white, but young Harry spanking Annie feels disrespectful and sexist rather than playful. After the school dance, when Mary loses her robe, I'm annoyed that George spent so long talking about the "very interesting situation" and even saying that he ought to sell tickets. He was kidding, but still, she was upset and didn't appreciate his joke. He gives her back her robe when his Uncle Billy tells him about his father's stroke, though, and Mary forgives George enough that she fondly remembers the night as romantic; four years later she's made a cross-stitch of him lassoing the moon. I suppose, like Disney's disclaimer on its old movies, we should keep the classics intact and use the bad parts as teachable moments.

Starting with his father's death, George gives up so much, never going to college or his honeymoon. He even lets his brother Harry take another job, even though there was no true crisis at that moment, so maybe it could be argued that George subconsciously wants to be a martyr making sacrifices for people or is actually scared that traveling the world and trying to find another job would actually be a disaster. On the other hand, George Bailey is such a saint that, even in the midst of a tense emotional moment with Mary while on the phone, George has the presence of mind to insist that Sam Wainwright open his new plastics factory in Bedford Falls instead of Rochester.

Seeing It's a Wonderful Life again reminded me of when I was in high school, a teacher brought up the movie and explained the scene with the run on the bank. I hadn't ever understood before how the Bailey Building & Loan was different than Potter's bank. I just assumed it was down to Potter's villainy and the Great Depression, but it's also a difference in the financial institutions themselves. I found a couple of articles about this economic aspect, explaining how banking laws have changed since the 1940s, making smaller banks vulnerable to getting bought up and how Potter totally got away with keeping the $8000 that Billy accidentally handed to him. George Bailey runs his Building & Loan almost as a not-for-profit, making very little to build those Bailey Park houses.

Hyped Out

Well, it's Thanksgiving weekend, and every ad online or on TV is still about Black Friday deals or stupid Cyber Monday. Blegh at how commercialized holidays are. I mean technically it's "Small Business Saturday" but that's just more marketing for shopping. Plus the political fundraising emails clamor all at once, and I don't have the budget for all that.

Frozen 2 is out now, but I haven't seen it yet, wanting to avoid crowds and preferring to get into Knives Out first. Anyway, I haven't seen Frozen 2, but have read a couple of articles debating whether Elsa has a new female love interest. But if you have to debate it, then it's still too ambiguous, isn't it? It's subtext like in Xena, Warrior Princess or it's queer baiting, wanting the cachet of being progressive without actually being brave enough to make it clear and indisputable. I mean, back in the 1990s, I settled for that kind of subtext slash and Joey/Chandler jokes, but it's fucking 2019 now. Do we really have to settle for "if you squint, you can see it" representation? Disney is an entertainment behemoth. If even they aren't brave enough to risk a boycott from China or from anti-gay rightwingers who panic about their kids seeing anything non-hetero, then what hope is there for smaller Hollywood studios to take a leap? I say, either pull the trigger or stop teasing with your stupid "gay moments" and nameless characters in the background. Give us substance, not overblown hype. Surely somewhere in their multiple brands/properties there's room for more diversity and progressive values?

As for TV, the marketing for the big "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover has been nonstop for weeks. The more guest stars they announce, the more I feel they are desperate and stupid and gimmicky throwing in all these Supermen and Batmen. It's probably just going to amount to lots of cameos and maybe even another incomplete story pointing to next year's crossover. I'll watch it for the sake of Batwoman and Black Lightning, but I'm getting tired of this hype.

Knives Out

After a trying Thanksgiving at work, I caught this murder mystery instead of going straight home. I've heard the rave reviews of course, but still worried that it would be a disappointment like Kenneth Branagh's horrible take on Poirot. But to my relief, Knives Out was great and funny and clever. I will complain a little bit that that the sole black character didn't have much to do, simply interviewing suspects and reacting to Daniel Craig's outlandish private detective Benoit Blanc. A thankless role. Maybe also there could have been some color in the Thrombey family, because there were characters who had married into the family that could have been non-white. But maybe their whiteness was the point, with one grandchild actually being called a Nazi, while others keep harping on illegal immigration in front of Marta, whose mother is undocumented. (All of the family keep giving different countries of origin for Marta, while claiming they love her like family and will take care of her.)

Anyway, aside from the non-diverse cast perpetuating the idea that cozy mysteries have to take place in predominately white, wealthy settings, it was a good mystery. Marta as a woman of color is given a prominent role as Harlan's nurse and the sole beneficiary of his will. Her gimmicky quirk of always vomiting when she lies is part of the comedy, but is also a reason for Blanc to trust her and treat her as his "Watson" while investigating. The old mansion is full of creepy statuary and puppets, reminding me of the house full of macabre tricks in Sleuth, and there's a chair with knives displayed around it akin to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. We also get references to other whodunits like Murder She Wrote and Marta's sister watching another mystery on her laptop. We're all hungry for a good murder. Overall, the film reminded me of The Last of Sheila, too, which I recently saw on TV.

Charlie's Angels

I saw the reboot today, and it was actually pretty funny and exciting. I had been iffy on seeing it due to the trailers, but I liked it. The Townsend Agency has been expanded to an international organization filled with tons of Angels and tons of Bosleys, all still reporting to Charlie. The opening sequence emphasizes this by showing much more than three Angels helping to subdue the Australian criminal Jonny Smith and his henchmen.

I also liked the nods to the previous TV show and movies. During John Bosley's retirement party, we see photoshopped pics of Patrick Stewart's character with all the previous Angels we know of, and the voice of Charlie still sounds like John Forsythe, even though the actor is dead. Apparently they got a sound-alike voice, and I wasn't sure if the movie would address whether the character Charlie Townsend was gone, but they did, in a reveal during the credits, when we see someone using a voice modulator to make the Charlie voice for the phone call. So just like Bosley became a rank and not an individual person, the title "Charlie" has been passed on to a successor. I love it, and there are fun cameos from other women who are Angels.

The plot with the Calisto weapon was twisty, and they did fool me about who the traitor was. Only thing I didn't really like was the weird "The Saint" guy at the safe house who was in charge of the Angels' food, health, psychiatry, and yet also the gadgets and weapons. Way too much stuff into one character, and were they trying to reference Roger Moore's character Simon Templar with that Saint name? (shrug) Overall, a good, entertaining popcorn movie.

The Warrior Queen of Jhansi

I saw this Hollywood biopic about the Rani of Jhansi. It was very difficult to even find showtimes for it, because the movie didn't show up in Flixster or other movie listings. There was not a lot of advertising for it, and I had to seek it out.

The movie dramatizes the Rani's life and how she fought the British East India Company as one of the leaders of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It's a little bit of a mixture between legend and historical fact. The cast has some British actors, such as Rupert Everett as Sir Hugo Rose, the army commander, and Nathaniel Parker as Sir Robert Hamilton, apparently a civilian Company man and major shareholder. Derek Jacobi plays the Prime Minister in some scenes with Queen Victoria. Those scenes include the Queen's Indian favorite, but this character is actually a fictionalization of the Victoria's later patronage of Abdul Karim, which didn't begin until 1887. So that's a little artistic license so that they can have Victoria be sympathetic to the Indian cause, even though she doesn't really have any power in government to make the Prime Minister do anything.

Too early for winter

I read that Fresh Off the Boat is cancelled, though they are still trying to do a spinoff about an Indian family. I mean, the ratings have declined, and I've found the plotlines more annoying and tedious lately so I stopped watching this season. The Cattleman's restaurant plots really got dumb once Kenny Rogers bought them, and then I really missed Eddie's older friend Nicole who moved to New York. I suppose Constance Wu and Randall Park have other movies to go make, but I hope there's a proper ending to this season.

I hope The Good Place's finale will be good too, but this first half of the season has been baffling and meandering. I thought they would use Simone for more stuff, but there's been too much Brent. I don't know what they're gonna do when they come back for midseason.

As for movies, Last Christmas is out now, but November still feels far too early to me for a Christmas movie, so I went to see Jojo Rabbit instead. The satire of Nazis was funny, though the darkness of war remains present. We glimpse people left hanging in the town square a couple of times, and there's a big battle scene when the Allies take Berlin. I'm not up on my WWII history, so I didn't realize what the "Free Germany" slogan meant, and I didn't catch that the Russian army was rounding up German prisoners including Jojo at the end. In all the talk of Jojo's sister Inga being dead, I didn't catch that it was from influenza, and thought there was some mystery about that. I'm not sure whether Taika Waititi was implying that Captain K and his assistant Finkel are covertly gay, because they look at each other a certain way and also come up with flamboyantly colored uniforms. That's a little weird that they would continue supporting Germany and don't feel relieved when they're delegated to desk jobs during the remainder of the war. Also, Captain K gets small moments of goodness, such as when he doesn't expose Elsa to the Gestapo and when he saves Jojo's life after the Russians catch them. I mean, I understand that humans are not all good or all bad, but why should this particular Nazi out of all the farcical Nazis in the film get humanized?

SPOILERS BELOW

Harriet

It's a shame that Harriet Tubman isn't on our currency yet, but at least we have a new movie about her. Cynthia Erivo is great, and I also loved Janelle Monae's role as a free black woman in Philadelphia. Harriet's fainting spells coincide with seemingly prophetic visions, so she interprets this as God speaking to her and showing her the future. This conviction and strength help her to escape slavery and survive all her dangerous Underground Railroad trips.

I liked the movie a lot, though it puzzlingly focused a lot of time on Harriet's former owners the Brodesses. The son Gideon grew up with "Minty" as she was called then, and he makes racist analogies about slaves as pigs. Even after Minty escapes to the North and renames herself Harriet, we often see glimpses of the Brodess family struggling financially and trying to keep their other slaves from escaping. The movie builds up to a personal confrontation between Harriet and Gideon, and the plot revolves around it so much that when this climax finally happens, it seems to create an early, false ending. The rest of the movie spends too little time on the Combahee river raid, then Harriet rejoining her family after the war. I wish this had been a biopic that covered more of her life post-Civil War so we could see the complete picture.

Some things never change

Early voting has started this week, but I forgot due to a mixup about my days off at work. I'll have to go on Monday I guess and try to remember my voter guide about the various propositions on the ballot. I hope the weather won't be bad.

Meanwhile I've finished reading a book called Harriet and Isabella, historical fiction about two of the Beecher sisters. They had a falling out due to their brother Henry Ward Beecher's adultery scandal, and they mourn the loss of their relationship as Henry dies in 1887. The book explores their long estrangement and the adultery scandal, which also involved famous feminists like Victoria Woodhull, Susan B. Antony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Due to Harriet's fame as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Isabella's commitment to suffrage, the book also touches on topics like slavery, fame, Gilded Age capitalism, feminism, free love, and spiritualism. Other Beecher siblings, as well as their father Lyman Beecher, are mentioned in the book, but the focus is mostly on Harriet and Isabella.

Maybe it's clearer in print than in the ebook, but sometimes it got confusing when the point of view switched back and forth between the sisters. Other than that, it was an engrossing read. I felt that Harriet was close minded and blind in her insistence on blind loyalty to Henry. I feel that Henry was guilty, but a hypocrite. He was also still a spoiled boy coddled by his older sisters, and used to getting his way. Too many people were fiercely invested in the idea that if he was guilty, then his brand of compassionate religion would be tainted and destroyed with him. So they just couldn't let that happen, and the apologists would make scapegoats and pariahs out of people like Isabella, who dared to suggest that Henry wasn't morally perfect and innocent. The alleged affair with Elizabeth Tilton was supposedly consensual, but Henry Beecher was still an authority figure in her life, and the story of how he was left alone with her while she was vulnerable to pressure her into retracting the adultery charge is fishy as hell.

After #metoo, it does remind me of many men like Les Moonves or fucking Brett Kavanaugh who act like they did nothing wrong even in the face of multiple accusations. Acting like they're being destroyed when they're still sitting there all wealthy and untouched and unjailed. So damn brazen about their victimhood, like Harvey Weinstein trying to "find solace" after "his life turned upside down." Fuck him.

Anyway, it was a good book about an iconic American family.

Magical Jason Bateman

I made a couple of gifs from that Hogan Family episode "The Go Between" with Jason Bateman's character performing for a charity talent show. First he breaks out the ventriloquist dummy:

Like Gob, his mouth moves whenever the dummy talks, and he gets a little crazy talking to the puppet. Nobody likes his corny jokes and manic laughter.

So, claiming that Clifford is "holding him back", Dave tries magic:

He needs an assistant for his swords stuck in the box trick, and soon persuades his Aunt Sandy to get in, with the usual sitcom hi-jinks. Love this episode, even though this is the B-plot compared to the Cyrano plot with his twin brothers.

ETA: Well, apparently Giphy took down my Gifs. I don't understand how they host tons of other clips from TV shows, but apparently those were no-go. Oh well.

Maleficient 2

I mostly enjoyed the Maleficent sequel, except for how many night scenes were de-saturated and blue-tinged. It probably looked even darker and duller in 3D. I wish they'd had more bright daytime scenes with color, not all this grim darkness. Oh, and I thought the tiny hedgehog and mushroom creatures were pointless cutseyness that should have been cut. I thought the three little fairies also were a bit annoying, and it took them forever to realize that somebody just needed to stop the person playing the church organ. But then we got a homage to how the fairies kept changing Aurora's dress pink and blue. At the wedding, the fairies change Aurora's wedding gown pink and green before settling on a pale powder blue. That made me smile, as a nod to the original animated Sleeping Beauty.

Oh no!

I just heard that Elijah Cummings passed away. What a huge loss to our nation! He was such a hero and a leader in the House.

Anyway, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that AOC would endorse Bernie yesterday, since she described herself as a Democratic Socialist all along, but I was annoyed that Ilhan Omar did as well. At least the other two Squad members declined to endorse anyone. They're not a monolith at all.

So the latest Nancy Drew continued the jump scares with dead Lucy, and I really wish they'd stop doing that. At least reserve it for a big revelation. They also seem to be implicating Nancy's parents in dead Lucy, because they both were digging up the trunk when Nancy was little. Are they guilty or just covering up for someone? The whole Sea Bucket ceremony was whacko. Who would do that? And it's so easy to just pour dye or something red in somebody's bucket to give them a scare, what with them leaving it outside their porch all night, so why do it?

Meanwhile Black Lightning is disjointed once again. Resurrecting not only Lala but also Khalil, even after making such a big deal about his death last season. They'll probably get back to Tobias Whale later too, once they play out this ASA/Markovian takeover thing. There was a hint about Grace Choi, but nothing after; it's annoying how they keep teasing this but never developing her.

Fall TV Impressions

So I mostly enjoyed Nancy Drew, especially with the updates about her friends. I wish that her relationship with her father was better, though, because I loved the dynamic between Veronica Mars and her dad. Since the murder happened so quick, I was hoping that it would be solved in the pilot, but it looks like they're going to stretch the mystery out all season instead. The hauntings of dead Lucy seems to be entwined too, and I'm not sure I like the scary horror parts; if the ghost had just been kept as a spooky fog, or a trick that would be debunked later, that would be better. Anyway, it's a good start.

I kinda like Stumptown too, though I missed an episode and wonder if her brother is going to be more than just a stereotype. They're implying something happened with their parents, but I'm not familiar with the comic backstory. I'm not sure if the casino owner Sue Lynn Blackbird is going to recur as an adversary or eventually warm up to Dex.

I liked the Batwoman pilot, but unfortunately missed the 2nd episode. I forgot to set the season pass, and need to clear some more space on my Tivo anyway. As for returning shows, I'm relieved that Supergirl is back into comics/fantasy rather than trying to parallel real politics again. Last season was just too depressing and all over the place. Leave that to Black Lightning, which I hope will be more coherent than last season. They still haven't given up their long episode titles.

Ramblings

Fall temperatures finally arrived with some rain. Unfortunately I just read that Trump is coming to Dallas this week for another rally. Why the hell can't he stay away? He's desperately trying to gin up support and distract from impeachment, as well as the fuckup about abandoning the Kurds. As if DFW doesn't have enough deal with, what with that witness in Botham Jean's case who got shot, and now a woman shot in her house... The world continues to be terrible chaos.

I've distracted myself with various projects like fingerknitting, sewing, and even bleaching my hair so I can dye it. I've lost some interest in Lego lately in favor of Barbie. It seems that Mattel keeps trying to keep Barbie in the news with releases like the gender-neutral Creatable World dolls. I think it's an interesting concept, though I saw that the long wigs fit imperfectly over the short hair. And $30 for a kit, even with all the clothes, seems expensive. On the other hand, that's the price that most Barbie Francie reproduction dolls go for, and I was willing to pay that for a gift. Barbie also had other releases such as the Rosa Parks doll and the Sally Ride doll, also going for $30. Still no Chloe Kim doll, though. Other Asian dolls I find just don't look convincing.

Anyway, I can't splurge on all of these things at once, so I'll have to wait on that. Meanwhile, I got a Liv doll to experiment with. I love the joints, but their heads are just so damn big. But rebodying dolls means having to match skin tones, or else try to change the color, when I can't find a good clear primer for vinyl and plastic.

Colorful History

I finally got to see Abominable, though I missed the opening minutes, having misjudged how many ads and trailers would be shown in front of the movie. It was cute, funny, and had lovely visuals during the magic sequences. The glowing flowers and trees reminded me of parts of Kung Fu Panda where Master Oogway died. Really nice, and I'll probably see it again to catch what I missed. The violin music was good, but didn't use the same music as in the trailer.

Meanwhile the new TV season has started to premiere. My TV antenna didn't cooperate, though, so my Tivo recordings came out messed up and I missed a couple of shows I wanted to see. I have to try to get by on recaps until I can find repeat airings. Or maybe I'll have to see if the websites will let me stream the episodes I missed.

Also I've read some new books lately with some Asian representation in them. The Downstairs Girl is historical fiction about a Chinese-American girl working as a maid in post-Reconstruction Atlanta. The book points out that a lot of Southern planters imported Chinese labor to replace slaves after Emancipation. While Jo Kuan secretly lives in a former Underground Railroad cellar, she decides to anonymously write an advice column for the newspaper upstairs. There are also some mysteries about the parents who abandoned her, and other people in town, but it's not a murder-mystery like other period books I read. I enjoyed it a lot, though, as a love story and coming of age drama. The race and class issues are tackled well, along with the white feminists discriminating against women of color who want the same things.

Another unusual book I read was Murder on Millionaires' Row, set in Gilded Age New York. The protagonist is an Irish maid who decides to investigate the disappearance of her British employer. This fantasy mystery is brimming with Victorian cliches like Freemasons, Pinkertons, ghosts, alchemy, etc. It's all blended with the author's special mythology about magic, witches, and "luck", special powers that some families inherit, enabling them to accumulate wealth and power as the Astors and Rockefellers of the world. I usually don't venture that far into fantasy realms, but this one was pretty enjoyable, and the story also features a black cook and a Chinese friend whose father owns a shop of exotic potions and more. It is nice seeing more period tales where the characters aren't all white, especially since immigrants of all races have been blending into America's melting pot for hundreds of years. They were there in history, and they should be there in our fiction too.

Up in the Air

Well, the Miss Fisher movie is going to be released in Australia in February 2020, but Acorn is still being vague about when the US will get it. I hope it will be good and worth the wait.

Meanwhile, SNL fired that new hire after all the controversy about his racism and offensive jokes. Glad that finally got resolved, but now I'm so disappointed in Justin Trudeau's blackface photos. It's so stupid of him to, as an adult, have done this 3 times, and moreover to not have volunteered this information back during Ralph Northam's controversy. If he'd confessed then, it might have mitigated things somewhat and not put his re-election at risk. Northam never resigned, and apparently his voters wanted him to stay because other options are worse. I wonder if Canadians will think the same and let Trudeau slide on this too. I don't know.

Anyway, the Israel election resulted in no party having enough seats to form the majority, and it could take weeks to resolve who is prime minister. But Benny Gantz declared victory, and I hear he promised not to form a government including Netanyahu. I hope he sticks to this promise, and that Netanyahu will finally be indicted for his corruption. I haven't liked his warmongering either, and can only hope a "unity" government can be less rightwing, though I admit I don't know how different Gantz will be.

Weighing Things

Well, Apple finally announced pricing and a start date for their TV service. At $4.99, they actually undercut Disney's monthly price, which was wise, since Apple doesn't have a large catalog of content. I am mildly interested in a couple of their shows, and I read that 1 year of content will be free if you buy new Apple hardware. So possibly if I upgrade my phone or computer, I could get the TV stuff at the same time. That could be doable, and then I could cancel later maybe.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong protests continue because only one of their demands were met. I'm not sure how long these protests will last or if they'll be successful in getting reforms. The results might be mixed like the Arab Spring a few years ago. In August, the star of the live-action Mulan posted something on Chinese social media supporting the police instead of the protestors, so people started calling to boycott the film because of that. Her comment reminds me of Gal Gadot's comments in support of the Israeli army, not the Palestinians being brutally repressed. I didn't like that either, but the film itself was financially successful in spite of that. It was important for that film to succeed to make Hollywood stop shying away from female-led films and female directors. With the new Mulan, there are similar issues at play about diversity. It might still be important to support the movie to make sure the new Asian trend doesn't fade away.

I'm guessing that the boycott might be forgotten by March when the film is released, because after all, proposed boycotts didn't take down Wonder Woman. So ultimately it comes down to a personal ethical decision of whether I can put aside politics for the art. For some people I can do that; for others, I find that the person is too repugnant for me to put controversy aside. Like, I don't even want to watch Johnny Depp anymore, but Hollywood keeps casting him in stuff anyway, so that's frustrating. It's similar to my decision to see Avengers movies when Black Widow was part of the ensemble cast but not to support the solo movie due to the actress's stupid casting decisions. I don't know yet if I really can stay away from Mulan, in favor of other movies that have Asian casts like the new Marvel superhero, or the Crazy Rich Asians sequel. I'll have to think about it more.

Movies to Come

With fall around the corner, Apple still hasn't announced pricing or a specific launch date for their Apple TV+ service. This vagueness really looks bad, especially compared to the many detailed announcements about Disney's new service. I mean, I probably can't afford to sign up for anything while keeping my Netflix account, but if I did have extra money, Disney's offer looks more affordable and comprehensive than any of the other choices. (Such is the strength of their monopoly that they can price-cut everyone else.) I wonder if Apple's September 10th event will be the big announcement, or if it will only be about iPhones and computers?

Still no announcement of a release date for the Miss Fisher movie, either. Come on, Acorn! I've got to see Phryne again. Also hope that Mr. Malcolm's List is still going forward as a feature film.

I've seen some movie trailers for a new kids movie called Abominable (this is like the 3rd or 4th yeti movie in the past few years). I was going to pass on this since I've already seen a good yeti movie, but this one actually has an Asian protagonist, and her other, non-Yeti friends are also Asian. So great, and she even gets dumplings from her Nai Nai. As much as I enjoyed Smallfoot's compelling portrayal of cultural conflicts between yeti and humans, I did notice how the main human characters were white or foreigners visiting Tibet. No natives with speaking parts. So I guess I'll see Abominable and hope it will be good too.

Labor Day weekend

Well of course we couldn't get through another weekend without more mass shootings, especially since Texas loosened their gun laws. Damn the GOP and the still not dead NRA! Anyway, some Democrats finally dropped out of the presidential race so the next debate will be smaller. Good.

Meanwhile Dorian mostly spared Puerto Rico but headed north to the Bahamas. Sad that most people didn't care until its projected path started turning toward mainland US. I don't know how bad this hurricane season will get, but it's certainly no time to be stealing disaster relief funds to build a goddamn border wall.

Well, with fall getting closer, maybe Texas weather will cool off some more. I'm currently knitting a sweater with those new finger-looping yarns. Might be a fad, but I like how easy it is to change colors and bind off.

Modern Mysteries

I found a cool show on Netflix called the Inbestigators. It's an Australian kids show where fifth grade students run a detective agency. Maudie is the new girl at school; she's from England and has weird quirks in the pilot, such as crawling through windows. She solves the first case involving stolen bake sale money, and Ezra says they should start a detective agency and use his family's "granny flat" as the office. Ezra's friends Kyle and Ava also join, and the kids take turns recording stories of their cases for youtube. I like that the cast is fairly diverse and they have a variety of mysteries like Encyclopedia Brown. There's some modern stuff that worked well, such as a stolen drone and kids figuring out smartphone passwords due to sticky fingerprints. There's usually one or two red herring suspects, but Maudie usually solves the mysteries. Ezra still feels like the leader of the group since he provides the office and often tries to advertise the agency and buy spy gear for them. Ezra's younger sister Poppy appears a few times and is very cute. I hope the show continues.

Speaking of modern mysteries, I've read a few of the Aunty Lee mysteries set in Singapore. I don't always like the meandering way the author's plots flow, but I do like some of the characters in the books. Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge is apparently based on a real life internet controversy about a British woman adopting a dog and then euthanizing it instead of returning it to the shelter; there was outrage from animal activists and "Justice for Tammy" slogans. The plot of the novel fictionalizes this incident and has the British woman return to Singapore to file a lawsuit against animal activists who criticized her. Aunty Lee's friend Commissioner Raja says that the death threats and doxxing of the "puppy killer" was going too far, but on the other hand, the British woman gets overly defensive and hysterical instead of just apologizing. It's an interesting take on modern internet culture, though I found some parts slow and repetitive to read, especially when I figured out the twist about the murder victim.

Dora the Explorer

There's been a lot of jukebox movies lately, similar to the Broadway musicals built around a particular artist's soundtrack. At first it was musician biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, but now it's just movies featuring music from one artist, like this Blinded By The Light about a Pakistani Springsteen fan in 1980s UK. And the Last Christmas trailer says they'll have more than one George Michael song.

By the way, Last Christmas also stars Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh, so I'll probably see it for the mini-reunion. Anyway, it's been incredibly hot in Texas this August, with only a brief cooling rain this week. Better escape to an air-conditioned movie again.

I saw Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and it was very enjoyable. The beginning shows young Dora playing with her cousin Diego in the jungle, implying that their cartoon adventures were all in their imagination, though Dora insists that Boots the monkey really can talk. Ten years later, teenage Dora is still narrating her adventures while using a GoPro camera, presumably for a blog. Then her parents send her to America to attend high school with Diego, but thankfully we move past the school stuff once she and other students get kidnapped to South America. I did find it weird and convenient that Dora and the others were rescued by Alejandro, and he later drops the hint "I'm a bad guy" but the kids think he's just being hysterical then. I did become suspicious by that point and was glad I was right in the end. The adventure is Indiana Jones-lite with jungle puzzles and even a magical Incan goddess. I liked that the teens were well educated and could comment on stuff like European colonialism and Inca aqueducts. There's even a great sequence where, high on hallucinogenic flowers, the characters start seeing themselves as Dora cartoon characters. That's a nice nod to the original kids show.

Walk Away

In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, Beto said some honest and righteous things about Trump, but I was depressed by hearing coworkers act like he's the one stirring up hatred and divisiveness. That he's the one making it "political" and not helping. Then the Republicans went back to blaming the usual scapegoats like video games, ignoring how other countries with video games don't have the constant mass shootings like we do.

Anyway, some liberals want to convince Beto to go run for Senate. NO!! It's too late!! I do think he should drop out of the crowded Presidential race, because he's not doing much good there, but MJ Hegar is already running for Senate, and I think it would be pretty rotten for him to suddenly jump in now. Beto shouldn't have abandoned Texas in the first place, but it's too late for him to backtrack now. I'd rather he just drop out and put his support solidly behind our Texas Dems who are running for Cornyn's seat and Will Hurd's and Kenny Marchant's. Hopefully a lot of Texas Republicans will retire soon. There's been a slowly building exodus at the national level too. If we can get rid of enough of the GOP, we could finally pass some gun control; I hate that the NRA is only weakened but not dead enough for us get something done.

I'm sure other 2020 candidates need to stop running too, and maybe run for their Senate races. But I wouldn't actively lecture them without knowing about their own states, and local candidates. Beto, take this opportunity to drop out and go back home to El Paso. After such a tragedy, it would be perfectly understandable that you'd find campaigning too much and want to do something local. Want to hold more rallies against the continued family separations at the border. There's nothing wrong with you stepping back for a few years like Wendy Davis did until things are more favorable to try another state run. People puffed up Beto's ego too soon, comparing him to Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. But he needs to stop chasing the White House and do something else. Anything but fucking it up for MJ Hegar.

The Farewell

I finally got to see The Farewell yesterday, and it was lovely. Unlike Crazy Rich Asians, this film portrayed a middle class Chinese family, and the wedding was set in a typical banquet hall, with the usual feast, photos, toasts, karaoke, drinking games, etc. One branch of the family had moved to America, another branch to Japan, and the bride was Japanese, so it was a truly international family. Most of the dialogue is in Mandarin Chinese, with some English when Billi is speaking with other English speakers. The poor Japanese bride is unable to understand the family talking around her but she does get a translator to speak for her at the wedding reception. Nai Nai thinks she's dumb, and I often in my real life feel dumb when the rest of my family is speaking Vietnamese and I don't understand.

Awkwafina did great with both the humor and the emotional drama. The other actors were wonderful too, as the family grew increasingly tense and anxious around Nai Nai, and they discussed the differences in East and West views of what burdens a family must bear. Nai Nai's sister tells Billi that Nai Nai lied to her husband when he was dying too, so why should she be angry with them for lying about her lung cancer? In fact, the movie begins with Nai Nai calling Billi from a hospital and she lies to her granddaughter that she's visiting a relative at their house. There are after all numerous white lies we tell our loved ones every day, with good intentions.

I'm hopeful that more Asian American movies will get made now, and this won't just be a passing fad that's forgotten like Joy Luck Club years ago. Crazy Rich Asians was a luxurious, over-the-top fantasy, but there should be room for all kinds of Asian stories now.

Politics

I'm happy to hear that Wendy Davis is running for Congress, even if it's not Fort Worth anymore. I didn't like her being on the sidelines so long after her failed campaign for governor.

Meanwhile, the UK has chosen a new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Is he going to make Brexit even worse? I can't keep up with it anymore.

There was an article about Al Franken, stirring up all his apologists again, saying the scandal was drummed up by Republicans and we fell for the trick. That was ONE of his accusers. There were many others. I hate everybody minimizing his groping and harassment as just humor and misunderstandings. Yes, it's not rape, but it's still creepy behavior done without consent. What, do they want Franken to run again? Fuck no! Don't take him back. You wouldn't take back Louis C.K., would you? Don't you have any moral principles, or is it just partisanship for you? Make them fucking go away and be quiet. I'm sick of guys thinking they can just wait it out and re-emerge like nothing happened. Fuck them! It's bad enough we can't get rid of the rapist in the White House or the Supreme Court, but to have so-called progressive men get off scot free as well is beyond shitty. Egomaniacs and false allies who were only pretending to be on our side, only when it suited them. Fuck off! And I wish their apologists would shut up and move on to something actually helpful.

Phase 4

So at ComicCon, Marvel announced their upcoming movies, and I wasn't really interested in the new Chinese superhero movie because I don't read comics and don't know that character. But then I read that they cast Simu Liu from Kim's Convenience, and I'm quite happy for him. Plus Awkafina is in it and there's a new Mandarin character included. (Ben Kingsley had played an actor pretending to be the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, only to have the real villain be a white guy.) For them to finally cast a Chinese actor as Mandarin, instead of all those fake-outs before, is long overdue.

Plus they're rebooting Blade with Mahershala Ali. I never saw the original vampire movies, but have heard they were good precursor of a black superhero prior to Black Panther. Is Phase 4 finally going to be really diverse in both actors and directors? They've been so slow to get to this level of inclusion. I hope they don't squander it.

I'm still not going to watch every Marvel movie because Scarlet Johansson has burned too many bridges for me to support Black Widow anymore. Plus I'm so damn sick of Spiderman and hate the weird thing with the adults making the teenager responsible for Iron Man's legacy, etc. Stop putting crazy pressure on a kid!

Movies

Awkwafina's new movie The Farewell has not come to my area yet. (Well I started looking last week and there was a one-night showing listed at an Alamo theatre in Dallas, but now it's gone from there. Was it just a preview for local movie critics, or what?) I did see a poster for it at a Grapevine theater, but no date, and the Angelika theater has a coming soon listing for July 26th, so I guess that's when it's coming back to Dallas. I really want to see it, but it's so far to drive. I want to wait until it comes closer, but I hope I don't miss it due to a short release window. I must be misremembering, because I thought I previously heard that this movie would come out on Netflix. Did I confuse it with something else?

As for other movies, I don't want to see Toy Story 4, because Pixar has to stop going back to this well; they need to leave endings alone and move on already. Other studios keep having revivals of franchises that are decades old too. I'm kind of curious about the new Lion King because I did love Favreau's Jungle Book. But then I remember how stupid and illogical it is for prey animals to bow down to their predators in Lion King, and how unfair it is for the hyenas to be depicted as greedy villains who devastate the lands. It's like how the Western ranchers demonized wolves as pests to be exterminated, leaving a giant hole in the ecosystem for years. In real life nature, there's no good or bad animals; it's just life and survival. I wonder if it will be worse to see this imaginary human-made political kingdom grafted onto CGI photorealistic animals like it's pretending to be a nature documentary instead of a fantasy. I've been ambivalent about the original film for years, and this remake probably isn't going to update the parts I didn't like before. I did watch the recent Aladdin and enjoyed most of it except some slow parts and prolonged dancing scenes.

In this unending summer heat, an escape to an cool movie theater is very refreshing, but I wish the selection of movies were better. When is the new Miss Fisher movie going to arrive, or at least announce a release date?

There's always TV I guess, and PBS has a new kids show Molly of Denali about a girl in Alaska, and her friends and family. There was a good episode called "Grandpa's Drum" which mentioned how Molly's grandfather was sent away to the old Indian boarding schools where they tried to make kids be white and destroy their ties to their family and Native culture. Such a dark time, with lasting effects.

Disney Princesses

Finally we have the first trailer for the live-action remake of Mulan. Looks great so far, and I liked seeing Rosalind Chao as the mother. I'm a little confused by the scenes of Mulan fighting with long hair, though. She's not going to chop it off to disguise herself? Well, it does look like the soldiers are wearing some kind of headgear while in the army, but that still doesn't explain the scenes when she's letting her long hair flow free. Is she going to be revealed as female and allowed to stay and fight? Is she going to be like Joan of Arc? Not sure how the witch villain figures into this yet. We'll see I guess.

I don't miss Mushu the dragon. I HATED the stupid comic relief sidekick characters in Mulan, Aladdin (yes that means I hated the Genie), and other Disney films of the time. I found them belittling and demeaning to the main story. I don't really remember the songs in Mulan, either, so I don't really care if it's musical at all. It could be like the CGI Jungle Book, where they did just a couple of songs, but mainly the story was serious and dramatic. Really want this Mulan to be good. I wonder if we'll get new Disney dolls next year. Anything's better than the current Hasbro-made princess dolls with the fucked up tiny shoulders. Whereas Mattel's Barbie had a waist problem, Hasbro has its own issues with distorting human bodies.

Anyway, there was also an announcement about a black actress to play Ariel in the new Little Mermaid, followed by a racist backlash. So stupid! And trying to argue that she was Danish? She lives in the fucking water; she's not a land dweller, of any human country! And since Disney totally changed the story and ending from Hans Christian Anderson, there's no fucking need to use that source material for determining the character's race. (It's like saying Disney should go back to the Ice Queen roots instead of the new story they made in Frozen.) A mermaid is a magical being like a unicorn or fairy or even the sea witch Ursula. Anything is possible for a magical being, and there can also be different versions of the same being, such as the difference between European dragons and Chinese dragons. If the setting is the Caribbean, why can't Ariel be black? Tired of the pointless outrage.

Past is Present

For Pride Month, PBS has been airing specials on Stonewall as well as "The Lavender Scare" when gays and lesbians were fired from the government, in an extension of the Red Scare about Communists. I'd not heard the story of Frank Kameny before, but it was very interesting. Good that he lived to see the change in society. There were sad, tragic stories of men and women in the closet afraid of losing everything if they were outed and fired. To think, the policy didn't officially end until decades later.

I also saw Rocketman this week, with Elton John's flamboyant concert performances, yet his personal life in a turmoil. Needing love and only getting abuse and a predatory manager using him for the money and power. Elton's brief marriage to a woman is shown as a misguided effort to try to clean up his life from drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, etc. but of course it didn't "cure" him. Some of the surreal fantasy elements of the movie were a little much, but it made possible touching moments like when he hugs his younger self Reggie as he lets go of self-hatred. It's a very personal look at life in the closet back then, and the loneliness arising from his mother's cutting remarks about him never finding real love while homosexual.

Meanwhile, the present continues to be horrific as well. Not learning the lessons of history, and the administration looking to reopen a former Japanese internment camp to house the migrant children. It's so outrageous that a fiction writer couldn't invent this stuff. We're supposed to be grateful that Trump changed his mind about this threats, even though he's such a chaotic, fickle liar, that of course he won't follow through on anything. What he's done already is bad enough.

The first debates of the Democratic candidates are coming soon. I really wish a lot of them would drop their campaigns and run for Senate instead. The field is too crowded. Boo to Beto abandoning us Texans, leaving MJ Hegar to fight for us instead. Will have to send her more money when I can.

Chloe Kim barbie?

I've read on this page that the Chloe Kim barbie is coming out after all, with a July 2019 release date, and another website is offering pre-orders yet only quoting old press releases from 2018. I'm not sure if this is real. Chloe Kim was from last year's Shero announcement, and they never sold any but 3 of the dolls they announced to the press. Mattel's official site doesn't offer to sell any of the dolls at all, so I think they're just an elaborate public relations show for their 60th anniversary, but they don't actually intend to sell these dolls to customers. I guess I'll see when July gets here. The Chloe Kim doll face almost looks like a Curvy barbie, so I wonder if her body will be curvy and/or made-to-move, given that she's a snowboarder.

If it's not real, then FUCK YOU again to Mattel for teasing girls and women with all these dolls that you never ever FUCKING sell. I mean, even if it came out as a limited collector's edition for a high price, that would be better than pretending that you're going to sell, but not selling.

Holmes and Watson at the theatre

I saw a new-ish Holmes play, written by Jeffrey Hatcher. (It's a couple of years old, but new to the DFW area.) The premise is that 3 years after "The Final Problem," Watson receives a summons to a mental asylum where three patients claim to be Sherlock Holmes. He has to go there to debunk the fakers. It is a mystery thriller with plot twists and different accounts of how Holmes survived Reichenbach Falls. I enjoyed it a lot, and I got right away the reference to Irene Adler and the smoke-rocket used to steal a document. It's great fun, perfect for the summer.

Mr. Ratburn got married!

The long-running cartoon Arthur featured a gay wedding this week for the third grade teacher Mr. Ratburn. No one knew before that he was gay, and his students at first mistake his sister for the bride at the wedding, only to discover two grooms instead. It was wonderful, and this time the episode aired instead of getting pulled; ten years ago, the Postcards from Buster episode that featured a lesbian couple got pulled. I'm very happy that the show decided to do this with a major character and also to treat it so matter-of-factly once the kids discover the truth. What an unexpected delight!

I'm sure there are still people saying "How dare they on a kids show" and all that, but I don't care anymore. Don't kowtow to the homophobes who object to the mere existence of gay people.

In contrast, I was hoping that Arrested Development would let Gob's coming out stick in season 5, or at least change to bisexuality, but it was frustrating instead. To have them do a "magic" reversal and end up back in the closet was so disappointing. Mere hints about a continued secret relationship is no way to affirm Gob's sexuality; it's a step backwards and it lends credibility to those who say "the Narrator said it was just friendship; no he's not really gay, just stupid." Fuck the writers for cowardly ambiguity.

Speechless Cancelled

The May upfronts are coming, so the TV networks have already begun cancelling shows to make room for new shows. I'm disappointed that Speechless got cut; it was such a funny show with quirky characters and the mom didn't become too overbearing to take. I thought Speechless would survive despite its lowered ratings due to it being so close to syndication. Sad. Well, I'm not surprised that Murphy Brown got cancelled due to its low ratings, but I did love Avery's relationship with his mom.

Among the new shows, the CW has ordered Batwoman to series as well as Nancy Drew. Finally! This is the third attempt to make a TV show about her in recent years. I'm glad they went back to the premise of her as a teen detective instead of an adult. I hope it will be good, and make up for the fact that I don't have Hulu and can't watch the new Veronica Mars episodes. Too many streaming options, and I don't want to have a dozen accounts.

Cuatro done

I spent most of yesterday and today putting together a corner bookshelf only to find that one of the foot pieces totally doesn't fit. Then trying to get my Tivo wireless adapter working, and failing. Not my day.

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, but a local restaurant I know already had decorations up on Friday afternoon, apparently looking forward to a whole weekend of celebration. May the 4th also brought out all the Star Wars fans as well as AD fans celebrating Cinco de Cuatro.

I've got into Barbies lately and recently learned how to blowdry the doll's head so the vinyl gets soft, then I can pull out the ugly earrings and replace them with something else. I also was able to fix my Uhura doll's hair by cutting out the weird styrofoam bump they put under her overly gelled hair. But still I'm annoyed that Barbie advertises dolls as "fully articulated" when they don't have fucking ankles, which would make the whole issue of high heels vs. flats so much simpler. Oh well.

April showers done

Anyway, the weather was so rainy for a week, flooding the streets, so I'm glad to have some respite at last. After finding out about a local election at the last minute, I did some reading up on candidates and early voted this weekend.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to put together a Lego mariachi band, but need to get enough minifigures and instruments to do it. I ordered these custom mini violins but when I got them, they don't really fit the minifigures' hands. Why can't they design them better? I guess that's why real Lego doesn't make violins. They only make guitars, which do fit.

Anyway the Avengers movie is out, but I don't care about the team up movies anymore. I know that the Russo brothers directed again, but I haven't heard any spoilers that mention another Arrested Development reference like the staircar. Even if I cared to look for Easter eggs, I haven't got 3 hours of my life to spend on time-travel shenanigans, when I knew all along that they were going to find a way to undo the "dusting." No way were they going to leave Black Panther and others dead, and I rolled my eyes at the thought that people actually cried last year about the dusting. It's comics! Nobody's gonna stay dead. I mean, there are spoilers that some characters did die this time, but there's so much convoluted time-travelling stuff that it's difficult to really decide what timeline you're in. (Besides, they can always bring actors back for flashbacks, prequels, etc, and do more of their CGI de-aging stuff.) So yeah, I don't care enough about Marvel anymore, except for specific characters I like, such as Black Panther.

Kate Shackleton

I think I've found a new mystery series that I like. Kate Shackleton is so much better than the dreadful Maisie Dobbs. She narrates the stories and she actually feels like a real person rather than some rich person's pet charity and philosophical experiment. Kate Shackleton is the daughter of a police superintendent, and her husband never came home from the Great War; she's effectively a widow, but she still holds out hope that Gerald is merely missing and surviving somewhere with amnesia. Post-war, she fell into searching for missing persons for other people, and eventually she gets hired as a professional detective and hires an assistant at the urging of her supportive father. The first case, incidentally, is a fictional mystery involving the Low Moor Explosion in August 1916. It's also set around the weaving industry, with the family being mill owners who secretly profiteered from the war. There's also a cameo by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lady Jean, who are apparently good friends with Kate's family. She doesn't like their spiritualist cause but humors them so they'll give her advice about solving her case.

Overall I liked the first book, and the writer skillfully places the 1916 flashbacks between the 1922 chapters. Nothing gets boring or tedious, because there's no unnecessary rambling; you can see right away what the plot point or character reason is for including that flashback. There's a lot of physical and emotional trauma in the book, what with the missing person, murders, and even a doctor treating war veterans for their postwar nightmares, but the book doesn't overindulge in psychobabble or other such extraneous crap from Maisie Dobbs. I look forward to continuing with this Kate Shackleton series. It's not as light and frothy, like with Daisy Dalyrmple always falling over bodies (she was doing it about once a month for the first dozen books), but the characters are enjoyable and the writing's great. I'm only puzzled by her repeatedly using the word "buffet" to mean a bench or seat, instead of a sideboard or table. I wonder if it's a British usage I don't know.

I've also read some Alyssa Maxwell mysteries lately, and they're pretty enjoyable so far. The Lady and Lady's maid series is set in post-WWI England as well, and there is a prominent love interest who is a wounded war veteran.

Wild Nights with Emily

I saw the new Emily Dickinson movie yesterday. While there are some funny, absurd moments, it's not really a comedy. Also they flit back and forth in time, between Mabel Loomis Todd narrating Emily's life at a book reading to Emily's real life that was covered up and erased by Todd. The movie effectively makes Todd the villain who was obsessed with meeting Emily, felt rejected and jealous of her writing talent, then got her revenge by editing Emily's poems and creating the myth of her as a lonely recluse forever pining for a mysterious man known as Master.

I've read Emily's poems and biography, and I've seen the previous film A Quiet Passion which also did not have a straightforward timeline. I remember being disappointed in that movie which focused on Emily's sister Lavinia and her friendships with other women, but hardly any on Susan Gilbert, her long-time friend, sister-in-law, and her neighbor. That film also emphasized the theory that Emily was pining away for some man, and felt self-pity about being a plain spinster. So yes, this Wild Nights movie is definitely an improvement by restoring Susan to Emily's life and counteracting the image of her never trying to get published during her lifetime.

However Wild Nights plays fast and loose with time, compressing it to include Mabel's husband David Peck Todd getting institutionalized, but this took place only in 1922, after the Todds moved away from Amherst (decades after Emily's death). In the 1880s, Mabel is kind of vague about Austin Dickinson being David's boss; David is an astronomer teaching at Amherst while Austin is treasurer of the college. In real life David was a philanderer and didn't care about Mabel's openly known affair with Austin; the movie is giving a weird, false impression that David was unaware of the affair or locked up and unable to interfere.

Season 5b

So some final thoughts about the last Arrested Development episodes. SPOILERS

Phooey!

I'm now done with episode 14 of season 5. Things are uneven, with some funny lines and inspired moments, like Gob bulldozing the Fakeblock wall and the cousins comparing themselves to a "self-aware Lindsay" and a "minimally woke Michael" but there's also tiresome claptrap about lawyers and groan-worthy puns. I'm told there are numerous references to true crime shows like Making of a Murderer which I've never watched. I like crime as in detective mystery stories; I don't like serial killer obsessions and gore.

The beach house revelations about the Bluths are crazy and twisted, as expected, though annoying for how it upsets continuity. Even during the present 2015 time, the show can't be consistent, talking about Gob's two-week deadline to build a wall prototype, then a "month" when they want Fakeblock to make a profit, then Buster's trial in "3 weeks." Can't you even keep it straight for 1 episode? And what was the point of the Guilty Guys spending money eliminating suspects if they were just going to plea "guilty"? If they're so good at getting sentences, then why didn't they at least try to talk the 1st degree murder down to a lesser degree? Why the hell do we know more about the history and personality of those TV lawyers than we've ever got out of Lottie Dottie DA? All we get is Barry repeatedly calling her a "killer" who rarely loses, her singsong name, and Dustin Radler being her ex. No endless quirks to her like we had with Maggie Lizer or Jan Eagleman. If you really want us to be intimidated by a formidable opponent, you gotta flesh her out at least like a Wayne Jarvis.

Anyway, I'm also trying to find new mysteries to read now that I've run out Daisy Dalrymple books. I tried Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist and investigator in 1920s England, but the first book is so terrible. I thought we'd get interesting cases with her being a private eye, but no, the book emphasizes the "psychologist" part too much, and spends a dozen or so tedious chapters detailing her childhood and education, sponsored by a wealthy family, featuring a godawful condescending male teacher who speaks in riddles and effectively made Maisie Dobbs a special philanthropy project and experiment. I hate it! And the only two mysteries in the book are about a woman lying to her husband about her trips to a grave, and a pretty transparent cult/scam preying on wounded soldiers from WWI. And I have to question Maisie's or the narrator's morals when they seem so happy about lying and faking illness in the horses to save them from being conscripted for the war. Sure, nobody wants to lose their horses to the war; but why should you be special, and not make a sacrifice just like everyone else? Just because you're rich? And Maisie's talk with her wounded ex-love Simon was manipulative claptrap. You know what, Maisie, I DON'T forgive you for abandoning him and forgetting about him for years, only to suddenly grow a conscience after your case.

Honestly, the Daisy Dalyrmple books like Anthem for Doomed Youth, Daisy's fiancé Michael who was a conscientious objector, as well as a variety of wounded characters in several books, had far more affecting genuine emotion and moral complexity about the war than anything in Maisie Dobbs. Boo to a terrible writer and a terrible character! Even Unmentionables covered the war better, and I didn't like it that much.

So many retcons

I've only seen 3 of the new Arrested Development episodes. I feel too apathetic to binge all of Season 5B at once because I found 2 out of the 3 episodes so tedious to get through. I hate Tobias's storyline. I hate the goddamn border wall which has suddenly been twisted around again now that Sally's won the election and is now for the wall. An election, I might add, which somehow took place the same day as the July 2nd parade even though all the streets would be blocked for the parade. I mean, a July election is bad enough, but what the fuck, is this some kind of satirical implied joke that the GOP election strategy is to minimize voters so they can win? And it somehow backfired with the nominal Democrat Sally Sitwell winning?

Plus the writers fucking retcon so many things for no reason at all. Season 5 shows the model home alone, surrounded by grass, when in season 4 there was an entire neighborhood of Sudden Valley homes. Then, even though the July 2nd parade ended with Buster's escape and Stan Sitwell being run over, Michael and the rest of the Bluths somehow went to the model home ignorant of those events until they saw them on TV. Moreover, they had set up a party already, expecting Buster to be released from jail, even though Michael didn't find out about Buster being released until Lotti Dottie, the DA told him DURING the parade. I thought that Lottie Dottie would go after Buster to punish him for escaping with Oscar, but the show brushes it aside as nothing but a $75 paperwork fine. They don't give a crap about him escaping early and injuring Stan Sitwell. So that makes Buster's plot with Oscar pointless. I mean, that's what makes the show so frustrating lately, because things don't matter, then they do, then they don't with the next rewrite. After all that crap about the photo of the staircar, and Lottie Dottie threatening to go after Buster if they found evidence...

Michael was working at Search in season 4 and early season 5, but now the show just wants him back running the Bluth Company, so George tells him they absorbed Sudden Valley, and Michael acts like he doesn't have to go back to work at Search at all. Then back at the Bluth Company (which he signed away all his rights to in season 4) Michael tries to get Fakeblock into the same building because he creepily wants to absorb GM into his life for 24/7 oversharing. I hate it and I hate that their conversations are so repetitive, boring, and include Rebel Alley because Mitch refuses to kill this damn plotline. Fuck you, Mitch!

SPOILERS FOR WHOLE SEASON

Pi Day

Happy Pi Day. Recently I found some pastry pie crusts that don't use palm oil in them, so I've bought fillings and will probably make a pie tonight. There are some cake recipes I want to try eventually too. Apparently even this math day is becoming a commercialized holiday with pizza and pie specials at various chains.

I'm disappointed in Beto O'Rourke running for president. He's abandoning us Texans by not going after the other Senate seat. Maybe he's afraid he can't win that and he'd do better nationally, but it feels too soon for me. Well if he wants to jump into that crowded 2020 field, we'll see how he does against other Democrats. Maybe he can at least keep focus on the border wall and the detention camps. I hope somebody else steps up to run for Cornyn's seat. Was it Joaquin Castro who said he would?

Anyway, tomorrow is the Ides, so beware the new Arrested Development episodes. I've read a couple of reviews assuring us that there's closure, not cliff-hangers this time, but that overall the quality is just the same as the earlier season. More stuff about Tobias's fake family, the neverending wall, and Fakeblock, but no assurances about Tony Wonder coming back. I mean, I guess they could be trying to avoid spoiling a plot twist, but basically now I just want warning to prepare myself for an unhappy ending. I don't want shitty clips about Gob fumbling email just like he fumbles business phones. We got fucking murders and disappearances to worry about, and you think that shit is funny, Mitch? Tell me that you ended the Rebel Alley story at least, even if you insist on involving Ron Howard for more tiresome meta jokes. As expected, Lindsay is going to be absent too, which they're trying to spackle over using Debrie I guess. And the guest stars cast as younger Lucille and George probably mean they're going to explain the hints about a 1982 July 4th parade where Buster did something terrible that has to be kept secret. Yet another murder?

Upcoming Movies

The third Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie got pushed back to 2021. I'm skeptical once again that it will ever get made. It feels like it's been too long anyway. Maleficent 2, however, is getting released earlier. I hope it will be good.

Meanwhile, Acorn bought the new Miss Fisher movie for its streaming platform. I hope that the theater release reaches me and that Acorn will sell a DVD to people who can't get their streaming service. A lot of fans funded the Kickstarter and will be hungry for it.

Speaking of 1920s lady detectives, I kind of wish somebody would make the Daisy Dalyrmple books into a TV show or movies, because the characters are so charming and I miss having light mystery shows without gore, serial killers, etc. Guess I'll have to settle for the latest Nancy Drew movie, since the repeated attempts at TV shows keep failing.

Arrested Development

Netflix released a trailer for Season 5, part 2. Still no glimpse of Tony Wonder, let alone hints that they'll actually solve Lucille 2's murder/disappearance. Just saw glimpses of Tobias's son Murphy Brown and Debrie, and it's not an encouraging sign. I wish I could get some sense that Mitch is aware this needs to be the end, that there's got to be closure this time, not stupid shit like Rebel Alley and the damn wall again. Stop dragging things out with retreads, 'cause some of us aren't coming back for another disappointing season. Fucking end this thing with dignity, Mitch!

Meanwhile I'm more excited about Mr. Malcolm's List being made into a full movie.

Movies

So anyway, the Oscars were this weekend. I was watching an old Murder She Wrote movie instead. I heard about the awards though, and was disappointed that Black Panther or Blackkklansman didn't win. Maybe they split the vote. Sure, Green Book was a charming movie, but Best Picture shouldn't go to merely charming when there are better films nominated. Also, I didn't like the fact that they nominated Mahershala Ali for Supporting Actor instead of Lead Actor with Viggo. Oh well. Oscars disappoint all the time and they snubbed Crazy Rich Asians to start with.

I really don't understand the obsession with "Shallow" or A Star is Born either. From the moment I watched the trailer I found both godawful annoying. Plus, the phrase is "the shallows" not "the shallow" if you're writing a metaphor about swimming in deeper waters. It bothers me pedantically, along with the fucking vague lyrics. I much prefer Lady Gaga's other music and resent the implication that being electronic or more pop-oriented means your music is "inauthentic", which seems to be the theme of the movie due to all the reviews and interviews about it. What a strange way to shame the female lead, when the oft-made movie is supposed to be about the alcoholic breakdown of the man due to jealousy about his wife's rising career. Why put down that career and make it seem like she shouldn't be happy for her success?

Anyway, I did go to see Lego Movie 2, hoping there'd be enough Lego Batman to make it worth it. It wasn't really worth it. I mean, he was there in the plot but didn't do anything really cool, nor did Lucy, and it was all bogged down with time travel. So, disappointed with that, I finally went to see that Into the Spiderverse movie. It was more charming, and its message was that "anyone can wear the mask" due to the multiple universes. Still, I do wish they'd stop remaking Spiderman so frequently, almost as often as Batman. I also recently enjoyed What Women Want, which was over the top at times, but still had some good lowkey moments with her father, as well as a gay romance in the background. Still would like more LGBT in the foreground, but at least Ali did right by promoting her assistant to agent. I hope March movies will be better, starting with Captain Marvel.

Crowded Field

Well the news has been awful lately, from Trump's "emergency" declaration that will hopefully be neutered by lawsuits, to Bernie Sanders running for 2020. When will that fucker give up? Of course it stirred up pie fights on Daily Kos again. Stupid idiot fans when he's not even a Democrat. Anyway the field for the 2020 election is crowded already with a lot of better candidates than him.

Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke hasn't declared for anything though he did the march/rally in El Paso and has given interviews. I hope he'll run for Cornyn's seat instead of abandoning Texas so soon. I heard Joaquin Castro is interested too, if Beto doesn't run for Senate again.

I was also very disheartened by the attacks on Ilhan Omar for her tweets against AIPAC. She was accused of being anti-semitic and racist for attacking a pro-Israel lobby. Why the fuck has Israel got such a hold on American politics, that people disingenuously equate attacking a country's government with attacking a race? If people complain about Theresa May and the disastrous Brexit deal, they are not being "anti-British" or "anti-Caucasian." Plenty of Jewish people don't like Israel's apartheid treatment of Palestinians. There's also that virulent characterization of BDS boycott as antisemitic too. As long as the fucking US government is going to send my taxpayer money to fund Israel's illegal occupation and war crimes, then I have the right as a citizen to protest and try to keep from sending any more money to them or to companies based in the stolen territories.

So far, Ilhan Omar has not been hypocritically forced to resign, and just now a new Democrat has won a special election in Virginia after similar hysteria over his anti-Israel comments. So hopefully people aren't scared off of voting for Muslims or Palestinians.

They Shall Not Grow Old

Well Peter Jackson's WWI documentary was not what I expected. All the trailers and ads for it showed off the colorized footage and smoothed, natural-looking motion, but when I actually watched the film, the color footage didn't start for almost an hour. First we had to wait through the black and white jittery footage during the recruitment of young lads, then their bootcamp, and their travel to the front lines in Belgium. If we were gonna wait that long, then why show the "please put on your 3D glasses" message at the beginning? And after the Armistice, the color once again was replaced by black and white footage while soldiers narrated their feelings of isolation when they returned to civilian life. If the ads for this documentary had described it as half color, half black and white, then I wouldn't have felt so irritated. The way this was advertised as a marvelous, immersive transformation, they should have gone to color immediately after the long drawn out title sequence of soldiers marching until the screen turned white. That would have made much more sense.

Anyway, the depiction of the British soldiers showed a lot of faces with personality and lots of humorous moments as the soldiers coped with their unsanitary, makeshift conditions. With no toilets, the soldiers had to instead sit on a plank suspended above some holes in the ground. There was no privacy of an enclosed outhouse; this primitive lavatory was exposed, with several people using it at once. The documentary footage is also interspersed with some propaganda posters and newspapers cartoons of the war, helping to flesh out stories that they didn't have footage for. There were some hard to watch images of trench feet, dead horses and rats, etc, and it added to the drama about the horrors of war. There's also lots of footage and stories about captured German prisoners of war. The British soldiers often recognize that the Germans are kids like them, and that it's a shame that the war makes them foes. Overall, this is an affecting movie of the war, but with very few glimpses of regiments of color who also fought for Britain as part of the Empire. This is very much limited to the point of view of a white British soldier. I suppose it was originally tailored that way, since it was broadcast for UK audiences on their Armistice Day. But still, the UK was not, even back then, all white.

On TV, A Million Little Things finally gave some plot answers about Jon's suicide, but the melodrama of the subway stop vote seems like a distraction from the mumbo-jumbo about Jon taking out a second insurance policy called Rutledge with the guys as beneficiaries. What the fuck? Because of the whole suicide thing, I read up that insurance policies will pay out for suicide after two years have passed, just to make sure that the person didn't intentionally buy the policy so they could kill themself. But here Ashley is implying that either Jon knew he was screwed for two years and staked his entire family's welfare on the stupid subway vote and on a 2nd insurance policy, OR Jon only realized everything was screwed in the day before the vote and he somehow bought an insurance policy that day and killed himself the next day, even though no insurance would pay off that??!!! What the fuck is wrong with these writers and their convuluted suicide scenario? Jon, you're still an egotistical, reckless gambler, and Ashley you're still an asshole for not giving Delilah the envelope the day you found it. No, you weren't being "helpful" or trying to "save" the family and the house by secretly paying the loan out of Rutledge Trust. You were withholding truths they needed to hear, and not letting them prepare themselves and find other solutions to keep their fucking home! And fuck the tiresome Barbara Morgan mystery which continues to be unsatisfactory teases.

Sheesh. At least The Orville had a good episode of Claire and Isaac dating. Isaac has always been a clear knockoff of Data from TNG, but this relationship was really well done. A great way to give him more dimensions, and his grand gesture from "Singing in the Rain" was great.

New Starts

Well it's February now, almost Lunar New Year, or Tết, as it's known in Vietnam. It's the Year of the Pig, though I don't know much about the Chinese Zodiac. I'll be visiting family soon, though I can't get off work next week, and I'll try to see that WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, now that it's getting a regular movie release instead of those pop-up Fathom Events.

I'm also going to spend much of my weekend moving files and things to a new laptop, because my old one is slowly falling apart, acquiring more slowdowns and malfunctions all the time. It is many years out of date, though I upgraded memory and operating systems to keep it going for years. It's not worth the trouble anymore.

Apparently the Superbowl is this weekend, though I never watch even for the commercials. This week has been the TCA press tour, and some TV shows got renewed recently. Oh, also Netflix announced that Arrested Development would finally release more episodes on March 15th. Finally. It's the Ides of March too, so I certainly will beware that the ending could be a total dud. I just hope Mitch learned his lesson and will not put in yet another cliffhanger or waste more time on stupid Rebel Alley. Just solve the Lucille Austero mystery and give us a good Blunder ending, even if you have to overdo the narration to make it happy and good. I don't care about the political satire border wall anymore and FUCK NO, I don't want Tracey to secretly be alive, out of left field. End the show respectfully and gracefully, Mitch, like you did season 3. (Or even "Beef Consommé" in season 1, when you didn't know if the show would last past 13 episodes.) Wrap it up and let it fucking go.

Representation Matters

I read on a Lego blog (based in Australia) that Lego released a special Chinese New Year set, but only in the Asia-Pacific region. So none of us in the rest of the world can buy it, and when I checked the Lego website all they had was some stupid, ugly Blockhead thing. This is so unfair! Not just China, but many Asian countries celebrate Lunar New Year, because they are on the Lunar Calendar. This set could have sold to many immigrant communities in America, Europe, etc. but Lego completely missed this opportunity.

This reminds me of how Mattel made a big deal out of announcing 16 or so inspiring women Barbies for Women's Day, but only 3 of those dolls were ever offered for sale. What was the point of making all those diverse dolls like Chloe Kim, if you're not going to sell them to the Asian parents craving dolls to give to their daughters?

Anyway, on Black Lightning, they finally killed off Khalil after teasing several last-minute efforts to save him. I guess they finished their redemption arc on him, but I'm so relieved that the show's pace picked up with Henderson meeting Gambi, Grace reuniting with Annissa, and Tobias finally assembling a new team of henchmen. After his sister died and then Syonide died, all Tobias ever did was blame Khalil and terrorize him, expecting him to fill all roles including that of Lala who had also died. Everything slowed to a crawl, and the repetition of his bullying got old fast. Finally Tobias is moving forward with his evil plans and though he's still cruel, he's got more people now to spread his evil around. With Jennifer using her powers more, hopefully the show will be more watchable and less bleak. They've gotta find something to do with Lynn, though.

Shows

We're finally getting some forward movement on Supergirl's Red Daughter plot and Nia Nal becoming a hero. Thankfully the Children of Liberty had a small part of the plot, but it looks like we're back to the shitty Agent Liberty next episode. I'm so sick of him. Meanwhile, Black Lightning ended the runaway plot by having Jennifer return home and Khalil turn himself into police. Then Tobias's assassin captures him and Tobias rips out the cybernetic spine out of him. So brutal, but still, it makes we wonder why Tobias was always threatening to kill Khalil and hired Cutter if he wanted him still alive. I'm still sick of Tobias, but at least his new lackey Todd broke into the suitcase.

The Good Place's season finale finally brought back Simone, and I was so excited, but then Chidi wanted to do another mind-wipe. I hope next season won't be so much about love triangles. I want Jason/Janet and a real shot at Eleanor/Tahani even if it's just on the rebound, to cope with her grief without Chidi. I am glad that Judge Gen finally got to scold everybody and try to impose punishment on the outlaws. They were having consequence-free adventures for too long.

At the movies, I watched The Kid Who Would be King, an update on King Arthur starring teens and Patrick Stewart as Merlin some of the time. It was slow in some parts and incredibly earnest about its message of equality, honesty, and justice. Making a new Camelot by turning enemies into allies. Merlin also said that legends about chosen ones having special parents are not actually accurate, that Excalibur chose the person whose heart was worthy, not because of his royal bloodline. The younger actor who also played Merlin was pretty good, and his weird magical gestures seemed to make adults obey him instantly. There was some mumbo jumbo too about why all the adults disappeared at night each time Morgana's evil knights attacked. I liked how Stonehenge became a portal connected to other stone circles in Britain. The movie was often cute and funny.

More Victorian Detectives

After I finished reading Loveday Brooks, I read both the Hilda Wade and Dorcas Dene books. Though she's not available in ebooks and I had to buy a paper copy, Dorcas Dene was better by far. She is a former actress who marries an artist, but after he goes blind from an illness and cannot work any longer, Dorcas needs to support their family. She takes up detective work through a recommendation from a neighbor and friend; eventually she inherits the whole detective agency from him, becoming famous and working with police and private clients alike. Dorcas's adventures are narrated by Mr. Saxon, a playwright and former employer from Dorcas's days as an actress. He runs into her one day, is fascinated by her new career, and eventually becomes her informal "assistant" on cases. He'll drop by, or Dorcas will send for him, and he'll get to listen to or sometimes participate in a mystery with her. It's nice that he doesn't mind obeying her orders and that there's no love triangle with her husband Paul. They're just mature adults, all happy to be friends with each other with no jealousy or rivalry. I do wish sometimes that Saxon wouldn't blank out certain people's names, in typically Victorian style, because it makes some tales hard to follow. If you don't want to name Prince ___ of ____ and his former wife the Countess, then make up a fake name and fake country, please! Otherwise the tales are entertaining mysteries.

Hilda Wade on the other hand was a huge disappointment. I thought she might be fun, being a nurse, and that she'd be like Judith Lee, who had a regular job teaching deaf people but did her detection on the side. But no, Hilda Wade's book was maybe 40% mysteries then devolved into travel/adventure/revenge plot. It was a lame revenge plot to boot, not clever at all. SPOILERS below.

Moving On

Well the new year has begun, with the new Congress sworn in, and Pelosi back as Speaker of the House. I hope they can end the government shutdown soon, and get all their new legislative priorities accomplished, such as climate change, voting integrity, gun control, and the shitty child detention camps. So much to get done, along with all the investigations into the administration's endless corruption. Still waiting for Mueller's results too.

Meanwhile that Oscars controversy flared up again. I don't understand why Ellen is trying to get Kevin Hart reinstated. No more than I understand Elton John's misguided reaching out to Eminem years ago. Use your good karma for more important things. I don't see what's the point of even having a host at all, when they disappear very quickly from the show, and it's all just award presenters and montages and such. The whole award season is such a snooze.

Netflix still hasn't announced the release date of the final Arrested Development episodes. Why the fuck are they holding onto the back half of season 5 so long? Just get it over with for the few of us who still care about resolving the cliffhangers. Haven't we subscribers been loyal enough to get our niche viewing habits catered to? Just dump it already and let any controversy be buried among all the other shows/movies you got coming out. Mitch, if you're still doing last-minute tinkering to add Trump jokes or whatever, stop it! For fuck's sake, you owe us an ending after all these years.