The Irregulars

I finished Netflix's supernatural horror series about the Baker Street Irregulars. It's pretty good, though I don't like Watson being so disdainful and deceptive all the time. Also, the last episode had way too much stuff happening, making it feel interminable; I would have preferred that we could focus on just the Rip drama without the extra battles in the Duck and Quiver cellar.

There are indeed some gruesome horror moments on the show, so squeamish people should cover their eyes or look away at the scary bits. As for me, given the "slicing people's faces off" thing from the Birds of Prey movie and the similar face swapping thing on Batwoman, I was able to withstand that episode with the taxidermy monster. A lot of times we also got reaction shots first, to build up the dread of the thing, before we saw the thing itself, so there's warning. Each monster turns out to be a regular person who makes a desperate wish and then receives supernatural power from the Rip, a portal between this life and Purgatory. But of course these wishes have terrible consequences, much like a monkey's paw or that stupid Dreamstone in the Wonder Woman movie.

Anyway, as I said, I don't mind aging the the Irregulars to teens, and I'm so pleased that the Asian girl Bea is the leader of the gang. Watson is indeed a black man, and moreover, he's queer in that he loves Holmes. I'm a little disappointed that this love is mostly shown in him being petty and jealous about Sherlock's love interest. I can't tell you how fucking relieved and happy I was that "A" stood for Alice and not Irene Adler. This writer Tom Bidwell at least has an original thought to create his own woman, and to not make her some weirdo psychopath cross with Moriarty. That's nice. We haven't had originality like that since the love interest in Young Sherlock Holmes. I don't know if there'll be a season 2, but the show was an intriguing ride so far.

Another long week

So sad to hear of Jessica Walter dying this week. I'll miss her. I always enjoy seeing her popup in guest starring roles in past TV shows like Wonder Woman or Murder She Wrote. I used to enjoy Dinosaurs too, but back then I had no idea who she was.

Meanwhile people are apparently very entertained by news of the ship stuck in the Suez Canal. The memes are cute, though I'm glad to hear that the US is going to send experts to help. Competent government for the win!

There's a special election in Texas in May, with an astonishing 23 candidates running to replace Ron Wright, who died. With that many candidates, it's hard to know who to vote for, when there's not enough info to distinguish the various Democrats. I'm going to have to rely on endorsements. Candace Valenzuela, who went silent after she lost her recent election, has started to be active again, fundraising for victims of the ice storm/power failure, and she has sent some endorsements on races.

Texas GOP are trying to pass voter suppression laws just like Georgia did. Such hypocrites. They won in 2020, but even that isn't good enough for them. They want to make sure there's no chance in hell of flipping the state blue. Fucking Chip Roy and Ted Cruz!

More TV

The Amber Ruffin Show is renewed through September! I'm so happy for her success. Her songs are awesome, and I love her skits with Tarik. Jeff Wright was also pretty good when he subbed for Tarik; the poor guy had Covid.

Meanwhile, major developments on Batwoman this week. Apparently Kate Kane is alive and recast with a new actress; that wasn't clear on the show itself, because she didn't move and she didn't look alive to me. She's bandaged up, so who bandaged her and why are they keeping her underneath a barber shop? Is she suffering amnesia and do they know that she was Batwoman 1.0? What do they plan to do with her, since they didn't respond when her dad put out a reward for information? Anyway, the showrunners are assuring fans that Ryan Wilder will continue to be Batwoman, so I guess Kate will come back just to resolve her plots with her family and the Bat Team. She's probably suffering some trauma from the whole plane crash/captivity and won't be up for superhero stuff right away. It's kinda inevitable that the show finally stopped writing around Kate's disappearance. They could not sustain that forever, since they're already writing around Batman's disappearance.

Also, those scenes which referenced the "False Face Society", turned out to be hints that Roman Sionis aka Black Mask will appear on Batwoman in an upcoming episode. So with Victor Zsasz earlier, that makes both the villains from Harley Quinn's movie. I mean, these guys have extensive comic book history beyond that, but I don't read comics, so I only know them from the Birds of Prey movie. I hope we don't get lost in lots of arcane lore, because this Coryana plot was weird and convoluted enough. Can't they be a little more straightforward?

Over and Over

With all the news on the Atlanta spa shootings or the more recent Colorado supermarket shooting, I didn't realize that the Israel election was on Tuesday, until I read about recent protests against Netanyahu. For now, the news is showing the results as deadlocked or inconclusive. This is the fourth election in two years, and we won't know if a coalition government can be formed for days or weeks. It certainly doesn't look stable at all, and they might be forced into a fifth election. As much as I hate the two-party system in America, the parliamentary system in Israel makes elections even worse.

Just the possibility that Netanyahu could remain in power and scrape together another government is sickening to me. How does he fucking survive over and over, even with how many people hate him? He's still trying to dodge a trial on corruption charges, and people don't like how he handled the pandemic. And once again, FUCK news media who buy into the lie that Israel is super successful at vaccination. They are a colossal failure because they are only counting the Jewish population, not the Palestinians living under occupation by Israel! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Meanwhile in America, our Congress tries to hold hearings about gun violence but we have the usual rightwing deflections and arguments against gun control. The same useless thoughts and prayers over and over. When will we ever be able to reform our messed up gun laws? Or tackle racism and misogyny.

The only thing that gives me hope lately was watching this Netflix miniseries Amend: The Fight for America. Hosted by Will Smith, it interviews a lot of historians and activists discussing the 14th amendment not just in the context of slavery and Black Civil Rights, but also its use in feminism, gay rights, and immigration. Progress isn't always linear, and we get setbacks, but we can continue to fight and win more legal victories.

Inclusivity

Deb Haaland has been sworn in as Secretary of the Interior! This is a historic moment for all Native Americans, and a first step to finally getting some justice for all the land grabs and broken treaties over the centuries. It'll be good to have her working for climate change and green energy too. Also, I've read about an upcoming show on Peacock called Rutherford Falls, which features indigenous people both onscreen and behind the scenes. Sounds great, and I'd love it to be better than that Stumptown show which had some complex Native characters that were unfortunately overshadowed by the P.I.'s soap opera life. (Meanwhile the stupid Washington Football Team continues to not have a new name, after nixing its old slur months ago. Lazy cowards.)

The horrific murders in Atlanta highlight how much Asian women have been oversexualized, such that people assume that massage workers are sex workers. (Not that it's wrong to be a sex worker, if it's a voluntary career choice. We need to stop criminal exploitation/slavery though.) It's the same stereotype of Japanese geisha as prostitutes, with white men fetishizing them for being petite and submissive. Plus, since the pandemic, there's been a rise in hate crimes against all Asian people in general.

Representation can help combat stereotypes and othering. I hear that this year's Oscar nominations are good for Blacks and Asians, though we'll have to see if that translates into any actual wins, or if some votes will be split, such as the two Judas actors both nominated as supporting actors. (Were they trying to avoid competing with Chadwick Boseman in the lead category?) There's also a chance that the Academy will vote for Mank, the movie about Hollywood, because Hollywood are so freaking in love with themselves and their history.

Happy Pi Day

The rescue bill passed Congress, and Biden signed it. Such a relief to have that finished at last, with no more delay. Not everything we wanted in the bill, but a solid package to help people recover. Congress can try again for the minimum wage increase and other stuff. I hope they finish voting on other nominations soon, including the board of the Post Office so we can oust DeJoy.

Meanwhile, the Oprah interview was much discussed this week so I recorded the rerun to watch it. Very informative, though I was annoyed by the editing; Oprah seemed to cut off Meghan from fully explaining some issues, such as titles and how she and Harry intended to just be junior members of royalty working part-time, but when money and security was cutoff, they had to make other plans. I can certainly understand her concerns about protection for her child.

There are still some skeptics who insist that Meghan is a liar, and that this scandal is just stupid soap opera, just meaningless trivial gossip. But that ignores the implications about racism and mental health; the interview is certainly more substantive than Republicans' recent faux outrages about cancel culture. Just because Meghan married into the royalty doesn't mean she was born privileged, and it doesn't exclude her from being wounded by the severe, constant attacks by the press making her into a villain. It also seems strange that the royalty would not at least fact-check some disinformation or allow her contact with friends who could have helped her not feel so isolated. Did they think that defending her reputation was somehow beneath the dignity of royalty? And why not allow her to go to a hospital or see a therapist when she was suicidal? Human resources said, "We can't help you because you're not a paid employee"? How is she not a paid employee of the firm if she and Harry are expected to go on global tours and media events on behalf of the Crown? Is that not work, and didn't they receive taxpayer funds? Policies need to change at the very least.

Raya and the Last Dragon

I watched the new Disney movie and enjoyed it immensely. Kelly Marie Tran is great as Raya, and Awkafina's Sisu wasn't just a comic relief dragon. She actually made good points about optimism and giving trust to help others trust you, so she wasn't as annoying to me as stupid characters like Mushu the dragon from the animated Mulan. Raya is a warrior princess, as the daughter of the chief charged with protecting the magical dragon gem. But she jumps the gun too fast in trusting a brand new friend Namaari, who attempts to steal the gem, only for disaster to strike when the gem gets broken, unleashing a plague upon the world. Namaari also is a princess of her own tribe, the Fang, and though she is Raya's enemy, the movie allows her to have complex motives and genuine awe and love for the dragon Sisu. This is the key to turning her and other enemies to help restore the dragon gem and heal the world.

It's a lovely message movie about taking a risk and striving for unity and peace. (Unity doesn't mean you can't be diverse societies.) I have seen some complaints online about Raya being a mishmash of different Asian identities into the Kumandra tribes. Are they Thai, are they Vietnamese, are they Malaysian, etc? Instead they're more vague, like a Pan-Asian fusion. I see the point, that white people mix us up and think we're all the same. But I don't care in the context of this movie. It's an original fantasy rather than drawing on a country-specific myth like Mulan, so this mythical Kumandra land is not confined to one real-world place. If anything, it reminds me of how Black Panther was Pan-African, taking different cultural elements from throughout the continent and creating a fantasy society; they even had different River, Mountain, and Border Tribes. I think of it as an homage celebrating the variety of African peoples, in a quest to speak to Blacks everywhere. So I don't mind Raya doing that for several Southeast Asian countries, who have long been overshadowed by China, Japan, and Korea in the rare times that Hollywood ever makes any Asian content. If it helps, white people do also make up generic European countries such as Euphrania and its hostile neighbors in the Cinderella movie The Slipper and the Rose. I just hope that we get more Asian TV and movies overall, then we can have more specific stories for each underrepresented community.

Anyway, for the release, Disney made a "virtual red carpet" event featuring the voice cast, as well as past Disney princesses welcoming Kelly to the fold. She wore a beautiful ao dai and headdress, apparently made by a Paris By Night designer. (Vietnamese kids know the phenomenon of Paris By Night videos which our parents constantly bought and played on TV.) Seeing the other Asian cast members talk about representation is great too, and it helps to have something to celebrate our heritage in the face of all the anti-Asian hate crimes since the pandemic. How I miss the days of the "Gold Open" with Searching, Crazy Rich Asians, and more.

Shameless

I mostly tried to ignore CPAC over the weekend because I don't want to hear any more about Trump, his family, or the cult-worshippers who seriously made a gold statue of him. But then Ted Cruz had to joke about Cancun as if it was just an oopsie and not a fire-able offense. Stupid me for optimistically hoping he'd have the decency to resign after the furor. But no, he has no shame.

Govenor Abbott has no shame either, opening up Texas and dropping mask mandates today. Don't you have something more important to do, like fucking winterizing our electrical grid? Fuck him. I hope Beto runs against him and wins. Wonkette reports that Mississippi's governor is doing the same, and that some blue state liberals are blaming us red state voters, even though we're plenty blue in our cities. The same way they dare Texas to secede from the union, ignoring how many millions of Democrats live here and can't just move. We're hoping to turn the place blue, after all.

Meanwhile in the Senate, Biden's nominee Tanden had to withdraw simply because people objected to her past "uncivil" tweets. Like she's supposed to be ashamed of having an opinion about fuckers like Ted Cruz? Everyone dunks on Ted Cruz because he fucking deserves it. What a double standard.