West Side Story

I saw the new West Side Story movie because it had good reviews, and I do love the song "Somewhere." Also, I heard that the Anybodys character is portrayed as a transman, so I wanted to see that. Unfortunately I was late to the movie due to a lack of parking near my theater. Overall, it was okay, but I couldn't follow a lot of the conversations that were in Spanish. The singing and dance numbers were good, though I didn't like how the Jets kept saying we should pity their hard upbringing.

Even though the plot is based on Romeo and Juliet, I just could not buy into these two characters falling instantly in love after sharing one dance at the school. Maria doesn't even know Tony's name, yet she's singing "Tonight" about how deep in love she is already. And then the next day they go on a date, and he says he wants to be with her forever; instead of being scared off by this, she pretends to marry him and pledges to be with him always. What the fuck? Then later when Maria finds out that Tony killed Bernardo in the rumble, she forgives him too quickly and even lets him stay the night. When Anita yells at Maria the next morning, I was totally on Anita's side and wanted Maria to shut up about her stupid love. Fine, you can't help loving him, but don't fucking expect Anita to forgive the guy or carry messages to him for you. What kind of manipulative sicko are you, Maria? If that's the show that's such a Broadway classic, then I'm glad I never saw it before now, because it would have ruined my love for the song "Somewhere."

In this film, by the way, that love ballad is sung by Rita Moreno's character Valentina, while reflecting on her own interracial romance with Doc. That helped a little, but overall I say thumbs down to Tony & Maria's romance. It's terrible, and the plot is horrible too. Anita's the only worthwhile character of the whole bunch.

Bye Netflix

Welp, Netflix cancelled Cowboy Bebop rather quickly. I mean, I know there were a lot of scathing reviews, but not everyone hated it. I saw mixed reactions online, and I personally thought it was cool with its retro-futuristic style. I had never seen the original anime so there was nothing for me to compare it to, but I liked how Julia started out all helpless dream girl, then slowly morphed into a more sinister and manipulative person looking out for herself. Anyway, I did cancel my Netflix subscription after all.

Speaking of revivals, Jimmy Kimmel did another Live Norman Lear special, and this time they cast adults as child/teen sitcom characters. It was weird, but somehow it worked. I was surprised to see both Will Arnett and Jason Bateman in The Facts of Life reenactment. Their hair was hilariously bad, and they joked around a lot behind the scenes, as usual.

Meanwhile on Batwoman, Mary Hamilton has turned into Poison Ivy Mary, but I don't know how the writers will resolve this next year. Yeah, Poison Ivy will show up and probably be a bigger threat, but how does Mary redeem herself and reunite with the Batfamily? Won't she feel guilty about anyone she's hurt or killed?

Politics

So Beto is running for TX governor, and other Democrats are now campaigning for statewide offices too. I got so many fundraising emails, but I had to pay my taxes and wait for my next paycheck. (Also needed new tires recently, so that was costly.) I gotta budget for the Democrats but also for some charities that I didn't get to on Giving Tuesday.

Hopefully Congress can finish the Build Back Better Bill and maybe confirm new people for the Post Office govenors board so they can vote out DeJoy. I'm aware of the Supreme Court hearing abortion cases now, but I don't know when they'll issue their rulings. It's looking dark indeed.

I got my booster shot before Thanksgiving. It might not work for the Omicron variant, but it's all I got for now until they come out with these pill medications they talk about. I hope the vaccines reach more poor countries too.

Race and Gender

Speaking of Netflix, I have been considering cancelling my subscription due to their wrong-headed handling of the Dave Chapelle controversy, but on the other hand, they have exclusive content that I can't find elsewhere, such as the live-action Cowboy Beebop with John Cho. (I mostly liked it, but found some storylines like Mad Pierrot too macabre and disturbing. Yet they had quirky comic scenes too such as Teddy Bomber wearing a giant teddy bear head while shirtless and fighting the bounty hunters.)

Netflix's defense of so-called "free speech" for anti-trans hate is all the more infuriating when they have movies like Passing and The Harder They Fall that handle identity issues sensitively.

Catching up on movies

It's December already and I didn't have time post about any of the TV and movies I've seen lately. I found out that on Disney Plus Day, they did a discount price of $2.99 for the first month, so I signed up for that so I could see some of the Marvel content people had been talking about like WandaVision. I also enjoyed the Muppet Haunted Mansion special with Will Arnett. I'm still debating whether to keep the subscription next month. It might be okay if I cancel my Netflix subscription, but I'm debating that.

Anyway I saw Eternals in theaters, but I found it somewhat underwhelming. It has a lot of diversity in the cast, but to accommodate that many characters, people had to die or be absent for long stretches in the movie. Many of the Eternals seemed to pair up in couples, but the main couple was Sersi and Ikarus. Also, when they kept talking about the Celestial Tiamut, it kept reminding me of the dragon Tiamat from the Dungeons & Dragons animated show.

SPOILERS