Peacock shows

So I signed up for Peacock Premium for the discounted rate, and I got caught up on Amber Ruffin's shows, but she has so many breaks between new episodes. I also finally returned to a couple of sitcoms I started while on the free tier, Rutherford Falls and Killing It.

Rutherford Falls is set in small town named for a founder who allegedly made a fair peace treaty with the local Minishonka tribe. Nathan Rutherford protests moving a statue of his ancestor while his best friend Reagan Wells tries to convince him to compromise. And there's a dispute with Terry Thomas, owner of the Minishonka casino where Reagan works in the pathetic museum display. The show has a lot of Native cast and staff, and addresses lots of issues about culture, racism, history, and politics. The show can be amusing at times, but often goes for awkward moments such as Reagan being hated by her fellow Minishonka people, and trying too hard to win them over. I liked the show somewhat, but I was always annoyed with how self-centered Nathan is, demanding that Reagan and Bobbie Yang cater to all his crises, while ignoring things that they need. Season 1 developed Terry Thomas's character in an interesting arc. He's not really a villain, but is trying to to help his people, while being hyper-focused on winning against the white corporate power structure. I started season 2, but lost interest in the mayoral election plot, especially with Nathan continuing to be bumbling and self-absorbed.

Meanwhile Killing It stars Craig Robinson as man with a dream to start a saw palmetto business. He tries to get a bank loan, but loses his job and meets an Uber driver named Jillian; she has a side job killing invasive pythons for the state of Florida. There's even a snake-killing contest for $20,000 so Craig decides to enter and he eventually joins up with Jillian as a team. But the show is not just about the snake contest. It's also about Craig's brother Isaiah who is always stealing or running a scam. It's about social class and capitalism, with wealthy elites just running bigger scams to swindle little guys out of their cash and their dignity. It's a world full of snakes eating each other, and several people have long elevator pitches that they rehearse constantly for the day when they need to make their speech to gatekeepers. It's rather dark and pessimistic for a sitcom, and even when Isaiah finally opens up to Craig about their father's death, he afterward goes back to being joking and dismissive about the tragedy. I do like many characters in the show, though I'm not sure I like the cynical tone or the dangerous plot about Craig's brother and Rodney Lamonca. It's a good show if you like edgy darkness and don't mind violent murders.

So Peacock does try ambitious sitcoms, but they don't always succeed. Rutherford Falls was cancelled after 2 seasons.

The Woman King

Last night I got a booster and flu vaccine, and today I've had chills and arm aches. But before all that, I did manage to see The Woman King, the new movie about the women warriors of Dahomey. They're called the Agojie, and they're the basis for the Dora Milaje in Black Panther.

King Ghezo, played by John Boyega, is a real person, but most other characters are fictional and dramatic license has been taken to make a compelling movie. Viola Davis is General Nanisca, who leads the army and often tries to advise the king. There's some talk about a myth of equality between men and women, and that the King can choose to appoint Nanisca to rule beside him, but I didn't catch everything they said about this. We also see other members of the army, and Izogie trains the new recruits including rebellious girl Nawi. Though most of Dahomey's enemies in battle are other African tribes, some European slave-traders do arrive to make deals with King Ghezo. A wealthy Portuguese man arrives with his half Black friend Malik, whose mother came from Dahomey. Malik is sickened by the slave market he sees at the port, but keeps quiet with his friend until he meets Nawi and starts to feel loyal to his mother's homeland. Nanisca too hates the evils of slavery and tries to convince the King to stop the practice and take up palm oil farming instead. All these racial and economic tensions explode into dramatic battles, where we can see the Agojie in fierce combat. There's a lot of compelling character development and triumphant feelings in winning their freedom.

SPOILERS

See How They Run

I went to see this mystery movie expecting a zany comedy like Clue, or at least an interesting whodunit, but I didn't realize that this was a spoof specifically about Agatha Christie's Mousetrap play. I've never seen the play, but I have read the short story based on it decades ago; it was called "Three Blind Mice" due to the killer whistling this tune. I didn't know that the story was based on a real life child abuse tragedy, and I also didn't realize that the title "see how they run" is a line from the Three Blind Mice nursery rhyme.

Also, as signaled by the Inspector's name "Stoppard" this movie is a self-reverential, recursive farce. It's very meta about whodunit tropes, although sometimes the jokes don't make sense. The stuffy playwright complains about the Hollywood director wanting a bloody murder in the first 10 minutes, but I believe that Christie's play does feature a murder in its opening minutes, so that would actually be faithful to the text.

There are a number of real people portrayed, including Richard (Dickie) Attenborough, his wife Sheila Sim, and Agatha Christie and her second husband the archaeologist. I do like that the movie has diverse casting despite the 1950s setting, and the cast is packed. I enjoyed most of it, but found it more wry and amusing rather than laugh out loud funny. It's just that I've seen plenty of examples of Hollywood parodying itself, so that I find that kind of joke tiresome and cliche. Maybe if I'd been in a better mood I would have liked it more. I hope that the Knives Out sequel will be better.

Imperialism

With Queen Elizabeth II's death, there has been some discussion of the evils of monarchy and imperialism. Not just Black people, but Irish people too, have no love for monarchy. I did find some of the commentary from UK royalists to be over the top, about how everybody loved her. Elizabeth was not perfect; she was a terrible mother-in-law to Diana, after all, and that much-repeated 1947 clip of her pledging lifelong duty to the nation also included a reference to the "imperial family." Not just the royal family, but specifically the "imperial family," so she was supportive of the British Empire continuing. Obviously the Empire fell apart during her reign, so she adapted with the times in creating the Commonwealth, and it's not like Elizabeth had any actual political power over what the British government did. In general, I blame Queen Victoria more about British imperialism than I do Elizabeth II. There's something distasteful about Victoria keeping favorite Indian servants while knowing that the British Raj is fucking over India. Plus Britain started Opium Wars to force China to accept trade, not caring one bit about the moral degradation of destroying the nation with drugs.

But anyway, there are historical documentaries that give less glowing depictions of the royal family. Paramount+ includes content from the Smithsonian channel, including the 2019 show Britain in Color, which is just like America in Color. They colorize old news footage and home movies to give you an immediate feel of history from the early 20th century. Initially I was disappointed that the first episode was all about Royalty, fearing we'd just get hagiography and whitewashed history. But it's really just to give context to WWI and WWII, including how Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathizer.

The second episode, Empire, actually discussed war, colonialism, and racism. It's not afraid to be shocking or unflattering in its truth. It started with terrible images from Boer War concentration camps, featured nonwhite soldiers who fought for Britain in WWI, discussed Gandhi's protests in India,  depicted the harsh suppression of independence movements in Britain's former colonies, and addressed the Partition of India. Really interesting. The last episode is on Churchill. I hope they will do more topics eventually, like America in Color explored history from different perspectives.

Shootings

I actually had the 3 day weekend off for Labor Day, and was planning to go see a movie especially due to the $3 tickets on Saturday, but there weren't any movies I wanted to see. I'm glad I didn't go on Sunday either because there was a shooting at a local mall where I often see movies. It wasn't a mass shooter; the news report makes it sound like a dispute between two men. But still, it's a consequence of Abbott and other Republicans loosening gun laws despite all the horrific shooting tragedies.

Elsewhere, gun violence continues ceaselessly across the rest of America too. There was a shooting spree in Memphis, with somebody rampaging across the city until the police caught him. This will never end until we can get more gun control passed. If we can win more Senate seats in the midterms, then we can pass a lot of necessary legislation for voting rights, abortion, and more.

Meanwhile Queen Elizabeth II died today, and there's a new Conservative Prime Minister in the UK too. Lots of turmoil over there, so my sympathies.

Stunning

Apparently Alaska just elected its first Native person to Congress, Democrat Mary Peltola! The election was in question for a while, due to ranked choice voting, and letting mailed-in ballots arrive up to 15 days after election day. She defeated Sarah Palin for this special election, but at least will be the incumbent during the November election. Hooray!

In sadder news, Pakistan is experiencing disastrous monsoon flooding. Thousands have died, and millions are homeless. Apparently this has been happening since June, but I've only heard of it in mainstream news media in late August. Why did they wait so long to report? Talk about a climate change disaster...

As for America, we also have an emergency in Jackson, Mississippi, with no clean water there. Apparently their water systems were failing for months, but the Republicans did nothing to fix it. Somebody should have been working on it all this time, or at least planning on how to get bottled water distributed to everyone in the city when it did fail. This is what we need infrastructure funds for.