Some Recent-ish Media
Mar. 19th, 2019 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryI'm covered most of my recent manga reading in my last post but I'm still looking for more manga recs. But here's a bit about some of the non-manga things I've been reading and watching lately.
Legend of Korra Season 4 I'm working on a longer write up for this so hopefully more later. Meantime if anyone has recs for criticism or fanworks for Korra or ALTA that would be great!
Fruits Basket I finished it! I have such sense of closure about finishing this manga that I first read about 15 years ago. It was like a gift from my younger self. I liked the ending but I kinda wish the characters had more agency in one of the major events.
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones One of my friends read this for the first time recently and inspired me to do a reread. Its still very charming!
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley Its so nice to read something about pregnancy that acknowledges that it can really suck even when you want a baby. Lucy's pregnancy was much harder than mine, but I hated being pregnant. And the stuff about her miscarriage was really affirming if hard to read because it reminded me of my own experience.
Never After: Thirteen Twists on Familiar Tales by Marie Brennan Collection of flash fairy tale retellings. I am generally a fan of Brennan's work but this was bit dark for my tastes.
Ben's Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle by Penelope Peters Gay Jewish Hockey romance. A lot of the conflict in this had to do with the couple having different levels of Jewish observance and since they where both more observant than I am I found that stressful. And honestly the more observant dude was kinda a jerk about the whole thing. It did have donuts and cute pee wee hockey team though.
Guardian This Chinese drama seems like it is popular here on DW so I thought I'd check it out. I've watched the 1st 17 episodes and I'm really liking it so far.
I'm a little confused by this because its not really my usual thing. It centers around police group that investigates the supernatural, and I'm generally not into the police or shows with a lot of crime and violence. It's also not great on female characters either. And it can be confusing at times. Reasons the show is confusing 1) subtitles I'm not great at these at best of times but the ones for this show are extra confusing, sometimes the English grammar is wonky, names are transliterated differently in different episodes, every now and again the subtitles are just missing. 2)This my first time watching a Chinese drama and I'm not familiar with the conventions 3) the plot is pretty complex with bits of backstory being reviled slowly through flashbacks so there's a lot to keep track of 4) there's probably plot holes and stuff but I can't tell for sure because of 3. Anyways I've decided to just roll with it and be confused and that's working out ok for me.
So that's all things I don't like so I should talk about what I do like. The drama is biased on a Boys Love novel but they aren't allowed to have gay romance on TV in China. But what this seams to mean in practice is that they've taken out all the kissing but left in all the flirting. So I really enjoy the relationship between the leads. So many intense looks! And one of them keeps feeding the other one. I generally like the team, they spend a fair amount of time bounding/bickering which is good fun. Plus I just enjoy the fact that its bit cheesy with melodramatic bits a silly specially effects. Its not sophisticated to admit to liking cheesy stuff but its defiantly something I enjoy.
SG1 This is what R and I are watching together. We are doing a good parts version and only watching the episodes that he thinks are good. Its my favorite level of serialized where each episode is contained story but the reset button isn't pushed and there's some meta plot. I enjoy the team dynamics, and how they all look out for each other. Every now and again they say something really sexist or racist and I have to yell at the TV. We are currently in the middle of season 2. The last episode featured a body swap machine which I image is a boon to fic writers.
Legend of Korra Season 4 I'm working on a longer write up for this so hopefully more later. Meantime if anyone has recs for criticism or fanworks for Korra or ALTA that would be great!
Fruits Basket I finished it! I have such sense of closure about finishing this manga that I first read about 15 years ago. It was like a gift from my younger self. I liked the ending but I kinda wish the characters had more agency in one of the major events.
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones One of my friends read this for the first time recently and inspired me to do a reread. Its still very charming!
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley Its so nice to read something about pregnancy that acknowledges that it can really suck even when you want a baby. Lucy's pregnancy was much harder than mine, but I hated being pregnant. And the stuff about her miscarriage was really affirming if hard to read because it reminded me of my own experience.
Never After: Thirteen Twists on Familiar Tales by Marie Brennan Collection of flash fairy tale retellings. I am generally a fan of Brennan's work but this was bit dark for my tastes.
Ben's Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle by Penelope Peters Gay Jewish Hockey romance. A lot of the conflict in this had to do with the couple having different levels of Jewish observance and since they where both more observant than I am I found that stressful. And honestly the more observant dude was kinda a jerk about the whole thing. It did have donuts and cute pee wee hockey team though.
Guardian This Chinese drama seems like it is popular here on DW so I thought I'd check it out. I've watched the 1st 17 episodes and I'm really liking it so far.
I'm a little confused by this because its not really my usual thing. It centers around police group that investigates the supernatural, and I'm generally not into the police or shows with a lot of crime and violence. It's also not great on female characters either. And it can be confusing at times. Reasons the show is confusing 1) subtitles I'm not great at these at best of times but the ones for this show are extra confusing, sometimes the English grammar is wonky, names are transliterated differently in different episodes, every now and again the subtitles are just missing. 2)This my first time watching a Chinese drama and I'm not familiar with the conventions 3) the plot is pretty complex with bits of backstory being reviled slowly through flashbacks so there's a lot to keep track of 4) there's probably plot holes and stuff but I can't tell for sure because of 3. Anyways I've decided to just roll with it and be confused and that's working out ok for me.
So that's all things I don't like so I should talk about what I do like. The drama is biased on a Boys Love novel but they aren't allowed to have gay romance on TV in China. But what this seams to mean in practice is that they've taken out all the kissing but left in all the flirting. So I really enjoy the relationship between the leads. So many intense looks! And one of them keeps feeding the other one. I generally like the team, they spend a fair amount of time bounding/bickering which is good fun. Plus I just enjoy the fact that its bit cheesy with melodramatic bits a silly specially effects. Its not sophisticated to admit to liking cheesy stuff but its defiantly something I enjoy.
SG1 This is what R and I are watching together. We are doing a good parts version and only watching the episodes that he thinks are good. Its my favorite level of serialized where each episode is contained story but the reset button isn't pushed and there's some meta plot. I enjoy the team dynamics, and how they all look out for each other. Every now and again they say something really sexist or racist and I have to yell at the TV. We are currently in the middle of season 2. The last episode featured a body swap machine which I image is a boon to fic writers.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 07:06 pm (UTC)My favorite ATLA fic is pretty much all by
no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 01:09 am (UTC)I see that damkianna has writen and story about the missing moms which seems right up my alley.