Media Round Up: Again!
Apr. 25th, 2025 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryI don't generally post two of these in a week, but I finished the drama I was watching and also read and watched several short things, so I have more than enough to say.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells—I know I wasn’t that enthusiastic about rereading the first Murderbot novella but I still wanted to reread another one so I did. This was pretty fun. I had lower expectations which probably helped, but Murderbot admits more to caring about stuff in this one. But the best part is definitely Murderbot’s relationship with ART! I especially liked the bit where they watch media and talk about how humans portray beings like them.
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells—Yet more Murderbot, as I was finding it rather morish. This one doesn’t have ART, and it does have a lot of new characters to keep track of.
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells— Even more Murderbot. This is the last one I have on hand and these four make a nice arc so I stopped after this one. It's hard to pull off this kind of multi part arc where each piece also is a complete story
The Lost Boys —A little while ago a bunch of people I know were making lists of movies that were important to them, and this movie was on several of them. R had wanted to watch this together for a while and the movie lists prompted us to finally do so. I didn't realize it had that much Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in it! (It still looks pretty much like that) I see why this movie is a cult classic and popular with my friends. It's certainly a aesthetic!
Race to Romance ep 1-4—I watched the first couple episodes of this modern mini drama about a girl who crossdresses to take her brother's place on a car racing team, but it didn’t really grab me. I’m still finding mini drama pacing a bit hard to follow. And I disliked the evil half brother plot. But I think this trope doesn’t appeal to me as much in modern settings for whatever reason.
In a Class of Her Own— This is the Chinese remake of the kdrama Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Featuring a young woman who dresses as a man to attend school. This version has a lot more school shenanigans and a lot less politics. It’s very cute! Every time I’d start to stress out about something in In a Class of Her Ownbecause that bit in Sungkyunkwan Scandal was tense it turned out to be a lot chiller than I expected.
On the one hand I enjoy the cuteness, but on the other hand I think the cuteness makes the stuff about poverty and inequality feel more abstract. But Sungkyunkwan Scandal doesn’t quite land on those themes either. (Mostly in that I don’t understand how the proposed actions the king wants to take are going to make things better, and also in its focus on the aforementioned King)In a Class of Her Own has fairly different political plot that focuses more on equal access to education, and less on more general freedom and relief form poverty. But even on those less radical themes the show pulls its punches and over all just feels a lot more normative.
I didn’t love howSungkyunkwan Scandal treated queerness, but In a Class of Her Own just kind of ignores the existence of queerness which is worse. There is one bit where people accuse the FL of being the ML’s “hanger-on” which maybe is a euphemism for queerness, but I can’t tell for sure. Otherwise the closest the ML gets to questioning his own sexuality is “I’d rather have a lifelong friend than a wife”
I did really like that the female characters interact with each other more in this version. And both of the secondary female characters have interesting arcs and get to do awesome things. However the ending of this one feels way more gender normative thanSungkyunkwan Scandal.
I know this is a lot of comparing the two versions but I can’t really disentangle them. Anyways it's fun to think about adaption choices . In the end I don’t prefer one version to the other, I think they both have strengths and weaknesses.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells—I know I wasn’t that enthusiastic about rereading the first Murderbot novella but I still wanted to reread another one so I did. This was pretty fun. I had lower expectations which probably helped, but Murderbot admits more to caring about stuff in this one. But the best part is definitely Murderbot’s relationship with ART! I especially liked the bit where they watch media and talk about how humans portray beings like them.
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells—Yet more Murderbot, as I was finding it rather morish. This one doesn’t have ART, and it does have a lot of new characters to keep track of.
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells— Even more Murderbot. This is the last one I have on hand and these four make a nice arc so I stopped after this one. It's hard to pull off this kind of multi part arc where each piece also is a complete story
The Lost Boys —A little while ago a bunch of people I know were making lists of movies that were important to them, and this movie was on several of them. R had wanted to watch this together for a while and the movie lists prompted us to finally do so. I didn't realize it had that much Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in it! (It still looks pretty much like that) I see why this movie is a cult classic and popular with my friends. It's certainly a aesthetic!
Race to Romance ep 1-4—I watched the first couple episodes of this modern mini drama about a girl who crossdresses to take her brother's place on a car racing team, but it didn’t really grab me. I’m still finding mini drama pacing a bit hard to follow. And I disliked the evil half brother plot. But I think this trope doesn’t appeal to me as much in modern settings for whatever reason.
In a Class of Her Own— This is the Chinese remake of the kdrama Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Featuring a young woman who dresses as a man to attend school. This version has a lot more school shenanigans and a lot less politics. It’s very cute! Every time I’d start to stress out about something in In a Class of Her Ownbecause that bit in Sungkyunkwan Scandal was tense it turned out to be a lot chiller than I expected.
On the one hand I enjoy the cuteness, but on the other hand I think the cuteness makes the stuff about poverty and inequality feel more abstract. But Sungkyunkwan Scandal doesn’t quite land on those themes either. (Mostly in that I don’t understand how the proposed actions the king wants to take are going to make things better, and also in its focus on the aforementioned King)In a Class of Her Own has fairly different political plot that focuses more on equal access to education, and less on more general freedom and relief form poverty. But even on those less radical themes the show pulls its punches and over all just feels a lot more normative.
I didn’t love howSungkyunkwan Scandal treated queerness, but In a Class of Her Own just kind of ignores the existence of queerness which is worse. There is one bit where people accuse the FL of being the ML’s “hanger-on” which maybe is a euphemism for queerness, but I can’t tell for sure. Otherwise the closest the ML gets to questioning his own sexuality is “I’d rather have a lifelong friend than a wife”
I did really like that the female characters interact with each other more in this version. And both of the secondary female characters have interesting arcs and get to do awesome things. However the ending of this one feels way more gender normative thanSungkyunkwan Scandal.
I know this is a lot of comparing the two versions but I can’t really disentangle them. Anyways it's fun to think about adaption choices . In the end I don’t prefer one version to the other, I think they both have strengths and weaknesses.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-03 04:20 pm (UTC)