Miscellaneous

[chelseagirl]

I'm doing a Senior Seminar this semester which I've taught as a shorter summer class before (5 weeks and they're all working or doing internships full time, so limited in what can be assigned). I was working on my syllabus when I saw an email from the department chair regarding the fact that some of the classes have a reputation of being not rigorous enough. So I emailed him, because I worry. And heard the nicest thing back: my classes apparently have a reputation of being "hard, but interesting and fun," which as he said, was exactly the right place to be. Yay, me! (I am not the Queen of Self-Confidence.)

Watched: Lupin, WandaVision, Miss Scarlet and the Duke

Lupin is fabulous and I recommend it highly. I was lazy and watched the dub but it's short enough that I'll rewatch in French (with subtitles just in case) before the second half drops. Senegalese immigrant takes revenge on the man who framed his father 25 years earlier; said immigrant is a total fanboy of French gentleman thief Arsene Lupin (who seems to be kind of to the French what Sherlock Holmes is in the UK and US); plot very clever and twisty and very moving. Also Omar Sy is all kinds of handsome.

WandaVision: intriguing, funny, and I'm preparing for heartbreak if what I think is going on, is actually going on. Great cast. M didn't enjoy the first episode as much as I did, due to less familiarity with midcentury American sitcoms, but started to like the second one a lot more. It was a good idea showing the first two together, to build momentum.

Miss Scarlet and the Duke: female Victorian detective, London 1882. Of course I'm in. Not as stylish or original as The Alienist or Vienna Blood, but also less likely to break my heart like the former. I suspect I'll like it in the way I like Frankie Drake Mysteries -- pleasant & feminist but doesn't go too deep.

I'm falling behind on the January meme, mostly because setting up Canvas classes that are brand new rather than revised/adapted from earlier versions -- very time consuming. I've got the asynchronous online ones under control, but the synchronous/converged one is still a work in progress. But since it doesn't meet until Thursday, I'll manage. (Assuming, of course, there's not a civil war begun on Wednesday.)

But my writing group meets tonight and I need to still do some set-up work for the Writing Center, so . . . .

I'll move a few days' worth to later in the month. I've really been enjoying it.

Comments

[senmut]

Good luck with classes, and yay for that comment!

[chelseagirl]

I know, right? It really made me happy.

[oracne]

"Miss Scarlet and the Duke" sounds intriguing.

[chelseagirl]

I found Miss Scarlet to be fairly predictable, but likable. We'll see how it develops, but I'll definitely be watching.

[corvidology]

I love Lupin although I haven't read the books in years. :D

There are five episodes available at Netflix. We've seen the first two so far and I'm really enjoying the stylish silliness and Omar Sy.

WandaVision didn't confuse me because my American flatmates in grad school watched all the old sitcoms in reruns so I'm familiar with them.

I had exactly the same feeling about Miss Scarlet and the Duke although I liked it better than I like the Frankie Drake Mysteries.

[chelseagirl]

M was totally lost during the 50s-looking episode; the 60s-ish one started to feel more familiar.

I watched Frankie Drake mostly as an antidote to the self-seriousness of Sara's ending in Angel of Darkness, and on that level, it worked. But I've only seen the first season; I have the others in reserve for when there's nothing more interesting, and I haven't gotten there yet.

[corvidology]

I watched Frankie Drake after watching Miss Fisher so it really didn't stand a chance. :D

[chelseagirl]

Oh, yes, it feels like the off-brand imitation.

I had the same problem with Murdoch Mysteries -- I watched Miss Fisher, and then Foyle's War, and then tried Murdoch. I made it about 10 minutes into an episode and gave up.

[corvidology]

Ah, I have to admit to loving The Murdoch Mysteries, in part because of Murdoch and the rest of the supporting cast but largely because of Dr. Julia Ogden, the pathologist who regularly 'science nerds' with Murdoch.

See, you can never assume what a mate might like as I would have thought you'd love her.

[chelseagirl]

It just seemed cheesy in close comparison to the two above cited, when I'd gone from one to the other to Murdoch. A lot of my steampunk friends like it a lot, too; I may give it another chance at some point.

[corvidology]

I didn't see it back to back with the other two and who knows what I might of thought if I had?

Sometimes people just don't like stuff and that's all there is to it. :D

[lunabee34]

That is such wonderful feedback about your teaching.

*high five*

[chelseagirl]

It made me SO happy! My self-confidence is not high at the moment, so it felt really good.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

What's bringing you down? Or tell me to buzz off if you don't want to talk about it.

[kore]

T sat through the first ep with an expression that was alternately Made of Stone and extremely pained (I kept cracking up: "You can fly at the speed of sound and I can float a pen through the air. Why do we need abbreviations?") but he got intrigued at the building mystery in the second ep and I can tell he's going to like the puzzle-box aspect. I wonder if as the show goes on, they're going to split time between SWORD/whoever and Pleasantville Wandaville? It seems like we get at least some outside views, from the trailers.

I kinda loved it, which I was NOT expecting, since I don't like sitcoms, don't like Wanda/Vision, thought Wanda was super miscast at first in AoU, and don't like House of M. LOLOLOL, perfect audience. But Olsen and Bettany are so charming and pitch-perfect, and I loved all the little callbacks (twin beds! Vision phasing THRU the DVD ottoman! Olsen doing a combo of MTM and Elizabeth Montgomery!). The supporting cast is great, too. I think maybe after the extraordinary downer I felt after Civil War AND THEN Infinity War/Endgame, it's just nice to have something not horribly depressing to watch. Bettany's getting a lot of attention for his comic chops (the drunk magic act!) but Olsen is amazing with those brittle sitcom zingers ("They built a moat and a porticullis and nobody even knew what it was for!") and the sense of something heartfelt and dark underneath ("It's not my intention to harm anyone.... Is this really happening?").

Just OMFG please don't let them do House of M, I reread that recently and it was SO....SO VERY....IDEFK. But I was just saying elsewhere that MCU tends to borrow the big dramatic story beats (Steve confronting Thanos) without the actual plots (no Lady Death in IW/EG) so if we just get "Wanda is unknowingly drawing regular people into her Dark Twisted Fantasyland" rather than "Wanda gave everyone their deepest wish and they all feel mentally raped and want to kill her," that would be good.

[chelseagirl]

I've read a little about the storyline you're talking about, I think, but am not too familiar with the comics, honestly. In Marvel, I've mostly just picked up with some of the characters I liked from the movies or tv (Jessica Jones, some of Carol's solo Captain Marvel comics, Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel) and I'm otherwise fairly unaware. (OK, Kamala isn't in a movie, yet, but she's a Muslim teenager from Jersey City so she could easily be a future student at my university.)

Even so, I have a certain sense of existential dread. ;-) And yes, M was just like T; definitely got much more interested with the second episode.

[kore]

"Existential dread" is never a bad strategy when it comes to women-centered Marvel stories, lolsob. House of M is like all the worst versions of "woman of power can't handle it, goes batshit, all women really want in life is babies, all mothers care about is their children, women are psycho" -- it's like they thought "Hmmm, Dark Phoenix, too optimistic and feminist! How can we fix that?"

she's a Muslim teenager from Jersey City so she could easily be a future student at my university

AWW. I can't wait for the TV show. And I hope she's in CM 2! (Supposedly Jude Law is coming back in CM 2 to which my reaction is OMFG NO. Altho maybe if Carol AND Kamala kick his ass, that will be fun.)

I think there's definitely a split reaction between people who were put in front of TV reruns for the electronic babysitter are getting a kick out of the sitcom deconstruction/homage and people who don't care or don't like it. (T didn't know about Dick van Dyke tripping over and then in later season credits neatly avoiding the ottoman! One of the best self-referential gags ever.)

[kore]

Also that's the first thing I've read about Lupin that makes me want to actually see it!

I dunno about Miss Scarlet...it sounds fun, but like with Enola Holmes, just "fun" isn't enough right now when I am already behind on series I've been keeping up with for years and my to-watch list is SO FUCKING LONG.

[chelseagirl]

Miss Scarlet's pretty good but it's also exactly up my alley, what with me writing a female detective in NYC about 8 years later. ;-) But I'm definitely not blown away by it, at least not yet, so I think it's skippable.

Lupin just delighted me, though I watched all 5 episodes before I really heard anyone else talking about it. The main downside is that part 2 is yet to come, and part 1 is cliffhung, so you might want to wait.

[kore]

Cliffhanger NOOOOOOO. Oh my Jesus I hate cliffhangers. I have hated them ever since my parents and oldest stepsister took me to see Empire Strikes Back in San Francisco as a special treat, and then Han Solo was frozen, and the credits rolled, and the lights went up, and I was still insisting we couldn't go home because the movie wasn't over because they hadn't rescued Han Solo yet. There may have been kicking and screaming.

[malinaldarose]

I've watched all the trailers for WandaVision numerous times, so I Have A Theory (it's probably not bunnies, despite Anya's appearance in the second episode). I can't wait for the rest of the series.

(Assuming, of course, there's not a civil war begun on Wednesday.)

So...I should maybe wait until later in the week to get started on my homework?