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

[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.)