Here We Go Again

This time last year, I was in Iceland. And not quite a year later, I finally got around to doing the last of the editing on the video footage. (I was going to do it in December, so it was at least done the same year of the trip. But then a lovely Polish lady commented extensively on my fics on AO3 and got me writing again, so the video editing lost out 😁) And no, I did not edit out the sound when my brother was being annoying 🤣

https://youtu.be/PUBrkVwjSJ8

I recommend setting it to 1080. Stunning country, amazing trip.

I now have a completed first draft of the fic that I abandoned in 2009 😁

I'm getting back-logged again - time for a rapid-fire catch-up!

Slow Horses season 5 It's Slow Horses. That means it's good. If you haven't believed me by now and given it a go, you probably won't, I guess 🤪 The combination of spy action drama and dry comedy remains as solid as ever, and the revolving supporting cast around the core characters mean that interactions and relationships don't get stale. As always, they filmed two seasons back to back, meaning six is already in the can and coming later this year.


Person of Interest season 5 As I had predicted, I didn't find this quite as enjoyable as some of the others. I was glad to see I was wrong about Elias and he did resurface, but an ensemble cast like this thrives on the ensemble, and having Shaw separated from the rest for so long hurts it. Like the 'Fiona in jail' arc in season six of Burn Notice, you can't just rip one person out and give them their own plotline without it breaking up the vibe and making everything feel disjointed.

The ending made sense for the series and the characters - like Burn Notice, this isn't a setup where these people can keep doing this stuff forever and getting away with it, and some characters were more likely to be paying that price than others. It felt right.


Shogun I finally got around to watching this, a year late. It had been on the watch list all along, I just kept picking other things from the list instead. The critics liked it, but it didn't set the world on fire, and I'll go with that. It has a great cast, fabulous production values and beautiful cinematography and direction. It should have grabbed me more than it did. Five way politicking, manipulation and back-stabbing is exactly my bag, yet somehow it just didn't take off. I don't regret watching it, but I don't think I'd have missed out on much if I'd skipped it either.


The Witcher season 4 The one with the new Witcher. Cavill was prettier than Hemsworth, Hemsworth emotes more. Whether the latter is a good thing or not depends on your take on how Geralt should be, I guess. I never read the books or played the games, so I don't have too much of an opinion on that. But also the character plot of the season was how Geralt's becoming more open, as remarked upon by the people surrounding him, so it was obviously a deliberate choice. Geralt's and Yennefer's plots for the season were fine.

Ciri's arc for the season with the rats annoyed the shit out of me. Girl, what the fuck are you doing with these people? They're stupid and they're awful! They're lying to and manipulating you from the start, one of them tries to blackmail you into sex on day one, and then another one comes along to 'rescue' you and says, 'How about fucking me instead?' And you do! It just looks like more manipulation, a deliberate good cop-bad cop set up, and whether it actually was or not doesn't matter when you're hanging out with a rapist and a bunch of people who are all chill with hanging out with a rapist. And they're all chill with kidnapping children too. Not only are they awful people, they're actively bad at being awful and keep doing stupid shit that Ciri has to bail them out of. She should have ditched their arses and moved on, but somehow every time she discovers something else they've been keeping from her and lying to her about, she keeps on forgiving them. Ugh.

(Also, do not get me started on Ciri's attempt to disguise herself. You cut your hair from waist length to shoulder length? What is that supposed to do? You look exactly the same! Did the actor just refuse to get a buzz cut or something? Or did management decide they couldn't make the pretty girl couldn't less pretty? A buzz cut might have been effective, but apparently that was too much to ask.)


Pluribus Hell, yes! What happens when almost everyone in the world turns into an Invasion of the Body Snatchers pod person, and you're one of a handful of people scattered across the planet who remain human? Very different from Vince Gilligan's previous awesome series, but the same mix of high drama and wry humour.

This series lives or dies by Rhea Seehorn, and of course it lives - anyone who saw her as Kim in Better Call Saul knows exactly that she can do. There are a couple of episodes in there when she's acting almost entirely alone for the full fifty minutes, nobody to play off, and she nails it. (She's also in some scenes obviously having the time of her life as an actor, running the whole gamut of everything. And good for her, getting the chance to do that.)

It was fun to see the card game spit make an appearance - I hadn't thought of that in years! I loved the history lesson about nobody knows where it came from, but it went viral in the UK in the 80s - why, yes it did! They tried to ban it in my school because we were all spending all our breaks bruising one another's hands 🤪

Season two is all set up by this ending, and it's confirmed it's happening, and I'm going to be so here for it.

“God? Really?” Sands is instantly amused, as he always is with any mention of religion. "Take a look at your life, El. Hell, take a look at who you're shacked up with, then tell me you think God had anything to do with it, because I'm guessing that particular god doesn't like you very much."

"I know who I’m with,” El says, his hand gliding down Sands’ arm to rest over the bullet scar. “And I know if God had given me someone 'nice', someone good and innocent, I would have left them."

(It is still Sunday here, if only barely.)

I'd almost forgotten how cathartic writing some characters can be. Nobody unleashes the inner bitch quite like Sands 🤣

That person who went through my sprawling 230k epic a few weeks ago, commenting in detail on every part, made me go back and read the whole thing again myself. Twice. And we've been chatting back and forth a bit more, and I'd always intended there to be one more part to that story to finish it off, but I stalled on it a few thousand words in.

But now I'm all inspired again, and giddy and excited, and I'm back working on a WIP I abandoned in 2009. The best readers are absolute gold ❤️

(Though the timing could be more convenient. Since it's Christmas and I have stuff to do today, which will not be postponed regardless of the fact that I only slept for four hours last night because my head was alive with scenes and bitchy Sands dialogue.)

Anyway, Season's Greasons to all those who do this holiday, in whatever form 🎂

It's been very damp here over the last week (and before that too). I got a free day off work yesterday because the Snoqualmie river got a lot bigger and the town I work in is currently an island. Not exactly unheard of for that town since the three roads into it all run alongside the river or cross it, but it's the first time it's happened in a few years. Last time was 2019, I think?

Heavy rain is supposed to hit again Sunday and Monday, which is sad, because that's when I'll be doing the Christmas Bird Count. Most years we get snow over in the mountains, not rain, but this year it's still too warm. So we'll be out in the grey and the damp and the mud, and the birds will sensibly stay in the bushes. I suspect it will be a low count year...

Yesterday evening I came home from work to find that someone had spent the day reading my circa 20 year old 230k word series for a very niche fandom, and had left detailed comments on every story in the series. After a tedious and sometimes frustrating day at work, that was just awesome ❤️ Today I am replying to their comments, and getting distracted by going back and reading parts of the stories myself - also awesome!

I'm trying to get better about posting things in a more timely manner - today is apparently Good Intentions Day!

Gen V season 2 I'm still impressed by the quality of this. I honestly had zero expectations for a late teenaged spin-off of The Boys, but the writers are doing a great job. Beneath the deliberate silliness and grossness, the characters continue to be complex, all with their own story arcs and issues - none of them evil, none of them good, all just kids with problems who can go either way. There was an interesting narrative twist to the season's main plot, and the plot threads of Gen V and The Boys are now coming together in a way that makes upcoming series potentially very interesting indeed. I'm fully on board.


Castlevania Nocturne I took a while to get into this Castlevania sequel. The basic set-up is the same - a Belmont, a magic-using female alongside him and some other characters adding to the mix. I initially missed the banter, though - I'm always up for a series where the main characters bitch each other out in the most affectionate of ways, and this sequel doesn't have that the way the original did. These main characters are a little younger and more idealistic and vulnerable. The plot was interesting, though, and the historical references behind it (I have to feel bad for Maria, knowing where her beloved revolution is going - and Annette when her Saint Domingue revolution is going to get ripped apart and dragged down into chaos too).

I loved the return of Alucard - an older Alucard, embittered by so many years of caring for mortals. He was so happy when he saw him at the end of Castlevania, surrounded by his newfound village and playing with the kids, but how many times could he watch them all live and die without it wearing him down? Olrox was a great character, too - introduced up-front as the series villain, but far more layered than that. And I really liked the way this series used music and Edouard's singing. I've read some complaints that his singing wasn't that great at first and then it suddenly got better, and why couldn't the actor have done better from the start? But have those people considered it might be deliberate? That Edouard the boy from a Caribbean island might have been considered a good singer locally but maybe not so great on the world stage? And maybe when he becomes a supernatural creature, that might enhance his voice as well as his strength? I thought he was a delight.


Person of Interest season 4 Pros and cons here. I didn't like it as much as season 3, but that's mainly because I MISS SHAW DAMMIT! Shaw was so good - she added a lot to this ensemble, and suddenly having her gone sucks. I'm coming around to Root a little more as the show progresses and so does her character, but she's definitely not replacing Shaw.

I'll miss Elias too - he was devious and conniving and Very Much Not Good but also not exclusively evil, which is always a fascinating mix. But I can also see that the show had played out all the possibilities with him and was coming back full circle, so maybe best to draw a line under that. The problem is we now seem to be left with a straight fight against Samaritan, and the Samaritan people are just not interesting or charismatic. None of them. It might be a good thing that season five is half the length...

Alien Earth (a couple of small spoilers) Damn, this was almost so good. The cast and the characters were great - there was good social commentary and everyone's motivations for their actions made sense. The direction and the music were awesome - it created an incredible sense of atmosphere and intense psychological drama that really drew me in. The look of it and the effects were fantastic.

There were just too many big flaws in the plotting for me to really love it. You have a high biosecurity alien containment lab, but someone stupid can open a door to one of the alien enclosures without any alarms going off. The idiot kid who cannot keep his mouth shut the entire series and is constantly on the edge of telling everyone they meet the incredibly important secret they must never mention - that kid somehow doesn't tell anybody when the guy who almost killed them starts talking inside his head. Once it becomes direct blackmail, it makes sense - but the kid saying nothing for days before that? Not a chance.

These are flaws that really wouldn't have needed much fixing. The plot could still have worked out the same way in the end with just a little more care taken with the plot devices, and it would have made a world of difference to the overall quality.


Peacemaker season 2 More of the same, and the same is gold. Genuinely funny, genuinely moving, absolutely insane. I love this cast, and James Gunn's writing is fantastic.

Some people were annoyed about the ending, I know, but the ending itself works with the plot and the situations it has set up. The only thing annoying about it to me is that there aren't any plans for a season three - the intent is to continue that storyline in crossovers with other James Gunn media. And that annoys the fuck out of me, because this story and these characters deserve to be given another season entirely their own 😭


Person of Interest season 3 OMG, this season really pushed the boat out with Carter. She rocked, and she deserved all of it. It was something they sorely needed to do with her, and I'm so glad they did. Her relationship with Elias was awesome (I'm really liking Elias more and more as the series goes on). I was not expecting the mid-season twist, that was A Thing.

Still really liking both Finch and Reese, and Shaw is making the most of all the potential I thought she had as a character, I love her ❤️. Root remains a) too crazy and b) too much of a plot device. They've chosen an interesting way to try and rehab her personality, but unlike the rest of the cast, she has no explanation for her skillset. A certain amount of things you can achieve just by following instructions in real time, but other things take rather more than that... But right now, she's the only weak spot in a very solid and entertaining series. Onward to season four...


Only Murders in the Building season 5 More of the same, and it's starting to get a little too same-y. It's fine; it's entertaining on a superficial level, but there are a limited number of places they can go with this, and five seasons in, those limitations are becoming very apparent. Martin Short and Meryl Strep continue to make an absolutely adorable screen couple, though - their scenes are perfection.


What We Do in the Shadows season 6 I finally got around to watching this, after the deeply underwhelmed reactions of the fans on my tumblr dash pushed it down the priority list. Overall, it's not bad, just kind of meh. Like Only Murders, there are inherent limitations with the format, and the writers tried to get around those somewhat with the office corporate culture plotline and satire, but it only partly worked. It was definitely time for this to end.

I wasn't a fan of the ending ending, where they tried to be all things to all people by offering multiple options in a total cop-out. You can't give a maybe wink wink nudge on the ship you've been teasing for years and expect people to be happy with that. I'm not even a shipper for them and it was irritating. Please, just choose the ending you think it needs and commit.


Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 (a couple of small spoilers) Overall, I enjoy Strange New Worlds, but I have to think of it as Not Trek. If I treat it like The Orville, something clearly Trek-inspired but not actually Trek, most of the time it's a lot of fun. It has a great cast generally, and Anson Mount's Pike is fantastic. But this is not Spock and it's not Kirk. I understand the general irritation with a Spock who bounces from het romance to het romance (see also This Is Not Spock) but Spock and La'An make a lot more sense as a couple than Spock and Chapel ever did, so that's an improvement.

As in previous seasons, it was very up and down. The last two eps in particular were genuinely good stuff, with actual emotional impact. Sure, one of them was just a rewrite of Enemy Mine, but it was written and acted well, and that's the detail that matters when you're borrowing. Episode five, meanwhile, was some of the most godawful writing I've seen since the final season of Game of Thrones. I'm talking 'fanfic written by a thirteen year old' level drivel. These people are supposed to be trained professionals! They have an actual professional archaeologist with them! And yet they discover a lost temple from an ancient civilisation and a random group of people go bumbling all around inside, touching everything and documenting nothing. Then when one of the random touchy people gets zapped by a glowy orb and collapses, they beam him up to sick bay. Do they put him in an isolation ward? Nah, the put him in a standard bed. Does the doctor treating him wear PPE? Nah, why would you bother doing that when dealing with unknown alien shit? Please. That script should never have made it past the initial pitch. Hard to believe somebody actually got paid for it... 😡