/s != serious
vaguerant
joined 1 year ago
Gamers said they wanted women out of games, I thought they'd be happy. /s
"Rate" in the headline feels a bit misleading. It's not an app for quantifying hotness, it seems to be more about checking whether the men you meet online are safe to be around. You can upload their photos to do reverse image searches to detect catfishing, search public records for criminal records, sex offender registries, indications that they're already married, etc. and have anonymous discussions about men you are or have dated in case of any red flags.
Sounds like you've never had to endure Amateur Services.
Understandable, given the circumstances.
I watched the eight-part miniseries Washington Black (US: Hulu, CA/UK/AU: Disney+). It's a sort of swashbuckling 1800s steampunk fairytale of a Barbadian boy (the titular George Washington Black) who escapes the life of slavery he was born into using his scientific aptitude and a fantastical airship. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the depiction of life within the show's universe, but going any further than that strays into spoiler territory. Overall, it was fun to watch. Sterling K. Brown is a major standout in the cast, but everybody is doing good work.
Below I'll go into a bit more detail about the things I liked less. It's fairly minor spoilers, mostly about things that don't happen in the show, but if you don't want to know anything going in, skip it.
Spoilers
Presumably in service of being "fun to watch," the realities of slavery and racism in the era are glossed over and sanded down significantly compared to the novel it's adapting or actual history. There are a few threats of gratuitous violence but probably the worst thing that happens is a slap, which is bad but on the lower end of awful things that might happen to a slave. Nobody in the show's universe seems to know any racial slurs. There is an over-representation of enlightened, abolitionist white men, although they are for the most part deeply flawed, not idealized white saviors.
I don't mean to give the impression that the racism is entirely whitewashed. There's at least one unrepentant slaver, several malevolent slave-catchers, a light-skinned, mixed-race character is forced to disguise their parentage to continue living in wealthy, white society. But the show's focus is mostly on the fun parts: the adventures, romance and airships, with the less palatable stuff frequently only implied or occurring off-camera.
Overall, I'd say it's what you might expect from a Disney(-ish) fairytale adaptation of darker source material. It just feels a little weird when the elements that were dropped are the harsh realities of 1800s racism and not ... little mermaids dying (Hans Christian Anderson spoilers). Again, I had fun watching it, but I feel conflicted about how healthy it is to make historical fiction fun by softening the harder edges. Who knows, maybe it's OK to have some escapist fiction with PoC protagonists, as a treat?
For people who have seen Nautilus (US/CA: AMC+, UK: Amazon Prime Video, AU: Stan), I'd say that's a better show, as far as swashbuckling steampunk adventures which try to engage with the racial dynamics of the (fictionalized) eras they represent. But both shows are very enjoyable, quite short and easy to watch. Go watch Nautilus.
It's all right. I fell off it after one too many comedy "animal accidentally gets killed" scenes for me, which hurt what was otherwise a fun, feel-good sitcom. Tudyk is excellent as always and the supporting cast of small-town weirdos are mostly likeable. It's not for me but I can understand people loving it.
For those who didn't follow the link:
But what was the reason for Henry’s condemnation by the University to five and a half centuries of infamy? It was a murder. In 1242 he and a number of other men of the town of Oxford were found guilty of murdering a student of the University. Henry and his accomplices were fined £80 by King Henry III in May 1242 and were made to leave Oxford as a result, forced to stay away (and allowed no closer than Northampton) at least until the King returned from abroad.
Further research is needed to discover the exact details of what happened here but it seems that Henry Symeonis had bought the King’s pardon and his permission to return to Oxford. The King was willing to allow his return if the University agreed to it. But the University refused and chose to ignore the King’s order of 25 March 1264, resuming its hostility to Henry Symeonis. In fact, it felt so strongly about it, that it gave Henry Symeonis the unique honour of being named in its own statutes, making the University’s dislike of him official and perpetual.
There's even a few that made it big and sometimes bigger than their parent shows.
- All in the Family --> Maude --> Good Times
- Love, American Style --> Happy Days --> Laverne & Shirley / Mork & Mindy
- Jag --> NCIS --> 50 more NCIS spinoffs
- Star Trek --> Star Trek: Voyager --> Star Trek: Prodigy (mostly a Voyager spinoff, but Trek is incestuous)
- Star Trek --> Star Trek: Discovery --> Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Pascal's family left Chile when he was nine months old, so it would be a lot weirder if he did have a Chilean accent.
Wait, is this why Emma Watson was speeding?
I'm always on board for a (quasi-) Jackie Tyler episode; she's one of my favorite parts of the Rose era. It is funny that Camille Coduri is playing a 20-year-old Jackie Tyler here with just an '80s perm to convince us. She's entirely unconvincing as a 20-year-old, but it's not really much worse than Billie Piper being 19. It's the Dear Evan Hansen industrial complex over here.
I love any time there's Back to the Future II (my favorite!) shenanigans in a time travel story, so the opening with multiple Doctors and Roses a few minutes apart immediately wins me over. They're followed by some pretty naff effects throughout, with the red-cellophane vision and dodgy CGI monsters all over the place. I'm still on board.
It's interesting to see the Doctor actively frightened about what he's done to the timeline, since plot conceits usually dictate that whatever he does is fine. There's some interesting moments like him watching that time-displaced death car with genuine concern. We also get his line, "An ordinary man, that's the most important thing in creation." I wonder if somebody overheard the Doctor saying this in 1987 and that's why we're dealing with the manosphere today.
The scene(s) where Pete starts to understand that he's not in Rose's future and in fact not in anybody's future are well written and performed by Piper and Dingwall, who is unfalteringly believable as a deadbeat husband and dad who both knows and regrets it. Rose's false monologue about the kind of father he becomes and his ultimate recognition that he can in some way be that father is genuinely affecting. Even though the music is doing its best to hammer the emotional beats home throughout, I don't think it was necessary in that moment.
This isn't an episode that I think should have won any awards, and don't worry: it didn't. Nothing ground-breaking for the show happens here, the music choices are incredibly un-subtle, and it's ultimately very predictable stuff. But I find it enjoyable from start to finish. It's the fun kind of silly. I like getting to meet a bunch of the recurring cast at a different point in their lives in a story that's self-contained but with a satisfying payoff in the final Jackie and child-Rose scene. This isn't Doctor Who at its best, but it's supremely comfortable viewing and I'm happy with that.
Bonus points for the pre-Rickroll "Never Gonna Give You Up" in the scene with Rose and her father in the car on the way to the church. The meme didn't exist when this episode was first broadcast, it was just a hit song from the '80s. Hearing it in the background just to set the scene without the 20 years of baggage is a fun time. It's hard to remember what it was like to hear it without the modern context, but having nobody react strongly to it in-universe gives us a small taste.