The Good, the Bad, and the Boring

The very, very good.

It’s fall—the time of back-to-school, starting fresh, trying again. And sure, fall is busy. Immensely busy once you have children. And a job. And laundry. But something about the cooler weather and leaves bursting with color brings visions of Dead Poet’s Society, Good Will Hunting, and other school-themed movies set in the fall. And I’ll admit it—I didn’t hate school. I was always excited to go back. Inspired by the possibility of fantastic new things on the horizon. So even though I’m busy with the aforementioned children, work, and laundry, I’m also inspired to blog. So here we go.

I can’t remember everything that I watched and read this summer—nor would anyone want to sit through that list—but here are some highlights and lowlights.

The Good
TV:
Lost in Austen ‐ This is the rom-com I’ve been needing. I laughed and cried and furiously emailed friends who needed to be informed about the program’s existence RIGHT AWAY. It’s a British mini-series about a modern London gal (played by Jemima Rooper) who loves Pride and Prejudice and discovers that Elizabeth Bennet (heroine of said book) has appeared in her bathroom via a secret portal. While wrestling with the confusion that one would expect upon finding a fictional character enraptured by your modern plumbing, she goes through the portal and finds herself trapped in Austen’s story. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy of manners, with strong ties to the original novel and perfect references to the much-loved BBC mini-series starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. (Did I mention it also features Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston?) I may need to watch it again soon. (I found it for free on Hulu!) And did I mention that there’s an American version in the works? It was going to be penned by the late Nora Ephron, but now will be written by Carrie Brownstein. I have high hopes.

Film:
The Thin Man ‐ It was suggested that I not watch this film based on Dashiell Hammett’s husband and wife detective team without a drink in my hand. The advice was not wrong. Liquor abounds in this post-Prohibition era comedy-mystery starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Nick is a hard-drinking former detective and Nora is a witty, wealthy heiress. The plot finds the newly married couple getting pulled into solving a murder in which the accused is Nick’s friend. The charm of this film isn’t the murder mystery, though that’s certainly engaging. The best part is the sharp repartee between Nick and Nora, who are deeply in love but aren’t afraid to challenge and tease one another. It’s no wonder their smart exchanges launched a string of fast-bantering detective couples in film and TV (hello Moonlighting). The success of The Thin Man also inspired a series of sequels (there was only one novel—the sequels were all written specifically for the screen). I’ve only seen After the Thin Man so far, but Powell and Loy are so charming as Nick and Nora, I don’t doubt I’ll eventually work through all of the films.

Books:
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency ‐ I’m embarrassed by how little I know about modern Africa and how many false assumptions I have. The purpose of Alexander McCall Smith’s successful novel series isn’t to teach about Africa—it’s to tell stories about the life and adventures of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a woman in Gaborone, Botswana, who follows her dream to open a female-owned detective agency, and finds success thanks to her clever ideas, brave actions, and strong heart. But, as with The Thin Man, this story isn’t just about solving mysteries. It also paints a picture of Mma Ramotswe’s life growing up, as well as the mundane, daily aspects of her life now and the lives of others in her community. Through these descriptions of life intertwined with the mysteries, the book both entertains and teaches about one particular region of Africa that is unseen to those of us who only know the Africa in the news. What’s most shocking is that it really shouldn’t be shocking how similar lives across the world can be. After all, if the Hollywood red carpet footage in LA or the violent struggles in urban centers like Detroit and Chicago were the only representations people around the world saw of the U.S. in the news (and I’m not even comparing continent to continent, here), I’m sure they’d have plenty of false assumptions, too.

The Bad
The Real Housewives of Melbourne ‐ This latest installment in Bravo’s RH franchise features some of the worst people I’ve seen in reality shows. And I’m focusing here on the behavior, not the frighteningly extensive use of sparkly clothing and heavy makeup. Certainly I’ve seen obnoxious behavior before—though I do stay away from some of the worst offenders (Bad Girls Club? No, thank you.) But what I think is particularly upsetting to me here is that most of these women are in their 40s and 50s (perhaps even 60s—hard to tell with the surgical enhancements), so one would think they would have matured past this level of crudeness by now. In fact, I can get embarrassed when watching people putting a certain level of idiocy on display, and so I find myself multi-tasking while watching so I don’t listen too closely during particularly clueless exchanges. (No, I don’t know why I keep watching. It’s one of those great mysteries of life.) The women can also be mean and self-aggrandizing in ways that surprise even my reality-TV soaked brain. (Except Chyka. I like Chyka.) Perhaps I need to prove my own maturity and wean myself off of this trainwreck...but then what would I write about?

On a side note: I know that using the Real Housewives moniker is part of the series’ branding, but it hardly applies to this cast in which half the women work outside the home and a third are currently divorced. Not that this is the first program in the franchise to feature working women or unmarried women, but there’s a real focus by the Melbourne cast on how busy they are juggling work and family, as well as the challenges of becoming single later in life. So, I appreciate that these issues are part of the conversation (even if they are presented in an obnoxious fashion).

And The Boring
Top Chef Duels ‐ This is a spinoff of Bravo’s successful Top Chef franchise. It’s possibly the 3rd or 4th spinoff (I’ve lost track), and I have watched at least on of the others, but I could not sit through this one. Partway through the first episode, I turned it off. As someone who continues to sit through so-good-they’re-bad shows, I think it’s a much worse offense to be dull.

Detecting Lady Bits

True Detective - Photo by James Bridges - © James Bridges/HBO

Last weekend, the boyfriend wanted to introduce me to one of his new favorite shows. We ended up watching two shows that were new to me...with mixed results.

True Detective – Although this doesn’t fit my preferred wheelhouse of “happy” shows, I was sucked in from the start. The initial draw is the mystery—who killed a young woman in a grotesque, cult-like fashion and will they do it again—but the show quickly becomes as much a character study as it is a whodunit. The lead detectives, played by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, act as our unreliable narrators. As they tell the story of their investigation, we gradually learn about who they are, as well. And who they are is deeply flawed. Granted, that’s expected from a dark show like this—the “flawed detective”—but one of the show’s strengths is how it keeps its characters from becoming caricatures. Each character acts consistently with who they are, yet their actions are often unexpected and sometimes shocking. The writing, directing, cinematography—all aspects of this production—are fantastic. Ultimately, I was so engaged with the story that we powered through all five available episodes at that time. (I do have some issues with the show that affected my engagement, but more on that in a moment.)

Game of Thrones – High on his victory with True Detective, the boyfriend decided to show me the first episode of Game of Thrones. Later, we both agreed that he should have quit while he was ahead. Whereas I’m generally interested in a good mystery, I’m not so interested in medieval-era-like fantasy. (I’m fine with present-day fantasy like Harry Potter or future-set fantasy like Hunger Games.) I think it’s partly a matter of personal taste. The idea of people scheming and battling for higher positions in a kingdom isn’t appealing (frankly, it stresses me out). But an even bigger problem for me is that I find the treatment of women in these stories upsetting. If it were a historical medieval drama, based on actual people and events, then I would understand the need to portray things a certain way. However, if the story is a fantasy made to emulate aspects of medieval times, then it was the writer’s choice to create certain situations for the female characters (and, thus, the actresses), and I’m simply not interested in engaging with this world.

In fact, both True Detective and Game of Thrones have been at the center of debate about their portrayal of women—both tend to show women as objects in their respective worlds and frequently show naked lady bits (breasts and butts). So, what is the driving force for showing women this way? Are they simply trying to push boundaries by constantly showing nudity and placing female characters in brothels, whorehouses, strip clubs, etc.? Do people who pay for premium cable demand to see something they can’t get on broadcast TV, and with all the gruesome blood and violence on broadcast and basic cable, female breasts are the final frontier? Does HBO expect female viewers to be satisfied by a strong story, but male viewers need boobs to engage with the plot? I can’t really say. I just know that the constant nudity in Game of Thrones felt largely unnecessary to me, and perhaps a different director would have made different choices about how to tell this story. In True Detective, the frequent nudity was also bothersome, though not nearly as much as in Game of Thrones. (But am I being more forgiving because I was so engaged in the story?) I could rant on, but instead I’ll share the following links, which frame the matter much better than I ever could:

HBO Should Show Dongs – The boyfriend provided this link to make up for the Game of Thrones misstep. All is well now.

‘True Detective’ and Women: Does the Hit HBO Show Have a Problem With Female Characters? – A more serious exploration of True Detective’s portrayal of women.

And to wrap it all up, here’s what I’ve been reading/watching since last time:

Books:
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
Shakespeare Wrote for Money – Nick Hornby (finished)
The Writing Class: A Novel – Jincy Willett

TV:
Brooklyn 99 (3 episodes)
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
New Girl (3 episodes)
Project Runway: Under the Gunn (2 episodes)
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2 episodes)
True Detective (5 episodes)
Vanderpump Rules – Last one of the season. So excited to be free!

Movies:
The Divorcee (1930)
The Lion in Winter (1968) – For the record, this film was everything that Game of Thrones is not. For one thing, it gave male and female actors equal treatment on screen, while still retaining their differing roles as men and women of that era. Katherine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier took turns owning the screen (even talented newcomer Anthony Hopkins could hardly keep up). And I was able to engage with each character’s wit and passion without a single naked bit.

Rediscovering Those Paper-Filled Things on My Shelves

I feel I’ve gotten too lax on the “Books” part of “Books and Bad TV,” and watching classic films doesn’t count. As much as I want to make the excuse that watching TV is related to my writing because I blog about it, I haven’t lost my mental acuity so fully that I don’t realize that reading is more important to my writing than Top Chef. And so, I‘ve resumed reading one book and started a new book tonight.

Shakespeare Wrote For Money by Nick Hornby – In this collection of monthly columns he wrote for The Believer magazine, Hornby lists the books he’s bought that month and then writes about the ones he read. Not surprising to anyone who loves books, the list of what he bought rarely matches perfectly with the list of what he read. Lucky for us, and perhaps a big reason behind Hornby writing this column, is that he’s a voracious reader. Hornby himself describes it as reading “neurotically...to ward off boredom, and the fear of our own ignorance, and our impending deaths.” Anyone familiar with Hornby’s style from his novels and short stories will recognize the flowing sentences, sometimes long and hard to parse, but always striking a unique balance between sounding casual and academic. And another signature Hornby style is that it’s funny, very funny. It’s a great read and features a wide assortment of nonfiction and fiction recommendations, including Hornby’s unexpected discovery that he enjoys the strong literary fiction in today’s YA market. Because Hornby selects writers he likes and others that are new to him, the discovery is genuine. Plus, like me, you may wind up with an even lengthier list of books you hope to read. On a side note: the Introduction by Sarah Vowell is hilarious.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – I’m not sure what inspired me to choose this book off my shelf (for better or worse, there are dozens of book on my shelves that I haven’t gotten around to reading), but I’m glad I picked it. The edition I have is from 1963 (according to the copyright page, it was the seventh printing of the book in just six months since its first publication). It’s a very old copy that smells like an old library book, which I adore, and the pages have been separating from the spine as I read each one. The fact that the book is falling apart at my fingertips seems fitting to the satirical story within about bombardiers trying to stay alive while stationed near Italy during WWII. I had heard much about the book (and the subsequent movie), as have most people, and knew that it was the source of the meaning of "a catch-22." But I don’t think I expected it to be so funny. In literature, you call it satire, but in today’s words, I’d call it snarky in the best possible sense. I’ve only read a few chapters so far, but I’m looking forward to the rest.

Finally, I’ve been inspired by Hornby’s article to start listing what I’ve read and seen. It’s as much for my own edification as it is a way to show others that I do more than watch Real Housewives. (Yes, I’m vain nerd. Or am I nerdly vain?) Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading and watching this past week.

Books I’m reading:
Shakespeare Wrote for Money – Nick Hornby
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

TV shows I watched:
Downton Abbey
Sherlock
New Girl
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2 episodes)
Couples Therapy (2 episodes)
Vanderpump Rules (2 episodes)
Project Runway: Under the Gunn
Winter Olympics

Movies I watched:
Field of Dreams (1989) – Not my first time, but got sucked in. Thanks, TCM.
Despicable Me 2 (2013) – Cute, but not as fresh as the first.
The Making of a Lady (TV movie – 2012) – Linus Roache, a.k.a. Law & Order’s Executive A.D.A. Michael Cutter, is British??