Reading/Watching Log #28

I churned through a few children's classics this months; ones that I had never read before, but which I was eager to finally read if not just to understand their importance in the cultural milieu. It was also a month for mockumentaries – three in total – which proved to me that as funny as they can be, it's also a very lazy genre. Seriously, all you need are some talking heads, a few celebrity cameos, and instructions for everyone to take themselves extremely seriously. There's a reason this genre got kick-started in a location as banal as an office block. Because it could.

As well as this, another adaptation of a North American novel, a variation on Groundhog Day, those three no-longer-obscure women mathematicians, and a cult classic I'd never even heard about until recently.

Oh, and I FINALLY get to The Defenders.

Xena Warrior Princess: Cradle of Hope, The Path Not Taken and The Reckoning

My Xena Warrior Princess watch continues with the next three episodes of the first season. It's clear that the writers are still figuring out the dynamics, not just of Xena and Gabrielle, but between those characters making the jump from the mother-show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

For example, what we see between Xena/Ares here isn't what the show settles on later down the track (not least because his first appearance plays out as though he's never met Xena before, something that's retconned later) and there's a tendency to introduce characters from Xena's past who seem to be of great significance ... and who are never seen again.

Still it's early days, and amidst these opening episodes are a few glimmers of the potential that'll be mined later. 

(And if you're wondering why I reference Merlin so many times in these reviews, it's because my first viewing of these episodes coincided with that show's season four).

Review: Troy: Fall of a City

I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for a comprehensive adaptation of The Iliad and all its adjacent myths. And ... I'm still waiting. Troy: Fall of a City isn't bad, but it never really gets over the threshold of "adequate" either. 

It will certainly replace Wolfgang Peterson's Troy (2004) as the go-to version of the story that gets shown to high school students, and it certainly takes advantage of its extended run-time to expand on several characters (and at least one original subplot) but my inner Greek mythology geek still wishes for the ultimate take on Troy, from Peleus and Thetis's wedding to a closing caption that tells us Aeneus went on to be the founder of Rome.

Standing Tall #22

So as it happens, I have very little memories of this giraffe. It was one of the first ones I saw on the day I went out to track down all the giraffes in the city, and I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me.

It was the location that really counted, as it was in one of what's known as the city's "gap fillers", where sculptures or playgrounds or markets have been erected in the vacant sites where buildings have been demolished after the Christchurch City earthquakes.

This one had a mini-book exchange where people could leave or take the books that were available in a special display cabinet, and the giraffe itself was a tribute to the other gap fillers in the area. Called Giraffa Spatiumnolovacuam and designed by Jen McBride, its patterns represented places like The Commons, the Pallet Pavilion, the Dance-O-Mat, and the Gap Golf, some of which are still up and running.

Woman of the Month: Grace Nakimura

Grace Nakimura from the Gabriel Knight trilogy

As it happens, this post constitutes the very first Woman of the Month who's derived from a game: the heroine of the Gabriel Knight trilogy, Grace Nakimura.

It has occurred to me recently that many writers are so conscious of their female characters being role models that they forget to make them human, replete with weaknesses and flaws. Sometimes I don't blame them, as any flaw on a female character will inevitably be amplified to the point of absurdity by fandom, forcing others to become so preoccupied with defending her right to merely exist in the story that they lose any chance to explore her as a three-dimensional character – but I digress.

The point I'm trying to make is that Grace is a Japanese-American woman with plenty of foibles: she's an overachiever and a workaholic and a ballbuster, who's bossy and stubborn and bad-tempered, not to mention susceptible to jealousy, cattiness and sarcasm (though also quick to apologise when she realizes she's in the wrong). And you can't help but love her because of her flaws rather than in spite of them – especially since she's a fundamentally good person.

Going from a research assistant and distressed damsel in the first game to a playable (and thereby proactive) character in the sequels is a testament to her depth, and that her adventures reveal tenacity and raw, analytical intelligence as her most important character traits is deeply satisfying.

She's a history major and a researcher who investigates historical (and supernaturally-tinged) mysteries in the defence of good against evil. That's living the dream.