Links and Updates

It’s back to work for me this Friday, the news of which came as a big relief. Have I made the most of lockdown to churn through books and shows that I’ve been meaning to get through for months, if not years? Yes, but I also want to get back into the community (with safety measures, obviously) and make myself useful again.

New Zealand is now officially moving into Level 2, which means that most public spaces will be open, only with plenty of hand sanitizer and social distancing involved. The library I work at is pretty small, so I’m not entirely sure how well that’s going to work, but we haven’t had a confirmed case of coronavirus in a few days and most people are confident that the clusters have been contained.

Obviously, normality is still a far-distant dream and a blog that mostly focuses on pop-culture isn’t going to have much to say beyond “a lot of stuff has been cancelled” – but there’s still some links and updates beneath the cut…

And of course, there’s always going to be a massive backlog of books, films and shows to get through – and honestly, I hope there always will be.

An interesting essay about how the male villains of recent female led films are coincidentally (or deliberately…?) unseen. Discusses Birds of Prey, The Invisible Man, The Assistant and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

The Clone Wars has ended and by all accounts, it stuck the landing. I doubt I’ll be watching it any time soon (still detoxing on Star Wars), but I’m glad that it was a success for the cast and crew, especially in regards to wrapping up this chapter of Ahsoka’s story. In hindsight, it’s safe to say that she was the show’s protagonist, which also makes her the first female lead in any Star Wars project, and it’s a profound relief they did right by her.

Disney may have failed Rey and Rose, but Ahsoka’s story will apparently continue in The Mandalorian, in which she’ll be portrayed by Rosario Dawson. I recall Dawson having expressed interest in that character some time ago, so this is probably a dream role for her, though I’m still a little hesitant. Call it Star Wars fatigue, as I think the conclusion of the Skywalker trilogy and the still-burning trashfire of impotent rage within its fandom has put me off anything to do with the franchise for a good long while.

What are the odds that after I return to reviewing Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, i09 would write an article about the show? Here’s an older one from the AV Club.

Having recently posted on this very episode, here’s a hilarious recap of the Xena Warrior Princess Christmas Special. To quote: “In the spirit of the season, Xena decides not to go with her usual tactic of just cold beating the crap out of the local authorities until everyone agrees to play nice and instead goes with a plan built around breaking and entering, psychological torture, and hallucinogenic drugs.”

A great post on why I hate reincarnation romances (as I discuss near the end of this post), because most of the time they’re used as a lazy way of establishing an “official pairing” without putting any of the work into why two people might actually fall in love each other. Or heck, even like each other. Apparently they hooked up in another life, so you know, destiny and shit. 

A really cute Twitter thread about – of all things – the bench that Hercules and Meg sit on during their date in Disney’s Hercules. Who’d have thought it had so much historical and symbolic context?

Apparently the 90th anniversary of Nancy Drew in June will be commemorated by a comic in which she’s dead and the Hardy Boys investigate her murder. Wow. Fuck you.

One of the best things to come out of this lockdown was Janet Varney and Seychelle Gabriel teaming up to read the graphic novel continuation of the show (or at least the first chapter), each reprising their character from The Legend of Korra. Taking on the dialogue of Korra and Asami as written in Turf Wars, it’s the closest thing we’ll ever get to seeing the show again, and it felt great to hear their voices again. They even improv a little!

But what have I sunk most of my lockdown time on? Well, I discovered Obscurus Lupa’s YouTube channel that’s recapped episodes of Baywatch from across all its eleven seasons (plus the spin-off) and it’s HILARIOUS. I actually used to watch this show when I was a kid (not sure why my parents let me) and it’s a pretty hilarious trip down memory lane. The terrible plots, the inconsistent characters, the revolving cast, the money shots – and that unironically fantastic theme song. Ah, good times.

Among everything that’s coming up, this trailer for The Great caught my attention, though it might take a while before I get the chance to see it…

And don’t forget these girls…

It looks as though the series will be set in 2020 as opposed to the nineties which is a shame, but seeing the likes of Kirsty, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey and Dawn on the screen… wow. I devoured The Babysitters Club when I was ten, and seeing this is enough to make me dig out the old paperbacks. Do you think they’ll get as far as the Mystery sub-series? Man, I loved those ones.

With the end of lockdown imminent, I’m going to get back to my rigorous screening process when it comes to the media I’ve been consuming this year, with a focus on female-led and female-created material. It’ll be good to get back to it, as I’ve got the third season of Anne With An E and the first of Dickinson on my schedule, plus two duologies by Leigh Bardugo and Laini Taylor. Oh, and I see that the rebooted DC Superhero Girls under the guidance of Lauren Faust is now on Netflix. And it's nearly time for the fifth and final season of She-Ra!

Time to get back to it!