on a spaceship somewhere sailing across an empty sea
hey hey hey
Since I waxed on about my love of Sleepy Hollow in my last letter, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the season finale of that show, which pretty handily killed any interest I had in continuing to watch it. This article sums things up very neatly, and also alludes to the show’s contribution to a distressing pattern of women–and particularly women of color–being written off or choosing to leave tv shows due to poor treatment or a lack of interest in pursuing their stories. Sleepy Hollow’s Nicole Beharie chose to leave, but Castle’s Stana Katic and Tamala Jones, as well as Teen Wolf’s Arden Cho, were asked not to return.
The fact that Katic–like Beharie–is one of the co-leads on her show makes this even more ridiculous. I frankly cannot imagine Castle or Sleepy Hollow continuing with only half of their core duos, and find it astonishing that anyone involved with the shows can.
I still very much love the show that Sleepy Hollow was, and I do not take back a word of my last newsletter. I loved watching it. I’m going to miss it.
On to the fun stuff.
Notable Breakfast
Dog Thing
Mixed Media
When I was in high school, my brother got a PlayStation 2, and suddenly we could watch DVDs. For some reason, the first DVD he ever bought was The Fast and the Furious, and for a time that was also the only DVD we owned. As a result, I have seen The Fast and the Furious many times, despite never actually enjoying it. (It’s a fine movie, but undercover cop stories aren’t my thing–the whole premise relies on someone lying to someone else, and one of those people inevitably falls in love and the whole thing just makes me uncomfortable.) I was vaguely aware that it had turned into a juggernaut of a franchise, and that the Rock was involved, but I’d never watched any of the later movies.
Until last week, when I sat down and watched 3 of them over 2 days.
I started with Fast Five, because I knew that’s where the Rock showed up, and although Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7 are both enjoyable, completely insane movies (the action sequence at the end of 6 in particular is a stand-out), I’ve come to the conclusion that 5 is the pinnacle of the form. Here’s why:
- it’s a heist movie, and a good one. I love a good heist movie.
- it’s got a huge cast, but does a great job of focusing on them in pairs and small groups, so you feel like you get a good sense of the characters. Nobody gets short shrift. Also, the cast is naturally, massively diverse.
- there are two romance subplots, but neither dominate the movie, and both couples get together off-screen. The emotional heart of this movie about criminals and fast cars is family, and it’s a BIG thing.
- “family” means found family.
- lots of characters speaking their native languages (the movie takes place in Rio de Janeiro), including two members of the crew who mostly spoke Spanish to one another. It was never crucial to the plot, just them ragging on each other. Great little character moments.
- The Rock was the least believable federal agent in the history of film, and I loved it
- I know I said that thing about the romances, but these two were the cutest cute to ever cute.
So that’s my hearty endorsement of Fast Five and, by extension, the continuing franchise, I guess! It would be great if they could continue adding women to the cast (and keep them!), but that is my complaint about literally everything, so.
Also:
I saw April and the Extraordinary World, and liked it quite a bit! We accidentally saw the dubbed version, which was fine, but I wish we’d seen it in French. I watched Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, which was beautiful and sad, and made me want to see more of Rinko Kikuchi’s face, so I then watched Pacific Rim, which was as fun as I remembered. I saw The Jungle Book, which was good.
I read the third Cleopatra in Space book, Secret of the Time Tablets, and loved it. Cleopatra is an all-ages graphic novel series by Mike Maihack, and one of my very favourite things. I highly recommend it, for kids and adults. I read The Experts by Sohie Franz, which is a little sci-fi horror comic. It did what Annihilation was trying to do, but better, and in 20 pages.
I listened to both of Tegan and Sara’s new singles, “Boyfriend” and “U-turn” a whole bunch. A friend pointed me to Annabel Jones, and I listened to her “IOU” a lot.
Prince, of course.
I Read Comics for a Living
If there are two words pretty much guaranteed to hook me, they are: teen detective. So, before I’d read a single panel of Goldie Vance, a comic about a girl who works as a valet at a Florida resort in the 1960s and fancies herself a detective-in-training, I was hooked. Fortunately, Goldie Vance #1, written by Hope Larson and with art by Brittney Williams, more than exceeded my expectations.
Also good:
Sixth Gun #48 There hasn’t been a new issue of this comic since I started this newsletter, which means I’ve never gotten a chance to mention that it is my very favourite one! This issue begins the lead-in to the end of the comic, at which point I will probably go into mourning.
Pretty Deadly #9 The reapers’ battle against the horseman of war continues. Every new issue of this comic seems like the most beautiful one, but they are all astonishing.
Howard the Duck #6 The second half of a delightful crossover with Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which also features artist Joe Quinones’ actual cat, Biggs (who is not part robot in real life).
Anxiety Pyjamas
Fics I Shouted About
untitled by pantstomatch Teen Wolf, Sterek, AU. The Hale and McCall packs are already at odds, and then Stiles’ kid accidentally kidnaps Derek’s niece, and the whole thing spirals from there.
Biting the Bullet by ijemanja Stargate SG-1, Sam/Jack. SG-1 meet so many alternate universe versions of themselves, so it lends itself easily to AU fic. Here, Jack asks Sam out in 5 universes.
Holding Patterns by Thistlerose Star Wars TFA, Finn/Poe. Finn and Poe have a pretty sweet “friends with benefits” deal, and it’s what they both want, so why mess with it? Then Poe gets sick.
From Just One Spark by escritoireazul Fast & Furious 6, Han/Gisele, Fix-it. Somehow, improbably, Gisele survives.
big teeth small kiss by magneticwave Pacific Rim, Mako/Raleigh, College AU. This is maybe my favourite Pacific Rim AU. Raleigh is a linguistics major, and it just so happens the girl he keeps running into is assigned to be his Japanese conversation partner.
Lastly
I love you guys, bye!
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