Roundup

[jaggedwolf]

This week's roundup is brought to you by me wondering whether the reason I watched all of Queer As Folk and couldn't get through more than three episodes of The L Word is that QaF had a main character that was a complete nerd, and afaik, the latter didn't. (He ends up buying and running a comic book shop.)

Critical Role

The last two episodes have been pretty intense, especially for Beauregard. I've already posted my thoughts on her offer in the latest episode.

I didn't expect this sudden swerve back into Beau's backstory (nor did Beau herself, I think), but it's been very vindicating on several points. That Beau has been understating, not overstating, how badly her parents treated her. That the rest of the Nein will have her back in their own ways - Caleb and Nott repeatedly stating how accomplished Beau is, Jester and Fjord talking to Beau privately at different points, Yasha with those last words to Thoreau - that they say they'll follow Beau's lead in there, and they do so. That Beau's father excels at keeping his cool, at sounding so rational and collected while Beau is visibly losing it at even being back home. This last bit is particularly vindicating for me, given how I depicted Beau's dad in to restrain yourself is to already lose. He's an asshole in the way I predicted! Terrible and wonderful. (Extra terrible and wonderful: Beau asking her mom if she was already pregnant with TJ when she sent Beau away, and her mom not answering.)

I also love how warm Beau is with little TJ, and how she's not resentful she is of him. It's very sweet, and I'm glad he seemed more curious than wary of her.

Theatre

I watched the Frozen musical, and Hamlet. Very different moods.

Frozen was good fun, and I feel like they managed to somehow emphasize the sister stuff even more than the movie did, though I haven't seen the movie since it first came out - the younger versions of them were adorable, for one thing, and the two of them as adults were perfect.

Obviously it's hard to pull off the ice visuals that the movie did, but they did a really great job with the ice sound effects. The dress change in Let It Go made everyone in the theatre lose their shit. The little kids in the audience went "ewwww" when Anna and Hans kissed. The new song for Anna and Kristoff was cute, but those two were kind of awkward/stilted at the end.

I may have idly daydreamed about Kristoff as a big mountain woman instead, but I'm just Like That.

Hamlet was very good, and very intense, especially physicality-wise (am I talking about the character, actor or the play? yes.) I continue to think the most baller moment is when Gertrude knowingly drinks the poison.

Television

The Good Place

So, that finale happened.

I knew I'd be pretty meh on the finale, given my general "fuck death/nonexistence" attitude, but I was very pleasantly surprised, that after a season of not having very much to do Tahani chose the path that she did. Screw the door, there's almost more to want, more to do, more to be, really, and I'm glad that held true for at least one of the mains. I had a brief moment where I went "wait, did Kamilah also die before their parents did", and then remembered Kamilah had a breakthrough while alive, so it's very possible their parents took longer to get through the tests. The parents were dicks, but still, having both your kids die before you do is depressing as hell.

I also continue to think it's super weird that the main problem hampering the Good Place when they finally showed was uh, mushy brains, and not the horror of knowing almost everyone you loved is off in the Bad Place getting tortured and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. It's a jarring absence in a show ostensibly about how morality and community go hand-in-hand together, that we become good because we love other people. It got close in early S4, when Brent asks "how can this be the good place, when my friends aren't here with me?", and then never came up again.

Writing

Yet another TSCOSI ficlet dump on tumblr.

Links

The Secret Life of Sven - As soon as Sven appeared on stage I had so many questions and this article answered most of them.

Comments

[belacqua]

I'm glad you mentioned the physicality in Hamlet bc I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Especially during the nunnery scene, god—I'm obsessed with how casting Ruth Negga puts everything about Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship in a different light.

I think we're on the same page re: The Good Place. Tahani as an architect makes so much sense, but man do I wish there'd been more buildup, instead of Eleanor being the one to co-lead with Michael/take over his role in previous eps. Maybe there's more buildup I'd pick up on in rewatch, idk.

You also put the nail on the head as for why their conclusion about the actual good place didn't work for me. Life is valuable because it's short, etc. etc. isn't exactly a new take but I think the problem, more precisely, is that it feels like they picked it out of a hat instead of going with something that was baked into the show. Also, redesigning both the good and bad places and adding a whole separate door to go to from there just feels excessive to me, partly because the latter two took seconds. And like, fuck Earth, I guess? Everyone has to wait for the afterlife to grow?

I'll stop because I'm worried I'm gonna veer into nitpicking here (like you, I went into the finale already feeling meh about the show and I know that colored it somewhat). I'm just glad B99 is coming back. I'll take character-driven episodes over TGP's half-baked philosophical points, thanks.

[jaggedwolf]

Yeah no, the physicality was intense. I'm still mulling over how the casting worked for me, because it did, but I was also talking about the performance with an old college prof and she asked me if Hamlet was genderswapped or if Negga was playing a male character and I hadn't thought about it in those terms. IMO, the casting and physicality hit me hardest with Hamlet and Getrude, out of everything, that visceral anger at the re-marriage and so on. I'm curious how you thought it changed Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship?

Tahani as an architect makes so much sense, but man do I wish there'd been more buildup, instead of Eleanor being the one to co-lead with Michael/take over his role in previous eps.

That's such a good point. Having her help out more would've been good build-up to things. I think my unexpected pettiness towards the show wasn't helped by the slow realization that as diverse as the main cast is...the top two leads were always going to be Eleanor and Michael, because big names, and so they're the big players. (B99 *technically* could have had this issue because Jake is in every A plot, but 1. B99 has more episodes 2. The second most prominent character is Holt 3. They had him step away for Moo Moo, and probably should have done the same for He Said, She Said. So, less petty salt on my part.)

I think I was more okay with Earth being left alone. It was always unclear how much influence they had over the Earth beyond throwing humans in or restarting it, like a weird bacteria in a petri dish scenario, and actual life being a test or a course too would've felt like a bummer.

But yeah, I don't think TGP was as philosophically thought out, and I look forward to more B99.

[belacqua]

Your professor brings up a good point. I like both readings, tbh, and I'm glad they didn't change the pronouns. Leaving the script as is feels more interpretable. I also loved Hamlet and Gertrude's relationship here. Ruth nailed the angry stepchild vibe.

As for Hamlet and Ophelia—if we're going with the genderswapped reading, then Polonius and Laertes' disapproval can read as homophobic, and Laertes' thing about how Ophelia won't be able to marry Hamlet is no longer just about class. Polonius' theory that Hamlet is insane because of this love for Ophelia changes from "he's a lovesick teenager" to "she's a crazy lesbian." And Hamlet rejecting Ophelia's advances and telling her to "get thee to a nunnery"—oof.

The other thing about casting Ruth is that, IIRC, she and the ghost were the only nonwhite main characters. I'm not sure to what extent this was planned out; Ruth was fucking amazing and I can't think of anyone who could've done this Hamlet better. But a side effect is that you have this biracial character saying that a black man was murdered and no one else cares or even sees it. Hamlet's isolation from the other (white) characters, Hamlet pushing Ophelia away, Hamlet trying to get justice alone—it all made sense in previous productions, but it makes sense in a different way here? I realize that I'm white and might be overreaching here though.

People act like TGP is an ensemble show when it's really.. not. It bothered me that even Chidi's decision to move on was made about Eleanor and Eleanor's feelings, like most of their relationship. I feel like B99 fell into this problem in the very early eps, though they definitely balance the cast better now. If you had to name one main character, it'd still be Jake, but I never feel like, "oh, here's the main character and his one-note sidekicks." I think Moo Moo is a good example because Jake was barely in it and that didn't feel strange at all.

I don't know what I would've wanted to become of Earth on TGP. It's just weird to me that they had this whole realization that life on Earth is too fucked up for anyone to go straight to the good place and they're just.. okay with this and okay with people not getting to really, truly grow until after they die.

[jaggedwolf]

Oooh, yes, Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship having the added tension of homophobia does make things work a different way. Ahh, I didn't even think about the get thee to a nunnery line in that light. (On the genderswapped reading: After the play I remembered that the production I'd seen before had also genderswapped Laertes, and that had really worked for me.)

I don't think you're reaching on the race stuff, that reading makes a lot of sense. It definitely stood out to me early that other than the ghost, Hamlet is surrounded by a white cast, and especially that Claudius was white too - it makes it feel like even more of a cruel joke that he killed Hamlet's father, easily assumed his position as king and husband, and that Hamlet is expected to call him father. I am curious as to how deliberate the casting was here.

I think B99 as a show is just plain better at plotting arcs for it's non-protagonist characters, not just giving them specific isolated moments in single episodes. I think only the first season ends with a cliffhanger that only impacts Jake, for one thing.

Earth is a tough question, yeah. If you can interfere on Earth all you want, why should anyone ever have to suffer? Or even if you can just keep nudging people towards their better selves, how do you balance learning and harm-prevention?

For better or worse, I don't think the show was ever interested in what a good life on Earth itself looks like, and that it was caught between the ideas of: everyone should be and try to be good; no one deserves to be tortured for eternity.