Television Update (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin | Fallout | The Afterparty | We Are Lady Parts)

What can I say, some people are radioactive.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin S1

HBO show that has more of a slasher take on the teen girls getting tormented by text messages than the original. (I hate everything about the naming scheme - giving this the "original sin" subtitle when everyone is going to naturally refer to the 2010-2017 show as the original one, changing said subtitle for the next season when this is absolutely not an anthology).

I did have fun watching this, and have an appreciation for how it's doing something different beyond a genre change. The dead girl at the heart of the original show (see!) is Alison, a teen terror who never found someone in Rosewood she didn't want to torment. The dead girl at the heart of this show isn't either of the women who die as teenagers at dances - one in 1999, one in 2022 - but our main protagonist's mother, Davie, who was such an Alison in 1999, but a saint of a mother as an adult. The other four girls' mothers were friends with Davie in high school, and they were united in bullying the hell out of the girl that did die in 1999.

So the girls aren't being tormented about their own sins, but their mothers'. I have no objections to that, they get some good stuff out of that, especially Imogen, but it does leave our main girls feeling a little...put upon. Or blameless.

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A thing I was pettily annoyed at compared to the original show was that there was no f/f with any of the main girls. Come on man, the original show had one of its four mains be gay and that was back when they had to deal with ABC Family's advertisers going uhhhhh can you show less gay stuff with her thx. You're on HBO in 2022, you have no excuse! Three of the girls in the 2022 show had boyfriends and there was other m/f stuff among the teens so I feel justified in my grumbling at this. They could've easily had one of the boyfriends be a girlfriend, or even, god forbid, have the obvious pair of the main girls get together.

Anyway, will watch S2, will hope that some of these things improve but I expect I'll be entertained regardless.

Fallout

I'd gotten an hour into Fallout 3 before giving up, is the most of my experience before watching this show. Enjoyed it, I thought it conveyed the world-building well, the goofy black humour worked for me, as did Lucy as protagonist. There are some convenient plot contrivances that one has to overlook, like why is everyone's timing such that they are in various places at the exact same time.

My most petty annoyance (apparently I am filled with petty annoyances today) is that as soon as I saw Ghoul Man with a Fucked Up Face as one of our main characters, the only thought I could have about him is "You would be soooooo much more interesting as a woman." Seriously. Sooooo much more. I know I do constantly contemplate female versions of characters but like, Maximus or Lucy's brother were fine to me as men, whatever. Ghoul Man? Nope, I was just internally going yeah, should be Ghoul Woman.

It would also help my question of what the 2077 era was like - we've got 50s aesthetics, we're relatively cool about race and gender given Barb's position though we've still got racial typecasting on tv, we hate the commies but uh...are we cool about gay people? Unclear. It really does not matter to the plot or the show at all but I could not help but wonder about it given the Cold War vibes, y'know.

Spoilers below.

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The Afterparty S1 & S2

Murder mystery-slash-comedy where every season focuses on a murder, with each episode featuring the interrogation of a suspect, who tells their narrative in their own genre - romcom, thriller, period piece, etc. I binged this show in a few days, definitely recommend it. It filled the mystery-loving gap in my media now that I'm done with my Poirot reading.

S1 is better constructed mystery-wise, but S2 better exploits the conceit of every episode being a different genre, and all of it was a joy to watch. I can't help thinking of S2 vs S1 in the same way I think of Glass Onion vs Knives Out. The benefit that a first installment gets in this genre is it can have another mystery underlying the homicidal one: what sort of person is our detective? what sort of person is the one we see them with? Those questions leave a wider scope. The second installments are inherently hampered by the lack of that...but the second installments also get in their own way in how they construct themselves.

More spoilery explanations below.

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We Are Lady Parts S2

The long-awaited S2 has arrived!!! All of the new songs are absolute bangers!! The band is as charming as ever! Compared to the first season, S2 does struggle to juggle its broader scope, as it tries to give every band member her own arc. Amina remains endearing, as she proclaims she is in her villain era for maintaining proper work-life boundaries. Though, I found myself cooling on her romance. Of the band members that aren't Amina and Saira, Bisma's journey in self-perception and self-presentation was most compelling to me. I got very cross at anyone even halfway questioning her decisions there. It was cool to see Taz settle into band managing as a broader pursuit, realizing she's in it for the thrill of discovery, not just something she's doing for her mate.

I'll save Saira and Ayesha for under the cut, to avoid spoilers.

Steve is my favorite Lady Parts fan🤘. I wanted to appreciate the Gen Z band but their cover sucks and they sucked more at the inter-band dinner. Noor's stuff this season surprised me in a good way, but I wish we'd gotten more time with it - there's something awful about realizing your impact on a lifelong friend and wondering what else it extends to.

It was odd that whenever the band was on break for practical reasons that the gang didn't seem to hang out as friends at all, especially when one or more of them was dealing with personal shit - there's no equivalent of them all whisking Amina off to the countryside to help her deal.

Okay, spoiler time.

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There was much less Amina-Saira goodness this season since their arcs weren't as enmeshed, but there were still crumbs, from growl-singing at each other before practice to the Speak callback. Saira will give into writing girl power anthems if Amina shoots her the puppy dog eyes a single time <3.