I’ve started a new cross stitch project so I’ve been watching plenty of Star Trek and Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke!
Gunsmoke is actually something new I’ve picked up after being blown away by the first season a few years ago. Did you guys know that adults for Westerns are really good and intense but also great as background noise? Who would have thought that the reason a show lasted for 20 years is because it’s good, actually.
Which also means that my previous project is finished! My original intention was to have it complete by New Year’s Eve but ~ sometime in January ~ works equally well I suppose.
Putting aside the early television that is excellent for crafting, I dipped my toes into some more modern fare in the latter half of the week.
WandaVision and Staged
The most talked about and therefore ~*~buzzworthy~*~ is WandaVision, the new half-hourish Disney+ show about….well, it’s hard to explain. Every episode is set in a different decade of sitcom history – first one mimics the antics of Dick Van Dyke Show (including the set), the second is more Bewitched flavored, the third takes after Brady Bunch and Partridge Family. Essentially, television tailor-made to my tastes. It plays a lot on how those sitcoms were all about the pressures and struggles of fitting in with the community – highlighted in these two characters because Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, is…a witch, and Vision is a synthezoid (the Marvel version of a slightly-more-human android).
Each episode aired so far has a more serious moment of rupture than the last. Initially it’s a life-or-death dramatic moment amid the hijinks of a dinner party, then it’s objects of color – things seemingly popping in or breaking through from the outside. Wanda, who is most probably creating this alternate universe with her reality-shaping powers, adapts to these changes (the second episode ends in color to signal the shift that took place during the 60s) and controls the narrative of the show to erase or flow around the disruption, but she herself can’t help being disturbed by whatever is attempting to break in.
After three episodes that’s about all the information the viewer has. Wanda gives birth to twins Billy and Tommy, suggesting that (with Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie), a Young Avengers movie or TV show may not be far off. While I’m obviously enjoying the set dressing of the show and a lot of the little jokes and tributes to classic television and the insanely packed, recognizable cast in perfect roles, the spectacle of the show doesn’t have much substance yet and it’s hard for me to judge what I think about it. It seems as though the central thesis of the show is going to be revealed with the finale (or whenever the big twist lands), which is definitely only possible in the current age of TV. The show can just be fun and pretty but I’d much rather feel like I have a handle on what’s propelling it forward.
Hilariously counterpoint to that, the second season of Staged is currently airing and all it does is flounder and meander as the leads go in and out of spats and depressive episodes. Yet I find it one of the most entertaining things on television. This season went even more meta with the actors falling out over the success of the first season. Sustainable? Hell no. But entertaining and digestible in 15 minute segments. Even if it’s diminishing returns, the returns were so massive to begin with that it’s hardly noticeable. There is nothing better on this earth than watching David Tennant be in a depressive slump over his inertia and Michael Sheen not able to suffer it any longer. Please watch this show.
Dec 2016 Watch
– None. But I finished Season 4 of Buffy and watched “Swan Song,” aka the best episode, of Gilmore Girls, Watching the season week by week I still think I prefer it over Season 5 since the weak big bad arc is negligible in that I don’t care enough and even though Riley is around, so is Spike. Also hands down has the best standalone episodes of the entire series. What really astounds me about Season 4 is the shift from the beginning of the characters feeling like natural extensions of their high school selves to their almost completely different end-of-season characters. I’ve been trying to pinpoint the central themes of each season (it gets harder as the years progress) and while Season 3 had a lot to do with identity and accepting yourself for who you are and not who others see you as, Season 4 also hits on identity a lot but focuses more on how you fit into the larger world around you, carving out a space for yourself in the “real” world. We’ll see about Season 5!
– Jess is very cute. Be very afraid of swans. Rory’s wardrobe continues to be heavily 70s inspired and since Buffy’s wardrobe has taken a similar turn at the beginning of Season 5, I wonder how true the adage about cyclical styles is since the 70s are back again , meshed with the 00s, and I remember the 60s colliding with the 90s.