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brightknightie) wrote2022-11-06 12:39 pm
brightknightie) wrote2022-11-06 12:39 pm
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Current media roundup #2 (possible spoilers)
This is my second installment of this new kind of recurring post, where I list and comment lightly on some media I'm currently consuming, and maybe we can chat about it, if it appeals?
Please mind your step for spoilers, depending where you are in each of these! I'll clearly identify each title, and of course the post is timestamped.
I picked up Strange #6 (Marvel) at my local comics shop to be part of a short Halloween stack of comics for my neice and nephew (of course I read issues before I give them away). It had Clea and Wong on the cover and I thought they'd find it MCU-adjacent and all. But, actually, it was clearly written for me (me, me, me!), as it featured cameos by Wanda, Jean, and Natasha, all three, plus themes right up my alley -- bereavement, carrying on without your lost loved one, and protecting the weak. I enjoyed it so much that I went back to the shop the next weekend planning to buy #1-5 to catch up, and instead discovered that #1-5 are already collected (wow, they're fast these days), so I got the collection, read it, loved it, and am planning to read it again. I may even go looking for the collection immediately preceding it, before this current run began (I understand it's by the same author). I am hooked, and I am delighted. I have not had a monthly comic that drew me in like this in many years.
On the webcomics side, I am happily wrapped up in Aurora by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions. Structurally, so far (19 issues), it's a "gather your questing group and go save the world" fantasy, but, thematically, it's really about found families, the power of friendship, identity, and "no greater love" self-sacrifice. She publishes 3 new pages per week. ♥
I finished watching all of Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nikelodeon, Paramount+). I enjoyed it hugely and recommend it highly. Had it existed (and had I seen it) when I was the target age for it, it would surely have shaped my imagination forever. As it is, it's teaching me lessons about storytelling and trying to inspire me to be a better person. So. Not bad at all! But will The Legend of Korra bring similar returns...?
I then went with Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon Network, WB) in that slot in my life, as it was temporarily free to stream through Halloween week. Another excellent story! Crammed down into 11-minute episodes (which I watched 3 at a time) but they absolutely made it work for them. I imagine that I need to watch an "all the things you missed" recap of this series!
Next, I'm thinking, maybe, The Owl House (Disney+) simply because I already have a Disney+ subscription. I'd prefer She-Ra: Princesses of Power (Netflix), I suspect, but that's a Netflix property, and it's not currently available for streaming via Amazon at any price (haven't yet checked YouTube/Google Play), and I'll leave the DVDs on my Amazon wish list through the end of the year, and maybe check interlibrary loan.
I'm still watching and enjoying the new Quantum Leap (NBC, Peacock) over the air with my antenna. It's generally light but compelling, sufficiently historically accurate, and balanced between the forward-moving drama of what's going on in 2022 and the anthology short-story dramas that Ben leaps into each week. It's thoroughly respectful of the original. I don't enjoy that it's on Mondays at 10-11pm, but I suppose it could be worse. I'm constantly worried they will cancel it before it really finds its feet and gets the ratings to sustain it. But I'm not enjoying it enough to subscribe to yet another whole streaming service for it alone. I wish I could report my watching to NBC in a way that doesn't cost a whole subscription.
She-Hulk (Disney+) was okay, but not really my own personal kind of thing. I did love the penultimate episode! Had the whole series been like that one -- perfectly balanced between humor and adventure, law and superheroing and comedy -- I would have liked the series much better. Kudos to them for trying valiantly, though. This was a really tough one in so many ways! She-Hulk has always been a matter of taste.
Werewolf by Night (Disney+) similarly was pleasant enough, but not exactly for me, personally. I highly appreciated the "classic monster movie" vibe, and, at the very end, the final color infusion as it slid into the main MCU. I liked our protagonists as presented. It was a cool Halloween treat for me. But unless you're into monsters, monster-hunting, or the "Midnight Sons" corner of Marveldom, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it widely; you won't need to have seen it for most other Marvel properties.
I'm still hugely enjoying reading the unabridged Journey to the West by Wu Cheng−en, translated by Anthony Yu, the medieval Chinese hundred-chapter novel (plus poetry) that gave the world Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, but I must admit that it's very slow going. Part of that may be that the translator chose not to start a new paragraph with each new dialogue speaker (possibly for reasons of fidelity to the original, or possibly because it's already 4 large volumes long, and the publisher and forests might have objected). I've already started noodling with fanfic, but that feels... wrong? illegitimate? ...as I have not yet finished the proper canon. I have read an abridged translation, and listed to a podcast, and watched a YouTube adaptation, but... how would I feel about fanfic for, say, The Three Musketeers, written before the author finished reading all four giant volumes of that original canon? (Does it make a difference that this is a monster-of-the-week comedy as well as a profound allegory?) Ah, well. Point being, it's great: check it out. :-)
Finally, I'm watching Miss Scarlet & the Duke (PBS, PBS Passport, BBC), but the second season so far seems a little fluffier and less satisfying to me than first season. At first I thought it was that the mysteries weren't complex enough, but now I think it's that the stakes aren't great enough. Eliza is now doing fine economically? And decently socially? So... where are the stakes? I approved putting off the romance from the season premiere; I don't think that's what's making it feel fluffier. Perhaps the London police and/or Scotland Yard should be looking into their own failings, such that Eliza's work is necessary...?
Please mind your step for spoilers, depending where you are in each of these! I'll clearly identify each title, and of course the post is timestamped.
I picked up Strange #6 (Marvel) at my local comics shop to be part of a short Halloween stack of comics for my neice and nephew (of course I read issues before I give them away). It had Clea and Wong on the cover and I thought they'd find it MCU-adjacent and all. But, actually, it was clearly written for me (me, me, me!), as it featured cameos by Wanda, Jean, and Natasha, all three, plus themes right up my alley -- bereavement, carrying on without your lost loved one, and protecting the weak. I enjoyed it so much that I went back to the shop the next weekend planning to buy #1-5 to catch up, and instead discovered that #1-5 are already collected (wow, they're fast these days), so I got the collection, read it, loved it, and am planning to read it again. I may even go looking for the collection immediately preceding it, before this current run began (I understand it's by the same author). I am hooked, and I am delighted. I have not had a monthly comic that drew me in like this in many years.
On the webcomics side, I am happily wrapped up in Aurora by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions. Structurally, so far (19 issues), it's a "gather your questing group and go save the world" fantasy, but, thematically, it's really about found families, the power of friendship, identity, and "no greater love" self-sacrifice. She publishes 3 new pages per week. ♥
I finished watching all of Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nikelodeon, Paramount+). I enjoyed it hugely and recommend it highly. Had it existed (and had I seen it) when I was the target age for it, it would surely have shaped my imagination forever. As it is, it's teaching me lessons about storytelling and trying to inspire me to be a better person. So. Not bad at all! But will The Legend of Korra bring similar returns...?
I then went with Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon Network, WB) in that slot in my life, as it was temporarily free to stream through Halloween week. Another excellent story! Crammed down into 11-minute episodes (which I watched 3 at a time) but they absolutely made it work for them. I imagine that I need to watch an "all the things you missed" recap of this series!
Next, I'm thinking, maybe, The Owl House (Disney+) simply because I already have a Disney+ subscription. I'd prefer She-Ra: Princesses of Power (Netflix), I suspect, but that's a Netflix property, and it's not currently available for streaming via Amazon at any price (haven't yet checked YouTube/Google Play), and I'll leave the DVDs on my Amazon wish list through the end of the year, and maybe check interlibrary loan.
I'm still watching and enjoying the new Quantum Leap (NBC, Peacock) over the air with my antenna. It's generally light but compelling, sufficiently historically accurate, and balanced between the forward-moving drama of what's going on in 2022 and the anthology short-story dramas that Ben leaps into each week. It's thoroughly respectful of the original. I don't enjoy that it's on Mondays at 10-11pm, but I suppose it could be worse. I'm constantly worried they will cancel it before it really finds its feet and gets the ratings to sustain it. But I'm not enjoying it enough to subscribe to yet another whole streaming service for it alone. I wish I could report my watching to NBC in a way that doesn't cost a whole subscription.
She-Hulk (Disney+) was okay, but not really my own personal kind of thing. I did love the penultimate episode! Had the whole series been like that one -- perfectly balanced between humor and adventure, law and superheroing and comedy -- I would have liked the series much better. Kudos to them for trying valiantly, though. This was a really tough one in so many ways! She-Hulk has always been a matter of taste.
Werewolf by Night (Disney+) similarly was pleasant enough, but not exactly for me, personally. I highly appreciated the "classic monster movie" vibe, and, at the very end, the final color infusion as it slid into the main MCU. I liked our protagonists as presented. It was a cool Halloween treat for me. But unless you're into monsters, monster-hunting, or the "Midnight Sons" corner of Marveldom, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it widely; you won't need to have seen it for most other Marvel properties.
I'm still hugely enjoying reading the unabridged Journey to the West by Wu Cheng−en, translated by Anthony Yu, the medieval Chinese hundred-chapter novel (plus poetry) that gave the world Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, but I must admit that it's very slow going. Part of that may be that the translator chose not to start a new paragraph with each new dialogue speaker (possibly for reasons of fidelity to the original, or possibly because it's already 4 large volumes long, and the publisher and forests might have objected). I've already started noodling with fanfic, but that feels... wrong? illegitimate? ...as I have not yet finished the proper canon. I have read an abridged translation, and listed to a podcast, and watched a YouTube adaptation, but... how would I feel about fanfic for, say, The Three Musketeers, written before the author finished reading all four giant volumes of that original canon? (Does it make a difference that this is a monster-of-the-week comedy as well as a profound allegory?) Ah, well. Point being, it's great: check it out. :-)
Finally, I'm watching Miss Scarlet & the Duke (PBS, PBS Passport, BBC), but the second season so far seems a little fluffier and less satisfying to me than first season. At first I thought it was that the mysteries weren't complex enough, but now I think it's that the stakes aren't great enough. Eliza is now doing fine economically? And decently socially? So... where are the stakes? I approved putting off the romance from the season premiere; I don't think that's what's making it feel fluffier. Perhaps the London police and/or Scotland Yard should be looking into their own failings, such that Eliza's work is necessary...?
no subject
The other Chinese classics like Outlaws of the Marsh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc. all have one hundred chapters, too. There are now some good translations into English of those, too.
Also, re other cartoons to watch that came up in your other post: I forgot to mention the Netflix series The Dragon Prince! The first 3 seasons came out before 2020, then the show went on hiatus due to COVID. Season 4 just went up on Thursday (and the title has changed to The Dragon Prince: The Mystery of Aaravos). This is another cartoon series with an over-arcing storyline, and Aaron Ehasz, who was the head writer on AtLA, is one of the creators and writers of this series. Really excellent storytelling and well-worth you looking into if you've got Netflix. There are 9 episodes per season, each approximately 25 minutes.
ETA: F.C. Yee (who wrote some excellent tie-in novels to AtLA) also wrote a YA series that is a modern-day riff on Journey to the West: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo. So far there are two novels in the series - not sure if it's your thing, but if you're interested in checking it out as part of your exploration into fic for the fandom both books are fast, entertaining reads, especially the first book.
no subject
There's apparently only one unabridged English-language translation of Journey to the West -- the original from the '80s and this recent update of that same work by the same scholar. Good gravy. The abridged version I read earlier was nice enough, but it seems so bizarre that no one for five centuries bothered with a full translation.
Thank you also for the name of The Epic Crush of Genie Lo; I don't generally read YA, but I've now looked it up. I did recently read from the library an urban fantasy spun off JttW: Monkey Around by Jadie Jang (2021). The heroine is clearly either the reincarnation or a descendant or a something of Monkey, but she has never read JttW -- she explicitly has a Chinese-language copy at home, which she keeps not getting around to reading -- while she runs around beating up evil and fretting about her identity as a shape-shifting magical powerhouse who never knew her birth parents. I'm hoping for a sequel.
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If I can't interest you in one-hundred chapters of c.1592 translated novel just now ;-) might I perhaps interest you in nine fantastic, hand-illustrated, YouTube videos summarizing said novel? These are what got me interested in it in the first place: "Legends summarized: Journey to the West" playlist by Overly Sarcastic Productions.
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And yet they're not yet accomplishing the "exercise bait" job of getting me out of bed and pedaling ~3 miles at level 10 resistance in ~30 minutes. :-) A few more tries... then, if not, She-Ra is probably the answer! Or an anime.
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And thank you for the heads-up about the AtLA comics. I've discovered that my local public library has a bunch of AtLA collections, that these collections are in the children's graphic novels section, and that they're currently all checked out. :-D My turn will come.
Oh, my yes: welcome to Aurora webcomic! I hope it brings you many things you'll enjoy!
And yes, Over the Garden Wall is well worth watching, when you have the time and access. It's a tightly-crafted end-to-end story. I'm rather impressed that they managed to pull it off in a corporate environment at all.
no subject
That's amazing! We have no real library where I live. T_T