Entertaining in a Disturbing Way

Then I remember I don't have one, so it wouldn't do any good.

A) Sapphic Summer! https://sapphicsunshower.dreamwidth.org/18139.html - Runs until 1st September.

B) I managed to read actual books towards the end of the year, I really really like Tilly Wallace's Manners and Monsters series. It hit all of the pining/regency parts of my id with some great horror bits, and I didn't spend any of the six books wanting to punch anyone. Mostly, I liked the covers and was quite charmed by the prose.

C) I've taken up fluid art, or whatever it's called. Pouring bunches of paint on canvas makes pretty designs.

D) Games-wise, I replayed several MCF entries, and appreciated how long they were. Also replayed Sacra Terra: Angelic Night (the game that got me playing HOG games in the first place, and remains my GOLD STANDARD for people talking). Also several Mystery of the Ancients I find it weird how Lockwood Manor and No Escape are such completely different vibes to the rest--well, the one with the Kraken is closer to Lockwood Manor, I suppose.

E) Still need to catch up on Doctor Who. I got stuck after Demons, and then, well, dad died, and I stopped watching it entirely save for Jo Martin and the end of Thirteen's era. Not sure what I'll think of the specials (and not really holding my breath about RTD).

F) I keep having terrible luck when ordering donuts - they always seem to arrive stale and terrible.

G) I listened to the first Star Cops set, Mother Earth and the first episode of the second set. I really really liked how it sounded (and I like the new characters they slotted in, since two of them have died in RL). It was fucking hilarious to hear Pal Kenzy again, and I'm gleeful they got Newton back for it--it just doesn't feel like Star Cops with Kenzy & Devis. Even if I want to slap Devis a LOT. It also sounds like they're all having a blast revisiting the characters in the behind the scenes stuff.

H) Mom and I are still going through Poirot and Marple, and I've started pulling up the audiobooks on youtube to listen. I really appreciate how much of the racism they cut out of the aired stories, though it's sort of like archeology to hear it/read it. Although some of them are terribly long-winded (The Blue Train, for instance, was a DNF for me, as it is so fucking long, and it goes on and on and on... It's actually one of the adaptations I really like, though, so I stuck a lot of it out, then skipped to the end. Also, shocked that the Katherine-Kettering stuff in the novel was cut from the adaptation, yet I still shipped it like burning without knowing their whole romantic sub-plot existed??? Also, loathe the idea that Katherine just Went Home and didn't continue traveling. Bollocks to that.)

I) I have started a Music I Like post, but it is nowhere near finished.

1. I know this is probably going to surprise a few people, but my interest in the new version of Murder on the Orient Express was never particularly high (Johnny Depp, y'know. So dull and also an asshole). However, the trailers make it look incredibly awful. Like, painfully badly done. Just to check, I have also watched the Suchet trailer. It has some of the same beats, but it's just better. So my interest is at the point of "if someone pays me, I'll watch it." I'm old, I'm allowed to be judgemental.

2. I cannot believe it is mid-November already. Like. Wasn't it just my birthday?

3. Teslacon this year was... mostly all right. I still find the back-patting "Steampunk isn't like all the other girls" bullshit the fandom tends to say and act like utter, well, bullshit. Because, no. Fandom is fandom, no one is special.

4. HOW AMAZING IS THOR RAGNAROK. I... I need to write a post.

5. Also, I need to talk about Sherlock series four at some point, because I have watched it and I have thoughts and such (and Thor sort of coagulated a couple of them for me, disturbingly).

6. That aside, can I also state that my attraction to Loki (and possibly Hiddleston, ok, don't judge) confuses me. But he wears a black on black tailored suit at one point, and I was just like "...nng." I would have to go back and watch, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't all that in the first two movies.

7. I was re-watching some of the older Midsomer Murders, and I find them a bit... annoying. Like, some of the later ones go all over the place and can be pretty out there. But some of those early ones just---the killer's logic and motivation makes no fucking sense. There are also a lot of killer suicides in that first four seasons. Or cop-assisted ones. (I also re-watched part of the one with Vivian Fay as a novelist, and she still remains amazing. And it is also still one of my favorites)

7a. I also really can't stand Troy very much. :/

8. I also re-watched some of season 9 of Doctor Who. Because Clara is my girl, and I just. That season has bits that will make me flail forever (and the ending, just.). Oddly, I'm pretty sure I still owe a post talking about season 9? I should get on that, because I did have thoughts about it once upon a time. And I should stop putting it off as it should mean I'm watching season 10 soon.

9. Work is work. Got my review this week, which was a good one. I appreciate that.

10. It is dark enough as I walk to the bus stop on my way home from work that I'm seriously considering investing in some glow sticks so I'm actually noticeable in my black winter coat and dark trousers and black shoes.

I was watching Poirot last night.

As always, a delight. I don't remember what I started with, but I did discover that The Hollow annoys me. Or rather, Gerda annoys me. I tried to like her, but she was that sort of self-effacing stupid caricature woman. And ugh. Couldn't stand her.

This morning, I discovered, while half-asleep, that I apparently ship Katherine Grey/Derek Kettering from The Mystery of the Blue Train. At least in a sort of, she thinks he's amusing and tells him to do something with himself, he goes off and becomes a spy then recruits her just as the war is starting way. With sex and "I don't really love you." "Why ever would I think that?" conversations and Katherine traveling everywhere and learning languages (and writing Poirot in French and Belgian).

I've been bingeing on Leverage. And Leverage commentaries. But then I got tired of them and moved on. (IT HURTS THAT THERE IS NO NEW SEASON)

So then I watched other TVs.

1. Two new ITV Marples. a. A Caribbean Mystery. I appreciated the lack of, um, Crazy Scary Other People And Their Voodoo. There was still voodoo in the story, but it wasn't... um, gross. Then again, my ability to detect this stuff isn't always great. Also, hello Hermione Norris's boobs. much appreciated, itv (I was also pleased to remember some of the story from the earlier version!) b. Greenshaw's Folly. According to wiki, they blended in bits of another short story for this. I quite liked it, even with all of the added "wasn't there originally" bits. Also, the pairing I wanted to win out did. (as always, for both, it was Brit actor bingo)

2. The last four episodes of season one of Elementary. I should confess that I'd managed to spoil myself about Moriarty--not on purpose, mind, but this IS the internet, and I can't avoid all of the spoilers. That said, I think I might still have cottoned on to it, if only because the idea that Irene would fake her death was something I have loved from the moment they told us she was dead.

I deeply appreciated the skewering of Helpless Refrigerated Women, though.

ALSO. CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW AMAZINGLY CLEVER WATSON IS? Because she is fantastic, and I seriously cannot believe that CBS is churning out a procedural with a lead female character like her. Especially not with her partner detective being fucking Sherlock Holmes.

I really really REALLY like what they've done so far, and I look forward to more of their wacky adventures (I want Alfredo and Ms. Hudson back, too!)

ALSO. Watson calling them all on their protective bullshit (except for Sherlock, who hasn't had any outside of "WATSON, I shall now endeavour to annoy you until you're trained in self-defence.")


3. At some point, I re-watched the second St. Trinian's movie. MY HEART, IT GOES ON. I need another movie. and possibly a group to cosplay with um. Except for the part where I'd need to be some sort of Trinian's reunion, as I am so not that young.

3b. And Empire Records. (there is that one scene where Gina almost kisses Corey, and I want femslash for that moment. all Gina's sleeping around is because she can't have Corey, obvsly)

4. And then I wanted some murder in my life, but Scott and Bailey is too.. dry? idk. It wasn't what I was in the mood for (despite being, like, four episodes behind). So I watched some of series 14 of Midsomer Murders. The new Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) does not grow on one. I tolerate him because Ben Jones don't judge me, he's adorable (and possibly the new pathologist [byebye Georgie Bullard. *sniffle*], who is Dr. Betty from Motive's twin sister, minus the heels and occasional sexual harrassment of her male co-workers)

The first episode (Life in the Slow Lane) of the series has Clare Paget in it, and a St. Trinian's joke (I think I watched this prior to St. T's 2). Susan Engel was also in it, being evil and amazing (ok, not evil, this time. Sadly. LAST TIME SHE WAS A SPY, ALL RIGHT. My bar is set high). um. also, Samantha Bond (hotter every time).

The second episode (Dark Secrets) was entertaining and full of surprise!incest (this is Midsomer Murders, I would be disappointed if there weren't incest).

Echoes of the Dead was a newskool Who reunion (Jennifer, the adorably lost Flesh person. And Sophie from The Lodger/Closing Time). With gratuitous women whacked up and put in baskets (I was eating dinner at the time and almost regretting it).

I may have skipped almost the entirety of The Oblong Murders.

The Sleeper Under the Hill was a bit disappointing, but Jones was still there.

And then there was The Night of the Stag. Reading the summary, I knew that I was already going to be making jokes. It was like that X-Files episode about Chaco Chicken, to be honest. Stranger tax guy gets looooost. And, um, is found in a barrel of cider (that people were drinking, so, gross).

BUT THEN ABOUT A THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH, there's a line from someone about the children being absent from school for a specific week every year, and I was already a bit expecting something from the way it was set up, and my natural reaction was to go, "I hope this isn't going to turn into Countryside."

And, uh. It sort of did? At least in the village leader dudes are gross assholes way. (seriously, there's a tradition where they run over to the village over the hill and rape all the women while the men of that village are doing the same. Christ. I almost wish it had been cannibalism)

so gross

Er, and there I stopped--but not for that reason, I've just run out of episodes.


All of which is to say I MISS LEVERAGE, and I WANT ANOTHER HEISTY SHOW. And while we're at it, some shows with SPACE SHIPS. And women, if possible.

After my dislike of the Hickson Body in the Library, I sort of lowered my expectations for the Hickson version of AMiA. Happily, it was a much better and less "Men do lots of things" storyline. (I should note that I liked A Pocketful of Rye, too, but both versions have Miss Marple in a very active role)

It's a bit sleepy and slow, and there's lots of characters who seem to have little, if any, bearing on the plot (the colonel's wife, for instance, who has a mystery that never seems to get solved). But it is rather delightful (and also had surprise!Samantha Bond, who makes me think very shallow thoughts), and I rather enjoyed the side characters of Hinch and Murgatroyd.

For curiosity's sake, I watched the more recent version afterwards. And while it is more colorful (again, production values and digital coloring make a great difference), I actually found the changes they made pointless. While the first is a bit meandering, there is a nice sense of cohesion to it. The newer version is all over the place (and it has even fewer characters! You would think it would be more succinct).

The newer version also cast very attractive people for the roles. I'm not saying the Hickson version was filled with unattractive people, but, they were less attractive than today's standards, and the newer version felt a bit shallower (also, replacing Samantha Bond with Sienna Guillory didn't particularly work so well; Guillory felt too pretty for the role, if that makes sense).

(also, the removal of Julia's history as a member of the French resistance was sort of silly)

otoh, there was a lot less... prejudice in the newer version. If that's the right word for "Oh, dirty foreigners are always crooks"

It also gave Miss Marple one more bit of background in that she drove ambulances during the first world war. *cackles*

I think I'd prefer to smush both versions together! Miss Marple as an ambulance driver, Julia as a member of the French resistance, and the first versions of Hinch and Murgatroyd can stay. (not that the newer versions weren't adorable, they just were a slightly different type of adorable)

Poirot, Taken at the Flood: Are they finally running out of Christie to mine?
Bionic Woman 1.3: Improvement, but IW needs to get dropped, soon. Ugh.
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