TV show

0 comments on "RE SHOW: The Decameron"

The Decameron

"The Decameron" on Netflix is BONKERS in the most delightful of ways.

It’s a group of people escaping from the Black Plague in Firenze by going to a villa in the country where they expect to have a wonderful time and instead everything goes WILDLY out of control.

They are ALL terrible ppl, but for most of them it’s the madness caused by having to deal with what’s going on around them.

Everyone is dying.

Society is breaking down.

They’re trying to push away the fear, the guilt, the utter HORROR of living through what seems to be the End Times. It’s a lot.

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Notes

There’s a lot that happens and I HAVE to gush about it.

If I don’t, I will explode.

  • That the well is open and full of leaves and whatever might fall in is disgusting and metaphoric. That all the servants wash their hands in one giant basin of standing water. And then later Pampinea has Misia "brush her teeth," which she does by rubbing her fingers over Pampinea’s teeth. DURING A FUCKING PLAGUE!
  • The eye-fucking between Panfilo and the delivery guy… I expected him to invite the guy to stay. And then later when Andreoli comes back and they tryst in the barn…
  • Neifile, who was honestly my favorite along with Panfilo, who I disregarded at first because she seemed so ditzy and unaware and actually she was the wisest out of everyone. You could see her feelings being hurt that Panfilo would lie to her. After everything that he doesn’t say, she accepted his secrets with silent grace, and it was his actual lies that hurt her the most.
  • Ruggerio, who hangs out with a group of wild thuggish murderers, but who came across as an urbane gentleman.
  • The sex dungeon!

I don’t know why, but it was hard for me to grasp the idea that everyone is there trying to please Pampinea so they can stay in the country villa. Because the city is FULL of plague. And the plague has changed EVERYTHING for all of them.

They reek of desperation, and she takes advantage of that because she’s awful. Just a terrible human being.

I get a bit fanficcy:

Filomena once had two sisters, a mother, a father, and a houseful of servants she knew her whole life. And now they’re all dead.

All she has left is Licisca. Her maid and "friend" that she hasn’t treated as well as she should have. And it’s not like she has regrets about that, because while she’s changed from the person she used to be, that person was the one that toyed with Licisca’s emotions and chopped off her hair when they were 12 years old and she came to the realization that everything was different between them. Forever.

She is watching everyone around her having sex, and she’s not part of it but she’s forced to see it happening. It’s debauchery because they are all falling apart and "We’re going to die anyway. Why not?"

And it’s interesting, because if she’d been able to be there under her own identity, she would have wholeheartedly fallen into that lifestyle. Not because she wanted to. But because she would be desperately trying to stay there. Straining to fit in amongst a group of vapid people trying their best to ignore the death surrounding them.

She was drawn closer and closer to Misia. Experiences the life of a servant and the unpleasantness of serving a terrible lady. But she holds on. Not wanting to be sent away to face the horrors of which she’d already tasted on her journey to the villa.

She watches Licisca playing at emotions and she’s by turns disgusted and amused. Because Tiranado is an insufferable bore and the most annoying sort of misogynist (the kind that won’t shut up!) but Dineo isn’t any better, and not just because of the poisoning.

She watches Licisca pretending to be her, and it is insulting and eye-opening and she hates it. Because she actually sees herself there. A person she doesn’t want to be but fears she really is.

And Misia gives her a sense of warmth, of acceptance and belonging when Licisca turns her away.

More than anything, Filomena wants to be different. Not as horrid as she used to be. But it’s hard when the world is burning down and death is everywhere.

And Licisca says mean words and refuses to be her friend again. Her sister. Her childhood companion she thought she’d always have. Forever.

~Harper Kingsley

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Small Gods at Amazon
0 comments on "Avenue 5 (spoilers)"

I realize that quite a few people don’t like "Avenue 5," which likely contributed to its cancellation. And perhaps their animosity was well-earned, as the jokes sometimes fall flat and most of the characters are unlikeable assholes. It is, after all, the story of a bunch of ludicrously rich people aboard a ridiculously luxurious space cruise liner flailing their way toward their own doom.

For reals: Their space cruise liner gets knocked off course, lengthening their voyage from 8-weeks to 3 years, and in their determination to right their course and get home earlier… They end up lengthening their journey to 8+ YEARS after nearly flying themselves straight into the sun.

A ship filled with the kind of people that most would barely feel an iota of empathy for and having them entirely comprise the cast of characters… of course viewers weren’t enthralled with the concept. And it’s not as though there weren’t other people aboard the ship that people might have had more of a connection with. There’s a full staff of maids, cooks, janitors, and entertainment staff that we never see.

One of the first episodes features a woman complaining that the maid that cleans her room folded her towel into an anus rather than the pleasant shape she expected. The comedian hired to entertain the ship has difficulty dealing with telling jokes while staring out a window at DEAD BODIES regularly passing by his view.

Yet we barely see any of the staff aboard the ship. They have to be there, as food is still being cooked and served. Rooms are still being cleaned and shipboard life is still running smoothly enough that the rich people have to be told that they’re in a dangerous situation. But we never see them or where they live.

There was a time in my life where I considered applying to be a crewmember aboard a cruise ship. The idea of being able to use the facilities aboard ship during my off hours and when they weren’t in use appealed to me. Being able to leave the ship and enjoy all the vacation spots while the ship was docked and I was off duty seemed like a great opportunity for someone that otherwise can’t afford to travel. The only thing that stopped me was looking up life aboard ship for crewmembers and seeing that there were a lot of stories of sexual abuse and some ships taking away peoples’ passports and basically treating them as slaves once they’re in international waters and unable to leave the ship.

All the pros made the corporate admitted cons seem bearable. Sharing a tiny cabin with multiple people and only having a narrow sleep berth and a small locker for my own didn’t seem that bad if I would be spending the rest of my time working, entertaining myself, or off the ship when it was docked. Being able to see other countries and enjoy an echo of the luxuries that paying customers did was enough to make me seriously consider replying to the job listing.

So with my knowledge of crew life aboard modern cruise ships–steps removed as it is–I was disappointed that the episodes of "Avenue 5" didn’t feature any of the real crewmembers as main characters.

We see the engineers, we see the comedian, we see the Captain and bridge crew that are actually actors, and we see the "humorously depressed" head of customer relations Matt. But we don’t get any stories featuring actual crew members. The people that are actually keeping life aboard ship running smoothly.

We see the most luxurious cabins aboard the space cruise ship, and we see the large economy cabins aboard the cruise ships… but we never see where the actual crewmembers live and work. We never see the behind-the-scenes life and work of the people that are now being forced to serve the demanding and unpleasant rich people for an EXTRA 8 YEARS.

They signed on to work for 8-weeks–2 MONTHS–and now they’re trapped for 8 YEARS. And we never see them.

I don’t know if the creators and writers of "Avenue 5" simply thought that telling the stories of the crew would be too depressing or if they never thought they would have stories at all… But it really makes you think and wonder about the kinds of people making the show.

Are they so wealthy and out-of-touch that the idea of the crew were complete non-entities? Like, they so lacked the depth of imagination that they focused on the passengers and main crew because those were the kinds of people they could empathize with and they simply couldn’t picture the trials and tribulations the "poor" crew were facing?

Are the crewmembers living in the same conditions as modern cruise ship crew live? Are they spending the next 8-years living in barely habital conditions while being screamed at by asshole passengers? The fake bridge crew obviously have normal-sized cabins, but is that because they regularly interact with the passengers and there’s a chance a passenger might see their living conditions? Or does the entire crew have normal-sized cabins?

The fact that we never see the crew using the amenities aboard ship makes me wonder if they’re forced to live in squalor in the depths of the ship. Are they all crammed in there like sardines while the passengers fall into despair over being trapped in the "tiny accommodations" of their luxurious cabins while enjoying the rest of the massive ship?

Is the crew being paid hourly wages for the entire length of the voyage no matter how long it is? Or are they under contract to receive a lump sum? Are they receiving the same food as the passengers or are they under short rations due to the lengthened journey?

The passengers are seen as being important because they’re still going to be rich when the Avenue 5 finally returns to Earth. As such, Judd and his board of investors see them as being more important than the crew. It’s why Judd hosts a revolving number of passengers in his cabin to try and sooth their disatisfaction and anger over being stuck on the ship.

When the various mistakes they make in attempting to shorten the journey results in further catastrophes, all that matters on the show is how unhappy the privileged people are. Maybe if there were some stories of the crew and their plight, viewers would have had more empathy for everyone. As it was, the whole show is unsympathetic people doing unsympathetic things with the viewer not feeling a sense that anything would be lost if everyone aboard died horrifically.

"And nothing of value was lost" would be the likeliest response if the Avenue 5 flew directly into the sun and burnt up. Which is sad, because there had been such potential in the premise of "Avenue 5."

It’s too bad we won’t ever see if the Avenue 5 makes it back to Earth. Or if everyone will starve or run out of oxygen or be eaten by the cannibal they foolishly allowed on board.

It is a story without an end. We will never know what happens to the crew and passengers aboard the Avenue 5. Their journey home unending and unresolved.

~Harper Kingsley

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.
https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.
https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://twitter.com/harperkingsley0.
https://kimichee.com.

Panoply at Amazon
0 comments on "Reboots are why I’ve stopped reading DC comics"

Supergirl and Batgirl were the only comics I read for the longest time. They were the titles I followed faithfully and spent my precious money on. Then, right when both were getting good — Linda Danvers and Cassandra Cane being kickass women superheroes — DC decided there needed to be reboots of both Superman and Batman. Which meant, of course, all the other titles had to be redone as well.

All that loyal comic book purchasing history was flushed down the toilet. And it was expected that I would just roll right into the new storylines. My thought, then and now, has always been “Fuck that.”

Yet my love for Supergirl has lingered over all these years. I was actually looking forward to the new television show. And since it’s on CBS, I was expecting something of substance, a nice meaty story to sink into. Instead, it was like something from ABC Family; weak and watered down flash with very little substance.

It was only the pilot episode, so maybe things will get better, but I don’t hold out much hope. This series smells of weak sauce.

And adding to the disappointment, I now have to go through and change my Man of Steel fanfic, because there’s no way I can use Cat Grant as a love interest for Clark Kent. Sorry to all her fans, but now that I’ve had Callista Flockhart’s face burned into my brain, the magic is gone. She has absolutely no appeal for me. If I was a dude, I’d be completely flaccid.

* * *

WHY I LOVE KARA IN-ZE SUPERGIRL –

Kara In-Ze arrived on Earth as a teenager. The loss of her family is fresh in her mind and now even her body is different, yet Kal-El expects that she will pretend to be a normal girl and fit in as the cousin of Clark Kent. Not only does she have to adapt to a completely alien world, she’s expected to hide her grief and control abilities that she never had before.

Kara’s story is one of loss and perserverence. While Clark was adopted as a toddler and grew up on Earth, never having known anything different, Kara has lost everything that she has ever known. It was a powerful storyline to me.

And the new Supergirl series throws that all away.

They take Kara In-Ze, squish her together with a version of Linda Danvers, and I’m supposed to swallow down the idea of Kara Danvers being a Supergirl that I can love?

I feel cheated.

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SUPERGIRLS I LOVED –

1. Kara In-Ze arriving to Earth from Argo, wide-eyed and innocent. Silver Aged Supergirl intent on enjoying the world and having fun with her cousin Superman. She is joyous and loving of the humans around her.

2. Supergirl, the clone sister of Lana Lang, created by an alternate universe version of Lex Luthor, a caring scientist intent on saving the human race. Rescued from a dying Earth by Superman and brought back with him, she doesn’t realize that the Lex Luthor she meets is not the man she loved. She lets him take her DNA, and he uses it to create superpowered clones and further his evil plots. Once she realizes his evil, the things she has allowed him to do, she vows to spend her life righting the wrongs he’s done in her name. She uses her identity as Supergirl to make amends.

3. Linda Danvers, a troubled girl committing an act of vandalism, nearly dies and is rescued by Supergirl, who dies in her place. Linda inherits Supergirl’s power matrix and becomes the new Supergirl. She tries her best to help the downtrodden people around her and becomes a high school teacher with an interest in helping troubled teens, like she used to be.

4. Linda Danvers Supergirl travels through time and space. She lives multiple timelines and lives. She marries a version of Kal-El on Krypton and they have a daughter and a wonderful life together that ends when the timelines are reset. She replaces Kara In-Ze and exits the space craft with a bright smile to greet Superman. “Hello, Kal-El, I am your cousin Kara In-Ze.”

Fortress in the Eye of Time at Amazon