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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

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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.”

0 comments on "RE: Bachelor’s Vegetable Store (kdrama)"

I watch all these kdramas and they warp my notions of reality. I think that I sympathize more with straight forward characters like Dong Yi and Han Tae Yang because that’s pretty much how I am. Though I think they give themselves more trouble than they really need if they would just be honest with people; not about their more serious secret, but the smaller troubles they get into.

Half these dramas would simply fall apart if one character would turn to another and just lay all the facts out on the table. Instead, everyone has to hold everything all bottled up and creep around all over the place.

Sure, that kind of super melodrama is interesting for a number of episodes, then it just gets repetetive. You want the characters to quit moping around all the time and buck up. At the very least, you stop feeling sorry for the characters and you just think that they should totally cut contact with each other because they would be much better off.

“Bachelor’s Vegetable Store” is strangely compelling for a story about a guy selling vegetables, but I think that they’ve kind of lost track of the charm and have drifted into ridiculous territory. Also, they introduced some side stories for the supporting characters, then they don’t follow through with them. We just get a tiny taste at a time and it’s actually very frustrating.

I was willing to watch 60 episodes of “Dong Yi” because it was just that attention grabbing and entertaining. There were characters that I really cared about and wanted to see get a happy ending.

With “Bachelor’s Vegetable Store,” I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I think Han Tae Yang should just cut his losses and find some other girl to love, one that would actually appreciate him. I just think that she should face up to the fact that she’s more interested in comfort and money than she is in love, and cut the ties; it would be a kindness to just let him go. But there’s no way she’s ever going to do that because she’s selfish. She doesn’t even care enough for him to protect his life from a woman that has shown a willlingness to do horrible things to people.

I’m so disgusted by her, that I think I would appreciate it if there were longer scenes in the secondary characters’ lives to break the tension. Like I have my suspicious about Chan Sol’s situation, but I kind of want to have that proved; that or I would really like an interesting twist. And I’m kind of curious about the seemingly homeless bachelor with the angsty past.