Happy holidays!
Here are some bits of (mostly) pop culture that I enjoyed or that made me think over the past few weeks.
Movies
Arrival is wonderful. It moves slowly and Amy Adams is luminous. The movie explores the importance of language in how we view the world. I highly recommend it.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — I liked it. It’s more hard sci-fi than fantasy in space. Like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the acting in Rogue One is much better than what is typical of Lucas’s Star Wars movies.
TV Shows
I binge-watched all three seasons of the SyFy show “Defiance“. You can find all of it on Amazon Prime. Essentially, an alien star system (the Voltanis System) collapsed and multiple alien species came to Earth… The show brings us to a new Earth, years after aggressive terraforming and the Pale Wars. The show starts when two main characters, human Joshua Nolan and his adopted alien daughter Irisa, come to Defiance, a Wild West town built on top of what used to be St. Louis, in which humans live alongside aliens. If you enjoyed Firefly, I think you will like this show.
I am looking forward to the return of The Expanse (season 2 starts in February), Killjoys and Dark Matter (both coming back for season 3 sometime in 2017).
In the meantime, I will watch Star Trek: Enterprise (4 seasons) on Amazon Prime, since I never saw the whole show.
DH and I have been watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I highly recommend it. It’s musical comedy and it’s hilarious — the musical bits are really smart and funny, and might be the best part of the show! DH is not one to binge on TV, so we are not watching this show nearly as intensely as I would if it were just me. We just started season 2.
Literature
By way of Dame Eleanor Hull‘s comment on Clarissa’s blog, a few weeks ago I came across a classic bit of feminist writing: the short story “To Room Nineteen,” written by the Nobel laureate Doris Lessing. There is a stifling banality to everyday life that is felt acutely by those who had to give up their individuality to become solely a caretaker. Many women will feel a chill of recognition as the story unfolds.
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I’m pretty excited about the new season of The Expanse. My husband and I watched the first season over Thanksgiving. Contemplating getting the books because I’m impatient.
Happy New Year!
Arrival was my favourite movie this year. The book including the original short story (Stories of your Life by Ted Chiang) is also fantastic. Very weird, philosophical and quite dark alternative reality/sci-fi stories.
I’m going to have to try Defiance. We introduced the kids to Firefly on New Year’s Eve (which in our house is movie marathon day) and I was reminded once again what a great show that was and how sad I am there is only one season.
Hi natalieinne, you probably know this, but I am writing it here for other readers. If you liked Firefly (the 2002 TV show), watch Serenity (the 2005 movie), which ties some important loose ends from the prematurely discontinued show (e.g., where the Reavers came from).
Heading off to watch Defiance now!! (Loved Firefly though I didn’t watch for first time until 2009).
Farscape is another great one, from the creator of Defiance.
Thanks for the To Room Nineteen recommendation. It was both a horrific and enlightening read. Happy new year!
Enjoyed the first few episodes of Defiance and will check out Farscape.
I loved Farscape, will have to check out Defiance. Just finished Star Trek Voyager, debating watching Enterprise, I’ll be curious to see if you liked it. I’m so sad that I’m out of Voyager to watch.