May media post

[nrgburst]

Okay, posting a bit late because it has been A Week, but I'm almost at the end of my to-do list! 

TV:

TED LASSO
😭 Okay, so lyrawhite insisted that I watch this and I was like. ...A soccer comedy with a white American football coach transplanted to England to coach their football. Really? 😅 BUT IT WAS SOOO GOOD because it completely ran counter to my expectation of dumb jock humour. Ted believes in people and makes tonnes of silly jokes and he is 100% genuine. And the way that positivity really does bring out the best in others is just the most heartwarming thing? Fantastic cast of characters, spot on writing, awesome narrative arcs. Season 2 is coming in July and I honestly can't wait. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Lucifer 5B
Cheating a little bit because I did not actually finish binging the season until yesterday even though I started it when it dropped last week! I was reaaalllly looking forward to this and found it oddly disappointing? Too many bottle eps in an already short half season, which meant the main storyline had to be compressed into even fewer eps and considering Deckerstar had FINALLY just gotten together, there was really not enough shippy stuff! 🙁🙁🙁 They did some narrative tie-ins to much earlier eps though, revisiting and closing a couple of arcs, which was somewhat satisfying. And the ending sets up a huge game changer for the final season too, but it just didn't have the same exciting momentum as past seasons and the spectacle factor didn't deliver in the finale because of COVID filming restrictions. :/

Books:

 Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

This was a great little novella and the only thing that bothered me was its place in the timeline: it's probably set before the last novel (Network Effect) but I didn't know that going in so I was rather confused at first. Anyway, Murderbot is still grumpy and competently working its way through challenges and around The Rules given to it by humans, and it was a lot of fun to see some of its favourite humans pop up again! "That left me with the human most likely to want to drop everything and come watch me break into a damaged transport and the human also most likely to come watch me break into a damaged transport but only so he could argue with me about it." 😂 Good fun and definitely recommend! 

    Temeraire 3-6 by Naomi Novik

So these are basically Temeraire and Laurence wandering around the world constantly getting into trouble and also finally meeting the Napoleon threat in battle! I loved the way Napoleon is depicted too - his vision for infrastructure etc. is innovative and progressive, like his battle strategies, it's just that he wants to take over your country's resources and autonomy, is all. 😁 I also enjoyed how Novik depicts yellow, brown and black people having complex and progressive cultures and customs, while the white colonizers are basically entitled racists with guns and ships enslaving people (and treating dragons and women badly) and Laurence is in a state of constant facepalm. The plot ends up a bit meandering though, and the endings are rarely triumphant and conclusive in terms of arcs? So I'm pausing on this series for a bit because I have a lot of other things on my list I want to get to.

 Shrill by Lindy West

I liked this a lot more than The Witches are Coming! Does everything a good feminist novel should: shine a light and make you think, and West does it with a wicked sense of humour. She makes great points about fatphobia, responsibility in comedy and vitriol in online media. I will probably revisit this one in future, and I definitely want to watch the show based off this.

 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

OMG GUYS. THIS. BOOK. 😭😭😭 I literally had tears in my eyes when I finished it. This one is very much more in line with The Martian than Artemis but it went in completely unexpected directions despite Weir's signature nitpicky science details and hilarious delivery. Might make you believe in the basic tendency towards cooperation in sentient beings. Going to add it to my bookshelf as a keeper. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

 Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Re-read for obvious reasons, and I loved it all over again. HEIST HEIST HEIST! 😁 I'm holding off on re-reading Crooked Kingdom though because uh. I know how it ends and Fuck No right now. 😅

 Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

Interesting and revealing - I don't agree with a lot of her final pronouncements (especially the ones with a devout Christian bent) but I enjoyed the poetry and hearing anecdotes about her life and the way she shows how her perspective was blown wide open sometimes. 


Next up: The Rose Code and The Faraway Nearby. I usually read e-books on my phone nowadays but since the new job has long periods of waiting for drop-ins on Fridays, I'm taking it as an opportunity to also get through my neglected bookshelf! So far both are excellent and I predict I'm going to be adding The Rose Code to my shelf too. 🥰

Comments

[cephy]

I LOVED Ted Lasso - and completely was not expecting to going into it, but I couldn't turn off the tv, had to just binge the entire thing in one sitting because it was that good. SUPER thrilled to learn there'll be a second season. :D

[nrgburst]

OMG that was me too! 😅 I was like, fine, fine, I'll try it because I trust you and once I started, I binged the whole thing!

Actually, it's going to run three seasons! 🥳 So I'm thinking the arcs are going to be:
S2: the fight back to Premier League and then S3: the journey to winning it alllllll. And I know Ted is right and that it's not winning that's most important, but it would be awesome, right? 😁 I really wonder what Roy's arc is going to be too now that he's officially benched.

[cephy]

I mean, yeah, of course winning isn't everything, but it sure does make for more entertaining tv, right? ;)