Happy New Year, everyone! May 2017 be kinder to you than 2016—even if you had a good 2016!

My New Year's Resolution, carefully formulated mere days before I heard rumors of LJ's impending demise is . . . drum roll, please . . . to post more on LJ!

If the worst happens and LJ goes kaput, please look for me on Drnamwidth instead: http://aelfgyfu-mead.dreamwidth.org. I've backed up my whole LJ there, and we can hide there, as in a bunker.

I am optimistic, however, so I will post here.

I've been around, and I'm sorry I haven't been more visible. I've been reading posts and generally replying, but things got away from me early this year, and I kept feeling as if I couldn't post to LJ until I posted more to LJ to explain where I'd been, but some of these will be friends-locked entries, and . . . and . . . and. . . .

There will be posts.

There will be more posts about the tv I'm watching. Brief version, with more to follow: just a taste )
aelfgyfu_mead: Aelfgyfu as a South Park-style cartoon (Shaun with book)
( Sep. 7th, 2015 07:25 pm)
I have read more fiction than usual this summer! The first one is one I forgot from the last entry, but the others are all since then.

David Brin, Existence )

Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis, Operation SIN: Agent Carter )

Ann Leckie, Ancillary Sword )

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay )

Tom Harper, Zodiac Station )

Andy Weil, The Martian )
aelfgyfu_mead: Young Peggy Carter in WWII uniform (Peggy Carter)
( May. 8th, 2015 01:33 pm)
Ok, I'm the last kid to post about it, but I have to share my joy! "‘Agent Carter’ and ‘Agents of SHIELD’ Renewed, But ‘SHIELD’ Spin-Off Is DOA"

Peggy will be back! And I earnestly hope that she's back with Angie, Jarvis, Sousa, and Thompson. I could live without Thompson, but I think I have to have those first three.

Oh, and Agents of SHIELD will continue. I have very mixed feelings, about which I should post when I'm not actually trying to work.

I had forgotten about the spin-off, though I'd heard something; when I read that it wasn't coming out, my reaction was pretty much "They were going to do that? With those characters? No, thanks." I really like Bobbi, and I kind of like Hunter in spite of myself, but the two of them on their own show together? No.


Brilliant Husband thinks they should be merchandising the heck out of Agent Carter. "Imagine the outfits they could sell! Her fatigues, three or four suits, the shoes, the hat. . . ." "Brilliant Husband!" I shouted. "What?" he said, and I had no idea what to say next.
Marvel's Agent Carter is a limited-run series; its last episode will air on Tuesday. It has a real possibility of renewal for a second season, but ratings haven't been what ABC hoped, so AgentCarter.net has provided ways to encourage ABC to bring the show back ("Want More Agent Carter? It's All Down to You!").

Their suggestions include:
• Call ABC:
'Dial the number 818-460-7477 (within the USA, add +1 at the beginning if dialing via an international cell phone) to get the “Audience information department”
Press 1 for “ABC television network”
Press 2 for “leave comment”
Press 2 for “prime time shows”
Enter 243 for “Marvel’s Agent Carter”
Leave your message up to 30 seconds long and then simply hang up.'

• Send a message: http://abc.go.com/feedback. (Remember that it's "Marvel's Agent Carter," so when you get to the pull-down menu of shows, it's under M, not A! That threw me for a moment.)

• Like the show's Facebook page and comment on or share posts on it: https://www.facebook.com/AgentCarterTV

• Follow the show's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/AgentCarterTV. Tweet about the show, and especially live-tweet during it, using #AgentCarter.

I've left a message on their website already and will see about doing more.
The short version: more shows than Brilliant Husband and I can actually watch in a week. We got behind in the fall, caught up between semesters (when most shows took a few weeks off) and are now behind again. Also, I have probably forgotten a show or two. I hope they aren't important ones. Last time I did this, I forgot one of my favorites!


Agent Carter: My favorite favorite show right now—please watch if you are a Neilsen family, or watch on dvr in the first 24 hours if you can, so that the ratings will go up and it might get another (limited) season! I've already told you why you should be watching here. Those reasons still stand. And while I wish they would have more characters of color and hope that we didn't just see those few they do have in one episode, I have even more reason to love the show now.

Elementary: This show keeps developing the characters. In too many shows, characters stagnate (there's a TV Tropes term for when a character becomes increasingly defined by mannerisms, but if I look it up I'll never get this posted). On Elementary, Sherlock has grown greatly, and Joan perhaps had less growing to do, but she is also changing. And this season added Kitty Winter, about whom I won't say more because then I'd need the whole entry to be on Elementary. I highly recommend the show.

Agents of SHIELD: I'm not quite as enamored as I once was because spoilers ) I do like the additional characters and just hope they don't kill most of them off!

Gotham: I should not be watching this show. It's too brutal for sensitive me. Yet I got hooked, and now I'm kind of stuck. Camren Bicondova is a scene-stealer as Selina Kyle—every scene she's in, and I wish she were in more. Sean Pertwee as Alfred! And I love the relationship they've built between Gordon and Bullock. The scene where they meet again after Jim's reassignment! That was a "stop the TiVo while I digest this scene and stop laughing so I can hear what comes next" moment! Those actors have great chemistry together, and they've really developed it—that relationship is in a very different place than it was at the start of the season, and they're completely convincing. Jada Pinkett Smith is also compelling: I don't like her character, but I love that they're writing a woman as bad as the male villains and smarter than most. Set and atmosphere are brilliant, but very dark.

12 Monkeys: also probably too brutal. Oops. I thought the movie was really good (pace Roger Ebert, requiescat in pace). The series has characters with similar names and a similar basic premise, sending a man back in time due to a terrible disease, but most of the premise is different: where the movie presumed time can't be changed, the series counts on time being changed. I find the leads very appealing. I was about to complain about the very white cast, but I went to IMDb and found: the one character whose race I really couldn't determine (this show is also very dark! I'm having trouble seeing faces in some scenes!) is in fact non-white (and mixed race), and I see someone listed as appearing in most episodes who looks to be African American whom I don't recall seeing. Maybe I need to watch more than two episodes before I complain. Still, the ones I understand to be the core characters are all white. I may be wrong about the core, however.

Castle: Still watching. I am considering forgiving them for last season's cliffhanger, but it will never be the same. I feel that they went way too dark, and they haven't finished working through that arc. I do love that the show often manages to pass the Bechdel Test, albeit briefly: most conversations will work their way around to Castle eventually, but having the chief be a woman really helps. (We will get Lanie again too, right? They've had the other medical examiner the last few episodes.)

I will watch when we get it on BBC America: Broadchurch s2. Please don't spoil me!
aelfgyfu_mead: Young Peggy Carter in WWII uniform (Peggy Carter)
( Jan. 11th, 2015 05:32 pm)
If I hadn't been watching the show, I would want someone to tell me: "You must watch Agent Carter!" It's better than Agents of SHIELD (which I enjoy a lot, and I do intend to post more about it). It helps if you've seen the first Cap movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, but I don't think you need to have seen it: flashbacks and little info drops (I think they're not quite info dumps) give you what you should know. I'm avoiding spoilers here, I hope, as I tell you why you should watch:

The dialogue crackles, like a screwball comedy, but I can't think of any screwball comedies that blew stuff up or had numerous physical fights.

Hayley Atwell shines, whether trading insults or blows—or just having a quiet moment to herself. In the first two episodes (run back to back on the first night), she's onscreen most of the two hours, and she really carries it. Peggy Carter is awesome: not perfect enough to be unbelievable, but awfully, awfully good at what she does. Even when hardly anyone appreciates it.

James D'Arcy: why haven't I seen more of this actor? He's quite memorable here as Edwin Jarvis: the perfect, low-key butler who seems to have some talent (and possibly more of a yen than he admits) for spy work. His dialogue with Peggy is a high point of the show for me. She doesn't want help, and she doesn't think a lot of him at the start. Oh, and the moment of a phone call with Howard Stark we get near the end of episode 2 is screamingly funny. Brilliant Husband thinks he resembles Benedict Cumberbatch, and by the end, I was saying: "He's what I'd like Benedict Cumberbatch to be." He's very restrained and absolutely impeccable (most of the time).

Enver Gjokaj: why isn't he in everything? I didn't watch much of Dollhouse because I found it deeply disturbing from the first episode; I tuned in for the last several because I wanted to see the whole Dollhouse destroyed (got more than I bargained for there). Gjokaj played Victor—and a number of other characters. BH called me in for an episode I wasn't watching to see what happened when he accidentally got his programming changed to Kiki the Party Girl, and later I saw him plugging different flash drives into his skull to have different skill sets. He's brilliant. He was also good in Extant, though he had far less to do there. Here, I'm hoping his role will grow. He's an agent of the SSR, and the only one who seems to pay any real attention to Peggy.

Howard Stark appears at the start, though I don't know how much more he'll be in. There are several "I see where Tony gets that" moments, but he's also quite a different character.

So far, the dialogue sparkles, the storyline is a blast (interspersed with some more sober moments), the effects are more of a literal blast, and I can hardly wait for the next episode.

So who else is watching?

If you're not, go watch the first two episodes on ABC.com now. You won't regret it!
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