I still can’t believe I actually get to write this post. But here goes. This is pretty much the most exciting, terrifying, holy-shit-this-mix-of-emotions-is-going-to-make-me-burst-into-tears announcement I’ve ever made in my life, and so I’m just going to blurt this on to your lap before I spend another half-hour dancing around the house with excitement.
I just love Rami Malek so much
Wheee! I don’t care that this trailer is forty seconds long, I’m going to analyse the poop out of it because I’m a massive slut for Doctor Who and have been waiting seven brutal months to yell my opinions about it in somebody’s face. To the review!
So, with the Carrie Recaps over and done with, it’s time to take a look at another book. And I really wanted to go with something that was huge not just to my development as a reader and writer, but that had a cultural impact to match. Something that defined my early years of reading and did for so many other people too. Something so inescapably gigantic that it has cast a long shadow across more than two decades of popular culture, something that defined my generation’s relationship to books, storytelling, and character more than any other. And that means…
Yup, that’s right, esteemed blogarinos: it’s time to recap the first Harry Potter book.
You know, you can say a lot about Jean-Marc Valee’s directorial style – it took me a long time to actually come around to it and start liking it, and even now I sometimes find it a little jarring and pointed – but it brings such a distinctly cinematic feel to everything he helms. His work on Big Little Lies was, intermittently, some of the best TV direction I’ve ever seen, and Sharp Objects is already heading to those levels of sheer excellence just a couple of episodes in.
To be fair, the second episode, Dirt, really gave him a lot to work with in terms of thematic elements. Last week’s Vanish did a great job laying the groundwork for the town of Wind Rush and it’s inhabitants, and the discovery of the murdered body of the second missing girl set the scene to rip it apart again. And, well, Dirt did just that.
Well, we’re back with the final Carrie recap! And before I get into the chapter, I just want to give a shout out to my friend Pasuht – he’s been so supportive and a dedicated reader of these recaps for months, despite my fuckin’ inability to post any of them on time, and is generally just a top-notch human person whose presence vastly improves my internet experience. Go follow him, you won’t regret it. Anyway! On with the round!
Bit of an old trigger warning for self-harm right here, if that kind of thing bothers you.
I don’t think it’s a particularly bold statement to say that we look for ourselves in the fiction we enjoy. There’s something about seeing yourself reflected in a story that feels grounding – someone experienced something similar to something you experienced, and they found it profound and important enough to build a story around. A lot of the reason I consume so much media, and certainly the reason that I write (hello you can read about my upcoming debut novel Rape Jokes here thank you bye), is because I’m looking for bits of myself reflected in the stories other people tell and want to do that for other people when I put expose little chunks of myself to the world at large. We define ourselves with stories, the ones we tell and the ones we consume, and that’s become all the more potent in the last few years as the stories that reach mainstream media become more diverse, the topics wider than ever before.
We’ve all been there. You’re a TV writer/director and you need to turn in a script, but there’s a little something missing. Action? No, you’ve got that. Drama? That’s ticked off too. Dragons? I mean, yeah, probably that as well. Aha! You’ve got it. This is a TV show with women in it, and that means you need to cram in some topless scenes and jiggle some titties in the face of your audience.
My best, worst, and weirdest movies of the year so far!
“Wait, there’s a serial killer in Zoo?” My significant other, raising his hand to stop me mid-flow as I talked about the show I’m working my way through at the moment, furrowed his brow. “I thought it was about animals.”
“Well, it is,” I rolled my eyes impatiently. “But the serial killer was the reason the wolves burned down that prison-“
And that’s when I realized I had a problem.
First off, my apologies for the lack of posting the last few weeks: work has been batshit busy, I’ve been travelling a lot, and it’s summer and hot and lovely so I want to be outside sipping on iced soy vanilla lattes and not glaring at Stephen King’s debut novel lately. But this month things are much chiller, and I’m hoping to finish up both the Carrie recaps and the Best Episodes Ever series, so stay tuned for that!
