The Cutprice Guignol

In world news today: Ireland apparently votes yes on gay marriage, bigots everywhere prepare for the apocalypse, and there’s a campaign to put Ainsley Harriot on a banknote.

You may have noticed that the blog schedule I came up with a couple of months ago has got spectacularly tits up, because I can do anything with glee (no, not that kind, don’t even click there) and passion provided I think I don’t have to do it. All I can say is that the Fifty Shades recaps will be up in the first couple of days in every week, and whatever else happens will happen. Shhh. Don’t fight it. *holds finger to your lips*

There were a bunch of things I was planning to write about today (most particularly Rape of Thrones, and how using rape as a major plot point for your female characters over and over is lazy as fuck), but instead I just want to share some of my picks of Netflix, something for you to binge-watch over this weekend. I’m probably going to start doing a recomendation list once every couple of weeks, because I watch a shit-ton of TV and movies that I never review for whatever reason but that I want to share with people, so if you like this, there will be more (if you don’t, bugger off to some other blog then, you- no, wait, come back, don’t leave, I need the clicks!) Where I am, it’s two in the afternoon, so you should have plenty of time to sear every frame of a show into your eyeballs. I’ll hear no excuses.

If you want…comedy

Frankie & Grace I’m not sure why this has received such a lukewarm response from critics, as it’s a beautifully crafted, funny-but-what’s-this-lump-in-my-throat-doing comedy with a belter of a cast (Sam Worthington, Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda). Following the story of two very different women who are thrown together after their husbands leave them for each other, it’s warm-hearted and elegantly made, a very grown-up dramedy with some real emotional punch (mostly thanks to the sublimely well-drawn relationships between the lead four). At thirteen episodes, it’s perfect for a weekend binge-watch. Now is also the time to introduce yourself to Fawlty Towers and Father Ted, if you haven’t done so already, because WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE YOU WASTE OF SPACE.

If you want…sci-fi

Utopia There are a bunch of obvious choices on Netflix- Battlestar Galactica, off the top of my head- but the understated and very weird E4 drama is perfect to plow through over the course of a couple of days. Following the story of a bunch of normals who become caught up in the story behind a mysterious comic book, it’s violent, shocking, and has a couple of really impressive performances to boot-Fiona O’Shaughnessy as the not-quite-human Jessica Hyde is a real standout. If you prefer something more episodic, check out Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, a handful of very dark, borderline satirical standalone sci-fi stories revolving around technology.

If you want…drama

There are loads of good places to start here, with everything from American Horror Story to Breaking Bad, but my money would have to go on The Good Wife. It’s always been slightly overlooked, but has scooped no less than five Emmys as well as a clutch of Golden Globes. Julianna Marguilles plays Alicia Florrick, a litigator who has to return to work after her husband (Chris Noth- yes, that Chris Noth) is jailed after a corruption and sex scandal. It’s a slow-burner, the sort of thing that bubbles away at the back of your mind until you can get to the next episode, and really I just need someone to talk to about it. Please? For me? Film-wise, shoot for the fantastically sleazy, very underrated The Paperboy. 

If you want…horror

Yeah, well, it’s my blog you’re reading, so you’re getting a horror section. In no particular order (and these are to be watched one after the other, with no breaks in between, not even for a cup of tea, in a marathon of pure fear): The Cube, a high-concept Saw-like thriller with amazing visual effects and great pacing, World War Z, proof that the zombie blockbuster can work if you throw Brad Pitt or Peter Capaldi at it, Lifeforce, a brilliantly dumb Tobe Hooper flick which should be watched when copiously drunk, The Faculty, because Elijah Wood is pretty and meta-horror is fun, Event Horizon, Midnight Meat Train, and, obviously, the seminal An American Werewolf in London for all you special-effects geeks out there.

If you want…something different

If you follow me on Twitter (and if not, why not, you evil bastard-fix that here), you may have spotted this Tweet on your timeline in the middle of the night a couple of days ago:

So you already know what I’ll be recommending. Available either subbed or dubbed, it’s the anime series that smashed through my wall- Neon Genesis Evangelion (which is incredible) proved to me the genre had the potential, and Attack on Titan fulfilled it. A dark, gritty, post-apocalyptic bloodbath, it’s packed with great characters, stunning animation (seriously though) and a twisty-turny plot that will make your head turn inside out at least four times. Again, watch it so I can discuss it with someone. Happy weekend!

So, I went to see the George Miller-directed continuation of the Mad Max series last night, a movie that spent so long wrapped up in production hell that I was worried it would surely be a disappointment when it did come out. I was desperately wrong.

There isn’t a huge amount to say about Mad Max other than “you should see it”- which I will scream directly into your face while standing on top of a spiky car and playing the electric guitar, or something, because George Miller knows how to have fun with his blockbusters dog-goneit. He also knows how to create a stunning aesthetic- I spent maybe the first half hour grinning-actually grinning, in the cinema, like an idiot- because I was so blown away but how spot-on they’d got the look of the thing. Acrid, dusty, and leaving you with that feeling of having to clean under your fingernails, it’s a treat for sci-fi fans bored of the glossy, handsome, sterile future.

See? Feminism can be fun!

If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ll have an idea of what’s coming next: it’s precisely two-hours of a road chase as Charlize Theoron’s Furiosa attempts to outrun the Immortal Joe (played by the original series Toecutter, Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his psychotic, paint-huffing Warboys. Tom Hardy’s Max ends up along for the ride as Furiosa tries to rescue Joe’s handful of beautiful wives from captivity. And yes, it’s violent. Spectacularly so.

Immortal Joe in full, spectacular costume.

This isn’t just violence; this is violence as decadence, this is violence where you’re meant to gorge yourself till your fat and sticky and unable to walk, this is a vertiable Babylon’s Feast of greasy, nasty, delicious shock. With apparently everything done without CGI or green-screen, the action sequences look fantastic- giant war rigs tearing through the arid desert to the sounds of thrumming electric guitar, smashing, exploding, tearing people to shreds. And yeah, while the film does take a bit of a dip whenever we get to the talky stuff (not that there’s much dialogue at all), the performances- particularly Nicholas Hoult’s Nux, a Warboy with a deathwish who winds up joining forces with our heroes (full disclosure: as another addition to Louise’s Big List of Wierd Crushes, I’ve never found Nicholas Hoult more attractive than he was here. See below for how incorrect I am).

LOOK, THERE WAS A SHOT OF HIS BICEP AND I WAS POWERLESS.

But this was Charlize Thereon’s movie, no doubt- her simple, stark, brilliant performance dominated the screen more than the fifty-foot war rig she drove for most of the movie. And yes, this is a spectacularly feminist movie, proof that you don’t have to set out to make a feminist manifesto (or diminish male characters) to score high on that chart. There’s lots I could take apart here-buy me a cocktail, and I will explain to you how it’s a powerful screed on reproductive rights whether you want me to or not- but all I can say is this: Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most singularly entertaining films I’ve seen in ages, a breathless, aesthetically stunning thrillride that left everyone n the cinema with a swagger in their step, as all good action films should. If you haven’t seen it yet, do it, and if you have, why aren’t me and you discussing it over drinks right now?

Let’s take some time out of our day to enjoy the first major female-led superhero show (Agent Carter, while cool and excellent, is not a superhero herself)- namely- CBS Supergirl trailer. It’s a long one, so buckle in

0:14: Does this have anything to do with Man of Steel? I fucking hope to Christ it doesn’t. That film damn near finished me.

0:33: It’s cool that they didn’t bother coming up with their own backstory for Supergirl. Nah, just the same as Superman’s, really. So, fingers crossed, for Red Sun starring Supergirl, right?

0:44: Melissa Benoist is here, and she’s blonde and competent with an apparently high-level job. I’m trying really hard to be up for this, but I hated her character in Glee so much that I’m struggling a little. DO IT FOR FEMINISM, LOU!

0:46 HOLY FUCKING DICKSUCKERS, THAT’S JEREMY JORDAN FROM SMASH! GIVE US A TUNE, JEREMY! SING ME A SONG!

1:09: I’m up for more powerful women, but also that “funny” stop-the-music-here’s-a-joke-line was shite.

1:39 Much as I am struggling to get over the Melissa Benoist factor, I’m already wet for how many women are in this thing. This is good for the superhero industry, because, y’know, Black Widow, Pepper Potts, that chick Natalie Portman played in Thor, Cobie Smulders, and whoever else I’ve forgotten just doesn’t constitute representation.

1:59: Alright, I’ll grudgingly admit it: this earnest stuff from Benoist is reminding me of Grant Gustin in The Flash, which cannot be anything but a really good thing. She can lift a bus, don’t you know?

2:01: FROM THE WORLD OF DC COMICS. Oh good fucking Christ no.

2:06: Yes. He said Geneva. Quite clearly. That’s what he said.

2:19: Why does no-one fly with their arms tucked into their sides? Surely that would be more streamlined.

2:46: Yada yada yada she saves a plane from crashing. One has to wonder, though, if she’s known about all her amazing powers for so long, why did it take her sister being in danger before she did something? We have a case of “my powers are only relevant when the plot decides that they are”, potentially. And don’t give me that bullshit about her “wanting a normal life”: she’s a fucking alien, and if her cousin can fold a truck in half when someone’s a dick (look, I fell asleep a lot in Man of Steel, I don’t remember things) then she can use her powers for good too.

3:00: BALLS. BALLS WOULD NO-ONE HAVE GOT A CLEAR PICTURE OF HER. BALLS TO THAT.

3:32: This is so stridently feminist I think I just squirted. I know this is pandering directly to me, and I love it.

3:44: I don’t think this is a very good bit of acting. Ah, Melissa Benoist, you’re halfway there, but every line is delivered in a kind of breathy, earnest mulch and it’s hard not to get a little bit bored.

3:50: Yeah, the only reason she doesn’t like you is ’cause she’s gay. Am I supposed to be rooting for this guy? Because that line is going to make it hella difficult. If I wind up liking his disgraceful character in Smash more than him here, it’s going to be an international catastrophe.

4:29: Look, I know it’s because that’s the way she is in the comics, but couldn’t we have many skipped the fucking micro-mini skirt? It’s just not as practical as trousers. And, if you don’t believe me, answer me this: why isn’t Superman wearing one too?

4:43: RIGHT I DO NOT KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’LL NEED TO SAY THIS, BUT KNEE-HIGH FUCKING BOOTS ARE NOT PRACTICAL CRIME-FIGHTING GEAR. THEY’RE NOT PRACTICAL *ANYTHING* GEAR. Honestly, I’m trying quite hard not to flip a table right now, which is an over-reaction, but also shut up.

5:15: Yeah, shut up, you fucking super-powerful, flying, bulletproof alien. WHAT GOOD COULD YOU BE TO FIGHTING A PRETERNATURAL TERRORIST.

5:23: “The world needs you to fly!” DOES it, though.

5:58: “IT’S NOT A MAN” Was this show created specifically to stop me bitching about the lack of women in the superhero world? Because that’s beginning to feel like what this trailer is.

636: Here is my final thought; I’m for this on an intellectual level, but this has not assuaged my fear that I find Meliisa Benoist seriously annoying and kind of wish almost anyone had been cast except her because I was always going to come at this show with preconceptions. I am, however, willing to be proven wrong, and pray to Zod I will be.

While I would much rather be sitting in my garden with a cider listening to the Les Miserables soundtrack, apparently it’s time for another chapter of Fifty Shades of The Publishing Industry Eating Itself. With the teaser for Fifty Shades Darker released, and the movie out on DVD, there’s been another wave of  “uh, actually, it’s just BDSM and she consents to EVERYTHING, you virgin prostitute prude”, so it’s my duty as a misanthrope to piss all over everyone’s good time. We left off at the end of chapter seventeen with Christian about to force birth control on Ana, because love is never having to say “what do you think about going on the pill?”

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Ah, this is a question I ask myself whenever I’m in the shower and I get Glee’s version of Boogie Shoes in my head (and it happens every single bloody time, and now it’s there again and I don’t think it’s ever going away this time). I’ve written so bloody much about this show in the past, and I’m still not sure if overall I like it or don’t: it’s crass, over-bearing, reads like a PSA, has some atrocious actors, no consistent characterization, and would regularly and with gusto throw all it’s continuity to the four winds because the writers had another idea they just had to try. As somebody who’s watched the show for five years, I don’t understand why anyone would put themselves through it- a murderous mess that will strip to bone your faith in TV in the course of just one agonising Ke$ha cover.

But there were good moments. Moments where I laughed with the show, not at it. Moments were the covers were packed with gusto and just enough actual singing to make them bearable. So I’ve decided to try and compile a list of what I consider the show’s crowning triumphs. If you’ve always hated the show and could never understand what attracted people of seemingly sound mind and body to it, I’ll try to explain, and if you’ve been grappling with the show in therapy for years (like me), you can remind yourself how it hooked you in in the first place.

10. Bohemian Rhapsody

I can already hear the sound of a thousand laptops smacking shut as anyone with any self-respect who was half-interested in this article storms off. They covered Queen? Pssshhh. Rubbish. No-one can cover Queen, let alone Bohemian Rhapsody. But in the hands of the inimitable Johnathan Groff, a superbly talented Broadway performer who guest-starred in a few seasons of Glee, the song isn’t a catastrophe; in fact, it’s sort of good. Add to that the sequence of Diana Agron’s birth spliced through the song, and this is an entire second act in just six minutes: winding up on the final notes drifting away as Agron (another actress far too good for this show) is handed the baby she knows she’ll never get to hold again. It’s impressive, emotional, gigantic stuff, and it works.

9. Uptown Girl

On the flipside of the coin, you’ve got this cover of Uptown Girl, which is for my money one of the best the show ever did (and, bizarrely, this is it’s second appearance on this blog after it cropped up in my review of The Flash, but I digress). It’s pure, silly, catchy fun, an unadulterated hunk of pop that shines through the screen. I don’t think I’ll ever not love it. I hate to be that guy, but the teacher in the red skirt is crazy-hot, too.

8. Safety Dance

In the magnificent Neil Patrick Harris-starring, Joss-Whedon directed episode Dream On from season one, this was the tune that sequence that really jumped out. Kevin Mchale, who plays Artie, the kid in the wheelchair, started his career in a bunch of not-so-successful boybands, and his cheeky charisma is all over this number. Then, a smash cut at the end to him sitting in his wheelchair, alone with his thoughts, knowing that everything he’s just imagined is probably never, ever going to happen for him. Kevin McHale always did really well with the bullshit they threw at his character, and this silent moment of reflection is one of Glee’s most subtle and effective moments.

7. The Boy Next Door

Full disclosure: I wanted to put Glee’s original cover of I’m the Greatest Star here, but it’s nothing without the video. So we’re settling for Chris Colfer’s second-best solo performance in the form of The Boy Next Door from the musical of the same name (fun fact: if you think this is wild, go watch Hugh Jackman doing it- gold lame trousers and all). My crush on Chris Colfer knows now bounds, even though he’s gay and we’ve never met and I occasionally vanish down rabbit holes on Youtube watching videos of him being witty and warm and charming and snapping at Lea Michele that she’s comitting a hate crime by being mean to him. And he’s one of the best things about the show, an absoloute newbie with an incredible voice, oodles of charisma, and a sense of humour about himself which is lacking in much of the rest of the show. This song (and yes, that is Whoopi Goldberg there) is essentially the climax of his story, a big fuck-you to his old, small-town life and an embracing of his new one, whatever it may be, conveyed over the course of two minutes and some incredible, impossible hip movements (the crush grows stronger yet).

6. It’s Not Unusual

One of the few songs from the later seasons that actually worked, this Tom Jones cover (performed by Darren Criss, who I love very much even though most critics seem to hate him with a passion, maybe because he was the victim of the atrociously handled bisexual storyline I wrote about earlier), this was the pinnacle of Glee dissociating from reality. A decision was made from here on out that if reality got in the way of really awesome staging for a fun song, then it could go fuck itself, and here are thirty-year-old cheerleaders prancing around on the bleachers as some inestimably ripped internet star grins so much his teeth explode. I think I watch this at least once a week.

5. Adele Mashup

Glee has done a lot of mashups, and none of them have worked like this one has. Pitched at the end of an episode where Naya Rivera’s character (the girl singing the Someone Like You portion) has been outed, it’s got a bit of emotional clout behind it but is more than anything a belter of a tune. Staged simply, the songs (Rumour Has It and Someone Like You) are naturally inclined to pack a punch, and Rivera and co-lead Amber Riley prove once again that they were the most underused bit of the show for two seasons. I think a show is teetering when an Adele mashup is the most subtle thing they can do in an episode, but they just stuck the landing with this one.

4. Cough Syrup

Oddly, this is a song that’s turned up in the blog before, when I was talking about triggering. I re-watched Glee in my first year of uni when I was horrendously depressed, and I remember being utterly shaken up by this number. Even though the show doesn’t take the storyline seriously past this sequence, the combination of Max Adler’s performance (as a guy who’s just been outed after years in the closet, preparing for his suicide) and a gorgeous vocal performance from Darren Criss who, along with Chris Colfer, gave this scene a bunch more clout than it might have deserved to have. I don’t know if it’s just that I remember how strongly this affected me the first time I saw it, but these three minutes- the song and video inextricably linked- mark this as probably the most powerful moment Glee has ever pulled off.

3. I Dreamed a Dream

Another one from the Joss Whedon episode, this song- featuring Indina Menzel and Lea Michele- is a proper slap about the face. The premise of this is essentially that Lea Michele (the young one) is listening to her birth mother sing for the first time, and Whedon really wrings every drop of emotion from the already iconic number; the cinematography is great, the vocals are flawless, and if you don’t feel even a hint of emotion after this then you’re a cold, sad human being.

2.  Don’t Rain on my Parade

Glee used the Barbara Streisand musical Funny Girl (from which this song is taken) as a kind of mirror image to lead character Rachel’s story, and this was the first time it made itself clear. This song, landing about half way through the first series, was the genesis of my obsession with musical theatre, and still the song I’ll point to when someone asks me what music I relate to on a personal level. Lea Michele is utterly charming in what is probably her best performance of the whole show, a proper salute to the desperate, never-give-up optimism that Glee floated atop of for five years, and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the please-renew-us/also-show-tunes! balls of this number.  Put it this way: my ex commented that Lea Michele really didn’t make the last note work in this and I think that was the moment our relationship was truly over.

1. Jim Steinman Mashup

Yes, that’s right- Glee did a Jim Steinman mashup, news so good it still hasn’t really sunk it. And it’s a perfect capper to the first three years of the show (after which everything took a nosedive as the main characters left high school). The final performances in the show choir championships (is anyone else buying the size and enthusiasm of that audience, by the way?), it’s got everything- a Lea Michele belt, then what’s probably their most diplomatic and entertaining group number in the form of their cover of Paradise by the Dashboard light. The late lamented Cory Monteith is at the peak of his handsome, charming, bumbling self here, the choreography is perfect, and the tune is just big enough to act as a satisfying farewell to all the characters we would barely see again after this episode.

So, over the last week in Britain, some fuss has been kicked up over these adverts appearing on the tube in London:

As you can see, the ads are for a protein shake product that helps with weight loss. Cool. Whatever. The problem arises from the caption; the idea that there is any specific kind of “beach body” is patently ridiculous. I have a beach body right now, in that I have a body and could go to the beach. I understand why there has been such a vociferous reaction (including a march scheduled for today), and I strongly believe that if you see something that you don’t like, you should have every right to stand up against it in whatever way is appropriate. I’m down with that, especially when you consider the fact that a) the advert seemed to be entirely aimed at women and b) was advertising meal replacement supplements in order to lose weight. While I think it’s pretty shit, and that some of the reactions to it have been justified, this is the kind of thing that would make me roll my eyes, make a mental note not to give this company any custom, and move on. But still, if you’re one of the people who tweeted about it, or wrote about it, or got angry about it, more power to you.

But basically, be prepared for a ridiculous backlash. Because not only will the head of the company refer to the critics of this advert as “terrorists”, but the brand ambassador will brush it aside as some “feminists letting off some bra-burning steam” as well as explaining to us clueless fatties that a size 16 is unequivocally unhealthy and that she relied on these protein shakes to get her beach body. Bloggers will start churning out thinkpieces that prove little beyond the fact that they know nothing about feminism. It’s frustrating, as a feminist, to watch hundreds of people screaming from the rooftops about how a number of people not liking an advert and not being afraid to say so means that modern feminism is pointless and hurtful, while throwing out body-shaming nonsense at people they think might not be totally down with this stupid fucking advert. If you want to shout about all feminists being fat cunts who are only jealous of the woman in the advert, you go ahead, but accept that you’re proving the point of the people who are protesting it. It’s Saturday, and I don’t want to spend all afternoon on a feminist rant, because I have movies to see and flats to clean. But what I do want to say is this: you’re more than welcome to go ahead and tweet body-shaming nonsense at everyone who thinks these adverts are bullshit, but every time you do, you’re adding to the shitstorm that caused these ads to be a problem in the first place. If you really want those stupid feminist bitches to shut up about body shaming…stop body shaming.

With my computer fixed, normal service will resume shortly; in the meantime, enjoy this review of the excellent new Netflix drama Bloodline.

Well, this week it’s another jolly topic for the blog: transgender people in fictio. And specifically, why we continually cast men as trasngender women.But my main point of contention is this: why do shows and movies continually cast cisgender men as transgender women?

I’m talking specifically about two of what are arguably the highest-profile transgender roles in a while (OINTB gets a pass here, obviously): Jeffery Tambor in Transparent, and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club. Let me preface all of this by saying that the performances I’m talking about are both bloody excellent and are worthy of all the praise (/academy awards and Golden Globes) that they’ve been showered with. But both the characters that Tambor and Leto play are women. True, the story in Transparent hinges around Jeffery Tambor’s coming out as a transgender woman, so there’s a case to be made that to accurately portray the process, a man should be playing the role. But Leto is playing a woman; regardless of whether she’s transgender or not, she’s a woman. It seems profoundly odd that we’re happy casting men as female characters (or, in more rare cases, women as male characters) as long as their transgender when it might be seen as a bit strange to cast, I don’t know, Evan Rachel Wood as Iron Man (think about it: it would work). While Leto does a great job in the role, it’s arguably kind of insensitive- in a world where transgender people and others who don’t fit within the gender binary are consistently misgendered or have their true identities ignored to cast a man as a transgender woman. It seems to show on some basic level that the filmmakers are tacitly agreeing with the idea that transgender women aren’t “real” women, because they haven’t chosen to genderbend casting on any other characters. The history surrounding Rayon’s gender in Dallas Buyers Club is apparently the reason that a man was chosen to play her.

But then you’ve got the more complex case of Jeffery Tambor in Transparent. As I mentioned above, we follow Tambor through his coming out as transgender to his transition, with flashbacks to his previous life as he came to terms with his true gender. So, I can see why they chose to cast Tambor in this role. But, at the same time, it boils down to the idea that this character is, and, arguably, always has been, a woman. In this bit of casting, we’re agreeing that a man can play feminine, but a woman can’t play masculine. The same goes with Gael Garcia Bernal’s highly-touted performance in Bad Education, where he plays both a pre- and post-transition transgender woman. Sure, it’s not that he’s not good, but once again the people who chose to cast him ignored the possibility that a woman could play both roles just as convincingly. If you need another example, take a look at the much-hyped Eddie Remayne performance in The Danish Girl; pictures released of him in costume as Lili Elbe, one of the very first recipients of a gender reassignment operation, and it seem so to boil down to this idea that there’s some discomfort around casting women in high-profile transgender women roles.

Thing is, I think it’s a good thing that we’re seeing more high-profile roles surrounding trans issues. That’s awesome. But there’s still a bit of apathy around actually casting women as, um, women, if they’re transgender. Don’t get me wrong, if a man is just right for the job and can depict the things that the filmmakers need them to depict best, then great. But if we’re doing that, then why aren’t we holding more genderless auditions that don’t let a character’s gender define who plays them? There will always be something really strange to me about almost exclusively casting men as transgender women, especially in post-transition roles. But I’m throwing open the gates here: what do you think? Have you seen any of the roles that I’ve mentioned, and do you think they could have been performed by a woman? I don’t have a particular answer here, so please jump in in the comments below.