gwyn | Nobody likes a Jack-the-Lass

There's a bun living in my backyard! I thought the first time I saw it, it was just random chance, and then I saw it again, darting out of the same spot, and then today, Blues and I were enjoying the hot weather (well, I should say breeze in the hot weather) and pulling some weeds, and he chased it out of the daylilies again. So it's pretty clear that it's decided my overgrown jungle that is a huge embarrassment to me is perfect for a dosh. It's so tiny and cute, I'm going to try to get a pic of it if I can, but I haven't been able to purposely find it when I've looked.

Not much happening other than terrible things, so I thought I'd write about stuff I've been watching.

Man, I have absolutely adored this show, and am so glad they're adding a second series, but I don't know how I'm going to wait that long. Suranne Jones is just gobsmackingly good as Anne Lister, a 19th-century industrialist and big old butch lesbian who kept these astonishingly detailed diaries about her life. She's alternatingly appalling and predatory, and vulnerable and tragic, and she wants so badly to be loved and to give her love to someone who wants to be her companion and live with her, and the side characters are all incredible. I'm just absolutely in love with this show, but I'm really wondering how Miss Lister and Miss Walker will navigate their secret "taking the sacraments" without lots of stress, and also darling Thomas is going to get found out about the murder and OMG it's too long to wait.

I started watching this with the assumption I wouldn't be paying all that much attention to it; I remember the accident well but it was never something I paid all that much mind to, and while I loved all the actors in the cast, they weren't, like, people I tend to watch them in anything. And then this turned out to be mesmerizing, horrific, edge of your seat viewing, and I was utterly hooked within the first 15 minutes, and in five episodes they managed to make a modern masterpiece of television. This is what TV is so good for--this long-form storytelling that allows you to dig in to things, and it's also a great example of what people mean when they say we're in Peak TV. There are parts of it I can't watch--the fourth episode deals a lot with the Liquidators, the people who were conscripted to come in and clean things up, and that included killing all the animals, which was...well, that's just a lot of the story I will never hear the dialog for or see. Even just FFing through those sections was too much for my soft heart to handle. And what happens to the first responders is unbelievably difficult to cope with.

But I think one of the things they did very well was recognizing "look, we could show this, but at what point is it just bludgeoning the audience with unspeakable things for the sake of something you've already conveyed the horror of?" There's an accompanying podcast that is excellent, and I say that as someone who doesn't enjoy podcasts. I listened to them in the wee hours after episodes, I just couldn't wait to listen to them. I know that showier roles like Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon or the women on Big LIttle Lies will get all the awards, but for my mind, Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, and Jared Harris should be the ones getting showered in awards for acting, and Craig Mazin for writing and producing.

It was so wonderful to see Seth and Sol, Joanie and Jane, Al and Trixie, Doc and Charlie and Alma and Jewel and Wu...just everybody back on my screen again. But I can't lie that it was a bit of a disappointment. The entire first half hour to forty minutes were awkward and stagey as they tried to reintroduce everyone, and the fact that they set it "ten years" later but it's 14 in real years means everyone looks alarmingly older and in some cases, really frail, and I wondered why they couldn't just set it in the real amount of time that's passed since the end of third season. The language was also way more florid and pseudo-Shakespearean, which is maybe attributable to Milch overwriting because he has Alzheimer's and might not have much time to develop other projects, but I found it distracting. I remember EW's end of the year best of list after the show's first season, and them calling it "best show we don't understand 90 percent of" and I kind of thought it was a little overboard in that department. The mob going for Hearst also felt really fan-servicey, but I kind of didn't mind because I always wanted him to get his, and killing Charlie was just too far.

I was a little heartbroken about what they did to Joanie, so I was glad that Jane and she made up at the end, and that in a way it was Charlie helping them. The wedding was really sweet, and I was glad to see Seth seeming happy in his marriage and family life, while still aching a little for Alma. And I loved Alma's moment of stepping in and buying the land--you go, girl.

This was pretty low on my list of stuff to watch, but someone said something about the incredible lack of No Homo in it (and contrasted it with Avengers: Endgame) and I bumped it up the list. I...enjoyed it a bit, but it didn't set the world on fire for me--don't @ me. I've never read the book, and just have never really had much interest in any of their books (seriously, don't @ me!), and man, I hate David Tennant and his mannerisms and talking through clenched teeth, but I'm glad I decided to give it a go because it was a fun distraction. The voiceover narration was way too much--I almost bailed after that interminable opening intro with the age of the world or whatever, and I felt like there were far too many spots where they were telling me stuff they should be showing. And I often found the jokes cringey and I could see them coming a mile away, which always gives me second-hand embarrassment. But I'll be looking forward to more if they do it, though I'm hoping that some of the weaker spots of the cast (like the actress playing Anathema) might be less central and they give pompous John Hamm more space.

I haven't seen ANYone talk about the revived, back on Bravo PR this season, and I'm really loving it so that makes me sad. I left the show in the Lifetime years, because it had turned into a terrible joke, but when they said they were bringing in an almost new judging panel and Christian Siriano would be the mentor, I was intrigued--and when they announced Elaine Weltheroth as a judge (who did so much with Teen Vogue), I was in. I've never cared for anything Brandon Maxwell's done, and I don't really pay attention to models so Karlie Kloss wasn't a draw even though I knew her name, but hilariously, Elaine has turned out to be a terrible judge (she's much more interested in IG stories type of things, and doesn't seem to have much deep knowledge of clothing) but Brandon Maxwell is excellent and I quite like him, and Christian as mentor has blown me away. They've had a really good crop of designer wannabes, too, and I'm very excited about the finale this week, though I'm pretty sure they'll give it to the designer I dislike most.

OMG I adore this show. I didn't even know I had the Pop! channel until after season 5 aired, so I'm just grinding my teeth till it shows up on Netflix. At first, I resisted--it sounded like everything I would hate. But then I kept seeing people talking about how it started really slowly and roughly and then got really good, and I read more about it everywhere, plus I kept seeing the cast on red carpets and they looked so adorable, that I decided to give it a shot. (And man, who ever watched Second City back in the day and would have thought Eugene Levy would turn into such a silver fox??) SO GLAD I did; the romance of David and Patrick that begins in s3 was my comfort viewing after Avengers: Endgame, I would watch their episodes, especially Patrick's performance of Simply the Best and David's lip-sync of it later, over and over to make myself feel better.

It does definitely start rough--but give it a chance, and I think you won't be disappointed, if you're on the fence. It's sweet and funny and charming (and yeah, everyone has a particular character they can't stand, I've always disliked Chris Elliott so he's a major hurdle for me, especially in the beginning), and Catherine O'Hara is giving a master class in comedic acting weekly. If you enjoyed Big Eden, and liked the fact that it was a queer romance allowed to progress naturally like every other het romance, I really think you'll enjoy this show. David and Patrick are my everything.