feverfew

And herein lies the issue - at least for me. While a show with a straight up platonic lifepartner love story is a welcome sight; this is not it, if even non-shippers are picking up on clues that Johnny might feel more for Dutch than she does for him - as you yourself points out by suggesting that The Lady is picking out this fantasy from Johnny's mind and by talking about "fallout". This then, feels more like an unrequited love story about a woman who'll use one man for all her emotional needs then turn around and screw the 'hot one'. Lovretta can talk as much as she wants about platonic love, but she's the author of this story - if she wanted to tell that story she shouldn't even tease the possibility of J/D by making it look like Johnny feels more. Unless of course she's straight up shipper-baiting for eyeballs, in which case I'll feel justified in thinking she's a bit of a well, cow. Sorry. I have very strong feelings on shipper-baiters - especially the ones who hide behind lofty interviews, but still use the old tricks. I like D'av and Dutch a lot, but I'm a Johnny fan first and foremost (I loved Pawter). If he's happy, I'm happy*. But the thought of him forever playing third wheel to Dav/Dutch icks me the f out. The trajectory for that possibility is what made me quit Killjoys several times. *unless the showrunners play "match-the-spares" and put him and Zeph together. That would feel like creative bankruptcy. Bring back Clara (either face) or even better - bring Pawter back out of the green/clear.

While I love your optimism, the fact of the matter is that George RR Martin, like most of the readers and viewers of this universe, is much, much more interested in the "spunky anti-establishment tomboy" than the girl who adhere to fairytale tropes. In this fan's eye Martin already messed up: Sansa stopped being a main character in his books after A Storm of Swords, and the so-called "Vale-arc"? Non-existent save for a proto-chapter from the maybe, perhaps, if he can be bothered upcoming book Winds of Winter. Sansa hasn't been seen since A Feast for Crows (3 pitiful chapters in all of that), published in 2005, so most talk about her development is pure speculation. Also, potential spoiler for WoW: which if that's true, makes her dumber than a box of hair, and also not what I've been waiting 13 years for. And I say that as a massive (disapppointed) book-Sansa fan. As for "incompetent writing and inconsistent characters" I present to you: A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

Yeah, you're probably right, it's just ... the headlines got my hackles up: "‘Game of Thrones’ Creator George R.R. Martin’s ‘Who Fears Death?’ Adds Michael Lombardo, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds". Martin actually sounds quite reasonable in the piece.

Oh, that's good to hear. But now I'm angry at Variety for centering the story around a white man* (again). *I sort of get it; Martin is the more well-known name, and GoT is the biggest show on Earth right now. But still.

@jhlipton have you seen this? *squees* HBO closes development deal with for adaption of Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. However, George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) is executing producer on that one, which makes me go 'hmmm'.

While I enjoy King for what he is, he has some serious blindspots when it comes to minorities. I will say, however, You're right about relevance and screen time - it sucks when it happens, and it happens too often. Mike do have a great scene though, which showcases his empathy and his bravery. Btw, I think both Stanley and Ritchie are Jewish in the new movie - Richie is in the Synagogue when Stanley has his Bar Mitzvah.

Slightly spoilery: As for IT "taking away [people's] agency and the systemic and individual evil rooted in humanity" I never got that from either the novel, the 1991 miniseries or this movie. There's this horrible scene in the beginning of the book, where a young gay guy gets beaten to death, and it's quite obvious, I think, that this horror would have happened despite Pennywise's presence. What King did, I think, is to extrapolate that sort of insidious, latent evil you'll find in small towns (closed off societies) and make Pennywise a symbol of it, rather than the root cause. In the book, Pennywise feeds off of people's inherent evil; he* doesn't cause it per se, although he might exaggerate it.

And speaking of IT, some of those kids were marvellous! I thought Jaeden Lieberher was one to watch after Midnight Special, and he really cements it here. Sophia Lillis (Beverly) and Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben) was quite perfect too.

I don't know if it's got anything to do with it, but I was in Tanzania and Kenya last winter, and puffed sleeves were allll the rage there. The bigger, the better:

Oh, I love Good Omens! If you're looking for something a bit more serious, I would suggest The Nix by Nathan Hill. It's a cracking good read, superbly written - there's a bit Michael Chabon in there, some bildungsroman, humor and tragedy in equal measures. It might be the best book I've read this year.

If you're not afraid of speculative fiction (think sf/fantasy etc) there's beautifully written, socially aware fiction from especially wocs' emerging right now: Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson. Octavia Butler, of course, is the godmother of Black Sci-Fi. And Helen Oyeyemi is an absolutely stunning writer (I wrote my master thesis on dual identity in first generation immigrants, as seen through her writing - White is for Witching and The Icarus Girl are painful and awesome and beautiful and necessary reads). I've just finished my second book by Lila Bowen (Wake of Vultures). She's white, but writes about a gender-queer, half Black/half Native girl in the 19th century and so far, she's done an okay good job of it, I think. The second one was a bit of a disappointment, but that's mainly for plot reasons, not character development.

They really are awefully sweet. Like, you'll need dentistry afterwards-sweet. But they're relatively harmless - although perhaps not if you're a princess-to-be and it's the only literature you read. The only Cartland I ever really liked (I got an entire packing box full of her books when I was 14, so I've read a lot) was "A Virgin in Mayfair" which apparently is sort of autofiction. Your father has to like Regency style romance, though - and if he does, Georgette Heyer is a better bet (try something like "The Grand Sophy" or "Friday's Child"). Think Austen, but without the biting social commentary. For contemporary romance (aka more in the vein of Steel) I'd suggest either Nora Roberts or Debbie Macomber. Or perhaps Rosamund Pilcher and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Again it's mainly popcorn fiction, but none of them will embarass you with either explicit sex scenes or 50s morality ;)

I'm so sorry about that; there's nothing worse than expecting one sort of story and getting another! I should probably have put the emphasis on "bitter". (It happened to me too when I watched Jude the Obscure. Put me off Hardy for years). But it made me think about the concept of "love stories". Is it only a love story, if it has a happy ending or protagonists worth rooting for? I would never call South Riding a romance, true, but love story? I'll still maintain that it is. Wide Sargossa Sea, the 'fanfic' written by Jean Rhys about Rochester's (of Jane Eyre fame) fatal meeting with his wife - that is a love story, even if we know from the beginning how terrible it'll end for Barbara. Same goes for Jude the Obscure, Tess D'Uberville, The Great Gatsby or The Age of Innocence. They're not only love stories -writers like Hardy and Wharton were way into social injustice etc, but they are love stories. My fault was in not making sure people would know that South Riding is a tragedy too, and I am truly sorry for that. Apology-kitten:

Jasmin Savoy Brown is cast as co-lead

I keep seeing this and I'm confused (and too lazy to go through Arya's training scenes again): Is it cannon that Arya now ALWAYS will know if she's being lied to? As far as I remember, she was in the process of learning how to detect lies/how to succesfully lie herself, but a) she ran away from the Faceless Men before she finished her training and b) I didn't think it was a magical ability like the face-hanging, but more ...mundane. Like reading body language. And bias will throw that (non-magical) ability right out of the window, I should think. So if I'm right, and it's not magic, why are we taking Arya's words as gospel? Isn't it far more likely that Arya is blinded by old biases - that she has a blindspot when it comes to her sister?