galax-arena

I've become so obsessed with Gentleman Jack. Suranne Jones as Anne Lister... 😍 I am surprised at how many people don't seem to be aware that Anne Lister was a real person. I definitely knew she existed, even though I didn't know all the (explicit, ha) details. I wonder how far they're gonna go with the television show. Maybe they'll end it on her final diary entry, which was (I think) written only a few weeks before she died.

Mmm yes, like Artie on Glee. Especially since IIRC the only reason they incorporated the dream sequence in the first place was because they wanted to show off Kevin McHale's dance skills; it wasn't an integral part of the character. That's not an apt comparison. Doctors aren't marginalized in society (quite the opposite). Disabled people are. If disabled actors got a fair shake with respect to casting, it'd be a different story. But the fact is that unless it's an "invisible" disability, disabled people are not going to be cast in roles written for abled actors. So when there's a role specifically written for a disabled character, disabled actors should absolutely be the priority. At the end of the day, Jacob Tremblay got to take off the prosthetics he wore for playing a kid with Treacher Collins syndrome and go back to being cast in roles as an abled boy. Would a kid with Treacher Collins get the same opportunity? No.

I looked up In the Dark and was like, "Oh, a tv show with a blind woman as the protagonist! That's awesome, disabled people deserve representation too!" I mean, yes, of course being blind and being woc aren't mutually exclusive, but speaking as someone who has always resented feeling like being forced to choose between my own different marginalized identities - in my situation, sexual orientation and race - and as someone who isn't disabled, I wasn't going to shit on this show unless it was explicitly problematic with respect to race. But then I googled, and it looks like the main actress might not actually be blind?? Not sure, I haven't found much info on the actress. But this show will be troubling in another way if it turns out that they cast a sighted actress in a blind role. But that's probably a subject for a different thread (do we have a disability representation thread?)....

It's nauseating how the show loves writing Betty and Jughead as the milky white saviors of the downtrodden. First Jughead's the Serpent King, and now Betty's the Griffin Queen? And everyone just mostly steps in line, unless they're an antagonist. And Betty's also sitting in on legal/prosecutorial meetings between Attorney McCoy and the Sisters of Mercy? Whatever you say, show. And now Cheryl and Toni are cat burglars, because of course they are. LMAO. Honestly as much as I hate Jughead in his masturbatory Serpent King role, Cheryl really did deserve to get kicked out for being such a goddamn idiot with her calling card. I just don't like how Toni got wrapped up in it; the optics of the white boy kicking out a WOC from a gang with POC roots are not good. But this show has always been a racist mess on that front anyway, and Toni's characterization completely fell by the wayside by the time she became Cheryl's gf. Veronica & Sexy Squidward finally hooked up. Okay. Betty just walks completely alone into the building to discover mass suicide by nuns. Sure.

As much as I liked Shiri Appleby/Liz in the OG series, I'm glad they didn't whitewash Liz this time around.

To me this just felt like a higher budget Lifetime movie. The acting was decent, although I'm not super enamored with Timothee's acting... for the most part he was good, but he had certain tics (?) or mannerisms that just felt... forced or affected? I'm not sure what the word is that I'm looking for. However, he was a lot better than Steve Carell, who I agree had some nice moments during the quieter scenes. But whenever he yelled - "This isn't us! This is not who we are!" - I could just see him ~!acting!~ if that makes sense. But in any case, what really pushed this into mawkish Lifetime territory to me was the music. Oh god the overly dramatic music choices made me cringe. I wish this movie hadn't been afraid to be more quiet.

Well my point is that Jughead fancy themselves as the town detectives, and if you're a detective, it's especially important to keep a good poker face when you're out there questioning people. You can't lose it when someone throws you a curveball because then oops there goes your game plan. That the other characters on this show are equally bad is irrelevant because that didn't factor into this episode. (Archie did lose it at that one moment when he started ripping apart his cell, but that had no effect/consequence. I'll wait until he inevitably botches up the breakout attempt.)

I know what snark is. And no, I don't think you were claiming it as the literal equivalent to affirmative action. I'm talking about the mindset of thinking that it's somehow unfair to judge Auj and Jer for their friends because you like who you like, and they shouldn't have to force their crowd into being a United Colors of Benetton ad. Look, the bottom line is that I'm 150% fine with judging a Trump supporter who once referred to Mexico as "that b*aner place" for only having white friends. It confirms what I already knew about them. (Okay, to be fair, Audrey has never used racial slurs that I'm aware of.) They're good with judging me for going to hell because I'm gay, so turnabout's fair play, eh?

Well, I'd say a large part of the problem is that you (and perhaps JerAuj) see this as affirmative action, the implication being that being friends with POC is something that you need to essentially force yourself to do and that POC are somehow less "qualified" to be your friends. I never had to force myself to be friends with white or black or hispanic people, it just happened because I didn't see them as some sort of weird Other. No, I don't think you need to force yourself to become friends with anyone you don't want to. But then I question why is it that you "just so happen" to only naturally be friends with white people or gravitate towards white neighborhoods. Being judged by the company you keep is not some new unique concept. ETA: Especially with Jer's history of racial slurs, somehow I'm supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt? LOL yeah right.

Jughead fucked in the bunker because of course they did. "Ben's death haunts me... he didn't scream... why not? I wonder... because that's one of the rules?" Lili's line delivery here was painful. Also, for all that Jughead like to consider themselves true detectives, they're really not good at keeping up their game faces when things don't go their way. I know Riverdale operates in its own special version of reality, but there is just something very annoyingly 80s moral panic about this Griffins & Gargoyles plot. Dungeons & Dragons doesn't deserve this!

Sure, Oregon is white af in general*... but they did once post a group photo of their LA friends and every single person in that picture was white too (except for maybe one or two who looked racially ambiguous). Not gonna lie, I absolutely judge the fuck out of anyone who lives in a diverse city and yet all of their friends are still white. I don't give a rat's ass if the city is segregated or whatever, because the people are still THERE, you're just choosing to participate in the segregation. (I lived in NYC up until recently, I would know. I judged all the white hipster Brooklynites who chose to stay in their white hipster Brooklynite bubbles.) And I absolutely think that the people you choose to surround yourself with says something about you. Couple that with Jeremy's history of racism, not to mention the fact that they subscribe to a version of white evangelical Christianity that is not exactly known for being inclusive, especially the circles that talk positively about Trump (which Audrey has done before, even if she backtracked because she's a coward).... well, I don't care if it's considered ~bizarre to question the whiteness of their social groups. Speaking of not being inclusive, I noticed that they plugged Rosaria Butterfield, who is famous in evangelical circles for being a "former lesbian" who is now married to a guy. Read: she's a bisexual woman who had actually expressed attraction to men before but saying that you're a bisexual who married someone of the opposite sex is less profound than saying that you're a former lesbian who has changed because JESUS. Love that Jer and Auj believe in that ex-gay shit. /s * Yes, even Portland! Maybe it's less white than the rest of Oregon but it's still pretty white. Then again I'm pretty spoiled because I've lived in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and NYC. Now I live in Austin, which is comparable to Portland in terms of racial demographics I think, and when I first moved here, I immediately thought, "This city is white as hell." ETA: Oh, I meant to say, it never fails to kill me how Jeremy are Audrey are convinced that he's an intellectual because he likes to read. Didn't Audrey once say that he was the more "cerebral" of the two? IME people who are insecure about their intelligence/intellect like to use reading as shorthand for how s-m-r-t they are.

I know Kevin's a dumb lovelorn high school kid and yeah his dating pool is limited, but I just find it annoying when gay people knowingly date people in the closet and then get salty because the latter wants to stay in the closet. I mean, sure, encourage them to come out, but don't whine "are you ashamed of me?" as if you didn't know what you were signing up for. When that one guy said how he had been running drugs since he was in the fourth grade (?), and Archie's response was to go, "Then you haven't experienced the highs and lows of high school football!! :D :D :D" .... oh my god. Someone stick a shiv in him, please. There's something profoundly annoying about Bughead getting pissy with Sheriff Minetta and hiding stuff from him but also resorting to using him as a threat to get Ethel to comply with their demands/questions. To be clear, I don't blame them for not trusting him, it's more the latter - invoking his name as a threat - that irritates me.

I know this is the least ridiculous thing from the season premiere, but I was stuck on how quick Archie's murder case took. So he was arrested near the end of the school year, and by the time summer is almost over, his trial is already wrapping up? I know that it's technically possible, depending on what state you're in - I googled that in California, the defendant has the right to request a trial within 60 days? IANAL - but I don't think I've ever heard of a first degree murder case actually moving that swiftly. Of course, Riverdale operates in its own very special version of reality, so why not? I wouldn't have wanted to deal with the murder trial being the overarching plot of season 3 anyway. It really is nauseating. I hated the whole Native American backstory they gave the Serpents to begin with, especially since the group was being led by white savior Jughead. So that was bad enough, and now we have the equally milky Betty and Cheryl being treated as the serpent queens? Ew. ETA: Also, this is superficial af, but Archie looked like a goddamn putz wearing a bowtie to court. Archie, dude, you're on trial for murder, you're not at the prom.

I've really enjoyed the progression of Eddie's character over the last couple of seasons. I still remember when he was by far the most disliked character when the show first aired.

I liked it, although I'm already tired of the love triangle (love square?). One review I read called this a "race conscious" version of the OC, but if the cliffhanger is alluding to what I think it is - it feels too obvious/telegraphed, but this IS the CW, after all - then it's more like a race conscious version of the OC blended with One Tree Hill lmao. I agree with liking how they made Spencer a good student in addition to being a good athlete.