Things I Have Been Putting In My Eyeballs

There are things to like about suburban living (having a garden, and a medium to large-ish dog to dig up said garden) and things to hate about it (all the commuting, being at the mercy of public transport) but the pro-column got a boost recently when they did up the local cinema with reclining seats and a bar but the tickets stayed well cheaper than they are in the big cinema in town.

As a result I've seen more films in a two week period than I usually do all year.

I liked Thor: Sinclair ZX 84 Ragnarok a lot. Valkyrie was my favourite, to the surprise of no one. Loki worked for me as the annoying younger sibling, in a way that he never did as fandom's favourite woobie or a world threatening villain. I love Sif, so I was sad she wasn't in it, although maybe not if she was just going to be dispatched immediately like the Warriors Three. Anyway, I've decided that she was off on some mission to one of the other realms and she's fine. And because I'm currently plugging my way through The Mighty Thor comics I have decided to pretend that there was an additional post-credits scene of a miraculously non-destroyed Milonjir, and a manicured female hand reaching down to pick it up.

I love me a good Agatha Christie, and Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favourite books, but alas I did not love the movie. Too many characters, plus too much stunt casting. I was watching it going: there's Judi Dench and Olivia Coleman! I've no idea who they're playing, or what they're doing here, but, yep, there they are! And Kenneth Branagh didn't work at all for me as Poirot, all I could think was: why is this obvious Englishman putting on a Belgian accent?

Basically, I think Murder on the Orient Express needs to be a mini-series, and that Poirot needs to be David Suchet. Nothing compares to the ITV show I used to watch when I bunked off school, is my point.

Justice League was a film that I... saw. It was nice to finally like this version of Superman, and the Flash was totally adorable. Wonder Woman was there, and that was good.. But they should have done Aquaman before the team up, because Barry and Victor's origin stories and abilities were easy enough to pick up on the fly, but I have yet to find anyone who can explain Arthur's powers or origins to me without referring to the comics.

There were some really neat moments/shots (Diana perched on the statue of justice was awesome!) but mostly it was Joss Whedon nonsense (endless quipping/the Flash falling on Wonder Woman's boobs) mixed up with Zack Snyder nonsense (CGI fucking everything/the Wonder Woman upskirt shots).

Look, I don't know which one of you boys was responsible for the camera position fixed on Gal Gadot's ass, but stop it at once.

Justice League is not a bad movie. It's no Batman vs. Superman; it's basically coherent and not allergic to likeable characters, but I was never going to love it for the same reason I'm never going to be more than passingly interested in The Avengers: there are too many dicks on the dancefloor. Bring on Wonder Woman 2 I say!

My sister gave me her Netflix password so that I could keep up with Star Trek: Discovery, and I liked the first run of episodes, if with reservations. I have gotten over my bitterness at the loss of Captain Georgiou, although on some level I do wish that we'd gotten that show. I feel like the show where Burnham was Georgiou's first officer would have been more, you know, trekkie in a lot of ways. Jason Isaacs is great, and Lorca is fascinating but I'm discombobulated by finding a starfleet captain sketchy, and even more so by a Star Trek show that wants me to find its captain sketchy; and I say this as someone who's all time favourite Trek episode is In the Pale Moonlight.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Discovery's best episode, the time loop one, obviously, was also the one that felt the most like traditional Star Trek.

My new favourite minor character is Admiral Cornwall (...which may be part of my ...the fuck, Lorca? problem) and I really liked the wee detail that one of the most badass admirals in starfleet history was a counselor, even if TNG didn't always know what to do with Troi.

One of the least helpful things about Netflix's binge watching model is the false sense of accomplishment it gives you. Like, you'll have a day off, some one will ask you what you did with it, and totally refuse to be impressed when you say you watched nine hours of seventies King George from Hamilton interviewing serial killers.

Mindhunter was a bit good, though. There are reasons to watch it other than the fact that Anna Torv plays a foxy lesbian professor; of course I did immediately write a fic shipping her with the only other female character with whom she shared one scene:

The Tortured Academic Wine Tasting and Cunnilingus Society (Mindhunter; Debbie/Wendy)

I think I'm getting better at this titling thing, don't you?

And because I've been writing this post for three days, and because I don't really fancy opening another tab, I'm going to throw the fic I wrote for got_exchange in here too. The one where Yara and Ellaria get to opt out of the zombie apocalypse by virtue of being prisoners, but ultimately come out on top:

The Driftwood Queens (Game of Thrones; Yara/Ellaria)