2022 Media Roundup: Telly
Dec. 29th, 2022 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby This is normally an easy post to write, since I watch a lot of telly. The problem is that things kind of blur together, especially with shows that run over multiple seasons during a pandemic. Like I almost said that Good Omens was one of my favourite 2022 shows except wait wtf, that aired in 2019. I'm probably leaving something off the list that I watched and loved just because I don't remember what year it aired. Fuck a duck. Here's what I liked.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Basically I thought this would suck, and it didn't, which is cool. Like all Trek ever (except, I hear, the animated ones, but I am sorry and it's just really difficult for me to get into animated shows), it's flawed and messy and I can make a million critiques of it. But it captured the sheer thrill of space exploration and science, featured a charming cast of human but aspirational characters, and managed to revisit a lot of the fun and campy elements of the 60s Original Series without either drifting into fanservice or sacrificing contemporary notions of diversity and political commentary.
Our Flag Means Death: Speaking of fun! it's fun that when I say "that gay pirate show" I now have to clarify which one I'm talking about. Part loopy comedy, part surprisingly poignant exploration of middle-aged dudes grappling with identity and masculinity. I kept thinking that it was the comedy version of Black Sails, which it is both in terms of its subject matter and its use of said subject matter to explore dynamics of sexuality, race, class, and imperialism. I won't go on at great length because you've already seen it a bunch of times, probably.
What We Do in the Shadows: And speaking of Taiki Waititi. There are three Taiki Waititi shows on my list this year. We live in a blessed time for TV. This one has been going for a few years but I only watched it this year despite having seen the movie a number of times. It's a mockumentary about four vampire roommates and their familiar, which is such an incredibly silly concept that it's a wonder they manage to squeeze so much engaging character dynamics and drama out of it. But they do. And it's wonderful.
Interview with the Vampire: It's fun when I say "that gay vampire show" and I have to clarify which one I'm talking about. This is the dramatic, angsty one. The books and the original movie were always guilty, trashy pleasures for me, but what if someone took that trash and made it art? The series leans in to the tensions that go unexplored in the source material—the magnetic but abusive dynamic between Lestat and Louis, the racial and economic disparities of New Orleans in the 1920s, the very fucked up family that they form with Claudia (aged up into an angry teenager rather than a tiny child, which is the only relief that the show allows).
Ms Marvel: I mostly don't care about Marvel or superheroes these days, but Kamala Khan is my favourite so I was thrilled to see a show about her. First of all the casting is amazing. They found a young actor who just embodies everything that makes Kamala so lovable. The changes from the comic really serve the story well—her origin story is more rooted in her Pakistani heritage rather than just being a legacy character for a white superhero, and her powers look better on screen than her comics equivalent would. It's charming as hell.
The Boys: This is the other superhero show that I care about, and once again it does a fantastic job of elevating its source material above its nihilistic shock schtick (don't bother with the comic, just watch the show). It deconstructs the superhero genre as fundamentally reactionary in nature, a product of corporate America that mythologizes fascistic strongmen. It's gory and bombastic but that violence serves a point and scathingly satirizes contemporary politics and culture. It's a measure of how relentlessly entertaining this show is that it took until season 3 for the MAGA chuds to realize that it's about them and they're not the good guys. Watching them get big mad about this is almost as much fun as the show itself.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo: A K-drama about an autistic lawyer in her first job at a massive law firm. I'm not usually into procedurals as a genre but Woo is just such a fantastic character, and I found myself rooting so hard for the romance, that I absolutely binged this one. It's not without its flaws—ultimately, casting an allistic actor as an autistic character is a bit Not Great—but they did do their research and the compassion and empathy outweighs them.
The Serpent Queen: This is a criminally underrated historical drama about flaw-free badass Catherine de' Medici, who never did anything wrong and came here to slay, as the kids said a decade ago. Young Catherine, raised in a convent after the Medicis fell from political favour in Italy, is sent to France to be married to the King's second son, Henri. She's plain and worst of all in the eyes of the court, common. Also, Henri is in love with Catherine's cousin, Diane, who is old enough to be his mother and engaged in complex political machinations of her own. This is one of those historical shows with very modern aesthetic sensibilities, breaking the fourth wall and tossing in metal soundtracks, which some people find jarring and which I quite enjoy. It's not something to watch for historical accuracy; it's something to watch if you want to see antiheroic women doing Machiavellian politics.
And now we come to my favourites.
The best returning show of the year was Reservation Dogs, yet another brilliant offering from Taiki Waititi, who is God's gift to TV even if Thor: Love and Thunder sucked a bit. The second season of this slice of life dramedy about four Indigenous teenagers made me laugh and broke my heart. The latest season hits the themes of reconciliation and forgiveness. Willie Jack deals with the fallout from her curse, Elora and Bear try to repair their friendship, Cheese grapples with the youth justice system, and the community continues to grapple with the fallout of Daniel's death, the story's inciting incident. The story expands well beyond the Rez Dogs to explore their former rival Jackie and her gang, and the various adults in their lives. The episode where Big accidentally ingests psychedelics is hands-down the funniest thing I watched on TV this year, and the transcendent grace of Mabel's episode and the finale had me in tears.
The best new show was The Sandman because. Obviously it was. Do I need to explain why? I did a whole post on it. I have been waiting for an adaption of the comic that got me into comics since I was 14 years old. The adaptation is excellent, barely any notes, and honours the vibes of the original while still making necessary changes for TV. It's a joy to watch from start to finish and I can't wait for the next season (which will cover my favourite of the books, Season of Mists).
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Basically I thought this would suck, and it didn't, which is cool. Like all Trek ever (except, I hear, the animated ones, but I am sorry and it's just really difficult for me to get into animated shows), it's flawed and messy and I can make a million critiques of it. But it captured the sheer thrill of space exploration and science, featured a charming cast of human but aspirational characters, and managed to revisit a lot of the fun and campy elements of the 60s Original Series without either drifting into fanservice or sacrificing contemporary notions of diversity and political commentary.
Our Flag Means Death: Speaking of fun! it's fun that when I say "that gay pirate show" I now have to clarify which one I'm talking about. Part loopy comedy, part surprisingly poignant exploration of middle-aged dudes grappling with identity and masculinity. I kept thinking that it was the comedy version of Black Sails, which it is both in terms of its subject matter and its use of said subject matter to explore dynamics of sexuality, race, class, and imperialism. I won't go on at great length because you've already seen it a bunch of times, probably.
What We Do in the Shadows: And speaking of Taiki Waititi. There are three Taiki Waititi shows on my list this year. We live in a blessed time for TV. This one has been going for a few years but I only watched it this year despite having seen the movie a number of times. It's a mockumentary about four vampire roommates and their familiar, which is such an incredibly silly concept that it's a wonder they manage to squeeze so much engaging character dynamics and drama out of it. But they do. And it's wonderful.
Interview with the Vampire: It's fun when I say "that gay vampire show" and I have to clarify which one I'm talking about. This is the dramatic, angsty one. The books and the original movie were always guilty, trashy pleasures for me, but what if someone took that trash and made it art? The series leans in to the tensions that go unexplored in the source material—the magnetic but abusive dynamic between Lestat and Louis, the racial and economic disparities of New Orleans in the 1920s, the very fucked up family that they form with Claudia (aged up into an angry teenager rather than a tiny child, which is the only relief that the show allows).
Ms Marvel: I mostly don't care about Marvel or superheroes these days, but Kamala Khan is my favourite so I was thrilled to see a show about her. First of all the casting is amazing. They found a young actor who just embodies everything that makes Kamala so lovable. The changes from the comic really serve the story well—her origin story is more rooted in her Pakistani heritage rather than just being a legacy character for a white superhero, and her powers look better on screen than her comics equivalent would. It's charming as hell.
The Boys: This is the other superhero show that I care about, and once again it does a fantastic job of elevating its source material above its nihilistic shock schtick (don't bother with the comic, just watch the show). It deconstructs the superhero genre as fundamentally reactionary in nature, a product of corporate America that mythologizes fascistic strongmen. It's gory and bombastic but that violence serves a point and scathingly satirizes contemporary politics and culture. It's a measure of how relentlessly entertaining this show is that it took until season 3 for the MAGA chuds to realize that it's about them and they're not the good guys. Watching them get big mad about this is almost as much fun as the show itself.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo: A K-drama about an autistic lawyer in her first job at a massive law firm. I'm not usually into procedurals as a genre but Woo is just such a fantastic character, and I found myself rooting so hard for the romance, that I absolutely binged this one. It's not without its flaws—ultimately, casting an allistic actor as an autistic character is a bit Not Great—but they did do their research and the compassion and empathy outweighs them.
The Serpent Queen: This is a criminally underrated historical drama about flaw-free badass Catherine de' Medici, who never did anything wrong and came here to slay, as the kids said a decade ago. Young Catherine, raised in a convent after the Medicis fell from political favour in Italy, is sent to France to be married to the King's second son, Henri. She's plain and worst of all in the eyes of the court, common. Also, Henri is in love with Catherine's cousin, Diane, who is old enough to be his mother and engaged in complex political machinations of her own. This is one of those historical shows with very modern aesthetic sensibilities, breaking the fourth wall and tossing in metal soundtracks, which some people find jarring and which I quite enjoy. It's not something to watch for historical accuracy; it's something to watch if you want to see antiheroic women doing Machiavellian politics.
And now we come to my favourites.
The best returning show of the year was Reservation Dogs, yet another brilliant offering from Taiki Waititi, who is God's gift to TV even if Thor: Love and Thunder sucked a bit. The second season of this slice of life dramedy about four Indigenous teenagers made me laugh and broke my heart. The latest season hits the themes of reconciliation and forgiveness. Willie Jack deals with the fallout from her curse, Elora and Bear try to repair their friendship, Cheese grapples with the youth justice system, and the community continues to grapple with the fallout of Daniel's death, the story's inciting incident. The story expands well beyond the Rez Dogs to explore their former rival Jackie and her gang, and the various adults in their lives. The episode where Big accidentally ingests psychedelics is hands-down the funniest thing I watched on TV this year, and the transcendent grace of Mabel's episode and the finale had me in tears.
The best new show was The Sandman because. Obviously it was. Do I need to explain why? I did a whole post on it. I have been waiting for an adaption of the comic that got me into comics since I was 14 years old. The adaptation is excellent, barely any notes, and honours the vibes of the original while still making necessary changes for TV. It's a joy to watch from start to finish and I can't wait for the next season (which will cover my favourite of the books, Season of Mists).
no subject
Date: 2022-12-30 05:18 am (UTC)I loved OFMD.I'm a bit sad it has become known as 'the gay pirate show' because, as you point out, it is so much more than that. And WWDITS continues to charm my pants off.
Ms Marvel was huge fun. I am actually a bit sad they keep kludging stuff together into the larger MCU narrative. I want things to breathe a lot more.
I have been pondering adding The Boys comics to my wishlist, but I think I'll take your advice on that.
Reservation Dogs is one of those shows that has buzz, suddenly? Friends have been watching it, and it has popped up on a lot of lists. I had no idea Taiki Waititi was behind it in any way, and while I was thinking of watching it because of said buzz (the subject matter didn't immediately grab me), I've just added it to the list.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-30 02:23 pm (UTC)The Boys show is a work of art. The violence and gross-out humour is there to make a point. The comic is just edgelord shit. Kind of like Preacher but without the charm.
I've seen almost no buzz about Reservation Dogs. A few of my IRL friends like it and two people on one of my Discord servers. I'm not into shows about teenagers usually because I get enough of that at work but it's so good that it transcends whatever genre they're trying to stuff it in. Like it's kind of a teen drama and it's kind of a heist story (at least in the first season) and it's kind of magic realism. It's drastically less zany than Waititi's usual fare but still ridiculously funny.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-30 03:22 pm (UTC)I read some of Clan Destine in the day. I struggled.
I tried to watch She-Hulk because Tatiana Maslany is in it, but it was just so full of various references and things that were geared towards getting you excited about a different thing that you weren't watching that I just didn't like it.
I loved it, but I knew most of the references. I didn't think it was embedded... but .... I think it's the least Marvel shown in a while.
I think TW would so well with RD. His earlier films work well in the human space.