My previous post on this series turned out to be less of a review and more of a rant about toxic fans. So, now the first season has ended, I decided to try and offer my overall review of the show. I won’t go into great detail about the plot for many reasons. Mostly because I don’t know it well enough but also because there are so many other people who will do that for you. There might also be spoilers but I’ll try and keep them minor. Let’s see how successful this attempt is.
I had intended to write something about The Rings of Power series when I was halfway through the series and then again at the end. Thanks to an unusually buys weekend, I didn’t manage to watch episode 4 until this Saturday. At that point, it just made sense to watch both episode 4 and 5 together. So, this post is coming at just beyond the halfway point but never mind. I was never going to be one of those people who dissects every single episode in great detail. There are plenty of people out there if you want that. Instead, I just want to ramble about my thoughts and feelings. This is probably going to be a messy post, which is probably quite apt.
I’ve experienced quite a few reading slumps over the years but never a film slump. It’s probably just another consequence of 2020 but I just can’t be bothered with films right now. Last week, I left it to the last minute to watch both Over the Moon and Coco. This week, I didn’t watch anything. I spent most of Sunday finishing off Pizza Girl and then started binge watching season 4 of The Crown. It’s not that I didn’t have the time. After all, I got through 7 full episodes that night. It’s just that I’m not in the mood. The Crown is the perfect kind of viewing for a time like this. I’m not overly invested in the show but was still interested enough to keep going. My only issue is that I can’t actually decide if I like it or not.
I’ve seen a lot of those “Choose Your Quarantine House” things going around Twitter recently and I can’t say any of them have really appealed. There are plenty that just include the names of people I’ve never heard of and there are those that are just too niche for me to care about. Even the bookish ones aren’t really for me. They’re for people who think Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen are the standards we should set for well-written female characters (visualise my doing a massive eye-roll here please). So, I decided to stop waiting around and just pick my own damn quarantine house. I promised myself that it wasn’t just going to be a list of people I’m attracted to because that would clearly be my go-to. I’m actually going to try and think about people I could be okay being in lockdown with. People that I wouldn’t want to kill after about 5 minutes alone with them. Let’s see who makes the cut.
I currently have a lot of streaming services on the go and it means that I never really know what I want to watch. Normally it means that I just watch the same old thing over and over again. Take this week for instance. I didn’t know what to start so started watching a random series of Buffy. Unfortunately, the one that Amazon recommended to me was season 7. Yes, I still watched it but I didn’t exactly enjoy it. Is there anyone out there that enjoyed season 7? Why the show didn’t stop after season 5 is still a mystery. But it got me thinking, which season did I really think was the best. And as it’s Friday, I only went and ranked them. Initially, I was just going to do it based on how attractive I find Giles. I think he peaks around season 5 for me. But then the singing in season 6. God, the singing. But I’m getting away from the point.
When I first opened Disney+ this week, I didn’t automatically go straight to the original content. I didn’t catch up on The Mandalorian so I could get some context for Baby Yoda. Nope. I started rewatching old episodes of The Simpsons. The animated show that has been going for over 30 years has plenty of great episodes and having them all in one place is too good an opportunity to miss. I know that it gets a lot of bad press these days and it can’t be denied that quality has gone downhill. But it’s not as if it isn’t watchable. There’ll always be something nice and familiar about it. To celebrate and justify my week of watching 90s episodes of a cartoon, I decided to discuss some of my favourite episodes. There are so many of them at this point that it was pretty difficult. This is by no means an exhaustive list because who can remember everything that’s happened in the past 30 odd years? But there are some genuine gems here.
I almost didn’t post a Friday Favourites today because I was out of inspiration. I’m super tired this week and I just didn’t have any ideas about what to write. I’ve always believed that I shouldn’t be writing content for content’s sake. It needs to be something that I give a shit about otherwise it’s just pointless for everybody. I’m not suggesting that this idea is better than anything I could have forced myself to write but at least I’m into it. Why am I into it? Because it gives me a chance to indulge in chat about my birthday. Anyone who’s been around for a whole will remember that I made a huge deal about my 30th birthday. Not only did I spend the whole year review TBT films from the year I was born but I dedicated the whole of March to writing about the books that made an impact on me. I did enjoy writing 30 Books For My 30th but, looking back, it does seem incredibly self-indulgent. This year isn’t quite as bad but I decided to list my favourite fictional characters who were born in the same month as me. Thereby proving that many of the greatest people were born in March. All information regarding fictional people’s birthday’s found here. Although, on further inspection, many of these were actually wrong.
So, you may have noticed that this isn’t a book review. And that’s only partly because I haven’t quite finished Machines Like Me yet. I say partly because I’m trying to convince myself that I haven’t been rubbish at reading this week. That’s not the reason. The real reason is that I needed to talk about this week’s episode of Game of Thrones. Or, more specifically, the reaction to it. Cause this season has divided opinion quite dramatically. And the last few episodes have left a particularly sour taste in people’s mouths. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve found the final series of Game of Thrones to be disappointing. The writing has gone downhill and the storylines are being rushed to fit into the shorter episode run. The focus has been on spectacle instead of the story. Character development has gone out of the window in favour of more CGI dragons. Now, it should go without saying but spoiler warning guys.
So, once again I’m having to put off my book review until Friday. At this rate, I might as well just do two bookish posts a week. Especially now I have weekends off. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. It means I can do at least one review a week (if I can keep up) and a random post. Of course, it would also mean me coming up with an extra post idea a week and that’s not always worked out well for me. I’ve never been the kind of person who wanted to write content for contents sake. Despite what I might be being told at work. But that’s another rant for another day. Instead, I’m filling my Wednesday night post with a subject that’s close to my heart. A topic that I’ve been getting quite passionate about with a friend of mine. A friend who really wasn’t ready for how much I cared about it. I’ve ranted about this television show before and I will again. That’s the joy of finding something you actually give a shit about. You’ll always find something to be annoyed about and something to absolutely adore. I’m not the kind of person who believes that anything is flawless. That doesn’t sound like much fun to me. I enjoy conflict and feeling conflicted about something I love is the ideal situation. Really, what I’m saying is, I just love debating and arguing about things.
So how has your week been? What have you been reading?
You’ve caught me on a good day. I spent the afternoon with my family where we have a lovely Sunday lunch. There’s nothing to get you ready to face the week than a tasty roast dinner with the people you like most. And I think that extra hour in bed has inspired as I’m even contemplating an early night with a book. I mean I’m even writing this at a vaguely sensible time. What’s happened to me? Just wait til next week when I’m back to madly finishing typing at 11:30pm. It’s inevitable. But, for now, I can pretend I’m a new person. That somehow, in the last 7 days, I’ve experienced some sort of personal growth and am close to becoming a proper adult. Although, that does sound a bit dull if I’m honest.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 