May TV shows

[dolorosa_12]

Given my mum is about to arrive for an extended visit, I think it's highly unlikely that I will finish any more TV shows before the end of the month, so let's have the May wrap-up a week early! I finished three shows this month, and they were:

Miss Scarlet, a mystery series set in Victorian England in which the eponymous heroine works as a private detective, solving crimes alongside an array of allies and sidekicks, including a police inspector from Scotland Yard. This is silly, inoffensive fun — the sort of thing that doesn't challenge the brain much, in which the culprit is usually obvious from about ten minutes into each episode — perfect frothy Sunday night fare.

Season 2 of Deadloch, the comedic Australian crime drama. This one sees lesbian policewoman Dulcie ditch the eponymous Tasmanian small town of Season 1, and head to the Northern Territory to join the other half of her odd couple buddy cop duo, accompanied by her wife, and travelling in a campervan. Chaos, against a background of every Top End cliché imaginable, ensues, as various seemingly unconnected mysteries slowly reveal themselves to be interwoven. The humour, if anything, is even less subtle than in the previous season, and I feel that it's essentially making fun of the stereotypes the rest of us Australians hold about the remote parts of the Northern Territory (crocodiles wandering around, disappearing backpackers, impoverished Indigenous communities, packs of grey nomads living an extended holiday existence in caravan parks, plus various oddballs who have fled from other parts of the country to escape the authorities or otherwise live off the grid, spouting an assortment of conspiratorial beliefs, etc). There are some unexpected twists, and extremely hilarious lines, but I think it didn't quite reach the heights of the first season.

The final season of Daredevil: Born Again. I know, I know, I say every time that my monthly TV roundup includes a Marvel show that I'm burnt out and this is truly my last Marvel ever ... but then I found out that Krysten Ritter was coming back as Jessica Jones, and I had to watch. If you've seen previous Daredevil series, you'll know what you're in for: existential battle for the soul of New York between blind vigilante Matt Murdoch and his crime lord nemesis Wilson Fisk, who by this season has managed to get himself elected as New York's mayor. He uses this position both to enrich himself through various corrupt enterprises, and implement an anti-vigilante rein of terror that sees his super loyal armed branch of the police (unrestrained by any need to follow legal processes) rampage around the city, terrorising people. The allusions to real-world contemporary US politics are not subtle, which irritated me for two reasons. Firstly, I hate fantasy beings/superpowered individuals being used as a metaphor for real-world oppressed groups (since, you know, vampires are actually dangerous, and extrajudicial law enforcement is not a great thing, so equating this with real world marginalisations feels quite offensive in most instances). Secondly, because the show is constrained by the rules of its superhero comic book genre, the good guys are able to overcome all these metaphors for real-world iniquities in a way that is tidy, easy, and uncomplicated — which just ultimately feels insulting. But Jessica Jones was in it, and that was great!

Comments

[adore]

I, too, loved Season 1 of Deadloch better (it was so funny!). It felt like too much happened in the second season so that I couldn't even tell whether it all hung together.

[dolorosa_12]

It's one of those shows that I feel was perfect at one season: it did everything it needed to do, and felt complete. The second season was fine, but didn't need to exist.

[kore]

JESSICA <333

(LOL all my Jessica icons went when my paid account expired. sigh)

I was really disappointed she wasn't in more episodes and WHUT with the thing about her powers going out and WHUT?? about what Luke was doing? -- But honestly all of that was pretty drowned out by my inner fangirl screaming JESSICA! LUKE! DANI! Her opener with "This is not a toy" was so perfect. I read an interview with Krysten Ritter and she said she SAVED the Jessica jacket after her show ended, and took it back in to the DD costumer and they just rebuilt her original Jessica costume, and she said once she put on the jacket, the jeans and the boots, "she was there." //sniffle

(Re US politics, the showrunner said in an interview he thought some ppl might find the final episode offensive, and yes, thank you! I did find the appropriation of the fucking Jan 6 COUP imagery given to Brave Rebels instead really fucking offensive! It seems to have bounced off most critics/viewers tho, LOL.)

I really liked seeing Lili Taylor, and the new Mayor, and Wilson Bethel as Bullseye is always a treat. He somehow manages to combine savage vigilantism with this hidden vulnerability and loony belief that he really is a Good Guy Now. It's a pretty layered performance!