Why I'm Not Reviewing Supergirl

I've stopped doing any blogging habits outside of Tumblr where with the click of the button I can just regurgitate whatever someone else posted and add 2 cents if I'm charitable.

There's a lot of reasons I haven't written any posts. The anniversary of my mom's death came upon me a week ago. My aunt has cancer, my cousin's visiting. Food poisoning, friend's birthday, and I got a cold and a bad case of period hemorrhaging (won't be on hormone therapy for the foreseeable future) at the same time. Lovely.

So in between these times I've let my viewing of Supergirl slipped. Last Monday it was the birthday and the cold. This Monday, cold, ear ache and aforementioned hemorrhaging.

In the end though, I'm just sick of the Monel as the writer's choice of the ultimate love interest. No matter how much Monel changes the narrative still doesn't justify the reward. I wouldn't hate the character if they just left that off the table, but they won't stop pushing it.

The show has had better writing for the most part this season than last, but it's that damn character that ruins it. Contrast this with Flash where I'm devoted no matter what plans, or how sick I get. Last season is generally more well received than this season has been so far, but there's a big difference in my eyes for why I can stand it better in spite of the wasted Flashpoint potential that didn't need to happen to write this season, awful character dynamics, wasted Dr. Alchemy, stupid Savitar, wasted Iris, the quick resolution of Caitlin going off the deep end and other problems I can't remember to mention. What I will say is that what makes this season worth watching even more than last is that there's no Parry Spivot! Yeah that's a large factor, but I also like the stronger West-Allen in spite of my gripes with Iris being wasted, I love Julian in spite of my gripes with Dr. Alchemy, I love the cast in spite of my gripes with the character dynamics. I'm intrigued by the fallout of Savitar in spite of my wish for Savitar to go away.

I don't think Supergirl has many things left to keep me hooked, just enough to maybe marathon it in the future and then be disappointed by the end result that she's stuck with Monel, Winn will get with Lena and James might get with Lucy off screen. Yeah none of that interests me in the slightest. At this point I'm more interested in J'onn and M'gann in spite of feeling wrong saying that because I'm so used to M'gann being portrayed as martian teenager not as an equal to J'onn. Than again Monel is nothing like the sweet boyfriend he is in the comics to Shadow Lass either so both mine as well be two different chracters who share a similar name. I support Alex and Maggie, but I'm not really invested in them either. I hate to admit this, because I've wanted a gay couple in the CW superhero shows and have found the lacking of it odd when it's produced by a gay man and so many gay and bi actors are cast in the shows. It's also hard to be invested in Alex and Maggie when it's a writing device to play keep away with Alex and Kara time where she could use her support instead of relying on a tool.

This has been my frustration with the show and why I've become apathetic and have even missed two episodes in a row and will probably skip the next one. This show has everything going for it except for the central love story and friend support group that the first season did better in spite of some inconsistent writing. Don't get me wrong. I liked that this show expanded the world, included more aliens, gave Kara a job promotion, gave Kara another friend in Lena when Lucy couldn't come back, gave us Clark for a few episodes, and then Monel had to wake up and ruin all goodwill.

I'm pissed at the sidelining of James as the love interest after I've waited two decades for DC to to do something with that squandered potential only for them to mess it up with a gross white boy privileged stereotype taking on the name Clark bequeathed to a superior character in the comics who came from an awful xenophobic society and still with Clark's example of brotherhood, not forced through a one-sided toxic romance, became a better person.

I think it's a poor choice that the writer's decided Alex is going to ditch Kara's birthday to date Maggie instead of bringing her girlfriend along to her sister's birthday party and then take her out on more intimate dates later. This is supposed to be a move in maturity for Kara to realize her sister's not going to always be there, but they could have illustrated that lesson for something less than a birthday. I've noticed the shows gradual crumbling on the sister dynamic to make room for romantic relationship as if they can't coexist. In what world? Basically Maggie ends up being a means to an end to keep Alex away from Kara and that becomes transparent. Alex benefits here because she's not the one dating an asshole, but Kara's saddled with the inevitable foregone conclusion that she'll have to uphold the straight patriarchy. Why? It becomes a problem that they're using a sweet gay couple to distract us from a potential toxic straight couple and it's not working.

They also conveniently uses Alex as an impediment on Jimmy and Winn being upfront with Kara about their activities so that we the viewers can be blindsighted and then the topic of telling Kara can quietly be dropped. This is the writer's solution to have Kara's stuck babysitting an asshole, because where's Alex or Winn to talk sense into her? Insulting.

Thoughts On Hail, Caesar! And My Similar Lost Project

Many years ago before Hollywood Video closed, my brother and I loaned my mom some rented movies with the instructions to return them to the one closer to our side of town. Instead she returned them to the one closer to hers and it took over a month for them to transfer over. We ended up with $46 of fees. We paid them off and then half a year later they had a closing down sale and excused all fees. Sigh... Such is life.

Rewinding backwards on the way to paying the fee, my brother said "It's time to pay my debt to Hollywood."

That line got me brainstorming. We envisioned a web comic about a Golden Age Hollywood that mashed up eras. It had a studio system, but it made room and allowances for actor and genre types existing simultaneously while also exploring poverty row, indies and self directed vanity projects. Basically the gist as I envisioned it was a director who is owed another movie on his contract before he can freelance or retire. My brother didn't like that and insisted the main character be an everyman actor of Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda variety. We then discussed other characters. We had a Clark Gable meets George Clooney King of Hollywood type marrying a Julia Roberts girl next door type who claws her way to the top while making power plays sort of like what people think of Joan Crawford. We moved onto the main characters best-friend, the guy who always plays dad's, but is in the closet, sort of Robert Reed of The Brady Bunch and less like Paul Lynde. We then discussed a Clint Eastwood meets Humphrey Bogart type who goes from doing low budget crime movies to directing his own vehicle. There was to be a Jean Harlow/Marilyn Monroe type who while sweet has mob ties. We'd have had a Benny Siegel gangster type as part of her backstory. We also discussed an obnoxious, method actor Marlon Brando/Robert De Niro type who alienates his co-workers with his extreme idiosyncratic methods. We even spitefully thought of doing a Tom Cruise/Keanu Reeves action hero leading man whose box office appeal gets him cast in inappropriate period dramas. We even thought of a directors nephew Nicholas Cage type whose bizarre, over the top acting produces controversial results. Those last two were cynical on our part. We discussed other actors and directors, but this part of the post is getting too long and is unimportant.

This brings me to Hail, Caesar! It does what I could have done, better than I could imagine. Sure a web comic has room to flesh out soap opera plots and job commentary better than a 100 minute movie could, but it'd be pure wank compared to the what the Cohen Brothers pulled off. I like them. Not all of there movies are winners, some are forgettable, but like that other maligned, but overrated director Wes Anderson, they make movies that aren't structured like blockbuster formulas. They put there own stamp on topics no other filmmaker would touch without turning it into some by the numbers drivel.

I watched Gail, Caesar! in a nearly empty theater with my remaining family. It was an overwhelming sight to behold. I liked it. I don’t understand other people’s bitching that it wasn’t some big blockbuster team up of disparate actors, Avengers style. It’s better than the wasted spectacles of crap like Gangster Squad or The Great Gatsby as far as period piece cinema goes. It’s the day in the life of the going on of a fictional studio, the aptly named Capitol. You see the last night, the day and the next day. Nice structuring to accommodate the comings and goings of characters tied by Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin). You get to see Clooney as a leading man sword and sandal type getting kidnapped by a Communist conspiracy where he acts like a tool. You get to see Scarlett Johansson as an Esther Williams type career-wise, but with a Loretta Young-type subplot. Ralph Fiennes as a director having line reading troubles with an actor. Channing Tatum doing something I actually found worthwhile. Though too tall and of broad built, he pulls off doing a homoerotic Gene Kelly sailor musical number while being a mastermind and blackmailer Communist. This is my first Alden Ehrenreich movie. I’ve never watched anything with him before, but he made me give a damn about a cowboy actor and that’s tough. I had a hard time doing that for my own Debt To Hollywood concept. I'd like this actor go places, because his previous discography of Coppola, Woody Allen and Beautiful Creatures don't interest me. He's also my type, Eastern European Jewish descent with lots of hair on his head. He sort of reminded me of Sal Mineo too.

While my brother called the Deanna (Scarlett) and Joseph Silverman (Jonah Hill) dating. I was the only one to call the Communist plot, the moment the screenwriters mentioned economics and sociology. It's nice that a Communist Conspiracy in Hollywood can finally be used as a credible plot device now with tongue and cheek, but still played straight of course. No need to mock or satirize a sensitive issue that destroyed lives. I will still check out the Dalton Trumbo movie and I'm still mad at what was done to John Garfield, and the unrelated postmortem lies regurgitated in a Robert Redford movie, but it's time we can actually explore this, what ifs or not. Back in the planning stages of Debt, I had to agree with my brother after much deliberation to drop a nice potential for a thriller plot in Communists. Nothing I would have come up with would have the nuanced comedy going on this movie anyway.

There are three distinct laugh out load moments in the movie:

When Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) as a director has trouble with the Hobie the cowboy actor trying to play a party scene and the payoff later when Mannix and the film editor review the footage and what Hobie finally says.

The board meeting with the Priests and Rabbi. I loved that when Mannix asks them what they think of Jesus's portrayal, the Orthodox Preist quibbles about the chariot scene instead, and that the Rabbi is (in my view only) the only reasonable one while the other Priests confuse Mannix on their interpretations of Jesus.

The part where Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum) goes to leave the screenwriters and his dog on a boat on a Russian submarine. They throw him the ransom money for Russia. When Burt opens his arms for it, the dog jumps into them causing the brief case to fall into the water and drown. Should've left the dog at home, Burt.

All in all 2016 looks to be a better movie year than 2015.