For the last few months, I've actually had a crowded schedule of TV watching! This is remarkable for me, since I almost never watch shows as they air, much less watch multiple ones with conflicting schedules. They've now dropped off one by one, as their seasons ended, and so now I am late to the party with recommendations (well, mostly).

Sleepy Hollow
See, the tragic thing is that I was mostly enjoying Season 3. There were multiple new characters of color introduced, many of whom I liked a lot! Daniel Reynolds: yes, Abbie totally SHOULD have a sexy sexy boss with whom she has past sexual tension! Sophie Foster: yes, more kick-ass fighter women, I am into this! I ship Jenny/Joe, and the way they handled Jenny's commitment issues was mostly well-done and I was excited to see where they would go with it! Ichabod's tragic grieving while separated from Abbie for a few episodes was fantastic angst – as long as I presumed it would have an eventual happy ending. The new villains were boring, but eh, they were perfectly adequate at setting up Monster of the Week type plots, and I don't need my villains to do anything more than that.

And then there was that season finale which, in addition to all the other REALLY OBVIOUS ISSUES, didn't even make sense on a story-telling level. It was exact repeat of what had happened in the season break! Except now Ichabod was just cool with Abbie dying?

Anyway, I'm sure you've all seen the millions of meta posts on this topic so I don't feel like hashing it out all over again, but it is absolutely one of the most inexplicable and dumb (and, you know, racist) choices I've seen a TV show make.


iZombie
But on a happier note, I continue to adore this show. It needs more of a fandom! It's not at all full of graphic violence or grimdark like you might expect from a show about zombies; it's an adorable procedural with a very cute premise (Liv, the main zombie, solves murders by eating the brains of the victims – this also causes her to take on some of their personality traits) and wonderful characters. My particular favorite is Ravi, Liv's boss/friend, who is a funny, nerdy doctor who handles Liv's personality-of-the-week with admirable nonchalance.

Anyway, this season was great, I'm so glad Clive finally knows about zombies, and I'm very excited at how they've set up a Blackwater-esque military contractor to be next season's Big Bad.


Hap & Leonard
A six episode miniseries based on a book series that I've read a few of. Hap is an ex-hippie, straight white liberal; Hap is a black, gay Republican; together they fight crime get into trouble, call one another "brother", and are generally adorable.

I haven't read the particular book this miniseries was based on, but it did have a different feel than the ones I've read: less humor and irony, more taking the guys seriously as action stars. Possibly that's just the difference from the first book in a series to the later ones, though.

I feel like I should issue a warning for the fifth episode, which has a torture and gunbattle sequence that is absolutely some of the most brutal stuff I've ever seen. And I watch a lot of horror movies, including during the 00's awful tortureporn phase! I've seen some brutal stuff. I was still shocked by this.

They haven't confirmed a second season yet, but I do hope it gets one. It might not have been everything I hoped for, but I'd definitely watch more.


Underground
Okay, now we're to my favorite, absolutely the best thing I've seen this year! Underground is set in Georgia in 1857, and is about the Underground Railroad, but it is very much not eat-your-vegetables TV. It's shot like a heist movie. There are action sequences, huge twists in practically every episode, modern music used in the score, and no clear lines between "good" characters and "bad" characters. There are fandom-favorite actors involved, particularly Aldis Hodge (Hardison from Leverage) and Marc Blucas (Riley from BtVS). Over on tumblr, I am co-running "dailyunderground", so follow for gifsets and such.

Also yes, I am shipping Noah/Rosalee/Cato, someone write me a fanfic.


Game of Thrones
Eh, apparently I am still watching this show. I'm kind of grumpy because I haven't liked the first five episodes, but they seem to have been popular in fandom, so I have no one to share my snark with. It... could be worse, I guess? I just want to read the books, to be honest.


And now I have to decide what to start watching next. I've been meaning to watch Black Sails for ages (Pirates! :D ) but it doesn't seem to be easily accessible anywhere – it's not on either Hulu or Netflix, and I don't have Starz. I've also heard good things about Wynonna Earp, which just started this season and thus should be easy to catch up with: a big plus! And I guess I should watch the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, since I enjoyed the first so much. Also everyone keeps telling me to watch Jessica Jones? So, uh, I guess I should do that too. Anyway! Tell me which one I should watch first, if you have opinions.

After such a long post last week, I've barely watched anything this week!

Strange Empire
This was a Canadian TV show that started last year; I was interested in it at the time, but never got around to actually watching it. And now it's on Netflix! So I'm checking it out.

In the 1860s, near the Canada-Montana border, a group of pioneers, farmers, and travelers are heading through the wilderness. All of the men are killed in an attack, forcing the women to band together for survival. I've only watched the first episode so far, but it seems really well-done and I'm planning on watching more. The characters are interesting. Kat is the main character, a Native American woman who was married to a Irish man and runs around shooting people and wearing men's clothes; there's also Rebecca, who's trained as a surgeon and has a super-tragic backstory, and Isabelle, the madam of a nearby brothel.

I've also been watching Stephen Colbert's new show, The Late Show. It's much more enjoyable than I expected! And after all the talk about finally seeing the "real" Colbert, he's not actually that different from his old persona. He's had some great interviews already, and isn't afraid to ask startling questions. But as much as I like the show, I don't think I can commit to staying up until 1am every day. Alas, Colbert. Why not the Just Sorta Late-ish Show?

Hey, remember when I used to do this 'Watching Monday' thing? I thought I'd start again. Well, without going back to catch up, because it's been several months and I've watched a lot in that time. But here's what I watched in the last week:

Bahubali
A really fantastic Indian movie, a remix of mythic tropes with more modern ideas, and all of it visually amazing. There were so many characters I loved: the fierce rebel woman! the middle-aged Queen, raising babies with one hand and cutting dudes' throats with the other! the elderly warrior, enslaved by a promise to always serve the throne! It's still showing in the NYC market, at least, and I very much recommend watching it if you get the opportunity.
(A warning: it does have a wicked cliffhanger, and Part 2 doesn't come out until next year.)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
I've watched the first... three episodes? four episodes? of this so far and am enjoying it. It's not mind-blowing, but it's funny and sweet and totally the right sort of thing to put on when I don't want to devote too much attention to the TV.

Pride and Prejudice
Yes, the BBC miniseries from the 90s! I've somehow never seen this before, and so decided to get on that. I've only watched the first two episodes so far, but I like it. The characterization seems a bit shallower than in the book, but it really is capturing the humor. I've laughed so many times.

On a totally unrelated note, what the hell has happened to the LJ friends page? It's terrible looking and I can't figure out how to change it back.

Man, I've missed several weeks of this. Let me try and catch up briefly:

Lagaan
This is one of the only Bollywood movies to have been nominated for an Oscar, but it was mostly sold to me with the promise that if I watched it, I would finally understand cricket. Spoiler: I still do not understand cricket.

In a vaguely defined period in the late 1800s or very early 1900s, a small village in India is undergoing the third year of a drought. Because the local British officer is Very Cruel (as established in several scenes of him being laughably, mustache-twirling-ly villainous), he refuses to lower the taxes ("lagaan"). In an attempt to humilate our Loveable Underdog Hero, he makes a bet that the local villagers will not be able to beat the local British team in cricket - if they do win, taxes will be cancelled for the next three years. I'm pretty sure you can guess where the movie goes from here. The whole thing is sort of charmingly predictable ("our team will include a Muslim guy! And a Sikh! And a Dalit! Could we be a more obvious metaphor for independant India?"), but sometimes that's exactly what you want. I was surprised to realize the whole thing had been filmed in Bhuj, in Kutch, which is just a few miles away from where I lived for a couple of months, but I loved recognizing the landscape.

Focus
I really, really wanted to love a movie in which Will Smith plays a charming conman who falls in love. But sadly this movie didn't quite work for me. It was stylish and clever and very cool, but it was so concerned with fooling the audience with surprising twists – making sure you never knew when the chracters were telling the truth and when they were lying – that, in the end, I continued to not trust the characters. I mean, the movie really wants you to believe that now they mean what they say, but they haven't earned any sort of connection or emotional honesty, and so I was left feeling cold. But it is an incredibly pretty movie!

I've also started watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and, OMG YOU GUYS, it's so good! Phryne Fisher is an upperclass flapper in 1920s Melbourne, and in each episode she solves a mystery, adopts a delicate waif, and bangs a random dude, all while having snarky tension with the cheif police investigator. I'm in love. I've watched the first five episodes so far, and am looking forward to more.

Sleepy Hollow
2.16
Eh, I didn't really like this episode. It had a lot of potential – I am totally down for magic hologram Thomas Jefferson – but I didn't think it used any of that potential. Where was last season's awareness of the complexities of history? Did Crane and Abbie just totally forget that whole Sally Hemings conversation they had? Especially when the show is positing a "choose between innocent lives or immense greater good!" dilemma, that seem really fucking relevant.

And speaking of, that dilemma was really dumb. Why couldn't they come back later with Jenny, lots of firepower, maybe a few additional helpers, and take out the Reavers while protecting the library? Even if the library had to be destroyed, they seriously didn't have the time to truck a few boxes of books up above ground first? The Irving storyline was also nonsensical (and how were he and Jenny having a screaming argument with gunshots in a police station with no one noticing?).

I guess the new guy is hot? That's a plus.


Farscape
1.22 ("Family Ties")
This was a great episode! I continue to love that Aryn gets to name Baby Moya. And I really like the name she went with; it was very effective. I also liked all of the one-on-one interaction scenes, with people talking about how much they like each other. It was a great way to end the season.

And dramatic cliffhanger! That must have been so awful, back when it was airing and everyone had to wait months to see what happened next.

Being Human: UK
1.1
I decided to take a break between season of Farscape and watch something else, and I settled on this, both because it's short (only 6 episodes a season) and because people have been telling me for years that I'd enjoy it. So far it's very good! They managed to jam a ton of plot into fifty minutes, but it worked for me and I'm liking the characters so far.

Jupiter Ascending
OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS SO DUMB. BUT AMAZING. BUT DUMB. I don't know if I can genuinely recommend it, but I enjoyed myself a huge amount, and that's what matters.

Actual wingfic! A werewolf searching for someone to be his pack! Bees recognize royalty! Punching each other is a 'male bonding ritual'! Incestuous space royalty! If all of that was incoherent, congratulations, that's what the movie feels like. But with special effects and insane costumes. I am so into this, and totally want it to be the weird fannish movie obsession of the year, much like Pacific Rim was last year.

Sleepy Hollow
2.13
I actually really loved this episode! It was great! :D It's sad that such a thing should be so shocking, but here we are. Still: awesome episode, I'm not complaining. The creepy painting that leaks blood was a great supernatural villain, and I really enjoyed the flashbacks, a) because I love Michelle Trachtenberg and b) because I love Abigail Adams. I hope she shows up more often and wasn't just around for one episode. The whole plot with the Cranes was just the right sort of light but creepy monster of the week. And meanwhile! The plot with Abbie and Irving! Great, weighty, and so interesting. Sneaky Abbie lying to people! Making harsh decisions! Everything is beautiful. And the sheriff was around after disappearing for ages! AND CYNTHIA. CYNTHIA HI I MISSED YOU SO HAPPY TO FINALLY SEE YOU AGAIN. And Abbie busting in at the last minute to save the day! Ahhhh, wonderful.

2.14
Aaaaaaaaaaand we're back to terrible episodes. Okay, no, not entirely: I did like the karaoke scenes, and Crane and Abbie trapped together in a vault and forced to talk about their feelings is just the sort of fanfic trope-yness that I adore. But Jenny seemed weirdly OOC this episode (probably to abruptly emphasize her relationship with Hawley, but if that last scene means he's really gone for good, I will forgive anything), and I was also confused by the Cynthia/Irving relationship. I thought they were divorced? Apparently not. I'm okay with it either way, I just need to know what's happening. I also thought it weird that the Mills and the Cranes weren't at his trial, or apparently involved in any other way with his plot. Which... it does seem to have all happened very quickly, but still weird. I'm not sure where this storyline is going; clearly something creepy was happening at the end, but whether Katrina was fooled or lying or some other option, I have no idea.
But the worst thing in this episode was the crappy racist monster. I can't believe the phrase "thugee death cult" was actually uttered in all seriousness in 2015. It's the sort of dumb misuse of other culture's mythologies that Sleepy Hollow had so far avoided (hmm, maybe not with the golem stuff, but at least that wasn't focused on in its episode) and it's so disappointing to see it go there.
At least Hawley seems to be gone!

Farscape
1.19 ("Nerve")
I still can't take Crichton's faux British accent seriously. I know it's such a minor detail, but it really bothers me, and I can't get past it. Hey, it's the tech girl from earlier in the season! Aw, I like her and never expected to see her again. I also like Chiana the sexy spy. There's a lot of "leave me behind and save the others!" in this episode, which I always approve of.

...I feel like I watched something else last week, but I can't remember what it was.

Sleepy Hollow
2.12
So, I mostly liked this episode, though it wasn't as great as the show could be. The farmers market
was adorable, and the Crane/Abbie scene at the very end, reconfirming their commitment to one another, was nice, but everything in-between was sort of meh. Yet more of Crane's jealousy over Katrina/Headless – come on, dude. Clearly she's not actually flirting with him, but even if she was, you're sorta broken up now. She'd be allowed to flirt with other people. (Preferably not horsemen of the apocalypse, I guess, but questioning her tastes on a moral basis is different from jealousy.) I am at least interested in seeing were they're going with Irving's plot.

On a completely shallow level: OH MY GOD WHAT IS KATRINA WEARING? WHY IS HER HAIR A DIFFERENT SHADE OF RED? Did she use the six weeks off-air to discover everything terrible about modern fashion? Also, while I am theoretically a fan of Jenny's hot date clothes, I'm kinda grossed out that this episode was written by the guy who said, "Lyndie walked in [at Paleyfest] I had never met her personally and she's wearing this awesome dress, she's so beautiful. I turned to Albert [Kim, another writer] and am like, 'Why isn't that girl ever on our show?' He's like, 'Well she's a badass and she dresses like a badass, she's tough.' I mean, we love that but is there anyway to show that other side, the side that's a little more fun, or maybe dresses up a little or a little sex appeal." (In an interview here) Because the one element this show has really in need of is a girly-er Jenny. And okay, fine, it's an incredibly shallow excuse to get her into a skirt for the whole episode, but it's just a skirt, but WHAT WAS UP with Hawley needing to explain Sumerian mythology and pronunciation to Jenny? She is supposed to be the one who's the globe-trotting archaeologist!

Empire
1.1
Well, it's a cheesy soap opera, but that's clearly the vibe they're going for, since I heard they were inspired by Dynasty. I'm not too intrigued by any of the characters yet (I do sort of like the hilariously evil lawyer brother), but I'll watch the next episode, at least. I really liked the music!

Farscape
1.11-1.16 ("Till the Blood Runs Clear", "Rhapsody in Blue", "The Flax", "Jeremiah Crichton", "Durka Returns", "A Human Reaction")
Yes, despite everyone warning me to skip it, I managed to forget and so watched "Jeremiah Crichton" anyway. I... didn't think it was that terrible? It certainly wasn't my favorite episode, but it was sort of mid-range, to me; I was mostly just surprised that Crichton had given up and grown a beard so quickly. You were only lost for something like three months, dude!
I was way more irritated by "A Human Reaction", which wouldn't have been so bad without the fake-out 'oh, none of this has been real!' ending. You can't have Crichton and Aeryn hook-up and then go ~but it was only in your mind~!
"Durka Returns" was my favorite of this set of episodes. That had some really interesting concepts, and I liked how it played with the idea of memory and punishment.

Sleepy Hollow
2.10
There was some cute stuff in this episode: I liked Irving and Jenny's discussion in the car of hope vs resignation, and the snake political cartoon as a map was cheesy ridiculousness of the best sort, as were sock-torches. But overall this episode was disappointing, like so many of the ones this season. I didn't like the focus on Ichabod and the Ichabod-vs-Abraham rivalry, I didn't like Abbie not getting to do anything useful like pick the right sword (though, okay, lighting the fire of their soulmate bond was pretty great), and I have no idea what the hell was up with the random appearance of a shofar. I just miss last season.
I'm falling behind! I actually haven't seen the fall finale (winter finale? whatever we're calling it) yet.

Farscape
1.09-1.10 ("DNA Mad Scientist" and "They've Got a Secret")
Wow, these episodes were really good. I feel like this was the first glimpse I've gotten of why people recommend this series. I really liked Aeryn's reaction to everyone else going home and then almost dying, as well as the reveal of D'Argo's past. And okay, Aeryn/John is starting to grow on me. They were very cute washing her hand together.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part One
I didn't like this one as much as I enjoyed the first two movies, but it was still pretty good. The main problem came out of the source, in my opinion; though this didn't feel stretched the way I feared splitting the book into two would, it did feel like it didn't quite have a plot. There were just scenes following one after the other, without a particular arc or drive. On the other hand, Katniss/Peeta works way more for me in these movies than it ever did in the book, and the movie's version of The Hanging Tree was AMAZING. I had to get up and leave the theater during the scene with the protestors at the dam, though that had more to do with current events than the movie's inherent ~artful powers~. Though I suppose the producers appreciate their good luck, at having brought this movie out right at this moment.

Sleepy Hollow
2.08
I actually quite liked Katrina this episode (though why was she still wearing someone else's discarded clothing?): I liked her being helpful in a fight and with research, I liked her actually talking about her perspective with Ichabod and especially Abbie, I liked her dealing with the visions. I just don't like that by the end of the episode she ended up in the exact same place she was two episodes ago. Plots that erase development like that are generally never a good idea.

The lack of Jenny in this episode was very noticeable and annoying. Even if, for some reason, they couldn't have the actress, I wish they had dropped in even a single line of "Oh, we can't call Jenny, she's busy with X". I did ADORE Abbie's "Family isn't biology", and am so looking forward to lots of Mills sister action on tonight's episode.

I also much preferred the Abbie/Hawley dynamic when it seemed like she couldn't be bothered to deal with him. Which, to be fair, also describes most of this episode, but the wound-bandaging at the end seemed to promise more for the future.

Farscape
1.05-1.07 (or, since Netflix continues to be weird, "I, ET", "Thank God It's Friday, Again", and "PK Tech Girl")
I really liked "I, ET", and the parallels between John and the alien woman. That was a great episode, and deserved to be #2, instead of wherever it ended up airing. "Thank God It's Friday, Again" was nice, although I feel like the weird 'hyper rage' thing at the beginning needed far more explanation and resolution, instead of just being a random plot-starter. And "PK Tech Girl" was great; who would have thought a muppet could have poignant torture flashbacks? I wasn't very into John/Tech Girl or Aeryn's random jealousy, but whatever. I suppose every TV show is required to have random love triangles. At least it was for a guest star instead of an ongoing plot.
(Should I spoiler cut these? I feel like everyone's probably either already seen it, or isn't watching it and so doesn't care.)

I also saw Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) which I... liked? I think? I'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened, to be honest. Did the main character mean to commit suicide, and if so, once or twice? What was the point of the magical realism aspect - the only interpretation I've been able to come up with so far is that it represents 'selling out', but I hate that concept and would hope that a movie as otherwise as enjoyable as this one wouldn't stoop to that. I didn't get bored while watching it, at least, even if I don't know entirely what I think of it.

I forgot to mention it here, but last week I saw A Fistful of Dollars, which I'd never seen before. I haven't seen most of the classic Westerns, actually (though I had seen Yojimbo before! Which this is a remake/AU of). Anyway, it was great, far less dated than I'd expected, and both more clever and less nihilistic than I'd been led to believe.

Parks & Rec
6.17-6.22
I'm out of more episodes to watch! D: I loved these last few episodes though: Tom's Bistro! Triplets! April/Andy! The Cones of Dunshire!

Sleepy Hollow
2.06
I love Ichabod's toast to George Washington. He is such a dork. I also really want the fic about Abbie teaching him superheroes and other pop culture trivia. I really liked Joe, and would love to see more about his and Abbie's backstory, or his and Jenny's.
I'm... tentative about Irving being tempted to kill the dude who injured Macey. I was actually fine with it as it played out in this episode, but I feel like it's skirting too close to places I'd rather the show didn't go. Also I just want Macey to be on the show again, instead of appearing only in split-second flashbacks.
It was completely unnecessary, but I'm charmed by Ichabod cutting his own hand in his determination to assist Abbie.
DEMON SPIDER IN THE MOUTH. TERRIBLE.



And now that I'm out of Parks & Rec, I have a very important question for you all:
[Poll #1987887]