Books:
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
I'll just say upfront that I loved this contemporary literature book about (sort of) a messy non-binary clash between ideals and money solely because I absolutely loved the writing. I'm noting this because it means if you don't love the writing the way I did, you might have a different response to the book, i.e. you might be bored. While the plot threads definitely pick up for the latter third, both the way the plot unfolds and the way the book ends (no spoilers don't worry) tell you that the author's interest is primarily in people and ideas and is using the plot as a means to propel both. I'll put it this way: not a ton happens at the beginning which is then followed by a meeting in which one of the lead characters goes on a rant about capitalism for what may have been 5 or 10% of the book length (I don't really know actually but that was the feel). I loved it. You may not. That's what I mean by this book is about the writing for me and the immersion in the writing and ideas. Which isn't to say it doesn't have a plot. It definitively does, one involving a mashup of capitalism and principled liberalism in the form of a non-violent guerilla environmental group, a billionaire, and a remote piece of property near a national park. I'm not really going to say more about the plot, in part because of spoilers, but mostly because the plot is driven by the characters, their interactions, and the top-level ideas about how they believe the world should operate and their efforts, thwarted or otherwise, to impose that on everyone else. The author takes the plot right to the edge of absurdism and what makes it interesting is that it never quite gets there, i.e. the plot seems both ridiculously OTT and reasonably plausible at the same time, which is I think what the author was going for. She was laying out her characters not only on opposite(ish) sides of a political spectrum but showing how their intertwined efforts to use each other took everything to an extreme. Plus, and this is definitely part of the pleasure too, the book isn't really just people in principled opposition to one another, but rather also about how those principles collide with personality and relationships, like two of the central characters are splintering friends and the way that splintering happens in the context of the plot and where it all goes adds a whole other level. I'm not going to discuss the ending at all but I'll just say the book takes you where you need to go, which I realize isn't saying much but is also saying, if you're in the headspace I was where you were just enjoying all the great and very amusing - the author has a really dry sense of humor - writing and the larger interplay of intellectual ideas, you will be totally satisfied with where it winds up. Let me put it this way: if you start the book and find it draggy and get to the big rant - you'll know when you're there trust me - and are still feeling that way, I'd say stop because that's really the book; if on the other hand you note the dragginess and then just kind of inhale everything the author puts on the page, well you have a big beefy piece of fiction ahead of you and go enjoy.
TV/Streaming:
Legendary (Season 3):
I've said it before and I will say it again, sadly for the last time I think because the lunatics who run HBO MAX (or whatever they’ve renamed it) cancelled this show and, to my knowledge, it hasn't wound up anywhere else, but, if you are a competition reality-show lover, then this show is your peak entertainment. It has everything one could look for in a competition reality show beyond the obvious of being amused nonstop: you can actually judge it for yourself. Over time, having watched seemingly endless competition reality series, I've concluded that the ability to self-judge is key to making a show top tier. For example, you don't need to be an interior designer to know if you think one design contestant’s room is better than another and you can, even if you live in a place with nothing on the walls and utterly mismatched furniture (cough), make taste and execution judgments, and, heck, even learn a little something from the judges (assuming they're clear in their criticism rather than just rah-rah supportive or trying to be the Simon Cowell like so many on these shows) about why something does or doesn't work. When the competition requires an understanding of the nuance of the craft in order to pass judgment - I'm looking at you All That Glitters (well at least the first half of each episode) - I, as a viewer, feel kinda judged myself for not knowing what I'm at looking at and like screw that! This show, while having an extremely detailed dance, attitude, and presentation/costume language, doesn't require a lick of understanding for you to be able to watch an outcome and determine if you thought it was better than another team's outcome. That isn't why I love it so much but it's what puts it into the top tier of this genre. The thing that puts it over the top tier and which I've mentioned in reviews of prior seasons (here and here) is the combination of athleticism, costumes, dance story, and, above all, joy. This dance form was designed from the ground up to entertain, like waaaaaaaaaay back in the day when gay/drag/trans was forming its identity politics (they've separated now but IJHO they were linked in the '80s due to culture lumping them together as some form of must-be-stamped-out-but-I-guess-we-legally-have-to-tolerate-it-ugh oppression), the purpose was really for people to amuse each other. Like vogueing was not invented for any reason other than showboating for and entertaining one's friends in a club and along the road, as with all art, other people took it to an entirely new level of skill but the underlying raison d'etre was to entertain. And that's why I truly love this show. Even when some routines aren't as polished or when you can see there are problems or where some contestants simply aren't as good as others, the show is nonstop entertainment. I'm sad it’s gone, hope it makes a return somewhere, and hats off to all involved because they managed to combine real competition in a best-party-ever package and what an achievement.
The Magicians (Season 5):
As noted previously (here and here) I didn't love then ended up totally loving this series based on books I entirely loved (here, here, and I thought there’d be a third “here” but once again I forgot to publish the review - oops, tl;dr of the third book: loved!) and, because I knew it had been cancelled, I delayed watching this final season for years because I knew I'd be sad when it ended and, while that's true, it also reiterated why and that I loved this series. Having now watched the whole thing, I can tell you that Season 1 is definitely different and not in a good but also not in a terrible way. It feels as if, for that first season, the writers tried to hew really closely to the books and were more concerned with making sure all the book plot beats were present than with creating real characters in real - well yeah magical but underlying real - circumstances. From Season 2 onward, the writers tossed the bulk of that and instead captured the spirit of the books which was this particular, snarky, blase jargon that everyone speaks with but which masks genuine comprehensible feelings and motivations. In other words, the writers adhered to what made the books really fun without being super concerned about the book plots or character interactions, i.e. they made it a TV/Streaming show. And from that point on I really loved it. Every season there's a big bad which forces all the leads to work together even when they're really pissed at each other or hurt by each other and this necessity of being jammed in with people who are driving you batshit makes not only for some very entertaining viewing but also some unexpected plot twists because the leads end up behaving based on their feelings rather than merely being heroes which in turn leads to more drama and problems, i.e. they’re heroes by circumstance rather than personality, like all of them have a kind of teenage fantasy-novel sense of quest as heroism but all overlaid with adult problems and the real issues that come from knowing you're different and not necessarily in a good way but maybe in a way you find paralyzing and here's this group of people who are just like you and, well, the alternative is going it alone so you just have to deal with them even though they often suck. This very human problem, along with the dialogue, is what makes the show work. I mean the plots are ridiculous and that's not an insult; they're there to drive character forward which is, I think, how shows like this operate at their best. This is what made Buffy pop and, as with that show, the humor also really works here. It's pretty much nonstop snappy quips and, while as noted in my prior reviews, that really didn't function as well in the first season because the underlying human element wasn't present, it totally does as the show continues. Whether the characters are succeeding or failing - and they fail a lot - it's always amusing. It's pretty amazing, really, that right to the end, the writers managed to keep it all going without making it feel repetitive (other than the plots which in some ways were repetitive since they're basically all saving the/a world from a big bad each season more or less). And they allowed the characters to grow. I mean, the leads were definitely impacted by what happened to them over the course of the show and the writers let that come through, meaning your investment in the series and these people really goes somewhere. Well enough of my waxing rhapsodic. If you're a Buffy fan or like series of that ilk and haven't seen this one - or, like me, were turned off by the first season - I promise delights await.
Movies:
Hardcore Henry - While I can't say I'm 100% clear on the plot of this nonstop action movie, I was definitely thoroughly entertained by it. Basically - and I refuse to Wikipedia this so I may be totally wrong - there's some guy (Henry) who has all kinds of body mods - the movie is set in the near-future (I think) - and there are good guys and bad guys and in order for something to occur (and that's not me being vague for spoiler reasons but rather me having no understanding of what was going on), Henry needs to go places where he's in danger from other supermodded bad guys and... do things. Look the plot 100% does not matter as you can tell from my lack of understanding of anything. What will make this movie work or not for you is the following: it's basically a low-budget John Wick done entirely as a gaming-type first-person shooter. In other words it's nonstop murder and explosion and kicking and shooting and running and beating the crap out of people but you never see Henry because the camera IS Henry. Honestly I was a little nervous when the movie started because actual FPS videogames give me simulation sickness and I can't play them at all. But I was fine throughout this film so I'm thinking if you suffer the same nausea thing you'll likely be fine too. Part of what makes this movie so much fun, aside from the nonstop punching, heads being blown off, camera being shot at, beaten up, kicked, dragged then responding to all that with more explosions, running, and violence, is the POV. You, the viewer, only see exactly what the lead sees meaning you never have more information than he does which may in part explain my lack of understanding of the plot since the character doesn't understand it either (or, alternatively, it's just me). You never see Henry the entire film, though you do sometimes see his legs kicking or some blood splatter and, because he's mostly on the run breaking into things and trying to get something for the aforementioned not-understood plot reasons, it has the feel of a real-time thing where you're just in it with someone the whole time. John Wick is a decent example of the same thing - though obviously done third person and with a massively higher budget - where it's huge extended action sequences broken up by bits of stuff with other characters to give a basic underlying plot reason for all the action. This movie has the same and even if I didn't understand much beyond "there's a bad guy" it didn't matter; I was in it for the violent fun and directorial style and, as action movies go, this one totally delivered for me.