"Picard"

I'll start by being honest.  Unlike, well, everyone, Picard was not my favorite Star Trek Captain.  Much like Sisko in DS9 I found Picard to be aloof and superior, almost cold and quite distant.  Episodes to humanize him (often with the character Vash) felt unrealistic and forced.  By the end of the series he became a tortured soul but I still wasn't able to connect.  I enjoyed Next Gen for the full cast, not really for his specific character.

Now we have the latest CBS All Access Star Trek series, "Picard".  It is good, to a point.  CBS has shown real skill at reviving the franchise.  "Discovery" is quickly becoming my favorite Trek.  That being said I'm still on the fence about this one.  It has the quality and complex story-telling of "Discovery" but it is slow.  Soap-opera slow.  And, while it is delightful to see all those friendly old faces (from various Treks) the guest stars tend to distract from the new cast, whose stories are intriguing but don't have a lot of time alloted to spin them out.  We get little bites rather than a narrative.  (Okay, yes, I also wouldn't mind seeing more of Santiago Cabrera who seems to be shirtless a lot.  Like, a lot. ... thank you ...)  There is also the disturbing issue of a Romulan spy who looks nearly identical to young Spock in "Discovery".  What, they couldn't be bothered to come up with a unique look???

It's also 21st Century dark.  I mean, yes, "Discovery" is dark, too.  Treks of the modern age show a more nuanced Federation, one where bad things happen and bad people subvert the good intentions.  This series, in particular, is pure Trump era.  The Federation has become speciest, won't allow refugees to come into the fold, turned away millions when crisis loomed.  Sound familiar?  I guess it should be comforting.  What is Trek without a heavy moral lesson about the modern world?  That's really how the series started.  And it is wonderful to see Jean Luc, who is still tortured, a little softer, a little mellower, a little quieter, and without his holier-than-thou speech-making.  Mostly he is an old man trying to fix a wrong or two in the time he has left.  If anything gets me to like the character, this may be it.  So, I'm in.  For now.

So Many Films, SO MUCH TIME

Working to find the Covid silver lining I have watched a ton of the TCM Women Make Film movies in addition to the aforementioned documentary.  As mentioned in the previous post they hit nearly every genre, every style of filmmaking, every continent, every decade from the last 100+ years.  There were experienced women directors with tons of film credits and others who were "one and done".  There were women who worked their way up through the business and artists with no film background who simply created.  And there were superstars -- women who directed, produced, wrote and acted.  People ask which films I liked the most ... well, a bunch.  

It's truly impossible to name just a few favorites among this huge variety of creative works.  The ones I didn't like were not necessarily bad, just not my thing.  Some were more memorable than others.  I would argue that memorable is not always equated with brilliant.  In the case of "The Virgin Suicides" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" they were each haunting because of subject matter yet I found one much better from a filmmaking standpoint than the other.  

The documentaries left the strongest impressions and interestingly enough most were about the same core subject, losing one's industry and/or culture in a changing world, even though they were set in wildly different times and places.  "Angry Inuk" completely changed this vegetarian liberal's view of seal hunting (going from "against" to "for" in the course of an hour and a half.)  My dislike of Westerns wasn't changed nor was my concern about films from the 1970s.  It won't go down as a great decade of filmmaking.  After the strictness of the first half of the 20th century and the liberation of the 1960s film styles the 1970s seemed to hit a roadblock.  The vision was still present but the voice was lost.  Scripts were often hackneyed, as if there was no "there there".  In the 1970s grounded voices were mostly found in documentaries or films which evoked another era.  

A good number of the films took place during wars and many of those provided the biggest emotional hits.  Many were very well made but extremely hard to take.  The problem with war films (or mobster films for that matter) is that there is a certain predictability, however well-made it is.  In both war and mob films people die, often in the midst of extreme violence, and often without any purpose.  One knows, going in, that there will be incalculable losses and maybe, just maybe, a victory but that victory is transient.  The violence permeates everything and continues on long past the temporary win.

There were tons of historical films and a notable lack of Science Fiction/Fantasy, which wasn't a surprise.  Rom Coms were entirely absent, which was interesting given that these were, well, women's films.  If the point was to break the stereotype they succeeded.  The romances here were few and far between with a good deal of complications.  I wonder what that says about women and love.  Very very few couples made it to the finish line and a good number of movies didn't shy away from exploitation, which flies in the face of the "women don't do that" idea.  One interesting element was that a great number of the female protagonists were essentially unlikeable.  That's something you rarely see in male-created films.  I will say that there were very few instances of me snickering and saying to myself "That would never happen" (i.e. gorgeous young woman falls in love with dumpy older guy).  Thank you, women directors, writers, cinematographers, producers for bringing some "real" to the work.  It was nothing if not a fascinating few months of viewing.

The list of everything I saw is below (missed about 30 of the 100).  In the end, over three months of viewing all these films, some have made an indelible mark while others have already drifted away into the mist.

Documentary:  "Harlan County, USA" (USA, 1976), "Cave of the Yellow Dog" (Mongolia, 2005), "Angry Inuk" (Canada, 2016), "Cameraperson" (USA, 2016), "The House is Black" (Iran, 1963), "Araya" (Venezuela/France, 1959), "The Day I Will Never Forget" (Kenya/England, 2002), "Heart of a Dog" (USA, 2015) and "The Decline of Western Civilization" (USA, 1981).

Fictional/Narrative:  "Wanda" (USA, 1970), "Olivia" (French, 1951), "Lovely and Amazing" (USA, 2001), "Merrily We Go to Hell" (USA, 1932), "The Virgin Suicides" (USA, 1999), "El Camino" (Spain, 1963), "Loving Couples" (Sweden, 1964), "Zero Motivation" (Israel, 2014), "Salaam Bombay!" (India, 1988), "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (USA/England, 2011), "Daughters of the Dust" (USA, 1991), "Orokbefogadas (Adoption)" (USSR/Hungary, 1975), "Middle of Nowhere" (USA, 2012), "Beau Travail" (France, 1999), "The Ascent" (USSR/Belarus, 1977), "The Erl King" (France, 1931), "Daisies" (USSR/Czechia, 1966), "Meshes of the Afternoon" (USA, 1943), "The Birth, Life and Death of Jesus Christ" (France, 1906), "Children of a Lesser God" (USA, 1986), "Meek's Cutoff" (USA, 2010), "Dogfight" (USA, 1991), "Rafiki" (Kenya, 2018), "First Love" (USA, 1977), "The Night Porter" (Italy, 1974), "Danzon" (Mexico, 1991), "Le Bonheur" (France, 1965), "Tomka and His Friends" (USSR/Albania, 1977), "Stop-Loss" (USA, 2008), "Madeinusa" (Peru, 2006), "Corpo Celeste" (Italy, 2011), "Fools in the Mountains" (Norway, 1957), "Shen Si Jie" (China, 2005), "Rachida" (Algeria/France), "Girlfriends" (USA, 1978), "Shoes" (USA, 1916), "Boat People" (China/Vietnam, 1982), "Outrage" (USA, 1950), "Foreign Letters" (USA, 2012), "Mable's Strange Predicament" (USA, 1914), "The Photograph" (Indonesia, 2007), "Silent Waters" (Pakistan, 2003), "Party Girl" (USA, 1995), "La Nuit de la Verite" (Burkina Faso/France, 2004), "Hurt Locker" (USA, 2008), "Gas Food Lodging" (USA, 1992), "Born in Flames" (USA, 1983), "Le Voleur de Crimes" (France, 1969), "The Teckman Mystery" (England, 1954), "Hannah Arendt" (Germany, 2012), "Very Annie Mary" (UK, 2001), "The Connection" (USA, 1961), "Lost in Yonkers" (USA, 1993), "An Angel at My Table" (New Zealand, 1990), "Sweet Bean" (Japan, 2015), "27 Missing Kisses" (Georgia, 2000), "The Kite" (Lebanon, 2003), "My Brilliant Career" (Australia, 1979), "This is the Sea" (Ireland, 1997), "Crossing Delancey" (USA, 1988), "La Cigarette" (France, 1919), "O Ebrio" (Brazil, 1946), "Smithereens" (USA, 1982) and "The Lure" (Poland, 2015).

Christmas Fluff

Given that I am a bit down-in-the-dumps I haven't really been in the mood to binge the annual flood of holiday films.  That being said there were a good number this year with gay themes, multicultural casts and one with with a differently-abled couple.  So I watched a few.  I won't bother going over the plots in detail.  They are all the same.  City person arrives in a small snow-covered town complete with hugely friendly people (insert adorable child or dog here) and discovers true love in the holiday festivities, often during some sort of financial downfall or destruction of a beloved local historical landmark which our lead character miraculously fixes.  I'm not sure why holiday cheer can't be found in the big city, but whatever.  Usually there is some crafting involved -- woodworking is frequently featured (a subtle nod to Jesus???)  Amazing hot chocolate is often talked about.  A mini-issue crops up but by Christmas it all works out.

Interestingly enough my two favorite picks were both from the Lifetime network.  First was "The Christmas Setup" which featured two actors who are actually married so the steam and crackle was nicely palpable.  Plus, Fran Drescher.  I'm sorry, but who doesn't love her?  Next up was "A Sugar & Spice Holiday" which had the most diverse cast I've ever seen.  Focusing on an Asian American family there was a really nice balance between traditional Chinese culture and simply being a first generation American.  A fun feature was the lead character describing personalities as desserts, kind of as allegory.  The cherry on top (yes, I'm continuing the metaphor ...) was a very decent sizzle between the two leads.  As a bonus there is a subtle feminist twist at the end which I greatly enjoyed.

On the "decent but not thrilling" part of the list is "The Chrismas House", Hallmark's apology for last year's Zola debacle.  The gay couple is secondary but the family vibe was nice and felt real.  The "issues" surrounding Mom and Dad seemed forced and resolved, well, without anything much but it was still pretty watchable.  Followed by this was Lifetime's "Christmas Ever After".  It sticks the landing but wobbles a lot along the way.  Also, while it is laudable to cast a woman in a wheelchair it seemed kind of glaring to ignore the challenges wheelchair-bound people face in everyday life.  Claps, however, for casting TONY AWARD WINNER Ali Stroker in the lead.  Things took a turn for the worse with Paramount's "Dashing in December".  This moody Andie McDowell project featured a lead character who was thoroughly unlikeable.  It was as if they took the Scrooge to heart in creating him.  Gratuitous walking around without shirts happened, as well as horse-back rides in the snow, but this was seriously not "Brokeback Mountain".  At least one supporting character couldn't act his way out of paper bag which created a distracting secondary storyline.  

In these films there was a passing reference to societal racism and occasional references to struggles with gay acceptance in the past but in these idyllic settings family and townsfolk were all super-friendly and the whole thing very normalized.  Not sure if I buy this (not that a holiday film is anywhere near the world of reality) but I know Hulu got grief for going to the other end of the spectrum and focusing an entire storyline on a closeted gay woman trying to hide her girlfriend from her family, so I'm thinking there is a happy medium?  In any case it's a good trend to see actual diversity gathered around the perfect Christmas trees and I hope, in the coming years, there are so many films like this that they don't stand out.  

To Covid or Not to Covid

With the lethargic return of television (not all shows have returned, those that have came late and will have shortened seasons, there are a minimal number of new shows) comes an essential question.  The comedies, specifically the Chuck Lorre ones, are avoiding Covid, well, like the plague.  In these escapist shows the pandemic isn't even a bad dream.  It simply doesn't exist.  People don't wear masks, they eat out at crowded restaurants, life is ... good.  On the other side you have "Station 19" and "Grey's Anatomy".  Not only do their formats make ignoring the pandemic difficult but Shondaland never met a crisis it didn't embrace.  Doctors are wiped out, emotionally drained, sick of watching people die and just sick.  People are lonely and struggling with the isolation and those who ignore Covid do so at their risk.  To be honest I'm not sure which end of the spectrum I want to watch.  A world without the disease is nice to imagine but often feels very fake right now.  The inauthenticity grates.  On the other hand the daily headlines depress me so much that I don't really want to watch it on my dramas.  That being said both sides of the spectrum are doing their work well and I'm just going back and forth trying to balance my moods.  There is a nice middle ground.  "A Million Little Things" is placing itself just before the pandemic, presumably so they can jump forward when it is all over.  "Chicago Fire" and "All Rise" acknowledge the disease but it is more of the periphery rather than at the core of their stories.  These shows seem to be the most satisfying to me right now.  I get my entertainment but it is grounded in the world I'm living in.  All of this just points out how weird everything is, but just look at where we are living.

I wish I could say there are bright spots in new offerings.  There aren't many.  Chuck Lorre's "B Positive" is okay rather than brilliant.  "Nurses" and "Devils" looked lame and "Big Sky" is so offensive I didn't even bother watching it.  ("Big Sky" chooses to focus on the soap opera pain of pretty little blonde girls instead of the real pain faced by Native American women in the place where it is set).

More will come in January but a larger question looms.  Covid has fundamentally changed TV watching habits.  The streaming revolution was accelerated and the ratings for network shows, across the board, are sluggish at best.  When you hear about great new series now, absolutely none of them are on the big four (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox).  Having just ditched my free one year subscription to Disney+ and being basically unwilling to pay for half a dozen streaming services I will be sticking to my cable picks for now.  And books.  I guess this is where I say "pick your poison".