Let’s start this week on a wholly unpromising note. Not one but TWO DNFs, aka Did Not Finish. The first was Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I really enjoyed her Cazalet saga, but I couldn’t get into this book long enough to even tell you what it’s about. I think there’s a girl who gets dumped by her married lover just as she’s quit her job to be with him (or something?!), so she goes to mope at her aunt’s house, who happens to be a landscape architect for some rich guy, and then a bunch of other characters are introduced and … nope, that’s all I remember. Moving on.

Factory of Cunning by Phillipa Stockley started off strong, and held great promise. It’s a loose sequel to Dangerous Liaisons, and follows the adventures of a character based on Mme de Merteuil after the events of the original novel. The book is set in England, where Mrs. Fox/Mme de Merteuil is on the run/in hiding. Dangerous Liaisons is one of my fave books, so I was initially excited to read the story after twigging on to this subtext. (Disclosure: I just randomly found this book in my library and I have no idea how it got there. I tend to indiscriminately adopt books that other people discard, so that’s probably how. I like the surprise element.] I will give this to the writer: she did a good job with the tone and language. Nothing brings me out of a story more quickly than anachronistic dialogue. So I’m not really sure why, half way through the book, I just lost interest. All of the interesting characters were terrible people, and all the decent people were boring characters. I love a good anti-heroine, and Mrs. Fox/Mme de Merteuil certainly had potential to be one, but then the plot became too convoluted for its own good, and I found myself not caring enough to keep track of its various strands. I won’t lie; I totally skipped to the end to read the denouement. Out of context, it made no sense so I still have no idea what really happened, but I also have no desire to go back to finish the story.

My two cents: go and read Dangerous Liaisons.

And a further two cents? I think the book is due for a new screen adaptation. Neither of the two legit adaptations I’ve seen (we’re not counting Cruel Intentions here) managed to give us a great Valmont. John Malkovich was creepy and not sexy, while Colin Firth was sorta sexy but a bit of a vanilla villain. Come at me in the comments? But seriously, let’s talk fantasy cast. Aidan Turner? Fassy? Who is your Valmont?

Speaking of Aidan Turner, Being Human was another bust for me. I tried to get into it for about 3 episodes then gave up. I loved the idea of the premise, but the actual show was too angsty for my current liking. Basically, I wanted it to be something more in the vein of Misfits, humour-wise. Oh well.

I did binge watch Chewing Gum, and cannot recommend it enough. It’s full of wonderful quirky characters, and quirky humour, and I loved every minute of it, and I loved (girl) Tracey so, so much. My favorite character arc was her sister’s, though, which says a lot about the (great) writing on this show because Cynthia starts off as the character I was least interested in. I really, really hope there will be a third season, because I NEED to know what happens to everyone. I am totally rooting for Tracey and Connor, the world’s unlikeliest Romeo and Juliet.

I also watched a few episodes of Black Mirror. I really enjoyed “San Junipero” and “Be Right Back”, though they were both bittersweet in a way that feels a little too much for me right now. Whenever I’m stressed out, I basically can’t handle complex emotions.

Lastly, a couple of interesting articles. First, Refinery29 looks at the true (new?) way that the fashion industry works these days. Second, Buzzfeed makes a case why everyone’s (old) TV boyfriend was actually a jerk.

And that’s it for me for this week. Happy Friday!

What I’m currently watching is Being Human — the UK version, naturally. But I will save my thoughts on that for next week, because this week we need to talk about Misfits. Every so often, there comes a show that takes your expectations and just blows them to smithereens, and that’s what happened with Misfits and me. A friend of mine recommended it, and while the premise was not necessarily something that intrigued me — it sounded a bit cliche, to be honest — it was a British show, and I am always willing to give those at least a one-episode shot. Well, that’s all it took. One episode, I was hooked. Before the same night was over, I had binge-watched 3 more. And then again the next evening. And so on. I haven’t been this sleep-deprived, or so in love with a show, in a long time.

The best way I can describe the premise is as the bastard offspring of The Breakfast Club and Heroes, except with a wholly British sensibility. Which is to say, irreverent to the nth degree. The plot follows 5 young adults, each of them a misfit in his or her own way, who meet on their first day of community service, get caught in a bad storm, and acquire strange new powers. What they go on to do with those powers, over the next 3 seasons (there are 5 in total, but I haven’t watched the last two yet) will never be what you expect. What does it involve? Lots of swearing, sex, drugs, and gore. The show has a mordant sense of humour, but it’s also laugh out loud funny.

The storylines are bonkers (in the best way), so I won’t bother trying to explain them, but let’s talk about the characters for a minute. As in any good John Hughes movie, the “ASBO 5” start off as archetypes: the jock (Curtis); the hot girl (Alisha); the tough girl (Kelly); the weirdo (Simon); the joker (Nathan). But there are layers to each of them, and the show does an amazing job of revealing them slowly without turning maudlin or losing its sarcastic bite. The cast (main and supporting) is diverse and excellent across the board. Each of them left me convinced that they were their respective characters. Based on my own experiences as a painfully shy introvert prone to over-thinking, I identified the most with Simon. But I also hard-core loved Kelly and Nathan. The latter, in particular, walked a very, very fine line between being endearingly off-the-wall and being just, well, a total d*ck. I would imagine that’s a tough thing to play, so kudos to the actor. It helped that he had the best comedic lines, and the chops to deliver them convincingly. After Nathan’s departure at the end of season 2, I really felt his absence (even though I also enjoyed his “replacement”, Rudy) and it seemed like the show never quite fully recovered. I loved season 3 for other reasons, but the team dynamic was weaker.

So, yes, let’s talk about this now:

For Game of Thrones fans out there, Simon will look familiar. Listen, if you had told me last year that I would find myself cheering for Ramsay-effing-Snow to get the girl — any girl, EVER — I would have laughed and laughed and probably puked in my mouth a little. And yet, by season 3, there I was, ugly-crying my makeup off watching Simon Bellamy, romantic hero. I won’t say more about the Simon-Alisha plot except that it’s basically one of my fave fictional love stories ever, and it is an example of incredible character development. Even if you don’t come to the show with Ramsay baggage like I did, Simon starts off as an utterly unpromising character; the creepy weirdo that everyone overlooks or forgets, literally. You can almost see that, at the beginning, the writers toyed with the idea of sending him to a dark, Ramsay-esque side. Instead, they took him in the complete opposite direction, and Simon ends up being the closest thing to a real superhero that this show gets. He is also possibly the sweetest TV boyfriend ever written; if his relationship with Alisha does not warm the cockles of your heart … well, you have no heart. So, yes, friends; Misfits is the show that gave me a Iwan Rheon problem, and I have zero shame about it. As Nathan would say: Save me, Barry!

Have you watched Misfits? Join me in the comments and let’s geek out together.

P.S. I haven’t had time to read anything in weeks, but if you have book recc’s, please send them my way.

Where do I even begin?

I have a lot of feelings about the GoT season 7 finale, and most of them are not good. Most of them, in fact, are of the WTF variety. Let’s have a quick recap, shall we?

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY.

WTF#1 The stupidity of the capture-a-wight-to-convince-Cersei-to-play-nice plot reached its zenith. Cersei was never going to play nice, zombie or no zombie. Her feign to the contrary was … pointless. The whole 30 minutes was just a cat-and-mouse game with the viewers, with a few moments of straight-out pandering to the fandom. The latter felt like the writers were checking off boxes in terms of reunions/face-offs that the fans have been clamouring to see (Bronn-Tyrion; Pod-Tyrion; Hound-Brienne; Hound-Mountain, Cersei-Tyrion, etc.). Thing is, I usually enjoy being pandered to; in this case, after a season that started feeling “off” mid-way through, the pandering isn’t really working for me.

WTF#2 Cersei has the opportunity to kill Tyrion – whom she has been trying to kill for 3 seasons now – and doesn’t do it? Please.

WTF#3 Why would Cersei promise to actually help Dany & Jon face off against the White Walkers? As far as I could understand from the messy plot, all they were asking for was a truce. She has been an astute strategist; making a promise of active help, when she had no intention of following through would be pointless both for her stated goal – to ensure that the other side would feel indebted to her after the zombie war – and for needlessly testing Jamie’s oath. Speaking of…

WTF#4 Why would Cersei verbally humiliate Jamie, then give him an ultimatum, and THEN do nothing once he called her bluff? Seriously, what was the point of all that? Not even Bueller knows.

WTF#5 I am as happy as anyone to see the bloody end of glorious bastard Petyr Baelish, but that scene only served to highlight how poorly the build-up to it had been written and/or directed. I get that the Stark sisters wanted to lull Littlefinger into a false sense of security, but why do so in private conversations shown only to the viewers? Unless Littlefinger had the ability to listen through stone walls, the previous episode’s exchange between Arya and Sansa was just … really weird. It’s like the show wanted pull a “psych, you really thought Sansa was going to kill her sister” on the audience, but went overboard.

WTF#6 I maintain that Jon and Dany have the sizzle of oatmeal, but the writers really went out of their way to make that inevitable love scene as unappetizing as possible by inter-cutting it with the scene of Bran and Sam figuring out the Targaryen family tree. Also, is it too late to re-cast Jon and Dany at this point? Kidding not kidding. God bless Kit Harington, he is a very attractive man, but his acting range seems to be shrinking with every episode. Ditto for Emilia Clarke.

WTF#7 All-Seeing Bran is, in fact, only Selectively-Seeing Bran. So, basically, he’s useless unless you already know what information you’re looking for.

WTF#8 Jon’s real name is Aegon … the same name as Rhaegar’s son by Elia Martell. The son who died in tragic circumstances, along with his mother and sister, after being presumably abandoned by Rhaegar following the start of a civil war precipitated by, what else, Rhaegar’s pursuit of Lyanna Stark. Having Lyanna name her kid Aegon, with or without Rhaegar’s approval, is messed up. We have no idea if Elia Martell voluntarily agreed to divorce Rhaegar and was all cool with his new teenage bride, but overall that was … not a good look for R+L. This pains me, because I was a Rhaegar-Lyanna shipper based on the books, but the show has only served to highlight all the problematic aspects of that relationship.

WTF#9 Why was Tyrion skulking in the shadows outside the Chamber of Dragon Incest? The show better not be suggesting that Tyrion is in love with Dany and feels Jorah-ed by this development because … ugh. One Jorah on this show is one too many already. Whatever this is supposed to foreshadow, I already know I don’t like it.

Overall, I am not sure how I feel about season 8. Unlike most of Twitter, I think I am in no rush to see it. The wait will give me time to forget how much this past season has come to annoy me. Of course I want to see how the story ends (even though I have a feeling I will be disappointed), so of course I will watch next season, whenever it happens. What I love most about GoT these days, however, is the sense of a shared experience that it gives me. I don’t watch sports, so this is the closest I get. The anticipation each week, the online and IRL discussions with fellow fans, the Sunday evening ritual, the post-episode analysis. I don’t know of any other show that inspires quite the same obsessive devotion across a similarly wide audience base. (There are a half dozen people at work that watch the show, and will happily water-cooler it on Monday mornings.) I will miss that, for sure.

Speaking of which, this marks the end of my GoT coverage for the year. Some of you may now breathe a sigh of relief. On the other hand, I have really enjoyed writing these posts, so I’m thinking of continuing in a similar vein — alternating books and TV shows as my weekly habits dictate. I do love hearing your thoughts/insights though, so I would also be open to doing some sort of watch-along-athon, if anyone is interested (either as a separate post, or as part of this weekly round-up). If anyone is interested, or has suggestions for shows to watch, let me know!

Happy Friday!