Let us start… no, let us skip the obligatory disclaimer, and
go to the more intense things. Or not, let us wait and see how it goes.
To begin – ‘Insatiable’ continues… either to have problems,
or to generate problems for itself, via Netflix: by now, there are rumors of a ‘review
embargo’; i.e. apparently, no critical reviews can be published until the film
itself is released. Look: it may appear to be a sound strategy, but in reality,
this shows that ‘Insatiable’ does have problems that are more serious than just
a badly made trailer is. If the film was sound, then a little criticism wouldn’t
hurt; there are plenty of movies that went on regardless of what the critics
thought…including the TV ones, but ‘Insatiable’ is trying to do something
different, apparently, so good luck to it – so far it just further amplifies
the feeling that ‘Insatiable’ is a badly made movie, so it might end up going
the new ‘Ghostbusters’ route, where the movie had a bad reputation and was just
bad. In fact, having any reputation helped the new ‘Ghostbusters’ some, as it
actually made people want to come and look at it, just to see how bad it really
was. Not unlike the Marvel ‘InHumans’ TV series, it was just…insipid, and while
Marvel ‘InHumans’ just got cancelled after their S1, the new ‘Ghostbusters’
movie franchise…has also ended; there are some new ‘Ghostbusters’ comics, but
otherwise? That is it for now; just like ‘InHumans’, ‘Ghostbusters’ have
failed.
Meanwhile… the shark week has ended, the global tiger day
was yesterday, and there are new news about AoS. Firstly, Clark Gregg, (aka
Phil Coulson) will be back…to direct the first episode of S6. There are no news
of Wen, (May), so she probably will not be back in AoS in any capacity, period.
There are some Coulson fans that will be excited by the news, no doubt, but for
the rest of us? This will not be the same; as always, AoS wants to have it both
ways and consequently, does not succeed in either – go them. Not.
EW has published a mini-interview with Gregg online and
showed that yes; he is directing the upcoming 6x01 episode – ‘Missing Pieces’,
(or something like that). Good for him, Gregg has directed the ‘Fun and Games’
episode of AoS already back in S5, (does anyone feels that this made ‘Fun and
Games’ somehow different from the rest of AoS, eh?), so he has plenty of
practice under his belt – and everyone is very excited, especially Chloe
Bennett, (who plays Skye/Daisy/Quake). The more I see of her as a person, the
less I like her, regardless of what I feel for her character on one hand, and
how much I respect her acting skills on the other.
Speaking of Skye/Daisy/Quake? Jeff Ward is also staying on
AoS, as Deke Shaw, the FitzSimmons’ grandson from the future, and probably
Daisy’s love interest. Why?
Listen, AoS began as a show about three couples – the FitzSimmons,
Skye & Grant, and Phil & Mel. The FitzSimmons are technically a couple
still, even though the show constantly divides them in ever creative and new
ways, to a point where it gotten ridiculous: the two of them still have to sire
and give birth to Deke’s mom, for otherwise, Deke will just fade away and Daisy
will be left single again.
No, seriously, what gives? Daisy’s/Chloe’s love interests
come and go every season, again to the point of ridiculousness – Britt and
Dalton, Mitchell and Luna, and anyone else who’s forgotten, they all came and
went for various reasons – is working on AoS with Chloe so bad? Seriously, by
now this sort of a relationship leapfrog game with Daisy is also ridiculous…and
there are still some fans who are feeling let down by the fact that SkyeWard
relationship did not happen.
Of course, there is now Deke. Deke and Daisy, there is the
letter D alliteration, how clever. If the S5 had treated their relationship as
a, well, fledgling relationship, things would have been better for them and for
the viewers. Instead, Deke’s role on S5 was all over the place, and never
concretely with Daisy, (or as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new rookie either, for that
matter), so right now he has less of a presence than Kasius and Sinara do –
that alien power couple have some fans, even though they are evil and are kind
of dead. Ish. If Deke and Daisy will appear as a couple of whatever sorts on
AoS’ S6, then there will be some backlash just because – and now it is unknown
if AoS can take it. (Mind you, if after their sixth season they will decide
just to call it quits…that might not be a problem – six seasons are a
respectable run, after all, and the Marvel scene is changing too…)
Anything else? No, not really. There’s also the upcoming ‘To
All the Boys that I have Loved’ movie, also on Netflix, and-
And it is shaping to be a very different piece than the
original novel was. The original novel – the first in a trilogy, and perhaps –
the strongest, is a love drama novel. Yes, there’s some humor – moreso in the
other two novels than in this one – but mainly to undercut the drama of the
plot and to ensure that the novels don’t get too high-handed, or high-strung,
or whatever. The movie – even in its’ trailer – has a lot more humor in it,
including physical humor, than the novel does.
Secondly, the attitude. The author – Jenny Han – has made
her heroine, Lara Jean, (let us just call her LJ in the future) – old-fashioned
to a point, where she is still a virgin. Gasp, and with most of her friends,
(including her big sister), not being so to the point. Somehow or other, Jenny
Han’s LJ novels are romantic, without any sex involved, especially not
directly. And in the movie trailer? LJ’s dad hands her apparently a set of
condoms, for fun.
Now, here’s the thing – it isn’t certain if LJ is her author’s
mouthpiece in her trilogy, but she is a representative of a certain set of
values; actually, Jenny Han isn’t subtle about showing her values at least in
this trilogy; she is politically correct and progressive, (of course), as there
are racial minorities in the novels, and at least one homosexual character;
but-
But when it comes to characters in the LJ trilogy in
general, Jenny Han seems to have issues with them as an author. There’re LJ and
her family, (including Trina, her eventual stepmother), there’s Paul Kavinski,
(LJ’s significant other), and his family…but they are already nowhere near as
well fleshed-out as LJ and her family are, there’s Josh and John- wait.
Josh deserves a special mention because he was LJ’s first
love…but he became the boyfriend of Margot, LJ’s sister, and then they
broke-up, Josh and Margot, leaving Josh free, but LJ didn’t want to get with
him, because of reasons. She hooked-up with Pete instead…and the rest of the
trilogy, (two and a half books, basically), are all about LJ and Pete…being
together. They are being shoehorned together, sure, but-
But the same goes for the rest of romance novels, period.
Teen or adult, it doesn’t matter – when it comes to characters, it all goes
down very simple: character A meets character B, they fall in love and spend
the rest of the novel getting there, whether you’re talking about Jenny Han or Nora
Roberts; the devil’s in details, true, but the basic framework? It is the same.
For those who love romance, Jenny Han’s novels, (both LJ trilogy and the
others), should work; for those who want something more substantial, they will
not. At least the LJ novels are driven only by plot, and the characters –
especially the non-main characters – are secondary at best, little more than
placeholders at worst. Josh was a main character in the first novel, (and he is
probably going to be so in the movie too), but in the rest of the trilogy? He
is barely even mentioned. Yes, he got himself a new girlfriend who was not
related to the Song-Covey family, but his abrupt dismissal from the LJ world
still kind of stings. Kitty – the youngest SC girl – actually addresses a point
that Josh is not around anymore, and it goes down…about as well as the Apu controversy
in the Simpsons-verse – it does not. As soon as characters stop being important
to the LJ in love with Pete plot, they practically vanish and become ghosts for
all that it matters. Ah well, how does the saying go? Don’t like it, don’t
read? Sounds about right – Jenny Han’s novels – or at least the LJ trilogy – is
sitting out there on bookshelves, as people do not read it. Maybe they will
after the movie airs, but considering that the movie is already revealing
itself to be very different from the books, it is not certain that it will be a
good idea. For example, LJ novels are not very approving of sex in general and
of casual sex in particular – the trailer has Mr. Song-Covey hand the movie LJ
a set of rubbers – yes, that sort of rubbers. Ouch! This is a direct opposite
of the novels’ atmosphere, of LJ’s character and of her father’s – but the
movie does not care. This just might be a new ‘GG’ reboot in the making, or
even – the PJ movies, which were denounced by Riordan personally, and that was
the end of them – but that is another story.
In other movie-related news, SW9 will feature Carrie Fisher,
or rather – the footage of Carrie Fisher as princess Leia. Her real-life family
are apparently very happy/proud/positive etc., which is good, because if they
weren’t, then the Disney-Lucasfilm merger behind the SW movies would’ve had a bigger
problem from what they already had – but it was discussed earlier. There is
still going to be controversy, as there was when they had done something
similar in the SW ‘Rogue 1’ film, so why not? The mess that Disney-Lucasfilm
merger found themselves in these days was discussed earlier too…
So, this is it for now – see you all soon!
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