Monday’s brain is already on vacation

1. Leaving the house at 4:45 in the morning is less scary in the spring and summer. Partially it’s due to the longer hours of daylight — it’s grey-ish out instead of pitch dark. But mostly it’s due to the fact that the birds are chirping and singing. It’s hard to be afraid of The Gentlemen or The Silence when there are birds chirping.

2. I finished Allison Weir’s excellent The Wars of the Roses. I am afraid I have only the dimmest grasp on that period of English history, still, but it’s better than it was.

3. The t.v. series Hellcats was cancelled. I am trying to figure out what I want to try to say about this show. It was not free of flaws, yet I feel it was doing something incredibly important on network television. Moreover, every episode had cheerleading routines and musical numbers.

4. Speaking of musical numbers, I saw this post from Dorothy Snarker discussing how freaking hard the Glee kids work, and how now that the season is over they are taking a live show on tour. Jeepers. I concur with Ms. Snarker’s hope that, when this is all over, I hope they can each but whatever the hell they feel like. I hope they are being well compensated for their work.

Here’s the thing about Glee. It’s not really my cup of tea. I love about 50% of each episode and fast-forward through the rest, so I stopped watching it. However. However. I am thrilled to no end that this set of present-day icons for self-pride, self-worth, and self-expression are musical theater geeks.

I love musical theater geeks.

5. Work has … Ugh, I think about trying to explain how and why work has been challenging the last couple of days, and my brain gets tired just thinking about how I would say it. Work has been hard.

There is a thing, though, that happens. It happened yesterday, and this thing is so freaking awesome that it keeps me coming back for more. I was working the high-altitude arrival sector for the GEP5 arrival, sector 11, and the weather was sitting over the field and the SKETR3 arrival had been shut off. After the weather moved just off the field, planes starting coming out, deviating and diverting through the holding, deviating, and diverting inbound aircraft.

For two hours I worked that sector, and it felt like ten minutes. For two hours I completely had the flick. There is nothing that feels as fulfilling, as solidly good, as all-powerful and godlike as really good air traffic control. I got out of the sector, walked to the geek room for my break, and literally stared at nothing for fifteen minutes before I had the brain-power to watch a video.

It’s been a tiring week.

6. That said, today is the last day of my work-week before my Wiscon vacation. I’m off until June 3rd, and I am really looking forward to it.

Though, the number of things I have written down on this piece of paper that says “To-Do Tuesday” is, um, optimistic.

Thursday, with bonus Madeline Kahn

1. I have resorted to collegiate habits. I wrote out on a piece of paper a three-week calendar, from now until Wiscon, and filled in all the things I need to do between now and then. This always helps me, because I can see that the tasks are accomplishable — as long as I stay on-task.

2. I finished reading (or, re-reading,) Joanna Russ’s How to Suppress Women’s Writing. I haven’t read this since, oh, I don’t know, 1996? I internalized it at the time, incorporating it into my worldview. But re-reading it still hits me hard. I get such intense rage reading the techniques by which the cultural contributions of the half the planet — more, really, because these techniques apply to racial and ethnic minorities as well — are marginalized.

Yes. Rage like that.

3. I am reading Robert McKee’s STORY, a book on screenwriting. And it is causing me to admire the t.v. show Hellcats even more. My goodness, this show is tightly written. Every scene does at least two things. Even the pauses for 1) musical numbers or 2) cheerleading routines either advance the plot or reveal characters changes, in addition to being show numbers. Highly economical writing.

4. Today, in addition to school and housework, I must go make flyers for the Whedonistas party at Wiscon. Also go to the bank, pick my dog up from the vet, and take M to get a haircut. This is all doable, yes.

This week’s tv shows

Saturday is the day that I catch up on the previous week’s tv shows, while at work. So yesterday I watched Fringe, 30 Rock, Hellcats, The Vampire Diaries, and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

I’ve been reading the manga series Nana, and just finished volume seven. And on Twitter yesterday it was proposed that Savannah from Hellcats, Hatchi from Nana, and Caroline from The Vampire Diaries should all be roommates and have adventures together. I have a real fondness for this character type — the girl who appears flighty and ditzy, the girl who places a high value on appearing positive and cheerful, the girl who seems trivial, but who then turns out to have a powerful determination and inner strength, far greater than suspected.

I particularly like this character when she’s paired with a female friend who initially seems tough as nails, with goals and determination, who guards herself and looks like she knows who she is and what she wants, but it turns out is emotionally more fragile than she seems and has trouble being strong when her plans go awry. In Hatchi’s case that’s Nana O., for Savannah that’s first Alice and then Marti, and for Caroline — well, she doesn’t actually have that dynamic at the start of the show. Elena sort of fits that part, but not really. I don’t think Elena is fragile in the slightest.

I like this character, and this dynamic, because it show different ways for women to be strong, different ways of being a good friend or a bad one. This character exists within and places value on a conformation to socially approved femininity, and that doesn’t make her less strong. I was thinking about this while watching this week’s 30 Rock, “TGS Hates Women.” The episode is a complex look at feminism and the entertainment industry, summarized here by Sady Doyle. But the part that is relevant to Hellcats is, there’s clearly more than one way to be a woman, a feminist, to be strong. Which also came up in the most recent Spartacus: Gods of the Arena episode, as Lucretia finally revealed what I suspected all along — namely that she is completely ruthless, really smart, and can play a long game.

The twin and conflicting obligations of friendship are in all of the shows I’ve mentioned — to support your friend in reaching their goals and to be happy for them, while also calling them out when they are screwing up. The tension between those things, the different choices the characters make, and how they all live with the consequences is a great story engine. Hellcats in particular does a great job with this. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out.

Fall media thoughts

I’ve been watching some new, or, new-to-me television shows this fall. There were a lot of things that looked promising, and others that didn’t but I tried them anyway, with mixed results.

Undercovers. I saw the ad for this show and immediately started rooting for it. Here was a show with African-American leads playing spies! A cast with lots of people of color! Being spies! And running a catering business! It looked sexy and awesome. But I’ve watched two episodes, and I don’t like it.

I wish I liked it. And, in an attempt to be a self-aware ally, I am trying to figure out why I don’t like it, and if there’s hidden racism in my response. I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. Here’s why I think I don’t like the show: the characters are incredibly sane and emotionally balanced. I like my spies to be darker, a little more unhinged. I like Alias, and Fringe, where everyone is damaged and functional. Steve and Samantha, on Undercovers, are positively WHOLESOME. Which, you know, is a good thing. A positive. I approve of this, and I sincerely hope that other people are watching the show. I want the networks to understand that a show with African-American leads can succeed. But I find this boring.

Covert Affairs. This is the other spy show I tried to watch, but stopped because everyone is well-adjusted. I love Piper Perabo, I find her insanely attractive, but her character was so NORMAL. Where is the grief and the angst and the secrets, I ask you? I did really like the supporting cast in this, though I felt that the various romantic pairings in the show universally had no chemistry whatsoever. The dialog was snappy, the plots sorta dumb fun. But I was kinda hoping for, say, The Inside, or something like that.

Terriers. I find it interesting that I like this show, when there are no real female characters to speak of so far. But I like the damaged nature of the leads, and I really like their friendship. I really like shows about damaged people who are finding a way to go on, or about self-sabotaging people who are self-aware enough to recognize what they are doing. Terriers seems to have both of these types in spades. Also, I love shows about private investigators. I realized, watching the third episode, that if either of the leads was a woman this would be my favorite show of the fall season. Though I do want to constantly tell the lead characters to take a shower. Or a bath. Or wash their hair.

Hellcats. I discussed Hellcats already, but let me reiterate how adroitly the show deals with class, religion, and working-class poverty. The show also passes the Bechdel Test regularly, and features a cast that is half people of color.

Vampire Diaries. I don’t really like the leads on this show. I find Stefan BORING as all get out. I feel that I would enjoy being friends with Elena, and that I would like spending time with her — but she is too well-adjusted and emotionally healthy for me to find her interesting as a character. I like Damon quite a bit. However, my favorite thing about Vampire Diaries is Everyone Else. I love the town, its response to vampires, I love Elena’s friends, I love how everyone copes with the things that happen in the plot. I’m really into the show despite Twittering or checking my Google Reader whenever Stefan is alone with Elena.

Glee. This is another show where I take my turns on Echo Bazaar or answer email when the leads are on the screen. I love about 60% of the show — I love the musical numbers madly, I love Kurt, Sue Sylvester, Brittney, and the supporting cast kids. The leads? Not so much. But I *do* love the musical numbers, so I find that I keep coming back to watch the next episode. Or, at least, 60% of it.

Hellcats

My favorite new television show of the fall season is the CW’s Hellcats. This show is far, far better than its commercials would lead you to believe.

Hellcats stars Aly Michalka (of the Disney stable pop band Aly & A.J., and many, many Disney tweener shows and movies) and Ashley Tisdale (also of the Disney stable, from the High School Musical franchise.) The show is about a college cheerleading team, the Lancer Hellcats. It features cheer routines, lots of very, very attractive people in small clothes, and both bippy pop music and angsty pop music. The commercials look shallow, if not vapid.

Yet there’s more to the show than that.

Hellcats is set in a Southern town, a college town or minor city with not much going for it. Class distinctions are a prominent feature of the show, with lead character Marti (played by Aly) being a townie. Her working-class, inappropriate, intemperate, extremely kind and proud and embarrassing mother works at a college bar and grill. Her best friend Dan knows he’s not getting out of the town, and has a contempt born of jealousy for the college kids who are just passing through. Money — specifically the lack of it — is a major theme of the show. All the students are in fear of losing their scholarships, and the cheerleading team itself is in danger of cancellation. Budget cuts are everywhere.

Faith is another theme handled reasonably well, so far. Savannah (played by Tisdale) is from an extremely conservative Christian family, church, school, and college. Her family are portrayed as being intolerant of Savannah’s choices. But Savannah’s faith in and of itself is treated with respect. It’s an important part of her character that doesn’t make her stupid or bigoted. How common is it, in recent years, to see the complexity of Christian religious faith portrayed on television? I mean, outside of a documentary?

The show passes the Bechdel test with ease. Half the cast and half the characters are women, who talk to each other about a variety of issues.

I think about half the cast is comprised of people of color. There’s a lead African-American couple, the cheer coach and her doctor boyfriend. And there are two interracial couples in the works or being hinted at. In addition, people seem to date across class lines — but not painlessly. Money, religion, and race all exist in the world of Hellcats, and all cause problems from time to time.

The show is glib eye-candy, certainly. The cheerleaders are all really, really pretty people. But the insane work and athleticism of cheering is highlighted. None of these characters are vapid, none are coasting by. Every character is working their ass off to achieve important long-term goals. The entire show is character-driven, motivated by who these people are. And they are reasonably interesting.

The writing is aided by the fact that the actors are all solid. Aly and Ashley are not only better actors than their Disney origins might lead you to think, they have great chemistry with each other. (Enough chemistry to occasionally make me wonder what they are doing in their dorm room, but that’s a personal quirk of mine and nothing in the show points to a textual attraction.) In fact, Aly and Ashley have decent chemistry with everybody in the cast. The romantic tensions are believable, as are the rivalries. The supporting cast is good, especially D. B. Woodside as the team doctor, and Robbie Jones as Lewis Flynn.

My only, only complaint about Hellcats so far has to do with how I am viewing it. The CW streams episodes about four or five days after they air, which I appreciate. But each episode has five or more commercial breaks, each running five-to-seven commercials. The same ones. Each time. Which, honestly, I could tolerate better — I just play Echo Bazaar, or catch up on Twitter, during the breaks — if the streaming quality were any good. It’s not. It’s jerky, and small, and full of digital artifacts. Unfortunately, this is the only way I can watch it right now. But I am already looking forward to seeing Hellcats on dvd.