ReviewsWe need to see other Gleeople.

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I never thought I would be able to quit Glee as long as Kurt and Blaine were on my screen, being cute and adorable and making me want to draw cartoon hearts around their faces every week.

As it turns out, quitting Glee is easier than I thought. After last night’s “Pot O’ Gold,” I am done with this show.

What was it about “Pot O’Gold” that made me want to throw in the towel? Was it the completely inappropriate Puck/Shelby kiss? The infiltration of reality show winners when this show already has too many characters in the first place? Yet another Katy Perry song?

No. It was the realization that I just don’t care anymore.

The first season of Glee was enjoyable all the way through. Some plots were ridiculous, but the characters were cute and engaging, the musical numbers inspiring, and the comedy was ridiculous and the satire often on point.

The second season of Glee was a hot mess, redefining the words “sophomore slump,” but I stayed with it because Kurt’s storyline resonated with me, his relationship with Blaine touched me on a personal level during a difficult time in my life, and I was intrigued by Santana’s struggle of self-discovery.

Now, the show is technically better than it was last season, but I can’t bring myself to care about almost any of it.

The school election? Meh. Puck and Quinn and Shelby and Beth? *Shrug.* The congressional election? Yawn. The inside jokes about this year becoming the “Blaine and Rachel show” and how unfair that is, while the audience knows that it really will become the Blaine and Rachel show and Santana’s criticism is just paying lip service to fairness? Whatever. More defections from the original glee club? So what?

There was a time when all of that might have angered me. I could have written pages and pages about the show being completely wrongheaded and inaccurate about special education in public schools. I could have written pages and pages about how Rory is portrayed as charming and sweet even though he plans to use Brittany’s delusions to get her into the sack, and how we’re supposed to root for him even though that behavior is wrong and creepy. I could have written pages and pages about how I am so over Brittany, and Santana being in love with her only makes me think less of Santana. (Seriously, Brittany thinks Rory is a leprechaun? Santana still wants her? Come on, girl. Brittany’s leprechaun doesn’t even tell her to burn things.)

But I’m not angry. I’m just bored and contemptuous. And that’s why I’m done. Righteous anger and criticism can keep me going, but the anger has been replaced with apathy.

I’m still a sucker for Kurt/Blaine and I like the Hudson/Hummel family dynamics. I haven’t given up on the Kurt/Blaine scenes. I just don’t feel the need to watch an entire episode of Glee anymore. I can wait a week for Hulu to release the episode and just merrily skip through the boring stuff until I hit upon a Kurt/Blaine scene. Next week’s promotion seems to indicate that Kurt and Blaine might be having sex, and I still plan to wait the week until Hulu releases the episode. That’s how much I am completely over the rest of this dumb show.

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Blog Posts“A ‘Community’ post about Shirley? That’s nice.”

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Community had its third annual Halloween episode. I thought it was a brilliant, very funny episode that only had one major flaw: it aired right after “Remedial Chaos Theory,” an episode with a very similar structure that also happened to be one of the best episodes they’ve ever done. “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” is only a weak episode compared to the one that preceded it. On its own, it was great.

One thing I love about this show is the way it uses comedy to examine these complex characters and how they all relate to one another. Abed being the only person in the group without homicidal tendencies was predictable, but still funny, because it makes perfect sense. I thought Annie’s story was the most interesting one and gave a new insight into how she feels about her relationship with Jeff: a part of her naively clings to the hope that she’ll be the woman to change him, but the twist with her morphing into a werewolf indicates that, deep down, she knows he won’t actually change, and if they ever date, she’s more likely to hurt him than the other way around. (And in the spirit of talking about problematic characters I love anyway, I have to admit that Jeff/Annie still hits all of my romance buttons despite the growing feeling that the relationship is very wrong. I watch this and see the sexual chemistry between Joel McHale and Alison Brie just bounce off of each other and I desperately want them to make out again.)

Anyway, I wanted to use this post to talk about how much I love all of these characters, because it’s impossible for me to have a favorite (although I probably relate to Abed and Britta the most), but instead, I want to focus a little on Shirley. If there’s an underused character on this show, it’s Shirley, and these last few episodes have had me thinking about her place in the group and if we’re going to see an interesting arc for her this season. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsMore Fun with Search Terms

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Every so often, I like to look at the search terms people use to find my blog, and the results are very interesting and sometimes hilarious.

“Christian TV reviews How I Met Your Mother.” Why someone would look for this, I have no idea, but I’m even more confused as to how four different people found me using this term.

“Why is Blaine a junior.” GOOD QUESTION.

“Save the direwolves.” They’re an endangered species now?

“What would Britta Perry wear.” Isn’t it obvious? Leather jackets! Despite being a vegetarian. Britta’s the worst. (Note: Britta is actually the best.)

“Enough with fictional women thinking they can kick ass.” I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.

“Jon Snow sex scene.” All in due time, my pet. All in due time.

“Tina interrupted glee how many songs valentine.” I don’t know what’s funnier – that other people have noticed how little Tina gets to sing on Glee, or the fact that nine different people found my blog with this exact search term.

“Bridesmaids movie fat girl.” This term, or some variation thereof, is why my post on Bridesmaids is the third-most popular one on the site. Her name is Melissa McCarthy, folks, and her character’s name is Megan. You’ll probably remember it once she gets her (well-deserved) Oscar nomination for this part.

“Daenerys Targaryen naked.” This term, or some variation thereof, is why my “Game of Tits” post is the most popular one. In fact, my blog is the first one that pops up when you type that search term into Google. I like to think that some people will then read my posts and become more enlightened about feminism, but I bet most are clicking away, disappointed that I have no actual naked pictures.

…Or do I?

“This song is disappointing.” I’m…sorry to hear that?

“Why good girls play hard to get.” Oh, sweetie, you won’t be getting any of that gender essentialism crap here. You’d better move along.

“Stfu conservatives.” You can’t get more specific than that!

“Feminist view of cannibalism in literature.” Huh.

“Whether man ass hole and woman ass hole are in same size.” I don’t think God (or biology, or evolution, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster) create assholes in a one-size-fits-all shape.

“Hot gay men that look like Flynn from Tangled.” That’s a very, very specific type you’ve got there. But hey, why not? Ain’t nothing wrong with it. After all, there’s an entire tumblr devoted to lesbians who look like Justin Bieber.

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Blog Posts3 Problematic Characters I Love Anyway

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Theresa Basile

After I linked to my post on The Little Mermaid on my Facebook page, I had a back-and-forth with my buddy Captain Blastin (who also writes many thoughtful pieces at Informed Instigation, this being one of my favorite). He mentioned that he always loved Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid, even though he knew Sebastian was a “happy island person” stereotype. In the midst of this conversation, we challenged each other to come up with three characters that we knew were problematic in some way or another, but still loved.

Here’s the tricky part: we couldn’t pick characters that were intentionally problematic. No Pierce Hawthornes, Archie Bunkers, Eric Cartmans, or Michael Scotts. Those characters make racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist jokes all of the time, but the joke is on them and how ridiculous they are.

I thought about this issue for awhile, and eventually came up with this list of three.

1. Sky Masterson, Guys and Dolls
Really, almost any character in Guys and Dolls can be on this list, but Sky Masterson is the worst. He’s a cad who uses women. For kicks and money, he makes a bet with Nathan Detroit that he can charm a woman to come to Havana with him. He picks Sarah Brown as this woman to charm, because she’s religious, and will get more kicks and giggles by charming a religious woman. While they’re in Havana, he gets her drunk, not letting her know how much alcohol is in those drinks. It’s all kind of problematic and date-rapey.

So why don’t I hate him?

Apparently, I am willing to forgive a lot of Marlon Brando in a fedora:

I watched the movie with a friend lately and she made a similar comment: “He’s getting her drunk. Why don’t I have a problem with this?!” Plus, we all know how I feel about the “good woman redeems a cad” story. And yet, I can’t hate Sky. He’s Marlon Brando in a fedora.

2. Pocahontas, Pocahontas
Holy historical inaccuracies, Batman! How many facts can this movie get wrong? I’m not sure what’s most offensive about this Disney version of the story – the sentimental portrayal of the Native Americans, the implication that “both sides are just as bad” when the Brits are the one invading the home of Pocahontas and her family, or the fact that the animators made this twelve-year-old into an eighteen-year-old, large-breasted Barbie doll.

They also turned the story of Pocahontas and John Smith into a love story, because GOD FORBID a real-life historical heroine have something other than romantic love inspire her to action.

So why don’t I hate her?

Two words: THAT VOICE.

Sure, her body is anatomically impossible. Sure, she’s Native American, and therefore so magical and in tune with nature that she can pick up a bear cub without the mother mauling her to death. But her voice is pretty. So, so pretty. And I just want to listen to this song and “Just Around the Riverbend” over and over and over.

3. Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I hesitated putting this character on the list because, unlike in the cases of Sky Masterson and Pocahontas, I think Xander’s flaws are intentionally problematic and we’re not actually supposed to agree with him when he’s being an ass. But there is one Xander-centric episode of BtVS that should ping all of my feminist and consent issues buttons and still, somehow, doesn’t: “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.”

In this episode, Xander buys Cordelia a pretty necklace for a Valentine’s Day present. She breaks up with him right afterward because she’s under pressure from her popular friends. Humiliated and angry, Xander blackmails Amy (a witch) into putting a love spell on Cordelia: he wants her to fall madly in love with him so he can then break up with her. Amy casts the spell, but it backfires, and every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia falls in possessive love with Xander – including Buffy, who tries to seduce him.

So far, the episode isn’t so problematic. Xander did a bad thing, but the show recognizes it as a bad thing, even though the effects of the spell are played for comic effect. He turns down Willow and Buffy when they throw themselves at him because he knows it would be wrong to take advantage of them. By the end of the episode, Giles manages to break the spell, and Cordelia is so touched that Xander meant the spell to be for her that she gets back together with him.

*record scratches*

Wait, what? Cordelia is flattered by the idea that Xander “invoked the great roofie spirit” (as Buffy put it) to use on her? She never gets to find out that Xander used the spell as part of a plan to humiliate her? She never finds out that Xander was immediately eager to switch his attention back to Buffy once she showed interest in him (before he realized Buffy was affected by the spell)? This is an outrage! I should hate his stupid guts!

So why do I love him?

Because of that cute goofy grin he gets on his face when Cordelia tells off her friends. Because when Giles tells him, “I can’t believe you were fool enough to do something like this!” he says, “Oh no, I’m twice the fool it takes to do something like this.” Because he told Cordelia that “maybe something special in you sees something special in me, and vice versa,” and he’s so sweetly sincere and nervous about it and I just want to pinch his cheeks.

Someday, I’m going to write a long post about why Xander fascinates me from a feminist viewpoint, and why he is and always will be my favorite on Buffy the Vampire Slayer no matter how many dumb things he does, but now is not the time for that. Right now, I’m just acknowledging that the narrative of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” not only lets him get away with his behavior, but rewards him for his behavior, and I can’t even get mad about it because I love him and Cordelia, separately and together, and their walking off into the sunset as they promise to keep arguing in public makes me swoon every damn time I watch the episode.

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Blog PostsOctober Movies I Won’t be Seeing (And One I Might), Part 2

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Halloween is fast approaching, the weather is getting chilly, and the air is getting spooooky. Soon all the demons and spirits of Halloween will emerge from the shadows and terrorize the people, and the people will have no choice but to hide from these demons by huddling for safety in the movie theaters.

Judging by the trailers for the movies that are premiering this week and next week, I think I’d be better off facing the demons.

First up is The Three Musketeers, a movie starring a lot of white people, based on a novel written by a biracial man.

Summary: Some kid named D’Artagnan wants to be a Musketeer, and he’s cute and pubescent-looking enough to be a Mouseketeer. He goes on his Musketeer auditions and tries his very best to please the current Musketeers: Apollo, Titus Pullo, and Not!Mr. Darcy. They accept him into their group, but unfortunately, Evil Legolas and Evil Joan of Arc have other plans for them. Wackiness ensues. Christoph Waltz cashes a paycheck.

Predicted ending: Not!Mr. Darcy defeats Evil Joan of Arc’s Evil Costumes and Evil Slow-Motion. Or something. Who cares?

My verdict: Meh. Meh to the most disinterested power. Continue reading →

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ReviewsA Feminist’s Defense of “The Little Mermaid,” Take 2

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Theresa Basile

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know how I feel about The Little Mermaid. (This is the original post I wrote about the movie in case you missed it the first time.) I think the movie is more feminist than immediately meets the eye because the female characters drive the action of the story, Ariel and Eric seem to be equally matched in terms of bravery and the amount of effort they put into the relationship, and the film uses Ursula to subvert stereotypical gender roles. In terms of feminism, it’s a pretty neat kids’ movie, and I get very annoyed when The Little Mermaid is reduced to the same tired “she changes herself for a guy!” complaint.

So, you can imagine how I felt when I got a look at this picture:

What Disney princesses teach you

I have mixed feelings about this artist’s representation of  the Disney princesses. I entirely agree about Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. I somewhat agree about Jasmine – she’s justifiably angry that she’s reduced to being a “prize to be won,” but she never gets to overturn the marriage rule, so the ending is a little hollow from that perspective. On an intellectual level, I agree about Belle; on an emotional level, I have a soft spot for her because she liked books, so this still makes me switch.

But I look at the description of Ariel and I see red, and not just in her hair color. I wrote a whole feminist defense of Ariel and The Little Mermaid almost a year ago, and now it looks like I have to do it all over again, because this description of her character seems to be an epic case of Missing the Point. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsAn Open Letter to the Writers of The Vampire Diaries

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Theresa Basile

(Warning: this post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for all aired episodes of The Vampire Diaries.)

Dear Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec,

I love your show. Every week I am constantly bowled over by the attention to detail you put into this program. The plot zips along at a pace that puts the writers of most TV dramas to shame, and I’m constantly kept on my toes by every twist and turn you throw my way. But even though the show is plot-driven, the characters are well-defined and developed, and this season, you’re throwing new and interesting character combinations my way. I loved seeing Matt and Bonnie interact again and it cracks me up that Katherine and Jeremy are now on a road trip together (hey, why not?) I love that you keep raising the stakes in terms of both character and plot and leave us worried about all of them every week. Even though we know that most of the main characters aren’t going to die, we can still worry about the emotional consequences for them.

I especially love what you’re doing with the triangle that is Stefan/Elena/Damon. This new, (more) mature flavor of Damon is the favorite version of him I’ve seen to date, and while I’m still annoyed that Elena doesn’t know the details about Andie, I like what I’ve seen of him so far this season. I love that Evil Stefan is now around to sarcastically torture Elena and Damon for god knows how long. I love, love, love that Elena told Stefan to fight his compulsion because he owed it to her. My girl’s not just some doormat; even in the midst of all her pining, she’ll still stand up for herself. Most of all, I love that the Elena/Damon relationship is progressing slowly and that all three characters involved will likely survive this triangle.

In short, your show rocks. But it does have a flaw, a flaw that is only becoming more glaring with each season.

You really, really need to stop killing all the black people. Continue reading →

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Blog Posts“Oh HELL to the No!”: Mercedes Jones and Black Stereotypes

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Theresa Basile

A few weeks ago, I read a post on Ars Marginal called Fandom and its hatred of Black women characters. The post detailed ways in which black female characters are criticized and maligned by their fan bases. It’s an interesting read, not to mention an upsetting one. I know that I’ve seen a fair amount of hatred towards Bonnie of The Vampire Diaries for her crime of thinking vampires are bad and Damon especially so. (Yeah. What a judgmental bitch, right?)

Anyway, this was the part of the post that stood out to me:

“What’s so wrong with these characters according to fandom? Hm, let’s see:

  • They have an attitude problem.
  • They’re lazy.
  • They’re mean.
  • They’re stupid.
  • They’re ungrateful.
  • They’re selfish.
  • They’re sluts.”

As I read that, I did a mental checklist and realized that all but two of these traits describes Mercedes Jones from Glee – not even in the way she’s perceived, but in the way she’s written on her actual show.

This is particularly problematic on a show like Glee that makes a big point of celebrating diversity and portraying “minority” characters who break free from stereotypes. Continue reading →

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ReviewsCommunity 3×4 – “Remedial Chaos Theory”

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Theresa Basile

This recent episode of Community was not only the best of the season so far, but one of the best ever. I’ve already seen it several times. And because I’m me and can’t just watch a comedy show and laugh at it, and have to pick apart everything ever, I have a few things to say about the different members of the group.

“Remedial Chaos Theory” showed us several different character dynamics and relationships. We got to see how these people interact with each other one-on-one and how they all fit into the group as a whole. After seeing the characters in all six timelines, I came away with the feeling that Jeff is the most toxic member of the group, and the people who are most essential to a healthy, happy group dynamic are Abed and – surprisingly – Britta.

It’s not a stretch to see why Jeff would be the real villain of the piece (Alan Sepinwall talked about that idea here). In all but two of the timelines, he interrupted Britta’s “Roxanne” sing-along, but when he went to get the pizza, he came back to discover the whole gang enjoying a silly, uninhibited group number. Even aside from that, though, I noticed Jeff’s negative influence in other areas – he makes Troy feel bad about himself, insults Annie for wearing bubble gum lip gloss (he was right to be perturbed by the dad-talk, but it’s not like Annie knew they would be kissing later that evening, so why shouldn’t she wear her bubble-gum lip gloss), and turns Shirley’s baking into a “problem” that needs to be addressed. We also see Troy look to Jeff for advice about how to “handle” the fact that Annie has a gun, or Annie look to Jeff for advice about how to “handle” Pierce’s mean gift, and Jeff blow off both of those issues because he’s too cool for school. Annie also lets her crush on him affect her behavior. She rolls her eyes and snickers at Britta’s singing when Jeff shuts her down, but enjoys joining in on the song when Jeff isn’t around.

In a way, Jeff’s presence can be even more toxic than Pierce’s. Pierce is still unapologetic and rude (bringing up a tryst with Eartha Kitt in each timeline except for the one where the segue would have been most organic), but he showed a little growth in this episode. He felt guilty enough when Troy thanked him that he tried to take the gift back (prompting some of Troy’s best lines ever. (“Give it, Pierce! It feels FUN!” “You’re bad at gift-giving!” “I demand to be house-warmed!”) More importantly, in the real timeline, he threw away the present before Troy even saw it.

That brings me to Abed and Britta, the characters who struck me as being most essential to the group’s happiness. Obviously, the dark timeline where Troy got the pizza was the most upsetting (and hilarious), but if Troy hadn’t been in such a hurry to run out of the apartment and slam the door behind him, he wouldn’t have kick-started the Raiders boulder that got everyone in trouble. Abed’s absence affected the group in a more emotionally upsetting way, with three pairs of characters getting into fights. When Abed stops the die, he gives a moving speech about everyone in the group accepting each other’s flaws and virtues, prompting them all to feel good about themselves, and even encouraging Pierce to throw away the troll before Troy can even see the present.

As for Britta, some of her more ridiculous traits were on display in the latest episode – getting stoned, her “me so hungy” dance, getting engaged to the pizza guy who even Pierce thought was creepy, and thinking that a washaway blue streak in her hair made her dark. But in the Pierce timeline, she makes Troy feel better about himself, prompting him to tell her that she’s pretty cool. And her “Roxanne” sing-along gets them all off of their feet and dancing. Britta has been described as a buzzkill, a fun vampire, a pizza burn on the roof of the world’s mouth – and she is all of those things. But she starts the fun just as often as she ruins it.

Also, the dark timeline was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. “To Pierce. May he Rest in Pierce.” “Evil Troy and Evil AAAAbed!”

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Blog PostsRec Me a Rom-Com, Part 2

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Wow. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I received so many recommendations for romantic comedies that I can’t even fit them all into one year. I needed 52 movies and I received suggestions for over eighty.

The list so far:

10 Things I Hate About You

13 Going on 30

27 Dresses

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

50 First Dates

(500) Days of Summer

Adam’s Rib

Along Came Polly

Amelie

Annie Hall

The Apartment

Bedrooms and Hallways

Better Off Dead

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Bride Wars

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Bringing Up Baby

Calamity Jane

Camille

Center Stage

Chasing Amy

Clueless

Definitely, Maybe

Eagle vs. Shark

Eat, Pray, Love

Elizabethtown

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Go Fish

He’s Just Not that Into You

High Fidelity

Hitch

His Girl Friday

How Do You Know

It Happened One Night

The Jane Austen Book Club

Juno

Kate and Leopold

Kicking and Screaming

Kissing Jessica Stein

Knocked Up

The Lady Eve

Lars and the Real Girl

Latter Days

Laws of Desire

Love Actually

Love and Basketball

Love on a Diet

Mansfield Park

Miami Rhapsody

Party Girl

The Philadelphia Story

Pretty Woman

The Princess Bride

The Real Blonde

Roxanne

Sabrina

Saving Face

Secretary

Sex and the Single Girl

Shall We Dance?

Shampoo

She’s Gotta Have It

Shop Around the Corner

Show Me Love (aka Fucking Amal)

Simple Men
Sleepless in Seattle

So I Married an Axe-Murderer

Some Like it Hot

Someone Like You

Something New

Splash

Step Up, Step Up 2, Step Up 3

Stranger than Fiction

Strictly Ballroom

The Thin Man movies

Tillie’s Punctured Romance

Together

Topper

Top Hat

Trust

The Unbelievable Truth

What’s Up, Doc?

When Harry Met Sally…

Working Girl

Now I have to decide how to narrow this down. I could start by eliminating the ones I have already seen, but some of those are movies that I would really like to revisit and analyze from a different perspective.

I also have to consider how I’m going to organize this viewing. I think I’m going to look at romantic comedies throughout history, beginning with the oldest film on the list and working my way to the present. I’m open to other suggestions, though.

And hey, just so I have even more variety and choice, keep the recommendations coming. From the looks of it, this list is still short on male/male romances. Maybe I’ll get enough suggestions to take me through two years.

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