Being Human U.K. Season One, Episode Three

 

This episode opens with Annie flipping out in the kitchen and Mitchell warning George to stay out, because he believes that Annie is suffering from PMT.  George declares the assertion ludicrous, and says that he is not going to eat his steaks raw because someone who is not alive cannot possibly be suffering PMT.  When they enter, Annie is indeed flipping out and the kitchen is a mess.  Today is the anniversary of what have been her wedding but of course being a woman, it had to be hormonal, though she no long has hormones right? She holds a grater saying that it was an engagement present.  Okay, who the hell gives a grater as an engagement present? That alone should have given her second thoughts about Owen.  Mitchell decides to ask Annie to go out, believing that what she really needs is to meet more people like her. 

They end up at bar that is having an 80's night, and Mitchell introduces her to another ghost named Gilbert. At the bar, Mitchell assures George that meeting someone with the "same condition," is exactly what Annie needs, but George reminds him that it wasn't a success the last time he encouraged one of them to meet someone with the same condition. Mitchell encourages George to get with a girl, but George confesses that he is worried about hurting her. I think this is a legitimate worry considering that he is a werewolf.  I am shocked to see Mitchell just blow away his concerns, considering the level of violence he is of capable of.

At the hospital, Lauren shows up and to ask if Mitchell got his present.  She tells him, "you did this to me, you made me what I am".  When he starts to dismiss her saying that he made her but her actions from that point on are her responsibility, Lauren tells him that Herrick made her do the film, and that the last time she came to see Mitchell, he hurt her terribly. Rather than showing her any sympathy, Mitchell tells her that he can barely help himself, and that he does not know what she wants from him.

Annie takes the bus to meet Gilbert at a cemetery, but when they get there, she realizes that it is her grave. When Gilbert calls it beautiful, she says "I was 22 years old, I had my own life to live. I was happy, I was in love." Gilbert says that she can be happy now, and Annie asks, "How can I be happy, I've lost the only man I've ever loved more than anything else in this world and the children that I wanted". Gilbert tells her that she is beyond all of that now, and that the beauty of the world is all still there for them.  Annie suggests that a better place is where they should have gone. He tells her that this is where you stay unless you find some kind of resolution. He says that she is still here for a reason.

When they get back to the house, Annie tells George and Mitchell that when she figures out what the unfinished business is, then she can move on.  When Mitchell asks what she is going to do, she tells him that she does not know, but she's pretty sure that it's going to involve some highlight pens and some paper.

When Mitchell and George leave, Gilbert puts on the most depressing music.  Annie finally turns off the music and tells him that she needs to finish her unfinished business before she can move on, and asks if Gilbert will help her. She suggests that it is a task or a project that they can do together.  Gilbert says, "if I do this with you, it probably means we'll spend quite a bit of time together". He grabs a pen and paper, and asks her to tell him about her.  When Annie starts talking, everything she says is about Owen and how romantic they were together.  He tells her that it was the dullest story that he ever heard, and that no one should ever make a film about that.

Fed up with the story, he takes her out of the house.  He takes her to get records, read Nietzsche and even harasses cops who cannot hear them.  Annie finally pauses to ask him if they are actually having Gilbert fun yet.

Back at the house, Owen is trying to fix the plumbing. Janey is complaining that the issue with the plumbing has been going on for months, and says that he should just call someone in.  When he refuses, she tells him, "I think you like coming around here, hanging around with those two blokes, pretending that you're a teenager again. The first time you came round, I smelled beer on your breathe after. Let them get pally and they will take advantage."  Obviously frustrated, Owen leaves, but before he walks out the door, he turns and looks around the house as though he senses Annie.

Annie goes upstairs and announces to Gilbert that they need to have a change of plans, because she is still in love with Owen, and that she cannot let him go.  Gilbert says he must be very special.  Annie says she knows she is there because she wants to be Owen's wife. She wants to "love him and cherish him and look after him".  They go over to Owen's new home, and she says that she is going to be like his guardian angel and stop anything from happening to him. When Gilbert asks if she is moving in there permanently, she responds with a smile, and says, "we'll see how it goes".

Lauren shows up at the hospital, and says to Mitchell that she is clean, but she is there because she just knows that she is going to kill tonight. "All I think about is when I can kill again, when I can feed. This screaming pain in my blood and nerves right under my skin. It gets shorter and shorter the time I feel good after I've killed.  I need something to keep me going please."  Mitchell then takes pity on her and opens up a vein so that she can feed.  Just don't kill anyone he says, "I promise I will help you".

American Horror Story, Season One, Episode Ten: Smoldering Children

And it’s time for another American Horror Story, fasten your seatbelts, adjust your safety screens and let the failing begin.

So we have a lovely flashback of Constance, Larry, Adelaide and Tate playing happy families – needless to say the dysfunction levels are reaching the ceiling. We also see a greater influence of Constance’s disgust for her disabled children – and how it put the pressure on Tate to be the perfect one. While a dinner with these guests is bound to be less than fun, it’s interesting to see at least Tate cared for and valued his siblings – angered by Bo’s murder and considering Adelaide to be a smart girl. I think just in case we started to see Tate as a nice person (ha!) we move on to drugs, guns and pouring petrol on Larry to have his own personal bonfire. Not a nice boy. I always assumed that Larry’s scars were from when his family were burned.

And on to Ben and Vivian where Ben apologises to Vivian for assuming she cheated rather than being raped. Vivian kicks him repeatedly in the yin-yangs (wait, that’s my wishful thinking). Ben also tells her about having different fathers for her twins. Ben insists that together they will find the answers and have Vivian home in a day or two. Vivian throws rocks at his head at the very suggestion of them together (damn, that’s my wishful thinking again. Alas, not the case).

And back to present day Constance who is shown pictures of Travis’ dead body to identify. While she’s grieving and saddened, she still manages to squeeze out some racism. Keeping it classy Constance.

See, it’s stuff like this that bothers me so much about American Horror Story. It’s not that there are rampaging isms in every episode that are migraine quality, it’s not even that they’re all unchallenged, normalised and presented as acceptable (though both are certainly the case) it’s that they’re so grossly grossly unnecessary. What story, character, theme or plot has been advanced by these constant throwaway lines of prejudice?

And Ben gets a visit from the truant officer, Violet has missed a vast amount of school. Oh and there are blowflies in the house, yes let’s have some ominous connections. Ben confronts her – my gods, she actually exists! I thought everyone had forgotten her. I certainly thought Ben had. Ben finally acknowledges that, zomg, life hasn’t all that easy and sunny for Violet – about damn time. It’d probably feel better if Ben wasn’t clearly doing it for the sake of pushing her to go to school rather than actual concern. I can’t stand him, a Walker should eat him. Wait, that’s Shane on the Walking dead. A ghost should eat him. He goes on to look for a school for Violet – a boarding school.

Review: My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Angel had a difficult life - a mentally ill, abusive, dead mother and an alcoholic abusive father. She dropped out of high school without graduating, drifted between low end jobs, with an on-again, off-again relationship with a similar guy and she got by by taking pills - not prescription. Well, they were prescription, but not prescribed to her. I know, I know dead parents again but beyond the issue of a dead parent, is the issue that her mother had a mental illness.  Far too often in fiction those that are neurologically atypical are constructed as violent when in actuality, they are more often a danger to themselves than anyone else.

And then she died. It was just what she needed to turn her life around.

Now, thanks to her mysterious benefactor, she has a new job, she’s off the booze and the pills and she’s finally making a new life for herself. Except for, well, craving brains. Gooey, human brains in fact.Good thing she works in a mortuary.

Things seem to be getting on track except for a wave of bodies showing up. Bodies without brains, headless bodies (both very useless for her to snack on) that are forming an increasingly disturbing trend that the authorities can’t spot. Only just embarking on her new life, Angel is now in the middle of a murder mystery.


Zombies. Zombies as protagonists? That’s pretty damn unique. And it’s pretty well done as well (I had the misfortune to be eating a ham sandwich when the brain eating began. It will be a while before I can look at moist, glazed ham the same again). It’s a very interesting take on the genre and the idea of zombies - I like it and it’s always fun to find.

And I like Angel. She’s funny, she’s amusing, she’s pretty sensible (lacking the spectre of spunky agency) she’s light hearted and real. She’s also a pretty nuanced and deep character.

While traumatised childhoods are pretty much par the course in the genre and, yes, I am sick of them -  this was well done. Angel’s past clearly and deeply affects her, but it isn’t her all consuming obsession, nor is it cast aside casually either. She mourns her lack of education, she is wounded by her mother’s abuse and her father’s mood swings and violence clearly cast a shadow over her life that she can’t turn off - but nor does it become all she is for giant, dramatic angst-fests either. we also have some pretty good class analysis with the poverty they live in, her both ruefully embracing her “poor trash” label while at the same time resenting it and struggling against it. Her anger at being judged, but also her shame as well as her discovering her self-esteem and self-worth as the books progress - and all of it well done because Angel is generally a light hearted character. She doesn’t have to sit down and mope and have a long internal monologue to explain all this to us - but there’s enough subtle references to carry the weight of it.

Paranormal Steampunk and Dystopian Erasure - the Unpleasant Implications

What is wonderful about Dystopian and Paranormal Steampunk is that the author has the opportunity to either create a brave new world, or an alternate past. Obviously in all fiction this opportunity exists but dystopian and paranoramal steampunk lend themselves remarkably well to this idea. Unfortunately instead of taking the opportunity to do something different, the majority of the authors that we have read have simply recreated the world as we know it today with the addition of fantastic steam run objects, or a sparse earth with no difference to the power structures currently in effect.

In the case of Dystopian worlds, this erasure has a particularly unpleasant implication. After all, we know marginalsied people exist - we know there are people of colour and GBLT etc people out there - so where are they? Or, rather, what happened to them?

In a Dystopian world something has happened. Be it major societal collapse, nuclear, alien/vampire/monster invasion, environmental disaster, mandated playing of country and western music - some dark and terrible thing has afflicted the world and, usually, decimated the human population. And when we take the idea of a decimated human population and then show no marginalised survivors the natural assumption is that the marginalised people are dead.

This turns the dystopian world into a post-eradication world. And, in the case where it has been an active attack or invasion, it turns it into a post (or pending) targeted genocidal world. The implication is that whatever disaster happened - or whatever force attacked - it wiped out marginalised people first. Your zombie apocalypse apparently had a horde of zombies that just looooved the taste of GBLT brains. Your marauding monstrous horde really hated people of colour. That supernatural plague for some reason picked off the minorities first.

And this is rarely touched in the series either. We have the implied eradication, but it’s never addressed or explained or referred to. We have implied targeted eradication and this not considered relevant by any of the cast of survivors.

I know we’re going to get people answering this with “you’re reading too much into this” “the author didn’t intend this” and even the dreaded “it’s only fiction.” But the author carelessly erasing us rather than intentionally portraying us as eradicated doesn’t remove the implication of targeted destruction. If a minority is absent where we would expect them, and if there has been a great loss of life, isn’t it reasonable to assume they died?

Review: Blameless by Gail Carriger, Book 3 of the Parasol Protectorate

After being most unjustly accused of adultery in Changless, Lady Maccon, la Diva Tarrabotti, finds herself relegated to her old home and very much a social pariah in London society. In some cases worse, the Vampires are frightened of the child she carries and plan to end her life while she is without the protection of the werewolf pack. Other ladies would retire in shame, embarrassment and fear.

Other ladies are not Lady Alexia Maccon. She refuses to hide or cower from high society and has a quite marvelous time of staring them down. Determined to prove that the child is in fact Lord Maccon’s (not that she wants him back, of course, oh no - but she looks forward to slamming the evidence down in front of him) Lady Maccon travels to Italy, to the fanatical Templars, who know more about the Soulless than anyone.

Of course, the vampires aren’t going to let a little thing like leaving the country stop them hunting and trying to kill her which certainly doesn’t help Lady Maccon’s travel; even if she is equipped with an emergency supply of tea. Then there’s the Templars themselves who, despite access to the most wonderful pesto, are most unfriendly people and not even slightly accommodating.

And things are far from quite in London, much to poor professor Lyle’s consternation. Between Lord Maccon’s drunken binge, the vampires hunting Lady Maccon and the disappearance of Lord Akeldama, there’s quite enough to keep the beleaguered beta busy.

Less than 2 pages. That’s how far I got before I collapsed giggling. The combination of Alexia’s marvellously strong character, the beautifully flowery Victorian decorum and language and just some wonderfully crafted silliness makes this book, like the two before it, a constant source of mirth - even if Miss. Hisslepenny and her hats are sadly not so present.

This book is basically superlatively wonderful in all the same ways that Soulless and Changeless were. the language is wonderfully evocative of the era. It’s screamingly, hilariously, outrageously funny. Lady Alexia Maccon is a truly magnificent character - sassy and sarcastic, funny and strong, sensible and shameless. Frankly, if the story were poor, the backing characters flat and the world ridiculous, the books would still be an amazing read just because of Lady Alexia Maccon

Cover Snark: That's not in the Book!

A somewhat lighter snark this week. Here we look at covers that make you frown. Not because they’re bad or rife with isms (though they might be) but because they seem to bare no relation at all to the book’s content. You wonder if, perhaps, there had been a mistake at the publishing house ans the wrong cover had been glued on? Maybe the cover artist had a powerful artistic vision and wasn’t going to let a little thing like content get in the way?

We do a lot of cover snark, but I think this, more than anything else, makes it clear that the authors have, at best, limited control over the cover - after all, I can believe an author would chose an unnecessarily sexualised image, or an image that is rife with an ism - but an image that doesn’t even resemble the contents?

First up we have Richelle Mead’s excellent Succubus series - and some wings. Yes, wings. Now, Georgina, as a shapeshifting Succubus can grow wings - but she hardly makes a habit of it. And if she did, I’m sure they wouldn’t be that ragged.

Review of Symphony of Blood, A Hank Mondale Supernatural Case by Adam Pepper

 

An e copy of this book was received from the author via Goodreads.

Okay, the best thing that I can say about this book, is that it is only 162 pages long.  I was grateful when I got to the end.  

The protagonist is Hank Mondale and is a private investigator, with a huge gambling addiction and a small liquor problem.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?  There is nothing original about this character, and he is not in the least bit likeable.  He is constantly short of money and attempts to gamble his way out of his debt, and of course incurs even more debt. He desperately wanted to be cop, but could not become one because of past legal issues.  I know that the reader is meant to be sympathize with Hank, but a drunk gambler, who cannot keep his shit together is not appealing. Hanks problems were of his own making.  As a straight, cisgendered, able bodied White man, he should have had the world at his beck and call, whereas; the servile people of colour in this story were up against systemic inequalities. Even in the end, when legal issues should have been an issue for Hank, he was given a pass. The police had no regard for a dead prostitute, but a White man who can barely stay sober received tons of concern.

When Hank is contacted by Blake, a business tycoon to deal with an entity that is stalking his privileged daughter Mackenzie, Hank sees this as a dream come true.  With the promise of money, he begins investigating.  There are several murders and slowly we learn that these deaths are all connected.  

When Hank learns that all of the deaths are due to a monster, he naturally disbelieves what he is being told. It is only after seeing the creature for himself, that he realizes that the Blakes were telling the truth.  What he does not realizes is that though the Blakes are on the run from the creature, that they are equally culpable for the deaths themselves.

Wednesday Reboot: Van Helsing

 

Van Helsing was originally released in 2004 and it stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale.   As always, the purpose with the reboot, is to examine these movies from a social justice lens.

The first 8 minutes of this movie are in classical horror style and they are absolutely fabulous. They are filmed in black white and the music is suitably ominous.  The movie opens with peasants rushing through the streets carrying torches on their way way to Dr. Frankenstein's famous lab.  Just as he brings the creature to life Count Vladislaus Dracula appears to claim the creature for his own. It seems that Count Dracula, provided the castle and supported Dr. Franenstein's work because he wanted the creature.  When Frankestein refuses, Count Dracula kills him.  The creature grabs the good doctor and escapes to the windmill only to have the peasants set it on fire.  The creature yells, why just as the floor collapses, causing both him and the good doctor to be consumed by flame.  Count Dracula arrives presently to see the destruction and the scene shifts.

Enter Van Hesling who is apparently the most  wanted man in Europe, though he works for the knights of the holy order, a secret sect run by the Vatican that the public has now knowledge of.  After stopping in Paris to kill Mr. Hyde of the Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame (this is again another magnificent work of CGI) he returns to the Vatican. He is told that the Vatican is the last defense for humanity against evil, an evil that the rest of mankind has no idea exists and that for Van Hesling this is all a test of faith.

The Valerious family made a vow to God that they would not enter heaven until Dracula has been vanquished from the land.  To date they have not succeeded and with few descendants left, Van Hesling is tasked to help the family because of the last heir dies nine centuries of labour will but for naught and the Valerious family will spend and eternity in purgatory. He is shown a scroll with the words in Latin, In the name of God, open this door. The scroll also has an insignia on it that matches Van Hesling's ring.  He is told that if he goes after Dracula perhaps he might find out what memories he has lost and his purpose.

Before he leaves, Van Hesling goes to see a friar named Carl.  In a scene very reminiscent of every James Bond movie that has ever been created, Carl outfits Van Hesling with every single modern weapon that is is capable of harming are killing a vampire that he can.  The weapons are clearly advances for the 1800's and are reminiscent of that scene in most steampunk movies and or books. Unfortunately for Carl, despite his protests Van Hesling informs him that he has to accompany him to Transylvania.