News Satire Roundup: June 5th

Sunday, June 5 – Trump’s enterprises have been sued 3,500 times.  As John pointed out, TV doesn’t have enough legal drama to cover that.  After adding up every episode of every Law & Order variation, he added other lawyer shows until he ran out, a great way to show how insane that is.  He also looked at Trump University, including tidbits from its skeevy “playbook” and a little on the judge who’s hearing the case, who Trump thinks should recuse himself because he has Mexican heritage (yeah.)  The main story on debt buyers continued the “slimeball” theme.  They buy old debts for pennies on the dollar and rake people over the coals to pay them, even if they’ve passed the statute of limitations, declared bankruptcy, or passed away.  Luckily, John is spectacular; he not only started a debt buying company to prove how disturbingly easy it is, he bought a bunch of debt and had nearly $15,000,000 officially forgiven at the end of the episode.

No Daily Show again this week.  One thing that I want to mention is that I really like how the show has covered bathroom bills and the issue of trans rights over the past couple of months.  I remember when the subject first came up on the show, I was a bit apprehensive; I hadn’t been overly impressed with what little LGBTQ-related stories they’d previously done (or with standup pieces I’d seen from Trevor dealing with LGBTQ people, honestly,) and while this was the first time I’d seen the show and/or Trevor talk about trans stuff in particular, I wasn’t sure how thoughtful the commentary or the jokes would be.

But really, I think they’ve hit it out of the park.  I love that they did an entire episode centered around trans folk, and their continuing coverage of the North Carolina situation, bathroom bills in general, and the Obama administration’s response has been excellent.  Every story they’ve done on this topic, for me, has been funny, informative, hard-hitting, and most importantly, very earnest.  The show is really standing with trans people here, and I’m glad to see that.

A lot of what’s sprung out of this continuing story is crazy and ripe for satire.  North Carolina suing the federal government when the DOJ tells them their law is unconstitutional?  And willing to lose billions of dollars of federal education funding over it?  A man who supports a law to discriminate against people appears on TV comparing himself to Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus?  That’s insane, and perfectly ridiculous.

But the show has made serious points as well, both with and without humor.  Trevor has addressed (and ripped to shreds) each of the various hyperbolic, fearmongering arguments against allowing trans people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.  “But how’s it supposed to work?!  It’s unnatural!!!”  (Progress is often uncomfortable at first, but it’s still the right thing to do.)  “So any man can say he feels like a woman and go into the bathroom to molest my daughter?!”  (There’s no correlation between being trans and being a pervert, and it’s not like perverts have been sitting on their hands waiting for a legal loophole they can use to their advantage – also, there’s never been a reported case of someone being molested by a trans woman in a public restroom.)  “But it’s absurd; why would anyone think this is something we should be doing?!”  (People once said the same thing about interracial bathrooms, and looking back on it now, you’d call that sort of forced segregation absurd.  Again, progress.)  He’s also brought up trans men – specifically, the fact that no one’s bringing them up in all their panicked, exclusionary rhetoric and the gross double standard therein.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

I don’t suppose anyone needs me to tell them that this, Maya Angelou’s coming-of-age autobiography, is an exquisite book.  It’s gorgeously written, unflinchingly honest (I think that’s what boggles my mind most about the idea of writing about one’s own life – that nerve it takes to allow oneself to be so naked,) and at time sharply painful to read.  I couldn’t tell you why I never read it before now, but I also don’t think I’ve ever been in a better place in my life to recognize it for the masterpiece it is (some spoilers.)

The book paints Angelou’s life between the ages of three and seventeen, following young Maya from her early childhood in Arkansas to the North and West and back again.  The everpresent ugliness of racism permeates her experiences, as do the struggles of this young girl to discover who she is being forged to become in the crucible of extreme, cruel circumstances.  By degrees, she starts to understand what the world is, the place that people tell her she has in it, and the place she tries to carve out for herself.

Different elements are at play here, all employed tremendously well.  There’s stranger-than-fiction slices of life, like the story of a particularly charismatic worshipper whaling on the preacher in the middle of his sermon.  There’s beautiful character work, like the exploration of Maya’s brother Bailey and how deeply affected he is by the existence of their “Mother Dear.”  There are searing, horrendous passages, like the description of Maya’s rape as an 8-year-old.  There are intellectual ruminations, social commentary, poetic beauty, heartbreaking truths, and fierce individualism.  It’s at once a story containing fathoms and the story of one specific child.

I particularly love the deft exploration of race, including the influence of colorism and the intersectionality of being both Black and a girl.  Angelou covers the terrifying (Momma embodying the caregiver of every Black boy who’s ever had to agonize over his safety in an unkind world when he doesn’t come home at night,) the dehumanizing (the white dentist telling Momma there’s no way he’ll put his hands in Maya’s mouth,) the unifying (everyone crowded into the store to listen to a Joe Louis fight on the radio, needing him to win as a reflection of their own legitimacy as a people,) and the soul-crushing (the speaker at Maya’s graduation talking about the top-of-the-line equipment and new teachers brought in to improve the white school, while the Black school is getting money devoted only to its athletic facilities.)  In both large and small moments, threats of violence and microagressions alike, American race relations work their way into Maya’s life, and it is in that tempest of hatred, fear, and ignorance that she must come of age.

Just superb.  There’s nothing more for me to say, except that I feel fortunate to have read it.

Warnings

Sexual content (including abuse of a child,) violence, language (including racial slurs,) drinking, and strong thematic elements.

A Few Thoughts on Alice Through the Looking Glass

I saw this film with a friend the other night, and while I certainly wouldn’t call it a good movie, it’s also a somewhat frustrating one, because it contains a handful of strong points – elements that, if pursued more deftly, might have resulted in a much better film.  That’s what I want to look at today, things that I feel went both right and wrong.  (Note:  I’m sticking strictly with the movie here.  The current allegations against Johnny Depp are another matter.)  A few spoilers.

General complaints first.  It feels disjointed to me that the movie’s look is one of wonder and whimsy while the overall storyline is bogged down by family drama.  Season 1 of Once Upon a Timesold the Mad Hatter as a tragic (yet dark) figure, but try as Alice Through the Looking Glass might, it really can’t pull off the same.  All the sad eyes feel forced, the familial fallings-out feel too tritely-written, and the prevailing tone of the whole thing just feels out of place.  (Also, speaking of Once Upon a Time, the Queen of Hearts’s childhood origin story makes Regina’s villainous motivation seem almost rational.)  To couple the father-son, sister-sister angst with the technical visuals and bonkers silliness of Wonderland doesn’t work for me.

As with the first film, the less you know about the book, the more sense the story makes, but I don’t begrudge it that.  After all, it was sold from the beginning as a revisionist version of Alice’s adventures.  Besides, I’m not so attached to the book that I mind all the changes, and it’s not like the book would give too much of a cohesive story arc for a film to work with, anyway.  While some of the newly-imagined plot, like Hatter angst, doesn’t interest me, others, like Hero!Alice, are pretty neat.  On the latter front, Alice’s transformation into a BAMF is written a little too obviously at time, but I like the general idea of it, and some of it comes off really well.  The opening scene, wherein Alice (now traveling the world in a ship left to her by her late father) escapes a band of pirates due to her knowledge of the sea, creative thinking, and sheer nerve, makes me very happy, and that combination of smarts and bravery serves her well when she gets back to Wonderland.

It’s interesting to me that every scene set in our world is basically, “Boo, Victorian misogyny!  Go feminism!”  It’s not surprising that Alice would receive pushback from her way of life there, and that it would be hard for her to combat something she can’t solve like a riddle or fight with a sword; I was definitely a little impressed when, mid-film, a Victorian doctor declares her to suffering from “female hysteria.”  That said, this storyline is also written too on-the-nose at times, and I don’t think the threads between Alice’s struggle for independence in England and her heroic journey in Wonderland are drawn quite clearly enough.  Again, I feel a real disconnect between the different parts of the film.  There are good pieces that don’t seem to blend organically into the whole.

My last check in the plus column is some of the stuff surrounding the personification of Time.  All the time jokes (a la “Why is it you wait for no man?”) feel very Lewis Carroll, and while it doesn’t quite make sense for Time to have a clock in his chest, since the use of timepieces to mark its passage is a box that we humans stuff time into, I do love the rooms filled with hanging pocket watches in his castle, each one representing a different person making their gradual way toward ticking their last – a cool idea, and a really gorgeous image.  I also enjoy the general theme of the time-travel plot, the ultimate idea of learning from the past rather than changing it.

News Satire Roundup: May 22nd-May 26th

Sunday, May 22 – Amid protests and a severe economic crisis in Venezuela, President Maduro would be hard-pressed to be less helpful.  In contrast, PM Trudeau in Canada has apparently spent the week apologizing for “Elbowgate,"” in which he elbowed a government representative while trying to help another squeeze through; this might be one of the most stereotypically Canadian things ever.  The main story was on the absolute free-for-all that is the US primary/caucus system.  I knew it was messed up, inconsistent, and not very democratic, but as usual, John handily demonstrated just how far the insanity goes.  I particularly liked his point that many Americans think they have a basic understanding of how the system works but they really don't, and why that's an obvious problem.  Finally, there was a story about Chechnyan leader Kadyrov, who took to social media to deputize the people to find his missing cat – wow.

Monday, May 23 – Opening bit on the leader of the Taliban being killed in a drone strike; I liked the joke that ISIS has been a decoy all this time to make the Taliban think the US forgot about them.  The story on Trump’s appearance at a fundraiser for paying off Chris Christie's campaign debt was amusing.  I loved the bit about children in Africa deciding Christie needs the money more, and Trump shrugging off the threat of a trade war with China is insane but, sadly, not unexpected.  The story on TSA shortages was a bit fluff but fine.  I enjoyed Trevor's horror at adding clowns to a stressful situation, and he had a great riff on a reporter’s “humble bragging” about his reward membership.  The interview with Rose Byrne was a little ho-hum.  I was surprised to realize she was Australian (I’d always assumed British,) and Trevor’s revelation that the Australian soap Neighbours is apparently huge in South Africa made me smile.

Tuesday, May 24 – I liked having single thematic through line for the episode, doing a whole show on the NRA and gun safety regulation.  We started with the new union between Trump and the NRA, which seemed uneasy despite the similar MOs of furthering their aims by exploiting people’s fears; I loved Trevor’s crack about “the smell of demagoguery in the morning.”  The show also looked at the history of the NRA, which originally prioritized gun safety.  Desi had an interesting field piece reporting outside an NRA convention.  The angle, that the Constitution-obsessed group wouldn’t let her exercise her 1st-Amendment right to freedom of the press, was great, and I liked the observation that most NRA are opposed to the words “gun control” but not actual common-sense safety laws.  The guest, Katie Couric, talked about her new documentary Under the Gun.  It was an informative interview that flowed nicely from what came before.

Wednesday, May 25 – The first story looked at Brazil’s assorted crises as the Olympics approach, from political upheaval to horrific pollution to the Zika virus.  I loved the comment that the US wouldn’t skip the Olympics because Americans love winning and going on vacation so much, and Trevor’s gobsmacked reaction to Congress wanting to use Ebola money for Zika was cathartic.  Next came Trump’s latest conspiracy theory (latching onto an old outlandish theory about the Clintons murdering a guy) and revisited others he’s touted – Obama’s birth certificate, connecting Ted Cruz’s dad to Lee Harvey Oswald, vaccines causing autism – with the general thesis of, “And this guy should be trusted with the US military?”  The guest was Cory Pegues, a reformed gang member who became a police officer.  He discussed systemic problems in policing and the importance of not deciding someone’s entire future based on their past.

Thursday, May 26 – Some good jokes on Obama’s visit to Vietnam.  I liked the passive-aggressive technique of only selling weapons to Vietnam when China is watching, and Trevor had an amusing tangent about what Obama does/doesn’t need to carry on him.  The latest on Clinton’s emails was depressing, especially her approval rating dipping below Trump’s for the first time.  Trevor’s right – how on earth did we get here?  Michelle had some advice on how Clinton can get back on top, suggesting that America needs a boss more than a buddy.  Another tale from the Trump archives, this time a chauvinist “women in the kitchen” quote, once again demonstrating why his approval with women is so low.  Reporter Mike Allenwas the guest, talking about – what else? – the insane election.  He discussed the GOP’s resignation to Trump, Clinton’s poll numbers, and pointless but highly entertaining idea of a Trump-Sanders debate.

Call the Midwife (2012-Present)

I picked up this British period drama a couple years ago on Netflix.  I’d heard good things about it, and after An Adventure in Space and Time, I was definitely pro-Jessica Raine, who played the amazing Verity Lambert there and plays the initial audience-viewpoint character Jenny here.  It started slow for me, but before long, I was all in.

In 1957, Jenny Lee, newly trained as a midwife, arrives in London’s East End to serve the residents of the working-class neighborhood.  She lives at Nonnatus House, an Anglican convent, with her fellow nurses and a number of medically-trained nuns.  Jenny and the other women at Nonnatus enter expectant and new mothers’ homes when they’re at their most vulnerable, guiding them through their struggles, encouraging them through their fears, and sharing with them in both their joy and heartbreak.  The midwives are privy to everything from the most terrifying medical complications to the most intimate secrets, and it’s their job to remain strong and calm throughout, showing compassion rather than condemnation.

Call the Midwife is what I’d call a “Kleenex show.”  SIDS, severe congenital disabilities, spouse abuse, post-partum depression, abject poverty, mid-century racism, criminal negligence, social outcasting – nothing is off the table, and that’s before you take into account some of the past and present trials endured by the midwives themselves.  It’s not always sad, but it’s always touching (moments of pure happiness and resilience in the face of immense struggles can be just as affecting as the tragic parts,) and its ability to “get you right in the feels” just might be unparalleled on television.  Certain episodes of other shows might wreck me more, but this one probably wrecks me the most consistently.

All the main characters are terrific.  Though the series starts with Jenny at its center, it quickly morphs into an ensemble show, and I love basically all of them.  Even midwives that I was unsure about at first – I was initially a little meh on Trixie (blasphemy, I know,) and I wasn’t sure what to make of Nurse Crane – have rapidly grown in my estimation (Trixie rocks, and this past season, Nurse Crane might have become one of my favorites.)  Each of these women is richly multifaceted, with her own strength and fragility, and this is one of the few shows out there that can handle major cast departures (permanent, temporary, or switching from regular to recurring) without taking a hit.  Whenever a new midwife is brought in, she’s soon established as someone who genuinely brings something different to the show, with no sense that she’s the “new” whoever left; she’s always her own person.

Lastly, much love for how the series deals with religion, particularly in light of all the scandalous stuff the midwives see in their work on the East End.  The nuns are never judgmental toward their patients, no matter what they’ve done, and they regularly turn to prayer to help them through difficult times.  Very respectfully done.

Warnings

Medical stuff (including zillions of labors, blood, bodily fluids, festering injuries, and references to enemas,) sexual reference, drinking/smoking, some violence, and strong thematic elements.