Brief Sunday thoughts

[aphrodite_mine]

Sundays are Damaris and Laura days, and quickly becoming my favorite days of the week. Today I went over early so we could watch The House of Yes, which I'm absolutely shocked I hadn't managed to watch before, because it hit so many of my sexual and literary kinks (yes, you can absolutely have literary kinks -- from certain plot arcs, to conflation of issues, to parenthesis) that I was a fidgeting mess by the time the film hit it's climax. Pun intended.

There's a very specific audience for this (kind of) movie, so I'm not going to give a blanket rec.

Then there was delicious food and 10,000 (which I'm told is called Farkle online). And Big Love, which I'll get to in a minute. We also watch Shameless, which I enjoy but not on a fandom-y level, aside from my devotion to Emmy Rossum's breasts (and pure adoration to little Deb and love for Joan Cusack's character Sheila).

So. On to the big show. There are endless things to find problematic about Big Love, and that hasn't stopped this season. I frankly spend so much time rolling my eyes at any scene where the wives aren't on that I probably couldn't recount what happens.


Barb's arc, for example, was thought I could fully get behind. A little wine? A little rebellion? Hell yes. Finding one's own place in/around faith? That's one of the most important steps a person can make. Unfortunately, this "giving a blessing/asking for a blessing" just feels like a feminization of the same faith that she's already been alienated from. Yes, a large part of the problem IS that the faith is male-centered, but if you are questioning that core belief (as her mother points out) don't you have to question more than that? I guess this is where I (as a mostly athiest/agnostic) have trouble with a faith-based plotline where a woman attempts to find power in a, by nature, power-denying faith.

There are definitely parts of her journey that seem to be steps in the right direction -- steps away from Bill, physically and metaphorically, like drinking (a direct denial of his faith) and dancing (done without him, though it is a partners activity). I just have trouble lining up where this bizarre religiosity fits in, other than understanding the appeal of needing to something to fill that void and struggling to find it. Barb, please look elsewhere!

(:cough: Like your dance partner! :cough:)

ETA: Though, if Barb is going to re-define her faith as a priesthood holder of sorts and lead her family into a new definition of what they know, there's no reason why she can't do this fully without Bill (as she's made clear that she has no desire to continue on with his kind of idealism and him). Nicki seems to be ready for a change (as indicated in the Safety Net meeting -- she's not interested in sharing Bill, but maybe she's ready to face her past enough to move on in a different way. And Margene certainly can't go on in the way that she has been. She isn't going to be happy if she can't make choices for herself, and she won't be able to make those choices in a ranked society.

Comments

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

I almost feel like "Big Love" is failing on the same level where BSG did. I know you never watched it, but BSG did good with religious/mythic themes as its background, but as soon as they became foreground, the show fell all over itself just trying to figure out WHAT was its message.

And Big Love felt the same to be last season, and seems like it's getting worse in that regard this season. The religion angle as a faith they all believed in worked, but when they try to deconstruct that, it can't help but fail because the structure of the show doesn't allow for any of the wives to leave Bill, so Bill ends up having to be proven right in some aspect.

I know, it's the last season so it might happen. But by my estimation, they all should've left last season. So that arc is already being dragged for the sake of plot and not really true to the characters I signed up to watch.

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

It's true. Unless they all leave him, he's proven right. The show can't avoid taking a stance, especially when it's become undeniably political in these last two seasons. It's not just a drama that happens to be about a polygamist family, it is a polygamist show, and whether or not the creators and writers support polygamy itself, there are inherent attitudes behind the ideas that either aren't being addressed or are being addressed through Bill's bigotry in specific, and it's incredibly frustrating, because as a viewer, one wants to fight for the non-idiotic polygamists (should they exist) and wish on them better representation.

[glitterberrys.livejournal.com]

The House of Yes is amazing. Had I known you'd never seen it I would have yelled at you until you did.

I've given up on BL...no longer get HBO and last season didn't make me want to bother with downloads. Meh.

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

Well, the only thing you missed was Barb teaching Nicki to waltz. And leading. LIKE A MAN. HNNNNGGGGG.

[glitterberrys.livejournal.com]

oh, that's not gay at all. i usually don't ship it. but. i make an exception for this.

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my surrogate girlfriends had JUST made comments about not shipping them and then were like "okay, lets rewind the tivo!"

[glitterberrys.livejournal.com]

hee. i find it hard to ship nicki with barb or margie because she's so resentful of them most of the time, but...yeah, that's pretty much impossible to ignore.

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

That's exactly why I DO ship her. Heh. Nicki is my soul monkey.

[theroyal-e.livejournal.com]

i love the House of Yes!! i am also very surprised that you'd never seen it before. Parker Posey = <3

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

And now all of the people I was going to rec to have checked in having seen it already. <3 I love my flist.

[theroyal-e.livejournal.com]

haha! <3

[one6two6.livejournal.com]

House of Yes was brilliant! Wish I could still remember it, and for Parker Posey to make a big return already.