EPISODE 451: YOU SHOULD ARREST JESUS
The 2010s Has Some Good Qualities, Marriage Story is For Memes, and Carrie Fisher is Forever
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and A Happy Continuation of Holiday Seasonry! To those who saw me over on Anne’s site and thought they’d check me out, welcome. I’m a magazine and screenwriter and a Jesuit (ask me about Ignatius of Loyola), and I started this newsletter a couple years ago basically as a place to share a little nerd love and maybe a little hope too. I hope you like what you find.
Long-time readers will know I am a Star Wars obsessive. (See: the episode a few weeks ago that was nothing but interviews with people I love about their love of Star Wars, among many many other things.)
I was planning to do a whole thing today on The Rise of Skywalker, but it was going to make this REALLY long, and I didn’t want to put you all through that because I love you forever.
SO – later this week I’m going to release a final episode for the season – let’s call it a special edition, shall we? – that will be nothing but me on Rise. I also did a piece on the film for America Magazine, which I’ll post a link to then.
Today, in light of the End of the Decade, which is two days away and definitely does not feel like stepping off a cliff into Garbage Election 2020, it really doesn’t, this parachute is just for show, no the ruby slippers are too, plus they’re comfy--I give you:
Ten Things About 2010s Pop Culture That I Thought Were Super Great
1. Arya Killed the Night King
I know you’re supposed to wait until the end to list the thing you loved the most, but I can’t help it, even just thinking of the moment where Arya leaps out of nowhere to end Game of Thrones’ Big Bad makes me want to stand up and cheer again. I know the episode was poorly lit, and more generally the treatment of Dany in Thrones’ final season was the absolute worst; but Arya Stark killing the Night King, not Jon Snow and his pretty pretty hair and his sad sad eyes or Dany and her awesome dragon boyfriends but No One Herself Arya Stark was pretty much everything I ever wanted from that show. The season could have ended there – and based on what they did with it I really wish it would have.
2. There Were A Lot of Good TV Shows That Were Not About White Straight Men – The late 1990s and 2000s had a lot of stories that could be summarized “Straight White Man struggles with being antihero but then eventually is pretty okay with it.” Walter White gaslighting; Don Draper lying to everyone. Lots of guys murdering.
Then we get to the 2010s and sure there’s still some of that, but we also get shows with richly complex women and people of color and different orientations, shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, Fleabag, Catastrophe, Atlanta,Pose, Parks & Rec, The Good Fight, Star Trek: Discovery, Game of Thrones, The Crown, Halt and Catch Fire, Glow, Orange is the New Black, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Mum, The Leftovers, Killing Eve, Russian Doll, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Watchmen. There were shows like this before, but not in such great numbers, and all I can say is, 2020s, MAKE MORE.
3. There Were Also a Lot of Great Books Not About Straight White Men– SO MANY. My own jam is generally in the scifi and fantasy realms, and I felt so lucky for suggestions like Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti novellas and also her Who Fears Deathduology; N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries; Seanan McGuire’s WaywardChildrenBooks; Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth; Kameron Ackerman’s WorldbreakerSaga; Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s short story collection Friday Black; and, for those who love Princess Leia, thesegreat in-canon novels about her by Claudia Gray.
I also have a lot of feelings for Bri Lee’s memoir Eggshell Skull and pretty much anythingnon-fiction by Helen Garner I can find.
4. It Happened Again – I know Twin Peaks is super niche – and the 2017 Showtime revival was like that niche on super niche alien ghost drugs – but for me it was utterly unique and haunting and a glimpse of some future version of TV that I want to be a part of if it does not drive me crazy first. This scene alone will torment me forever. Plus there are moments like this, which have nothing to do with the plot but are somehow social commentary and comedy and a nightmare wrapped into one.
5. They Brought Star Wars Back, and It Was Mostly Real Good – Look, I know things are a little raw right now for some of us after Rise of Skywalker (#JusticeforRose). But whether your mileage is Last Jedi, Rise, Baby Yoda or Solo (I am there for you Young Han), the 2010s showed that Star Wars sequels did not have to suck and also opened up the possibility of much more, not just another trilogy but new kinds of stories, protagonists and representation.
But take that blink-and-you-missed it kiss and begone, Disney. Poe and Finn were so ready for you.
6. My Parents Learned what a Podcast is – Podcasts have been around for a while, but they sort of hit the mainstream in the 2010s, with deep dive crime reporting from Serial and S-Town, docudramas like StartUp and shows like Reply All,Heavyweight and Mystery Show, which I don’t know how to describe but are all the best. I spend a lot of time in the car, and these are the things that keep me from realizing I’m on a hamster wheel made of concrete.
If you’re looking for suggestions, my recent favorites are Motherhacker, starring Carrie Coon as a suburban mom who becomes part of an identity theft ring to make money; and Ten Things That Scare Me, WNYC’s short form podcast in which famous and not famous people tell you their ten greatest fears in like five minutes.
Also, if you’ve never listened to Mystery Show, in which host Starlee Kine solved funny mysteries for people and ended up somehow always stumbling into something beautiful, it’s only six episodes and you really should. Also it has the best logo.
6. My Parents Didn’t Really Learn What Streaming Is, But They Like It – Ten years ago we did not hardly stream things. And now we all do all the time even when we don’t know that’s what we’re doing. (One of my favorite fun games is to try and explain to the older Jesuits I live with what streaming is. “You know how free-to-air TV was like a signal that got sent over radio waves [Note: I have no idea how TV used to worked]…well this is like that, but it’s over the internet.”)
And life is so much better this way, except for how now everyone wants us to pay separately for their service and that is definitely not going to work out well for everyone, Peacock/Yahoo View/DC Universe. I even kinda wonder if in ten years we’ll still be talking about Netflix. How can they possibly make all those shows all the time and still make money?
7. Kamala Khan Changed Marvel Comics – If you’re not a comic book fan, you’ve probably never heard of Kamala Khan, Marvel’s teenage superheroine “Ms. Marvel”. She hasn’t made it to live action yet; then again, in ten years Marvel has produced just one movie about a person of color, one about a female hero, and has given us only two teenage heroes, Spider-Man and Black Panther’s sister Shuri. So…yeahhh.
But this Pakistani-American kid from Jersey City resonated almost immediately with readers, turning her from the latest entry in “Oh Look, Diversity” Bingo to Peter Parker for a new century, a person of color who tries her best, stays hopeful and feels like a friend. She’s the comic character I most wish my non-comic friends would try reading.
8. The One Where Time’s Up & #MeToo Changed Pop Culture – #MeToo and Time’s Up have rippled out in a hundred ways. One that’s really striking from a pop culture perspective is that the terrible assumptions underlying some of our stories are now seen for what they are. I hope I’m wrong when I say this, but I feel like if Peloton had posted an advertisement in 2005 in which a husband gives his wife an exercise bike for Christmas, people would not have blinked and Peloton would have made a lot of money. This Christmas, the world gave Peloton instead the gift of a $1.5 billion stock market loss.
Meanwhile everyone’s gaga for reruns of The Office, but I’m terrified of what I’d find if I rewatched Cheers or Ally McBeal.
9. I Discovered Bob Mortimer and He Made My Life Better – Bob Mortimer is a middle-aged British comedian who often appears on the U.K. comedy show Would I Lie to You? And he is pretty much the most delightful man alive. I’ve since checked out his fishing show, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, which is actually this kind of heartwarming look at getting older (see the first episode here); and listened to this insane character-driven podcast he does with fellow comedian Andy Dawson. Most of it goes over my head, but it’s still hilarious.
Seriously this clip alone will brighten your life forever.
10. Grey’s Anatomy Is Still On – Look, I can feel your eye rolls from here, and yes, the show now is not the show that it was at the beginning, but no show is after 16 seasons. And the fact is Grey’s Anatomy is still really good a lot of the time. At a time when network TV seems often in a death spiral, it’s cool to see there’s still the possibility there for solid storytelling.
Honorable Mention: Marvel Made A Lot of Movies -- I know I should mention the juggernaut that is Marvel movies, and how their crazy multi-phase ten year model has Changed Everything.
Except has it, really? Universal’s planned-for Monsterverse was a flop from the jump, DC’s Snyderverse of Horrors is a smoldering wreck (their standalone movies are so much better); sure, every Hollywood company still wants to replicate the Marvel magic, but chasing it is kind of killing storytelling and also my fragile heart.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Marvel movies a lot. But I’m tired, you guys.
Wow of the Week: The Mandalorian
Speaking of tired, I can’t believe I’m saying this and I will definitely deny it later but I am kind of sick of Skywalkers. Going into Rise was less another joyous romp through the watercolor wonders of my childhood than an agonizing rollercoaster of fear about what J.J. Abrams was going to do to all my imaginary BFFs. And frankly Last Jedi was the best ending/new beginning that I could have dreamed of. So on the Skywalker front, I’m good.
What I love about Mandalorian is that like Rogue One and Solo (still there for you, bro) it showed that we really can have the world of Star Wars and and eat it, too (wait, what?). We’re not trapped by the need for certain events or lines to recur. Carl Weathers did report there was a trap at one point, I think, but did anyone have a bad feeling about anything in Mandalorian? It certainly didn’t happen every episode. Nor did we need to have someone stop and explain that the Force binds us all together, or be fixated on the relationship between themselves and their dad. It’s messy, we get it.
More than all that, Mandalorian showed you can make a great Star Wars show that is really uncomplicated. The Mandalorian is Gunsmoke with masks and lasers. Period. The episodes are super-straightforward: Mando chases a bounty; Mando saves the town; Mando helps with a breakout; Mando and 50 year old alien child with magic powers and no words seek the child’s home planet while chased by a villain responsible for killing all his people who carries a black light saber that grows longer and stronger the more angry he gets. (Okay that last one might be a bit more involved.)
The point is, Mandalorian is really stripped down for Star Wars, and rather than that being a disappointment it’s a relief. We can just sit back and enjoy living in this world and all its characters. And it seems like we really did.
Do you think his first word will be Mando? And speak will he in Yoda grammar?
THREE TWEETS THAT ARE ACTUALLY FIVE
Jesus Cheeses
Marriage Story, the Gift that Keeps on Giving [Memes]
Come for the Ticket, Stay for An Alien Named Stevie
I am Telling You Right Now I Am in Line to Hear This Guy Preach
And my goal for my writing in 2020, courtesy of the new writer of Batman
LINKS
An Oldie but a Goodie: Cord Jefferson, writer of good shows like The Good Place and Watchmen, in a long read on life and Kindness.
A more recent piece by Sarah Miller on Walking Your Dog as a Way of Reminding Yourself Life is Good.
And finally, a Survey for Those who are Still Wondering Whether to See Star Wars or Cats. (The Answer is Cats. See Cats.)
People ask me why I like Last Jedi so much. (Actually who am I kidding, no one asks me that, they all know better.) I could say a lot of things, but down deep I just love that the good guys lose pretty much everything and yet at the end Leia says “We have everything we need.” And I believe her.
I don’t know what 2020 holds, but I do know we all faced plenty of goblins in 2019 and we’re still here, dammit. So pop some champagne and let’s do this thing. It may get messy at times, but we’re here in it together.
And you know what, I’m officially making Carrie Fisher the Patron Saint of 2020. In the rough spots I know she’ll help us get through.
