I’m enjoying “Beef” after two episodes. I have a strong negative reaction to Ali Wong’s standup, but she is tolerable/pretty good in this.
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Sopranos season 4
What the fuck? Am I going insane? This shit isnt just bad, its actively HORRIBLE. The writing sucks, the character motivations are nonsensical, there are exposition fairies around every fucking corner. I am disliking this season strongly.
Wait. What? Ali Wong is hilarious. What dont you like about it?
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I’m not as big a fan of S4 as others, but it is still mostly exceptional TV; you have an uncommon? take here. What is pissing you off the most, specifically?
for example?
One specific one was the Mercedes dealer spilling every detail to Tony about his mistresses’ suicide, when all Tony said was “I worked with her once to buy a car.”
Who would fucking do that? What kind of psychopath is this guy to spill all the details of a co-workers suicide to some random customer?
That shit is insulting in its badness.
I like absolutely nothing about it, but if I had to pick one feature I’d say her delivery drives me up a wall.
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I empathize even tho I love Ali Wong and her standup. There’s some comedians like Keegan Michael Key that are stunningly NOT FUNNY when I see them perform live, but put them in literally any fictional performance and I’ve never seen anyone better. The format of their comedy can have a lot to do with how we experience the comedy.
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26 minute recap for a 45 minute show lol but there was a lot to say, especially about the clarified science of skeins.
I’m co labbing an article with an actual doctor to explain it all lol I recognize which lane I’m in
Here’s the recap part with just my immediate thoughts.
The Power episode 5: the science of skeins
Rob (John Leguizamo)
The show often plays with a character like Tunde uploading footage, then the next character watching and reacting to that footage. In this case, we saw people in Carpathia reviewing their experimental research. Now we cut to Rob learning what they discovered.
A new character named Anna Rao goes over the research with him. What’s important is that Rob is horrified. He doesn’t want any part in this — but he may find himself unable to resist taking part in it.
Anna argues that some people deserve the option to choose whether to have a skein. To have this power. Thankfully, the research also shows that certain drugs can chemically castrate anyone of their skein.
I’m not sure if the show intends this as a reversal of where skeins came from in the book. The novel explained that skeins likely came from a chemical agent placed into the global water supply as an attempt to affect something entirely unrelated. That is why there are some isolated areas of the world where skeins did not emerge at the same rate as in more densely populated cities with shared water supplies.
Will they also reveal this element later on? Or will the show focus instead on a chemical agent that castrates rather than empowers?
The government wants Rob’s aid to manufacture a chemical agent that can be manufactured and distributed at scale. She says it would only be used to offer each individual the choice whether to have a skein, but Rob knows better.
They won’t stop with giving this drug to one person by choice. Even if Anna is being sincere, someone else won’t stop with giving the drug to each individual by choice. Men desperate to hold on to their power would find a way to distribute the drug through something like the water supply, thus neutering anyone with the power by virtue of them quenching their thirst.
The other big thing this scene reveals
Anna: “Development of the organ appears to be linked to a set of nascent buds that mature into full skeins under sustained, elevated estrogen levels. Or in cases of transference, sustained electrical impulse.”
That’s right, folks. Skeins and thus the Power don’t go only to women.
This isn’t a twist, just the author confirming the clarified world building she established in the novel upon which the show is based.
Speaking to CinemaBlend, the author Naomi Alderman gushed with praise for trans actress Daniela Vega as Sister Maria, as well as all else the show had helped her update in the mythology of The Power.
Explaining her decision to clarify that in her world, trans women are women, Naomi Alderman said:
So, in the book, as readers have pointed out to me, fans have pointed out over the past few years, I have an intersex character, but I don’t have any trans characters. And I started writing the book in 2011. And I just didn’t think of it and subsequently, I’ve had many wonderful conversations as fans of the book were just like ‘Come on.’
So I’m extremely delighted that we have the wonderful actress Daniela Vega, who is a trans actress who is playing a trans character, Sister Maria, in the show, and we get into her story.
It’s not a spoiler to say that in the show, it’s explicitly clear that you get the electric skein if you’ve got estrogen in your body. So trans women are women.
Indeed, in Alderman’s acclaimed novel, her alter-ego (a male writer named Neil) comments that “gender is a shell game.” He continues, “What is a man? Whatever a woman isn’t. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it’s hollow. Look under the shells: it’s not there.”
So for those paying attention, it’s no surprise that the show confirms skeins are not divided according to a binary concept of gender, ie men vs women. Skeins come from elevated and sustained estrogen (combined with a million other biological moderating variables).
A skein does not manifest according to any concept of gender. Imagine trying to tell a person who is Two Spirit whether they can expect to get a skein. Saying it’s only or even mostly “women” who get it just betrays that the viewer is beholden to a narrow concept of gender.
A skein is a biochemical manifestation that should be seen and studied as its own thing. People who want to study how it is distributed according to “gender” would then need to define gender and how it has a functional use for a biochemical manifestation independent of that concept of gender.
Some women are born without functioning skeins, just as some women are born without functioning reproductive organs. Some men are born with more powerful skeins than any woman they know. Some intersex people are born with skeins. Two Spirit people get skeins, agender people get skeins…
It depends on a set of predictable factors that don’t have anything to do with gender until a person tries to fit the science of skeins into whatever model of gender with which they identify. Those concepts of gender are just concepts. Not facts. Their operational definitions, purposes, and functions make them useful, but it’s they are also “empowering” in the same sense as a person picking up a hammer. Sometimes, a person picks up a hammer, and it’s so empowering that for a while, everything kinda looks like a nail.
That is why in The Power, people who we typically classify as “cisgender women” will tend to develop an active skein on their own. This is also why skeins are actually spread throughout all manifestations of gender. This is no different than any other naturally-occurring biological trait that doesn’t care how we group some traits together vs others according to what we say fits under “gender.”
Now having said that, the show is absolutely dropping the ball on one huge opportunity to show this stuff on screen. His name is Ryan.
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Who would you say is your favorite female comedian?
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Hmmm. I’m not sure I have a favorite but I’m not sure I have a favorite male comedian. I like Mae Martin, who I think is non-binary. Fortune Feimster can be very funny. Nicole Byer.
I really tend to prefer more stream-of-consciousness stand up (vs more polished) regardless of the gender of the comedian. I see comedians of all genders on TikTok pretty regularly that are very funny, and it’s usually some random coffeehouse set.
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I was hoping you’d pick someone I’d seen so I could get a better idea of your tastes. Haven’t seen any of those three, but I’ll check out some clips. I also prefer the stream-of-consciousness type stuff, in general. A perfectly polished set could bet it, but it really has to be perfect.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a direct prequel to the original series from the 1960s. and if you knew that and you’ve seen the original series you’ve probably already seen this prequel because it’s a year old. but i just saw it and it was fantastic. tons of little things that remind us of the original series, with plenty of new characters that give it a fresh feeling. the color palette is genius, it’s crisp as fuck in HD, i think they did a really good style match with the sets and costumes from the original series but through the lens of the modern cinematic style. add onto all that they go with a minimal season arc that doesn’t dominate every episode, so we get a bunch of full one-episode adventures just like the best star treks.
5 bags!
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Happy succession day to all
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Good review. I may have enjoyed SNW more than any other Star Trek show since DS9.
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Finally got started on EP1 S4 of Succession. Felt like a bit of a slow start. Hopefully it will pick up steam.
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Don’t want to spoil Succession for anyone, so, before I watch, y’all can just assume that my reaction will be, “holy cow, I can’t believe THAT happened.”
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