war & peace (a bbc mini-series)

Russia is beautiful in this remake and adaptation of Tolstoy's War & Peace (dir. Tom Harper). Six episodes takes us through its fierce winters and surprisingly cherry summers; we see its hershey-kiss-topped churches, its expansive imperial buildings, and its glorious interiors. But its beauty becomes twisted, ill-fated to the pillages of war ... as well as incest, adultery, and death duels between past friends.

Andrew Davies gave its characters life through his wonderful script. This is especially so with the rambling and inquisitive Pierre Bezukhov (Paul Dano). Dano is a master of weird to many, charming to some. And his strengths are perfectly suited for Pierre -- an illegitimate son whose idealism makes the elite squirm, until he becomes the sole heir to the wealthiest man in Russia.

Pierre's close friend, Prince Andrei (James Norton), is a soon-to-be father, but socialising with wealthy Russians makes him gloomy. To find purpose, he enlists in the war between Russia and invading France. This war initially feels like a side-story, but gradually becomes all-consuming. If the solemn Andrei reminds us of darker things, Pierre's other close friend, Natasha Rostova (Lily James), relieves us with the warmth she finds in family and her excitement and anxiety about love. Although hardly breaking any gender conventions, Natasha is kind and vivacious. It's no surprise that everyone is in love with her.

From snow to skin, the series is one of an overwhelming whiteness that is articulated with British accents, which are slightly disloyal to the original novel. This is a story of indulgence, but it also explores what happens when the lonely few are repelled by the banality of having everything. And each character does suffer tremendously. But in the sentimental, post-war ending where Pierre's voiceover reflects on his learnings, we still can see it doesn't hurt to be wealthy. Whatever happened to those outside the elite, who didn't have money to gracefully cushion their fall following the war, isn't part of this story.

xx
Lou

princess jellyfish

The anime adaption of Kuragehime (Princess Jellyfish), a manga written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura, only lasted one season. Although it ended far too soon, the series was an unexpectedly hilarious and insightful ride.

Tsukimi Kurashita lives in a two story apartment building in Tokyo with five other otaku women. Encapsulating the subculture, the women fear the outside world (especially hipsters and career women) and have distinct obsessions: manga, trains, very old men, jellyfish, the The Three Kingdoms, and handmade dolls. They live off their parents' allowances, are between 20-30 years old, and are virgins. However, their odd coexistence is disturbed, then threatened entirely.

Kuranosuke Koibuchi is a beautiful young woman who helps Tsukimi save a sickly jellyfish from a petstore. Kuranosuke follows Tsukimi into her apartment and, to Tsukimi's horror, she falls asleep on her bedroom floor. In the morning, Tsukimi finds Kuranosuke still asleep but now undressed -- her wig, clothes, and fake boobs are strewn across the room. Tsukimi freaks out. The 'hipster' is a straight highschool boy who enjoys fashion and cross-dressing, he is also the first boy (apart from her dad) who she has ever properly talked to.

Despite Tsukimi's reaction, Kuranosuke keeps returning to her apartment. Kuranosuke and Tsukimi's lives increasing overlap when they learn that Tsukimi's small apartment building is standing in the way of a large redevelopment plan that involves Kuranosuke's family. For six residents, who turn to stone if they even make eye contact with strangers, saving their building is a daunting task.

Stories like Kuragehime are what keeps me hooked on serial anime. Kuragehime is well animated, often very funny, and it has a great storyline (although it ends abruptly, leaving most plot lines open). Its characters are fascinating too. Kuranosuke confidently explores and displays femininity, more than any female character on the show, but pursues his heterosexuality. He becomes attached to the strange personalities of the otaku women, anxious recluses who have somehow made a world together. Tsukimi is unfaltering with her adoration of jellyfish, and, although Kuranosuke gives her full-blown makeovers, she remains devoted to her friends.

Rather than scrutinising the otaku subculture, which is often framed negatively, Kuragehime uses humour and reflection to show how it can be social and comforting for people who just aren't like the others.

xx
Lou

carrie bradshaw and me

I'm not sure how I found myself glued to the Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries. I have never watched a full season of Sex and the City, despite enjoying the show every now and then and I had kinda hoped high school-centered narratives didn't relate to my post-school life anymore. But while I was stressed during an exam season I was unexpectedly drawn to yet another upper middle-class, pretty people television series. However, in the midst of my binge, I learned some unexpected life lessons.

Part of The Carrie Diaries takes place in the early 1980s in New York City, characterised at the time by its towering crime rates and rapidly changing understandings of personal identity. The other part of the show's narrative is set in small town Connecticut, where Carrie Bradshaw attends high school. After Carrie's mother dies, her father and the school agree that every Friday Carrie will take the day off in order to carry out an internship at a big Manhattan law firm in exchange for school credit.

But Carrie's own desires deviate from anything that the legal world could fulfil. When cleaning out her mother's clothes and other belongings, Carrie acquires several of her unused journals. Transcribing her thoughts every day, she begins to find her voice and a passion for writing, Manhattan and doing whatever she can to work at Interview magazine, which was founded by Andy Warhol and John Wilcock over a decade earlier in 1969.

On the whole, the largely white, middle class heterocentric focus of the show (there is only one gay side story and token Chinese and African American characters) makes it feel fairly non-challenging and inseparable from similar teen shows that have come before it. But somehow, in the show's two seasons (it was cancelled before a third was made), I found a pocket of advice that struck eerily close to home.

In episode nine of the first season, Carrie’s father, a hot shot turned small town lawyer, feels betrayed when he finds out that Carrie has given up her law firm internship for an internship at Interview. He refuses to let her return and it feels like the matter is closed. But in a twisted circumstance Carrie’s dad finds himself spieling to Larissa, Carrie's boss at Interview, after a game of squash. In my fifth year of studying law, while pursuing writing whenever I am not studying or attending class, this scene felt familiar.

The following conversation takes place:

Larissa remarks that Carrie, "was the best intern I ever had."
[...]
"She had a good internship at a law firm. She wants to be a lawyer, which I am sure you didn't know, you didn't bother to find out," Carrie's dad brashly replies.
"That's rich. Carrie Bradshaw -- a lawyer?"
"Damn straight."
"You have no idea who your daughter is, or what she wants."
"I know she was a good kid before she came to Manhattan. One who had real goals -- not pipe dreams."
"Just because they aren't your dreams doesn't mean they aren't not real, not attainable."
"I know my daughter better than some party girl who values clothing and clubbing. My job isn't to let her go wild, it's to keep her safe."
"No. Your job is to let her become the person she wants to be."
[...]
"I want her to grow up right."
"It's not a matter of right and wrong, it's a matter of who and what she wants to be. She's a hell of a writer, did you know that? [...] She's got a voice, let her use it."

Like Carrie, it is one of my dreams to do interviews, write and work my way up to being an editor. I know a lot of people who have similarly creative ambitions. But I also think a lot of people, me included, have partly internalised Carrie's dad's viewpoint on pursuing something creative as a career. Safety, stability and feeling repelled by the prospects of working impossibly hard to just make ends meet filter my answer every time I am asked what I would love to do after university. I have been scolded repeatedly for not being able to answer that question straight up. But after watching this scene in The Carrie Diaries I am reminded again that every one I admire who is pursuing a creative career has harnessed the associated risks and flourished.

Not all of us can have a person like Larissa vouching for us every time a person scoffs at our career choices. But we can use dialogue like the conversation between Larissa and Carrie Bradshaw's dad to give us confidence. Surprisingly The Carrie Diaries, which is probably geared towards a mainstream teenage audience, directly spoke to me. Nestled in the rom/com's many cliches was a brief conversation that I actually needed to hear.

xx
Lou

the honourable woman

A screenshot from The Honourable Woman directed by the BAFTA-winning Hugo Blick.

The Honourable Woman is brilliant television. So brilliant that my parents and I consumed the miniseries in under a week and each night, after a binge watching session, would spend time unpacking what we had witnessed - grasping both our cups of tea and the many straws that each episode left us with.

Without revealing any intricacies of the twisted plot (which unfolds through eight, one hour long episodes), the story line follows Nessa Stein (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal in one of her most spectacular performances yet, despite her hesitation to act for television) - the daughter of a Zionist arms procurer and flourishing businesswoman whose mission is one of  reconciliation - that is - to lay cable networks between Israel and the West Bank.

Beautifully filmed and highly relevant in both the personal and political conflicts that this miniseries explores, The Honourable Woman is one of this year's most intelligent and rewarding entertainment endeavours.

xx
Lou

don't kill this bill

I hate this time of the semester. Despite Summer approaching, everything seems slightly grey and dull around the edges. Over the next few weeks I'll be doing Law exams and I can't help but think about all the exam seasons I still have to endure to complete my triple major. During this time, however, I tend to develop obsessions with an array of excellent music and TV series and people/fictional characters to help get me through.

Recently, I finished watching the series Freaks and Geeks created by Paul Feig (with both Paul Feig and Judd Apatow(!) as executive producers). The show aired during the millennium change over but it follows a bunch of kids going to school at the beginning of the '80s. While the first few episodes of the show feel a bit stilted, since finishing watching the show (it sadly only has one season) I can't help but call myself a massive fan. Freaks and Geeks is the kind of show where you can easily identify aspects of yourself and friends in certain characters. The characters and their interactions with one another are also great to watch. My favourite character on the show was Bill (played by Martin Starr). He is completely genuine, strange, hilarious, and sticks up for what he believes in. I cherish this kind of person! I want to be this kind of person.

If you are into movies like Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club this series has similar (although not exactly the same) kind of vibes. Check it out and join its cult following.

xx
Lou

parade's end

Before I left New Zealand my parents and I sat down together to watch a television miniseries called Parade's End. The show, directed by Susanna White and written by Tom Stoppard, is an adaptation of the Parade's End novels by Ford Madox Ford. The story follows an extremely intelligent Anglican Tory civil servant, Christopher Tietjens, who is often sweetly oblivious to his tumultuous personal life. With WWI approaching as well as the battle for women rights (led by the suffragettes) and modernity in all its forms, an array of political and personal dramas confront Tietjens thus creating an appropriate setting for all sorts of emotional twists and confrontations.

On watching Parade's End my family quickly concluded that it was the 'smart person's' Downton Abbey as we enjoyed the intricate dialogue which we could barely keep up with (in a good way). Furthermore, the beautiful filming of an unbelievably well chosen cast (which includes a melange of new and old faces such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall and Adelaide Clemens) makes for perfection within perfection. In my eyes, Parade's End has made its way to the top of the peak from which only a handful of special shows can stand and admire the view below.

xx
Lou