Mostly harmless
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I guess this is what news in 2011 looks like.
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Around the same time that came out, a lady named Jac Schaeffer triple-threatened an indie movie called (unfortunately) TiMER. It has the one girl from Buffy in it, it got a tiny distribution deal, nobody saw it and it holds a 58% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also the best romantic comedy I’ve seen in over a decade. Kara found it streaming on Netflix, and I offer the following three reasons to watch it if you like this kind of thing: * It passes Bechdel * If stuck in an elevator with the characters, I would not murder all of them inside five minutes * It posits a semi-science-fictional plot mechanic and actually explores some of its ramifications I realize those bars are low enough to skate over, but I am not trying to damn with faint praise: it’s a fun movie and I was still thinking about it two days later. Its premise is that you can get a timer implanted in your arm. If your One True Love also has a timer, the two will automagically calculate the day you meet and start counting down to it. This is a big honking metaphor for a dominant cultural narrative applied to women, but the movie has the grace to hang a lampshade on that and then pull the Asimov trick and wonder how this can go wrong: one character has a blank timer and is on a crusade to get other people implanted, one has twenty years of waiting to look forward to, one has a timer go off way too soon, one gets a fake timer on the Internet, one has it painfully removed. And the ending isn’t as easy as you’re thinking! Basically, this is a movie with smart jokes and kissing and it does a better job of exploring the conflict between free will and predestination than the Wachowskis did. My only improvement would be to put more than one nonwhite character in it, and also feed everyone involved a damn sandwich. (And not have the main character be named Oona. Hey, maybe Jac Schaeffer is a Wachowski.) Doubly recommended if you’re one of the nerds who liked Machine of Death.
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![thedailywhat:
Papercraft of the Day: Cylon paper snowflakes. Inspired by the Star Wars snowflakes “floating around.” Instructions here.
Merry Frakkin’ Christmas.
[boingboing.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldotdddJOM1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Papercraft of the Day: Cylon paper snowflakes. Inspired by the Star Wars snowflakes “floating around.” Instructions here.
Merry Frakkin’ Christmas.
[boingboing.]
(Source: thedailywhat)
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via Underwire
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Riley. If you can’t tell from this weirdly stiff prom photo pose, he was Buffy’s second boyfriend, and he stuck around for all of season four, despite that haircut and a criminal lack of sexual chemistry with Buffy. He was her TA; they should not have been dating. It had the hallmarks of a…
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Much like Riley, Willow should be totally amazing. Let’s tick off the attributes that should make her your favorite character ever:
- Redhead
- Nerdy girl
- Likes computers
- Jewish
- Can do magic
- LESBIAN
These are all inherently lovable traits. And yet.
Yet somehow Willow fills me with neither admiration nor lust nor compassion. No, only a blind seething hatred that, no matter what she does, only ever gets worse. In fact, the more she is painted as a multi-dimensional character with true human depth, the more I resent the show for trying to manipulate me with such a naked attempt to win my admiration. Just to be clear here: Willow is not my fave.
Let’s go back to Season 1 to reveal the roots of the hate. At that time, Willow’s only magic power was somehow making one tap of the “Del” key on a computer keyboard erase all of Cordelia’s homework. No, Willow had not yet convinced herself that hanging with the Slayer made her cool. Nope, she just moped around because Xander (Xander!) didn’t want to get smoochy with her stupid crying face. Then she became a cyber-wicca.
Somewhere along the line, Joss decided that the whole thing where “Hey, you know how Willow is awkward and nerdy? Well, wouldn’t it be a hoot if we revealed her to be deeply sexual as well? Wouldn’t that be delightfully naughty?” was totally his favorite idea ever. So they introduced parallel universe vampire dominatrix lesbian Willow. TWICE!
Need I go on? Well, I will. In list form.
- Cheated on Oz (with Xander!)
- Kept forgetting to turn rat Amy human again
- Got addicted to…magic
- Wrecked a car with Dawn in the passenger seat, and then found a way to blame Buffy for it
- College lesbian cliche
- Totally not even close to good enough for Tara
- Always does that thing where she talks like an old person/four year old when she is trying to be cute.
Yes, Willow is truly the worst.
PS: In case you missed Emily’s fantastic opening salvo in Vol.1, here it is. Kay, I’m thinking it’s your turn now.
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It’s called New Caprica. I say we hold out for a better one.
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There have been really few science fiction movies. They have mostly been fantasies, with spaceships.
