Will and Grace

I watched all the episodes of all 8 of the original seasons of Will and Grace. It was so fun. At first I found the constant gay jokes to be homophobic, and it seemed like the gay characters were allowing us to make fun of gay people. But then I just grew accustomed to it and could enjoy the whole thing. The show did a lot to bring queer people into mainstream awareness, and the characters are drawn with nuance so they are not caricatures. Even Jack, the "stock stupid character", has important moments where he speaks about pride and acceptance.  The characters are written and played with great affection and respect.

Mainly I love the chemistry between the four of them. I think they are a blast to hang out with and I'm jealous of the actors. I try to pick a favorite but it always changes, because they are all so great and they work so well together.

The last season gets quite serious as it gears up for the final episode. I cried at the ending and thought it was successful. This fall they started a new season, 11 years later, and they ditched the ending from 2006. They just pretended it didn't happen. Even though I was so moved by the ending, I think it was a good choice to have them start fresh.

Stranger Things

Everybody loved Stranger Things (S1). Except me. First of all, after the first episode I didn't find it scary at all. I found the boys-on-a-caper thing annoying. I was mildly interested in the government conspiracy part of the plot, but that became tiring as well. I thought 11 was a cliche concept. I thought Winona Ryder was grating at best. The teenage romance part seemed like a bad 80s movie. See that's the thing, it didn't feel like a movie that took place in the 80s, it felt like an 80s movie. (very early Spielberg). And most of them I didn't like.

The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America

Earlier this fall I saw The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America, an incredibly powerful exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum. It provided a heart wrenching, gut wrenching look at the violence of lynching, the horror of racism, and the sickening history of this country. The show was put together with the Equal Justice Initiative and includes videos chronicling the stories of several individuals and their descendants that were so powerful and upsetting. It showed the violent resistance to the civil rights movement. There was powerful contemporary art by several amazing artists who tackle race and racism in their work, such as Kara Walker and Glenn Ligon. There were artifacts and newspaper articles, and a shocking interactive map of the US that showed all the lynchings that took place in the country, but state and by county.

Gypsy

Over the summer I watched a horrible Netflix TV show that thankfully was canceled after one season. Gypsy, starring Naomi Watts seems like it is interesting, sexy, complex, and sophisticated. It has all the right production and aesthetic elements. It looks and feels so contemporary. It looks and feels like it should be great. But it sucks. It's about a therapist who starts following her patients and gets involved with people in their ives under an assumed identity. There are double lives, erotic lesbians, classy professionals, downtown artists, infidelities, and a possible transgender child. The scenes are scored, directed, filmed in ways that seem cutting edge. But the plot and dialogue are so ridiculous. The whole thing is a laughable mess. It was impossible to care about the characters. Blech. I'm embarrassed that I watched the entire season.

The Days of Abandonment

I read The Days of Abandonment over the summer. This Elena Ferrante novel is written with a steady intensity that is engaging and somewhat emotionally suffocating. It is about a woman struggling to come to terms with her husband leaving her for another woman. She is left in their houses with their children and day after day she sinks more and more into and emotional abyss, mentally fried and unhinged. Her suffering and obsession are described with minute, almost clinical precision. I couldn't turn away.