Things I've Been Watching and Reading

So, I finished watching Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale and holy shit that was amazing and important. I'm not sure about them deciding to create a second season, but hey, I'll watch it. Again, everyone should see it because the Republicans are apparently using it as a How To guide. [sigh] I also finished Harlots which was really, really well-researched. Even the images in the titles/intro are spot on. I seriously enjoyed it because it definitely didn't merely rely upon sex to sell the show. There's some sex, but it doesn't pull a HBO/Game of Thrones where every episode has an excuse for naked women groaning. The show actually addresses issues women would've faced at the time. It talks about the political and ethical power plays between two madams and does so in an intelligent way. I tried Legion and it's definitely well done, but it was just too depressing for me right now. So, I had to quit. I also got all the way through 11.22.63 and well...I enjoyed it most of the time but it has some serious issues that I got into elsewhere.

Now, I'm watching Timeless. 

I've only seen the first episode, and I like it so far. I haven't seen enough of it to honestly critique it. So, we'll just leave it there. I'll also be venturing into Elementary because Hulu finally has all the episodes. Finally.

I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. (My one and only dog was named Mycroft Holmes III.) So, I was upset that I'd missed the start of the show. I'm all excited about it. I love that Watson is a woman and not a romantic target for Holmes. 

I'm also reading Ian Banks's Consider Phlebas, Ursula K. le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, and Jenny Nordberg's The Underground Girls of Kabul. Once again, I can't help find it fascinating: the mental gymnastics that a society will stretch to in order to bolster  a societal pyramid-shaped power base created to take advantage of those they deem lesser. It's breath-taking. Of course, I'm not implying that the US is superior in this regard. Oh, hell no. Quite the opposite. I do see it as an "invisible to those within a culture" problem. It's something that needs to be examined. "Can humans exist comfortably without taking advantage of some under-represented group?" and "If so, what would that look like?" are questions currently running around my mind.