RatCreature's Journal

After seeing the ads hyping this everywhere, now that it's available on free tv here, I decided to give Babylon Berlin a try. I watched the first four episodes so far, and have to say that I like it less than I expected.

Historical crime fiction is a genre I normally enjoy, but I also want to like the protagonist(s), and the first episodes didn't make me connect to any of the major characters.

I'll probably finish watching to see the case resolve, though, because it is not bad, and quite pretty to watch.

I watched the Legion pilot and I'm quite confused.

It started with me trying to figure out when this was even supposed to be set. Obviously it's not supposed to be present day, but it's not the 1960s, 70s or any other consistent era either. And even more disorienting, David's childhood flashbacks didn't seem to be offset in an earlier era than the main story either.

I mean, clearly both the design, the psychedelic interludes and the disjointed story telling are all intentional, but I'm not sure that this works for me. I had a really hard time trying to decipher events and understanding what was going on in between the hallucinations, flashbacks and the body switching in the present? Or was that even body switching? I'm not clear what actually happened with that mental hospital escape.

Though I'm willing to stick with the series for a bit longer.

The no-dialog thing in the first half of CSI:NY felt really gimmicky. It made the story more tedious, IMO, with the even longer than usual montages to emotional music, and they didn't even stick with it for a whole episode.

I've been watching some episodes of that Hoarders reality tv show after I came across clips from it somewhere that piqued my curiosity, and I'm really baffled. Not so much by the mindsets that lead to keeping all kinds of stuff including junk, and letting your living space deteriorate, as that I don't understand how many of them could have had the money and time to acquire all these things in the first place.

Because of this I keep finding the cases with people who really just have junk (like things they collected from dumpsters or even empty boxes or plastic bottles or such) far more comprehensible than the people with piles and piles of clothes, stuffed animals, or other things they paid for. Even if you buy second hand on some flea market, with those massive volumes that has to add up significantly, doesn't it?

I'm fairly sure that the main reason my own place doesn't look worse is that I have neither money nor inclination for the process to acquire things to begin with. I like having things well enough, but shopping is awful, and comparing prices or looking for bargains or searching for things is worse. (You see, I'm not fond of flea markets or such.) I don't even like looking for comics all that much. Actually one of the reasons why I hang onto semi-broken things myself is to avoid buying new ones, and not just because of the money. Like for example I have this immersion blender, and parts of the plastic have broken off, so it is rather less usable, because the part that properly keeps the distance between the blades and the bottom is not working as intended anymore. However you can still blend things with it of you take care. I use this tool fairly often, so I'm annoyed quite a often too, and immersion blenders aren't *that* expensive, and yet. It's been broken for many months now. Or how I've been living with some bare light bulbs for over 15 years to avoid having to buy ceiling lamps or lampshades or the like, when just having the bulb is adequate for having light.

I also have some truly broken things for which I had to get replacements yet still haven't thrown away the old ones, but that is mostly old electronics, like my broken digital camera, because I am too lazy to bring them to the recycling collection place for specialized waste, but feel bad about putting them in the trash against the rules.

IMO the only shopping that is remotely tolerable is restocking things that I know where to buy at an acceptable price, so that no choices or comparisons or other tedious (or even anxiety inducing) efforts need to be made. So I'm baffled that all these people get a kick out of acquiring things, when it takes so much effort, time and financial resources, whereas I understand the inertia, vague or aborted ideas and sentimental attachments that lead to keeping stuff that is already there quite well. I suppose my own hoarding tendencies are kept in check sufficiently on the acquisition side so problems on the disposal side just can't escalate too badly.

I've been spending the evening with a Fringe marathon, and now reached 2x11 and ( spoilers )

Please tell me that someone has already written the slightly AU PWP missing scene for this ep in which ( spoilers for 7x01 )

I've watched the first three episodes of the Australian series East West 101, after I've seen it recced a couple of times. And so far I quite like the premise and setup, but I find it really hard to understand the dialog. With most US or British tv I miss maybe a word or half sentence every now and then, sometimes because of dialects, but more often because actors mumble, but in this series I frequently have no idea what they are saying at all for a whole exchange, not even when I replay and replay again. :(

(Totally unrelated, today's obligatory World Cup-related whining: I sincerely hope that once this is over I won't ever have to hear the stupid 54, 74, 90, 2010 song again.)