The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

TV Review: The Shield, season 7

TV #36 of 2023:

The Shield, season 7

The penultimate sixth season of this police drama was its weakest in my opinion, and this final year takes a little while to shake itself back into gear. Early on, there’s a continued focus on the macguffin of a blackmail box (or as I kept mishearing it, “black mailbox”) that improbably contains dirt on a wide range of L.A.’s elected officials, which is a bit abstract of a threat concept to be worth investing our energies in. Luckily things take a turn about midway through, and from there on out The Shield is as thrilling and compulsively watchable as it’s ever been. The ultimate fracturing of what’s left of the Strike Team has been a long time coming, and while none of those gentlemen exactly deserve a happy ending, there’s still a tragedy in the dissolution of their former bonds, as well as the question of how many innocents they will manage to drag down with them.

So many great moments come in the last few episodes of this series, from Vic’s underhanded deal with ICE and overdue admission of his crimes, to the ironic twist of his eventual fate, to Shane and Mara’s increasingly desperate attempts to get away from it all and their own heartbreaking last scene that gives the finale its title. As ever, the anti-copaganda stance of the program is clear: these particular abusers were enabled by the power of the system, as we see in the immediate difficulties they face when some of them have to start operating without a badge, but their less corrupt peers are no heroes either. The whole department is ineffective, self-serving, and complicit in racist violence, and we have no reason to believe that Vic was the bad apple that made them that way, or that they aren’t representative of similar forces across America. In the end certain perpetrators are brought down, but there’s no sense of justice in any of it — just a lingering bad taste and a feeling that no meaningful problems have been solved or progress made. A powerful, sad, and bitterly funny thesis statement, bolstered by some of star Michael Chiklis’s best acting work yet. I don’t know that I would ever be drawn to watch this show again, but this was a phenomenal endgame for it.

[Content warning for racism, gun violence, gore, torture, rape, suicide, drug abuse, domestic abuse, and death of a young child.]

This season: ★★★★☆

Overall series: ★★★★☆

Seasons ranked: 5 > 1 > 7 > 4 > 2 > 3 > 6

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TV Review: Gilmore Girls, season 6

TV #35 of 2023:

Gilmore Girls, season 6

Another season that’s entertaining on the surface, especially with the built-in viewer investment in these characters, but frustrating in terms of underlying logic and plot structure. Certain choices feel like they’re being imposed externally by the writers, rather than arising naturally from the individual personalities on screen, which… obviously is the case for all such fiction, but the artificiality is generally masked better than this. Rory drops out of Yale and goes to live in her grandparents’ pool house, Luke delays marrying Lorelai and insists on keeping some pretty big secrets from her, and none of it quite matches the folks we’ve spent years getting to know by this point.

A few developments this season scream of a desperate ploy for wider audience appeal, too. Lorelai adopts a dog with absurdly wacky behavioral issues! Luke finds out he has a kid who’s coincidentally like a precocious preteen Rory! You can almost see the network notes being handed down here, and would-be major moments like the titular pair of protagonists reuniting after so long apart land hollowly, since their separation was so poorly motivated in the first place. Another theoretically triumphant scene shows the younger heroine somewhat annoyingly wearing down a newspaper editor to give her a job — which she’ll somehow manage while also restarting her college career and participating in the school paper? — only for that side hustle to never again be shown or mentioned.

This was the last year of the show’s original run helmed by creative team Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, forced out during negotiations as the WB became the CW, and conventional wisdom holds that the following season was a weaker echo of the program’s early strengths. But in my view on this rewatch, the decline in quality started well before then.

[Content warning for fatphobia, racism, transphobia, and alcohol abuse.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan

Book #92 of 2023:

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan

A scathing account of the abuse that runs rampant in the TV and film industry, drawing on hundreds of interviews across more than a decade of author Maureen Ryan’s investigative journalism career. Some sources have gone on the record for this book, but many remain anonymous out of a quite reasonable fear of reprisal. Likewise, the writer calls out plenty of serial harassers by name, but is forced to keep circumspect about the identities of others whose sins are not yet documented well enough to safely bring to light. Her main focus, however, is on the culture in Hollywood that not only allows such awful behavior to exist in the upper ranks, but often seems to even flat-out encourage and reward it. (The most infuriating element of this coverage is the revelation of how much has been public knowledge or an open secret among insiders for years, to no apparent ill effect for the abusers.)

It’s a book written by a media critic who loves her subject dearly, and who is righteously indignant over how many people have been hurt and cast aside in bringing those wonderful stories to life on our screens. She takes us inside the toxic work environments of shows like Sleepy Hollow and Lost, where even viewers who objected to periodic racist, sexist, or homophobic plot developments would likely be surprised by how much open bigotry was directed at the cast and crew members of the affected marginalized groups. She documents nauseating instances of Weinstein levels of sexual harassment/assault and bullying by top-level creatives, and how with few exceptions these men have been protected and promoted by virtue of producing box-office success. And in the closing chapters, she muses on the ways some individuals have started rejecting this system and offers concrete suggestions for how their peers could follow suit.

Little of this reporting is brand-new for this volume, but it’s effective — if incredibly disheartening! — to see it all laid out so clearly. Fans who can stomach it should read the horrid details for a beginning understanding of the human cost behind their favorite entertainments.

★★★★☆

Book Review: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Book #91 of 2023:

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

[Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.]

The latest Kickstarter novel from author Brandon Sanderson falls somewhere between the last two in quality for me. I don’t think it’s as strong a story as Tress of the Emerald Sea — nor that it would work as well for readers unfamiliar with recent cosmere developments / revelations of ‘realmatic theory’ in the Stormlight Archive and such — but it improves as it goes along and is substantially better throughout than The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. I’ll give it 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Like Tress, this is a tale in the writer’s broad cosmere continuity conveyed to us by that rascal Hoid, an unreliable narrator and minor character in the present affair. Mostly the plot follows the two title figures, whose lonely souls somehow become entwined despite their living on apparently separate worlds. Yumi is a sheltered priestess of sorts whose position is exalted yet grants her no real control over anything in her life; the painter is an underpaid service worker who patrols the streets to guard against supernatural threats. Their respective magics seem unremarkable to each yet fairly wondrous to the other, and after their lives come crashing together, they learn to appreciate both whilst unraveling the mystery of their connection — which finds them taking turns being relegated to a ghostly presence no one else can see while the other one occupies their normal physical space.

As usual for Sanderson, there are some eventual twist reveals concerning the underlying worldbuilding and rules to the magical systems, but he also finds time to focus on mental health issues like executive dysfunction and ruminate in not-too-subtle subtext on certain contemporary concerns about artificial intelligence (aka, how art created by humans is more meaningful than anything formed by mindless machinery, precisely because people invest it with meaning). This isn’t the deepest of the writer’s own creations, but there’s an interesting pan-Asian feel to the narrative in the form of hot springs, chopsticks, ramen shops, and so on, and he acknowledges several manga and JRPG titles as among his influences in an afterword.

Because this is all being told to us by an in-universe character prone to embellishment if not outright dishonesty, it comes — again, like Tress of the Emerald Sea — with a notable asterisk for whether the events of this story can be accepted at face-value as canonical. At a minimum, it doesn’t seem like anything here will wind up important to the broader cosmere saga, but if you’re a fan of Hoid and his Cryptic associate Design, this is a fun side adventure in which they play a supporting role to the slow-building romance between the titular star-crossed couple.

[Content warning for those romantic interests pretending to be siblings at one point.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Goldenhand by Garth Nix

Book #90 of 2023:

Goldenhand by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #5)

My original review of this novel from shortly after its publication in 2016:

“A triumphant return to the Old Kingdom, finally resolving the fate of the lost Abhorsen, Clariel. (Note: Clariel’s early life is described in the prequel novel which bears her name, and which should definitely be read prior to this book.) So many old favorites return in this story, but author Garth Nix continues to deepen the worldbuilding of the series and introduce compelling new characters as well. I wish that the central villain had had more of a presence throughout the novel, but otherwise Goldenhand was an absolute delight. And it feels less like an epilogue than the earlier novel Abhorsen did, so hopefully there will be further Old Kingdom stories coming out from Nix in the years to come. Goldenhand demonstrates decisively that the setting still has plenty of tales left to tell.”

To that I would add on this 2023 series reread, with the earlier volumes fresh in my mind: in addition to Clariel (published in 2014), the beginning of this one draws heavily on the events of the 2005 novella “Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case,” which makes the success of Goldenhand all the more remarkable for its writer coming back to those characters after so long away. Nick is much more compelling of a protagonist now than he was in Lirael (2001) / Abhorsen (2003), and his deepening romance with Lirael is probably the best love story Garth Nix has ever written — though that’s an admittedly low bar! I also really appreciate how she’s grown in competence and confidence since her introduction, as particularly underscored by a homecoming scene to the Clayr’s glacier and the confrontation it allows there with the outdated impression of the young woman some of her relatives still hold.

The ending of this novel cribs a little off The Return of the King, with a pair of heroes on a quest to destroy the latest magical macguffin, all whilst their friends make a bold stand with an outnumbered army, trying to hold the line until the distant mission can be accomplished and the enemy’s strength mystically shattered. But Nix is hardly the first fantasy author to borrow from Tolkien, and the plot device works fine even warmed-over like this. Overall I think this title succeeds better than Clariel, and would recommend its continuation of the saga for any readers who enjoyed the previous installments.

[Content warning for body horror, amputation, and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Doctor Who: Classics Omnibus Volume 1 by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Dez Skinn, Paul Neary, Steve Moore, Grant Morrison, John Ridgway, Bryan Hitch, and Steve Parkhouse

Book #89 of 2023:

Doctor Who: Classics Omnibus Volume 1 by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Dez Skinn, Paul Neary, Steve Moore, Grant Morrison, John Ridgway, Bryan Hitch, and Steve Parkhouse

Three-and-a-half stars, rounded up. This 2010 anthology gathers 19 comic book stories by a variety of authors and artists, originally published in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine between 1979 and 1988. And while I wouldn’t necessarily call any of them essential for fans, they collectively represent a fascinating look at a somewhat obscure corner of the long-running sci-fi franchise. There’s the Doctor’s first canonical companion of color Sharon Davies, introduced 28 years before Martha Jones on TV. There’s the ultimate fate of Jamie McCrimmon, erstwhile companion to the Second Doctor, coupled with a surprising revelation about the origins of the villainous Cybermen. There are several plots that couldn’t have aired on the contemporary show, due to either budgetary considerations or the level of just plain weirdness possible on the written page with less direct BBC oversight (or both, in the case of fan-favorite companion Frobisher, a shapeshifting alien whose natural form looks like a regular earth penguin). And there’s The Star Beast, the storyline that introduces the infamously innocuous-looking furry megalomaniac and war criminal Beep the Meep, set to make his live-action debut later this year in either an adaptation or sequel to that tale. (The publicity remains unclear.)

It’s sort of an odd collection, and the criteria for inclusion are not particularly obvious. There are installments here with the Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors, along with their companions K-9 and Peri — plus those I’ve already mentioned — but not always in order and with plenty of remaining issues from the same eras left out. The quality is definitely variable from sequence to sequence too, as is the length, with some adventures spanning only a few pages and others representing the kind of serialized fiction that would have played out over many months in the original format. But I’ve enjoyed seeing this side of a series so dear to my heart, and would recommend it for any comic readers looking to explore the wider Whoniverse.

[Content warning for gun violence, cannibalism, and genocide.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Book #88 of 2023:

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #9)

This 1962 novel, published in the U.S. as simply The Mirror Crack’d, offers a fun little murder mystery that’s kept me guessing throughout. No one seems to have had any motive that could account for the neighborhood woman’s death at the house party of a glamorous movie star resented by many — so was the wrong cup poisoned, or is something even stranger afoot? Luckily Miss Marple is on hand to push the police in the right direction and conduct her own discreet inquiries, all the while dodging the ageist attentions of her fussy nursemaid. The solution to the puzzle doesn’t quite play as fairly as I’d like, relying as it does on the heroine’s background medical knowledge that isn’t actually introduced to us as a proper clue in the plot. (Or perhaps the key piece of information was less obscure in the original time and place of publication?) Yet regardless, the characters are engaging and the setting captures a nice snapshot of how author Agatha Christie’s iconic quiet English villages were changing as the twentieth century barreled along. I appreciate the slight ambiguity of the ending, as well.

[Content warning for suicide and racism including slurs.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

Book #87 of 2023:

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

Author S. A. Cosby’s latest novel is his best work yet, a gripping southern noir with heavy shades of True Detective and extreme depictions of mutilation out of something like Hannibal. Check my content warnings below — it’s definitely not for the faint of heart! Our hero is the Black sheriff of a fictional rural Virginia county, and his story starts with reports of an active shooter at the local high school. Upon arrival, Titus learns that the suspect is a student who has killed one of his teachers, and when the boy comes out the door without lowering his weapon, an officer on the scene guns him down. It feels very ripped-from-the-headlines, especially since the deputy is white and the teenager was Black, leading to the expected public outcry and allegations of police overreaction and racism.

The plot turns when the protagonist examines the dead teacher’s phone and discovers evidence that he, his killer, and a masked third person were all partners in the serial torture, rape, and murder of a string of missing children. The last man is still out there and now begins both taunting the police and striking out to silence potential witnesses, with the remainder of the book focusing on the hunt to learn his identity and end his long streak of cruelty. It’s a riveting tale, particularly against the backdrop of small-town racial and religious dynamics and simmering family resentments that the main character has to navigate just to do his job.

The one flaw in the affair for me, or at least in how I approached this read, is that it’s not an especially satisfying mystery in the end. Spoiler alert: while the sheriff spends a lot of time interviewing and considering various suspects, the culprit turns out to be a pretty minor background figure with no particular clues pointing his way. The narrative still works great as a suspenseful crime thriller, but there isn’t that nice sense of subtle pieces falling into place upon the eventual reveal. Other readers might feel differently, but I wonder if it might have been a stronger choice to tell us the murderer’s name from the start, so that we don’t waste our energy anticipating a big twist or puzzling over an answer that can’t really be deduced in advance. That aside, however, I continue to be quite impressed with this writer and believe he’s improving his craft with every title.

[Content warning for racism, gun violence, domestic abuse, torture, gore, and sexual assault, including all of the above directed at children.]

★★★★☆

TV Review: Seinfeld, season 2

TV #34 of 2023:

Seinfeld, season 2

A marginal improvement over the first year of this 90s sitcom, though it retains Jerry’s dreadful stand-up material on the binary differences he sees between men and women. Outside those scenes, the storytelling engine is working a little better now at spinning minutiae into twenty-minute comedy pieces, but the writers are still struggling against the impulse towards over-the-top wackiness in some of these plots. It’s not enough in The Heart Attack for George’s hypochondria to send him to the hospital — he then has to move on to Kramer’s recommendation of a faith healer, whose alternative medicine turns him bright purple, and ultimately wind up in an ambulance heading back to the hospital when it crashes because the paramedics are arguing over a stolen candy bar, all the while Elaine is dating his doctor who’s more interested in literally studying her tongue. It’s all a bit chaotic and loud more than it is funny, a perpetual problem so far when it comes to integrating Jerry’s neighbor into the action.

Sometimes, the scripts calm down enough to actually work as humor. This season produces the first episode I would unequivocally highlight as great, The Chinese Restaurant, which is hilarious despite playing out in real-time as just a lengthy wait for a table that’s been promised to only take five or ten minutes. (Perhaps tellingly, Kramer sits this one out completely.) On the other hand, this run also gives us the worst and most dated Seinfeld I’ve seen yet: The Revenge, in which George and Elaine try to slip his boss a drugged drink to make him forget about an unfortunate workplace incident, while Jerry advises Kramer to tell his friend who keeps threatening to jump off the building to quit whining and just do it already. It’s a whole lot of yikes!

But the upward trend is promising, and I have to assume that even stronger outings are ahead, given how none of the famous quotes I’ve heard from this series seem to have come up yet. I’m far from hooked on the show, but it’s a low enough time investment to keep watching for now.

[Content warning for gun violence.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Book #86 of 2023:

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

A creepy #ownvoices haunted house story that never quite clicks into gear, perhaps because the premise is just a bit too convoluted for my tastes. Our queer teenage protagonist, visiting her father in Vietnam while he fixes up an old manor home, is visited nightly by both a cruel spirit that wants to hurt the family and a secretive yet more friendly-seeming ghost that offers her cryptic warnings against the other. Then, since Jade can’t get anyone else to believe her about these hauntings, she and a friend / love interest rig up fake evidence of further paranormal activity themselves! But they don’t always communicate with one another before acting, leading to inevitable instances of the heroine not being sure if a certain spooky development is phony, threatening, or intended to help.

Beyond all that, I feel like the characters are too binary in their reactions to the revelation of the genre around them. They either categorically reject the idea of the supernatural or else accept it matter-of-factly with no skepticism or lingering doubts, even when moving from the former group into the latter. That adds an extra level of artificiality to a plot I was already struggling to stay invested in, and while I think debut author Trang Thanh Tran has some meaningful things to say about generational trauma, their delivery here doesn’t entirely work for me as a reader.

[Content warning for racism, homophobia, domestic abuse, body horror, and gore.]

★★★☆☆