Every few years or so, a comic, movie or TV show poses the question, “What if superheroes really existed?” It’s a brilliant starting point for any direction you want to take the idea in, not just because the conventions of superhero stories are so ripe for parody, but by thinking out how our existing governments & institutions might behave in a world with one big difference from ours an be an extremely effective way to criticise the way those institutions are behaving in the here and now.
The Boys is the latest show to have a go at this trope and while the idea may be familiar the execution is striking. On the one hand, The Boys is an expert deconstruction of superhero stories, with an appropriately winterish view of institutional power, be it corporate, governmental, religious, or caped. On the other hand, it’s an adaptation of a comic book series that launched in 2006 and is to an extent dated.
The most obvious thing that’s changed between the first issue of The Boys and its television debut is that superheroes have taken over pop culture. It’s hard to remember the before times now, but the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang influenced Iron Man didn’t kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe until 2008, with the DC Extended Universe not arriving for five years after that. Ennis and Robertson assumed that superheroes would be monetized the second they appeared, but working in the heyday of Blackwater, the natural business model was defense contractors, not movie studios. The first shot is a Marvelesque sequence in which thousands of comic panels dissolve into the logo for the fictional Vought Studios, and the second is a bus advert for a superhero movie. As Madelyn Stillwell, a villainous executive played by Elisabeth Shue, says at a Vought shareholders meeting, it’s a good time to be in the superhero business. And the show’s professional sports-flavored vision of that business assigning crime fighters to cities in exchange for concessions from local governments that is more satisfying and more vicious than in the original Marvel Civil War storyline.
The show’s increased proximity to the entertainment industry lets Amazon’s version of The Boys address the #MeToo movement. In the pilot episode, Annie January (Erin Moriarty), an innocent kid from Des Moines, Iowa, who can shoot beams of blinding light from her hands, gets the full star treatment: She successfully auditions to join Vought’s premier superhero team; she finally pleases her stage mother (Ann Cusack); she gets flown to Manhattan and driven around in a limo; she gets a dedicated handler (Colby Minifie, oozing resentment); she’s promised television appearances, movies, merchandising, and astonishing amounts of money; she gets to meet her delightfully named childhood heroes - a Superman type called Homelander (Antony Starr), a Flash type called A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), a Wonder Woman type called Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott). Then out of left field she gets blackmailed into performing oral sex on an Aquaman type called the Deep (Chace Crawford). In one of the show’s better throwaway jokes, she pukes afterward in one of Vought’s unisex bathrooms: It’s a proudly progressive company, except for all the sexual assault. That plotline exists in the comics, but it doesn’t cause much trouble between Annie and her employer. Instead, it’s mostly a device to cause tension between Annie and her victim-blaming love interest (played by Jack Quaid on the show). Employees have a few more cards to play now, and the show smartly incorporates that reality.
But when Annie starts playing those cards, the seams created by refitting a 2006 series for 2019 really start to show. Annie is an evangelical Christian, and she chooses to break her silence about being assaulted onstage at the “Believe Expo,” a youth revival where superheroes cheerfully explain that their superpowers mean they were chosen by God. The mood is extremely Bush-era, faith and imperialism and homophobia balled up into a soft-rock, white jeans nightmare. The endless sense of grievance that mysteriously appeared in much white evangelical discourse after 04/11/08 isn’t present. Even same sex marriage - something evangelicals have mostly abandoned fighting - seems like an open issue, judging from the merchandise booth. But the most striking thing is the way Vought endlessly defers to white evangelicals - keeping gay superheroes in the closet, making sure another superhero doesn’t admit she’s had premarital sex, letting one of their stars advocate “praying away the gay” - in a way secular media hasn’t really done since they discovered there was more profit to be made in inclusivity than bigotry.
Which brings us to the biggest challenge in adapting The Boys for television in 2019, one that Amazon’s show never quite overcomes: adjusting for the election wins of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. There’s a scene in the very first issue of the comic book that illustrates the problem pretty clearly: The director of the CIA, played by Jennifer Esposito on the show, says, with a completely straight face, “The President is a man of total moral integrity.” That statement is no longer operative, to put it mildly, and it’s not just because the living embodiment of gammon is living in the White House. George W. Bush and Maggie Thatcher were not moral paragons but their supporters kept up appearances in a way that now seems quaint and has been proven to be unnecessary. In the comic books it’s the president who’s a ruthless Halliburton stooge and the vice president who’s a moron, but everyone operates under the assumption that if the president’s corruption or the vice president’s stupidity were publicly exposed, it would hurt them. The public simply wouldn’t stand for it.
But the current Premiers Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are the complete package; corruption and stupidity, with racism, misogyny thrown in as a bonus - and he’s headed toward his fourth year in office with a strong chance of at least four more. The main plot of The Boys, like every conspiracy thriller, superhero or no, is built around the idea that someone, somewhere would care if the conspiracy were exposed. Even the show’s subplots - closeted superheroes, performance-enhancing drugs, what really happened aboard a hijacked plane - depend on the idea that if the truth were known, something would happen. But nothing will happen. There’s one superpower that beats heat vision, superstrength, invisibility, and even the ability to communicate with fish: complete and utter shamelessness. Still, if you’d like to spend some time in a world where supervillainy can sometimes be countered by superheroism, you could do a lot worse than The Boys.
Sunday, 12 July 2020
Monday, 18 May 2020
Why the Transgender Community is Dubious About Liz Truss
Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers I hope this blog finds you in good fettle. If you didn't know and I'll understand if you don't what with the world going mad over the past few months Liz Truss has recently been made the Equalities Minister for the UK. I don't about you but when I think about the term "equalities minister" I think of someone whose job it is to stand up for minorities, give us a helping and hand and attempt to make day to day life fairer.
Essentially I want to hear about Liz Truss walking into a traditionally transphobic group such as a recruitment agency, Admiral Insurance or Father Ted appreciation society and saying "Hi I'm Liz Truss, word on the street is you're giving some of my minorities a tough time, thats going to stop."
Or something along less exaggerated along those lines, instead we're seeing her follow transphobic hate groups on social media and coming out with the following comments;
Protecting single sex spaces.
Protecting under 18s from irreversible decisions.
Two points repeatedly spouted by anti transgender rights protestors.
It is the firm opinion of this blogger that this is the textbook example of a bad start to the new job. Is Liz Truss just another transphobe who is going to have an impact on our lives with no repercussions for herself? It certainly looks that way.
Essentially I want to hear about Liz Truss walking into a traditionally transphobic group such as a recruitment agency, Admiral Insurance or Father Ted appreciation society and saying "Hi I'm Liz Truss, word on the street is you're giving some of my minorities a tough time, thats going to stop."
Or something along less exaggerated along those lines, instead we're seeing her follow transphobic hate groups on social media and coming out with the following comments;
Protecting single sex spaces.
Protecting under 18s from irreversible decisions.
Two points repeatedly spouted by anti transgender rights protestors.
It is the firm opinion of this blogger that this is the textbook example of a bad start to the new job. Is Liz Truss just another transphobe who is going to have an impact on our lives with no repercussions for herself? It certainly looks that way.
Saturday, 16 May 2020
The Big Finish Catch-Up May 2020
For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;
I start this blog entry with a confession, I've run out of money and I'm running out of Big Finish stories that I bought on sale and have in the bank. As such I'm currently having one two hour Big Finish session a month. As such this entry includes a second listening of the first River Song box set and the first listening of UNIT: Dominion. Enjoy the review and more entries will be up soon.
The River Song box set treads the line finely of being a box set and having standalone stories. As the box set progresses they get less standalone which is perfectly understandable, that being said Rulers of the Universe and Signs I can see being relistened to in the future with Signs being up there with Big Finish best stuff. As a box set it is very campy and has a 70's feel which should help you decide weather it interests you or not. So its a 7.5/10 from me.
UNIT Dominion is a very strange box set, it doesn't tread the box set stand alone story fine at all a its one story. Its interesting and possibly has too much going on to the extent that no plot lines give us time to do a deep dive and it feels like skirting around in the shallows for a few hours. We get some resolution to Kleins story although in all honesty I thought the previous ending was fine so it gets a polite thankyou with a shrug from me. Its nice to see Raine and I hope she shows up more often. This story is at its best when bonkers stuff is happening and UNIT is struggling to cope. Its a 5.5/10 from me and as a whole it needs an edit.
I start this blog entry with a confession, I've run out of money and I'm running out of Big Finish stories that I bought on sale and have in the bank. As such I'm currently having one two hour Big Finish session a month. As such this entry includes a second listening of the first River Song box set and the first listening of UNIT: Dominion. Enjoy the review and more entries will be up soon.
The River Song box set treads the line finely of being a box set and having standalone stories. As the box set progresses they get less standalone which is perfectly understandable, that being said Rulers of the Universe and Signs I can see being relistened to in the future with Signs being up there with Big Finish best stuff. As a box set it is very campy and has a 70's feel which should help you decide weather it interests you or not. So its a 7.5/10 from me.
UNIT Dominion is a very strange box set, it doesn't tread the box set stand alone story fine at all a its one story. Its interesting and possibly has too much going on to the extent that no plot lines give us time to do a deep dive and it feels like skirting around in the shallows for a few hours. We get some resolution to Kleins story although in all honesty I thought the previous ending was fine so it gets a polite thankyou with a shrug from me. Its nice to see Raine and I hope she shows up more often. This story is at its best when bonkers stuff is happening and UNIT is struggling to cope. Its a 5.5/10 from me and as a whole it needs an edit.
Friday, 7 February 2020
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
The Trials of Looking For Employment Transgender Style
Good afternoon lady and gentle readers, as I type this blog on a cold Wednesday in January I find myself in a rather befuddled mood. Allow me to explain, last Thursday I made the trip over to Cardiff for a job interview which I passed! This has turned into a fairly regular occurrence as I have now passed my last four job interviews, however I am still unemployed.
Allow me to explain, in October 2018 I signed with a company called Compass who had the catering contracts for the Liberty Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium. This meant that I was in the position of having a bit of money coming in to help with applying and travel to full time work. However during mid 2019 Compass lost the contract for the Liberty and Principality. I then transferred / applied to Sodexo who took the contract for the Liberty stadium and got it. Although truth be told it was more of a transfer than an interview I am classing this as an interview for ego purposes.
During mid 2019 as football and rugby matches were scarce I applied with Hap for festival and event work. Again I passed the interview although due to them taking their time at the time of writing I have only done one event with them a Stereophonics concert. During this time I have been applying for other work and its effectively become the same stuff you'll be familiar with from earlier blogs. Lots of interest that dries up the moment they realise I'm transgender.
Last week I passed an interview with Arc Hospitality which means I should be busy over the coming months. I'm enjoying hospitality looking forward to all upcoming shifts although the major problem is that being casual and mostly match and event day there isn't a lot of hours. However I'm getting good at it, management are training me and upping my skill set. Hopefully this might lead to permanent work in something like a hotel or restaurant.
Personally I'm in a good place right now and can see things getting better.
Allow me to explain, in October 2018 I signed with a company called Compass who had the catering contracts for the Liberty Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium. This meant that I was in the position of having a bit of money coming in to help with applying and travel to full time work. However during mid 2019 Compass lost the contract for the Liberty and Principality. I then transferred / applied to Sodexo who took the contract for the Liberty stadium and got it. Although truth be told it was more of a transfer than an interview I am classing this as an interview for ego purposes.
During mid 2019 as football and rugby matches were scarce I applied with Hap for festival and event work. Again I passed the interview although due to them taking their time at the time of writing I have only done one event with them a Stereophonics concert. During this time I have been applying for other work and its effectively become the same stuff you'll be familiar with from earlier blogs. Lots of interest that dries up the moment they realise I'm transgender.
Last week I passed an interview with Arc Hospitality which means I should be busy over the coming months. I'm enjoying hospitality looking forward to all upcoming shifts although the major problem is that being casual and mostly match and event day there isn't a lot of hours. However I'm getting good at it, management are training me and upping my skill set. Hopefully this might lead to permanent work in something like a hotel or restaurant.
Personally I'm in a good place right now and can see things getting better.
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
A Good December And A Rubbish 2019
Good afternoon lady and gentle readers, as I start this entry it is a dark wet Wednesday and the start of the second week of 2020. With a clear week between the present and the previous year I want to take a look back at 2019, reflect and see what I can bring forward into 2020.
2019 was a very low year for me personally, towards the end of 2018 I had joined a hospitality company who operated the contracts for the three biggest stadiums in South Wales. I shall be referring to them a "the company" as I signed forms that said I wouldn't mention them by name on social media and quite frankly I really enjoy working with them and don't want to screw it up. So even though I was unemployed I would have 4/5 hours a weeks work casual employment. At a low ebb going into this job I was enjoying my weekly trips to work but unfortunately it had little effect on my job hunting. Looking back to my diary January is littered with applications that looked positive until the employer realised I was trans gender then dropped interest in me.
This is the story of my year up until May, at that time I found out that the company had lost the contract for the Liberty Stadium as well as The Principality. Meaning I could only do matches at the ground of the Cardiff City which after travel and being taxed 63% of earnings as I'm on Universal Credit meant I'd be making about £1.00 a shift. Fortunately a new company took the contract at Swansea and I was transferred over. However as we were now approaching the end of the football and rugby season work was about to dry up.
I put my name down with agencies that I knew had contracts for venues in Wales but on hearing I was trans they would shelve my application or come up with blatantly made up excuses not to take me on. Eventually I passed an interview with a company that cater to events and venues all over the country. They were doing a good number of events in my area so summer should have been busy. However they shelved my application, after two months of phoning and making a nuisance of myself I was finally registered but at this point there was only one event left in Wales which resulted in me going a few months without work.
I'd love to be putting something else into this blog entry at this point, telling you about something amazing that I did or someone I met that would go on to have a significant effect on my life. But when the world decides to put you on the shelf it stops everything and at some point during this year I lost the will to do anything. I stopped doing the things that I enjoyed due to feeling low and cost - long term readers might have noticed there were less entries on this blog. But as the title to this blog points out there is a good ending.
At the tail end of July the football season started back and with friendlies fast approaching I found myself booked for a number of Saturdays in a row. Summer was in full force, there were faces I hadn't seen in months, new systems, a new company, a new menu and I threw myself into things. Typing now from two thirds into the season I've done every home game at the Liberty bar one due to public transport on Sunday mornings being non-existent.
Around October I was asked after a shift if I was interested in being a team leader to which I said yes. My hours were extended at this point coming in to help pre match on game days and a few other various things that I enjoyed. In December there were a lot of Hospitality shifts and I put my name down for all I could. Which meant for December it felt like I was virtually full time employed, during this time a manager happened to be nearby when I was briefing a team of mostly newbies and apparently I impressed them.
So what have we learnt readers? I for one am greeting 2020 with good vibrations, I'm keeping the positive energy from December, tearing up the rest of 2019 and throwing it into the bin.
Lets make this a good year...
2019 was a very low year for me personally, towards the end of 2018 I had joined a hospitality company who operated the contracts for the three biggest stadiums in South Wales. I shall be referring to them a "the company" as I signed forms that said I wouldn't mention them by name on social media and quite frankly I really enjoy working with them and don't want to screw it up. So even though I was unemployed I would have 4/5 hours a weeks work casual employment. At a low ebb going into this job I was enjoying my weekly trips to work but unfortunately it had little effect on my job hunting. Looking back to my diary January is littered with applications that looked positive until the employer realised I was trans gender then dropped interest in me.
This is the story of my year up until May, at that time I found out that the company had lost the contract for the Liberty Stadium as well as The Principality. Meaning I could only do matches at the ground of the Cardiff City which after travel and being taxed 63% of earnings as I'm on Universal Credit meant I'd be making about £1.00 a shift. Fortunately a new company took the contract at Swansea and I was transferred over. However as we were now approaching the end of the football and rugby season work was about to dry up.
I put my name down with agencies that I knew had contracts for venues in Wales but on hearing I was trans they would shelve my application or come up with blatantly made up excuses not to take me on. Eventually I passed an interview with a company that cater to events and venues all over the country. They were doing a good number of events in my area so summer should have been busy. However they shelved my application, after two months of phoning and making a nuisance of myself I was finally registered but at this point there was only one event left in Wales which resulted in me going a few months without work.
I'd love to be putting something else into this blog entry at this point, telling you about something amazing that I did or someone I met that would go on to have a significant effect on my life. But when the world decides to put you on the shelf it stops everything and at some point during this year I lost the will to do anything. I stopped doing the things that I enjoyed due to feeling low and cost - long term readers might have noticed there were less entries on this blog. But as the title to this blog points out there is a good ending.
At the tail end of July the football season started back and with friendlies fast approaching I found myself booked for a number of Saturdays in a row. Summer was in full force, there were faces I hadn't seen in months, new systems, a new company, a new menu and I threw myself into things. Typing now from two thirds into the season I've done every home game at the Liberty bar one due to public transport on Sunday mornings being non-existent.
Around October I was asked after a shift if I was interested in being a team leader to which I said yes. My hours were extended at this point coming in to help pre match on game days and a few other various things that I enjoyed. In December there were a lot of Hospitality shifts and I put my name down for all I could. Which meant for December it felt like I was virtually full time employed, during this time a manager happened to be nearby when I was briefing a team of mostly newbies and apparently I impressed them.
So what have we learnt readers? I for one am greeting 2020 with good vibrations, I'm keeping the positive energy from December, tearing up the rest of 2019 and throwing it into the bin.
Lets make this a good year...
Saturday, 4 January 2020
The Big Finish Catch-Up October to December 2019
For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;
Lords of the Red Planet, was the first story in October from the lost story range featuring the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. I'm not going to focus on this one as its a rare story that I didn't like and struggled to get through to the extent I fell asleep twice and have no idea how it ended. I'm not going to rank it and make a point to come back at a later date and have another go with it.
Farewell Great Macedon, came next also from the lost story range and featured the original line up. Whenever I hear a lost story I want to feel like I'm listening to a TV story with missing visuals and that is what I got from this story. It feels like the production team thought "oh Marco Polo went down well lets do another one" and it would fit in somewhere before the Dalek invasion of Earth. I was just hooked and it truly felt like I was listening to something from fifty years ago. Not only is this my favourite story in some time, I think it ranks up there with my personal classics from Big Finish as I write this it just might be my favourite 10/10.
Nightshade, started off November - I realised it was Nightshade within the first few minutes and smiling my little head off. This book has hung over Mark Gatiss career and he's never eclipsed it imo. It was as good as I hoped it was going to be, I never came away thinking that it didn't work as an audio. On top of that its so strange listening to a pre Love and War story featuring Ace, these stories foreshadow her actions so well.
Next up was Lucie Miller / To the Death the finale to the fourth season of the 8th Doctor adventures. Blimey this feels like the end of an era, first things first this isn't a story for you if you're dipping in and out of the range I'd recommend listening to this season in order and preferably listening to the range up to this point in order. This story feels like an epic and strangely most of the characters are this seasons regulars. When bad things start to happen in this story it feels more emotional than it usually does. This is such an emotional story and its a testament to the range and this season how much I cared about what happened in this story. 10/10 and I can't wait to see what happens in this range next.
Iteration of I started off in December, the final story in the Fifth Doctor box set featuring his original line up of companions. A very very good if slightly too wordy horror story 9/10.
Blue Tooth a companion chronicle starring Caroline John as Liz was next. A dark story set in the UNIT era doing interesting things with the Cybermen 8/10.
Auntie Matter, a fun throwaway story featuring the Fourth Doctor and Mary Tamms Romana. Very much Doctor Who does Jeeves and Wooster, lots of fun 8/10.
Another companion chronicle Frostfire came next starring Maureen O'Brien featuring the First Doctor, Vicki and Steven. A very good moody story that does interesting things with the format 7/10.
The final story of this blog entry is The Veiled Tiger, a freebie released with Doctor Who Magazine that Big Finish released in their Christmas sale. A fun bit of fluff featuring two opposing teams of companions Peri and Erimem Vs Ace and Hex. Good crack and a few laughs, highly recommended if you can find it 8/10.
Lords of the Red Planet, was the first story in October from the lost story range featuring the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. I'm not going to focus on this one as its a rare story that I didn't like and struggled to get through to the extent I fell asleep twice and have no idea how it ended. I'm not going to rank it and make a point to come back at a later date and have another go with it.
Farewell Great Macedon, came next also from the lost story range and featured the original line up. Whenever I hear a lost story I want to feel like I'm listening to a TV story with missing visuals and that is what I got from this story. It feels like the production team thought "oh Marco Polo went down well lets do another one" and it would fit in somewhere before the Dalek invasion of Earth. I was just hooked and it truly felt like I was listening to something from fifty years ago. Not only is this my favourite story in some time, I think it ranks up there with my personal classics from Big Finish as I write this it just might be my favourite 10/10.
Nightshade, started off November - I realised it was Nightshade within the first few minutes and smiling my little head off. This book has hung over Mark Gatiss career and he's never eclipsed it imo. It was as good as I hoped it was going to be, I never came away thinking that it didn't work as an audio. On top of that its so strange listening to a pre Love and War story featuring Ace, these stories foreshadow her actions so well.
Next up was Lucie Miller / To the Death the finale to the fourth season of the 8th Doctor adventures. Blimey this feels like the end of an era, first things first this isn't a story for you if you're dipping in and out of the range I'd recommend listening to this season in order and preferably listening to the range up to this point in order. This story feels like an epic and strangely most of the characters are this seasons regulars. When bad things start to happen in this story it feels more emotional than it usually does. This is such an emotional story and its a testament to the range and this season how much I cared about what happened in this story. 10/10 and I can't wait to see what happens in this range next.
Iteration of I started off in December, the final story in the Fifth Doctor box set featuring his original line up of companions. A very very good if slightly too wordy horror story 9/10.
Blue Tooth a companion chronicle starring Caroline John as Liz was next. A dark story set in the UNIT era doing interesting things with the Cybermen 8/10.
Auntie Matter, a fun throwaway story featuring the Fourth Doctor and Mary Tamms Romana. Very much Doctor Who does Jeeves and Wooster, lots of fun 8/10.
Another companion chronicle Frostfire came next starring Maureen O'Brien featuring the First Doctor, Vicki and Steven. A very good moody story that does interesting things with the format 7/10.
The final story of this blog entry is The Veiled Tiger, a freebie released with Doctor Who Magazine that Big Finish released in their Christmas sale. A fun bit of fluff featuring two opposing teams of companions Peri and Erimem Vs Ace and Hex. Good crack and a few laughs, highly recommended if you can find it 8/10.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)