Rufus Wainwright (album)

I'm planning on listening to his entire discography, and taking it slowly, album by album. To that end I need to write down some unpolished thoughts on each song, so I can refresh my memory further down the road. I'm also including a star for whether I would personally earmark the song for repeated listening when I'm done digesting the album. In order:

• Foolish Love - As a debut album opener, this song doesn't really do it for me. It's not quite enjoyable to me to just listen to straight, though I don't dislike it by any means. It just doesn't have a melody that catches me.
• Danny Boy - 1:30, 2:30 are my favorite parts. Like most songs on the album, it smoothly showcases Rufus' awe-inspiring voice. This particular song is very one directional, which is to say forward. I wouldn't count it among my favorites, but it's solid.
• *April Fools - The song that made me sit up and take notice when I was blindly listening to the album for the first time. This one blew me away, both because of its amazingly catchy melody and the sheer gusto with which Rufus sings.
• *In My Arms - Takes a while to get going, but this song is worth it in the end, and notable for it's polymorphism. It's sort of a bad trip of a song, but nonetheless entirely comfortable to listen to just for the melody and silky smooth voice.
• Millbrook - Not quite sure what was going on here. There's no attractive melody and nothing to latch onto to my ears.
• Baby - I'm sorry, I feel bad for not liking this long and thoughtful song, but I just don't get any joy out of it.
• *Beauty Mark - My favorite from this album. Not particularly sophisticated, and on the short side (I believe he was only sixteen when he wrote it?), it nevertheless hits every note for me. There's no message here, just the weird and complicated truth about his relationship with a parent; his line toward the end 'I know I may not be so manly, but still I know you love me...' is particularly poignant.
• Barcelona - Another pious, slow moving dirge to follow up on 'Baby', but this one goes down a lot better for me. I'm still not ready to put it on my list of favorites, but the tune is distinct and beautiful, and it's just a bit on the livelier side.
• *Matinee Idol - Legitimately creepy song. I always mean to give the lyrics a close listen in case there is a cool meaning in them, but get distracted/swept away by the atmosphere created by the instrumentation and singing.
• *Damned Ladies - It took me awhile to like this song. The key of course is being attentive at the point where he hits that glorious low note: 00:58 among other instances. The subject matter is also worth a chuckle.
• Sally Ann - The last two songs on the album don't grab me either.
• Imaginary Love - ditto

Edit: I've listened to this album a lot over the past year, and would now say that Foolish Love, Danny Boy and Imaginary Love, along with all the starred songs, are on my list of earmarked songs from this album.

Madoka Magica

• The storytelling is not entirely sound, and in the same way that much of anime is. Whether for stylistic or economic reasons, a lot of anime suffers from tell-don't-show syndrome, and there are some unbearably long speeches and infodumps in MM. I appreciate that they want to flesh out backstory and introduce philosophical themes, but certain scenes that can take up five minutes at a time of just talking really kill the show dead for me. I'd prefer that someone demonstrate their values with their actions rather than monologue it for me.
• I'm sincerely intrigued by the setting, and I don't mean the supernatural elements. The mundane human world is a truly weird mix of the opulent and the familiar; school and Madoka's home are futuristic and luxurious to a ludicrous degree. I'm not sure what vibe they were going for, but the humongous, sterile environments the schoolgirls inhabit are genuinely memorable and eye catching. Could this be a common idiom for magical girl anime in general? It strikes me that way, but this is the only anime of that genre I've seen.
• Though the plot isn't terribly innovative on the whole, it does contain some interestingly mature decisions at points. The most impressive decision in that sense was to resist ever giving us a no holds barred show of Madoka's potential. When the show started out, I thought it would do the thing where it coyly tells us how wondrous Madoka's powers are going to end up being and then slowly build up to our scene of awesomeness. Instead, due to the turns the narrative takes we never actually witness Madoka turn into a magical girl, and only peripherally glimpse what her fighting style would even look like. This type of restraint ensures that the show can't be construed as kiddie fare.
• Overall I would say it feels relatively padded. I'm aware that there is a re-edited version of the entire show as two 2-hour movies which speeds up the pace somewhat. That's fine and probably as short as they can reasonably get it as long as they're only taking scissors to the existing material. On the other hand, if they were to reboot it or recreate MM, I would prefer to see it trimmed down to the length of a single movie or so. The story they're trying to tell doesn't have enough character development or layers to support a serial television show, so as long as they were going the story-driven route, they should have either made a movie or planned more content.

2/4

State of Play

• Episode 1 is relatively slow to get going and not all that impressive on its own. It sort of comes off as putting a lot of cliched story lines in motion when in reality those same story lines are going to grow and intertwine in surprising and novel ways in the hours to come; however that's not apparent in this episode. It does have a suspenseful scene toward the end that excites though.
• Episode 2 is where the series starts to shine, and it only keep ramping up from there. The reporters' investigation is the focus here, and the boyish young freelance reporter who is introduced is welcome comic relief. I was also entertained by the rather drawn out scenes of sexual tension in the middle, I think they played that quite well. Additionally, the series shows it can pull off the cops versus reporters dynamic without falling into the pitfall of making one side or the other unbearable to the audience. The police chief comes off brusque but has just enough charisma to keep us from hating him. He can fulfill the role of obstacle and pseudo-antagonist for our crusading reporters while remaining a sleeper-good guy that the writers can tap in to escalate the action later.
• Episodes 3 & 4 slow things down again, and honestly feel a bit like padding to me. There are some interesting plot threads here, but I really just found myself yearning for a sooner end.
• With episodes 5 & 6 the series is on the upswing again. The show is able to appropriately milk all the tension that's been building up, leading to two very satisfying climaxes (the reveal of the pregnancy and the final revelation plot twist). I would also pick out as my favorite moment of the whole series to be the somewhat kitschy scene where Collins tells off a senior member of his party.

3/4

How I Met Your Mother S2E12

A rare dud in HIMYM's mostly excellent second season. It's still a fairly entertaining episode on balance since they don't screw anything up in a major way, but there's just one too many jokes that don't land, and the Ted-Lily subplot doesn't satisfy. Even Barney's subplot lacks legs, though NPH of course sells it damn well (particularly the sneeze he does in the hall). Mainly it stands out as worse from the other episodes in this season because it doesn't bring anything new or fresh to the show. Most season 2 episodes either wheeled out a great new character, started a great running joke for the show, or at least impressed with a cool new non-linear storytelling mechanic. This episode lacked any of that and has predictable and cliched plots to boot.

1/4

The Castle of Cagliostro

Castle of Cagliostro is utterly fantastic and my subjectively favorite pure-adventure movie. It nails all the important points of what it's trying to be, and it's hard for me to even register the short comings due to how in love with the setting and characters I am as well as the substantial nostalgia factor for me personally.

I'm told that it is a Lupin product that is probably best enjoyed by people not familiar with Lupin III prior to seeing it. I've seen some of the TV show and other media more in line with the traditional Lupin mythos, and I tend to agree. I'll highlight the reasons in more detail as I discuss the movie below but the main reason this is true is that Lupin himself gives off a very different 'vibe' in this movie than he does in the other media. He's kinder and less greedy, more willing to help those in need, and basically acts a lot more on the heart side of the 'thief with a heart of gold' trope. It suits the movie perfectly, and since that's the first Lupin I was introduced to as a kid, it feels totally natural; however, I bet that it would be jarring and detract from the movie if I were coming to Cagliostro with more knowledge of the franchise. It's kind of a strange divergence considering how much Miyazaki has been involved with the character before this movie, but I guess he just had his own spin on the character.

• The pacing is ultra-traditional and that's appropriate here (I think Lupin even announces "now all the pieces are in place" right at the end of the first act). We open with an action scene (I'm not going to start qualifying scenes as 'great' or anything because it would start to get repetitive), get to know our male leads, swiftly introduce the main mystery ("who is that girl?"), and proceed to heighten tension and mystery all the way until the climax around the end of act two (when Lupin is shot). In the third act all comes to a head, the bad guy is slain by his own hand and the mystery is resolved in a visual (as opposed to talky) manner. A short denouement gives us closure on the tiny romance that had blossomed between Lupin and Clarisse, and then Lupin is off into the sunset with Zenigata on his tail, ensuring that the movie can fit snugly into the greater Lupin narrative. In short, this is exactly what a theatrical Lupin story ought to be on paper.
• The execution is solid enough throughout, with animation that's a good step up from the tv series (that's a given, though) and nowhere near the standards of later Miyazaki films. I would guess this has something to do with the exact way the movie came about, since it was produced in the context of the tv series rather than as a standalone Ghibli project. Particularly towards the end of the film the animation is stilted to my eye, but it has its moments (such as the car chase near the beginning). And what the visuals lack in polish they make up for in imagination and setting. Miyazaki's take on 20th century Europe never fails to please me, whether it be the castle in this movie or the mediterranean in Porco Rosso.
• The theme song is one of my favorites of any Miyazaki film, and that's saying something. This one wasn't even from Hisaishi! The rest of the score is energetic in a way that really matches the nature of Lupin.
• Regarding the role of Jigen and Goemon, I think Miyazaki made the best of what was required of him. Jigen is necessary as a foil for Lupin and justifies his place in the movie on the basis of his great repartee with Lupin alone. As for Goemon, that's another place where I think the movie is more enjoyable for a first-time Lupin watcher. For people like me who didn't know any of the characters, Goemon's entrance is mystifying but badass in an unknowable sort of way. He has pretty much no role in the movie but gets to chip in during the final action scenes and say a badass line or two. Miyazaki had sense enough to keep him out of the story while we were still being introduced to Lupin and Jigen, and doesn't dip into the screen time allotment of our 'real' characters to try and give him some sort of half-baked subplot. If you don't even know the character to begin with, that just makes him seem cooler, but if you did know him it might irk you. Ah well, there's really no way to give Goemon a real place in this story no matter how you slice it. Like I said, Miyazaki made the best of a situation where he was required to have a character in the movie that there wasn't room for in the plot.
• I almost forgot about her, but it's almost a miracle that Fujiko fits into the plot as well as she does. While not strictly essential in the way that Lupin, Clarisse or the count are, she isn't blatantly shoehorned in like Goemon, and I think her part here would please fans of the character.
• The voice acting (of the dub, never heard the original) is great if you can take the cheese. The only time it gets distractingly hammy for me is when some of the side characters with really exaggerated accents start talking. I'm thinking of the United Nations leaders specifically. Lupin's voice actor particularly does a good job, really selling the mix of sincerity and humor when Lupin seduces Clarisse.

4/4

Luther S3

So to clarify off the bat, I'm going to come down pretty hard on a lot of the elements from this season, but that doesn't mean I disliked it as a whole. It is weaker than season 2 for sure, simply because season 2 didn't make a lot of the missteps I'm about to talk about, but at the end of the day Luther S3 still has a lot of what makes 'Luther' the show unique and great. In other words, I'm leaving the good pretty much unsaid and focusing on what shouldn't have happened in my opinion.

• The internal affairs investigation was a subplot that was just sort of bland and predictable from start to finish. Just from being told the broad strokes you would be able to visualize in your mind and dismiss how the whole thing plays out. Sure, we liked Luther being on the run and being a suspect by the police once back in season 1, but it didn't work at all for me the second time out. Especially because it goes fucking nowhere and tells us nothing about Luther the character, which after all is what we're here to see. The subplot could have been saved if the antagonist IA inspector had been interesting, but he was just a one dimensional Captain Ahab who pisses us off then gets unceremoniously wasted by an unrelated villain. Should have been left as a bad idea on the drawing board when the writers were figuring out this season.
• While we're on the subject of that failed subplot, I'll identify as its own problem the Ripley loyalty thing. I don't think they fooled many people with that, and even if they did it still doesn't work. If you were fooled into thinking Ripley might give Luther up then you would be pissed off that Ripley's not the unshakeable friend to Luther you thought he was, and if you weren't fooled then you're just pissed off that they're wasting your time. A real juicy subplot that would have advanced Luther's and Ripley's personal development as characters would have been Luther doing something that actually deeply troubled Ripley. Ripley would have some great internal conflict if it were justified by a real moral trespass by Luther, and the audience would have reason to sympathize. Of course it would be a real balancing act for the writers to keep Luther likeable in the process, but the point is this is the lines along which I think the series should have progressed, rather than retreading previous dramatic elements.
• The first of the two story arcs was excellent and exactly what it needed to be in its own right in my opinion. It was your basic Luther villain, in that he was totally alien in his insanity and stalks his victims in interesting ways, and it led to a great face off in the end in my opinion. Sure, the overarching plot that was hung around this wasn't great (the IA investigation), but episodes 1 and 2 stand out on their own.
• The second of the two arcs is more ambitious and has a great first half and a weak second half. The key aspect that distinguishes this story is that the villain is pitting Luther against society's expectations. It contains a memorable scene where Luther tries to defend a pedophile that's been hung from the rafters against the London citizens trying to kill him. The internal affairs subplot even takes the backseat here thankfully, but the story is ultimately let down by its conclusion.
• The conclusion to the season is weak, no other way to say it. I've never really been as enamored of Alice as everyone else, and the show's writers seemed to think that just her presence alone would make the proceedings cool and exciting. Really, she has no purpose here, everything she accomplishes could just have easily been done by Ripley or even Luther himself. I guess they were just giving fans what they wanted and wrote around her, which means that the finale to our psychological thriller is a sequence of meandering chases that don't intrigue. The final scene where the villain tries to make Luther "choose" between the two women is pretty tense (and like everything else in the show, well done), but ultimately a cheap shot. And then Luther just kind of wanders off into the London skyline because the writers still don't know if there will be another season or a movie or what.
• No Mark or Jenny? Come on, we loved those characters, at least Mark...

3/4

Luther S3E3

The show Luther began life as a stylish yet unconvincing crime drama in my eyes, but found its sweet spot with the conclusion of the season 1 arc. In short, the show got real personal real fast, and it made for an extremely thrilling two part finale to that season. I think the producers realized that immediately, and so modeled the second and third seasons on this success: both consist of a couple of two-episode, highly personal arcs.

This episode is captivating thanks to the best villain 'Luther' has dreamed up so far. The tradeoff between getting justice at all costs and giving criminals their fair due has been a major theme throughout Luther's run, so it's only natural at the (presumed) end of the show that he faces off with his own dark nature personified. This is a psychological thriller show after all, so it's totally brilliant to match Luther against essentially himself in a dark mirror.

It's worth mentioning that this episode taps into the Dark Knight's idea of making our villain attempt to prove to the hero that society is on his (the villain's) side. In TDK Joker tries to show Batman that given the choice the free citizens of Gotham would murder others to save themselves, and of course in this episode the villain tries to prove to Luther that London is on the side of brutal justice. Ultimately, in TDK we get redemption for Batman as the Joker's prediction falls flat but in Luther his prediction is on the money. London, through its social media and even symbolically through one singular victim, is on board with the kill-the-criminals idea. I'm guessing public opinion will turn against him now that he's killed a copper, but maybe it won't and that might be a good reason for Luther to bow out of policing all together.

Speaking of Ripley, he finally bought it in this show. Poor Ripley's well being was featured heavily in a Season 2 arc as well, to great effect, and it is just as effective here. I might quibble with the exact logic of the scene leading up to his death (he was acting a bit suicidal there, after all it's not like he didn't have other options than standing his ground or letting the creep get away), but in the end that's immaterial. His death was probably inevitable as the series comes to a close, in a show this personal, do you really think that Luther's spiritual life line would escape unharmed?

3/4