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A Belated Nonfiction Catch-up Post

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How belated? Well, I hope you’re following me on Twitter if you want news, that’s all I can say for myself; the first thing on this list is from January 5. (I tried to alert everyone to the live-action drinking game that is the Shannara Chronicles.) I’ve been keeping more regular tabs on Reign, which has vacillated wildly between being sort of dreadful and being camp glory, with no real internal logic as to how any given episode reaches either one of those goalposts. (Example: Did it actually kill Francis? It sure did! Twice!) Season highlight so far is probably “Our Undoing”, which decides to take the usual Reign strategy of doing fifty things and just does them harder, and it all works out beautifully. Costume post forthcoming, though honestly at this point I am actually so used to the visual vocabulary of the clothes that I only get angry when one person is in pointedly period wear and everyone else gets Marchesa. I’ve had a more fraught relationship with Elementary, which continues its post-season-one… Read more »

Reign: Season 3 So Far

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So, I am recapping Reign at AV Club this season, which is very fun for analytical purposes, but I missed talking nonsense about the dresses and Catherine’s facial expressions enough to come back and check in. As usual, a lot has happened! I actually sometimes forget how much plot goes into an episode of Reign until I watch another soap-paced show—even Scream Queens (which I watched as a sub-in on AV Club; it’s essentially an essay on manufacturing camp, because that show is trying to do it harder than any show has ever tried to do anything) doesn’t hold a candle to what Reign can do. In the season opener, it launched and torpedoed an English plot against Mary, established Elizabeth’s court politics and her romance with Dudley, reconciled Francis and Mary’s marriage just in time for him to admit he’s dying, tried to make fetch happen with Lola and Narcisse, had Greer woo and get dumped by a hot pirate, called Francis’ brother Charles back to try to be king, tried to make more… Read more »

Reign Reports: “Sins of the Past” and “The End of Mourning”

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So, we haven’t had a Reign Report here for two episodes! Technically the first one is because I was heading to California for the DC Talent Summit, but let’s be honest, if the episode had been amazing I would have made the time. Instead, it was just a pile of awkwardness with a plot point on top. Unfortunately, “The End of Mourning” wasn’t much better. We’re currently in a vortex of Mary’s feelings for Conde, so if you’re not interested in that (and I am not) then you will probably also not be interested in Conde’s older brother’s scheming for the French throne. I tried to explain the sheer parade of turning-around-and-cackling that was “The End of Mourning” over at the AV Club, but in the end, only Catherine is really holding my interest much these days. I should be interested in all this other stuff – cycles of power and court espionage, what’s not to love? – but I’m not! First of all, the prince of Navarre is essentially in a moustache-twirling cotest with… Read more »

Catwoman and Other News

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catwoman noir as fuck
I have some fun bits of news! We’ll start with the big one. DC announced its June titles today; among them is the note that I will be continuing as the writer of CATWOMAN. It wasn’t a sure thing – I was taken on initially for a single arc, and the future was conditional. It was a big change for her, in terms of both situation and tone, and we all knew it was going to be a leap of faith for readers. As such, I have even more reason to be completely thrilled at the fan response to this take on Selina, which has been above and beyond anybody’s expectations, and I can’t wait to continue her adventures. Thanks so much to everyone who’s been reading it for making this possible. And speaking of thrilling: Locus has released their 2014 Recommended Reading List, and I am on it! I actually couldn’t believe how generous a showing I made this year, and since it will likely never happen again, we’ll just go through it all.… Read more »

Reign Report: “Terror of the Faithful”

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Things are heating up on Reign, as Francis’ utter inability to do anything right begins to backfire on him, and Protestants take to the street after making a martyr out of a man Francis refused to make a martyr of. It’s beautifully dismal. And even if there were something he could do to improve his situation, perhaps by alerting Catherine to it – but oh, what a wild dream that is! Never to be, never to be – Catherine is a little busy hallucinating and will have to get back to you. The full recap (and a breakdown of this season’s remarkably cynical approach to the nature of power) is up at the AV Club, in my last of the regular gig, which means it’s a veritable essay on how I feel the season’s done so far. And in case there was any remaining doubt that Lola’s new political subplot is contributing to her slow rise as the Catherine of a new generation, enjoy these equally Done faces. Catherine, in a pretty lovely gold-and-black ensemble,… Read more »

Reign Report: “The Lamb and the Slaughter”

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Last night, literally everything that could possibly happen on an episode of Reign happened. Over at the AV Club, I ding it for being overstuffed, even though I give it points for trying to have an episode overtly about women negotiating relationships based on limited choices, even if it ended with Narcisse standing over the body of his wife and confiding in Lola, who I swear has gotten more romantic bounce-around than literally anyone else on this show. It was also a christening, which meant a parade of costumes, the best of which was without a doubt Mary’s red gown, worn here as she and Lola make up after their fight, but definitely highlighting exactly what their power differential is, and the reason this fight will come up again. So many costumes in one episode would normally would make me very excited except that there was so much else going on I could hardly concentrate. This butter baby, for example, which was so amazing that they devoted a whole beat to Bash just staring at… Read more »
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