Rec. #632: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #71

[Originally posted July 9, 2015.]

"Mona's Law. That's what she calls it. She says you can have a hot job, a hot lover, and a hot apartment, but you can't have all three at the same time."

--- Michael (Mouse) Tolliver,

More Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin, 1980

(Rec. #211)

Rec. #631: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #84

[Originally posted February 8, 2016.]

"Riding a hobbyhorse to death is flogging a dead metaphor."

--- Unnamed dinner party guest,

Pulse, Julian Barnes, 2011

(Rec. #380)

Rec. #630: List #68 --- All the Goodness of The Good Place, So Far

The grand finale of The Good Place Week!


Previously on The Daily Wreck:

The Good Place, season 1 (Rec. #401): "Privilege check: ... Overall, especially for a rich white dude, Michael Schur (and his team) do pretty well."

Who Is Your "Good Place" Moral Soulmate? (Rec. #435): "Thanks, Entertainment Weekly, for giving me nonsense content like this to lessen the pain."

No Context The Good Place (Rec. #455): "It's basically perfect for everything you could possibly want in life.

The Good Place - The Podcast (Rec. #586): "Each podcast episode focuses on one tv episode of The Good Place, and guests are a balance of people from behind the scenes and in front of the camera."

From This Week:

Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al Jamil (Rec. #626): "Jameela Jamil, in her first acting role, brings a level of vulnerability that keeps Tahani's charm from edging over to smarm."

William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye (Rec. #627): "William Jackson Harper has a theater background, which is clearly apparent in his nuanced readings of the word 'what.'"

Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza (Rec. #628): "It's Manny Jacinto's own hip-hop dance experience that brought the dance crew element to the show."

D'Arcy Carden as Janet (Rec. #629): "D'Arcy Carden's improv experience serves her well as she deftly turns emotions on a dime and somehow layers nuanced motivations through a veil of cheerful competency."

Rec. #629: D'Arcy Carden as Janet

More of The Goodness of The Good Place ...

What: As The Good Place has continued, it's explored just what not-a-person-not-a-robot Janet is capable of. Her evolution has been a pivotal plot point, but, as with other Michael Schur-led shows, it's also been driven by the discovery of all of the awesome things the actor can do.

D'Arcy Carden's improv experience serves her well as she deftly turns emotions on a dime and somehow layers nuanced motivations through a veil of cheerful competency. (She also makes the blooper reels eminently re-watchable. )

How to get it: See some relatable Janet moments in this gifset. And this is as good a time as any to say how fun the blooper reels are for this show. See season 1 here and season 2 here.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Full disclosure -- according to multiple fun quizzes, including Rec. #435, I am a Janet.

Rec. #628: Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza

More of The Goodness of The Good Place ...

What: The actor Manny Jacinto is very, very attractive. You would be forgiven for overlooking this because he spends much of his time on The Good Place making dopey (but amusing!) Jason faces and throwing Molotov cocktails. Also, fun fact -- it's Manny Jacinto's own hip-hop dance experience that brought the dance crew element to the show.

How to get it: Lots of good Jason nuggets in this gifset. 

Rec. #627: William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye

The Good Place Week continues ...

 
What: I have rarely related to a fictional character as much as when Chidi reveals his directional insanity. Although this is a very close second -

William Jackson Harper has a theater background, which is clearly apparent in his nuanced readings of the word "what."

How to get it: Revisit some classic Chidi moments with this gifset.

Rec. #626: Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil

As promised, this week will be devoted to the Goodness of The Good Place. 

 

What: Tahnai Al-Jamil, a "hot, rich fraud" who name-drops every time she talks, is not written to be likable or relatable. And yet -- Jameela Jamil, in her first acting role, brings a level of vulnerability that keeps Tahani's charm from edging over to smarm.

Also, the writers get to channel a lot of British shade through Tahani's posh nonsense.

How to get it: Stream season 1 on Netflix and season 2 on Hulu (until the end of the month).

Interlude

I'll be back in next Monday with a week devoted to The Goodness of The Good Place.

 

Rec. #625: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #83

[Originally posted November 25, 2015.]

"Most people nowadays are run by fear. Fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, fear of their health. They're scared to save money, and they're scared to spend it ... The people who commercialize on fear, you know they scare you to death so they can sell you something you don't need."

--- Alice Sycamore,

You Can't Take It With You, 1938

(Rec. #327)

(List #42)

Rec. #624: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #82

[Originally posted November 16, 2015.]

"She'd made a fool of herself -- she knew it even if he didn't -- and it was better to put it out of her thoughts lest she conclude again that reality was a world she dared not inhabit."

--- Melissa Aubrey,

Uncertain Voyage, Dorothy Gilman, 1967

(Rec. #167)

Rec. #623: Andre Braugher Is a Serious Actor

The rousing finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine Week

What: Andre Braugher is a Juilliard-trained capital-A Actor who is known for embodying intense dramatic roles with simmering emotion. Now, as a lead on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he plays Captain Raymond Holt, who has a defining characteristic of being largely without affect.

Sometimes it's played for laughs.

But sometimes Holt's seriousness also brings surprising pathos to this goofy comedy.

[I'm not crying, some ghosts must just be chopping onions.]


How to get it: See Holt's thoughts on who gets called "doctor" here (for laughs). See a gif sequence of Holt's speech to Rosa Diaz here (for pathos).

Rec. #622: Amy Santiago Is Not a Nag

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Week continues ...

What: Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) is a super-competitive Type A who ends up married to an immature doof (Andy Samberg). Delightfully, the joke is never, ever, ever that she is a nagging killjoy and he is a manchild who needs a wife to mother him.

Instead, they like and respect each other a lot and enjoy making each other happy. She organizes a Die Hard wedding cake for him, he reads Harry Potter for her, she defends his references to ninja turtles, he is a fervent hype man for her research skills.

And respect for her nerdery is wide-ranging! In the climactic scene of a key episode (S5, E9, "99"), Amy Santiago saves the day with logistics and everyone applauds.

Yay, respect for good research! Yay, healthy relationships! Yay for multilayered female characters! 

How to get it: See the episode with Santiago's logistical triumph on Hulu here. See a gif sequence of her tackling a bad guy while wearing a wedding dress here.

Rec. #621: Representation Matters on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Week continues ...

 

 

What: Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars two (2!) black men (who don't rap) and two (2!) Latinas (who aren't "sassy"). Also, pretty much every episode passes the Bechdel test easily.

The creators have been quoted as saying that they wanted the cast to accurately reflect NYC demographics. We'd hope that this wouldn't be such a big deal by now, but it really is.

How to get it: Stream the show on Hulu and maybe try to make a drinking game out of how many times someone who isn't a white dude gets to talk! You will get very drunk.

Rec. #620: Brooklyn Nine-Nine Characters Dancing

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Week continues!

What: Each of the main characters from Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a distinctive, often deeply dorky, dancing style. Whether it's Gina Linetti's octopus arms post-getting-hit-by-a-bus or Charles Boyle doing the "single ladies" routine with some choice backup, these dances are a gif-able joy.

How to get it: All the characters get a dance spotlight in this Tumblr post. Stream the show itself on Hulu.

Rec. #619: Brooklyn Nine-Nine Comic-Con Panel

This week and next will be devoted to fun stuff from two particular Good TV Shows That Are Morally Sound and Will Also Make You Laugh. 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the focus this week and The Good Place is up for next week. [Mike Schur, please, I'm begging you, don't turn out to be a scumbag.]

What: The Brooklyn Nine-Nine panel at last week's Comic-Con is up on YouTube. Enjoy the thoughtful lovefest as the actors and creators enthusiastically credit the fans with saving the show from cancellation -

- And the love boomerangs right back to the panel, as the show's actors and writers get kudos for: solid representation of two strong Latinas, Terry Crews speaking up as part of #MeToo, Boyle being a man who openly shows affection, Terry Jeffords being racially profiled, and Rosa coming out as bisexual.

The panel also answers tricky questions about being a progressive show that aired on Fox and how they work very deliberately to handle Issues in the right way.

Representative quote:
"I'm now just going through my mind of how dirty my comments have been so far and whether that was okay." --- Andy Samberg, on the occasion of two youths coming to the mic to ask a question

How to get it: The video is an hour long and is up on YouTube here.

Rec. #618: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #85

[Originally posted March 7, 2016.]

"The Guide says there is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

--- Ford Prefect,

Life, the Universe and Everything, Douglas Adams, 1982

(Rec. #230)

Rec. #617: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #4

[Originally posted September 30, 2013]

"They do this thing whenever I'm talking to them where they blink their mascara'd lashes very quickly, as if they need to take lots of little breaks from looking at me."

--- Elizabeth Clarry,

Feeling Sorry for Celia, by Jaclyn Moriarty, 2000

(Rec. #48)

Rec. #616: Electric Literature's Male Novelist Description Generator

What: This past spring, a wave of satisfying snark rippled across Twitter in the form of "describe yourself like a male author would." One of the clear themes was that many women knew they would be basically invisible to male authors due to their age/size/ethnicity.

This exercise was a cathartic opportunity for some, but off-puttingly depressing for others. For those who would prefer something a bit less reflective and a bit more fun, Electric Literature created this "Male Novelist Description Generator."

Representative result:
Fran Lebowitz's would be "She had breasts like a shrill kitten and I shuddered to compliment her."

How to get it: Electric Literature debuted the generator in April.

Rec. #615: Empty Threat

What: In the music video for "Empty Threat," by Scottish group Chvrches, goths have a good day at a water park. It's nice.

Representative lyrics:
Taking back an empty threat
More than you could ever know
Take it back with no regrets

How to get it: "Empty Threat" is from the 2015 album Every Open Eye and is typical of the album's clarity.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Enjoy more music video summer adventures with "Dean's Room" (Rec. #593).

Rec. #614: 101 Uses for a Ping-Pong Table

 

What: Who knew a half-abandoned ping-pong table in Germany could be this interesting? From 2012-2016, photographer Hayahisa Tomiyasu recorded what was going on around the ping-pong table he could see from his apartment.

Representative quote: "I spent Christmas and New Year in my room, so as not to pass any interesting occurrences at the table."

How to get it: The images are now gathered into a book, TPP, that won the 2018 MACK First Book award. You can also see several of the images in "101 Uses for a Ping-Pong Table," a gallery from The Guardian.