An abundance of Books...

Television kinda bores me.

I've actually been going back and watching Law and Order from the year 2000. That's like a time machine. They're still using typewriters, and floppy disks, and the world seems so vastly different - and yet - eerily the same. Sometimes they cover topics we're still talking about and debating about today. One of the characters, Munch, is a left-wing conspiracy guy and it's weird and confronting to hear him talking about things that I now hear American folk on the right talk about.

I'm actually really looking forward to watching the entire show all the way to 2022 to see how much the show changes as the years go by, and how it plays the politics game that all shows seem to be falling into. I'm expecting heavy influence as the internet becomes a thing and floppy disks vanish.

As an Australian, American politics is weird and alien, but I try to understand it because it influences all media to a massive degree. Which can grow wearisome. One countries divided opinions shouldn't have such an alienating effect on other places across the world.

We've got enough problems in Aussie-land, we're not really needing to inherit other countries problems too.

Anyway, all of this is me leading into 'The Rings of Power' that started on Amazon Prime the other day. For months now the narrative I have been seeing has been so negative, downright brutal, and sometimes really disrespectful.

I get it.

I don't like being called horrible things just because I dislike a show, or a movie.

I don't like the butchering that is being done to beloved franchise of my childhood.

I think a lot of writing of today's television is hollow, shallow and cheap. We've lost so much of what stories - well - stories.

What tugged on human's heart-strings, the emotional journey's we embarked upon...

Funnily enough, that's why The Rings of Power is interesting to me. I'm curious to see how they do it - how are they going to go getting me emotionally invested in an epic, grand tale I know a lot about. So, what won me over in the first episode was actually a conversation between young Elrond and Galadriel, in which the two of them were discussing - in some very heavy dialogue - the idea of evil, and if you cannot see evil, is evil still around, waiting to rise back up again. I was really, really impressed that the two actors managed to pull off such a heavy set of dialogue, and engrossed me in it.

I LOVE long boring conversations, and politics, in television shows.

Soooooo -

I'm probably not the person you want judging what is 'boring' or not in a show.

Because I don't consider it boring to have several characters engrossed in a long winded conversation about good and evil.

So yeah. That's what won me over.

So far, Elrond is my favourite.

I'm not overly fond of what they've done with Galadriel, but I understand what they're trying to achieve with her character - and I'm invested in her journey - they did it well, killing her brother, because it's something I can relate to. If I was in a fantasy world and one of my siblings were killed by the BIG BAD, yeah, I'd go on a super big quest and never rest until I knew the BIG BAD was dead.

I'm not going to say The Rings of Power is the best thing since sliced bread. Obviously that's silly. The Walking Dead is the best show ever. (I'm joking, I'm joking. I just love Daryl, okay.)

My family would tell you that I enjoy anything. I have a low bar.

This is...

Actually pretty true.

I'm NOT a great reviewer. Because I like entertainment. I appreciate stories and the work that goes into them. I think negativity towards people's hard work just fuels more negativity and negativity brings more negativity and so the cycle continues. You know that story in TomorrowLand? How the whole world sort of causes it's own destruction by only ever thinking negativity about itself - thinking that global warming is happening, is actually causing global warming - it was a cool idea - anyway - that's negativity, if you fuel it, it just gets bigger.

And bigger.

So, don't add fuel to the big ball of negativity.

Enjoy things. Appreciate life. Love entertainment for the joy it brings.

Does this mean I think everything is great?

Ah, no. No. No. Not at all.

Like - I haven't been able to get through Kenobi - despite having wanted a Kenobi show for YEARS. I have adored Kenobi since The Phantom Menace and I was so excited that they'd made a show - but then I sat down and watched the first few episodes and...

I didn't...

I didn't feel anything.

It was just.

Bleh.

It was...it was good. It was...it was good...but it just didn't hold my attention, and therefore, I dropped it. I might pick it up again, but I also might not.

The same happened with Loki. Gosh. I was SO excited for Loki - Loki had EVERYTHING I wanted, a storyline about parallel universes and how you can effect those universes, and jumping about and mucking around, and secret orders etc. But the show grated on me, pretty much from the start. So much irritating dialogue and a near worship of women in power. My brain kept ticking over 'This isn't how you write women, this isn't how you write women, STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP. Oh my gosh, stop, stop, stop, STOP.' Now, sure, that's my personal opinion. Everyone has their own preferences, and I respect that. There must be - there HAS to be - an audience out there, who write, and enjoy, this new breed of female characters that Disney/Marvel is putting out.

I am just not one of them - so - it's not for me.

Haha, oh dear She-Hulk. I had such high-hopes. Why do I do that to myself...

After Multiverse of Madness let go of Wanda - the last of my favourite Marvel female characters from the older films - I just dusted my hands and have decided that my Marvel days ended when Tony Stark died.

And that's okay. Sometimes, when you love something, you let it go.

The other day my cousin and I visited Dymocks in the city and I stood amongst the books. It was glorious. I stood there and I realised something - there are so many wonderful books, so many marvellous stories being written and told, that it really didn't matter about Rings of Power, or Marvel, or Disney, or any pop culture mainstream tale of the current day, hour, fifteen minutes.

Because there gems to be found in the stories all around me.

And that thought was so exciting, and so freeing.

Netflix, Disney - Amazon Prime - all those streaming services - they have nothing when compared to the endless abundance of books.

In the end -

Books win.