DTWID Digest #6 | The Whole Summer Edition
Salutations Sucrose Supporters,
It’s been a while. Sorry about that. Long story short, life has been beating my ass. I’ve been oscillating between mildly okay and straight up not having a good time. TV, film, and games have been clutch these past few months. So, like always, I’m going to start with things I’ve been enjoying in the months of June–August (the whole summer)!
What I’ve Been Loving
I first saw the trailer for Belle in theaters! (It had to be Spiderman: No Way Home, that’s the only thing I’ve seen on the big screen in months.) The premise and animation style immediately grabbed my attention and I googled regularly to learn when and where it would become available for me to watch. When it dropped on HBO Max (dubbed), I was elated. And it was worth the wait. Belle is one of those beautiful, heartbreaking anime I want to watch over and over, but also don’t want to touch because I’m so fond of it. Like Bubble.
Prey, the Predator prequel set 300 years ago in Comanche Nation, is phenomenal! It’s “Pretty fucking lit” as I say here. I haven’t watched the OG Predator film in a while, but Prey is absolutely top two (and it ain’t number two!) The setting makes everything we know and love about Predator all the more fun because technology as we know it does not exist here. Naru’s story is really well done, and how that’s explored through the particular challenge is exciting. I watched it in English and plan to watch it with the Comanche dubs. Prey will be on rotation indefinitely.
MCU
I want to say before the COVID, I saw every MCU movie in theaters, including The Incredible Hulk—and probably even the Ang-Lee directed The Hulk which is firmly not in the shared universe. But during the pandemic, the idea of sitting in a breathbox for several hours with folks eating and drinking—and hooping and hollering, if it’s a blockbuster—actually did not sit right with my spirit. So the only films I’ve seen in theaters are Jungle Cruise—I was very high and needed to sit tf down lol—and Spiderman: No Way Home. That was a fairly uncomfortable situation I’ve chosen not to repeat. That meant I had to dodge Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness spoilers, which I barely managed because people had thoughts and feelings and I could never fully account for all the terms people would use to talk about the film outside of using the film’s title or character names 😩
I watched Multiverse of Madness as soon as it dropped on D+ and I loved it! As a time travel heaux, I always love multiverses; and coming off of WandaVision and Loki—and No Way Home—I was really excited to see how the MCU would use their newfound freedom to make anything canon, and I really enjoyed it. As an MCU fan who only has a little comic book knowledge, the things I caught were fun. This will veer into spoiler territory, but I assume if you have not seen it by now, you don’t care to. You’ve been forewarned just in case.
I loved the alt-universe Captains America and Marvel, and Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier. I personally feel that Wanda’s story was a logical continuation of where we left her in WandaVision. People had a lot of issues with her—and my muted keywords could not prevent me from learning about those early in the film’s release—but my only issue is that she “died” at the end. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Wanda or Scarlet Witch, but if we have, yeah… that’s a low point for me. But America is fantastic and I cannot wait to see her interact with the other younger heroes, like Ms. Marvel. I am pumped for the next generation of Marvel heroes!
Speaking of Ms. Marvel, it is hands down the best MCU show! As I said in this tweet, it is a perfect show. Kamala Khan is an exciting character, and the show brings her and her family to life in such a beautiful way. I feel so empowered by her, and imagine what my teenage self would’ve felt like watching that. I get genuinely emotional imagining what brown girls feel like watching her. I can;t wait for her and America to meet!
To round out the MCU portion of this newsletter, lol, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law dropped on D+ and it is utterly delightful. I have one major qualm, and it is the CGI for She-Hulk. Tatiana Maslany is a force, we all know this. I haven’t a single bad word to say about her. But She-Hulk is… hard to look at. And while they made her comic-accurate, the styling really does not hold up in live-action—why is her hair that way? It’s giving Mob Wife. I love the humor, all the fun pokes at the MCU, the subtle Whedon shade, all of it. But the CGI draws my focus so much, especially when it is juxtaposed against [SPOILER TERRITORY] Hulk and Abomination, who have completed CG models from films and therefore have more photoreal textures, while She-Hulk is smooth as Princess Fiona. I love the show, it’s very very fun, but I need them to fix the CG, Black Jesus, cause it is SO JARRING.
TV
The most recent season of Drag Race All Stars was absolutely one of the best. I really enjoyed everyone. I definitely had my favorites—rooting for everybody Black—but I could not say that the winner didn’t deserve it. I do think the lip syncs in the finale were for show and that they had their minds made up already, because the better performances were not the winners. BUT this is one season where I did not feel like a stronger queen lost. They were all incredible!
I wrote about First Kill for Den of Geek and it’s a show I really enjoy! I was really into the worldbuilding, even moreso after talking to the showrunner Felicia D. Henderson. And while I loved the basic premise of a Romeo x Juliet / Vampire x Hunter doomed romance, I fell in love with the larger narrative about family and legacy. First Kill is one of the very few shows that feature a Black family of monster hunters, and their dynamic was so much fun for me. The family drama on both sides were interesting and I would love to see not just those stories continue, but to see more worldbuilding and expansion of the lore. Netflix chose not to renew the show, but there is a small yet mighty fanbase who love the show and are fighting for it. I hope we get more First Kill!
Instant Dream Home on Netflix is truly home renovations turned up to a thousand. They renovate entire houses in one(1) day without the homeowners knowing. I know there’s a lot of bribes and carrying on happening to make the installs feasible within a 12-hour period lol and I do not know that my suspension of disbelief is that high—like how are neighbors not snitching?!—But I loved it! I want several more seasons.
Kung Fu is a show that I forget how much I love and I’m always so into when I go back to it. Season one was great and season two, which I binged a few weeks ago, is even better. I generally have issues with heroes who won’t “do what needs to be done” and I love how this show interrogates that. Nicky isn;t always right, but she has a team of people ready to support and challenge her. I love so much about it, the martial arts being only a small portion of what makes the show great. The new season starts October 22, so you have time to catch up, which I urge you to do!
Motherland: Fort Salem has been consistently great and I’m sad to see it go. But I am satisfied with how the show ended. I believe we got to the same endgame the show always planned for, even if we had less time to build up to something so massive. What Motherland did great was character. You knew pretty much from the start who everyone was and where they stood and how they would act or react, and every decision they made throughout three seasons felt honest. I wish I had been louder about my love for the show, or more consistent with my viewership, because I think it deserved more time. But I also believe the world of Motherland is ripe for storytelling in various mediums, and that there will always be re-entry points. You can watch the entire series now!
Obi-Wan Kenobi was fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous. I loved it. I love what it does for Leah as a character, and for Old Ben. I loved seeing Hayden. Reva is THAT BITCH and I continue to have the smoke for anyone who has a bad word to say about her or Moses Ingram. If I had criticism, and I’m sure I did, it was not important enough to undermine the joy this show brought me.
Paper Girls was fun. I haven’t read the comic, but it’s always been on my to-read, so I was excited to watch the show. I had a good time with it, even though there were some pacing issues and quirks that took me out of it sometimes. But I love the girls. Tiffany is obviously a favorite—rooting for everybody Black—but also her being the one who be knowing and [SPOILER ALERT] the one who be knowing 👀😉[/SPOILER] I love. Looking forward to next season. But this is definitely one of those shows that makes me want to read the source, so I’ll be doing that too.
Selling the OC is very good for that brand of reality show. They get to the bullshit immediately. They actually show the million dollar beachfront houses, which they started doing less and less on Selling Sunset. We get a fun villain reveal, very pretty people being petty, and a whole lot of mess.
The Rings of Power is amazing, beautiful, fantastic, gorgeous, immaculate…
Warrior is not a new show, and I don’t even know where it originally airs—Cinemax maybe? But it’s on HBO Max and my good homie Algo Rhythm was constantly like, “I see you like the ol’ martial arts” And I finally let the AI guide me and watched it. And bitch! I love the fighting! It’s fluid, brutal, and invigorating. The story is great. A lot of antiheroes. They do a really cool thing with language. This is the kind of period shit I want to see more of, especially from a non-white lens.
Music
Queens only. Look at the material.
Games
Grand Theft Auto Online had a huge update called the Criminal Enterprises and baby they just made the game so much more fun if you do not like playing with the unwashed masses. Before, all of the solid money making activities required you to be in public sessions. Meaning you had to do your illicit deals in a lobby with up to 24 heathens, at least half of which were actively hostile. If you were like me, you figured out how to make public solo sessions and make your money in peace, but now you don’t have to do chicanery to play the game in a chill session with just you or with some friends. They also added multiple sources of passive income, meaning you can play the game for fun (not having to grind) and still be able to afford new toys and weapons. Gaming is my true escapism, so this was… VERY important to me.
Cyberpunk 2077 is still my bitch! I upgraded my Desktop PC, so I can play the game there instead of—or in addition to—playing on Stadia. I went extremely wild with mods and cheats just to see all that I can do, but my unmodded save game is still there for when I want to finish that playthrough.
I brushed off my PS2 to play some older games, but discovered emulators, so I have been playing a lot of old faves! The Sims: Bustin’ Out and Urbz: Sims In The City are two of my faves. Also Def Jam FFNY which I now remember is HARD AF at first so I rage quit immediately 😂 I am looking for new games to play, tho. A friend gifted me Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch, which I’ll probably start soon even though everything about the game triggers a stress response in me. The Blood Moon sounds particularly harrowing lol. But I’ll give it a try!
What’s Happening In Pop Culture
- Rian Johnson is even more proud of his work on TLJ and he should be! I don’t have a lot of really loud public opinions on Star Wars but I am extremely vocal in my love for TLJ—and the complete opposite for TROS. I do not fight about Star Wars tho, but I will if beckoned.
- House of the Dragon premiered and I think I hate it, but I’m still just intrigued enough to see it through. (I’ve seen up to episode three as of this publication.)
- The Rings of Power is stunning, as I mentioned above, but the fandom is unsurprisingly and frankly boringly racist about it. If you can get behind dragons and orcs and elves and dwarfs, but draw the line at skin darker than a nilla wafer, your issue is not with the accuracy. But die mad.
What I’m Up To
Black TARDIS x Doctor Who
Everything I said I was going to drop is still forthcoming. I just have not felt like polishing stuff up and I am not happy with where they are—an unfortunate combination. Thinking of recording audio or video instead of releasing them as articles, which requires a different type of editing, but maybe more aligned with where my creative energy is at the moment. I really don’t know, but I haven’t abandoned them.
Video Games
I am going to attempt a regularly scheduled livestream. Not sure the details yet. I can stream from all of my consoles now, so I have a lot of options for which games to play. If this interests you at all, you can follow my gaming account(s): ambivirgin everywhere. I’ll make any official announcements on twitter.
Current Events
I will not be doing an “current events” section cause I pretend I do not see.
