The Farmstead

So, if you have Netflix... Watch this show!!!!! If you don't, um, ...



This is the only non-spoilery video I could find. But meet Piper Chapman! She's a well-off, liberal, self-involved party girl who just wants to keep her line of artisanal soaps in Barney's. She has a nice fiancé, who's a writer who's going to make it big one day (though his Upper East Side parents can cover for him in the meantime). The statute of limitations on the money trafficking Piper did that one time ten years ago is twelve years, but unfortunately she just got named in the bust on her drug-importing ex-girlfriend Alex (who, by the way, is played by Donna from That 70s show... You can't say that you never wanted to see her again in another role), so now she's in prison. Sad times.

But that is only the beginning! What follows is the long and lengthy deconstruction of someone who lives in their own little narcissistic world who is finally and consistently forced to face consequences for every single action they take in a bubble/fish-bowl like environment. I'm not a huge fan of novelistic television, but for a drama this has all the best elements of sitcom - a small world, a slightly heightened reality (just enough to stretch everyone into distinct characters), with tight and well signposted plotting. And Alex is brilliant. And this is exactly the sort of plot I love - because it's not just deconstruction; it's also transformational. But I don't want to ruin it by telling the whole story, though the great thing is that you can see it coming anyway. Just enjoy watching it play out! Because everyone's great - every single character has a good side and a bad one.

And if you've seen it, talk to me about it!! Although I have to stop my head reading everything in the way most of the characters talk. It makes the me inside my head sound ridiculous.

PS. It's also rated 18 (I think?) for a reason. Most of the graphic sex is in the first few episodes presumably to hook people the same way HBO does. Judge your company?

PPS. Also, how did I fail to recognise that Red is CAPTAIN JANEWAY? Also much missed. But found again!

Go, go, go: moriwen1's What is This, a Joke?

Spike and Aslan walk into a bar. Or, more exactly, Spike's on the hunt for his soul and ends up with a bloody terrifying lead. Cue a breezy-fresh short story with solid metaphysical credentials nonetheless. And chapter one has a twist that keeps on giving. brutti_ma_buoni already linked it, but I'm linking it again, because I don't want you lot to miss it!

In other news, which should probably get its own post so as not to sour the proceedings, I've been sucked back into The Voice? I think it must say something for the rejigging of the format, because it was about this time last year that I abandoned it. It's just a fact, though, that neither Danny wotsisarrogantface nor Tom Jones have any clue about production, which is such a shame, because Jessie J and will.i.am's people are the only ones who end up giving proper thought-through performances.

Everyone's clear favourite, as it should be, is Leah... Because this is just aces! I can't bear pop, but modern covers of disco I apparently like. Also, the vast heaps of sarcasm she pours over the lyrics are great.



But I also like Leanne, who got kicked off. I think she dreams of being Christina Aguilera, but she really needs to be on the dance circuit. That icy high register of hers is dying out for pounding electronics. As they started getting to with this:



Soz; I iz proper hyper on curry and Hotel Chocolat chocolate wot I couldn't resist on the way home.