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Diablog: May Sinner's Roundup

May Roundup: Dystopia is not distributed evenly. #HandmaidsTale, #QueenSugar, #Sense8 & more.

Here for this. Season 2 is coming! Gemma: So what’s been on your watching plate lately? Rasha: Well, I’ve been working on a lot of longer writing projects, as you know, and then just needing to clear a lot of other work, so TV’s been on in the background. I binge-watched Queen Sugar while revising my chapter. I recommend it. G: Yes, so did my sister. It’s on my summer list. What makes you…

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Somonka Review: Scandal, Season 6

Can anyone write something scarier than the news? Somonka Review: #Scandal S6 #Comey

Liv. Seriously. We can’t be shocked by TV anymore. Rasha: Should we be frightened? The news is much scarier than Bad Dude Peus. One malicious agent no match for systems of greed. Gemma: Oh, my, Shondaland. You can’t compete anymore. Could add more staff who know where bodies are buried? James Comey could edit scripts.

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Somonka Review: Black Mirror, Season 3

Dropping the Lars von Trier style leaves #BlackMirror more affecting. Somonka Review S3

  Rasha: Finally, queerness. San Junipero heaven or just fake escape? S3 less Lars von Trier, Our tech choices still horror. Gemma: Well, we’re just mired in technofascism, still, now aren’t we? Waldo isn’t really a joke now. Funny how that happens.  

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Diablog: April Sinner's Roundup

April Roundup: excited for #handmaidstale & #americangods feat. @TheOrlandoJones as #MrNancy!

Watch this show, friends. Gemma: I finally watched Insecure, which we can mostly save for a longer post if we want. Rasha: Yes, especially since I haven’t seen most of it. Maybe… maybe the way I feel about it is the way other folks felt about Girls? How did people feel about Girls? Maybe I feel about Insecure the way that L. Lenny Dunham *thought* I should feel about Girls, which is to say: it…

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Diablog: Haxxors and Geekery in TV and Film

Get #733t: We break down Haxxors, Geekery, & the ManicPixieHackerGirl in TV and Film

  You gotta admit she did some things to our collective imagination of hacking. Gemma: Shall we to haxx0rs? R: Yes. I was starting to make a list before our chat. As a techie, I notice haxxoring everywhere, IRL and in film/TV, and it often makes me grumpy because it’s being done SO BADLY. I’m curious how much it shows up on your grumpdar given that it’s not something you get paid to do. G: It…

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Diablog: Metaphors of Magic in Film, TV, and Literature, Part II

Why does bad magick kill queer love? From #TheCraft to #TheMagicians & #HarryPotter & more, Magic as metaphor P2

Read Part I here. Werq, witches! We’re back for more of magick! Rasha : Ok, moar magicks? Gemma: Moar! R: From where we left off: love + power, and How hard is magick really? G: There’s a lot to what you said last time about magic as metaphor for artistic creation, which in turn can be a metaphor for romance and/or sexuality, and you can turn them all around as metaphors in the other direction…

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Diablog: Metaphors for Magic in TV, Film, and Literature - Part I

Hedgewitches & Illuminati- we talk metaphors for Magic in TV, Film, & Lit Pt 1 #TheMagicians

I’d watch a show with just these three. Rasha: I have a few questions to start off: If we’re talking about metaphors for magick, then we should name the metaphors we see. So what is magick a metaphor for? Also, which shows do we want to name? I guess I just have a couple of questions for now. Gemma: I started into this thinking about the relationship between The Magicians and Harry Potter, and…

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Diablog: March Sinner's Roundup

March #SinnersRoundup, where we half lose our patience with half the shows we watch…

Rasha: As a short aside, I noticed that Michael Che of SNL’s Weekend Update shares my dim opinion of Boston. Gemma: There are many who do. Soon we should finish our somonka about Blindspot. R: I have not seen any more Blindspot, but I could tanka from what I watched months ago. G: That’s all you need. It doesn’t change, ever. This skeptical face is really the only appropriate response to this…

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Somonka Review: Blindspot

Gemma: Turns out I’ll watch any- thing with Kalinda in WITSEC. Still, I long for subtext, for subtleties in evil conspirators. Rasha: What is plot, really? Screaming actors asking for someone to listen? Seems it’s a naked woman covered in money tattoos. Tries to be twisty Heroine is a traitor? Traitors are good guys? We’ve seen this 24 times. Jane should date dude from Prison Break.

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Haiku Review: February Sinner's Roundup

We review, in haiku, the shows we watched in February. #Scandal #GreysAnatomy #JaneTheVirgin

Gemma: All the DiMeos are just awkward AF at love and I love it. (Speechless) I’m guessing Jillian got a better job, right? I miss Jillian. (more…)

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Diablog: Female Friendships in TV, Part II

Imagine: Pancho & Lefty was about Female Friendship-Part II ft #Insecure, #Scandal, more

Read Part I here. Spending more time celebrating complex portrayals of friendship! Rasha: What were the questions we ended with last time for Female Friendships? Gemma: What makes the friendships female, and … hold on. R: Maybe we should take a step back and offer some context on Why We Care about Female Friendships on TV/Film. G: Sounds good. R: I mean, for me, it’s a part of appreciating any…

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Diablog: Female Friendships in TV, Part I

Heart-n-Tropes: Part I on Female Friendships on TV: @ScandalABC, @OITNB, #OrphanBlack, & more!

Sometimes what you need is a good portrayal of a complex friendship. Gemma: When I was in college and fighting with a friend, my uncle’s gf said that we’re socialized to believe that friendships between women are these Simple, Beautiful things, and there’s something Wrong if they aren’t, and how much happier I’d be if I realized how deeply untrue that was. I found that to be true in practice and…

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Character Study: Bi Female Characters in TV and Film, Part II

Part II of BiLadies on TV, feat. #Cophine & queer familia-- ready for #OrphanBlack S5!

One of the finer romances featuring a bi lady. Rasha: So there are two things on my mind as we return to the topic of Bisexual Secondary Lady Characters in TV and Film: one is obviously Delphine in Orphan Black, and the other is an urge to step back from the phenomenon of bisexuality on TV and film and ask how the appearance of these Bi Lady characters relates to a queer politic–mainly, to queer…

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Diablog: Hidden Figures

The movie everyone needs to see right now is also about SPACE MATH. #HiddenFigures

So ready to celebrate this film! Gemma: Hidden Figures! Rasha: Hidden Figures! This was the right movie to watch at the right time for me. For all of us maybe? G: Yeah, that’s about where I landed. At other times I would have gotten frustrated with the sentimentality, but honestly, we need it. These particular sentiments are sentiments I am currently welcoming into the world. We were watching…

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Diablog: January Sinner's Roundup

When reality's outpaced @ShondaRhimes, you know you're in trouble.

  Putin puppets. They take many forms. Rasha: We’re back, and we’re going to talk about TV and film somehow! Gemma: Somehow! Because it will continue to happen, and continue to talk to people. R: You know what TV I’d really like to be reviewing? That puppet show from Russia that got cancelled, Kukly, that used to make fun of Putin as an overgrown baby called Little Tsaches. Maybe there are…

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Diablog: The Fall, Series 3

We're going to say goodbye to 2016 by talking about #TheFall S3…which never actually happened.

  Yeah … that got bloody. Rasha: Ok, was it me or was this a more directly violent and relentless arc than the previous 2 series of The Fall? Gemma: Huh. I felt almost the opposite. I didn’t find it as taut as the other seasons, although it certainly had its moments. Maybe the violence stood out more because it was messier. R: This season/series was notably more quiet and slow in its builds, and…

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Diablog: Bi Female Characters in TV and Film, Part I

Are we tired of TV making secondary characters suddenly bisexual? Is the trope evolving?

Yeah … part of this we did just to talk about Kalinda again, not gonna lie. Gemma: So sometime in the mid-aughts, a bi secondary female character became a hip new thing, particularly though not exclusively on network shows. Specifically, the shock reveal that a secondary female character was bi. I feel like that lasted a while, is still around in some ways. I name, off the top of my head: House,…