#like they really did that. midge and susie soulmates real.

[charcubed]

someday, ages after the show’s been finished, I’m going to roll up with a post compiling a bunch of screenshots of moments where Midge Maisel was subtextually queer. and I’ve just accepted that by the time I ever get around to it no one is going to care (especially since very few people would’ve cared in the first place) but that’s okay. I think the world needs it anyway. eventually. just so it’ll exist somewhere.

[safflowerseason]

How are you liking maisel s5 so far?? I love reading your takes on everything :)

Hey! thank so much for the ask! I miss getting asks!!

I enjoyed the first three eps, although admittedly Maisel isn't a show I'm deeply emotionally invested in. With ASP shows I feel like you have to make up your mind to take the good with the bad/wonky/weird/uneven/random, because for every gutting Midge/Lenny scene that feels so real and raw or gorgeously whimsical entertaining set-piece, you have to put with whatever Abe's doing at the Village Voice or Moishe and Shirley yelling at each other at Joel's nightclub for ten minutes. I liked the flash forward conceit, except for the laughable age makeup they put on Rachel B (I'm sorry, no amount of hat-wearing/face-cream could protect a woman in show business from the excesses and physical ravages of the sixties and seventies). I liked ASP finally interrogating--in a very mild way--Midge's approach (or lack thereof) to parenting and its costs. I think there's probably something to be read in Mei telling Joel she can't have it all alongside Midge's clearly tense relationship with her adult children. I'm sad to see Stephanie Hsu go, although I'm happy it's because her star is ascending, and tbh ASP is *not* the writer to address the complexities of Joel and Mei raising a bi-racial child in the sixties.

With ASP I'm always girding myself to be disappointed romance-wise, but if we don't see Susie and Midge reunite in the future I *will* be gutted, as that's the only relationship that truly matters on this show. Of course I am enjoying Reid Scott striding around as a smarmy, cocky, soulless talk-show host (instead of a smarmy, cocky, soulless political strategist) exchanging banter with Rachel Brosnahan (I loved the bit where he ripped up the pages and tossed it over the balcony like confetti). The space the two characters were given in Ep 3 to just shamelessly flirt makes me yearn for an alternate universe where Reid Scott and Anna Chlumsky got to do the same thing for more than thirty seconds at a time. I feel like probably something will happen between them but it will be more "eh we're both hot and bored/lonely and this would be fun so why not" variety (that certainly seems to be Gordon's vibe) as opposed to the star-crossed earth-shattering comedy soulmates connection that links Midge and Lenny. (this sets aside the gross power imbalance between Gordon and Midge, which ASP seems to think is fine because we know Midge eventually succeeds.) Based on how Midge mentioned the Gordon Ford show, it doesn't seem like the man himself will be a big and/or complicated *relationship* in her future life/career, so I guess we'll see what happens there!!

As for Midge and Lenny...as I said, making Til There Was You their song is just, like, such a tell on the significance of their connection from the POV of the writers. I know there's apparently some angst out there re: the show's portrayal of Lenny Bruce and whether the show has made him into too much of a romantic hero or whatever when in reality he was a very complicated man who had a complicated and violent relationship with the women in his life. It seems like he really won't be in this final season much, which I guess is one of the show's (inconsistent) nods to reality. I'm sad to see less of Luke Kirby if that's the case, and there's nothing wrong with historical fiction, but I think the show is on safer narrative ground keeping Midge primarily surrounded by other exclusively fictional characters.

As for Joel and Midge's family...they are by far the dimension of this show I have cared least about since its inception, in spite of consistently fantastic performances from Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle, Kevin Pollak, and Caroline Aaron, which makes me a little sad, but that's ASP for you. I did love seeing Kelly Bishop for a bit...an ASP icon. She should be in everything.

Those are my immediate thoughts...what did you think about the first three eps??

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

Top 5 tv pairings that should have been canon

Apologies for taking so long to answer this one!! It is, of course, the most important of questions that can ever be asked, and therefore requires much consideration.

DeWitt/Dominic (Dollhouse) - My tiniest fandom, but perhaps my merriest. For the two short years that this show aired, I had such a blast in the lil’ livejournal community that celebrated these two terrifyingly efficient garbage people who stood next to each other real pretty at work, and I will always believe in the very depths of my heart that Adelle DeWitt and Laurence Dominic should’ve smooched each other’s beautiful, morally complicated faces. That would have been perhaps the greatest joy of my fangirl life. Once they stood next to each other and smirked while an elevator door closed, and even that nearly did me in, ya dig? Reed Diamond once said on Twitter that, ya know what, the fanfiction was right, and Dominic was in love with Adelle all along and that’s what makes their story work, and I shall cling to that for the rest of my days. But onscreen smoochies would have been better.

Grace/Frankie (Grace and Frankie) - “But dollsome,” you might say, “isn’t the whole message of the show that sometimes platonic friendship can complete your life instead of romantic love?” To which I say, “Yes, yes, certainly!” But also, you cannot give me lifelong enemies turned tentative friends turned beloved besties and expect me not to ship it. That is the code I live by. I would like some props for being totes chill and ‘yeah! platonic friendship!’ about it for the first two seasons, but then season three happened. Or, to be more accurate, it Happened. Rainbow balloon and all!! How was I to stare shippy perfection in the face and not drink in its light?? (I am going to take a moment to apologize for how truly weird this entire post is. Sorry, world!)

Rory/Paris (Gilmore Girls) - For explanation, see me manifesto, aka The Best Of It on AO3, AKA six years and 73,000 words of me going, “This is why Rory and Paris are soulmates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Pizza and The Power of Myth, baby. But really, I feel like Rory and Paris’s complementary outfits in “Spring” alone are proof that they would be the most amazing power couple in the world.

Betty/Kate (Bomb Girls) - This was one-sided canon and so, so, so friggin’ close to being two-sided canon that I will be in agony over it for the rest of my life. All the writer of Lifetime’s The Craigslist Killer needed to do in the terrible TV movie sequel that was cruelly stolen away from the show’s original writing team was LET THEM KISS IN THEIR LAST SCENE, WHICH WAS ALREADY VERY SAPPY. JUST COMMIT, WRITER OF LIFETIME’S THE CRAIGSLIST KILLER! JUST HAVE MERCY ON THESE POOR SMITTEN FICTIONAL WOMEN FROM THE 1940S IN CANADA, DAMN IT. My almost-but-not-quite-canon agony re: McAndrews is eternal and vehement.

Regina/Emma (Once Upon A Time) - I don’t even care about OUAT very much, and would not list it as one of my favorite shows in any context ever, but come on!!!!!!!!!!!! This would have been an incredible take on the classic fairytale, and also their chemistry was amazing. When the show wandered away from their dynamic, I wandered away from the show. To paraphrase an Oz quote that he might have been paraphrasing from somewhere else: as Swan Queen goes, so goes my nation!

Runners up: Buffy/Faith (like, will either of their lives ever be complete until they hook up? I think we all know the answer is no), Midge/Susie (it would be a TREMENDOUS DELIGHT and everyone except the Palladinos knows it), HG/Myka (That was MESSED UP levels of almost-but-then-not-canon, yo; what the hell???), and a true forever fave of mine, Jack/Eric from Boy Meets World. Actually, that probably should have been on the list up there. I am VERY SERIOUS about my love of Jack/Eric. Look upon my Jack and Eric tag and despair for further proof!

Disclaimer: I am sort of sleep deprived today and I feel like it’s reeeeally coming out in this post.

Edit: I forgot about Oscar/Andy from The Office and my heart literally leapt in dread. So now let the record state: OSCAR/ANDY!!! Imagine the pure joy the latter seasons would have held if that had been the main office romance instead of Andy/Erin and Oscar stealing Angela’s terrible husband.

Ask me my top 5/top 10 anything!