December Rec Roundtable: Series
Dec. 10th, 2018 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ladybusinessIt's December: the end of the year and the time of 1000 recommendation lists. We thought we'd get in on the action with some sweet themed recs! Here are some of our favorite series from 2010 to 2010.
Black Sails! But if you are already watching that, then my next favorite is the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I’m not sure about its current and final season (time will tell), but the first and third seasons are among the best television I’ve ever watched. If showrunner Rachel Bloom were a dude, we’d be getting fawning profiles about her genius every week. Instead of that you will just have to make do with this one fawning paragraph. Oh, patriarchy.
Because Leverage TECHNICALLY premiered in 2008, I’m gonna talk about Brooklyn 99 instead. I was wary of this show initially because Andy Samberg’s character appeared to be the type of white dude that I hate. Imagine my surprise when Jake Peralta instead became one of my favorite dudes on TV. I love that this show has such a diverse cast of characters and that it has such a strong found family vibe at its center. In a less well-written show, Amy Santiago would be a killjoy. Instead, she’s a vibrant, well-rounded character whose grown and changed as the show’s progressed. B99, despite being a comedy, also isn’t afraid to tackle issues like racial profiling, homophobia, and sexual harassment and does it with respect to the issues and the characters. B99 is my happy place show and I’m so glad that NBC uncancelled it.
The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan — I love this series about a woman scientist who studies dragons is in world based on our own nineteenth century. Isabella must navigate sexism to do the work that she loves. Along the way she makes alliances with a variety of other marginalized people interested in the sciences. I love the friendships she forms! However the books mostly focus on her having adventures and cool dragon ecology. Brennan has background in anthropology and her worldbuilding is detailed and rich. The series is complete at five books, though there’s book about Isabella’s granddaughter coming next year.
I have probably yelled about these in great detail before, but my favourite shows of the last couple of years have been Nirvana in Fire and Yuri!!! On Ice. (Leverage and Guardian have been running a close second, but I've not actually finished watching either of them so I don't want to commit too early.) Nirvana in Fire is an intense historical fantasy show full of politics and revenge, as a strategist schemes to get his preferred candidate onto the throne while completely shaking up the politics of the entire country—it's full of tragedy and unspoken feelings and gorgeous visuals and I love it. And Yuri!!! On Ice is a show that makes me so happy, because it follows an extremely anxious figure skater as he tries to rediscover his joy in skating, win a gold medal, and fall in love. It's so good! To the point where I started rewatching it last week and I still want to cry over it.
I had thought about picking other things, but in truth my only honest answer to this question is Critical Role. I played a bit of D & D in college, as well as a few other pencil-and-dice RPGs, but much as I enjoyed it, I fell out of that community after graduation and never had the chance to return to it. So when a few friends recced me this web series, this show featuring "a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons", I decided to give it a try even though it was already about 60 episodes in, and that felt like a lot to catch up on. And catch up I did (with a bit of skipping at the beginning), after which I fell into the fandom and became totally obsessed. The friendship chemistry among the players is amazing, the DM (Matthew Mercer, who may be familiar to some video game fans) is a brilliant storyteller and improviser, and even when things go badly, it's a joy to watch. (The group started a second campaign in January, and it stands alone from the first. So if over a hundred three-hour+ episodes seems daunting (certainly understandable!), it's fine to jump in there.)
Peaky Blinders has absolutely stolen my heart. It's rare to see someone create media about the West Midlands, so to see Steven Knight create this gorgeously shot, artful series about a piece of our local history, and to pull it off so well just floors me. Much like my rec for Black Sails, earlier in Recmas, this recommendation comes with caveats. Peaky Blinders is an extremely violent show, and it includes some serious scenes of violence against women which I really don't think were necessary. However, it's a fantastic show for anyone interested in how war, violence, capitalism, and patriarchy shape men into monsters who still feel intense emotions. And all of the female characters are so, so interesting.
My favorite television show of the last few years is, WITH NO SHAME, MTV's Teen Wolf. It's terrible and great and the fandom created amazing things. It almost felt like Stargate Atlantis and its fandom, but with a fanbase ten years younger? Season 3 was a thing of dramatic beauty. Book-wise, my favorite series of this exact moment (if you ask me tomorrow, it'll be different) is The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, because they capture the feeling of really deep, complicated relationships between people in a way I love.
Theme for December 10: Favorite 2010-2018 series/TV shows
Jenny
Black Sails! But if you are already watching that, then my next favorite is the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I’m not sure about its current and final season (time will tell), but the first and third seasons are among the best television I’ve ever watched. If showrunner Rachel Bloom were a dude, we’d be getting fawning profiles about her genius every week. Instead of that you will just have to make do with this one fawning paragraph. Oh, patriarchy.
Diana
Because Leverage TECHNICALLY premiered in 2008, I’m gonna talk about Brooklyn 99 instead. I was wary of this show initially because Andy Samberg’s character appeared to be the type of white dude that I hate. Imagine my surprise when Jake Peralta instead became one of my favorite dudes on TV. I love that this show has such a diverse cast of characters and that it has such a strong found family vibe at its center. In a less well-written show, Amy Santiago would be a killjoy. Instead, she’s a vibrant, well-rounded character whose grown and changed as the show’s progressed. B99, despite being a comedy, also isn’t afraid to tackle issues like racial profiling, homophobia, and sexual harassment and does it with respect to the issues and the characters. B99 is my happy place show and I’m so glad that NBC uncancelled it.
Forestofglory
The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan — I love this series about a woman scientist who studies dragons is in world based on our own nineteenth century. Isabella must navigate sexism to do the work that she loves. Along the way she makes alliances with a variety of other marginalized people interested in the sciences. I love the friendships she forms! However the books mostly focus on her having adventures and cool dragon ecology. Brennan has background in anthropology and her worldbuilding is detailed and rich. The series is complete at five books, though there’s book about Isabella’s granddaughter coming next year.
Susan
I have probably yelled about these in great detail before, but my favourite shows of the last couple of years have been Nirvana in Fire and Yuri!!! On Ice. (Leverage and Guardian have been running a close second, but I've not actually finished watching either of them so I don't want to commit too early.) Nirvana in Fire is an intense historical fantasy show full of politics and revenge, as a strategist schemes to get his preferred candidate onto the throne while completely shaking up the politics of the entire country—it's full of tragedy and unspoken feelings and gorgeous visuals and I love it. And Yuri!!! On Ice is a show that makes me so happy, because it follows an extremely anxious figure skater as he tries to rediscover his joy in skating, win a gold medal, and fall in love. It's so good! To the point where I started rewatching it last week and I still want to cry over it.
KJ
I had thought about picking other things, but in truth my only honest answer to this question is Critical Role. I played a bit of D & D in college, as well as a few other pencil-and-dice RPGs, but much as I enjoyed it, I fell out of that community after graduation and never had the chance to return to it. So when a few friends recced me this web series, this show featuring "a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons", I decided to give it a try even though it was already about 60 episodes in, and that felt like a lot to catch up on. And catch up I did (with a bit of skipping at the beginning), after which I fell into the fandom and became totally obsessed. The friendship chemistry among the players is amazing, the DM (Matthew Mercer, who may be familiar to some video game fans) is a brilliant storyteller and improviser, and even when things go badly, it's a joy to watch. (The group started a second campaign in January, and it stands alone from the first. So if over a hundred three-hour+ episodes seems daunting (certainly understandable!), it's fine to jump in there.)
Jodie
Peaky Blinders has absolutely stolen my heart. It's rare to see someone create media about the West Midlands, so to see Steven Knight create this gorgeously shot, artful series about a piece of our local history, and to pull it off so well just floors me. Much like my rec for Black Sails, earlier in Recmas, this recommendation comes with caveats. Peaky Blinders is an extremely violent show, and it includes some serious scenes of violence against women which I really don't think were necessary. However, it's a fantastic show for anyone interested in how war, violence, capitalism, and patriarchy shape men into monsters who still feel intense emotions. And all of the female characters are so, so interesting.
Renay
My favorite television show of the last few years is, WITH NO SHAME, MTV's Teen Wolf. It's terrible and great and the fandom created amazing things. It almost felt like Stargate Atlantis and its fandom, but with a fanbase ten years younger? Season 3 was a thing of dramatic beauty. Book-wise, my favorite series of this exact moment (if you ask me tomorrow, it'll be different) is The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, because they capture the feeling of really deep, complicated relationships between people in a way I love.
