— पांच हजार तीन सौ नौ —
Little to report from the past 24 hours. The fate of the balance of power in Congress remains an open question. Either direction it goes, it's only going to be barely. I must say though that I am deeply in love with
this headline from
The Guardian: "The winner of the midterms is not yet clear – but the loser is Donald Trump."
Another thing that gave me comfort, overheard again from Shobhit's news programs last night: pundits talking about the extent to which, more than expected at least, the nation rejected MAGA extremism. Florida may have succeeded in rendering itself a definitively red state thanks to gerrymandering (which was allowed to stand there but state courts elsewhere struck down redistricting maps favoring Democrats, which may have been the very thing to cost us Congressional control—a complicated discussion if ever there was one), but what they said on the program was, "America rejected the politics of Florida." This was contextualized as Florida governor Ron DeSantis as a "Trump mini-me" that perhaps therefore has less of a chance at the 2024 presidency than feared—because people everywhere are finally distancing themselves (not dramatically, but enough to be noticeable) from Trumpism.
Now, I do try to keep perspective here, whether things seem to be going worse or, in this case, better than expected. The presidential election is two years away, and a lot can change in that time. Things could get better, and things could still really go to hell. The relief is that the latter did not happen this week, and this election, to my genuine surprise, seems to have been a definitive rebuke of election denialism, even among Republicans.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नौ —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नौ —
Otherwise, I spent the evening last night watching TV. I chopped some vegetables for Shobhit first while waiting for him to get home from work, and once I was done with that, I sat down at my desk to watch the new episode of
Andor—which was spectacular, my second-favorite of the season so far. That show is so good I was compelled
to post about it.
And then, we started in on season five of
The Crown, getting through two episodes. I could have binged the entire season but I had to go to bed.
I love the show as much as I ever have, and have never had any issue with them re-casting all the parts every two seasons. Season five is thus the third cast, and I still maintain that Imelda Staunton is inspired casting for Queen Elizabeth. Shobhit complained because she feels too much like Professor Delores Umbridge from
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to him (that was also inspired casting, incidentally). His argument was that most viewers will feel the same way because he has more populist tastes than I do, an argument I reject on its face. Shobhit re-watches every single Harry Potter movie he sees on cable no matter how recently he saw it, and there is no question he is in the minority on
that. Plus, Professor Umbridge being her most recognizable role by far notwithstanding, it is by no means the only thing Imelda Staunton is known for: she was nominated for an Oscar for a stellar performance in the 2005 abortion drama
Vera Drake. She was also in both
Downton Abbey films as well as both
Maleficent films, and got a fair amount of exposure in a key part in the 2014 movie
Pride, about a small group of gays and lesbians coming to the aide of striking Welsh coal miners in the eighties. She's been in plenty of other stuff too, Shobhit just hasn't seen them.
In any case, I easily and instantly accepted Staunton as Queen Elizabeth. It was interesting to see how the royals are depicted so far this season—most of the show has been very sympathetic (if still critical at times) to the queen in particular. But, now they're being shown to have been regarded by half the British public in the early nineties as increasingly out of touch as they age, while depicting behaviors on their part that do little to combat that perception. (Demanding that the British government foot the bill for repairing their
yacht? Really? And their arguments of it being of paramount tradition and vital to British culture totally fall flat.) In other words, this season starts by making it very easy to be less sympathetic toward Queen Elizabeth and Price Philip—but, while still retaining its characteristically lush production design, and stellar performances.
Shobhit also complains that Dominic West looks far less like real-life Prince Charles than gorgeous Josh O'Connor did in seasons 3 and 4, which is actually a fair assessment. That's hardly a deal breaker in my mind though, especially when the acting is still excellent. Not everything can be consistently
perfect, and I don't find it a challenge at all to accept Dominic West as Charles (who still is better looking than Charles in real life, especially in middle age).
— पांच हजार तीन सौ नौ —
[posted 12:30 pm]
