A Spoiler-free Review of Netflix's Jessica Jones

Beardy and I had recently watched the first season of Jessica Jones. Now, I'm not a big Marvel fan, but I have to admit that I fell in love with the show pretty quickly. Let me state, without spoiling anything (I really want everyone to see it!), the reasons why.

1. Okay, obvious selling point first. Jessica is played by Krysten Ritter, who has been a huge girl crush of mine since the first time I saw her in a film. To be honest though, I hadn't even heard of the show before Beardy started watching the first episode, but once I realised it was her, you bet your butt I sat down and watched the damn show. And even with how much I already like Ritter, I was genuinely impressed by her performance in this role. So different from all of her other sassy sarcastic perky roles. Okay, it's actually still sassy and sarcastic, just not perky. But far from simply taking the perkiness away, it is replaced by a very palpable, believable darkness that makes you really hurt for Jessie, and so you root for her intensely as well.

2. It is so inclusive to LGBT and POC, but without being so heavy-handed that it undermines its own effort. This show is inclusive to non-straight relationships and people of color without wagging it around your face. It just does it, and does it well. It does it believably, respectfully, and so matter-of-factly that I actually didn't notice until I thought about evaluating it.

3. Talking about "Because it's 2015", it's quite gender-equal, especially for a Superhero-themed show. Maybe we can expect it from the showrunner herself being female, but it totally manages to avoid being a sausage party without losing the awesome action and gore elements that are cruicial to the story. Many of the main characters are women who hold their own, and men aren't reduced to two-dimensional characters either. The baddies are called out for inexcusable behaviour instead of insultingly implying that it's natural for men to act like pigs.

4. Kilgrave (Killgrave) is a terrifyingly good villain. Among my own reasons, very few aren't mentioned in this link (beware of spoilers though!). For people who don't want to be spoiled, I'll say this: Kilgrave is so complex, so mysterious, so unexpected, and the way he is revealed little by little in the show gives a sense of horror much akin to Lovecraft's style of omitting detail to terrify. And when everything comes into plain view, it makes an excellent social commentary about control, morals, and perspective. Among many other things.

5. Emotionally riveting character relationships, and character development. The dynamic between the characters are so engaging, and relatable at times. You will not be able to help sympathising with everyone, even with the reaaaaaaaaaaaaally annoying upstairs neighbor. They're not lazy with humanising the characters. They have inner struggles that show up every now and then and make them vulnerable in different ways. The show does not try to blind you with BOOM BOOM POW Michael Bay-levels of conflict and special effects. You feel the wounds, physical and emotional. You feel the characters feel for each other, you feel them hate each other. You feel the fear and discomfort that the abusive relationships stir up in their throats. And when two lonely characters get a moment of mutual understanding, you can't help but feel the love, and what it means to them.

Overall, I really cannot recommend this show enough. I only hope the next season is as amazing as the first, and that this show goes on for many many good seasons.

How We Do (best friend edition)

My friends just went home, man was that evening awesome or what.

This was the documentary we ended up watching out of a list I looked at online. Carmen asked if I had any documentaries on architecture history, and I didn't but I said I'd look for one and I made her check out the list I found, she picked four, and this was the one I was able to download. It was super inspiring and engaging. Kinda cool that they end up delving into film: Carmen and Aizel are from Interior Design and Architecture, while Pia and I are from Media Studies and Film. Woah.

I made popcorn before it ended and we watched the first episode of Broad City afterwards. The popcorn didn't last very long though. Maybe like three minutes. Haha.

It's a nice show, I think I'll keep watching it. I just decided to try it out yesterday and started downloading last night, it's pretty cool that I got to see it first with my friends. It's like, about girls who are not cookie-cutter in their girl-ness, much like all four of us. So yeah that was cool.

Afterwards, We had a photoshoot. We talked about the need for new pictures together, especially for our private FB group's page cover, and tonight was the perfect chance for it, even though the weather is melting our faces off and the fact that we can't stop laughing at everything is not helping at all.

Carmen internalizing for the shoot. "Uma-aura" as these other two described it

TEST SHOT!

Numerous failed shots followed..

We just SOMEHOW can't stop laughing..

Carmen is holding it together so much better than all of us..

Not always though

We ended up going for this one. I'll probably make an edited version but man it's late, these'll do for now.

We had some iced tea spiked with this weird alcohol thing I got from a wedding; none of us know what it is..

After burning more calories by laughing, I made them watch My Mad Fat Diary!!! And they LOOVED it!!!

More than I thought they would :3 So happeh.

So yeah that was a great night. I can't bring myself to sleep!

Last workday of the week Bea, Go go go! To bed.

Sah-weet Surprises

I innocently went with my mom to her office because I didn't have work today and ended up being spoiled rotten.

The day was already good from the start, even if I did have less sleep than I would have liked to have on a no-work day. I got up, got dressed, had iced coffee and watched this cool Game of Thrones related video (I've been so hyped up about the upcoming season premiere.. GRAAAH!).

Then on the way to the office I managed to fight off some morning sickness (I get that when I wake up too early) with some orange juice; very fortunate that my mom suggested getting some mcDo drive-thru for breakfast. Even though I did forget that Egg McMuffins are not the same as Sausage McMuffins with egg (darn it, THAT's the one I wanted) and I didn't feel like eating hashbrowns because I've been feeling bloated lately.

While I was sitting there doing nothing, (and being the oldest one of the "kids" that everyone brought to work yesterday) my mom generously treated me to a couple of treatments at the spa across the street.

And if that wasn't overly indulgent enough for one day, I later ended up being treated to some of the sexiest, most delicious (and photogenic) cupcakes in all deh land ~~~

I met ate Kat during one summer when I took a summer job at my mom's office many moons ago. I warmed up to her pretty quickly (I get shy and quiet around most people I meet through my mom) and found her super cool (I feel that it's important to say at this point that she introduced me to Neil Gaiman). Now she owns her very own café and it's the cutest, quirkiest little piece of trippy heaven. Regrettably, I did not get to bring Atom with me earlier, but I'll be sure to the next time I go ~ hopefully after I've had him repaired; he still has that little shutter quirk. >.< I'd love to write about how cute and creative the place is!

He did however get to help me out on snapping some pictures right after coming home, most of which will be shown in the next post.

Ate Kat told me she'd treat me to a meal when I stop by, but I didn't have as much time as I thought I would have. My mom asked that I be ready to get whisked away back to the office at a moment's notice so I just chatted with her and decided that I'll buy a box of cupcakes to go when it's time to leave. After mama called telling me I'm about to be picked up, we went to where the cupcakes are so I could choose which ones to get. One box fits six cupcakes; I decided I couldn't not try each one I could see, but after counting twice, I realised there were SEVEN kinds! Oops! Ate Kat said we'll just sneak another one in there. I thought, hey I'm going to get treated to a cupcake after all! But then she suddenly said I didn't have to pay ...for any.

 –I told you I'd treat you if you came!, she said.

WHAAAAA??? *tries to keep composure but weeps inside*

So in the end I got seven free cupcakes, and even the one extra was all boxed up really pretty! Sometimes I'm really shocked by how generous some people can be. Numerous things people do that you hear about make you doubt the entire human race, but a select few do things like this to you in real life and all of a sudden you think you might have gotten it all wrong.

That got way too deep. Sorry, I have too much sugar in my blood right now.

You could see how much attention and care she gives to her products, even from the packaging. Check out the adorable sticker:

It's the apostrophe on her logo, and it's the most adorable thing. I saved this one because I wanted to stick it onto my journal for today, a reminder of how inspired I felt today to create something in my life that is authentic to me. Oops. There I go again. Don't worry, these sugar high trances don't last very long.

I already had two of them, and I’d love to tell you how awesome they were! But alas it is already too  late and I have to sleep now to make the most out of the weekend…

(Finn Nelson Voice)To be continued...

PS: Who else watched the final episode of My Mad Fat Diary?! I HOPE IT GETS RENEWED. More of dis fez plz.

Life lately in pictures.

Happy X-mas Eve, random strangers and good friends that read my blog!

I'm going to make a Christmas post sooner or later, but first I want to just photoblog about my life lately.

SANSA IS ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!

She was a bit frazzled just now because all of our couches were occupied, but she just found a free pillow to sleep on. But the loud music is visibly startling her. Haha! She ate a lot of goodies today and I let her run around earlier (she usually whimpers during walks cos I'm too slow for her, but since it's birthday I ran a bit just so she can too)

One day we walked to the church so we can walk with mama after her Simbang Gabi. I took the opportunity to practice with my camera again. It's been a WHILE.

girl and dog

night photos are no joke

I had a good concept starring the moon but it hid away immediately after seeing  me try to take a picture of it! Shy moon. (or is it troll moon)

I had to settle with playing with the spherical lamp posts. In the bottom one the yellowbell is blowing light bubbles. Or it is housing tiny fairies that are jumping off for the night's work.

Before going out that dawn (yes I'm still up at dawn these days T.T) I made myself a nice hot chocolate! With whip and cinnamon! It was nice. I wonder if cinnamon is a common thing to put on hot chocolate?

In any case, it should be.

Tonight I made myself a cold one (+Bailey's :3) because it's super warm -.- Warm christmas.

I'm about 99.6 percent sure that this was triggered by that one time I decided to have a peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks.. 

I never thought of putting peppermint in there before even though I usually did that at home. I liked it of course, but when I ordered that drink I was like I TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE WHIPPED CREAM AT HOME SO I CAN HAVE THESE MORE OFTEN and that boys and girls is why I can't keep my weight down! Not that anybody should really mind.

My family goes out for coffee often during Decembers because my mom likes collecting stickers for those planners they give people at Starbucks here.. She got carried away this year and is now on her third sticker card XD She already got hers early, the brown one. She then completed another and gave me the yellow one. But for the last card, she let my brother have it. He'll only need 7 stickers to complete it now! Personally I prefer to buy the planners from National Bookstore, but this year the yellow one was cute. So I'm using it as a diary. (I already bought a National Bookstore planner. heuheu) Maybe when I have a lot of disposable income and don't gain weight so easily from downing sugary/creamy coffee I might find things like that fun, but right now it all seems horrifying to do myself because I'm a poor fresh grad who just quit and needs a buttload of money (and space to gain weight from eating a lot) for France. So I feel quite lucky that my mom gave me a free one. haha.

Speaking of coffee, we visited a dear friend of my mom (and a father figure to me tbh) and we were given a gift!!! An awesome gift!!! Because we almost bought one earlier this year and now it turns out we didn't have to cos we got one for free XD

We finally have a Nespresso XD

Apparently someone gave him another one so he gave us his old one.. I'm not quite sure why he gave us the capsule rack too as he could still use it, I think he was just feeling super generous as usual! This particular one is actually a "Dolce Gusto" but I don't really see the point in that and I always forget it. The trigger word for me is "Nestle" the manufacturer, so I always end up just calling it Nespresso anyway. Like a normal person.

Let's just hope the first generous gift givers don't find this post and feel bad it was given away XD Recycling gifts makes Christmas hilariously awkward at times. Note how I sized it smaller than how I usually post pictures. Haha. It's nice to not have to spend anything for the machine cos the capsules aren't cheap XD I'll probably find a workaround with that too because it produces too much trash for everyday use!

I'm starting to make my family look like a bunch of caffeine-addicted nutjobs. Good thing it's coffee and not cocaine nobody reads this blog.

Here is a picture of the shepherd's pie that we made as an awkward transition back to the original topic:

My younger brother and I mashed the taters, my mom cooked the main meat stew inside, I set up the thing in the dish (my brother tried to start it but I'm just a lot better hehe) , and as per my mom's orders, i pierced a design on top and applied eggwash before it was put in the oven. She really liked my forky pokey pattern :3 She stared at it a few times just complimenting it. I think I saw it blush. It blushed BRIGHT YELLOW

So yeah. Pictures. I've also been trying a hand at enhancing pictures again. Here are some pictures of our Christmassed-up house:

I helped a lot with my mom's boxing this year. It's not entirely selfless, by wrapping the gifts I'm given a false sense of "this is from us" hahaha.

bear and lights. yes we have a bear living in this house what of it

These stuffed christmas decorations are so presh.

That welcome reindeer is always rocking side to side thanks to the fan. Jaro is obsessed with Welcome to Nightvale. This is a real actual expression he got while listening:

This time with not real/actual Nightvale-purple smoke because why not:

Althoughh it's a lot more descriptive of how into it he is.

Anyway, tomorrow there will be a Christmas post! Or on the 26th. I'm not actually sure where I'll be tomorrow night.

Moreish Mondays

You know what I hate about Mondays? Mondays. You know what I like about Mondays? They're trying to win me over! Two of my favorite shows (US) premiered on the 29th, and are therefore available to me today, the 30th. So right now I'm downloading Once Upon A Time, Bob's Burgers had just finished, and I've got that to look forward to when I come home tomorrow morning! This'll happen every Monday from here on out.

Life isn't so bad.

Smitten by Storybrooke

Currently in the middle of watching the first season of Once Upon A Time. Amazing, this show; and I love the feeling it evokes in me. It allows me to be engaged in a fairy tale without compromising with too much suspension of disbelief.

To those of you who don't know it, Once Upon A Time is a TV series revolving around inhabitants of Storybrooke, who are apparently people from the land of fairy tales that have been transported to the real world by a curse made by the evil queen. Because apparently our real life to them is the equivalent of hell to us. Which is a bit depressing, but bear with me. In this alternate fairy tale land, all of the fairy tale characters we know used to exist in the same dimension and their kingdoms come together in a single episode every now and then. It's one congruent universe, just in a fairy tale dimension.

Particularly, it revolves around Emma Swan, who is Snow White's (now named Mary Margaret as her earth self) daughter, and the only one who can break the spell. Rumpelstiltskin assigned this to her while Snow was still pregnant with her because apparently in the world of fairy tales, all curses should have a way to be broken! I didn't know this, but it's interesting and sure makes sense in fairy tale logic (everything should have its fair price).

Anyway at the start of the story, Henry, who is Emma's son that she gave up as a teen, comes to her informing her of the curse, and keeps insisting that she break it. Emma is won over by the child despite not really completely believing the story. Henry has been adopted by Regina, the earth version of the evil queen. She is the only one apart from Henry that knows about Storybrooke's past. Everyone else had forgotten their pasts.

I love how detailed the story was made. They stitched up a completely new universe from patches of stories that had always been there, which is a different realm from the talented genius behind completely-fabricated universes like the Dr.Who universe and the Harry Potter universe. The appeal here is that it taps onto something very familiar when you see it, and offers back stories and a wider grounding of all of these stories that we now realize we only know on the surface! Because of this I feel really excited whenever I start a new episode. I love learning about the made-up back story of a new character on each one because they make so much more sense and are so much more interesting and relatable.

I love when people give things a new life. It's like they're completely different characters to me now. For one thing, I love Rumpelstiltskin in this series even though I always hated the idea of him before. Robert Carlyle is so fucking excellent in this series, and eerily transforms from ugly to handsome so effortlessly whenever a transition occurs in his character. If not for anything else, see this show for that.

I first caught one of the episodes on TV and immediately decided that I had to see it entirely. The one I caught was about Grumpy, who apparently used to be Dreamy in his first birth, before having his heart broken. I loved the eerie resemblance between Emma and Snow played by a "Ginnifer" and a "Jennifer" no less! (Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison) They're not even related! And of course I also loved Grumpy's story. After that I saw the one about Red Ridinghood (now Ruby in her earth life; and smoking hot)... And I'm just beyond happy now that I have a full season on my hard drive :)

This was a very wordy and all-over-the-place review and for that I apologize! But I have to go back to the show now!