Updates, Amendments, and News You Can Use

There are posts, some from years and years ago, that I wish I could go back and amend. Things change! I learn and grow! For awhile I would periodically do update posts, where I'd revisit products that I'd reviewed, but those have gone by the wayside in recent years. For today though, I'm bringing updates back. There are a few items that I wrote about, both recently and as many as three years ago, that I've wanted to talk a little more about. And now's my chance. So, without any further ado, here are a few amendments to posts from the past.

Lost Girl: I Am Team Doccubus After All

In my post about Lost Girl from early 2013 I ragged on Lauren quite a lot. Upon rereading it, I was way harsher than I remembered. MAN, I disliked her. So here's my attempt at recovery, in case a diehard Lost Girl fan finds this blog and decides to write something horribly scathing in response (which has been my concern in the years since my feelings changed): I didn't actually dislike Lauren, I just thought she was supremely boring, and that was because her storylines were SO BORING. Her comatose girlfriend? Her always being in the lab, doing the bidding of the fae? And she didn't even have a cool, scifi lab. She had a boring lab! (Spoiler: They somehow make Lauren being an amazing, brilliant doctor boring for the entire series.) Soon after I hit "publish" on my Lost Girl post, Lauren started to get more interesting for me. She had a more active role in adventures, she got to be Bo's go-to girl, and I started to see what fans saw in Lauren. I was watching the show on Netflix for seasons 1 and 2 I believe, so I was a bit behind the fandom, which was also part of why I was completely baffled by all the Doccubus love I saw online. By the time I was watching in real time, and especially now that I've seen the entire series, I'm totally in. I get it.

I was looking for a photo or a clip for this section and I found this and guys, what even was this show? This is goofy and amazing. I'm so happy that Lost Girl happened. What is going to fill its shoes?! I think maybe Wynonna Earp? Time will tell.

PS: In the spirit of updates and ships, my all time #1 favorite pairing to see onscreen on Lost Girl is Dyson and Lauren, working together to help Bo, the woman they both love. Does that have a ship name? DocWolf? Whatever that is, I'm sailing that ship into the sunset.

Michaela DePrince Is In Lemonade, and She Is Amazing

Like all members of sensible humanity, my life will now be divided into two epochs: "Before Lemonade" and "After Lemonade." I watched Lemonade on HBO the day it aired all alone, which was good, because I had no distractions, but bad, because no one was with me to share in the awe. I also had no one to hear me when I yelled, "THAT'S MICHAELA DePRINCE!"

I mentioned Michaela DePrince so, so briefly, and it turns out, not even by name (something I always try to avoid) in my post about potentially overlooked documentaries you should check out. If you ask me, they could have made First Position a documentary entirely about Michaela DePrince, but I guess they wanted to highlight some other kids who are less fascinating. I have since found out that Michaela wrote an autobiography and the film rights were recently sold, so her story is being told in many ways! Michaela was born in Sierra Leone and was orphaned at a young age. Not only that, she was frequently starved and mistreated because of her vitiligo. When she was four she and another orphaned girl were adopted by a white couple from New Jersey, and she began taking ballet classes at age five. She became an immensely talented ballerina, but she was told that she would never be a star because she was black and her vitiligo made her look imperfect (ballet is all about perfection). Then there's the part I mentioned in my mini-synopsis of First Position, where Michaela's mother had to take apart her costumes and dye them to match her skintone, because "nude" only means one thing in the ballet world, and Michaela doesn't fit that mold. (And where I also linked you up to Kinetic Essentials, which is an independent, Black-owned company that makes nine different shades of dye for coloring canvas ballet and pointe shoes to match skintones that dance companies just don't cater to. Plus, I'm not a dancer, but they have some self-care products that I'm thinking of ordering for myself as a chronic pain sufferer.)

Back to Michaela DePrince. She has an amazing life story (watch her Tedx talk and learn more! Do it now!), and I had no idea what happened after First Position, but now I do! She's now 21 years old and she's dancing with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. And Beyoncé herself asked her to be in Lemonade! Here's an article about it from the Wall Street Journal. Have I convinced you to become a Michaela DePrince fan yet? I hope so. Just looking into her career I've become even more of a fan. In between writing parts of this section I've put her book on hold at the library, I've watched clips of her dancing, I've followed her on Instagram... I encourage you to do the same.

My Mad Fat Diary Is Now Available Legally On Hulu!

I wrote about the heartbreakingly wonderful British show My Mad Fad Diary both here and here, and at those times it wasn't available to watch easily anywhere in the US. This show is so ridiculously wonderful that I recommended using some shady means to obtain it, that's how vital it is to your TV watch list. But now, that is all unnecessary, because Hulu has added the entire series of My Mad Fat Diary to their collection. REJOICE! I'm including this clip because it's non-spoilery, but it's one of my favorite moments of the show. When this happened I think so many people in the audience identified and were simultaneously happy that they weren't the only ones that had this fantasy in their teen years but also sad because shit, we all had this fantasy in our teen years?! It's slightly more poignant when in the context of the whole episode, and the whole show isn't this heavy all the time! There are also a million sing-along moments because of the amazing mid-90s soundtrack. God, this show is just perfection. You have to watch it. And now you can without breaking the law!

Please Know, My 100 Posts Were B.L. (Before Lexa)

Guys, I love The 100. Well, maybe I should put that is past tense? We've been going through a rough patch lately. Yep, I'm one of those fans. There's a rift in the fandom, and I'm on Team Clexa. I'm not even that involved in this very involved controversy over The 100, but the way Lexa's appearance and exit from The 100 was handled was just plain awful. The 100 went from appointment viewing for me to a show that I watched days after it aired, and while I was doing something else. Basically, it broke my heart. I stand by what I wrote about seasons 1 and 2 (and if I had known about the rest of season 2 when I wrote my 100 posts (here and here)I would have talked extensively about Lexa), but I can't recommend season 3 to you with a clear conscience. Lexa deserved better.

There's a Sneaky Way to Watch The Staircase

I constantly talk about The Staircase, and when I meet someone who hasn't seen The Staircase I tell them to watch it, then get back to me so that we can talk about it. You need to understand: It is so good and everyone needs to see it. The only problem is, it's not available on any of your streaming sites: Your Netflixes, your Hulus, your Amazon Primes. Not even your HBOs or your Showtimes, for Chrissake! The only way to watch The Staircase is to rent it or buy it, or to join the Sundance Doc Club (which I have considered). The Sundance Doc Club costs $7 a month and grants you access to a whole slew of documentaries, but a lot of them are available on other streaming sites, so it's not really too essential. BUT! You can get a 30 day trial of Sundance Doc Club for free! So you sign up for the 30 day trial, watch The Staircase, have your life forever changed by this documentary and finally be able to talk to me about one of my favorite topics, then cancel your subscription and boom! You've watched The Staircase free of charge. The folks behind Sundance Doc Club aren't dummies - They know The Staircase is such a hot property they've even put it on the front page of their Amazon site. Just remember to cancel that subscription... but if you don't, The Staircase is worth a $7 slip-up. It's a masterwork.