Some Random Opinions
By 
It’s LGM donation day weekend, on which we remind you of all the wonderful things we give you year-round that, if you’d like us to continue doing them, you might want to throw some money in our direction. I’ve been a bit quiet recently—mainly, I suspect, due to the lingering effects of yet another round of COVID. But, lest I be accused of neglecting my responsibilities to this blog and/or its readers, I am here to do what I do best: be randomly opinionated about a bunch of different things.
- I finally watched this Adolescence thing that you were all raving about a couple of months ago, and it was… solid? Very impressive on the level of performance and direction, of course (though I think I agree with Film Crit Hulk that the episode-long takes are a showy gimmick that doesn’t actually do anything for the story). But in terms of its alleged topic, the radicalization of young men and the growing presence of violent misogyny in our culture, I don’t think it has anything to say. To watch Adolescence is to be told that misogyny is something that infects young men through the evil, bewitching internet, not something they learn by watching politicians, entertainment figures, authority figures, and most of all, their own fathers. It lets most of society off the hook precisely at a point when even the most mainstream of institutions seems to be operating on the firm belief that #MeToo has gone too far. At a time when Andrew Cuomo is on the verge of becoming mayor of New York City, carried on the votes of normal, middle class, middle aged voters, I don’t think we can pretend that Andrew Tate is the problem. Adolescence seems, if anything, determined to obscure this issue.
(Also, can we acknowledge that the much-lauded third episode—the one with the psychologist—is very badly written? I genuinely have no idea what the psychologist character is trying to achieve in her sessions with Jamie, why it has taken her five sessions to get there, or what he does that finally convinces her she has all the information she needs. There is no story logic that makes sense of any of her actions. It’s an excuse for two characters to yell and emote at one another for fifty minutes, which it does incredibly effectively—though again, I do not believe that a psychologist who routinely works with violent criminals would be so terrified of an unarmed child in a controlled environment—but it tells us nothing that we did not already know about Jamie himself, his reasons for killing Katie, or the process that he is now in the midst of.) - In happier TV news, the most unexpectedly delightful thing I’ve watched recently is Étoile, whose first season is streaming on Amazon. It’s an Amy Sherman-Paladino show, with all the good and bad things that implies, but after a somewhat ropey first episode I found that I enjoyed it a great deal more than The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or even Gilmore Girls. The premise—the New York and Paris ballet companies decide to swap dancers and choreographers in a bid to attract attention and bring back audiences who wandered away during COVID—is thin in the extreme, but it’s an excuse for a bunch of weird and quirky characters who are deeply, perhaps unhealthily passionate about their art to bounce against each other, not to mention some gorgeous dance scenes. The season has many highlights, but personally I am most attached to Lou de Laâge’s Cheyenne Toussaint (pictured above), a world class prima ballerina who dances like an angel and steamrolls all opposition off stage, while also moonlighting as a militant climate activist.
- Moving on to cooking, it is nearly a year old, but in that time I have not encountered a simpler or more satisfying recipe than Smitten Kitchen’s Braised Chickpeas with Zucchini and Pesto. As someone who has discovered late in life that zucchini is good, actually, but who is still a bit hesitant about its wateriness and tendency to go mushy, marrying it with earthy chickpeas and complex pesto is a great way to downplay those qualities while highlighting the things about it that I like. And as someone who is disdainful of most storebought pesto but also can rarely be bothered to make her own (have you ever managed to buy supermarket basil without throwing out half the leaves in the package?), this is a great recipe for it, because all the other flavors, not to mention the cooking, will obscure the flaws of even a middling commercial product.
The original recipe includes ricotta and parmesan, and is served with bread. I’ve always omitted them—less for health reasons as because I can’t be bothered to add yet more steps and ingredients—and I’ve found that even without them, this is a hearty yet sophisticated meal that doesn’t make you feel like you’re depriving yourself in the name of culinary virtue. - Say, would you like to read something, and finish reading it in an afternoon? How about a novella? Novellas have been a vibrant form in science fiction and fantasy publishing for decades, but in the last twenty years they’ve mostly moved from being published in magazines or collections to standalone volumes, which for some reason always feels like a more proper book to me, even if the pagecount hasn’t changed much. I’ve started a thread on my BlueSky account where I recommend 2025 SFF novellas (specifically, ones not published by the ubiquitous Tordotcom imprint, whose dominance over awards shortlists is understandable, but not exactly healthy for the field). You can go over there to see some my more detailed thoughts, but in a nutshell, my first recommendations are: A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang, Pam Kowolski is a Monster! by Sarah Langan, and Aerth by Deborah Tompkins. For 2024 publications, I also really recommend indie publisher Neon Hemlock‘s entire line, and especially A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers, and North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher.
- This is not an opinion so much as advice: if a fancy new bakery opens near you, immediately purchase their fanciest, weirdest, most unusual offering. The pistachio shortbread. The danish with huge dollop of vanilla cream and fresh berries. The matcha-white-chocolate-chip cookie. Because I promise you, in three months, if that bakery is still there, its selection will be: pain au chocolat, almond croissant, plain croissant, brownie. I may or may not be speaking from recent experience.
(The almond croissant was pretty good, though.)
Do you want more, and possibly even more random, opinions? Well, I really see no other way of achieving that except donating to LGM. As ever, the donation links are: