#REVIEW: Peacemaker, Season One

On February 20, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn Reviews, Television1 Comment

So. Um.

I gotta admit; I’m really surprised to be writing any of this. I’ve seen … four James Gunn projects, I think? The two Guardians of the Galaxy movies and his Suicide Squad movie, which introduced Peacemaker as a character. I understand he’s in the comic books; if I’ve ever encountered him there, I don’t recall it. Most of Gunn’s projects have landed in the same spot in my head: that was entertaining, and I’m done thinking about it now. He tends to over-rely on music to drive his emotional beats forward, which it turns out is way more annoying if you’re watching with closed captions on so that all the lyrics appear on the screen, but that’s not a huge thing and it’s literally my only general gripe about his work.

Peacemaker is the best thing he’s ever done, and it’s not close, and — and this is the part where I’m really surprised to be writing this– it’s mostly because of John Cena’s literally unbelievable, as in “I don’t believe he’s really this good,” acting talents. I don’t know much about Cena, really; I know he (used to be?) a pro wrestler but that’s not something I really follow, and he made no particular impact on me in The Suicide Squad. But his charisma and his incredibly malleable face carry this show. I think the best thing to compare him to is Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool; it is so obvious that he loves playing this character that his enthusiasm is infectious and it carries through on every frame of the show that he’s in. He is not exactly surrounded by acting slouches– the only two I’m familiar with are Robert Patrick who has a grand old time playing Peacemaker’s racist-as-fuck evil supervillain father and the awesome Danielle Brooks playing Leota Adebayo, otherwise known as Amanda Waller’s daughter, but everybody is doing solid work here. Freddie Stroma, whose real name is Frederic Wilhelm C.J. Sjöström, is a particular standout as Vigilante, a character I’d be perfectly happy to see another spinoff for.

But back to Cena. He is playing a big dumb douchebag, and that’s probably being kind to the character. But he manages to play the big dumb douchebag in such a compelling fashion that not rooting for him is inconceivable, and he’s in control of himself enough that every time Peacemaker feels the slightest twitch of an emotion you pick up on it. I don’t think that I’ve ever said this about an actor before, but the ways he uses his eyes and his mouth to convey emotion are just amazing. I know that probably sounds weird, but watch the show. I swear, he’s doing something different here, and to find this performance in the middle of this violent, profane, shouty middle-school testosterone-fest of a comic book show is really something special. It’s getting to be very rare for me to make it through any kind of TV or movie nowadays; I regularly will watch an episode or two of something, proclaim it to be something I really like, and then never watch it again– so the fact that I was eagerly looking forward to watching the entire season is really worth reinforcing. If you have HBO Max, definitely check this out, and if you don’t have HBO Max, if you have any other reason to pick the service up for a month, go for it.

My sweet home

On February 19, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

We ventured up to the northern Chicago suburbs today, the part of Illinois I used to call “north Northytown” back when I actually lived in the city, to celebrate Christmas with my brother’s family. The fact that it took us nearly two months to do so should indicate just how many times we’ve had to reschedule this visit. We’re home now, but that means I spent maybe five and a half hours driving for what was probably about a five and a half hour visit, so .. I’mma go collapse into bed now.

Probably going to review Peacemaker: Season One tomorrow, but if I don’t, be it known that you should watch it.

In which I am almost defeated

On February 18, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn CookingLeave a comment

We had a training day today, so no kids, and one of my co-workers walked in and handed this to me. It’s his wife’s work, and I’m happy to announce that I am now in a polyamorous relationship, because I absolutely must be married to anyone who is able to produce pecan cheesecake in any capacity, and pecan cheesecake of this unbelievably high quality should be on sale in stores.(*) I told my co-worker that had I paid $30 or $40 for an entire pie I would not feel cheated. It was that good– gooey, caramelly, with absolutely perfect cheesecake and a fucking amazing crust. My mouth is still watering looking at it.

Of course, the sugar level sent me into a coma for the rest of the day– the second piece I had a couple hours later did not help– and it is 9:19 as I’m typing this and I didn’t not get around to posting today so much as I completely forgot the blog existed until just now, so lucky for everyone I had this deliciousness on my phone to make you all jealous of me.

Just don’t have two pieces. You will die. You will die happy, but if you die, you can’t have any more pecan cheesecake.

(*) I did not inform either my co-worker or his wife of this, although I did tell him he should do whatever is necessary for the rest of his life to keep her around. I should probably get around to that. People like to know about it when they’re married to other people, right?

Some good news, for once

On February 17, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

The Indiana state Senate, in a rare moment of sanity, has defanged the grotesque HB 1134, removing the vast majority of what made it so offensive, including the requirement that teachers post daily lesson plans for the entire year by either June 30 or August 1 of each year, depending on which version of the bill you were looking at. It appears to have been watered down to a vague suggestion that school districts create curriculum advisory committees that parents can be on, which I’d be willing to bet most of them already have, and which one way or another is not an especially onerous change. I did enjoy this bit from the article, however:

Dawn Lang, a Fishers mom of three kids, said she likes the part of the bill that will provide her access to her school’s learning management system. She said parents are frustrated and want more transparency in their children’s education.

Dawn Lang lives in Fishers, which is a wealthy suburb of Indianapolis, and I absolutely one hundred percent guarantee you that she already has full access to her school’s LMS. Every LMS I’ve ever seen allows parental access. My kids’ parents can see every assignment and can see their kids’ attendance and grades in real-time, and can even set things up to get alerts when I update grades. And this isn’t exactly new technology; it’s been available in my district for easily half a decade if not longer than that. She has the access; she’s either too dumb to be able to use it, in which case the law isn’t going to help her, or she’s lying, in which case the law is written specifically for people like her.

What does this mean for me? Good question! This law was going to guarantee that I wasn’t going to return to teaching next year, and while it’s always possible that some sort of fuckery will take place (the House assumes no one’s watching, restores the old language, and bounces it back to the Senate during the reconciliation process, the Senate passes the original, fucked bill, and Holcomb signs it) I don’t know that I think it’s especially likely. This year’s legislative Armageddon at least appears to be, against all expectations, dead. Will there be more fuckery next year? Yep. Sure will, and this bill wasn’t the only reason I want to leave; recall that my administrators have been fired as well, for example, and, oh, every single other thing about this year. But it means that there’s not a “have to quit by” date attached to my current career, and that I can at least take some time and see if there are other school-related jobs that I might want next year. It’s gone from an impending crisis to something that is still very much a big deal but no longer runs any risk of actual unemployment. I’ll take it.

In other news, we did have school today, although literally all but one of the other school districts within shouting distance were closed. And, honestly, as it turns out, it was a touch on the risky side but I think it was the right call. My drive home was kinda dodgy, but you can’t live through too many Indiana winters without learning how to handle “kinda dodgy,” and as the middle schools are the last to dismiss in my district, I have to assume the high schools and primary centers were able to get everybody home without any particular drama. Hell, attendance was even pretty good today, and most of the day was, unbelievably, calm. Again, I’ll take it.

Oh, great, this again

On February 16, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

We have a nasty little motherfucker of a storm coming, aimed, as near as I can tell, directly at my house. It’s been 50 degrees all day today, so a lot of the snow has melted (remember, we got a foot of snow a couple of weeks ago, and most of it was still around) and it’s supposed to start raining pretty much any time now. Then the temperature is going to start dropping, so that by the time school starts it’s going to be below freezing, and all that water is going to start turning to ice, along with whatever “wintry mix” has been dropped on us up until then. Estimates for how much snow we’re going to get tomorrow have ranged from five inches to over a foot; I think they’ve mostly settled in the 6-9″ range, but all day tomorrow is going to be ugly as hell.

Oh, and 30 mph winds through basically all of this. So all sorts of shit will be falling out of the sky and it will be falling sideways.

The question, of course, is this: tomorrow afternoon is going to be a clusterfuck. Tomorrow morning, on the other hand, might involve slippery roads but ought to be otherwise manageable. We are currently under a wind advisory, a flood watch, and a winter storm warning, all at the same time. Do we think the schools possess the necessary ability to think ahead required to cancel school in the morning, before things get bad? Or are we just going to have kids stranded at school tomorrow afternoon in the middle of a major blizzard? Stay tuned.

In other news, sometime in the next couple of days, I’m getting another Afghan student. Another girl, which I’m going to assume is good, because it means Fatima might have someone she can talk to, assuming the two of them share a common language. From what I’m told the new girl doesn’t speak any English either. I’m trying to treat this as a good thing; hopefully the two of them will get along well enough (and be able to talk to each other) that they might be able to help each other learn English, because thus far most of what I’ve been trying to do has fared … poorly.

Let’s cross our fingers.

Zzzzzzz

On February 15, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocyLeave a comment

I know it’s bad form to more or less take three straight days off from the blog, but I was all ready to have a normal day today and actually go to work every day the week and then my son’s school called at 9:00 for me to come pick him up and take him home because he was sick.

He’s fine. I, somehow, ended up napping for most of the afternoon, and now my brain is mud. But I’m basically out of sick days at this point, so it’ll be interesting seeing how that little dilemma works.

More tomorrow, when I hope I can successfully brain again.

In which I survived

On February 14, 2022 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy2 Comments

I don’t know how many of you have ever attempted to survive a Valentine’s Day in a middle school when you are an adult and not a middle school student. It is … harrowing. It wasn’t a bad day, but it was stupid in the uniquely Valentine’s Day in a Middle School sort of way, and I’m fucking exhausted.

(brother calls, 40 minute conversation)

… yeah, love y’all, g’night.