This week I have mostly been watching

In the great Barbenheimer battle I chose Barbie.  I will watch Oppenheimer eventually but 3 hours of unadulterated angst felt a bit much on a Friday afternoon, even when leavened with Cillian Murphy’s cheekbones.   

So, Barbie was thoroughly enjoyable, although I thought a bit too long - this should have been a 90 minute movie.  The basic premise is that all is well in Barbieland with all those women in the Supreme Court, being lawyers, doctors and having a girls night every night, while the Kens are there to ‘beach’ and look pretty.  Then the real world creeps in and Barbie and Ken set off to fix things.   I did enjoy the ‘Kenergy’ from Ryan Gosling and they have a lot of fun with bringing patriarchy to Barbieland, and maybe softly raising feminism with all of those girls, guys and theys dressed in pink in the audience.  I don’t want to forget that Michael Cera as an eager but a bit sad Allan, is perfect too. 

The sets and overall production were amazing and very pink, producing a visual treat from start to finish.   Of course, Mattel is having its cake and eating it a bit, highlighting the love/hate relationship women have with the dolls and acknowledging Barbie’s problematic and undesirable side while making sure we don’t forget the positives;  by the end, nothing much has changed but they may have sold a few more dolls. But that’s not quite the whole story.  A few more young men might have seen some of their assumptions played back to them, and the young women will have had a bit of a laugh and then a sigh and might remember a bit more about how patriarchy works. It isn’t going to make anyone angry though.  

An entertaining couple of hours overall and the messaging is presented with a big fuzzy dose of something sweet with a bit of acidity.  However I don’t recommend you try and do a Barbenheimer in a day - that level of dissonance could cause some serious harm.  

On television, I kept being prompted by Netflix to watch Young Royals as they are aware of my predilection for a coming of age drama.  I thought it was going to be really irritating, particularly the monarchy bit, but anyway, I finally gave in and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Netflix knows me far too well.  This has similarities to Heartstopper but targeted at a slightly older demographic with added sex, drugs, trauma, and intrigue. I thought the overlay of themes around class, duty, repression and the pull of tradition were woven in very nicely, upping the stakes on being yourself/following your heart .  It led to some really interesting narrative arcs for some of the characters.  Great bunch of young actors and excellent soundtrack too. But best watched in the original Swedish as I found the dubbing really irritating even though the leads did their own.  The second series ended with a cliffhanger and I now have to wait ages for the final series.  

Finally,  I am currently (and very late to the party) working my way through Ted Lasso which is every bit as good as everyone had told me it was.  I might report on it at the end - let’s see how far I get before Good Omens 2 lands at the end of this week!