Bob Bobington

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I'm sorry, I just saw this had a higher rating than Macbeth, which is a far better play, so I'm here to drag it down. Merits: There's a couple of sentences that sound nice. Failures: I'm a teenager and cannot relate to either Romeo or Juliet. I don't even believe they're in love, which is a bit of an issue when love is what the play centres around. I don't remember any of Juliet's character traits.

Romeo and Juliet

34 likes

Best Shakespeare play I've read. First act is boring, but once you get to act 2 you start getting iconic lines and good pacing. This play is genuinely funny at times; I don't think Macbeth's spinelessness was played as a joke, but I took it as one anyway. And there's the most iconic line of the play, "What, you egg?" followed shortly by, "He has killed me mother!" But also, I am pissed about Lady Macbeth. She's so strong, then she disappears for a while and reappears, insane. What happened to character development, Bill? What happened to good storytelling? I thought you were meant to be good at your craft. (I think he didn't show it because he was sexist and just assumed she had to be weak deep down, but I can't be bothered to write about that.)

Macbeth

18 likes

One of the best books I've ever read. Elegant, sometimes pretentious, but thankfully undercut by a good amount of swearing. I wish classics were like this; it has all the depth of something school would force me to read, and the humour of something I would choose to read. I laughed out loud. Several times. Personally, I thought the beginning was good, but didn't particularly like the protagonist. I stuck with it anyway. There are different protagonists for different parts of the book, so when I got to Samad's part, I enjoyed it much more. When I got to Irie, I was hooked, and the book trapped me indoors, buried in its pages, for a couple of days. Not many books can do that. Anyway, go read it.

White Teeth

10 likes

This is a review for Northern Lights, not the rest of His Dark Materials. Northern Lights is my favourite book. Lyra is possibly the best main character of all time. She's tomboyish, I guess, but it feels like her character was created without masculinity or femininity in mind. She's just her, and she's amazing. This book has a fairytale feel about it, perhaps a result of Lyra's confidence and the author's mastery of the english language. And I love the worldbuilding. Witches and armoured bears are great. Almost as good as dragons. And the dæmons are a great touch, and easily become a great technique, especially for making villains memorable. Read this book. On the rest of the series: eh. I don't actually know if it's good because it pales in comparison to the majesty (majesterium, perhaps? I'm sorry) of Northern Lights. There's the Book of Dust trilogy too. The first one's great, the second one is also great but I spent the entire thing on the verge of tears.

Northern Lights

10 likes

Solid show. But it was never going to be as magical as Northern Lights, because Northern Lights is one of the best things ever. The events aren't too different from the books, but the characters can be quite different. I love the show's depiction of Asriel, and later on Boreal. A few character changes didn't work as well, but that might just be me. The main issue is that we didn't get enough of Lee or Iorek. A lot of the magical things were sacrificed for more fleshed out political things, more of Mrs Coulter and the Magisterium, which I personally don't like, as a big fan of magic, but who knows, perhaps you like to see lots of evil church men. I feel like there was a lot of time spent on 'oooh, evil church men,' which could have been spent on better things. And there wasn't a particularly deep exploration of the Magisterium, despite all its extra time. Overall, you're better off reading the book, at least for Northern Lights/Season 1, but the series is still worthwhile for the different characterisations and Hester's awesome voice acting. I'm looking forwards to future seasons, because the next two books aren't so dauntingly spectacular, and I reckon the show can improve in more places. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Lyra isn't the same. But it's virtually impossible to properly get Lyra outside the medium of writing, so I didn't hold it against the show.

His Dark Materials

1 like

Good Omens

15 likes

The earlier episodes (ones with the 9th, 10th or 11th Doctors) offer an unrealistically optimistic version of the future, which is really nice, but later on they decide that oxygen will cost money, which is a lot more realistic (if we ever make it to space) but it makes me sad. The characters are great in all the seasons, but plot can be a bit lame. Especially with the 11th and 13th Doctors. The best seasons are probably 3, 4, 8, and 9. Try to ignore the plot holes, this show does not have continuity. The 12th Doctor is the best Doctor and Clara the best companion, in my opinion. The 10th Doctor and Donna are also great. Martha Jones is not the best companion but she is definitely the most under-appreciated. The 13th Doctor is an amazing character and Jodie Whittaker is a great actor but the plots of season 11 are so, so bad. Sorry that probably made no sense.

Doctor Who