The Good Lord Bird, Blood of Zeus, and unavoidable election chat
Historical fiction and mythology fanfiction, plus culture notes about the thing we have to talk about
Hello!
On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss The Good Lord Bird (2020), a tragicomic historical fiction miniseries about John Brown, and Blood of Zeus (2020), an adult animation series about another kind of "savior" (read: a hot Greek demigod).
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01:45 The Good Lord Bird, a limited series on Showtime set before the Civil War, depicts the messiness of history and the figures who get remembered.
The series, based on a 2013 novel by James McBride, tells the story of abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke! dad!) through the narration of Henry “Onion” Shackleford, a formerly enslaved young man who—through a series of events both tragic and absurd—becomes a part of Brown’s ragtag army, in which he is regularly mistaken for a girl.
What Pelin likes so much about this series is that it shows the messiness of historical events and the “heroes” who dot those timelines. Brown, for all his strength of conviction and moral righteousness, ironically does not see the ways in which his actions bring discomfort or distress or danger to Onion. As Doreen St. Felix writes for the New Yorker: “No measure of good intention, or of spilled blood, can bridge the distance between the white ally and his Black comrades.”
The show also teaches evergreen lessons about the fabric of America, which resonated in particular leading up to the election. In Pelin’s words on the pod: “We don’t have time and space to reason with people who refuse to see humanity in other people.”
The first episode of The Good Lord Bird is available in its entirety for free on YouTube, if you want to check it out.
12:15 Blood of Zeus, an animated series on Netflix, is basically Greek mythology fanfiction that could've been good, but uhh…
Instead of adapting existing, well-known myths, this show creates a new demigod, Heron, who has to save Olympus and the human world from a dark threat yadda yadda yadda typical hero shit.
It’s essentially fanfic, in the same way that Percy Jackson is, only where Percy Jackson succeeds in creating a universe and canon of its own, Blood of Zeus doesn’t really. The best thing about the show—which is held back by dull character development and weak writing—is its literal character designs. It’s undeniably fun to see these new visual interpretations of familiar deities. Like, come on:
Which brings me to a larger question: Where are all the contemporary high-budget Greek mythology epics à la Game of Thrones? This is such a rich seam to mine, so why does it feel like we haven’t gotten much since the Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules days of the ‘90s?
One theory I’ve come across is that these stories of old don’t appeal in the same way to modern viewers because there’s a lack of human agency: protagonists are pulled this way and that by the fates, gods, and divine intervention. Sure, the archetypal hero’s journey/three-act structure still used in contemporary screenwriting also sort of uses this invisible hand to guide all the events and characters, but it’s a little less, well, blatant.
Appreciation for Greek mythology is flowering in literature, though: take the hype over Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation, or the highly lauded novel Circe by Madeline Miller (one of my favorite books from the last couple of years). Circe, at least, is getting the HBO treatment. Please, let this kick off a resurgence of (good) mythology remixes on TV!!
23:23 Plus, culture notes about the election
… including a request to NOT let Ivanka and Jared slink back into society, thank you!!!
Bonus links
Look at these cutie newly discovered mammals!!!
Finally:
Okay bye!
— Jenny
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Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu
Special thanks: Dan Geneen