wanderings

So, I watched Bomb Girls. It's a Canadian show about a group of women who work in a Toronto munitions factory during the Second World War. lyssie has written a good pimp for it.

I first heard about it in terms of its pitch, that the two women who had come forward with the idea for the show, Debi Drennan and Maureen Jennings, had done a lot of research. (Research.) Then, I think between the first and second episode a femslash vid showed up on my reading list, and then femslash showed up on the AO3.

I decided one night to watch one episode, and then it was 3am, I'd watched the first four episodes and I had this really incoherent draft of this post because, okay, this show is so good for me.

I was watching it and I was like, Oh, hey- female sexuality: awesome. Xenophobia, right on. ....are, are they doing wrongful internment?!?! *hearts in eyes*

lyssie writes in her pimp post that it's a show that pulls very few punches, and I feel that they pulled it a little with the internment camps, but this is a show that has jazz clubs and swing dancing in it. There is this sense of what an incredible time embedded in the show, so that there are punches at all feels remarkable. The fandom-style content warning for this show is a long one; there's graphic violence, non con, sexism, racism, xenophobia, suicide, abuse... I'm leaving things out here. For all that, though, the show feels kind of upbeat and earnest; it's very strange.

Bomb Girls finished up its first season this month - six episodes that are streamable on the Global website - and has been renewed for a second season of twelve episodes. It's got a pretty active fandom and a lot of that is femslash.

Let me tell you about Betty and Kate. Betty and Kate are awesome. Betty's this sassy knowing girl with shady connections and Kate's a preacher's kid who's run away from home. It's deliciously tropey. They have moments, that are just kind of- none of the ship vids I've seen so far are doing this shit justice: it is amazing. Basically, I just want them to live in a little cutout house together forever.

None of the characters are faultless and it's kind of wonderful. I don't feel that the show is particularly subtle, but at least a little of that is that I'm coming to it as a geek, pretty much, and I think that's helping me to pick things out. I am having so much fun doing that, though.