Piece for Peace

I've watched the first two episodes of Netflix's live action One Piece. I can't help wondering who this show is for despite the fact that it's apparently massively popular, being one of the most successful shows to ever debut on Netflix, ranking with Stranger Things and Wednesday. It certainly must have a built in audience since the anime TV series has over 1000 episodes, the manga is even longer, and there are several feature films. I saw one of the movies and I wrote about how boring it was last year. The first five or six episodes of the anime TV series I found to be a little better. That's the way with most long running anime series. They get maybe one season where the creators can be inventive, where interesting characters can meet, important characters can die or get significant new powers, etc. But once something becomes really popular, all the characters have to be frozen in a particular stage of development.

I guess hoping to avoid a disaster like the live action Cowboy Bebop, the live action One Piece seems at times to be blindly faithful to the original except where budgetary restraints come in. The bit where Luffy is carried by a giant bird before finally getting a proper introduction to Nami is only passingly referring to in dialogue. But the show keeps the basic aesthetic as well as the underlying rules of the fantasy world.

And that's a problem. When I watch the anime, I feel like I'm watching something for kids aged 13 and under. But the Netflix show has bloody severed limbs and cursing. By the time of the movie I saw, any hint of graphic violence seemed to be absent from One Piece. Early episodes of the anime TV series have a couple actual deaths of unnamed characters. Meanwhile, it's a world where sex doesn't seem to exist, despite creator Oda Eiichiro evidently getting hornier and hornier over the years.

A sure sign Oda had limited input in the live action series is the absence of bikinis. Press says he had a lot of input in his executive producer role but press said the same thing about Watanabe Shinichiro and Cowboy Bebop, only for Watanabe to say he had basically no control after the show ended up being a dud.

The absence of sex is only one of the things I find disturbing about the show. Yeah, I say disturbing because the show is fundamentally about loyalty and morality, about what it means to be a good person. But every dramatic proclamation of morals feels very hollow when the story is so hazy on what the stakes are. Luffy wants to be a pirate who doesn't steal or murder but he and his crew apparently don't have to worry about finding alternative means of survival. If pirates don't steal or kill, it's not clear what they actually do aside from searching for the fabled treasure called "One Piece".

Inaki Godoy is very charming as Luffy and I appreciated how much he reminded me of Errol Flynn. But even Errol Flynn's Robin Hood was fighting Prince John because the ordinary people of English were starving. There was a sense of necessities for survival. The live action One Piece reminds me a little of the Russian Brother series of films, a kind of fascist story about a kindly strong man who goes around beating up bad guys.

One Piece is available on Netflix.

Audrey's Horns

Episode six of Twin Peaks ends with Cooper coming back to his room to find Audrey naked in his bed. Who wouldn't want that? Even Cooper says, "What I want and what I need are two different things." But I hate how this scene kills their ongoing flirtation for the rest of the series.

Mark Frost sets the scene as a cliffhanger and then Harley Peyton has to run with it in episode seven. I'm not sure who to blame. Frost for making the situation? Peyton could've taken it in another direction. Or maybe not? Obviously Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) couldn't sleep with Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) at this point but it would feel like a cop out if something distracted them and prevented a resolution. Hmm. Yeah, I'll blame Mark Frost.

It also bugs me that the scene ends with Cooper and Audrey about to have a long heart to heart and we never find out what they talked about. Before this, she'd been trying to tell him about how she got a job at Horne's Department Store and after this scene she's still trying to give him the information but still just missing him. If she didn't tell him about that in the heart to heart, what did she talk about?

Otherwise, Audrey's pretty cool in this episode. This is the one where she hides in the closet and watches Battis recruit her coworker, Jenny, for One Eyed Jacks. I love Audrey coolly observing from the closet.

I also kind of like Jenny, this character we meet only once. The first few times you watch this episode, naturally the impressive thing is Audrey getting Blackie's number from Jenny by pretending the very unicorn Battis gave Jenny was another one that Audrey received. But at this point, I also think about the fact that Jenny clearly did not give a shit about the little trinket, yet she poured on that radiant smile when Battis gave it to her. She didn't even roll her eyes when Battis explained what a unicorn is ("Ancient symbol of purity!"). In Twin Peaks, even a random shopgirl isn't what she seems.

This episode also has the famous cherry stem scene when Audrey auditions at the brothel. It is interesting the episode starts with her as a kid, obviously not ready to make decisions about sex, and ends with her presenting the impression of someone worldly and vastly experienced. We get a clear idea of the big trouble she's in. It's no wonder her mind is scrambled in season three. At this crucial point in her youth, when her natural sensuality was expressing itself to be incorporated in a persona, it was practically pinned on a dissection table.

It occurs to me that the scene of Audrey waiting for Cooper in bed is mirrored by the scene of her father approaching her in bed in the season finale. You could interpret this as a contrast between Ben and Cooper and an example of Audrey's need for a stronger father figure. Or you could say that Audrey's method for initiating a sexual encounter actually isn't so different from Ben's. A woman who acted like Audrey did with Cooper and a man who acted like Ben did with Audrey would probably have satisfied each other perfectly, provided they weren't father and daughter. They had two sides of the same idea.

Twitter Sonnet #1477

A secret barrel took the falling leaves.
The autumn scent was bourbon curling up.
On pallid screens the woman boldly grieves.
And so we drink another heavy cup.
A chicken vigil failed before the time.
A second em'rald graced a sleepy day.
Discussions cook the batter deep in lime.
The onion brain contrives a garlic way.
A dunking dream debuted a distant wake.
Awaiting greens the hand was burning red.
We gather here to eat a pumpkin's cake.
There's more in seeds than planters ever said.
The ancient book expands its pages wet.
A running fleet was past the atlas set.