I went into Netflix watching Black Mirror recently with arguewithatree. Some of it at the beginning is really fun and creative if you don't take it seriously. Unfortunately it takes itself seriously. The series series is some the preachiest mixed-message tripe we've ever seen. We were talking earlier about how he was trying to write messages and they don't even sort of add up. Whatever. I'll welcome any new sci-fi.

And then I went into Marco Polo expecting it to be total shit. Nothing looked good about it from the outside. And then... it turns out to be possibly my favorite show of the year. I'm only four episodes in currently, but Benedict Wong is fucking astoundingly good as Kublai Khan, like should be getting awards good. But the entire ensemble is spot on. The show is almost all a look at Mongolian culture and the politics of China between the Mongols and the Song dynasty. It mixes some action in really well, and the characters are deep and actually characters and enjoyable. Marco Polo is exactly what he should be in the show: he's a background observer. He is an interesting element to the Khan and his people, as an outsider, with outsider perspective. It's incredible.

On top of all that, I went in really worried that it wouldn't do its homework in regards to the culture. That it would be built on stereotypes and tropes. And once again, I was fucking wrong. They add little things in all over and portray the culture, but don't beat you over the head with trying to teach you about it. It's just shown as is. I love it. I really, really love it.