Author: Melanie

Six Damn Fine Degrees #271: Boom ⇒ Snooze ⇒ Boom

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Bai Jing Ting (left) and Zhao Jin Mai (right) star as soulmates in an endlessly harrowing meet cute

Last week, Mege hit us with “I didn’t like Oppenheimer. That’s largely because I didn’t understand the second half of the movie.” In its bluntness, this is one of my favourite Six Degrees posts so far, and Mege is spot on. The funniest thing (to me) is that he went right back to watch it again and still didn’t get it, and now he’s apparently seriously contemplating watching it a third time. Noooooo. Cut your losses, Mege!

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #267: Family and other horrors

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Hello and welcome to the New Year. Yuletide has come and gone. You have survived holiday family dinners – well done, you – and if you have a certain kind of family, you might be feeling, how do I put it, a little frayed around the edges. A little frazzled. A little freaked, even. A little absolutely and forever done with all that crap.

Last week, Alan gave you spooky Christmas stories. This week, I’m talking about the real holiday horrors, in the shape of one of my favourite series of the year. You won’t find it on Netflix or Amazon. It’s a one-woman-show on social media by @ShawnatheMom (YouTube link). It doesn’t even have a name, I think, and was originally meant to be consumed one short clip a day. And it’s the best portrayal I have ever seen of what it’s like when everyone slowly realises they’re dealing with a narcissistic family member.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #260: Teens discover Little Shop of Horrors

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Moving on from the uncanny to straight up spooky: I used to love Halloween. I threw massive parties and carved pumpkins with agonised faces barfing up sepia spaghetti!

Then, I had kids.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #253: The Untamed and the joy of fan translations

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Sam’s post on Hitchcock’s odd movie out, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, reminded me not only of the delights of watching a sniping couple, but also of that very specific joy that blooms when you consume something completely different and it rocks.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #248: Terrible fathers, vengeful daughters

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

The colour palette gives it away: This is Serious Drama

The Glory is a Chinese historical drama series from 2025 (not to be mistaken with the K-Drama school revenge story of the same name) whose descriptions are so innocuous they are completely misleading. For instance, MyDramaList explains: “Abandoned as a child, Zhuang Han Yan grows up in the southern countryside before returning to her family in the capital. She catches the eye of Fu Yun Xi, a deputy minister with a mysterious illness, who sees her as an ideal wife. As they navigate their relationship, they fall in love, and Han Yan reconnects with her mother while finding warmth and belonging with the Fu family.”

 I mean, OKAY. This is not technically wrong. But it completely misses the point in that The Glory is a revenge drama – specifically, the revenge of an adult daughter on her father. (And I am very sorry to pick this as my degree of connection with Alan’s musings who told such a great story of his own father taking him to see Gandhi!).

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #241: Start-up drama in Tang Dynasty China

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

From brotherhood to sisterhood: The Chinese costume drama Flourished Peony (2025) is at its heart a female empowerment story. It was one of the top dramas in China aired this year, featuring Yang Zi and Li Xian, the power couple who earned their first roaring success in 2019 with the crowd-pleaser Go, Go Squid.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #239: Three weeks of Vorkosigan space opera

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Speaking of sci-fi novels: You guys, I did it! I binge read all the novels of Lois McMaster Bujold’s space opera, the Vorkosigan Saga, in about three weeks. All 17 of them.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #231: Things my daughter showed me because they’re really cool

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

One of the best things about being a parent and a nerd is that you get to raise another little nerd. You get to shape their taste in series, movies, and books; to point out the amazing parts and the dubious ones. You get to say, “Come here, kid, I want to show you something, it’s really cool!”

And eventually, the moment arrives where they come running and say, “Mama, I want to show you something!”

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #228: This movie’s no picnic

Melanie3 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Key frame of Stalker (Copyright: Mosfilm)

As a Damn Fine Cup afficionado, you’ve probably already seen Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) or read the novel it’s based on, Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, or both. You’ll probably have informed opinions on each of them. If you haven’t: sorry, there are spoilers coming.

Continue reading →

Six Damn Fine Degrees #221: Monkey King and the shackles of love

Melanie3 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Ah, love.

Son Oh Gong, the Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is in love. Not willingly, mind you. He was tricked by a mortal woman into wearing the Geumganggo. This bracelet makes him infatuated with her and desperate to protect her by any means. He’s infuriated. He’s disgusted. After all, he was originally planning to eat her (it’s a long story)! But he is undeniably in love.

Continue reading →