Lately #14: The Serpent Queen, discovering Oasis & the Neil Gaiman allegations

Five things to entertain you, and one piece of advice.

On Sundays, we share some of our favourite finds from the week in our Lately newsletter.

This week I’m leaning into the villainous and the musical. I love the advice from Stephen King at the end of this newsletter about writing baddies - it’s helpful not just for creating fictional villains but also for trying to understand real-life ones (there’s one that has particularly shocked us this week).

Grab a coffee, have a read and chat to us.

Yara

1. Something we should all be watching…

There are two reasons you should be watching The Serpent Queen: the first is that it takes the story of a much-maligned female ruler (Catherine de Medici) and adds nuance, and the second is that Samantha Morton’s performance is MASTERFUL. Morton understood the brief, saying: “history writes women as ‘devil women,’ or as evil, for just being incredibly clever and astute.”

The series is based on historian Leonie Frieda’s 2003 biography, Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. Scriptwriter Justin Haythe clearly relished the idea of portraying a woman who has been vilified differently:

“I liked the idea of a villain from history who would address us and say, ‘Let me you tell why I did the things I did, and you’ll judge me differently.’ You have to really wonder if this is an evil person with shards of good, or it’s a good person who’s capable of evil to survive.”

It’s full of conflicted characters, intrigue, poisonings, torture, calculated manoeuvres, and for once I felt bad about the way the men are represented! Have I sold it?

2. A podcast you’ll want to share…

British writer and creator Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, The Sandman, American Gods) is practically literary royalty. This context is important if you are unfamiliar with him, as it sets the stage of the allure and power of his fame, as well as how shocking recent allegations of sexual abuse against him are.

We both listened to Master: The allegations against Neil Gaiman (the investigative podcast that broke the story) and came out came out feeling like we’d waded through muddy water; it’s uncomfortable listening.

Uncomfortable for many reasons: the young women are less than half his age; there’s a significant power imbalance (one was a nanny, the other a fan); he’s accused of rough and degrading sexual acts; and we are made privy to private Whatsapp messages that you would be horrified became public if they were your own.

And yet, things are not that black and white - as journalist Paul Caruana Galizia puts it “This is where things get messy, emotionally and evidentially”. These were consensual relationships where the women (at times) sent mixed messages.

The ground is constantly shifting as you listen, but we asked ourselves one question at the end of it: would we leave him alone with a young, vulnerable family member?

Let us know if you listen.

3. Something that may surprise you…

Well this stopped me in my 90s hip-hop-loving tracks - Wu-Tang Clan member RZA’s new album is a ballet score! The more I searched to understand what in the Wu-Tang was going on, the more inspired I became.

‘A Ballet Through Mud’ is a project that developed during the pandemic when he discovered old lyrical notebooks from his teenage years: “At first I thought I should rap it, right. Because I'm known as a rapper. But then I said, no, I should just write music to it”. The resulting composition, featuring both spoken word and music, debuted as a ballet in 2023, performed by the Colorado Symphony and the Alvin Ailey dance theatre school.

I’ve dug up a video to a section of the performance - it’s beautiful.

In the trailer for the album (released this week), RZA is encouraging others to explore other sides of themselves:

"I hope this inspires people to take a chance in classical, to take a chance with instruments, take a chance to be outside the box, take a chance not to be just another dude mimicking what everyone else is doing.”

I also discovered that what initially seemed like a massive career pivot was perhaps more of an evolution. RZA’s been writing film scores for years (Kill Bill, Ghost Dog). Who knew?!

4. A topical backstory…

With the internet ablaze with news of the Oasis reunion, I came across a story on the BBC live newsfeed about the ramshackle way the band got signed.

In May 1993, Oasis decided, on a whim, to make the 200-mile trip across the border to Glasgow to gatecrash a gig and fought to get themselves onto the bill, saying, “If you don’t let us play, we’ll smash your club up”. The promoters acquiesced and let them play a short set to keep the peace.

The stars aligned for the band that night as in the very small audience was Alan McGee, the head of Creation Records, who had also decided on a whim to go watch a friend playing at the same club. This is what he recalls:

“Sure enough this band came on with this kid as the front man. He was so confrontational as a front man, that you just thought ‘god, he’s really got attitude’. By the third song I’d already decided I was going to sign them.”

There’s only one video from that night, taken by a Japanese tourist, who forwarded it to McGee years later realising he’d recorded a piece of rock and roll history. We’ve posted it here for the curious.

5. Something for a brain break…

There’s only one answer for this right now: Emily in Paris. No, I’m not above it, and anyone who tells you they are is lying. A review in The Guardian by Joel Golby about his ‘beef’ with the show had me laughing out loud (it’s worth reading in full here). Even he’s come around:

But. I am dropping my beef with it. The point of Emily in Paris is that it isn’t for me – it’s not even particularly for people who are sitting upright – and once you see through all of that, you can: well, “enjoy” is not the right word, exactly. But you can at least appreciate Emily in Paris for what it is, which is: an unashamedly silly, soapy, Technicolor whirlwind of nonsense.

My only beef with it is that I have to wait for Part Deux.

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One piece of advice:

Stephen King on writing believable bad guys:

“Writers must be fair and remember even bad guys (most of them, anyway) see themselves as good—they are the heroes of their own lives. Giving them a fair chance as characters can create some interesting shades of gray—and shades of gray are also a part of life.”