pry the oxford comma from my cold dead hands

The name of the book, on the cover, was evidently Red, White & Royal Blue. That seems to be what Amazon is calling the film as well, in a different font, except when I went to double check I found that they can't even let the same decision stay made for this long:

So I'm going to carry on using the Oxford comma and the word "and" and we're all going to have to be okay with that.

Anyway, like I said, the movie was fine, and I think it was fine because it was cut down from the book, where I think exactly the same movie without the book holding it up might not have been as good. I'm just going to take a second here, and then hopefully be able to move on to other matters, to note that the cast of this movie are the best-looking lot to have appeared on my television in a long while, maybe ever, and I say this as a person who just spent a year and a quarter transcribing due South. Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex, good lord. Something reminiscent of Rufus Sewell about the cheekbones, especially in profile when he does a similar crinkly-eyed smirking laugh, but/and then the dazzling smile and the big brown eyes and the eyelashes for days. The rest of them are very nice-looking as well, she conceded, hand-waving many beautiful people including Uma goddamn Thurman and Nicholas Galitzine, the other lead (the first words out of whose mouth are "When the revolution comes," which if it's accurate that the actor is literally a Russian prince—I mean, that is, descended from an exiled Russian princely family—is vaguely hilarious), but this Alex, holy shit.

I guess the rest of the post contains spoilers . . .

( Things from the book that were absent from the movie )

( Things that exist in the movie but did not appear in the book )

( Things I liked a lot )

( Things I wasn't bananas about )

I've been rambling about this all day. Better hit Post and move on with my life. OH, but first, I was going to come back to the Clintons and Obamas and West Wing of it all—because I am generally happier with the book plot and setting but with the movie leads and their being grownups etc., I think for the first time in my life I'm going to be happiest being a non-purist about canon and . . . combining them? That is, I'm going to take the movie as canon generally but revert Henry to being the youngest of his siblings, import June and Rafael and Leo and their storylines, and assume The West Wing as we know it was not a TV show in their universe because that allows me to cross them over and have Alex and June be friends with their immediate predecessors, Peter and Miranda Santos. [satisfied nod]