#also colin killed the entire episode he is the only character that matters

[gib-mir-gift]

10pm et!!! you know what that means !!!!!!

wwdits tumblr livetweeting its demise <3

[modernbaseball]

... i want you to drop your numbered list of s4 problems <3

omg anon i love you. sorry if this gets long except no im not you asked for MY list so you shall receive MY long ass list!!!

obligatory if you don't want to hear criticism then don't go further. it is not my problem if this enrages u. but if u disagree/agree/have other opinions let me know im totally fine with some respectful back-and-forth about this season. despite what i make it sound like i don't HATE it and im open to other opinions

i do not talk about the marwa problem because. yeah. there's one more episode i guess. so what i'm saying is come back next wednesday to hear me talk about the marwa problem

character traits and flaws are being played up in excess

remember how DUMB nandor is? remember how BAD he is at understanding others? he is never going to understand a single thing said to him or when someone is upset or when he has made a mistake despite having established deep relationships with these characters. and also he's going to have the same story arc as last season but with a LOT less respect for women!!! (so much for himbo)

nadja is #GIRLBOSS (a lot of people might go "well maybe i like her like this!!!!" ok fine sorry that i like my female characters to be more than a plot device. she had to want a night club so they could do night club stuff. so empowering. she's had some good moments this season but half the time its YAS GIRLBOSS!!! ok just recognizing that this is a stupid "feminist" trope doesn't make it anything more than that)

laszlo is BISEXUAL DAD (honestly don't have a lot of issues here. good for him. just wish they would chill out with the Quippy One Liners. they're funny because they exist within the narrative)

guillermo is SOMEHOW STILL BEING MISTREATED (despite having 2 seasons dedicated to this particular issue. can we move on)

2. disregard of detail

ok it's stupid but it really DOES bother me that the intro has adult colin pictures when the intro was adjusted to fit details like colin's death in the past. if the vampires in-universe see baby colin as being his own person, why do we see him lumped into the same images as adult colin?

other little things that bug me

the vampires are suddenly well liked and have friends in the community (nadja's club opening and nandor's wedding)

the baron being seen as someone of prestige when the whole thing was that he is a vampire nobody

ignoring the big obvious fact that there WAS a vampire nightclub

where is all this blood coming from

hypnosis was previously only used as an occasional plot device and we got a whole episode about why that is (brain scramblies) and now it is in EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. it is TIRING. it is CHEAP. it is NOT. INTERESTING.

the nightmarket just existed this whole time?

all the wishing stuff. if nandor was willing to take guillermo's advice for one wish, why not others?

3. bigger isn't better/nothing matters

so in the past, wwdits was built upon a pretty simple concept: What if vampires existed in modern day, but they were pathetic and lame and boring?

oh an epic and powerful baron is meeting with them? no he's actually lame and also guillermo kills him on accident. a trial with the vampiric council?? nah it's in some basement and the vampires get away because colin brought an umbrella. vampire killers??? lame inexperienced group of young adults who end up not killing a single vampire.

things had weight and importance. the show worked as a dark silly mocumentary because it felt grounded in the simple docu-type shit, like "how would modern vampires find more virgins to eat?" "how does guillermo get rid of bodies?" now it's like, yeah we have blood on tap pretty much. whatever.

4. the fucking time jump

why spend an entire season setting up an epic three part finale which then sets up an insane cliffhanger to fucking throw it away within the first episode? tension created for nothing. elaborate story set up for nothing. character's individual motivations and obstacles set up for nothing. no pay off. makes season 3 feel significantly less good because what was it even for anyways

5. character motivation

character motivation is not shown or understood over time: it is not stated ("i want a vampire nightclub!") and assumed we believe it

vampire night club. just.........................this has never, EVER made sense for nadja's character. especially now. there was 0 set up to indicate she would ever want a thing like this. is this trying to be more female-empowering? ppl might call it "satire" or "subverting tropes" but it isnt enough to just preform a trope and state in-universe that you know it is a trope (saying she is a girlboss)

nandor wants to find love still i guess. this feels sort of like they realized nandor was left without something to do after scrapping his journey home story so they were like ok i guess he's just doing the same thing he did last season. i thought his new motivation was to find himself but i guess they just didn't feel like doing that anymore so

6. the nandermo problem

ok. this isn't so much a criticism like the other ones as it is...idk. my Feelings or something.

if this is NOT leading to nandermo: ok i guess. not the end of the world. sucks that they baited this particular couple (not QUEERBAITED, yes, i am aware) and continued to run the "WHO IS NANDOR'S LOVE INTEREST!" plotline into the ground for nothing but ok. i would have been fine with a brief romance and a horrible break up FYI. they are just funny when they are obsessed with each other. sue me

if this IS leading to nandermo: would it fucking kill you to act like it. what's the point in them getting together if they avoid the two of them being together or having any normal romantic/sexual subtext like the plague except for one-off lines and D-plots. either commit or don't

7. actually fuck you im adding this one to the list

ohhh we are so diverse ohhhh we are so inclusive look at all the same sex casual sexual relationships and romances. NAME A WOMAN. NAME A WOMAN. yes we've gotten f/f breadcrumbs but can nadja just fuck a woman or something. can we just have some same sex women in here. so much classic lesbian media is vampire related it would not be that hard. it would not fucking kill you. come on.

charmaine is there. the guide is there. marwa is there. better yet get some more female characters in general. better YET. i want my jenna back

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries; 5.22 - A Matter of Time

Commentary with Joshua Brandon (writer for the last episode), Brain Millikin (writer for this episode) and Colin Ferguson (who plays William and directed 5.20)

BM: This was written really as one big two hour episode with 5.21. We did that a bunch of times this year and I think it does feel that way. In a perfect world they would have maybe aired in a two hour block, because this is the most two-partery episode we’ve done all season long. CF: It does feel that way.  And I like how in this episode, in every plot line there is someone who’s stuck. Stuck in the fence, stuck in the cave and stuck to a chair. BM: Yes, well that was an edict going into this episode, we needed this one particularly to be a bottle episode. Which for those who are unaware, that is when you spend as much as possible, if not the entire time shooting the episode, on your stage. We typically do it to save time, maybe save some money. Or you’re just gearing up for a bigger episode down the road. It can be a challenge, because on the one hand you’ve just got a lot of people stuck in a room. But the opportunity is really high for some longer stronger scenes and interactions between the characters. It becomes a bit more like a play than an epiosde of a TV show. CF: And when you’re a guest star coming in, your job as a supporting actor is to support the other actors. Now at this point in the season, 21 episodes in, Lucas is tired, Emily is tired, everyone’s just burnt. So I come in and I have to know my lines, and we ended up shooting all of my coverage for the epiosde in about an hour and a half at the tail end of one day. JB: Wow. CF: Anything in this direction [the camera facing towards William in the cave] we did in about an hour and a half, because we spent so much time the other way, with the thinny when it appears and all the other stuff that’s happening. There’s so much more movement there that took the lion’s share. And then turn around and hose down Colin. BM: That is unbelievable. Because that’s like ten pages of dialogue! CF: It was a lot BM: Oh my gosh.

BM: I can’t go any further without giving props to Steven Wright our costume designer - I love Emily’s coat. Emily has had exceptional coat game over the course of the series.

[As Audrey and Duke discover Hailie stuck in the fence] CF: Wow! That’s disgusting when you see it there BM: You know, that was somethign that we talked about for a long time. Number one, in the bottle episode way that we had to shape this, we knew that although we had all these outdoor scenes that we needed to keep them contained pretty much to one place. So that we could shoot as quickly as possible. But at the same time we had the season laid out and we knew the tent poles of the story that we had to hit. We knew by the end of this episode that Duke needed to kill her and take her Trouble, and it was going to be a big deal that he would be taking a Trouble now sort of willingly, to use it. And that was going to start him on a much darker path for the rest of the season. So we just needed to try and dramatise that as best as possible. And it just made sense, given how we had already set up Hailie’s mom dying in the same way - becuase all Troubles have a down side, and hers gave out on her at the exact time she needed it most, when she was passing through a fence.  So we were watching a cut of that episode [about Barbara] and we figured the same thing should happen with Hailie. And it winds up telling a story about repeating what’s happened before. The sins of the father, destiny, all that stuff. CF: And a great performance by Tamara [as Hailie] too. That sort of squeal that she had there was not over done. It was gross. JB: She was great. And right from the beginning when she was cast in 5.15, as soon as they started seeing the dailies come in, we were all thinking that if there was a way to bring her back then we should, because she was really terrific. BM: Yes and she did not have an easy job on this one. She spent an entire day standing in this - I think painful - rig, with that fence going half into her. And she couldn’t move. CF: And the issue with that is you can’t go to the bathroom. Or, you can but it’s a time suck, you know if it takes 20 minutes to get out of the thing and 20 minutes to get back in again. BM: Yeah. But the fence was also sort of a practical thing, in that we needed her to be in a situation where she’s probably going to die, but where we could still talk to her. So she couldn’t be cut in half or something. So the fence was just kind of, logical really. And we had looked into some real life accidents where people have been impaled and this idea that the shock means you don’t really feel it, at least for a little while - and that was important because she needed to be able to have a conversation and not just be screaming in pain. JB: And also knife victims; leaving the knife in can prevent you from bleeding out. CF: By the way that fence was built by production, it was not an existing part of the location.

[Dave about to get hypnotised] BM: So this side of the story was probably the most important one. This was the other big tent pole that we knew coming into this was that this was going to be John [who plays Dave] Dunsworth’s last episode. John is fantastic, but we were losing him to another show already, and we had always intended that as we got towards the end game of the season that we would see some of our characters lose their lives. It just felt that with the stakes as high as they are, it wouldn’t really be realistic that everyone would make it through. So it just made sense given the story we were telling, that it would be Dave. But we had some problems because we knew that he was going to be tied up for the whole episode. Because it’s a bottle episode but also because last time we left him untied up he started killing people. So we needed our other characters to be smart enough to tie him up, but we also needed him to have a story that took him beyond just sitting there. So that’s where this whole ‘mind palace’ experience wound up coming from. And the same thing with what’s happening here [Vince and Dwight realising they’ve lost time]. We’d never really leaned into the lost time of it all, it happened on a couple of occasions, but knowing that we were going to dispatch with it this episode, we figured this should be one where we really kind of go crazy with some lost time stuff. I think it wound up really working well, because it gave Adam and Richard [as Dwight and Vince] a lot to play with. Again, as a bottle episode, just standing in the room.

CF: That wide shot of the cave is amazing; it makes the room look significantly bigger than it actually is. That first shot that started the scene. The room was not that big, it was probably only maybe 20 feet square. BM: Wow. You two were terrific in these scene. I wish we could have done more. But we knew we only had you for two episodes CF: Yes, I was contractually on other things before and after BM: Yeah, so we knew where we were going with Nathan and William throughout. We all really liked William, and sort of understood where he was coming from, in a good way. I think all good Bad Guys, you can kind of relate to how they wound up the way they did CF: And you guys did a great job of that, through and through, of making the reasons why he’s doing it real, and defensible. JB: The original title of this episode, I think, as “A Fool For Love” BM: That’s correct. I was like; I love that title, let’s use it - why do I love it so much? And then realised, it’s the title of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which I love that episode, it was the one that was all about Spike, also about their bad guy and getting to know what’s the matter with him. So if I’d had my way, we would have had more of Nathan and William in this cave. I think originally they were going to be stuck in there for a whole act CF: Oh wow BM: You were going to be running around, there was more stuff outside. A lot of that got pushed into about two minutes of episode 5.21

CF: I came up to Halifax for this with my girlfriend and my son, first time I’d gone on location with them. So when I come home at the end of the day I’m handed a baby to take care of. So for me, I had a ton of dialogue to learn JB: That’s a lot CF: Well you’re learning, your’e learning how to do it. It’s just a life thing that you deal with. BM: Well and you had just directed the previous episode a couple days before hand, right? How much time did you have off between directing and then having to sit in a cave for a day? CF: About ten hours. JB: Wow BM: Wow.

BM: It was a bit of a chllange this episode because we had three story lines, or four if you think about Dave in his own mind. And we’re just cutting between them all, they basically each get one scene and act, is how it winds up working out. And each one, they’re still in the same place they were before. So we had been really worried at the script stage, that it was maybe going to feel a little too static. But I’m happy to say that you guys killed it. CF: Well and watching it now, Tamara does such a good job of that kind of Faustian moment, of; I’m going to ignore the consequences/oh no here are the consequences. And it’s so hard to make that likeable, because if you do it badly the audience is just going to be going; Well you knew it was coming, you idiot. But she actually pulls it off JB: She’s amazing BM: Yeah, it was a little bit like what happened with Lisa Hawkins in 5.21. We had set up this, well Matt McGuinness had felt that in season four and some previous seasons, we had ignored the reality of the situation a little bit. So he had wanted where possible to really have people just react the way that you and I would. So we felt that this was another example of that, that Hailie’s going to be pretty pissed off about what’s happened to her. And that if Duke came to her and asked for help, she’s not going to be like; Yeah I’m going to be a hero and do the bigger thing. Real people don’t do that, she would instead probably be pretty mad at him and blame him for what’s happened to her.

JB: I love what they did here with this mind palace stuff. We talked about this a lot when we were conceiving these episodes. And it should be no surprise that Brian and I are Star Trek fans, and there was a DS9 episode right towards the end, it wasn’t a great one, it was called Extreme Measures, and it was O’Brian and Bashir’s last adventure, and they wind up in a sort of a mind palace. And I was reading some behind the scenes stuff that they wanted to treat the set differently and have psychedelic images on the walls and really make it different from - Oh we ran out of time and money so we just re-used these sets. They couldn’t do that there because they had to play on a whole thing of; Oh it might be reality, it might not. We didn’t have that, so that’s why you’ve got the tree and the bike and everything. CF: The tree is the best one because as soon as that goes up you’ve got the iconography of being some place else. JB: Exactly, and we really got to play with that. BM: I would like to be able to say that I got the idea from DS9, but I took it from a Stephen King book, Dreamcatcher, which they made into a movie with Damian Lewis and his character spends a good chunk of the film in his own head. It’s visualised as a sort of library, he’s running around looking for books trying to find the right bit of information. And so like so many things we’ve done in the show, we try to pull from other Stephen King books, or the Stephen King universe, and that was another way we were able to do. I’m kind of surprise that it worked and we were able to sell it through - it was kind of a dicey thing. I think Sherlock helped us a lot too. JB: And John Dunsworth is so good in those scenes BM: Yes, which were not easy because he was just there by himself. He had to spend a day just wandering around the Haven Herald alone, and then the next scene he’s talking to a disembodied voice on a radio. Because we couldn’t yet reveal that Croatoan is William Shatner. CF: And on the day when you’re shooting stuff like that it’s always the script supervisor, way off camera, shouting out the lines, and you have to react like it’s coming from … wherever. It’s always a bit of an exercise. BM: And to make it worse, it was his last day on the show. Five years of work, and the big send off for him is that he gets to work by himself. CF: I was there for the send off, it was a lovely lunch and it was quite emotional. And everyone came down from the office, it was quite a send off. BM: That’s great. He’s been fantastic. JB: I really liked John, he was one of the first actors I got to talk to on the phone (becuase I never went up to Canada) but he was one of the first people I dealt with when I started here and he was just telling jokes and being hilarious. Really sweet guy. BM: Yeah it speaks super highly of him that I was - well I still am a nobody, but I certainly was a nobody when I was doing my first episode back in season two. And I was walking home through the parking lot, everyone else had already gone home, and this car comes peeling out of nowhere and starts doing doughnuts around me. Then he slams his breaks on, rolls down his window - I thought I was going to die, but it was John Dunsworth asking me if I had dinner plans, and we went and had some food. He’s a great guy.

BM: So this was something else that we knew we’d have to do at some point in this episode - 5.21 was Audrey and Duke coming back together again, and this episode was going to have to be a bit of of the shit hitting the fan. And she has to ask him to do the thing that he left town for, and that he doesn’t want to have to do. And she’s right. JB: Yeah and on some level Duke knows that. Because it’s all about destiny and that’s the vision he saw, and he can’t escape it - the worst thing he ever had to do was kill becuase Audrey told him to, and now he has to do it again. BM: It was a tough one. We at this point knew where Duke’s story was going, which also made us sad, for Duke. So all of this episode for him, was just about dealing with inevitability that he’s just kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

CF: I can’t believe that Duke and Audrey just left Hailie there on her own again to go and have another conversation BM: We got that note from the studio, and the way that we were able to get away with it, is that this episode takes place in real time. So she’s only there for about 42 minutes in total. Both of these episodes take place over the course of a couple hours; which is crazy when you think about it.

CF: You guys did a great job of making William’s appeals to Nathan logical. I find the biggest problem is when you get a scene where what you’re being asked to do, no one would do. Where there’s really thin logic that doesn’t really work and you’re supposed to pour your heart into it, but you’re just thinking; why would anyone do this? But with this I feel like I’m in the right. JB: Well it’s also not interesting otherwise. And Brian did such a good job with all that because, we do care for William. Even though he’s done these horrible things. And I think this episode is about him redeeming himself; in his own eyes as well as the audience’s. Because he’s been a fool for love, because he’s done things that he probably wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t felt so strongly for Mara. Who didn’t really care as much about him as he did for her. I think we’ve all been there. BM: I’ve been really attached to this idea that we ended up doing at the end of the episode, where Nathan’s wearing one of those rings around his neck, and we’ve spent a long time this season revealing what they were and what they could do for people like William and Mara. And I had really wanted to try to get to a place where Nathan could give one to Williiam. JB: Definitely. BM: That had been our goal - our stretch goal (if we can get there then great) - for the end of this episode. And there was a bit of push back, because Nathan had been wearing that ring around his neck since season two, and it had been his dad’s and Lucy’s and everything else. But I was just like; Nah, he should give it to William. But I think it wound up working, because it actually required William meeting him half way. JB: Yeah and he deserved it; he deserved to go home. I think that great line, I don’t remember exactly, but it’s like; You don’t deserve to die, I don’t know if they want you there, but you don’t deserve to stay here.

JB: In the cave scenes I also love the play on status, that Nathan is the one whose body is breaking down, he’s getting weaker and weaker, but William is the one pinned under the rock. So in theory William is at a disadvantage, but he’s just watching and he can wait it out if necessary. BM: Well that came out of necessity a bit, because originally they were both going to be in the cave but free, so they would fight for a bit and then get to a detente kind of a place. But enough people were like; That will never happen - they will fight until one of them dies. So it was like; OK, what about if one of them is trapped? So if William’s trapped, he’s smart, he’s a little Loki-ish, his biggest power is maybe his voice and he can break Nathan down that way.

[Vince with a gun pointed at Dave’s head] BM: Oh, so sad. JB: It is really sad, and this is what happens when a show goes on and you have to make big decisions, you don’t want to do it. I remember coming home and my wife was watching the show, the first half of the season, and she was saying; It’s getting dark - I don’t like where it’s going. And I couldn’t say anything, but in the back of my head I knew where it was going. But that’s the beauty of telling a story like this, is you get to have real consequences. You’ve got to make some sacrifices if the story is taking these dark turns. BM: I’m super happy that that voice mail bit with Dwight actually worked. It was an 11th hour save, because we were like; How are these guys ever going to figure out what the hell is going on? Because they keep having their memories wiped. I was like; Maybe Dwight gets a voice mail?? And everyone else was like; That’s a great idea! And I was; That’s a great idea???

BM: And we’re coming up on an Oprah Winfrey call back here [with Vince and Dave]. The first of many callbacks. This was just the idea that there’s some sort of untoward relationship or fascination with Oprah Winfrey that Vince and Dave both share. And that seemed like a good idea because we needed a litmus test to prove it was Dave, and a call back always works. JB: We never established what that was though, did we? BM: No. JB: We just know that it’s something between them. Duke knows about it too because he brings it up at the beginning of season four. BM: Exactly. You’d have to ask Gabrielle Stanton about that one. But it was the first of a few call backs that we tried to squeeze into this episode. Heavy shows up later on, and even Maddie Irons, we brought her back. We really start doing that a lot in this episode and the next few. We didn’t know whether this was going to be the end of the series or not, but regardless it was going to be a big season and we wanted to start looking back to the past a little bit. I think we varying degrees of success.

BM: So we knew that Dave was going to die at the end of the episode and that Croatoan was going to leave his body. But nobody wanted Dave to die in vain. We wanted him to have a hero moment. So we decided really early on, that he could do something to take away the lost time power that Croatoan has. Mostly because, as we tried to break what was happening in the following episodes, the fact that Croatoan could erase the memories at any point in time, made it completely impossible. So we realised we needed to get rid of that, and that gave us an opportunity to have Dave do something, which then beget the wall of clocks and his mission to go back into his mind palace here. But then again, if Dave *knew* he was going to die, that makes him less heroic, so we had to kind of do this whole dance were Dave was going to be spared. We had conversation after conversation for weeks about the levels of heroism - like, too heroic? not heroic enough? But you talk about all of that, and then it goes away when you watch John Dunsworth here because he is fantastic. And those two guys, their last two scenes together, all of those concerns just go by the way side.

CF: They got a sunny day for these scenes with Hailie, that’s great. There had been a lot of rain in the weeks before. JB: Yeah you wouldn’t really think this was shot shortly after the scenes with William and Nahtan in the woods. They got really lucky. BM: And we were just so lucky that Tamara was available to play Hailie. When we had here in 15 and 16 on that Duke side story, at that time we had not intended to bring her back. But we really liked her and found an opportunity, and now, I couldn’t imagine it any other way because Duke’s relationship with her in those episodes, that he started her Trouble and that he knew what happened with her mom - it all plays into what’s happening here. So it makes it so much better. And they were great. Unfortunately he has to kill her here - we talked for a long time about how to do it. There was this idea that he could snap her neck, but that felt kind of cruel, and so what we liked what this idea that he could kind of embrace her and pull her, so that he makes her injuries worse and that was what was kill her. But iti was the idea that he could hug her instead of some brutal thing. You know, he could have suffocated her or various things but that just felt too cruel. But they both sold it. JB: Beautifully directed moment too. BM: Yes. And unfortunately for Duke, and for Eric Balfour, he’s had to do a few really harrowing things like this to people over the course of the series. I think it’s because he started out the show as this kind of care-free, fun-loving guy, it just sort of makes sense with the nature of television that you start torturing people for season after season. But he does such a good job with it, that it was just only natural.  He is as good at dealing with the dark things he’s had to do as any body.

CF: I’m happy that Emily’s walking better. I mean just standing there was an issue when we were shooting 5.20. BM: Even then you can see, we did start re-writing stuff so that she wouldn’t have to walk around as much. He can walk over to her, there just to be more running around in that story.

CF: By the way when you’re working with foam for days, everyone’s walking around on it, the ground gets completely crushed and pulverised into tiny little pieces, so its … your lungs aren’t happy by the end of it. Becuase it’s foam, it’s not meant to last more than a few days BM: That’s a great shot though. It looks great, worked out really well. CF: Yeah they do a great job as a crew, all the prep and getting the right lenses for that super wide angle - because it makes the scene to give it some scope.

[As Nathan takes a handful of aether] BM: So we always knew we were going to try and get to this point in the episode where Nathan was sort of forced to do waht William wanted him to do. And this moves them into a different tone of what’s going on between them.

JB: The controller crystal there, that was kind of modelled on the kryptonian crystals from the 1978 Superman movie CF: And that aether stains anything it touches. So we had to cover our hands with silicone barrier cream and just take it off immediately afterwards or it would stain permanently. BM: It’s funny there’s a bit of a vestige of previous versions of the script where your foot was stuck rather than your arm. So it was still in the script that William would cup the aether with both hands and then open them up again to reveal the balls spinning. And I realised after we shot it that was impractical now - but you did such a good job selling it. CF: Well we had a long discussion about how much pain I could show. Because if your arm is trapped by a boulder you’re going to be in pain, but if I leaned on that through a whole episode, that gets old. Because also Tamara would be doing something similar with Hailie’s story. So I sort of played that it was more numb, so that I could make the point of the scenes be the dialogue.

BM: For the longest time we didn’t have Heavy back, Robert Maillet, but he was such a good sport, he flew up just for the day. I think we got him on a break from The Strain. Really nice guy.

[William, about Duke and Mara; “I should kill you just for putting that image in my head”] *general agreement this is a great line* JB: We were talking about this section and wondering how William would react [to William learning about Mara using Duke] and I think all of us figured he’d be like; Yeah that sounds about right. As opposed to be upset or angry. CF: I did a few versions of that, some were more jokey but I can see why they didn’t get in because you can’t go too light there or the stakes go away BM: You guys really sold it. The idea of how Nathan gets through to William had always been, not that he would make some great argument and convince him, but that he would sort of challenge William, almost insult him so much that he finally got through to him. That felt the most realistic. CF: Well I take my hat off to you guys as the writers and Eric on the lighting, because when you’re reading a script thinking; Oh ok I’m trapped under fake boulders for an episode, … You’re thinking; This could be bad. But it doesn’t feel take.

[As Duke cuts his hand to let out the Trouble] JB: Can I just say, I’ve seen people do this on television a lot and it looks incredibly painful. CF: Yeah I cringe. If I had to cut myself, I wouldn’t use my palm. I’d use the back. JB: I’d be going for a pinprick, not dragging the knife right across my skind.

BM: So this is the place we wanted to get to where William is not a bad guy, not a good guy, somewhere in between. CF: Well and I like that you didn’t make him all of a sudden all like; *overly happy voice* Golly Gee, I’ve seen the light and I was wrong. You know he still has a bit of swagger where he’s just like; Get out of here JB: Yeah; Before I change my mind. Because I might. CF: Yeah. BM: It felt realistic for him. And in a strange way, I mean it’s a cliche, but him and Nathan wind up having more in common than perhaps either of them would care to admit. They are more similar characters. Nathan could have been William if the circumstances were different. JB: I love this too, this wasn’t quid-pro-quo, it was; “get out of here I’m letting you live” and then Nathan decides to hand over the ring. I really like that they don’t strike a bargain as such; it’s just two independent things that these characters decided to do for each other. CF: I like that moment, because I’m thinking William doesn’t get a lot of gifts. Birthdays, christmas, he’s not getting a lot of presents, so. BM: Yeah. And he’s spent a long time in the void.

BM: It’s funny William’s last words to Nathan there. We had always thought that he’d give us some clue that they could use in the next episodes. But then we shot the episode and coudln’t put the clue back in. He just gets a bit of advice - that it’s going to be bad - but it wasn’t really something we could call back to. Missed opportunity.

[Nathan; Where Hailie] JB: That very obliquely references the scene in 5.21 where Duke tells Nathan to talk to Charlotte, and Nathan says, I can’t, and Duke realises she’s dead. And now Nathan’s realising that Hailie is dead. BM: Wow. JB: You didn’t catch that the first time did you? BM: No. I wrote that, too.

[Vince saying goodbye to Dave] BM: So this was a scene we were looking forward to, in a sad dramatic kind of way. We knew that there needed to be a moment between these two. So we wanted Dwight to sign on to Dave’s plan early on, and then give Vince and Dave a moment, because this is their last scene together. And we just felt like we needed Dave to step up to the plate here. These guys have spent their entire lives protecting Haven and it’s secrets, and they’re in uncharted territory here but it’s like; Who are you really and what are you going to do? And we knew that Dave was going to step up in this episode and then Vince is going to do the same thing, pretty much, two episodes from now. It ends differently for Vince, but even going back to the pilot, these two had all of the secrets. And the idea had always been that eventually the show would catch up to them, and bring them along with it - like they would be swept up with it. CF: I love that idea that everything has a cost. That if you want to be the gatekeeper, or the holder of secrets, you’ve got to pay that bill at a certain point. JB: That’s a really sweet moment; Dave’s “Copy that big brother.” BM: Yeah I think we took that from some of the radio speak that Dave did in Roots, 2.05, when he was talking over the short wave radio. JB: That moment really gets me, where he smiles as he goes under BM: When I wrote this I originally imaged the exact same device as Men In Black, for some reason. But then we looked into it and it turns out that is what some people use for hypnosis, these little hand held strobing devices.

[Dave shouting at Croatoan] BM: John Dunsworth is great here. And again, it’s tough; he had to shoot all this by himself, just shouting at a disembodied voice. But you don’t even think about it, because that’s what John Dunsworth can do. JB: And you wouldn’t get many takes at this, either [Dave smashing up the clocks and the wall] BM: No.  You can maybe tell, it might be a bit too obvious, but there’s a late addition to the scene here when Dave writes in his notebook, Because we needed everyone else to know that Croatoan’s plan is to go after Audrey, but there was really no way for them to know that. So we realised it was maybe one little last beat that Dave could do for them, something that he has figured out how to leave a message on himself. And that gave us a cool last beat of the episode. But it was literally added in I think a couple days before we started shooting. CF: John gave a really nice speech that day at lunch when he was retiring from the show. He was quite choked up about how much the show had meant to him. I think he said he didn’t appreciate this coming at this point in his life; having five years on a show and a huge extended family. BM: We got super lucky with both John and Richard. When we were casting the show we knew we were going to be shooting in Chester Nova Scotia, and we needed to cast Vince and Dave as pretty local guys. We didn’t want to have to be flying them in and out, we were hoping to find someone in the area. Those guys both lived a few miles away from where we were shooting, had both done tons of work, and they auditioned and got the job instantly. They were fantastic and everyone could not believe their luck. And they I think had only known each other a little bit, but had this incredible raport. John had lived right in the area forever; his family are like the Kennedy’s of Nova Scotia. CF: Oh yeah they’re everywhere BM: And Richard Donat built his house with his own hands out there in the woods, it’s remarkable, and has been there for decades. They’re both great guys, we were so lucky to have them.

[As Nathan Duke and Audrey discuss the controller crystol] BM: Thiis scene wound up being a bit more important than I think any of us really thought that it would. I thought it was just be funny if they talked about the fact they had no idea how to use this thing they just spent the last two episodes getting, and now they have no idea what to do with it JB: Yeah I think in an earlier draft it was more comedic BM: But this is the last time these three are really together again on the show. And certainly in slightly nicer circumstances. So it really wound up being about them appreciating that. The Three Musketeers together again. So it actually wound up being really moving. And coming right on the heels of what just happened with Dave; it’s pretty sad.

CF: And by the way just so you know, those aren’t the colours of real life. That house is not that yellow. The jeep is not quite that blue. Everything’s racheted up a little bit. I mean just a little; 10, 15%. I guess they were making the fall colours really punch because we’ve never really been in the fall before.

[Croatoan talking to Vince and Dwight via Dave’s body] BM: So this had been part of the plan from way back when; we knew that we would have Croatoan in Haven for the last four episodes of the season, so we knew that the end of this episode would have Croatoan pouring out of Dave. And there was a lot of talk about what that would look like. There were some people pushing for Dave’s body to explode, but that just felt cruel. So I’m so happy that he’s pouring out as this mist. And this made it a bit spookier because the next episode is about what is Croatoan? Because they don’t really know and i’ts not until the end of the next episode that we see that he now looks a lot like William Shatner. And here’s the note [on Dave’s arm] we were talking about that this wasn’t originally in here, and we added it really late. But I’m really happy that we did.

[thegreymoon]

Hi!! I love your posts about Untamed and I thought about watching it but I wanted to ask, do you like actors' performance? It's just the gifs I see all look the same to me, I don't see any serious change in their face expressions, that bothers me a little. Like, you describe your reactions and I'd think the scenes would look intense but the on the gifs, characters just always look stony.

Hi, anon!

I absolutely love the actors’ performance (the main group, anyway), however, you have to take into account the genre and cultural expectations here. I have exactly one person IRL that I could recommend this to, expect her to enjoy it and not look at me as if I have gone insane fifteen minutes in. This is essentially a soap opera with zombies, and if you are to stand any chance of enjoying it, you have to accept it for what it is.  

First of all, the budget they had for this show did not even come close to matching their ambitions, so the monsters and the CGI are hilariously bad, which is unfortunate, considering the world it is set in. The battles are also rather sad, because they filmed with only a handful of extras, and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t show.

Another important thing here is that you have to completely let go of expectations that you have for western shows, especially the ones that are ‘gritty’ and ‘realistic’. We are used to our heroes being all sweaty, filthy and loud. The blood and the grime are a staple, and so is a whole string of vulgarities that writers rely on for shock value because they couldn’t otherwise write a coherent and satisfying story to save their life (TWD, GoT, looking at you 😠). In The Untamed, you will have your main characters make it through what is supposed to be a pivotal battle with not a single hair out of place and white robes absolutely pristine. Is it realistic? LOL, no. Do I care? LOL, again, no. 

However, I know a lot of people (men, especially) who would gripe endlessly about this and turn it into a mockery. What they fail to understand is that this is not ‘bad’, it is just a different way of doing things. If you cannot suspend your disbelief for things like that, flying swords and perfectly pitched music that kills dozens on the battlefield with a single note, then this show is not for you. Also, please keep in mind that what we may consider ‘bad acting’ is very often, in this case, simply a matter of a different acting style. 

As for the actors themselves, in the context of this show, genre and what is expected of them, I think they are fantastic. For comparison, none of them are, say, Colin Morgan, but they are all leaps and bounds better than, for example, Henry Cavil, who, once you get past his muscles, is as interesting as watching paint dry. The majority of them are also still very young (think early-to-mid-twenties) and for some of them, this was one of their first roles and I don’t think anyone expected The Untamed to blow up as much as it did. On the subject of performance, the only thing that actually throws me off from time to time is that the voices are all dubbed (this is just how it is done in China), so I catch some dissonance here and there. 

The main lead is very, very vibrant and goes through every emotion there is on screen and I find him incredibly adorable. His main love interest is the only one who may be described as ‘stony’ but this is very much intentional because he is playing a certain character type. When it comes to performance, he is one of my favourites, because he is playing such an incredibly complex character almost entirely through microexpressions, so when he smiles or cries, or shows anything at all, even though he barely moves a muscle, it is a huge fucking deal and an entire legion of fangirls worldwide squeals in unison. 

His brother (my favourite) is very similar and, again, this is intentional. The difference between them is that while the first one is ‘stony’, the other one is completely neutral. He always smiles pleasantly and radiates an insane amount of calming energy, and again, you have to rely on microexpressions to tell when he is a second away from going feral and committing murder. I am fascinated by both of them, in the sense that they both dress the same and act the same, yet one is vibrating with such intense murder energy the entire time, while the other emanates peace even under the worst of circumstances. 

Anyway, the point is, all of the characters are very distinct, their personalities are wildly different and their choices in life range from soft and benevolent to cold-blooded vengeance and unhinged murder. Another big thing in this show is how they portray the difference between good and evil, as compared to politeness and acting out of turn. They start with cookie-cutter, simplistic villains and move up in complexity. The story itself is very fascinating, not to mention, one of the best and most respectful portrayals of a gay love story I have ever seen on film in spite of the censorship and all the other limitations they had to deal with. 

Another thing that you have to be aware of is that the subtitles on YouTube are hilariously bad, but even if you watch it elsewhere, Chinese does not always translate particularly well into English. Also, the show is filled to the brim with tropes that are very familiar to the viewers in China, who get an additional level of delight from seeing them subverted, but which will be really unfamiliar to western viewers, who will often end up confused. It was only after I read The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (which is the same genre as the novel The Untamed was adapted from) that some of the things in the show suddenly made sense, so I can only imagine how many other little things just flew right over my head. 

Anyway, sorry for making this so long, anon, but if you do decide to watch this show, please keep in mind that the first two episodes are likely to be very, very confusing and strange. Just keep pushing! Everything becomes clear as you get further along, and at one point, those first two episodes just smack you over the head with how much sense they make retroactively and then you just want to sit down a little and cry 😢 

If, however, you cannot get past the messy CGI and the acting style, one thing I would like to recommend is trying the donghua (animated series) instead. I have not watched it yet, but it is really beautiful, and when I cried to one of my friends about this show, she told me, ‘Wait... that sounds familiar!’ and it turned out that even though she did not know about the drama, she has already watched/is watching the donghua, and she tells me that it is fantastic. 

Anyway, here are some ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for all of you who made it through my rambling here! How does one give short answers? Someone, please teach me how!! 😭😭

[aion-rsa]

Unforgotten: the Clues in the Titles and Why Every Detail Matters

https://ift.tt/3b8wdBf

Warning: contains spoilers for Unforgotten series 1-3

“You’d be surprised,” says Peter Anderson, creative director of the studio behind the title sequences for hit ITV crime drama Unforgotten. “You can show something really on-the-nose, and people won’t get it until they’ve been told. We fret and worry about giving too much away but the clue is only triggered when you know the context.”

Each 40-second title sequence for Unforgotten is a curated collection of purpose-filmed scenes designed to go where the drama can’t – namely, inside the characters’ heads. Every series starts with the discovery of a long-buried body, then introduces viewers to a guest cast of characters whose connections to each other, and to the historical murder, gradually unfold. It takes six episodes to solve the mystery, but right from the start, the abstracted and symbolic images created for the title sequence already hold all the answers. 

“Some of the images are big clues,” explains Anderson. “With the current series titles, there were some things that were taken out and then went back in, that are incredibly poignant, really incredibly amazing clues, I can only be ambiguous about it at this stage.”

Our new titles, full of little teasers and clues. Made by the brilliant @PAndersonStudio #OneDayMore #Unforgotten 4 https://t.co/rE5XAo5lx6

— Chris Lang (@ChrisLangWriter) February 21, 2021

How the series four title sequence relates to the new story, airing on Mondays at 9pm, is currently anybody’s guess. The meaning behind its images – a smashed car window, an allotment, a discarded fountain pen, to pick just three – will only become apparent after the finale. “You should have a relationship with the title sequence that grows as the drama grows,” says Anderson. Look back the title sequences for previous Unforgotten series and that’s exactly so – they’re transformed by hindsight.

Take the series two montage, which opens with a shot of a pub table and three empty drinking glasses. Atmospherically, it’s a lonely image, but hardly ominous. In the finale, the scene is revealed to be a turning point in the investigation as the place where the murder suspects gather and the truth is finally told. It’s a terrible truth about three lives irreparably damaged by childhood sexual abuse, and provides the answer to another title sequence mystery. The dreadful significance of a previously unexplained shot of an empty yellow tent is made clear in a heart-rending monologue from Mark Bonnar, who plays lawyer Colin. The abuse Colin suffered as a child began aged nine, on a camping trip. Each week, viewers have been shown the tent from his memory – a formative moment that haunts the titles in the same way it haunts the character.

“That’s one of those occasions where the titles are showing you something awful and poignant, a game-changer,” says Anderson. “In a way, the tent is the scene that forms the whole story of the drama, but it’s in the titles. It’s not a flashback, it’s been allowed to be in this other place, this place that says to you, ‘Before you watch this drama every week, think about some of these things’.”

Copyright: Peter Anderson Studio

Not every image is necessarily a clue. “Some of them are setting the scene, some of them are memories that form the characters, some of them are about placing the different time zones that you’re in.” Unforgotten is a time-travelling series, says Anderson. “The titles are showing us that we will be in memory.”

All four series titles share the visual metaphor of unsettled dust motes floating from scene to scene. “It’s talking about how, the moment Cassie and Sunny (the show’s detective leads played by Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar) come knocking on your door with news or an accusation, it unearths a whole series of events, whether you’re innocent or guilty. The dust, your past, is unsettled. That thread follows through all the title sequences, it’s about the everyday becoming disrupted and changed.” 

Clues and reminiscences are purposely blended in the Unforgotten titles. Some memories may be more important than others, but nothing is frivolous, says Anderson. In the series two sequence, even a glimpsed pan of peas boiling on a stove feeds into the working class roots of a now wealthy, knighted business tsar. “Even the peas have a job to do because they’re taking you back inside the head of a character.”

“One that pops to mind is a car crash scene from the series one titles. It’s the moment that one of our characters was in the crash that put him in his wheelchair. That’s not something shown in the drama, but that’s a moment that formed that character, a lot of his traits come out of this awful thing that happened.”

Read more

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Why Unforgotten fans should read Reservoir 13

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Title scenes are a different type of narrative that hark back to the silent movie era, Anderson explains. “It’s about subtly extending the storytelling, extending the characters through their memories, taking you to a place that formed them that the drama doesn’t have the time to show. It might be referred to in dialogue, but we can actually make it in the titles.”

They can make it, but not wanting to give the game away, they also have to obscure it. “Something that seems abstract often is laced with meaning,” he says, citing a tiny snippet in the series three credits where we see a close-up of a deer’s eye. The deer turns out to be a plot point, as the animal hit by an underage driver whose father suspects him of having killed the victim. In the same sequence, a poetic scene shows grass and flowing water. “To the viewer that will just be abstract and atmospheric, but actually, that’s the moment when the river broke its banks and carried away the body.”

The Unforgotten titles incorporate the settings used in the show, but – until this series because of last year’s Covid-19 restrictions on set visits – were always purpose-filmed by Anderson’s studio and not compiled from existing footage. They’d pop in to a set while the production was on lunch and get the coverage they needed, borrowing key props and costumes. That’s how a necktie worn by a character revealed to have a sadomasochistic fetish is glimpsed binding the hands of a young woman (a Peter Anderson Studios intern, being useful on her first day) in the series two sequence. A suitcase used to contain and dispose of a murder victim is spotted sitting innocently at the bottom of a wardrobe. “We have access to all the costumes, the props, the poignant clues from the drama itself. The detail that’s in there comes direct from the drama.” 

Copyright: Peter Anderson Studio

Each Unforgotten title sequence begins life as around 100 short scenes written by Anderson after reading all six of that series’ scripts. It’s unusual to be granted such breadth of access in TV drama, which is part of what makes the title work on Unforgotten so special. The entire Mainstreet Pictures team, from creator and writer Chris Lang to the producers and directors, collaborate on whittling down the list of scenes until they say everything they need to, without giving anything away. 

This kind of devotion from a production company to a TV title sequence is rare in the UK, says Anderson. He’s experienced it precious few times in his career: with Neil Gaiman creating the stunning 2D animated titles for Good Omens, with Steven Moffat and the producers of BBC One’s Sherlock and Doctor Who – for which his studio made the series seven titles starring Matt Smith – and here, on Unforgotten.

Lang tells Den of Geek that he’s never worked on a series with such a symbiosis between the titles and the drama. “We meet at late script stage, when the characters are fully formed, and then we decide together which echoes, teases and clues we want to put in to the opening sequence.” Lang describes the titles for each series as a mini drama of their own, easing the audience into the world of the show. In dramatic and storytelling terms, he says, the titles do a lot of heavy lifting.

“Chris will say ‘Can we add this scene? Because this is why that character was formed’, explains Anderson. “I can’t extend a character’s story in the way that the writer can. He knows implicitly how he’s formed his characters, he knows their past. He knows which memories are important”. It’s about understanding the detail of every bit of storytelling, “that even a half-second snippet really matters.”

Copyright: Mainstreet Pictures

One character-forming scene that’s only a half-second snippet in the series three titles shows a young child being hugged by a woman. The costume, backdrop and lighting suggest the 1960s, putting us in the realm of memory. In that half-second, Anderson confirms, we’re inside the mind of Dr Tim Finch, an extremely damaged man played by Alex Jennings.  “It’s just meant to be a flicker of time showing an overbearing mother that formed part of his character. If you look at the detail of that shot, what’s important is the fact that he’s being smothered and the smothering therefore has a psychological effect on him growing up.” 

Another key memory scene – a child’s-eye perspective of a woman peeling potatoes at a sink, which relates to the moment a character told her mother she was being abused by her father – was coincidentally filmed in the same location: Anderson’s kitchen at home. “I have a 1950s house with a genuine 50s kitchen with a genuine 80s wall with a genuine 70s floor, so as a location, it’s utterly fantastic for time travel,” he laughs, angling his laptop camera down to show a tiled floor fans will recognise from several of the Unforgotten title sequences. 

In the US, Anderson explains, TV titles are highly paid for, but in Britain it remains a lo-fi business. When his studio created the fast-paced title sequence for high-profile Sky One drama Lucky Man, for instance, instead of closing the roads and wiring up a street with cables to film the fast-paced street scenes, they did it using an actor from Starlight Express roller skating through London wearing a GoPro.

Copyright: Peter Anderson Studios

Series two’s yellow tent scene was filmed using vintage camping equipment pitched in the park next to Anderson’s home. “That was me and a cinematographer on the side of a hill. We set it up meticulously with an oil lamp from the period. We wanted the light to be perfect, so for just that one scene we probably spent between three and four hours shooting.”

A television drama often won’t have the time to be so indulgent with its photography, he says. For the series three titles, his studio shot Bristol Bridge in the early hours of the morning, starting off in the dark and the snow, waiting until the light was just so. Production arranged the official permissions, the hotel, everything so that Anderson’s team could film just two scenes of no more than a few seconds each. It’s proof, he says, of how much everybody involved cares and how every detail matters – something well worth remembering the next time your finger hovers over that ‘Skip Intro’ button.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Unforgotten series 4 continues on Mondays at 9pm on ITV1.

The post Unforgotten: the Clues in the Titles and Why Every Detail Matters appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/303o3nf

[killian-whump]

Assuming there's a sequel, what do you think will JJ's role be? Do you think he'll make a hollywood healing and return as a nefarious outlaw (with a limp) or a jaded washout who lost both his legs? Or maybe he's already dead and only appears in flashbacks? What do you think has a higher chance of happening?

This is a really good question...

As I said in another post, I’m not entirely sure that Maddie Hawkins has another story in her - that includes JJ. I think it’s pretty clear that she’s done with him, and won’t be giving him a second chance.

And, besides, I think a retread with these same two characters might be a bit dull, no? So I feel like if they DO bring these two both back again, it’ll have to be something along the lines of what @gingerchangeling was proposing, where it’s years later, JJ’s as healed as he can be (obviously, with a limp or even a missing leg), and he hunts down Maddie for his own revenge... but there’s a kid. And it’s obviously his kid. And what do now??

Because we all know that Hollywood loves a good “bad guy changes his ways entirely for the kid he never even knew he had (or wanted)” storylines. I mean, her future headcanon is just that good. I don’t think they could possibly come up with anything better IF they want to bring BOTH characters back again.

But they might NOT bring them both back again. Dolly never said anything about bringing Maddie back for a Season 2 - only JJ. And, to be honest, JJ’s likely got a lot more tales in his life that could be told. It’s implied that he’s pulled the same trick he pulled on Maddie with plenty of other women. He’s obviously been at this for quite some time, and has many outlaw adventures they could show in flashback form.

We could also see them explore Deke’s story and tell about what happened between HIM and JJ in the past - and show us the tragic death of his wife. Given she died in a fire and not from a bullet wound, I don’t think JJ meant to kill her - and it’s obvious he’s not as cavalier about killing innocent women as he is innocent men. It could even be that this accidental killing of a young pregnant woman is what pushed JJ into being the murderer he is in S1′s story - sort of a “I’ve already done the WORST possible thing, so what does it matter?” mentality. That would likely make for a good story, as well - and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of David Denman’s bounty hunter.

Speaking of which, they could just show us the adventures of Deke and JJ on the road back to nearest town and the Sheriff’s station, and it could just be an hour’s worth of quality whump with Deke torturing him the whole damn way. I mean, we all know that’s got MY vote, but I have this weird feeling it might not be what Dolly would go for ;) But then again, who knows? I mean, she DID say that they wanted to see JJ suffer a little - and man, did he ever suffer at the end there. Maybe Dolly’s one of us and we just never knew it? XD

Actually, there IS another way they could bring JJ and Maddie back together again - if he heals and escapes, she could even team up with Deke to try to recapture him, and we could see his hijinks on the run as he tries to get lovely young ladies to hide his limping ass from the law, lol.

Although we have to remember that if there IS a Season 2, it’s likely to follow the same format that Season 1 did, and each episode will be based on one of Dolly’s hit songs. So if we DO see JJ again, it’s very likely we won’t be seeing anything that will tie directly into this episode, so much as it would be JJ filling the role of “nefarious outlaw” or “double-crossing lover” in an entirely separate story based on an altogether different song. In which case, it likely would be from JJ’s days before meeting Maddie, because that would be easier to explain than having to go into HOW he escaped from Deke AND how he healed from those injuries Maddie gave him.

Or maybe they’ll scrap S2 entirely and Dolly will just write an entire album of new songs inspired by Colin, and we’ll get a season of hour-long music videos FOR that album, with Colin playing the lead in every one!!! :D

HEY. Don’t you all start telling me that’s not going to happen. I don’t come on your blog and crush your crazy dreams, do I??? XD

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT Rewatch 4X14 - Enter the Dragon

Sorry for all the delays with these reviews! I’ve really been DRAGON my feet through this whole season, haven’t I? 

...You don’t come here for smart puns, Regina! XD

Anyway, there’s a nice juicy review under the cut!

Main Takeaways

Past

I love how this plays as the evil version of every “young person melts the heart of older person and convinces them to go back to doing what they love” story! While it’s not a parody -- and is in fact played deadly straight -- it’s funny as hell to watch because of that!

It’s kind of weird seeing such vague mentions of Mal’s backstory. All throughout the episode, we hear clues, but are never given anything concrete. I wonder when or even if we ever would’ve gotten a backstory for Mal and Briar Rose.

Present

Wow, I gotta say, considering how DESTROYED Mal was by what Snowing did to her kid, stealing another kid is just horrible (The fact that he’s turned back into August and she may or may not have known that is irrelevant for me since she stealing a son from his father at the end of the day) ! I don’t know if it’s exactly poorly written or not -- a case of extremism turning her into what she hates or mishandling a character who is supposed to be more balanced between being evil and sympathetic. I guess it’s up to interpretation, but given that the there doesn’t get to be a reaction from Marco to Maleficent over the fact considering how big of a deal it is that she reverted a little boy back into being a grown man, I feel forced to say the latter.

This also applies to Regina too, ESPECIALLY considering her conversations with Marco in the last episode and this is more of a problem than I realized. She’s stealing a child, putting him up against three villains, AND disposing any direct means of contact between herself and her backup. And the fact that Rumple reverts him into being August at the end of the episode changes nothing here because that wasn’t an anticipated move. It’s even more distracting given the gravitas of the moment where Emma and Regina try to figure out whether or not to steal him in the first place. Regina says she’s going to protect him and pull out if he’s in danger, but what does she think they’re going to do to him if not threaten his life? Even just the emotional duress of those kind of threats is crazy to do to a kid. And then to drop her phone so he can’t even be tracked? It’s played as this necessary evil, but is never given the payoff to back up what a horrible and reckless thing this was to do. They STOLE his childhood -- what was essentially his happy ending -- and that has to be answered for by ALL involved parties: Maleficent, Regina, and Emma too for ultimately agreeing to this.

This segment has a really interesting theme of not being overly insistent on complete control. Throughout it, Regina insists to her friends that she can handle the Queens of Darkness. Even as the stakes raise, she makes risky and riskier decisions that she says she can manage. This culminates in a horribly risky decision (See above) that, in her insistence in keeping control over the situation and her sureness that she’s right, has Regina abandon her means of getting backup. And this all ends with Regina, forced by her own hand, to relinquish control to Rumple. I think that this is an important lesson for Regina to learn, and while I didn’t like the big decision that she had to make for lack of a proper fallout (I’ll actually discuss in a bit why I choose this episode to take the issue with it), I think the rest of the story is good!

Stream of Consciousness

-Regina, you trying to KILL ME with the cut of that shirt?! Because it is working!

-Damn, Regina is AMAZING at acting evil! XD

-HOW THE FUCK DID YOU CRUSH GLASS?! ARE YOU THE FUCKING HULK? XD

-I love how Regina looks between Mal’s castle and her book like “I’m gonna get my favorite author to sign my book!”

-Wouldn’t someone just win “Don’t Be a Hero” by only saving themselves?

-I love how there were freakin’ BETS on the game! XD

-We got another Henry and Belle scene!!! Tbh, I wish there was a bit more substance here too. Belle ADORES books and this is literally a mystery surrounding a book! Why couldn’t she give him some advice on maybe where to look or just talk about the nature of books! You have two book fans sharing a scene! Why not use that?

-I would KILL to know how Regina’s night of drinking with the Queens of Darkness went! Like, they drank a whole bar! XD

-To be fair, Emma, Regina’s probably not reaching out because she’s hungover as FUCK after DRINKING A WHOLE BAR! XD

-MAL, DRUNK AS FUCK, SINGED A COP CAR! XD WHERE ARE FICS OF THIS! THIS IS THE TRUE SEQUEL TO “THE HANGOVER!” XD

-”Some drinking.” SOME DRINKING? YOU DRANK AND ENTIRE BAR! XD

-I like how Regina’s “pathetic” flame was more of a matter of nervousness than inexperience. It shows that Regina’s learned a lot during her tenure with Rumple while still having a lot of space to grow.

-Maleficent is introduced as a druggie! She literally stabs herself with something that “takes the edge off!” XD

-”You need to remember who you are.” “That Maleficent had a foul temper, and if you insulted her, she’d turn into a dragon and eat your flesh.” Holy hell! My eyes are filled with hearts!

-”Where the hell have you been all night?” I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW THAT AS WELL!

-NOW WHAT KIND OF CRAZINESS HAPPENED IN THE VAULT?! XD

-To be fair, Emma, Regina’s been ROCKING this undercover mission so far.

-This episode is full of sexy, badass people, but this cake is the sexiest thing of all!

-”Well, look at which two survivors found a dinghy together.” ...Rumple, HOW ARE YOU SO BAD AT BEING KILLIAN? IT’S NOT ESPECIALLY HARD AND YET YOU SOMEHOW FAILED AT IT! It’s like trying to pet a puppy and instead doing a handstand! XD

-I love how Storybrooke can appear on a GPS system! Is someone in town just a really good techie or is Google our new God? XD

-”The only magical thing you’ll find here is duct tape.” Accurate! XD

-”You didn’t ask your questions more forcefully.” Oh trust me, she did. It was scary.

-”One little snafu?” YOU WOULD HAVE TO STEAL A CHILD!

-”Break some rules.” YOU ARE STEALING A CHILD!

-A Pirate’s Oath! XD What the hell? Someone’s just looking to cop a feel!

-I love the fact that it is 100% canon that Regina rode on the back of a dragon. Maleficent gave her the best piggyback ride in the UNIVERSE!

-Wait: GOLD HAS A CABIN?

Favorite Dynamic

Rump-illian and Belle. I absolutely love Rump-illian and Belle’s subplot here. Rumple, for better or worse, knows Belle and is exactly slippery enough to forge a story to get the dagger back for himself but also not infallible as to still fail to  discuss things he wasn’t privy to. Major props have to go to Colin. He’s playing Rumple playing Killian and that is AMAZING! His lines and delivery are just awkward enough to capture Rumple’s failure to perfectly capture Killian, but they’re close enough that they could fool someone who’s just getting to be close with Killian like Belle. He’s always a little off center in how he conducts himself, making the reveal something that could feasibly be guessed but also surprise everyone! And the transitions -- the one at the docks the one as he walks into the pawnshop, and the one outside the pawnshop are done so well as to make the whole subplot even better!

Writer

David Goodman and Jerome Schwartz are in charge of today’s episode! So far, they’ve had a perfect season! But...well… Look. This episode isn't bad, but I do wish the present segment had some more polish. Considering that the three people involved in that final decision are all mothers and to not do more with that idea is really distracting in hindsight.

Rating

8/10. I’m torn about whether or not I should punish this episode for what goes down with Pinocchio. This episode is more setup in that regard than payoff and it’s not bad setup. But at the same time, I do have to ask myself if that payoff was ever going to happen and if it wasn’t, then the setup of something that upon inspection is so fucked up. And I do think that the payoff wasn’t intended to come up -- they had to know -- and so I do find fault with this episode for executing this idea in such an irresponsible way. Otherwise though, the storytelling is really good. Everything makes sense, the story’s engaging, the pacing works, the characters are for the most part in line, and the theme of the past segment lines up in a way that’s subtle, yet effective.

Flip My Ship - The Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness”

DRAGON QUEEN - This is my JAM! Look at Regina’s face as Mal enters the room. That is the face of a woman realizing “I am gay for LIFE!” And in the present, could these two flirt any MORE?! <3 Just look at the aspirin scene! Mal and Regina are both letting their guard down (Regina’s being more of a casual spitfire, Mal’s not wearing the jacket and is giving a bit more info), Mal’s helping Regina out a bit, there’s candles everywhere, and there’s a touch of loose tension in the room. It’s enough to make the moment pretty sexy. ALSO, they go on a mission alone and the presentation to it plays out exactly like an impromptu date! This is the BEST! I just love how Regina smiles for Mal. It’s big, but natural and just kind of happy!

Swan Queen - Dude! Emma is so worried about Regina! That panic in her voice is CRAZY and her dedication to having Regina’s back and protecting her really shows how much she cares for Regina! This as some of their best shippy moments by the sheer amount of concern Emma has for her!

Captain Swan - While it doesn’t work exactly, Killian does a really good job assuring Emma that things with Regina will be okay.

Mal/Briar Rose - “What happened to you?” “A Rose. A Briar Rose.” Mal says that line in the same way someone talks about someone who they had a bad breakup with!

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Hi!!! Thanks for reading and shout outs to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales and to the lovely @daensarah! See you all next time!

Season 4 Total (121/230)

Writer Scores: Adam and Eddy: (34/60) Jane Espenson: (20/40) David Goodman and Jerome Schwartz: (38/50) Andrew Chambliss: (22/50) Dana Horgan: (6/30) Kalinda Vazquez: (22/40) Scott Nimerfro: (14/30) Tze Chun (8/20)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[lobsters-on-their-heads]

OB Rewatch: To Right the Wrongs of Many

I’m not crying, you’re crying

You can read my first watch review, which hits a number of points I left out,  here: https://lobsters-on-their-heads.tumblr.com/post/164138983111/to-right-the-wrongs-of-many

I loved

Sarah’s flashback scenes flow with the storyline, and inform Sarah’s current character. We learn more about her, and get answers to a question that hadn’t occurred to me to ask - why did she decide to keep Kira? 

Siobhan! Being the loving nurturing mother we’ve seen her be for five seasons. Quite different than the woman we meet in episode 2, who was DONE with Sarah’s bullshit.

Sarah rummaging around the basement boiler room, fussing over Helena to get her the things she can, keeping her head cool and her voice reassuring.

Art: “Are you alright?”

Helena: “Most excellent.”

And the back and forth between Sarah and Helena bearing their children, with Sarah repeating the lines Siobhan gave her... I... *sniffles* ....

The shot of the twins

Art and Sarah delivering Helena’s babies. They were, after all, the first two members of Clone Club that she interacted with. Sarah was absolutely the best person to do it.

Helena’s stick figure mobiles

Cosima and Scott helping Sarah practice for her GED. Hell, Sarah practicing for her GED! Which she will eventually take, I know she will.

Siobhan’s portrait. It’s her, a cup of tea, and her shotgun. Perfect.

Donnie is adorable with the babies. It’s a damn shame we didn’t see more of him being a father during the show (probably due to the availability or desire of the child actors). 

The parallel with Season 3′s opener

I loved the entire fucking baby shower. My favorite thing ever is whole Clone Club events like this. I also really hope that those judgey “friends” of Alison’s from Season 1 (you know, the living ones) saw all these random people streaming into her house, including a gay couple, a lesbian couple, awkward nerdy guys, a black guy with his daughter and a disabled girl, and a perma-drunk from the vague South. To say nothing of how those neighbors must feel about Helena.

Cosima taking Purple from Felix and immediately handing him to Delphine.

Love, love, LOVE Cosima’s dress. Which was surprisingly difficult to get a good screenshot of while she’s standing.

Finishing the show with the Sestras together. Okay, so the very final scenes didn’t have them together, but you know what I mean. This scene was wonderful. Yes, they are going off and living happily ever after, but pain remains. Pain that is perhaps related to their fights, but not always. No matter what, though, they always have each other. 

*cries again* 

Helena’s story about letting the babies eat sand! “Where does this sand come from? I don’t know, so I let them eat it.” We all know it comes from the bodies buried under her apartment.

I liked 

The camera circling around Sarah while Westboreland taunted her.

Sarah: “Ah, shut up!” and then she smashes his head with a oxygen tank.

Kira being supportive and understanding of her mom. I like it because Kira’s sweet, but I don’t love it - Kira’s a kid, and she shouldn’t have to worry about her mom.

Helena offering Kira a jam burger and Kira backing up quickly. I hope that was improvised. 

The contrast between the sunny family time of the baby shower and Sarah’s darker solitude as she approaches and enters the house.

The parade of people asking Sarah “How was the test?” I like it for the comedic aspect, but also because every single person there supports and roots for Sarah exactly where she is. None of them show any judgment that she’s taking her GED test instead of, say, her GRE.

I’m as lesbian as they come, but I do melt when I see tough guys holding babies like this.

Sarah’s face as Helena starts sharing her book.

I didn’t like

The placement of Delphine’s condolences to Sarah about Siobhan. It’s been months, and Delphine has almost certainly seen Sarah before now. It’s a nice moment, but it’s out of place. It’s also one of the few times we’ve ever seen Delphine and Sarah alone together, and I believe the only time it’s happened since the first episode of Season 3. Delphine’s sentiments regarding Siobhan are spot on, but it’s odd to hear her emoting like this to Sarah. Even in the rewatch, I was just as uncomfortable as Sarah was.

That Rachel couldn’t come in. Obviously she wanted to, despite her claims to the contrary, and she needs the redemption that the sestras give each other. 

Other notes

I see now that it wasn’t the tray table Helena smashed Coady’s face into, but the stirrup / footrest at the end of the bed.

Westboreland drones on about “I made you” yadda yadda, but he did pretty much jack shit in the creation of the clones except maybe finance and protect. The Duncans did the work.

Pretty sure that’s Sarah’s first kill.

Somewhere in the second half of my first watch of Season 5, I had this fic idea of Donnie and Helena going to the island to rescue Cosima and Charlotte (and Delphine). In that fic, Delphine delivers Helena babies, which is kind of what everyone on Tumblr wanted. Anyway, having Sarah do it here was actually a much better idea.

There was definitely infodump with Alison talking to Donnie about his new job, but I’ll kind of allow it since it involved pouring concrete floors, and... well. That is something he knows about, isn’t it?

As cool as this board is for the show, I’m not sure why it’s set up this way for them. They could store the info in a spreadsheet (Delphine already has it in the computer). The pictures are fun, but don’t serve much purpose for their research. Like, they already know they’re all played by Tatiana Maslany, so they’re not trying to figure that mystery out. But maybe Cosima just likes to look at them?

The birthday card Sarah finds is tucked into the same book that Cosima read to Kira at the end of Season 2. Was the card in there then, or was it tucked in later by Siobhan or someone else?

And I’m totally with with Felix on being upset about the boxes and the for-sale sign. Even if he’s not living there, a lot of the stuff was probably his once, just as much as hers. He deserves to have a piece of his mother to hang on to without Sarah throwing it away (which she totally would).

Évelyne’s probably doing an awful lot of this these days

According to IMDB, Lauren Hammersley is 5′9″. See, this is why Tat always looks so short. She’s surrounded by really tall people.

Sarah had nothing to be sorry about when she snapped at Alison, who was pushing way too hard at completely the wrong moment. 

Most of the Lyft and Uber drivers I’ve had would not have sat silently in the front seat like Yusef did. Rachel probably scared him into submission.

With a number like 274, I think it’s safe to assume that there were originally 300 Ledas, and 26 were either killed by Helena, by clone disease, or by something else. 

Of course Évelyne speaks Spanish. Two dialects of French, English, and German weren’t enough. 

Interesting that the babies are Arthur and Donnie, rather than Arthur and Donald or Art and Donnie. I wonder if a certain US president influenced that decision.

I have questions

Why does Coady follow this asshole, again? Why does she do things that she, herself hates, like killing Mark? What does she get out of it that she couldn’t achieve on her own or with a different crackpot? What is left for her here? What’s in it for that other doctor, too? 

(really disturbing note - had the abortion gone through, would Kira’s magical healing abilities have, uh... ? you know what, let’s not explore that too much)

Why does Sarah struggle so much with school? She’s obviously intelligent and able to focus on and achieve goals when she wants to, but academics seem to elude her. It seems logical to me that her attitude problems and academic struggles would be related. Then there’s her anxiety (called fear, but really) and terrible self-esteem, and everything spirals, but it didn’t always.

A few episodes ago, Scott or Cosima said they had 144 doses of the inoculate ready to go. In this episode, Scott’s worried about expanding the cell line any further. Does that mean they’ve used 144 doses? I doubt it. Does it mean they’re just making shit tons of it? I don’t know how any of this works.

Where is Felix living now, by the way?

Is this realistic for a glass eye?

I would’ve liked to have seen

What happened to Enger, and Art seeing it happen. More than that, though...

I think this ep could have been a solid two hours if they’d committed to it. The extra hour could include

Sarah, Helena, Art, and the twins getting out of Dyad, accounting for the dead bodies scattered around in there, and wrapping up what’s left of Neolution 

Delphine’s return from “France” and finally starting a real relationship with Cosima. I want to see them getting ice cream together.

Also Delphine taking rocks away from the babies

Helena moving into the garage

What’s the plan for Charlotte?

How Felix and Colin became a couple

and still leave us wanting more. Plus, that Delphine / Sarah scene could have found a better spot.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Not Exactly T.H. White

by Viorica

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Viorica's review of the BBC's cracktastic Merlin.~

After what might be called a bitter breakup with BBC’s Robin Hood, I promised myself that I’d avoid any further TV shows that were more enjoyable for their badness than their quality. So when the majority of my Livejournal friendslist began squeeing over Merlin, I swore I’d avoid the temptation. No matter how shiny and cracky and homoerotic it appeared, I was not going to watch it, because I knew that if I did I’d be sucked into shiny-cracky-homoerotic-bad TV land. But eventually the temptation grew too strong, and I downloaded the first season to watch over Christmas break. I expected bad special effects; I got that. I expected inaccuracy; I got that in droves. I expected mediocre writing and acting, and I got . . . something else.

If you assumed from the title of the show that Merlin is based on Arthurian legends, you’d be better off abandoning that idea right now. The series revolves around a teenage boy named - you guessed it - Merlin who is sent to live at the court of Camelot by his mother, because he’s manifested magical powers, and she has an old friend, Gaius who lives at Camelot and who is better equipped to train Merlin than she is. Unfortunately for Merlin, magic is outlawed in Camelot, and has been since the birth of Prince Arthur about twenty years earlier. Yes, Merlin and Arthur and the same age, and that’s only the beginning of the divergence from the original stories. Merlin manages to land a job as Arthur’s manservant, much to Arthur’s chagrin, as Merlin has a tendency to call Arthur out on his bullshit. From there on in, it’s up to Merlin to protect Arthur from various pissed-off sorcerers (Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon has ordered all magic-users burned at the stake, which has naturally rubbed them up the wrong way) while simultaneously trying to hide his own powers and protect innocent people from Uther’s wrath. He’s helped by Guinevere, aka Gwen, a maid at the castle, and her mistress Morgana, Uther’s ward, who disagrees with his policies. Merlin is also mentored by a dragon being held prisoner under the castle, who has an irritating tendency to intone “Protecting Arthur is your destiny, Merlin!” at least once an episode.

If you think it sounds cheesy, you’re completely right. It’s intended as a kid’s show, and filmed with the audience in mind - despite the rather high amounts of violence (at least one person dies per episode) the camera always cuts away from the nasty stuff. The main conflict is Merlin’s need to hide the fact that he has magical powers, and the fact that this keeps conflicting with his need to protect Arthur, which obviously has no basis whatsoever in Arthurian legend, but then neither does anything else. As the series progresses, Arthur and Merlin’s relationship evolves from that of mutual resentment to comfortable partnership, and eventually friendship (which comes off as very, very very homoerotic, probably due to the fact that it involves a lot of hugging and acts of unwavering devotion. The cynical part of me thinks that the writers are playing to the crowd.) The actors playing Merlin and Arthur are actually quite good, and what they bring to their roles - quiet goodness in Colin Morgan’s case and brash testosterone in Bradley James’s - helps establish the boys as genuinely likeable people, struggling to figure out their place in the world. Angel Coulby is incredibly sweet as shy, blushing Gwen, who spends most of her time trying to make everyone as happy as possible. The weak link in the cast is Katie McGrath, who plays Morgana with a maximum of two facial expressions: smug and perturbed. The older actors are obviously having fun with their roles, and bringing some gravitas to the characters as well - Anthony Stewart Head’s Uther is unlikeable by virtue of his actions (this is, after all, a man who ordered all magicians put to death over a mistake he made) but thanks to Stewart Head’s talent, you can see a bit of humanity shining through from behind the throne. Richard Wilson’s Gaius is your standard mentor/father figure, with a dry sense of humour that managed to make me laugh at least once an episode. John Hurt voiced the Dragon, and there really isn’t much to say about his performance - given the fact that all he gets to do is blather about destiny, there isn’t much room to stretch. The guest stars are touch-and-go - Santiago Cabrera, who played Lancelot, was absolutely awful, while Asa Butterfield was suitably creepy as an eight-year-old Mordred. No one is giving Lawrence Olivier a run for his money, but they’re a very talented bunch, especially considering that most of them haven’t hit thirty yet.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from the writing. Before watching it, I’d heard the show referred to “crappy tweenager fantasy” so I assumed it’d be a lot of rambling about Destiny and True Love and The Power of Friendship. While that is included (see my note on the Dragon of Destiny) it’s not as wearing as you might expect, mostly because the characters point out the stupidity of doing something because it’s My Destiny at least once an episode. No one wants to watch a show about people who do things because they’re told; most of the struggles come from Merlin and his friends struggling with the expectations they’re being held up to versus their own inherent sense of what’s right. My personal favourite episode revolves around a young boy who Uther wants to execute because he’s a Druid-in-training. Merlin, who obviously takes the stance that killing innocent children is wrong, enlists Morgana’s help to hide the boy, and Arthur’s to smuggle him out of Camelot. For this he is repeatedly chastised by the Dragon, because the boy is eventually going to kill Arthur. Merlin and co say “Screw this” and smuggle the boy away to his own people. At the end of the episode (spoilers, obviously) Arthur asks for his name, and the child replies “Mordred.” It’s a deliciously eerie moment (helped out by Mordred’s creepy stare) and an interesting message about Destiny v. Free Will: the choices of Merlin and his friends will make or break Camelot, but it’s up to them to decide what it’s worth. Fortunately, not all of the destiny-related storylines are that gloomy. For example, one of the show’s most endearing points is the relationship between Merlin and Arthur, which begins with Merlin flat-out chastising Arthur for taunting a servant. Although Merlin is repeatedly pushed towards the prince by the dragon (for this reason, he’s acquired the fandom nickname “Slash Dragon”) their relationship eventually becomes that of friends. When Merlin goes to protect Arthur at the potential expense of his own life, he’s doing it out of affection for the prince rather than a sense of duty, and that - the inherent nobility of the main cast - is a big part of what makes the show so endearing.

There is, of course, the problem of the show’s title, which I’ll have to address or risk this article becoming unadulterated gushing. I’m not especially familiar with Arthurian legend - I know the basics, and I’m about thirty pages into The Once and Future King, but I’m far from an expert - but from what I do know, I honestly can’t understand why they decided to tack the name “Merlin” on it at all. There are references to “canon”, such as it is - in one episode, Arthur is wounded by the Questing Beast - but overall, it plays out like an original story with occasional allusions to Thomas Malory or T.H. White. As I’ve said, it’s good enough to stand on its own, and I think the attempts at labelling it an Arthurian adaptation are going to be detrimental in the long run. Instead of being remembered as a well-written original series, it’s going to end up being dismissed as “that crappy Arthurian adaptation that screwed up the stories”. Actually, the fact that they felt the need to try and slap the name of a pre-existing story on it kind of makes me sad, because it implies that they felt they couldn’t market an original series, and that’s just depressing. Aside from the rage-inducing potential for Arthurian enthusiasts, there’s some holes in the writing - in one episode Morgana says that Gaius has been caring for her since before she can remember, then later claims that she came to live in Camelot when she was ten, implying either than she has long-term memory loss or that someone didn’t proofread closely enough. Still, the small slipups aren’t enough to detract from a genuinely enjoyable show. And if all else fails, you can always hit mute and enjoy the eye candy.Themes:

TV & Movies

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Wardog

at 10:16 on 2009-01-14Hello, welcome - and thank you for this wonderful review. I no longer need feel ashamed of my secret love for Merlin. When it first came on, I dismissed it after about 10 ten minutes (Uther's first 'by the way, this is the backplot' speech didn't help) but a few weeks later my LJ friendslist also exploded with squee and joy, so I gave it another go and, lo, it was simultaneously awesome and awful and utterly utterly watchable.

You're absolutely right about Morganna not being quite up to speed on, y'know, this 'acting' thing ... but she is very, very beautiful, so I don't mind. And the dragon is a bit repetative, despite being voiced by John Hurt.

The weird thing is I don't really get any slashy kind of vibe from Arthur and Merlin, despite the fact that these two boys finding friendship and making sacrifices for each other ought to be very homoerotic. I suppose I find it slashy in principle but there isn't much a spark between the actors (I mean in terms of teh gay) to make it stick. Possibly I am just missing.

As you say in your conclusion I do find Merlin's status as an adaption interesting - I actually rather enjoyed the complete lack of respect with which they treated the mythos, once I got over myself about it. The Arthurian background does give it all a familiarity and a resonance that might have been lacking if it was just Generic Fantasy Story About Friendship and Valour. Although it is a bit dodgy I have come to think the Arthurian dimension does add something - there's always something joyous about watching people play in the paddling pool of literature and start a water fight.

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Rami

at 10:49 on 2009-01-14Yay! I somewhat guiltily enjoyed Merlin myself, including the not-quite-aside allusions to actual canon / legend (the court genealogist appears to be Geoffrey of Monmouth ;-)). Arthurian legend, historically, has been pretty flexible and as far as I know there isn't any real canon — so I'm all in favor of going in a new direction with it, and I'm quite willing to forgive the writers for taking advantage of all the gravitas and popular awareness that Arthur's story gives you. As you said, that moment when the little Druid boy tells Arthur his name is eerie -- but it would have been meaningless if it hadn't been Mordred talking to Arthur, and / or you didn't know who Mordred and Arthur were.

About the cast — Anthony Head and Richard Wilson are brilliant, of course, I can't disagree, but I have to admit I don't share your reservations about Katie McGrath. (But maybe that's because of the eye-candy factor.)

Perhaps it's my lack of slash goggles but I don't see the "very, very homoerotic" between Merlin and Arthur? I wonder if it's just 21st-century cynicism that makes "heartfelt and sincere" have to mean "Twu Wuv"?

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Rami

at 10:52 on 2009-01-14Oh God Kyra and I have just posted very nearly the same comment.

Resistance is futile

I mean, no, FerretBrain doesn't have a "Collective Consciousness" feature...

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Wardog

at 12:06 on 2009-01-14You will be assimilated....

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Viorica

at 22:18 on 2009-01-14I suppose the slash question depends on what you go in expecting. I was told repeatedly before ever watching it that the boys were the slashiest slashy things that were ever slashed, so I went in with slash goggles firmly strapped on. And I suppose there's an interesting study to be done on the way men show affection v. the way women do and how it's interpreted by outside observers . . . but as far as fandom's concernd, it's all about the pretty and the gay.

As for Katie McGrath, she is pretty, but there's always this irritating feeling that I'd like the character so much more if she could emote properly. As it is, she tends to grate.

Apropos of nothing, have you watched the video diaries? They're screamingly hilarious, and both Bradley James and Colin Morgan act uncannily like their characters. It's a little creepy . . .

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Wardog

at 11:35 on 2009-01-15That's the thing, although I'm not a slasher myself, I do occasionally find myself on the outskirts of fandom enough to have some slash goggles of my own. I was prepared for slash, I looked for slash, I saw ... the motions of slash ... but I didn't *feel* the slash. Sometimes there's a genuine spark between actors or something about the way a relationship is portrayed that makes me secretly believe something could conceivably be going on between them. I was re-watching DS9 (sad bastard that I am) recently and, despite knowing not a damn thing about the DS9 fandom, I became immediately and increasingly convinced that Sisko and Dukat were having incredibly hot hatesex... (Dan holds out for Dax/Kira girlsex, however, - they are certainly very giggly together).

I watched some of the video diaries - Bradley James is so adorably silly. I mean this in a maternal way, not a sick way. I particularly liked his musing on the cockatrice.

By the way, I meant to ask, what caused things to sour with Robin Hood? I never watched it so...

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Gina Dhawa

at 16:04 on 2009-01-16

Arthurian legend, historically, has been pretty flexible and as far as I know there isn't any real canon — so I'm all in favor of going in a new direction with it ... that moment when the little Druid boy tells Arthur his name is eerie -- but it would have been meaningless if it hadn't been Mordred talking to Arthur, and / or you didn't know who Mordred and Arthur were.

This is my justification for liking

Merlin

the way it is. T.H. White took some pretty big liberties along the way (though if you're thirty pages in, I won't spoil that), as have any of the people who have written the story down over the years. The trouble is convincing people there's not really a canon to be followed, that if you take the earliest versions of the stories and put them to what you might find in a modern collection, there are so many differences that you might think you weren't reading the same story at all.

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Viorica

at 19:51 on 2009-01-16Well, it could be argued that there are some basic plot foundations- Merlin being Arthur's mentor, Guinevere as his wife (though they still have time to do that), Morgana being his half-sister, etc. I think the reason some people don't like it is because they grew up on "The Sword and the Stone", so the show is effectively stomping on their childhood memories. I don't have any such memories to get stomped on, so it doesn't bug me.

Re: Robin Hood. It started out as silly fun, but it as it went on, you realized that the people running the show didn't know or care what they were doing. There were no efforts at making the costumes or scenery look nice, and virtually none of the characters were likeable, or even tolerable. Their Robin is the kind of guy who whines at an ex-girlfriend for "betraying" him when she's forced into marriage with another man. The urge to punch the title character in the face was stronger than any desire to keep watching.

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Sonia Mitchell

at 22:16 on 2009-01-16Great article. I didn't catch all the episodes, but definitely enjoyed the ones I did see. I like your point about the gravitas the older actors bring, particularly Head (in what could have been a pretty thankless role given his character's lack of humour).

Interesting discussion about the appropriate amount of reverence for the source material, too. I quite like the way Merlin did it, with plenty there for people who do know a bit about Arthurian legend but not so much you know for sure what's going to happen. I never saw Smallville, but I think of Merlin in much the same way - you know what happens down the line, but these are the gaps in between. And knowing what lies ahead is an interesting experience, because you're watching for it and everyone involved in the show knows you are (of the ones I saw, Lancelot's episode was the most willing to play with this).

It's also pretty dangerous, of course, because unless they're willing to go down the rejected destiny road the main young characters all have to live. I think they've got a nice balance - there's plenty of peril, but the real danger is more often disgrace than death (though I missed the last few episodes, so for all I know there was a dramatic and bloody finale).

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Viorica

at 01:30 on 2009-01-17There was *almost* a dramatic and bloody finale, but it was averted. You should really watch to see why, though- that episode actually managed to make me tear up a bit.

"Great article."

Thanks!

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Rami

at 12:44 on 2009-01-17I never saw Smallville, but I think of Merlin in much the same way

Yes! It's not all that different in many ways -- Smallville takes a lot of liberties with Superman canon (Lex Luthor and Clark Kent being friends, for instance), and I guess one of the reasons that it's more or less accepted is that Superman canon has been retconned so many times nobody's sure what *is* canon anymore. I think much the same is true for Arthurian legend ;-)

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Arthur B

at 15:05 on 2009-01-17I think in comics continuity Lex Luthor and Clark Kent

were

friends until Clark mistakes a controlled explosion in Lex's lab for an actual fire, and horribly injures Lex as he tries to put it out.

Six nerd points for me.

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Wardog

at 19:39 on 2009-01-17I have come late to the party...

The trouble is convincing people there's not really a canon to be followed...

I think this really nails the issue; perhaps, for a lot of people T.H.White is "canon", although it's Roger Lancelyn Green for me, personally - I have no idea who that guy is but basically every book available for kids about anything vaguely mythic, Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, was written, semi-turgidly, by this dude. Anyway, what I've got distracted from saying here is: a lot of those things we associate with the Arthur Legend today have very little in common with the early source material. Guinevere is barely in Malory - he just wasn't into chicks - and there's a sense that a lot of her bad press comes from the fact he decided to situate the fall of his macho martial ideal in damn women with their lack of appreciation for war, dammit, war. There's very little actually 'romantic' about Le Morte.

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Wardog

at 19:43 on 2009-01-17Also I am now definitely avoiding Robin Hood. I heard it was rubbish but fun, but that sounds like it's moved into "just plain rubbish" territory.

[doctorwhonews]

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (Big Finish)

Latest Review: Written By: Nicholas Pegg Directed By: Nicholas Pegg Cast Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn Smythe), Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), Susan Jameson (Mrs Moynihan), Barnaby Edwards (Philip Ludgate/Scryfan), Toby Longworth (Professor Morgan/Sancreda/UNIT Sentry), James Bolam (Sir Archibald Flint), Helen Goldwyn (Nikki Hunter/Pelagia Stamatis/Corporal Croft), Nicholas Pegg (Captain Ashforde) Cover by Clayton Hickman Originally released: June 2000 The early days of Big Finish’s Doctor Who range still vibrate with innovation and excitement even all these years later. Relics from a time before things settled down into a polished, professional operation with a large, regular company of actors to draw from, there’s a powerful sense here of true fanatics who can’t quite believe their luck that they’re getting to play in this universe. Whom are keenly aware that it might not last and so fire off all their best ideas into it. This extends as well to the guest cast, with big names grabbing with both hands what might have been their only chance to be in Doctor Who, when the announcement of its TV revival was still three years away. Where Spectre of Lanyon Moor's contemporary Phantasmagoria boasted Mark Gatiss and David Walliams, here James Bolam (JAMES BOLAM!) adds a touch of real class to proceedings and proves a great foil for Maggie Stables’ Evelyn in a series of verbal sparring matches between her and his Sir Archibald. There may never be any better putdown of a Doctor Who villain in mid monomaniacal monologue about ‘the little people’ and the divine right to rule than “Don’t let’s get above ourselves, old chum; you’re only a baronet you know.”   Fantastically conceived by Nicholas Pegg (a man who perhaps doesn’t get his full due credit for all he’s contributed to Doctor Who in various ways down the years) Spectre of Lanyon Moor is, to an extent, a mash up of Terror of the Zygons, The Curse of Fenric and The Daemons. In its Cornish setting, there’s a corner of Britain possessed of a desolate beauty and a wealth of local myths and legend, while an archaeological investigation of an ancient structure, a legendary being of vast supernatural power which turns out to be an alien and a local lord who’s openly friendly but undoubtedly shady add to the sense of a greatest hits collection of, oddly enough, entirely the wrong era for Colin Baker’s Doctor to wander into.But it’s hard to complain about that.   Not only because this story is from the days long, long before Big Finish ensnared Tom Baker into its den of fabulous lunches, but because it gives an opportunity for the Sixth Doctor to finally adventure alongside the Brigadier. For the first episode and a half or so I had a rising fear that this was going to be a missed opportunity, with the semi-retired Brigadier simply used to ease the Doctor’s entry into the story and vouch for him with the other characters. Thankfully, as the story proceeds he moves beyond being a moustachioed Psychic Paper and instead this proves to be one of the Brig’s strongest, most heroic personal contributions to the action. In addition, it’s lovely, especially since his death, to hear Nicholas Courtney in such sparkling form. Courtney’s performance, as it often was, is a work of subtle genius – a tightrope rope between projecting unflappable decency that grounds the outrageousness around him and a twinkle in the voice to show he’s in on the joke.   UNIT are back too, in a small way, though low level UNIT troops seem as adorably incompetent as ever. With the name and description of a villain possessing a planet destroying device that must be kept apart from the ancient site at all costs distributed, one sentry still just ‘ums’ and ‘aws’ as said villain shows up, describes her disdain for lesser mortals and plans to revenge herself on them all, very slowly takes out her alien technology from her handbag and kills him.   The creature at the heart of the mystery is presented as an alien twist on the old idea that faeries are maybe a great deal more malignant than advertised in children’s books. Short but superhumanly strong, and given to cackling madly while messily and noisily tearing people limb from limb despite constant boasting about civilized and advanced his species are, Sancreda is a monster in the true sense. Doctor Who often treats villains and alien species as having a point of view, no matter how destructive their actions – even the first Dalek story circled the issue of whether the Daleks were actually evil or just driven by paranoia and fear of the previously war like Thals. But Sancreda is an out and out gibberingly sadistic maniac, if one driven mad by millennia of imprisonment. This leads to some nastily violent scenes but also helps sell the level of threat involved.It’s also a great showcase for Toby Longworth, who plays both the harsh voiced alien maniac, pompous old duffer Professor Morgan, and the aforementioned UNIT sentry, a fact which astonished me when I saw the cast list after. His ability to make all three totally distinct with such seemingly effortless ease is extraordinary. Elsewhere in the cast future Mrs. Wibbsey Susan Jameson is to be found as housekeeper Mrs. Monyhian, a kind of twised mirror of her later, more famous Doctor Who role.   The only possible criticism here is that the story unfolds in rather predictable fashion, with every strand evolving and climaxing pretty much exactly as you’d expect. However, that simply adds to the sense of being enveloped in a lovely, warm blanket of cosy familiarity. And, perhaps as a result of since seeing how the revived series handles such things, it would perhaps have been nice to see Evelyn still in a phase of learning the ropes or TARDIS travel. Instead there’s the sense of a number of adventures having being skipped over, with the unreliability of the TARDIS to get where its supposed to be going already a running joke between the Doctor and Evelyn.   As a rare opportunity to hear Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier swing into action once again, and as a fine homage to the Hinchcliffe Era of Doctor Who, The Spectre of Lanyon Moor is a must on any short list of early Big Finish plays for people to explore and discover. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/12/the_spectre_of_lanyon_moor_big_finish.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… Blood Drive (S01E02) Welcome to Pixie Swallow Airdate: June 21, 2017 @syfy Ratings: 0.627 Million :: 0.18 18-49 Demo Share Score: 3.5/10 @blooddrivesource

**********SPOILERS BELOW**********

It’s not that ‘Blood Drive’ is completely unwatchable, because it isn’t, there is certainly an undeniable improvement from E1 to E2. It’s just that as far as options go, particularly within this genre, and television as a whole… SyFy needs to do more than push the boundaries of censorship to keep viewers. The bloody, 'fuck-bomb’, Soska Sisters-wannabe series has already seen a 25% drop in overall viewers as well as that coveted 18-49 Demo Share they need for advertising income from just E1 to E2. No doubt that SyFy has some sort of deal with Amazon Prime & Netflix in place, but they’ll need more than that to secure a renewal. The last two SyFy series we’ve covered were both cancelled after 1 season, and the show we always rushed back to watch (Defiance) was mysteriously cancelled as well despite being SyFy’s too rated show… Marking the last remaining show left over from the tail end of the SyFy Network’s 'Golden Age’. 'The Magicians’ is the only series in the past several years that has actually shown an increase in interest and overall viewership as well as that coveted demo. Just for comparison sake, the universally panned 'Olympus’ averaged 0.551 Million viewers & a paltry 0.14 18-49 Demo Share. SyFy’s 'Wynona Earp’, which is now in its 2nd season is averaging below that, at 0.508 Million & an 0.12 18-49 Demo Share. We assure you, Olympus was at least cheaper to make.

Everyone knows Preacher is back on A&E, right? 'Blood Drive’s core audience seems to be those that are simply impressed with boundary pushing and had big brothers in the 80s who lined their bedroom walls with posters with models like Christie Brinkley, Tawney Kitaen, & Cindy Crawford in skimpy bathing suits with big hair and butt floss. Entering Blood Drive’s 2nd episode, the only character that seems to be of any note is Julian Slink (Colin Cunningham), his motivations besides being a blood thirsty bad ass with a scary demon/deep voiced/possible woman robot boss with multiple copies, Aki (Marama Corbett), who may or may not kill him depending on whatever she feels like doing at the time for no reason whatsoever, are vague and unclear. She loves that Slink showed initiative and killed the over-eager new head of maintenance with the bottom side of a briefcase in the public view of the Heart Enterprises waiting room, so that will buy him time to take the 'Blood Drive’ race on the air to see if they can register better numbers than the SyFy channel. He better hope that he does, though honestly he doesn’t look to thrilled about the idea. Lucky for him, SyFy numbers aren’t hard to beat.

While the race is without its host and partially unsupervised, Good Cop Arthur Bailey (Alan Ritchson) and Bad Ass Female Driver w/little to no character motivation, Grace Argento (Christina Ochoa) take a break from fucking in the front seat of their blood thirsty car that records everything they do and head to 'Pixie Swallow’. Charming, I know. While the 15 year old boys in the audience are stuffing their stiff socks from last week under their bed with an old pizza box, they ready another pair from the dirty pair as the pair checks into a creepy hotel after stealing an Elvis impersonator’s room key. Unfortunately for them, it’s not Arthur & Grace having hot car sex this week (Anyone remember that one movie 'Crash’, the NC-17 one where there was a group of ppl that were obsessed with fucking while crashing cars? Sorry 🚨 ADHD thought alert 🚨).

This week on the 'Blood Drive’ menu, our sex scene is a gay anal scene between a very frail, unkempt and dirty looking 'The Scholar’ (Darren Kent) and a very old, crusty creeper that looks like he could be the cousin of 'The Tallman’ from a parallel universe in 'Phantasm’, but dystopian damaged, and possibly inbred. Yup, I’m talking about 'The Gentleman’ (Andrew Hall). The Scholar professes his love to The Gentleman, but The Gentleman turns his love and affection into hard pumps into The Scholar’s ass. I have a sneaking suspicion that this dude didn’t even spit on it for Christ’s Sake. The Gentleman tells The Scholar tells him that once they win that he can basically fuck off, no going to Bjork’s unpronounceable hometown for him! This makes zero sense for 'The Gentleman’s character. If you want yo get ahead, you wait to screw people over. 2nd episode admittance is kind of like signing your on death warrant in the least original or interesting way possible.

The most revolting two people two have ever starred in a gay sex scene on cable television (is there an award for that? MTV maybe? Possibly the European MTV Awards?) isn’t all that’s on the menu for this round of 'Blood Drive’. The diner connected to the hotel is run by a family of possibly incestual rednecks who are using human meat to make steaks and burgers. This whole schtick has been done to death, nothing new to see here. Anyone remember that bad ass Horror/Exploitation film from 1980 called 'Motel Hell’ or the 80’s film 'Blood Diner’? Well combining two films that are both 30-35 years old doesn’t exactly scream originality. Slightly entertaining? Not really, possibly, sort-of. It’s hard to care. I did mention that 'Preacher’ just started S2 on AMC right! 🚨ADHD thought alert! 🚨 There went another one.

Somewhere along the line, Arthur and The Scholar end up in the diner together, connecting over their disconnection with their driving partners. Arthur is eating his rare burger (ewe, steak ok, tuna ok, but rare human burgers? At least Mid-Well, dawg) and while he’s chewing down he finds one of the fingers from one of the women from the cast of TNT’s 'Claws’. Arthur, of course, investigates and for a reason that wasn’t exactly crystal clear, the owners freak out and a bunch of cannibals take over the hotel. Meanwhile, Arthur’s partner Chris (Thomas Dominique), wakes up at Heart Enterprises and they let him roam around the building, but first they tell him he had 9 erections while he was sleeping. No news as to whether those erections were resituated or grabbed, pulled forward, then let go to smack Chris’ stomach and make a fun noise. Unfortunately, we never find out what happened with those 9 erections and now I’ll forever be haunted by the mystery. In what is the most entertaining scene of the entire episode, Chris goes through Heart Enterprises’ 'Orientation’ and the Aki copy show’s a deep appreciation for her part in the orientation video. The lines are on par, proving that once again, surrounded by total muck and poorly executed ideas, there are some fun moments to be had in 'Blood Drive’.

Apparently great earthquakes created a great scar in the middle of the United States and instead of running from it like everyone else, Heart Enterprises ran toward it… Finding incredible resources in 'The Scar’, such as; “unstable minerals, morally questionable fuel alternatives, unnatural gasses, and deep wells of unidentifiable glowing goo with properties far beyond the realm of modern science. The world ecological disaster was our economical windfall. And now we share with you, the newest member of Heart, the fruits of our labor… We Heart You.” Aki even mouths the words to 'her part’ and makes a heart with her hands as she repeats, “We Heart You.” The scene gets better… Apparently Chris is what this show has been missing. His back and forth with Aki embodies the exact type of silliness, dark undertones, and comedic timing that the Exploitation genre calls for. Chris even calls the Aki copy 'Small Wonder’… Vicky The Robot, anyone?! Aki tells Chris he’s free to roam the building and can leave anytime, but she’s pretty confident that he will stay and join them… So he’s free, but he’s not to contact his partner or anyone else for that matter or he’ll be 'modified’… Behaviorally. Ok. This entire scene just made the rest of this episode completely worthwhile.

There’s some seriously weird shit that goes down in the hallways of Heart Enterprises and again I’d much rather follow Chris, Aki (the many versions), and Slink. These three outweigh our main protagonists by a landslide. That’s not how 'Blood Drive’ is going to work though… And while Arthur, Grace, and The Gentleman search for The Scholar to fix their cars, Chris is returning Arthur’s message and filling him in on the drama going on at Heart… Probably not such a great move, but hey… Blood Drive! There’s a convenient sob story about Grace’s sister and I just thought of how much laundry I have to do… Seriously. 🚨 ADHD thought alert #3! 🚨 Heart and the asylum that Grace’s sister happen to be in are connected. Apparently instead of getting on with the race, they’ll be stopping in that very asylum in the next episode. Back to Chris! I’ve suddenly forgot all about my laundry! Chris is going to stay at Heart and work with them and pledges to one of the Aki Copies his obviously fake as shit loyalty. She accepts. She also delivers on her promise to 'modify’ him as she’s quite aware that he contacted his partner… Former partner, now as behavior modifications are underway. More Chris. More Aki. More Slink. Less everything else.

[abberryyang]

Heya of you were to give Arrow a do over what would you do differently and what would you keep the same? Also would you rewrite Sara because lord knows I would.

Well, it’s the cliché, I loved Arrow S1, otherwise, I only liked parts of S2 - everything else was: “…shit, I could’ve done better.”. 

Big thing’s I’d change right off the bat:

Sara’s existence: The only redeeming quality she has about her is Laurel’s love for her and the kindness she brings out from Nyssa - but, of course, even without Sara, Nyssa still would’ve met Laurel and they would’ve bonded over their fathers. Honestly, if Laurel never forgave Sara and Sara never showed she was sorry in Arrow100, I would never care for Sara - ever. There are two things I would do with Sara: 1) Erase her entire existence.2) Have her completely resent Oliver and profusely apologize to Laurel.The character we see of Sara on “Legends of Tomorrow” (S1) is completely different from the Sara we saw on “Arrow”, and one can argue the pit changed many things about her. Of course, that’s for a different post.

Felicity’s role on Arrow: Felicity honestly deserves better than to be Oliver’s sexcretary, eye candy for the male gaze, or a self-insert character for teen-girls/middle-aged-women. I would have her work with Lyla in ARGUS, where she is mentored by Wendy/Barbra, and she is only with Arrow as a “side-hobby”. I loved Felicity’s one-sided affection for Oliver, and I want her to find herself and realize she doesn’t need Oliver - instead, when Ray’s accident happens, she is consumed by grief and looks desperately for him. When Oliver and Laurel return from Ivy Town, Felicity seeks Oliver’s help, as ARGUS refuses to help her with her vendetta. Waller says Felicity’s too “emotional”, but Felicity argues her emotions will help her find Ray. I want more for her than Arrow has offered Felicity.

Oliver’s “darkness”: Honestly, this should’ve stopped the moment Oliver beat Slade, lbrh. Even in most recent episodes, Oliver’s greatest fear is Laurel, the person who has always saw the best in him, would see him as a monster, along with the rest of the women in his life: Moira and Thea. It’s in S2 that Oliver discovers the women in his life still love him: >Laurel still does not see him as a monster, instead she praises him, thanks him, and runs to him to comfort him. >Moira even shakes her head and says she always knew, and that she is so proud of him. >When Oliver tells Thea in S3, Thea accepts him whole-heartedly and gives him a hug. Oliver’s darkness shouldn’t be darkness, just bad habits that any human being would have as a natural response to trauma and about undoing those habits - Green Arrow’s focus should be where it was in S1: Humanity.

The big bad of S3: It should’ve been China White. Honestly, you got Katanna, Maseo, the flashbacks in China - it should’ve been China White, about disbanding the Triads on the docks. Hell, you could still introduce Emiko if you want, who gets close to Speedy and they are BFF’s. Emiko, Sin, and Roy are all vigilantes and Thea runs the night club who employs the three part time (total omg this belongs as a comment of it’s own)

The big bad of S4: Now this should be the Bratva, not Prometheus, and another gang - some say it’s a race war. The focus of this season would be gang violence.The Bratva hire a bunch of small time villains to take out their competitors, but to no avail because Oliver is constantly thwarting their attempts. It’s then that the head of Bratva comes in for a “visit”. Who is this guy? I don’t know, you tell me. I would love to have a present day Anatoly who was like, “Why the fuck did you kill your own brothers, Oliver, my men? You must pay up for your actions.” Shit like that, don’t just throw it under the rug, no matter what ‘mafia’ you are in. It’s a big focus on certain characters 

The big bad of S5: The Dark Archer and HIVE. Of course, since Colin is on another show, Malcolm, being called The Magician, asks Ra’s to find a way to switch out his son’s body (wayy early on) to another’s. Ra’s connects Malcolm to people who practice dark arts (such as Vandal Savage), who helps Malcolm achieve this thought-to-be-impossible feat. In another person’s body, Tommy swoons Laurel again, asks Oliver questions that only Tommy has asked him, and tries to be Thea’s brother (well technically he is, but…). Tommy fucks up Oliver’s entire life as revenge for what he took from him. “It should’ve been you who died in that building.”

League of Assassins:A constant threat to the world, but they mind their own business and stay in the shadows.

Nitpicky things I would change on Arrow:

Shado’s sister Mei: I really wish they would’ve used her more effectively, I feel like it’s strange that they are from the same family, but she isn’t a complete badass like her sister and dad? I mean, come on, would love the total Ghost Fox Killer thing happening for her.

ARGUS: Honestly, they deserve a show of their own, with Amanda Waller, Lyla, Digg, and Felicity. They all deserve better than the romcom the show has become and destroyed their characters in the process.

Never have Carly and Diggle together.

Dyla: Would drag out Digg and Lyla’s reunion, have them take time to getting married, give them a season or two and stay with the whole “reason why they decided to get back together is baby Sara”. Maybe even baby Sara wasn’t enough, it was the return of Andy Diggle.

Baby Sara: Also, I wouldn’t be a stupid fucking idiot and erase baby Sara, I would’ve just had it where Digg and Lyla never divorced because they had a baby boy who isn’t Oliver’s son in comicverse.

Andy Diggle: Give him a good reason to join Darhk’s side and remain there, give them an episode of flashbacks between just the two of them, another episode of flashbacks for their families, and another episode of just Andy and why he decides to be on Darhk’s side. John never knows or understands Andy, but we do - because even we agree with Andy that this world isn’t good. Have Andy be confronted by Carly, who finds herself in danger and Andy coming to her rescue, her saying, “It’s always been you, you’ve always been here.” Him saying, “I never left.” AJ never meeting his dad. I need angsty shit, all right.

Deadshot: I just need more of him since he survived the accident, alright, I need a lot more than just one scene.

Sin: I want more of her, I want her to be there for Thea, I want her to be in on everything and not needing to be the center of attention like another person.

Quentin Lance: I am so sad that they are putting him through his alcoholism again. Of course, I know that Laurel is his rock, but if you aren’t going to give him his rock back, throw him a fucking life raft.

Dinah Drake: I would love for Laurel’s mother to know of Laurel’s ‘potential’. Dinah is a scientist, who knew that Laurel has a special meta-human gene because they’ve been doing research for so long now. The reason Dinah left wasn’t because of guilt, but because she didn’t have the energy or time to deal with a breaking family when she was on the breakthrough of science. Dinah works alongside Caitlin Snow’s mom and on the side with Harrison Wells.

Wildcat:Retired vigilante who comes back after seeing Laurel’s fire, and protects his side of town. Is his own agency and continues to spar and train Laurel - also coaches the team of misfits with Laurel (Roy, Thea, Emiko and Sin).

Evelyn Sharp:Inspired by Black Canary, is friends with Sin from college, and joins the team of misfits in protecting the city in S3. Reckless, she leads the criminals back to her house and they kill her parents and siblings, leading her to a life of crime and anger. Mentions her friend Artemis as another person who “taught her a fair amount” of fighting skills.

Wild Dog:Trained by Wildcat after losing both his sons to gang violence in S3, René is so angry with what the world has taken from him. The mystery is solved when René finds out his son was in the gang and was trying to initiate his little brother into the gang. René is completely in shock, because he spent all his life telling his sons not to make the mistakes he did (joining a gang, selling drugs, and “living a bad life”). When René tells his ex-wife what happened to their sons, she blames him and leaves him. René hangs up his mask, completely ridden with guilt and despair.

Curtis Holt:Recruited by Ray Palmer for his amazing abilities in S3, they team up to be their own ‘super-heroes’. Curtis was a very serious guy until he met Ray who helped him to ‘lighten up’. Curtis says without Ray, he would’ve joined HIVE, and is thankful for him. When Ray disappears, Curtis teams up with Felicity to find Ray, and is the one keeping Palmer Tech alive in both their absences. HIVE wanted to make Curtis suffer for rejecting their invitation and had Curtis’s husband and the child they had just adopted that day tortured and killed, recorded it, and sent it to Curtis. Consumed with vengeance, Curtis dawns the name Mr. Terrific, what his adopted child would call him when they visited.

Rory Regan:Joins Curtis in his endeavors to avenge his family as HIVE is responsible for the death of his city, also hates Felicity to death and refuses to work with her, speak to her, or acknowledge her presence in the room. 

Tina Boland: A secret agent trying to figure out what HIVE is up to, joins their team to track them down. 

etc.

There’s a lot more nitpicky things, but those are just the more bigger ones lol

[aion-rsa]

Doctor Who: Ranking the Cybermen Stories – Which is the Best?

https://ift.tt/2ZLI4i2

The Cybermen are really camp.

They’re meant to be cold, logical, emotionless cyborg vampires, but mostly they’re just silly. They do slow fist-clenches and macho posturing. They wail and flap their arms around. They get killed by glitter. They make insanely convoluted plans and pretend they’re very clever. They are ridiculous and this is as entertaining as it is frustrating.

They are also a terrifying spectre of death. As a child, you know when you see them that death is near, so their mere appearance induces tension. Nearly every Cyberman story combines these elements of death and camp (two of life’s certainties) with a minority of them remembering that they’re ludicrously tragic rather than tragically ludicrous.

This isn’t necessarily a problem, it just means that you’re short-changed if you want very serious and intelligent stories about a dark mirror of humanity, but if you’re after endearingly silly robots sassing around Sixties’ visions of the future, then have you hit the goddamn jackpot.

Don’t expect many classics, and above all take this incredibly seriously. This ranking has been decided using a clever clever clever system* that only people who take sugar in their tea will understand. It’s what the Cybermen would have wanted.

* The ranking is based on whether it’s a good Cyberman story first and a good story second. 

18. Nightmare in Silver

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Also no.

Trying to decide which of the bottom two should go where was tricky. Both attempt to do something different with the Cybermen, but in so doing veer too far from their actual concept. Both suffer from thinly sketched supporting casts. Both are dull. Focussing purely on their use of Cybermen, ‘Nightmare in Silver’ is worse. While the Cyberiad’s plans in the Lone Cyberman trilogy underwhelm, they are at least extrapolated from potentially interesting ideas. Here, they’re simply a misunderstanding of what makes the Cybermen work.

Part of this story’s reputation is down to the prior excitement about Neil Gaiman writing a Cyberman story, especially one hyped as a reinvention to make them scarier by harking back to Gaiman’s childhood memories of them. The resulting script was scaled back from an interesting but unachievable concept, rewritten by Steven Moffat, and helmed by a director who didn’t manage to elevate the material to something at least visually interesting. Fundamentally though, the script is inherently flawed.

The idea of the Cybermen being powerful is a fallacy that ignores their standard modus operandi: sneaking around in the shadows and using traitors to break in. They only mount assaults when they’re sure of an advantage. They’ve never adapted before, or seemed such a threat as to require a galaxy being destroyed. What we have here is Shiny Borg. They’re robots. We even see one take off its head and there’s no organic matter within.

Gaiman, by focussing on the fast-paced evolution of contemporary technology, leads the story away from eery stillness and the shadows of childhood memories towards a leaden wackiness, and the misreading is exacerbated by the other contributors.

You can see how there might be a good story in here, but because a lot happens very fast nothing is given room to breathe and the characters are barely sketched. The Cybermen of Gaiman’s memory (that monochrome spectre of death) is replaced here by dull visuals shorn of both camp and horror. There’s no slow build of dread, or sense of tragic inhumanity: just a series of tricks that would never be repeated.

Matt Smith gets some good moments (telling the intentionally annoying children not to wander off, offering his two cents on a marriage proposal) but also, with the line about Clara’s skirt, gets given one of the worst lines in the history of Doctor Who.

17. The Haunting of Villa Diodati / Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Also no.

‘The Haunting of Villa Diodati’ is good until Ashad, the Lone Cyberman, arrives.

The idea of someone wanting to be converted is interesting (there’s potential to tap into the weaponising of emotion and frailty) but instead we get Tim Shaw’s angrier brother. Being told rather than shown Ashad’s backstory doesn’t help, but we’re presented with a one-note zealot. Why is he fanatical? We don’t know. Rather than tap into any nuance or pathos we have another of Chibnall’s overly nasty villains who delights in telling us, not merely that he killed his children, but that he slit their throats.

Ashad’s fanaticism, combined with the knowledge of all Cybermen, has the ultimate aim of turning the Cybermen into robots then wipe out all other life in the galaxy. This plan is so bad that the Master takes the piss out of him for it (“Oh you mean robots. You’ll be robots”). Ashad is then killed for McGuffin reasons, an anticlimax to an anticlimax. We then get the Cyber Lords, which is partly another potentially interesting concept dismissed quickly, but mostly a hilarious visual.

Focussing purely on the Cybermen, these stories are at best frustrating, at worst they feel like they were written by the Media Chaos Collective from The Adam & Joe Show.

16. The Wheel in Space

Is their plan to convert people? Nope. Is it logical at least? No.

The Cybermen’s plan here isn’t as silly as their one from ‘The Moonbase’ but it’s more convoluted and not unlike building an elaborate marble run before checking if you even have a marble. According to the Doctor, they’re determined to invade Earth for its mineral wealth, because if there’s one thing that frightens children it’s the prospect of not having enough hematite. As the plan involves a lot of things sliding into place before everything kicks off, it’s a long traipse through Base Under Siege cliches to the Cybermen being repelled when someone remembers to turn the force field on. It’s not especially bad, it’s just dull.

Amidst this are some memorable scenes. The characterisation is strong. Zoe is introduced well as a human computer, an interesting counterpoint to the Cybermen. Troughton is excellent, which goes without saying. The ‘You know our ways’ confrontation, for example, is a great encapsulation of his Doctor: a bunched up, quiet performance giving way to a formidable presence.

15. Revenge of the Cybermen

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Yes.

In which co-creator Gerry Davis writes for the Cybermen again, and as with Terry Nation’s mid-Seventies return, his approach to Doctor Who hasn’t changed since the Sixties. This story sticks out in Season 12 as a result. The confident production of ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ is replaced here with an apologetic slog that relies on the regulars’ chemistry to enliven it. Fortunately the regulars are Tom Baker, Lis Sladen and Ian Marter, which counteracts the tepid political intrigue on Voga.

The Cybermen are notoriously emotional here and memorably dismissed by the Doctor as being a bit rubbish. On the other hand, this is a rare example of them using stun guns. Given the whole ‘we must survive/you will be like us’ concept you’d think they’d use them more often.

Christopher Robbie’s performance as the Cyberleader is, like David Banks’ later performances in the role, not a little silly. Unlike David Banks, this doesn’t appear to be deliberate.

14. Attack of the Cybermen

Is their plan to convert people? Not their main plan, but there is a fair bit of it. Is it logical at least? A bit.

A solid first episode gives way to a very poor second: there are good ideas here but there are also very bad ones and a hollow ending, resulting in something full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.

It does have some good dialogue and actors, and a great central performance by Colin Baker: still unpleasant, but nowhere near as much as his debut story. He plays the final scene with enough conviction that you don’t immediately question the lack of internal logic involved. The Cryons look like someone tried to make a chrome Doctor Zoidberg mask, but also have distinct characters and some great dialogue. That one of their last lines is ‘We will survive’ is a nice touch.

Unfortunately the Cybermen here are rubbish. The story harks back to their previous stories but the sets pale in comparison to what they’re meant to evoke. They’re killed surprisingly easy, especially in comparison with ‘Earthshock’, and every actor playing one seems to be going for a different approach. They visibly panic at times, and imprison the Doctor in a roomful of explosives and then make ‘Leggit!’ motions when they discover he’s made a bomb. Cold. Logical. Ruthless.

13. Silver Nemesis

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? In so far as any of ‘Silver Nemesis’ is logical, yes.

A story where the Cybermen are only involved because they’re metallic, and it was the Silver Anniversary of Doctor Who. Despite this contrivance, they start off well here by arriving impressively for the cliffhanger with a chrome makeover, casually destroying some Nazis and hanging out in a tomb getting confused by jazz.

However, they finish it by getting taken out by Ace firing gold coins at them (it’s like taking out vampires by shining a torch on them) and having their entire fleet destroyed. There’s no great reason for them to even be there.

‘Silver Nemesis’ as a story is a mess, and its extended VHS edit doesn’t make that much more sense than the televised version, but it’s mostly a fun mess and breezes by quickly. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are having a great time, David Banks is always good value, and Fiona Walker’s Lady Peinforte is a hoot. It works well when viewed as a parody of the McCoy era.

12. The Five Doctors

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Yes.

There’s an episode of the Imaginary Advice podcast where Ross Sutherland and John Osborne are taking turns rewriting Four Weddings and a Funeral but each of them is trying to take it in a completely different direction. It’s really good.

Meanwhile, in 1983, Eric Saward kept adding squads of Cybermen to Terrance Dicks’ ‘Five Doctors’ script, and Dicks responded by blowing them up in memorable ways (a nonsensical chessboard trap and an astonishingly violent robot attack). On the one hand this undermines the Cybermen, especially after their bombastic return in ‘Earthshock’, but as Doctor Who has been undermining the Cybermen since 1967 (and ‘Earthshock’ is no exception) it seems in keeping for the anniversary story to continually dump on them too. And yet, somehow their presence as cannon fodder here is not their weakest moment.

Special mention to the posh Cyberman who asks ‘Hwhy was the main gate lehft unguarded?’

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11. Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

Is their plan to convert people? Sometimes. Is it logical at least? Yes.

Having been revealed as the titular ghosts, the Cybermen use their dominant position on Earth to… stand around in people’s living rooms doing nothing. Meanwhile four Daleks arrive to steal their cliffhanger and confirm the Cybermen’s role as the second-best monster, then then the story gets rid of them all when it needs to engineer the separation of the Doctor and Rose. They provide spectacle, certainly, and a great argument scene with the Daleks, but not much beyond that. A popular story, for sure, but not a good Cybermen story.

10. Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel

Is their plan to convert people? Yes. Is it logical at least? Yes.

The return of the Cybermen for the new series was an exciting prospect, with ‘Caves of Androzani’ director Graeme Harper returning and rumours of the story being inspired by Big Finish’s Cybermen origin story ‘Spare Parts’. It is clear fairly early on that this is not like ‘Spare Parts’, and to be fair it was used more as a starting point than a source for adaptation. Instead this story feels like it’s trying to homage everything that’s gone before, and so we have get a heady combo of action, nonsense and body horror.

The first episode keeps the Cybermen to the peripheries and is mostly setup for the season finale. Meanwhile we have Roger Lloyd Pack’s endearingly barking performance as John Lumic, the creator of the Cybermen in this world, delivering his dialogue like the lovechild of Anthony Hopkins and the dog from Pixar’s Up, and laughing at his own quip with a hearty ‘BAHAHAAGH’. ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ plays during a conversion scene. The Cybermen arrive late to the party, announcing their presence with a big light and stomping loudly. They grab their heads and gyrate before they explode, like they’ve got the same choreographer as Kylie. To be fair, this is only as camp as every other Cybermen story.

The second episode zips along, and occasionally pauses to actually let the horror sink in effectively (the Cybermen staring through the fence after they kill Ricky, the Jackie reveal, Sally the bride-to-be), but it also feels like the production team have decided to make an Eighties action film (for a family audience) in Cardiff (for £700,000).

9. The Tenth Planet

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? If you’re on board with the whole Vampire Planet thing, yes.

The first episode is mostly setup, a lot of close-ups of astronauts, and the occasional inkling of the uncanny. It’s not exactly gripping, and demonstrates precisely why pre-credits sequences came in. The second episode is dominated by the full debut of the Cybermen, which is much better.

It should be stressed how weird the Cybermen are here with their mouths agape as their hands grip still-warm bodies, their vampire planet flying through space, their dead eyes peering through mesh. Their dispassionate nature is contrasted with Ben’s troubled reaction to killing something for the first time, and General Cutler’s fear for his son leading him to extreme actions. While this leads to some tension, episodes 3 and 4 are very similar to 1 and 2.

It’s a shame that the story is so repetitive as there are some great concepts in play, but these are abandoned in favour of a shoot ‘em up, with Ben no longer having any qualms about killing. This would be higher if it had stuck the landing.

8. Closing Time

Is their plan to convert people? Yes. Is it logical at least? Yes.

‘Closing Time’ is a strange one, because it’s mostly a tonal continuation of ‘The Lodger’ set mostly in a bright department store, but in many ways the depiction of the Cybermen here is on point: a small weakened group trying to survive, patiently building up their power. They are strange monsters lurking in the dark beneath the ground, and the idea of them haunting a shop basement is inspired. However they are on the periphery of returning character Craig Owens Trying To Be A Doctor Who companion, so the potential horror of this idea is unexplored.

While the comedy is hit and miss (there are some good gags but some very tired tropes too) this breezes along divertingly enough throughout its running time. Matt Smith is great here, and my issue with the resolution is not that Craig avoids conversion through a powerful emotional response, but that 30 seconds later this has somehow become all the Cybermen and their ship blowing up. A lot of people wanted a character played by James Corden to die though, so you can see how they’d be disappointed.

7. The Next Doctor

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Christ no.

A Christmas special, and so accordingly a mix of froth, grief and attempted infanticide. If you go with it then it’s an involving and entertaining yarn for the most part, only to fall apart in its resolution. This involves the Doctor using the Cybermen’s magic USB sticks to set off a rapid burst of unsatisfying contrivances, whereupon Dervla Kirwan’s character suddenly feels bad and screams at the Cybermen til they explode.

There’s also the Cybershades and Cyber-King, both of which only appear here. They work as disposable one-offs, and while there’s some sense of having a mobile conversion unit it feels like a colossal juggernaut is overkill. It’s a barmy idea that either makes you laugh or Log On. The Cybershades, which look like the Yetis from The Mighty Boosh, are apparently converted from small animals, which conjures up images of the Cybermen trying to wrangle cats, or Cybershades knocking vases from windowsills and refusing to eat the food that’s already in the bowl.

The Cybermen are here as spectacle rather than substance, and in that respect Andy Goddard directs them well. They’re shot from low angles marching out of the darkness. This story looks great in its daytime scenes, and the graveyard massacre’s stark monochrome with burst of red is a great burst of horror. Russell T. Davies continues to give the Cybermen appropriate yet funny dialogue.

David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan are great guest stars, and while the journey is diverting enough the destination isn’t worth it, and doesn’t really deliver much in the way of substance.

6. The Tomb of the Cybermen

Is their plan to convert people? Yes, as long as they’re clever. Is it logical at least? No.

This story contains iconic images, scenes and dialogue, but also quite a lot of nonsense in between. Here we have legendary lines like the chilling ‘You belong to us. You will be like us’ and the plaintive bleat of ‘We will survive’ (which should be their mission statement but rarely is). However, contrast these with the line ‘How would you know honey?’ (a bewildering quip delivered in a hokey American accent) and we have ‘Tomb’ neatly encapsulated: a high concept horror meshed with a B-movie, and the latter is ultimately dominant.

This is initially fun but peters out, and is a classic example of ‘Everybody involved has to do something stupid to keep the story going’ (indeed, the Doctor has to do something stupid just so it can start). The Cybermen are included in this, and while the shots of their leaving their tombs are rightly famous, their actual reasons for having the tombs are nebulous at best. A story where its highlights work better as clips in isolation.

5. The Invasion

Is their plan to convert people? Yes. Is it logical at least? Yes!

As often happened in the late Sixties, this was extended to fill a gap after another story fell through, but fortunately the padding in the case of ‘The Invasion’ is mainly provided by Tobias Vaughn and Packer (one of the all-time great Villain/Henchperson combos), and before the Cybermen turn up half way through we have an industrial espionage thriller. If anything this is more fun than the finale, which consists mainly of army bods narrating missile attacks.

This is perhaps the peak of the Cybermen’s strength as a visual: the images of them marching unchallenged through London are iconic despite being incredibly brief. We also have the endearing trait of every bit of equipment they use being prefixed by ‘Cyber’ (eg. Cyber-hypnotic force, Cyber-invasion, Cyber-megatron bomb). 

Also unintentionally kitsch: The Cybermen are sometimes depicted as a planet-conquering power requiring galaxies be destroyed to stop them, but they’re defeated here by UNIT. That is to say: UNIT successfully attack and repel them. UNIT.

4. Earthshock

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Sometimes.

An interesting production: Eric Saward’s scripts could easily have bombed in the hands of any other directory working on the show in 1981, but Peter Grimwade turned them into gripping television. It’s fair to say the story doesn’t quite hang together but the shock moments landed with the audience, and it takes you along on the ride sufficiently to gloss over the cracks (Adric’s line about why a space freighter is now able to time travel is one of Doctor Who’s all-time great moments of Absolute Bullshit Delivered with Utter Conviction).

Like ‘Day of the Daleks’ though, the Cybermen are here purely for their legacy and impact. The story would work if you replaced the Cybermen with almost any other monster, and through repeat viewings the veneer of credibility is removed, but you can’t deny the momentum it builds and rebuilds.

Also I need to mention David Banks: this is his first of his four onscreen appearances as the Cyber Leader, and he establishes his grand tradition of being nothing like the popular conception of a Cyberman but no one cares because he’s relentlessly entertaining. His performance, along with Beryl Reid, brings a level of camp that makes this feel more like a Cyberman story than anything else in the mix. No one else can deliver a ‘Verb the Noun’ line like him, and ‘Earthshock’ not only has ‘Activate…the device’ but also ‘EXPLODE THE BOMB’. Lovely stuff.

3. The Moonbase

Is their plan to convert people? No. Is it logical at least? Absolutely not.

On the one hand, all the potential, the novelty, the Cybermen as something distinctive within Doctor Who, it ends here. Here they are simply big shiny robots who want to destroy life on earth for no obvious reason. Their plan is as nonsensical as the science in this story.

For better or worse the Cybermen become themselves here (although they were on the way there by the end of ‘Tenth Planet’) and what they are is a generic monster with generic motives. They no longer look like they’re cyborgs, and the voice is accordingly more robotic, and despite the variations in costume and voice these two traits persist.

On the other hand, the Cybermen are delightfully sarcastic. The truculent base commander says ‘I don’t care who you are, you can get off the moon now!’ Jamie moans deliriously about a phantom piper. A tea tray saves the day. As Cybermen are defeated they float off into space and everyone yells ‘Hooray!” Resistance is useless: ‘The Moonbase’ is a blast. If you want to embrace the Cybermen at their camp and preposterous best this is the story for you.

2. Dark Water / Death in Heaven

Is their plan to convert people? Well it’s not really their plan, but yes. Is it logical at least? Yes.

Here Steven Moffat tries to reconcile the Cybermen’s association with death and the air of tragedy that hangs around them – their recurring crying motif and doomed planet origin story – by playing up the vampiric angle. The Cybermen can now use dead bodies, making the creatures of decay aspect clearer, and convert you into someone like them. They can fly. They mull around graveyards looking lost, which is a fantastic piece of imagery (if the Cybermen must survive at all costs, graveyards must really challenge their emotional inhibitors; the pull of death must be quite strong).

As you can see from this list, it’s rare for a Cyberman story to actually explore these angles. Most Cybermen stories simply have something shaped like Cybermen in them, but who are conceptually indistinct from (for example) the Kraals or War Machines. This is a Cybermen story that actually explores the idea of the Cybermen as is more interesting as a result.

1. World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls

Is their plan to convert people? Yes. Is it logical at least? Yes.

The Cybermen don’t make sense. Their onscreen appearances don’t provide anything like coherence. Here, Steven Moffat casually turns the Cybermen into a repeatedly actualised meme, a concept that reoccurs throughout history, taking out whole civilisations. In doing so Moffat turns their disparate depictions into a strength, making them an insidious threat that always returns. In doing so they become both physical and historical waves of violence.

Moffat, having thought carefully about how he uses the Cybermen, also nailed something most writers haven’t noticed: iconic Cyberman scenes are mostly visual (their leaving their tombs, walking down St Pauls, advancing in three ranks in ‘Earthshock’), but the best scenes in Cybermen stories are about the extremes of human behaviour, not the Cybermen: here we have the dying civilisation performing inhuman operations, and Bill’s struggle for her selfhood after being converted. In ‘Tomb’ we have the Doctor and Victoria’s conversation about loss, memory and adventure. In ‘The Invasion’ we have Tobias Vaughn goading Watkins into shooting him then chuckling as he survives. In ‘Spare Parts’, Big Finish’s origin story for the Cybermen, we have a partially converted woman returning home to her father. Upon realising that this cyborg is in fact his daughter he reacts not with fear, but with love. Indeed this is what ‘The Doctor Falls’ does so well, it makes it a story about people’s response to the Cybermen, and about opting for kindness, whether this be through emotional support and care or blowing the bad guys up.

This is all connected with Moffat depicting the clinical inhumanity of conversion in the face of extinction, while maintaining the Cybermen’s legacy as a spectre of death (their relentless march up the spaceship to find the survivors). In contrast to this he also uses Bill, as he did Danny Pink, as a lone figure retaining more humanity than other Cybermen (that he does this twice with black characters is presumably well-intentioned – both are ultimately heroic after facing the horrors of conversion – but also careless). Indeed it’s not clear whether Moffat intentionally puts the Doctor in a position of white Patriarchal authority here. His depiction of the Doctor covers both an idealised vision of masculine intellect – “The Doctor” – and a more obviously flawed ally who gives in to fury. Indeed here he journeys from the latter to the former.

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Peter Capaldi’s Doctor started off as abrasive and alien, and the Cybermen work as an important contrast to him here: he’s the defence against an oncoming storm, sacrificing himself and restating his ideals strongly enough to kill the Master. This story ties up loose ends in a way you don’t see coming. Moffat, as you can see throughout his series, tends to explore ideas a few times before really honing in on what makes them work on the second or third try. The first few times he tries bigger changes, then reigns those in, and then finally starts adding to what’s already there in order to make it fit with the larger mythology. Here his ideas about the Cybermen, the Master and the Doctor all strive to make sense of what’s gone before and advance it. The result is incredible.

The post Doctor Who: Ranking the Cybermen Stories – Which is the Best? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[killian-whump]

OUAT 2x06: Rewatch Blog

Heeey everybody! Welcome to my rewatch liveblog of episode 2x06, “Tallahassee”. This one’s about the capital of Florida, which is called ‘The Sunshine State’ because there’s a lot of sunshine there when alligators aren’t eating you and/or meth addicts aren’t eating your face off.

Wait, what? Oh, my research team has just informed me that this episode isn’t actually about Florida at all - it’s about beanstalk adventures and flashbacks to Emma’s history with Neal. So no alligators most likely. Okay.

Well, let’s get started!

Well, this is off to a great start already! Every episode should start with Killian Jones tied up in some way, shape, or form. Nice!

“Freakier than I remembered from the story.” YOU AIN’T KIDDING.

“Reminds me of death.” Whoa, now that’s a little melodramatic.

Awww, lookit his face D: “Please untie me missus” *flails at him*

Mmm... Angry untying. That’s nice. The leather’s back. Saucy Hook, yay. “Don’t be afraid to, you know, really get into it.” Haha, he’s so cute <3

I HAVE SUCH A BONE TO PICK AND I’M GONNA PICK IT RIGHT NOW.

Flashback Emma’s glasses really bug me. Like, we see NO sign of poor eyesight in any of the young Emma flashbacks, and no signs of poor vision in present day Emma. It’s like she developed poor eyesight for an isolated year or two in her late teens and it just... cleared up?

Oh, I know, I know, she could’ve switched to contacts. Right. However, we see no evidence of that, either. No glasses in the morning or late at night. No issues with spending an extended time in the Enchanted Forest without access to either glasses or proper contact lens care. No vision impairment on Princess Emma in S6 who wouldn’t have access to glasses OR contacts, etc, etc.

So maybe Lasik surgery? Okay, but how would she have access to an expensive medical procedure that insurance didn’t cover (assuming she even HAD insurance, which, given her age and financial situation, is doubtful)?

It’s like the writers gave her glasses as a cute little character quirk in this awkward “ugly duckling” stage of her life without having any idea how glasses and bad vision actually work. Which would be ridiculous, considering Adam and Eddy both fucking wear glasses.

...and then they went and did it again with Robin in S7. No glasses on her primary persona, but her cursed persona needs them to see. And after the curse is broken... she still apparently needs them. WTF, show?!

Okay, but that outfit is super cute, glasses and all.

Yellow Bug origin story, guys! Is there a ship name for Emma and her car? Like, SwanBug or something? There should be if there isn’t. It’s so pure <3

Hahaha, Neal, you little shit. That grin of his is kinda cute.

~ TITLE CAAAAAAAAAARD!!! ~

Not sure why antis pick on that line of Neal’s about women. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of his, but it’s pretty obvious he’s reading the cop and (correctly) guessing on how to play him to get him to let them off. And Emma even calls him on it immediately - and he basically implies that’s exactly what he was doing. Antis don’t make any sense sometimes.

Okay, not as cute now... kinda smarmy. (Hi Ashley!)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand back to the beanstalk!

Oh, they kinda are getting really into it, aren’t they? Haha.

You know, I find it really hard to believe that Killian Jones would ever use the phrase “Tick, Tock” in casual speech. I’m just saying.

“I was hoping it’d be you.” :D

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ “Don’t think I’m taking my eyes off you for a second.”

“I would despair if you did.” ∩(︶▽︶)∩

One of my favorite Captain Swan moments riiiiight here:

HOLD MY PURSE, BITCH

And he follows after her like an eager puppy. Total subbie.

DRAMATIC MUUUUUSIC!

*sips beverage* Still climbing, huh? Seriously, though. Did they climb that far without talking at all? Or did Hook just chatter endlessly the whole time? Somebody better have written a fic of him babbling at her for hours.

“I love a challenge!” Hee hee! <3

“That’s not perception, that’s eavesdropping.” And he doesn’t deny it, lol.

“No, I’ve never been in love.” Okay, but she’s obviously lying. That’s a terribly transparent lie, Emma. You can do better.

The sniffing face, heehee.

That’s a pretty good ruse, though. I mean, really. People just sort of trust expectant parents. Although I’m sure it worked better 10 years ago than it would today.

Imagine if she’d pointed higher up. “Our future awaits us in... Detroit.” “Umm, lemme point again.” “No, no, that first point was legally binding.”

“I don’t really... sleep now.” Oh, sure. That’s normal.

This scene’s kinda boring :/

♫ Welcome to the laaaaaaaaaand of CGI and Giiiiiiiiiiiants ♫

“What happened here?” I mean, he kinda told you earlier in the episode.

“Giants can smell blood... and I’m always a gentleman.” <3

The cheerful way he says, “It’s rum!” XD

...and now my entire female reproductive system has died. That is the seventh time this month, dammit. This man is a menace.

Milah angst. Someone hold me T_T

I kinda don’t care about Neal’s problems.

I like this shade of lipstick on Emma, though. Okay, actually, I just like that shade of lipstick. Fun KW fact: Whenever I’m out and buy a new shade of lipstick, when I get home, I always discover it’s the same as all the other shades of lipstick I’ve bought, thinking they were different and so pretty. They’re all this color.

Colin sounds weird when he says, “You ready?”

You swing that bone, big guy! The things this show had him do XD

...It’s Jorge!!! :D Hi Jorge!!! :D I love him! I loved him on Lost, too. He’s just got such a lovely smile. He not smilin’ now, tho. Looks kinda grumpy.

“You big git!” Hahaha, that’s the best he’s got, apparently XD “You wanna kill a human, eh? You wanna kill a human?” The way Colin says “human” here makes me laugh for some reason, and he does it twice XD “Come on!”

“Come on then! Come on then!” I wonder if Colin’s flashing back to that role he played as a football hooligan in Love Is the Drug XD

Him popping up. This scene is so silly and ridiculous. I confess, it’s not one of my favorites, because it kinda borders on cringey in it’s ridiculousness, but it’s also unintentionally hilarious, so...

She’s so relieved <3

This is a good scene. I don’t have much to say about it, but it’s a good scene. Laying the groundwork for the big reveal of Henry being in the room. Ooooh. Also, I love Snow looking after Aurora.

And Aurora’s tiara or hair decorations or... whatever that is... is so pretty.

“What’s your rush?” Hahaha, you adorable idiot. “How long do you think magic knock out powder lasts?” “I’ve no clue,” as he sniffs coins like a derelict. “That’s my rush.” Like, why does she even have to explain this to him? XD

“Everything we need is right in front of us!” Everyone always turns this into some kind of big CS line, but I always thought it just... triggered a memory for Emma, hence the segue into the next flashback. They weren’t even really facing each other when he said it, so I don’t think it was intended to be foreshadowing. Just my opinion, though. Not legally binding :P

Nice sword, Jack. Not pompous at all.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Epic scene alert. “That’s a plausible excuse for grabbing me, but next time, don’t stand on ceremony.” Yooou fucking idiot <3

EAR SCRATCH *jumps on him* *rides him home*

Yeah, I know. All the liveblogs are gonna be like this. I’m so sorry.

Emma, too, is wondering what she’s gotten herself into. “Oh no. He’s sexy and absolutely ridiculous all at once. I am so fucked.” I think this was the moment she realized she liked him. That fucking menace.

Ugh. This train is just speeding towards derailment D: I hate storylines like this, when you just know the shoe’s gonna drop and-

Uh huh. Here’s August now, dropping shoes all over the place.

That drove me nuts the first time, not knowing what was in the fucking box.

And why did she have to go to jail? Like, dump her, leave her alone, fine, but sending her to jail is a bit... extra, isn’t it?

Ah, she’s so broken :( Alexa, play Despacito.

“Try something new, darling. It’s called trust.”

WHUMP! It’s whump!!! Buried in Rock Rubble Whump!!! :D

She’s even more panicked this time. Nice.

Jorge is mad.

Hahaha, I can’t stop seeing Jen in the green donut, though.

This scene is all pretty great, really. I forgot I was liveblogging.

Sweet, summer child. You’re so enamored with Emma and the compass and... Aw, geez. This is why Colin’s a menace. It doesn’t matter who he’s playing or what you think of them. He puts these faces on and tugs your heartstrings and suddenly you’re like, “Oh, look at this sweet, sincere little nugget!”

And then this happens...

It’s whump! BUT WHY DOES IT HURT MY SOUL D:

And then his voice shakes a little. “What are you doing?”

“Emma... Look at me. Have I told you a lie?” D:

“Why do this to me now?”

“You’re just gonna leave me here to die? Let that beast eat me, to crush my bones?” T_T

“SWAAAAN!!!!” He’s so fucking scared D: I died.

Hahahaha, SNOW WHITE WITH THE TACKLE.

I love how Aurora’s the only one who asks about Hook XD

Congratulations. You get a car. And a baby. When you get out of jail.

THIS IS THE WORST GAME SHOW EVER.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN BIG REVEAL!!!

...and the end! PEW PEW PEW!!! <3

[theconservativebrief]

The only way out is through.

By the time the curtain falls on the first season of HBO’s Succession, that adage has quite literally drawn blood. Though the series, which follows the power struggle within a family-owned media conglomerate, has been called a satire and in some cases a comedy, any laughter during the show’s final hour will likely be out of horror rather than amusement. With each successive episode, the series has shed layer after layer, revealing itself to be something much grimmer than just a wry indictment of the über-rich.

The finale, “Nobody is Ever Missing,” lands like a bomb, fundamentally shifting the dynamics of the show thus far. That it works is largely thanks to the stunning performances of Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy, the heir to the family company throne, and Brian Cox as Logan, his ruthless father, as their characters emerge as the keystones of the entire show.

Kendall and Logan’s story neatly vaults Succession into the realm of the classical texts that inform it, a point that was driven home when I spoke to Strong and Cox to examine the season’s final episode and its last two parts, which shake the very foundations upon which the series is built. Strong calls it an example of the archetypal monomyth, while Cox describes the show as “ludicrous.”

“It’s the ludicrousness of life,” Cox explains, citing how the classical works that Succession calls to mind — King Lear and Titus Andronicus among them — veer between comedy and tragedy. “You’re not locked into any sense of absolutism about the characters,” he adds, laughing, “You think, ‘Oh, they’re such horrible people,’ but then, if you really strip it down, they’re no more horrible than most people.”

Strong’s verdict is similar: “I hear from a lot of people how unlikeable these characters are, and I find that so interesting, as if a character is either likable or unlikable.”

It’s that refusal to fall into a strictly black-and-white matrix that ultimately makes the Succession finale so affecting, and so difficult to watch. The balance between comedy and tragedy finally tips, crashing into the latter category, and it’s a testament to the series that it all comes together.

Warning: spoilers for “Nobody is Ever Missing” lie ahead.

With the crash, the series reaches a point of no return. Colin Hutton/HBO

At the beginning of “Nobody Is Ever Missing,” Kendall delivers a letter to his father informing him of a hostile takeover of the company. For a moment, it seems like Kendall may finally triumph over Logan after the countless humiliations and setbacks he’s suffered over the course of the season, but there’s no savoring the victory. Kendall can’t get through the confrontation without stammering, and his siblings now hate him for putting their inheritances and social status in jeopardy, and on the day of his sister’s wedding, no less.

The brewing sense of unease only worsens as, at the episode’s halfway point, Kendall goes hunting for drugs to try to take the edge off, coaxing one of the serving staff to take him to get some cocaine. As they drive, they joke about kidnapping; “You should kidnap me,” Kendall says, boasting about his fortune as the boy notes that he knows a house where he could keep him. Though the characters laugh, the scene is very clearly teetering on the edge of an abyss — of some event that it’ll be impossible to come back from.

In an instant, the balance breaks. A deer appears in the middle of the road, and the car goes careening into a nearby lake. Though Kendall manages to swim out of the car, the boy is knocked out cold by the crash. Kendall dives once, twice, to try to get him out of the sinking car, but it’s no use. By the time he manages to swim to shore, the spot where the car sunk isn’t even distinguishable anymore, and the young man is dead.

The next 10 minutes focus on Kendall, and Kendall alone. As the ramifications of what’s just happened sink in, he stumbles back to the wedding festivities. The sequence almost plays like a horror movie: Kendall is soaked through to the bone, and darts behind trees to hide from cars on the road, knowing that he can’t afford to be placed anywhere near the accident. His posture is rigid, as if he doesn’t know how to function anymore, and his expression is slack, going from abject despair to grim determination and back again.

“It was really hard to shoot,” Strong says of the scene. “It was hard emotionally, it was hard physically. But in a way, those are the given circumstances, so you kind of lean into that. You lean into the fact that the water is freezing, you lean into the fact that it’s raining and freezing and it’s 4 in the morning and you’re covered in mud.”

On top of that, to try to sustain a certain “energy field” around the sequence, Strong asked the episode’s director, Mark Mylod, to keep as much of the post-crash shooting together as possible. “As you can imagine, a 10-minute sequence takes much longer to film, and you have to sustain the life and death stakes of that, or I believe you do, for the entirety of it,” he explains, adding that he’d also requested not to rehearse a few specific scenes (including Kendall’s delivering the letter to Logan) to keep a sense of tension to them.

After breaking back into his own suite (having lost his room key somewhere along the way), Kendall cleans himself off and returns to the wedding. Though he does his best to act as though nothing’s happened, dancing with his children as Whitney Houston plays, he can’t quite keep his facade from slipping.

It’s a showcase for Strong, who, despite the presence of more outwardly colorful characters like Tom Wamsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), emerges as the series MVP with how heartbreakingly he pulls off the episode’s final act.

“I remember just being really kind of destroyed by them,” Strong recalls of reading the final scripts, which were written by series creator Jesse Armstrong. “You read something like that, you sort of know you’re going to have to go through this, you can’t avoid it. But I think a part of me certainly wished it on someone else.”

This near-Gothic tragedy is a far cry from most initial impressions of the series, which Strong is quick to acknowledge. “Even though the show starts out with some low-hanging fruit, I think the real kind of bedrock of it, the plate tectonics of the structure that [Armstrong] starts to create, that build to this sort of tragedy, is really — when I read the script, I was blown away, and quite daunted by what I had to go through in order to serve it,” he says.

He tells me he hasn’t revisited those nights since they were over. “They were harrowing to go through. You want it to be real, is the thing. It’s not enjoyable. I think there’s always joy in the creative process, on some level, but actually, what is the character’s experience, and what is the character’s struggle — I don’t think you can really spare yourself from that if you want to embody it.”

Given just how far and how drastically Kendall falls, there’s a certain bittersweetness to knowing that the show’s writers had such a plummet in mind all along. One day, during a break in the writer’s room, Strong sneaked in to take a look around. On the wall were notecards, one of which read, “Kendall wins, but loses.”

“This could be the defining moment of your life, and indeed everything.” Colin Hutton/HBO

It doesn’t take long for the other shoe to drop. The next morning, Logan calls Kendall to discuss a matter brought to him by the police. The car and the body have been found, along with Kendall’s room key. Calmly, Logan explains to Kendall that it must have been an accident following an attempted robbery, and tells Kendall to report any missing items. Kendall, shellshocked, simply nods along.

As soon as the room empties, Logan instructs Kendall to inform his co-conspirators that the takeover is no more. Kendall begins to cry, trying to protest his innocence, but it’s of no use. “This could be the defining moment of your life, and indeed everything,” Logan says. “A rich kid kills a boy. You’d never be anything else. Or you know what it could be, what it should be? Nothing at all. A sad, little detail at a lovely wedding, where father and son are reconciled.”

There’s something awful about the episode’s final moment, as Kendall, in tears, stumbles into Logan’s arms. It’s the first glimpse of tenderness we’ve seen Logan offer his son — “You’re my number one boy,” he says in consolation — but it’s undercut by the tragedy that’s prompted it, as well as by Logan quickly calling in one of the house staff to take Kendall off his hands.

“I remember talking to Jesse about if [Logan] really loves his children,” Cox recalls, when I ask about Logan’s capacity for genuine warmth. ”Jesse said, ‘Absolutely. He absolutely loves his children.’ And I think that’s the tragedy of the piece, that’s what gives it its stature. It’s not just — it is a morality tale, certainly, but the thing about Logan is his children mean a lot to him. They’re all fuck-ups, and he sees that, and that sort of fills him with great sadness, that they have to have their hands held.”

But that doesn’t preclude a certain ruthlessness. “He really had Kendall,” Cox says of the final scene. “He was able to reconstruct Kendall, in a way. … It goes back right to the first episode, where I say to him, ‘You’re too soft.’”

It’s a sentiment that’s echoed in the finale before the crash, as Logan dresses down Kendall yet again, telling him that he’s not made for the harsher, harder world in which his father runs.

Their final conversation drives that point home, as Logan’s willingness to sacrifice a life in order to bring his son back into the fold is contrasted with the way that Kendall breaks, exhibiting a vulnerability that had seemed lost as the season progressed. They’re fundamentally different — Logan is a “man of blood,” as Strong puts it, where Kendall is not. The crash shakes Kendall to his core, but as Cox explains, “Logan will not dwell on that. He wants it sorted, done. He moves on.”

In other words, Logan’s language is the “language of strength,” a description that Strong cites from Michael Wolff’s book The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch, and which Cox ascribes to Logan’s childhood brutalization, as suggested by the scars visible on Logan’s back when he goes swimming in “Austerlitz.” Obviously, it’s not a vocabulary that Kendall possesses, and as Strong notes, it’s his attempts to use it that lead him to suffer.

It’s clearest in Kendall’s breakdown, which, incredibly, Strong tells me wasn’t scripted. “That’s honestly just what happened in the room that day; I had no idea how it would come out of me,” he explains. “That was just what I experienced. I think you load yourself up with everything that’s happened to the character until that moment, and then you walk through the door and see what happens. It’s a very important way of working, for me, because if anything is prescribed — to be honest, if it had been in the writing, I’m not sure it would have happened.”

On the characters of Succession: “These are real people.” Colin Hutton/HBO

“It’s not Arrested Development,” Cox says, as we discuss the series’ influences, from the Chappaquiddick incident to Greek tragedy. “There’s a classical element to it, with language, and I think that’s its strength, in a way.”

His meaning becomes clearer as he notes the way that plays like King Lear will get laughs despite being regarded as tragedies, just as Succession has excelled at balancing humor with an increasingly tragic narrative.

“I’ve always regarded myself as a comic actor,” Cox says, adding, “I play a lot of heavies, but I think I always play them in a slightly sort of comic— certainly wicked, that kind of comic way. […] I think Logan is also very funny, because he’s got this authentic quality. He doesn’t seem to be quite there. He’s not quite there because he’s damaged in some way, but he’s not quite there, I think, because he doesn’t want to be quite there. He likes to be inscrutable. And you get that very clearly in the first episode, when one son brings the goo, the sourdough, and then Tom brings a Patek Philippe watch. He’s more curious about the sourdough than he is about the Patek Philippe watch.”

Though Kendall certainly isn’t quite as opaque, he’s still unquestionably complex, and draws from the same sorts of archetypal molds. “Chekhov said, ‘Tell me what a character wants, and I’ll tell you who they are,’” Strong tells me. “What [Kendall] wants is so clear, and he goes after it with such a vengeance that that becomes his undoing. And that is such an archetypal story. I’ll be struck down by a bolt of lightning, but if you look at The Godfather, Michael Corleone goes from being this guileless student to being a cold-blooded, ruthless killer. Obviously, Jesse finds his way into that terrain in a kind of sideways way.”

To that end, Succession is an organically growing creature, and its creators clearly have larger ambitions. Cox initially expected his role on the series to be a one-season part, but Armstrong and Adam McKay dispelled that notion as soon as they began negotiating to bring him onto the show.

Cox also points to the growth of Kieran Culkin’s character, Roman, as evidence of the show’s shift toward “a more considered element.” “He’s such a roister-goister, he’s so glib and talky,” Cox says, “but he suddenly emerges. I watched [episode] eight the other day, and I thought Kieran was so good in that because he sort of ends up holding it all together.”

Again, it all comes down to a sense of humanity. “These are real people,” Strong says, stressing the quality of the show’s writing. “I think Mike Nichols said that, in the first act of a play, you invite the audience to the party. So I feel like the show invites everyone to the party, and then hopefully it kicks them in the stomach. Or something forceful.”

That forceful effect is certainly felt in the series finale, which is more than just a brutal reset, as the crash and its resulting fallout wipe out a season’s worth (arguably a lifetime’s worth) of Kendall’s attempts to get out from under Logan’s shadow. It’s wrenching to watch, and all the more remarkable for having been born out of genuine emotion.

“I think that really great work is a product of putting yourself in danger, which is sort of what I mean about not knowing what would happen in that last scene,” Strong explains. “Without risk, you’re just making something safe. Or if you know in advance what you’re making, it’s not art, certainly. I think that’s, at the end of the day, what you’re trying to make, whether you fall short of it or not — not just television.”

Original Source -> How HBO’s Succession pulled off its brutal finale

via The Conservative Brief