#based on the Cole is gay episode where they do a dance

[spicyicymeloncat]

Have this elaborate Zane doodle because I’m struggling to draw and I’m trying to put things on the screen (at 3 am).

[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 93: 8x11, 15x10

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

January 23, 2022

8x11: LARP and the Real Girl

Written by: Robbie Thompson

Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc

Original air date: January 23, 2013

Plot Synopsis:

When two LARPers turn up dead, Sam and Dean investigate the fictional world of Moondoor, where they find a familiar face.

Features:

Drawn and quartered in bed, Garth puts the Winchesters on a case, Charlie is the Queen of Moons, Dean is a nerd, Dean gets to dress up, Charlie’s got game, real fairy magic.

My Thoughts:

This episode is SO much fun, I love Charlie and I love Dean having an excuse to cut loose a little bit and explore something he would never otherwise get the chance to try. There’s a few cheap cuts at how cringey people who LARP are, but all in all it was kind of sweet once Dean got into it.

Dean is a nerd! This is established! It’s criminal that they never got sucked into a D&D game and had to play the game to get out. This episode also has what @meg3point0 calls “the Mint Condition Effect”, wherein Dean gets hotter when the narrative allows him to have interests and hobbies outside of hunting. I have to agree, he looks great this episode specifically when he’s in his costume and smiling and getting to play. He has more fun LARPing then we ever see him have at a bar (and he never gets to do it again, which is a bummer but don’t think about htat right now”.

The Belladonna pornstar moment is so much funnier than I remember it being. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this episode, I mostly remembered that joke through gifsets, but Jared’s reaction is what really sells it. Understated but it hits.

I like that the LARPers are all like, accountants and attorneys. I don’t LARP but I do play a lot of TTRPGs and honestly most of the people I play with have very serious, boring-sounding jobs. The rest of them are theatre people, but I’m a theatre people too, so it kind of pollutes the data pool.

Notable Lines:

“These kids today, with their texting and murder.”

“I like my life here. I wanna stay and fight for it.”

“In this life, you can’t afford attachments. You just gotta let go.”

“I’m the one who saves damsels in distress around here.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 9.3

IMdB Rating: 8.8

15x10: The Heroes' Journey

Written by: Andrew Dabb

Directed by: John F. Showalter

Original air date: January 23, 2020

Plot Synopsis:

Sam and Dean hit the road to help an old friend, but it appears that their luck may have finally run out and they are the ones who may be in need of rescue.

Features:

Monster cage match, Charlie’s infinite credit card is broken, Chuck is petty, Dean’s anesthesia-induced dance-based fever dream, Dean is lactose intolerant, Garth is so strong, where to go when your luck’s gone bad.

My Thoughts:

I really like this episode with the caveat that it also makes me extremely pissed off because it sets up a bunch of stuff for the end of the series that it will completely fail to follow through on. So the episode itself is good but it contributes to the shittiness of the finale.

I haven’t decided if Garth was always a Dean foil or not, but he’s certainly one in this episode. Garth has the life that Dean could have if he were to get out of his own way and go for the things that he actually wants rather than what he thinks he’s supposed to do. Garth gets the family and the house, Garth gets to dance, Garth gets to be happy. In a beautiful Stacked twist, Garth echoes in this episode what Dean said in yesterday’s Stacked episode - he thought that he would die young, that he would never get something as nice as a home and a family. He’s on the other side of the dream that Dean has always thought he would never be able to have.

The dance sequence is chock full of symbolism - there was this great post a few months ago but once again I can’t find it, so I’ll summarize my own thoughts, which echo what a lot of people online have pointed out.

First there’s a good chance Cole Porter, the singer, was either bi or gay - he was married to a woman for 34 years while also several affairs with men. Dancing is a very common stand-in for either love or sex. Garth is there in the beginning, mainly to show Dean what to do, and then he vanishes - Dean throws away his prop cane and looks for a partner, but all he can find is a lamp. Cas is often associated with lamps and other sources of light - I’m thinking specifically of the scene in On the Head of a Pin where he looks up as the streetlamp gives him a halo.

Basically, Dean could have Garth’s life with Cas if he let himself dance. And he always thought that he could be a good dancer! He’s finally accepting that he could have that life! Which is why I get really righteously angry when I think about this episode too much, because why on Earth would you set that up and then impale him on a piece of rebar at 43? Why wouldn’t he get to have his little house and family and dance partner? Andrew Dabb, answer for your crimes or we duel at dawn.

Aside from my righteous fury, this episode is genuinely pretty funny. Garth is inherently hilarious no matter what he does (the “hey Dean, it’s Garth” gag has no reason to be as funny as it is). He named his kids to burn Dean. He gets to have his own little heist moment. I’m obsessed with him.

It is absolutely brutal, and wildly out of character, for Garth to blow up everyone in that warehouse. Yes, they were all monsters, but we know for a fact that no one except the brothers were coerced into fighting. They were consensually trying to make a few extra bucks and enjoy a form of entertainment that they had all agreed to, even if it isn’t palatable to our heroes. And Garth is a werewolf married to a werewolf. He knows that not all monsters are monstrous. As @meg3point0 wistfully put it, “Dabb is philosophically incomprehensible. I miss Ben Edlund.”

Notable Lines:

“Yeah, better than I ever thought I’d get. I mean, hunting – I figured I’d be dead before I’m 40.”

“You know, I always thought I could be a good dancer if I wanted to be.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 8.5

IMdB Rating: 8.2

In Conclusion:

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[camimoo]

So, I watched the Heathers episode of Riverdale

K, so I’ve never watched Riverdale before (well like half an episode on tv once) but I heard there was a musical episode themed on Heathers.  

So I watched it…and accidentally started writing a really long play-by-play analysis:

Oh we’re really just gonna turn on a boombox and go. Ok.

Is KJ’s voice that high all the time? is that just the line they gave him? It’s so babie

Tiny girl  :((( so much autotune.

Oh gosh, that “whyyyyyyyyyyy” is too low for him. Otherwise the Kevin guy is probably their best guy singer.

Weird disorganized sometimes-choreography for background peeps. Like this row of desks will move, but the one next to it will be completely still

“Are all of you this miserable”  lol

The hair wooshy noises…this is only for this episode right? That can’t be in the regular run of the show right? It’s so loud

Oh heck, no harmony on Candy Store :( also weird bad cuts

Is veronica’s house always lit with crappy eerie blue lights?

Is every character selling drugs?  Like every single one?

Also is the plot that these kids have to stop their drug dealing moms?

“What are you gonna do?” “ I’m gonna take a bath.” *starts crying* lmao

Co director girl is so over acting.  Is she a regular character on this show?

Aw man lowering the big fun notes :(

Also can the Ram Sweeney guy actually act? Cuz based on what I’m seeing, imma go with No.

So, frequently, a disembodied voice is just singing and matches nobody on screen, like they don’t seem to concerned with getting the right person on screen lip-syncing at the right moment.

Also one of the jock dudes is suuuuper tone deaf

Again terrible edit cuts in the song.

I do appreciate that they are all indeed doing jello shots.

So we have the 3 heathers, and then we have … 3 more dark evil heathers?

Also this sometimes using riverdale-veronica as heathers-veronica but also not is confusing

Doing some Grease hand jive dancing?

There are some ridiculously loud sound effects in this. Archie’s jacket for one

I thought the neon lighting was just for promotional photos of Riverdale. But no. literally every scene is lit in neon red and blue (and maybe some yellow)

Ooh I like the “anything to share veronica”, that matches the musical where she has to blurt something out at the assembly

“my family’s always been unconventional.” Lol yeah your family is unconventional, (from the 5 seconds I’ve seen of them) your mother whose face never changes and she just wafts around, and your gravel-voice dad

Off-brand hostess cupcakes!

“He’s a real class act, that Sweet Pea”  how do y’all deliver any of this dialogue with a straight face when your characters have COMIC BOOK names??

“cuz your parents are splitsville” lol, way to be gentle

“I AM RED” and snaps and two replacement heathers come to back her up.  How many heathers are there in this show? We’re up to like 8

“Faux pink lady”.  So we are intentionally making these Grease references. Got it.

Lol she said Westerberg.

What’s the point of saying the one tiny girl is Veronica if Topaz(?) is gonna sing her songs

All hope is gone. Apparently these are the Highschool lyric changes.  Hmmm

I feel like they are mix and matching characters together willy-nilly.  I pick…you and …you! Yep threesome now.

Nuh uh.  Her name is PEACHES?!

The loud sound effects are killing me.  When you pat your thighs that doesn’t usually echo through a whole auditorium peeps.

Also why are we in the auditorium, you all clearly have neon lit mansions to go home to, why not use a more believable setting for seducing your friends?

So Tony/EvilHeather/Veronica is seeing visions of Cheryl/ActualHeather telling her she’s beautiful???

Oof that was a terrible record scratch noise.  Also whiplash! “Let’s make this beautifuuuul-STOP.”

Lol Fang.

What is ThE GaRgOyLe ChaMbEr?

Finally some harmony, it’s altered but still decent. :) Our love is god.

Are they having a secret gay cult wedding in a dungeon church?

The weird kinda half choreo the background cast does every once in a while.  Also specifically its only like the first row of extras in every case.  The back or outer rows never move..?

Do boxers really punch the air for practice by themselves in empty boxing rings?

k. I kinda hate the tiny girl’s voice,

so everybody is Veronica. Huh. Just takin turns.

I guess that’s just what KJ’s singing voice is. Ok.

Also when making cuts, why still have her say “well whoa you can punch real good.”  Just cut the “well whoa” and it will fit your scenario better.

Ok I actually super like the new harmony at the end of fight for me.

Principals are susceptible to cults. Got it.

Meet me at JUNKYARD STEVE’S??

Red scrunchie!

WAIT- did evil-heather and heather-heather used to be in love?

Wait they found the drug lab that quick?  Is this like a once-an-episode kinda thing? just gotta shut down the daily drug lab and move on

“and serial killer fathers” said in a comforting tone.

What even were those terrible piano chords as an intro to Seventeen?

But actually this song seems like a good fit for these traumatized children.  Help these babies :(

The voices of Cole and lilli (and most of them) sound like they were recorded so separately and in completely different ways, ones more breathy, others are echoey, some have autotune…hmm

Also someone pointed out that when you get to the “your eyes can’t we be seeeventeeeeeeen” line, Cole’s voice changes so drastically it has got to be somebody else.  I totally agree.

Sometimes the background music (not heathers) sounds like a western movie.  Like somebody just got challenged to a show down at high noon.

I want to crack an egg with a tiny egg hammer! And he didn’t even get to eat it.

Her dad sounds like a gravellier version of Misha Collins

She does really good at Lifeboat.

“I thought I was captain” diff lyrics.  Ok.

“drugs…terrible…what a nightmare”  delivered practically deadpan devoid of emotion. wow what quality dialogue.

“what is all over your faces?”  oh that’s just the drugs soot. No worries. Trashing meth labs always leaves me covered in soot.

Oof. “Martha are you free tonight?”  nobody answers. They all kinda glance around awkwardly.  Really? Why leave the name in at all if you aren’t including Martha, just change it.

When you burn down a building, shouldn’t you flee the scene of the crime? No? does being in the snake gang make him immune?

Also the pan out to make sure we saw the gas can in the back seat, cuz yanno I couldn’t’ve pieced that bit together on my own.

Also I’m assuming they’re drinking big gulps right?

Weird music edits

HOLD UP, is Tony dressed as Martha??? Wut.

Also none of their vocal styles go together, the transition from the others to tony is jarring. Tony is all sexy breathy poppy.

Hmm, interesting minimal interpretive dancing choreo

Ack, please blend in the tiny girl’s vocals.  Pls I beg you. At least I think its her.

Everyone else: *taking off clothes and jackets*

Jughead: *putting on his hat*

Hold up, I feel like from seeing the rest of the ep I can guess who most of the audience members are that are getting close ups/reaction shots, but I swear they added a new lady, heavily made up, and not Cole or Veronica’s mom...who…?

Oh and now we get creepy cult flash mob with hypnotizing claps. Ok.

 Overall:  pretty messy. No one really plays a specific character so it’s hard to gain any of the character growth that they get in the actual musical.  No one’s vocal style matches like at all.  The new lyrics and tons of edits were odd. The sound mixing was bad I think, like everything stuck out and didn’t match. This show is hilariously broody and they all have such funny names. Camilla whatshername is a good singer, actually the main 3 girls are p good, and the Kevin guy.  

Huh.