The Trainee ep2: I am Seated
I am buzzing after The Trainee ep2. I love when a show sets up characters with clear arcs and then delivers on their journeys perfectly, and this show is being so smart about what it's laying down. We got a perfect introduction to Ryan and Jane in ep1 and in ep2 we're already seeing movement in their arcs in the direction the show has flagged. This is smart writing!
Ryan is a frustrating but lovable character; he is smart and competent he just has no drive and is unsure about his place in the world and his role in it. In other words, he's young and inexperienced. And he's in over his head; he signed up for this internship because his friend dragged him to it, and went for it because they hired him and he doesn't know what else to do with his life. He is clearly driven by doing a good job and being appreciated; the client at his parent's print shop liking his work was motivating for him, and the show has shown us that he keeps that place running. He actually has the makings of a great AD--noticing where other people fall short and pre-emptively filling those gaps, prepping so that when other people get to their next task their prep is already done, understanding all of the different pieces and how the need to fall into place; all of that will make him great at the job. But he doesn't know anything about making content and he isn't self-driven or motivated enough to do any reading on his own, at least not yet. I love how honest he is: He did not brook any trash talk of Jane after Jane showed up for him, and he recognizes his own flaws and doesn't want to be a burden. His hesitation is understandable considering his ignorance, and my frustration with him is mostly that he hasn't tried to address that in himself yet, but I also get it because he wasn't sure he wanted this role in the first place. I'm really excited to watch him fall in love with content creation, and with Jane, and to see him hone his skills.
Speaking of Jane, I love this character. He's grumpy, but the show has given us so many reasons why (all of whom are his colleagues, who seem to be unable to do anything without him while constantly talking badly about him behind his back). He's rude because he needs to be in order to get anything done at this place, and frankly, probably because he can be--he's so integral to this workplace that nobody can tell him to tone it down, even when it's not workplace appropriate. Baimon is a classic boss--charismatic but useless, and he clearly looks to Jane to solve any problem that comes up. I've worked with people like Jane before; so competent that they get away with being rude AF. And he's not actually a bad boss, is the thing. He gets annoyed and says so, but he doesn't hold Ryan's ignorance against him. Despite being frustrated that he wasn't given someone with experience to help him, he asked Ryan for his ideas on how to solve a problem, and then trusted him to execute the task. He calls Ryan out for being so slow to speak (this man is on a constant urgent deadline!), but still waits to hear him out. When Ryan admits he made a real mistake, Jane explains what he did wrong and how to avoid it in future. This is something I see people get twisted all the time: someone pointing out a mistake, even getting annoyed by it, and asking for it to be fixed, is not actually the same thing as not letting anyone make mistakes or being someone to whom you can't admit a mistake. Jane gave Ryan a chance to problem-solve, assigned him meaningful work, gave him credit for a good job, explained where he went wrong when Ryan admitted a mistake to him, helped him fix it, and let him make his own choices about staying or going. He said, if you don't like this job, you can quit, but I think you would be good at it. He sees potential in Ryan, and I am so excited to watch Jane turn Ryan into a competent colleague and then something more. In the meantime, please sign my petition to get Jane a minimum 2-week vacation and a skilled assistant.
Beyond these two characters, the humour is hitting for me, the work tension is so real, and the side characters are a lot of fun. Every one of the interns is nuanced and seems to have an arc ready for them, which I absolutely love. Pie is competent but self-interested and not a team player (happy to use Ryan to either help achieve a goal or throw him under the bus). Teh lacks confidence. Pah needs to learn to take things seriously. And this show so far is showing me that it's smart enough to deliver.
TL;DR The Trainee is excellent and I'm having a great time!
59 notes
·
View notes
a headcanon ive been enjoying in my awesome mind lately is that q tinas symbolic heart, the one that she gave q bagi on their date and that she put on a shelf inside bagis equally symbolic mind room, stays with ak bagi.
the physical item doesnt stay with her, but the physical item isnt the important part. and i dont think the heart is entirely tinas actual soul or heart. but i think its something, some kind of connection. and i think ak bagi still feels the presence of that heart. i think thats kind of comforting. tina and bagi never stopped loving each other. they were seperated, but the love was and still is there. that doesnt mean bagi cant love again or move on. she can love again, and she can start again, and move on, and the love is still there.
25 notes
·
View notes
i literally read the book of bill days ago but its only now kinda hitting me how fucked ford and bills whole thing was though cause ford literally talks about being so unable to sleep (to try to keep bill away), and when sleep inevitably caught up to him, he would wake up to his body abused and things messed with and he just couldnt seem to find an escape (and he literally didnt get to truly escape until 30 years later)
(also keeping people awake for unhealthily long periods of time is another tactic used to mess with and control people because of how it impairs brain function)
listing off the things we see in those few pages in the book of bill:
i mean, punching and scratching at a steel door for hours would be so damaging to your hands and probably hurt like hell for at least 2 days after. then bill says he was hitting fords head against a wall, though its said in a post-it as if its a joke, but he also isnt exactly above doing that, and honestly he says most things like its a joke.
i also dont need to say 'bill really doesnt know how to take no for an answer' because he makes that very clear in literally any interaction we see with him.
bill literally puts a venomous snake near ford while fords asleep, which could have killed him if he wasnt lucky+skilled enough to deal with it.
he nearly gives ford hypothermia, and in the same action actively threatens ford with the idea of making him jump off of a high spot, and like ford says, doesnt do it just so he can send a message to ford about how hes the one in control.
he gets ford in trouble with not only the law, but also with other people that are probably not very happy with him after. he mutilates fords body in several ways, and i dont think i need to go into detail on them because theyre... so ew. and he even exposes part of fords body to the world. like, its just taking his shirt off, but thats still showing off his body in a way that he didnt agree to or want
and then he attempts to (or purposefully fails to) call stan, using fords voice to threaten suicide and tell stan that ford never loved him.
and he punctuates it with a final power move, in a hallucination that he creates, hes messing with stans memories and making him feel like his body was basically about to implode
and like. okay, we all joke about toxic old man yaoi, and its a good joke and toxic old man yaoi is great and its an interesting ship, but holy fuck.
like. to say the absolute least, that had to be so, so deeply violating. its no wonder that when we see ford in the past, when he finally contacts stan, he looks like hes on the verge of shattering into a million pieces. he just went through, and still wasnt yet out of, some deeply abusive shit.
like... everything coming out lately both in this book and what ive heard is on the website, mixed with what we already knew from the show itself... the stans are both so, so fucking tragic dude. their whole lives were thrown away over things that really didnt even need to be the way they were, and then they both get into situations that are pretty damn screwed, and those situations follow them for the rest of their lives. its basically a miracle that things worked out in the end for them.
i dont really have a point, i just had to talk about all that. i read almost all of the book of bill in one sitting, and while i was really enjoying it, i was also getting kind of tired of sitting in one spot only doing this one thing for several hours straight. i still felt a lot of the emotional bits of it of course, but man this part specifically just really didnt hit me until now.
i mean, to say the absolute least, i know what its like to feel violated in a similar way, though not anywhere near to the extent of what he went through at all. someone get that man some therapy got damn
20 notes
·
View notes