#its a good episode and it does its job with the message its trying to send

[cosmicallyavg]

rosa is actually such a good episode

[sonkitty]

Crowley S2 Hair Post #4 Redone

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, The Perfect Entrance Trick

The entrance is part of the coffee shop scene, but it is so special, I am giving it its own post.

Sideburns Check

This show has treated us to something. Crowley does a full spin so that we can get a really good look at the hair from multiple angles. It's not that close up but still good. Thank you show and Crowley!

The sideburns are short. They are the intended shortness after driving. In turn, they are the shortest they have been up to this point in the present day storyline.

Short sideburns happen around human spaces most of the time, at this point in the story.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

It's easy to think the brighter red streak is not there because of its position. The above image is brightened and more saturated with white rectangles to indicate where I see the streak.

I often find the streak above the center of his left eye and going up from his forehead. Here, the streak actually starts from his part on the top.

...

Hairstyle Changes

In both the Bentley and here, the top hair flared upward. Just outside the coffee shop, the flare has shifted further to his right instead of straight upward and lining up with his nose as it did in the Bentley. There is no extra saturation streak on the right side of his forehead.

Earthly Objects: The Perfect Entrance Trick

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

We have arrived at our first Threshold Trick!

This part is going to be very detailed because of pockets and thresholds.

Here are some GIFs to start us off:

This sequence is The Perfect Entrance Trick. Way, way back before I thought there might be an Earthly Objects game and was just exploring the sideburns, trying to figure them out, I remarked on my appreciation for the camera work and music for this segment. I always compliment those parts because they are so good. They contribute beautifully to the idea here.

While setting aside the Sideburns Scheme and trying to figure out Earthly Objects, I made a "Bonus Round" part of my main post because this sequence had me so amazed. It looked like threshold-only touches and avoiding earthly object touches, but I couldn't be sure due to some specific questionable things I will explore further down eventually. Nonetheless, it sure seemed to me like Crowley knows how to play the game as an expert, so if he is aiming for threshold-only touches, there must be something to his methods that gets the job done. These Threshold Tricks might even be special supernatural bonus points he's earning in the game.

My understanding of the game at this point in time is like so: In this sequence, they are threshold-only touches, but how are they threshold-only touches with this game's mechanics? That's what an audience player is supposed to figure out in the puzzle.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is actually the third Threshold Trick I found without realizing it because I did not have the words, "Threshold Tricks" for myself then. It felt like the first one I found when I was trying to understand Earthly Objects. I had already found The Bigger Thresholds Trick and The Door Trick without realizing they were Threshold Tricks too. I didn't have names for them then. I just knew there was something special about sideburns and thresholds so caught onto those parts. It took something more than weeks to put these ideas together because I spent a lot of time just thinking and making pictures while readying myself for making posts about sideburns.

Before we go over this particular sequence in more detail, here's something I think the game is putting forth as a challenge. The Pocket Trick is a hidden giant with a giant impact on many things. While I am at a point that I do not think I will ever solve The Pocket Trick to my satisfaction, I believe a significant one of its hidden messages is, "Pay attention to the pockets."

As stated in my main post for The Sideburns Scheme, pockets are a big, little thing in GO2. They are easy to miss and to dismiss. One should also pay attention to doors and windows, but because the pockets are so easy to overlook—even more than windows, it's a good idea to mind that message on pockets specifically all the same. Between doors, windows, and pockets, pockets are the hardest to see and to understand.

In Earthly Objects, a pocket can be a hole created by a character's body between their own self, part of the screen, part of an earthly object, or even part of a threshold. A pocket can be two or more characters surrounding something or someone on the screen in the framing. A pocket can be a character surrounded by things in the framing. A pocket can be the actual literal pockets characters can have on their clothing. That includes the ones we understand are actual pockets and even little holes the clothing can make on itself. Pockets are everywhere, but making sense of them for how they count, when they count, and what they count for, is another story. It is overwhelming—as if "think outside the pocket" wasn't hard enough in The Pocket Trick to begin with!

I think chances are good that pockets are somehow related to every Threshold Trick, and a big part of this challenge I do not expect to pass is to figure out how. That means I won't ever fully solve every Threshold Trick. So, I will pay attention to the pockets, tell you about the pockets, and admit freely, once again, my understanding of them is limited.

Okay, so here's the sequence in more detailed text form with paying attention to the pockets. It is very quick and heavily based on movement. Parts are also blurry. I won't swear everything below is correct because to play, I mainly have to guess based on clues.

With the car on screen before it is parked, I can find multiple different humans using pockets. However, one in particular catches my interest because he put his left hand in a pocket near where Crowley will park, and I recognize this human:

That guy shows up three different times in episode 6 during The Door Trick and The Door Catch. He is responsible or the Purple in the Rainbow Connection on Aziraphale's part.

Nonetheless, Crowley parks the car. The camera work is doing amazing things by going under the car, then around a wheel, focusing in on the shoes of the nearby humans before Crowley himself starts.

The door to the car opens, and Crowley touches the edge of the sidewalk with only one shoe. The heel is touching nothing behind it. The front tip is avoiding the rest of the sidewalk. That is the Single. The edge of the sidewalk is one threshold, and it was touched by only one shoe.

The camera pans up.

Crowley touches two different thresholds with his right hand. They are the window frame and the door panel for the door to his car. The fingertips avoid the window pane. That is the Double.

One of the tie strands becomes visible, including a clasp and a tassel. That's a thumb and thumb joint of one of the Tied Hands. Crowley's left hand moves forward such that the tie strand is visually in front of that hand. The left hand is important because it's the one that's going to do the Triple part of this Threshold Trick. I don't know the watch's role in pocket mechanics. It generally likes to be seen and seems to also watch things, like it's some kind of "lookout," but something more too.

Getting back to the left hand's movement with the tie strand, at the exact frame that thing happened, I can find a human visually behind Crowley's right elbow using a pants pocket with their left hand. They are wearing a white shirt over a darker one.

This part is a clue that this tie strand is going to be tied to the left hand and that it is the longer tie strand when both are seen together shortly.

Instead of moving ahead to get to what is going to be the Triple, Crowley has his back to the camera. He takes some steps and moves his arms around. I don't have it in me to log every pocket they make and close and what they might frame, but they do such things.

A light briefly pops out in one of the trees trying to communicate something, and I'm going with saying it's a little overhead light for Crowley since it's above his ear and to the left of his head.

There is a nearby car with red rear lights. These types of lights are often used to alert about a color switch in the Rainbow Connection when they light up a bit more. So, the main thing I see it to be an alert for is that pocket user already mentioned and knowing what we'll see soon for switching without an active Rainbow Connection. The pocket user is even pocketed briefly between these red lights. In fact, that overhead light mentioned above lights up at the start of when this human starts to pass the first of the two red rear lights. If those red lights mean anything else, I don't know what it would be.

When that human pocket user that was visually behind Crowley is finally completely off-screen, Crowley's left hand and the watch also go off-screen.

Crowley spins.

As he spins, both tie strands become visible. The longer tie strand is on Crowley's right. That means it is mirrored for now. The left hand becomes visible again too. During the spin, the tie strands switch. The longer tie strand becomes aligned with Crowley's left side. Generally, these things have a special mirror that flips through a Rainbow Connection Reflection, or whatever that Connection allows, in the Pocket Chain of The Pocket Trick. However, The Pocket Trick hasn't started yet, and this Trick is not linked to the Pocket Chain.

Well, without the initiating power of The Pocket Trick or a Rainbow Connection, it looks like a little spin switch is allowed this time.

The belt—which is Crowley's Belt Head—also became visible, and Crowley has his mouth open during this spin. The vest tips are surrounding the Belt Head to have it pocketed between them. Additionally, the longer tassel tip just so happens to brush along the belt during the switch. There is even another self-made pocket of hair like there was for the newspaper door. With the movement, the vest tips and their pocket over the belt shift further towards Crowley's left as well.

The left hand and the watch hide behind Crowley's jacket. This action is part of closing pockets between Crowley's torso and both arms.

Crowley finally starts moving toward the door.

The right arm opens a pocket between his torso again, this time by itself instead of with the left arm.

The left arm forms a pocket between Crowley and the main part of the jacket.

The pocket between the right arm and jacket closes.

Soon after, the pocket between the left and jacket closes.

Then the left arm hides behind Crowley. In the blurred movement, that longer tie strand connected to the left hand pushes off the vest temporarily and becomes visible in the air. This action creates yet another temporary pocket.

In motion, all of these pockets amount to looking like pocket-to-pocket passes in the animated GIF shown further below.

Once the tie strand has presumably returned to where it belongs, the left arm is finally ready to make its move on the incoming threshold.

Crowley's left arm reaches out for the door panel. There is a lock that is extremely hard to see in the blurred movement, but it is there above the push plate. Crowley's palm of his left hand covers it completely. He pushes the door on the lock instead of the push plate.

Some video frames reach a nice, stronger clarity. Here is the one that strikes my own interest most:

There are three digits touching the door panel. That's what makes this part the Triple. The index finger and middle finger are touching the front. Most of the thumb is touching the side. However, the ever so vital and important thumb tip is on the edge of where the door panel meets the window pane. Edges are thresholds, and pocket trickery loves edges.

The reflection of Crowley's left hand has pocketed the lock on the other side within the palm that is covering the covered lock. In other words, the palm has the locks covered.

The Tied Hands are making this acceptable because of their link to reflections. Plus, all those words I just had to write out because word play is a key mechanic for pocket trickery.

And there's more!

With the palm being busy with the locks, the thumb tip touches its own reflection while doing its edge touching. All of the digits, the real ones and the reflected ones are pocketing the door panel and its reflection because of their framing. Any issues with that window pane have been neutralized. There is a small bit of Crowley's right sunglasses lens past the door frame but not much.

The watch takes over in the next video frame to keep everything in order because that real covered lock becomes slightly visible. The watch's reflective surface lights up to say that everything's still as it should be. Parts of Crowley's face—and more of the sunglasses themselves—visually passed through the door frame at the same time that real lock became slightly visible, so this threshold has been effectively tricked. We must recall the Belt Head had a role to play in the matter.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the easy one! But the pockets have increased its difficulty immensely.

Something that is missing in this first Threshold Trick is a rainbow. Four of the others have one. The Sunglasses Trick does not, but it does have a notable white light reflected on the watch in its last touch. Rainbows can take shape through refraction in white light. The lighting on the watch here is not as white as what appears in The Sunglasses Trick. It has a tinge of yellow.

Well, Earthly Objects is a game with puzzles—and some silly puzzles at that, so I'm going to say that this Threshold Trick is excused because the Rainbow Connection within The Pocket Trick has not started yet. The Rainbow Connection starts in episode 2. In fact, the way it goes is that The Pocket Trick gets its official rainbow first. It and the other Threshold Tricks finish in episode 6. In episode 6 is where all of the other rainbows appear for the other Threshold Tricks.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the only one that both starts and finishes in the first episode. It is the first of three Simple tricks. The Simple tricks are the ones that start and finish in the same episode.

Another way I like to play this game is that these Threshold Tricks are based on simple ideas even though they get so complicated—especially once pockets are known to be so important. I call these simple ideas "core concepts" because these things are indeed conceptual. While I don't like word play as much as The Pocket Trick does, I do like it some. So, let's toss some alliteration in here too.

My best guess for this one's core concept is, "Make a Perfect Entrance while making an entrance." The idea is also to introduce the Threshold Tricks. Each one is required to have a primary Single, a primary Double, and a primary Triple. A single is 1. A double is 2. A triple is 3. Add up 1, 2, and 3, and you get the number 6. That equation of 1 + 2 + 3 is what makes the number 6 a perfect number.

A standard set in Earthly Objects is 3 points. A Threshold Trick has a minimum of 6 points for its theoretical bonus rewards and must be done in this special format.

I had to look that up that part on "perfect" because that was the word I wanted to use to describe The Sunglasses Trick when I put those pieces together. I am familiar with the Tekken franchise due to a past stronger obsession with Devil Jin. In Tekken, a PERFECT is when a player wins a round without taking any damage.

So, once I grasped that 6 is a perfect number, for me, it was like "Oh! That's what the first one is! It has a name! It's a Perfect Entrance!" I had described it as a "beautiful entrance" in my Bonus Round section. Again, that took something more than weeks to figure out.

Also, David Tennant is perfect for the role of Crowley. I love this actor-character combination so much.

...

When Crowley enters and sits down, Aziraphale is sitting down, but there is no actual visible back of a chair for Aziraphale. I am reminded of Crowley's remark in episode 5 of "Looking where the furniture isn't." In one of my posts on Earthly Objects, I note this type of thing as a mysterious vendetta Aziraphale has with chairs. A lot of times, the back of one cannot be seen for Aziraphale. When he's in the bookshop and a back of a chair can be seen, his back will still not touch the back of the chair.

...

Story Commentary

Setting aside the threshold trickery at play in Earthly Objects, Crowley's open mouth could also be interpreted as him using his snake demon senses to find Aziraphale's precise location.

After the Threshold Trick itself is done, Crowley's body is briefly fully obscured, and suddenly the door's moving for him without his hands doing anything. The left hand that was on it is gone. He may as well be using telekinesis on the thing.

Crowley continues onward until he passes Aziraphale on Aziraphale's right. Aziraphale himself glances to his own left first, as that's generally where Crowley is expected for him. This movement also allows Crowley's body to be obscured briefly. He could even mouth something to Aziraphale without us seeing it.

The red on the back of the collar on Crowley's jacket is briefly visible before Crowley himself finally sits down and says, "Right, what's the problem?"

The car transformed a little. There's an extra part of a window frame on the window pane that wasn't there before.

...

Muriel

(For reference: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2))

Muriel's first scene preceded this one. That makes their first scene the front bookend to the first Threshold Trick. Their last scene will act as the back bookend to the last Threshold Trick (The Window Trick).

In turn, Crowley's first Threshold Trick is the back bookend to Muriel's first scene.

...

That's it for this post. Way back when I started to track these things, I did have a tendency to update even these posts, so that could happen again, just FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #4 (entering the coffee shop)

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

[goodomensjail]

GOOD OMENS SPOILERS BELOW if you reblog it TAG IT DAMMIT. Entire Job Sequence to the Best of my inebriated (thank you Bulleit Bourbon for sponsoring) memory:

It was not entirely clear at the  Brooklyn screening when episode 1 ended; there were no end credits but i think its fairly obvious that Job flashback is the cold open of Episode 2 because the entire audience was a bit surprised when Opening Credits played again right after the first Job scene. 

Also note that the Job story is INTERCUT at apparently key moments of the main/present day plot, but it will take a second viewing for me to see exactly what they were going for/getting at. So HERE i am going to try and write the Job minisode IN ORDER without the cuts to present day because it will help my memory. 

We open on Bearded (yes that bearded) Crowley about to sacrifice a herd of goats. (note that none of the dialogue is exact, even if i put it in quotes, its just what i can recall; the dialogue throughout is delightful and funny and theres no way i can remember it all nor would it be worth it without the performances). 

Aziraphale appears in a golden light from the sky in a “stay thy hand, demon!” type way, dramatic and biblical, before he realizes “o its just you Crawley”; Aziraphale says they have not seen one another since “the flood”. 

Crowley shows Aziraphale he has “a permit” to torment Job, God’s favorite human, because Satan and God have a bet to see if Job will curse God. Aziraphale is not happy. He takes the permit to heaven to show the Archangels who delightedly tell him YES, God is allowing blameless and good Job to be tormented by demons in a bet with Satan, but ITS OKAY because of course God will win the bet and reward Job three fold!

Aziraphale is at first glad, then stunned to hear that heaven does NOT intend to raise Job’s children from the dead, however. Job’s wife Sitis will have 7 NEW CHILDREN! Yay! (this is cute as well because Aziraphale appears to be the only angel who understands human birth and that maybe Sitis doesn't want to be pregnant and give birth 7 more times? as a mom with natural births i appreciate this, neil gaiman. the archangels are oblivious to this... they just think thats what humans do: they breed and multiply). 

As Crowley in stomping through Job’s courtyard to find his three children, Aziraphale appears to reason with him. Aziraphale appeals to knowing that Crowley doesn't want to harm Job’s children because he knew him as an Angel, to which Crowley is not impressed; he is not an angel anymore. So instead, Aziraphale pivots to “i know you” and references the flood and how Crowley was shocked that God intended to kill the children. Crowley tells Aziraphale, “you do not know me”. 

And then the pigeons in the courtyard start baa-ing. Aziraphale waves his hand and the pigeons transform into a herd of goats....Crowley didn't kill them at all, he hid them away. Aziraphale looks at Crowley smugly. 

They meet the three children of Job, Ty Tennant plays a flirtatious Ennon who comes on a bit to Aziraphale. Aziraphale explains they are in danger, but the kids are not impressed because “don't you know our father? Job? he is God’s favorite”. Crowley transports all of them to the basement while a storm rages and destroys the home above; Aziraphale realizes Crowley always intended to get to the kids first and protect them from the destruction. 

While they wait out the storm, Crowley tempts Aziraphale into eating human food for the first time. Aziraphale resists at first, but we then cut to him DIGGIN IN FORACIOUSLY to some meat, while a smiling Crowley lounges nearby watching him. The kids are annoying them both, and at some point Crowley turns them all into three small lizards. The two discuss how Crowley is not really bad and doesnt really listen to hell, and Aziraphale remarks it must be lonely living as Crowley does. Crowley tell him “not really”

God wins the bet, and give some rambling messages to Job as a prophet (which he doesn't understand or appreciate, he and Sitis just want to know where the children are). The angels, with Aziraphale in tow, arrive to announce Job will be rewarded with three times wealth, and NEW CHILDREN! Job and Sitis are horrified. 

Crowley bursts in; none of the angels recognize him, he claims to be a human cobbler (its a pun for some ancient city dont worry about it) and Aziraphale jumps in to call him DOCTOR, a famous obstetrician who delivers babies. The archangels have no idea where babies come from... Aziraphale flatters Gabriel by saying well YOU were there when Eve was “born” youve seen it before. 

Crowley understand the cue, and pretends to “deliver” Job and Sitis’ new children by having Sitis pull three ribs out of Job (the animal ribs from the meat Aziraphale was eating) and transforms them into three children (the lizards hidden in Jobs robes turn into his three children).

Michael is suspicious because arent humans supposed to have “babies”, but Aziraphale cues Gabriel to tell them about Eve being fully grown. The kids are confused and almost give away the bit, but Job and Sitis play along. Gabriel turns to Aziraphale and point blank asks : “Are these their old children?” to which a PAINED Aziraphale after a look to Crowley LIES to the angels and says “no these are their new children”

We cut to Aziraphale from afar and behind (the ocean and rock shot) and Crowley comes to join him. Aziraphale is crying. (DIALOGUE THAT FOLLOWS IS NO ACCURATE ITS THE GIST)

A: “Im ready for you to take me”

C:”Take you where?” or “Where are we going” something to that effect, he is amused in a bittersweet way

A: “I lied to the archangels and foiled the plans of God. Im ready to go to hell with you”

C: amused in such a kind way, tells him something to the effect of “Youre not going to hell. I wont tell if you wont”

A: sitting on the rock next to Crowley, still teary, “How can i keep on obeying heaven?”

C: “You will take it as far as you can take it, and youll do it your way when you need”

A: “You said it wasnt lonely”

C: “I’m a demon. I lied”

Gorgeous scene of them sitting together on the rock and cut to black 

[wolfnanaki]

I've been thinking for a while now about the decision in Goodbye Volcano High to reveal and use Fang's deadname. And while it's definitely an uncomfortable moment for us trans/nonbinary people in the audience, and there's been a suggestion that there should be a deadname filter so people don't have to see or hear it (and I've censored it in this photo), regarding the game's narrative about Fang's life and the lives of trans/nonbinary people, I think it was the right call.

For one, it's not just the deadname in its own right, but who says it. Everyone else in the game - from Fang's friends, to their fellow peers and teachers, LJ, and even Fang's brother Naser - all use Fang's correct name and pronouns. The only character that doesn't is Fang's mother. She writes the deadname on a sticky note, she texts it to Naser, and she says it during the video call. And each time, we see Fang's reaction.

I think lots of online discourse about trans/nonbinary people has this idea that if you deadname or misgender a trans person, you're going to be on the receiving end of a whinging verbal attack by someone with rainbow hair or whatever. That all it takes to send someone into a flying rage is by ruffling their feathers in what seems to be an innocuous way to cis people. But Fang's reactions are much more true to the lived experience of trans/nonbinary people; they're visibly uncomfortable and upset, but they endure it.

Fang's parents' inability to name and gender Fang correctly ties in to their perception of Fang as a whole, which is a running theme throughout the game. In the roof scene with Reed in episode 2, Fang tells this to Reed:

"They don't... take me seriously. Like, anything. Music, the band, my name... none of it worthy of respect to them, I guess. Or... at least acknowledging that it's important to me."

This is echoed in Fang's conversation with Sage later, who's facing the same issue; with him being a trans man who chooses to act and dress feminine, he feels like his parents have given up any serious expectations from him, both regarding his career and gender.

What is of interest to me here is that the game highlights how harmful it is to deadname and misgender trans/nonbinary people, but does it in a way that isn't aggressive or preachy. Instead, it shows the reactions of the people on the receiving end, showing how much it hurts them, and asks the audience to take their feelings seriously.

On a related note, I want to give huge props to Naser. Despite him being the favorite child of the two, he never entertains his parents' inability to grasp Fang's identity. During the video call moment, he makes it a point to use Fang's correct name and pronouns. He stands up for his older sibling, even in a situation where it may be uncomfortable to do so, and that's cool as hell of him.

And finally, on the suggestion of having a "deadname filter" option in the game that censors its audio and text. I get that. I think it'd be great, especially since this game does such a great job at making you feel for these characters that you'd share Fang's pain in those scenes. I'm sure Fang would love to have that filter too, though. And I'm sure many trans and nonbinary people would in real life. My life's audio would be full of lots of censor sound effects. Good idea to add the filter to the game, but remember why it's not there initially, and what the message is trying to portray.

Besides, the kind of people who would deadname Fang would never call them by their canon deadname.

They'd call them Lucy.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

I would say, this show is really bad at making antagonist/villains. Although not as often, this show can strike gold with characterization and certain choices, it's just not that good at making a villain. They either make them too much of the muahaha caricature of a villain without the campy fun, or really really bad at making sympathetic villain with the ping pong choice of boohoo I have a sad life to I'm commiting war crime and doesn't make it transition smoothly, I would love to say there's a nuance to it's writing but I feel like I'm doing the heavy lifting trying to find the good over the overwhelming amount of bad. I'm not blaming this entirely on the writer tho, I'm more side eyeing the producers, they probably want them to be like typical childish shallow villains, while also give them some sort of depth, but combine with certain restrictions, horrible continuity tracking to keep the characters in character while the very spontaneous release date and the unfortunate stand alone nature of the show while trying to put continuity with the limited time for a single episode and a bloated cast with too many plotlines and message. Trying to cram all of that really make this show the mess it is.

The thing is that the show does a decent job with portraying certain characters as morally bankrupt villains, like Gabriel, Lila, Felix, and even Andre to an extent. The problem is that the show usually tries to either brush the more heartless moments under the rug and act like they've always been justified in their actions. Ironically, this makes viewers hate these characters more than if they were just one-dimensional villains like they were in earlier seasons.

Whenever the show tries to tackle more morally gray themes when it comes to the actions of its characters, very rarely does it actually handle it with nuance. If anything, things are just as black and white as the rest of the show's conflicts.

Ladybug makes a bad call that inadvertently leads to Chloe betraying her, the temp heroes' identities being exposed, and Master Fu being forced to make Ladybug the Guardian as a result? Ladybug did nothing wrong, and is never given even the slightest bit of blame for breaking one of the rules she enforces.

Gabriel spends five seasons terrorizing the world as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch in an insane quest to save his comatose wife while emotionally abusing his only son? Gabriel did nothing wrong, and is never called out as a bad father, even by the end of Season 5.

[bengiyo]

Love in Translation Ep 8 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

Last week, we went off the deep end with Yang being kidnapped and being forced to work on a packaging warehouse in his skinny jeans to pay back his debts. He was able to smuggle messages out by changing delivery addresses and using the language learning code he taught Phumjai. The rest of the cast rallied around to support Phumjai when they didn't know what had happened to Yang, and also Phojai and Tag reconciled beautifully. Phumjai went rogue to try and rescue Yang alone, and now both have been captured.

1:09:32 finale!!

Phumjai really had no plan and got hurt.

Now Phojai and Tag have showed up with no plan. What the hell is this?

All these boys trying to sacrifice themselves only works because these characters have cared so much for each other consistently.

We're doing PPL in the middle of the crisis. I love it. We need 5 million baht. Perhaps if the audience buys this camera we'll save the boys?

What is Bojji up to?

We took of Ngern's shirt and made him sweat, but at what cost?

The PPL is driving me insane this week. You're too injured to lift things. Good thing we have this app to our local wholesaler.

Oh no, Bojji is having issues as well.

I like that Phumjai is stepping up and putting the money he has on the line in a way that asks Yang to trust him more.

Okay, I like this show ending the debt collection on a comedic note.

Curious what Yang does long term if he's given his shares to the employees.

Phojai and Tag are moving in together!!

Obsessed with these two playing baseball as a quality time exercise.

What is it with these dramas and showing a scene from even further back as a beginning of romance event? This is specific to Asian dramas.

Final episode brotherly context and emotional reconciliation. I'm okay with it.

More PPL. I'm losing my mind, but glad this little show must have succeeded.

This episode is so weird, but I'm having fun.

Qi'er and Bojji are so valid for the screaming and falling out.

The parents look so pleased about Yang and Tag.

Little Sun is going franchise, baby!

DID TAMMY TURN THEM INTO A NOVEL?? SHE SAID I'M GETTING PAID BACK FOR Y'ALL USING MY LIKENESS IN YOUR STORE AND PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS!

They said the name of the show. Finish your drinks.

And now they're proposing? This show has everything.

Okay. Drawing the ring on Yang"s finger was so goddamn cute.

Of course they met as kids. These dramas love the notion of destiny.

Final Verdict: 8.5, This Show Was So Much Fun. Phumjai and Yang are one of my favorite pairs of the year. I liked the way they fell for each other and the way this show used its workplace. The plot wobbled massively throughout the final two episodes, and we lost the thread on a few things along the way for product placement, but I really loved these characters so much and I loved the way they treated each other. I'm going to miss having this show in the balance. Offroad and Daou and friends did a great job here.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[animebw]

Your review of ONK made me wonder: If a show tries to convey a message and the viewer fails to get it, how much blame can be placed on the author and how much on the people? A person may try to explain something as clearly as possible, but there will always be someone who won't understand, so who can be blamed?

I want to clarify that this is not an attempt at a last minute defense of Aka or the series, but a genuine question that has been on my mind since reading the review.

And I apologize if the question is unclear, I'm not a native English speaker.

Oh, it's a very valid question. And not one exclusive to anime; Fight Club is a perfect example of that question. So many of its fans see it as an aspirational tale of Manly Men Rejecting Modern Society And Embracing The Masculine Tradition Of Violence, but the movie's whole point is that its characters are a bunch of loser incels turning to violence and terrorism to cope with their emasculation complex and the whole masculine glorification of violence is Bad, Actually. Is it th4e audience's fault for missing the message so profoundly because it conflicted with their preconceptions and biases? Or did the movie just not do a good enough job communicating that message and accidentally made the concept of fight club itself seem way cooler than it meant to? Genuinely hard to say.

That said, one bit of analysis I've always found really handy comes from Lindsay Ellis' video series on the Transformers movies: "Framing and aesthetics supercede the rest of the text, always, always, always." When you're working with a visual medium, what's communicated visually will always register more strongly than what's simply part of the story and dialogue (hence why "show don't tell" is such a big rule). In the case of Fight Club, you could argue that the cinematography and editing do such a good job selling the illusion of fight club as something cool and fun and desirable that the intended subversion where the movie then goes "Psych! These people are all losers" in the final act doesn't register as strongly. In the case of anime, it's why your standard fanservice package does such a disservice to female characters; no matter how well written or interesting they might be, if they're constantly framed tits and ass first, that's how the audience will primarily remember them.

And don't get me started on Attack on Titan, which is basically Fight Club's issue stretched across almost a hundred episodes. You spend the first half of the series basically force-fed in-universe fascist propaganda that gives you a biased perspective on what's really going on, only for the curtain to pull back in the second half and force you to confront the grim reality the first half purposefully hid from you. It puts you in the same place as the characters, forced to re-evaluate everything you though you knew and realize just how easily you were taken in by lies and genocidal rhetoric spread by this world's version of the Nazis. But because the first half of the series was so effective at selling you on that rhetoric with its orgasmically violent action and rousing speeches set to epic music, a bunch of fans never grew out of it and continued beating the drums of fascism even as the series turned around and started ripping apart the very ideals it was once holding up. Which is how you end up with a bunch of unironic Eren Yeager stans cheering for him to literally destroy the world because they think he's some kind of based uberchad instead of a fundamentally broken shell of a man running on hate-fueled exhaust fumes until he burns himself down to nothing in his inability to escape the cycle of violence he's become ensnared in. Because that was the story they were trained to expect, and they refused to budge when the other shoes started dropping.

Now, that doesn't really apply to Oshi no Ko since its issues are all primarily text-based, not visual-based. But it's a useful bit of critical thinking that informs a lot of the way I look at media. In a visual medium, visuals always hit harder and leave a stronger impact than words alone, for better or worse.

[tableintheteacherslounge]

Abbott Elementary S03E10 thoughts

The bear you have 1 episode to respond

The bear cold open im DEAD ik Quinta and Ayo were creasing about this 😭 abbott the real best comedy iktr

Mr j icon as always “This is …trash” // “Now who’s gonna clear this up”

“Theyre not the same, mine rhymes” “oh thats why i liked it better”

Kick my feet twirl my hair whenever manny calls her the big teagues

“Oh hey thats my class” 🥺🥺🥺

“It just says ava fest over and over”

“BOOO unshow me that now” 😭😭😭 can’t wait to quote this over and over

“Have ya ever tried just being hinged”

“Can u also give her this important message: i love her, i miss her, and i cant wait to see her again” i love jacob and Janine’s friendship but why does this job means shes been flaking on him when SHE is the one to insist they weren’t just work friends in the first place ☹️

The admin person actor always makes me laugh like the delivery is always so good “This place would collapse without me” 😭 i NEED him in more shows please

JANINE SO EXCITED TO SEE GREGORY 🥰

A card from barbara 🥹 a framed photo of jacob 💀😭 melissa got u some mace 😭😭😭 and mr johnson wanted u to have a strand of his favourite mop 💀😭💀😭😭💀😭

WOW DIRT 😁😄 her genuine excitement so cutesie

Thats such a thoughtful gift ill cwy - forget i ever said anything about manny its greg >>>

She still has the lanyard on all the time ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️ JANINE COME HOMEEEE

“This calls for a plan b u cannot get a cvs” 💀

Janine not understanding sarcasm then misusing a colloquialism lets go neurodivergence

Not tariq moderating another panel, when he’s a regular for s4 then what 😈

Barbs fake laugh at mels impressions 😭

“Ive heard u breathing and i think u need a specialist” Janine’s breathing my favourite long running joke

And janines overwhelm omg shes so me

“I dont know who thats supposed to be but he sounds responsible” wife is trying her hardest to be supportive

Jacobs voice breaking 😭

“CORNER!” Slam “are we just yelling out things we see now?? WALLS FLOOR HUGE MESS OF FOOD”

Why did barbs card to Janine make me tear up???

2 claps for melissas impressions and barb originally forgetting nooo 😭💀

“Thank god we had a backup plan” “youre welcome” melissa 😭😭

JANINE!!! FOR GOOD!!! 💗💞💞💘💝💖💞💓💓 IM SO HAPPPY

Barb hugging her and calling her sweetheart 🥺🥹 i love my favourite mother and daughter

“Theres noone id rather teach second grade with than u” see melissa u did miss her really (i need more melissa janine content honestly their teaming up eps are always so good)

THE KIDS WRITING IN THE CARD 😭😭😭😭😭😭 noooooo ill cry

Ava u gotta STOP scaring barb w this pregnancy accusation

GET HER BARB thats why she has an emmy!!

OH QUEST LOVE HE IS THERE

Okay top 2 eps of the season easily

So funny but so full of heart - exactly what abbott does best

Did expect janine to stay a little longer before going back to abbott but that fear of such a long commitment is so real and I’ SO GLAD SHES HOME

[twigs-sprigs]

the post seabound lloyd comic for the wip thing? 👀

okay. so this one is. i need to explain first before you read. i will say that the ninjago rewrite kai and me have in our heads is supposed to be a little more "mature" than the show. it contains some darker themes and some more realistic behaviors from certain characters. ( this post will contain themes of grief and addiction. trigger warning right here.) so, my friends and i have recently finished watching seabound (as one does!) and @shadesofvermillionvoid and i...well... we CANNOT stop having ideas about things that would happen in that year gap post seabound and pre-crystalized in our rewrite/headcanons i saw the first episode of crystalized, and i was like.. hm... i wonder why kai hasnt gone like.. full sad again like he went red shogun last time someone dear to him died.. like thats his sister.. whats up with that and i went to my friend kai, the one mentioned earlier in this post and i said... hey. what if... kai. actually got... therapy! what if, he had promised to himself. that he would NEVER go back to the pain that being the shogun had caused him. what he took a step back and looked at himself and said "i. i need help. this is too much and i need to talk to someone." so, kai does get therapy (good for him!) he gets a new job, that of training little kids, because kai loves taking care of kids! thats been apparent this whole time, so he takes up this job that makes him happy! and kai's.. getting better! he's handling nya's death as well as he can. he has his rough moments but he kept the promise he made to himself and to his family. meanwhile... lloyd... well. lloyd isnt getting better. at all. no, in fact, hes going downhill and he's going fast. he moves out of the monestary for the first time, he abandons his identity, that of the green ninja, he stops being a leader. he stops caring about the things he thinks define him. he stops caring about his family. he just...cleans windows now. he can't be responsible for anyone. ever. again.

so well, lloyd knows he needs help too. but hes a little bit more.. uh... sloppy. about getting said help. he starts taking anti-depressants, just. medicine. maybe... a little too much of it. and kai. doesnt know that yet. but he wants to be there for his little brother. they meet one day and he sees how disheveled lloyd looks. he sees how out of it he is and how different hes behaving. and... well, when kai says the words "Little brother" to this.. broken version of lloyd. Lloyd doesnt take it well. they have a fight, a fight that results in lloyd saying that he's not kai's "brother" but, kai still tries to be supportive he messages lloyd every day he tries so hard even if hes hurt he cant let lloyd destroy himself like he did one day he even gets an accidental call from lloyd, and helps him though panic before swiftly leaving the next morning. and he still texts lloyd every day hes still trying until...

well until lloyd stops seeing his texts. ------ FUN FACT! i actually made this to show kai the IDEA i had of it. because as you can see i am HORRID at explaining and i just go on and ramble!! so i didnt wanna do that and this is my only other way of expressing myself. its not a GOOD comic and it was never made to be good. it was just made to show kai what i had in mind BDWJKWDW with lloyd breaking his phone specifically

[springbloggy]

Noah Knows Best: The Forgotten Nickcom

The timing of this is completely coincidental, as Quinton Reviews just uploaded (at the time of me writing this), part 2 of his Sam and Cat review (watch it btw its really, really good). This is something I've been thinking about writing for a while now, because I find the topic fascinating.

I first found out about Noah Knows Best from Pop Entertainment's history video on Nickelodeon Studios (another must watch, especially if you love Nickelodeon and theme park content). There, the show was given a brief mention, being called one the greatest bombs in Nickelodeon history. There was also a commenter below the video who pointed out how, when they tried to find more info on the show, Wikipedia had no summaries, only a quote from the creator on why the show failed. This came as a shock to me, as Nickelodeon is known for being the nostalgia network, where even the most obscure movies and shows from Nickelodeon have their own small fanbases. Yet Noah has no (easy to find anyways) fanbase, no one sharing their memories of seeing the show, its nowhere in nostalgia compilations, and the lost media search for it is incredibly small compared to other Nickelodeon search efforts. Official recognition from Nickelodeon itself in the years since has only been in a compilation of Nickelodeon Studios bumpers. Which judging by the lack of mention or acknowledgement otherwise, I personally believe was an accidental inclusion after digging through showtapes and including whatever they had.*

Now below, I will go through what the show was about, one of the found episodes, the different factors that caused the show's downfall, and whether or not I think Noah deserved better. Buckle up, because I have a feeling that this will be a long one.

What was Noah Knows Best about?

Since Wikipedia lacks a summary, I will provide my own based on what I could find before watching one of the episodes and what I could gather after watching it.

Noah Knows Best was about a boy named Noah Beznick and his sibling rivalry with his sister Megan alongside with his friendship with DJ Martin. The three would be entangled in different plots due to this "triangle" arc. For example, Megan wants a computer, DJ promises to give a computer to Megan to earn a date, while Noah secretly plans to take the computer as payback for Megan getting him in trouble. At some points, Noah will "talk" to the audience to explain his feelings. The different cross-factors will then combine in a grand finale, which will end with a positive message from Noah.

Source of image: 2010snickforever

Episode 2: The Computer

The episode begins with Noah explaining that Megan's school "Yardly Prep", which he describes as being more like a country club with a chalkboard, is two miles away from his school. This, he feels still isn't far enough distance. The show then quickly pans into Yardly, which does have a more unique layout compared to most classrooms. Having an almost college vibe.

And this is where I could start to see why this show failed with the kid audience almost immediately. I am thrust in and to me these characters seem too old to logically have a sibling rivalry. It might make sense if the pair were elementary/middle schoolers or even high school freshmen trying to find their way, but this girl seems to be in a college-like setting. Even if the two are the same age, why does she go to a different, more expensive school than her brother? It makes it seem like their parents prefer Megan over Noah, which has a kinda uncomfortable vibe.

Anyways, Megan is upset that she does not have a computer despite it being the 90s (which she was very quickly corrected to being the 2000s). Noah and her apparently both got a computer by their parents, but Noah got a job and bought out her share for 200 dollars. A strict teacher or principal walks by and all the students stop in their tracks, tidy up their outfits, and sits back down upon his presence. The whole setup, despite laugh track, is rather odd and unfunny.

After this, Noah says something that doesn't match the sequence just shown at all.

Uh, ok Noah.

The theme song well...

It sure is something! It feels like the last breaths of a dying trend in a way I can't describe.

If this next sequence was shown at the beginning instead of what I had just described, I would have preferred it. Megan walks into a pizza shop with her friend, discussing about how she dislikes kids from a rival school called Hudson*2. Meanwhile DJ meets up with his older brother who schools him on what not to do while he's gone (no borrowing my stuff without my permission, no touching my stuff without permission, no looking at my stuff without permission). Megan and Noah meet at him at the table, where they go over DJ's many failed attempts to ask her to a date. This intro is a lot more natural than the odd previous sequence and sets up each of the main characters and their relationships with each other really well. When Megan leaves, her friend Camille suggests to DJ to get the computer Megan needs to get her attention.

Sadly the rest of the episode does not keep up with this upbeat feel, as the next two sequences have an odd negative tone. The first has Noah attempting to help with his sister Megan with a lie she set up about her saving him from a mugging, only for his Mom to catch the lie and ground the two.

At least, that's what I think is what happened, as the scene comes and goes so fast with little explanation I was left confused.

The next scene has more setup, as the character previously appeared in the pizzeria scene. Noah tries to escape a bully named Zeke, who used to be his friend until Noah stood up to Zeke and got him into detention, which caused Zeke's dad sent him to military school. Zeke blames Noah for the whole thing and has a grudge against him. Noah tries to make things up with the advice of his friend, but Zeke doesn't take it.

Both of these scenes are dour, they have some jokes, but none of them hit and just make the scenes worse.

Of course, things don't get better from there, as Noah and DJ convince Megan to go out with DJ for three days for a computer. Little does she know, that Noah is actually planning to borrow the computer from DJ's brother, then take it away from her as payback for her lie from earlier that episode.

Everything about this sitcom is miserable so far. When compared to the Nickcoms and Disney Channel sitcoms I grew up with, there's nothing really likable, or funny, or engaging about anything. And I don't see things improving as things go on.

Noah and DJ go into the shared bedroom of DJ and his brother in a "comedic" (heavy quotes there) scene of them trying to hide the fact they stole his laptop.

After this scene, Noah admits to the audience that while the plan sounded good in his head earlier, he was now having second thoughts.

It's a rare moment of earnestness in this show, a moment where I could feel a little bit of something, even if for a brief amount of time.

DJ gives Megan the laptop, but the next day she finds it missing from her desk. She complains to Noah about this, but has to hide the laptop's existence to her parents, who are unaware about the bet and only want to give her a computer when her grades rise up.

Once again, this showcases the overly negative tone of the sitcom. The mom is upset about the siblings fighting, the dad is upset about his failing play, the siblings are upset about the laptop, it's said that the date had Megan three rows behind DJ, and the whole scene just adds to an already miserable watch for what is supposed to be a somewhat-comedic sitcom.

Or at least that's how one network advertised it!

I get life is messy, unpredictable, and can be dour. But I personally don't think that's what most people look for in a nickelodeon sitcom. I can imagine kids getting bored or upset by the show and changing the channel.

Everything about the laptop then comes to a head later in the pizzeria. Noah and DJ find out that the laptop that was in Noah's locker was stolen by Zeke, who gives the laptop to Megan at the pizzeria. As a cover to DJ's brother, Noah tells the brother that Zeke bought the computer and wiped the hard drive, which prompts DJ's brother to chase Zeke who then gets chased by Megan.

At home, Noah apologizes to Megan and Megan gets payback by getting Zeke to scare him. Noah allows her to borrow his computer, but for an hour a day.

Meanwhile DJ's brother confronts him about the computer and scares DJ so much he runs out of the building.

The episode ends with a recap by Noah...and then this happens

What caused the downfall of Noah Knows Best

Noah Knows Best seems to be a show that was doomed from the start, as Nickelodeon always seemed to butt heads on the direction of the show.

Noah was something I really wanted to try and even though it was a different idea for Nick, and they didn’t warm to it immediately, I appreciated when they green lit for pilot. Unfortunately, their view of what the show should be and my vision of the show were not the same and they never really matched up, which was ultimately a reason for its lack of success. And the big thing was, I wanted to shoot it the same way I had shot Alex, with many of the same directors, writers and crew members, but they wanted it for Nick Studios, which, as I mentioned above, was built for a different kind of show. I tried to thread the line between sitcom and single-camera show and it was never one or the other. I’m still proud of the show, but what I wanted it to be was not what Nick wanted and it was a battle all the way.

-Ken Lipmann, creator of "Noah Knows Best" and "The Mysterious World of Alex Mack"

One of the largest factors to the show's failure was Nickelodeon's insistence to film the show in Nickelodeon Studios Florida, which by the year 2000 was dying. Noah was one of many shows that were put in the studio as a last minute attempt to revive the studios before the contract ran out. The majority of these plans failed, with the one large success being Slime Time Live which was replaced by the easier to film UPick Live. However, out of all the last minute lifelines, Noah was the most apparent failure of the bunch, as it lasted only two months after premier, with 5 of its 13 episodes being unaired in English. Interestingly, those 5 episodes were aired in Russia. Your guess is as good as mine.

This lies in conspiracy territory, but I wouldn't be surprised if Noah Knows Best caused not only the death of Nickelodeon Studios, but also the rise of the Dan Schnider-verse. Especially given that Noah Knows Best was paired with the much more popular Amanda Show during the last months of Snick. For better or worse, without Noah Knows Best we might have never gotten Drake and Josh, iCarly, or Victorious. However in a hypothetical world where Noah Knows Best and the other shows it was paired with succeeded, the network could have gotten a more varied schedule with more kidcoms and game shows by different long-time Nickelodeon creators or even newer creators. A world where the hyperactive humor of shows like Drake and Josh may have never gotten popular in favor of the more subdued humor seen in Noah Knows Best.

However, even with executive meddling, I still think that Noah was destined to not be popular with kids. The episode I watched anyways, was dour, it didn't have the fun or whimsy of shows that would become popular in the 2000s. The characters don't have the likability factor for kids to feel sympathy towards even if it was advertised as a drama rather than a comedy. The jokes often don't land and the whole thing just ended up making me feel more bored than entertained, and I can imagine it being similar for a lot of kids who tuned in. This is ultimately why I think Noah Knows Best had such low ratings, even though it was paired up with heavy hitters such as The Amanda Show and Spongebob during SNICK.

Did Noah Know's Best deserve better?

Here's the thing. I think the show's basic concept was done better by another show. Drake and Josh takes every concept of Noah Knows Best and does them better. The sibling rivalry is done between with Drake and Josh, however its more loving and the pair share a school and a room, which brings them closer together as characters. Opposed to Noah and Megan who are split apart for everything for 10 years. The aspect of pulling mean tricks is done by Megan who plots against the brothers, rather than the main two siblings going against each other for their own gain. Various side characters fill in the friend roles in a fulfilling way that the side characters of Noah Knows Best couldn't do.

For a non-Schnider option, there's Ned's Declassified, which has a similar "lesson" format in a much more fun and engaging way. The various friends bonds are tight despite their differences, and there's even a cheesy bully character done in a better way than the bully shown in Noah Knows Best.

So in that regard, I don't think Noah deserved better...because it technically already was done better. However, I do think Noah Knows Best needs more recognition from the network and the fans and does not deserve to be lost media. I think this show, its troubled history, and its ties to Nickelodeon Studios Florida's ultimate demise, are interesting and important to preserve, despite the final results. The fact that Nickelodeon is storing high quality tapes of Noah Knows Best, but haven't released them to Paramount+, Pluto TV, or even a dedicated Youtube channel as many other smaller shows do, is a shame. Noah Knows Best is another sign of the ultimate failure of companies to properly showcase and preserve their media in the streaming age. And possibly how companies always failed to showcase their shows prior to then.

I hope you enjoyed this strange mini review and retrospective. It's a topic I find fascinating.

*Note also the video was uploaded on the Nicktoons youtube channel and not the dedicated NickRewind or Nickelodeon youtube channels. Since Nicktoons Network is infamous for being Nick's "burial ground", perhaps them putting their one acknowledgement of Noah Knows Best onto the Nicktoons Youtube is a modern extension of this practice? *2 later on watching this, I realized Hudson is the name of Noah's school...or at least I think so. The show never really seems to explain these elements too well.

[the-one-where-casey-watches-tv]

True Detective episode 1.08 "Form and Void"

I love anthologies. I love the endless potential, and the early seasons of American Horror Story really prove the extent of that potential. It’s also so much cleaner than having a bunch of spinoffs (tell me why American Horror Stories is a thing? Anthologies by definition don’t need a spinoff. Just do it next year). But the later seasons of AHS also embody the downfall of anthologies: if they do too good a job, it can be hard to get excited about the next season because you know that everything you liked about it will be different next time around.

I’ve only seen season one of True Detective, and I’m really trying to talk myself into pressing on, not because I didn’t like it, but because I liked it so much. The people behind this show built themselves some massive shoes to fill, and I’m skeptical that it can be done. Everything about this first season was incredibly deliberate; it was gripping and compelling at every turn, and it all served a larger theme. It even managed to come around to an uplifting final message, which I was pleasantly surprised by as this was one of the darkest things I’ve ever watched.

I tend to cover finales, and that’s because endings are so important to me. It absolutely makes or breaks my entire impression of a show (I reminisce sometimes with “remember when I liked Ozark?”), and True Detective’s season one finale drew a powerful underscore on everything I’ve loved throughout this entire journey. This is a story with purpose, that knew exactly what it was about. As a whole, it had the power of its own Rust Cohle who said things like “I know who I am. After all these years, there’s a victory in that.” and “Given how long it’s taken me to reconcile my nature, I don’t think I’ll forego it on your account”.

Matthew McConaughey in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

“Form and Void” finds Rust and Marty on a boat, holding Steve Geraci at gunpoint, a former sheriff who holds key insight into the Marie Fontenot case. Cohle forces Geraci to handle the tape he stole from Tuttle and watch it, eyes glued to the TV. Geraci watches, screaming as he does, reacting even more strongly than Marty. Some people seem to find it cheesy that rather than showing us the tape, they show us these ‘hard, seasoned men’ struggling to watch it, but I think that’s exactly the point.

A crucial thing this show is about is the difference between bad and evil. Marty’s a pretty bad guy I’d say- lies, cheats, beats people up, calls his daughter and wife whores- but he’s also a human being with emotions and limits and can function in our society. The crimes of this case are on the fringes of humanity. This show does a great job displaying the depths of these atrocities without forcing us to look at something unspeakable. Making the characters do it for us not only shows us the nature of the crimes, but the nature of the people. Errol Williams Childress, the man with the face like spaghetti, the undocumented Louisiana man who committed these crimes, is as evil as a person can be while still being a human being (“he’s worse than anybody”). And fighting him with such force makes Marty a ‘good’ man in the biblical sense, despite being so flawed that he’s hard for regular folks like you and me to really get behind.

Marty struggles a lot with his conscience over the course of this story, and Maggie ultimately acknowledges that he “didn’t know who he was, so he didn’t know what to want”. Rust, who, of course, knows exactly who he is, doesn’t have patience for Marty’s hemming and hawing. When Marty asks if Rust ever wonders if he’s a bad man, Rust doesn’t hesitate to say that “the world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door”. The idea that bad men can do good- by protecting the world from worse men- is a major takeaway, and one that I really like.

Woody Harrelson in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

And Rust may have been stewing in a storage unit obsessing over this for years, but it’s ultimately Marty who finds the key clue that brings everything to a head. He recognizes a fresh coat of green paint on a house in Erath, drawing the connection to the green ears in the description of their subject. Adrenaline pumping from the new discovery, Marty and Rust head out to find out who painted the house.

An interview with the old woman who lived in the house in ’95 confirmed that she had her house painted by men who worked for her parish- the Tuttle church community. Rust and Marty were able to track her husband’s payment for the job to Childress and Son Maintenance, which yielded an address to the Childress property. They head over. This is it. This is the place. Rust can tell by the taste of the air.

“That taste. Aluminum, ash. I’ve tasted it before”. Marty, used to his partner saying weird shit, but ever the human being who’s realizing they’re walking into a life-threatening situation, simply says, “you still see things ever?”. Rust replies, “It never stops, not really. What happened to my head, it’s not something that gets better”. Not a reassuring answer to Marty, but Rust’s proximity to insanity is the very thing that keeps him safe amongst actual psychopaths. Similarly, Marty’s ability to read people is a skill the show makes sure we’re aware of despite his gruff, bumbling personality.

That skill is what made Marty feel comfortable calling Papania, one of the two interrogating officers when they arrived on the scene. But alas, there’s no service. That’s typically a frustrating and unnecessary roadblock in suspense stories, but it just feels realistic out here in bumfuck Louisiana. So, Marty forces his way into the home in search of a landline while Rust secures the perimeter. Marty overpowers Childress’s girlfriend (wife?), but not before she can say some truly haunting shit about the man they’re here for.

Ann Dowd and Glenn Fleshler in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

Rust, meanwhile, has encountered him face to face. He has his gun pointed squarely at Childress and tells him to get on his knees, but Childress simply says “no” and runs off. Why Rust didn’t just shoot him, like Marty did to LeDeux’s crony 17 years ago, is a valid question. I think at this point in time, Rust has a lot less stamina for bureaucratic coverups, paperwork, and debriefs and a much greater willingness to die. Not to mention, they don’t really have any legal standing to be here in the first place this time around. He’s going to see it through, all the way through, in the beating heart of this operation.

Which turns out to be an absolutely terrifying maze of tunnels lined with stick-work much like those found at the crime scenes. Rust winds his way through, but every corner he rounds with his gun drawn just makes the dire situation all the more evident. He is at every disadvantage, no idea where he’s going, while Childress clearly has eyes on him. His voice carries through the maze, somehow coming from somewhere, taunting Rust, guiding him right where he wants him. “Come on inside, little priest. To your right, little priest. This is Carcosa. You know what they did to me? What I will do to all the sons and daughters of man? I am not ashamed. Come die with me, little priest.”

Woody Harrelson in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

I’m obsessed with Childress calling Rust little priest. In addition to the obvious irony of this being a church-based cult- and Rust looking down at organized religion altogether- he is super preachy in his way. He says some stuff throughout this whole season that really grinds you to a halt. My favorite is one of his earliest revelations of his personality, one that stuns Marty into regretting having asked him anything at all: “I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, an accretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody. Maybe the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming, stop reproducing, and walk hand in hand into extinction. One last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.”

It may not be Jesus, but it’s a hell of a response to the simple question of “are you a Christian?”. And when it comes down to it, isn’t sharing your opinion on humanity and what we should do with it all that preaching really is?

Anyway, Rust enters the offshoot of the tunnels that Childress directs him to. It turns out Marty was right to be worried about those hallucinations of Rust’s. He looks up at the sky, visible several feet up into the air, and a spiraling galaxy fills his field of vision. Rust is distracted by it when Childress charges him with a knife. If that hadn’t happened, I think Rust would’ve gotten him in one. But Childress stabs him deep in the stomach and twists, holding him up in the air by the blade.

Matthew McConaughey in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

Marty bursts in behind them, prompting Childress to drop the deeply wounded Rust to the ground. Marty doesn’t hesitate to fire three shots into Childress that hit him in the shoulders and chest, seemingly to no effect. Childress charges Marty, hurling an axe head-over-handle until it buries itself in Marty’s chest. Marty dislodges the axe and uses it and all his strength to hold Childress at bay.

When it comes to scary things, I’m usually most affected by the occult. Things like demons, ghosts, possession etc. are terrifying to me. Things you can always see, that die for good in ways we can measure and understand typically don’t bother me as much. But Childress is so fucking scary. The ideology and staging of the killings was eerie every step of the way, but this final confrontation is so well executed. Childress is as powerful and able to withstand as much as I can reasonably believe possible in a human being, and Marty and Rust suffer the most serious of injuries that they can plausibly walk away from. Rust’s managing to get to his gun and shoot Childress in the skull is, in a way, scary in and of itself because it confirms that this really was an actual person who walked among us.

Matthew McConaughey and Glenn Fleshler in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

Marty and Rust have had a bond all along, but their recovery together in the hospital is a wholesome confirmation of that. Despite everything that happened between them and the rage Marty felt towards him when they parted ways years ago, Marty and Maggie both refused to entertain the idea that Rust had done something evil. In fact, they took offense to the thought, putting an abrupt end to any conversation that started to go that way.

After Childress is dead, Marty crawls to Rust and puts pressure to his stab wound while they wait for help to arrive. Recounting it later, Marty says he sat there “with his friend’s head in my lap”. Once both of them are lucid in the hospital, Marty, less seriously injured, wheels himself to Rust’s hospital room. Rust is himself, that is to say, not warm and cuddly, instead preoccupied with the fact that he had come across Childress in their original investigation and failed to put the pieces together. But Marty takes him in stride, telling him not to ever change, and he’ll “be back tomorrow, buddy”. They send each other off with a flip of the middle finger.

Marty proves himself the most at the very end. I was impressed with him for understanding his faults and truly giving Maggie the space to move on. And I was impressed with him for staying by Rust’s side even as he continued to heal faster than him. Despite Rust’s resistance to the idea, Marty insists on seeing to Rust having a place to stay when he’s released- that things are “already arranged”.

In the rawest- and most optimistic moment of the whole show- Marty wheels Rust out under the stars for a non-sanctioned smoke break. Rust breaks down, in itself a true sign of his bond with Marty, and opens up through his tears: “There was a moment… I know when I was under in the dark, that something… whatever I’d been reduced to, you know, not even consciousness… it was a vague awareness in the dark, and I could… I could feel my definitions fading. And beneath that darkness, there was another kind. It was deeper, it was warm, you know? Like a substance. I could feel, man, and I knew, I knew my daughter waited for me there. It was so clear. I could feel her. I could feel… I could feel a piece of my pop too. It was like I was a part of everything I ever loved, and we were all… the three of us… just fadin’ out. All I had to do was let go. And I did. I said ‘darkness, yeah, yeah’. And I disappeared. But I could… I could still feel her love there, even more than before. There was nothing but that love. Then I woke up.”

Still from "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

We’ve heard from Marty, from the Tuttle parish, and various believers along the way, that there is more beyond. More after. But hearing Rust say it makes me believe it. He was wrong about there being nothing and us being no one. It’s a beautiful moment. But there’s more.

Rust breaks down after this, and Marty shows a soft side of his own. He tries to bring Rust back by asking him about something he’d mentioned years ago- that he used to make up stories about the stars when he lived in Alaska. Either Rust humors him or the invitation to talk about that really does anchor him, at least enough to ponder some more; either way, he finishes Marty’s prompt.

RUST: I tell you, Marty, I’ve been up in that room looking out those windows every night here and just thinking… It’s just one story. The oldest. Light versus dark.

MARTY: Well, I know we ain’t in Alaska, but… appears to me the dark has a lot more territory.

RUST: Yeah. You’re right about that.

They ponder the night sky a little longer. Rust asks Marty to take him to the car. He’s had enough of hospitals. Marty knows Rust well enough to look out for him, but not to argue with him. He obliges. As they’re about to part ways:

RUST: You know you’re lookin’ at it all wrong. The sky thing.

MARTY: How’s that?

RUST: Well, once, there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning.

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in "Form and Void". Image courtesy of IMDb.

On that honestly beautiful note, we fade out. It’s an incredibly more positive answer to Marty’s question long ago of why Rust hasn’t just killed himself if he sees humanity in this awful way. His answer at the time was that it must just be his programming. But he’s always seen the potential in the light. Never delusional about how much darkness there was, hence his perpetual melancholy, but always aware of the possibility of the good. That’s the real reason he’s kept fighting. Someone like Rust Cohle seeing that potential makes me believe it’s really there.

So, here’s the biggest question: should I watch season two? Will it hold up to the real beauty I found here? Drop me your thoughts on Marty, Rust, and all things True Detective.

[twinsunstars]

My Thoughts on Parts 1 and 2 of Ahsoka - A Discussion Post

Ahsoka premiered on Tuesday at 6 PM PT, and fans were raving about it. Fans of Star Wars: Rebels were overjoyed with the content they got. Let's dive into this week's premiere episodes, MASTER AND APPRENTICE, and TOIL AND TROUBLE.

SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SERIES YET!

I'm starting off with the loth-cat because this little thing is just so ADORABLE. Sabine takes care of it so well, and it loves her. It must be protected. The cat will keep you company as you read.

The series started with a movie-like introduction, words scrolling up for us to read. I liked how they did that and gave us a little preview to what happened before we started off. Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati arrived and landed in a New Republic ship, attacking the crew with their lightsabers and rescuing Morgan Elsbeth, who was held prisoner on that ship. Baylan had at one point talked about childrens' tales in the Jedi Order, which indicates he was a former Jedi, Not much is yet known about his past, but we do know from the trailer that he had known Anakin Skywalker.

Later, Morgan revealed herself to be a Nightsister of Dathomir, which is interesting as she talks about her past. She had used Nightsister magick herself after she obtained the map, which amazed me. I really want to know more about Morgan's history as a Nightsister. The three are ready to rise to power and locate Grand Admiral Thrawn, wherever he could be.

Ahsoka Tano is first seen at the remains of a Nightsister Temple. The details of the Temple got my curiosity peaked, and it's interesting to see more of Nightsister culture.

Huyang, an ancient droid who used to live in the Jedi Temple and helped younglings build their lightsabers, is Ahsoka's companion as he helps her escape the droid attack. I love how Huyang is here with Ahsoka and giving her and Sabine advice, but it still intrigues me on how he is here. What happened to him when the Jedi Order was taken down? How and when did Ahsoka find him? I'm still researching about it myself, but I'd love it if anyone could share some sources.

Moving on to Lothal. This beautiful planet that was once ruled by the Empire in darkness now shines brightly under its sun, the loth-cats running in the fields freely. I really wish Ezra could have been here to see his home liberated and shining after the fall of the Empire. The day he comes back, he'll love it.

We got to see Ryder Azadi in live-action with his original voice actor (Clancy Brown) speaking to the crowds of Lothal. He stands in front of the iconic mural last seen in the finale of Star Wars: Rebels, depicting the Ghost Crew, the heroes of Lothal. The mural is on public display for everyone to see.The day celebrates the liberation of Lothal and Ezra Bridger's sacrifice. Alongside him, Jai Kell appears, who is now a Senator of Lothal. I loved these cameos, it got my Rebels heart screaming.

Sabine Wren was announced at the event to speak to the public, but she was a no-show. Sabine raced away with her speeder, and HER SOUNDTRACK? That needs to be out there now. No one can stop this girl. I love how Natasha Liu Bordizzo portrays Sabine, she really captures Sabine's stubborness and strength.

Sabine has added her artistic touch everywhere she has been; from the tower, Ahsoka's ship, her helmets, and everything. I love the little drawings of Loth-cats she's done. I loved the detail of her chipped nail polish. When she brought her armor out again, I loved that she added a Purgill on one piece, as memory.

When Sabine had turned on Ezra's message for her, I was both screaming and trying not to tear up. Eman Esfandi does such a good job portraying the character, and it's been so long since we've heard Ezra talk on screen. (I want the blueberry boi home now.) He had called Sabine a "sister", which I thought was adorable. Sabine smiled to herself hearing it.

(I know that some Sabezra shippers are a bit upset over it. I see them both ways, and I'm fine with whichever direction they go, and I like to imagine them either way as an alternate universe thing for the fun of it.)

Sabine had taken the map ball from Ahsoka even though she had told her not to (where do you think she got that, Ahsoka?), and managed to open it. Shin Hati had been sent by Baylan to go find the map, in which she succeeded in obtaining. Sabine quickly grabbed Ezra's lightsaber to fight against her. I find it interesting how she had made her own modifications to it but it is still Ezra's lightsaber, despite Huyang saying it is hers now. Shin and Sabine engaged in a heated fight, ending with Shin impaling Sabine and taking the map.

Huyang talks to Sabine at an infirmary on Lothal. As she recovers from her impale wound, Huyang calls Ezra's lightsaber hers and discusses Sabine's journey as a Padawan. I think it was confirmed that she was not Force-Sensitive, but I see some articles saying that she is, but she is weak in her abilities. I'm still a little confused, and I think she maybe is Force-Sensitive but doesn't fully have the ability like other Jedi, but Sabine has potential with her own talents and as a Mandalorian, as we know from seeing her in Rebels.

The duo of Hera and Chopper is always so fun to watch. I like how Mary Elizabeth Winstead embodies the character of Hera, and how she worries for Ezra. Once Ahsoka had returned with the map ball, hope grew in her that this could be a chance to find him. She has never stopped being the courageous fighter she is.

Chopper is himself, of course. And he's everything we love. During mid-battle, Chopper argues with Hera, most likely asking, "Hera, did you go through my stuff?" I love his energy and attitude, it's so funny and loveable.

Marrok was the name given to this Inquisitor before the series had released. There were many theories surrounding this inquisitor potentially being Ezra, but thankfully it's not. (Hopefully.) The character is said to be the very last Inquisitor, and has a mysterious background, Hopefully we can learn more about him.

Sabine is ready to return as Ahsoka's padawan, coming back to her signature short haircuits and rocking her Mandalorian armor. She visits the mural, tapping Ezra's face and looking at the mural with hope before departing Lothal with Ahsoka, ready to get the map back and find Ezra and Thrawn.

The massive structure seen being built towards the end of the second episode is said to be called the Eye of Sion. Morgan oversees it's construction, and I have heard it's something that will help bring Thrawn back. There are theories surrounding it regarding a Sith lord, but I'm still doing my research and looking up things. It'll be interesting to see more of what this is about.

Anyways, the premiere episodes of Ahsoka were a blast to watch. I'm excited for the next episodes, and I hope to learn more about Sabine's journey as a Padawan. (And Ezra better be home soon.) I also hope Zeb and Kallus show up soon, and Jacen Syndulla has to make an appearance. I also hope the loth-wolves would show up, that would be fun. But the journey has just begun.

[supernaturallyliterate]

PJ&O Episode 3 thoughts!! Spoilers ahead.

I love that Uncle Ferdinand had not one, not two, but THREE MENTIONS and even a touching scene with Grover finding his statue at the end of the episode

I’m sorry, but there were supposed to be 3 furies attacking them on the bus (& the bus was supposed to be driving / get in a car wreck cuz of the fight)

Alecto’s offer to Annabeth makes a little bit of sense, but Annabeth choosing to go invisible just to reveal her location by talking to Alecto does NOT make ANY of sense. Where was the master strategist Annabeth in that moment? Normally Annabeth talks to stall for time in a pinch. Not as a just because.

Medusa’s offer to Percy made even LESS sense. I understand that they’re trying to condense a lot of information and a lot of big emotions / character growth into 8 short episodes. But it doesn’t make sense to me that Medusa would know about Percy’s mom, would play up the “I’m not what you think I am” story, and offer to turn Percy’s quest mates into statues. It’s just a bad deal and reveals her intentions too easily.

Grover is a vegetarian; he wouldn’t call out hamburgers and drool the way he did.

The consensus song… is uncanny. I don’t like it. I like what it does—break the tension, show that Grover balances both Percy & Annabeth. But I don’t like the song itself or the clapping interruption thing. It’s weird and jars me out of the scenes.

I DID like the direct convo between Percy & Annabeth at the end of the episode where they confront each other. Percy reveals that he’s stressed about the whole quest thing. They go at each other, show that they don’t trust each other. And Grover forced them to talk it out. I did like that & I think it did a pretty good job of speedrunning the development of the books

I think it was interesting that Medusa so directly called out Percy and Annabeth for falling in their parents footsteps. I think one of the things that the show has been doing is being much more direct with its messaging and subtext and character motivations. Everything is told directly to the characters and therefore the audience.

The oracle made an appearance! I loved the depiction of the oracle itself and the green smoke.

The attic is very book accurate and even has the Minotaur horn callback!

I did not like that smelly Gabe gave the prophecy??? It felt so out of place and cheapened the moment, made it feel less serious. I think in the books, it was Gabe and his poker friends who appeared in the smoke, but they still spoke with the oracles voice and were otherwise still creepy and ominous. This felt…. Cheeky. Like a Parody.

“I AM IMPERTINENT” 10/10 I love love love that this exact dialogue made it in

I was so worried that they wouldn’t fight Medusa and Percy wouldn’t ship the head to Olympus. Especially when he suggested leaving it in the basement with Annabeth cap of invisibility (left field??)

Agai with direct information being given: the explanation of monsters tracking abilities. “They smell your inadequacies, your desire for glory, your shame.” Percy, Annabeth, Grover’s insecurities. Spoon fed to us.

I did love that Percy’s frustration for the gods came out more this episode. Something like “a dad that never cared about me”

I loved the animation / cgi for the Hermes wing shoes

I still don’t feel like Lin Manuel-Miranda was a good Hermes choice. He’s just too famous. He has so much history with him, it’s hard to separate him from his other roles in Hamilton and Moana and Little Mermaid. We only got like 2 minutes of him, so time will tell. But I’m hesitant.

I like that we got more Annabeth time.

I still feel like the Thalia info came too early.

I still want a 25 episode season. I want chapter by chapter. I want build up. I want the new fans to see the slow burn and the build up. A universe being built.

I’ll have more thoughts, I’m sure

[knickynoo]

Hello there! In one of your episode reviews, you said that Doc seems to base his self worth off of how people see his intelligence. Did you have any more thoughts on that?

Hi! Some additional thoughts for you:

So, I'm going to separate Cartoon Doc and Trilogy Doc while discussing my thoughts for this, since the characters are so different. But, yes, the "Retired" episode of the cartoon is entirely centered around Doc falling apart at the seams when a malfunction in one of his inventions informs him that he's used up nearly all of his brain power.

In just the span of a few hours, he comes to the conclusion that he's useless to his family, and they'd all be better off without him. In his mind, he's a burden if he can no longer use his intellect to create inventions that better the life of his family, and it pushes him to make the decision to leave altogether. Big thumbs down to Doc for abandoning his family.

BUT! It does say a lot about who he is if he thinks that not being "smart" equates to "having no purpose." And it's very clear that Doc thinks this way specifically about himself–not about other people. All the love and support he gives to his family apparently isn't enough on its own. Very sad! I can only assume that this dysfunctional line of thinking stemmed from the way he was raised and treated as a child and that he was only treated as if he had value when he was using his brain to contribute something. As far as I know, Doc's father isn't mentioned in the cartoons, but as I (jokingly) mentioned in my episode review, I can only assume Cartoon Erhardt is to blame here.

As far as Trilogy Doc goes, I don't really see him as having many insecurities tied to his intelligence. At least, not to the extent that Cartoon Doc does. Trilogy Doc doesn't strike me as someone who cares at all what other people think of him, and I definitely don't see him being duped by some silly brainpower machine that tells him he's used all his thoughts up.

I can, however, picture him reaching a point of giving up if pushed enough. Let's say, for instance, that the time machine hadn't worked that night at the mall. (I mean, assuming the speeding car didn't just plow into Doc and Marty, of course) If it hadn't run at all, or if it had malfunctioned in some other way, I think that'd be a crushing blow to Doc. He's poured decades into trying to harness the power of time travel. The process of exploring the science behind it and actually building the flux capacitor and making modifications to the car has consumed and bankrupted him. Doc's built a lot of nifty things over the years, but this is The Big One. He's been waiting all his life for this very moment! To have it all result in failure would do a number on him, I'm sure.

I could see him struggling with the aftermath. Maybe concluding it had all been pointless, and he'd given so much of his time to something that isn't even possible. Perhaps he'd just return to making little gadgets for around his garage or running his "scientific services" business, where he takes the occasional job fixing someone's television. This is where I think there could be some overlap between Cartoon Doc and Trilogy Doc–at least in the realm of not feeling smart enough or good enough to contribute anything meaningful to society. This also is where the information we have on Doc's father could for sure come into play and lead Doc to wonder if maybe his dad was right, and he should have given up science long ago.

Trilogy Doc is hardy, though, and I like to believe that he'd find a way to pick himself back up even if his biggest experiment ever didn't work. Maybe after taking some time to sulk (which would be understandable!) he'd buckle down even harder and be all the more determined to figure out how to get that DeLorean to travel through time. Besides, he's got an impressionable young friend who is lacking in the self-esteem department as it is. What message does it send Marty if the one guy who is always hammering in the "you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it" message decides to abandon a goal after a failure? It'd be a hard teaching moment for sure, but I don't put it past Doc to be able to regroup and soon have a new game plan.

Thanks for the ask!

[itsclydebitches]

Honestly, I think most of the issues in this season exist because they clearly planned four seasons. Ted was supposed to go through a flop era, where he'd be checked out and his divorce and overall shitty situation with Michelle (the therapist thing) would have bitten him in the ass, and he'd struggle with his own positivity. It's crucial for Ted as a character to be critical of his life in Kansas, otherwise his character doesn't do anything but serve as an enlightened american spiritual guide to a bunch of brits (NOT a classy plot line and not a good move, especially since most of the brits are either queer or poc). I swear to god, if they make Ted go back to Kansas and end the series with him returning to the status-quo, I'll riot. His story was clearly about trying something new and brave for the wrong reasons, and finding himself in the process! He was not happy in Kansas! He has built himself a life in England that he never had in Kansas (otherwise we'd see him missing his friends, not the never-ending loneliness).

But it's a season long arc, and a recovery process that would last them another season. I was sure they would stop after the fourth season, not the third!

I think they might have decided to wrap it up early, either because of the impending strike, or because Sudeikis got bored.

Sudeikis has come out and said (on a couple of occasions I believe) that the show was pitched as a three season arc, not four. However, as a fellow writer who always needs about 75% more time/space than she originally planned for a story, I can easily picture how a perceived three season arc could actually need four seasons once you're in the nitty-gritty of writing it. I also don't know enough about the inner workings of Apple TV and Sudeikis' creative process to guess at how everyone was originally conceiving a "season." Certainly the 7-10 episodes of today are a far different beast from the 24 episodes of decades past. If Ted Lasso was still three seasons but with season 3 clocking in at 19 episodes... that would make a hell of a difference.

Regardless, I do think this season needed more time and that the issues there are seen more clearly in "International Break" than anywhere else. Nate quitting his job from one episode to the next, Rebecca suddenly being able to laugh uproariously with Rupert, even Roy having this 'aha' moment about being with Keeley... it's not that I think the show hasn't been building towards these things (it has), but rather that the final push feels sudden and, though not out of nowhere, not what I was expecting to happen just yet if - as said - the show had more time to develop these complex moments of growth. Also, though I'm a big fan of the show's sprawling cast and I think that's integral to its overall messages (you need that diversity in characters and their relationships), there was a lot of 'filler' I think this season could have cut to better focus on those key dynamics. For me, Keeley is the most egregious example in that regard. Shandi and Jack added little to her story imo - beyond a without-a-doubt queer confirmation and a little growth in terms of being a boss - so I would have rather had more of the focus be around Roy and her company more broadly.

Anyway, yeah, HARD agree about Kansas. I've already written about how disappointed I'd be in that ending. Personally, I don't think I'd want a whole season of Ted's "flop era," especially since that's where he started out: the presumably useless American "wanker" who is driving the team into the dirt. The shorter arc we got this season where Ted struggles, doubts, and then makes a tremendous comeback worked well for me. What would I have given Ted instead to fill that time... I'm not sure, which is one of the reasons why I think the show does benefit from that three season structure. There's only so much you can do with the concept of "Presumed failure is not a failure after all and actually is supper successful" before you're forced to backtrack (which undermines the message) or just sit in the boring "They're great aren't they great everything is great" ending. So Ted's football arc works for me, we just need more time for all those relationships. Keep the basic structure we have in terms of overall plot, but add in episodes to fully take the characters through the conflicts Season 2 introduced: How does Nate possibly redeem himself in Rupert's clutches? How can Ted come to terms with Michele dating their therapist? Why is Beard still 'happily' dating Jane after Higgins' intervention and his violent night out? How does Roy overcome this all-consuming belief that he's holding Keeley back? What in the world is going on with Rebecca and this maybe baby? How is Trent going to confess his love for Ted?

As said, the season IS answering all these questions, it just feels like the short structure has landed us with, "This is a problem, this is a problem, this is still a problem, the characters are acknowledging it's a problem... oh look the problem is now solved off-screen/in one scene! Happy days."

[majorbaby]

Ok, same anon, but seriously re: how to make an anti-war movie/series. I think there's a lot of tid bits in MASH regarding the characters that should have been emphasized that I think would have driven home how absurd and disgusting war is and just how obscene war is. It would of course required making Hawkeye, BJ, Trapper, MUCH more unlikeable but these are (misogyny, molesting the nurses, righteousness, getting away with everything, so and and so forth) all traits they already have but just emphasized and shown front and center. They wouldn't have to tack on a pointed message or anything the horror of the characters actions would speak for themselves. Just imagine war show that unabashedly shows soldiers (drafted or not) acting out the worst of humanity and leaving the audience to decide the fates of the characters.

Yeah I think that's one way to do it, MASH 1970 leaned into that pretty hard. Hawkeye and Trapper are the heroes of the movie but they're definitely not heroes in general. I think early MASH does a pretty good job making you watch an anti-war show without hating every second of it and without feeling the messaging is tacked-on. Half the time you are laughing so hard you're not even realizing that there's an agenda here. Yankee Doodle Doctor even acknowledges "... but then, no war is a movie." But then we wouldn't have a show. Larry Gelbart's answer to this paradox was to never give us an inch. We got a sixteenth of an inch at the most: Frank never redeems himself. Henry doesn't make it home. Trapper makes it home but his exit is bitten-off and he doesn't get to adopt Kim. Frequent mood-whiplashes. Undermining "found family". A constant doubling-down on "nothing good from war". Much later admitting that in order for the show to remain true to its anti-war messaging, it could not, or rather should not, drag out.

Episodes like For the Good of the Outfit (with its sarcastic title), Yankee Doodle Doctor (an in-universe sarcastic title), Doctor Pierce and Mr. Hyde, Officer of the Day, The General Flipped at Dawn, Big Mac, White Gold all do a pretty good job imo at delivering the message via satire. And I guess you could argue that some of the things Hawkeye and Trapper do are morally wrong, Trapper cheating on his wife, Hawkeye two-timing women, taking out a colonel's appendix and feeling nothing but giddy about it (RIP BJ)... but all these things are framed as "indecencies in the middle of one giant indecency." MASH 1970 and MASH the tv show do these things to make the point that "it's nowhere near as terrible as war". And I think that's a good point to make, there's a difference between violence and state violence, why should the state have a monopoly on horror while everyone else gets judged by their peers? Trapper seriously considers murdering a patient in cold blood, a sign that the propaganda is working on him - I think that goes directly to what you're suggesting. It's less of a character flaw and more a show of the machine having its intended affect on a mostly otherwise good person.

ftr there are episodes in the later years that try to deliver this messaging, but nowhere near as consistently as the early years, the episodes aren't written around that messaging anymore and it's usually shown as a character individually wrestling with some reaction to something terrible that the war has brought them. Letters is one, Depressing News another, Peace on Us a third... note however that in all of these episodes the heavy lifting falls to Hawkeye. From BJ and Charles I get more of a sense that they are both generally opposed to human pain/suffering, and they are both incensed to have had their lives disrupted by the draft (which is fair) - but it's less of an ideological opposition.

I'm not shooting down your idea as to how to create an anti-war show, I think it's a good suggestion, I just also think that MASH did do a halfway decent job some of the time at being anti-war.