#mash: season 1

[lorddoodle]

fake manga page go for a story i'll might never actually write

amazing what can be achieved in a day when you sit down and lock in.

[captainhunnicutt]

Season 1: Closing shots of every episode

Corresponding opening shot posts: Season 1

[t00thpasteface]

look all i'm saying is if you give mash a chance with a very grounded sense of the time it was airing in and the pressures it was rebelling against and the brand-new trends it was setting, there will be a point, maybe a few episodes in or maybe a few seasons in, where you suddenly go "okay, yeah, i see why this show became such a popcultural juggernaut that the finale is STILL TO THIS DAY the most-watched tv show episode ever"

[nedlittle]

something so hauntological about watching mash season 3 knowing how it ends...none of the characters know henry's never going to make it home, the actors all found out in real time. but the narrative knows how this ends, and the narrative is waiting with an open mouth. so the narrative has henry prefigure his own death throughout the season. in o.r. when hawkeye reassures him one day you're gonna have to go back and die in your bed in bloomington, henry says that he's done that several times. he complains in private charles lamb that everything in this country disappears except me (untrue) followed by boy, would i like to wake up some morning, look down and find myself gone (true). when he gets trapped in the wreckage of the latrine in bombed he knocks twice for "dead" rather than three times for "alive." then there's the scene in the consultant where he soaks in the pool, calling it heaven but says the water could be just a titch warmer (burning burning burning), avoiding conversation with frank by submerging himself underwater. henry spends the whole season unknowingly rehearsing his impending death. he goes around camp trying on other people's deaths for size, haunting the narrative before he's even out of it.

in conclusion:

[symphonyincoordination]

[incorrectoldgodsquotes]

Horned Head: Can't you put your hostility aside for a moment? Daughter Dooley: Oh, alright. I'll stack it on top of my anger.

[marley-manson]

Well I succumbed and watched the Pilot and first ep of Due South last night.

Really struck me how central the theme of Fraser's estrangement from his father is in the Pilot. Fraser mentioning that the last time they spoke was Christmas, essentially saying that the only times they speak are presumably brief calls at holidays. Gerard responding with a platitude - "I guess the more you know someone, the less needs to be said" - but it becomes quite clear that Fraser feels he doesn't know Bob at all, and has to learn about him through his journals.

And yet they're cut from the same cloth: "I always thought your father was the last of a kind. I was wrong - you are." And this is tied to the mountie stereotype lol.

Bob and Fraser both repeat the lines, "You're going to shoot a mountie? They'll hunt you to the ends of the earth," and they're both wrong. No one wants to pursue Bob Fraser's death except Fraser, and no one's happy with Fraser for solving the case because it uncovered corruption. He gets exiled for it. Bob and Fraser are the only mounties who "always get their man," lol, and it's because of Bob's neglect in the course of duty that Fraser follows in his footsteps and becomes so similar to Bob. He idealizes his father and wanted to grow up to be just like him - we can see that admiration in the drawing of him he finds in Bob's things that he made when he was a child eg, or in the song Superman that plays while Fraser reads his journal in the diner. But he doesn't know him. And he pursues duty above all else because he has nothing else of his father.

And then you have Ray, who seems to exist as the opposite of Bob. If there's one thing Ray is, it's there. He is there for Fraser to hunt down suspects, to invite him to a loud family dinner, to save him from an explosion, he tracks him down to apologize for being dismissive, to invite him to dinner, and he flies to the Yukon when he can't reach him by phone. In the diner scene in particular he's directly positioned as a contrast to Bob's absence both in life and death. Fraser is alone trying to understand his father through his journals (looking for something "he missed" ie his dad), and Ray joins him, ending the thematically significant song montage, and eases his solitude. Fraser says he doesn't have family, and Ray shares his own with him.

And after the pilot case, there's nothing drawing them together except friendship. They're not a mismatched pair of cops assigned together who have to learn to get along, they work together unofficially because they can't help but spend every waking moment together.

Bob represents absence and Ray represents presence, distant admiration vs actually knowing someone.

And I'll probably have more to say on that as like, poles Fraser is caught between, if/as I rewatch more of the show. Ray's position is a little muddy especially because pre VS he buys into Fraser's image to an extent, as pointedly examined in Heaven and Earth. But again, more on that another time.

[grinchwrapsupreme]

MASH and Red Dwarf are sitcom opposites but also the same due to the fact that while both of them are comedies taking place in the midst of tragedy MASH is funnier without the laugh track whereas without the laugh track Red Dwarf becomes a bottomless black hole of existential loneliness and dread

[variousqueerthings]

shout-out to all the things that episode 1 introduces that don’t last:

the longer intro

this sexy emo look alongside the oddly deeper hawkeye drawl and less frenetic speech-patterns of later hawkeye (who is she 😍😜👀 she talks like hawkeye’s porn double!)

narrative centering Lieutenant Dish

“Sorry Major Baby” (actually how many times do they use “baby” subsequently?)

this version of the distillery 

this version of father mulcahy

this guy on the right? (why is he there? where does he go?)

“the MUMMY sTrRiiykes!!!!” otherwise known as the “hawkeye sounds like he’s at a 70s party and he’s high as fuck” line (to me)

“attention, attention, the following personnel are assigned to the 4077th mobile army surgical hospital: [list of names of which only a handful are actually going to be main characters]”

[dick-chugger]

Genuinely going a bit insane over the fact that almost every major (pun not intended) character in M*A*S*H is queer. Like that's just a thing? Like Hawkeye just casually says things like "If you were any taller, I'd kiss you on the lips" to his friends and most of the time no one mentions it as weird? And yeah, Klinger crossdressing is supposed to be funny to the audience, but in universe most of the characters just think he looks cute? Like dude, I don't know, it's just so refreshing seeing people be so casually queer, especially in a show that's over 50 years old.

[hawkeyegender]

I cant believe this.....

[mourningmaybells]

why did no one tell me there's a version of MASH without laugh tracks. no wonder people here think these bitches gay everyone's quietly kissing each other on the lips at parties and before they die.

[muffinrag]

wow season 11 of mash is. not great

[oh-hawkeye]

'Never mind! What the major does is her own business. [...] And you would do very well to keep your stories to yourself and mind your own beeswax!' 'Take it easy, Frank. You're getting yourself into a lather.'

M*A*S*H, "The Ringbanger"

[alannacouture]

Does anyone else remember how crazy S1 of Reign was? With the druids in the forest demanding blood for blood, Nostradamus wandering around making mystical predictions, and the “ghost girl” (it would have been more fun never finding out she was Catherine’s daughter, but whatever)? S1 was a crazy ass thrill ride & I wish that had continued.

[thebreakfastgenie]