#people have already pointed out the cat energy in the jim scene

[mejomonster]

I will say the sexual tension Moonlight Chicken kicks off with damn

Been 3 shows how long was a director waiting to Utilize that high heat energy they give when just sitting standing looking near each other let alone More sjjsjd

Also I get now why someone reviewed this as a bit more Taiwan in bl feel? It does feel more grounded real queer people daily life kind of story, which Taiwan is good at, and just generally rhe visuals make it look SO solid in its visuals as like a very specific identity and very grounded identity rather than a more high fluff show

Third. You KNOW I was screaming at our dude Jim when that demon sprite boy told him hey I'm sober now I want you and Jim went for it. Jim you KNEW you knew that boy was a whole hot mess and a bag of cats! You knew he threw up on your floor! He was slurring and barely walking, u know that boy wasn't sober when he said he wanted to jump ur bones! (Although to be fair, I think the show may actually have decided he WAS sober since that sex scene could've been way clumsier so I guess if demon boy was sober he'll tell us in part 2 and clarify things the morning after, im assuming itll probably go this route cause thai fluff bl usually dont like to take the yikes first hookup route nowadays, i think last one i remember doing it was Together With Me). REGARDLESS my point is jim: u know what a drunk bitch looks like and even if he was sober u know it's not the kinda thing u take a risk on, it's the kinda thing u leave that dude alone in a room for the night until he cools the fuck off and looks at u in the bright morning sunshine with some goddamn confirmed clarity. It was. So funny and such a mess and such a yikes and.

Don't get me wrong I'm here for the drama I'm okay with them being messy bitches starting off in a bad way. It's just also so wild Jim had a seducing horny demon sprite looking dude who wanted to eat him up all night and saw neon flashing warning signs and was like "u know what? He knows I'm gay, I said it won't mean anything in the morning - though he said it might (another RED WARNING FLASH MY DUDE LMAO) and he is KISSING ME AND BITING MY EAR AND EATING ME UP ALRIGHT IMMA TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES I GUESS. like. ???? Alright Jim I get it

This scene works a lot better Because our dude demon sprite looks so horny and intent from the instant he enters the scenes, so the tensions already there nonstop before the moment. Otherwise it would've felt way out of left field.

But yeah lmao. U see these fools making a mistake they're running into full steam ahead and I hope the fallout is wild. I hope it's entertaining television

(I ONLY finished part 1 of ep 1 please no spoilers)

[edwardbonnets]

# dog energy/cat energy but with all the ofmd couples

[garfieldandmeblog]

Garfield: The Movie

AM: There’s an interesting writing choice in Garfield: The Movie regarding the setting. It begins in a cul-de-sac, just a few miles from a large city. For Garfield, the cul de sac is safe; he knows the ins and outs, all of the neighboring cats and dogs, and it’s where he always gets his way. Anything beyond the cul de sac, however, is dangerous, unknown, even hostile, and that’s not even mentioning the city. With all of this emphasis placed on place, one begins to wonder where exactly the film takes place. One would assume that it takes place in Garfield creator Jim Davis’ home state of Indiana. Wikipedia, however, claims that it takes place in Los Angeles of all places. What’s interesting, though, is that the movie does everything its power to obscure the actual setting from the viewer. There are no signs anywhere in this film that say “Los Angeles,” no one mentions living in L.A., and there’s just no defining characteristics. It’s not even a matter of the camera crew just choosing not to shoot things that screamed L.A.; things are deliberately edited to obscure that fact. There’s a scene towards the end of Act 2 where Garfield has to go to the city to rescue Odie from the clutches of an evil infomercial personailty. On the freeway, we get a shot of the city skyline and a freeway exit sign—which reads, not Los Angeles, but “The City.” A bus’s destination sign reads “City Center.” The so-called “Los Angeles” looks more like a movie set for a film taking place in New York. You would think that, taking place in L.A., the movie would have taken the golden opportunity to take Garfield to L.A.’s iconic locales. Garfield in front of the Grauman Theatre. Garfield at the Hollywood sign. Garfield at Dodger’s Stadium. But no, none of that.

Garfield: The Movie’s setting is strange because they don’t utilize it for what you might expect. The effort the filmmakers went through to hide the truth about the setting is rather impressive, I’ll say that. It doesn’t seem like it ultimately accomplished anything though. And so, ultimately, the choices made regarding the setting resulted in an affect that is neither good, nor bad, just… there. Much like the film itself.

I give this movie 5 out of 10 lasagnas.

JK: For my final official critique here at Garfieldandme.com LLC, I will be reviewing Garfield the Movie. How did it make me feel? How does Garfield make me feel at this point? I thought I knew, but as of right now… It’s mixed.

I thought I didn’t like Garfield. I thought it would be funny to employ irony against the fat cat. When I began writing about Garfield, the original mission was to find a way in, primarily through cruel joking and punching down, every week and that was it; that was going to be the focus of this project.

But finding a way through… It requires energy. It requires an actual interest in whatever you’re writing about, whatever you’re exploring. And as the project went on and on, my interest and energy waned. It became increasingly difficult to talk Garf. The ratio of good ideas/fun writing sessions to phoning it in grew smaller and smaller. Part of the fun, at first, was acknowledging the pure magnitude of syndication Garfield has amassed. But, diving into it, getting deep, it’s hard to keep a smiling face when the material brings so little to you. Life is short, and Garf is long.

There are hidden gems in the bog of never-ending Mondays. There are glimpses of Jim Davis giving a shit. And those moments, when they come up, are worth cherishing. It compelled me to write knowing the cat was acting in an interesting way. It gave me material to work with. It gave me hope.

And then, we’d get another week of duds. Then, another. It’d go on, and I’d feel frustration, apathy, devastation, etc. over and over again. It became routine.

So, Garfield the Movie. What makes Garfield the Movie interesting? It’s Garfield’s first live-action adaptation. It stars… movie stars. Garfield is CGI. These elements are all fine. The whole movie is just fine. And that complete milquetoast quality makes the film, ironically, a great Garfield adaptation. There were times I was watching the screen and I hoped the movie would be worse, more blatantly disgusting or bold. Maybe then I could write about it.  But no, from start time to end, this movie is okay.

Bill Murray sounds like the voice Davis and Co. settled on when they brought Garf to the home television. Jon is whatever. You can have a discarded Chik Fil A wrapper replace Jon in this movie and nothing would change. Odie is lovable and fun (maybe the highlight). Jennifer Love Hewitt.. I mean, c’mon. Liz was hot already, but…

…

There’s nothing really deep here.

The only redeeming portion of the whole film is the credits. I’m serious. There, it tells another story. Comics and largely comic strips are a medium of sole ownership. Charles Schultz storyboards, Schultz draws, he signs his name in the bottom left corner. And that’s it. Film, in this critic’s opinion, is one of the most collaborative mediums of expression out there. On even the worst films (and I’m not saying Garfield runs in this camp), there are probably five or more people who gave up hours of their lives in an attempt to make you smile, to entertain you for a little bit. It’s interesting to see this many people interpreting Davis’s cat. This bird’s eye view perspective, however, does not negate how bored I felt during the film. And my opinion doesn’t really matter. The best of them, working on this project, hopefully made this to make a child (or the rare Garf fan) happy. Or they were miserable. Regardless, they all made the film. I spent an hour of my life watching. We are in this together.

We reflect whatever we spend time with. If you spend hours with the cat, you become the cat. You spend time working overtime at a job you hate, and suddenly you hate yourself. You spend the night out, maybe drinking wine with friends on a weekend, at a little bar on the outside of town. It’s August. The night is air is warm, and it looks like no one is on Wilshire tonight. Except you and people you love. You laugh and really feel it in your chest, in your stomach. You look at everyone and, maybe it’s the light, maybe it’s the Merlot, but they emanate a soft golden glow covering their forearms to their rears to their legs to their feet. You look down at yourself, and you’re glowing too.

Was it Anne Dillard who wrote “How we spend our days, of course, is how we spend our lives”? Am I remembering that correctly? What year is it? What was I doing about this? How does Garfield make me feel? How am I feeling right now? Stepping away from the cat is not easy, and in a sense, this gesture feels like stepping away from this past year in its good and nasty. I want to change my life, and so I’ll change my relationship with him. It’s small, but why not. Life is short, and Garf is long. Thanks for spending this time with me, I’ll never forget it.

Two lasagnas out of five.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: The Grinch

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

What can be said about the Grinch that hasn’t already been said a million times by a million different people? The Grinch is easily one of the most iconic Christmas characters of all time, up there with the likes of Scrooge, and he even has a similar character arc in which he learns the true meaning of Christmas and becomes a better person. The original Chuck Jones animated short has gone down as one of the most beloved Christmas specials of all time as well as one of the best Dr. Seuss adaptations ever (if not THE best), and it gave the Grinch his iconic theme song which every other adaptation has seen fit to use.

The Jim Carrey live action take and the Illumination version which featured Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role both tried to bring a fresh take to the world’s most beloved classic Christmas curmudgeon, but did they succeed in making him entertaining and engaging as a villain is the real question?

Actor: In the original Chuck Jones short, none other than Frankenstein’s monster himself, Boris Karloff, portrayed the Grinch, but this is mostly due to the fact he was the narrator of the story and the Grinch is the only character who really speaks due to the tale being mostly shown from his POV. Still, let’s not pretend like Karloff isn’t the definitive voice here, especially considering his competition.

Carrey and Cumberbatch are both good actors, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think they really do the Grinch all too much justice. Carrey, bless his heart, at least comes fairly close, with his Grinch being in line with the original, but at the same time this is a comedic Carrey character coming off of his 90s run as a wacky comic actor. Carrey injects that manic Carrey energy into the performance, and while I think it’s a good performance, I don’t necessarily find it to be a good Grinch,

Cumberbatch faces a similar issue, not helped by his decision to use a weird American accent as opposed to his natural British one, leaving his Grinch sounding like a nasally dork. Again, he doesn’t do a terrible job by any means, but his performance certainly does nothing to convince you the Grinch is a mean, rotten soul.

Motivation/Goals: The Chuck Jones Grinch sticks to the original book to a fault; the Grinch is just a cranky jerk who hates Christmas for some inexplicable reason, and so decides to ruin it for everyone out of petty spite. Yes, it lacks any sort of depth, but the Grinch is a character from a children’s book and he just puts so much darn effort into his plan that it’s really easy to forget he’s just doing this because he is just a miserable bastard.

The two other attempts at the Grinch have gone a long way to giving him some sort of tragic backstory explaining his hatred for Christmas. And… I actually really like that. Yes, yes, villains can just do villainous things because they’re jerks, but I do appreciate the other adaptations attempting to do something interesting with the character and make him a bit more engaging in a feature-length product. In the Jim Carrey film, the Grinch becomes bitter and evil due to a childhood of constant bullying, while the Benedict Cumberbatch Grinch was a lonely orphan who never got to celebrate Christmas. While obviously it’s up to the viewer to decide whether or not these backstories add any sort of interesting element to the Grinch’s hatred of Chrtistmas, it’s hard to deny that it makes a bit more sense than the Grinch suddenly and randomly deciding after half a century that this Christmas was going to be the last ever.

Personality: While this section of Psycho Analysis is going to be semi-retired, the three Grinches are actually a perfect example of where examining the personalities of the characters can actually show a lot about the overall quality. Obviously, the original Grinch is exactly what a Grinch should be, at least in my eyes: a bitter, miserable curmudgeon who takes great joy in bringing misery to others with his selfish, senseless acts of holiday thievery. He’s a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

The Carrey Grinch does still have these elements, but it’s a bit outshone by Carrey’s hammy performance. His Grinch is about as wild as Ace Ventura or the Riddler, and while hammy villains are always fun – and there’s no denying the Grinch is – it makes it a lot easier to see him eventually turning to the light side, especially since he’s actually shown to have some redeeming qualities.

These issues are continued into Cumberbatch’s Grinch, and in fact here the problems peak. Cumberbatch’s Grinch from the start comes off as more as mildly irritated jerk, yet one who really doesn’t seem evil at all, and as the story continues he seems far more like a depressed, unhappy man with undiagnosed mental illness who is suffering due to childhood trauma. You don’t want to say this guy has termites in his smile or that he’s slippery as an eel or that you wouldn’t touch him with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole; you just want to give him a hug and tell him that things are going to get better. He just seems like he needs a friend, not a total life-changing epiphany.

Final Fate: We all know how it goes; his heart grows three sizes and he learns the true meaning of Christmas. Each of the adaptations keeps this in, though obviously to diminishing returns as each successive adaptation has made the Grinch nicer from the get-go in some regard due to the tragic backstories and whatnot.

Best Scene: At least for the original, his best moment is, of course, the montage during “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch,” in which we get to see all of the slippery ways this green meanie is ruining the holidays. Of course, this is matched by the epic moment at the end where the Grinch gains super strength from his heart growing three sizes and lifts the sleigh of stolen goods, which is equally awesome whether it’s te animated one or Jim Carrey doing it.

Cumberbatch’s Grinch manages to have a different moment to call his best: after he has redeemed himself, he gets invited to dinner in Whoville, and the scene where he nervously goes to the house and makes small talk is just very sweet and endearing. It’s easily the best scene in the movie and shows that even watered down there’s still plenty of heart to be mined from this timeless tale.

Final Thoughts & Score: I think that the fact that the Grinch is constantly being reimagined is a sign at how impressive and enduring he is as a character, and he’s easily the greatest Christmas villain of all time (with apologies to Hans Gruber, Mr. Potter, Burgermeister Meisterburger, and Kirk Cameron). The original special is obviously the definitive portrayal of the character, to the point where the Grinch became a household name and got himself two more specials, one in which he once again terrorized Whoville (this time with a wagon filled with nightmarish hallucinations) and one where he faced off against the Cat in the Hat, the latter being especially notable for beating Zack Snyder to the punch at making “Crossover Versus Movie in Which One of the Title Characters Is Redeemed By Mentioning His Mother” by 34 years.

The original Grinch even effected himself; his iconic green, almost goblin-like appearance was a departure from the book, where he sort of resembled a more mischievous Who, and it has ended up sticking for the character ever since. Throw in that iconic villain song about how foul he is sang by Thurl Ravenscroft AKA Tony the Tiger, as well as the fact that “Grinch” is up there with “Scrooge” as shorthand for someone who hates Christmas, and it’s easy to justify letting the Chuck Jones take on the Grinch steal not only Christmas, but an 11/10.

Carrey’s take on the character is different, but not bad. I’m not going to say it’s good either, though; I still think Carrey hammed it up too much and just let loose his manic energy. And it’s really weird, because I have a soft spot for the film and I love the performance, and I think the insane energy of Carrey’s performance is what elevates the film and has helped it become a sort of holiday cult classic, but I think that it kind of misses the point of how the Grinch should be. It really boils down to the usual thing with these adaptations that try and add complexities to characters that just work better when they are simple: Jim Carrey’s Grinch is a great, fun character, but he just isn’t a great Grinch. Still, the makeup and costuming is so amazing that I’d feel like a Grinch myself if I stole too many points, so I think a 6/10 is a solid score for a performance that manages to be a bit above your average villain.

And then we get to Cumberbatch. I’m just going to say it: I barely consider his Grinch a villain. He’s just too nice and sad and cranky to really be evil. Sure he has wacky inventions, sure he is a bit passive aggressive to the Whos, but god this guy is just not mean enough. The fact he can just walk into town and interact with the townsfolk and they don’t even bat an eye says a lot about how watered down and toothless this take on the character is. Not helping is the safe, soft design Illumination gave him, as well as Cumberbatch’s weird American accent. Still, I don’t think this Grinch deserves worse than a 4/10 when it comes right down to it. In this case, it’s more that what’s interesting about him as a character saves him from sinking any lower than just being subpar as opposed to the problem with Carrey being that what made him interesting as a character made him less appealing as a Grinch. This guy does still try and steal Christmas, after all… It’s just that he’s so nice to begin with that you really aren’t too shocked when he does end up turning over a new leaf.

While it’s obvious the Grinch has had his ups and downs over the years, the fact he is such a legendary figure and an enduring cultural icon really says a lot for his staying power, as well as that sometimes a simple villain that lacks any complex motivation beyond “he’s a jerk” can really resonate with people. Maybe all of these other adaptations don’t quite measure up to the original animated special, but they don’t need to; it’s just interesting to see what different visions for the Grinch look like from different creators. Whether it’s good or bad, one thing is for sure: he’s a mean one, that Mr. Grinch, and we all love him for it.

You know what we don’t love him for, though? His dental hygiene. 

Merry Christmas!

[mimymomo]

Starkid Shows Ranked

So I’ve seen others do it and I want to jump on the bandwagon. Plus my list so SO different than others I’ve seen so I’m either gonna interest, delight or piss people off. I love every Starkid show, I just love some more than others lol. This is just my opinion so please dont take it too seriously:

11) Me And My Dick - oh shit not Ani! My list is already starting off controversial. Yeah I’m sorry I’m just not not the biggest fan of this show. I love a few songs and every scene with Joeys Heart or the Old Snatch is genius and Sally is the sweetest bean alive. But besides that, there’s nothing else that really keeps me coming back. I usually just watch the listen to your heart, the choir room scenes and the finale and I’m good. Plus Joey (the character not the person) pisses me off half the time. Sorry...

10) Ani - originally Ani was the only Starkid show I nearly stopped watching cause I couldn’t get into it. But by the end of the first act I was starting to enjoy it more (I really liked the act 1 finale). And I actually really like Ani’s second act. The songs in this show are really good and Nick Lang as Obi Wan is everything it’s just the first act that holds this show back for me.

9) A Very Potter Sequel - yeah controversial opinion again but AVPS is my least favorite of the AVPM trilogy...please don’t kill me!! It has my least favorite of the AVPM songs (I don’t like Guys Like Potter or Harry Freaking Potter...I’m so sorry I’ll go crawl back in my hole now). But I still fucking adore it though!! Brian as Lupin and Joe as Umbridge saved my life and Days of Summer makes me weep while No Way and Stutter fill me with chaotic energy.

8) A Very Potter Musical - the show that started it all! It was my first Starkid show that I’d watched back in like 2011/12 before I’d actually finished Harry Potter (I just watched all the movies last year...don’t judge me). This show is a classic: great songs, jokes, quotes.

7) Holy Musical B@man - Im not a huge DC fan but love this show. Joe and Nick are great as Batman and Robin respectively and Brian and Jeff are stand outs as Superman and Sweet Tooth. The costumes and songs are great and casting is spot on (I saw comment online saying that the show was gray but the casting of Lauren as Comissioner Gordon was weird and someone pointed out that was the joke it made me crack up). Plus Two-Face, TGI Friday’s girl, the line about Spider-Man being agile as hell and Meredith’s chess line in American Way still crack me up every time.

6) The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals - this was the show that officially brought me into the Starkid fandom. The story, characters and atmosphere of the show is something so distinct from every other Starkid show. The whole cats is freaking fantastic especially the newbies Jon and Mariah and I look forward to seeing them and everyone else in future shows. To me the weakest part of the show was the music (sorry I know everyone loves the songs in this show). Some songs are fine but others I just skip and at this point I can’t listen to Show Stoppin Number anymore. I have this thing where if shows/songs/characters get super popular I immediately start to like it less which I think is what happened for this show and the one next on my list.

5) Twisted - okay this is probably where I lost/pissed off most of you but let me explain: when I first watched this show I actually didn’t really like it. Aladdin was never a movie I really liked so a Aladdin/ Wicked style parody was not my thing. Now however I really enjoy Twisted. It’s still not my favorite show but the music is really good and Dylan and Meredith confirmed in this show that they have amazing stage chemistry - Ja’far and Scheherazade are the second best Starkid relationship solely because how integral the relationship is to the story without being grating plus they’re super cute. This show is hilarious and heart warming and wrenching at the same time. I may not like it as much as everyone else but I will fully preach how amazing it is.

4) A Very Potter Senior Year - yep AVPSY is my favorite in the trilogy. I think it partially has to do with the fact it’s just a stage reading. There’s just something about it not being perfect with all the technical issues and character breaking that makes it feel more personal and intimate to me. AVPSY has some of my favorite scenes (the scene with Meredith and AJ is one of the best scenes in Starkid history), songs (Always Dance is in my top five favorite Starkid songs ever) and character moments. Ron is such a standout in this show and I really care about his a Hermiones relationship in this show. I could never fully be invested in them before I hated how much Ron constantly insulted her but in this show it shows just how good of a boyfriend and best friend he really is. And I know people hate how they made Harry act in this show but to me it was essential to his character that he acted this way (I could write a whole essay about Harry and his character and how his actions in senior year make sense).

3) Starship - Starship is just really good okay!! Bug is precious, Mega-girl and Tootsie are adorable, the songs are amazing and the story while predictable since it’s just the Little Mermaid in Space is still great and it’s funny as heck. What more do I have to say? And Starship Requim nearly made me cry when I heard it for the first time.

2) Firebringer - I’m gay. Okay but seriously while TGWDLM was the show that pulled me into the fandom, this was the show that truly introduced me to Starkid as a more than AVPM. I know this show has a lot of problems. But you know those things that you recognize has a lot of issues and isn’t perfect but despite all the faults you still love it to death? Yeah Firebringer is one of those things to me. I love Jemilla and Zazzalil, I love their relationship, I love that they’re played by my two favorite Starkid members: Lauren Lopez and the love of my life Meredith Stepien!! I love the music since it reminds me of Jim and the Povolos music (since Meredith and Mark wrote so it kinda is JatP music lol) and all harmonies and costumes and I think the show is hilarious (not their funniest but still funny). Again I know this show has its problems especially in the writing but after watching the behind the scenes I’ve come to really appreciate this show and understand why and where the issues came from. To me this show is just plain fun and sometimes that’s just why I need.

1) The Trail to Oregon - this show is just everything to to me. It’s so freaking funny and I love every single song in it (Lost Without You hits too hard as a girl in college who is hours away from her family). At face value it’s a road trip musical that parodies the game abut at heart is a show about a distinctions family reconnecting and dealing with life. The Dikrats family plus McDoon (and really every other role Joey plays in this) and Cletus Jones are some the funniest characters and some of my personal favorites due to how over the top but insanely real they feel. I really became attached to this family and their struggle and I just wanted them to get to Oregate in one piece. Plus this show actually has not one but two songs about dying of pooping and I love both of them!! Trail to Oregap is just so unique and I adore it.

So what did I learn making this list?? I have really weird taste and extremely different opinions on shows than everyone else. Why did I make this list?

Well I hope someone liked it and didn’t get too mad at me lol. And I hope more people who have vastly different rankings make more top list because it’s fun seeing where others place shows especially if it’s really weird placings and not just Ani at 11 and Twisted at 1 (not saying they can’t be! Absolutely no judgment on my part!!).

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentary: 2.11 - Business As Usual

There are two commentaries for this episode. Here are some notes on the first one:

Shawn Pillar: Executive Producer of Haven and Director for this episode Brian Millikin: Script Co-ordinator and writer (though not for this episode)

Topics covered include:

“The way we talked about this episode in the writer’s room as as part one of a two-part season finale.”

Shawn being delightfully enthusiastic about getting to direct a whole episode.

It’s a big episode because everything changed at the end of the last one with the Rev’s death. “Haven has been flipped upside down. Duke is now on the path to learning about himself.”

The stretch of road by the sea that we see the runners running along is somewhere they have shot at a lot, including for episode 13, the Christmas episode.

Shawn enjoying the aerial shots, because he is terrified of heights and he was in the helicopter shooting them.

Shawn enjoying directing Adam Copeland, “Edge” because he is “a very natural actor who just keeps getting better every episode.” And how it was fun to direct him because he’s a great performer and “comfortable in his own skin” and loved to be directed; he’s a director’s dream because did everything exactly as he was told. “Either you’re a really good actor, or I’’m a fantastic director … hopefully it’s both.”

Brian talks about when they were hiring him and all it really took to make the decision was when they watched his retirement (from wrestling) speech on YouTube.

This being an interesting episode for showing a bit more of how the Troubles (and fear of the Troubles) are affecting the town e.g. the bystanders watching the argument between Stu and Patrick. “The cat is getting out of the bag.” “We wanted to try and escalate the level of tension in the town following the Rev’s death,” and in a way that starts to pull at Audrey and Nathan. And how the episode gives us a better sense of Haven as a town.

Shawn talks about how Brian started with them as an intern after college, and was assistant to his father Michael Pillar. And after “years of toiling with us on our different shows; Greek and Deadzone and Wildfire, Scott Shepherd and Matt McGuiness and Sam and Jim,” took him under their wing and decided he should write an episode this season. He wrote an episode which Shawn directed. But “being the writers assistant in the room gives him an unique perspective on every episode and he becomes the guy who has to co-ordinate the scripts and type in changes and …. Type up all the notes and keep the writers organised. So in some ways, he knows where the bodies are buried more than anyone.” And Brian agrees that he probably does know the show better than anyone else.

Shawn talks about how one of the things he wanted to do in directing the episode was to have the camera moving. “I think it adds a lot of tension, and a lot of mood.” And he says that in this episode “basically every single shot is moving.” In some ways it shoots faster, and looks better than when you don’t move the camera. He adds that it’s “a little tougher to edit sometimes”. Brian says he loves it and that “you can always tell when Shawn Pillar has directed an episode,” from whichever series it is, and adds that it “brings a lot of energy.”

The talk about the importance of picking the right locations for each scene so that they flow together, and trying to anticipate what the DP is going to want to do with the lighting, and what the art department is going to want to do with the background etc.

Shawn refers to directing as “the most fun I’m allowed to have. Normally I’m fixing problems; this time I got to create my own problems and fix them myself.”

As we see Duke on the phone to Evi’s mum, Shawn talks about wanting to feature the whole boat set, and how there was originally much more to this conversation but they had to cut it. But they originally would have shown Duke on the phone in the distance walking back and forth across the set and would have shown more of the set because there’s a lot of it which we never get to see which is a shame, “because the sets are gorgeous”. So “let’s pretend we’re making a feature film” and shoot lots of wide shots rather than just relying on close ups all the time.

As we see Duke read ‘Crocker’ on the lid of his silver box, Brian talks about how they have been waiting all season to get back to this point. “We introduced this box back in episode four” and now seven episodes later they finally got to bring it back. And Shawn talks about how a lot of the set up they laid for the season got paid off in this episode, which spiked the arc of the story telling to the finale, which then itself sets them up for season three.

Shawn talks about the woman who plays Colleen Pierce; her name is Crystal Allen, he describes himself as “a huge fan” and says that she “was almost Evi.” She was one of the final three for that role. And he talks about one of the advantages of his role in relation to this episode is that he didn’t need to do any casting; he was able to use people he already knew and whose work he admired, including for both Colleen and Stu Pierce.

Brian talks about the evolution of ideas from a storytelling standpoint i.e. how the episode evolved in that the original idea was for something where it looks like a Troubled person is killing other Troubled people. And then we find out that it’s someone has framed a Troubled person as a weapon against all Troubled people. Originally there was going to be a group of people that had kidnapped Stu, and a race against time to get to him, but “based on some network notes” that was condensed, and that allowed them to get to some of the other things in the episode they wanted to get to; e.g. the plot line with Duke and Dwight, and Audrey and Lucy, and Audrey and Nathan’s interactions which “came to dominate the episode; in a good way.”

As we see Audrey and Nathan argue in the interview room after Nathan lets Patrick go, Shawn talks about liking this scene as the first time we’ve ever really seen Audrey and Nathan argue. And how it was a pleasure to get to direct that, and to be able to let them play with it, and how he pushed Emily and Lucas to fight and to be more intense, and then pulled them back for another version. And then they cut together the best moments from all of those different versions and that it worked out really well.

They both comment on the “return of the tandem bike” as we see Vince and Dave bringing more copies of the Herald. And Brian comments that he loves the TOWN GRIEVES newspaper headline. As Duke talks to the Teagues, Shawn comments that this is a good example of the value of staying in wide shots and medium shots for longer, because it shows of the town (of Lunenberg) in the background. And that it was nice to be able to do that because although they go to Lunenberg for Duke’s boat “rarely do we get to shoot in downtown Lunenberg”.

And then they comment on the divide that we see between Vince and Dave, and “seeing that they’re on two different sides of something that we don’t totally understand”. And what a great job the actors always do with these characters. “You can tell that they love each other and hate each other”. And about Vince and Dave as being brothers first and foremost, but then also enemies, and you “see that bubble up sometimes, that they have a differing agenda.”

And they agree that “Eric Balfour is always fantastic, and always finds ways to pull it off the page and make it a little bit funny, a little bit quirky.” “I think he makes everything better.”

They talk about how there are a lot of fathers and sons in this episode in terms of Nathan missing his father and living in his shadow, and Duke discovering things about his father, and also Duke and Dwight talking about their fathers. And Shawn continues, “And Vince, we may find in Season Three …” and then Brian interrupts him to compliment the camera work and we never get back to the point about Vince.

They talk about the Duke and Dwight fight sequence, noting that “Eric is a trained fighter” and obvious Adam came to Haven from wrestling, and so him and the fight co-ordinator were able to work with the actors to get their suggestions for it as well. He comments that they shot the scene really fast with a hand held, and mentions that the key that flies out from the box was CGI.

They note this is the first real fight they’ve done in Haven and that fight scenes can be tricky because they take a long time to shoot and there can be safety issues. Adam was injured in his previous career as a wrestler, so they wanted to be very careful not to ask him to do too much “Because a) I love the guy, and b) we definitely need him in work the next day”. Shawn also notes that “there was a stunt man ready to step in for Adam, but he didn’t quite match.” So they staged it in a way that Eric took the brunt of most of the hits.

Adam got smashed in the head with the candy glass, but they only had the budget for two or three of those, and Shawn was worried that Adam might get cut, so they shot everything else until they were happy and then did the glass smashing after. He adds that a lot of the choreography was more between the actors and the cameramen and that worked because the less rehearsed the fight is the more real it feels.

They both agree that they love the scene where Nathan and Audrey talk (argue) in the car, and Shawn adds that it was shot in two separate bits, because the wide shots were shot on location in Lunenberg and the closeups were shot a couple of weeks later in Chester, with fake backdrops outside the windows.

Brian talks about the shooting schedule, how they shot Duke’s phone conversation with Evi’s mother, and Duke and Dwight’s fight, and Duke and Dwights conversation, all in one day; one day in the boat to shoot all the inside boat scenes. They had a day in Lunenberg. A day on the boat outside.

They talk about how visible Duke’s boat is in Lunenberg and how you can just walk about and see it, and how they have both met fans there. And Shawn talks about meeting a couple of fans “I think they were English and they happened to be in town” and he invited them to come to set and they came to the boat and “we gave them headphones and let them listen to us filming”. [I am not jealous at all, oh no :/ Who are you, English Haven fans? I want to hear all about it!]

For the scene where Audrey and Nathan argue while Patrick is tied up on the other side of the room, they shot this in Lunenberg; inside the building that we see Patrick coming out of earlier. For the part where Audrey goes upstairs, they shot part of that ahead of time, because Emily was down at Comic Con, and then part of it (the parts with real fire) were done on the soundstage with a stunt person. So they didn’t have real fire in the actual building; there they shot with Emily and just smoke and CG fire, and then cut in with the stuntperson running through real fire. And the smoke we see coming out of the building from outside is the actual building they were in, with CG smoke. When Audrey kicks down the door to go into the room to find Stu, they “cheated” in that Emily kicked down the door and then actually came back into the same room they were already filming in. So basically when you can’t see Audrey’s face, that’s the stuntperson on the stage running through real fire, and where you can see Emily’s face, that’s her on location with CG fire added after.

As we see Duke and Dwight on Simon’s old boat, Shawn says “We cheated Duke’s actual boat in Lunenberg, as this other boat. Because, a boat’s a boat, you can’t really tell the difference.”

On small spaces like inside the boat where they couldn’t fit dolly track, they shot with handheld cameras to keep the movement and the energy up.

Brian talks about the initial reaction to the idea of Simon hiding stuff on his boat; “a lot of people thought that didn’t make any sense at all” that you could hide something on a boat that well. But Matt McGuinness (who co-wrote this episode) is himself a sailor and insisted on it and threw in all this boat terminology to convince them.

As Sal comes down the ladder, Shawn says, “I love this actor; he looks perfectly Haven. I’ve been saving him for a while to use and I finally selfishly had to put him in my episode.” He was originally brought in for a different part in another episode and it was felt he wasn’t right for that part, but “when we need a pirate, when we need a salty old dog” he would be perfect. He adds that the first time round the actor was playing it “a little too drunken, a little too piratey” so Shawn told him “just be yourself” and he was brilliant. There was a lot more to this scene that was quite funny between him and Eric, but it got cut for time.

They mention for the Stephen King fans that the name of the previous owner of the boat (Ray Fiegler) was a Stephen King reference. Brian adds that it’s his job to get in as many Stephen King references as he can, so when the script gets changed he just quietly puts them back in.

They note that the concept of the meeting of Troubled people was a little controversial among a lot of the writers and producers, the idea of the Troubled getting that organised, and this well known. But he says he thinks they pulled it off and it works. Shawn adds that it’s a natural escalation; if you’re going to keep things realistic, then the town is eventually going to notice at least some of what’s going on, and they’re going to start talking about it.

They add that was one of the challenges in working on Dead Zone; not making Johnny Smith too famous, so there they always kept people skeptics. But in this show they have to walk that same fine line where some people don’t believe in the Troubles, some people believe because they live it day to day, and then some people are scared of the Troubles/Troubled. Which Shawn adds “I think is symbolic of other social issues … and I think that’s one of the great things science fiction can do is take contemporary issues and put them … in a context that allows you to examine them in a different way.”

Brian asks Shawn about the shooting of Nathan and Audrey’s kiss and how they went about it, and Shawn says that his mom was on set for the shooting of this episode and they have this thing where they always show the pilot for a new show to his mom and “if she cries, then we know that it’s good.” So she is their test audience. And his mom was there on set for the blocking of this scene [which Google tells me means “working out the details of an actor's moves in relation to the camera”] and “she started crying during the blocking … and I was like ‘people, my mom is crying, this is a great scene’. And so that was hilarious and awesome and we knew it was going to be a great scene.”

Shawn adds that this is something that the two actors have been wanting to play for a long time “and I was honoured and privileged that I got to direct it, and it was really fun. They did a really good job.” And he remembers the cameramen being really enthusiastic about it as well during filming. And he says it was “really cathartic to finally shoot this scene.” And Brian agrees that “it’s so heartfelt.”

When Nathan starts to say something and then cuts himself off with a “never mind” Shawn says that there was no line there. There was something they had that they didn’t like and they cut it, and not knowing what to put in its place they used the “never mind” as something realistic that people do.

They note that at this point the episode turns, because the case of the week is ended and it becomes all about Audrey going to see Lucy and the fall out with Duke and “it’s a unique episode in that regard”.

They note that the important line in this scene is when Nathan says, “I hope you come back and tell me what they are,” because there is a sense that he could lose her. He knows she has a bigger role to play, though he doesn’t know what it is.

This was a difficult episode to get it to not be too long. A lot of times if something’s long you cut out the not-great stuff and find you’re too short, but with this one there was so much to they really wanted to include that it was difficult; “everything worked, everything was good, all the acting was good, it just looked beautiful, and it was such a fully packed script that it was really difficult” to cut it down to the right length.

As Audrey and Lucy are sat down to talk, they comment that the only issue was this scene was that it started raining, so that as we are looking at Lucy, it’s not raining; when we’re looking at Audrey it is raining in the background, “but hopefully nobody notices that.” That scene was shot in Chester; the production office is in the background. They’re just down the road from where they shot Duke on the phone by his car in the previous episode, and the soundstages are just up the street in the other direction.

They talk about Audrey (or her previous Lucy incarnation) as a living time capsule, a bag of evidence that Audrey left for herself; this warning that she left with Lucy a long time ago.

They talk about loving this episode for the fact that it is really significant in terms of the relationship between Audrey and Nathan, but then when Audrey learns about Simon Crocker being after Lucy, it also becomes really significant for the relationship between Audrey and Duke as well.

They talk about the shot were we look down on the Rouge with Dwight on deck as Duke finds the box, this one:

And then where the camera tracks down closer to them. “This was an incredible shot; one of the best shots we’ve ever done in the history of the series”. It was technically difficult to do because it was actually done on the boat, and with the right equipment it would be easy; but they did not have that type of crane, so it was really complicated (“a ballet dance”) to move down and keep the shot straight. “Our whole camera team really had a tough time pulling that off, but they nailed it and it looked pretty damn smooth. It looked like we had the most expensive equipment in the world and actually we didn’t.”

They talk a little as well about maximising efficiency by shooting multiple things from the same crane angle to save time.

They made two versions of the silver box; one was just a solid wooden thing that didn’t open, for when it was pulled sideways out of the can. They talk about how there was a lot of discussion for a long time about exactly what weapons were going to go in the box “we were emailing photos of weapons from Assassin’s Creed for months”.

The blood on Duke’s hand was CG effects added after; they didn’t have time to “mess around”  with blood on the set. As Dwight flies across the Rouge, that was a stunt man and a crane pull that was anchored on a pole that is there that is actually used for fishing nets.

There were a couple of shots in this scene (shot on three cameras) where one of the other cameras was visible in the shot and they had to CG that out.

The scene of the meeting in the Herald at the end; when they were shooting this, Adam Copeland had a 104 degree fever.

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There were also various comments throughout this about how everyone did a great job; writers, actors, cameramen, crew; in relation to the sets and the music. I didn’t write all the names down, but; everyone did a great job.

As ever there is always the possibility that I have got their voices muddled up at some point.