#the episode itself is weird. it feels like peak doctor who but also as if it's a different show entirely

[ohmerricat]

the lodger feels way too meta for an episode that contains james corden in it

sidenote is that nick fucking cave

[lackadaisicalnereid]

top 5 tv episodes? top 5 songs (currently or Of All Time)??

top 5 tv episodes currently, in no particular order, things I've watched or rewatched recently:

1 sharp objects series finale 2 star trek strange new worlds s02e03 3 community s01e23 4 succession series finale 5 black sails s02e01

top 5 tv episodes ever, in no particular order 1 doctor who s01e09 father's day 2 btvs, s02e22, becoming part 2 3 twin peaks s02e22 beyond life and death 4 hannibal s02e13 mizumono 5 the west wing s02e22 two cathedrals

(also, @sunbelieving I loved both your asks (all four of your asks?) but writing the tv stuff took a lot out of me and I just do not have it in me to do the same for songs, which I think might be even more challenging. I might return to it later, however)

thinky-thoughts hidden below

sharp objects series finale

This is one of those cases where it's taken me years to get around to finally watching something I'm convinced I'll like. My life is like that, it makes no sense. It feels weird to single out one episode of a whole that is so strongly one thing, but the finale is where everything culminates & the first two thirds had my stomach in knots. The ending reveal montage was brilliant and gutting. Amy Adams and Eliza Scanlen are forever good in my books on the strength of the finale.

star trek strange new worlds s02e03

Love La'an and what she gets to do in this episode. It's both classic TOS shenanigans in a way that I thoroughly enjoy & it's also character developing in a way TOS arguably could not have been, as that was not really the tv landscape back in the day. I found her attachment to Kirk both sweet and heartbreaking, and there were some moments along the way I thought were just excellent fun, like Kirk getting them money by playing chess, because Kirk plays chess with his first officer in every universe, and La'an and Kirk choosing the same outfit when they go to the shop and need regular Earth clothing. Adelaide Kane put in a good performance as the guest star, and not only was the plot fun, but it also managed to advance some character arcs, primarily La'an's, but also Pelia's. All good in my book.

community s01e23 modern warfare

I accidentally rewatched a few episodes of Community yesterday and just had such incredible amounts of fun with this and some other episodes. The ability of the cast and crew to work across genres and plotlines and tropes and still have convincing characters and even character arcs, as well as relationship arcs, is still a brilliant accomplishment in my books. Also, early Jeff/Britta, what a wonderful sitcom disaster.

succession series finale

Look, I am not immune to siblings and tragedy. I would really love to say I have something to add to the immeasurable amounts of Succession discourse, but I am not sure I do. The final sibling argument scene wherein Kendall, for a shot at the throne, takes back his confession of murder (manslaughter probably?) which was what jump started his patching-things-up-with-the-siblings and was arguably the moment they were all most there for each other in the whole series? Horrifying, beautiful, stupid, inevitable. Tragic.

black sails s02e01

I have decided to cheer for all thing queer and fun and my friends that I am watching this with are both highly into this as well, so it's not necessarily the episode itself that I enjoyed so much, as it was my experience of watching it, but I treasure it. Also, I cannot believe I am getting attached to John Silver of all fictional characters in all the pirate gin joints, but what can you do, I am weak, someone save me.

top tv episodes of all time, in no particular order

Honestly, there's like an extremely slim chance that this is actually my top 5 episodes of tv ever, but I'm really trying here & will try to explain my thinky thoughts. Having written the list and given it a bit of a thing, there's definitely a theme here of themes being developed & brought to escalation, plotlines being finished, tragic and horrible choices being made, high stakes, and (the least in the case of the doctor who episode) the landscape of the show and of what the show is/means being changed forever by the episode.

doctor who s01e09 father's day

Listen, I know. I hear you. I want to say ANYTHING basically with Amy. Amy is forever my favorite Doctor Who companion. But on my recent Doctor Who re-watch I discovered depths of appreciation I did not know I had for Father's Day. I love Rose's self-centeredness, and Nine's anger and then angered resignation to it, which inevitably ends in honest forgiveness. I always cry over Nine's speech to the young couple.

DOCTOR: How did all this get started? STUART: Outside the Beatbox Club, two in the morning. SARAH: Street corner. I'd lost my purse, didn't have money for a taxi. STUART: I took her home. DOCTOR: Then what? Asked her for a date? SARAH: Wrote his number on the back of my hand. STUART: Never got rid of her since. My dad said. SARAH: I don't know what this is all about, and I know we're not important. DOCTOR: Who said you're not important? I've traveled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes. I'll try and save you.

tears

(But also, you know. AMY POND.)

btvs becoming part 2

Listen, I know. There's so much of BTVS that's dear to me, and it's hard to pick any one thing and be happy with your choice. But I recently rewatched the first two seasons and was surprised at how much I felt during Becoming. Even as someone who is not extremely attached to Angel/Buffy, the setup and the tragedy of it is beautiful, imo, & SMG's terrific beyond words. And I am a sucker for high stakes. Also, whatever one thinks of Xander's not-telling-Buffy thing, as someone who's just watched s2 of Warrior Nun, DEAR SISTERS IN CHRIST, do I wish someone working on that show was not afraid of having a character make such a radical move. And not just in a show like Succession, where it does not weigh the same, because everyone's choices are horrible exactly all of the time, but in a show about teenagers, super-powered and not, just honest-to-god trying to prevent apocalypses. Not to mention the whole Angelus arc leading us to Buffy killing him. And the fallout from this arguably follows everyone in the main cast until the end of the show. Also, the No weapons…no friends…no hope. Take all that away and what's left? Me. Gets me every time.

twin peaks s2 finale

Still contains the single most terrifying scene I have seen in my life. Honestly, I don't even want to talk about it. Imagine the worst thing that could possibly happen in a show that is ostensibly about the struggle between good and evil and then that exact thing happening. It is horrifying in a visceral, existential way. I don't wanna talk about it, alright.

hannibal season 2 finale

Not me getting attached to fictional men, noooooooo. Why. Also, it's starting to look, as I am writing this, that I am way more into tragedy than I would normally say about myself, and I am not sure what to do with that. There's something so beautifully harrowing and horrifying about the obviously inevitable fallout from Will going through with his planned betrayal and then not being able to actually do it. Hannibal making a family for them and then taking it away. Abigail murdered by a father, again. Alana betrayed, Jack betrayed, all of them relevant victims that in their own right that command BOTH Will and Hannibal's love and respect, but in other ways utterly meaningless because of how blind & careless Will, and Hannibal in particular, can be towards people that are not Will and Hannibal. "Falling in love with a god is not a death sentence. The story is only a tragedy if the god loves you back."

the west wing season 2 finale

The tragedy, the elation, the fucking putting of hands into pockets. YOU GET HOYNES. The Brothers In Arms needle drop to stand supreme to all other needle drops.

(also i apparently have a thing for s2 finales whatdoyoudo. I guess it makes sense to some degree, because shows need to take time to become themselves and then afterwards often they go into directions you don't like. season 2, obviously for me, statistically, is when the show has found itself - whatever the show is, it is that the most in season 2, seems to be my judgment.)

[byakuyasdarling]

Hello hello!!! Here are some questions :3c

1) Are there any movies/shows you've seen recently that you think your f/o would enjoy watching them together with you?

2) Is there any media you got interested in, took a little break from it and then never came back to? Why? Is there any chance you'll be interested in it again in the future? (Hhh I think I worded this a bit weird, I hope it's understandable ;_;))

3) Can you think of any interactions/dialogue between my s/i and yours? :D Only if you have any ideas, it's oki if not, this is a bonus question XD

I wish you the best!! I hope that you'll feel a bit better soon, if you need to talk, let me know! Sending hugs🫂💗💗!!

Ahh thank you so much for the questions, Flake!! I’d be more than happy to answer these <3 and thank you so much for the wishes, I really appreciate it ^//v//^ I’m sending more hugs to you too 💙💙 you’re so amazing !!

Everything under the cut :)

1. Byakuya may canonically like movies, but I cannot see him enjoying some of the movies it shows I do — lmao.

S/I will try to get him to watch something other than crime documentaries with her though!

I can actually see him liking some of the studio Ghibli movies. They’re incredible works of art — it’s hard to disagree with that. S/I’s favourite is Kiki’s Delivery Service (which was always my favourite as a kid)! Byakuya likes Spirited Away the most; a very popular choice, but it is quite brilliant.

Ghibli movies often have more emotional appeal — but I don’t think that affects his enjoyment of the movie itself, he is more focused on how well made it actually is; he tends to analyse films a lot as he watches, ahahaha. I think he can really like them just because S/I gets so happy about them too, there’s just something that arises in him when she goes and cries in his chest when she’s happy over a character’s final victory. She’s precious to him; she really is. Ahhh,,, and if he brings her closer as he wraps his arm around her as she cries happy tears >///< shsjsjsj malfunction.

When Byakuya hates a movie or tv series she puts on (Pokémon, Merlin, some episodes of Doctor Who, etc.) he tends to just pull out a book and start reading instead. They’ll hold hands though!! Hehehehe, and S/I will kiss his hand a lot as he attempts to keep composure — ahahaha.

2. Yeah I can perfectly understand it! That would be Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil for me!.

SVTFOE is really charming through and through. I love the characters, I love their funny interactions, I love the universe. It’s just really fun. I used to get so invested in all the royal fanchildren and all the lore and effort the creators put into making their characters!

The popularity of fandom activity just dwindled a lot after the rushed Season 4 FINALE. Like — I didn’t mind, I still thought it was good and was satisfied, but I know a lot of people didn’t think the same way (especially because it had undone so much of their AU work, so they just gave up for the most part).

With the fandom dying, I left too. I still like seeing the comics (fan made) for it every now and again though!! I might become invested in it again when I rewatch it next! But I kinda doubt it.

3. Yes!!! S/I has a friend??? Yayyy!!! She doesn’t have any at the start of the Hope’s Peak years since the big scary boyfriend death-glared people away — ahahaha (not like he wants to deprive S/I of social interaction, he’s just very lost on the concept of friends. To him, she’s all he needs).

SO. I think in some posts you said that Frogeru puts metal songs on in the car and she also can’t sing? Well, S/I can’t sing either, therefore, they are the best at karaoke!! If Frogeru likes to sing death metal, I can imagine her and S/I doing a duet, with S/I on guitar. They are UNSTOPPABLE!!! S/I is really gonna let loose B)

I also think S/I and Frogeru would be good at drawing cat people together, ahahaha. S/I can learn from the master herself B) Return of Nyakuya? Return of NYA-kuya. I think S/I would enjoy creating mocks of wanted posters of herself but a cat person — the ultimate FELINE-Y (cause,,, it’s a cat pun on ‘felony’ — hahaha. Not funny? Yep, that’s understandable).

ALSO, I kinda recall you saying the Frogeru and Taka watch documentaries or scary/unusual videos? S/I quite enjoys those too, so if Byakuya’s up to it she’ could drag him over for a cool and swag double date thingie B) S/I will need to tell Byakuya to behave though — that man must hold back his instinct of critiquing everything in front of him to not drag the mood down. Byakuya is annoying when a documentary will talk about something he knows about — he’s still fully privy to annoying everyone with his tangents over how ‘wrong’ their information is and somehow making it personal, djdjdjdjd. S/I will try and shut him up, but it’s not easy, lmao. I can see Taka trying to keep the order and peace of the room as well — considering I always thought he was more positive and tried to uplift everyone! (Not sure if that makes Byakuya worse or not — but I’m sure eventually they’ll find a way to settle him down).

I cannot do dialogue right now for the life of me, but I think Frogeru, S/I, and maybe Sayaka could go down to a coffee shop and have some fun ^//v//^

[astro-break]

Thoughts on the third ep of Hypmic Rhythm Anima (as always, spoilers beware but not only for the anime itself but for future things covered in the Drama CD and the Manga. If you’re an anime only, those are marked with a *)

Right off the bat. Super disappointed that it isn’t a MTC episode. I wanted an MTC episode. :((((

Still got my MTC crumbs this week tho and I think I can hold out until next week which hopefully will give me the MTC episode I so desperately want (Yes, i have a division bias and i’m not afraid to show it)

Jakurai entertaining kids are just so cute. I think its very very precious.

* Also. What kind of doctor is Jakurai anyways? So far we know that he’s a councilor/therapist (helps Doppo w/ his anxiety), a pediatrician (he helped a kid), a family doctor (I think i might be wrong on this one), a surgeon (In the FP vs MTC manga he’s shown preforming surgery), a hitman/assassin (:/ yeah evil line records seems intent on retconning this one), a battle field medic (he’s state to be one during WWIII) and now he’s getting called into the orthopedic (things concerning the musculoskeletal system) and gastroenterology (working w. the digestive system) department, two things that have nothing in common with each other. And I’m sure I’m missing some. There is no way in hell this man can do all that he’s 35 for fucks sake. You’d be old and grey before you could learn and complete the credentials needed to work half of these jobs

Nice to now that theres some hints of jakurai’s past. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing more of the detective later in the story, esp for Matenrou

Doppo being overworked as usual *sigh*. When will the man ever rest? Never... Though im a bit skeptical as to why one of his co-workers calls him doppo. this is a work environment, usually he’d be called “Kanonzaka” for the least amount of informality. seems sus to me. Though his depiction of his insecurities is nice

I love how his first reaction is to call Hifumi and as him if he’s killed anyone. Peak bromance guys. 

Honestly Doppo’s method of trying to calm down is nice but not at all effective. He has the right mindset of calming down and letting his body breath, but the way he goes about it is... eh. 

Tom and Iris’ argument is hilarious and I really want to see more of them and Rex! Can’t wait to see what happens with these three new characters

Iasdgfjsd;flkasjdflkasdjfkasdlvn ajsdk, MTCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

MY BPOYS OH MY GOD RIOU NEVER CHANGE

fsajghasdf i love them asdhfoiksldjfasdfj riou’s food looks so so so so so good omgggggg

Samatoki respecting the fuck outta Jakurai is amazing and I never get tired of their father-child kind of relationship (yes jakurai is a dad to TDD fight me.)

The Riou and Samatoki interactionnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ah my heart!! they know each other so well and play off each others strengths. its so cute and I love how Samatoki knows his teammates well enough to know when to play each of his pieces. He isn’t just some brute who speaks through his fists, but he does use his head too. I think this is one of the reasons why he’s also high up on the Yakuza ladder since he’s not only brawny but also brainy

EAT RIOUS FOOD SAMATOKI

ah yes, Jyuto kneeing a bitch. just what I needed to see on a stressful friday thank you for feeding me

I love MTC, im very happy with the MTC crumbs. Since MTR showed up in BB’s ep last week, i really really hope that next week’s ep will be MTC

There it is. Jakurai’s “Jitsuni Kyoumibukai” line

lolololololol the sound effects for MTR is hilarious. Though please give Doppo a break, man deserves it

Jaku’s hair man. its beautiful

Again, please give Doppo a break, he deserves with the 4 joints that they attacked

They say 3 times, but they attacked 4 places?? Did they not report one of them?

Ahhhhh the DoHifu interaction on the temple grounds is both hilarious and cute. Though I can’t help but feel bad for Doppo

* Huh, Jaku did you get that from your hitman days loll

Oh man host mode. Though I like how Doppo recognizes when Host Mode is  a legitimate shield that Hifumi needs and is willing to give him that shield when he needs it. God I love their dynamic]

wow... yet another female stalker for Hifumi... very original. This is pretty similar to the stalker girl from the manga and CD

Lol callback to when Doppo was in the toilet and trying to calm down. 

pffft the girl is so weird. I can’t stand her or Uwabami. 

The plot is so convoluted holy shit. Is this a drama now? (I’ve never watched any c-dramas or k-dramas so I’m the furthest thing from a voice of authority but this seems like a drama show plot lmao.)

This is just a drama at this point lol. Misunderstandings, plot twists and cheesy shit all over the place. Its a badly written and hilarious drama thats for sure

Someone please write a fic where instead of the hypmic universe, the boys are all in a tv drama show plot and their hijinks bc it would fit perfectly. please

Ah, Doppochin snapped~ He’s very interesting once he gets fired up and thats when I really really like MTR. Don’t get me wrong, I love them normally but its when they get down to it that really makes me squeal in delight

Oh! So i think each character gets their own personalized intro w/ their speakers, not just the leaders. Thats honestly so so so cool. The 3D didn’t get in the way of the sequence and was really flashy and smooth. I love how they show the transformation and reveal of the mic and speaker. Honestly the Anime has so many good takes on thigs that aren’t touched on often in the franchise.

The rap was honestly fire this time around. I love it and have replayed it almost 20 times. According to the ending credits its called Welcome U which is so cute for such a funny and badass song. The strong base beat and imagery were so strong and included a lot of homages to things that really matches both Shinjuku, Matenrou and the lyric’s themes and they’re really small but important details! The humor was on point without sacrificing any of the amazingly cool elements and the three distinct styles of rap were integrated in such a catchy melody!

EG) the verse All Year Round features a quick shot of the four seasons and the things most prominently associated with each season. Spring has cherry blossoms and flower viewing, Summer has festivals, Fall and Winter have food that corresponds to events that happen in those seasons.

Doppo’s line of “The flea counters w/ a bite” is so so so cute bc he’s got a little w at the end and thats jp chatspeak for a laugh and skjdfhsdjfkslad adorable

Hifumi picking up right after and asking if Doppo is okay is just. Goals. And his gratutious english works really well and is super smooth! Very very good

Also the small homage to The Champions with Hifumi’s “Jump around” line and the format where Hifumi takes separate lines than Jaku and Doppo. Its a brilliant way to sneak these references in and they’ve kept that theme going from last episode

Foreshadowing with “We’re the true leader, Matenro!” Nice touch there lol.

Lol of course its attempted murder. Still gotta keep this PG 13 even though theres swearing abound

The ending w/ mimimi..... leaves me kind of torn since i don’t like how it ended but they did provide some nice advice. i guess

lsdf;jsalkdfjsldf Hifumi please you’ve known Doppo for over 25 years, you should know better than anyone what his charm points are. and shouldn’t you be the one who understands Doppo’s appeal? smh

SCREEEEEEE THAT TITLE OF THE NEXT EP. if its an MTC ep i will scream even more bc asudhfsdkjflasd A friend in need is a friend indeed this is just pushing my Poly!MTC agenda isn’t it

Final thoughts:

Please please please let next week be MTC please please please

DoHifu are goals, both romantically and platonically

The rap was fire and I’m going to keep listening to it on repeat. First ep was a bit of a disappointment in terms of CGI and raps but these latest two eps are really picking up the slack! I really hope they continue this for the next two!

JAKURAI WHAT KIND OF DOCTOR ARE YOU PLEASE TELL ME

[thewatsonbeekeepers]

Chapter 2 – Look up here, I’m in Heaven: the height metaphor

[The chapter title comes from David Bowie’s Lazarus. Lazarus is a cracking song, and you should listen to it. X CN: death, disturbing imagery]

It’s worth stating here that this whole meta has a cn for death and suicide – this one is analysing the literal peaks and troughs (height is important in this episode) that Sherlock goes through in order to look at how close he is to dying throughout.

In my reading, EMP theory begins once Mary shoots Sherlock in HLV – I’ve linked the reasons for this in Chapter 1 X, so I’m not going to run through them again here. I think Sherlock comes the closest to death that we see him in the EMP at the end of HLV – if you remember, he’s been put on a plane in ‘exile’ by Mycroft, but in reality is being sent to his death. This plane/height image is really important. In the Christian tradition (and therefore majority Western tradition that the writers are writing in), the sky is associated with heaven – Sherlock’s plane taking off being synonymous with his death seems a pretty straightforward metaphor in that regard. (It’s even one that’s used in Cats, though I don’t know if that’s a good thing.) Further to that – it ties in nicely with Sherlock being ‘high’ through a lot of s4, which represents the moments in which he is most repressed and his repression is most tied to self-harm. We have further ideas to buttress the height/aeroplane metaphor with, however – do you remember the plane in ASiB?

Sure, as I recall it never gets off the ground. But everybody on it is dead. Aeroplanes have an association with death already in this show, and the choice to put Sherlock on a plane rather than lock him up for four minutes or anything equivalent – and probably less expensive to shoot – suggests a deliberate throwback. We’re supposed to think of it as a kind of metal coffin.

[Obviously, there’s another, more notable use of an aeroplane in the programme – you can see where I’m going here. But bear with me – there’s more first.]

I want to quickly talk about what grounds Sherlock’s aeroplane. Moriarty appears on screens everywhere, and then we have the following exchange between Sherlock and Mycroft. I’ve already made a post about this that’s done the rounds on tumblr X, so if you already know this bit you’re ahead of the game.

As far as I can tell, nobody ever tells Sherlock that Moriarty is back. It’s possible Mycroft tells him offscreen, or that he googles it from his phone, given that he’s already breaking flight rules, but given that it’s the entire trigger for TAB, it seems a pretty odd thing to leave out. In EMP theory, it’s also the thing that downs his plane – in terms of the plane metaphor as well as literally, it stops him from dying. It’s pivotal, but we don’t see it. I therefore want to hypothesise – what does it mean if Sherlock is never told that Moriarty is back?

The first thing it tells us is that Sherlock is in his Mind Palace, because he knows that Moriarty is back without needing to be told. But the second is that Mycroft, the brain, is waking Sherlock from his dying stupor to tell him that England needs him, meaning that Sherlock’s brain equates Moriarty coming back with the word ‘England’ in some way. Perhaps this is a tenuous link, but the seed is planted back from ASiP, when we’re taught to associate John with his armchair.

Don’t mind me, I’m just crying. Basically, Sherlock knows that John is in danger and that’s what pulls him back from the brink – and we know it’s serious, because Mycroft, the brain, is warning him. Via call.

The fear of Moriarty coming back might sound like a tenuous symbol for John being in danger, but when we probe deeper the two are actually quite obviously equivalent. The only threat that Moriarty has ever posed to Sherlock is a threat to John’s life – the Semtex, burning the heart out of him, John Watson is definitely in danger, the sniper at the fall. This is Sherlock’s pressure point, and by getting rid of Moriarty, he’s getting rid of any danger to John – we know from his drug abuse etc. that his regard for himself is much lower. So Sherlock being woken from the dead to save John makes complete sense. He died for him, and now he’ll resurrect himself for him.

There are several layers to how John is in danger – the bottom one, which for me s4 is about getting to the heart of, is that without Sherlock John is suicidal. This was established in ASiP, and I believe is the metaphorical plot of TLD (see Chapter 9 X). However, there’s also the problem of Mary, newly discovered as an assassin, and Sherlock trying to work out who she is and where she comes from – more on that later, but there’s certainly a chance she’s linked to Moriarty, given the Morstan/Moran connections. ‘Did you miss me?’ works for both of those layers – the danger John is in from criminals is something that was really apparent in s1 and 2, but John’s endangerment from suicide is also something that was there at the beginning of the series. Sherlock changed these things – and didn’t realise he was the changing factor, but something in his subconscious is telling him that with him gone, John Watson is once again in danger.

So, his plane comes back to the runway – still in his mind palace, of course, but coming down. TAB – of which more on later – seems to be about the return of Moriarty, and Sherlock puzzling through it, which is jarringly absent from TST and TLD if you’re reading it on a surface level – it takes TAB for Sherlock to puzzle through this and to pull him down from death, as he comes to understand the Moriarty threat. This all sounds pretty vague – the TAB chapter will deal with it in more detail. For now, let’s move on to the other places where the height/heaven metaphor comes into s4.

One thing that several meta-writers have pointed out is that Ella’s office is… fucky. It’s not the same office as John repeatedly visits outside the MP – it’s possible that Ella has moved premises, but it’s a weird thing to draw such obvious attention to by the weirdness of the room. This isn’t a subtle change, like John and Mary’s place, it’s a really dissonant one, and the oddness of the room pulls our attention towards a character and space that by rights belong in the background of the story. It’s a really odd move – and that’s why I’m so convinced that it’s important.  

It looks like Heaven, for want of a better description. The window with the light streaming through looks like the very top of a church window, and the beams suggest that the ceiling is like a kind of spire – and the spire in a church is meant to be closer to heaven, that’s part of the imagery. So there’s that side of things, and I really don’t think that’s a coincidence. However, the even weirder part is the partitioning of the room, for want of a better word. The wall ends at about chair height, and from there to the floor is – nothing? These aren’t mirrors because the chairs aren’t reflected. I have never seen a room partitioned like this, and nor has anyone I’ve shown the image to – again, it draws attention to itself. If the creative team had wanted us to take this scene at face value, they would have put Ella in an office. This is not a psychiatrist’s office. The partitions mean that it isn’t even private.

I don’t know if I’m right about the partitions, but there’s only one thing they remind me of, and that’s a closing door. It’s a trope in an adventure film – I first saw it in Indiana Jones, but it’s in many a movie. It also features in Doctor Who on multiple occasions.

It’s the moment when the door is coming down and you only have a few seconds to get under it, otherwise you die. Indiana Jones famously goes back for his hat. That one. That’s what the space under the partition looks like. Sherlock, thinking he’s solved the case of Norbury and therefore Mary (more in Chapter 7 X) is ready to pop off – he’s nearly gone. But in a moment of self-interrogation – making sure he got everything right, that John’s safe now – he realises he isn’t, and so he comes down. That sinking downwards is represented by the water imagery, as he sinks deep into his subconscious – LSiT has written a fantastic meta on water in S4 which you can read here X, as I’m loath to take credit for this idea!

I’m going to talk about water a lot more in the chapters on TFP, because of John in the well and pirates and so much, but the obvious thing to talk about now is the plane in TFP.

This is a point where surface level plot breaks down – because this cannot be in Eurus’s mind. When we watch film/tv, we make one of two assumptions – either we have the omnipotent view, like in most films, where we’re guided by the director but everything we see is ultimately objectively true, or we see through somebody else’s eyes (rarer). These can be played with – think of a film like The Usual Suspects (please skip to the next paragraph if you haven’t seen this film because it’s fantastic) where the film lets the viewer rest on their laurels and slip into normal, objective viewing patterns when of course it’s a subjective, flashback narrative, which Kevin Spacey is deliberately obscuring to trick an audience. This rug pull can be fantastic, but we don’t have such a rug pull here. Either it’s a poor man’s version, or there’s something else going on. Mug drop.

New paragraph – spoilers gone. Moments where the perspective was actually subjective and we missed it or forgot it are great rug pulls, because the clues are there but we don’t spot them. We love a good unreliable narrator. This isn’t the case here. The plane scene, as visualised, exists only inside Eurus’s head. Eurus is emphatically not our narrator during TFP, so when it comes out that the girl on the plane isn’t real, we just feel lied to.

If we accept that s4 takes place inside Sherlock’s MP, this makes more sense, because all of the characters are manifestations of different parts of Sherlock’s psyche and so he can jump between perspectives. It also means that the terror of being on a crashing plane that Eurus has felt ever since she was a child is not hers – it’s Sherlock’s. If we remember that planes are synonymous with dying in this show, an association that’s reinforced because of the “sleeping” people on the plane, a clear throwback to the dead passengers in ASiB, the climax of S4, when Sherlock is trying to save John and work out his repressed memories, is all fuelled by a child’s nightmare of dying, a terror that has resurfaced.

I think Eurus represents Sherlock’s queer trauma, and I’ll explain that in more detail in Chapter 5 X, which is completely devoted to Eurus. Her representing trauma, though, makes a great deal of sense in this situation. The problem of the plane, the threat that she hinges on, is one that has been repeating and repeating, though repressed, inside Sherlock’s consciousness, and he breaks through it with not only kindness, but the recognition that it is all in Eurus’s (and by extension his) head.

This doesn’t diminish the trauma that Sherlock experiences – one of the things I begrudgingly like about the ending of TFP. Sherlock can’t get rid of the problem and possible danger that is his trauma – but he can stop it from careering to the point of destruction by recognising it, he can learn to live in harmony (see the violin duet) with it, he can accept its existence.  Pushing through that trauma is what makes him able to abandon the plane and (we hope) return to the real world.

The positioning of the aeroplane problem in relation to the John-trapped-in-a-well problem is also pretty important. I’m of the firm belief that Eurus represents queer trauma, and this is the trauma that throughout the entirety of series 4 is both pushing him towards John and blocking him from him. Sherlock needs to wake up to save John, and has to push through the trauma to recognise this – but the trauma is blocking his way. She’s stopping him from helping John – it’s a terrible moment when Sherlock is telling John that he’s busy whilst John is drowning in the well – but it’s also pushing through the aeroplane moment that allows him to save John in the MP. This is the paradox of queer repression, right, and the paradox in Eurus’s behaviour – she’s simultaneously blocking Sherlock and leading him on to the solution.

When Sherlock finally reaches Eurus’s room, he tells her that he’s on the ground and he can bring her down too – and what is most striking is the way Eurus is sitting. She’s actually incredibly grounded, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and given that the house is burned it’s likely that this is the ground floor as well. The dark room is a far cry from the bright lighting of the plane – everything suggests that she’s been pulled back. And of course, the lovely touch that all she needs to do is open her eyes. That’s all the creators have ever been asking people to do – open their eyes to what is hiding in plain sight – and Eurus is allowing Sherlock to see things afresh for the first time. But also, this final breakthrough is what’s going to allow Sherlock to open his own eyes, right? So that phrase is doubly powerful.

And there was me hating on TFP for three years. That’s a brief journey through the highs and lows of series 4, though if anyone can explain the planes in TST to me that would be wonderful! The next chapter will do a run through of HLV before we move onto TAB and series 4.

[aion-rsa]

13 Best Blumhouse Horror Movies Ranked

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Has any single person had a greater impact on horror this century than Jason Blum? The one-time Miramax executive struck out on his own in the 2000s when he founded Blumhouse Productions, a company where he remains the CEO. And in the ensuing years, Blum’s production label would define, and redefine again, the trends of horror movies and thrillers.

Operating on the philosophy that a horror film with a micro-budget will almost always turn a profit, Blum frequently allows directors broad freedom to make what they want within the genre, and in the process has kept multiplexes perpetually spooky. In 2009 Blumhouse helped reinvent the found footage horror aesthetic, and in the 2010s, the modern phenomenon of talent-focused horror gems began with Blumhouse’s gambles.

Working with filmmakers like James Wan, Scott Derrickson, Ethan Hawke, and Jordan Peele, Blumhouse Productions’ title card is now a promise of something different, if still eminently commercial and entertaining. It even paved the way for the controversial modern discourse around “elevated” horror, with Peele’s Get Out being the first chiller to win an Oscar for screenwriting since The Silence of the Lambs.

So with a new Blumhouse horror movie in theaters this Friday the 13th, we thought it a good time to count down the 13 best Blumhouse efforts that paid off with a bloody good time.

13. Hush

At the bottom of our top 13 is this taut thriller from Mike Flanagan, director The Haunting of series and Doctor Sleep fame. Flanagan and his co-writer and star (and also wife), Kate Siegel, wanted to make a horror movie with little to no dialogue. So they came up with this concept of a deaf-mute woman (Siegel) in a remote house, who is stalked by a killer with a crossbow. Hush is at its peak in the first 20 minutes as the masked man (10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr.) realizes his quarry can’t actually hear him and begins to play games.

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The pair’s relationship with sound makes an interesting dynamic in this tense home invasion movie, though the cat and mouse chase does grow somewhat repetitive and generic as the film progresses. Still, a fine performance from Siegel and an indication of what Flanagan could do on a small budget make this very much worth checking out. – Rosie Fletcher

12. Happy Death Day

The Groundhog Day formula where an odious person is doomed to relive the same day countless times has proven remarkably flexible. And Happy Death Day is no exception with its horror-comedy blend of Punxsutawney hijinks and ‘80s slasher movie clichés. Starring a ridiculously game Jessica Rothe as Tree, the sorority girl who is constantly waking up with the hangover from hell, Happy Death Day follows the typical “Queen Bee” slasher archetype, and forces her to relive the same horror movie again and again. Until she can figure out who her masked killer is, and maybe how to be a better person, she’s condemned to die in increasingly preposterous ways. Worse still, she must also wake up in a dormitory afterward.

It’s derivative in a million different ways, but delightful in many more thanks to a cheeky atmosphere from director Christopher Landon and a very savvy, self-aware script by Scott Lobdell. Most of all though, it benefits from Rothe’s comedic talents on full display, as she backflips between initial verbal bitchiness and constant physical comedy. She even manages to find a little pathos, one stab wound at a time. – David Crow

11. The Visit

The Sixth Sense may remain M. Night Shyamalan’s masterpiece, but it was an oft-referenced moment from a different film that became key to Blumhouse pulling him back from the brink of irrelevance.

Having made four objectively terrible movies in a row, including the notoriously bad wind-smeller The Happening, Shyamalan seemingly decided to use what he’d learned from a very effective part of 2002’s Signs, where Joaquin Phoenix reacts to a tense home movie of an alien sighting, and took the next logical step: What if the director put together 90 minutes of unsettling home movie moments just like that?

Your mileage may vary with the handheld, mockumentary style of The Visit, but it’s hard to argue that this brisk, low-budget tale of two young siblings staying with some very, very odd grandparents they’ve never met before could play out more wildly than it does here. And Shyamalan certainly doesn’t pull many punches when it comes to putting those poor kids in peril during the film’s climax. – Kirsten Howard

10. Creep

No, not the one set on the subway, this Creep, directed by Patrick Brice, written by Brice and Mark Duplass, and also starring them both in a tense two-hander, is an altogether more unsettling affair. Brice plays Aaron, a videographer who answers an ad posted by Josef (Duplass), the latter saying he’s dying and wants a video diary made to leave to his son. But Josef’s behavior is weird – exactly how weird is too weird is the challenge faced by Aaron.

At just 77 mins long, this is a compact, unusual, often funny movie which picks at male relationships in the modern day, and how far kindness and politeness can override instinct. Duplass and Brice are incredibly natural in a film that’s extremely unusual, steeped in unease but not really like a traditional horror, with laughter and tension relief keeping you on your toes throughout. There’s a sequel which is good too, though if you can watch the first without spoilers it delivers a particular kind of dread that’s hard to replicate. – RF

9. Upgrade

A couple of decades ago, there were plenty of films around like Upgrade. You didn’t even have to move for fun sci-fi action movies, really! But the glory days of never having to wait for the next Equilibrium, Gattaca, Cypher, or even Jet Li’s The One are long behind us. It’s pretty tough to get a slick little concept movie made when you’re expected to compete with huge action tentpoles at the box office—unless you’re Leigh Whannell, one of Blumhouse’s integral puzzle pieces.

Whannell paid his dues at the production house for 15 years as both a writer and helmer before unleashing his sophomore directorial effort, Upgrade. The film, which follows ludicrously named technophobe Grey Trace after he loses his beloved wife in a violent mugging, sees a paralyzed hero get implanted with a chatty chip that allows him to regain the use of his whole body. Soon Trace become virtually superhuman—imagine an internal K.I.T.T.—but all is not as it seems.

It shouldn’t be as delightful as it is. Admittedly, the whole thing isn’t too far removed from an elevated episode of The Outer Limits. But if you miss old school sci-fi nonsense and feel nostalgic for a time when smart sci-fi projects didn’t end up as eight drawn out episodes on a major streaming service instead, Upgrade really scratches an itch.

Of course now might be a bad time to mention that an Upgrade TV series is in the works… – KH

8. Halloween

In resurrecting one of horror’s most enduring—yet stubbornly uneven—franchises, director David Gordon Green (working with screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley) made the smartest move he could: He stripped away the ridiculously convoluted and nonsensical mythology the franchise had built up over decades. Instead he simply made a direct sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece.

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The result was easily the best Halloween movie since the original itself, bringing the characters and the story into the present while reverting Michael Myers back to the enigmatic, unstoppable, unknowable force that was so terrifying in the first film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak as three generations of Strode women bring healthy feminine empowerment to the proceedings while the intense violence and uneasy psychological underpinnings give this Halloween a resonance that has been lacking for so long. – Don Kaye

7. Split

As the movie that suggested M. Night Shyamalan’s renaissance was real, Split is still a surprising box office win for the eclectic filmmaker. With a grizzly premise about a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as split personality) kidnapping teen girls to hold in a zoo, this could be the stuff of ‘70s grindhouse sleaze. While there is a touch of that to Split, more critically the movie acts as a buoyant showcase for James McAvoy at his most unbound.

Playing a character with 24 different personalities, a shaved and beefy McAvoy is visibly giddy bouncing between multiple alters that include a deceptively sweet little boy, an OCD fashion designer, and a bestial final form. The commitment he shows to each also becomes its own special effect, causing you to swear his physical shape is changing with his expressions.

Similarly, scenes with theater legend Betty Buckley as his psychiatrist also rivet with the energy of a stage play, and suggest a sincere sympathy for mental illness. A rarity in horror. Nevertheless, the movie still comes down to his alters’ obsessions with their kidnapped prize (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who hides demons of her own. When these true selves finally cross paths in a genuinely tense finale, Split is maniacally thrilling. – DC

6. Sinister

An unsettling entry in the horror subgenre of writers who destroy their families, Sinister marked director/co-writer Scott Derrickson’s (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) return to horror after he detoured with an ill-fated remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thus Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill concocted a unique, if somewhat scattershot, mythology about a pagan deity that murders entire families in the ghastliest ways imaginable.

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True crime writer Ethan Hawke discovers the extent of those murders in a box of 8mm films left in the attic of his new home (where the last killings took place), and it’s the unspooling of those films—along with long sequences of Hawke moving through the shadows and silence of the house—that provide Sinister with its sickening core and palpable dread. Derrickson sustains the film’s foreboding mood for the entire running time, making the movie an authentically frightening experience. – DK

5. Oculus

The film that brought much of the world’s attention to Mike Flanagan, Oculus turned out to be a preview for the horror filmmaker’s interests. It also remains a truly unnerving ghost story. Not since the days of Dead of Night has a film so successfully made you scared of looking in a mirror.

Officially titled the Lasser Glass, the mirror in question is the apparent supernatural cause of hundreds of deaths, including the parents of Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites). When they were children, their mother starved and mutilated herself before their father killed her. But now as an adult, Kaylie is convinced she can prove the antique glass is the true culprit, and she’ll document its evil power before destroying it. But the funny thing about evil mirrors is they have ways of protecting themselves, and wreaking havoc on a sense of time, place, and certainly self-image.

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With the movie’s near masterful blending of events occurring 11 years ago and in the present, Flanagan revealed a knack for dreamlike structure, and stories about the past damning the future. These are ideas he’s gone on to explore in richer detail with The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, but Flanagan’s ability to juxtapose childhood trauma with a nightmarish present was never more potent, or tragic, than in Oculus’ refracted gaze. – DC

4. Paranormal Activity

It may take some mental gymnastics, but if you can take a step back and ignore all the sequels that followed in the wake of this surprise 2009 blockbuster, then you’d remember Paranormal Activity is a stone cold classic. It is also the movie that put Blumhouse on the map. Already mostly finished when Jason Blum saw a DVD screener of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, this $15,000-budgeted terror is arguably the most evocative use of found footage in all of horror.

While Peli is obviously influenced by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, that earlier movie is as famous for its shaky disorientation as it is its scares. By contrast what occurs in Paranormal Activity is excruciatingly clear. Seriously, the camera barely moves! Instead we’re asked to sit back and watch in near slow motion as an unwise couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) meddle with forces that were better off left undisturbed.

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It begins when Micah brings a home video camera into their house to track apparent ghosts in the dark; it ends in a demonic rush of violence. Everything in between is tracked by a disinterested lens, which usually sits statically in a corner or on a tripod, capturing the tedium of everyday life in its everyday natural lighting. Only occasionally does the horned shadow on the wall manifest. But then Paranormal Activity is chilling in its isolation. – DC

3. Insidious

As the fourth feature film directed by Australian filmmaker James Wan, Insidious follows a couple named Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne), whose son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities from a dimension called the Further. The family enlists a psychic named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) in a battle involving astral projection and demonic possession.

Following an era of horror films that were more torture porn or police procedural (including Wan’s own Saw), Insidious was a return to the kind of horror filmmaking that was dependent on atmosphere, suspense, and what you don’t see lurking in the shadows. And Wan seemed to imbue that creepiness around the edges of every shot. Using actual adult characters and developing them (as opposed to the hipster teens that infested nearly every horror movie for at least 10 years previously) also set the film apart as a serious attempt at a genre that had been too often exploited in a tossed-off fashion.

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The world-building of Insidious left the door open for sequels, of course, and while the three produced so far have had their moments, none has matched the sheer invention and terrifying fun of the original. – DK

2. The Invisible Man

Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal Monster, the Invisible Man, was as much of a surprise when it hit screens earlier this year as the titular villain himself. As a smart social commentary on domestic abuse and gaslighting, while also being enormously effective as a straight up horror, this was a highly fresh take on an old standard.

At the core was the terrific performance of Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia, a woman stuck with her controlling boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in their high-tech, high security fortress of a home. When Cece finally manages to escape and Adrian appears to take his own life, she hopes her ordeal can finally be over. But in fact it’s just beginning.

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Playing on the true horror of not being believed, Whannell’s Invisible Man is as harrowing at times as it is thrilling. Yes, there are some extraordinarily shocking set pieces – the restaurant scene of course stands out – but it’s the increasing desperation of Cece, whose world is falling apart at the manipulative hands of a man who won’t let her go, which stays with you.

The Invisible Man is a thrilling horror, for sure, with a feel good ending (if you want to read it that way…), but it’s something altogether more exciting than that too: a fresh, relevant take on a classic, expertly directed and boasting star power delivered on a moderate budget, which flexes exactly what horror can do. – RF

1. Get Out

More impressive than any awards it won, Jordan Peele’s Get Out encapsulates the essential draw of horror: through entertaining “scares,” it unmasks truths folks might find too horrifying or uncomfortable to acknowledge. In the case of Get Out, it is the despair of Blackness and Black bodies still being commodified by a predatory American culture.

Wearing influences like Rosemary’s Baby and Stepford Wives on his sleeve, Peele pulls from classic horror conventions for his directorial debut, but gives them a startling 21st century sheen. His movie’s insidious conspiracy is neither an obvious coven of witches or the openly racist heavies of a period piece. Rather Peele sets his story about a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) coming to meet his white girlfriend’s parents in a liberal conclave of wealthy suburbia. Written during the final days of the Obama years, Peele casts these parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) as genial and welcoming, shielding cries of racism behind fashionable political correctness.

Yet once Peele moves past that trendy veneer, he finds a potent allegory in which the ghosts of slavery are still alive and well, even in Upstate New York. Peele also packs anxieties about interracial relationships, culture clash, and childhood trauma into a film that is nevertheless gregariously funny. Ultimately though, its final effect is triggering in the best way. Get Out offers an opportunity to confront real dread, one uneasy laugh, and then sudden jump scare, at a time. – DC

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[hypexion]

Voyage of the Damned is an episode title that really comes at you. It tells you that this isn’t going to be a funtime Christmas episode. Instead, everyone dies. Well, not everyone. Just almost everyone.

The setup for Voyage of the Damned is “The Titanic, IN SPACE“, which tells you that things are about to go horribly wrong. Space aliens (who look exactly like humans) are cruising past Earth for some funky Christmas fun. But soon things go wrong! Oh noes!

Before things go wrong, Voyage of the Damned lures you in with its Christmas charm. The Doctor goes to a party and meets some nice people. He even goes to Earth, where he finds that everyone has left London due to impending disaster. Some old guy fills in the Doctor about this development, who will later return as Wilf, a top-tier one-off companion. And also grand-dad of Donna Noble.

You are also lured in by Astrid, played by special guest star Kylie. Astrid has big companion energy, with a backstory and yernings that make her seem like a perfect TARDIS friend. However, Voyage of the Damned is where having big companion energy starts becoming equal to having lots of death forshadowing. Thus, Astrid, who has many companion traits such as kindness, gumption and drive is tragically killed by Voyage of the Damned‘s need to kill, and the BBC’s inability to hire Kylie full-time.

Speaking of its need to kill, Voyage of the Damned is unrelenting in the way it unfolds. Once things go wrong, they go wrong to the maximum possible degree. One guy gets shot, most people get wiped out by the meteors, and then the Hosts murder most of the survivors. This is not happy Christmas viewing. The collapsing ship provides most of the danger, but there’s also killer robots, just to spice things up.

Voyage of the Damned reaches the peak of its bloodlust in the bridge scene. First, Morvin dies by stepping to the side. Which is ridiculous. We already know how dangerous the ship is - a guy got sucked out into space. Then Bannakaffalatta sacrifices himself to stop the Hosts, which actually works because we’ve had a bit of time to get to like him. Then Foon does a sacrifice, and it’s honestly just redundant. Also it comes of as mean-spirited that the characters demeaned for being poor and large die horribly. Are unintentional classist themes really the true meaning of Christmas?

Once half the cast has been somewhat pointlessly culled, we finally get to find out the villain behind all of this. Via some clever Doctor trickery, he gets the Hosts to take him to their leader. Turns out Max Capricorn is a loser and murdered a bunch of people because rich people are dicks. There’s some stuff about anti-cyborg discrimination going on which feeds into the motivation here, but it doesn’t quite work. Is it meant to be about ableism, or homophobia, or what? The general concept seems like it should be an ableism thing - both cyborg characters are like that as a consequence of medical issues. But Astrid has a line about cyborgs being able to get married, which is more associated with gay rights.

Anyhow, Max is defeated when Astrid uses her companion drive to forklift him to death. Except because we can’t have nice things in Christmas episode Voyage of the Damned, this kills her. Hooray for more angst, I guess. Then later, Astrid survives! Yay! Except only as a space ghost, which is pretty bittersweet, but at least she gets to fly around and see new places.

Of course, once Astrid was gone, Russel T. Davis decided that no, he hadn’t gone far enough in Last of the Time Lords. The Doctor declares himself the highest authority, and literally ascends, carried by angels, to the control. What. Why does this happnen? How is The Timeless Children not inevitable, when the Doctor is already being treated as a literally god!? Some religious groups got a bit cross at this, which is understandable because it’s just really over the top and not in the good way. Sometimes, subtly is a thing that is good.

The ending of Voyage of the Damned is just the generic ending, really. The Doctor does a Doctor thing to save the world (oh yeah the world is in danger again can these specials never be local). Side characters go off to disappear. The Doctor then hops in the TARDIS to go be sad about Martha leaving, probably.

So, what’s the conclusion on Voyage of the Damned? I... don’t know? It’s honestly kind of weird. It’s surprisingly dark, especially for a Christmas episode. The villainous motivation is meh, and the stakes honestly feel overblown. There’s nothing really wrong with the execution, although some of the stuff maybe shouldn’t have escaped the cutting room. Well, I suppose one of the Tenth Doctor Christmas Specials had to be the worst, and Voyage of the Damned probably claims that unprize for itself.

[timeagainreviews]

Twin Peaks s01e01 “Traces to Nowhere”

Happy New Year, and welcome back to Twin Peaks, friends. Before we dive further into the mystery of Laura Palmer, I would like to tell you about my friend Jason. Jason was a pal of mine in high school. We used to hang out, listen to music, watch TV, and smoke. He lived with his girlfriend at the time who was also my friend. This may sound sappy, but around these two, I genuinely felt like the best version of myself. I miss those days incredibly. Jason also happened to be the first person to ever introduce me to Twin Peaks. One night, he and a friend were watching the movie as I came over to buy a bag. On that day, I discovered what was to become my newest obsession, one of which would stick with me for the next eighteen years of my life. Sadly, Jason and I fell out of contact and we lost track of one another.

I mention this because I recently heard through a mutual friend that Jason died two years ago. I'll not go into the details, suffice it to say, it was too soon. I always wanted to track him down to say hello, and now I'll never get the chance. While my friendship with Jason was immensely rewarding, one of the most persistent things he left me with was a love for Twin Peaks. Much of my personal philosophy comes from Twin Peaks, and it continues to inform the person I am today. If it weren't for Jason, I wouldn't be me. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this article in his memory. To Jason Walton- My friend in the stars.

Thank you for allowing me that moment, friend. Now if you remember, we left off on kind of a spooky note. Through some sort of line of sight, Sarah Palmer was given a vision of a gloved hand retrieving James' half of the heart necklace from where he and Donna had buried it. Dale Cooper, after a long day of detection, has turned in for a night of sleep at the Great Northern hotel, which is exactly where today's episode begins.

I've read in the past that you can tell right away when David Lynch is directing, or in this case, when he isn't directing. This is not a complaint about director Duwayne Dunham's work, but there is a clear departure from the slow wave of emotions that permeates the pilot episode. However, the more straightforward procedural pacing works much to the episode's credit. Being written by David Lynch and Mark Frost, this episode is drenched in Twin Peaks tones and textures. I'd go as far as to say Dunham does a damn fine job following the hard act that is David Lynch.

We start with a pan across Cooper's hotel room. As I've done with my Doctor Who reviews, I found myself trying to see this scene as though it were my first time. You watch Twin Peaks for eighteen years, and you tend to forget just how strange the decor at the Great Northern truly is. Off-camera we can hear Agent Cooper talking to Diane through his recorder. As the camera searches across taxidermied deer hooves holding hunting riffles, and ornate nature paintings, we fall upon Cooper, hanging upside down by a pair of metal hooks around his ankles. It's never explained why he's doing this, but for some reason the late '80s and early '90s had a weird thing about hanging guys upside down as so form of exercise. Michael Keaton did it in Batman, Patrick Bateman had one, and even Dale Cooper. Perhaps it was quick way to indicate both athleticism and eccentricity.

Cooper, hanging about in his hot dad garters and boxers dismounts from his perch with an ease that is both impressive and sexy. Before ending his recording session with Diane, Cooper waxes philosophical about Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys. In a way, this is Lynch and Frost drawing parallels between the deaths of both Monroe and Laura- two blonde women surrounded by powerful men and mystery. It's fitting when you consider that Lynch and Frost's first collaboration was in the form of a Marilyn Monroe biopic which never came into fruition. In many ways, the project laid some of the groundwork for what would become Twin Peaks.

Starting his day right with a balanced hotel breakfast, we're treated to yet another fascinating glimpse into Cooper's diet. As Sheriff Truman says later in the episode, he must have the metabolism of a bumblebee. Cooper orders a breakfast he refers to as "hard on the arteries," which is as hard as he wants his eggs. He wants his bacon super crispy- cremated. It may sound as though I'm exaggerating, but I've always loved watching Cooper order breakfast. He seems to revere food in a way not regularly seen on dramatic television. The morning coffee is more than one of the best, it's "damn fine." People have complained that the way people talk about food in Twin Peaks is weird. Sure, maybe in life creamed corn isn't an allegory to pain and suffering, but we've all been there when someone is having a similar reaction to the stuff. Food is personal, and it's a part of everyone's lives, why wouldn't characters talk about it?

Arriving at the tail end of Cooper's order is Audrey Horne, who has seemingly grown a good six or seven inches of hair overnight. Out of all of the mysteries in Twin Peaks, this was the least perplexing. Somewhere between filming the pilot and the first episode, Sherilyn Fenn grew her hair out, and it looks stunning. Everything about Audrey is stunning. Her eyebrows are stunning. That sweater is stunning. But at the moment, it is she who is stunned by Agent Cooper. Just as charmed by his eccentricities and his slicked black hair, she approaches Agent Cooper and asks to join him. Immediately Cooper sizes up that she finds him attractive, she's not exactly hiding it, and neither is he for that matter. For many fans, this is the moment the ship of Cooper and Audrey set sail. I personally always prefer the version where Cooper does the adult thing and doesn't date a high schooler.

After questioning Audrey, Cooper heads off to the Sheriff Station where they seem to still be having their breakfast as everyone he encounters has a mouthful of donuts. I'd also like to note the weird guy with a welding torch and ladder near the entrance. Twin Peaks is a lived in world filled with these people toiling away. Sheriff Harry Truman, mouth full of donuts, can't get a word in as Cooper flies into the room. After spelling out the itinerary, Cooper disappears to "urinate." This marks the first of many references to Dale Cooper's pee. Much like Tom Hanks, our favourite FBI agent is passionate about pissing. It's one of those life things, like food, that Twin Peaks likes to celebrate. Sometimes it's really nice to have a good piss, therefore sometimes Twin Peaks is about having a really good piss. I'm being completely earnest here.

Dr Hayward arrives to the sheriff station to report the findings of the post mortem. Unable to carry out the procedure himself, he outsourced the job to a nearby colleague. I've always admired the way Warren Frost plays this scene. His sadness seems to come and go in waves of realisation. There are the same echos from the pilot episode present here. From the report we learn that Laura died from a loss of blood from numerous shallow wounds. She had bite marks on her shoulders and marks on her arms from having been bound. She had also had sex with at least three men the night of her murder. The doctor also concludes that there is no doubt that Ronette was also present. As Dr Hayward relays this grizzly tale, his eyes wander to the photo of Laura. Pangs of sadness wash over his face as he questions who could do such a thing. He was the doctor present at her birth. She was his daughter's best friend. Laura was family to him.

On the other spectrum of family, we join the Johnsons at their incomplete home. Unable to just ask Shelly if she would do his laundry, Leo has to play mind games. He asks her if she did his laundry and chastises her as if catching her in a lie because his bag of nasty truck cabin clothes are still dirty. Eric Da Re is not a great actor, but there's something perfect about that. Leo is a big asshole that gaslights his wife, I don't expect much depth there. The only good thing I say about him is they got rid of his awful perm from the pilot. Even the way he pinches her cheek is controlling and unnatural. There's clearly no love between them, which is why when she discovers a blood-stained shirt in Leo's laundry she hides it. With Laura recently dead, and his behaviour as of late, this could be evidence. When he comes back later in a frenzy to find said shirt, he flies into a rage at its absence.

We're back at the Sheriff Station where we learn James Hurley owned the other half of Laura's necklace. As compared to Bobby's interrogation, James is Mr Manners. He answers all of Agent Cooper's questions with a quiet intensity. He admits to shooting the picnic video, and to owning the other half of the necklace, but not knowing who dug it up. He was also aware Laura was taking drugs but tried to get her to stop. On the night she died, James picked Laura up on his motorcycle. Acting strangely Laura disembarked from his bike, a disagreement ensued, Laura told James she loved him and disappeared into the woods. Cooper seems pleased with this information. We're then shown slow-motion picnic footage of Laura smiling at the camera. A somewhat cheesy "Help me," is played over the sound of wind and haunting music. It's a sort of fourth-wall-breaking that makes Twin Peaks feel as though not only the town, but the show itself is haunted by the late Laura Palmer.

Bobby and Mike, freshly arrested from their fistfight with Ed argue in their holding cells about the money they owe Leo Johnson. After being briefly questioned by Agent Cooper, they're both sent away with a warning not to harm James. James is also released into the custody of Big Ed, who confides that he believes the bartender, Jacques Renault,  slipped a Mickey in his drink. Ed wasn't just meeting Norma that night, he was also staking out Jacques' activities as a suspected drug dealer.

Speaking of Norma, we're given a brief but intense encounter at the general store between her and Nadine. At this point in the show, Nadine is completely bonkers. While I don't feel like she becomes any less touched in the head, we do begin to see more depth to her than just Ed's crazy wife. Wendie Robie is so good as Nadine, that Peggy Lipton only really need to react in kind as Nadine goes on about her drape runners. You can tell there's a quiet rivalry between the two women, both of whom resent one another for what they represent to one another. Norma is the woman Ed loves, and Nadine is the woman that stole him from Norma. When Nadine emphatically mentions the cotton balls that will make her drape runners completely silent, Norma can only stand as if in disbelief. It's the epitome of "weird flex, but ok." It doesn't help that all of this cotton ball talk is nestled into a conversation about Ed being in intensive care. Nadine exits as soon as she entered, leaving poor Norma looking confused and slightly violated.

Speaking of forbidden love, we're given a great scene between Donna Hayward and her mother, Eileen. We learn that despite her grief for Laura, and the guilt it makes her feel, Donna is finding herself loving James. Despite the nightmare that surrounds her, this love for James is like a beautiful dream. Eileen encourages her to invite James over for dinner, which she does. When watching James meet the Haywards I couldn't help but think of Eraserhead. In both, we get two entirely different, albeit very Lynchian "meet the parents," scenes. While James isn't asked to carve any manmade chickens, the awkward politeness permeates both scenes. There’s a sort of wholesomeness that borders on absurdity. Watching James make small talk in his big boy sweater is about the cutest damn thing that you almost forget how violent and terrifying Twin Peaks can be at times. This is something lifted straight out of the Waltons with it's cheesy Americana and good-natured sincerity. Of course, not everyone is as pleased about this new pairing as Mike and Bobby spot James' bike outside Donna's house.

Meanwhile, Dale and Harry find their way at the Martel residence to speak with Josie about her language classes with Laura. Through body language alone, Cooper deduces that the Sheriff and Josie are an item of sorts, as indicated at the end of the pilot episode. Pete is his usual charming self, offering up a cup of Joe to our boys. We're given another Cooperism as he asks for his coffee "black as midnight on a moonless night." That's pure poetry. We don't learn much from Josie here, other than the fact that Laura used to tutor her English and that she seemed distracted the last time they met. The biggest takeaway from the scene is that somehow Pete accidentally brewed a pot of coffee with a fish in the percolator. This is easily one of the most iconic scenes from the original series. Jack Nance was a treasure, and I will never not feel absolute delight when he comes rushing in just a touch too late- they've already tried the coffee.

Josie is called away for a phone call from the ice queen Catherine who informs her that shutting down the mill for the day cost the company more money than it was worth. After hanging up with Josie, we can see Catherine is in a strange motel, sipping champagne with Ben Horne. They're clearly working against Josie, but it's no secret that neither of them trust one another. Everyone is playing the double secret con, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. However, we do learn that the two are on again off again lovers. On the other side of town, Deputy Hawk follows up with Ronette's parents at the hospital. The Pulaskis don't have much information other than the fact that Ronette used to work the perfume counter at Horne's Department Store. As he is leaving, Hawk sees a suspicious one armed man skulking around the morgue. Following his gut instinct he starts tailing this mysterious figure through the dark halls of the hospital. Upon entering a room alight in a trippy dayglo black light, Hawk finds himself alone. Whoever this mystery man was, he disappeared into thin air.

A lot of this episode's theme seems to centre around the relationship between the parents and the high schoolers. Along with her conversation with her own mother, we get a scene between Donna and Sarah Palmer. Sarah, still sick with grief, seems genuinely pleased to see Donna until she sees Laura's face superimposed over Donna's. As she's pulling her closer she gets another vision, this time of a creepy grey-haired man sitting at the edge of Laura's bed. Sarah goes into full-on panic mode in a way only Grace Zabriskie is capable of delivering. Leland rushes in to whisk Donna away from the traumatic experience. In his own home, Bobby is getting a stern lecture from his father, Major Garland Briggs. The Major awkwardly tries to treat Bobby with some tough love, but ultimately misses the mark. Bobby's problems are bigger than anything his poor parents could fathom. The Hornes also experience a bit of domestic turmoil with Ben confronts Audrey about how her conversation with the Norwegians cost their family greatly. But unlike the Briggses, if Ben wanted to understand Audrey's rebellious nature, he only need look in the mirror.

Let's take a moment now to consider Laura Palmer. She was a troubled teenage girl with a drug habit, yes. Add to that being homecoming queen, in Spanish club, tutoring immigrants, caring for Audrey's special needs brother, and even heading Meals on Wheels for the elderly and shut-ins. It's the Meals on Wheels program that brings Cooper and Truman to the Double R Diner, where Laura used to work. We learn that Laura didn't just head the program, she created it. If any fictional characters were gunning for sainthood, Laura would be high on the list. It's easy to see why losing her has wounded the town so completely. The Log Lady approaches Cooper about Laura Palmer informing him that her log saw something the night Laura died. However, Cooper's reluctance to ask the log directly leads to her leaving before relaying the log's message.

Fresh off her shift from the Double R, Shelly returns home to Leo who has just put a bar of soap into a sock. He questions her about the bloody shirt, but she feigns ignorance. He tells her he's going to "teach," her about respecting people's property as he advances toward her with the sock swinging over his head. We can only look on hopelessly as the brutish Leo approaches a cowering Shelly. The scene graciously cuts away, as we know what comes next. The episode concludes in Dr Jacoby's bizarre Hawaii themed office (or maybe apartment, maybe both). Inside a fishtank sits three dried out puffer fish filled with blinking lights like paper lamps. After putting a tape into his stereo he dons a pair of giant headphones revealing a taped conversation from his former secret patient- Laura Palmer. He pulls coconut from a palm tree and settles in to listen to his tape. He opens up the coconut to reveal the other half of Laura's necklace. It appears that Dr Jacoby was the one following James and Donna into the woods.

The contents of the recording are revealing, not just about Laura, but also about Dr Jacoby. Laura's flirtatious nature indicates that we can add one more sexual partner to Laura's list. She mentions how James is sweet but too dumb to talk to her about her problems like Jacoby is capable of doing. But part of the brilliance in the scene is that you can also sense that Laura is acting for Dr Jacoby. Fulfilling the role of a young helpless girl who loves him, so that he may fulfil some role she needs. Whether it be a form of protection or just a soundboard for her problems, she had him wrapped around her finger. So what is this ritual of Jacoby's? Are these the actions of a killer reminiscing over the trophies of his hunt, or a man grieving the real, if not inappropriate relationship he had with a young girl? As the tape continues, we hear Laura talking about a man in a red car who can really light her "F-I-R-E." She continues to make a confession about a mystery man, but the audio drops out, leaving us only the doctor's perplexed face to clue us into what she said. The credits roll as we're left wondering.

Truth be told, I could have written this review without having to rewatch the episode. I try and rewatch Twin Peaks in its entirety at least once every one or two years. However, I am glad I did revisit this one as there are lots of little pieces of minutiae I may have overlooked. More than anything, I was curious to weigh Dunham's directing against David Lynch's, and I have to say, it's not bad. The tone is correct for the series and the emotions are played for real. It's always going to be different because the two directors are different people. But as certain episodes in season two prove, some directors begin to parody Lynch's style, adding weird for the sake of weird. But this early on, it is as though Twin Peaks is a juggernaut of unstoppable creativity. Even the duller storylines take on the energy of the greater mystery. Lynch only directed a handful of the original series episodes, which is why the next episode I'm reviewing is an especially exciting one. Not only is episode two (aka the third episode) directed by David Lynch, but it also begins to introduce some of the more metaphysical elements of the series. You could almost say that Lynch directs the most important episodes, and my god is this next one a doozy.

Well, friends, that's all from the world of Twin Peaks for now. I'll have the next review up soonish, but not before the new Doctor Who review. Speaking of which, it is now less than an hour until it airs! Who else is excited? What a great way to ring in the new year! See you all soon!

[allycornelius]

Lots of feelings

(long post, tw: suicide mention)

I’ve been having weird sensory meltdowns all day, and couldn’t figure out why I kept getting panicked and stressed. but, it turns out, my body remembered something that my brain did not. After the third sensory overload of the day, I was rushing to vent out my feelings in a diary app that I write my feelings in, and then I looked at the date. I realized what day it was.

it has been exactly 2 years since I almost died.

1 year ago, on the first anniversary of the happening, my body had a similar reaction. it was several sudden episodes of mania followed by intense panic and immeasurable stress over the course of the day. I would go from feeling really good and productive and suddenly plummet into impulsive chaos, where my head would pound and everything around me freaked me out- every sound and every movement made me feel violent and want to lash out. These things I felt today and last year were also the same things I felt on that day. Compulsions, that made me want to hurt others and myself.

I attempted suicide that day.

I think lots of people occasionally have passing thoughts that are suicidal in nature when under intense stress- people who are depressed even moreso. Some even have them every single day of their lives. That’s where I was, where even the smallest mistake or failure drove me to the edge- I became suicidal at the drop of a pin. Every time something bad happened, my brain pushed the big red button, and sent my body into defcon 2– every. single. time. Of course, not every time I got like this did I attempt- I sometimes came dangerously close, but never close enough.

It’s hard even now for me to understand exactly what it was that caused me to peak on that day. My memory of that night is so fuzzy due to slipping in and out of consciousness several times. But something I do remember before the attempt happened was something extremely significant- I was drawing with rainbows that day. Eye-bleeding colors. That was the first day I drew rainbows. I drew some pretty dark things. Here’s some of them.

Looks kind of familiar, doesn’t it? These drawings I made hours before trying to kill myself became the very foundation for what would eventually evolve into Sparklecare. Bright colors with horribly depressing, nihilistic hopeless messages. That sort of turned into my brand.

I was hospitalized for my attempt for about a month or so, and while in the hospital I drew lots of depressing colorful things in Crayola markers. But here’s where I know you probably were waiting for this story to get to- what exactly happened to me in that hospital? For legal reasons I still am not going to go into major detail about my experiences inside those walls, but to put it simply, the psychiatric ward I was placed in was very bad. Me and all the other patients there were heavily neglected and dehumanized by the staff. To sum it up, the experiences I had there were more traumatic than the suicide attempt itself.

As horrible as that hospital experience was, I was put on medication for a disability I have (one that didn’t work) which was the first step towards recovery. As months passed my psychiatrists fiddled with different medications until I somehow ended up on something that actually started working. Not only did it help symptoms of my disability, but it also helped with the major depression I was experiencing and balanced my chemicals enough that I got a sudden boost in creativity and my ability to be productive. Suddenly I could actually do things! That was when I started Sparklecare.

What actually led to it’s official fabrication is actually pretty interesting. I’ve had lots of different comic series and characters in the past, but lots of them were created and existed through some very hard times in my life and they bore lots of negative memories and associations. I tried my hardest to look past them, but it proved useless as it eventually became too much. I had a breakdown over these bad associations, and basically gave up on everything I was working on at the time. And that’s when something happened. I don’t know how it happened- part of me speculates it had to do with the fact I was put on a new medication about 2 days prior, and that the chemicals kicked in at the perfect moment-

I remembered completely freezing at my desk, and deciding in seconds, that I would start something new.

And so I did. I didn’t even try to think of a story, I just decided to make a character. I went on Twitter and asked some longtime close friends (people who are all now in the ZCP) for an animal species. They gave lots of suggestions but I ended up combining one with my own, and I drew Doom! I literally didn’t even draw him more than once, I just drew him one single time and started a story. I made a few more characters, then started the comic. I didn’t have anything planned or even scripted, it was just something dumb I made with the idea of making fun of doctors who were bad to me in the hospital. I wanted to make something to make myself feel better. I didn’t think anything would come of it, I sort of half-expected that I would give up after a few days, but I kept it going. It was very small at first, but I remember being extremely happy and excited when I got fanart for the first time, from someone who wasn’t friends with me. It was the best feeling ever. And I had no idea back then.

No idea that this little creation I made when trying to not kill myself would actually get any recognition or attention, let alone help someone else. I think in about October of 2016 was when it blew up for the first time. It got so much fanart and people made fan characters, and more and more people followed me. I received messages from people who told me that they related to my story and characters and that it gave them hope to live. I remember crying on Christmas of that year because someone sent me an ask telling me they were spending Christmas in the hospital, but were happy because they kept seeing doctors and thinking about my characters. The fact I could help a single person alone, that I could help multiple people- that was the most surreal thing. I had just turned 16 that Christmas, and people were telling me I was helping them get through being suicidal.

From then on I decided to start to make things that I would have wanted to see when I was in that place. Things that I needed but didn’t have when I was in that dark place, things that I wanted to see exist, things that 9-year-old me would have been obsessed with. Stuff that was unnecessary violent and obscene and colorful and ridiculous and silly, because it made me happy. It made others happy. I realized that by helping myself, I learned how to help others, too.

I’m happy I’m alive. And if I can make just one other person feel that way too, I’ll die happy.

[neven-ebrez]

So a few random things: When you talked about how the potential and the possibilities hurt more for never knowing them, it reminded me of an episode in Doctor Who, which... I don't know if you watch that show or not so to be vague just in case, there was an episode that dealt with the power of possibilities. Not super relevant, but it reminded me of it. Also, I'm running out of room so I guess this'll be multiple messages. (Sorry, especially since I'm rambling.)

(2) Next, I know you said your intent isn’t to give hope, but honestly, so far it feels like a lot of meta is being confirmed. After the first episode there were all sorts of meta about how Dean was grieving Mary but Cas even more, and then how he was mirroring John who had a tough relationship with Sam after he learned Mary died protecting him, then negative space, etc.. And then we see Dean admitting his grief regarding Cas, and then this one had Sam telling Dean he was acting like John.

(3) Then, your meta had the Cosmic Entity telling Cas there was no chance, no hope of Dean loving him. But Cas persisted. He persisted his way out of the Empty by holding onto that tiny hope even knowing that possibility. You asked people whether they’re Sam or Dean in your tags, but what about being Cas then? Neither questioning the belief there’s a chance nor bitterly fearing there isn’t, but holding onto hope for the possibility even if there’s the chance it’d be subtext?

—-

I don’t watch Doctor Who.  I tried to watch it, starting with the Ninth Doctor but it was just a little too weird for me.  I like a certain structure, mystery and meaning to be behind the things I watch and I just couldn’t understand that show!  It just kinda felt like a mess. Nothing against those who like it, of course!

As for the rest, I’m trying to be honest here in how people are approaching what I write (because I’ve experienced more backlash than most meta writers due to the nature of the exact meta I write).  I’m writing meta towards my own view and in regards to my own hopes and expectations about the show (and its efforts, which may be intentional or not but if there’s a consistent PATTERN it’s more likely that its the former) and I’m definitely not to trying to convince anyone of anything, to try and make people have hope.  I’ve been down this road before.  

I’m not sure how long you been following me (sorry!) but I’ve been in the meta community for a long ass time.  I’ve witness the golden age of meta, the fall of meta (the exodus of so many meta writers who had many diverse specialties) and the rebirth of it (among people I don’t really know).  Now, what I specialize in writing, what I call “structural meta”, deals a lot with guessing what is going to happen by examining what narrative moves the show is doing and extrapolating what therefore, must happen eventually.  Some is obvious (God had to show up once Amara’s entire drive was to confront him) and some is not.  I’ll use this as an example: my meta on Supernatural’s structure through the years, written a day before the S13 premiere.  Excerpt:

A reason to live.  

This is what Castiel needs to be given once he comes back. Not just a reason to die, but a reason to not leave Dean.  Dean telling him he’s “family”, that he’s their “brother”, that Dean simple “needs” him… none of this has worked, has been enough to get Cas to stay.  The effective elimination of “guardian” saw Cas throwing himself into another guardianship role upon the rejection of the label by Dean.  For a long time now, Supernatural structure has been crafted around the parameters which would make Dean happy, condemning all actions by characters that go against this and helping Dean eliminate the roadblocks to his own happiness.  Mary and Cas made the wrong decisions to save Dean from pain and are thus punished by the narrative for such actions.  It is here, in Dabb era, that the Winchesters are finally made to contemplate the actions of others towards their survival and they are made to suffer for it, Dean more than Sam.  

This is the clarity of structural meta.  This is exactly what Castiel faced in 13x04.  If they were going to keep him on the show, it simply had to happen.  But I didn’t know how or where it was going to happen because you can’t predict pacing. Cas has been going on mission after mission TO DIE to keep trying to make up for his debt he feels towards Dean for going on the past 6 seasons .  He has kept trying to spare Dean pain (starting in 6x20), sacrificing his own kind in the blunder (and the guilt that came with that), over and over in new and more painful ways.  All of the “Cas’ greatest failures” flashbacks with the Empty highlight this.  This… “debt that can never be repaid” got so bad in S10 that I stopped shipping Destiel in show.  S11 didn’t get better honestly (with Cas saying “yes” to Lucifer), but at least the show was showing Dean realizing all this, worrying over Cas, so I felt okay shipping it again because Dean was wanting things to be okay for Cas.  And so through S12 we continued, with Cas still trying to clean up his mess with Lucifer, even if it killed him.  Everything peaked in 12x19, with Cas spelling out how he felt he needed to bring Dean a win, and then Dean understanding this motivation (even explaining it to Sam who seemed oblivious) for all of Cas’ actions.  Dean KNOWS Cas feels this insurmountable debt and, keeps trying to spare him doing things that could hurt him.  Dean also knows this is what Cas will continue to die for and it kills him in turn, because Dean CAN’T say (isn’t to that point, emotionally) what he doesn’t know Cas wants to hear (that Dean loves him as more than a brother). We can then tell that Dean is going to feel that guilt going into dealing with Cas’ death, because even though it’s Cas’ new mission (useless, right down to a truck full of useless diapers) with the nephilim that brought Cas to his death, Dean knows it’s really his “your our family but only like a brother” that truly sealed his fate.  It’s 9 years of history together and Dean still not making Cas feel like he belongs.  It’s the show highlighting this over and over again (every ”I’ll hold him off”, GOD).

Knowing all this, I can guess where the show is going to go even before the season starts, what simply must be addressed.  And I can be right because to me there’s only one way for it TO GO because of how they’ve tied Cas’ development so intimately with Dean’s.  It’s not fortune telling.  It’s me seeing that the show has pulled out two pans, some eggs, a box of cake mix, a mixer, and that they’ve definitely started mixing everything together to bake a cake.  I can tell what KIND of cake it is by looking at the box (all the structural points), but I can’t tell you what kind of icing they are going to use.  This is the limit of structural meta.  Now as for the type of icing… I can see a certain theme being repeated, specifically, “clarification”.  It’s all over 13x01 to a most alarming degree (Jack likes “it”, he likes “nougat”.  He’s on a chair, on the floor, on the planet Earth.  He’s looking for his father, he’s looking for Castiel. There’s more but you get the picture) and this episode was penned by showrunner Andrew Dabb to set the tone of the entire season (and then this theme has carried on into every proceeding episode).  As I said before, if it wasn’t for this specific theme against how Dean telling Cas, “You’re our family.  You’re our brother. I need you.” hasn’t made him feel like he belongs in 9 years, then I wouldn’t be even discussing the possibility of Destiel getting text again.  

A lot of structural effort is being put forth here, like, a fuckton.  I don’t know what other structural meta writers (I’m not even sure who in the community would call themselves such) are saying (you say a lot of meta is being confirmed and I don’t really know what this means because meta and speculation are different and I’m a stickler for what constitutes “meta”) because I’ve been apart from the community for years now and most of the people I used to write with (collaboratively) are simply GONE.  Comparisons of Dean to John are just kinda a given imo for a variety of Dean-related discussions.  That’s not what is telling.  The theme of “clarification” (and how Dean is being slowly crafted into being able to tell Cas something specific, something that resolves Cas’ developmental journey) is what is truly telling. The discussion of negative space is also old, like season 8 old.  The show is just putting a bigger emphasis on it now, but back then, just like now, that alone doesn’t really mean anything.  Alone none of these things mean much, but together, together they personally make me believe some kind of text is coming because of the specific picture they are painting.  

So, in answer to your final part.  I’m Sam.  I believe in the hope of something, but I know from being around Dean that I might be wrong, that everything might be for nothing.  I know so many people that are Dean, people that believe all hope is lost or foolish, that text is never coming.  The thing is tho, none of us actually *can* be Cas, because in my analogy, Cas is the writers, the narrative itself.  It is fighting to leave the narrative space, to hope against hope that a chance at love exists.  No, we can’t be Cas.  I’m afraid we can only be Sam or Dean.  I’ve recently decided to unfollow some Deans and it’s nothing personal.  I understand why they feel the need to tag everything “never gonna happen”.  For my personal relationship with the show, however, I have to eliminate that sentiment once it presents itself in a certain tone.  I’m fully aware text might not ever happen.  I personally don’t need the constant reminder.  It doesn’t change my mind, only the narrative can do that (and, in fact, has changed my mind plenty of times before).

The takeaway is this: yes, my meta has a hopeful tone (and you’ll often find it “right” due to its predictive patterned nature), but no, it’s not trying to convince you what you should believe.  I’ll always be compelled to write out the show’s effort here (regarding Destiel), especially when it’s as deeply layered as it is now, but I don’t want anyone hanging onto my every word, no matter how many times I’m right and to what degree.  Nothing I write is ever going to be able to tell you definitively that Destiel is going to get text.  I can only show you why there’s a good possibility, because as of right now, I believe there is.  I, more than any other meta writer, will tell you, please follow multiple opinions (and not the same echo chamber) if you truly care about using other opinions to decide your own hope for the possibility of text.  I’ve been here a long time and I’ve been on both sides of the discussion.  I’ve been hated for both and loved for both.  I’m not interested in anyone thinking I’m right about everything or that meta (especially my kind of meta) can somehow tell them the future.  The show can, and has, gone against its structure many times before.  And above all, Supernatural comes from a time when queer subtextual stories were perfectly fine to never get text.  It’s an old show.  It’s best never to forget that.

[ramajmedia]

The 10 Worst Episodes Of Mad Men, According To IMDb | ScreenRant

As the so-called "Peak TV" era began to take off, Mad Men came along and became one of the most acclaimed shows on television. The period drama followed the advertising business in 1960s New York, with the mysterious and troubled Don Draper at its center.

RELATED: 10 Shows To Watch If You Like Mad Men

The show was acclaimed for its period accuracy, its stellar performances, and its insightful writing, winning countless awards. But like every show, Mad Men had its low points. Though the series was rarely uninteresting, some episodes in its seven-season run were more successful than others. Here are the worst episodes of Mad Men according to IMDb.

10 "New Amsterdam" (8.0)

Sometimes a perfectly good episode can be derailed by one bad storyline. That seems to be the cause of this early episode's low rating, as it has a lot of good stuff. The competition between Don and Pete is genuinely thrilling, leading to a great confrontation at the end.

But it's hard to ignore the storyline involving Betty babysitting Glen the neighbor child, who has a fascination with her. It is a weird and unsettling storyline that is revisited in several episodes and never gets any more interesting.

9 "Collaborators" (7.9)

Mad Men is filled with people who are very comfortable being two-faced. Affairs are commonplace in this world, with Don being the main offender. This episode deals with those lines that are crossed in a relationship in various ways.

RELATED: Mad Men: 10 Hidden Details About The Main Characters Everyone Missed

As Don struggles to keep his affair with a neighbor hidden, Pete goes too far in his own extramarital activities. The awkwardness of the episode might have turned some viewers off, or perhaps seeing Don sabotage the Mustang ad was too frustrating to watch.

8 "Tea Leaves" (7.9)

This Season 5 episode centers mostly on Betty and her struggles with her weight. After gaining unwanted pounds, she visits a doctor and discovers she might have a tumor. Elsewhere, the firm tries to win back Mohawk Airlines, Don goes to a Rolling Stones concert and Peggy hires Michael Ginsberg.

"Tea Leaves" marks the first time Jon Hamm directed an episode of the series. While there is nothing wrong with his directing, the episode itself is rather bland. Betty's health scare is the most interesting aspect, and that comes and goes rather quickly.

7 "Love Among the Ruins" (7.9)

Mad Men seems to be most exciting when there is a crisis afoot. We like to see Don and the team with their backs against the wall and having to finesse their way out of a bad situation. But not every episode can be like that, and therefore, some episodes like this one might feel a bit slow-paced.

The episode finds Betty's family visiting with more trouble involving her ailing father. This is clearly a storyline that fans don't love and the discussion of what to do with him comes to a conclusion which probably frustrated a lot of viewers.

6 "The Benefactor" (7.9)

The more straight-forward episodes of Mad Men tend to make up the majority of this list. While there might not be anything glaringly wrong with them, they don't have the excitement of some of the other episodes in the series.

RELATED: Mad Men: 10 Don Draper Memes That Are Too Funny

The main conflict of the episode has Don dealing with an unruly star on the set of a commercial and the star's manager who takes a liking to Don. The story is fine, but it is unpleasant seeing a more violent and nasty side of Don. The lack of subplots also makes it a more forgettable entry.

5 "The Doorway, Part 2" (7.8)

"The Doorway, Part 2" concludes the story started in the Season 6 premiere. While it was a slightly better received than its predecessor, it continues to be a rather uninteresting story to follow.

Don has a lingering obsession with death that he doesn't even seem to notice himself. While that makes for some interesting moments, the subplot of Betty searching for Sally's friend in the rough part of town is a misfire. The show has explored class differences effectively before, but here it is done in a clumsy manner.

4 "For Those Who Think Young" (7.8)

For Mad Men, the Valentine's Day episode is just a way to explore how imperfect everyone's relationships are. The Season 2 premiere found the office excited over some cutting-edge equipment, Pete and his wife struggling to conceive and the continued distance between Don and Betty.

The first episode of the season often has the task of laying the necessary groundwork which can lead to some dull episodes. What is most frustrating about this particular episode is how it doesn't answer the burning questions we all had from the end of Season 1.

3 "The Doorway, Part 1" (7.7)

The first episode of the penultimate season opened with a bit of a bore. This unspectacular two-part story finds Don and Megan enjoying a Hawaiian vacation, which seems to change Don in some profound way. Meanwhile, Betty tries to advise one of Sally's friends and Peggy deals with a troubled Super Bowl ad.

RELATED: Mad Men: 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Relationships

Mad Men enjoys exploring heavy themes through its characters. The show is usually so good at dissecting human crisis, but when it misfires, it can be a real slog.

2 "Marriage of Figaro" (7.7)

Despite the engaging first episode and the brilliance that eventually followed, the first few episodes of Mad Men were not smash-hits with fans. In this third episode, the Drapers celebrate Sally's birthday with some of the neighbors, which further explores Don's discomfort with a normal life.

Perhaps because we have yet to get a firm grasp on the character of Don Draper, he comes off as a frustratingly selfish and petty man who might not be very fun to follow as the main character. The depiction of the façade of suburban life is interesting but nothing new.

1 "Ladies Room"(7.6)

It seems like Mad Men was eager to get its worst episode out of the way early. With the second episode of the series, the show hit its lowest point, according to IMDb users. However, that's not to say that the episode is a total waste.

"Ladies Room" gives a hint of the show's depiction of women in this era. We see Betty going to see a therapist and Don's control over that very personal situation. We also see Peggy dealing with the constant harassment from the men in the office. Perhaps shifting focus from the ad world turned some viewers off.

NEXT: Mad Men: 10 Storylines That Were Never Resolved

source https://screenrant.com/mad-men-worst-episodes-imdb/

[onceandfuturekiki]

Lynch has definitely shown in multiple projects a preoccupation with ideas and themes about violence against women. Sometimes that manifests in misogynistic and exploitative ways, sometimes it doesn’t.

I don’t think it does in Twin Peaks. The show has always, even in its original run, explored themes of not just violence against women, but the way people turn their heads away, and how that poisons society. I feel like it’s something that a lot of people missed because they got distracted by the dreamy, 1950s-ish aesthetic and the general weird of the mythology and such, but it’s always been one of the predominant themes. It’s more brutal in Fire Walk with Me and The Return because neither of those projects is bound be FCC regulations and network restrictions. But it’s always been there.

Depicting violence against women onscreen is not inherently misogynistic, especially when its effect is one of the things being specifically explored. And really, in many cases in both Fire Walk with Me and The Return, instances of violence against women haven’t been nearly as graphic or as exploitative as they could have been, or as a different director might have made them in pursuit of some kind of “shock value” or a misguided attempt at some sort of unflinching realism.

I’ve seen people complain about it being misogynistic that Lynch depicts women in abusive relationships who don’t “learn better” and end up in subsequent abusive situation, or who don’t teach their children better. But the fact of the matter is that this is often what happens. Abuse is often a cycle. Women who are in abusive relationships often end up in subsequent abusive relationships. Children of women who have been in abusive relationships often end up in abusive relationships. People sometimes forget that, that the cycle of abuse doesn’t just refer to the idea of an abused person becoming an abuser. It also refers to the cycle of relationships an abusive victim will often find themselves in or drawn to, and the cycle of abuse victims over generations. When one of the themes being explored is violence against women and it’s effects, that’s one of the things that’s really important to include. And I’m really bothered by the idea that unless a woman “learns better” and doesn’t get into another abusive relationship that it’s a misogynistic portrayal. That treads way too close to victim blaming for me.

(Also, it should be recognized that while Red is very clearly a bad guy whose career make him a bad choice for Shelly, or really anybody, we’ve only seen them actually together in one scene and we have no idea if his behavior toward her is or will be abusive.)

I also think that something from this week’s episode is important to note. We’ve been presented with a character, Richard Horne, who has committed a lot of violence against women. So far, all of the intentional violence inflicted by him has been toward women. That’s been a pretty obviously deliberate choice. Richard is a coward. We’ve seen the way he acts when in a situation where he’s unhappy with a character, a man, who he feels is stronger than him. He just turns into a kind of stuttering idiot. He’s a coward who takes out his aggression on people he thinks are weaker than him, and the people he thinks are weaker than him are women. That shows in the fact that he assaulted Sylvia in his quest for money, but he never attempted to get physical with Ben in the same way.

Lynch has highlighted how cowardly this behavior is, but in this episode he really highlighted how wrong his perception is. Richard thought he could easily silence Miriam because she was a woman and he thought she was weaker than him. But she not only survived the attack, she crawled, bloody and beaten, out of her trailer and dragged herself along until she found help. She was strong and brave and refused to just die and let Richard get away with everything. With this episode, Lynch not only set up that contrast between them, showing that Richard is a coward who takes what he sees as the easy way out, who runs runs away and take out his aggression on people he thinks are weaker than him, while Miriam is strong, has perseverance, and fights to live and get help instead of just dying in her trailer. Miriam is strong and Richard is weak, and Lynch shows that Richard’s perception are wrong.

As for other accusations of misogyny on the show, I think some are valid and some aren’t. I’ve talked a lot about how bothered I am by the idea that the writing for Janey-E is misogynistic, because it strips her of her characterization and the context of the character and reduces her down to one trait, pushing the notion that any depiction of an unpleasant or not likable woman is misogynistic that is, in itself, quite sexist. The complaints about they way Tammy has been presented in a sort of male gaze-y way at times have validity, but I feel like there’s been at least a little bit of balance brought to that with they way we were presented with a very female gaze-y scene with Dougie!Cooper at the doctor last week. I’m not ready to call seemingly dim Candy a misogynistic portrayal yet, because there’s a similarity to Dougie!Cooper’s behavior there, so I’m not ready to say that there isn’t more going on where she’s concerned. However, there are definitely problems with the casino girls and the way they’re treated as window dressing without any acknowledgement that the way this practice is still common in Las Vegas and how messed up it is (in the way that Lynch did with the girls at One Eyed Jacks in the original run). And there are other things here and there that I can’t recall off the top of my head, and like I said, some have validity, some don’t.

But as for the overall depictions of violence against women, no. 

[phannibal]

series 9 rewatch

i haven’t seen most of series 9 since it aired like two years ago, so over the past week or so i’ve been rewatching it (out of order oops)! ngl i rlly hated it when it first aired so here’s like,, my updated opinions! 

 the magician’s apprentice/the witch’s familiar: i’m not kidding when i say i actually cried watching this on its air date bc i was so disappointed. idk why bc it’s actually a pretty solid premier?? could be just bc i’m like in love w missy now but either way i think it’s a gr8 set up for the rest of the series. also rlly cool titles that are prob about clara, 8/10 

under the lake/before the flood: for some reason i remembered these as being rlly boring but?? they’re SO good??? i love how at first it just seems like normal alien stuff but then it’s all about time and paradoxes and whatnot. idk i love eps like that, 10/10 

 the girl who died/the woman who lived: i didn’t really like ashildr in 2015 and… i still kinda don’t lmao. i feel like they tried to make her too important too quickly. i like the first part better, imo it’s good by itself– the second part is good too i’m jus biased against ashildr rip, 7/10 

the zygon invasion/the zygon inversion: i remembered these as being lit but tbh now i found them kinda boring. i feel like osgood had some weird characterization that didn’t fit, like just accepting any zygon that took her form as a sister?? wtf. also imo the doctor’s speech in part two is overrated and a bit egotistical, 6/10 

sleep no more: boring bad weird 4/10 (no but rlly, filmed all in the dark, u could find like a dozen episodes exactly like it, eye booger monsters?????) 

face the raven: in 2015 i didn’t like clara (is there anyone i liked in 2015??) so i didn’t find this ep that sad, but now? hoo boy, i was emotional as shit. i love the premise and rigsy and the timelords’ involvement, everything is just. so good. ashildr being part of it is kinda ?¿ but w/e, 9/10 

heaven sent: gets its own bc it’s the best episode ever made, work of art, a masterpiece, nothing on television will ever be the same, peak of cinematic beauty, never before seen pure, raw creative talent, 10000000/10 

hell bent: i still don’t know what tf the hybrid is or why i should be scared of it. the doctor going back to gallifrey is cool, clara getting an immortal space girlfriend is rad as fuck, the doctor forgetting clara is sad but maybe a bit predictable. i like how in every other new who finale there’s some sort of “end of the world” thing happening and in this one there’s like,, no danger at all lmao. didn’t rlly live up to heaven sent but that’d be impossible, 8/10 

 imma do the christmas ones too bc why not (idek if they count as s9 but w/e)

 the husbands of river song: perfect mix of humor and action and sadness for a christams ep, river not knowing the doctor is hilarious af, the ending is sO fucking sad but it’s also the absolute perfect wrap up of river’s arc, tHE library music that plays when she opens the screwdriver is actually lethal, 10/10 

the return of doctor mysterio: what the fuck. 0/10 

[tonictransistor]

Defibrillator [Lu/Stephen] Dream

Omg so i had a defib au dream it kinda of had a Twin Peaks vibe to it, nevermind that i’ve only seen one episode of the show

Okay so they live in this small-ish town. Everyone knows everyone type deal. But like there is this odd vibe to it. Like that feeling when youre in a liminal space? You'd feel that like everywhere in the town

kinda in the middle of a woodsy area

Lu is a waitress at a diner. Her usual self, real nice and everyone loves her. She's only lived in town for a short while but no one really knows too much about her life before she moved there. (She never talks about it because she doesnt know)

Stephen is kind of like the town hermit I guess lol. Not much is known about him. He lives out in the forest in a big house. Its implied that he was previously married? Like people in the town talk about it but no one really knows. Everyone says they get really weird feeling when hes around.

And okay so like in the dream Lu is doing her thing at the diner, laughing and chatting with her regulars and the other staff. And then Stephen walks in and everything kind of stills. And he goes and sits in a booth away from everyone. Meanwhile lu is like ??? At how everyone is suddenly acting. She'd never seen him before but shes like 'idk yallre actin strange'

So she goes and asks him what he wants and all he orders is a slice of pie and coffee. She thinks nothing of it because apparently the diner has really good pie or something but everyone else is like "that's all he's getting??? how strange.' and Lu is like Lol yall need to chill so she takes him his pie and his coffee and casually tries to chat with him. Like she ask him how long he's lived in town and he tells her he's been there for about thirty years and then she asks why she's never seen him around and he tells her ne doesn't come into town often but that he'd seen her, to which naturally she's visibly weirded out by that until he clarifies that her hair is hard to miss. (but ofc there is much more to that)

Then someone calls her away and she excuses herself. When she goes back to check on him he's gone and a $20 is left on the table. again, everyone thinks its weird but she's like 'clearly hes just a nice, rich, old guy who keeps to himself and tips well. I hope he comes back.' She also mentions to one of her coworkers that she felt like she'd known him all her life a little bit of time passes like a week or so maybe and ofc she still hasn't seen him but finds herself thinking about him constantly.

She leaves from work late and she's really tired and she decides to cut through the small patch of trees by the diner because its a short cut home. Clearly Lu is an idiot because it's dark out and suddenly foggy and this doesn't make her change her mind because she's tired and wants to get home right away to sleep. While she's walking on the path, which mind you is maybe a block in length you can see from one end to the other, she starts hearing something call her name and instead of you know being smart, she decides to follow after it and she ends up at this tree. Like big scraggly grandmother willow looking tree.

It has this bright blue glow and she wonders why she didn't notice it from the path given how bright it was. She goes closer to it and notices that where its glowing the most looks like the kind of mark where it's been struck by lightning in the past.  

and it's still calling her name and it fucking tells her to touch it. Like this is some Moses and the burning bush type shit. bitch I thought you were tired take ur ass home. But OFC she does it and when she does there is like idk a shockwave type thing and it knocks her back and suddenly she feels like she's been electrocuted. FINALLY her brain kicks in and she's like "i need to get out of here this is fucking strange." and tries to run back to the path and of course she can't find it. She starts freaking out at this point because now she's lost and she gets the feeling that she's being followed.

She tries to go back to the tree and thinks 'maybe I can climb it and just chill until morning and try again when I can see.'

But she can't find the tree either. and she fucking turns around and sees this like shadowy figure in the distance, but can tell it's not human (think like the monsters from The Village if you've seen that) so she turns and runs in the opposite direction, she doesn't know where she's going but the forest is only so big in three directions and she hopes she's running in a way that'd get her back in town or home instead of deeper into the forest

of course she ends up running further into the forest but she ends up at a big house (hmmm I wonder who lives there) and naturally she starts beating on the door like 'pls halp Im being chased i'm gonna die blah blah blah."

this monster gets like a few feet away and she's like 'well this is it, i'm gonna die.' this like black hole opens up and swallows the monster. and Lu is like ???!!! IDK what just happened but as long as a bigger thing isn't after me i'm cool okay like the door opens. like by itself and Lu goes in because at this point things can't get any worse. And she like roams around the house, like almost naturally goes up the stairs like she had been there and goes to this big open room with this huge window over looking the forest and who does she see standing, looking out the window.

That's right, It's Stephen. Doctor Strange in full effect. And so she's like 'What the fuck is going on'

And he explains that He's Doctor Stephen Strange: Sorcerer supreme and protector of the realm and he tells her that he's been pretty much waiting thirty years for her to get her memory/powers back to I guess help him protect the universe and shit.

and he tells her that like some enemy of theirs took tried to steal her powers and essentially life force away but ofc they failed So he built this town as a sort of protective illusion to keep Lu safe until the time came that she got her powers and memory back.

and that's essentially the end of it. It played out like a movie and honestly it was so great and ughhhhh.

[echobasegazette]

Stranger Things

I haven’t ever written about a TV show before, mainly because I don’t watch much non-sports TV. I really just watch movies and reruns when I turn on the TV because I can’t seem to ever remember to watch shows I like when they air. But recently I have been watching TV shows, on a strictly binge-watch basis, on Netflix or HBO. Like most people, when I can’t find something to watch, I browse the “you might like this” on the Netflix homepage, and a recent addition to that category was Stranger Things. I still don’t know why I decided to watch it; maybe it was because of the ticking timer that showed up when I first clicked on the show, “4 hours until the release of season 2,” or maybe it was some of the hype I’d heard from people I know. But once I started the series, I couldn’t stop. I plowed through all 18 episodes in seven days, and when it finished, I couldn’t help but think that the final episode was absolutely perfect.

For those who haven’t seen the show I will give you some quick points to peak your interest and then suggest that you stop reading until you’ve finished the series.

Super Quick Review

The show takes place in the mid-80s, in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. There are four kids who are playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement when the show starts. After the conclusion of their mission/quest they all head home. One of the kids, Will, is attacked on the way home by a creature from another dimension called the Upside Down. Meanwhile there is a secret facility in town run by the United States government, and as you would expect, they are up to all sorts of no good. This show is advertised as scary, but it’s more of a thriller and suspenseful, very similar in feel and “scare” level to Super 8 by J.J. Abrams.

Now if you haven’t seen the show, I would advise you to stop here since everything going forward is full of spoilers.

This show is really freaking good so I am not going to write a review on the show itself. What I am going to do is talk about a few things that I have been thinking about since I finished watching. Some of the following points have come from reading other articles online, and some are just my own perceptions and reflections.

Why do people care about Barb Holland and Bob Newby?

It took me seven days to finish this series, and while watching it I refrained from reading anything online about the show. The main reason that I do this is so the ideas of authors don’t infect my own.  So, when I finished the show I went online and started reading articles and reviews about the show and people seemed to really like these two characters, and I have no idea why.

As soon as Barb was captured, I knew she was dead. They had to start killing characters to create the perception of threat to the main characters, and she was the perfect fit. Online there started to become a #justiceforbarb following on social media, but why? She appears to be a good person and a good friend to main character Nancy Wheeler, but her biggest contribution was being dragged to party she didn’t want to go to and trying to cock-block her friend. Do I think her parents should have been told of her death so that they didn’t sell their house trying to pay to find their daughter? Yes, of course. But someone had to die in that first season, and she is easily the best option.

Bob Newby is different than Barb; he wasn’t a throw-away character who had to die just to create the potential of a threat. Bob is a main character who dies because he made too many mistakes. First, he convinced Will Byers to tell his dream demons to go away. Sure, that’s sound advice if you are having run of the mill nightmares, but its shitty advice if you are being stalked by an interdimensional power known as the shadow monster. Second, Bob nominates himself for a suicide mission because he is really the only one who is capable of operating the computers. But once he’s finished he leaves his gun on the table before heading to the exit. Rookie mistake Bob, when you are being chased by aliens, zombies, talking toys, or inter-dimensional Demi-Dogs, you never forget your gun.

The third and final/fatal mistake Bob makes is he doesn’t complete the catch before looking up field. This might not make sense to anyone who doesn’t watch football but sometimes a WR will be about to catch a pass and then he will turn to look up field, taking his eyes off the ball leading to a dropped pass. So, make the catch and then turn up field. Bob makes the same mistake, metaphorically. He has just escaped a maze of horrors and slammed the door in the face of a Demi-Dog, he is within 30 feet of safety and he looks up and celebrates the moment. In the next instant the demi-dog crashes through the door and eats him. Bob died because he didn’t stay focused on his objective; he was too busy trying to be “Bob Newby, Superhero”.

What was the deal with Eleven’s standalone episode in Season 2?

Eleven has been stuck in a cabin for 350+ days, and Hopper has been driving her crazy because he never shows up on time. She is pissed off at Mike because she saw him chatting up Max, and so she decides it’s time to go visit her mother. While she is there, she sees a vision of another girl, Eight/Kali, and takes off to Chicago to meet up with her. Kali is the leader of a gang which robs people and kills “bad people”, and she convinces Eleven to join for a short time.

I hated this entire episode; everything about it was completely horrible. Eleven is “good guy”, sure she was a little impulsive, but she was getting training at the hands of Chief Hopper. She was on the right path. Then she meets up with Kali and her gang of losers. I was so happy when Eleven finally decided to head back to Indiana to help her friends.

My other complaint was that this episode, “The Lost Sister”, existed outside the rest of the story timeline. Every other episode jumps around between the different characters so that time passes evenly for the cast. But not this episode it’s just an entire episode of bad decisions by a 13-year-old with superpowers. It would have been better if this storyline was split between several episodes throughout the middle of season two. But really, I still don’t think I would have enjoyed the story line.

Why did Dr. Brenner want to be called by Papa by the experiment kids?

Dr. Brenner is the main human villain in the first season, and he runs the Hawkins Energy lab building. One of his duties at this covert CIA-type laboratory is training the captured children in the use of their powers. He is also in charge of keeping the experiments at the Hawkins facility a secret for the local community. In his normal duties, he has to experiment on children and kill anyone who finds out the secret nature of the facility, so basically his job sucks. Even if he donated part of his salary to charity he would still be a “bad guy” best compared to Joesf Mengele, the Doctor at Aushwitz who experimented on children. But the creepiest thing about this guy is that the children call him “Papa”. Why? The kids are isolated from the rest of the world, he could tell them to call him anything. But instead he has created this weird father relationship with the children. He should probably be investigated by the Officers of the Special Victims Unit because something weird is going on here.

Why isn’t Nancy creeped out by Jonathan Byers?

Early in the first season Jonathan Byers is walking through the woods looking for his brother Will when he stumbles on Steve Harrington’s house. There is a party going on at Steve’s house, so Jonathan pulls out his camera and starts taking pictures of the frivolities. While taking picture he captures a photograph of Nancy taking off her clothes in Steve’s room.

After developing his photos Jonathan is walking through the school parking lot and happens upon Nancy, Steve, and his goonish friend. Steve and the goon take his photos and find the revealing photo of Nancy; they proceed to rip up the photos and smash his camera. At this point Nancy feels bad for Jonathan, which is understandable given that her “friends” have just bullied the poor kid. But she ends up becoming friends with Jonathan and later dates him. Why isn’t she creeped out by the fact that he took these photos? I know he gives her some lame excuse about capturing people as they actually are, but it’s still completely creepy. I just don’t understand why this isn’t a huge red flag and major turnoff.

Who is the MVP of the first two seasons of Stranger Things 2?

Stranger Things has now completed its first two seasons, 18 episodes of content, and there is a lot going on. But my favorite thing to think about is who is the biggest hero of the show. Who is the MVP?

There are certainly a lot of quality options. The two most obvious choices are Eleven and Chief Jim Hopper. Eleven is a 12/13-year-old with some X-men like powers. She took on the Demogorgon and kicked its ass, then she threw down with some demi-dogs and closed a massive portal to the Upside down with her mind. There were some rough patches along the way, like shoplifting and joining up with a crew of losers, but she always shows up when the bread needs to buttered.

Chief Jim Hopper is just a local police chief, but he can really kick some ass. In fact, I think he punches out every person at Hawkins lab.  He has no powers except an awesome beard and a willingness to battle interdimensional beings, even though it’s way out of his jurisdiction. Heck he even looks out for Eleven when she has no place to live.

With any MVP race there has to be some dark horse candidates and here are those four options. Joyce Byers is Will and Jonathan’s (why doesn’t he go by John?) mother. She doesn’t give up on Will even when everyone thinks he is dead and that she is crazy. But her ex does throw her off for an episode. In season two she really steps up her game as she helps Hopper solve the maze that Will has drawn. Her and Bob team up to locate the missing Chief Hopper, and finally, she teams up with Nancy and Jonathan and gives heat to the shadow monsters to save her son.  

The trio of Mike, Dustin, and Lucas would also make a solid choice. Sure, they make some mistakes, they often need to be rescued by other characters, and they fight amongst themselves. But they go toe to toe with a scary ass monster with nothing but a slingshot. The also use their knowledge of Dungeons and Dragons to explain everything that’s happening to the rest of the characters. They do have some rocky moments but they remain steadfast in their desire to help their friend.

Neither Jonathan nor Nancy has a strong case by themselves, but together they are a pretty sweet team. The buy some bear traps and other tools in an effort to distract the Demogorgon. They help Murray the reporter bust open the secret on the Hawkins facility, kicking those bastards out of town. They even manage to help out Barb’s parents avoid losing their home and all their money in a desperate search for their daughter. And with the help of Joyce, they manage to save Will from the clutches of the shadow monster.

Billy Hargrove is a complete asshole and would never have a chance at the MVP, but his mullet is freaking awesome. Every time Billy does something awesome, smoking while lifting weights, seducing Nancy’s mom, playing shirtless basketball, that’s the power of his mullet. But even his mullet couldn’t save him from getting his ass kicked by his sister.

If you’ve seen the show you know none of those people have a chance. The real MVP is Steve Harrington; he even has a sweet nickname perfect for the MVP of the show, King Steve.  Steve is the only character who really changes throughout the events of the show. He starts out as a douche who is just hooking up with Nancy to get another notch in his belt. Next, he morphs into bat wielding defeater of the Demogorgon. Steve then becomes a good boyfriend, ready to take the next step with Nancy Wheeler, even putting up with a depressing dinner of KFC with Barb’s parents. Don’t worry he’s not done. Next, he gets his heart crushed but comes back as super-babysitter, equipped again with nail embedded bat. Steve closes out the show dispensing lady advice to Dustin and even drives him to the dance. Steve and his breathtaking Farrah Fawcett hair is your undisputed MVP of the first two seasons of the Stranger Things.

 The Duffy brothers are set to make a third season and there are rumors of five seasons in total. Hopefully they start filming soon because I am really excited for the next part of the show. Plus, the kids are all set to hit puberty and we don’t 20+ year old high school students in future seasons. Lets just hope that future seasons don’t ruin the absolute perfection of that final episode of season 2.

Big O

[mchenryjd]

2017 in Review

Necessarily incomplete, mostly for my personal record. I will probably regret this.

MOVIES

10.  mother!

Got to a screening late, had to sit in the third show, could barely tell what was happening and spent most of the movie staring at J. Law’s flared nostrils. An ideal viewing experience.

9.     Personal Shopper

Nothing captures the purposeful emptiness of spending time online like Kristen Stewart texting a ghost.

8.     Get Out

I kept telling my dad this movie was funny to get him to see it, not realizing he didn’t already know it was a horror movie. Afterwards, he texted me, “that was not a comedy!” Feels like that’s enough a metaphor. Daniel Kaluuya for best actor.

7.     Star Wars: The Last Jedi

A Star Wars movie about loving Star Wars movies, which means loving the epic, silly struggle between good and epic, loving the spiral staircase that is John Williams’s force theme, loving it when character always do the coolest possible thing followed by the next coolest possible thing, loving dumb furry creatures and sarcastic slimy ones, loving it when characters kiss when you want them to kiss, loving the hundred-million-dollar sandbox of it all. After the constricted dance steps of The Force Awakens and Rogue One, give me this bleeding freestyle any day.

6.     Phantom Thread

Finally, proof that everyone in a serious relationship has lost it.

5.     Call Me By Your Name

I refuse to believe that being stuck in rural Italy would be anything other than deadly boring and if my father insisted on turning everything into a lecture on classical art, I would run away. Also, there’s a contrast between the book (vague on the details of place and time, vividly specific on matters of sex) and the film (more contextually specific, sexier, but less horny than the original). Also, who am I kidding, I was moved and unsettled by the force of the thing. *Michael Stuhlbarg voice* Pray you get a chance to fall in love like this.

4.     Dunkirk

Having your tense, churning, clanking, thrumming, score transform into Elgar right when the beautiful, imperiled young heroes are reading a stirring speech (and Tom Hardy is heroically sacrificing himself in what looks like the middle of a Turner painting) is a level of craft so deft if feels like cheating, but it works.

3.     BPM

A film about a community in danger that acts as both a memorial to and rallying cry for that community. Uncompromising, accommodating, queer in the best way, BPM makes you want to cry and go dancing at the same time.

2.     Columbus

The kind of movie that makes you want to get in a car and keep driving until you find something beautiful, it has stuck and expanded in my memory ever since I saw it over the summer. Like the architecture that looms large in the setting, the plot can feel uncomfortably schematic – John Cho wants to leave and gets  stuck, Haley Lu Richardson is stuck and gets to leave. The question is how people live within, and blur the edges of, those confines. John Cho has a winning, curdled decency; Haley Lu Richardson gives the hardest kind of performance, in that she often seems unaware of her character’s own wants. I’d watch her quietly assemble dinner for hours on end.

1.     Lady Bird  

A movie that feels less plotted and more prefigured – every fight between Lady Bird has happened before, every high school landmark lumbers by with inevitability, every boy disappoints in the way you expect. What redeems all this? Paying attention, which is also love, in this movie’s pseudo-religious sense. Between Lady Bird and Marion, between Lady Bird and Julie, between Lady Bird and Sacramento. Watch people closely, as Greta Gerwig does, and they reveal glimmers of themselves (I know so little, and yet everything, about Stephen McKinley Henderson’s drama teacher from a few moments that feel perfect, in the sense of contained, past-tense completeness). It’ll all so ordinary. Fall in love with it.

Honorable mentions: Regina Hall’s speech about friendship in Girls Trip, Sally Hawkins tracing a droplet with her finger in The Shape of Water, Meryl Streep on the phone in The Post, Cara Delevingne in Valerian, Rihanna in Valerian, the part where the ghost jumped off the building in A Ghost Story, the fact that Power Rangers was surprisingly good, the soldier who gasps as Diana whips out her hair in the trenches in Wonder Woman, Ansel Elgort’s jacket in Baby Driver, whenever anyone tried to explain anything in Alien: Covenant, Elisabeth Moss in The Square, Anh Seo-hyun feeding Okja in Okja, Lois Smith being in movies, the kids eating ice cream in The Florida Project, the Game of Thrones joke in Logan Lucky, Vella Lovell in The Big Sick, and finally, most preciously, the moment in Home Again where Reese Witherspoon kissed Michael Sheen and someone in my theater shouted “she’s not feeling it!”

TELEVISION

10.  The Good Doctor

Listen, he’s a good doctor.

9.     Riverdale

They’re hot. They’re angsty. They do drugs that look like Pixy-Stix. They never seem to do homework. They love to hook-up in weird locations. They have terrible taste in karaoke songs. They love hair dye, and a well-defined eyebrow. They have really hot parents. They’re TV teens! I love it.

8.     Insecure

This is just to say that I am far too invested in Molly’s happiness as a person. I would also like to view a full season of Due North.

7.     American Vandal

From Alex Trimboli to Christa Carlyle, the best names on TV are on this show. Also the best reenactments, and somehow the most incisive take on what fuels, and results from TV’s true-crime obsession. Jimmy Tatro mumbling!

6.     Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

More shows should take the opportunity to explode in their third seasons, rocket forward at full speed, diagnose their main characters, and give Josh Groban wonderful, unexplainable cameos.

5.     Alias Grace

A show that conjured a performance for the ages out of Sarah Gadon and somehow made Zachary Levi palatable as a dramatic actor, this miracle of collaboration between Mary Harron and Sarah Polley is all the better for being binged. Down it in an afternoon, think of Grace under her black veil, daring you to disbelieve her, for years to come.

4.     Twin Peaks: The Return

A show that drove nostalgia into itself like a knife to the chest. Totally absurd. The best revival/exorcism yet on TV.

3.     Please Like Me

“Sorry about your life.” “I’m sorry about your life.” In a time when things tend to peter out, what a final season, in which everything goes to shit and then some. Maybe TV’s most prickly comedy, Please Like Me’s heart is of the “stumble along and keep going” sort and never does it test itself as much as it did with this bleak, pastel final statement.

2.     The Leftovers

Do you believe Nora Durst’s story? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I think it sounds ridiculous. Sometimes I relax in the comfortable, academic premise that it only matters that Kevin does. It’s a haunting idea, though, this image of world even emptier than The Leftovers’s own, where it’s possible to wander for untold time in darkness. Carrie Coon’s description of it is a kind of journey to the underworld – we’re there with her, maybe, and then we make it back, maybe. The trick of The Leftovers is the wound’s never fully healed.

1.     Halt and Catch Fire

The world changes. People sorta don’t.

Honorable mentions: the twist in The Good Place, the Taylor Swift demon character in Neo Yokio, Claire Foy on The Crown, Vanessa Kirby on The Crown, the stand-up in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Cristin Milioti in Black Mirror, the televised Academy Awards ceremony, the weeks when Netflix didn’t release new TV shows I had to watch, Girls’s “American Bitch,” the fact that Adam Driver is both in Girls and Star Wars, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys performances on The Americans (and life in Brooklyn), the moments in Game of Thrones that were good enough to make me stop thinking about what people would write about Game of Thrones, season 2 of The Magicians’s resistance to any sort of plot logic, Jane the Virgin’s narrator, Nicole Kidman at therapy on Big Little Lies, Reese Witherspoon’s production of Avenue Q in Big Little Lies, Alexis Bledel holding things in The Handmaid’s Tale, Maggie Gyllenhaal directing porn in The Deuce, Alison Brie’s terrible Russian accent in Glow, Maya Rudolph in Big Mouth, Cush Jumbo miming oral sex with a pen in court in The Good Fight, the calming experience of watching new episodes of Superstore and Great News on Fridays, Eden Sher in The Middle, the fake books they make up for Younger, and Rihanna livestreaming herself watching Bates Motel.

THEATER

10.  Indecent

History, identity, community all mangled together in something that’s both excavation and revivification. I’m so mad I didn’t get to see it with my mom.

9.     Mary Jane

A nightmare that goes from bad to worse, which Carrie Coon performed with the endurance of a saint.

8.     SpongeBob SquarePants

Highlights: The tap number, the Fiddler on the Roof joke, the many uses of pool noodles, David Zinn’s design in general, the arms, the volcano setpiece, the fact that somehow I kept laughing for two-and-a-half hours at something SpongeBob SquarePants. Tina Landau, you’re a hero.

7.     Hello, Dolly!

I had a wonderful viewing experience like this, in that I sat alone on an aisle next to an older gay man who turned to me right when the curtain came down on the first act and said, “man, we love Bette.” (Shout out to any and all gags involving the whale.)

6.     Groundhog Day

Proof you can dig deeper into the material you’re adapting and still find more. Sometimes, the funniest gags come out of old-fashioned repetition. Andy Karl has the Rolex-like ability to make it all speed by without revealing any of the ticks, and then wallop you in the second act.  

5.     The Glass Menagerie

A lot of unconventional ideas piled onto each other that go so far into strange territory that they loop back around to being immediate. Maybe distant to some, but enough to unsettle me. I can still smell the onstage rain.

4.     The Wolves

A sign of a good play is probably that you remain invested in the characters long after you see it, and I’m going to spend so much time worrying about all the girls on the soccer team in The Wolves for the rest of my life.

3.     The Band’s Visit

Katrina Lenk has a gorgeous voice. Tony Shalhoub is restrained to the point that he could move his baton with nanometer accuracy. The songs are transporting. But most of all, The Band’s Visit manages to capture loneliness better than nearly any musical I’ve seen. Everyone, audience included, experiences something together, and then it all, slowly, both lingers and drifts apart.

2.     A Doll’s House, Part 2

What, you think I wasn’t going to include a play with a Laurie Metcalf performance? ADHP2 is perhaps clever to a fault in its set-up, but in the right hands, it turns into something both funny and moving – a story about what it takes to become a complete person, in or outside the influence of other people. Nora’s monologue about living in silence near the end is the full of the kind of simple statements that are so hard to act, and so brilliant when done just right.

1.     The Antipodes

Both an extended meditation on what it means to run out of stories and a brutal subtweet of Los Angeles, The Antipodes is my kind of play, in that it’s mostly people talking, Josh Charles is involved and very disgruntled, and everyone eats a lot of take out.

Honorable mentions: the music in Sunday in the Park With George, the pies in Sweeney Todd, the ensemble of Come From Away, seeing Dave Malloy in The Great Comet of 1812, Alex Newell’s “Mama Will Provide” in Once on This Island, Cate Blanchet having fun in The Present, Imelda Staunton in the NTLive Follies, Michael Urie in Torch Song, Patti LuPone’s accent(s) in War Paint, Ashley Park in KPOP, and Gleb.