#tw review

[laf-outloud]

I admit I watched the prequel pilot and if it's okay, I'd like to share my thoughts with you on everything I observed.

1. This is definitely not SPN. This is nowhere in the same universe never mind the same neighborhood. Jensen's "mother ship" really is on point since SPN is in a different galaxy compared to TW. It's obvious that they're trying to connect back to it while also doing their own thing, but this actually might go off a bit better without claiming that connection or inserting "Dean" into it all. Not much better but a little bit better

2. The POC characters are obviously being used to further the protagonist's story line. Every scene they were in was still about John and Mary, or one or the other. We don't learn anything about Carlos or Latika themselves other than Carlos is bisexual & may have a crush on Mary, that Mary is mad at him about something going wrong on a previous hunt, and Latika is not experienced at hunting and is scared (and also has that damsel in distress vibe while Mary is being given the badass and strong vibe). Even when they have a conversation between themselves, it's about one of the leads. When comparing this to let's say WIndy, we did learn something about Calian, something about Kai, within the pilot itself. While we don't learn anything yet about Augustus, we do see other characters mention him (Calian), and we do get to see him featured in other scenes that don't include the protagonist. Not to mention we get that scene between Augustus and Calian alone. They're part of the plot, not furthering it. Where Carlos and Latika are constantly furthering Mary's and now John's arcs as well. Latika is used to make Mary jealous over John, and then is used to mention and hint at the story of Maggie for Mary for her character so the audience can see her have a moment while getting that information that might help to explain Mary's brusqueness. Carlos is used to not only save John with the van in that one cringe moment, but also to back Mary up in everything she does, and then the most incredible part: get the silver blade back to Mary and John so John can then kill the monster in the hole they're stuck in. Even Ada was used to further the story line in this way. She's connected to Samuel, it's her bookshop that the "coordinates" lead to where Mary finds out Samuel has definitely been there (via papers on a board just like, yep you guessed it, the SPN pilot), and the next scene she has after being exorcised: with John talking about the MoL which is once again furthering his story line. We learn nothing about her other than that she owns a bookstore in Lubbock, TX. That's it.

3. So apparently the big bad is the Acreeda (however you spell it) or whatever it's called, a monster not of this world. Again, I couldn't help but to think back to Jensen's "mothership" comment. It would make perfect sense to me if some alien monster hybrid eventually shows up.

4. Speaking of monsters, they were absolutely horrid...in design and execution. Hell, even the Wendigo looked better and that was back in 2005! There is no excuse now with all of this technology and make-up availability, not even with a low budget.

5. There is zero chemistry between Mary and John. All the supposed "cute" moments were instead cringe. You actually find yourself asking out loud when it will all be over and the scene will change to something else.

6. Drake seemed to do a decent job with what he was given. Same for Nida, Ada, and Millie. I feel like Meg has potential but not so much as this character. I'm not sure where I stand on Jojo yet, they did decently with some scenes, where the others it felt like they were trying a bit too hard and there was some overacting on certain lines.

7. In the first scene we see Carlos, I don't know why but he makes me think of Sister Jo in the way he speaks, the way he presents himself, and his overall attitude. I don't know why I had that thought but I couldn't shake it once I had it so I ended up not caring for his character too much honestly.

8. Dean did not feel like "Dean", at all. Not the narration, not even in the one scene he was in. Having Baby there didn't change that vibe for me. Instead, all I saw was Jensen wearing Dean clothes and having let his hair grow out a bit. Dean being connected to this story made it feel very disconnected everywhere else.

Overall, it's blatantly obvious that they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I almost think that had they pitched this idea without "Dean's" involvement, it still would be horrible but at least it wouldn't be disrespecting the "mothership" or tearing down the 15 year legacy of the show it's leeching off of the way that it is. And some might have even given it a chance (though not many because who really wants to see the Mary and John story?). I can see this pushing forward a little, possibly even getting a full season (because since when do AA's or hellers care about quality?), but for it to go the long mile, I'm not so sure about that. Unless people are looking for absolutely mindless television to play in the background while they fold laundry, cook dinner, do something on the computer, or pay bills, then I don't see it lasting.

Perhaps if the Ackles were truthful and just said this is a reboot to appeal to a younger generation of fans. Perhaps if Jensen and "executive producer Danneel" had just admitted up front that this is a ploy for money and to dominate the brand, that they truly don't give a crap about the quality or the story or even the cast, then maybe...no, nope, it still wouldn't work. And it's very evident that the Ackles were on set for the pilot shoot, it's all crap. We'll see what happens with the other episodes they weren't involved in. I never thought I'd say this but I kind of hope that Jensen doesn't get to direct any episodes, not to be petty but because the episode might turn out better if he doesn't (and better is a loose term). Because guaranteed Danneel will be there with him "executive producing" (making playlists and talking about the love of the story and how she knows the 1970's are real) and then it's the pilot crap all over again.

But this is all just my opinion. Thank you for letting me share all of that with you.

Thank you so much for sharing your review! I truly enjoyed reading it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Latika or Ada are dead by the end of the season (Carlos is gaining a following, so I doubt they'll go). But the others are just canon fodder. They go and nothing changes the storyline. Lovely way to treat the POC's.

Rubber monster aliens! I don't know how the cast can act around those without cracking up every time.

It's like they cast Mary and John separately based on what they thought of the characters without realizing they needed chemistry reads. I can't imagine what the failed chemistry reads look like with other actors (if there were any).

"...they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole." They would have been better off creating a show with brand new characters, just set in the SPN universe. But then, we wouldn't get Beau Dean dealing with amnesia trying to remember that he's from Kansas instead of Texas, or what happened to his parents (or the fact that he has a younger brother, but since he's got heaven-esia and can't even remember how to get to his parent's heaven house so he can just ask them to tell their story, it's understandable.)

Loved reading your opinion, and I agree, honesty would have gone a long way towards tempering people's opinions about this whole mess. (Now it's too late for any kind of honesty... not that we'd believe them.)

[aropride]

made on blinkies.cafe, text on the second blinkie from this post

[californiannostalgia]

when a story has a predestined ending and you thought you already knew who the characters would become, but then you're hit with the fact that no, you actually didn't know these characters at all, they were unknowable to you until this very moment when a larger portion of their life has been revealed to you, and you realize, abruptly, that they had lives and losses and the aching desperation of a love they guarded with every piece of stubborn will they could muster, and the unknowable is suddenly rendered sublime for its opacity

[khaoray]

2024 WATCHLIST

Humanity has always been aware of the presence of darkness since ancient times and call it by different names... Ghosts. Demons. Goblins. Apparitions. These things constantly crave for bright places, that sometimes they cross over to our world... Exhuma, south korea (2024)

[nadjantipaxos]

Death is the disease that broke my family. I'm sick of seeing it. My hypothesis? If death is a disease... then there's a cure. And I'm gunna find it.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023) Dir. Bomani Story

[legendoftherisingtide]

i am so sorry for the trans folk living in the uk. no matter if you’re fully transitioned, an adult, a minor, this has affected you and i am so so sorry. i know how scary it is right now and this shit has not made it any better.

trans people all around the world see you and hear you. in fact, even non-trans people, allies, professionals, people out of the community, all see you and know how wrong this is.

The world is not all against you. Please believe that there is hope. Because there is. Please keep yourself safe and please take care of yourself to the best of your abilities. You breathing is proof that you deserve to be here. You deserve to be here. You truly do.

Please. Be as okay as you can be right now.

[ipso-faculty]

Proposing some intersex gender modality & transition terms

So there are a whole bunch of different ways that intersex people can be/identify as trans. I've been thinking about what names would be useful for articulating these differences and in this post I'll list what I've got so far. 🧑‍🔬

I'm hoping to get feedback on these, so if you have feedback let me know! 💛 I expect to edit this post, to incorporate feedback and further ideas.

CW: mention of IGM and forced HRT

Types of transitions

Distransition: a medical transition forced upon an intersex person, such as through IGM or forced HRT. Dis- to indicate the negative aspect of the transition being coercive, as well as to connote disability since this process is so frequently traumatic and/or disability-causing. In disability studies language it's a form of debility (disability caused through systemic violence).

Mistransition: a distransition (forced transition) that is not in alignment with a person's gender identity. Mis- to indicate the incorrectness of the alignment as well as to maintain a negative connotation because this is a coercive transition.

Entransition: a consensual transition done by an intersex person. Contrast to distransition. En- acts as an opposite to dis- and also to me indicates a level of intent (e.g. envision, enact, enliven). It also serves to indicate that transition is different for intersex bodies than for perisex bodies.

Retransition: an entransition done by an intersex person who previously had been distransitioned. I.e. when an intersex person does a second transition to undo, alter, or improve a forced transition. Re- to indicate a second transition, but also that it's a revision of the first one. EDIT #1: This term is not intersex exclusive, and may also be used by perisex trans people who have transitioned multiple times. EDIT #2: For an intersex-exclusive version, I suggest "re-entransition", combining re- and en-.

Retrotransition: a retransition that is done to undo the effects of forced transition. So an intersex person who, after being forced into a binary gender, then transitions their body towards a best approximation of what their body's natural state would have been without forced transition. Retro- for backwards to indicate undoing that is worth differentiating from detransitioning.

Laterotransition: a retransition done by an intersex person to a gender that is neither the gender externally imposed by a distransition nor what their body's "natural state" would be. For example, an AFAB AIS person who was coercively transitioned female, who then later transitioned male. Latero- as contrast to retro- (latero- is to the side, antero- is forward) as well as to indicate the turn away from the path set forth externally by parents/doctors.

Anterotransition: a retransition done by an intersex person that continues the direction set forth by previous forced transition. So additional transitioning done by somebody whose gender is in alignment with what was externally imposed. While this will probably be somebody's AGAB, it doesn't have to be - some times intersex people are forcibly transitioned to a different gender than their AGAB.

All of these transitions would have an analogous gender modality. So an entransgender person is somebody who has/is undergoing/intends to entransition. And a retrotransgender person likewise has/is undergoing/intends to retrotransition.

I see distransition and mistransition as potentially useful for intersex people talking about trauma and structural intersexism. I think entransition might be useful for talking about how being intersex and transitioning is frequently different than for perisex people, especially if it is a retransition. And perhaps distransition and anterotransition may be of use to exparium folks.

Personally: I was distransitioned as an adolescent and have recently started a process of medically retrotransitioning.

Feedback welcome! A list of revisions will go at the bottom of this post. Will make flags for terms once I feel satisfied with them.

Edits

2024-01-16: I've been informed by @chipbutbetter that retrans is already used by some perisex folks with complicated transition patterns, so I have edited to say this term should not be intersex exclusive. Thanks! 🏳️‍⚧️

2024-01-16: thought about an intersex-specific version of retransition and landed on "re-entransition". A little awkward but combines both retransition and entransition! Flexible on whether to include a hyphen (reentransition).

[lousolversons]

LOUSOLVERSON’S REVIEW OF 2022 Best Film - Everything Everywhere All At Once, Dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

[iamfarfromvibingrightnow]

This is not airing.

[laf-outloud]

My 2 cents on TW. It’s actually less lousy than I expected. Drake does a really good job as John. Makes me want to see his evolution into the John we know. He me reminds of a young Sam, including running away from home against his parent’s explicit wishes. Great parallel and well-acted by Drake. Mary and John having conversations and banter while travelling the back roads in a muscle car is also a great parallel and full of SPN feels. Milly Winchester is really cool, it’s great to get to know her. The music is great and the general look of things is better than I feared. BUT there is a LOT to criticize:

Dean narrating adds nothing and Jensen has forgotten how to be Dean. It would be better if this direct link to SPN was cut and TW could just stand as a show on its own in the same universe.

Too much clumsy exposition.

They stole much of the plot from the SPN Pilot. Bad manners, that. There’s a difference between adding easter eggs for fun, and just recycling old ideas because you can’t come up with new ones. Coordinates, I’m looking at you. But then again, I’ve watched the SPN pilot like 12 times. Maybe for a regular SPN viewer who watched the pilot once back in 2005, it would come over differently.

The absolutely cringe slapstick first fighting scene with John and Mary needs to go. I can’t believe they kept that in and even put it in the trailer. The rest of the episode John is shown to be capable, a quick study, and able to hold his own in a fight. Why they start him off as ridiculously incompetent I have no idea. Also, 3 punches from a trained marine a foot taller than her should have put Mary in the hospital.

They crammed an overabundance of plot and monsters and lore into one episode. Already in the first episode they arrive at a MoL chapter house. Less would be a lot more in this case. I don’t know why they did this- for the new audience it must be so confusing to keep up, and for SPN fans who will get the references and be able to follow it’s just a reminder of how much more dumb and shallow TW is compared to SPN, especially early SPN. The MoL chapter house looks as if they held Satanic masses there FFS.

They process all the clues very quickly and superficially. We are just supposed to be believe that a bunch of teenagers crack decades old secrets and codes in minutes.

Meg is an unconvincing Mary. A Disney version of Mary. They should have made her meaner and defensive, unwilling to let John tag along and certainly unwilling to tell him anything about her family. John should at first be the chivalrous sweatheart that he is towards her but eventually pissed at her for her attitude. John taking the whole season to break through her defenses would make their story much more compelling and would also be consistent with SPN lore, that they did not even like each other at first. Instead, they're already eyefucking halfway through the pilot.

Meg’s acting isn’t really good. Drake is a lot better.

I don’t know why they praise JoJo as this fantastic actor because in the pilot at least his acting as Carlos is lousy. The other two sidekicks do better.

The overall feel is really Scoobynatural with some third-rate Indiana Jones thrown in and sprinkled with moments from a young adult coffeeshop sitcom. If they want to make this work, they should scrap the scoobygang. Let the sidekicks do their own thing instead of having the lot of them band up, if they have to be there at all. Better yet, kill them off.  

There have been a few people that have said the same about the narration. Jensen was so insistent on bringing back Dean that it didn't matter if his inclusion would be one of the most awkward parts of the show.

"3 punches from a trained marine a foot taller than her should have put Mary in the hospital." LOL!

"Let the sidekicks do their own thing instead of having the lot of them band up, if they have to be there at all. Better yet, kill them off. " I think this might actually be the plan. The POC sidekicks have no critical importance to the story and can easily be replaced. Not exactly great representation there.

"The overall feel is really Scoobynatural with some third-rate Indiana Jones thrown in and sprinkled with moments from a young adult coffeeshop sitcom." I can see why hellers would like the show.

Thank you for sharing your review, anon! It's good to see a considered review that takes in the positives as well as the negatives.

[aropride]

[anyataylorjoys]

THE EXORCIST (1973) THE EXORCIST BELIEVER (2023)

[daisy-mooon]

Twitter is throwing a tantrum that TikTokkers are struggling to infer Annabeth's love of architecture from the show, saying that they have no literacy comprehension.

Except the TikTokkers are right lol

Annabeth lists ten facts about a building and immediately says it's a temple to Athena. She doesn't sound excited when she says it, she sounds mildly interested. She doesn't derail the group's quest because she's always wanted to visit, she brings them there because Percy's been poisoned.

To the regular viewer, it does not sound like she has an obsession with architecture. It sounds like she just knows this stuff because 1) She's an Athena child and it's a temple to Athena, 2) because the show told her she was smart in like episode two.

Annabeth doesn't rush around giddily, looking around and staring. She just kinda stands there. Where's the excitement and enthusiasm? Leah is a great actor, but these directors and writers are ass. We don't need to see Annabeth in stoic, calm dramatic silence. We need to see her be excited about her literal obsession, her literal hyperfixation!

It's also worth noting that Annabeth only talks about buildings ONCE. She doesn't say she likes architecture, she doesn't read her architecture books, we don't see her talking about the buildings they pass, we don't hear anything about Athena being the goddess of architecture, NOTHING. This is the FIRST time we've ever heard Annabeth talk about architecture and she is literally just listing facts.

Every time a new episode comes out, I become firmly more and more convinced that Twitter is watching a different show to me. Stop sucking this shows dick and actually THINK about the complaints.

[katowo]

After watching queer shows that don't make it 100% they're queer right away, my favorite thing to do is go to the lower reviews on google because without fail there's ALWAYS people throwing a fit about how they "ruined the show". here's some of my favorite reviews from Good Omens and OFMD respectively:

feel free to share more of these types of reviews in the reblogs because they are so funny to me and I want to start a collection

[logorrhea5mip]

I just watched the new Nimona movie, and one thing I noticed after it was finished was that I found it paradoxically very basic/cliche and very impactful. And then I thought what the messages of the film were:

Most systems that claim they're there to protect us are just here to reinforce the status quo and find justifications for oppression.

Being different is cool, and the vilification of different people is just a way for the system to redirect the hate of the masses towards the innocent, rather than the system itself.

Better to be yourself and die than comply, lose individuality and not live.

Killing cops isn't that bad, actually. It can even be fun if done as a group activity!!

And none of those are basic, it's just me who held them already, but it could be really eye-opening for someone who doesn't.

Anyways, it was great, and it currently holds third place on my "Media That Makes Me Want To Burn Down A Police Station Even More Than I Usually Do" list.