#alternative title: list of episodes for discovery to do

[jucyfruit]

boygenius: “This is the time we finally get to be around each other – we’re gonna enjoy it”

As they release The Record, one of the year's most anticipated and acclaimed debut albums, we meet Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker in New York City to discuss their unique creative bond

by Gemma Samways

Tonight, the room is playing host to the 36th annual Tibet House US Benefit. Curated by Philip Glass – and featuring Laurie Anderson, Arooj Aftab and Bernard Sumner and Tom Chapman of New Order – the line-up reads like a particularly A-list episode of Later with… Jools Holland. It soon transpires its staging is similarly chaotic, with the event running approximately an hour behind schedule and artists often walking onstage unannounced.

boygenius are one of the few acts to enjoy a proper introduction. Added to the bill just 24 hours ago, their first public appearance in almost half a decade has prompted a frenzied, last minute scramble for seats, with $35 tickets exchanging hands for ten times that amount. A day later, in a photo studio in the East Village following our shoot at Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn, the trio admit to having felt a little freaked out in the build-up.

“I was really emotional because I’ve been obsessed with Nina Simone’s Carnegie Hall album of late,” Lucy Dacus confides, sat on the sofa, sandwiched between her bandmates. Julien Baker nods, confessing to having been “so stressed about doing my job that I couldn’t fully absorb that I was playing alongside living legends.” Meanwhile, Phoebe Bridgers was still semi-delirious with jetlag, having recently landed back in the US from Japan.

“Look at this photo,” she laughs, extending her phone to me. Taken pre-gig, it shows her passed out on the dressing room floor while Lucy smirks in the foreground. “With full make-up, I look like I’m in an open casket. And because Julien was playing piano, I was having Julien-fuelled dreams.”

Certainly there were no visible signs of unease as they stepped out onstage to play stripped-back versions of ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘Cool About It’ – taken from their long-awaited debut album The Record – for the first time. And despite the all-star bill, the supergroup proved one of the night’s biggest draws, eliciting excited whoops from an audience who had greeted every other performer with respectfully restrained applause. Ultimately, once they started playing, they enjoyed the experience.

Less gratifying was the discovery that a group of particularly intrusive fans had tracked down their hotel after the show. “They were like, ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe’,” Lucy shudders. “And it’s like, ‘No, we aren’t: how’d you find out where we are? That’s stalking. Don’t do this.

Phoebe continues: “I mean, interactions with fans can be really sweet, especially when it’s a show like Carnegie Hall which might’ve been hard to get tickets to. But often there’s this weird thing where the rudest people bubble to the top, and the poor kid who just wants their record signed is too nice to ask. And so, while I’m trying to escape the fucking full-grown man who just grabbed me, I’m ignoring the sweet kid.

It’s fair to say a certain level of hysteria has surrounded boygenius ever since their formation. Five years ago they were all ascendant stars of the alternative scene, with the Tennessee-born Baker and Richmond, Virginia-raised Dacus being the most established, with two acclaimed albums each. By the end of 2018, the trio were being breathlessly billed by Vogue as “the Infinity War of female-led indie-rock outfits,” while their self-titled EP received widespread praise.

Objectively, it’s a collaboration that made – and still makes – total sense. Despite outgrowing their respective DIY scenes, they had each retained a fiercely independent outlook and an emotional authenticity, and that struck a chord with similarly principled, serotonin-starved audiences. Just as tantalisingly, interviews and social media interactions revealed that they didn’t take themselves especially seriously and seemed keen to distance themselves from the pedestal that fans were so intent on putting them on.

“It’s probably refreshing that we’re not character artists,” Lucy says when asked to summarise the appeal of boygenius. “Because ultimately we’re talking to you now how we usually talk to each other. Even when I’m doing my own [solo] stuff, I present a curated version of myself – like, I pick one aspect of my character per album to share. But with this band it’s totally artless.”

It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that The Record is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. To some degree that demand can be explained by Baker and Dacus expanding their fanbases further off the back of their 2021 solo records Little Oblivions and Home Video. But the real responsibility for the band’s reach surely lies at the feet of Bridgers, whose second album was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.

Unanimously agreed to be one of 2020’s standout records, Punisher propelled the Pasadena-raised artist into music’s A-list, resulting in four Grammy nominations, an offer to found her own label (Saddest Factory, home to MUNA) and invites to collaborate with household names like Paul McCartney, SZA, Lorde and The 1975. Just days after our interview Phoebe is named one of Time’s 2023 Women of the Year, alongside Cate Blanchett and Megan Rapinoe. This coming May she will open for Taylor Swift in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Despite the difference in their public profiles, the power dynamic in boygenius appears impressively balanced. A friendship first and foremost, they’ve signed the contract by acquiring matching tattoos of a tooth and of a cluster of goblets, the latter inspired by the tarot card the three of cups.

“That’s based on the first tarot reading Julien ever got,” Lucy – the band’s resident tarot expert – recalls fondly. “We were all together and that’s the first card she pulled. Plus it’s three women partying. Friendship is the highest form of love and that felt like a sweet entry into that world.”

Having been raised in the world of evangelical Christianity, Julien was initially resistant to the idea of tarot. “When you started doing a reading, I got up and sat in the tour van by myself because I thought God was gonna steal my soul,” she explains, totally serious.

“Does God do that?!” Phoebe laughs, incredulous.

“Yes! In [the book of] Samuel! But then I was like, ‘Alright, I trust you guys. I guess you can guide me through this.’ That was a fear that you guys helped me dismantle. Because by watching you engage with it, I realised that this was a tool for self-interrogation, not for summoning the devil.”

Within the band, all decisions are made democratically and affectionate ribbings are a big part of their social currency. “Roasting each other is an act of love,” Julien reasons, to the others’ approval. “If your friends aren’t talking shit about you, I don’t think they care about you.”

With Phoebe based in Los Angeles, Lucy in Philadelphia and Julien in Memphis, they largely stay in touch via group chat and FaceTime – a support network they all clearly cherish. “I can text cold something horrible that happened to me and not feel the pressure to look at my phone for hours,” says Phoebe. “But when I do I’ll see a bunch of validation.”

Julien concurs: “It’s neat that we can confide in each other. Because sometimes my sense of imposter syndrome makes me not want to talk about how excited I am about this with friends who don’t work in music. I’m talking to them like, ‘You gotta get on a plane super early and carry all this heavy equipment, so it’s not all fun.’ And having people understand it’s a job and that I’m dedicated to it is very important. But equally, with y’all I get to be like, ‘Shit’s so fucking sick!’ Like, in this band I get to be the type of excited and thankful that lacks decorum, especially when there are so many talented people in my life where our roles could have been switched in an alternate timeline.”

The roots of boygenius were laid in 2016, when Julien and Lucy performed on the same bill in Washington, D.C., followed by Julien meeting Phoebe a month later. When a canny promoter booked all three to tour together in 2018, they decided to record a collaborative seven-inch, a creative experiment that proved so fruitful they emerged with their eponymous EP.

By all accounts, the story behind The Record is similarly stress-free. Phoebe kickstarted the creative process just a week after releasing Punisher, sending a demo of ‘Emily, I’m Sorry’ to Lucy and Julien with the words, “Can we be a band again?” From there, the floodgates opened, with all three uploading demos to a shared drive, followed by two in-person writing trips – one in Healdsburg, California in April 2021 and another in Malibu in August of the same year.

Though carefully scheduled due to their individual work commitments, Lucy describes these retreats as anything but regimented. “We didn’t intend to work that hard,” she insists. “If anything, the regimen would have included breaks and we didn’t allow ourselves those.” Julien expands, “We’d be like, ‘Okay, today is a chill day,” but then we could not stop thinking about the record. And it’s just nice to be around a bunch of people who are passionate about the exact same thing.”

After whittling down the demos from a pool of 25, the final 12 were recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in January 2022, with the help of co-producer Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice, Foals, PJ Harvey). Lucy specifically cites Marks’ work with Manchester Orchestra as a motivating factor for them initially reaching out, and Phoebe enthuses about her hands-on approach. “She’s the kind of producer that immediately kicks off their shoes. Wait, I’m gonna text her and tell her we’re talking about her.” She takes a group selfie of them all grinning, flicking Vs, and hits send.

Other key contributors included engineer and producer Sarah Tudzin (Slowdive, Weyes Blood), plus Jay Som’s Melina Duterte on bass. Melina will also appear as part of Boygenius’ seven-strong touring line-up, set to be unveiled at Coachella in April. Given that their band name specifically mocks society’s tendency to unfairly exalt male creatives, the idea of boygenius assembling a largely female team for this album feels satisfyingly utopian. Today, they insist it was purely circumstantial.

“They are the best people we could think of,” says Lucy. “Some days I’m like, ten-year-old me would feel that this is very important. But also there are days where I’m like, we’re doing press right now and it’s completely uninteresting that we’re women. Why are we talking about this?”

“Plus, it’s not a given that if you work with women you’re not also working with a bunch of assholes,” Phoebe grins. “Fortunately, we picked a bunch of people who aren’t assholes.” Lucy laughs. “Women can be assholes: there’s your pull quote.”

Sonically, The Record is a much richer, more ambitious collection than anything boygenius have produced previously, taking in widescreen folk-rock (‘Not Strong Enough’) and low-slung punk (‘Satanist’, ‘$20’), campfire folk (‘Cool About It’, ‘Leonard Cohen’) and string-flecked dream-pop (‘Revolution 0’), plus a swooning a cappella piece shaped around a lush three-part harmony (‘Without You Without Them’).

Though written by Lucy, Phoebe can take full credit for unearthing the latter. “I was like, ‘I want a song that’s like ‘Blue Velvet’.’ And Lucy’s like, ‘Oh… Actually I might have a song…’ And I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?!’”

“It was a washing the dishes song.” Lucy protests, smiling. “There’s, like, this whole category of songs that I don’t show people. And I didn’t think of that as a ‘me’ song because it doesn’t sound like what I do, you know? But Phoebe was like, ‘We have to do it.’ Plus, I like that it kind of picks up where we left off with ‘Ketchum, ID’ [from their 2018 EP]. So I’m glad you made us do that.”

This process of mutual encouragement is integral to the band. They’re the first to admit they’re one another’s fiercest supporters, to the extent they accidentally plagiarise each other on a regular basis. “I totally wrote ‘Garden Song’ the other day,” Julien tells Phoebe, who cheerfully bats back. “‘Revolution 0’ is basically me ripping off ‘Good News.’”

Jokes aside, all three songwriters boast instantly recognisable styles, as demonstrated by the triumvirate of singles with which they announced The Record. ‘Emily, I’m Sorry’ is quintessential Phoebe Bridgers, a slice of folky introspection that wouldn’t sound out of place on Punisher, while ‘True Blue’ showcases the quietly anthemic indie-rock that Lucy has made her calling card. Meanwhile, the buoyant ‘$20’ sees former hardcore kid Julien leaning into her love of riffing.

With most structures initially emanating from one particular songwriter, it does beg the question, what makes a track right for the band rather than remaining a solo endeavour? According to Phoebe, she relies on a type of benign Spidey-Sense. “I always know when I’m writing a boygenius song. Even with ‘Me And My Dog’ I was like, ‘I don’t think this is a solo record song.’”

Lucy is more specific. “A lot of times I’ll write a song for us in a different frame of mind, so you can be harmonising with me and saying something that’s still true for you. I don’t want to make either of you sing lyrics that don’t resonate with you.”

“I really struggle with that,” Phoebe says. “So much of my music is directly my point of view and so specific.”

“Totally,” Lucy nods, “I feel like on a lot of your songs we’re supporting…”

“…like a chorus in a Greek play,” replies Julien, finishing Lucy’s thought. “We’re not a part of the action: we’re standing behind, commenting on or observing it. But these songs only exist because we made The Record. They’re an article of the endeavour rather than a pre-planned thing.”

Lucy takes the final word on the subject. “These aren’t solo songs that we donated to each other: we had to be together to make it.”

Lyrically, The Record treads a tightrope between deadpan humour and quiet devastation. The opening line of ‘We’re In Love’ sees Lucy resolutely opting for the latter, singing, “You could absolutely break my heart / That’s how I know that we’re in love.” ‘Leonard Cohen’ falls firmly into the former camp, delivering a frontrunner for lyric of the year in: “Leonard Cohen once said there’s a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in / And I am not an old man having an existential crisis / In a Buddhist monastery / Writing horny poetry / But I agree.”

“I think my songs have a theme of being known and feeling present,” Lucy reflects. “Because I don’t feel that at all points in my life, I’m expressing my gratitude for that.” Phoebe sees her contributions as aspirational; evidence of the very process of self-improvement. “Each of the songs I contributed have a vibe of me trying my absolute hardest to not float ten inches above my body at all times. And you guys have helped me with that, so it makes sense that it would make the album.”

‘Not Strong Enough’ is perhaps their most collaborative song: a patchwork of ideas in which each band member takes a verse, as Julien jokes, “boyband-style”. Musically, it’s also the album’s most uplifting moment, its bright melody providing a smokescreen for lyrics exploring panic attacks and low self-esteem. When I point out the deception, Phoebe laughs. “You know the meme of the pink house and the black house next to each other, where it’s like one is the music and the other is the lyrics? That’s literally a couple miles from where we recorded our album. We’ve been talking about taking a photo in front of it for years.”

After an hour in their company, it’s not difficult to see why boygenius are inspiring such levels of adoration. A tight-knit gang of smart, talented, young songwriters, they’re the sort of band I wish had existed when I was growing up, even if I am battling to resist the urge to cast them as role models. After all, why should the men of rock be lauded for chaos while women have to be figures of unimpeachable virtue? When I mention the double standard, Lucy rolls her eyes.

“I remember when Phoebe did that Playboy article [in 2020]. People were texting me like, ‘I thought she was a role model for young girls?’ And I was like, 1. You can pose in Playboy and be a role model, and 2. When exactly did she sign up for that?”

“It is tight to me that you got texts and I did not,” Phoebe smiles. “I want to be scary. Like, as women or as queer people, we’re taught that anger is not useful and that forgiveness is the highest form of enlightenment. But I don’t think so. I think that I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to make everybody in a room feel ok when I don’t feel ok. It’s great to have boundaries. And as a band we’re all really good at protecting each other.”

Staying loyal to their DIY roots, boygenius are ultimately motivated by creating a community and enjoying the process of a shared endeavour. “Writing songs for this band is the opposite of saving your darlings for yourself,” Julien explains. “I want to bring the best possible offering to the band because it’s my favourite thing. It feels good to give the songs away.”

“Seriously, we have been looking forward to this time together for years,” says Phoebe. “This is the time we finally get to be around each other so we’re gonna enjoy it.”

(x) 4/5/23

#don’t mind me i just live in fear that these interviews will be taken offline djsjskdjs #boygenuis #julien baker #lucy dacus #phoebe bridgers #interviews #archival #april 2023

[clueingforbeggs]

I have a weird, impractical idea for like... Covers for an bootleg in-near-chronological order Star Trek DVD boxset, if you know what I mean? And I know it's weird but hear me out:

You start with Enterprise, and at first it (cases and discs) seems perfectly normal, They're titled Star Trek Enterprise, series 1 through 4, but huh, that's odd... Shouldn't the discs in case 4 contain These Are The Voyages? Oh well, that's a crap episode, and it's not on the episode listing on the back. What's next?

Discovery. Discovery's next. But first, you've got this thing before The Vulcan Hello called 'The Cage'. Interesting, you thought that was the pilot from TOS. And also, whilst the show is titled Star Trek Discovery, it's listed as series 5. Oh, well. Let's watch it.

(Alternatively, The Cage could be on Enterprise S4's disc?)

And that's the first two series done. Now what? SNW, obviously, then TOS? Which is also for some reason series 7 through however many SNW will get plus 3 (plus 7)? Cool. Follow that with TAS and then the movies I dunno how they'll be set out though. Onto TNG.

And this is the part where it gets really fun and what I was originally thinking of. Because TNG is where the Overlap begins. Also, The Pegasus seems to have a longer runtime than you remembered. but that's not important because eventually the discs start to alternate between TNG and DS9. Constantly. The series synopsis mentions both shows, too. Like... Uh... 'The Enterprise does X! Meanwhile, Ben Sisko is given command of a space station in Bajoran space!'

And then after TNG finishes, you've got DS9 and VOY! And this continues until near the end of VOY (VOY is missing the one with the Doctor's backup in the far future. We'll get back to that.)

Then there's Nemesis, then onto Lower Decks, I don't know what series this would be, I'm thinking series divides would be on new years though? Then PRO. Then the Kelvinverse films on their own discs. Still don't know how to do the films, I'm leaning towards counting them as their own 'series'. Then PIC. Everything seems normal... Ish. You're still confused by the

And then just as you crack open Discovery series 3, or series whatever the fuck we're on after messing with the series like this (30-odd? 40 odd? I dunno) you're hit by Living Witness, AKA the one with the Doctor's backup in the far future.

I don't know why I was thinking of this it's obviously a bad idea to organise Star Trek, it's just a fun thing to think of.

Short Treks are also there. Scattered around. Like, after you finish Discovery, the final episode is Calypso, for instance.

#star trek

[girlbosslrell]

List of beloved Star Trek episode tropes:

The mirrorverse episode

The Q episode

The holodeck adventure episode

The Character Crossover Episode™️

#alternative title: list of episodes for discovery to do #I mean they’ve done the mirrorverse episode. they’ve definitely done the mirrorverse episode #for like a significant portion of 2 separate seasons #and I guess they did the character crossover episode for all of season 2 #in all fairness #but like q better come through.... holodeck adventures better come THROUGH #feel free to add your fave episode tropes if you are so inclined #annie.txt #edit: I just realized that disco and lwd combined have done every one of these episodes #HELL yeah new trek!!!!!! #even picard is gonna have q next season. wild. #anyways I love it here #lwd’s holodeck episode was sooooooo goooddd #mariener was just like ‘therapy? I don’t need THERAPY’ *proceeds to fight her mother in a holodeck simulation* #mariner* that’s embarrassing

[rockislandadultreads]

April 23, 2021: Day of Silence: book recommendations

Day of Silence is GLSEN's annual day of action to spread awareness about the effects of the bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning students. In the United States, students take a day-long vow of silence to symbolically represent the silencing of LGBTQ students. Know you’re not alone, and the library is a welcoming place filled with all sorts of educational titles, resources, and stories like the 4 listed here. For more information, please visit GLSEN’s website here.

The Pride Guide: A Guide to Sexual and Social Health for LGBTQ Youth by Jo Langford

Sex education materials meant to explain important basics to kids are too-often not written with an empathic understanding of what those basics are. This is particularly obvious regarding books that include LGBTQ identities. Even when they do hit the mark, many have a limited scope and don't take into account the practical realities of developing sexuality. The Pride Guide is written explicitly for the almost ten percent of teenagers who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or any of the unique identities that are not heterosexual/ cisgendered. It explores sex, dating, relationships, puberty, and both physical and online safety in one resource. The issue, today, is not whether or not queer youth will get sex education. The issue is how and where they will gather information and whether or not the information they gather with be applicable, unreliable, or exploitative. Equipping teens and their families with knowledge and self-confidence, this work provides the best protection against the unfortunate consequences that sometimes accompany growing up with an alternative gender or identity. With real-world information presented in a factual and humorous way, responsible adults can teach queer youth to (and how to) protect themselves, to find resources, to explore who they are, and to interact with the world around them while being true to themselves and respectful of others. Written with these issues in mind, The Pride Guide covers universal topics that apply to everyone, such as values clarification, digital citizenship, responsibility, information regarding abstinence as well as indulgence, and an understanding of the consequences and results of both action and inaction. For LGBTQ youth, this is a resource containing information on the unique issues queer youth face regarding what puberty looks like (particularly for trans youth), dating skills and violence, activism, personal safety, and above all, pride. Parents and other supportive adults who are motivated to educate themselves and who are interested in gaining some tools and skills around making these necessary conversations less uncomfortable and more effective will benefit from this book. The go-to resource for making informed decisions, The Pride Guide is indispensable for teens, parents, educators, and others hoping to support the safe journey of LGBTQ teens on their journey of discovery.

Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era.

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah. But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity. It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagan Brothers

In the tiny podunk town of Hawthorne, North Carolina, seventeen-year-old geeks Lula and Rory share everything—sci-fi and fantasy fandom, Friday night binge-watching of old X-Files episodes, and that feeling that they don’t quite fit in. Lula knows she and Rory have no secrets from each other; after all, he came out to her years ago, and she’s shared with him her “sacred texts”—the acting books her mother left behind after she walked out of Lula’s life. But then Lula discovers that Rory—her Rory, who maybe she’s secretly had feelings for—has not only tried out for the Hawthorne football team without telling her, but has also been having an affair with his middle-aged divorcee boss. With their friendship disrupted, Lula begins to question her identity and her own sexual orientation, and she runs away in the middle of the night on a journey to find her mother, who she hopes will have all the answers. Meagan Brother’s piercing prose in this fresh LGBT YA novel speaks to anyone who has ever felt unwanted and alone, and who struggles to find their place in an isolating world.

#dayofsilence #fiction #nonfiction #ya books #lgbtq #lgbtq books #lgbtq community #Book Recommendations #reading recommendations #recommended reading #tbr #booklist #booklr #to read #library #public libraries #readers advisory

[ucflibrary]

Be Inspired by Great Nature Writers

Nature writing can transport us to new place, inform us of the world around us and open our eyes to the magic and beauty right in front of us.  Here are some ebooks currently available through the UCF Libraries to get you started.

The Essential Naturalist edited by Michael H. Graham, Joan Parker and Paul K. Dayton.

“The Essential Naturalist offers … a wide-ranging, eclectic collection of writings from more than eight centuries of observations of the natural world, from Leeuwenhoek to E. O. Wilson, from von Humboldt to Rachel Carson. Featuring commentaries by practicing scientists that offer personal accounts of the importance of the long tradition of natural history writing to their current research, the volume serves simultaneously as an overview of the field’s long history and as an inspirational starting point for new explorations, for trained scientists and amateur enthusiasts alike.”

Readings in Wood by John Leland

“Award-winning nature writer John Leland offers a collection of twenty-seven short, poetic essays that marry science and the humanities as the author seeks meaning in trees. Readings in Wood is an investigation of trees and forests and also of wood as a material that people have found essential in the creation of society and culture. Leland views with wit and erudition the natural world and the curious place of human beings as saviors and destroyers of this world.

Readings in Wood is a hybrid testament of science, faith, superstition, and disbelief learned from sitting on tree trunks and peering at leaves and fungi. Leland hopes others will join him in nature’s classroom.”

Where’s the Moon?: A Memoir of the Space Coast and the Florida Dream by Ann McCutchan

“In this coming-of-age memoir, McCutchan, a writer and musician, returns to Florida to reconcile with the life she had there [growing up]. Reconnecting with old friends and long-forgotten places, she confronts the transformation of wetland real estate she knew as a child into south Florida suburbs and the booming Space Coast… She … comes to a deeper understanding of the meaning of the cultural shifts she experienced in the sixties, and achieves a new appreciation of the history and aspirations of the two people who meant the most to her.”

The Great Clod: Notes and Memoirs on Nature and History in East Asia by Gary Snyder

“Over the course of his singular career, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, essayist, environmental activist, and Beat icon Gary Snyder has derived wisdom and inspiration from his study of Eastern philosophies, cultures, and art. Now, with this collection of eight essays, Snyder offers “a deceptively small book enfolding a lifetime’s worth of study” (Kirkus Reviews). The Great Clod is the culmination of a project that Snyder began in 1969 with the essay ‘Summer in Hokkaido,’first published in Coevolution Quarterly. In it and the subsequent entries… Snyder weaves together elements of travel memoir and poetic insight with scholarly meditations on civilization’s relationship to the environment.”

At Home in Nature: A Life of Unknown Mountains and Deep Wilderness by Rob Wood

“The compelling story of one family’s life among the rugged landscapes of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, converting youthful ideals, raw land and a passion for the outdoors into a practical off-grid homestead.

Settling on Maurelle Island, he and his wife built an off-the-grid homestead and focused on alternative communities and developing a small house-design practice specializing in organic and wholesome building techniques. At Home in Nature is a gentle and philosophical memoir that focuses on living a life deeply rooted in the natural world, where citizens are connected to the planet and individuals work together to help, enhance and make the world a better …place.”

Want to explore more?  Check out the titles related to nature available from Ebsco Ebooks

Learn New Outdoor Skills

Expanding your skills is a sure-fire way to appreciate nature more deeply.  Want to know why the mocking bird in your neighborhood sings so many different tunes..including imitating your car alarm?  How about knowing what to look for to find water out in nature?  Want to be able to identify the plants and animals you encounter? There are a wealth of authoritative educational opportunities available online that you can use to build skills.  Here are some of our favorites:

Cornell Ornithology Lab Open Lectures

Here you will find free lectures given by world renowned experts in the field of ornithology.  This site also links to free learning games and instructional videos as well as the Lab’s online course offerings (for a fee).

Great Courses through Kanopy

Fundamentals of Sustainable Living “Become a more thoughtful consumer, save money, and reduce your ecological footprint with this course that teaches you how integrate sustainable practices into your everyday life. By learning specific knowledge and techniques on how to work more efficiently with the energy, water, and food you consume, you can live a more balanced and sustainable lifestyle that also positively impacts the world around you.”

The Science of Gardening “When scientists examine home gardens and landscapes, one fact stands out: The leading cause of landscape failure is not disease and it’s not pests – it’s our own gardening practices. Create a beautiful and sustainable home garden guided by the newest information from applied plant physiology, biology, soils science, climatology, hydrology, chemistry, and ecology.”

Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany“If you look around right now, chances are you’ll see a plant. It could be a succulent in a pot on your desk, grasses or shrubs just outside your door, or trees in a park across the way. Proximity to plants tends to make us happy, even if we don’t notice, offering unique pleasures and satisfactions. Open your eyes to the phenomenal and exciting world of botany!”

Our Night Sky “For thousands of years, the star-filled sky has been a source of wonder, discovery, and entertainment. All you need to feel at home in its limitless expanse is Our Night Sky, a richly illustrated 12-episode course that gives you an unrivaled tour around the sky–all while teaching you about the science, technology, and pure pleasure of stargazing.”

Add to the Scientific Study of Nature

Want to conduct some research?  Right now?  Even in your own backyard?  Join a citizen science initiative!  There are hundreds of projects actively seeking data from interested observers just like you.  Check out the projects listed on these resources and find one that’s right for you!

CitizenScience.gov

National Geographic Citizen Science Projects

SciStarter.org

Don’t worry if you don’t have a background in science, there are projects available at all skill levels!

Virtually Explore Our World

Want to walk the Kalahari? Climb to the top of a mountain? How about swim at the bottom of the sea?  UCF Libraries has hours of streaming video to inspire your love of nature!

BBC Landmark Collection

Check out some of the best nature documentaries of the last decade with this collection from Alexander Street Press.  Titles include Planet Earth I & II, Spy in the Wild, Big Cats and so much more.

The Swamp

Explore the history of the Everglades and the unintended consequences of man’s quest to control it.

Forces of Nature

This four-part series from PBS delves into the powers and motivators which influence our natural world.  Find out answers to such questions as “Why is water blue? How can a shape defy gravity? Why do bees make hexagonal honeycombs? And how do these things affect our own lives?”

Commit to One New Sustainable Practice

It can feel overwhelming trying to figure out the best way you can limit your negative impact on our planet, but don’t worry, it is not an all or nothing proposition.  Even small changes in your actions can have lasting impact.  I challenge each of us to commit to making one change in honor of the 50th Anniversary this Earth Day. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Choose one item you use regularly that comes in single use plastic and switch to more sustainable option.  Bonus: choose a zero-waste option.

Reduce energy consumption by raising the temperature on your thermostat. You can start small with one degree and transition over time.

Commit to only drinking from reusable bottles or cups for one week.

Eat plant-based meals one day a week, or three meals throughout the week.

Switch one cleaning product you use to an environmentally friendly option.

Want more information?  Check out our Naturally UCF Guide and our Anthropocene Reading List

#sustainability #earth day #ucflibraryies #anthropocene #naturally ucf

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi hello do you have any friendship fics? I'm a Johnlocker forever but I'd like to read some cute platonic stuff too

Hi Lovely!

YES! I also love just cute platonic stuff too! AND you know what? I’ve made lists in the past, but I just checked my offline list and I have a TONNE of new ones I can add here for you too! Soooooooooooo Here we go!

PLATONICS / BROMANCE / FRIENDSHIP Pt. 3

See also:

Platonics and Domestics

Platonics & Domestics Pt 2 / Hugs, Cuddles & Kisses Pt. 3 / Tooth-Rotting Fluff Pt. 4 / Love Confessions, Slow Burn & Dev. Rel. Pt. 2 / Established Relationship Pt. 3

G / T / K+ Rated Christmas Fics (Dec. 2018)

T-RATED Pt. 1: Friends To Lovers Fics || [MOBILE LINK]

T-Rated Fics Pt. 2 (October 2018) (LONG POST) || MOBILE POST

The Moment When by drekadair (K, 509 w. || TGG Fic, Friendship, First Person POV Sherlock, Introspection, Worried Sherlock) – Sherlock sees John in the pool, and doubts. Set during the end of "The Great Game."

Promises Kept by grannysknitting (K+, 844 w. || John POV, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship / Pre-Slash, Sherlock’s Violin, Worried Sherlock, John Whump, Post-TGG) – When they were in hospital, Sherlock made a promise to himself. Now he's keeping it. Set after 'Polygamous Marriage' but before 'Back in the Saddle'

Possessive by Fang323 (T, 850 w. || John Whump, Hospitalization, Possessive / Protective Sherlock, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort) – His John did not belong. Not here. Not in this blasted hospital. It simply was not logical.

Concussions And Good Old Fashioned Awkwardness by Belldere (K+, 894 w. || Humour, Hospitals, Mild John Whump, Misunderstandings, Platonic Relationship, Concussions, Not-Gay John, Possessive Sherlock) – When John lands himself in hospital... again, all he wants is to just get out of there as soon as possible, too bad his doctor has other ideas about where John may be getting his injuries. Good thing concussions make everything strangely funnier.

Easy like Sunday Morning by lbmisscharlie (G, 910 w. || Fluff, Breakfast in Bed, Epic Friendship, Platonics/Domestics) – John and Sherlock and their lazy, dysfunctional Sunday mornings in bed. In which Sherlock has difficulty sleeping and John makes lots of toast. Shameless fluff. Part 1 of No Mushrooms Please

Realisation by Susie.Donym (K+, 957 w. || Sally POV, Pre-Slash / Friendship, Humour) – It takes her a while but Sally finally makes a huge realisation.

God Save The Queen by Alice Day (K+, 1,398 w. || Humour, Mystery, Friendship) – Sherlock has a new case. John is petrified. The Queen is amused.

I Was Wrong by AllesandraQuartermaine (K, 1,496 w. || TGG AU, Friendship, Hospitalization / Injury, John’s Self Esteem, Sleepy Sherlock) – Sherlock and John have a conversation a few days after the pool face off with Moriarty. And John hears something quite surprising.

Together is What we Have, Together Protects Us by Phantom of the Black Pearl (K+, 1,566 w. || Post-TRF, Friendship / Platonic or Slash, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Sherlock, Worried Sherlock, Slice of Life) – After a case one evening in the flat Sherlock voices a concern that causes the pair to consider why they've chosen to stick together after all that's happened.

One in Ten Thousand by Blind Author (K+, 1,856 w. || Post-TGG, Friendship / Pre-Slash, Discussions of Violence, Worried then Curious Sherlock, Scars/John’s Bullet Wound, Medical Anomolies) – John seems to have unusual mobility for a shoulder wound…

The Adventure of the Mysterious Appearance of Tissues by Gwen's Blue Box (K+, 1,910 w. || Fluff, Humour, Sick John, Caring Sherlock, Hurt/Comfort) – In which there is a case, John has caught a cold and is not interested in investigating, Mrs Hudson is away and Sherlock does the shopping.

Never Have I Ever by Hannelore-Grace (T, 2,073 w. || Humour, Friendship, Drinking Games) – In which the Yarders, Sherlock, and John play the time-honored drinking game.

Drums and Fireworks by Cumberbatch Critter (T, 2,121 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Platonic Cuddles) – "Are... Are you afraid of THUNDERSTORMS?" John asked incredulously.

The Case of the Missing Blogger by nicknack22 (K, 2,147 w. || Fluff, Humour, Friendship, Worried / Anxious Sherlock) – Alternately titled, The Case of the Oblivious Consulting Detective. In which Sherlock comes out of his mind palace to discover John missing. 221B does not fair well as a result.

Aestival by BeautifulFiction  (G, 1,254 w. || Fluff, Pre-Slash) – There is such a thing as a perfect day.

They're Taking My Wisdom by whitchry9 (K+, 1,939 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Drugging, Dentists, Friendship, Anxious Sherlock, Humour) – Sherlock goes to the dentist. Of course, being Sherlock, things have to be complicated. Oh and drugs. They're always fun.

Crisis Averted by Spartangal22 (T, 2,188 w. || HLV Fic, Missing Scene After Confronting Mary, Canon Compliant, Sherlock Whump / Mary Shot Sherlock, Family / Friendship, Hospitalization, Sherlock POV, Holmes Brothers) – Lying in the hospital, Sherlock receives some surprising visitors, and manages to deal with two problems he's been having lately. A missing scene from HLV about a formal introduction that was never made and a visit that was never shown.

Treasure Hunt by ThessalyMc (K, 2,288 w. || ASiB Missing Scene, Danger Nights, Friendship / Family, Seek and Find Game, Smoking) – Mycroft called them 'danger nights' because he feared Sherlock's mood might drive him back to drugs. John knows better. Doesn't stop him tearing apart the flat he knows is clean, though. He's not looking for drugs, though. He's setting up a distraction.

Work On Your Balance by speculate (K+, 2,448 w. || Embarassed Sherlock, “For A Case”, Skating, Fluff, Friendship, Humour) – In which John is actually pretty good at ice skating, Sherlock's not and insists it's all for a case , and Lestrade is pretty amused by it all.

The Many Faces of Concern by sdrawkcabemdaer5 (K+, 2,473 w. || Friendship, Angsty Fluff, John Whump, Mildly Clueless Sherlock) – John is injured on a case, leading to some surprising reactions and discoveries about their friendship.

Those Days by StillWaters1 (T, 2,663 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD / Sensory Attacks, Caring Sherlock) – If Sherlock had danger nights, then these were John's danger days.

Domino by Deception's Call (K, 2,689 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Scared / Worried Sherlock, John Whump, Crying Sherlock, Hospital, Implied Caretaker Sherlock) – When John is injured on a case and is admitted to the hospital, those at Scotland Yard come to realize that perhaps Sherlock Holmes has a heart after all.

Not My Proudest Moment by charlock221 (K, 2,695 w. || Lunar New Year, Mild PTSD / Panic Attack, Coping Mechanisms, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort) – John tries his best not to get in the way of Sherlock's cases, but when the vivid noises of fireworks unnerve his senses and begin to bring back unwanted memories of Afghanistan, he cannot help but to hope Sherlock will notice and help him before things go too far.

Bored Games by patster223 (K+, 2,769 w. || Cluedo / Board Games, Friendship, Humour) – Sherlock is bored and John decides that they should play Cluedo. In retrospect, it was a truly awful decision.

After the Bombs by VampirePam (T, 3,337 w. || THoB AU, Drugs, John’s PTSD, Panic Attack, Nightmares, Caring Sherlock, Cuddles, Bed Sharing, Angst, Hurt/Comfort) – In which the drugs Sherlock used to dose John trigger a severe episode of PTSD. When terrors old and new cause John to fall apart, Sherlock must rectify his mistake and pick up the pieces.

Bored Games by SparksMayFly (K, 3,492 w. || Humour, Friendship, Cluedo / Board Games, Big Brother Mycroft) – Sherlock asks if he can take Reverend Green in for interrogation. John explains that's not how the game works.

Carrying the Torch by chappysmom (K+, 4,254 w. || Friendship, "Hero” / Olympian John, Olympic Games, Sherlock’s in Awe Over John) – Just in time for the 2012 London Olympics, Sherlock discovers John's hidden passion for the Games—but it turns out, there's so much more to it than just sports.

Afghanistan in Baskerville by Amaya Ramiel (K+, 4,357 w. || THoB Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Drugged John, PTSD / Panic Attack, Hallucinations, Worried Sherlock, John’s Past, Friendship) – What if John hadn't seen the hound when Sherlock trapped him in the lab? What if instead, his very real nightmares of the war had materialized all around him? Trapped and drugged, John can't tell what's real and what's not. How will Sherlock react?

What You Are Worth by Lastew (T, 4,488 w. || Observant but Insecure John, Friendship, Crime / Case Fic) – John helps Sherlock with a case, but he questions his real value to Sherlock.  

The Care and Keeping of Your Mad Genius by Janieshi (T, 4,553 w. || Post-TGG, Friendship, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Light Humour/Teasing, Alternating POV, Cranky Sherlock) – If he hadn't been so focused on holding the bastard still, John would have laughed aloud. This maniac really thought John was the pet in this dynamic?

The Refining Fire by Arwen Jade Kenobi (T, 5,451 w. || Post-TGG AU, Angst, Friendship, Alternating POV (Lestrade, Mycroft, Sherlock), Worried Sherlock, Hospital Recovery) – Fire can burn things to ashes, but it can also burn things together.

Hide and Seek by Arwen Jade Kenobi (T, 6,934 w. || Angst, Rev. Reich-ish, Mycroft is a Dick, Depression, Case Fic-ish, Friendship, Reunion) – Pseudo sequel to "The Refining Fire." "You owe him the truth, and you owe me the proof that will convince him that I had no part in this."

A Friend Indeed by Sanru (K+, 8,190 w. || Missing John, Friendship, Drama, Introspection, Possessive Sherlock, Worried Sherlock) – Something has gone terribly wrong with a supposedly simple case. John Watson is missing. While the search for him is proving to be fruitless, it has made Sherlock realize that having an emotional attachment to someone may have its disadvantages but he liked being able to call John his friend. Now if only he could find out what happened to him...

The Name Game by ItsClydeBitches221B (K, 8,958 w. || Humour, Family, Platonics / Friendship, Sort-of Parentlock, John/Mary, Mary is Nice, Five and Ones, Baby Watson, Mycroft Loves Baby Watson) – The names that baby girl Watson comes up with for her extended family. Or: how everyone—Watsons, Holmes, and others alike— just learned to give up and embrace their weirdness.

A Is For Aftermath by ElvendorkInfinity (T, 10,567 w. || Injury / Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Pre-Slash/Bromance/Platonics, Hallucinations, Introspection, Insecure / Worried John, Big Brother Mycroft, Alternating POV, Anxious Sherlock, Self-Deprecating, Mildly Possessive Sherlock, 3G Moment) – John is still hallucinating, Sherlock cannot sleep, and Lestrade has a new case for them. But will life at 221B ever be able to return to normal? Epilogue to M is for Moriarty.

The Hand You're Dealt by MapleleafCameo (M, 10,624 w. || Humour, Friendship, Card Games, Alternate First Meeting, No Slash / Platonic Relationship) – John wouldn't have minded so much if only Sherlock would stop introducing him as 'John Watson. I won him in a poker game.’

The Dying Doctor by Transcendental Starlight (T, 11,258 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Sick John / John Whump, ACD Rewrite) – Loosely based off ACD's "The Dying Detective." Sherlock relives a case that should have killed him, but instead resulted in John being hospitalized for a deadly disease. Sherlock endeavors to catch the murderer, while attempting to envision a future without John Watson. No Slash.

A Building of Bridges by Unique (K, 12,325 w. || Drama, Alternate First Meeting, John’s PTSD / Flashbacks, Mute John, Dialogue-Heavy, Caring Sherlock, Friendship) – No one would ever send Sherlock in to diffuse a stand-off; but on one unlikely day, that's exactly what happened. "Congratulations, Lestrade," he called out sarcastically. "You're traumatizing a war veteran."

Always the sun by Rose de Sharon (K+, 12,377 w. || Song Fic, Alternate Post-TGG, Friendship/Bromance, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection / Reflection, Injury Recovery, Obsessive / Protective Sherlock, Nightmares, John’s Past, Bed Sharing / Cuddles) – Sherlock ponders about how much his life has changed since John has become his flatmate.

The Detective and the Pin-Up by XistentialAngst (T, 15,683 w. || Sexy John, Romance, Fluff, Humour, First Kiss / Time) – Sally Donovan discovers an old secret John Watson considered long buried - a ten-year old "Men of the Armed Forces" calendar, which has John as a very enticing pin-up for August. The image of John might just change the way everyone sees the unassuming sidekick, even Sherlock Holmes. Rated NC-17 for eventual smut, but the story reasonable concludes before that chapter if you prefer fluff and humor.

Hope for Heroes by Richefic (K+, 16,887 w. || Post-TGG Fic, Introspection / Flashbacks, Friendship/Epic Bromance, Hurt/Comfort, Worried/Anxious Sherlock, Sherlock Admires John, BAMF John, John Deduces, Fancy Party, John’s Self Esteem, Domestics) – In the final moments of "The Great Game" Holmes hopes he will have the chance to tell his flatmate that he was wrong. Heroes do exist after all and the one in front of him is called Dr John Watson.

Trust Me, Trust Nobody by BlueMoonOnTheRise (T, 27,751 w. || Kidnapping, Friendship / No Slash, Adventure, Trust Issues) – Whatever he told Mycroft, John trusted Sherlock almost instantly. When a new case shows up - smattered with the usual thrill of danger, death and cool logic - such trust ends up pushed to its very limits...

#steph replies #platonics #my fic recs #friendship fics #bromance #Anonymous

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 3 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 3.

The third episode of Lower Decks Season 2 has, in its title, an Easter egg to the TNG episode “We’ll Always Have Paris.” It is not anyone’s favorite episode of The Next Generation, but it’s possible that “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris,” will be your favorite episode of Lower Decks. Well, that depends on how much you love Star Trek: Voyager and not having complicated questions answered, ever. 

Genesis devices to Delta Quadrant madness, different kinds of Orions, and several Worf shout-outs, here’s every Easter egg and reference we caught in Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 3. 

Boimler can’t use the replicator 

Mariner mentions that the upgraded security on the Cerritos means is responsible for Boimler being locked out of the replicators. This vaguely references the DS9 episode “Inquisition” and the Voyager episode “Counterpoint,” when it’s made clear people who are confined to quarters (i.e. security risks) can’t use the replicator. 

We doing sci-fi stuff today?

This is Mariner’s second use of the term “sci-fi” in Season 2 of Lower Decks. The terms “science fiction” and “sci-fi” are used sparingly in the Trek franchise. In Picard Season 1, Jean-Luc admitted that he “didn’t get” science fiction, after Jurati was looking at this copy of Isaac Asimov’s The Complete Robot. Interestingly enough, the term “sci-fi” was still in its infancy in the 1960s, and was often thought of as a pejorative term by more serious science fiction enthusiasts who preferred the term “SF.” To this day, “SF” tends to denote print science fiction (or speculative fiction) while sci-fi usually refers to filmed science fiction. “Sci-fi” itself is almost a double portmanteau insofar as it’s both an abbreviation of “science fiction” and reference to “hi-fi,” meaning “high fidelity.” Mariner’s use of “sci-fi” in Lower Decks could suggest the word has a slightly different implied meaning in the 24th century than it does in the 20th or 21st.

The return of Shaxs and all the ways you can come back to life in Star Trek

The biggest running joke of this episode is easily the notion that Shaxs has come back to life and there is little to no explanation as to how. However, Mariner and Boimler do list several in a later scene, including:

“A transporter buffer thing” (Scotty in TNG’s “Relics”)

“A restored Katra” (Spock in The Search for Spock, but also Surak in “The Forge,” from Enterprise)

“A Mirror Universe switcharoo” (Jennifer in DS9’s “Through the Looking Glass,” and perhaps, more prominently, Georgiou in Discovery, starting with “The Wolf Inside.”)

“The Borg rebuilt him” (Neelix is saved by Seven’s nanoprobes in VOY’s “Mortal Coil.”)

Future son from an alternate timeline (Jake saves his father, Ben Sisko, in DS9’s “The Visitor.”)

“Maybe he got Genesis deviced” (Spock in The Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, et al.) 

“Nexus/time ribbon — same thing” (Kirk, Picard, Soren and Guinan in Star Trek: Generations.)

“The Creator of Fair Haven and Captain Proton himself!”

Boimler mentions two holodeck programs written by Tom Paris, which were huge during the run of VOY. (Yeah, we’re calling it that now, it really does save time.) “Fair Haven,” was designated holoprogram “Paris042,” and appeared in the episodes “Fair Haven,” and “Spirit Folk.” The pulpy, black-and-white holoprogram appears in ten episodes of VOY, and is essentially a blend of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. 

“Is he still a salamander?”

Boimler makes it clear that Tom Paris was only briefly turned into a salamander-like creature, because he was the first “first human to break the transwarp barrier.” This referenced the VOY episode “Threshold,” in which Janeway AND Paris become “salamanders.” It is generally considered to be the worst VOY episode of all time, and often, one of the worst Star Trek’s ever, too. But, true fans love it because of that fact. Also, this is the second time Lower Decks has referenced “Threshold.” In “Much Ado About Boimler,” Tendi and Boimler met one of those salamander-looking creatures on route to “the Farm.”

Qualor II 

This references the exact same location from the TNG episodes “Unification I” and “Unification II.” It’s basically a big junk yard. 

“This stuff always happens, even on VOY!”

This probably references the fact that Harry Kim was killed and replaced by his exact duplicate from another dimension in the VOY episode “Deadlock.”

Boimler sings the Voyager theme song

While walking down the corridor, Boimler is humming the Jerry Goldsmith-composed theme to Star Trek: Voyager. Previously, in Season 1, Boimler was humming the TNG theme in the episode “Temporal Eddict.” (Which is also composed by Jerry Goldsmith.)

Quark’s Bar 

It appears by the time of Lower Decks Season 2 (roughly 2381) Quark seems to have a franchise of bars. On Qualor, we see a sign for “Quark’s Bar,” which seems to reference both Quark on DS9, but also the Quark’s Bar we saw on Freecloud in Picard’s “Stardust City Rag.”

Zebulon Sisters

In the same scene, we see a sign for the “Zebulon Sisters,” who are a musical group Boimler and Mariner went nuts for in the Lower Decks Season 1 episode, “Terminal Provocations.” 

Like a Vulcan on Pon Farr

Tendi explains the Catian’s need to be “intimate once a year,” and compares it a “like a Vulcan on Pon Farr,” which of course, references the seven-year mating cycle for Vulcans, which originates in the TOS episode “Amok Time.” 

Worf’s Mek’leth

Mariner says she once “ran over Worf’s Mek’leth” on Deep Space 9. This was the curved weapon Worf started using in DS9’s “The Way of the Warrior,” and prominently in First Contact.

Mariner’s long list of Starfleet postings

When Tendi asks Mariner what she was doing on DS9, she says, “I served there! Back before I was on the Quito.” This would put Mariner serving on DS9 sometime after 2372 (Worf arrives on DS9 in “The Way of the Warrior”), but before 2375 (Worf leaves DS9 in “What You Leave Behind.”) Either way, it’s between nine and six years before Lower Decks Season 2. Mariner also says that the Cerritos is “like my fifth” ship. This means that the dating of Mariner’s flashback scene on DS9 in the episode “Cupid’s Errant Arrow,” is even more confusing.

Bonestell and Starbase Earhart 

Mariner knows a “fixer” at Bonestell, and when they arrive, we’re told this is “Starbase Earhart.” All of this references the TNG episode “Tapestry,” in which we learned a young Jean-Luc Picard hung out on this planet before “shipping out.” Bonetell is the bar and recreation area of Starbase Earhart. Tendi and Mariner playing dom-jot with the Nausicaans also references “Tapestry.” 

“I’m not even that kind of Orion”

When Mariner suggests that Tendi use her pheromones, Tendi objects, saying “I’m not even that kind of Orion.” This references (mostly) the Enterprise episode “Bound,” in which we learn that the Orion “slave women,” are actually not slaves, but secretly manipulating all the males in their society through pheromones. The famous Orion pheromones originate in the TOS pilot episode “The Cage.” Tendi later mentions the “stigmas” around Orions, and that it was “hard to get into the academy.” Taken with the “not that kind of Orion ” reference, this could also reference the film Star Trek 2009, in which Uhura is roommates with an Orion, Gaila (Rachel Nichols) you didn’t appear to that kind of Orion, either. 

“Not that kind of Orion,” may also reference the Animated Series episode “The Pirates of Orion,” in which everyone randomly pronounces it “ORE-E-AYN” (rather than “OH-RYE-AN”) for no clear reason. 

Tom Paris

Robert Duncan McNeill reprises his role as Tom Paris, for the first time since the final episode of VOY, “Endgame.” Paris is rocking a post-First Contact style uniform, which is also something new, since the VOY crew were stuck in the old duds while in the Delta Quadrant. 

The multiverse of Shaxs!

In Rutherford’s nightmare, there are a multitude of Shaxses, from across the multiverse of imagination. This scene is so densely packed with Easter eggs, it’s possible to miss several. Here’s what we caught.

Mirror Universe Shaxs says “I fought my way out of the multiverse.” He’s wearing the gold Terran Empire vest Kirk wore in TOS’ “Mirror, Mirror.”

Borg Shaxs

Tiny Dyson’s Sphere Shaxs (another reference to TNG’s “Relics.”)

Shaxs as Lincoln (another reference to TOS’ “The Savage Curtain,” which was just referenced last week!)

Shaxs in a TOS red uniform 

Shaxs in an Enterprise–era engineering uniform. (Possibly a reference to Trip’s death in the ENT finale, “These Are the Voyages…”

Shaxs as Neelix? Is that what that spotted suit is, right?

“What was the deal with T’Pol’s hair —” (A half-heard line from Shaxs, clearly a reference to T’Pol’s shifting Vulcan haircut on Enterprise.)

“In the Nexus it’s ALWAYS Christmas” (Another reference to the time-bending energy ribbon, the Nexus in Generations. This references Picard’s weird fake-Christmas in the Nexus.)

“Tendi with no last name, like Odo!”

Mariner has no idea Tendi’s first name is “D’Vana,” and assumes she has just one name “like Odo,” in reference to everyone’s favorite shapeshifting constable from DS9, Odo. Tendi says her first name in the very first episode of Lower Decks, “Second Contact,” and we see her name signed on the screen in Mariner’s holodeck program in “Crisis Point.” But, it’s possible, it’s never been spoken out loud in a scene that Mariner has been in. This joke could reference the idea that Sulu and Uhura both did not have first names spoken on screen until much later in canon. In fact, in Star Trek 2009, it’s a running joke that Kirk does not know Uhura’s first name until Spock calls her Nyota.

Boimler references Scotty?

While crawling through the Jefferies Tubes, Boimler says “Nobody knows the Cerritos like Bradward Boimler!” And then he gets smacked in the head by a closing hatch. This probably references Scotty in The Final Frontier, when he says “I know this ship like the back of my hand,” and then runs into a bulkhead and passes out.

“Baby Bear”

Shaxs refers to Rutherford as “Baby Bear.” This references the Season 1 episode “Envoys,” in which Rutherford had briefly considered a job in security. At that point, all the security officers called themselves, “bears” and Rutherford “Baby Bear.” When Shaxs saved Rutherford in “No Small Parts,” he bellowed, “I’ve got you Baby Bear!” 

A Kazon!

The Kazon were the primary villains in VOY’s first few seasons, and yes, did kind of look like that. Nobody misses them. 

Computer, Ramming Speed! 

When Mariner puts the shuttle on a collision course with the Cerritos, she says “ramming speed!” This feels like a reference to Worf in First Contact. Hell, maybe Mariner was on the Defiant in First Contact? It’s possible! (If she served on DS9, she could have EASILY served on the Defiant)

Did you get your bowl signed by Chakotay or whatever 

Mariner teases Boimler at the end of the episode, intentionally pretending like she doesn’t know the difference between Chakotay and Tom Paris. Interestingly enough, both Tom Paris and Chakotay had criminal records before getting stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Seems like they’re doing fine upon the return of VOY to the Alpha Quadrant.

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And, if this episode is any indication, it feels like the references to VOY are just getting started on this show. Lower Decks Season 2 airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount +.

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 3 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[myhahnestopinion]

THE AARONS 2017 - Best TV Show

2017 was the year that Peak TV broke me. There was so many shows I wanted to watch (Star Trek: Discovery, American Gods, The Handmaid’s Tale and especially the new Twin Peaks) but they were spread too thin across various subscriptions (CBS All Access, Starz, Hulu, and Showtime respectively) for my even thinner wallet to handle. However, even without the shiniest new toys, I still found an overwhelming amount of quality TV to watch this year. Here are The Aarons for Best TV Show:

#10. You’re the Worst (Season 4) – FXX

The show’s fall from my number two entry last year to number ten this year may initially appear worrisome, but, while the scattered focus made it feel like a less comprehensive experience than prior years, You’re the Worst’s fourth season was perhaps the most important piece of the show’s overall story. Splitting up the four main characters into different storylines was a bold choice, but allowed the show to reveal just how much each one has personally grown since the show began. The gang may have been no less funny this year, but perhaps they can no longer be considered “the worst.”

#9. Rick and Morty (Season 3) – Adult Swim

While the Szechaun sauce fiasco may have shown just how poisonous some of its fanbase has gotten, that doesn’t discredit that Rick and Morty was once again in top form for its long delayed third season. In fact, in stark contrast to the fanaticism on display in its real-world fans, Season 3 was the show’s most emphatic rebuttal yet of Rick’s arrogant nihilism as something worthy of emulation, instead finding strong emotion in exploring Rick’s failures in his various familial relationships. As always, Rick and Morty’s clever genre takedowns, including a superb Mad Max-parody and a ridiculous superhero episode, make for one of the smartest and funniest shows on TV, but it’s this perceptive deconstruction of its own nature that really earned the third season a spot on this list.

#8. Riverdale (Season 1-2a) – The CW

When word of a dark-and-gritty reboot of Archie Comics was first released, I was ready to hate-watch this sure-to-be bastardization of a favorite brand in the same way I put myself through all those agonizing episodes of Scream: The TV Series. However, Riverdale’s dark noir-influenced spin on its beloved characters turned into this year’s most pleasant surprise, and one hell of an addictive TV show. While the second season may raise questions about the show’s long-term sustainability, its pitch-perfect cast of young stars and its gleefully twisted blend of camp and carnage for its previously wholesome material makes it the kind of show you’re glad is “ruining your childhood.”

#7. BoJack Horseman (Season 4) - Netflix

In consideration with You’re the Worst and Rick and Morty, “personal growth” must have been the theme of TV this year, as BoJack Horseman’s fourth season was imbued with unexpected hopefulness for a series known for its emotional gut-punches. That doesn’t mean this season didn’t contain the now-expected-but-no-less-devastating penultimate episode kicker, as a delve into BoJack’s past once again brought the tears flowing, but Season 4 was a welcome suggestion that these characters can get on a better path. It makes for another powerful season, but, you know, the show could have once again claimed a spot on this list for having Jessica Biel’s definitive best role ever and for its abundance of top-notch animal wordplay.

#6. Mr. Robot (Season 3) - USA

Each year, I feel less compelled to insist Mr. Robot is much more than the sophomoric anti-capitalist screed that it may have initially appeared to be, because, each year, the show’s clear-sighted intelligence becomes more and more unmistakable. Season 3’s dissection of its own revolutionary ambitions was its most culturally-relevant entry yet. While occasionally dispiriting in its despotic depictions, it was another show to find surprisingly emotional resonance this year, taking a Camusian approach to its Sisyphean conflicts. Season 3 may have toned down the experimental inclinations of last year’s ALF-cameoing season, but it was no less thrilling, thanks to its heightened struggle for control between Mr. Robot and Elliot, and particularly through its anxiety-inducing one-take middle installment.  

#5. Better Call Saul (Season 3) - AMC

While Season 3’s (re-)introduction of Giancarlo Esposito’s Gus Fring may have brought the world of Better Call Saul much closer to its parent show, Breaking Bad, the show has been at the former’s level of quality for years. Season 3 appears poised to be the show’s dark middle chapter, the major turning point in its heart-breaking presentation of Jimmy McGill’s inevitable tragic downfall. Knowing Jimmy’s eventual transformation into Saul Goodman, and dreading what fate may await the rest of the cast, may make Better Call Saul hard to watch from an emotional-investment standpoint, but the show is endlessly compelling thanks to its fantastic performances and its impeccable plotting.      

#4 Legion (Season 1) – FX

Fox has been taking some significant risks lately with the X-Men franchise, including the hard-R Deadpool and Logan, but their most ambitious production was actually on the small screen this year. Legion is the very definition of a mind trip, a psychedelic adventure that breaks all the rules of conventional narrative and visual storytelling. The show is perhaps best enjoyed as a quick binge, but the intrigue of its unreliable narrator, the awe-inspiring special effects, and its blood-curdling, existentially-terrifying villain means the show is guaranteed to linger in one’s brain for a long time. Legion’s creative-daring, an embrace of absurdity that gave us Jemaine Clement as an extra-dimensional scuba diver, is hopefully something that can endure Fox’s potential buyout from Disney.

#3 The Good Place (Season 2) – NBC

The Good Place is an oddity among the current dystopian state of network TV, not just for its high-end quality and bingeable format, but for its willingness to challenge its own status quo. Season 2, building off last season’s daring cliffhanger, brought this risk-taking to new heights, making each episode more unpredictable and exhilarating than the last. Ted Danson is clearly having a blast unveiling more layers of his afterlife-architect character, as are the writers working with the seemingly endless possibilities of the world they’ve created. One wonders how long this boldness can persist, but with a talented cast and a confident, experienced showrunner at the helm, The Good Place looks to be in a… well, you know.

#2. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Season 2b-3a) – The CW

If “personal growth” is indeed the theme of 2017 in TV, then no show did it better than Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The already-magical show became an absolute masterpiece this year, with a back-half of Season 2 that energetically reinvented the dynamic proclaimed by the show’s title, and a front-half of Season 3 that quickly subverted that new direction for something even more enjoyable and profound. Digging even deeper into the show’s realistic depiction of the hardship of suffering from mental illness made for several difficult episodes, but the talent both on-camera and off handled it with graceful ease that didn’t lose any of the show’s comedic brilliance. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend earns a top spot for its willingness to bravely push past oft-considered uncomfortable boundaries. In its representation of mental illness, certainly, but also in its network-standards-challenging and always hilarious songs.

AND THE BEST TV SHOW OF 2017 IS...

#1. Fargo (Season 3) – FX

It took until the very last minute of Fargo’s third season for me to realize that it was the best television show of the year. The show’s continued ability to collect an all-star cast (including Ewan McGregor playing both twins), the franchise’s trademark dark humor, and its layered, poetic writing kept me engaged through the season’s early episodes, but it was only in those closing moment that all the pieces fell into place, and Noah Hawley’s genius vision for this entry in the show was revealed. In those last few seconds, as Carrie Coon’s determined cop character faces down with David Thwelis’ boorish criminal mastermind, the show left us to wrestle with the defining question of a tumultuous 2017: do we believe that there is an objective truth, a right and a wrong, and that justice will be served? Or, is it all a farce, a game to be exploited, a universe that bends to the will of those who contort it to fit their desires? Taking advantage of the show’s anthology format, the season ends in ambiguity. It’s not a question for the show to answer. It’s a question that every one of us must wrestle with, whether just for the immediate future in a dangerous political climate of “alternative facts,” or for a long time coming. It is a question that defines one’s philosophical, social, and moral being, a question distinguished by a season of fascinating characters, thrilling adversity, and audacious storytelling. It’s this lingering question, contextualized by perhaps the best Fargo season yet, that makes the show the best TV of the year.

NEXT UP: THE 2017 AARONS FOR BEST TV EPISODE!

#tv #TheAarons #TheAarons2017 #TheAaronsTV #bestof #bestof2017 #fargo #crazy ex girlfriend #legion #the good place #better call saul #mr robot #BoJack horseman #riverdale #rick and morty #you're the worst

[mst3kproject]

The Giant Claw

This is exactly the kind of movie that makes MSTies think fondly of our favourite show.  It’s got Jeff Morrow from This Island Earth, Mara Corday from The Black Scorpion, Morris Ankrum from Rocketship XM, Robert Shayne from The Indestructible Man, a Portentious 50's Narrator who likes to ramble, and a monster you won't believe even after you've seen it.  I was hoping it would be picked up for Season 11... maybe it'll make Season 12.  I can just hear the guys singing the title along to the opening music sting, or whining but I made sandwiches! on behalf of the female lead.

Some object as big as a battleship is buzzing around North America, destroying airplanes wherever it goes!  First it's a search plane over the Arctic, then a transport on its way to New York, then a plane full of men who attempt to parachute to safety, but don't quite make it. Whatever it is it can be glimpsed as it passes, but doesn't show up on radar.  Talk of flying saucers abounds, but eventually engineer Mitch MacAfee and mathematician Sally Caldwell discover the horrible truth: it's a giant anti-matter bird from another galaxy! Even worse, it has come to Earth to nest – we must destroy it before its eggs can hatch, but how do we do that when its antimatter shield annihilates any bullets, rockets, or missiles we can fire at it?

You will find quite a few reviews of this movie online and nearly all of them will focus on the same thing: the monster.  And I will admit up front, The Giant Claw's monster deserves every word of incredulous derision that has ever been heaped on it.  It is ridiculous.  Imagine The Muppet Show doing a sketch involving a none-too-bright vulture.  Picture what the vulture puppet would look like.  That is the monster from The Giant Claw. Godzilla would have laughed at it.  It has bulging eyes and a tuft of hair on the top of its head.  It has a ridge down its back like a dragon and I think its call is just somebody yelling “squaaawwwwk!” into a microphone.  It has teeth. Its feathers look like the whole puppet was shipped across the country in a box full of newspaper and nobody bothered to straighten up its plumage.

In short, it looks like this:

Where was that bad boy in your Gargantuan Panoply, eh, Jonah?

You may have heard the story about how the company originally contracted to do the effects just pocketed the money and ran off, leaving the production company to buy themselves a bird from a shady company in Mexico for whatever they could scrounge from their couch cushions.  You may have heard that the actors had no idea what the monster looked like until they saw the movie for themselves at the premiere, whereupon they snuck out of the theatre and went to go drink the humiliation away.  I have no idea if any of these things are true, but they're such well-trodden ground that I don't feel like going over them again.  Instead I will talk about the non-monster parts – because frankly, those are pretty hilarious, too.

For starters, there's another thing a lot of reviews talk about: the narrator.  Like The Beast of Yucca Flats or The Atomic Brain, The Giant Claw has an intermittent narrator who doesn't always make a whole lot of sense.  In fact, the opening scene, in which Mitch becomes the first to sight the bird during a test flight, only to be accused of playing a practical joke when it doesn't show up on any radar, is entirely narrated.  This is very odd, since this is the part of the movie where we ought to be meeting the characters and establishing the conflict.  You would expect it to be the part where it's most important to show us things rather than telling us – telling can happen later when we have some frame of reference for what we've been told.

I can't imagine any halfway-capable writer doing this intentionally, and the writers of The Giant Claw (Paul Gangelin and Samuel Newman) do seem to have been at least halfway-capable.  They both had fairly long careers, Newman writing for television and Gangelin penning, among other things, one of the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies.  The dialogue in The Giant Claw is awful, including such fantastical down points as 'follow the pattern', the mesonic atom, and 'get me my pants, will you, General?', but the story is linear enough and follows the standard monster-movie beats: first sighting, rising action, supersitious yokel connects the creature with some local legend, the military is useless, all-out destruction, and finally the world is saved by technobabble bullshit.  It's never great (in fact it's barely mediocre), but it's functional – except for that truly abysmal beginning.  I can only imagine that something must have happened, like they ran out of time or money and simply could not shoot the opening of the movie properly.

The narrator also has a favourite word, which quickly becomes the whole movie's favourite word: battleship. I think The Giant Claw uses the word battleship more than the actual movie Battleship. Whenever the narrator wants to tell us that the bird is big, he calls it as big as a battleship. Mitch MacAfee describes it as big as a battleship. Sally and the skeptical military brass derisively call it his flying battleship. The word is used so many times, it actually starts to do that thing where it stops meaning anything and becomes a mere noise.  Az bigazza baddle shipp.

When the movie tries to talk about science, what comes out of the characters' mouths is very nearly complete gobbledegook, with a few physics words thrown in to try to sound plausible.  It rarely even reaches a Star Trek level of scientific accuracy, except in one notable case, where it is very much better than Star Trek. Remember the episode The Alternative Factor, in which a guy is travelling between matter and anti-matter universes?  Spock does explain that when matter and anti-matter meet, they annihilate each other, but the writers totally failed to understand how this works.  They seemed to think that a person must meet his or her own duplicate in order to annihilate, whereas in the real universe any proton can annihilate with any anti-proton, any electron with any positron.  This is how it works in The Giant Claw, as the bird's antimatter force field destroys all the matter it encounters.

The movie also throws a couple of surprising bones to the idea of the bird as an alien. Talking about the feather he's examined, staff scientist Dr. Noymann notes that he calls it a feather because it looks like one and appears to be functionally analagous, but this is not strictly accurate, any more than it would be accurate to call a pterosaur’s pycnofibres 'hair' just because they serve the same insulating purpose.  There is also a scene in which Sally and Mitch discuss whether the bird eats, and conclude that it somehow draws energy from the vehicles it destroys, but not through internal digestion.  When so many films assume that extraterrestrial life will both look and function like Earth life, it's nice to see even a bad movie note that we can't take this for granted.

Although there are exceptions, like Reptilicus or Starcrash, I've generally found that the best bad movies are those that really are earnestly trying to say something even if they don't succeed.  A lot of reviewers seem to think The Giant Claw is a fairly empty movie as well as a hilariously terrible one, but I'm not so sure that's the case.  Rather than just being about a giant buzzard and some extremely crummy models, this is a movie about science, about seeking a rational explanation, about eliminating the impossible to settle on the merely improbable, and about how when things don't make sense it probably means you're on the verge of an important discovery.

When the bird is first sighted, people try to write it off as a practical joke on Mitch's part, because who ever heard of a bird az bigazza baddle shipp that doesn't show up on radar?  Even when it's clear something weird is going on, people complain it doesn't make sense: Sally lists possible alternate causes for the airplane accidents that keep happening but dismisses them all, and one of the military men grouses that MacAfee might as well tell him that 'black is white and two plus two equals six'.  The characters make progress not by dismissing the events, or by blaming paranormal phenomena like flying saucers, but by studying the evidence.  The photos from Sally's weather balloons and the shed feather tell Dr. Noymann that it is a bird, that it comes from space, and that it uses anti-matter for defense.

Never mind that these conclusions are way sillier than flying saucers and that the 'science' that supports them is bullshit.  The point is that you need to have the facts before you can move from them to how to deal with the situation.  Once they know what the bird is and what it's made of, things like the ineffectiveness of traditional weapons and the radar invisibility make sense (at least in the world of the movie) and Mitch and Sally can use their knowledge of physics and mathematics to come up with a plan that works.

In the real world, a lot of scientific progress happens when things don't seem to make sense.  Einstein couldn't reconcile the speed of light predicted by Maxwell's equations with the structure of space as predicted by Newton, and out of this seeming contradiction came relativity.  Nowadays science has a similar problem with the incompatibility of relativity and quantum mechanics, but scientists know from experience that this means there's a better theory out there that we just haven't found yet.  When the world doesn't seem to make sense, it's actually just telling you to dig a little deeper, because the next layer down will blow your mind.

Not bad for a movie about a giant anti-matter bird from another galaxy.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the giant claw #50s #magic voice recommends

[currenthealtheventsblog-blog]

Best Amazon Prime TV shows (May 2019): the best series to watch this month

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Best Amazon Prime TV shows (May 2019): the best series to watch this month

Amazon Prime Video is on a roll. The streaming service adds exclusive Tv shows and fresh new episodes to its TV catalogue every week. Although that means you& apos; ve always got plenty of old favourites and new series to binge on, it means it can be tricky to choose which one to pick next. But this list is here to help induce that selection a little bit easier.

Amazon Prime Video is part of the Amazon Prime membership, which means a lot more than just super fast deliveries these days.

For starters, there’s Prime Music, Audible freebies, the Kindle Lending Library, lots of photos storage and the chance to stream great movies and Tv indicates through Prime Video, which is Amazon’s answer to an on-demand streaming service.

Although Amazon has a huge back catalogue on its Prime Video service, there are lots of mediocre TV alternatives too, which might fool you into thinking they’d be worthy of a watch, as well as lots of genuinely terrible ones, which we& apos ;d prefer you didn& apos; t waste your time on at all.

We& apos; ve collected together a huge selection of TV presents for you to choose from, including shiny new series through to Amazon& apos; s own original depicts.

In our guide you& apos; ll detect our pick of the best Amazon Prime TV shows that are currently on offer. We have options for fans of thrillers, jaw-dropping sci-fi, comedy lovers and those who enjoy nothing more than a fantasy police drama.

Coming Soon: Although this list is full of great TV shows, there are always some tantalising new series on the horizon that we can& apos; t wait to watch. You& apos; ll have to wait until the very end of May( May 31, to be exact) but this spring is all about Good Omens, the TV depict adaptation of the magical volume from the fantastical intellects of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This month also welcomes the darkly funny season 2 of Fleabag( May 17 ), as well as the third season of Sneaky Pete( May 10 ).

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Get your free 30 -day Amazon Prime trial

Amazon has been developing and creating titles itself over the past few years, which are called Amazon Originals or Amazon Original Series.

These homegrown TV depicts are arguably some of the best that the Amazon Prime Video service has to offer( believe The Tick and Transparent ), which you can watch instantly when you have Amazon Prime access. There are many more shows you can watch through Amazon too of course, but some of these have to be purchased in order for you to start streaming.

We& apos; ll be keeping this list constantly updated- if any paid proves become free that we feel need to be included, they& apos; ll be added too. Scroll through to see our picks that we& apos; ve divided up into the following categories: drama, comedy and thriller.

If you can only watch one …

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Tick

The Tick is a superhero TV show with significant differences. It& apos; s chock full of brightly-coloured heroes, sarcastic villains, excellent narratives and fantastic wordplay. Unlike the sagas in Marvel movies, the heroes and scoundrels in The Tick feel like they belong to our world. They& apos; re messy, funny and attain lots of terrible decisions. Luckily, the present was renewed for a second season, which manages to be even smarter, slicker and more heartwarming than the first, with noteworthy performances from Peter Serafinowicz and Griffin Newman in the lead roles as The Tick and, erm, Arthur.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

Check out our in-depth Amazon Prime Video reviewFancy a movie? Then our best Amazon Prime movies feature is for youWant to see what the challenger is doing? Then check out best Netflix TV showsThese are the best movies on Netflix UK

Amazon Prime or Netflix? Check out our comparing video below!

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Absentia

If you& apos; ve had a Stana Katic shaped pit in your life since Castle ended in 2016, you& apos; ll be glad to know she& apos; s starring in a brand new series on Amazon Prime. Katic takes up the role of FBI agent Emily Byrne who, six years after being proclaimed dead, returns to the world and has to try and piece her life and memory back together.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 1

Image Credit: Amazon Prime

New Season Added: The Expanse

Arguably the best sci-fi show since Battlestar Galatica, The Expanse is based on the series of novels by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It& apos; s set in a future where humans have colonised most of the solar system, but there are big divisions between the occupants of Earth, Mars and& apos; Belters& apos ;, who reside on space station beyond the asteroid belt. It& apos; s full of politics, heart-wrenching emotional narratives and some of the most breath-taking scenes of outer space we& apos; ve ever seen. If you& apos; re a fan of sci-fi, you& apos; ll love this.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Alias

US action series Alias ran for five seasons between 2001 and 2006 and fans will be happy to hear every single episode is available to stream on Amazon Prime Instant Video right this instant! Created by J. J. Abrams, the Tv reveal starrings Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a double agent who is working for the CIA, but also posing as an operative for an organisation called SD-6, which is a big criminal and espionage network.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 5

Update: Alias is still available via Amazon Prime Video, but it& apos; s no longer free. You& apos; ll have to pay PS2. 49 per episode, or buy a whole season for PS13. 99.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Tom Clancy& apos; s Jack Ryan

The long-awaited latest re-imagining of Tom Clancy& apos; s Jack Ryan is now available on Amazon Prime, with the fantastic John Krasinski( best known for his role in the US version of The Office) playing CIA analyst Ryan. The show has received largely positive reviews and it& apos; s definitely worth giving the first few episodes a watch, particularly if you& apos; re a fan of political dramata, the Jack Ryan stories or Krasinski.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Ray Donovan

Set in LA, Ray Donovan is a drama about a guy called, you guessed it, Ray Donovan, who is a fixer for a top statute firm in the city. That entails he gets caught up in all kinds of drama, like menaces, bribes and every other kind of shady activity you can imagine.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 6

Update: Ray Donovan is still available via Amazon Prime Video, but it& apos; s no longer free. You& apos; ll have to pay PS2. 49 per episode, or buy a whole season for PS13. 99.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

New Season Added: American Gods

Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and brought to the screen by the ever-excellent Bryan Fuller, American Gods is an existential look at what would happen if divinities were to walk the earth.

Starring Ricky Whittle( who has built the transition from Hollyoaks to Hollywood with ease) and Ian McShane, the show is both bizarre and brazen, cultish and controversial. It may take a while to figure out just what the hell is going on, but this is one smart, celestial slice of amusement that& apos; s already got us hooked.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Animal Kingdom

Looking for a new crime drama to get stuck into? Animal Kingdom could be what you& apos; re looking for. The depict follows adolescent J Cody who moves in with extended relatives in Southern California after the death of his mother. Far from being boring, Cody discoveries his relatives live a wild life of excess and it& apos; s all funded by crime.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Black Sails

Johnny Depp may have spend the latter half of his career persuading the world that pirates all seem, stench and talk like a Rolling Stone but we prefer Black Sails& apos; interpreting. Exclusive to Amazon Prime, Black Sails treats the pirate legend with a touch more reality and this is pretty much all down to Shakespearean thesp Toby Stephens.

Number of seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

New Season Added: Bosch

With 20 -something novels to mine for source material, Bosch is a character that was always destined for the small screen. Created by Michael Connelly but brilliantly brought to life by performer Titus Welliver, the series follows the exploits of LA Homicide detective Harry Bosch and features enough grit to pave the longest of driveways.

This is no surprise – the series has been created by Eric Overmyer, who was part of the graduate that made The Wire. Bosch is another show that has been put together by Amazon Studios – proving that streaming services are becoming just as powerful as the HBOs of the world when it comes to producing compelling drama.

Bosch Season 5 has now landed on Amazon Prime, continuing the saga of Harry Bosch and it comes with a nice uplift in quality too, building season upon season to become one of our favourite proves on Prime at the moment.

Number of seasons on Amazon Prime: 5

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Goliath

Billy Bob Thornton superstars as a washed-up lawyer looking for a big break who stumbles on to a big case that may well give him the solace he needs. Made by David E Kelly who loves a bit of courtroom drama, having already created Boston Legal, The Practice and Ally McBeal, the present works well as a standalone series but there& apos; s talk that it may get a second season. Goliath is part of Amazon& apos; s Original series of Tv shows.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Good Fight

If you were a fan of US legal and political drama The Good Wife, then you& apos; re going to love The Good Fight. It& apos; s set one year after the events of the final episode of the The Good Wife and this time transformations the focus of the tale to Diane Lockhart.

Season one has been a success and now the second season is available to stream via Amazon, but unfortunately it& apos; s not free. But while you either wait for it to become free( it may take a while) or wait to decide whether it& apos; s worth it, catch up on the first season now to help you construct your mind up.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3( The 3rd season is available, but you& apos; ll have to pay for it .)

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Hand of God

Last seen in Sons of Anarchy, Ron Perlman has moved from the mad world of biker gangs into the stranger world of statute. Perlman plays a vice-riddled barrister who, after agony a breakdown, starts to believe he is a messenger from god.

The full first season for Hand of God arrived on Amazon Prime, after a successful pilot. A second season is also available, which will sadly be the last as Amazon has decided to not renew the depict. This is a shame as it may not be a light-hearted ride – but it is one drama that takes dark turn after dark turn and is all the better for it.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Hell on Wheels

Hell on Wheels sounds like it should be a Sons of Anarchy rival, about motorcycle gangs or the like. But it’s actually centred on the construction of the US’s First Transcontinental Railroad. The first season begins soon after the assassination of President Lincoln and from there the display plays out like a western, indicating myriad sides of the railway being built – from slaves to their owners, to the money me behind the strategy. It’s a show that’s been a massive hit for AMC – dropping just behind The Walking Dead in their ratings for original shows.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 5

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Last Tycoon

F Scott Fitzgerald may be known for The Great Gatsby and Tender Is The Night but The Last Tycoon – his last and unfinished novel – is perhaps his most ambitious piece of work. It peels away the glitz and glamour of Hollywood in the& apos; 30 s to show a period when backstabbing was the norm, fascism was on the rise and everyone had an unbelievable amount of money. Kelsey Grammer is superb as movie mogul Pat Brady, while Matt Bomer is also great as Monroe Stahr, the up and coming cinema exec who wants to make it big. The Last Tycoon is occasionally flawed but it& apos; s a sumptuous watch.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Looming Tower

The 8th episode of The Looming Tower are now available on Amazon Prime Video, but despite the fact there still aren& apos; t many compared to most Tv presents, it hasn& apos; t stopped this narrative of threat and politics from proving to be a hit. Based on the book by the same name, it& apos; s about the unease around Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden in the 1990 s, as well as the rivalry between the CIA and FBI.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 1

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Downton Abbey

Like watching fictional posh people live their lives in early-twentieth century opulence? You& apos; re not alone- millions of people tuned in to Downton Abbey during its TV run, and it& apos; s now available to stream in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video.

Following the trials and tribulations of the Crawley family on the titular Downton Abbey estate, it& apos; s a kitchen sink drama of kinds- except all the cutlery is made of silver, and it& apos; s an army of maids doing the washing up.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 7

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Masters Of Sex

Yes, Masters Of Sex could have ended up being a Mad Men rip-off when it first arrived in 2013 but thanks to the brilliance of Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan the present soon elevated above being a copycat.

Sheen is Dr William Masters, a fertility expert who turns his hand to researching the world of sexuality. Turns out researching sexuality means having a lot of it, which would all be rather gratuitous if it wasn& apos; t wrap in some of the most intelligent script work around.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Outlander

Game of Thrones with kilts and period travelling, Outlander was a solid show in its first season – by the second it was a great one. Based on the eight-book series by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander is about Claire Randall, a nurse who is transported from 1945 to 1743, where she fulfils a Scottish outlawed and a simmering romance ensues. Given it’s shot in the Scottish highlands, the reveal appears fantastic, is well acted and should be your next binge watch.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Path

Aaron Paul is back on Tv, thanks to The Path. And while his role might not be as enticing as Jesse in Breaking Bad, The Path is decent enough. Revolving around the Meyerist movement, and its’ not a cult/ definitely a cult& apos; cult, the show is a gripping and beautifully shot look at what happens when people truly believe.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Rogue

Now in its fourth season, Rogue has matured into a great crime drama. While it may not be the Sopranos in its scope, it has a realness to it that builds the violence that& apos; s shown on the screen hit home hard. Thandie Newton starrings a Grace Travis, an undercover sleuth who is trying to balance being a wife and mother with the illicit affair of a crime boss. Gritty stuff.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Sneaky Pete

Sneaky Pete& apos; s plot maybe a little cliche – a con man presumes the identity of someone else to try and make a new break in the world – but Giovanni Ribisi is superb as Marius, the titular character and there& apos; s plenty of intrigue to keep you glued to this new Amazon Original.

Interestingly, the show is co-created by Bryan Cranston which makes him the streaming monarch, dedicated he& apos; s done so well with Breaking Bad on Netflix. Don& apos; t expect Sneaky Pete to be as intense as Breaking Bad – it& apos; s a crime caper, yes, but it doesn& apos; t take itself too seriously.

The third season of the show is coming on May 10, 2019.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Startup

Not content with becoming a Hobbit, starring in the Marvel universe or playing Dr Watson, Martin Freeman goes back to his Tv roots for Startup – a great look at what happens when a bunch of tech entrepreneurs create something that is much bigger than they ever thought it would be. It may occasionally be too gritty for its own good, but it& apos; s great to see Freeman hamming it up as the big bad.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

UnREAL

UnREAL focuses on the fictional goings-on behind the scenes of a fictional reality indicate. It& apos; s a show that holds a infringe mirror up to the vacuous and plentiful reality shows that litter Tv channels at the moment and actually goes into some instead dark territory. Yes, it& apos; s melodramatic and will wave numerous moral flags at you while you are watching it, but it& apos; s nonetheless engrossing television.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Transparent

Anything Netflix can do, Amazon Prime can do better it seems, especially when it comes to winning a Golden Globe. Netflix may have constructed history by being the first streaming service to win a Golden Globe, courtesy of the acting talents of Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, but Amazon went and topped this by winning the Best TV Show prize in 2014 for Transparent.

It was much deserved. Transparent is everything you want in a Tv depict. It& apos; s heartwarming, funny and packs a real punch about a topic that doesn& apos; t get enough attention: transgenderism. Jeffrey Tambor& apos; s Maura Pfefferman is a television character we hope will be around for a long time.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

Comedy

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Fresh Off the Boat

The critically acclaimed series based on the memoirs of chef and food personality Eddie Huang is back for a fourth series. The reveal follows the hip-hop preoccupied Eddie and his family as they reconcile their Taiwanese roots with their new life in Florida, where they have moved to open a cowboy-themed restaurant.

Funny and heartwarming, Fresh Off the Boat is not only totally binge-able, but it also represents an important milestone in the portrayal of Asian-American families on the small screen.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Black-ish

Black-ish is brilliant. Not brilliant-ish, but brilliant. It& apos; s just made by two Nightly Show writers and is about adman Andre, who thinks his kids aren& apos; t, er, black enough because they& apos; ve lived in the very white suburbs all their life. This entails a( auto) crash course in black culture ensues. Two seasons of the present are on Amazon Prime and it& apos; s well worth a watch, filled with the warm humor ABC has brought to the world with the likes of Modern Family and The Goldbergs.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Casual

The final eight episode season of Casual is now available on Amazon Prime. It& apos; s about a freshly divorced single mother who lives with her friend and daughter. The slapstick drama is about dating, romance, households and all kinds of other modern dramata with a funny, and sometimes dark, spin. It& apos; s received a fair bit of critical acclaim over the years, but won& apos; t be returning for a fifth season. So enjoy it while you can!

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Catastrophe

From the minds of Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney comes one of the funniest, most well-written sitcom in years. The plot is slight: a one-night stand turns into a relationship once Sharon announces she is pregnant. But the series contains some of the most cut-to-the-bone humour assure on Tv. Combine this with a nice slab of pathos – nestled among many a sexuality joke – and what you have is a modern classic.

The third series, which recently aired on Channel 4, is now available on Amazon Prime Video – it features the last ever performance from the imitable Carrie Fisher.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

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Comrade Detective

Comrade Detective is a weird gem on Amazon. Starring Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the show is a parody of gritty American buddy cop indicates and Communist Propaganda from the Cold War.

It& apos; s an unusual combination, but it works. Each episode is presented as though it& apos; s a remastered real episode of a lost Romanian Communist Propaganda series from the 80 s which was used to entertain and promote Communist ideals. The entire demonstrate was filmed in Romania with Romanian actors and then dubbed over by Tatum and Gordon-Levitt.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1

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New Season Added: The Tick

We like a dark twisting on the superhero genre as much as the next person, and The Tick delivers it: it& apos; s about an accountant with mental health issues, who may or may not be a superhero – it could all be in his head. Peter Serafinowicz is the eponymous Tick, and despite that rather sombre-sounding plot outline, this is a black and surreal comedy worth trying out.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

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The Grand Tour

Clarkson, Hammond and the other one are back for Grand Tour: Season 2. Well, we kind of knew that they would be as they all have massive contracts that mean we will be seeing quite a few seasons of the Definitely Not Top Gear But Quite A Bit Like Top Gear show. This season watches Clarkson drive a fast auto, Hammond drive a faster automobile and virtually die, and the other one drive a fast vehicle substantially slower than the rest. If you enjoy watching middle aged men burn rubber in the middle of the desert, like a scene out of Mad Max: Fury Road, then “theyre for” you. And if we haven& apos; t quite convinced you yet – Gizmodo offered up this quote about the display: “Some humen doing stuff for no clearly defined reason.” Lovely stuff.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3( new episodes weekly)

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I Love Dick

Graduating from Amazon Originals pilot to fully fledged TV present, I Love Dick is a great subversive watch. The demonstrate superstars Kevin Bacon and is based on the celebrated book that looks at a married couple who are having marriage issues and their relationship with college professor, Dick. Bacon is on top form as the charismatic Dick and the show& apos; s multiple POV storytelling( Rashomon style) works well.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video TV: 1

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New Season Added: The Last Man On Earth

Not many people can find the funny in the post-apocalypse, but Will Forte has managed it with The Last Man On Earth. He writes and superstars in this comedy where he is the only survivor on earth after a virus kills everyone else. The casting is brilliant, with the likes of January Jones and Kristen Wiig join him on his adventures and there’s a handful of decent cameos too – including Will Ferrell and Jon Hamm in season 3.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

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The League

Created by Jeff and Jackie Schaffer and starring Mark Duplass, The League is very much a US focused comedy – based around a group of friends in an American Fantasy Football league – but don’t let that put you off as it’s nearly always hilarious. The durations the group go to to win The Shiva – the league trophy – is great to watch, as is there balancing of trying to win week in week out with their normal lives. All seven seasons of the indicate are available on Prime Video.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 7

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

A new series from Gilmore Girls creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel tells the story of 1950 s Jewish homemaker Miriam Maisel. After her husband confess he& apos; s been having an affair, Midge drunkenly gets on stage at a comedy club and discovers that she& apos; s utterly hilarious. In a time when women aren& apos; t encouraged to be publicly funny, Midge seeks her new-found comedic talent in the male-dominated stand up comedy world.

Seasons to watch on Amazon Prime: 2

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Mad Dogs

The UK version of Mad Dogs was a breath of fresh air when it first aired. Well, the first season was then it all ran a little too strange. This remake – green-lit from Amazon& apos; s burgeoning Originals series – takes the best from the UK version and mixtures it with a plot that& apos; s a little easier to follow and humour that& apos; s more laugh out loud than pitch black.

The premise is the same: a bunch of mates go and visit one friend at his luxury villa to celebrate his early retirement, only for assassination, mayhem and mind-boggling plot growths to ensue. A touch of genius is the recasting of Ben Chaplin. While he played the rich, retiring Alvo in the UK version here he gets to try his luck in a bigger and better role.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1

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Mozart in the Jungle

Now into its fourth series, Mozart in the Jungle was this surprise winner at the 2015 Golden Globes, where it won Best Comedy Series. The show is a comedy set in the strange world of classical music. Gael Garcia Bernal plays young conductor Rodrigo who replaces a retiring conductor played by Malcolm McDowell. Based loosely on a true story and created by the likes of Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, it& apos; s well worth a watch.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

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Parks and Recreation

Parks and Rec is a joy of a display. Originally seen as a quasi spin-off of the Office – using the same documentary style camerawork, awkward pauses, asides to camera – it soon grew from an amusing first season, about the goings on in the parks department of Pawnee, to a slapstick phenomenon that spanned a fantastic seven seasons. It& apos; s not just the script that induces it great, it& apos; s also the characters – headed up by the ever-brilliant Amy Poehler.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 7

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Seinfeld

Seinfeld is comedy gold. It’s the sitcom that was self reflexive and knowing. It was about Jerry Seinfeld who was played by Jerry Seinfeld but was playing a version of himself. It’s a similar trick Larry David used when spinning off his character for the present Curb Your Enthusiasm. He even took it a step further to make a whole season of Curb dedicated to bringing back Seinfeld. Over nine seasons this show, which is essentially about nothing, will captivate you, build you laugh and think. It’s fantastic.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 9

Thrillers

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New Season Added: The Americans

The Americans was cruelly mishandled when it originally came to UK TV, so we are glad it was eventually discovered a decent place to reside. The show is a cracking crime period thriller that are consistent with the exploits of a couple of KGB agents posing as US citizens around the time Ronald Reagan became US president.

It may occasionally flit between the ridiculous and the sublime but you would expect nothing more from a show that& apos; s main conceit comprises characters duelling with duality. The& apos; 80 s setting is fantastic, too, though there aren& apos; t enough shell suits for our liking.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 6

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The Crossing

This sci-fi thriller has a really interesting premise. A group of refugees trying to escape a war arrive in an American town looking for somewhere to live. The sci-fi twist? They seem to be from 180 years in the future. Gasp! The story centres around a local sheriff, a federal agent and a mum looking for her missing daughter. It& apos; s full of conspiracy, mystery and there might be a superpower or two thrown in for good measure. But shh, we don& apos; t want to spoil anything.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1

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The Exorcist

There has been an influx of TV adaptations of movies recently, with many of them actually making the mark. The ones that succeed the most are those that take the topic/ feeling of the films they are adapting and go in their own direction – Fargo is a perfect example of this. Another example is The Exorcist. Although it takes a couple of episodes to get going, the TV series is a decent spin-off of the movie, with merely a slither of a thread attaching the two.

Don& apos; t anticipate full-on scares, as this is definitely a slow burner. But when the exorcisms come( and there are a few) they will send a chill down your spine. The show is now into its second season, too, so you can watch the first season with the knowledge that the tale of terror is set to continue.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2

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The Fall

Before he was whipping up a storm as Mr Grey, Jamie Dornan played an effortlessly charming and equally chilling serial murderer in The Fall, a fantastic Irish drama that deserves all the acclaim it gets.

Dornan is Paul Spector, a care worker who has a sideline in killing female. To help way him down, hard-nosed detective Stella Gibson( Gillian Anderson) heads to Belfast to try and capture the murderer. The Fall is a perfect blend of intelligent scripting, nuanced acting and a fantastic premise. Knowing who the killer is from scene one amps up, rather than releases, the depict& apos; s tension.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

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Fear The Walking Dead

Fear The Walking Dead is a show that tries its hardest to be more than a spin-off. Set in Los Angeles, the reveal follows high school guidance counselor Madison Clark( a brilliant Kim Dickens fresh from Treme) and English teacher Travis Manawa( Cliff Curtis) as they adapt to a life after the& apos; zombie& apos; outbreak. The show is slow paced, each episode is an hour and there& apos; s a 90 -minute pilot, but it manages to approach the Walking Dead world in a wholly different way.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Halt And Catch Fire

Now in its fourth season, Halt And Catch Fire is another surefire hit by AMC – the folks that brought us Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Set around a fictionalised version of the computer revolution of the 1980 s and the rise of the web in the& apos; 90 s, Catch Fire is a fantastic look at how technology has improved all our lives, while virtually tearing apart the innovators at the same time.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4

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Hap and Leonard

Filmed in Baton Rouge and based on the stories of Joe Lansdale, Hap and Leonard is a great swampy noir thriller of a show that’s based on the relationship of two friends and the sometimes violent rubs they get into. James Purefoy and Michael K Williams are superb as the pair, one a Vietnam vet, the other a draft dodger. Set in the 80 s, the show is similar to Cold In July, the movie from the same writer and is only six episodes long, so perfect for a binge watch.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3

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Haven

Stephen King has had a rocky journey to the big and small screen. For every adaptation that works( Misery, Shawshank Redemption ), there’s a dozen that don’t( The Langoliers, Under The Dome TV show ). Haven is a strange one – it’s a show that started as an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, The Colorado Kid, and has mutated into a love letter to King and his tales. Over the course of five seasons, the depict has becomes a great watch – especially if you are a King fan and can spot the many references.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

Update: Haven is still available via Amazon Prime Video, but it& apos; s no longer free. You& apos; ll have to pay PS2. 49 per episode, or buy a whole season for PS13. 99.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Into The Badlands

Into The Badlands is a heady mix of brilliant martial arts and high drama as developed fighter Sunny( Daniel Wu) takes a group of people on a distorted road trip-up through the mystic badlands, a post-apocalyptic landscape some 500 years after a devastating war. There& apos; s plenty of bite in each episode, and it also contains some of the best fighting seen on television.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

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Mr Robot

It was an agonising wait for Mr Robot in the UK – the first season had all-but ended in the US before we even got a sniff of it. But its popularity meant that there was something of a bid war to see who would show it in the UK. Amazon, Netflix and other more traditional broadcasters fought for it, is confirmed that even bean counters can see the worth in counter culture.

Amazon won in the end and is the perfect place for a show that focuses on the exploits of hacker Elliot( a superb Rami Malek ). Mr Robot is Fight Club for the Tor generation, lifting a lid on a world where what Linux kernel you use is not just a badge of honour but a way of life.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Man In The High Castle

There have been a number of successful Amazon pilots that have constructed it to a full series but none have the epic potential that Man In The High Castle has. This Philip K Dick adaptation is finally available to creek – with all episodes ready for your consumption. High Castle imagines what the world would be like if Germany had won World War II and the Nazis had taken global control. Turns out it& apos; s a bit worse than us all driving around in VW Beetles and wearing Hugo Boss coats.

Season 2 is now available and expands on the mythos. Given this is a cautionary tale about what could happen when the hard right takes over America, things suddenly don& apos; t feel too far fetched.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3

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Preacher

Amazon of a Preacher, man! Preacher is the next big comic-book adaptation and my divinity it& apos; s good. It takes the deranged feel of the graphic fictions and translates it well to the small screen. Dominic Cooper is great as small-town preacher Jesse Custer who, inhabited by a strange spirit, starts to do God& apos; s work in a small America town with his ex girlfriend( a brilliant Ruth Negga) and an Irish vampire, played by Misfits& apos; Joe Gilgun as his cohorts.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3

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Ripper Street

For a show that’s immersed in murder, it’s pleasing to note that we all have Amazon to thank for breathing new life into Ripper Street. After two series of the display, which focuses on the lives of the East End of London in the 19 th Century where there is a copycat Jack the Ripper on the loose, it was cancelled by the BBC. Amazon decided there was enough fan love out there, thankfully, and revived the reveal for three more series. Great acting masks some of the hokier moments of the script but this is all good, grizzly fun.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 5

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Sons Of Anarchy

Seemingly always vying for the top spot of Best Recently Finished Drama( we may have made up that awarding) with Breaking Bad, Sons Of Anarchy is a long brooding menace of a show that deserves your attention. Centred on a motorcycle gang that live by their own rules( you can probably guess what their name is from the title) the show is positively Shakespearean in its storytelling and will have you gripped from episode one.

While Ron Perlman steals the display as Clay, Charlie Hunnam& apos; s Jax is one of the best tortured spirits you will see on any television show. All seven seasons of the depict are now streaming on the service.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 7

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Vikings

If you have any interest in Norse mythology then the name Ragnar Lothbrok will mean a whole lot to you. Basically he was a king and powerful ruler that was a right git to the English and the French.

Vikings is a series that tracings his Norse-based goings on with enough charm and scope to take on Game of Thrones in the sword and sandals stakes. Yes it takes a number of liberties with its source material but the acting is top class, as is the cinematography in a historical romp that& apos; s now deservedly in its fourth season – the second half of which is now available.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 5

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead has been reanimated more days than the zombies that harruange the working group on survivors we have all come to know and love. Initially created with Frank Darabont at the helm, he left after the first season then his replacement was eventually replaced and their replacing replaced.

With this in mind, it& apos; s astonishing that not only has the prove consistently managed to improve season after season it has become one of the most successful series ever. Yes it sometimes slumps along slower than a zombie with its legs hacked off but give it time and it will reward you with more drama than you can shake a bloody stump at.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 9

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The X-Files

The X-Files was one of the first shows that embraced event Tv. Yes, it had many& apos; monster of the week& apos; storylines but creator Chris Carter managed to produce a nine-season long myth arc that maintained spectators coming home for more. That and the brilliant casting of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and the ever-excellent Gillian Anderson and Dana Scully. With a new 10 th season on the horizon, Amazon has put all nine previous seasons on to Prime – all remastered in widescreen. Lovely stuff.

Seasons on Amazon Prime: 9

The best of the remainder, and coming soon

All or Nothing

We definitely recommend you get stuck into All or Nothing, a football documentary that follows Manchester City behind-the-scenes during the Premier League winning and record-breaking 2017/2018 season. It& apos; s an 8-part series that features all kinds of exclusive footage, from locker room pep talks with coach Pep Guardiola, and a look at the players& apos; lives off and on the pitching. It& apos; s a must-watch for everyone from die-hard Man City fans to even those with a vague interested in footy.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 1

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Batman: The Animated Series

You& apos; ve watched all the Nolan and Burton Bat flicks, and you& apos; re wisely avoiding the new Batfleck cinemas. If you& apos; re still hankering for a Batman fix, you were able to do far, far worse than jumping into Batman: The Animated Series. Kicking off back in 1992, it bridges the gap of the Burton aesthetic and the comic book series, and is regarded by Batman fans as having perhaps the definitive onscreen take over the Dark Knight.

It& apos; s ostensibly a kids cartoon, but the ongoing storylines are captivating and stylishly noir-like in delivery. And to cap things off, the voice casting is superb- Kevin Conroy is an assuredly-good Batman( reprising the role for the recent Batman: Arkham games ), while Star Wars& apos; own Mark Hamill is a fantastically unhinged Joker.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Grand Prix Driver

This new Amazon Original documentary takes viewers underneath the glitz and glamour that is the surface of Formula 1, to explore the inner-workings of the 2017 McLaren team. Narrated by Michael Douglas, this documentary follows rookie driver Stoffel Vandoorne over four episodes, as he and his team prepare for the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship.

Season on Amazon Prime Video: 1

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Grimm

Merge a fairy tale fantasy with a police drama and you get Grimm. It& apos; s all about Nick Burkhardt, a detective based in Portland in the US who detects he& apos; s a Grimm. Which basically entails he& apos; s a kind of mystical protector who must keep the peace between humans and beasts called Wesen. As you might expect, a lot of the characters are inspired by Grimms& apos; Fairy tale, but the present depicts from many other sources too to create a story that& apos; s a little like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but with fairy tale creatures.

Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 6

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Coming Soon: Good Omens

From the genius literary and fantasy intellects of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett comes the Tv adaptation of their magical volume Good Omens. Starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen in the lead roles of a demon and an angel, the tale is told over six parts and is anticipated to be the hottest new Tv demonstrate this Spring.

Release Date: May 31, 2019

Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Coming Soon: Fleabag( Season 2)

Fleabag season 1 altered everything we knew about comedy, transgressing the fourth wall and bringing the very authentic, laugh out loud funny and, at times, wholly heartbreaking private moments of the lovable but deep flawed lead character to our TV screens. Season 2 was a huge hit when it first aired earlier this year, and you can relive all the& apos; sexy clergyman& apos; magic on Amazon soon.

Release Date: May 17, 2019

Read more: techradar.com

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[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #367

Top Ten Star Trek Characters I’d Like to See in the New Picard Series

I grew up as a Star Wars fan, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Star Trek. Slow-paced and contemplative, I like its depiction of futuristic submarine warfare in space; its focus on morality and ethics over bombastic heroism; and, above all, its depiction of a future where we all, more or less, get along. I came to the franchise via the original movies (The Voyage Home and The Wrath of Khan being particular favourites when I was young), but my introduction to the various series came via The Next Generation. Although it’s understandably dated now (it’s over thirty years old, after all), I think it best nails what I consider the core Trek trait of morally upright people trying to maintain their sense of decency as they navigate the choppy waters of space and intergalactic diplomacy. Central to this, of course, is Sir Patrick Stewart’s epoch-defining portrayal of everyone’s favourite patriarch, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Unquestionably the best captain, but also – like Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlet or Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers – a profound performance of a super-straight, moral, upstanding bloke who is dedicated to being a firm ethical foundation upon which an entire franchise can be built.

All this is a typically long-winded way of saying I’m super-stoked about the upcoming Star Trek series that will catch up with Picard twenty years after we last saw him in Nemesis.

I’m primed for it, too: as well as enjoyed the new episodes of Discovery, I’m also about halfway through a re-watch of The Next Generation. I say re-watch, but to be honest I’ve probably only seen about a third of the episodes before (like I said, I came to the franchise through the films); and even then, I watched it in a disorganised and random fashion, catching episodes on TV over the years. So following the story from beginning to end for the first time has been something of a revelation, and one I’m thoroughly enjoying revelling in.

Anyway, if you’re bringing back Picard and going back to the best era of Star Trek – the Next Gen era – then who else do you bring back? I’m not expecting (or even desiring, really) a new Enterprise-focused series with the whole crew. But pretty much all versions of Trek are defined by their characters, by the interplay between the actors, and the sense of a constructed family that emerges. I’m assuming that some reference, at least, will be made to all of the main crew – Riker, Troi, Crusher, La Forge, and Worf – but what about the various supporting characters, love interests, nemeses, and – yes – dear departed Datas? Well, as you can imagine, I’ve got a few ideas. So here we go: ten Star Trek characters I’d like to see back in the Picard show (apart from the ones listed above, natch).

Data: what? But he’s (a) one of the main cast and (b) dead! Well, yes. I know in the comics at least Data’s android brother B-4 absorbed Data’s memories and, essentially, our favourite android was resurrected. Well, I’m sort-of in favour of that, but I’d like it to be a slow, painful, morally-compromised affair; perhaps Data’s personality is surfacing underneath B-4’s rudimentary programming, leading to an android in some degree of pain. Whatever, having Brent Spiner come back as a reminder of Picard’s lost friend and also what I imagine he would see as his own personal failure, would serve as a valuable plot point and also tie up the loose end left dangling in Nemesis (but, for what it’s worth, it would also be nice for a Trek character to die and stay dead).

Q: it has to be Q. He has to be in it. I would be entirely in support of Q being the main antagonist or even co-lead of the show; Q taking a tired and ageing Picard on one last bizarre voyage. Maybe Q claims he can “cure” Data and restore his personality, and Picard follows him on a quest to “save” his friend? See, two birds with one stone. Triple bonus points if they get John de Lancie to make some kind of My Little Pony in-joke.

Guinan: her wisdom and counsel was often very beneficial to Picard during TNG, so it would be great to see her back, even if it’s just for a cameo. I know from her recent interview with David Tennant that Whoopee Goldberg would be up for it. Plus maybe we could get more of her contentious backstory with Q?

The Borg Queen: Picard’s relationship with her in First Contact, and the delicious, flirtatious portrayal of her by Alice Krige, was a highlight of that film. I’ve not seen all of Voyager, but my understanding is that a great deal of the Borg threat is neutralised by the end of the series, so seeing the Queen return to further torment Picard would be interesting. Alternatively, perhaps he’s having some kind of regressive visions due to his old assimilation?

Wesley Crusher: yes, I know, I’m trying to avoid “main” characters, but Young Wesley left the show halfway through, so I’m counting him in this time. His final appearance saw him flitting off with the weird space-wizard “Traveler” to learn the Force, or something. I know he cameoed in Nemesis at Riker and Troi’s wedding, but I don’t recall seeing him in the final film, unless he’s in the background somewhere. Nevertheless, I like the idea that he rejoined Starfleet, and perhaps by now he’s a Captain himself. But what’s his relationship with Picard like nowadays, seeing as he saw the Captain as a surrogate father-figure during his time on the Enterprise? And if he does have mystical space-wizard powers, how is he putting them to use?

The USS Enterprise: yes, that’s right, I’m counting it as a character even though it’s a spaceship. Is the Enterprise-E still in operation twenty or so years later? Probably, as they seem to use starships for quite a long time (maybe because they go back to stardock every three episodes to get a refit or something). But even though I don’t think the series should be set on the Enterprise, it’d still be good to catch up with the old ship and see how life is progressing back there. Who’s the captain now? Riker would be the obvious choice, but I’m gonna go with Worf. I like Worf.

Sela: my apparent predilection for resurrecting actors knows no bounds! Last we saw of Sela, I seem to remember, was when her attempted invasion of Vulcan went tits-up. She didn’t appear on Romulus during Nemesis; where is she now, what’s she doing? Romulus was destroyed at the beginning of 2009’s Star Trek; let’s assume she escaped that tragedy. Is she in favour or better relations with the Federation? Was she disgraced following the Vulcan incident? Did she, like Nero, blame Spock for the destruction of Romulus? Regardless, it’d just be nice to bring back Denise Crosby for an episode or so, and seeing that (as far as I can gather, reading between the lines), the aftermath of Romulus’ destruction will play into the storyline, we need some recognisable Romulans.

O’Brien: I’m gonna be honest, this is just because I want to see more Colm Meany. I love his appearances in TNG, and he was often a good source of humour on the show. Plus we need more Irishmen in space. I think the plot of the series should involve Picard essentially commandeering a ship to follow Q on a quest to resurrect Data, and the captain of this ship should be O’Brien. There you go. Writes itself.

A character from the wider world of Trek: we’re all used to shared universes nowadays, but arguably Trek got there first, with characters flitting from TNG to DS9 to Voyager back in the day. I mean, O’Brien is king of this, really, going from recurring in TNG to starring in DS9. But he’s a special case and I love me some Colm Meany regardless. No, it’d be nice if we could briefly catch up with some of the other contemporary Trek families. Perhaps Sisko? Or Voyager’s Doctor? Alternatively – and this is where I’m descending into rampant fanning speculation – what about a time-displaced Michael Burnham? I’ve got this crazy theory that, in Discovery, she is the Red Angel and the current season will end with her catapulted into the future. Perhaps she bumps into Picard? Or – and this idea has literally just come to me – the Prime-universe Gabriel Lorca, who was similarly thrust through time when trying to escape from the Mirror Universe.

Ian McKellen: I mean, good god, how great would that be?

So there you go. Sadly no time for Vash, my favourite of Picard’s love interests, and who would be fun to bump into for an episode. I also think serial Trek-actors like James Cromwell, Clint Howard, and Jeffrey Combs should cameo as various aliens. And, like I said at the beginning, I want to see all the TNG regulars at some point. This might be the list bite of the TNG cherry, so what became of our faves? We demand to know! Well, not demand, but it’d certainly be nice.

Finally, a suggestion: it is common among Star Trek series for the title to be the name of the ship or station upon which the story is set. Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery. In this vein, I think the plot of the new series should involve the launch of a new starship, which is called… the USS Picard. Picard himself, a retired admiral now, is on board for the maiden voyage when… something happens. The plot intervenes. And then they’re off on some grand quest in the galaxy (like I said, maybe involving Q, Data, and Captain O’Brien). As such, the title of the series would be… Star Trek: Picard.

You’re welcome, fellas.

#top ten #tv #star trek #picard #discovery #the next generation #movies #patrick stewart #q

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The BioShock series is a collection of story-driven first person shooters in which the player explores dystopian settings created by Ken Levine and his team at Irrational Games. The first two games, BioShock and its direct sequel, BioShock 2, take place in the underwater city of Rapture in the 1950s and 1960s, which was influenced heavily by Ayn Rand's Objectivism. The third installment, BioShock Infinite, is set aboard the floating air-city of Columbia in 1912, designed around the concept of American Exceptionalism. Though Infinite is not a direct sequel to the previous games, the game is thematically linked; a short scene within the core Infinite game returns to Rapture, while the downloadable content BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea tie in many of the plot elements between BioShock and BioShock Infinite.

As a heavily plot-driven series of games, BioShock contains a long list of non-playable characters (NPC) with which the player interacts and which drive the games' respective stories.

BioShock

Jack

Jack is the protagonist of BioShock, whom the player controls throughout the game. He begins the first game aboard an airplane, which crashes near a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean containing a bathysphere terminal providing entry to Rapture. During his journey through Rapture, Jack encounters various gene-altering substances known as plasmids and Gene tonics, which he uses to defend himself. As Jack travels through Rapture, he has strange visions of his family, but eventually he discovers that he is the illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan and Jasmine Jolene, "Andrew Ryan's Favorite Girl." After becoming pregnant, Jasmine sold her fertilized egg to Brigid Tenenbaum, an employee of Frank Fontaine. Jack was genetically conditioned to age rapidly and to follow any order that followed "would you kindly," a phrase which Atlas uses throughout the game to control the main character and his actions.

There are two endings for Jack depending on how many Little Sisters he saved and/or harvested throughout the game: one where he lives out the rest of his life with the Little Sisters he saved, and another in which he becomes power-hungry and destructive. In the second part of the Bioshock: Infinite DLC, Burial at Sea II, it is revealed that the former ending is canon.

Andrew Ryan

Main article: Andrew Ryan (BioShock)

Andrew Ryan was a business magnate in the 1940s and 1950s, and seeking to avoid scrutiny from governments and other oversight, ordered the secret construction of an underwater city, Rapture. When Ryan's vision for a utopia in Rapture collapsed into dystopia, he hides himself away and uses armies of mutated humans, "Splicers", to defend himself and fight against those resisting him, including the player-character Jack within the first game. His name along with his objectivist philosophy are inspired by Ayn Rand. He is voiced by Armin Shimerman.

Frank Fontaine/Atlas

Frank Fontaine is the main antagonist in BioShock. He is a criminal mastermind, is very intelligent and has a skill for evasion, and becomes the arch-enemy of Andrew Ryan as he simply wishes to use Rapture for money and power instead of Ryan's lofty ideals. He was responsible for countless murders and igniting the civil war, as well as Jack's kidnapping. To escape from Ryan's forces, Fontaine faked his death and later took up the identity of Atlas, speaking for the lower class of Rapture. Ryan feared Atlas' power and initially captured him and sent him and his loyal men to an underwater prison 2000 fathoms beneath Rapture, but they were able to escape and in 1959 launched an all-out war against Ryan. Atlas serves as Jack's guide for most of the game, luring him towards Ryan under the guise of trying to save his fictitious wife and son that he claimed Ryan had trapped. He betrays Jack after the death of Ryan and becomes the game's final boss, pumping himself so full of ADAM that he barely resembles his original self. He is killed when a number of freed Little Sisters swarm him and stab him to death with their ADAM needles. In BioShock, Fontaine is voiced by Greg Baldwin while his alter ego Atlas is voiced by Karl Hanover. In BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea, Hanover replaces Baldwin, voicing both Fontaine and Atlas.

Frank, or in his Atlas guise, also served as the main antagonist in Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two. In this "prequel" to BioShock, Atlas captures a Little Sister, formerly known as Sally. He forced an alternate reality Elizabeth to work for him to find Dr. Yi Suchong. Elizabeth not only finds him, but also retrieves a canister of "Quantum Particles" that allowed Atlas's main base of operations, "Fontaine Department Stores" to rise from its 2000-fathoms depth, promptly igniting the civil war that would destroy Rapture. Atlas then forced Elizabeth to retrieve his "Ace in the Hole", which turned out to be the phrase "Would you kindly...". After retrieving it, he ordered his men to send Jack "home" before killing Elizabeth.

His pseudonym comes from the title of the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged.

Big Daddies

Main article: Big Daddy (BioShock)

Big Daddies are heavily spliced (genetically mutated and altered) human beings whose skin and organs have been grafted into antiqued, heavily armored atmospheric diving suits. They are armed with a rivet gun, heavy drill, rocket launcher, or ion laser. They roam the underwater dystopian city of Rapture, mentally conditioned to protect the Little Sisters — little girls that harvest a substance called ADAM from corpses — thanks to a series of plasmids stripping them of their humanity and free will. The main types of Big Daddies are Rosies (named after the famous Rosie the riveter), Bouncers, Rumblers, and only appearing in the BioShock 2 downloadable content Minerva's Den, Lancers. Big Daddies appear in both BioShock and BioShock 2, and also one is found in a small easter egg at Rapture in BioShock Infinite. They also played big roles in BioShock Infinite's DLC missions of Burial at Sea.

Little Sisters

Little Sisters (originally known as Gatherers) are young girls who have been genetically altered and mentally conditioned to reclaim ADAM from corpses around Rapture. Little Sisters are always accompanied by a Big Daddy. The Little Sisters are almost completely immune to damage but have no offensive abilities. Approaching or attacking them, however, will incur the wrath of their Big Daddy protectors. When the player defeats these protectors, the player can choose either to harvest or rescue the Little Sisters, which affects how much ADAM the player gains and has consequences revealed in the game's ending. Little Sisters are usually hiding in the air vents hidden around Rapture, and they will only come out when called by a Big Daddy. They are not dangerous when their Big Daddy is killed, but stand over its corpse to mourn. If the player decides to rescue the majority of the Little Sisters, Dr. Tenenbaum gives the player gifts as a reward for his kindness. In this case, Tenenbaum leaves a teddy bear somewhere on the map, along with large amounts of First Aid Kits, EVE, money, and ADAM.

Sander Cohen

Sander Cohen lived among the most famous individuals in Rapture. As one of Rapture's more respected musicians, playwrights, and poets, Cohen resided in a lavish apartment in Mercury Suites, along with other Rapture celebrities such as Frank Fontaine, Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong. As a result of Rapture's civil war and the chaotic months that followed, Cohen grew extremely paranoid and violently insane. Cohen was given jurisdiction over an area of the city known as Fort Frolic by Rapture's founder Andrew Ryan, with whom he had a close relationship (as Cohen said Ryan was "the man I loved"). The splicers under his domination are often the subject of Cohen's newfound sadistic enjoyment in the death and suffering of others, now seeing violence as an art form. He is voiced by T. Ryder Smith.

Brigid Tenenbaum

Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum is a genetic scientist who helped originally develop ADAM. Brigid Tenenbaum was born near the city of Minsk, Belarus,[1] into a Jewish family with a German father.[2] At the age of 16, she was sent via train to the Auschwitz concentration camp,[3] where she was going to be experimented on by German doctors, notably Josef Mengele. Before Tenenbaum was tested on, she observed Mengele and started correcting him, which led to the doctors sparing her life and letting her participate in the experiments on the other prisoners. At this time Tenenbaum discovered her love for science and due to her participation in the tests, she survived the Holocaust.[4]Tenenbaum was at early age diagnosed with high-functioning autism. Her absolute adoration of science caused her to be blinded on what happened around her, including the horrific experiments she did, which continued into her adult years.[5]

After arriving in Rapture, she had a bit of a struggle to get the recognition she deserved among the best and brightest, until she discovered the Sea Slug, which contained a substance that could replace cells, which led to the discovery of the wonder-drug ADAM, which allowed the citizens of Rapture to manipulate their DNA.[6] With the help of Frank Fontaine, who further developed the drug, Tenenbaum become known as a scientific genius in the city. Tenenbaum discovered that by putting the slug into a host, it would produce up to thirty times as much ADAM[7] and the only hosts that proved effective were young girls.[8] While Tenenbaum was the "mother" of the Little Sisters, Dr. Yi Suchong was the creator of the Plasmids. Much like her younger self, Tenenbaum was blind to what she was doing, exploiting little girls to her own scientific benefits. When the Little Sisters were first created, she had no regard for them or their lives, seeing the removal of the slugs as no different from removing life support from a terminal patient. Soon before the Rapture Civil War, Tenenbaum's maternal instinct was awoken, causing her to leave her Mercury Suites apartment and life, to reside in the sewers of the residential complex Olympus Heights. Here Tenenbaum began rescuing Little Sisters via a Plasmid she developed, as she felt that they were her responsibility and began to care a great deal about their safety, calling them "little ones" and they called her "Mama Tenenbaum". Tenenbaum was able to survive the fall of Rapture and continued to save Little Sisters in her hiding place.

During the events of BioShock, while in the Medical Pavilion, Jack approaches a lounge in the Surgery wing and sees a Big Daddy being killed by Splicers and thrown through a window. This Big Daddy was protecting a Little Sister, which now is left alone with the remaining Splicer. Just as the Splicer is about to strike the Little Sister, Tenenbaum emerges and shoots him. Tenenbaum warns Jack not to hurt her, while Atlas encourages him to harvest the Sister to get ADAM. When Tenenbaum question Jack's morality, Atlas accuses her of hypocrisy, as she's the one that turned the girls into Little Sister. While Atlas tries to convince Jack that they are not children anymore, Tenenbaum presents an alternative; A Plasmid that would remove the Sea Slug from the girls. The following events gives the player a choice of harvesting the Little Sisters or saving them with Tenenbaum's Plasmid.[9] From this point on, Tenenbaum's perception of Jack is up to the player. If Jack saves the Sisters, Tenenbaum will show her gratitude to him by providing an ADAM gift for him after every third Sister he saves and an overall good attitude towards him. If Jack harvests the Sisters, he will not be granted gifts and she will express her anger towards him. After the Andrew Ryan confrontation and revival of Atlas true identity in Hephaestus, Tenenbaum sends Little Sisters to save Jack from the hands of Fontaine, by leading him into a vent, in where Jack falls and blacks out.[10] Jack wakes up in Tenenbaum's safehouse and she has undone the Would you Kindly mind control condition on him. Tenenbaum can be seen behind glass in an office in the safehouse, smoking and explaining to Jack what has occurred and what he should do next.[11] After this, she serves as Jack's guide throughout the final third of the game and provides the narration during the final scene (which is effected by Jack's choice to save or harvest the Sisters). Sometime after the events of the first game, Tenenbaum leaves Rapture with an undisclosed amount of Little Sisters.

During the events of BioShock 2, 8 years later, she returns to Rapture to rescue Little Sisters and in an attempt to find the cure for Splicing. She contacts Subject Delta's during the beginning and guides him through the first two levels, and is then replaced by Augustus Sinclair, as she needs to help others, aka Charles Milton Porter.

She is voiced by Anne Bobby.

Development

Brigid Tenenbaum's personality and back story were largely developed by Ken Levine, who wanted a believable and flawed human which was managed with the combinations of her medical condition, ethnic background, and overall circumstances.[5] Levine felt that her core characteristics - being a woman, autistic and Jewish - were not what defined her, but 'her absolute adoration of science' was what ultimately did.[12] Up until the development of BioShock 2, her name was spelled "Bridgette" instead of "Brigid".[13] Her in-game Audio Diary portrait for BioShock was based on a photo of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Yi Suchong

Dr. Yi Suchong is a medical doctor that came to Rapture and set up an independent research lab to help exploit the resources for financial gain. Suchong saw the possibilities of Dr. Tenenbaum's discovery of ADAM, and bore out the means of using ADAM to create plasmids and other technology wonders. He is also credited with creating the Big Daddies to help protect Tenenbaum's Little Sisters. Though initially neutral in the feud between Ryan and Fontaine, Suchong became dissatisfied with Ryan's work and secretly worked with Fontaine. Suchong was part of Fontaine's project to create Jack, Fontaine's "ace in the hole". Suchong conditioned a rapidly growing Jack with his triggers, including the phrase "would you kindly" before Jack was smuggled back to the surface, but was not able to give this information to Fontaine. Within BioShock, Suchong is already dead, though Jack discovers Suchong's name in various recordings. In Burial At Sea Episode Two, which takes place a year before BioShock, Suchong is still alive and shown to have been able to use tears to communicate to Jerimiah Fink from Columbia, the two sharing their research data for the betterment of both Cities, though remaining cautious of the others' motives. Elizabeth witnesses Suchong killed by a Big Daddy, and finds Suchong's notes about Jack, and is able to deliver them to Atlas (Fontaine) for him to utilize the 'ace in the hole'. He is voiced by James Yaegashi.

J.S. Steinman

Dr. J.S. Steinman is Jewish American[4] and one of Rapture's most accomplished surgeons, especially in cosmetics. After ADAM was introduced, Steinman started to become bored as ADAM provided almost no boundaries, but was restricted to the requests of the costumers. When ADAM started to take a toll on his mind he started to mutilate his patients and, becoming insane, began having hallucinations of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty. He is voiced by Peter Francis James.

Splicers

Splicers serve as the mainstay "infantry" within the first two BioShock games. These are humans who through the excessive use of ADAM have mutated into humanoids permanently endowed with various superpowers, but who are also murderously and irreversibly insane. Unlike the protagonists of the first two BioShock games, who can mix and match the powers given to them by the use of plasmids with near-limitless variety, Splicers fall into a set of different categories that give each splicer type a consistent but limited set of abilities and powers (Spider Splicers, Houdini Splicers, Leadhead Splicers, Brute Splicers, etc.). The various Splicer models are also named based on their appearance and persona. The models are Baby Jane, Breadwinner, Brute, Buttons, Crawler, Dr. Grossman, Ducky, Heady, Lady Smith, Pigskin, Rosebud, Toasty and Waders.

#bioshock

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6 Famous TV Finales Everybody Gets Wrong

With the exception of those soap operas that will outlive our grandchildren, most TV shows eventually come to an end. Final episodes tend to be polarizing; you either love them, or you vow to spend the rest of your days destroying the bastards who created them. The thing is, if you look back at those episodes with a cool head, you might realize that the critical consensus had it all backwards. So before we all realize reality only exists within a snow globe, here are some alternate views on the most famous (and infamous) TV finales ever.

6

Breaking Bad — A Child-Poisoning Psycho Becomes A Superhero

Unless you had a relative who got half their face blown off in a senior living home explosion, chances are you loved Breaking Bad. As for the finale, the critics lapped it up like the blue stuff:

The last episode served to provide emotional closure for beloved protagonist Walter White — you know, that guy who poisons kids and casually watches women choke to death. Which raises a question: Do we want this guy to get a happy ending?

The ending works out so incredibly well for Walt that people have theorized that it’s a fantasy, or even that he’s dead and becomes a ghost (which would at least explain his ability to Patrick Swayze his way into people’s homes). The episode is basically nothing but Walt running through a checklist of shit he wants to do before he dies. It’s one wisecracking Morgan Freeman away from going full Bucket List. And we’re rooting for him the whole way, even when he scares the shit out of the ex-friends whom he (falsely) blames for his misfortunes.

Walt then visits Skyler — again, almost materializing out of thin air — and admits to her that he didn’t cook meth for his family. He did it because he “liked it.”

Which feels like a big moment, but it’s not really enough. Walt’s such a jerk that he can’t even muster an apology for years of lying and making his family the target of a murderous fried chicken restaurateur. For some reason, though, this is good enough for Skyler, who then lets Walt have a tender moment with their baby. You know, the one he once abducted. Even Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg couldn’t make this not creepy.

Then comes the show’s big moment: Walt has to save Jesse, which involves fighting Nazis. Even if you hate Walt, between him and Nazis … well, what kind of asshole would root for the Nazis? So Walt gets to be the badass hero in the end.

One reviewer at Salon points out that while the creators talked about the show as the “transformation from Mr. Chips to Scarface,” Tony Montana actually got his comeuppance. Walt, on the other hand, gets to go out completely on his own terms. He’s practically smiling as he dies before the police can arrest him.

Walt martyrs himself and escapes punishment, which is a big problem if you think his transgressions were beyond the point of redemption. Of course, if you believe he then wakes up on the set of Malcolm In The Middle, a lot of these problems go away.

5

Friends — Ross Ruins Rachel’s Career, While Monica Wrecks Joey And Chandler’s Friendship

People seemingly loved the Friends finale, either because they thought it was a good capper to the beloved sitcom or because everything pre-Joey seems like goddamn Faulkner in comparison.

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The finale finds Rachel leaving New York for a dream fashion job in Paris, and Ross suddenly remembering that the only reason people ever liked him was that he was in love with her, so he asks her to stay with him. Ross never suggests he could go with her to Paris; he only wants Rachel to abandon this promising career opportunity and go back to unemployment. The finale wants us to root for Rachel to torpedo her professional life and stay with Ross, who treats her like garbage. To make matters worse, the reason they broke up in the first place was Ross’ crazed jealousy that she was working with a man. So Ross’ desire to have Rachel back romantically is also tied into his desire to have her reject her career ambitions — which, in case you didn’t realize, is fucking terrible.

In the end, she gives up the job for Ross, who’s such a piece of shit he can’t even go 30 seconds without making a joke about the time he cheated on her. Class act, that Ross.

Meanwhile, Monica and Chandler adopt twins and move away from the city … despite the fact that they both work in the city, all their friends live in the city, and they pay practically nothing in rent. In the episode’s most problematic bit of symbolism, the second half of the finale finds Chandler and Joey having to break open their Foosball table because a baby chick crawled inside. It seems the actors’ paychecks were so costly at this point that having a small bird crawl into some gaming equipment was the biggest setpiece they could afford.

They can’t break the table, because it’s a symbol of their years of friendship and youth. So Monica steps in and gleefully demolishes it.

So the message they’re sending here is that women and families will literally break apart your friendships. In the world of Friends, apparently you can’t get married, have kids, and retain your friendships from your 20s; you have to move far away and metaphorically destroy them. If they did a reunion show, it’d be Joey and Chandler awkwardly pretending they didn’t see each other at the mall.

4

Seinfeld — The Last Episode Is A Brilliant Existential Allegory

A lot of people really hated the Seinfeld finale, as evidenced by this moment from David Letterman’s own last episode in which Jerry Seinfeld’s soul seemingly breaks in half:

But unlike the rest of the series, the finale isn’t about nothing; it’s about death. They aren’t even subtle about it. The episode begins with the gang aboard a crashing plane, confronting their own mortality:

And from a meta perspective, these characters are about to die, because their show is ending. Then, at the last minute, the plane rights itself and lands in a small town straight out of The Twilight Zone. In keeping with the cosmic otherworldliness of this town, the four friends are immediately confronted with a moral quandary, a test: help a guy being mugged, or do nothing but make wise-ass comments. Being New Yorkers, they go for the latter.

The gang is then arrested and put on trial for failing to be “Good Samaritans” — meaning that the subject of the trial is the very worthiness of their souls. Interestingly, the judge’s name is Art Vandelay, George’s go-to pseudonym for his elaborate deceptions. This isn’t just a throwaway joke; it’s a sign that this trial isn’t a random bit of happenstance. It’s the Universe reflecting these characters’ moral ineptitude back at them. Their disregard for humanity has been made manifest and is here to judge them, and those who have been wronged throughout the show’s wacky adventures state their cases.

Like Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, Vandelay is judging the characters for their behavior throughout their televised lives. Aside from when How I Met Your Mother ended and caused viewers to abandon any belief in a higher power, how many sitcoms have dared to delve into existential themes like this? Some have even pointed to literary masterpieces such as Camus’ The Stranger and Kafka’s The Trial as possible influences on the ending.

But then, instead of passing peacefully into the metaphorical afterlife, the characters are found guilty and jailed in a kind of TV purgatory. In an amazingly depressing final note, the first line from the very first episode …

… becomes the (next-to) last line of the finale.

Meaning that these characters have exhausted the superficial manner by which they’ve led their lives. There’s nothing left. They will either need to begin a search for substantive meaning, or they are doomed to get caught in an endless spiral of empty repetition. And Newman’s probably the Devil or something. We’re still working on that.

3

Mad Men — The Final Scene Renders Don’s Journey Of Self-Discovery Pointless

Mad Men is undoubtedly one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and for sure the greatest TV show to feature a lawnmower running over a man’s foot at an office party. Critics loved the last episode almost as much as the Sterling Cooper gang loved guzzling whiskey and napping during work hours:

Rolling Stones

New Yorker

Chicago Sun TimesLawnmower Quarterly also gave it a glowing review, despite the “disappointing lack of lawnmowers.”

The finale finds Don Draper in the middle of an existential crisis. After conversations with his daughter, dying ex-wife, and best friend / former protegee don’t really evoke any meaningful change, Don gets dragged to a support group, where he ends up hugging it out with a random dude.

In the end, we see Don meditating on a hilltop … but then he smiles, either because he’s had a brilliant idea or he’s thinking about that time Pete Campbell fell down the stairs. It’s the former, since we then cut to the famous “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke” commercial:

The implication here is that Don took the goodwill and earnestness of the hippie movement that embraced him in a moment of need, then repackaged it as a way to sell brown sugar water — and this is supposed to be a good thing. At a speaking engagement days after the finale, the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, praised the Coke ad for its racial progressiveness, saying “it’s the best ad ever made, and it comes from a very good place.” They even handed out free Coke bottles to the audience, before presumably breaking into a singalong.

The problem is that Don’s flaws were always presented as a living embodiment of the duplicitous nature of advertising. He had all of the superficial components of a happy life, but was riddled with misery and vice. We loved watching Don Draper because he’s the victim of his own bullshit. The opening titles feature a figure helplessly plunging through an abyss of commercialism:

It always sort of seemed like if Don were to grow as a character, it would be accompanied by a rejection of the advertising industry. Instead, Don used a bunch of peace-loving hippies to help promote a corporation that would later dole out the largest settlement in a racial discrimination lawsuit, (allegedly) cause a drought in India, and get boycotted for (allegedly) hiring militias to murder people. So thanks a lot, Don Draper.

2

The Sopranos — Tony Didn’t Die, But Will Simply Be An Asshole Forever

It was one of the most talked-about endings of all time. Tony Soprano is in a diner with his family, when all of a sudden the image cuts to black. What happened? Was Tony killed? Did the cable go out? Did an extra accidentally wander in front of the camera?

But what if that final moment was about something else entirely? The black screen plays out for like ten seconds. Maybe this isn’t merely to mess with the audience. It’s communicating that Tony’s story isn’t necessarily over, but we’re not invited to watch anymore. It’s less about what happened to Tony, and more to do with why the show won’t have any audience anymore. Why is that?

Well, one of the most important structural elements people overlook when discussing the ending is Tony’s therapy. Tony’s journey with self-analysis is essentially what bookends the show. The very first scene of the first episode is Tony arriving at Dr. Melfi’s office …

… and crucially, the penultimate episode finds Tony being thrown out of the office and telling Dr. Melfi off.

This framing device underscores the reason this particular period of time in Tony’s life is the time we spend with him on the show. The Sopranos takes place within a window during which Tony had the potential for change and self-analysis. And in case you didn’t notice, Tony didn’t blossom into a beautiful flower, as evidenced by, say, the time he roughed up his suicidal son for crying. With his therapy at an end and his family’s lives ruined, Tony is going to continue being a piece of shit — or die, it doesn’t really matter. Because the show hasn’t been following Tony. It’s been following Tony’s capacity for growth. Once that has been effectively eradicated, the show is over. He will keep lying to himself and his family. Nothing to see here, folks, just another violent philanderer who lacks self-reflection. It cuts to black as if the video feed to his psyche has been severed. Or someone shot him in the head, it’s hard to say.

1

OK, Here’s A Go-For-Broke Defense Of The Lost Finale

The Lost finale has plenty of detractors. George R.R. Martin famously crapped all over it, and when Breaking Bad‘s last episode aired, jerks Tweet-bombed Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof to say “That’s how it’s done.”

The most common complaint is that the finale didn’t answer any of the show’s mysteries. But as we’ve pointed out, they did. You just had to watch the damn show. Which lots of the finale’s viewers didn’t. Based on the ratings, around a third of the final episode’s audience likely hadn’t watched Lost in years, but were curious to see if the Island would be revealed to be computer game being played by Hitler or something.

Also, despite the fact that people are still confused about this, the characters weren’t dead the whole time. Those eerie shots of the original plane crash’s empty wreckage they showed during the end credits?

Yeah, those were thrown in by the network as a “visual aid” to transition from the show into the nightly news, with no input from the actual writers. They mean nothing.

Now, the characters were dead during the final season’s “Flash Sideways” sequences, which were set in a bizarre magical purgatory that had nothing to do with the show’s established mythology … or did it? The last moment of the finale finds the characters being absorbed in a white Hallmark-y glowing light:

The same kind of light has been used throughout the show to represent the Island’s electromagnetic energy, like when Desmond blows up the Hatch. Hell, the “heart” of the Island is seemingly half urine, half white light. So what if this dimension the characters find themselves in isn’t separate from the Island’s powers? Throughout the show, a lot of stuff people wanted magically appeared on the Island, be it a horse, or food, or even a crapload of smuggled heroin. Wish fulfillment seemed to be the Island’s ultimate power.

Now, the sideways universe only appeared in the last season, after Juliet detonated a nuke from inside a pocket of that energy. She was trying desperately to create an alternate timeline where the plane never crashed.

Her last words? “It worked.” So the result of that action was a false reality created by the Island wherein Juliet and everyone else is granted their innermost desires. The finale may be sappy, but when you boil it down, it’s a pretty damn dark sci-fi story. Our beloved characters have to reject their personal fantasies and abandon a false reality to embrace their own deaths. Of course, this all played out in a church, which kind of felt like the TV equivalent of answering your doorbell and having a Jesus pamphlet shoved in your face.

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[swimintothesound]

Holiday Traditions, Metalcore Nostalgia, and Worshiping Our Own Past

Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s officially my power season. As much as I am a militant proponent of Having a Summah, Winter is a close second favorite for one reason, and that’s tradition.

Tradition is the all-encompassing, all-important, and infinitely-renewable source of holiday cheer. A celebration of our own past, and the past of our loved ones. It’s the one thing that makes this time of year truly precious and different from any other. Perhaps best of all, “tradition” is entirely unique from person to person; a double helix of reverence for our own history and memories.

Obviously, most people have traditions that they share with loved ones; picking out a Christmas tree, overeating at family dinners, watching specific seasonal movies, etc. Even the most atheistic household in the world probably has something unique that they do around this time of the year, even if it’s just going to the movie theater to avoid crowds. As great as those communal institutions are, I’ve been a staunch believer that the small, self-made traditions are as just as important as the big shared ones.

Tradition as a concept is so important to me that it was one of the first five posts I ever wrote on this site. Since I’ve already got multiple Christmas/year-end posts cooking up (and because I recognize my excitement for the holiday is offputting to some), I’ll instead use this specific write-up to focus on November.

Fueled by nothing but the endorphin rush of nostalgia and slavish devotion to the Christmas spirit, hyper-esoteric rituals begin to leak into nearly every aspect of my life by the time that Halloween is over. I watch specific episodes of TV shows, replay old video games, change the wallpapers on all of my devices, listen to old podcasts, and of course break out the winter music. In fact, one of the primary reasons for my seasonal exuberance is because I’m allowed to revisit music that’s only “acceptable” to listen to during these months.

As much as I love the gigabytes worth of Christmas music in my library, my “Winter music” playlist consists of much more than just on-brand holiday tunes. Over the years I’ve come to fully-embrace being the guy who gets into Christmas as soon as Halloween is over only because it marks the time of year that I get to break these songs out. Like I said, I’m not going to dip into holiday music on here yet. I don’t want to subject you guys to that much Christmas spirit, I’m merely trying to contain myself.

The point is that it would be a disservice to listen to these songs any time besides now, if only because it would make them less special. Obviously “Jingle Bells” would feel weird to listen to in July (and it does sound like a quirky character trait from a Noah Baumbach movie), but there’s just as much, if not more “regular” music that I relegate to the holiday season.

Case in point: the topic of this post. I tend to dip back into my high school-era metalcore around this time of year. Psychoanalyze that all you want, but I’ve now got a fiercely-cultivated playlist culling hundreds of songs from various years of angsty Christmases past. It’s a weird combination, but maybe this music provided me with some counter-programming that combatted both the warm holiday music and cold weather.

You can consider this write-up a bit of a pseudo-sequel to this post from earlier in the year about springtime metalcore. It’s weird because these two seasons are really the only time that I dip back into the genre, but man do I still have a soft spot for it. It’s mainly weird because these songs and albums now fill me with as much joy and holiday happiness as the tonally-inverse Christmas tunes.

At any rate, the same disclaimer on that earlier post applies here: I’m not necessarily proud of any of the music on this list, but it’s a concoction of albums that I find particularly potent. Records that have brought me years worth of happiness, and still have the power to collectively inspire me.

Artifex Pereo - Am I Invisible (2009)

Much like Julien Baker’s 2017 album, Am I Invisible begins with a single, eerie wooden creak. Perhaps belonging to an old floorboard or the frame of a handmade door, this haunted timbered gasp immediately gives the listener a sense of place, as if the entirety of Am I Invisible is settling into your headphones then and there. There’s a brief pause, and then the group’s vocalist Evan Redmon makes his presence known as he belts out the album’s title over a seemingly infinitely-layered vocal take. The remainder of the EP is a 25-minute sample platter that combines the best moments of Kurt Travis and Tilian Pearson-eras of Dance Gavin Dance. The album’s closing track “Neighbors” showcases the band’s already-sharp ear for songwriting, melody, and awe-inspiring emotionally-impactful build-ups. While the group only put out one more release with this early line-up, they still managed to capture something incredibly special on this early EP.

Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season (2008)

Back in high school, Bring Me The Horizon’s debut album, Count Your Blessings was the hardest thing I’d ever heard in my life. Filled with bangers like “Braille (For Stevie Wonder's Eyes Only)” and “(I Used To Make Out With) Medusa” multiple tracks from this album would go on to become genre-defining anthems for this era of the hardcore scene. As you could imagine, the record was an absolute revelation in 2007 and served as the first real brush with deathcore that I’d found palatable at the time. When stacked against the genre-wide impact of their debut, most fans went into the band’s sophomore album with near-impossible expectations.

Softening every aspect from vocals to instrumentation, Suicide Season represents the band’s fully-fledged pivot into a more accessible metalcore sound. While it initially fell flat for me, something kept calling me back to Suicide Season, and in 2017 it’s now my favorite album of the entire genre. Filled with immaculately-produced songs of bile and aggression, tracks like “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” have come to represent the absolute best that this scene has to offer. While the band has continued on a path toward an increasingly-accessible sound, Suicide Season is an achievement that remains an untouched peak of 2000’s metalcore.

A Bullet for Pretty Boy - Revision:Revise (2010)

Hailing from East Texas, A Bullet for Pretty Boy’s debut album is a near-perfect Woe, Is Me doppelganger. Featuring punchy driving instrumentation, tight glitchy drumming, and absolutely crushing breakdowns, every track on Revision:Revise is a pointed showcase of each band member. Guitarist Derrick Sechrist belts out catchy clean choruses, alternating vocal duties with Danon Saylor whose throat-shredding screams impress their weight upon the listener’s consciousness.

While each track is thoughtfully put-together, the album’s definitive performance comes in its final six minutes on “I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise.” The track, which initially made its debut on the band’s 2008 demo, finds new life here thanks to two years of instrumental honing, and a newly-added Tyler Carter feature. It’s quite hard to oversell exactly how much I love this track, but up until last year the song had the unique distinction of my most-played song of all time, and if 200 listens isn’t a commendation then I don’t know what is.

“I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise” is my single favorite song of the entire metalcore genre, my wonderful discovery, and lone takeaway after years of embedding myself in the scene. Every element of the song is immaculate, a marvel to have been captured and recorded in such a flawless state, forever encased in unchanging code. Every word is considered, the drumming is ferocious, every moment is well-placed, and the Tyler Carter feature is the vocal cherry on top of an already delicious sundae. A triumph of the genre.

Chiodos - Illuminaudio (2010)

Fronted by the inimitable Craig Owens, Chiodos was a trailblazing post-hardcore band whose 2005 sophomore album All's Well That Ends Well served as an entry point to the post-hardcore genre for millions of listeners. In late 2009 Chiodos announced their intention to carry forward as a band without Owens, publicly ousting one of the genre’s most seminal figureheads. Skeptical, cautious, and apprehensive, most fans went into the band’s following album with their guard up; how could the next guy possibly stack up? Like many other fans, I assumed I’d be over the band given the major pivot the comes with the changing of vocalists. In late October of 2010, a friend gave me an impassioned plea to give Illuminaudio a listen, and man am I glad he did. The record is a sprawling, conceptual, and voracious release that aimed high and still managed to surpass every possible expectation.

Much like his predecessor, Brandon Bolmer finds himself handling both clean and screamed vocals throughout the project, managing to reach both high-pitched Owens-esque croons and deep, soul-puncturing screams. The guitar and bass both sound full and rich, providing the perfect counterpoint to Tanner Wayne’s tightly-wound drum patterns. To put it simply, everything is on-point because the band wanted to prove their mettle now that the main star had left. Not only did Chiodos succeed, but they also created the best album in the band’s history and another one of my favorites in the metalcore genre. Owens’ eventual return in 2012 turned Illuminaudio into the unwanted black sheep of the Chiodos family, but in a way that makes this record all the more one-of-a-kind. Truly lighting in a bottle.

Crimson Armada - Guardians (2009)

With unrelenting vocals, and brutal machine gun-like instrumentation Crimson Armada’s debut album is a little rough around the edges but worth revisiting. The album’s title track “Guardian” alternates from fierce rapidly-spit screams to deep skull-crushing breakdowns. Similarly, “The Sound, The Flood, The Hour” is an absolutely punishing and ruthless track with a surprising amount of melody and musicality (once you adjust to the band’s vocals).

Dance Gavin Dance - Acceptance Speech (2013)

Far and away the most recent album on this list, Acceptance Speech released in the fall of my third year of college. While I’d largely grown out of the post-hardcore scene by 2013, Dance Gavin Dance remains the one group from the genre that I still listen to regularly. After numerous lineup changes, Acceptance Speech marked the band’s first release of its current incarnation featuring Tides of Man’s Tilian Pearson on vocals.

The album kicks off aggressively with “Jesus H. Macy,” luring long-time fans into a sense of familiarity with Jon Mess’ screamed vocals. The album is home to some of the band’s most experimental tracks like a crushing riff on “Carve,” chopped-up vocals on “Demo Team,” and the remix-ready “The Jiggler.” The album also hosts one of the strongest closers that the band has ever had on an album, making for a nice bookend of screamed Mess vocals.

While I didn’t think much of it at first, Acceptance Speech grew to be my favorite from the band. The entire record has a beautiful feeling uniformity and wholeness to it, making for one of the most pointed albums in the band’s discography. The whole thing has a wonderful haze to it, like it’s been filtered through a cold December night in the city. There are warm glowing lights, and you can practically see the steam rising off the band as they play. It was proof that Dance Gavin Dance wasn’t going to let one member stop them. I’m glad that they’ve continued with this lineup for so many fantastic releases now because this album only represented a new creative peak that the group set for themselves.

A Day To Remember - And Their Name Was Treason (2005)

A Day To Remember made a name for themselves in 2005 by embracing a unique mixture of metalcore leanings and bouncy pop-punk influences. While later albums are far more polished, fleshed-out, and nuanced, there’s something undeniably charming about the group’s debut. Every band member is still so young and green here, it’s endearing and inspiring to hear such a massively-successful and influential band in such a rough state.

Starting off aggressively with “Heartless,” the band eventually winds its way to the light with “You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance” and “1958,” songs that offered glimmers of the group’s later brilliance. Even in this underdeveloped, underproduced, and underwritten state, there’s an undeniable appeal and magic at play on And Their Name Was Treason, and it’s easy to see how the band made a career out of jumping from pop-punk choruses to metalcore breakdowns. The first of many successful outings in an incredibly-fruitful career.

Dead and Divine - What Really Happened at Lover's Lane (2005)

Much like A Day To Remember’s debut album, Dead and Divine’s 2005 EP captures a band in its charming infancy. While their later full-lengths would go on to favor (and hone) a much more aggressive post-hardcore sound, What Really Happened at Lover's Lane features a softer, more careful approach to the genre. With crisp cleans and deeply-growled screams, each song explodes into brutal crescendos of original storytelling. The band’s masterful approach to the build-up is best exemplified by the album’s closing track “Goodnight, Quiet City,” an acoustic ballad that suddenly erupts into a fierce wall of grief before finishing in an orchestral swell accompanied by piercing anguished growls.

Emarosa - Emarosa (2010)

Things seemed to be trending upward for Jonny Craig in 2010, he’d rejoined Dance Gavin Dance after a two-album absence and mended fences with Emarosa in order to helm the group’s killer sophomore album. While things came off the rails quickly after its release, Emarosa’s self-titled record took every sound developed from the band’s earlier works and improved on them markedly.

This is the first time the band congealed into a fully-formed, standalone entity. While many of his other projects see Craig’s vocals taking the lion’s share of the spotlight, on this release the band figured out how to fit his singing into the instrumentation in a way that everything folds together into one presentable package. It’s a record of constant forward momentum, and one of the best uses of Craig’s incredibly-distinct vocals.

Issues - Black Diamonds (2012)

Formed after the spiteful dissolution of the groundbreaking Woe, Is Me, Issues features a nearly-identical lineup of musicians with a few welcome additions. The group’s 23-minute Black Diamonds EP officially announced the members reuniting, addressed the previous group’s turbulence, and outlined their resolution to move forward with positivity.

After addressing the extra-musical drama, the remainder of the EP is simply overflowing with unique ideas, bringing dozens of fresh elements to a genre that had become stale within the space of a few years. By infusing metalcore with electronic elements, R&B, pop, hip-hop, and much more, the group managed to create something far greater than the sum of its parts: something wholly original and different in a scene where such concepts are often rejected and deemed unmarketable.

Featuring poppy cleans by Tyler Carter and deep fight-inducing screams from Michael Bohn, Issues added some much-needed excitement to the metalcore scene, and Issues’ originality helped differentiate them not only from their previous group but also from the rest of the genre. Two years later the band had released their first full-length, and an accompanying EP that reworked 8 of the band’s songs into newly-formed acoustic tracks. These acoustic versions managed to breathe new life into these already-great songs while also serving as further proof of the band’s musical versatility. These releases represented a positive turning point in my view of the genre and definitive evidence that there’s room for growth in this industry and in life.

Secret and Whisper - Teenage Fantasy (2010)

As with any other popular music scene, bands are born, break up, and then disappear forever. Throughout the early 2000’s literally hundreds of post-hardcore groups got together, created a Myspace, released some music, and then vanished as quickly as they’d appeared. Of all the bands from this era that released music and died out, the one that I miss the most is Secret and Whisper. If anything, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that they worked together long enough to leave us something as heartbreakingly beautiful as Teenage Fantasy.

Probably the least “hardcore” of all the bands on this list, this would be my one recommendation to anyone reading this list who is not interested in the scene. It’s one of the most out-there and original approaches to the post-hardcore genre, and an entry I hesitated to include with the other entries on this list.

For 44 minutes Teenage Fantasy shines, glimmers, and brims over the top with fresh ideas. Simultaneously otherworldly and down-to-earth, the album is a glossy and emotional journey into the depths of frontman Charles Furney’s psyche. “Youth Cats” opens the album with a snarling guitar riff and a mythical lyric about the ‘lady of miracles’ who commands the river. Straight out of the gates Furney’s voice is volcanic, straining and stretching, brushing his upper register as the bass bounces back and forth beneath it. “Youth Cats” kicks the entire record off with an unrelenting forward momentum that gives the whole album a sense of immediacy and spectacle.

From there literally every. single. track. hits. Throughout the 44-minute running time the vocals soar, the drums hit hard, and the guitar rumbles, all of which swirl together like paint on a well-worn wooden palette, resulting in one singularly flawless record. Even the slower songs like “Upset Seventeen” have a Daniel Johnston-esque charm to them that make them more personable than nearly every other post-hardcore song you’ve ever heard. There are weird electronic diversions like “Pretty Snarl,” and even typically-boring song topics like love and death are addressed in surprisingly eloquent and thoughtful ways. Sometimes the group ventures out even further than expected, addressing topics like animal testing on “Star Blankets” and drawing parallels between serial killers and stardom on “Famous For a Century.” Everything is handled with a surprising level of tact, but also in a way that nothing sticks out as a poor fit. The entire record is unreal, cavernous, and dream-like. It impacts you once and then slowly envelops your body like warm sand. Truly unlike anything I’ve ever heard before or since. A wonderful and underappreciated masterpiece.

We’re Not Friends Anymore - You Are Television (2010)

Clocking in at a blazing 13 minutes, We’re Not Friends Anymore’s second (and final) EP finds a band that is hungry for success. The vocals explode and smolder, and the instrumentation brings a distinct groove and movement, making for surprisingly danceable tracks that spring to life. It is a breakup album, but one that seems as ready to move on as it is willing to dwell in the past. I’ve never heard anything like it, and the EP’s punctuality makes for a breezy listen that will quickly embed itself in your brain and worm its way to your heart.

This is only an abridged list of my favorites, you can listen to these albums and many others through this Spotify Playlist.

#Artifex Pereo #bring me the horizon #A Bullet for pretty Boy #Chiodos #crimson armada #dance gavin dance #a day to remember #Dead and Divine #Emarosa #issues #Secret and whisper #We're not friends anymore #metalcore #post-hardcore #music

[yaysehun]

something abt exo i guess

I don’t know where this will go or what this even is, but I just need to rant about these nine men. These nine men include Kim Junmyeon (Suho), Kim Jongin (Kai), Byun Baekhyun (Baekhyun), Park Chanyeol (Chanyeol), Do Kyungsoo (D.O.), Oh Sehun (Sehun), Kim Jongdae (Chen), Kim Minseok (Xiumin), and last but most definitely not least, Zhang Yixing (Lay). Some others might count three more men, all from China, as well as Yixing—Wu Yifan (Kris), Lu Han (Luhan), and Huang Zitao (Tao). I’ll talk about those three later. Otherwise, you could say all twelve had made me happy and changed my life, but for now, we’ll address the current nine.

It was a normal night. February 8, 2017. I had just come home from my piano lesson, and I was bored, and decided to watch an online series called “Youtubers React.” The particular episode I had been watching was youtubers reacting to K-Pop. As you can probably guess, the first video shown was EXO’s “Monster.” The production and vocal of the song immediately caught my attention, for it sounded somewhat like the electronic music I had enjoyed at the time. I added it to my playlist, became in love with it, and it stayed on that playlist for a month.

A month went by, and during those thirty days, I had been in love with BTS, or Bangtan Sonyeondan. They are another K-Pop group, one that is often compared to EXO. With that, I had become biased towards Bangtan, often having bitter thoughts about EXO. I would tell myself, “They’re nothing next to BTS,” or “I’d never stan them.” Boy, was I wrong.

The amazing song that is Monster almost forced me to listen to more of their songs. I checked out their most recent album, “Ex’act.” I listened to “Lucky One” and I fell in love. Then, I clicked on more songs that were intriguing just by their name. I listened to “Artificial Love”, which turned out to be another hit with me due to its deep-house vibe. It immediately reminded me of something Disclosure or Oliver Heldens would produce—two EDM artists I had loved (and still do). Then, I listened to tracks “Heaven” and “Stronger.” As you could expect, they both impressed me. So I figured I’d just listen to the whole album.

That led me to the repackage of Ex’act, “Lotto.” I listened to the title track—Lotto—and didn’t like it. But, I still went on and listened to the rest of the album. I remember songs “They Never Know” and “Can’t Bring Me Down” sticking out to me. Over time, I got familiar with those seven songs that I really enjoyed.

The next couple weeks consisted of me trying to learn each member’s name and their appearance. I will not lie—that was quite a task. I remember always mixing up Suho and D.O., along with Lay and Baekhyun. But eventually, I got it down. I declared Chanyeol as my bias, for he is a rapper (I always love the rappers most), and you can’t resist his adorable eyes and smile. He just stuck out to me.

More and more days turned into weeks, that resulted in me learning each member’s names and distinguishing their faces. That’s when a certain someone began to stick out to me—none other than EXO’s maknae, Sehun. I seemed to fall in love with him. With his somewhat closed-off personality, which eventually turns into a bright and outgoing soul, along with absolutely perfect face, I fell head over heels. He kind of trapped me. That’s a very true statement, for I still love him to death, and he always seems to be the one catching my eye. Every time I see him, I just get a warm and fuzzy feeling, I can’t help but smile, because that’s just what he does.

Not only him, but the group’s one and only leader, Junmyeon. I always had a soft spot for him, for he is the leader, and I’ve always thought he was not only cute/attractive, but I could just sense something about his morals and the love he has for his members. I could sense that it was passionate and genuine. I found myself falling in love with him more and more each day, and this feeling is quite fresh, for I still don’t know if I consider him an ult-bias or not. You could probably say that I can, because I appreciate him more than anyone else.

Over the past four/five months, you could easily say that a large majority of these 150+ days have consisted of me listening to EXO. I don’t think I have ever listened to a single artist as intensely as I have been with EXO. This is mainly because their music has come so far. They have a wide variety of styles when it comes to their music. With their very first album, “MAMA”, we got your normal upbeat pop, along with a hardcore title song, and more relaxed ballads.

With “XOXO”/”Growl”, we heard more upbeat pop.

Their next mini-album had one of their first electronic styled songs, “Overdose.” We also heard R&B styles with “Thunder.” After the release of this mini-album, we’d have to continue to hear more music from EXO without two members, Kris and Luhan. Their lawsuit against SM Entertainment put a big weight on not only the shoulders of the EXO members, but the fandom as well.

We move on with the ten remaining members with more relaxed R&B sounds. Their next album, “Exodus”/”Love Me Right” also had some dark and heavy songs on this album, such as “Hurt”, “Transformer”, and “El Dorado.” The variety of music on this particular album is what makes it my favorite out of the ten they have released.

Soon, Tao would file a lawsuit, joining Luhan and Kris. At this point, EXO had become stronger than ever. They lost ¼ of their group. On another group of people, losing even one member could break them down. Not EXO.

Months later, they release their second Christmas album, “Sing For You.” This is probably one of my favorite EXO albums of all time. I personally believe that the title track, “Sing For You”, is one of EXO’s best songs ever. The musicality is graceful and just beautiful. Also, we got to hear all nine members sing. That includes Sehun. Every time I hear his voice in this song particularly, I get that same warm and fuzzy feeling. His voice is so soothing and warm, I wish I could listen to it forever.

The next year, they released their third full-length album, “Ex’act.” Their lead single, “Monster”, absolutely changed me. This song became an addiction. I could ramble on about this song for hours. From the musicality to the production to the vocals, it seemed to indulge my entire being. I still am addicted to this song. This is the first time I’ve been so obsessed with a song. Monster has been on my playlist since I first heard it, and still, I don’t ever skip it. I will even listen to it more than once in a row. Otherwise, Ex’act will really hold a special place in my heart, for it gave me a dosage of the music I’ve loved for four years—there were so many songs that had the production of a electronic/deep house song. “White Noise”, “Monster”, and “Artificial Love” specifically gave me EDM vibes.

On a different note, throughout my discovery of my love and passion for EXO, I was finishing my final year of middle school. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it—throughout the past three years, I’ve felt shittier than ever. Sixth grade was probably the worst. I fell into depression and my anxiety spiked. You’d probably think that’s a young age to be diagnosed with such illnesses, but, I was a year older than everybody in my class, and I always will be. Maybe even throughout college. That’s because I have severe social anxiety. It’s so severe that my mother held back a year in school. I didn’t have friends for a long time. Around second/third grade, I made a few friends. Those are people I’m still friends with today, for I just can’t talk to people because of my anxiety. Throughout the past three years in particular, I’ve felt so alone. But since February of this year, eighth grade, I stopped feeling so alone. Because I had EXO.

I don’t know if this will ever resolve. But honestly, I’m not scared. I’ve made so many friends in the EXO fandom who are there to remind me that I’m cared for. If I don’t make any new friends in real life, I may not be okay mentally, but at the end of the day, there’s an entire playlist full of EXO, Kris Wu, Z.Tao, and Luhan waiting for me. They can take my mind off of just about anything.

The final part of this letter is somewhat hard to write due to the unknown.

Tomorrow, EXO is releasing their next song, “Ko Ko Bop”/”The War.” This will be the first comeback I get to witness with EXO and all my EXO-L friends. I can’t wait. This comeback is already so special to me, mainly because it’s the first time I’ll get to look forward to hearing new music, the first time I get to watch the clock turn 11:00, the first time I get to feel giddy and excited for EXO. I didn’t think my love for their music would reach to this extent, but it did. Who knows if I’ll like EXO at the end of the year. Either way, they will definitely be a group that I hold near and dear to my heart. This is special, for the list of bands/DJs/singers/groups I listen to is endless. My love for music varies from alternative, to EDM, to singer-songwriter, and of course, K-Pop. And it’s easy for me to say that EXO have impressed me more than any other musician I listen to, and are definitely my favorite of all time.

Another thing I want to say is something that I’ve learned over the past five months. That is, it does not matter at all how long you’ve been into a musician/group. I’ve seen fans who have been here as long as I have, then there are some who have been an EXO-L for years. Sometimes, I feel guilty because I’ve only been here for 150 days. But, I’ve learned that time is just another component in life. Seconds continue to pass, and those seconds turn into days, and those days turn into months. Which is what I’ve learned since discovering EXO. Time doesn’t matter. Because a passion larger than life can grow within those months.

Thank you EXO for becoming my best friends, thank you for your amazing music which has healed me in more ways than ever, thank you for sharing your beautiful personalities with us, thank you for being strong. Most of all, thank you for being you—Kim Junmyeon, Kim Jongin, Byun Bakehyun, Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo, Oh Sehun, Kim Jongdae, Kim Minseok, and Zhang Yixing.

#i love exo