#even if they're kind of only together in the bookend seasons

[wellntruly]

M*A*S*H - Viewguide, S5

Are you interested in the long-running anti-war situation tragicomedy M*A*S*H (1972-1983), but there are simply so many asterisks and so many episodes?

Well I can’t help you with the asterisks, but nor can I help myself: I started watching all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, and bringing back for you my viewing selections, chosen for The Qualities.

— — —

This season overall I'd say feels kind of, mild? Less low lows and less high highs. Just middley. I nearly included one episode almost wholly for the appeal of being maybe 75% set at night (something I would do), and secondly for the appeal of Hawkeye sleepwalking, when he's not waking from nightmares. But it's very I'll say "Season 5" in that despite this, it's just, I don't know somehow milder than I might want, especially when this set-up naturally recalls the much odder and eerier 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' from Season 2, with (and possibly even because of) its spikier swings between the antic and traumatic.

But it happened that a lot of the stronger stuff here lent itself to putting together something of a more focused character collection. So welcome to our Special Issue!, highlighting the previously maybe somewhat under-served Major Margaret Houlihan, and Captain BJ Hunnicutt:

M*A*S*H - Season 5 Recommended sequence

5x03 ‘Margaret’s Engagement’ - So fun to me that Margaret & Frank transitioning from “secret” lovers to “secret” exes is somehow the exact same mood while having the opposite content. Ending comes out of nowhere and on a pretty weak joke, but when it's just Hawkeye & BJ lounging on each other on Margaret’s bed as she hops around showing them her goofy little engagement ring, that’s the Margaret & The Boys ‘Silly Mood’ vibes I've been missing, baby. Loretta Swit is back!

5x06 ’The Nurses’ - This one made me cry??? It was written and directed by women. It’s about women having complex relationships with each other. Bechdel Test smashed, only took us four seasons! 

5x08 ‘Dear Sigmund’ - It's the context here that really has me like, haha totally. This is the first episode they’ve let Alan Alda write all himself in three calendar seasons, and he's like great, okay: can I just get down nothing but a bunch of character meta and headcanons for everyone and put that up as TV? Yeah Victor Hugo that sounds wild, please do.

5x09 ‘Mulcahy’s War’ - Father Mulcahy goes out to the front to experience the horrors (more), but amazingly the real reason I'm including this one is that Gary Burghoff’s distressed little straight man hilarity here made me laugh so, so much, and then have a staggering realization: the character of Radar O'Reilly is absolutely the progenitor of Guillermo de la Cruz.

5x10 ‘The Korean Surgeon’ - Would be worth it for Hawkeye & BJ talking to Radar in the mess tent ALONE (Gary Emmy-winning year). But also I love their kind weary surgeon friend from ~the other side~

5x15 ‘The Most Unforgettable Characters’ - At 10 minutes in I'd thought, alright this is probably just another middle sort of one, and then at 10 minutes and 30 seconds, BJ (BJ, baby??!) spontaneously proposes that he and Hawkeye spend the rest of the episode play-acting that they're fighting to entertain Frank for his birthday, inspiring Barbara Kruger four years later to go, y'know what, I'm gonna have to comment on this.

5x19 ‘Hanky Panky’ - You tell me “BJ episode where he cheats on his wife,” and I’m going to say, “hm well that’s not the kind of character development I think I want,” but I would be wrong about that! A) love her, she's great in this, B) there is one particular revelation BJ shares here that is just, exquisite information. I will say no more at this juncture (Watch Notes: Coming soon!), but in light of oh, a lot: oh my god.

5x25 ‘Margaret’s Marriage’ - Let’s bookend this! One thing I love about long episodic seasons, is that after Margaret somehow ever more hilariously saying the name ‘Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscott’ for 22 episodes, the man finally appearing felt like forbidden Beckett. 

And also now say bye-bye, Frank [chorus: bye-bye, Frank!]

Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • To be continued

#M*A*S*H hours

#M*A*S*H #M*A*S*H hours #viewguides #Tarra watches

[fourseasonsfigs]

Happy Birthday Swiss Rolls

My friends, if you have been following this blog, you may recall my dismay at the Gong Jun figs in the shape of Swiss roll desserts. Or rather, just Junjun's head poking out of the rolled up pastries.

You may also happen to recall me mentioning I was inadvertently overexposed to ghost stories (illustrated ghost stories) as a very young, impressionable child, and as a result it's a little unnerving to me to have disembodied heads or limbs just floating around. Some things just kind of stick with you, you know?

So you might be asking, why would anyone go ahead and spend their hard-earned money on things that kinda wig them out?

Well, my much more intelligent and thoughtful figthusiast friends, that's a great question. I can only say my quasi-obsessive completionist fig tendencies combined with the seller unloading her excess stock together with the sheer ease of simply clicking on "add to cart" created a perfect opportunity to leave myself to regret things later.

And if I happen to be regretting any certain life choices, well, as they say, sometimes your choices may serve as a warning to others.

These figs were sold separately, so per my own rules I should post them one at a time, but I only have it in me to do one post of these and move on with my life! So here we go.

The inspiration for the green Vegetable Roll, as it is called, is the cabbage dog from Gong Jun's post:

The inspiration for the blue Jun Roll is of course the sunhat from Go Fighting Season 8!

Which is of course my excuse for one of my favorite pictures of him! I love this one.

But maybe a few more pics before we have to dive into the figs...

Ahhh I feel fortified. Ok, let's brace ourselves and get this done, shall we?

So these are clearly resin, because they're snuggly packed in a custom polystyrene box. Normally I pay a little bit extra to bubble wrap resin figs to protect them on the long ocean voyage to the US. For these, well, I decided I'd leave it up to fate if they made it or not.

Oh, they made it just fine, gentle reader. And no wonder - they're as solid as bricks. I could probably use this as a self defense weapon. These will probably survive a major natural disaster.

Wow. What the heck. I'm not sure this fig needs any commentary, so I'll just drop the roll of pics here...

Ok, that's Swiss roll one down. They're not poorly done or anything, they're just...something. I'd say something like, who thinks of this concept?!?! but artists are artists, after all, they're bound to be creative. The more relevant question is, who buys this concept??!

Yep, it's me. I will say I wasn't even drinking when I bought them. I thought, well, if I was ever curious about these or wanted to complete my collection, now is the time since I'm certainly not going to pay Xianyu pricing for them.

I mean, I would take a drink now, that's all I'm saying. But in the meantime, I'm just gonna keep grimly forging ahead.

I kind of like that this is actually more swiss-roll like - you can see where the sponge cake is kind of wrapped. It's curious it's not like that on the other one. Maybe the other one is like some other variety of the swiss roll.

They are immensely heavy and very, very solid. They would make excellent paperweights or even bookends because they're so solid.

For context, here they are with a regular sized fig. The Swiss roll might be the same size in terms of relative height, but the gigantic disembodied face and of course the sheer solid mass makes these feel very big on the shelf up with the rest of the figs.

Yep, these are from the Happy Birthday dessert collection.

Never have I blown through a fig post as fast as this one. No lingering over the figs here!

Material: Resin and some childhood heebie jeebies

Fig Count: 317

Scene Count: 23

Rating: Aiya wo de tian ah

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#gong jun #figthusiast #not for the faint of heart #the faint of heart is apparently me